Thursday, October 25, 2007

Some Words

Work is pretty slow. I turned in an assignment - I kinda found out last minute about the deadline, but managed to get it done despite all my hemming and hawing with my BFF in town. Yay, BFF! Ever since turning it in, I've pretty much been slacking off and loving it. I took a three hour lunch yesterday and went home. After rolling in at 10:30.

I'm not too worried. Things don't count right now, and it will be busy soon enough.

Tomorrow, at work, they are holding a toast for a few people who just made partner. I started to feel like I was in a John Grisham novel as I pictured all these people in this overly-carpeted conference room, toasting one of our own. SHIVER.

The other big thing going on in my life - the boy! He came over the other night for a mini-dinner party. It was him, my BFF, and three of my bestest gay friends. He didn't have that much to say; despite what he claims, he's pretty shy. Also, it's hard when everyone else is just yammering on about this and that. My BFF liked him. More importantly, he fulfilled his boyfriend duties after making me meet two of his exes and have dinner with his mom and high school-aged sister during the last three or four weekends.

The first few weeks after I got back were kinda rough. We fought a lot, etc. But now, it's good. He was sooo good to me yesterday. He picked me up, dropped me off at my friend's house so we could watch the baseball game, and then he picked me up when I wanted to leave. Then this morning, he got up early so he could drop me off at home. It might not sound like a lot, but it's pretty nice of him and he doesn't have to do it, especially b/c I was perfectly capable of taking the T. I think he finally got the message when I kept telling him that he needed to be nicer to me.

This morning, it was cold and dreary and when the alarm went off, the sun was barely up. And we were cuddling, innocently!, and it was just ... nice. I want to say magical but that's kinda cheesy. Heh.

I'm happy. That is all.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Brilliant!



Why didn't anyone think of this sooner?? Who doesn't get totally turned around after coming out of the subway, craning one's neck to find the nearest street sign for a hint of uptown/downtown, eastside/westside?

Must visit NYC!

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Work and The Boyfriend

Life is kinda taking me by storm. I think both work and my personal life are at ... well, both are going through important moments.

Work. Work! Sometimes, I feel like I'm playing dress-up. Sometimes, I can't wait to get out of training and do some real work. And then sometimes, like last night when I went out for drinks for the first time with my co-workers (whom I love love love love! after getting to know most of them last summer), I think, wow, we're all a bunch of childish gossip-hounds and i can't believe the future is in our hands. More or less. We took bets on who's going to be the first to leave. Everyone thinks it's me, including me. My situation is not ideal. Over the last three years, I dedicated myself to one goal. I thought I could fulfill that goal at my current job. Instead, I found out on the first day that I was locked out of my goal, put in a different department. I mean, I can still kinda fulfill my goal, but I'm thinking no more than 50%. The other 50% is probably just going to be filler. Is it going to be enough? I don't know. But not being able to fulfill my goal makes me feel like I'm back in law school, passing time until my real life starts.

My best friend said, put in 3 years, then go do something else. In the mean time, sock away your money, don't drink it all away, and then you'll be fine when you leave in 3 years. I said, if I even tried to drink away my money, I'd die. DIE!

Now, the boy. The boyfriend. Some days, he's great. On most others, I want to kill him. I mean that metaphorically of course.

Two weeks ago, and again this weekend, I'm having to go through the ordeal of meeting his ex-girlfriends. Two weeks ago, it was A, a high school girlfriend, whom he cheated on, but they were never in a serious relationship. They knew from the outset it was only a summer thing. Still, I felt threatened, I guess, b/c she was an ex and he went out to lunch with her one day without telling me. So I was nervous. Turned out, she wasn't that pretty, nor was she that interesting, but she was really nice and respectful.

This weekend, it's J. She's a senior in college, they dated about a year ago, and he broke up with her b/c she was immature and he kinda was into someone else, I think. I definitely get the immaturity. It's still awkward, though, mostly b/c this relationship meant a little more than that fling in the post-high school summer. She's also trying to pull this thing where she's trying to bond with me by sharing inside jokes about the boy. And she's trying to assert her place as the brother's best friend, and telling me that she spent all her time, at some point, at their family house. This I don't like. At one point last night, I think I gave her a dirty look. No, it wasn't dirty, it was more like, I'm not going to go there with you; this is not the kind of relationship I want to have with you; we are not going to be giggly BFFs sharing inside jokes about our commonality, who happens to be my boyfriend. No.

I'm going back there later. I had to be home to receive the table I ordered. I think it's too big for my space, but I guess it's just another in a series of poor decisions I've made about outfitting my condo.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Where Did All the Time Go? aka Fooding In Asia

I've been home for over a week, but I just haven't found the time or energy to post. There's so much I want to write - mostly about the food in Taiwan, but I'll post some photos instead.

One short, interesting anecdote. The hotel we stayed at in Taipei had a huge buffet breakfast every morning. Rice porridge, miso soup, eggs, weird ham products that purported to be bacon, salad, etc. There was also yogurt and fruit. Cantaloupe, kiwi, and one morning, this white fruit with black spots, kinda like kiwi, but white and bigger. I didn't know what it was, but it didn't taste like much. Later that morning, we got in a cab to go to a restaurant, and as cab drivers and most Taiwanese people are super friendly, my dad struck up an easy conversation with the driver. We started talking about fruit, and the driver mentioned that there's this thing called dragon fruit - red on the outside, but white on inside, with black spots - that we should stay away from b/c it gives all Westerners the runs. Pshaw, I thought, I hate generalizations.

We ate lunch. After lunch, my stomach felt funny. I thought lunch wasn't agreeing with me, but when I got home, yeah, the runs. In retrospect, I think it was the dragon fruit. Kinda coincidental, no?

Onto the pictures!


A plastic food display at a restaurant outside Tokyo.


Fish-shaped fish product.


Fresh grilled little octopus.


Denny's, duh.


Traditional Japanese dinner. This is like 5 of 1000 courses we ate.


Fresh mochi, meet plush mochi!


Plastic sushi display.


Fresh papaya milk. Yum.


Night market - ENORMOUS sausages.


Night market, Taipei.


Dinner at night market - including octopus pancake.