My Certain Future

Nainai's poetry, part 3 + Gonggong first entry

2012-01-31T14:56:00.000-08:00

Last night at my weekly dinner with my parents, my mom and I not only finished translating a mini-biography my dad had written for his high school reunion and two more of my grandma's poems, we also started on a collection of my maternal grandfather's poems. It's funny because I believe I take after these two grandparents the most (my nainai and gonggong). My mom calls our translation time "gong ke", meaning homework. It's way more fun than any homework I can remember.

Here are the two composed by Nainai:

Epiphany

[8 lines of 7 words]

Shift your gaze seventy years now abide

Like ocean waves pulled by the tide

Sweet bitter spice sour I've all tasted

Known chaos, homes left war wasted

So glad heaven sent rains of favor

Sons and daughters my silver hair's savor

Ready for return to life's next plane

As a fairy or flying yellow crane

Untitled

[4 lines of 7 words]

Worries troubles over, forgetting there's a me

Corpses walking mere piles of senseless boredom

Friends' invites, inviting kin just pass time

This empty room stay feeds my loneliness

And, although he wished each poem to appear on its own page, this is the first of my grandfather's poems in the collection's first section titled Chang Jiang (Yangtze River, indicating his childhood spent in that region):

Spring Day

[5 lines of 4 words]

I chose this because it is nearly the first one I wrote when I was learning poetry composition.

The year comes to spring

Heaven's heart moves change forth

Hills rivers display dawning light

Grass trees have beaming halos

Nainai's poetry, part 2

2012-01-17T00:05:00.000-08:00

[A triplet of 4 lines of 7 words with 1st, 2nd, and 4th line rhyme.]

1983 mid-autumn festival, three people walking beneath the moonlight.

1.
The creator who created nature's many scenes
Backlights maple trees with moonshine evening breeze
This lovely night's companions shoo away loneliness
Silent prayer for gathering at all festivities

2. (Asking the moon)
Pure white cool shines across the sky
Of all poems ever feelings don't comply
Pens attempt to comprehend you, mid-autumn moon
Have mercy please grant us wisdom's eye

3. (Worship the moon)
Ice globe harmony blinks through evening's oculus
Flower scented night winds blow Sweet Osmanthus
Linking arms ladies walk worshipping the moon
Silent prayers hearts incense peace to us

[5 words per phrase, 70 phrases grouped in sets of 4. This is the longest poem in the volume and it's about my dad.]

1963 mid-autumn. Tenth month (October) 10th day, 10:10 pm. Son Shujing left home for America. The ship departed from Taiwan Jilong port. A mother's farewell to her son.

You are at journey start
Reluctant to see you go
But to fulfill your dreams
Must leave father mother now

Pulling your shirt fussing much
Afraid to upset my son
Instead my pen will say
These cautionary words to him

Your first time leaving country
To stay as foreign guest
Looking up no welcome face
So don't be a fool

Do not be so snobby
Humble meekness will profit you
Ditch know-it-all and cutting talk
This is of most importance

Convert your pride to gentleness
Be sincere honest and kind
Grow inner capacity to forebear
To be gracious and chivalrous

Remember all favors from others
In time pay it back
Give help when you can
Build bridges for later days

Don’t show your sharp edge
Wicked people may harm you
Choose friends eyes wide open
Steer clear of crazy kids

Find a wife who's proper
Even tempered mild and kind
And when you get married
Respect each other as guests

You have beginning and end
You have white hair together
Do not pick wild flowers
Do not forsake your wife

After studies career on track
Buy a ticket to return
Your parents are still living
Do your duty to please

Remember your dad's getting old
Your poor family brothers sisters
Older brothers share father’s burden
Uphold the ancient moral standard

Do not forget your roots
Build your life on them
Abroad to advance your disciplines
Yourself first then influence family

I hope you become important
A strong pillar for China
Your elderly mom from afar
Seals these wishes for you

Peace health and strength always
For your mind and body
Beware the cold and damp
Wear warm clothes eat enough

Take good care of yourself
So your parents won't worry
During any times of debauchery
You need to stay home

Consorting with partiers and players
Dulls the will to learn
We’ve suffered so much hardship
Hold fast to your goals

Persevere finish then come back
The journey's not in vain
There's endless more to say
Each word saddens me more

So I'll stop writing here
Keep this on your desk

Nainai's poetry, part 1

2011-12-19T22:38:00.000-08:00

I was telling my new friend Jen that my mom and I have begun translating a book of poetry my Dad's mom wrote, my grandmother, my sisters and I called her Nainai--as in "til morning is nigh". She said I should blog about it. And so here we go. A fourth repurposing for this blog. To sum up the time since my last post, I spent the rest of the summer in NYC at Deutsch, the beach, and at church. At the end of August I moved to Seattle and found a place in the neighborhood Rainier Beach that I've been in since October 1. Working from home has been nice. Visitors have been fun. Church hunting has been encouraging. And friend-making very pleasant. Best of all has been more regular time with my family.

So, to the point. Chinese poetry has strict forms and also free form.

This is a non-standard couplet Nainai wrote about visiting her first son, an adoptee, after thirty years of separation. The backstory I'll have to tell you in person. His name was Ceng and the description she wrote says: Ceng’s whole family and three of her nieces bidding farewell at the train station.

1. [3 lines of 4 words, 2 lines of 5 words, 1 line of 8 words]
We parted as children
White-haired, we meet
The years in between

Full of ups and downs.
Together now, we must rejoice

Don’t let go of the good old days.

2. [10 lines of 5 words]
Mother and child meet again
Enjoy fleeting happiness of family
Our lives like morning dew
Together less, mostly far apart
Happy, sing a high song
Leaving, sing a farewell song
Now I ask one departing,
“When are you coming back?”
“I cannot give an answer,
Who knows what will be?"

Let's go crazy!

2011-07-13T22:58:00.000-07:00

Washington State is so fun for me now. I mean, it always was, but more in that 'home' sort of way rather than the vacation I now see it as. Started off my July visit with a triathlon!
"Don't worry, everyone looks like a sausage." (encouraging words from) Tina Chan

Then there was Sarah and Joe's wedding out on the farm...

...and Seattle to see my family...

...including walking around Mt. Rainier National Park with my mom...

...and I still have another weekend in Richlandia coming up! :)

The balance of my NYC summer is ripe with visitors: Shannon from VA, Drew and Jasmine from Boston, and Amber and Kristie from Richlandia. AND I'm going to see the revival of RENT on Broadway! :) Very excited.

And because even my family is confirming with me, yes, I'm returning to WA at the end of August. No one, and I mean no one, believes me...

Recalling spring

2011-06-21T10:02:00.000-07:00

Eats first! Particularly vibrant snack plate that highlights my resurgence in grocery shopping and dining at home.

I've been thinking a lot about wealth and consumption lately, having re-read The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn and finished Revolution in World Missions by K. P. Yohannan. Both excellent. What am I supposed to do with my money? Is it really so I can buy more stuff and eat at fancier places? I realize I'm more like the rich, young ruler and my call is more like his than I'd like to think.

Back in April, the tree across the street burst with publicly beheld beauty despite all the signage and fence.

My second (mini) dinner party: Chicken Marsala tacos with Tiffany and Juanita. We watched Planet Earth. I made the guacamole and gave them my secret on easy authentic-looking salsa: put some Tostitos chunky medium in the blender. :) That's nappa cabbage next to the chicken.

So I came to NYC to cover my friend's maternity leave. I'd been back in 2009 as some of you may remember for her first maternity leave. I finally got to meet her new baby last week and here's her big firstborn son!

After I met the boys, we went to Queens for Thai by way of Williamsburg where we saw another colleagues lovely new apartment and Greenpoint where we got some pre-lunch Polish pastries.

After lunch, Tiffany and I went to MoMA and got hot cocoa with marshmellows (see the link to Terrace 5, it's in the slideshow) in tradition and this blueberry tart. There is a blueberry theme to my blog, I think.

View from the Terrace 5. The rain poured down and we enjoyed watching it fall.

The summer is nice. I'm playing softball with my company team, training for a sprint triathlon in Richlandia in July, watching lots of TV (SYTYCD, The Voice), and seeing old friends. Hopefully making a few new ones too. We'll see...

Half Year in Queens

2011-06-03T08:06:00.000-07:00

photo by Shana Wernow

Since January, I have worked at Deutsch, helped out at my NYC church's Friday night youth service, visited Debbie & Josh in Ohio, cut my hair, run Bloomsday, visited my family in Seattle, and become a complete reality TV addict (Top Chef, American Idol).

"Coincidentally" in early April both my Deutsch supervisor asked me to stay and my roommate asked if I wanted to sublet through the end of summer. I asked for a raise and lower rent, respectively, and they both said yes. Providence.

I'm on an unpaid leave of absence from my WSU job to which my boss has graciously permitted me to re-start in September ("Are you sure you're coming back in September?" "Yes, I'm sure." I realize I don't have a very good track record here.)

So now that I'm in NYC for the summer, I am trying to re-create the Richlandian utopia of last summer--swimming and fresh veggies. So far the swimming part is going well. Although I am very impatient with other swimmers at my pool. God has a lot of work to do in my heart. It's as if the combo of pre-coffee and morning and slow swimmers who can't seem to congregate in the same lane but have to hog three of the four lanes for their various (slow) speeds leaving one lane for us faster people [insert foot stomp] precipitates in unusual intolerance and disdain. Hopefully unusual. I hate to think I'm like this often.

Veggie-wise: this photo is a rooftop farm down the street from my apartment. Amazing! I've also started contributing to urban composting which takes me to Union Square farmers market several times a week. AND my friend Juanita and Shana have alerted me to two other Saturday morning markets in Queens. So I have a lot to choose from. Somehow nothing is as good as having a friend whose house is a CSA drop off location but...let me be thankful. That is the only will of God for my life that I can discern for the present time.

Looking forward to many trips to the beach and dreading my utility bill after all this running the AC. I've definitely gone soft. I survived the previous eight years residence in NY with ceiling fans and cold showers. Now that I'm on the fourth floor and most recently from AC-friendly Richland, I pre-cool my room and leave it running all night. Eek!

Three unexpected things among others

2011-01-30T18:33:00.000-08:00

Knowing I'd be here for four months, mostly wintry, I brought more clothes than I have for my 2009 travels. But it's still just a fraction of my entire wardrobe. So it amused my friend Nancy greatly that I chose to pack my (1) ice skates. I bought them back in 2006 when I frequented Kate Wollman rink in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. (I have lifetime sharpening from Paragon.) Well, I put my skates to use on Martin Luther King Jr. Monday and it was worth the cargo allotment. At City Ice Pavilion in Queens, I ran into an acquaintance of mine from church. We spent the rest of the day together skating, going to see True Grit at the Ziegfeld, finishing off the evening at Five Napkin Burger.

(2) Jar of canned peaches from Stacey. I finished them off this week with my new favorite breakfast: yogurt, granola and peaches. The washed jar sits on my shelf. Overall, I've been cooking more. In fact, my roommate asked me the other day, "Do you always pack your lunch?" To which, after I stopped laughing, told her, "No." This is new for me. But indeed, I can see why she was misled: I've grocery shopped every Saturday with a list and reusable cloth bags and the whole shebang. Lots of fun salads: black beans, goat cheese, avocado, tuna. My mother was so proud when I told her. Tonight I made a little stir-fry (ala mom) and vegetable curry couscous from Shana's Mayo Clinic cookbook.

So it's been snowing about every fourth day here. The most recent one was 'how silently, how silently' and debilitating to the city. Several of my colleagues worked from home. My 'M' train is so perfect, I arrived on time. I joined a gym around the block that has a 20 yard swimming pool. I've gone three times so far and weighed one pound less every time. Must be a fluke. But it is amazing the caloric burn swimming is. For me, it's more than running, that's cuz I run so slow. ;)

(3) Is the place mats and cloth napkins. I was thinking of hosting another dinner party this coming weekend but I haven't been organized enough. The place mats I got in Bangladesh and I've been looking forward to using them. They're made from recycled foil wrappers.

