smaggi-mee

yup i have reached the nirvana of food creativity. with the basic canned chicken breast, instant cup noodles, some pepper and LOTS of ketchup (all from the bloomberg kitchen), i created SMAGGI-MEE. or is smaGHETTO a better name for it. you know i have to kinda combine the word spaghetti and maggi-mee/ramen/instant noodles, so if anyone has a good idea, pls let me know. it actually tastes quite damn good.

and i have gone through the SECOND extra large box of corn pops all by myself. this is not too good since i doubt corn pops really have any nutritional value. just glamorized
popcorn if you think about it eh.

trippin'

everynight i make my way home from work from the 59th st station. the express train is on the lower level and there is no escalator. SO... that means i have to scuttle down the steep steep stairs in my killer heels. many thoughts run through my mind as i grip to the handrail to save my life:
1) the sound of trains arriving at the platform make me extremely anxious because i hate the feeling of the train doors just closing as i get off the last step and i have to wait another 5 cold minutes for the next train.
2) these damn shoes are killing my feet-- didn't i just wear those sneakers??!! (they'd help me get down those stairs faster too)
3)what am i having for dinner tonight?

i have a new ipod shuffle courtesy of the visiting boyfriend. he is determined to make an apple convert out of me, and i don't mind this sort of evangelism. now i just have to learn how to use it.

was squashed by squash this past saturday. the couple of games we played knocked us out for two days after and my butt hurt like it wasn't funny. masochist that i am, i actually like that kind of post workout soreness because, for some warped reason, it makes me feel that my increased consumption is justified until the pain wears away. like as though the aching muscles somehow burn up the additional food i eat. does that make any sense?

to my dismay, this obviously is a jiaen-myth that i am a personal testament of. life sucks.

i got my mum to send over my old ballet shoes along with hang so i am going to shamlessly sign up for advanced beginner ballet to get myself fit and strong. the other day i pointed my feet and it broke into a cramp. i think i need a little tuning.

corn pops

corn pops are my favorite cereal. is it bad that i finished a whole box by myself last week? it's one of those kiddy cereals i still go crazy for and you can't have them with milk or their not "pop-py" anymore. i'm already halfway through my second box now. crunch crunch.

brooklyn bridge

see the furry round hats. i wasn't lying

jewish ladies in brown coats and shiny black shoes. i swear it's a uniform

life with a boyfriend

dan is here for 5 weeks and this will be the first time in the 2.5 years we've been together that we're actually going to BE TOGETHER. it's weird times ahead for sure because i'm not used to not making my bed in the morning.
this past weekend we decided to walk across the brooklyn bridge and walk around the neighborhoods of brooklyn. it took us a while to cross the bridge because dan was trigger-happy with that monolith of a digital camera (canon powershot a75 or something like that. monolith because this is one non-slick looking gadget), stopping every few feet to take a shot of something or other.

finally made it across the bridge and decided to head towards williamsburg to witness the gentrification that's happening there first hand. haha. so we walked. and walked and walked. and walked. who knew the few centimeters on the map would take us two/three hours to trudge through? and who knew that on myrtle ave towards williamsburg was a huge project and we would be the only two asian kids walking through it. dan wanted to stop at a park and i said, bad idea.

we turned onto bedford ave and i was so excited because there were two zagat-rated restaurants on that street and by this time, i was starving i honestly didn't care if not for the fact that dan kept pushing me along. but bedford ave turned out to be
what seemed like the longest damn ave i have ever walked (ok, i'm exaggerating. but it was still pretty damn long) it took us through a jewish neighborhood and everyone was speaking hebrew, all the signs/posters were in hebrew. best of all, everyone had just got out of synagogue service and the men were in their full black and big furry round hats, and the women and girls in their brown coats and shiny black shoes. there was almost no sign that we were in america other than that it was quiet and peaceful--no gun shots or bomb blasts were heard in the vicinity. (i know i know, what an ignorant statement. but really, it did feel like we had walked into jewtopia).

after about forever, we finally get to williamsburg and oh god i am really about to keel over and die from hunger so we stop at bonita (this mexican diner which happened to be one of the zagat-rated places!) food was fantabulous. we walked around williamsburg a bit after dinner and i hate to say this/ashamed to say this but perhaps gentrification is a good thing? white people (not very PC, but if you don't tell, i won't either) seem to care more about setting up cute little shops with kitchy decor that kick up rent and the poor people out. maybe it's that gentrification just makes the place that much more pleasant to look at and be in because i sure liked the cute cafes/bars/restaurants in w'burg more than the crummy joints i walked by earlier. i can't decide. i'm a real keep-it-real kind of person, but in this case, maybe putting up a false, pretty front really is just... well, nicer. i always think- aye, these white folks should just stop encroaching on less wealthy n'hoods. but now i see that some good has actually some out of it, i feel very torn indeed.

back to life with a boyfriend.

ahhh.. my favourite hangout in the house. we had five tubs of ice cream when i last counted.

yup, believe it or not, we are pretty clean people.

tada! new fittings and granite-top no less. ;)

peek into our little kitchen

house proud?

more pictures of the house. for some reason the kitchen pictures won't post so those'll come later with the bathroom i guess. less exciting maybe that's why.

this weekend was quite fabulous in a low key way. hang and i went to fashion ave/garment district and purchased ribbons and ric-rac from daytona trading company (funny name for a trimmings shop eh?). with our colorful strings, sewing machinette and t-shirts to come, we're almost ready to start our craft workshop and hopefully make some moolah.

