my mommy loves me

i know my mommy loves me. she shows me in lots of ways. like making me food when i go home, buying me clothes so i look like a grown woman instead of a teenager, buying my make up to make me look presentable and not a slob, and trying to marry me off to a nice korean boy. sometimes i wish she'd stop showing and just say "i love you".

a little background: my mom has tried to set me up with nice korean boys for years. after i moved to ny, it stopped (mostly because i lived in new york and she didn't know anyone in new york) and it was awesome. but recently she's really made an effort to get me dating so i can get married already. and pop out those grandbabies. turns out she's been passing out my number and email to anyone who knows anyone with an available boy. no screening process. just 1.) korean 2.) single 3.) older than me. which makes me feel oh so confident in her choice of boys.

speaking of choice of boys, my mom has made it clear over the years that there is a ranking system of who is an acceptable son-in-law. 1.) korean 2.) american 3.) chinese that's pretty much where the ranking ends and the nos start. my dad has added no japanese and no koreans straight from korea (he says there are cultural differences that would make things difficult on me). my mom has expanded on the no list to include: jews and muslims (bc they shouldn't marry outside their religion), blacks, or indians. i'm sure more would be added to the no list if she were asked. i've never asked about native americans. but black muslims got a very firm no. when i asked about mexicans she said that they were ok as long as everything else was in order (they're smart, have a good job, etc).

stay tuned! you'll get to read about the different boys i've been subjected to. horray!

postop?

attention world! (aka the three people who read this thing)

I'm moving! to the third floor! i anticipate it to be the easiest move ever. no going out side, no renting a van, no getting boxes... but i also anticipate a slow migration of stuff. like stuff going up in stages. take a box up, dump stuff out, take box down, fill, repeat.

today a guy actually responded to the craigslist ad for the room. not mine. crazy's room. but maybe he'll want my room instead. my room is much better. anyways. i describe him to people at the german postdoc. that seems pretty descriptive to me. but when i told my coworker, the word postdoc was a mystery to him. "wait. what? post OP? like a tranny?" ..........no.

iphone

sometimes when i get an email from someone and it says "sent from my iPhone" on the bottom, i want to reply back and end it with "sent from my laptop". just to see what would happen.

visitors!

my parents came to visit last weekend. this is huge. i've lived in new york for two years now and this is the first time they've visited me. here are some highlights:
- on saturday we went to the american natural history museum. we pretty much walked around all day on little sleep since they were a bit jetlagged. my mom sorta took a mini nap when we had a coffee break.
-my dad had a dream friday night and when he woke up he said that he needed to buy some lotto tickets. we bought one each. then that night he prayed to God that we'd loose.
- parents in town means good food at restaurants :) on saturday night we met up with distant relatives to a korean restaurant. i got really excited to see the table filling with banchan and appetizers. and on sunday for lunch we went to a japanese place owned by my aunt's friend. they didn't give us menus. the food just came. it was awesomeeeeeeeeeeeeee! a HUGE platter of assorted sushi, pork salad, mochi, and more. it was an almost 3 hr lunch. i don't know the last time i ate so much!
- we walked around 10 miles each day wandering the city. including walking across the brooklyn bridge and then realizing that i don't actually know where the subway stop to get back is.
- my dad fixed my door. now it actually stays shut when i close it. but now i have to turn the knob to open the door.

i like having visitors. it makes me fall in love with the city again. i get to go on adventures through the city, find random statues and make up stories about why they were commissioned, and re-experience all the little things that make up manhattan that i usually rush through.

picky eaters..

i am an equal opportunity eater. if it's food, i'll probably try it. it bugs me when i find out that someone is a picky eater or refuses to eat something because it's out of their comfort zone. even in a hypothetical situation.