Long Island City Home

2011-01-18T19:34:00.000-08:00

Per Kristie's request, here are some pictures of my lovely apartment in LIC/Astoria, in the order you would walk through the apartment were you to come visit in the flesh. It is a railroad apartment meaning one room goes into the next, into the next. (I hate the auto-formatting on this, cannot figure it out.) Anyway, you can tell they have chosen lovely colors for the paint. When I saw the yellow kitchen for the first time, I was sold. :)

Entry way

Living Room

Living Room again

bathroom

in lieu of a mirror, there is this textured window over the sink.

Across from the bathroom, there is a built in china cabinet.

Kitchen

Kitchen looking south

dining room

dining table

So you see, the dining room isn't really much to speak of from a West Coast vantage point but for The Apple, it's a bit of a marvel.

night stand

bedroom

Snowy funny

2011-01-13T21:29:00.000-08:00

For the past two days, on my way from the train to the office, I've crossed paths with a man in a fedora playing the ukelele. Very Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Today, I didn't see him. Maybe because there was a car being towed and traffic was all backed up and the honking cars made him choose another route. I have to say I missed him. The first day I smiled. The second day I said, "Every day?" And of course today I didn't say anything because I didn't see him. Maybe our relationship will be like the one I have with Clyde--the long-haired retiree who bikes all over Richlandia. I'll see him once in a while. Or maybe only on snowy days. I wear a big red puffy coat on especially cold days: read below 40. If I pass [whoa, the carbon monoxide alarm just went off--smart that the noise is so piercing as to wake one from artificial slumber] Mr. Ukulele on a warmer day, chances are he won't recognize me outside of my large tomato sleeping bag.

Tonight I'm eating rice porridge Chinese style, ie savory with chicken, ginger, and I threw in some daikon radish for good measure. It is a sort of Dad meets Mom method as she's the chicken rice maker and dad swears by daikon during the colder months to stave off sickness. Again, no pictures, it's yummy but not pretty.

Ok. I'm still awake. Hopefully the CO monitor will keep me from any real danger but I've opened both windows for cross ventilation in my room even though it's below freezing tonight.

Shout out to Windy!

Training

2011-01-12T19:17:00.000-08:00

Not 'training' as in 'for Bloomsday in May', but rather riding the subway--"taking the train". This confuses some visitors, this referring to the subway as the train. But that's what it is. Rambling. Maybe that should be the title of this post. I'm rambling a lot lately because I'm not really talking to anyone. Living alone has its challenges. I did have a nice for-real conversation with a colleague today over the phone. I think it was because I asked her "how are you?" in a tone that indicated I really was asking. So she really told me. That was nice. For real. Nice. Not 'nice' as in "that's nice, Irene, but get on with your post", but rather--

Imaginary Someone: Sweet dessert photos!

Me: Yes, it was nice.

Ok. So I stayed up real late the other night re-reading most of my blog. And one particular post I enjoyed was the itemized list of my luggage contents. Inspired by this, I thought I'd list the subway lines I've used to commute over the years in NYC. Maybe if you, my dear reader, would comment on what you want to hear about, I wouldn't waste your time with my OCT (obsessive compulsive tendencies).

1998 - B
good: view of the Statue of Liberty while crossing the Manhattan Bridge
bad: smelly and slow

2000 - F
good: hipsters
bad: hipsters

2003 - 2/3
good: always a seat
bad: the guy asking for donations for the homeless every morning like clockwork--I had his schpeel down cold.

2009 - C/E
good: brief
bad: dark

2011 - M
good: new
bad: stopped running early tonight! Dang. Had to revert to the R and I don't like the R.

Huh, that wasn't nearly as interesting as I thought it was going to be. I'd better turn on the TV for my own good.

Pt. 2 & The Conclusion

2011-01-10T20:23:00.000-08:00

It was a success, Juanita's Birthday Dinner. Here's Friday night's activity: Butternut Squash Soup (recipe). My reco is to take the time and effort to buy the squash, gut, peel, and chop it, yourself. Way better color and fragrance than a box of ready-to-go pieces.

And it really doesn't take too much extra time and effort. And it's pretty. Sculptural, in fact. Kind of Henry Moore.

Two of Juanita's friends with the finished soup and you can get a little idea of the place setting.

I'm skipping the main course (chicken lo mein--not photogenic enough) to reveal the hit of the evening: the finished panna cotta with persimmon and blueberries. This is actually a re-creation as I forgot to take photos on the night of the event. Juanita came over for leftovers tonight and so I took the opportunity to re-plate. I was rather pleased. And, to quote my father, when people like the food they don't have to say anything--the empty plate speaks all.

Happy Birthday, Juany!

Prepping for Juanita's Birthday Dinner Party, Pt 1

2011-01-06T19:48:00.000-08:00

My dear friend Juanita is coming over Saturday and we're hosting her friends for a dinner party in her honor. Gleaning from what I learned helping Debbie at the last dinner party, I planned the menu several weeks ago, sent out invitations (ok, not hand-written this time), ordered groceries for delivery, and drafted an action schedule for Saturday. Part of my plan was to make dessert tonight, which I did! Tomorrow is soup--hopefully. And Saturday will be the majority of the cleaning, cooking, and decorating (again, hopefully--I was going to abuse my freelance job and design some pictures of Juany as place cards).

Panna cotta. It will chill over the next two days. Got the recipe from here. The ramekins are going to be the party favors.

Local

2011-01-06T07:21:00.000-08:00

I love getting asked for directions. Because it makes me feel helpful and in-the-know. Yesterday morning, I was hailed over to the curbside by a Vietnamese daughter and her dad. "Which way is Northern Boulevard?" At that point, it was straight and to the right. Amazing that staying at Juanita's last month enabled me to know this. This morning, after shooting out of bed realizing it was light but I hadn't set my alarm, walking down the street to the train, I was stopped by a nicely dressed woman, "Can you tell me where is 37th Street?" Two blocks that way! I am so lucky. God blesses me with strangers. It is better to give directions than to receive. But in doing so, I am receiving direction, in a way. :)

For Debbie / Six Month Summary

2011-01-04T13:01:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm in NYC until May. But as far as what happened between June 2010 and today 2011..."There is too much. Let me sum up." I finished my pool job. Then my mom and dad decided to move to Seattle, for real. They sold the house. I said goodbye to all my Richlandia friends and two large fistfuls of commitments I made over the fall (did you know winter, spring, summer, and autumn all have six letters?).

Between Christmas and New Years, I helped Debbie (she's the other woman in this photo) host a dinner party.

My new goal (a fourth thematic change for this blog) is a sort of merging of two previous iterations (reviews of fancy restaurants & me+friends): reports on the monthly dinner parties I plan to host in Queens. The primary inspiration for this is that my sublet has a dining room! Practically unheard of in my experience in The Apple.

New is old

2010-06-01T00:46:00.000-07:00

In a rare paradoxy, new has become old to me. In that I have had my fill (for now) of new people, places, and things. Give me tried and true. Give me the usual. Give me traditional. Give me the old standby. Yes, amen. Are you a familiar face? Come talk to me. Are you an old friend? Splendid. Have I known you long enough to milestone any recurring season or time period that enables me to complete the phrase "the last time we did this ..."? Hallelujah. Nostalgia is my current passion. So I am marking any repetition, pattern, familiarity. The fact that my friend's one year old son stopped fussing when I arrived to today's Memorial Day picnic (ah, memory) recognizing me was enough to stem the tide of uneasiness I was feeling about sharing time with friends among acquaintances. Thanks, kiddo.

Shout out to Meredith for prompting this update. Co-sponsored by Mountain Dew for luring me into caffienating. Just kidding. I take full responsibility for being awake five hours before I need to go open the pool.

More pictures from Maui

2010-04-24T19:52:00.000-07:00

I totally screwed up the formatting. Anyway, these are, indeed, more pictures from Hawaii. It was pretty.
Hibiscus
Joe and Laura with their baby and Jan among the lava rocks.

Dad posing as a teenager

Me with big leaves

Delphine and baby waiting
on the golf course outside the
restaurant of her birthday dinner party

my niece with salami sushi

beautiful small plants

my parents and baby granddaughter

Wiki Aloha

2010-04-23T20:14:00.000-07:00

This is only a month over due. But I can't seem to muster the juice to post. So anyway, I started this draft a few weeks ago...

Spent ten days in Maui with my family to celebrate my sister's 40th birthday. Pretty nice.

Here's the whole lot of us + friends.

Whale-watching "date" with my brother-in-law's mom. It was AMAZING!!!

Quick update is that I was hired at both Kamiakin high school as a paraed through the end of the school year and at WSU's Prosser Extension as a communications specialist. Start next week after I get back from Gosia's wedding in Warsaw.

And so on

2010-03-25T21:12:00.000-07:00

I've been working as a substitute para-educator (quite the tongue twister for me) in the Kennewick School District for the past few weeks. So: yay, job! I really enjoy it so far. Lots of stories. Another time.

In--what is becoming characteristic--fiscally liberal style, I am headed to Hawaii next week for my sister's 40th birthday. You may say this rings a bell, that's cuz last year we celebrated my other sister's 40th birthday. For a virtually unemployed girl, the rest of my travel plans for this non-sabbatical year surprise even me. Gosia, my friend in Poland, is getting married the first weekend of May. Joyce whom you know from her visit to me in NYC and my visit to her family in Atlanta is taking me to EPCOT/Disney World with her later in May. And I've got a cruise to the Bahamas on the docket for my uncle's 70th birthday. Just tonight, I ran into the dear parents of an old friend of mine who said she's going to Spain in July and renting a big place and everyone is invited...and of course my 2nd thought (after "Oh dear") was: July is open.

I think I can register for my proof-of-dementia-card soon.

Caffeine free diet Irene

2010-03-11T18:37:00.000-08:00

As I told my friend Julie, I've been meaning to title a post the above for a few weeks now. Ever since I stopped drinking coffee one fateful day, I think it's been three weeks now, and survived the throbbing headache, I have, in fact, been caffeine free. I've quit coffee several times before in my life but this is the first time that I've really appreciated not being groggy and 'in need of a fix' in the morning/afternoon. So, I think I'm going to stick with it. I feel more clear headed, physically--not necessarily otherwise, and it makes me happy.

As far as "diet": I've been tracking what I eat and happily weigh a little less than I did two years ago at this time. We'll see. No big hopes, although I am going to Hawaii with my family at the end of this month. So there is a motivating factor.

I had my first full day as a substitute para-educator today. It was pretty fun. I liked the alternative high school environment I was at. Listened to a great sermon recommended to me by my ex-colleague and still friend Scott that reminded me of many Great Truths and so complaining about my wage is really towards the end of the list of things I can be doing with my life. :) I love perspective.

Scrabble cake made by Jessica. The "I" is for me and it is yummy! Thanks, Jessica!

Oh, and I finished the draft of the play that I was working on! Yay!

And a shout out to Alison whom I had the pleasure of lunching with the other day. She said my blog has been useful in disproving some of my alleged whereabouts. Thank God for that!

Just a sign that I'm in Richlandia. Note the politely stated limit. :) Another bonus of bus-riding: I get to walk a bit too and catch these treasures.

In true cyber-stalker fashion, I really want to meet this woman who reminds me eerily of myself, but she has not responded to my comment. I guess I don't make much of an impression in the blogasphere. :) But if you get a chance, read it! It's amazing.

Pounding the pavement or otherwise

2010-03-04T18:26:00.000-08:00

So this is how Day 9 on the Richlandia job hunt went: up at 7:30am, sunlight streaming through the window from the east. Part way though quiet time my mom says breakfast is ready. So I go. No need to be all high and mighty about my QT, rather, eat while it's hot. Deftly avoid last week's Thursday morning topic of conversation and finish tranquilly.

