Post-joytastic

Ah. Back to the grind.

The holidays were nice, I must admit. Christmas Eve meant dinner with my housemate's folks, her brother and his girlfriend, and her husband and baby. They are the coolest people in that they have me in like their own family. Those type of people are hard to come by...

Christmas day I woke up late, watched the Yule Log show while I did some writing; helped myself to an after noon nip at the cooking sherry, then headed to the movie theater with my brother to watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. With it being sold out, we resorted to watching The Spirit. Don't be fooled by the stylized commercials; that film is godawful. Don't waste your money.

I went back to work on Boxing Day, 'til 1:00 pm - our last of the last out-of-work-early Fridays. At its end I went home, wrapped presents (for our gift exchange to take place on Sunday), and made plans with my folks to head to Disneyland on Saturday at 7:00 am. They didn't arrive until 11:00 am. I was pissed, but by the time dinner came to a close at 8:30 pm and I had to leave, I was sorry to have to go.

Sunday's gift exchange resulted in a vintage HUSTLER t-shirt, a book on vicarious living, a bike light (with seven settings!) and bread mixes for me to bake this winter. Very satisfying. Sunday also had the nerve to test the limits of my patience towards my relationship with my boyfriend, but that led to a concerted making up session, and, well... the satisfaction that comes with that can never be argued with.

And here I am at my desk, on Monday morning. My younger brother and folks are still at the Happiest Place on Earth, and will be there until New Year's Eve. My boyfriend and his mother are heading to Oceanside and San Clemente Pier today. As for me, handholder and faux pas therapist, I'm looking forward to 5:00 pm, when I will be pedalling on home and settling in for the evening.

I'm so glad this will be yet another short week.

Our office won't be observing another holiday until Memorial Day.

Temper, temper

envious
slighted
bothered
annoyed
temperamental

Arrested Development, take me away...

Offset the Grinch

It's officially the week of Christmas, and it still doesn't really feel like Christmas yet. It feels closer than ever before, what with the candy canes, the snow, the egg nog and gingerbread men - but it doesn't feel all holly jolly as it used to. I'm wondering if it ever did in the last few years, or if it was just my imagination. Steve and I went to Disneyland yesterday - so much fun. We saw the parade, got coffee and watched the chefs make candy canes at the Candy Palace - but we were so anxious over all the crowds that the Grinch in us crept up more than once. Ah, so aggravating. But I'll tell ya, there was no grander sight than the Christmas tree in Town Square - the star at the top of it, the presents below, all the while balls of silver and ... red and green. The planters were a sea of red poinsettias, and made for really good photos. What took me by surprise was what they did to it's a small world! - at 10:15pm all the lights in the Fantasyland area went off, and there were various holiday songs being played while a Christmas scene/Christmas theme was cast alongside the facade of it's a small world holiday!... and it was simply, absolutely fabulous. The thing is that I've been going to Disneyland since I was about 3 or 4, so I know the place like the back of my hand. But sometimes I go there and am pleasantly surprised. The aforementioned was a good example of that. A better example of that was the 50th anniversary of Disneyland's opening, and also the recent addition of Toy Story Mania at California Adventure. Absolutely stunning!

I suppose all that said leads into how important I think we should feel some sort of wonderment in whatever it is that we do. I don't know if it's entirely possible. All the time, ain't gonna happen - but it would be nice to embrace the wide-eyedness as long as it's still allowed to exist within us. I've felt a lot older than intended this year. Time to backpedal a few emotional decades.

I'm offering this simple phrase
To kids from 1 to 92
Although it's been said many times, many ways:
Merry Christmas to you

Wine, woman, and gall

This weekend turned out a lot better than expected...

I'd intended on spending the better of the weekend with my boyfriend, but due to impromptu sickness on his end and an impending final on mine, it was decided that it'd be best that I stay home. Needless to say I was rather bummed. I recall heading home from work on Friday wanting to punch a wall, but eh - what are ya gonna do? That evening I studied, and watched the dog while my housemates headed to an annual corporate Christmas party. Saturday afternoon was full of studying as well, and a fair brunch at a kitschy eatery in Studio City. More studying occurred until I got an email follow-up about a Garden Party in Hollywood that I wasn't going to be able to attend, but since I was home I made sure to re-jump on the chance. EXITMUSIC was the band, and they are indeed a good listen. Incidentally I'll be writing about the experience shortly on BeatCrave, so be sure to check it out in the next coming days...

