Like sunshine

I was telling Kara that worshiping at TSC feels like soaking up vitamins through my skin, like sunshine seeping in and warming and nourishing me. It's late. And I want to go swimming tomorrow morning. More later. Leaving for Greece in a few days! :)

Singing

It's one of the 'five things I cannot live without' on my eHarm profile. First voice lesson of my life this evening after work. Almost like therapy. Mostly because I sang this song and cried.

Breakfast with Alex was funny. My ex-work-husband (in that we shared a cube for about four years) is a stream of amusing anecdotes. Finally someone who appreciates (and one-ups) that I walked past Bob Costas on the street yesterday.

Work was rather busy today even if I did show up 10 minutes late and leave 10 minutes early (took a short lunch to make up for it). My boss is taking a long weekend so I have more to cover for the next three office days. Lots of paper and check boxes. So the other day, once again in the kitchenette--literally the water cooler, this guy says: Hey, Irene, right? You're from Washington! I vaguely remembered the face but not the name at all--which is rare for me. His name is from Jacob, he's from Portland, OR which is why he remembered me even though we never worked together. In fact, I have no idea what he does for the company. Pretty cool.

Already told you about singing, so there's just to say that I went back to midtown to meet Martine, another friend from the old Deutsch days who's now at another agency--in this case, one that we're partnering with on a certain account--at Sapporo, my ramen shop. I have been there maybe 50 times in my life. After noodling, we hope on the F to get dessert at one of her favorite places. Only there, at this cute Italian place, she is greeted with hugs and kisses by most the staff. And we were comped dessert. I've never gotten anything for free at Sapporo. Maybe I need to start investing my $ and time elsewhere. :) I mean, I've got cute dimples too! (Martine has the cutest.)

What what?

Tyler, a VP Account Manager at work, used this phrase in a mass distro email this morning. Cracked me up. Anyhow. So I think I've got a cold sore...on my chin! Ew. Gross. I gross myself out. Hopefully it's a PMS inspired zit. Funny how desperate my hopes get in light of pure evil.

Today: woke to my charming, gentle "Marimba" iPod alarm at 6:30AM and grabbed my stuff, stuck in my contacts and headed to the LES for a swim. 7 laps today. That's 770 yards or 704 meters for you non-English folk. I've decided that on the day I swim 10, I'm going to order steak and eggs from this Spanish (Latin) place I used to frequent circa 2000. AND I caught the bus to and from the subway--amazing. I know, it's ridiculous that I don't like to walk the few blocks between the subway and the location of my 'work out' but the walk is hot and gross. The bus is air-conditioned and, well, still kind of gross, but not as gross. And faster. And since I have an unlimited Metro card, virtually free.

Arrived at the office a bit before 9 to witness the sparse crowd of early birds--all five of them. (I shared this with Pam, my roommie, today to her astonishment.) Rinsed my suit and goggles and swim cap and hung them on these convenient hooks right by my cube to dry. And made friends with the guy who is the company's Controller. I've always wanted to meet him. And my freelancer's cube is situated right across the aisle from his office. So one day last week, this guy was walking into his office but I didn't notice him and Mr. Controller says a big: hello, to which I instinctively respond with a comparably volumed: Hi! And then, when I saw the guy who Controller-man was obviously greeting standing in the doorway, said mock-shyly: Oh, I thought you were being friendly. So TODAY, Mr. C is at the kitchenette when I am brewing my morning tea and he is getting water (or something, guess I'm not too observant--could never be Psych, darn) and now that we have this mutual embarrassment, I ask how his commute is and blah blah and say, btw, my name is Irene. He told me his name, which of course I already knew.

Anyway, stealthily read my bible as I don't punch in until 10AM and eat Ezekiel 4:9 Flax Seed Cereal + Maple Brown Cow yogurt + blueberry mash. Apparently, Ezekiel doesn't hold up as well as the granola I had last week. Oops. (I find it comedic that the Food For Life people don't continue with the rest of the chapter because--astute marketers that they are--they don't want the word 'manure' on their packaging.)

[My volumes of rambling prove what someone told me once (was it Linsey?): the more you talk to someone, the more you have to say.]

Um, meetings, continue copy deck update, email, etc. Lunch was a sandwich from this Italian place (booth, really) in Chelsea Market that I adore. Chicken and thinly sliced grilled squash on a crusty bread. And today, there was a bit of jalapeno snuck in at the end that was so tasty I had to share with my colleague about it during a status meeting when I should have been paying attention.