Back in my room, I realize there is no way for me to catch the 9:25am bus so opt instead to take my time, take a shower, etc. Select appropriate pre-interview outfit and run out the door at 10:25am tossing an easy "I've gotten good at this" to my mom as she locks the door behind me. Half way down the block, think, "I don't like this jacket. Not for today." Oh well-it and continue toward the stop when the #26 blows past me (at the helm: the driver who yesterday complained about increasing property tax to pay for education initiatives trickles down to renters). Gah! Walk slowly back to the house. At least I can change my jacket now.

Compare schedules to make sure the 10:55am will align with the #120 to Kennewick. It does. Shuffle around the closet to locate my springing pink mock-silk jacket and head back out the door at a conservative 10:50am. The #26 is caught and off I go.

I truly love the bus. I don't know what's come over me. I can only imagine that I experience each ride wearing Big Apple-colored glasses. I love the fat old ladies who travel with their doggies. I love the quietly chatting kids with angst-dyed hair and skateboards to roll home on. I love the smelly dudes nodding off in the handicap seats. I love the crotchety drivers. I love that it costs a neon-green stamp-sized ticket (valued at $1) to board and that I get a newspapery torn transfer slip in return. I love that I can wear headphones and really, if I actually did everything right, rides would only take on average ten minutes longer than it would to drive.

Fade out dream sequence. As scheduled, we arrived at the Knight Street Transfer Station and I hopped on the #120--my first inter-city ride! Due to my own stupidity, I got off too early and instead of walking (here's where this post's title comes into play) on the weedy dirt path (sidewalks end abruptly in Richlandia) to my intended destination, I decided to wait the half-hour until the next bus. At the Three-Rivers Transfer Center (I may hit them all before long), I enjoyed the sun, the side view of the county jail, Infinia Corp's shiny solar dishes, and best of all made friends with a middle-aged Iraqi lady named Thrwi. I know, how the heck do you pronounce that? Well, all I can say is that it sounds like it looks. :) Immigration officers must be much cleverer than they were when my parents came to this country.

Finally, at around 11:40am I am in a financial services office sitting with the nice lady who informs me they have already filled the position but she'll keep me on file. I was kind of stunned to get a sit down chat with anyone on the spot but I guess this is how things happen around here. And I was glad I had missed the first bus so that I could change my jacket. Really, the first one was the (if you know me well) polyester maroon jacket with golden-yellow fuzzy lining that my uncle got back in 1965 or something--older than me is all I know.

Back on the WB (or 'westbound' for all you personal car people) #120 I asked the bus driver is there was a stop close to the (sniff, I'm so sad it's not Espresso World anymore) Coffee Roaster place and she said no, the route turned onto Jadwin before stopping. No harm, just a few extra 100 feet. She later stops just in on Jadwin before the marked stop for my benefit, pretty nice. It's no good though, my left heel is already bleeding from too many steps in nice shoes. I finally make it to the job hopeful lobby and tear the little flap of skin from the back of my foot.

The office is locked. I leave the folder with my info perched on the handle of the door and leave. Text my friend Debbie to see if I should go back and receive ‘ABSOLUTELY’ in response. She's the one who gave me the idea to apply, so, I wait. The massage therapist from downstairs says she thinks he just went out to lunch. Meander over to the river and gaze. I time how long the baby geese stay underwater when they dunk. It's about 20 seconds. You were curious, right? Then I check back at the office, still not there. Do I catch the 1:15pm or wait more? I choose wait because 1) I'm already here with a cover letter dated Mar 4th, 2) I'm already dressed up, 3) I already have a blister, 4) I have no other pressing things to do.

Second cool interaction: I go into the salon where I don't see the massage therapist but another also beautiful woman in the same uniform and ask her if she has a band-aid. She says, "I do!" and quickly fetches it for me. Now that is customer service. Amazing. Flowers might be overboard but if I had more money I'd consider it, I felt worlds better.

Finally met the guy around 2pm after a bowl of black bean chili (another surprisingly good thing, and only $4) from Rosy's Diner. Done. It's an awkward time now, just missed the 2:15pm so I walk along the river passing moms pushing strollers and retirees puttering after dogs. I feel out of place, and more so because of my hat, shiny pink jacket, skirt, and dress flats.

Two shots of the Columbia from my phone.

Catch the 2:45pm after standing on the warm, dusty corner across from Denny's. Home around 3pm. Just over four hours start to finish. Eh, what's an unemployed girl gonna do anyway? Blog about it.

Like a place on W 49th St

2010-02-27T09:58:00.000-08:00

My breakfast today. Picked up a package of Shoyu ramen from Uwajimaya in Seattle before returning to Richlandia. Most my NYC church friends will recognize what I am trying to re-create here.

Ramen, baby bok choy, fried egg, duck meat.

I really really should be working on the play so let me keep this short and go do that. :) This is the start of my sixth day here. I have applied to a couple places but no bites yet. And have taken up the quasi-urban hobby of riding the public bus around town. Aw yeah. Volleyball was fun last night, though, and so has been catching up with friends.

And since I'm at it

2010-02-19T22:49:00.001-08:00

Here're the rest of the photos I wanted to share. Not feeling into captions so just comment with questions.

Also

2010-02-19T22:45:00.000-08:00

My mom and I are headed back to Richlandia on Monday to resume Regular Life. Which I haven't been participating in for a while now so let's see how I do...Wanted to say that my sister's recovery has been very quick and smooth. PTL for that. I've learned a lot about my nasty habits and hard heart--especially when provoked by the little ones on whom Jesus said their Father always sees the face of angels. Or something like that. ;)

I finished "My Life in France" and loved it. Julia Child was a super cool lady. This is also fortuitous since my friend Yolanda has asked me to help with a Ladies Bruncheon wherein she is slated to give a Chinese cooking primer.

---- (added February 25) ----
Upon re-read I felt compelled to look up that angel-face verse and I got it backwards. It's: See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. [ESV]

Not Arizona

2010-02-19T22:30:00.000-08:00

I told everyone I was going to Tucson, Arizona and many have asked me but the way things have worked out, I've been in Cupcake Land. This Seattle winter has been characteristically mild and I've enjoyed the many sunny days. My sister bought the Martha Stewart (my niece: why do you call her by her last name?) Cupcake book and we've gone relatively wild. Here's the meringue step of the lemon curd cupcakes we made for my eldest sister's birthday.

And these are clearly Valentine's. In detail: these are Red Velvet covered (and unintentionally infused with) chocolate ganache with melted white chocolate for the hand-written part.

Detail of Valentine's cupcake. And most likely, if you're reading this, I do. :)

My niece in birthday pancake drag.

Baby with "2" pancake.

More later. Glad my sister showed me how to locate images on her Mac. How confusing for a Windows girl.

Yeah yeah yeah

2010-01-26T21:52:00.000-08:00

My FB friends know I'm a year older. 34. I heard from a certain woman that 35 is really hard. I could say I'm not looking forward to it, but since I am looking forward to 40, I guess I could say I'm looking forward of it. I helped the kids' nanny study English this afternoon and so "of" is significant since we discussed how "de" in Spanish can be "of" or "from" depending on context.

I would post photos as I have tons of cute ones but I can't find my camera. Oops. My losing things drives my mom crazy. I try not to tell her about it but she's so good at locating stuff that it's usually worth it to confess and bear the disappointment de mama.

My sister has been using only one crutch the past two days, so she is recovering. I think I'll be here through mid-February as she and her husband both have work travel and will need the help. My friend Carrie (from Las Vegas post) will be visiting Richlandia next month so I will try to make it back to see her.

A shout out to Anna U. for reading and for cracking me up by telling me about her 'kids'.

I went to Mars Hill Church on Sunday for a birthday treat and wound up meeting a nice young woman who invited me to her small group. So last night I went and it was nice. Should be a good thing for at least a month. Mark Driscoll went to Haiti and preached on giving and loving the church.

Today I covered my sister's volunteer shift at my nieces' classrooms. I was pleased that some of the boys' writing was really focused: Magic Man, the spinning chess pawn. Go with what they find interesting, right? Anyway, that's a random sliver of my current life. :)

Oh, and I finished "Tree" and have moved onto "My Life in France" by Julia Child and her great nephew.

Reading

2010-01-17T21:25:00.000-08:00

I've been in Seattle for the past ten days taking over driving duties for my temporarily invalid sister. This includes piano lessons, violin lessons, gymnastics practice, karate, and possibly most importantly Costco. My niece accompanied me on my most recent trip and was a great companion, only getting distracted once by the fountain sculpture of a Boy and Sailboat. My days begin by being woken up by two little faces, those belonging to the eldest two over whom my bunk sets. They climb the ladder every morning not before 7 am and then hang out with me until 7:30 when it's time to get ready for the day. As my brother-in-law says, I'm living an extention of their life. Not really my own. But it's not a bad life as such. I'm reading "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" and have a laptop available to work on the play. But not much progress made in either.

My sister's surgery was fine but I did swing into full Florence Nightengale mode when she returned still getting over anesthesia and pain meds. Since then she's been well enough to crutch around though I don't believe she's left the house since Monday.

So that's my update. Still hoping to get to Tucson. Maybe I'll be there for the hot hot season.

Bed time

2010-01-07T00:00:00.001-08:00

I'm driving to Seattle tomorrow to help Delphine out. The hamstring tear is complete, so surgery will be scheduled in the next few days.

Just hung out with Kristie who deserves a big shout out for reading. We watched Remember the Titans for research recommended to me by Jessica S. (Note for Jessica: my dad said he'd watch it once I have watched it and can tell him for sure that it's good.) Research for the play I have started writing that I mentioned in my last post. Finished the general structure and drafted the first three scenes. AND, I got 100% on my census worker test. They should be calling next week but maybe I'll still be in Seattle at that time?

My dad wishes I would get a job. My mom wishes I would get a job. Sometimes, I wish I would get a job too. In Tucson. A fun one with happy-level wages. Wishing is one thing that I'm almost sure is just the Disney word for 'worry' but that's debatable.

Ok, truly I need to go to bed. But I was just excited to post knowing that I do have readers of my non-photo posts! :)

Old year's end

2010-01-01T14:41:00.000-08:00

My dad's 73rd birthday. I'd forgotten (bad me) but my mom reminded me before I got home. We ate shrimp for dinner.

Mooch with jingle bell from Robyn's wedding, winter spirit.

My sister Jane took my parents and me to the Seattle Symphony. It was beautiful. The Christmas lessons with sing-along carols, I leaned over to my mom during one point and whispered: this is better than church!

The Big 5, as we now call them. Used to be the Big 3 but now there's two more babies.

My eldest niece being very responsible with the younger two of the Big 5. We left the babies at home with my mom while we went to bell ring for the Salvation Army. Record breaking take in, cute kids = genius marketing.

Mom and one of the babies.

Jane's three after Christmas eve service.

Funny faces waiting for our newer tradition of prime rib and crab legs.

Mom and the other baby. As my brother-in-law Doug says, seeing my mom bounce around giving the granddaughters piggyback rides is not the picture of 73-years-old one usually thinks of.

Baby and "What God Wants for Christmas" boxes.

These two are the same age difference between me and my sister Delphine, only with two more kids in between.

Took Jane's two big girls on Seattle Ride the Duck tour. Pretty hilarious. Here they are with their quackers.

Got a chance to catch up with childhood best friend, Amy. She is in a Masters of Education program at University Washington, cares for her 2 year old son and is expecting. Phew!

This was last night's new year's eve hot pot dinner with my mom and dad. It was yummy and I stayed in and updated my iPod with all the CDs I've acquired over the year.

My sister Delphine fell ice skating a few days ago so on Sunday my mom will head back to Seattle (I just took the Greyhound back to Richland yesterday) via bus to help them out. I probably should have stayed but oh well. Hope to catch up with Tri-Cities friends and Monday I am scheduled to take a 2010 Census worker test. In other job related news, I'm going to try to start some sales leads for my brother-in-law's business and a friend from NYC asked me to draft a play he's been envisioning for some time now. So, praise God, "stuff" is coming up.

