friends

A Boston kind of weekend

It was a hot one, and there’s no escaping the heat wave here as well. The SoCal-like weather from the past few weeks was too good to be true.

Friday I left work earlier than usual, 12:30, and caught my one PM train just in the nick of time. I was able to get a window seat, but it was still pretty crowded, and somehow I ended up near a bunch of kids. At first I was dreading how the ride would be, but the kids were mostly well-behaved and cute. Plus my iPod drowned them out.

I had brought a bunch of schoolwork but did none of it. Instead I daydreamed and slept, and had a hot dog and coffee at about three. A weird combination but delicious all the same.

The train got in about 5:45, half an hour late. I went straight to ES’s house (I’m glad I still remember where it is!), where I found her napping. :) I don’t blame her. By Friday I’m pretty pooped myself.

For dinner we went to this Tibetan place nearby. I’ve never had Tibetan before and found that it was kind of a Indian/Chinese mix. We had curry beef with potatoes and mango noodles. The noodles were good, as was the curry sauce, but the beef could have been more tender.

Afterwards we walked around Davis Square. It was Art Beat this weekend, and so that night there was some live music. But what we caught was awful: some band from Italy that featured lots of bagpipes. We started near it, but decided we preferred to chat instead, so we found a bench and yakked until it started to rain.

A visit to Boston wouldn’t be complete without some ice cream. When the downpour started, we dashed over to an ice cream place and got some “Green Monster” – mint ice cream with crushed Oreo cookies – to share. I got a “small” but even with the both of us eating, we couldn’t finish it.

For the rest of the night, we just hung out at ES’s place. I watched TV, a nice treat now that I don’t have one, while she went through some photos. It was hilarious to look at the iPhoto Booth ones she, IS, and I took during one of my visits.

We went to sleep not too late, around midnight, and the next morning I was wide awake at 7:30 (not the case today, that’s for sure). I think I’m used to getting up at that time, and also ES’s blinds were up in the living room, letting in the natural light. Either way I was glad to able to get some homework in before ES got up.

We left the house at about noon, and attempted to walk around the arts festival. “Attempted” because the heat was really unbearable. After a little while we ducked into this crepe place and sat there chatting for two hours.

We eventually got back outside, and at that part of the day, after 3, it was less oppressive. ES knew someone in a band that was playing so we went over to listen to them. They did kids’ music, and it was cute to see all the little ones dancing and singing and almost getting electrocuted by the wires and speakers. Awww.

After that we checked out the booths. We were both on a hunt for jewelry. I saw a couple of necklaces I liked, but I wasn’t 100% sure about them so I let them go. ES thought about getting some earrings, but by the time she went back, they were sold.

By 5 I had reached my limit with the heat. On our way back to ES’s place, we ran into some of her friends. Normally I don’t mind a little chitchat, but at that moment it was the last thing I wanted. After a few minutes, I gave ES a look and started slowly backing away. Luckily she got the idea.

I felt better after enjoying ES’s A/C and ingesting some fruit. Must have been dehydrated and needing some sugar. We hung out for a while before ES threw herself into a cooking frenzy, trying this Asian tofu/bok choy/mushroom noodle dish for her friend’s barbecue we were going to later. My big contribution was chopping up some garlic.

I wasn’t too in the mood for the barbecue, to tell you the truth, but it turned out to be fun. ES’s friend had a very nice backyard, and everyone there was easy to talk to. Later in the evening they showed a movie, Fletch, projected onto a sheet – actually, shower curtain liners – hanging from the porch. It worked really well, and was a good movie choice because you didn’t have to pay close attention.

I realize I hate nature. Sitting there in their lovely backyard, I kept thinking I was getting attacked by mosquitoes (just one bite, though a huge one), and then I swear a slug crawled onto my foot. I felt a tickle, reached down to brush it off, then felt sliminess. Ew!

Sunday I was up semi early again, around 8:30. More homework before ES got up. Headed out around 12:30 to see the New England Sand Sculpting Festival at Revere Beach. It was crowded but not crazy, and it was definitely hot though overcast, luckily, cuz otherwise I’m sure we’d have been burned to a crisp.