Met Patricia, we became friends on a mission trip to Detroit back in 2005, for dinner. She suggested Baluchi's and we started walking up Broadway. At 55th we both thought we'd passed it and became unsure about its location. I stopped a woman and asked her and while she didn't know, she enthusiastically texted Google to find out for us and shared. Not only did she stop on her way home but she also explained how to do this: text "Baluchi NY" to 466453 and in nano seconds, our way was made clear (it's on 56th). My brother-in-law had taught me this about a year ago when I was in the back seat of their minivan wedged between my nieces and their carseats and he needed an AT&T store en route. But I forgot. So this came in handy later in the evening, after a nice meal of catching up, when we wanted to find the Jamba Juice that I was pretty sure about being IN Whole Foods, just not 100%. And, as I brilliantly surmised to Patricia, it's either there or it's not. After I got a 16 Peach Perfection and she got a 16 Mango something, we sat by the fountains in Columbus Circle and chatted and prayed. It was a lovely lovely evening. Patricia recalled that we once sat for a long time by the fountains at Brooklyn Museum of Art. Traditions. :)

Ok. So then I came home and planned with Joyce her potential visit. And got a message from Amy (shout out for reading!) about another possible meet up. So yay! I like seeing friends and looking forward to seeing friends. It makes me happy. Tomorrow is breakfast with Alex, my first voice lesson(!), and dinner with Martine. No thunderstorm forecasts are going to get the best of me!

Day in the Life

I don't have the energy to write something deep or reflective, and it occurred to me that I could just to a day's details like I used to when I was in, say, Krakow. This thought invigorated me.

A photo from a few days ago, but it closely resembles this morning's breakfast except that instead of Banilla Stonyfield yogurt, I had Maple Brown Cow. Had to hurry because I slept in til 8:30AM. No time for a shower, and since my roommate Pamela commented on how she didn't know how long my hair was until last night when she caught me re-doing the double loop, I wore it in a ponytail. Semi-down.

Got off the A train and rounded the corner to the office at 9:58AM. Not bad at all. As long as my boss doesn't catch me wandering in after 10AM, I figure I'm safe. There is another freelance producer working, who doesn't have much work. So I'm glad to be in operation, so to say. There's a lot of jargon/mouth-fill tossed around liberally at work, especially on conference calls, and--since I've been away from the East coast--a lot of cussing. I know I sound very adolescent and shielded but I am shocked. Well, I was shocked. I think it's worn off by now, business day ten for me.

What did I do all day? Updated a copydeck, reviewed some Relationship Management emails for a pharma company, attended a meeting with a 3rd party site who's going to build a microsite for another client, made two cups of tea in the I Am Not A Paper Cup that Kristina has loaned me, ate leftover spinach from last night and then went out to pick up some rice and beans from a favorite Puerto Rican place of mine--they let me go even though I was short 75 cents.

Juanita cancelled on me for dinner--not feeling well. :( So then the day was over and I had Nothing To Do. Smiled at the tourists who were taking pictures of the subway art, road the train back uptown, kind of squished and thought this little kid was getting fresh, then thought "he's just short", went to my apartment so I could pee in private. Nothing like a 4-stall women's room for 300+ employees to induce shy bladder.

It didn't rain all day. Which kind of makes me mad because (and this so reminds me of my dad) the forecast keeps saying thunderstorms and so I don't plan to go lap swimming and then the day is perfectly decent and nearly cloudless. So I went to Lincoln Center and reserved tickets to Mostly Mozart concert that I'm going to with my friend Kara. I've done this one other time and it's fabulous because she has a doctorate in Music Theory and I know I will get to ask her all sorts of silly questions like: 'how is it that we can hear the solo violinist so clearly above the rest of the symphony' and 'who do you like better: Beethoven or Bach?...why?'

After I got tickets, I came back to the apartment and texted Tiffany and emailed and stuff. Then I got hungry and made this:
It's a three-egg patty with spinach and ricotta. (If I seem a little spinach obsessed, know it's mere coincidence that I had spinach last night for dinner and then had this chopped spinach in the freezer. Or maybe not.) Dressed with some sea salt and crushed red pepper. It was edible. Nothing spectacular, but it's what I had.

Then I poured some Maple Brown Cow yogurt (you're going to suspect me of product placement...not so! I just like these brands, really...) over some more blueberries and put the bowl in the freezer. Read three chapters of 1 Kings and then, voila! This inspired dessert is actually the impetus of my post. Wanted to share what turned out to be a very yummy, refreshing, and healthy-ish sweet alternative. Has anyone seen Julie & Julia yet? Well, I plan to, once I get my paycheck. :)

[Postscript: re-read my blog on Alabama and that's where I got the idea to put yogurt and berries in the freezer...from Miss Kim! I'm no genius. Just forgetful.]

Richland and the Olympic Peninsula

Lots of pictures from June and July!