Merry

2009-12-24T00:48:00.000-08:00

Just sent out my annual report. I think I've emailed in lieu of cards (not that I ever sent cards really) for the past four years or so. It's been good to review. Kind of exhausting. But maybe that's just cuz I helped watch kids today. I don't think I'm going to shut down the blog just yet. First I need to get settled (in Tucson or otherwheres) before I let go of this means of feeling accomplishment. I recently read someone's blog about blogging and how one should really know why one is blogging to have a good blog. And as my subtitle indicates, I don't want to stray too far from travelogue. Unless I repurpose. Again. :) Happy Christmas, as they say in other places.

Exit wounds

2009-12-17T14:38:00.000-08:00

Not that I've been shot. It's just the pin prick-sized scabs on my hand just healed from helping arrange roses at the TSC volunteer banquet--and that was about two weeks ago. And there's a fading bruise on my shin from when I ran into Juanita's granny cart containing her Christmas tree. And, well, the gap in my heart whenever I leave NYC. And, well, well, it's time. I'm done. Time to shut down the blog because there are no more travels.

Nancy (of Richland) asked me today if I plan to be temporary for much longer. And it's like: yes, I not only plan to be temporary, I AM temporary. And eternal. Confusing right? It's the dot, not the line--according to Randy Alcorn. But no, I want to be Somewhere. I don't like being elsewhere. I like location, I just don't like fixed location. (A big thank you to Nancy for the lovely lunch and chat!!)

My dad said I need to own things to teach me responsibility. Like a computer. Or a car. Using things that don't belong to me, I don't learn to take care of them. I didn't get mad, visibly. Certainly my internal resume ticker was flashing: I just took care of my sister's FOUR kids for a week! My Linkedin recommendations rock! I bought and installed RAM for your computer...Oh hollow justification.

Anyway. Here's some pictures to lighten the mood of this post.

Some of my ex-colleagues at the Deutsch department party I crashed.

Kristin and Linsey prepping lemon tart.

Closeup of tart.

Juanita and the tree. :)

Ten lepers-esque

2009-12-15T11:34:00.000-08:00

Waiting for my re-booked flight out of Salt Lake City (free wifi!). I volunteered to take a later flight in return for 300 Delta dollars and a $7 meal voucher that I just redeemed at Wolfgang Puck Express for a turkey avocado sandwich. And after making up the 86 cent balance, I have 25 cents left in cash.

This is what Christians call a praise report. i.e., I didn't want to spend the subway fare to head into Manhattan but I did want to see Nancy one last time. Remembered that my two-week unlimited expired today and not yesterday. So I got to see Nancy without extra cost.

Then, Nancy paid for my beef goulash at Hallo Berlin after we met Diane--a lonely elder lady who is family-less in NYC and said her company voted to stop paying for health insurance instead of doing layoffs. She said her insurance bill is more than her rent. Nancy shared with her about the only For Sure we have.

As mentioned, my metrocard expired today but I didn't have to use it because last night I went to Jersey City and stayed the night at Linsey's place. And she and Kristen made curry split pea soup, linguini and meatballs, and a huge lemon tart with freshly whipped schlag. Then, they both woke up at 5:30am to drive me to Newark. Did I mention I don't have enough money to pay for the path/nj transit/airtrain? No worries.

Moreover, as far as my Tucson plans I don't have a job yet nor a place to live. I was beginning to wonder: is this happening? Am I gonna have to bum off my parents indefinitely? How am I even gonna GET to Tucson? Cue overbooking of my Salt Lake-Pasco flight. Now I have $300 to fly to Tucson! Wow. Thank you, my God. Love, me of little faith. What kind of volunteering ends up with $307 in compensation? Wow.

Also, on my Newark-SLC segment, I uses the free wifi trial, flight attendant gave me extra Biscoff (dude I love those cookies), and I had the row to myself.

Oh, and since I'm on a roll, at _two_ upstairs climbs on my trip from Juanita's in Queens to Jersey City, a young woman offered to help me with my luggage. Two angels. At separate places at the right time.

Ninth morning in Queens

2009-12-10T09:48:00.000-08:00

I've got two hours to post some photos. Let's go!

Thanksgiving! My whole family at my sister's house with her husband's family too.

Sue, my roommate from my Israel trip, with Mooch's cousin!

The view from Sue's kitchen window. You better believe that I want to take her up on her guest room offer! Amazing.

Currant scone and curd at Rice in Fort Greene.

Nini! Just as cute as last time we hung out.

Linsey with her fabulous new hair cut!

Anna and Ben's menagerie: Bubbles (the bear), Nay Nay (the donkey), and Pigletta. I didn't get the little ones' names. Hung out with Anna yesterday, met for lunch at Zemi, where the tofu was quite good, and then I saw her apartment in Park Slope. It's beautifully decorated and there is lots of light.

After leaving Anna's, I traveled deeper into Brooklyn to Nancy's mom's house where she persuaded her mom to cook for me (and the rest of the family and half the neighborhood). Chicken and spaghetti. Oh my! Yum! This is it cooking.

And here it is plated, my plate to be exact.

Final shot is Evelyn (Nancy's mom), Alexis (Nancy's brother), and Nancy. What fun! We decorated and laughed well into the night. I am thankful for good eats and shared eats.

Eight days a week

2009-12-07T20:29:00.000-08:00

Back in NYC for a few days. Tonight, I had dinner with Amy, my friend since the 3rd grade(!), in Hoboken, NJ. It was nice to catch up and she treated. (Thanks, Ike!) Her baby just turned a year old and I have yet to meet him but she seems to be taking motherhood in easy stride and he sounds like he's taking to life in the real-world with great ability.

Since I arrived here a week ago, mostly I've been doing small apartment improvements for Juanita: got rid of a busted window A/C unit; organized under the kitchen sink; hounded the building maintenance to fix a leaky toilet. Today I obtained a fresh 5-foot Christmas tree! I'm going to decorate it tomorrow. Juanita says, "Why aren't you married? I come home after work to a clean house and dinner waiting." I've even fixed lunch for her to take to work a couple days. So, folks, please note: Irene has domestic potential.

Not to say I've been home exclusively. You know me: volunteering at Times Square Church, lunch with Nini in Fort Greene, a missed-play-so-coffee-instead with Linsey, the Met and Bergdorf Goodman windows (my favorite is the Reflected Serenades and Meticulous Metronomes), dinner with Jessica, a lunch and dinner with Nancy, MoMA to see the over-hung Bauhaus exhibit...

Wrapping up this year is bittersweet. I've had such a fun time. Yet the bank balance is a sort of reddish-black and even the Bible limits Jubilee to a year. So, for all those interested in my 'plans': I hope to go to Tucson and hang out near Olivia for a few months til it gets really hot, say June. Then maybe I'll go to Seattle and enjoy my favorite time of year there. Then...???

Seven 7-and-unders

2009-11-25T15:36:00.001-08:00

I went medium-sized photos this post, only because I think my nieces and nephew are so cute.

Here's the older three of the Seattle set calmly reading together. A lovely thing.

The middle two goofin'

The youngest playing with rubber kitchen gloves.

Nephew with his Play-Doh creation complete with ears!

Nap time...

Every is dressed up as princesses. And prince!

Violin recital.

Six days you shall do all your work

2009-11-24T12:51:00.000-08:00

For me, the fourth commandment begs the question: does taking care of kids count as work? Well, after seven days of watching my Seattle set of 4, I am very ready for today's rest. I left Tucson last Saturday and arrived to Seattle in time for a three-hour briefing on the week's activities from my sister. She and her husband left for Paris in the early hours of the following day and I became in charge, along with my mom who was official Meal-Maker and Keeper. I have no photos to post today because I left my camera at their house and now am at my other sister's house in Bellevue.

What to say about the last week? I can liken it to working on a pitch for Deutsch: all hours, many hours, lots of surprises, few rules, high impact, stressful, constantly short on time. I can also liken it to touring "Flicker" with Big Art Group in France back in 2002: go-go-go, corralling several rowdy and obstinate humans, lack of sleep, barrage of questions--sometimes in a language I couldn't understand, and an abundance of body fluids.

But fun, oh, what fun! Rolling around on inflatable tubes with my nephew waiting for his little sister to finish her soccer session was exhilarating. Doing the youngest's hair with no screaming on her part--I learned to laugh and she would follow suit--was a great accomplishment. Figuring out she was saying "helmet" and "yogurt" from "heh-meh" and "o-gur" was as good as telling the bus driver, in broken French, to turn down the heat. Walking the older two to school, hand-in-hand, "SQUEEZE!"ing past the overgrown shrubs along the sidewalk was hilarious. And plenty more.

Even after they were all tucked in at night, I got the bonus to chat with my mom about my grandparents and her family history. Great great stuff. Yes, I'm tired. But it's a sweet fatigue.

Happy Thanksgiving, all. I am thankful for you, my family and friends.

Guns & Noodles

2009-11-10T15:43:00.000-08:00

This is Elegua, Olivia's pitbull mix puppy. We took him to Bad Dog training class yesterday and it was educational. For me. He got a lot of treats and got to pee indoors. But I think he'll grow lots.

On Saturday, we went to the gun show!

They don't allow photographs inside so here's the one I got caught taking. The rest you'll have to use your imagination if you haven't already been to a gun show yourself. Olivia owns an old Beretta that she was looking to get a magazine for. But no one had one that fit her model. I amused myself by practicing apologetics with a nice lady whose father has self-published literature asserting the King James Version of the bible is the only one we should be reading, because it's "the best".

Guns of all sorts.

Later that evening, we went to Lee's house in the desert. We took the scenic route for my benefit.

The stars were beautiful and the fire nice.

Lee's dinner. Yum.

Sunday I went to church with Peter and his family. Here he is with his sons James and Joshua. The family, who used to live in Richland, are friends of my parents.
Ellen cooking my favorite veggie.

As promised, this is the scarf Lynn knit for me!

Monday, yesterday, after a busy day of pilates and puppy training class, Olivia was exhausted. Luckily, Peter called to see if I could come over for dinner in fact their in-laws were waiting for me in a van across the intersection. I've been watching lots of forensic TV shows with Olivia and Lynn. This was funny.

Ok, so this photo is only funny if you have a Chinese mother. Who saves Styrofoam trays that meat comes on for future use. These are powdered and ready for noodles.

Peter and Ellen's parents have been friends for a long time having lived in the same village in Beijing. Peter and Ellen have known each other since elementary school. But Peter was only able to get Ellen's attention after college when there was less competition. ;) This is their moms.

Ellen's dad is making noodles (chang sho = long life and is homonym for long and thin, thus birthday noodles are long and thin)

Fresh off the press.

Fresh out of the pot and freshly dressed with mushroom egg sauce.

The whole clan including cousin and Kathy, their daughter, and her boyfriend Ethan, who works at the hospital where Olivia will be receiving treatment.

Bloomin' Desert

2009-11-07T10:39:00.001-08:00

So this is kind of like when I was staying with Karen in Turkey: lots of posts and lots of photos.

This is Olivia. My friend from college and NYC. She reminded me that she lived with me on the Lower East Side for a few weeks back in 2000 when she was between apartments. It was grand. Now, after a bit more than a year in Ecuador, she's living in Tucson. I was going to visit her and her parents' farm in South America but things changed. She got sick and now is awaiting treatment back in the States. Aside from diminished energy, startling weight loss, and sensitivity to germ/bad people exposure, she is the same rambunctious intellectual that I've always loved.

Here, Olivia and her mom took me to Tohono Chul Park for lunch and a walk. The gallery was my favorite.

Olivia and her cute mom Lynn.

Desert flora.

Lynn and her sister Lee. Lunch at Roma Italian Imports. Almost like Chelsea Market except for the large seating area and freestanding-ness. I joked with Olivia that the guy there who recommended the strawberry tiramisu is her boyfriend...