We weren’t there long, just long enough to take in the sand sculptures – all very cool btw – and walk along the water, which felt really good on that sweltering day. But again, yucky nature: seaweed, gross!

Then it was time to drive me to the train station. ES gave me a nice tour of the downtown area, which has changed SO much since I lived there. Next time we need to spend more time in Boston proper, though it’s so easy just to stay in Davis Square.

Like a nice mom, ES had packed me a lunch for my train ride: leftover noodles, which turned out DELISH by the way, sliced red pepper, and watermelon and peaches, which I gobbled up even before we left Revere.

The train wasn’t crowded at all at first. In fact for a little while I had entire car to myself. But by the time we left the Route 128 stop, we were packed.

This time around I was able to do some reading for class, both research for my final paper and the assignment for tomorrow. Yay! Then I didn’t feel like reading anymore so I plugged in my iPod and watched the scenery go by. I love looking at the water and boats and catching glimpses of different birds along the coast of Connecticut.

The train got in around 8, about 45 minutes late. No biggie. I was tempted to take a cab, but sucked it up and took the two subways, but not before waiting for what felt like a billion years in the Hades that is the V/F train platform at West 4th Street.

I had big plans for the night at home: do my homework for Tuesday (we have to come up with two questions/comments per reading), iron my clothes for the week, do a little sewing (1) a button back on some pants, 2) a tear in the seam of another). I did none of that. I checked my email, my Flickr, my Facebook, my blogroll, then watched Intervention and The Office online. At least I washed the dishes and unpacked.

Today it’s hard to be back at work. Luckily I have no meetings. Plus MB gets back this afternoon, yippee! He was away at a conference in Toronto this weekend.

I should really work out soon, but I’m already starving! Maybe I’ll do a short one later this afternoon, or after work.

boston / friends / library / weekends / writing — 1 Comment
15
Jul 08

Quiet weekend this time

Friday I had a half day as usual. After the gym I went to school to make yet more copies, and ran out of change before finishing completely.

MB was at a coffee shop in the area so I met up with him there. I like the food there, but what the place is famous for is its model-like waitstaff. Everyone who works there is tall and thin and gorgeous. The girl behind the bar wasn’t tall, but she was very pretty and knew it. She had a weird way of engaging people, both men and women, very flirtatious instead of just normal and down to earth.

Late that afternoon we saw Hellboy II. Another good movie! I love all the weird creatures that director thinks up, like in Pan’s Labyrinth.

Friday and Saturday were very much stay at home days, except for meals. MB was rather obssessed with a project he was working on. Plus I had a ton of reading to do for class and wanted to work on my memoir as well.

Sunday we left the house. Yay! Grabbed a late lunch, then took a long walk before settling in Washington Square Park to do some work. MB kept seeing people he knew, or at least recognized. First up was some eccentric older dude from a music meet-up, shopping cart full of musical equipment in tow. Second was this poor clearly anorexic woman. MB had seen her in Union Square a while back; on Sunday she was just wandering Washington Square Park, walking up and down, up and down.

Then as we’re about to leave, who do we see but YP on his way back from Hellboy. I almost never see anyone I know.

I’m finally at my correct pay rate now for work. Even though I officially started on May 16, till last week I was still at my old pay rate in the system. (Damn the system!) HR said I should get a check to make up for the difference.

Also will be getting my tuition reimbursement soon. Yay! I need to use that to help pay for my fall tuition, which I won’t get back till after the semester. It’s a bit of a challenge, to say the least.

This weekend I’ll be heading up to Boston to hang with ES. Another yay! Apparently there are a whole bunch of festivals going on, art and music and whatnot. I haven’t been up there in ages.

friends / photography / weekends — 3 Comments
07
Jul 08

The days were just packed

It was a fun and busy weekend.

Saturday, before we headed out to YP’s naked comedy show, we went to Sam Ash and got some gadgety electronic thing to feed MB’s music addiction. I don’t really get it, but he gets hours of fun out of it so that’s good.

There were a lot more people at the show than I expected. We got there early, and there was almost no one there. But then suddenly the waiting room was crowded.

Several guys got naked in the audience. Usually there’s just one weird old guy with a pageboy haircut, but this time three youngish men across the aisle from us disrobed. MB squirmed a bit.