my roommate is the whitest boy i know. he's from wyoming and went to michigan state. which means he grew up eating square middle state food like meat and potatoes. he finds the idea of sushi repulsive (fish just wasn't something he grew up with. and in sushi the fish is GASP!! raw!), he doesn't like beans, doesn't really eat vegetables or fruits.. let alone a mango. i've stopped offering him food because the answer is always no. his eating habits are both weird to me and a bit fascinating.

the other day, i met another guy whose food habits surprised me. he lives in sunset park section of brooklyn and i asked him if he likes the variety of authentic ethnic foods that sunset park is known for. i referenced mexican food (i love mexican food) and he told me that he doesn't like to eat non-asian food. i took that comment as an insult to mexican food and fired back that i don't like chinese food. there was an awkward pause. apparently i'm very good at creating awkward moment. yay me.

summertime!

today actually felt like summer. the sun was out, the air was warm, and not a cloud in sight. it was lovely. especially after the shitty summer we have been having. so today i decided to take a walk through central park when a guy walks past me and asks if i'm taking a hallucinogen or some other drug. i didn't know how to respond to that so i just gave him a weird look and kept walking. then as he's walking away, he says "you must be on a hallucinogen because why else wouldn't you find me attractive?". um. maybe because you asked me if i'm high? just throwing that out there. you know, as a possible reason.

father's day

today was fathers day so i gave him a call. but he said he couldn't talk long. he was in the middle of a golf tournament.

new policy

so. i have a new policy. a no-talking-to-strangers policy. when i walk back to the subway after work, i tend to see the same people every week. most of them have no names. just identifiers. first i check to see if the psychic is still awake, if she's on the phone, or if her son is on the phone. then i walk past the econo lodge and see if the black girl is working or the asian girl is working. then i cross the street and wave to the mexican guy with the ponytail at the pizza shop. right next to the pizza place is a bar where there are usually three homelss guys. one gave me a rose. and then took it back after i told him i wasn't going to pay him $5 for it. another sells newspapers. free newspapers. he recently started talking to me and says that i'm always smiling. today i found out his name is truson. then there's omar, the porter at the edison hotel. then lue at the w hotel. and mohamed at the shish kebab stand right in front of the train station. it took a long time to know their names or even say anything more than "good morning". that's really what i wanted. a sesame street moment where we all wave hi and i head on home. now omar wants to hang out and lue wants to go on a picnic. but if i see these ppl away from their hotels, what will happen if we end up hating each other? then i have to find a new way to walk to the train. that's why i have my new policy. or i'm anti-social.

i met meeko. twice!

one day i was walking through central park when i saw a racoon walking around in the water (fishing, i assume) and i started taking pictures of it. then it realized i was there so it kinda hid from me. by climbing up the tree. and scared me a little since i had given up finding it again. so i took another picture of it, thanked it, and walked away. i'm not sure if the thank you was for letting me take its picture or for not attacking me and giving me rabies.

a few weeks later, i take another walk through central park and i see a group of people taking pictures of a tree. naturally, i go over to see what they're taking pictures of and see another raccoon in a hidey-hole. and then became one of the people making the poor noctural animal blind with camera flashes.

on a side note, you know what song line is stuck in my head right now? "do the helen keller and talk with your hips".

food has to be eaten?

i love food. but i like reading about food and looking at pictures of food more than making and eating food. i guess it has to do with only having myself to feed and it's not as much fun and it's alot of work. the good thing is that if i mess up, nobody knows. i just have to suffer through eating horrible food. sometimes i take food to rina's house and get my cooking fix in. but usually i just look at recipes and say "hmm.. i wonder how i can modify this so i can make it at rina's house". mordy has said that he likes when i go over bc i usually bring something exotic. i made them vegetable soup when everyone was sick (rina didn't want to have chicken soup), wontons, tostones, seaweed soup, and rhubarb compote. i don't think these things are exotic. just different from things they usually eat. and i love that they aren't picky eaters and are willing to let me take over their kitchen every once in a while.

the last time i went to visit, we passed a dry goods store. i got pretty excited and asked them if they sold beans and stuff. rina said no. more like paper plates. mordy asked me if all i ever think about is food. is it bad that the answer is yes, usually?