Lynn is knitting me a scarf too! :) Will look similar to Lee's.

Yesterday, we went to Bisbee, an old mining town, and took a tour of Queen's copper mine. We were going to have a stroll about Tombstone but settled for a drive through Wyatt Earp's town instead.

Paella before cooking. Olivia and her mom whipped this together in about five minutes.
Cook at 500 until you can 'hear the rice boiling' and then reduce to 350 for another hour or so.

Table for 2, 3, 4, and 7

2009-11-07T09:06:00.000-08:00

Four days in New York City allows me plenty of time to dine out. Autumn, lovely smell of leaves and cold air. Refreshing.

Table for 2: Juanita, my perennial hostess, and I went to Brooklyn, the borough of our early friendship. This is at Amorina from where I catered my last birthday party in Prospect Heights.

Table for 3: at Otto, a Mario Batali establishment. Lower end than Babbo where I go with Olivia. But yummy nonetheless. With Karen who's preggers with #2. You may remember her from my Turkey trip. And Anna who graced us with her company as she hurried between freelancing for Anthropology and physical therapy for her knees.

Table for 4: Tiffany introduced me to her friends Sewi and Gbemi. They're all TSC connections and we had a nice meal and fun, long chat at Cafe A in Harlem. Barbara, our server, almost made it table for 6 with her excitement over her "10 years younger!" boyfriend but contained herself. It was Oct 31.

Table for 7: Quasi-reunion of a team that went on mission to Burundi in 2007. Here's Nancy, Sandra, and Jacques Daniel--the main reason we got together is because Jacques Daniel is a pastor from Gitega, Burundi. I spoke at his church (under corrugated metal roof and bamboo pole 'walls') during our trip and he hung out with Sandra's team a lot. He is now an ambassador to Nigeria and has amazing stories of God's faithfulness and provision.

Edith and Lawrence.

Lawrence and Paul.

All of us at Maria Pia in the Theatre District.

Friends for a day/eternity

2009-11-07T08:46:00.001-08:00

Emily, the Minnesotan who was staying at Priyanka's house. She met Priyanka in Bangalore two weeks prior. Hospitality, I tell you. Emily and I met that morning at breakfast and by the time we were getting manicure/pedicures together, the ladies at the salon thought we were old friends catching up. No, no. New friends, long lost sisters.

Pretty Priyanka and her friend Amana. Amana, I later commented to Emily, is what I think of when I hear the word 'lady'.

Priyanka and her sister Vandana. I first met Vandana in the car on the way to lunch. And after being introduced to Amana, whom Priyanka had told me about being her newish friend in Mumbai, I asked how Vandana knew Priyanka. They both stared at me for a long second and then Priyanka said: she's my sister! I mean, she had told me tons about her sister, just never mentioned her by name. Oops. Classic Irene goof.

The brilliant view from my room at Priyanka's house.

RZIM

2009-11-05T11:56:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Olivia's high connectivity and un-hurried way of living, I have uploaded a large selection of my photos from my time in Chennai, India. To start off, I limited myself to only one flora photo. This was in the yard of Hindustan Bible Institute (HBI) where I spent my first weekend prior to the Academy start. HBI is an amazing ministry with a college, orphanage, guest rooms, medical clinic and community church. My first bonus experience--picked up the term 'bonus' from Jada Pinkett Smith who was interviewed in Good Housekeeping and Trisha Yearwood mentioned she got the term from her for a better term for stepkids. Random factoids.

The orphan girls line up by height and walk in a very un-Indian orderly manner to and from the dining hall.

White people! This team from Chicago blessed me with their presence. They're making fun of me and my wide-mouthed photo pose.

Hephzibah (see Isaiah 62:4), a college student the others call "akka" for older sister. Here I am on Sunday in the same clothes that I departed NYC from in on Wednesday. She was kind enough to let me sit with her and talked to me about her life and introduced me to a bunch of the other students.

New Calvary Church pastor and his family. Biju was so kind, serving as a bellhop of sorts to me. Later, he taught two of the sessions at the Academy. He studied in Chicago which is why the team was doing a missions trip from there, his friends from his time in the States.

The gate I unlocked every morning at 7:30am and went to breakfast. During the first two days, some of the other students thought I worked for RZIM as the dorm 'warden' (not a term associated with jails in India) because I welcomed newcomers and showed them around. Funny, as I was the only non-Indian in the batch.

Glastin, on staff with RZIM, my breakfast buddy.

Ajit Fernando. Works with Youth for Christ in Sri Lanka and was a great inspiration to me. Such a humble, scholarly man and so evidently in love with Jesus and His people. Treated even the most obnoxious students among us with the gentlest respect and honor. Amazing grace.

I want to give you an accurate impression of India so including this traffic picture. Unfortunately, not even this evokes the crowded, noisy, honking, speedy, go-go-go-ness fully.

Our first Saturday outing we went to some place that starts with a 'C' that I couldn't remember then and certainly can't remember now. Anyway, it's like a little South India Disneyland of sorts with mini-villages you can walk through. Here I'm having some coconut juice--a rare food that I don't love.

Later that day we went to the beach--oh, wait, I think I already posted about this. Anyway. Here's another pic of the boys enjoying the waves.

All the students are assigned to lead worship sometime during the course. Here Praveen had me do the hand motions for "I'm trading my sorrows".

My song pick was "Blessed Be Your Name". Here's a shot of the classroom.

Mooch happily listens to Sudheer introduce a Resource Person. :)

Chapati. My fav.

Will let rest of these speak from themselves. But, just so you know, this is a typical buffet lunch for us Academicians.

Handwashing station near our outdoor dining hall. The sink on the right had a broken pipe so it didn't lead straight into the drain. I joked that it was a simultaneous footwashing.

I never found out his name, but this young man who served us afternoon tea (not to be confused with mid-morning tea or late night tea) knew by the end of week 1 that I always came back for seconds.

The corner shrine. Do not use shrines as landmarks.

Pani puri. A north Indian fast food nibble that is sweeping the nation, according to Priyanka. This was got at Spencers, the fancy mall in Chennai, where I got a knockoff Jansport duffle bag for 450 rupees (~12USD) that busted its end pocket zipper before I even next packed. Back to pani puri: it's a crisp shell of fried something that is broken open and a potato mash is dabbed inside and then spiced broth is poured in. Eaten like a raw oyster.

Pani puri purveyors.

Squashed into an 'auto'--three-wheeled open-door motor cycle taxi rickshaw. In Dhaka, they run on natural gas and are painted green whereas Chennai's autos are yellow.

Priyanka arranged dinner at Galloping Gooseberries. David met us. He's a Chennaian.

Raj, another local--about two thirds of our class were--met us too. Gooseberries is an American restaurant. Hence, Leonardo. I also have a great picture of Priyanka with Dana Carvey which I will post upon request.

Here's Pastor Prince, Praveen, Suresh, and Benhail.

Shiv very excited about her cheeseburger. I joked that I was more Indian than she: eat with my hands, like spicier food, know that Tamil Nadu is the state we were in, etc. ;)

Typical lunch, plated.

Uncle Gunar, Raj, Prince, and Santhosh enjoying lunch.

Me at evening tea in my 'schlomit' necklace that I got in Israel. You see, the other students made careful notice of my earrings--which I've been picking up a pair from most the places I've visited this year. But today was necklace day. :) Schlomit--have I already posted about this?--is Hebrew feminine for 'peace' because 'Irene' means peace. I figured Schlomit (which really sounds pretty if said by someone fluent in Hebrew) was cooler than a phonetic Irene necklace.

So I mentioned Diwali or Deepawali in an earlier post. It's the Festival of Lights and here is the debris from our neighbors celebratory firecrackers. Loud is an understatement.

One of my favorite instructors, Cyril. He usually dressed like my high school chemistry Mr. Faddis, in dress shirt and tie. However, when he came back from holiday, he was sporting traditional garb. Note his shoes!

The following weekend, Shalini took us shopping. For atmosphere.

Auto Squeeze No. 2 This time with Kripal and Praveen, the Hydrabad brothers.

They got the driver to let me sit in the front seat for photos.

Average neighborhood cow.

Angeli, one of the housekeepers at the residence. She took a few of us for a walk to a market. She has two (normal sized) daughters. Very sweet and spoke to me constantly, in Tamil. Of which I understood none. And this frustrated her. Then she'd start charades. Which were no more comprehensible.

Of course on our walk, we had to stop for tea. This is Arnold, the youngest in our batch at 19, and Suresh--hours before he shaved the mustache.

Forget what these are called but they are a kind of sweet. Fried milk, sort of a nougat/malt texture with a thin filament of edible silver. Amazing. All Indian sweets, in my opinion, look like construction material.

So the last night, we ran out of tea. So our traditional evening tea was just...water. We used the regular pink mugs though. And had as much fun, if not more, than tea nights.

Suresh and Praveen. Aren't they cute?

Praveen, Suresh, Shiv, Peter, Benhail, David. 90210 style. Not that any of them are old enough or American enough to know what that means.

The day after class concluded, Santhosh, who is a local and was super helpful to me on the first day of class and helped me find a working ATM, took us to around. Having lived in Kuwait, Santhosh knows what it's like to be a visitor and had sympathy on us to take us around. Here's his son with an idli steamer. Remember those little white rice cakes I posted before? Santhosh's wife was kind enough to let me poke around her kitchen, saying: usually we don't let guests see our kitchen, but I thought you'd like to see an Indian kitchen.

Santhosh, Praveen, Suresh at Marina Beach--apparently not the 2nd longest beach in the world.

Our toilet and shower--the bucket and little vessel with a spout is the shower. ;)

The computer in the residence I likened to the hearth. You can see why.

Catchup: Deutsch, Joyce, Kara's wedding

2009-11-05T10:35:00.000-08:00

In reverse chronological order because I'm too lazy to re-order them from the way I uploaded. Sorry.

Autumn in Lancaster, PA. This is on my lovely walk back to the train from the hotel. So pretty.

My friend Jayne whom I know through Kara whom I know through TSC when I volunteered at the nursery. Jayne and I also got together in NYC near Columbia where she's going to Teachers College for a nice chat and prayer. It was so encouraging to meet a fellow sister who is doing what "makes me happy" and is free from what she's "supposed to do".

Here's Kara and Hans on their first stroll as wife and husband. Check out her veil, super cool.

My walk from the train to the hotel in downtown Lancaster.

The backstage crew at TSC for youth rally Friday nights. These guys are great!

I'm done freelancing so enjoying a sunny day. Sat along southern Riverside Park reading and gazing at the little Hudson waves and clear blue sky. There are great benches for this exact activity should you find yourself with nothing to do in Manhattan at around 2pm.

Luger's apple strudel with schlag. Mmmm.

And (sorry, vegetarians) here's Luger's bacon burger medium. Double mmmm. Basically Joyce came to visit me my last week in NYC before leaving for India and we ate our way through the city.

Congee at Congee Village. One of Joyce's Must-Gos.

Shrimp-stuffed silken tofu, conch, yellow Chinese chives and veggies. Super good. My new favorite dish.

And then here is Joyce herself. This was at Cafe Habana on Prince Street.

Chinese trio at Deutsch. This is me with Edward and SLP, my boss while I was there.

Kristina and Izzo, my colleagues. Thanks, guys!

A day in Mumbai

2009-10-30T10:03:00.000-07:00

My flight to Chennai from Dhaka was canceled so I got my wish: a day in Mumbai! Even better is that through RZIM Academy, I have a friend who lives there. Priyanka lives with her family by the sea down the street from The Taj hotel, infamous for the site of hostage killings last year. It is a beautiful area and after breakfast in the morning when I met the other guests--apparently their house is always full of visitors, "enriching" described the Canadian Muslim lady who's in India to study yoga--I went to get a pedicure with Emily, an American from Minnesota who is also in India to visit friends and do yoga, only she's interested in Holy Yoga. The pedicure was about 45 minutes and thoroughly cleansing considering my feet have been traveling dusty dirty roads for the past few weeks. I got gold polish. :) And it cost roughly $5USD. I'm going to miss India.

