"Mai-Girls"
"Mai-Girls"
"Mai-Girls"
Our first Christmas (1998) spent together after god knows how many years that we've known each other!!!!! Sorry Jamie, you were late so we took this pic without you......Here we are at Lien's house in front of her Xmas tree.
Stephanie and her son Lance (My roomies)
Hai (Sami), Lien (Elizabeth), Jenny, ME!, Stephanie
L-R: Me, Stephanie, Jenny, Lien
This is us in 1995 right before I moved down South to go to school.
Jamie and her man Gary at Flextronics' Holiday Party at the Double Tree hotel on 1/99. As of 6/00 they are not together anymore but since they've been a couple for about 10 years....I'll keep this in here for old times sake...
6/25/99 Here we are at Club 369 in downtown San Jose for Jamie's 26th b-day.
L-R: Lien, Jenny, Stephanie, Jamie, me, Charlene
Here we all are after 369 on Jamie's b-day waiting for some food to chow down on.
L-R: Phil, Karen, Steph, me, Jenny, Benny, Gary, Jamie, Charlene, Damian
L-R: Jenny, Stephanie, Karen (Jamie's sister), me
Me and Stephanie at Jay's house party back in February
Info on "Mai" Girls....
Here's a little 411 on all my friends. They are my bestest friends in the whole world and to be honest....I don't think I could have picked a better group of girls to have has friends and to grow old with!!! I've listed them in order of when I first met them:
Stephanie Truong - We use to be neighbors when we were about 4 years old living in these apartments not so far from where we live now. I don't remember much about our childhood but everytime we meet people Steph would always tell them how I was mean to her when we were small. She would tell the same story over and OVER about how I would never share my toys with her and if she ever stayed the night, I'd make her brush her teeth with her finger and salt rather than let her borrow my toothbrush and toothpaste. But despite my mean-ness to her...20 years later, she asked me to be her roomie!!! We live together now with her boyfriend Mike, son Lance, and Mike's dad Roger here in Santa Clara. She's been with her man Mike since they were about 16 or 17. They've had their ups and downs but are happily together now!!! Happy for U girl! They have a wonderful son name Lance whom I love a lot cuz he's not a brat :-) We haven't always been close though since we were 4. After I moved away from those apartments, somehow my mommy and her daddy got together (weird..I know) and we weren't re-united again until I was about 12 years old. We've been the best of friends (and almost became step sisters) since then. She's like a sister to me because I think we know everything there is to know about one another and she's the only one out of our group that I can imagin living with and that doesn't annoy me :-)
Jenny Nguyen - Met Jenny when I was in the 7th grade. I think I met her through my cousin Kimmie but I'm not sure. We weren't good friends or nothing I think until maybe my sophmore or junior year in high school. Haha...there's so much to say about Jenny that I dunno where to begin!!! She's the fiesty "bitchy" one out of the group and will always speak her mind even if it's going to offend one of us. Putting that aside though...Jenny is a very good friend when it comes down to it. Always down for U when U need her. She also is the "unique" one out of us...always having to be different whether it be the way she dresses, the way she does her hair, etc. She also has this prob with her weight. Never wants to go out anymore cuz she thinks she's fat. If U ever look at her pic...don't comment to her that she looks skinny in it cuz she'll think that u're implying that she's not skinny now. That's Jenny for ya. She's my clubbing partner as well. Either we all go together or it's usually just me, her, and Stephanie....and sometimes just me and Jenny.
Lien Kieu (aka: Elizabeth or Gigi) - Lien's my twin sister (well we use to be at least). I met her in my sophmore year at Santa Clara high school. She use the be the "goody goody"of our group always thinking that she's perfect and shit but we all know that's not true!!! :-) She has a great personality cuz she's goofy all the time but at other times it can be annoying too (never told u that Lien...but ummm yeah...U can be annoying at times). Lien's known best for her strict mom!!! Lately though...she's starting to be a bit rebellious (so proud of her!!!!). She's there for us at times but our biggest complaint about her is that when she has a bf....we never see her. Well, not that we never see her (cuz it's not like we care to see her or anything) but once she has a bf...it doesn't seem like she makes the effort to kick it with us. She'll lie to her parents to spend the weekend with her man...but won't lie to spend the weekend with us when we ask her. It's good and bad I guess: good for her bf cuz she's real loyal and dedicated...but bad for us cuz it gets to us that she won't put in that same effort to kick it with us. We're not good enough I guessss :-( She's been with her bf Sissy (nickname of course..) since December and they have plans on getting married in a couple of years or so.
Jamie Phuong - Jamie's the new addition to our group. I met her at San Jose State in 1997 when I had her in my Real Estate Finance class. She asked me to be in her group and we started studying together. Use to go to Cafe Zucco in downtown San Jose after class to study together. She hardly went out and stuff so I started taking her out with me clubbing (Extreme) and then to other places (Santa Barbara to visit Tam). Eventually she started hanging out with me, Stephanie, Jenny, and Lien as well. Jamie's been with her man Gary for like 10 years already but they just recently broke up. Jamie's the "mother" of the group. Always saying nice things unlike the rest of us who can be a bitch to one another. Although she comes across like a real nice gal....she's one of them peeps that you would hate to have as an upset customer!!! If you do her wrong...she'll do what it takes to get it her way!!! Our one complaint about Jamie??? NEVER ON TIME for anything!!!! We're planning on throwing her a surprise b-day party this weekend (6/23/00) but if we tell her it's just a regular get together bbq at our house....she might not show up! That's why we're thinking of telling her it's for her so at leat that way...we know for sure she'll come...or at least come on time.
HOW WE ALL BECAME BEST FRIENDS - Well, me and Stephanie were friends first. Stephanie had already known Lien from Jr. High School and was good friends with her. I think the 3 of us started becoming better friends because we worked at Bullwinkles together (around 1991). Jenny started working at Bullwinkles too around the beginning of my jr. year in high school. Can't remember exactly but all I know is that the 4 of us were really good friends when I was a Jr. in high school. After we got fired from Bullwinkles we all went separate ways (work-wise) but in 1996 when I moved back here from LA, I got a job at Flextronics and eventually all four of us worked there together again. Jamie started working there as well in 1998. We're all so different in personalities but I think that's the reason why we're such good friends. We compliment each other because of our differences but we also get annoyed and talk shit about each other. Regardless though, I also know that these girls are the ones that I'll grow old with and with whom I can count on to always be there for me. I can see us already all old with kids and grandkids but still getting together as old peeps having our "girl bonding" nights like we do now!