Welcome 2011!
It's definitely been a crazy past few months, my new job turned into a new role with ever increasing responsibilities (in a good way). I hardly have the free time to be creative outside of work. Luckily, I've been feeding my creative hunger by going to fancy restaurants and stuffing my face! Whee!
As the long weekend winds down, there are a few lessons I can take from Thanksgiving this year.
Firstly, having two Thanksgiving dinners in the same day is possible, but not recommended.
Secondly, Black Friday isn't what it used to be, and that should be approached as a challenge.
Thirdly, figuring out what you did on your iPhone the (drunken) night before isn't as fun or easy as it seems.
Lastly, your boyfriend will take pictures of you when you're drunk. And you won't remember it.
Happy Thanksgiving ya'll!
Yankees - World Champions 27 times over! It's amazing. Why? I don't know. I haven't watched any game this season.. heck, I haven't watched professional sports since I pretended to be straight back in college to impress some lacrosse boys.
But there's just something about the home team being on the cusp of winning the championship, eh? I mean besides the New York Red Bulls (soccer what?).
Congrats to them! Especially Hideki Matsui being MVP! GoGo Curry, here I come!
Wow.
It's been a long time since I've gone.. stayed out until 3 in the morning - the time I didn't realize until I woke up today and found that I had updated my facebook status at that time.
That was fun.. the realization part; and what else did I realize? I fell up some stairs at some point (leading to a ankle swollen). And while I'm no longer in my 'early twenties', I can still party like it's 1999. (That's still hip to say, right?)
I really do hate house- and dog-sitting. More specifically, I hate the sacrifices I'm making.
With the dog walking/cleaning/feeding morning and night, I've given up much of my usual habits and hobbies.
For the past three weeks, I haven't had time to go window shopping after work; I've declined dinner and movie plans; I've left happy hours early.
Instead of doing all that, I'm picking up dog poo. But what bothered me the most was that I couldn't volunteer for the AIDS walk this year (after 6+ years).
From that, I've just realized that I love my freedom. Freedom from taking care of someone (or something) else; especially as regimented as a taking care of a dog. Being in a house so far from the city (and my entire wardrobe) just exacerbates the situation.
On the bright side, I've only two weeks left of this responsibility. Which leads into my birthday month. And it's Fleet Week.
Being here, in the middle of the suburbs house- and dog-sitting, there's a lot of time for me to reflect inward - there's not much to do when boiling water for ramen noodles. I've come to a few conclusions:
What's more surprising is that I'm not upset about having to do these 'chores'. Does this mean I'm grown up now? Hm.
With all this retrospecting, I'm more appreciative of the time I spend with my friends and, especially, my Boopy. Just look at how excited I am before we head to Adele's concert!
I hope I keep this optimism by the end of the month.
So this whole digital social networking thing is really wreaking havoc on my blog. So is my job (goodbye midday postings - not that I'm complaining).
The latest thing I'm starting to get into is Twitter. I really like the ease of it.
Though what I've worried about is the access to stalkers it provides. And of course, (and totally indicative of how my mind works) I think that if you tweet about where you are, it broadcasts to people you're not home; and that's just like putting up a neon sign to would-be home robbers it's open season.
Of course, I know that's completely irrational since most people go to work 9-5 anyway.
But I digress. And now I tweet about it! By the way, check out this hilarious report on the Daily Show:
Alright! I passed another Valentine's Day without celebrating it!
Instead of giving in to the "peer pressure" where everyone expects you to celebrate your affection with your significant other (and buy into all that crap), I decided to celebrate my other love: shopping.
A day at Woodbury Commons; it was glorious. I fell in love all over again with John (Varvatos that is).
And even though I don't need a day to say this (and in no way does this mean I'm giving in to V-day), I love you boopsie!
I'm referring to the holiday sale season. I have GOT to stop shopping.
After three trips to Woodbury Commons and multiple trips through New York City's Fifth Ave and Soho, I've probably bought five times as much stuff for myself than all the presents I bought for others combined! I guess someone has to keep the economy going. Hah!
