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A Sweet Moment, Wedding in the Redwood Forest

Things I love: Peonies ...

Fresh Peonies: Classy, Elegant and With Fresh Dew Drops

... And Photographing Children

Each with his/her own unique energy

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Showing posts with label stream of consciousness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stream of consciousness. Show all posts

Monday, October 04, 2010

My 28th Birthday, Just Words

Yesterday I turned 28, and throughout the entire day, I didnt take a single picture, maybe because I snapped around 1,000 the day before at a wedding.  The weather was perfect, crisp and cool, with a little bit of sun, exactly how fall should feel.  Nonetheless, it turned out to be a memorable birthday because I got to do everything I love and see/hear from everyone I love.

Birthdays are always lovely bc they put you in touch with so many people - the night before when he dropped me off from the wedding, at 12:46am, Nirmal wished me a happy birthday; then, at 10:06pm the night of, Marissa left me a msg wishing me a happy birthday; in between so many msgs on various mediums as well.

The day started out early at 6am because I wanted to maximize my waking hours; it was my birthday and I wanted to be awake as much as possible.  

8am I attended mass next door at Saint Paul the Apostle.  My friend Jack who always sits next to me in the third row pew, was there and talked abt how he liked my pics, especially of the lil children.  The homily was about mustard seeds, and was moving and motivational as expected.

10am class with Georgia, and Robin told everyone it was my birthday.  Georgia made it a terrific class even though I was running on four hours of sleep.  Everyone sang the birthday song to me in trikonasana, both sides, and she was just genuinely nice and lovely throughout the class.  The class was my gas station, I did full camel, and it even ran over the scheduled 90 mins.  I saw so many familiar faces, and even Connie, who gave me kisses before she and her husband left for Italy.  And I did one more standing bow after class and locked my leg for fun.

Afterwards, a quick skype session with Bud, and I noticed how his hair has gotten longer. Multitasking, I edited and uploaded 50 pics from the wedding the day before - I love my birthday present from self, a L class telephoto lens.

2:30pm lunch with one of my good friends Jaimin at abckitchen.  We had feasted on delicious organic foods including bruschetta, tomato and mozzarella salad, eggs benedict and chamomile tea.  Food and decor were elegant and colorful, and still I didnt snap a single pic.  Lively conversation as always, and we learned what yuzu is.  I wore a new turquoise sweater dress and an old blue hoodie that I bought in San Francisco a few years back on a day Jaimin and I had dinner at Solstice.

5:00pm dessert with Erika, Jaimin and Davis at Spot in the East Village.  We ordered a yuzu lemon cupcake and coconut vanilla cupcake and drank more tea.  The Spot was so cute, and had nice wooden tables and seats, I could have carried my netbook and done work.  Conversation was random but fun, we talked about serial killers and made plans for a winter party in December.

Shopping for jelly jars and eye-catching kitchen stuff followed in Flatiron.

Then I went home and talked to parents on skype. They love talking about Evan and how sharp and fast he is (apparently rode the elevator alone), and how Old Bean still purchases nuts and bolts and nails from amazon all the time.

Then Sarah called and I talked to her, catching up on a week's worth of events.

And because the night ended up chilly, I wrapped up the day undercovers, wearing my red extralarge USMC tee and surfing the web on my netbook.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Icarus and Bruegel

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

This morning was not so good. I woke up, decided not to exercise (out of sheer sleepiness) and received an email that I had made some faulty error (work). Already not a good start.

Moments later, I looked down at my hands and arms and realized they were blue from last night - I had oil painted on canvas a blue sailboat in blue waters against a blue sky.
En route to work after being delayed by emotions and events, I got stuck in the elevator at South Park.
Cross-town traffic in a cab sucked so much I could have ran to work faster, and I arrived to work late to start the day.

