Allure

I'm tired.

I think the fact that the sun doesn't shine in through my bedroom window in the morning (I face west) is getting to me.

When I think about what I want to eat before a meal, nothing sounds appetizing and I don't feel like eating. In sharp contrast to previous weeks where I wanted lunch at noon, I now don't feel like eating until close to 2.

Although I don't have much appetite for what I want to eat, once I get the food, I eat a lot of it. (see: tonight's Chinese food delivery and the fact that there is no more chow fun left)

Of course, it's 12:15 am and being awake now isn't helping.

That's why I ate chocolate.

Maybe I need one of those sun lamps. Not like a tanning bed, but one of those lamps that tries to naturally wake you up with sunlight. SAD therapy lights, probably. I'll try anything, because for the past couple of weeks, until this week, I had been setting 6 alarms in the morning and still sleeping through all but my Blackberry.  Now I can snooze my Blackberry in my sleep, although it does have the most annoying vibrations of all the alarms.

I want lychee flavored hard candy.

And a nap.

At least Music Choice is playing. One of my problems is that I'll be listening to 90s radio on the couch late at night, when they play all the good songs I haven't heard in awhile, and then I'll just keep wanting to hear the next song, and the next song, and the next song, and before you know it, it's 2 am and I'm still sitting on the couch.

My eyes hurt.

Does anyone know anything about those solar lamp alarm things? Like which are good, which are recommended, what to buy? I am seriously considering the investment.

As I listen to Color Me Badd. I adore mi amor....

More Songs

Anyone who walks into my office right now would see me silently singing along to "Whatta Man" and reminiscing about 8th grade. I love 90s radio.

Frustrating News

So the rumors are flying, after last night's time-slot switch and bad viewer numbers, that Threshold has been cancelled.

This makes me very annoyed.

The critics like it. Many think it's the best of the new sci-fi shows this season. The people who like it are loyal. But clearly, we're not important enough, and stuck on a stupid network that has enough shows doing well that they're not willing to take a chance on a good one that happens to just not be reaching high enough levels for them. If Threshold were on NBC, it probably would have been given a full season order already. Dammit CBS!

Sigh.

I wish I could boycott CBS for killing my favorite new show of the season but I can't. I like Without a Trace. And Survivor. And I couldn't go without Amazing Race. And Numb3rs is fun. I can't give those up out of spite. It wouldn't hurt CBS. It would hurt me.

Stupid ratings system.

All I can say is that I'll be cautious the next time I get really into a show on CBS if it isn't an instant CSI-type numbers blockbuster. Why get my hopes up if it's not going to be good enough for them? Stupid CBS. Wealth of procedural riches and no diversity. Even Law & Order hit its saturation point (see: Trial by Jury). You just wait until all this CSI crap comes back to haunt you. (For the record, I don't watch CSI. It bores me.)

Yes, I'm feeling bitter.

I've had shows that I liked fall apart in the past and get cancelled early. (It was usually Fox, and they're doing it again with Kitchen Confidential.) But, although they were shows I liked and felt weren't given a chance, they weren't shows that I was immensely attached to, like Threshold. Now I really know how all those Firefly fans felt. Friday time slot of death, eh? I guess the curse has moved from Fox to CBS. Sad.

Fine, CBS. Make me upset on Thanksgiving. You're evil. And Survivor and Without a Trace are still on tonight, and I'm going to have to suffer through staring at your stupid eye logo everywhere. And yes, I use the word stupid a lot when I'm frustrated and there's nothing I can do.

This was one of the best ensemble casts for new shows on TV this season. And the characters were written to be smart. Arrrrrrrrrrgh.

Another Test Post

Can someone comment and let me know if this worked as I intended it to look?

 

I thought this picture from my Dems newsletter was hilarious, and wanted to show the world:

 

Shock

The part of wearing a wool sweater, fleece blanket and computer headphones that sucks is when you move the blanket around without taking the headphones off and get 5 electric shocks in your ear.

 

And then you remember that this happened the last time you wore the fleece blanket and computer headphones at the same time, and wonder why you're so dumb and forgetful that you let yourself get hurt again.

Candy

I had always bought all those fruit gummies from Asian grocery stores.  Lately, however, my favorite flavor candy seems to be lychee (although some candy brands spell it "litchee" which to me looks like "itchy").  Last time I went to this grocery store, I bought a bag of lychee-flavored fruit gummies, lychee-flavored hard candies, and lychee-flavored pudding-type snacks.  I didn't intentionally do it; all the snacks that interested me just turned out to be lychee. (Sort of how I go into a store and end up trying on all black clothes in the fitting room... I don't do it on purpose!)