After the show I figured I'd go for dinner, perhaps at Fred 62 or somewhere else up Vermont, so I called my friend Erik, who was at a houseparty of sorts in his building. The gist of it ended up being that the party would start on the top floor, and would make its way steadily downward to the bottom floor. The building is four floors - I made it to floor two, and therefore made it through shots of tequila, mulled wine with cloves, a tequila sunrise, mojitos, sangria, and pseudo-white russians. I memory-banked a lot of new faces, and emitted sounds of amusement at each pit stop; however, my mind had the decency to black out when we got back to his apartment. I found it comforting upon waking this morning to be half-naked in bed with an old flame and know out of mutual respect there would be no residual nether-region soreness as the day would go along. It wasn't long afterward that my liver and brain began to hate me - until about noon today, until I quelled the resulting headache and nausea with poached eggs & salmon a la Madame Matisse.

This afternoon, I grocery-shopped in NOHO, walked home, and studied.

Not a bad weekend, for being completely and totally off-the-cuff.

Peek-a-boo

So it's not that I haven't been around. I've been around; I've just been busy. It's the end of the year, meaning the end of the semester, meaning finals next week. I'm almost done with general education work, which is both good and bad: good in that I'm almost done; bad in that the classes I need fill up quickly or aren't readily available. So I've been contending with that, taking a lighter load than usual, with the same level of stress. One of my professors hasn't been around for most of the term, so I'm freaking about next week's final (involving complex math). The other class (history) I will pass with flying colors. After this, I've at least one more [unwanted] semester to go, but it's better than another two years on the same campus. I'm ready for the next level.

In other news, Christmas presents to self are already taken care of - I bought a new wardrobe, a new computer, new shoes, and a new camera on various purposeful whims in the last few months, so I don't know what else I could ask for. WIth the exception of perhaps a swanky set of bed sheets, a cartilage piercing, or a crockpot, I really don't want anything else materially (although I'm saving for a Louis Vuitton purse when I get my BA; just saying).

Writing has been going really well - I'm happy to say that I'm going on seven months of experience [being the name we give to our mistakes], and I hope to keep it up in the same format for some time.

The one thing I could say needs working on lately is reconnecting with family - with my sister having moved to Nebraska, my brother out in New York, my other sister separated due to religious differences, and my folks & lil bro just in their own day-to-day, it's been difficult to genuinely connect on a regular basis. But it's interesting in that growing amicably away from them, I've grown a hell of a lot in the last five years. It's been incredibly sobering.

That's about it. My mind is a minefield of snippets.

Home again

Can you tell that I didn't want to leave New York?

I love the city, always. The state, definitely. But it's my brother that makes my visits. If I were visiting him in Bumf*ck, NE, it would still be a treat. I miss him like -- well, like the deserts miss the rain.

A little belated, but I am thankful for the following:

my cats, Chloe and Alice
my chosen family (including squid)
my brothers Joshua and Joel, and sister Jessica
my nephew Matthew
my brother-in-law Craig
my folks
warm blankets
my bed
having a place to live
my developing sense of style
being able to write for the semi-masses
text messages
Gmail
JetBlue
my video iPod
black eyeliner
an operable transit system
the History channel
having a savings account
flip-flops
electricity
running water
libraries
this website
this one, too
specialty grocery, spice, & tea shops
200 canal street
Target super stores
higher education
"Yes We Can"
candied ginger
sales sales sales
the five senses

and everything in between

I hope it was a happy Thanksgiving (or day off, or weekend) for everyone.

New York, Day 7

Went to Kalustyan's today - bought an assortment of loose teas (moroccan mint, thai tea, and evening comfort [ginger & peppermint blend]), mint chocolate malted milk balls, medjool with "almonds" coconut & sugar, zaatar bread, and pistachio nougat.

Then I went to the Met, where I heavily perused the Roman and Greek art, and the European Sculpture courtyard. I love watching the artists do sketchwork of the various breathtaking pieces. It's all so incredible, skylights and all.

For the second time this week there was a forced detour on the subways (due to routine maintenance and police investigation), but I was able to maneuver and make it back to the abode - unscathed, but with knowledge on how to function by way of an alternative method, and without having to call a car. I owe it in part to being somewhat transit-savvy back home in Los Angeles. Which reminds me: when I get back to LA, I should probably find time to update this blog - it's been almost four weeks. I owe it to relative stresses piled so far up on each other that they finally collapsed. . . and it took a week(plus)-long vacation to get things settled.

When I come back home on Sunday, I'll have Monday off from work (day job; writing will resume).
I'll be in my cubicle on Tuesday.
Wednesday through Sunday, I will not.

Vacation (unplanned!) part two.

But for now (this evening), my brother and I will be going to the Russian & Turkish baths. . . maybe I'll splurge for a massage, but the regular treatments sound wonderful right about now.