The Phabulous Philly-LA Ladies Club (and their kids)

Liz and I lived in Philadelphia from 2003 to 2005. Wharton (and Lauder) was an amazing experience. But it was in Philadelphia. Before I go further, I'll say that Liz and I did enjoy Philly and still think that it is an under-rated city and frequently gets a bad rap. However, it ain't NYC and it ain't LA or SF. And so the main downside of getting into Wharton was that it was in Philly. Many people who went to Wharton had to "drag" their partners - spouses, girlfriends, boyfriends - to Philly for the two years. And to make it worse, business school was an all-consuming endeavor. Yeah, there was studying - but tons of everything else - business networking, social networking, socializing, running student clubs, trips, learning team meetings, pub, etc. It was a 24/7 thing. Liz was my biggest supporter, and I owe her big-time for coming to Philly with me. Well, one of the things I'm most thankful for is that fact that she befriended Charice and Janet.

The picture above is from this past week. Charice and Janet (and her beautiful daughter Agnes or "Ajou") came over to have lunch with Liz and Lina. (Charice's twins - Maddy and Max, were at home) Charice's husband, Ko Kobayashi (not the hot dog champ) and Janet's husband, Taos Huskey, were classmates of mine from the class of 2005. They all happened to be from LA. And the three Asian American ladies had a lot in common. I was grateful that - in the midst of being dragged to Philly and often abandoned by their husbands while they(husbands) were off doing whatever their pricey educations required of them - they found some common ground and could hang out. Charice even took Liz out on our anniversary during the summer of '04 when I was off in Singapore doing my internship.

Charice and Ko, and their twins, literally live minutes away. Taos and Janet are not that far away either. It's good to be back in LA with some friends who went through Philly with us!

Here's Ko, Charice, Liz and myself in Delaware at "Joe's Crabshack" - the desperate things we Californians did to get a taste of home. Couldn't find a picture with Taos and Janet, but then again I didn't look very hard. It's past midnight and Lina just went down. And I have to wake up in a few hours for a NY conference call.

Found this picture of me and Liz in Rittenhouse Square during winter. Good times in Philly...