|
yamilah
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Country: United States
State: California
Interests: Reading cookbooks, reading fiction, going to museums, listening to music, violin, volleyball, scrapbooking, photography, fashion, writing, traveling, social psychology, culture, Asian American issues, Women's studies, movies
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
7/15/2004
|
|
| I jetblued to Long Beach yesterday.
Already, NY habits have caught me off guard. First, the sky looked cloudy so I vetoed exercising in the late afternoon because I thought it might rain a la frenetic thunderstorms in NYC. It never rained. Instead the sky looked beautiful dotted by clouds topped with pink, courtesy of the smog.
Second, I thought about sitting outside in the early evening on the patio, but then I hesitated, not wanting to get scar-inducing mosquito bites. But then I thought...wait a minute. There are no mosquitos in SoCal!
JFK was a fright. It was good I got there 1 hr and 40 min early. Long long security line and check-in line. Slept 4 solid hours on the plane waking up strategically for the (still!) free snacks and tea and water. Watched some King of the Hill I hadn't seen before.
After landing promptly picked up some Vietnamese spring rolls to snack on. Watched Kung Fu panda with mum. More action than many action movies these day. I agree with Yahoo viewer's ratings of B+.
| | |
| Had a lovely time in Vermont last weekend. V outdoorsy. I kind of like this picture: 
K and I had a hard time steering the kayak on the way out. Zigzag to the extreme best describes our path. But on the way back, despite wind, we were able to haul it across the resevoir back to the rental shop in time. Still have my Darth Vader hat. K took this beautiful picture: 
Highlights of Vermont trip: 1. Black cherry ice cream 2. Best potato salad 3. Sleep! My packed 'Hear-o's' earplugs stayed at the bottom of my suitcase, it was so quiet. 4. Watching half of Seven Samurai 5. Stumbling upon Robert Frost's grave in Bennington. Beautiful quote engraved on his tombstone: "I had a lover's quarrel with the world" v fitting of a poet. I like this one Ibsen quote I read on poetry too: Something like, to be a good poet you have to first SEE the world, and then have the reader see it as you see it. 6. Seeing the stars on a clear night 7. Cooler weather 8. The smell of Vermont - lots of times during hikes, K and I would take in deep breaths and enjoy it - diff from Bay Area hiking smells, though I like that too - like sweet earth The wildflowers were beautiful too. We also hiked up a ski mountain so at the top, we got to sit on still ski lift stations and enjoy the view of the lake and forests below. Now back in NY catching up on schoolwork. I have to move in about one week. I haven't started packing yet. Partay on Friday. Will miss my family and friends traveling or living far away though. | | |
| Overall, a jolly good independence day.
Slept a solid 10 hours.
Lovely brunch at Penelope's - a diner decked with NY girls, decorated as the epitome of 'shabby chic.'
Chocolate custard at Shake Shack. Nabbed some of K's raspberry lemon custard too. Those custards are really growing on me. When I first tried the vanilla one it tasted like McDonald's soft serve. But now I appreciate the creaminess and can taste the fat. Like Haagen Daaz sometimes. Yum.
Macy's fireworks bonanza on the East River with K (a trooper! he was sick) and S. I realized that this is my very first Independence Day in NYC. I'm usually always in California. Last year I sat on Google's lawn watching the fireworks over the bay.
Unfortunately it rained and there were lots of people, which is typical of NY's free summer events and such. But they really put everything they had into that show. The most impressive and longest one I've seen yet. So many going off at the same time. The sky got smoky.
When it was over though everybody was relieved they could get out of the rain. We padded over to Ramen Setagaya through the puddles and the people and nabbed 3 seats at the bar without a wait. We all agreed, empty bowls not too long later, that the shio ramen really hit the spot. I think it's the best ramen in NY. Maybe the best I've ever had? It's a basic one, and the one of Castro St will always have a special place in my heart. Although for the life of me its name eludes me. :P
Still have to try the new ramen place on 4th Ave and 10th St. The food blogs are calling it the 'Ramen War.'
I  summer. It's the best thing about graduate school hands down.
| | |
| Another hot day in NY with threat of thunderstorms.
Actually - NY weather has finally become somewhat consistent. When I'm deciding what to wear in the morning, I now can tell myself, well...it's going to be hot. And it might rain. Easy.
S and I worked out today at the gym. I have to say biking is the most relaxing one of them all. While we were walking out of the gym, we both dreaded what awaited for us in our fridge. The same food. That same Whole Foods half-eaten rotisserie chicken. And some bulgur. Or in S's case - vienna sausages and boston baked canned beans.
I started telling her I was craving a sabich sandwich. We lamented how we needed to save money. But we succumbed and ate at Taim and I had my lovely sabich sandwich. Yum yum yum.
We were already living it up so we decided to take a trek on the F train to Il Laboratorio Gelato (the real one not the one in Whole Foods). When we go to Orchard street, the lights were off, the bars were over the windows, the garage was down. It was closed. :( So no gelato for us. Wah.
Highly recommend The Lives of Others, though I'm probably the last to see it. I am amazed that this is the director's debut feature film. It is so polished. I like the house in the movie a lot.
Borrowed Junot Diaz's short story collection "Drown."
| | |
| Hot NY day. :(
Just finished watching Margot at the Wedding. I really liked the screenwriter/director's The Squid and the Whale. I think the Squid and the Whale was better. It was neat to later come to NY and see the actual said whale at the Museum of Natural History.
The screenwriter is good at capturing certain family relationships though. This one was about two of three sisters. I also thought the mother-son relationship was interesting.
Sometimes I watch the 'special feature' with interviews with the director and I get convinced that the movie was better than I thought it was because they explain what they were trying to do.
Tomorrow is the botanical garden! Hopefully it won't be too hot. 4 ladies withering under the sun. I'll probably wear my floppy hat that obscures my vision and flattens my hair. :P
| | |
|