Then we met Priyanka, her sister, and another friend for lunch at Bombay Gym. It's an old club built in the colonial period. Understated charm, airy, casual while still exuding upper class society. Yummy lime juice and chinese food.

Went back to the house with Emily and chatted for a while. Drank tea, admired the view from the terrace and talked with the Canadian visitor about life and suffering and friendships and her daughter. All great opportunities for me to utilize my recent apologist studies.

Then Priyanka came home from work. A bit of household futzing and then we left for a dance lesson for a friend's brother's wedding. Apparently all Indian wedding have dancing, some numbers are rehearsed with close friends and family. This wedding will feature 12 choreographed dances. The one involving the parents was my favorite. The choreographer is a flaming gay man whose jeans were so tight I winced every time he knelt down. Just a bit of randomness to complete my journey in India. The apartment was very posh--like a W Hotel lobby if the bellhops dressed in saris.

So I'm 'home' now at Juanita's in Queens. Will be here a few days before heading to Tucson to visit Olivia. Photos sometime when I can muster the energy to dig out the cable and download them and upload them. Will that chore ever be technologized into quick ease?

Let's see: shout outs to Nomsa, Tiffany, and Darron for reading!

Dhaka Taka Duck

2009-10-27T20:24:00.000-07:00

Three days in Dhaka, Bangladesh to visit my friends Mirko and Fabienne who are Swiss and here on UN assignment. I need to look up the weather in NYC, I think I am in for a shock. Yup: from 90s here to 50s there. Well, good thing I have a sweatshirt. The rest of RZIM was amazing and I have lots to say that will probably not make it here if Israel is any precedent. Instead, here are some photos of crazy colorful Dhaka.

Fabienne, my terrific camera-shy hostess with the mostess. Bangla, bargaining, shopping, facializing, driving.

Kitten. Officially named Olivia but called by Fabienne Mamooch. Which I love because its like my monkey. This cat is super cute and biting. She took a nap on my bosom yesterday.

Went to the countryside with Katrina, a Scottish woman who is recently arrived here with her Swiss husband and baby. They were most recently living in Ecuador.

Here are some village boys who said hi to us.

The night before, Mirko and Fabiennes neighbor Sonya had us over for dinner. It was an amusing night of International English of which I am not fluent. Sonya is Montenegren and also works in the UN and Christina, Mirkos boss who is French, was a guest.

Fabienne and I had a ride in a fancy CNG (like the autos of Chennai only green and apparently run on natural gas).

New market. Fabienne bought big plastic mats for the rooftop party they are hosting tonight. I bought two coconut fiber scrubs. Passed on the live chicken.

Rickshaws are all decked out and have a nice tinkling bell whereas the cars and CNGs all honk discordantly.

My room. They have two guest rooms, well, one is the cats. Sorry Im not using apostrophes. I cant find the key. So this is my advertisement if anyone wants to visit Dhaka.

Puran Dhaka (Old Dhaka) tour with an architect-professor and founder of Urban Study Group. Fascinating.

A re re re

2009-10-17T04:07:00.000-07:00

Hindi equivalent of 'boy oh boy.' Week 2 of my apologetics course is complete, one more to go. The teaching has been really great, only surpassed by the lives of the speakers themselves, my growing Indian family comprised of classmates and staff, and, of course, southern Indian food. They say that I eat just like a real Indian person. :) That would be that I've got the index extension on thumb flick just at the mid-point between third and ring fingers combined with nearly imperceptible slurp.

My other new expressions include kayka (meaning 'sweet') and acha ('oh yeah'). It's Diwali today, the festival of lights. Early celebration included a retinue of fireworks and firecrackers last night and round two beginning at 6AM this morning--my friend tells me it's the kids who wake up early begging their parents to let them ignite the first of many noise makers--it really sounds like a war zone, I'm not being dramatic.

The women of Batch 8 (l-r): Shalini, Avanti, Priyanka, Shiv, me.

Me on what I wanted to say was the Indian Ocean but I was corrected by Shalini that it is the Bay of Bengal.

Suresh, Arnold, Praveen and David.

Batch 8

2009-10-08T07:07:00.000-07:00

Hi, I'm repurposing photos from Facebook. Forgive me.

Vanakkam from Chennai

2009-10-02T22:42:00.000-07:00

That's greeting in Tamil, the local language in this state of India, of which Chennai is the capitol. I've been here just over a day, my course does not begin until Monday. My luggage has not arrived yet so I find myself in my Montenegran predicament but in a Taiwanese climate. The mothballs, I journaled--hoping to be able to post from my iPod notepad but the IT folks here won't give me the wifi password and instead I'm interneting from one of their machines--remind me of Taipei, the first international destination of my life when I was a wee 6 years old. Anyway, one of the ladies here at the Hindustan Bible Institute where I am spending the weekend said I need to get more aggressive (i.e. Indian) and call up Air India and demand they reimburse me for my desperate situation. I feel my American anti-confrontational lethargy rising up. Must...overcome...cultural...morays...must...acclimate...

Besides that obvious inconvenience, I've loved the food and feel very safe on this campus. My roommate, a Canadian of Indian descent, will arrive tonight at 1AM. I think I'll make her a welcome sign. I've nothing else to do today other than perhaps purchase a scarf to 'cover my chest' and be more appropriately dressed here. HOT!

Transcontinental

2009-09-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

Dear reader, sorry for my long absence. I have been really enjoying my last few days in NYC with no work. Prayer in the Square was awesome. My friend Joyce from college and Atlanta posts came to visit me from SF and we ate and I worked through my visa trials. Then it was Kara's wedding to Hans in Lancaster, PA.

I am headed to Chennai, India in a couple hours for my RZIM course and will be there for three weeks. Afterwards, I plan to go to Dhaka, Bangladesh to visit an old friend from Switzerland who's there working on a UN assignment. I'll be there for a few days before returning to NYC. I'll stay in the Apple at Juanita's in Queens for a few days and then fly to Tucson to visit my college friend Olivia for a few weeks. Then, this will be mid-November, I'm going to Seattle to serve as nighttime nanny for her four kids while she and her husband are in Paris. Then it's Thanksgiving. Then I'll be back in NYC for about two weeks and then back to Richlandia for Christmas and into the uncharted 2010.

I'll post something more personal when I'm settled in India, hopefully. Know that God continues to rain down his favor and love upon me and those for whom I'm asking Him for. Which includes some of you! :)

Back in The Apple

2009-09-15T14:54:00.001-07:00

I returned to NYC on September 3 and had a very jet-lagged Friday wherein I went to lunch with my lovely roommate, Pamela--recently, I asked her if I should call her Pam, to which she responded, eventually, yes: it's more familiar.

Not sure if I've already mentioned this but she's an event planner for The Economist. So she picks restaurants for a living. So I picked Josephine, where I dined once back in 1999 on the tab of my then company, Caribiner. Here are our prix fixe choices of chicken and St. Peter's fish, respectively. I made the comment that St. Peter's fish is like talapia--even though I'm allergic to fish, I had learned this recently on luncheon near the Sea of Galilee

Crazy at it was, I went to Philadelphia with Juanita the next day. Here she is on the train.

And here's the train station. Brotherly love, bear one another's burdens?
After this, my memory card was full and I didn't want to delete any Greece/Israel photos. So Juany's got the rest of them. I fell asleep on our double deck bus tour of Philly. We went to dinner at El Vez, some post-hipster Mexican place that reminded me of Coffee Shop in Union Square.

Then the next day, we took the train to D.C. Clearly, I need to learn some limits. But, we did have a nice walk around the mall and stayed at the Dupont hotel which was cool (Juany liked the hotel in Philadelphia better) and visited The Library of Congress which is super beautiful and amazing and inspiring and saw the Guttenburg Bible!

So then we got back to NYC and I slept! Have been working last and this week. Not much news expect for upcoming Prayer in the (Times) Square.

Israel

2009-09-09T16:34:00.000-07:00

On Aug 27, we took a red-eye to Tel Aviv. I went through customs quickly and sat and waited for the rest of the group. I already loved Israel from the airport. So many emotional reunions, one friend meeting four others, a son hugging his mom. It was beautiful.

I switched buses (there were 7, I think, for the 260 of us) from Aqua to Blue. Blue Bus was guided by Moshe (the irony of being led around the Promised Land by a man named Moses). He met us at the airport and we boarded the bus to breakfast, immediately followed by sight seeing: Joppa, Ceasarea (pictured here is a reproduction of the Pontius Pilate stone, a major archaeological find evidencing the Gospels.)

The view from Mount Carmel of the Megiddo Valley.

Gave up trying to identify this plant. Want to try? A lady from my bus told me, but I forgot.

Felafel, my first of many!

This is the traditional site of the Transfiguration. This is what I meant from my previous post about Israel looking like Eastern Washington.

Breakfast! Challah!

The Sea of Galilee.

My roomie in Israel, Sue, with Mooch.

Friday morning, Jasmine and Mooch wait for Pastor Mark to speak at the Mount of Beatitudes.

Some rules about the Blessedness.

What they call the Jesus Boat, remains of a wooden boat carbon dated to the 1st Century. You can see the thick branches used to connect the longer boards. No machine-work here.

We took a little boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. Pastor Bill talked about the significance of Jesus' ministry: a 33-year-old man from a tiny town. I am 33 this year. I'm from a small town (not as small as Nazareth was, but).

The Jordan River Baptism site is a major center. There are plaques all around of the same verse from Mark 1, this particular translation makes me want to learn Hawaiian Pidgin. You'll have to click to expand. "You my boy!"

Ayanna gets dunked.

Katie gets dunked.

This is particularly for Nancy. Capernaum (phonetic of Kfar "village"+Nahum) is her favorite town and I found out that based on Matthew 4:13 it's generally agreed Jesus lived in Capernaum for the start of his public ministry. Mooch at the gate of the now-tourist spot.

Hard to understand this photo but it's a shot of the ruins of what is thought to be Peter's house, the surrounding wall of a church that was built around it, and a bottom beam of the modern day church that is built suspended over these two ruins.

Beit She'an. I never have to see another excavated Roman city.

This hill is where the Philistines hung King Saul and his sons' bodies after they were killed.

This goes along with my whole soap box about the fall of 'great' civilization.

"Jerusalem, our happy home."--David Crowder Band

This is our room in Jerusalem. Full makes a huge difference over Twin.

The view from our room.

One possible location whereat was uttered: "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

The wares for sale outside the mosque nee Church of the Ascension.

A donkey on the Mount of Olives.

Walking down toward the Garden of Gethsemane (means "Olive Oil Press").

Ancient ossuaries: bones stored inside. Brings to mind phrases of "gathered to his people", "buried with his fathers", "carry my bones up from this place".

Jewish cemetery, all aligned toward the Temple.

Stained glass from the Church of the Agony, by the Garden of Gethsemane. My favorite church of the whole trip. Rather, the only one I did not dislike.

Me in unabashed tourist mode: fanny pack and strapped on camera case.

Group teaching #3, in the Garden Tomb, possible site where Jesus' body was laid after crucifixion.

My communion cup: Jasmine pointed out the South-America-shaped mark on it.

From inside what might be the garden tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.

Another olive tree.

We walked the Via Dolorosa, the Way of Suffering, which is the Roman Catholic "Stations of the Cross". I wasn't very interested since most of it isn't based in biblical account, but rather, folklore. However we did walk through the markets and I saw this model of the Ark of the Covenant.

Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a different proposed site of the Crucifixion and burial tomb on the other side of Old Jerusalem. I was eerily impressed by people venerating this rock where some believe Jesus was lain.

Our Israeli guide, Moshe.

This is cool, a part of the wall of Old Jerusalem that you can see by peering down a Plexiglas covered well of sorts. It's the same wall rebuilt by Nehemiah! Just to think these rocks were placed one on top of another by men holding a sword in one hand.