i took an inventory of my fridge earlier today. i have sandwich meat, a bunch of asparagus, a bunch of ramps, a thing of ginger, and tomatoes. this is only because a couple days ago i made nettle pesto and green garlic pesto. and i made rhubarb compote last week. i blame tastespotting for the nettles, green garlic, ramps, sunchokes, and rhubarb. well, maybe not the rhubarb. but nettles and ramps, yes. i really hope the ramps get made into something and i don't have to resort to making a third pesto. my roommates must think i'm crazy. my food consists of four types of flour, two pestos, random veggies, kimchee, asian sauces, and american condiments. oh, and about twelve cups of ganache. but this is only because at work we make ganache for the hot chocolate and i usually take home a cup. even though it hasn't been hot chocolate weather. but i'm sure i can find ways to eat that chocolate. oh, and i bring back a loaf of bread at least once a week. but rarely finish the loaf. someday i'll make croutons or bread crumbs or bruchetta or something. hmm... maybe i should stop bringing stuff back.

so. i have a blog.

so. i have this blog. the one you're looking at right now. but the last post was back in december. i've decided to change that. now i'm going to try to update more frequently. maybe writing about weird things i see around this crazy city. like when i saw a stroller locked to a pipe outside of a montesori last week. or the double rainbow i saw a couple days ago. or the movie crew that was setting up for the nicholas cage movie (based on fantasia but live action.. doesn't sound good) in time square. but these things are one sentance long. and sometimes they're fragments. they never seem blog worthy. maybe i should add a picture. maybe i'll blog about what i ate. although that could be boring. seeing as in the last week i made pasta, quesadillas, sandwiches, and bread dipped in pasta sauce or bbq sauce. and they're nothing spectacular. sometimes they'er just sad. bread dipped in pasta sauce? that probably has negative nutrients. but it's something to eat until i get to work and fill myself with (more) bread and cookies. in any case, i've decided to blog a bit more.

living with boys

i've lived with boys since about july. but in july there were 3-4 boys and at least one other girl. and with 6 ppl, a cleaning lady, and some ppl living there for over 2 years, it makes it difficult to judge. the toilet seat was always down (someone must have trained them early) and the kitchen was always full of stuff. food stuff. some multiples of stuff. like 2 things of cinnamon sugar, 3 things of basil, 3 of oregano, etc. but with the number of ppl in the apartment, it's hard to tell if two ppl happened to buy the same thing at different times or if they are shopping amnesiacs.
now that i live with just two boys, i've noticed things. the toilet seat is sometimes up, the floor probably hasn't been swept/vacuumed in weeks, and the boys before me definitely had shopping amnesia. i was going through the cupboard just to see what the previous roommates left. there were SIX containers of Parmesan cheese. SIX! of varying sizes, shapes, and fullness. all open, of course. and 3 containers of oats. one was almost empty but the two others weren't even close. 4 cans of tuna but one was in the process of being opened. the flippy thing was pulled up but the lid wasn't peeled back. but.. why half open a can of tuna? oats, fine. they're less perishable. but tuna?? ew. and 3 bottles of maple syrup. all half empty or less. and then there are spices. i was actually impressed by the selection. there weren't many multiples just alot of types of seasoning salts. and allspice, pumpkin pie spice, and rosemary. i heard that one of the guys is engaged now so maybe the fiance decided to bake a pumpkin pie? but overall, these things don't really bother me. i just put the seat down when i use the toilet and wear shoes around the apt. and the kitchen is more amusing than anything else. although i would like it cleared out so i have space to put my stuff. my three different types of brown rice, 4 types of flours, two types of asian noodles, and two bags of black beans.