we had bibimbap and korean pancakes for lunch and continued on to the young designer's market in soho where we soaked in inspiration for our own wares. ;p stopped at a chichi bookstore and of course made the mandatory supermarket stop to get our two tubs of ciao bella ice cream among other things. we initially had plans to go out and watch a movie but shelved that in favour of a DVD dinner. (with comte and baguette of course!) our choice for the night were before sunset and a home at the end of the world. watch both back-to-back and you'll understand why we felt emptied out and had to turn on some brainless mtv/vh1 after that.

sunday was equally wonderful because i always love good brunch food (i think brunch is about my favourite meal of the day). also since it was my first time in hell's kitchen and because it was sunny out, i decided to walk. so i walked all the way from 50th st to the garment district, from there to chelsea and from chelsea to the west village. as usual, i collected business cards and menus from restaurants along the way (because i aspire to be a walking zagat guide--haha). i also made a quick stop at payless shoe source to get new sneaker pumps which were a steal, and picked up a slice of new york cheesecake because i couldn't resist.

the west village is beautiful and i wish i had deeper pockets so i can live in the same neighbourhood as SJP and have breakfast/lunch/dinner all the time at the cute places there.

our very cool shoe rack is actually a laundry cart i used to bring my laundry up from the laundry room and hang suggested we keep because it's so cute. of course i did not raise much objection to her proposition.

view from the entrance.

see we have many butt/floor pillows for people who come over

our cozy futon which serves as the couch. guests get to sit on the floor with the many pillows provided. see our coffee table which we covered in free urban wrapping paper (the cashier gave us a year's supply because i asked,"ooh, can we have more??). spot, to the right of the futon that tiny contraption which is our sewing machinette! and to the left you can see my abominable snowman/pseudo UGG boots.

our dining table and hang's room door (love the art work she made that hangs from it). we even have a fruit basket and a polaroid wall for pictures of guests.

the view from the other side. that's our "living room". notice how the TV now faces us?? yes we were geniuses and got a lazy susan so we can swivel it any way we like. hang gets a good view from her room too.

our "dining room". cheap plastic dining table from home depot covered with shantung silk table cloth (aha! from garment district of course ;p) and silver shimmer runner from crate and barrel courtesy of my mother. retro circular mirrors (from ikea) because we're hip like that. four plastic stools (from ikea-where else?) at $5 each and signature ikea woven rug because we're also cheap like that. gladiator is showing on tv.

small talkin'

i'm just not a bar-type. i hate the pointless socializing at a lame bar, making small talk over way too loud music. maybe it's because i'm just not good at it. after the heey what's up! so how long have you been here? what you got planned this weekend? wow, this place is pretty cool huh? --i just run out of things to say and my mind races against the seconds to think of more small talk to dig up. maybe it's because i don't drink much and it sucks being the only un-drunk one among a roomful of hammered individuals. maybe i'm just boring and would rather be watching tv at home. probably just all of the above.

i desperately want curly/wavy hair because i'm sick of this boring stick-straightness. so i tried self-curling (hang helped too!) and ended up with limp stringy waves that just wouldn't cut it. so a pure stroke of genius inspired me to make braids all over my head and sleep on it-literally. haha. undoing my braids this morning, i prayed the braids would work a miracle and leave my hair looking wavy and rather sexy. but as life would have it, i looked more like an electric current ran through my head than i had curls. damn.

so i want to talk to my bf on the phone but there's no reception in the subway and the bus is too noisy to hear him. i also want to get out of the office and hit the gym, but if i did, i wouldn't be able to talk to dan. but if i waited for after talking to go to the gym, i'd probably get lazy and not go at all. see my dilemma? too many good things i need/want to do but so little time. so i decided to just WALK--all the way from 59th st to 14th st. that way i could talk to the bf AND get my workout eh? the only problem was my legs started itching like mad when i got home because of the biting windchill but small price to pay for killing many birds with one stone.

tonight i have braided my hair again in hope that tomorrow i will have some curls to be proud of.

dancing queens

that's what peiru and i were last night at crobar. it was the best dancing night in a looong time. got into the groove with sasha but zabiela was the best because he played some prodigy (the "i got the poison i got the remedy" --was it from the spawn or the jackal soundtrack??) which reminded me of my electronica-loving days, rollerblading in sportsbras and oversized jersey shorts around the neighborhood with xiu. maybe it wasn't a coincidence i brought all my chemical bros, prodigy albums (pirated of course!) back with me this time eh.
the other best part of the night (if i'm allowed to have two bests) was cutting the line and getting in for absolutely nothing because peiru put us on the guest list- you go girl! keep milking those PR connections!
and since i have two bests, why not three. the third best thing was that everyone was so spontaneous and in the mode to have fun, we danced our hearts out from 1-6am. the only problem with that is now there's all this of lactic acid accumulated in my muscles that won't dissipate so i feel a constant cramp-like sensation in my legs and feet.

so i was thinking also yesterday, is "retribution" a noun? like "contribution"--is it what english teachers would call a noun? so what is the verb form of retribution if for contribution it is "contribute"-- "retribute"??

oh, i just re-thought about it and i guess the verb would be "to receive" or something else to that effect. right?

photo and work table

peek outside

Yes

like the shanghai ladies?

x

virtual tour of my room

walking through the door

the train doesn't stop at chambers st

that's what this passer by told a group of rabbis. i guess there must be a synagogue at chambers or something. anyway those tendrills at the side of a rabbi's hat-- are they attached to his hat or does he just have a really funky haircut? to urge the curiosity , i went and googled rabbi images. so apparently they just grow these long locks of hair at their temples which they tight perm to get the tendrill effect i guess. i also found
a disturbing image which i didn't want to put up here. but google it for a laugh (or belch): rabbi (choose images), then go to the 2nd page and scroll down a little.