While in Richland, my mom cooked for me. Here I am enjoying a salad on the front steps of the house.







Also, my hair has gotten so long (I'm pushing a year since the last cut) that I've taken to double looping it. Looks vaguely Japanese to me.






So I went to visit my refugee friend in Prescott, on the apple orchard where she works. This is the long, straight road between.







Here's mom and dad at lunch. :)

And here's peaches from the tree in the backyard that my dad tends. Yummy, juicy!








OLYMPIC PENINSULA:
This is Rialto Beach. My first time touching the Pacific from the Washington State coast.















Ruby Beach:













Rainforest near Lake Quinalt/Maple Grove (Nancy wisely took pictures of all the signs so she wouldn't have to rely on memory to place photos, wish I had.):















Forks signage. Nancy's humor.


Order window at Sully's, Forks retro burger joint. Forks is the setting for the popular book/movie Twilight. I know nothing about it except that one of the actors has been in the tabloids.









Cape Flattery, the northwestern most point on the continental 48 states. I loved this place. None of the guide text talked about how dramatically beatiful it is, just the location.
























Crescent Lake









Hurricane Ridge













Rock shop that was Nancy's only Must See, outside Port Angeles.


Annual sand castle contest in Port Angeles that we paid a dollar to sneak peek.







Visited my best friend from high school, Meggan, and her family in Port Angeles. Her Swedish husband, Mattias, also spent high school in Richlandia so we all go way back. The last time I saw their little one she was 2. Their elder daughter was spending a few weeks in Sweden so I missed her. It was a great, short visit. We chatted and played Euchre!












We went to dinner at her friend Joy's restaurant, called Joy's. Nancy treated and said it was the best meal she's had in a long while. The food was great. Cheesecake...














We left the Peninsula on a Saturday and drove to Camano Island where my sister's friends invited us over for crab!



































Back in NYC. I'm freelancing at my old company, Deutsch. I'm subletting a room in a 2BR near Columbus Circle and posing as a Manhattanite. This is the MoMA special exhibit by a Chinese artist who collected all his mother's belongings and arranged them as an installation piece. Meant a lot to me, in terms of my own saving, spendthrift mom.

This caught my eye, narcissist that I am.








And this is called "Huggable Mushroom Cloud" which also was a great meld of my spheres.

Testing or Leading?

Turns out, usually, that when I think I'm being tested, I'm actually being led. I have a lot to catch up on, but want to share some recent details.

I spent about six hours running around and calling all the banks in the Tri-Cities trying to find one that would cash advance on Amex. Charging my rent (first and last and deposit) isn't the greatest feeling but it's how it had to happen. All during the hot pursuit of not bouncing the check that was already en route to the subletor, I was thinking "why? why? why is this so hard?" And while I don't know why, I can tell you that my roommate--whom I found on craigslist--not only attends Times Square Church (where I attended for five years before the Western Move) but sings in the choir. AND she's planning on taking a sabbatical year to travel in 2010. AND she tracks the weather in Athens on her iPhone (as I do on my iPod touch).

Today, my 2nd day in the sublet, which is just off Columbus Circle, I was struggling with the wifi. Getting really frustrated and again: why? why? why is this so difficult? I mean, here Juanita is been so gracious in loaning me her HP mini and I still can't blog with a full keyboard like I want to. So off to Starbucks I went. Texted my friend, Tiffany, which reminded me about a sermon she had wanted me to listen to on marriage. I downloaded it and the weather cleared up. So I popped in the earbuds and took a walk up Riverside Park--getting happier and happier to be here. When I hit Broadway, I was going to turn right, but decided to cross the street so to avoid staring at the cute man who was pushing his two kids in an urban stroller (the kind that have the attachment on the back for the older kid to stand on)--I mean, I can't listen to a podcast on the importance of marriage and then gawk after Mr. DILF (sorry if you don't get the reference, it's rather bawdy). Crossing the street, I run into an old colleague of mine from my days at Grey Interactive. Meaning I haven't seen her since 2001. And I got to tell her and her husband about stuff including my upcoming trip to India and why I'm going. Pretty cool. Got back to the apartment about an hour ago and my roommate told me she rebooted the router and all is well with wifi. So here I am, blogging. Again, He doesn't answer my "why" but I certainly hear a gentle, kind "told you so."

More--on the rest of Richland time, touring the Olympic Peninsula with Nancy, and the first week back in the Apple employed--later.

Remaining plans: three weeks of work at Deutsch, Greece, Israel, two more weeks at Deutsch, India in October, Tuscon to visit Olivia, Seattle to watch the set of 4 while my sister and brother-in-law are in Paris(!) and through Thanksgiving, New York for two more weeks, Christmastime in WA and then it's a big TBD.