wonky schedule

since i started working at the bakery, i've had a wonky schedule. i sleep when normal people are awake, i'm working when normal people are sleeping, and my weekend is during your workweek. sometimes i wake up at 1pm, other times it's 6pm. it all depends on when i actually fall asleep. and how much sleep my body thinks it needs. i range from 6-12 hours of sleep. i've grown used to it an accepted it. now that it's daylight savings, there are days when i don't see the sun. i'm not happy about it but if i really wanted to see the sun, i would set my alarm clock and make an effort to do it.

last night i went to sleep at around 1. i woke up at four and saw that it was already dark. i think it's because ny is higher up so it gets darker earlier. anyways, i see that it's four so i get up and get ready to go on a bunch of errands before work. i leave the apartment think "gee, it's really not busy out. it must be because it's so cold" and "wow, why aren't these restaurants open? isn't it profitable for them to be open for dinner?" and then a thought pops into my head. "oh god, is it four AM?!??" it's pretty much confirmed by the time i round the block and i see that the bar is closed.

but here's my question. what made me wake up in the first place and say "hey, i think 3 hours of sleep is good enough. let's go be productive today!" instead of the usual "ermm.. let's sleep a bit more"

jumping high fives rock!

on thursdays, fridays, and mondays i listen to classic rock on the radio while working. it's the only station that doesn't repeat itself during the 8 hours i'm there. after a while though, you realize that while they don't repeat themselves over the course of a night, they do repeat themselves. mostly to amuse himself, randall started making up contests. the first one was to have one person pick a song and then everyone guesses what time it will come on. however, none of the songs have been played on the same night so that game was quickly stopped. then there was the two for tuesday game. that's where one band comes on and you guess the next song. that's not a bad game if you know the artist and song title. i do not. and as randall learned this, he became more and more appalled. at first he accommodated my ignorance by saying "ok, this is the rolling stones." and then i'd pick a song. then he soon learned that i also don't know titles or if that title goes with that band. so then it turned into "ok, this is the rolling stones. i'll give you a choice of 5 titles. angie, brown sugar, etc, etc". i have now been disqualified from this game. he and courtney still play it though. courtney has consistently beat randall, much to his annoyance.
but now, in an attempt to educate me, randall has given me 7 bands and if they ever come on, i have to identify which band it is. they are: the rolling stones, led zepplin, the beatles, u2, bob dylan, bruce springsteen, and billy joel. on friday, we started late so he only asked me to name four bands and i got them right! the prize in any game that i participated in has always been a jumping high five. (courtney doesn't really care about the jumping high fives so she doesn't get them after her wins though.) and i think it was the best jumping high five i've ever had. it was the really loud clapping kind and was really satisfying. i'm looking forward to more.

i hate my super

i moved to new york in october. since then, i have lost electricity, had the electricity hooked up to the fire alarm in the hall, tried to get management to refund some of the rent b/c of the electricity problems, had surprise exterminators just show up without warning, got a letter in the mail from the gas/electric company about the building not paying a deposit and that if it wasn't resolved, it would shut off the gas/electric to the building. not the individual apts though. we pay our own gas/electric bills. but last friday was the worst. wednesday and thursday was so cold (nearly single digit temps) but i didn't stay at my apt. i went to visit rina on wednesday night then spent thursday night at saritas. by friday i really felt the need for a shower and wanted to clean up for sara kondo's visit so i went to my place. i hopped into the shower and waited for the hot water to kick in. it never did. i took the coldest shower of my life that day. i couldn't bring myself to put my entire body into the water so i washed myself in sections. first my hair. then face. arms, legs, then torso. i really didn't want to but i figured after washing my hair and face, the rest of my body had gotten sprinkled with water anyways so i might as well. i got out of the shower still feeling a little dirty and a bit numb. then i went to put on warm clothes. i broke out my slippers, sweaters, long johns.. anything to get me warm again. then i realized what the problem was. there was no heat! i checked roommate's thermostat and it said 58.8 degrees. feeling that it was an unacceptable temperature, i went down to my super's apt. she wasn't there (i hate her) but i talked to a lady (aunt? mother?) who lives with my super. she said that there was no heat or hot water then showed me that she was boiling two pots of water to warm up her apt. after getting back to my apt, i got a call from my super. she said that she called a mechanic (?!?? aren't mechanics for cars?) to come in and fix it. sara k's flight was super delayed by the storm at sfo so she didn't get in until about 1am. after getting her a bit settled, we went to feed her since she hadn't eaten all day. then we went to sleep until i woke up in the morning b/c of a knock on my door. i answer the door to the super (wonder of wonders.. she came to do her job). she said that she had to shut off the water to the apt b/c a pipe burst which flooded the basement and short circuited the heat/hot water thing. i woke up sara and said that we needed to go to sarita's so we could do our morning routine. for those of you who weren't keeping track, my apt went from no heat or hot water to no heat or water. i was so pissed off at the super and the building that i stormed off to sarita's with sara trailing after me. we get there and use her lovely heat and hot water then go about our day. at about 6pm, i call my super to see if everything has been fixed. she said that the heat and hot water was back on but to watch out for the extension chord in the hallway that was the only power source into the basement.