But seriously, even though I'm being facetious, my heart goes out to everyone who's suffering from the recession. From all the bad news of deteriorating funds and suicidal billionaires to the families losing credit and their jobs.
Keep your head up guys. There's a silver lining there somewhere.
So tomorrow I'm helping a friend out by cater-waitering. A part of me wants to help a brother out, but the other part of me thinks it would be fun. I don't exactly know why.
Maybe because it's something different. Maybe because I'm waiting to see how horrible (or not) I would be at it. But maybe it's because I'll pull a Will (from Will & Grace) when Jack asks him to help cater-waiter and he just pretends to be part of the party. Hah!
Did I say "fun"? I meant "funny".
And speaking of funny, I've been in love with the Real Housewives of Atlanta, but this parody my friend Div turned me onto -- priceless.
After I decided to attend the rally last night against the Mormon Church's involvement in the passing of Prop 8, I was questioned why. And to my surprise, even though I felt that Prop 8 was wrong, both civilly and morally, I couldn't readily give a reason why I was deliberately protesting the Mormon church; which boiled down to: I didn't know the facts.
So on the internet, I found out that the Mormon Church had something to do with Prop 8 passing. And given the fact they're a religious institution, I'm sure most others can verbalize in better terms why religious institutions have no right directing public policies.
But the main reason why I protested was because of their hypocrisy: they claim to "promote tolerance" but turn around and vote for intolerance; that's not right. If I a sign, it would read, "Where's the tolerance in Prop 8?"
The turnout was great. And to quote a fellow protester, "Damn, there are too many hot guys here, I can't concentrate!", after he messed up a chant. And now, some memorable chants of the evening:
"Gay, Straight, Black, White, Marriage is a civil right."
"Tax This Church!"
"What do we want? EQUALITY! When do we want it? NOW!"
"A people, UNITED, will never be, DEFEATED!"
Hehe! Okay, that last one wasn't really a chant, I just overheard someone say it, and I can't help but giggle every time I repeat it (because the last part should be 'divided', get it?! eh? eh?!)
The Rainbow Accident Award for the Gayest Way to Sprain an Ankle goes to... Me! For the wonderful lunchtime performance last Wednesday of skipping down the street, missing the curb, and landing awkwardly on their left foot!
Ugh... I still cringe when I picture it!
Three weeks into my new job and I still love it.
Ok. I've been told I'm still in that 'honeymoon' phase; but if it continues the same way, I can see many many happy days.
So far, I've been given a MacbookPro, been to two training session, and all is well.
Of course, I'm still missing my 'colorful' band of misfits, especially their colorful language; though the tall, vegan I work with now is quite colorful in his own right... like all he eats is horny goat weed. Hah!
As an aside, I'm falling in love again with NPR's On the Media. Everyone who watches the news or reads a newspaper needs to listen to this program; especially during all the election news coverage - it's not only important to be informed about the news, but also know which news informs.
Like that last sentence? That's an antimetabole! And I learned it listening to On the Media! Whee!
After two years and a few months, a month of notice, an additional two weeks of 'additional notice', I've finally left my old job to pursue an amazing, new opportunity. The new job introduces me to more technologies I want to learn and puts me in a better position to accomplish my future career goals.
Yay me!
What I'll miss most are the friends I've made and the crazy lunchtime shenanigans, especially all the politically-incorrect hilarity that ensued in the office pantry. If there was an HR fly on the wall, its head would explode in a sparkly shower of racist, sexist, pigist, homo-(and hetero-)phobic ignorance; all over our Go Go Curry katsu... ah, Go Go Curry. Actually, I think I'll miss that the most.
Anyway, that photo is from my going away party at Gstaad.
My departure and start date worked out perfctly, straddling a trip to Provincetown, MA for Carnival week.
Carnival week was fun, and I'm glad I did it once, but that sorry-ass-excuse-for-a-parade doesn't warrant the unbelievably huge crowd and the exorbitant prices. I mean, there weren't that many hot, shirtless guys. Ugh.
And now for your viewing pleasure, a short teaser from my vacation. Enjoy!