 

Anyway, all that to say that Kasugai lychee hard candies are getting me through this dark and foggy-minded day. Yay for lychee!

Connections

When I hear the song Lady in Red, I think about weddings.  Slow dancing and waltzing around the floor with twinkling lights overhead.  The bride twirling in a red cheong sam as guests look on, smiling and cheering. It looks so much like a beautifully choreographed romantic movie.

 

What do you think of?

 

Maybe I should start this song connections thing as a recurring feature. After all, I listen to the radio all day at work and songs always prompt memories for me. This could be fun.  I could tell you what I think of, and then you can comment and tell me what the song makes you think of!  I love shared stories. :)

 

 

Official News

There was mild relief Tuesday night. A satisfying birthday present Thursday morning. And now that I have finally received the official word in the mail, I can finally tell you that...

I passed the bar!!

Yippee! The relief that the online results produced has now turned to glee. The envelope from NY arrived this morning, officially ending the whole bar exam process. (Now to get admitted...) I'm going to be a real lawyer soon! And I shall now resume dancing around the room. :)

Names

I was supposed to wake up early, exercise and clean/work from home.  Instead I am reading the entire list of names of the people who passed the NY Bar Exam and cheering for every name I recognize. This includes people from high school that I haven't seen or heard about in 7 years. And I'm only up to C...

Music

2 days ago, I went through all different stations on my Windows Media Player - DogCatRadio, BombayBeats, RadioBangkok, Latin Pop - until I found Kpop on Live365.

 

Yesterday, I listened to Kpop on Live 365.

 

Today, I listened to jazz on Music Choice at home, then jazz on WMP at work, then classical and relaxation music, and now I'm back to my good old standby of Club 977.

 

I have such a short attention span.

Stuffing

Fulfilling a 2+ hour stuffing craving is magnificent.

 

Especially when you get a decently large rectangular sized take out box of stuffing for only $3.

Balmy

It's a gorgeous 68 degrees outside (or thereabouts).  Mostly cloudy, but still! Almost 70 degrees! That's like.... balmy!

 

In other observations on my walk to work, I absolutely hate people who are unaware of themselves that they stop in the middle of a crowded sidewalk almost causing their own pedestrian accidents. It's rude.  The people who stand talking and taking up the whole sidewalk so no one can pass. All the teenage girls clustering on the sidewalk outside MTV.  Okay, I don't hate them but the fact that they take up the whole sidewalk annoys me. I guess I don't really hate any of these people. They just annoy me.

 

But it's almost 70 degrees! Beautiful!

Cheese

I've been dreaming about cheese-related foods ever since I saw a recipe for a spinach & cheddar casserole this morning.  Since then I have been craving, at different moments and moving fluidly from one craving to another: cheez waffies, chicken hard shell tacos topped with chihuahua cheese or cheddar cheese, salad topped with Mexican blended cheese, Red Lobster cheddar bay biscuits, cheesy chewy breadsticks, restaurant-style macaroni and cheese (with bread crumbs), etc. There was a random chicken pot pie craving in there too. But notice, no pure cheese. I guess I'm just not that into plain cheese. But then at Artisanal, they have these awesome gougeres... mmm.... I want.

A Completely Useless Post

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fire drill.

 

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Dreams Come True

OMG, that internet radio station is playing SES - Dreams Come True! I was just sitting here dazed and confused about other things, and was like, "I know this song!" Nice.

Words

bored.

 

distracted.

 

disillusioned.

 

tired.

 

anxious.

 

zoning out.

 

back to work.

Reliving the Past

Back in undergrad, especially the first half, I listened to a lot of Asian pop music.  With the whole mp3 crackdown, it became a lot harder to learn about Asian pop music, mostly because I didn't know where to look to find out more. I pretty much only got familiar with the theme songs to anime (Alvin watched a lot of Inuyasha back in Chicago, where it was on earlier because of the time difference).  Now, I'm heading back to the past, as I've found a K-pop Live365 station to listen to at work. Yay!

 

And as a side note, I may go blog-silent until the weekend, because I'll be wrapped up in a little bubble.  Some of the stuff happening is, I think, better suited to my handwritten journal (which I'm resurrecting).  It's not that it's something that doesn't deserve to be public, but considering the way I've compartmentalized my writing topics over time, it's something that I'd rather put there. At least that's how I feel now. It may change. If you think I've gone crazy and have no idea what I'm talking about, ask me on IM.