When negative things like the above happen and I blow them out of proportion, I think about Bruegel's well lit painting of Icarus drowning - and reflect how so many (negative) things that seem so great are indeed trivial ... and life goes on.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Stream of Events on Ordinary Wednesday


Black and White Trio from Crumbs

After last night’s hour of happiness at Sweet Revenge in the Village (Crimson Red Velvet, Spiced Carrot Cake, Carafe of White Sangria), I almost wanted to sleep in this morning. But because I'm not lazy / dont require that much sleep, I started the day early.

A stream of events from a not-very-eventful, ordinary Wednesday follows:

5:05AM: Awake, respond to msgs on bb, look out window where it's already light outside. there’s a pretty crescent moon amidst a pink and light blue sky. wanted to photograph but unintentionally fell back asleep for just a few minutes

5:16AM: Decide (after self protest, debate) to take an early morning class

5:35AM: Out the door. random passerby asks if im fillipino

6:00AM: Talk about bball / NBA with classmate re: potential Kobe vs Lebron faceoff. interesting stats: Chauncey Billups has made it to the playoffs 6x in a row … Robert Horry has 7 champ rings. I’m a fan of both players.

8:35AM: Wait for the elevator at Southpark en route to work. meet and converse with neighbor’s parents who are visiting from Australia


9:00AM: Oatmeal with a banana for bfast. admire GOOG logo, the missing link. check on daily morning sites (seriouseats, drudge report, wsj, nytimes, dealbreaker and weather)

9:15AM: Nora hands me a surprise: 3 black and white cookies from Crumbs. the Crumbsy joker logo reminds me of the mask Bree and Orson have from Desperate Housewives

9:30AM: Listen in on conf call and learn more about women’s health space and a spec pharma (women and testosterone, etc)

11:30AM: Tea time with milk and sugar. begin to make edits to last night’s draft presentation for a meeting next week.

11:50AM: Eat raisin bagel smeared with cream cheese (leftovers from an am portfolio co board meeting)

12:15PM: After researching Eastern Standard and Drink on Yelp, notice a received compliment and reminder to post from Yelp friend. quickly type a 2 min post about visit to Sweet Revenge and how sweet it is

12:30PM: Starvin marvin; eat lunch of spinach pasta/salami/tomatoes/red onions and cheese with pesto and red sauce

12:50PM: Waterbug/cockroach scare at a bullpen cube - the bug was easily 2 inches long and caused a soprano shriek

1:26PM: Marissa comes on gchat and we chat

2:36PM: Work at Excel Help Desk (helping out with CAGRs and print areas). continue to work at regular desk

6:00PM: Leave work to go home via B,D line. the subway is massively crowded during rush hour even during recessionary times

7:11PM: Talk to Marissa over the phone with lol (stands for lots of laughs, i used to think acronym stood for lots of love)

7:45PM: Decide to post blog entry. and i'm stopping here before this becomes overly annoying.

*Maybe I should reserve entries with this level of detail for a more interesting day

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Stay at Southpark? A Rant About Rent

My South Park Character Wearing an Original Red Beret

I was going to post about my new ideas for photo projects but instead I'll rant about rent because it's on my mind.

After hassling the Brodsky managers, I finally got a lease renewal - with a rent reduction of 12.5%. To me, that figure doesn't seem substantial at all because there are some great deals (one month free off of cheaper rent etc.) going on right now throughout the city and not even Brooklyn(!). Arguably it might be fun to redecorate a new apartment (even in an older, less classy building), buy a TV and familiarize myself with a new neighborhood.

And while I'd like to save on rent, I do like my apartment. The colors work well, the furniture comes from different places - such as my pistachio green ikea couch from 2004, my oak end tables from a furniture shop in NH and my mini book case "stained 7x" my dad made for me in NY, and studio itself is comfortable and casual. The building, called South Park Towers, has a pool and the area is convenient with easy access to public transportation and the park.

My rational self is telling me to pull together some comps by looking around neighborhood buildings (think One Columbus Place/Park Towers South) and to return to negotiate ... question remains ... to move or not to move ... TBD