“I hope they clean off these seats,” he said before I assured him that the nakedness was restricted to one side of the theatre.

The performers were also funnier than I thought (but just as funny-looking in their nakedness). We sat in the back since I was paranoid that the comic who embarrassed me so much last time would be there – and he was! Thank goodness MB was next to me.

After the show we went with YP to grab something to eat, then walked home together, very convenient since YP’s place is on the way to ours.

Sunday, after some work/lounging time in the late morning/early afternoon, we did some shopping, namely shorts for MB. I thought I had seen a lot of guys’ shorts at Urban Outfitters, but there were hardly any, and they were pretty pricey at $40+ each. We had much more luck at Filene’s – in fact the choices were overwhelming. MB got several pairs for $19.99 each.

I wanted some sandals so DSW was our next stop. No success for me. Although there were lots of choices, my size was nowhere to be found.

Later that night we saw The Wackness. It was quite good, better than I expected. Ben Kingsley in particular was pretty hilarious.

This morning I’m very tired. I’ve started taking the allergy medicine my doctor prescribed me. You may remember that I had this cough, and thought the inhaler she gave me might help. Maybe it did a little. But then one night I had a bad case of the hives (hives are a usual occurence for me), and popped a Benadryl. For the next day and a half, not only did I not have any hives, I didn’t cough, which made me think it was allergies after all.

That’s a long way of saying the allergy medicine gives me a restless sleep. I sleep but wake up every few hours. Annoying but better than coughing I guess.

friends / weekends / work — 2 Comments
19
May 08

First day, again

My boss isn’t in till tomorrow, but I’m glad I came in today.

They told me that my computer would be all set up today, and of course it wasn’t. So that took all morning. I had been told to leave behind my PC and laptop for my other team, but then someone else told me today that I should have brought them over. Arggh! Some things never change.

Luckily I was able to at least run over and get my laptop – and not run into anybody, yay! – so that I could at least check email. Turned out I had a whole bunch from my old job. Of course the moment I leave, all these requests come through. But at least I didn’t have to fulfill the requests, just answer some questions.

It definitely feels weird to be in a new spot, a completely different building in fact. I know where the ladies’ room is at least, having had lots of meetings on this floor, but I’m not sure about the kitchen or copy room. I had the impression the cafeteria here was nicer than the other one, but it’s not. While it’s bigger, the selection is far more limited. Plus the register lady was nasty, and not just to me. I may continue to get my food from the other caf, at least in the morning, which isn’t a big deal since I walk past it from my bus anyway.

As for the weekend, it was a nice one. I had Friday off. I slept in, then headed out around noon for the gym (MB had a lunch meeting). It was good workout – four miles. Afterwards we just hung out, took walks, ate dinner. Watched I’m Not There on DVD. It was interesting but a little confusing at first. Cate Blanchette was amazing as one of the Bob Dylans.

Saturday was SG’s baby shower in DC. I decided to go down just for the day since the hotels were sort of expensive. I was taking a 7 AM train, which meant getting up at 5:30. Yikes! And of course having slept in Friday morning, I wasn’t tired till like almost 2 AM.

But I was okay during the day. On the ride down, I expected to sleep, but felt good and energized with my coffee, iPod, and daydreaming out the window. Got into Union Station around 10:45. I thought I’d have time to walk around, but by the time I grabbed a snack and freshened up, it was time to head over to the restaurant.

I’ve never been to a baby shower. I have just one other friend who has a kid, SB, and she’s Jewish, which means no baby shower. So I was picturing a roomful of mommies and moms-to-be ooing and ahing over every burping blanket and teething ring.

But it wasn’t. It was fun. I think it helped that the room was a mixture of marrieds, singles, and those with or without kids. There was lots of laughing and joking around. One of the games was Forbidden Words: there was a select list of words – baby, onesie, carriage, etc. – that we couldn’t say. Each person was given three safety pins, and every time someone heard someone else say one of the forbidden words, they could take a pin, and whoever had the most at the end won.

I wasn’t paying attention, I have to say. At the end when SG was opening gifts, one of which was a Baby Bjorn, for some reason, I said the name aloud: “Baby Bjorn.” Next thing I knew two people were putting their hands to me. SG said the look on my face was, “Wtf?” Needless to say I didn’t win that game.