The Western/Wailing Wall. Divided by gender. You can see how the devotion split is the same here. ;)

My close encounter. See the bride on the left side?

Notes tucked into the crevices.

We went to the Holocaust Memorial. This the view from the end of it. The light at the end of the tunnel, a vision of life.

Penultimate day in Israel, we went to Bet Lehem (House of Bread) where Jesus was born. This is a photo of the church there, no Inn in sight, and I was super creeped out by the dark, dank, underground. Seems way more like death than birth to me.

Wares for sale in the Bethlehem store. I managed to leave without any stuff and instead caught the interesting discussion between our Bethlehem guide and a fellow tourist on Palestine/Israel.

Some school boys.

Our last day, we drove down to the Dead Sea. This is the lowest point on earth. Here is an acacia tree.

The shade of a hut.

Wild flora.

En Gedi! I can see why springs are so prized. En = spring. Gedi = baby Ibex (mountain goat).

The Dead Sea. Shrinking rapidly. You can see the salt dried on the beach edge. In addition to floating in it, we treated our skin with the mud from the bottom which is a natural exfolient. Very cool. I was glad all my Facebook friends set me up with low expectations as I enjoyed it.

The ascent back to Jerusalem. Could be I-82 to Prosser, right?

The full moon over Jerusalem. Goodbye, lovely city. "'May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces.' For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say, 'Peace be within you.' Because of the house of the LORD our God I will seek your good."

Special thanks to my NYC roommate, Pamela, for letting me use her laptop to complete this entry.

Greece

2009-09-09T16:08:00.001-07:00

An olive tree on the path up to the Acropolis (high place of city).

Parthenon. The only artifact I was truly interested in in Greece. Mars Hill (Areopagus, in Greek for the god Ares, Mars in Latin) was cool too. I mean, the Parthenon is truly giant. Wish I had a person in there for scale.

My haircut, in front of a pillar of the Propylaea.

It was cool to have everything in Greek. As a non-frat-boy said: I know some of the letters from math. I'm a nerd too.

The Corinth Canal. I could see why it was such a great city back in Paul's day.

Katie and me in front of the Temple of Apollos in Corinth. We also saw (but the photo isn't very exciting) a Bema, or Judgement Seat, assumedly similar to the one Paul mentions in Romans and Corinthians.

Here's the crowd on Mars Hill in Athens. It was hot. Driscoll is in the military-green shirt on the left side of the photo. He spoke on idolatry.

Free day in Greece! We went to the city beach. The water was gorgeous as I already mentioned. Here's Dan the man, he navigated the buses to and fro. Even helped us cross the busy streets. Very gentlemanly. And Ayana was super cute in her bright orange.

My new friend, Jasmine, who lives in Boston.

My roomie, Traci. This is not an exaggeration of the placement of our twin beds. We got close.

Before Israel

2009-09-09T15:55:00.000-07:00

I'm blogging from my work computer. It's after hours and the connection is fast. AND my friend Veronica hasn't gotten back to me on if I can watch So You Think You Can Dance season opener at her apt tonight so...

Largest box of chocolates I've ever received! From my friend Kara who I know from Times Square Church nursery ministry. She is the one who went to Yale for her music PhD. We went to see a concert at Lincoln Center and she stayed over one night. And this is her present to me and my roommate. I said she might as well have booked a hotel room! I brought the balance to the office as Pamela said to get them out of the apartment.

Went to a Mets game with Juany at the new Citi Field. Here's the one place where the signage indicates that the Mets play here, not some team named Citi.

The game was rain-delayed and we amused ourselves with concessions: Box Frites (hard to go wrong with smoked bacon sauce), sausage, and ambers. Mets won, but we left after the fifth.

So a few Mars Hill Church folks showed up in NYC early. I met up with some of them and played tour guide. Here they are in Grand Central. It was nice to see the East Side, haven't been there in a while.

And this is a rained-on table with sunflower seed shells. Captured this while waiting for them outside FAO Schwarz.

Holy falafel, Batman

2009-09-05T03:18:00.000-07:00

I need to stop using "holy" in my speech when referring to any other than God. It is a careless word that I will have to give account for in The Day. Three days in Greece: Athens, Corinth, and a day on the Aegean shore (if they call it that). Athens is dead in my opinion. Corinth was like Ephesus: far from new testament vibrancy. [The demise of 'great' civilizations that foreshadows America's decline? I am a pessimist when it comes to my country, 'tis not of thee I sing. There was an Australian man who sang a song about America at Times Square Church. He has the faith I don't.] Beach day with new friends Jasmine, Ayana, and Dan was a wonderful change of pace. One location reached by crowded city bus. Stayed put for four hours except for the twenty foot walk to the water from our towels. I have described the quality of the water as opalescent. Beautiful. And the gentle consistent waves provided a lullaby for our sightseeing-weary bodies.

Israel is shockingly similar in topography to eastern Washington. Much more humid but from the air-conditioned coach I snapped many shots of vistas that I hope to juxtapose with my Badger Mountain photos. Just as a fun exercise. I don't need to see another Roman city excavation my entire life. And it turns out (if I had researched just a smidgen I would have known this a long time ago) that my favorite cities Sychar (Sechem) and Bethany are both in the west bank Palestinian Authority controlled part of Israel. I guess I could try to go if I ever return on my own. You see, I was part of a big tour group so my itinerary was en masse. I love Jerusalem. Beautiful weather and history and people and hills. I definitely want to go back.

This is pretty alinear because I am jet lagged and killing time til it's an acceptable hour to be awake. Another proof of my irregular mood is that I have not said a word about food save for the title. :) More later.

Like sunshine

2009-08-17T21:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-12T20:31:00.001-07:00

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?

2009-08-11T20:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-10T18:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-05T13:56:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-08-02T18:54:00.000-07:00

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.

Wow

2009-07-13T12:25:00.000-07:00

Before I began my travels, Nancy's parents were visiting her from Alabama and I was telling them about my plans. Near the end of my soliloquy, I said, "I'll stop when I run out of--" to which Nancy's father inserted: "Friends?" I replied, "Well, I was thinking 'money' but that too." And now, just as I am truly running out of money, the Good Lord has given me a little 'pot of gold', as Debbie called it, in the form of a freelance job for my old company in NYC.

So I'm heading back to the Apple a week earlier than planned but that's fine with me. Hoping to sublet a bedroom in a 2BR apartment in midtown west. That's still to be worked out. I am so grateful. Literally jumping for joy. Just like I have the Chinese church kids do as a thanksgiving exercise. :)

"...We were berry picking...It's been so cold this year they turned blue..."

My sister and her girls all in various pink stripes. Like a gang.

Dinner with the Krahns, well, some of them. This is the family of Esther, whom I visited in Montenegro. But in our shared Richlandia. Yummy kale, wild rice, and curry chicken. (Thanks for reading, Mark!)

Kids who I used to have in Chinese church children worship who have since moved onto youth group. Now we're Facebook friends!

Debbie, Josh, and their son. I just loved Josh's cross hand hold. :) Lunch at Sageport Grille, one of my Richlandia favs.

More insomnia

2009-07-12T03:09:00.000-07:00

Iced tea? Oy vey. Thank you to Esther and her family for a lovely day; no one made me drink the tea at dinner nor the one I got at Yokes before dinner. So it's three in the morning. I spent the last hour listening to John Stone's sermon from back in May. One of the things that I've come to see that I trust in are my connections. When just a few people don't respond to me within the time I want, I am nervous--which on the feelings chart is a lesser degree of fear. Again: oy vey.

Some fantastic things (to change the subject) during this Richland visit:
- spontaneous hug from my niece! The first one from her in the nearly six years of her life. After an afternoon of pretend school (and let me tell you pretend school is awesome: free play time alternating with snacks and naps), I was leaving the house and commented: that was fun! And she, who will not voluntarily say hi and who has never called my name to get my attention, turned and gave me a big enthusiastic hug. I teared up.
- on a hot walk from Howard Amon park, I happen to be in swim gear because I had been accompanying my neices in the wading pool, I took a cooling dip in the Columbia River at Leslie Groves. Love it. Though I was too vain to wear my dad's large-billed golf hat, apparently walking home looking like I lost bladder control in my jeans was tolerable.
- sunset with clouds
- full moon emerging from clouds

Old goals

2009-07-07T19:19:00.001-07:00

I finished the seventh book in the Chronicles of Narnia series--a 2008 goal. But accomplished nonetheless. I love the word 'nonetheless' and I also love how C.S. Lewis uses capitalization to emphasize Words He Wants You To Pay Attention To and make them into nouns.

Canadia Camping

2009-07-05T15:48:00.000-07:00

Juanita arrived Friday night at 2AM. I snoozed in the parked car since I drove to the airport at 11:40PM when her flight was scheduled to get into Seatac. The next day, we drove to Vancouver, BC. Her first time out of the country! It was exciting. We met up with and stayed at our friend Raymond (from TSC in NYC) and his family. The Wongs are truly hospitable and kind. His mother was extremely complimentary: happy to have us,; we both have nice, clear voices; did we sing?

Here's Raymond with the family dog, Joey, the chihuahua. Named so because he looks like a small kangaroo. And because his originally given name, which I've forgotten, was too difficult for Raymond's dad to pronounce. It was fun for me to hang out with a Chinese family other than my own.

Raymond took us on a quick tour of Vancouver but first we stopped at Kingsway Sushi where Juanita fell in love with the chicken teriyaki roll. Juany is allergic to seafood and I'm allergic to fish. We make a great pair for sushi. Anyway, pictured here is the kimchi beef--my pick.

After driving around North Van, as they say, and seeing a deer on Mt. Seymour, we headed back home for dinner. Here is the whole Family Wong (Juanita got a more in-focus picture which, if she shares, I'll replace this with).

Raymond enjoying some of his sister Leanna's strawberry sauce on ice cream.

I enjoyed mine with ice cream AND a Leanna-made brownie.

Mooch reunites with his long lost big brother in Vancouver. Turns out, Mooch is his surname, as his brother also had a tag that read "Mooch", so clearly we have a tribesman here. I was overjoyed. Juanita thought I was crazy. Well, I'm highly interested in roots and family systems. So this was metaphorical for me. In a way. Any ideas for a first name? Let me know.

After dinner, Raymond took us for Vancouver qwik tour part 2. Stanley park was beautiful at sunset. Juanita also really liked the dessert (more?!?) at True Confections. They both ordered the strawberry shortcake. I had a bite.

The next day, we went to church at Tenth, sprinted through Granville Island, and then had a super yummy lunch at Sha Lin Noodle House, where they make noodles fresh by hand. Amazing. We bid our farewells to the Wongs (Leanna sent us off with more strawberry sauce, chocolate chips, and marshmallows) and gassed up for the drive to Kelowna. Originally, I had thought to stay the night at Kamloops just because the name is so funny and it's a good midpoint, but the Wongs recommended Kelowna and so there we went. Juanita, for those who know her well, let her hair down. A true first. I am continually impressed by her maturing and daring.

A far cry from 'roughing it', we stayed at the Holiday Inn in West Bank (I've decided Holiday Inns are the best economy hotel--my stay in Flagstaff was at another nice and helpfully-staffed HI) where Lyndsey, our awesome front desk lady, made us reservations at Quails Gate. Here's my wild boar pappardelle. Y-U-M.

After taking our last showers for a few days, we got back in the car on Monday and drove to Lake Louise in Banff National Park. It took us much longer than anticipated because of construction and some accidents. Driving by KMH is fun. And the mountains were breathtaking. Thank God for my brother-in-law Doug who let me drive his Honda Accord rather than the cruise-control-less Toyota truck. There is a cassette deck and I bought a iPod converter. But Juanita loved the old mixed tape my friend Jason gave me back in 1992, so we mostly listened to that.