Bright Lights

How bizarre. I was sitting here at my desk (which doesn't face the window) and all of a sudden, I felt like a high spotlight was shining onto my desk. At first, I freaked out because my first thought was that it was one of those big spotlights from a police helicopter. But I didn't hear a helicopter, and why the heck would they be shining it into office windows anyway? It was really bright! I went from sitting in artificial light to a blazing bright light from behind. And what was it? You probably already guessed it, but it was the sun. Reflecting off the building across the street and straight into my office. The sun was probably the most logical answer, but here I am, sitting here thinking it was a police helicopter. Fabulous.

Autumn Hues

Autumn is here.

The trees have taken on colorful hues. They shine amber in the bright sunlight or blaze red in the middle of a sea of green. But the tones are a little subdued, which makes me sad. There is far less of the deep and vibrant color that usually characterizes peak season for fall foliage because of the endless October days of rain. But in the perfect moment, you can still catch a beautiful autumnal glow.

At one time in my life, I used to pick up leaves that I thought made beautiful imprints on the ground. The ones that fell even though they hadn't turned brown and crispy, the ones that still retained their reds and oranges and golds. They never really lasted for long, because I didn't really have anything to do with them, but they were fun to look at. Part of the celebration of the season.

I don't remember if I've ever addressed the favorite season question on this blog. I waver back and forth because there's so much I love about each of them that it's hard to choose. Sometimes people wonder how you can like autumn, a season where leaves die and fall from the trees, it turns cold, it gets dark early. But it's also a season of color, brisk refreshing breezes, new beginnings and warm and fuzzy feelings inside. The first times it's cool enough for hot apple cider, the days when humidity has left the air leaving for a pleasant cool night, the coziness of curling up in comfy pajama pants with hot chocolate. Fleece blankets, deep and dark colored clothing, comfort food like stuffing and mashed potatoes.

There's a lot of things I love about autumn. And it's best to leave this on a happy note while I've still got that warm and fuzzy feeling inside. What's your favorite part of autumn?

Amazing Thrills

Unless you're a new reader to this blog, you probably know that I love watching The Amazing Race.

I've seen almost all of the episodes (they're now in Season 8, if you don't watch). I think I missed a few episodes of S1, and unfortunately, I missed S3 because I had no working TV. But other than that, seen them all, and some more than once. I love the show and am so glad it won the reality show Emmys. (Take that, Trump! Yeah!)

The only thing that disappoints me (well, not really disappoints, but don't know what other word to pick) is that when they go to different areas of the world, I never recognize any of them. (Well, I might recognize them, but not from personal experience.) This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it makes it lots of fun to see new places and dream of where I want to go next, but there's definitely something fun in the recognition of a place you've been.

The closest I've gotten is when they're in the US - traveling around NY, SF, Chicago. But I never really counted those in my recognition tally before. (But now, I'm thinking maybe I should have, with the way Family Edition was going!)

But I've been watching (& DVR-ing) the repeats on GSN (I love GSN) and they played the Hong Kong episodes of Season 2 over the weekend. They're some of my favorite episodes of TAR (and the early seasons really were better (real clues!)- if you don't know what I mean and want to see them, buy TAR1 on DVD!) and there was also the added layer of "I know where that is!" It was lots of fun and also brought back memories of the recent trip. Last time I saw these episodes, my memories of places in HK were a little more hazy (it was also a family trip, so I wasn't doing much navigation on my own, and it was back in the mid-90s), so it was like watching them in a whole new light.

This is truly one of the only reality shows that takes you off to a whole new world. I wish they'd get back to the best parts of the old seasons (FF strategies, get rid of the NEL money-taking, real clues), but even in its current state, it's still one of the best shows on TV. This post is really supposed to be about watching HK but if it makes you want to watch the show... even better. :) Although maybe you should rent or buy TAR1, then TAR7 at Christmas and start off with TAR9...

Arts and Crafts

Arty Kid

Whether you were a drama freak or an emo poet, you definitely were expressive and unique. You're probably a little less weird these days - but even more talented!

Who Were You In High School?

Hmm. Yearbook, newspaper and lit mag? So, maybe...

But I never thought of myself that way.

Oh well. It was the most interesting of the new quizzes, so I just thought I'd post it.

Radio

Not that anyone would have any way of knowing this, but yes, I do listen to DogCatRadio.com at work.

