APEX DECONSTRUCTED . . .

APEX, Inc. put on quite a nice little shindig last night at the Tribeca Rooftop (talk about panoramic views!). We had FILET MIGNON for dinner. Nice. We honored Jeannie Park (executive editor at People magazine) and Justice Doris Ling-Cohen (first female Asian-American NYS Supreme Court Justice). Also nice. My brother used a fork and knife and generally acted like an adult, even using big words once in a while, and managed to converse regularly with my friends and I. Very impressive. And we got GOODY BAGS!!!!!! Thank you, corporate sponsors. We like goody bags. Of course, no event of any significance gets by me without some random thoughts interspersed along the way . . .

1. How the heck does one pronounce "Desbrosses" (the street on which the Tribeca Rooftop is located)? "Des-BROSE-es"? "Duh-BROSE"? "Des-BRAHSS"? "Des-BRAHSSES"? "Duh-BRAHSS"? It's just easier to say "it's in Tribeca, you know, where the streets don't have numbers" and let the poor souls find their own way.

2. If (white) young urban professionals are yuppies, and black urban professionals are buppies, what are Asian young urban professionals? There's just something too Oklahoman about saying a-yuppies.

3. Why would people pay upwards of a hundred dollars for a Jennifer Love Hewitt CD, even for a good cause?

4. Who knew there were so many young Asian-American professionals out there? Where ARE we? Why aren't we politically ACTIVE? Why do we have no voice in American society? Why do we dress up nice and go to these benefit dinners and honor these amazing groundbreakers, then complacently return to our mundane lives? Why are we happy making lots of money, but don't do anything worthwhile with it, such as supporting organizations like APEX with all our hearts? Why are we still having "first Asian-American this" and "first Asian-American that"? Why are we still amazed at each other's accomplishments? Why do we still need to fight to have these accomplishments recognized and repeated in subsequent generations? Why do we disdain our parents' struggles in coming to the States and raising children and working here, by not living up to our mental, physical, emotional, financial, political potential?

5. I hope my friend Wonger was the top bidder on those MTV: TRL tickets because she's going to take me and we are going to make fools of ourselves on television.

6. Why did I even consider, however momentarily, paying $300 for a basket of makeup?!

7. Why are so many high-ranking Korean-American women married to Chinese-American men, and so many high-ranking Chinese-American women married to Caucasian men? What is this phenomenon called, and why does it happen? I'm all for loving your neighbor no matter his color or ethnicity, but come on, you Asian-American men - RISE UP!

8. Why does white wine intoxicate me faster than red wine?

9. When are they going to open up the on-ramp to I-95 off the Henry Hudson Parkway, so I can stop taking midnight detours through upper Manhattan and the South Bronx?

And file this one under "These Strange But Funny Things Happen to Me All the Time": on my way down to the city yesterday evening at around 6pm, I was in the driving vicinity of an electric blue Audi with a white baseball cap propped against the rear windshield, driven by a tall man with dark brown hair, passengered by a short woman with light brown hair. On my way home from the city, at around 1am, I was again driving along with an electric blue Audi with a white baseball cap propped against the rear windshield, driven by a tall man with dark brown hair, passengered by a short woman with light brown hair. Funny. I almost waved at them, but thought they might think I was drunk and/or crazy and call the police. Really, I just felt like they were my friends at this point . . .