I did win the baby animal game though. We were given a list of 20 animals and had to fill in what the baby version was called. Like gosling for goose. Some of them were hard! Did you know a baby hare is called a leveret? I had never heard of such a thing. But I still won: eight out of 20. The prize was a very nice L’Occitane set, hand cream and a really good smelling body lotion. I’ve been using it although I have like three others open.

The food was good too. It was high tea so we had little savory sandwiches, as well as trays of desserts. The scones were out of this world, as was the clotted cream, which I thought was butter, just much softer and a little sweet. The shower was scheduled to end at 2:30, but it was four by the time we left.

SG and I hung out for a bit after dropping off her mom, then picked up her other friend, and we all had dinner together. More laughing and talking.

Caught an 8:30 train back. It was quiet and quick – till we got right outside Newark, that is. We were chugging along when I heard a weird noise, like a bump. Suddenly we stopped and just sat there for I don’t even know how long. Thirty, forty minutes before an announcement finally came on that a “rescue train” was coming from New York and we’d all have to walk up to the first car.

We all assumed that the train had simply broken down. But as we walked, I saw policemen on the tracks, as well as cop cars, a firetruck, and an ambulance. Then I started to realize that we hadn’t just broken down, and what that “bump” was. Yikes.

I can’t even remember what time it was when we finally got on the rescue train, but it was definitely after 2 by the time I got home, two hours late. But MB was still up, that night owl, and we hung out for a bit before finally going to sleep at 3.

Slept in immensely on Sunday. MB even woke up before me, which almost never happens.

He had another lunch meeting, but this time we left together. His meeting was in Times Square so I hung out around Bryant Park till he was done, specifically the International Center of Photography. They had a really good exhibit on Japanese photographers.

When we met up, it was raining again. Boo! So we just grabbed something to eat, got this book I needed for class, then took it easy the rest of the day.

This is probably the last day that I’ll be able to blog from work for a good long while. Although my last job sucked, I could really slack a lot. Now I can’t. I’m better off not doing personal stuff at work anyway.

birthday / friends / relationships — 4 Comments
18
Apr 08

You say it’s your birthday

Well, actually it’s mine. :)

My thirty-sixth year, the year of the rat. Yikes! Closer to 40 (!!!) now than to 30. Wow, I think I just felt a lung collapse.

No, but generally I feel happy and grateful. The new job, the boy, school. All I need to do now is start writing more again.

MB’s gift to me was cooking dinner, but he got mixed up on the date and did it last night. He was so annoyed at himself at first, but quickly got over it.

“It’s my birthday eve dinner,” I told him.

He made lovely salmon steaks, steamed artichokes, and sweet potato fries. For dessert we had little cakes from our favorite pastry shop.

I guess I am not too picky when it comes to birthdays. My ex would always get me nice jewelry, but I’ll take lots of affection and attention over jewelry. There was one birthday my ex completely forgot – not even a happy birthday or anything – and that was devastating.

Tonight MB and I are going out to dinner for a second birthday celebration, long noodles for a long life.

“It’ll be a tradition,” he said. “I’ll make you birthday eve dinner, then we’ll have noodles on your birthday.”

:)

ES is in town this weekend, and we’ll be having lunch and hanging out this afternoon. Yay! Tomorrow, the ‘rents.

There goes the other lung.

friends / moving / rant and/or rave — 2 Comments
06
Apr 08

More furniture fun

I’m slowly but surely selling pieces of my furniture.

Needless to say, the flaky girl who couldn’t keep straight what time she wanted to come by backed out. “Oh gee, I measured my apartment and I don’t think they’ll fit.” Maybe that’s something you should have thought about before being so annoying about me holding those two tea tables. Lame ass bitch.

I hate to say this, but so far it’s been the guys who have been very straightforward – “Want. Buy.” – and the women who are flaky and can’t make up their minds. The three people who have actually bought stuff (namely the leaning desk, both bookcases, and my bedframe, which I never thought I’d get rid of) have all been guys. The women?

Case #1
Saturday morning “Sabrina” stopped by bright and early and said she wanted the bookcases. But first she’d have to see if her husband would move them, and she’d let me know about Sunday. Not a word.