As evident by my lack of posting, I've been pretty busy. With work, events, volunteering, I hardly had time to think. So here's a quick rundown of Pride Month 2008.
June 1, Japan Day
Standing in line for 20 minutes under the summer sun for free fried dumplings. They were pretty good.
Did I mention they were also free?
June 3-6, Birthday Week
My birthday celebration consisted of a four day feast! Each day I was treated to a wonderful meal, from Next Door Nobu, to Le Cirque, to Grand Central Oyster Bar, to my favorite Szechuan restaurant, Szechuan Gourmet in Flushing.
I probably gained in my belly as much as they lost in their wallets. Tee hee.
But seriously, I really loved each and every meal. The friends, the food. But mostly the food. I mean the friends. I mean the froods. Wha?
Which reminds me, I still haven't had an official birthday party yet, so watch out July!
Oh, and somewhere in there I decided it would be a good idea to go to The Web after a year plus hiatus. What a disappointment. Aside from the half-naked go-go boys, of course.
June 14, 18, Central Park Zoo and Ikea
In mid-June, I visited the Central Park Zoo with my sister for the first time ever! Can you believe they keep two polar bears in that zoo? And out in the open air on a hot and humid day! Don't they have some sort of sub-zero temperature room or something?
Afterwards, we stopped by an event put on by Adventures NYC in Central Park and saw some awesome trampolining.
Mid-June also saw the opening of Ikea Brooklyn. I saw it opening weekend. Take the Water Taxi, it's awesome, fast, and free. Yay!
June 22nd, Celebrating Pride; with Nakedness
For some reason, I decided to agree to my friend's crazy idea of celebrating Pride by having the most expensive lunch known to man - eating at Per Se. Ironic that this friend is still not out to his family? Hm. No judgment.
The brunch itself was flawless, from the food to the service. Thank goodness I took some pictures, because it will be a long time before I get over the shock of the cost and think about returning.
Later that day, I partook in a yearly ritual I like to call Folsom Street East. This year, I went with this man. His first time! I know! I was shocked, too! So shocked I had to take the ball-gag from my mouth so my jaw could drop. Kidding.
Nothing out of the ordinary; just some half-naked people in leather bondage performing fellatio on each other.
That night I continued on the theme of half-nakedness; I went to Broadway Bares 18! The show as good, not great. But the best part (aside from introducing my friend to some culture) was I got to see Step It Up and Dance reality TV stars Mochi and Jerry Mitchell! I even got to tip some dollars in Jerry's undies! Yay!
June 30, PRIDE
The day after a horrendous Pride Run race result, I soothed my wounded pride by marching in the Pride parade with HOP! It was my first time in the parade and aside from small hiccups (the flash tsunami at 2:30pm) it was a total success!
It even earned me a lone ticket to the Pier Dance. Going by myself confirmed the suspicion I had: it's just not nearly as much fun if you go by yourself. But I did see Wilson Cruz, so I suppose it wasn't a total loss.
That's it! And I'm spent! Whew!
Here's part of the dinner conversation I had with my friend Steve after seeing Jumping Blind at GayFest:
Me: "That play reminds me of this book I read, Suite Française, ever heard of it?"
Steve: "Nope."
"It also takes place during the German occupation of France. It's a great read; funny. And endearing. I really liked it."
"Really?"
"Yep. What's also fascinating is that this book was written during that time but only published recently."
"Oh yea?"
"Yep. She was killed before she could finish writing her books, but they found them, and her notes too, and published them. She was Jewish and the Germans took her to Alcatraz, and that's where she died."
"You mean Auschwitz."
"Uh yea, that's what I meant."
Honest mistake, right?
Did I mention that Steve's Jewish? Hah! I'm such an idiot sometimes.
Wow. Is it June already?
Yep. And that means it's Pride month again! Happy Pride ya'll! Can't wait to see what kind of craziness happens this year!
This post was lovingly brought to you by an overworked, uncreative Jase. *sigh*
What's white, red, frizzy, and found canoodling and sweatin' to the oldies at Penn Station?
Yes! Richard Simmons! And yes, it was completely surreal!