if this place weren't so cheap, i'd move. blurgggg


times sandra has gone to the super b/c something needs to be fixed: 2
times the super has been home to fix anything for sandra: 0
satisfaction with super: -59234576543567295

add? ocd? add with a hint of ocd?

today i made a chicken stock. to prepare for the chicken stock, i cut up (and cooked and ate) the chicken and saved the bones and guts for the stock, bought a stock pot, and then went to sleep. i guess i should also say that this was done over the course of about three days.
this morning (well fine. it was around noon) i got up and decided that today was the day i'd make stock. i read a few food blogs about stock, looked at a few recipes, then looked in my kitchen. then i proceeded to disregard most of the ingredients. most recipes call for celery but my fridge doesn't have any so neither does my stock. it also called for a bunch of herbs i don't have so i sprinkled in italian seasoning. i did have the carrots, onion, and the chicken though. and really, i think chicken stock doesn't need to be all fancy. just water and chicken would probably do. but i wanted to make mine sorta fancy.

speaking of fancy. i read a couple of shira's books and they're so cute! fancy nancy, i love you blue kangaroo, and paperbag princess. sometimes i wish i could just read kids books all day long.

back to the stock!
eventually the water with stuff in it was turning into stock. but since i had the stove on, i couldn't go outside and have human interaction. instead, i decided to watch episodes of days of our lives (i was almost a month behind) online. on a website that sounds like newcube. i'll be very sad when it gets taken down and hope that never happens. anyways, while i watched days, i decided i needed another activity. so i got out all of the plastic bags and started to fold them. i now have a bag full of cutely folded plastic bags in a neat row arranged first by where the bag is from then its size. i am also all caught up in the lives of my salemites. and most importantly, i have stock! woo!

hermm.. what do you do with chicken stock?

i took you for granted wall socket, mr. outlet

i'm sorry wall socket. mr. outlet.
i took you for granted.
there were times when i took advantage of you
connecting you to a power strip
making you power up seven different things at once

hi wall socket. hi mr. outlet.
please come back. i promise i be more grateful for all the work you do
my laptop misses you
my cell phone misses you too
but most of all, I miss you.

when you come back, i won't make you power up so many things at once
when you come back, i'll only plug things in when i really need you
when you come back, i won't take you for granted

wall socket. mr. outlet.
please talk to that faulty wire and become friends again
wall socket. mr. outlet.
please come back!

i'm a squib

just like mrs. fig and hagrid are squibs in the magical world, I am a squib in the orthodox jewish world. i know alot of random words in hebrew/yiddish, i notice when people wear yamulkes or head covering, i understand the kosher food laws (and have cooked according to them), and i grow defensive of orthodoxy when people criticize them. I think i like being a squib.