We finally checked into our campground, surrounded by an electrical fence to keep bears out, and set up our site. I burned the Rice A Roni but salvaged it with canned spinach and chicken, somehow it was edible. It was freezing that night. So the next day, we went to Banff to see the sites, and play our parts as tourists. Juanita picked up some Maple Leaf wear both in celebration of Canada Day as well as staying warm enough to sleep.

Here's how some other girls observed Canada Day in Lake Louise. Super cute.

We both took tons of photos of mountains and water. Here's just one sample so as to not spoil it for you if you go yourself. It was stunning and powerful.

:)

My abstract art of Lake Louise. The emerald color of the water is from rock powder that gets mixed in as the ice and snow melt off the mountains.

I am a terrible fire-starter and all my clothes smelled like smoke when we got to Victoria. The 9-hour drive was incredible uneventful and I was glad. We stayed a Paul's Motor Inn as recommended by Meggan's friend and I got to see Juanita's hair in even fuller glory.

As a tribute to camping, I cooked some ramen on the camp stove in the room. No fire alarms went off. It was OK.

Friday, we went to breakfast at my new favorite chain restaurant, White Spot. The ambiance is private and subdued. The menu is concise yet informative. And the food is kilometers tastier and healthier than Denny's. Even the coffee was great.

We took a long drive along the water around Victoria and then went to Butchart Gardens [that's a link to image results, not their website].

Juany was in charge of the map. I was on Plant Identification duty. This is a zinnia.

Unidentified daisy.

Lunch in downtown Victoria at John's Place where the (again, super helpful and friendly--is it a Canadian thing?) host gave us good directions to Mt. Douglas for a panoramic view of the city. Ferried into Anacortes and got to Bellevue late.

Yesterday, we celebrated America's Independence Day with Jane's neighborhood. They have a kids parade and 2nd annual BBQ. It was hot and fun. Here's the two girls pre-parade. I took Juanita to the airport this morning, she already texted me that she arrived fine in New York and is having sushi. I returned the gear I borrowed from Delphine's house and went to service at Mars Hill Bellevue where I met a nice couple from Las Vegas. Have spent the rest of today emailing and posting this blog and reading friends' blogs/FB. Tired from so much fun.

Tomorrow, I'll accompany Jane and kids to Richland where I'll be for about 10 days before camping again and then visiting the Olympic Peninsula with Nancy. Looking forward to catching up with more Tri-Citian friends.

The Bellevue set

2009-07-05T15:41:00.000-07:00

Hard to blog and camp at the same time. I have enjoyed my media fast, though, as well as being glad to be back with electricity that comes from the wall and not the car battery.

Here are some pictures of the few days I spent with Jane's family in Bellevue, just across Lake Washington from Delphine's family. We went to Lake Sammamish State Park for a sunny afternoon. Jane with baby.

Jane's eldest, we played Hide and Seek and here's when I caught her.

The two eldest hiding.

Her middle daughter playing with the pebbles.

Making funny faces. :)

The Seattle set

2009-06-24T15:19:00.000-07:00

Have I yet detailed that I have six nieces and one nephew? Well, there are three from one sister and four from the other. These are the four who live in Seattle. Here are the older three with the (similarly Asian-white mix) neighboring three kids. In the truck that I drove. A little small-town fun.

This is the morning of the last day of 1st grade and kindergarten, respectively, for these two. Fruit and Eggo waffles.

Isn't her hair totally Joan Jett? This is baby.

Baby with a nanny-doo and her big sister subjecting her to sitting in a colander just as she was subjected to in infancy.

My nephew and baby.

My nephew and his mom (my sister) sporting matching nose ow-ies.

Strawberry shortcake. Yum.

Family: the great time warp

2009-06-24T14:25:00.000-07:00

Seriously. When I hang out with my family, I kind of forget about the rest of my life. I am only a daughter, a sister, or an auntie. There is no "Irene", only "Xiao A Yi" (pinyin for 'mother's younger sister'). So now I face the biggest blog lapse since I began, I think.

The rest of my time in Richland was packed to the gills with good visits with more friends interspersed with FB Texas Hold Em'. Had a cathartic discussion of sorts with my parents and the fruit of that emotional expression/honesty is still reverberating. If fruit reverberates, that is. Ripening, might be a more contiguous verb. So, again, yay emotional maturation! Yay, counseling! One friend of mine whom I saw a few times during my 10 days in Richland quipped (I paraphrase): you have a lot of patience to engage with a variety of people and really listen to them and remember details about their lives. It blesses me to watch you interact with people. Her words were very affirming as I find her an incredibly upbeat and engaging person.

So I wound up driving the standard-shift, no power steering, cassette tape deck truck to Seattle as my parents went up the day before so my dad could attend my niece's "Special Guy" kindergarten lunch. It wasn't so bad. Dance recital was fun(ny). And I was The Face Painter at her 6th birthday party. All the moms recognize me as such now. One kid asked if it was my job. Maybe I should consider it? Speaking of, my current idea list of jobs come 2010 are: teach, nanny, freelance project management, and nursing school (I realize this is not a job). So kind of broad spectrum. And of course I could become another empty-pocketed writer. Which sounds kind of appealing as well.

So the party was fun and the clown was totally not scary and very funny ("Nothing better than an iced-mustard.") but the memorable thing was that during the party my other sister called to say that my dad was going to take me sick mother to the ER because she couldn't stop puking. And this was on my mom's actual 73rd birthday! So they hydrated her and gave her some medication IV and sent her home. But we were all worried. My mom is a workhorse and kept apologizing for not being able to help out. This was the least of our concern. Anyway, some drama ensued about whether she should go home or stay but eventually she and my dad went home to Richland for a few days before coming back so my dad could present the gospel at an area Chinese church event. I have many thoughts and feelings about the Whole Thing but most importantly, I created a Therapeutic Event (so calls my counselor) in that I am separating from my parents' marriage. It's not mine, I've got no business in it, and boy is that freeing. (Thanks to Kristie who shared some good stuff with me and confirmed that it's the right thing for me to do, emotionally--even if it sounds crazy.)

The rest of the week has been a mix of Play Dough with my 2nd youngest niece, Jackpot (some ball toss game) with my eldest niece and her neighbor friends, wiping up spills, changing diapers, playing Settlers of Catan with my brother-in-law and sister, grocery shopping, researching washing machines, driving the minivan around, and tickling my nephew. I am the 3rd parent.

I did see my high school friend Jason yesterday for coffee. He works at T-Mobile and I hung out with him before he caught the bus back across Lake Washington (well, missed and caught the next one). So that's some peer-level interaction.

My next stops are Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia in Canadia and Banff with Juanita; Bellevue/Seattle for Independence Day; Richland for another week; TBD; camping in Mt Rainier Park; the Olympic Peninsula with Nancy from Richland; and NYC on August 1st.

I'll post some pictures later today if I get a chance.

Love to you, my lovely readers. A quote via my friend Amy: Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person they are almost indistinguishable. (And reading my blog = being heard. So there.)

Mom on the recorder

2009-06-05T17:16:00.000-07:00

And another thing [my camera was low on memory so this clip is not a complete phrase]: my mom is playing the recorder lately for fun and Alzheimer's prevention. I think she is wary because my grandmother was rather 'out of it' prior to her passing. Emotionally, I think this is very healthy; to see the curses (so to speak) of previous generations and say 'no'. Tiffany has been helping me stay focused on the vision and reiterating all God has done/is doing/will do. For which I am also grateful. Thanks to all of you (my hosts and friends and new friends) for adding to my journey.

Habits

2009-06-05T16:59:00.000-07:00

Back in Richlandia! Here's me with Mooch's foster mom, Rachel. Windy got me hooked on FB poker. Which has kind of replaced my crossword puzzle obsession that I had in Vegas. Which is kind of funny if you think about it.

These are the three products of my glassblowing class that I took way back when in New Orleans. I've been waiting to see how they turned out since they were shipped directly back here. Pretty cool!

Richlandia has its own beauty, which I really appreciate after having been in other beautiful places and looking at the creation and people and food. Of course my mom cooks for me here and it's yummy. Old friends have taken me out for some traditional fare: Stacey with Spudnuts and Nancy with Atomic Brewery.

The rest of my time in Vegas was really sweet. More hanging out with Carrie and her family. More cross words and sleeping in 'til I woke up naturally. More cool rock formations, as pictured here at Red Rock Park.

Here's some wildflowers: fuzzballs. I've decided, influenced by Milton's quote from previous post, that it's OK that I don't know or even learn the scientific names for all these flora, I enjoy them all the same.

And comparatively, I am busy now running around seeing my awesome friends in the Tri-Cities. Thank you to all my blog readers and especially cool is Nancy for being my first subscriber! Wow, I feel very loved.

After a few more days here, I'm going to Seattle for my niece's birthday, will be back around, then have a trip to Canada in-planning with Juanita, and later in July a trip to the Olympic Peninsula with Nancy. Hope to camp with Josh & Debbie and do some other fun stuff in between as well.

Quotes from the Canyon

2009-05-29T13:44:00.000-07:00

Anya (the wife of the UK couple): Everything comes from somewhere.

Milton (tour guide): I don't try to figure it out, I just appreciate its beauty.

Half Time

2009-05-27T13:43:00.000-07:00

Half time report. I'm headed to Richland next week! Feeling good. Still working on the 2nd half year plans. Still got some money left, though I'm thinking I should try to temp while in NYC in August.

I'm in Vegas right now. Carrie, friend from high school, is at work as is her husband Marshall. So I am babysitting their 10-month-old daughter, and currently she is napping in the next room. It's h-o-t here!

Ok, catching up. Sorry for the "words...words"-type posts of late. Am I turning you off from reading? Tell me the truth.

Uploaded small photos today 'cuz there's so many. Here is Josh and his youngest (this is in Denver/Aurora, CO) at Chili's.

And here's half of the church congregants from the week I attended. I told them twenty years from now, this photo can be used in their memories slide show.

This was taken out the bus window en route to Albuquerque. I loved the big sky clouds.

At the Hot Air Balloon museum with Joanna's mom Sandy and her nephew.

Here's Joanna and her daughter on our nature walk. Joanna is not photogenic even though she is very pretty. Her daughter is both cute and photogenic.

With pine cone.

This is the only photo I'm posting from my day trip to Santa Fe. All the really cool things, I was not permitted to photograph.

And I wrote about dance lessons. Well, I wound up going to the group lesson with John and Joanna. And since there was one more man than woman, I got a free lesson! :)

(In Phoenix) This is one of Grisel's 2nd cousins. Though in Bolivian culture, cousins are brothers & sisters, so I guess this would be Grisel's niece. After dinner, and watching "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" with the family while Grisel and Jeremiah ran errands, I barely beat her niece at chess.

Grisel prepping candles for a circle prayer Wall of Fire ceremony they had during the reception.

Bridesmaid bouquet.

The NYC set: Veronica, Joanne, Yana, Felicia.

Me, new local friend Angela from Joy of Life church, and Yana with cacti.

Saguaros on the way to Sedona.

Gas stop, we modeled the hat and map selection.

Sedona sample. So amazing.

I love lichen and you can see my curly hair.

Metaphor for life: you can stay by the road and it's pretty enough, but look what you can see if you just climb a little.

The Grand Canyon:

This is my first (of tens) photo of the Wonder.

Native American ceramic that I really like but inconvenient to transport and kind of pricey.

Some of my tour group. The front couple and I went out to Red Lobster for dinner afterward. They're UK citizens, though she's originally Austrian, and live on an island in the English Channel. Tax free.

Milton, our tour guide, whose Navajo name means Two Feathers From An Eagle. He had some of good jokes and cool info for us.

Milton factoid: chewing the needles from this tree provides more vitamin C than from oranges.

Me and the Canyon.

On Route 66 from Flagstaff to Las Vegas.

Read the coffee signs, those were my favorite.

Hoover Dam.

(In Las Vegas) Carrie and Marshall's little girl. Today is Carrie's birthday! She's now as old as I am. We had fun today. Marshall just got home and is fixing dinner. I need to quickly make a card for Carrie. :)