Sushi

I'm reading the menu for Raku on Seamless Web, and is it bad that I'm so amused by some of the roll names? For example, the Morgan Stanley roll (spicy tuna with avocado topped with eel, red and white tuna, salmon and yellowtail - sounds SO good, which explains why it's $15) and the Proskauer roll (spicy ebi, cucumber, crunch, white tuna, whitefish and salmon in a soy wrap, also $15). I'm not ordering either one of them, but they're making me crave sushi a whole lot!

Cravings

Bizarre cravings are back. (As if they ever leave!)

 

I came downstairs from the library and saw someone eating a bag of those Snyders honey mustard and onion pretzels (which I love). I then started to crave pretzels. A second later, a Twix bar. And then another second later, the one which totally confuses me - I started to want chocolate covered pretzels. But I don't even like chocolate covered pretzels!

 

And what am I eating? Another mini bag of Skittles. Sigh. I also want mozzarella sticks, but that's definitely not happening here and now.

Test Message

I am posting by email. (If you didn't notice by the time and day of this post.) I am curious as to whether any of the styles come through on email. So if you see this post and the words are appropriately stylized (by what they describe), please comment and let me know. I just want to know if it's really bolded or italicized or underlined. Thanks!

Post-Halloween Candy Fest

I look forward to the day after Halloween. The same way I look forward to the day after Christmas and Easter. All the holiday themed candy goes 50% off and I can stock up on all the individually sized candy bags so that I can put my sugar addiction under portion control. (In the interests of full disclosure, the post-Easter candy sale is myfavorite of the 3.)

On my lunch break, after being thwarted by a 20 person teller line at the bank, I went to the Duane Reade near the office, and started picking up large bags of candy. Crunch bars, Pumpkin Patch M&Ms, Skittles, put back the Crunch and picked up the Kit Kat, and then a last minute impulse buy of Twix. I noticed that the 50% off Halloween candy signs hadn't extended all the way down the aisle, but since all the candy was stored in large cardboard Halloween designed boxes, I figured they just ran out of tags. After all, they had used so many inthe first half of the aisle.

I was wrong. The candy was not 50% where the signs were missing. But why?! The candy was clearly shipped to the store for Halloween. Granted, there were not huge Halloween designs on them, but there weren't on the Skittles either and those were 50%. Needless to say, I ended up not getting the Kit Kat or Twix because I wouldn't pay full price (yes, it's the day after Halloween and I feel entitled to a discount!), but I picked up the M&Ms and Skittles. Maybe I'll try another Duane Reade to get some bargain chocolate. I was so lookingforward to an afternoon pick-me-up of a Twix bar.

But all the disappointment of not buying chocolate went away when I got my lunch. I've been intending to go to one of the street food vendors right by the office ever since I started (actually, I've been intending to try a few of them, but this one I pass on the way to work all the time). But between interview lunches and either busy times or bad weather sending me to the easy and lazy choice of Europa, I hadn'tgone yet.

The cart I went to today has newspaper clippings up of all the times the cart was featured in the news as one of the best street food carts in NYC. And it's really good. I used to go to the street food carts downtown all the time during my 1L summer. I had a $5 lunch budget and the carts made it really easy. (It was 2 years ago, but they're also a little cheaper downtown I think.) So, I'm a pretty good evaluator of chicken pita sandwiches. This one was definitely good. Made all the pain of no-Twix go away really quickly. In fact, I didn't even thinkof it until I started this entry. I was filled with chicken pita love.

Back to work I go. I'm so glad that cart is just across the street. It's really no wonder that there's always a really long line.Definitely worth the (short) wait.

Ad Aware

For months now, I haven't seen one of those sidebar ads on Gmail.

I use my Gmail plenty, but I guess they didn't have the ad function built into the Italian language mode.

But the ads are back! I don't really mind that they're there, since they always used to amuse me when I was back in English mode. (Let's see what ads we can make come up next!) But I kind of wish the ads would show up in Italian instead of English. That would be so much better. Then I'd welcome the ads for a chance to learn more words in Italian!

Yes, my Gmail is in Italian. I happen to think "posta in arrivo" is nicer sounding than "inbox." And "aggiorna" is better than "refresh." And it's more fun for me. My cell phone is in Spanish. If I had another device, I would like to put it in either French or Portuguese. Just for fun.

If you're wondering, I don't speak very much Italian at all. Very basic words, introducing myself and asking "how are you." And thanks to Gmail, email commands too.

Darn, 23 minutes past bedtime goal. Hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween! I can't believe it's already November. I've been employed for one full month and it's seriously flown by. Why does time move so much faster as the years go by?!?