Case #2
“Iris” emails me about the Sleep Number bed, saying that recently her husband has died and that she needs a new bed and a “good night’s sleep.” Oh my, TMI. :(

In any case, I send poor Iris a picture of the bed. Her reply?

“Is that a real Sleep Number bed? It doesn’t look like a real Sleep Number bed.”

Why, because Lindsay Wagner isn’t lounging on it saying, “I’m a 34”? I didn’t even bother answering her.

Case #3
“Nikki,” the annoying tea table girl.

MB was back in time to help me with the bed this afternoon. Luckily he was around to help take it apart because I don’t think either the guy or I would have figured it out. Or it’d have taken 2 hours instead of 20 minutes.

Aside from all the furniture madness, I also saw Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day with YP. It was really good. I enjoyed it immensely.

I’m mostly caught up with school so I think I’ll work on my writing tonight.

friends / library / tcob / work — 2 Comments
01
Apr 08

What a packed day yesterday

Between finishing up my paper and preparing for my presentation, having that second round interview, giving my presentation, and rushing out to go to YP’s comedy show, I was definitely pooped by the end of the evening.

I think my presentation was fine. It’s amazing how quickly five minutes pass. The professor gave us 2 and 1 minutes warnings, and I was very surprised when she held up the “2” when I was only 1/3 of the way through. After that I was talking a mile a minute.

Since I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of the library I visited, I included some random illustrations I had found, which people seemed to find amusing.

By the time I got to YP’s show I was hungry so MB and I ordered some fried mozzarella concoction and buffalo wings. Edible but so bad for us. I don’t know if it was something in the chicken wing sauce or the stress from the day, but I had such a gigantic headache by the end of the evening. Only after downing two Advils, taking a little walk, and drinking a ton of water and tea, it went away.

A funny thing: who do I see at the show but one of my classmates? He was there to see one of his friends perform. Weird!

Now today I need to take care a couple of other things, namely registering for summer and fall classes, and putting my furniture for sale on Craig’s list.

Got some interviews for another position, this one with digital marketing. While I had just 3 for the communications manager one, including both first and second rounds, for first round for digital marketing, I have four! Crazy. Might be a good idea to get out of marketing once and for all.

friends / tcob / weekends / work — 3 Comments
16
Mar 08

Spring flinging

As in flinging stuff.

Spent the weekend getting rid of stuff. Must have made four or five trips to the curb, and each time the stuff mysteriously disappeared. That is till I saw one of my Crate and Barrel boxes in the foyer of the Chinese acupuncture place next door. Chinese people love free stuff.

Also shredded a slew of old documents, getting my two file boxes down to one. Dumped a huge garbage bag of clothes I haven’t worn in years at Housing Works. $900 worth! I also have books I need to donate, and a box of kitchen stuff that was too heavy for me to bring down to the curb. Hey, MB, first order of business when you get back from Chicago!

Aside from the spring cleaning, I hung out with YP a bit Saturday afternoon. Had a coffee and a nosh, then walked around the city. It was a gorgeous day, like winter was finally ending. Today I saw SB and Ellie for a little while. Little Ellie had the crazy medusa hair going.

Just one day of work this week. There’s a small thing I totally procrastinated and need to take care of tomorrow. I feel myself getting stressed, but I need to remember that it’s really a small thing and can be taken care of. I don’t know why I always do this to myself – procrastinate to the point where I’m totally stressed and wake up at 5 in the morning and can’t sleep anymore. I’m such a doofus.

food / friends / photography / weekends / work — 3 Comments
03
Mar 08

Much weirdness

There is much weirdness going on here at work today.

To recap, late last week we found out that five out of ten team members are being moved to another team. Our boss, who is a horrible micromanager with terrible judgement (ie, he wanted to kick off our sales presentation in Vegas with a Bush impersonator introducing our team – yes, FOR REAL) went around to each of us to tell us what was happening, but we never had a team meeting.

He set one up for this morning, but when I got here discovered that it had been canceled. Apparently he’s sick with the flu and will be out till Thursday.

Umm, how does he know he’ll be sick till exactly Thursday? “I’m scheduled to be well . . . now.” Anyone else would have said, “I have the flu, I’m definitely out today and tomorrow, maybe I’ll be back on Wednesday.”