sara asked me if i ever wonder how i got so immersed with orthodox judaism. i guess i couldn't help it since i stayed friends with the filler family and then got introduced to their friends and all. seems like a natural progression. it doesn't bother me. except when i'm searching for ppl to hang out with but it's either a holiday or friday/saturday.

i lost my wallet on thursday. i used it to pay for some groceries (it's pumpkin season, y'all!) and walked back to my apt. then friday was a bit gloomy and rainy so i didn't leave the apt (free wireless is the best!). then saturday rolls around and i need to find my wallet so i can take the bus over to sara's house for lunch. omg, i can't find it. i search everywhere, roommate starts searching, i re-search the same spots thinking that maybe it'll magically appear. we can't find it so we head over to sara's for lunch. it's nice so we went to central park for a picnic. then i go on a scavenger hunt along window sills and above the refrigerator for coins so i have bus fare to go back. i search again to no avail. i go online to see if my cards have been used (nope, thank god), call to cancel all my cards, get sad over losing the wallet, get annoyed that i don't have a license, student id, money, or metrocard anymore, worry about identity theft, then go to the police station to ask if anyone had turned in a wallet (right. in east harlem.) and then file a lost property claim. i think i'm saddest over losing my student id. it was still valid for another two years! my master plan was to use it until i have residency for two years then go to a jc here and get a new student id for who knows how long. yes. i'm cheap like that. but broadway shows are expensive!

p.s. this is not a big enough reason for me to pack up and move back to palo alto. it's a minor, insanely annoying, and worrisome hiccup.

we have internet!

we have internet! er.. we're helping someone use their internet. it's good enough for me to watch the tv shows online so i'm happy with it. the bad thing is that since i have internet in the apt, i don't leave the house as much. so not too much exploring. god forbid this person moves or password protects their internet. i'd be sad.

so.. everyone i know in new york ( and will most likely hang out with) are jewish. my roommate might convert and become orthodox and the rest are orthodox. which means that my friday nights and saturday days might be a bit boring until i find a non-jew to hang out with on those days. or i can watch more episodes of tv online/play sudoku/write in my blog.

today i inventoried the food we have in our kitchen. we have spices, seasonings, and sauces. and then rice, beans, and pasta. what can i say? we live like kings here.

i live in New York, people!!

Things that have happened to me since moving to New York City

• A rat ran into my foot as I was walking around Tribeca. I'm pretty proud of myself for not yelping. And very happy that I didn't bring any flip flops.
  

• I've gotten lost about once every few days. Which probably says something about me since I now live in a city based on a grid system with numbered streets

• I never know which way to leave the subway leading me to becoming confused
  

• I got my nails done. I figured it's a nice New York thing to do. Except that they're the longest they've ever been and it's taking me a while to get used to them. Typing, cleaning and putting in my contacts, actually being able to scratch an itch.

• I watched Rent. I kinda wanted to watch Legally Blonde or something but I went with a guy friend and figured he wouldn't want to watch it.
  

• Since the apt has no internet or tv, I've been playing a lot of sudoku. It still takes me forever to finish a game though.

• I've been to three bar type places. All three had people playing either flip cup or beer pong. Or there was a table with the dots showing where the beer pong cups should go and a sign up on the wall giving the rules of beer pong. It's like all of a sudden I was in a frat house or something.
  

Thing that I still need after living in New York for a week:

• Furniture. I am currently borrowing Dayne's air mattress.

• A comforter especially since winter is coming soon.

• hmm.. what else? OH YEAH! A job.

• I also need to get used to the sounds of New York. As I type this, there's a girl outside screaming “DADDY!!!” over and over again. It's 11:44pm. Not to mention the bus that stops right in front of my apt. And runs all night.

Overall, I really like living here. It's super convenient to get places, I have people to hang out with, and I've been able to explore the city a bit. I'm not scared of living in East Harlem. I think it's nice seeing all the diversity and all. And I haven't been mugged (yet?) nor have I seen a cockroach (yet). You guys should come visit. :) We can be tourists together.