Other dirt I got from my boss’ admin, who is also my friend:

He had a meeting with a VP in human resources on Friday. It must have been important because he was off-site and drove back into the city just to have this meeting.
Tomorrow he has a “personal and confidential” meeting on his calendar.
Today at 5 what was our whole team has a meeting with the Senior VP of our group. That is, our whole team minus our lame boss, who although ill could have easily called in.

Those in combination with the scheduled out sick thing makes for much weirdness around here.

What I’m hoping is that they’ll fire him or at least move him elsewhere in the company, and that we all end up reporting to someone else. Second best would be if I got a new job. Third best would be if I got canned because the severance package is sweet.

Worst would be if things remain the same.

I’m excited by the shake up. I kept thinking nothing was ever going to change unless I got a new job. The only annoying thing is that one co-worker who has been moved to the other team is starting to transition her stuff to me, although I’ve gotten zero direction regarding what projects I’ll be taking on, or if I’ll even have a job, or what my job will look like.

In other news, my weekend was very nice. Saturday morning I met up with YP to do our monthly photo assignment. This is just for fun and way to get us out there and taking pictures. Back in January we made up several “themes.” Last month it was Reflections, ie, taking pictures of anything with a reflection. This time it was I Spy. In other words, “A is for. . .,” “B is for. . .,” which I’ve noticed quite a bit on Flickr. It was fun though I got only as far as K. YP got to J.

But before that we had breakfast at Cafe Habana, where I inhaled steak and eggs, and had a celebrity sighting: Ian Wright from Globe Trekker! He is probably my favorite host, along with Megan and Justine. The other hosts are sort of annoying. Ian was with a bunch of other Brits, and looked a bit older than he does on TV, or maybe I just tend to catch earlier episodes. He was wearing an orange sweater with a hole in the elbow, which made him seem down to earth.

That night MB and I saw Jar City, a crime thriller out of Iceland. It was really good. Kind of reminded me of Seven but less gruesome. The grossest thing was what Icelandic people eat – yuck, sheep’s head! (I couldn’t find a link directly to sheep’s head, but here is one on Icelandic cuisine, which apparently also includes cured ram testicles and putrified shark. Mmm, rotten shark meat.)

Another funny thing was that I was freezing in the theatre, and then to see the Icelandic landscape with everyone walking around in giant sweaters and parkas just made me feel colder.

Sunday MB and I did some work, then walked around the city. Although it’s warmer, it’s still quite windy. I’m tired of the cold; I hope it’s on its way out.

friends / writing — Comments Off
06
Feb 08

Bad blogger

Okay, so I’ve been absolutely awful about keeping up in here. Same old excuses: work, school, the boy.

Last week I had another excuse: AWP, otherwise known as the biggest frigging writers’ conference ever. It was good though a little overwhelming. Usually I go to the one the Small Press Center throws every April – this was about 10 times bigger.

All in all the panels were inspiring, and there seemed to be less tolerance of dumbass questions from the audience. Usually I’m the only one leaving when Q&A starts, but people left in droves.

One of the dumbest question? To an author of a historical novel: “How did you find the old letters and diaries you used?”

The author: “Um, I looked for them.”

Dumbass: “Yes, but how did you get started?”

Audience member: “Ask your librarian!”

Word. Don’t waste our or the author’s time.

I went to several sessions on Thursday, just a few on Friday since I had to annoyingly go back to the office, and just three on Saturday but they were very good: the Art of Writing Craft and a couple on memoir. By then PL and I met up, and we ended up wandering around the very very crowded book fair before finally heading out to do what we do best: eat and chat.

This Sunday of course was the Superbowl. PL had a party for her hubby, which she had described in the invitation as a Superbowl party, but for some reason I thought she was being ironic.

Neither MB nor I are football fans, but it was still fun, especially watching everyone get so riled up. I swear I thought someone was going to have a heart attack.

Apparently yesterday there was a parade. I had no idea. Plus it was Mardi Gras, plus it was Super Tuesday. Craziness. And tonight is Chinese New Year’s Eve. It’s the year of the rat, which means one thing to me: I’ll be turning 36.

Wah.

Angela Tung Oversharing on the internet since 2005.