december is going to be one busy month.
december 1: cambridge systematics holiday party. we started the month off with aaron's company holiday christmas party. not too shabby. it was held at the mit museum, which is pretty much your typical gallery space, but with a lot more science, instead of art. great photography pieces though. i'll admit i didn't actually take the time to walk around and really look at the exhibit, but the panoramic images all over the place of mountain ranges and whatnot were pretty cool. food was awesome. drinks were free-flowing. people were nice. fun times were had. finally got to meet the person who helped everyone connect the dots to realizing there were, in fact, two camsys/cube 3 couples in existence. still weird.
december 3: transition workload over to new malls project. deadline forthcoming.
december 7: work deadline for a student housing project in minnesota, mn.
december 7 - 9: yet another whirlwind adventure in post-sandy ny with the j-twin. likely with some christmas shopping in the mix.
december 8: get-together at the ktoad's new digs. unfortunately, won't be able to make this one due to previously mentioned whirlwind adventure.
december 8 - 15: hannukah celebrations with the magics.
december 9: hannukah/housewarming party at danny + becca's place. hopefully, i can make it back for this one.
december 13: 8pm showing of the slutcracker at the somerville theater with corey + gail.
december 14: 8:30pm showing of THE HOBBIT at the boston commons!!! i'm excited. can you tell?
december 15: 6:30pm cube 3 studio casino holiday party! time for my company's holiday party at one of the partners' house up in nh. and let me tell you, it is niiiiice. also super excited for this one. on the same night, at 8pm, is the oldenburg glögg party. glögg is apparently a mulled wine concoction that you set on fire before drinking it. also excited. hope we can make it after the cube 3 casino party.
december 20: get on a plane back to hong kong for christmas and new years!!! absolutely can't wait for all the delicious nommage that's going to be happening over those two weeks. it'll totally be worth emptying out all of my vacation time for this one trip. :) plus, it'll be aaron's first trip to hk. again, excited. :D
december 22: big kwan family gathering #1 in celebration of winter festival. jess also lands in hk this evening to join in the festivities.
december 25: big kwan family gathering #2 in celebration of christmas and grandma kwan's birthday! also, 2pm showing of the nutcracker performed by the hong kong ballet. this show has always been a holiday tradition. while everyone else shops and then congregates for pre-dinner mahjong, jess, mom and i sneak away for the nutcracker. but this year, aaron will be joining in the sneaking. and we're apparently in for quite a different show this year. the show has been revamped and redesigned to what looks like a darker telling of the story, so that'll be an interesting change to watch.
december 31: (likely) big kwan family gathering #3 for the new years countdown. new years in hk can get a little crazy every year (anyone remember the super riot in lan kwai fong that one year that got a bunch of people killed? yea. i don't want that...), so it's probably safer to celebrate and welcome the new year from the safety of our own home.
of course, there will be extra little shenanigans intermingled with those plans, but those are the big things that have been planned out in advance. then, that's it for the rest of 2012! and then...onward to new shenanigans in 2013!!!
such as:
january 5: jess, aaron and i hop back stateside and back to our lives and jobs and deadlines. le sigh...
january 11 - 13: aaron and i head back out to madison, wi for red eye! yay seeing more friends for more overnight ultimate shenanigans!!!
who has two thumbs and is excited? this moi. :)
Showing posts with label B. Show all posts
Showing posts with label B. Show all posts
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Friday, November 23, 2012
giving thanks.
job.
B.
home.
family.
friends.
ultimate.
health (ish).
kitties.
bunny.
boston.
madison.
mudderburn.
cmu.
mellons.
food.
socks.
hugs.
thank you.
:)
Sunday, September 23, 2012
B-irthday cele-bro-tions!
i had a plan.
thursday, september 20
friday, september 21
shenanigans begin! we went to work as normal. what i sneakily hid was the fact that i was going to be leaving work early to pick up aaron's birthday surprise - one andy spaghettios!!! :D this would've worked a lot better had we not then found out that someone back in madison (who shall remain nameless, but i am still quite angry at) had revealed the secret surprise to aaron a few days before hand. bull. shit. a month's worth of ninja secrecy work, down the drain. brought andy back to the house and opened the door to, "andyandyandyandyandyyy!!!". cue thumpthumpthumping of the birthday boy running to the door. it was adorable. much hugging ensued. corey came over for some pre-scheduled throwing and drills, before we all showered and headed back to cameron ave for dinner and hang out time.
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| did andy get shorter? | markma. |
saturday, september 22
my present to the birthday boy - alpine ziplining!!!
up in the white mountains, we went and took a ziplining tour through canopies and down the mountain with the longest zipline spanning about 1600'. it was fantastic. this specific tour also had dual ziplines for you to race each other. i lost the first time to winston. i blame the fact that i got completely preoccupied with the flying part and totally forgot about the "curl up into a cannonball to fly faster" part. don't worry. i got it right the second time when i raced aaron. we flew pretty even - had i had longer arms, we could've higfived - until about halfway. cue the tiny asian cannonball. i won. and celebrated. fistpumping and all. winning!
on the way back, we stopped at the tilt'n diner again. had [too much] delicious food. had a waitress continuously give andy shit throughout the meal. ha.
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| andy found this cookie on the way - it was bigger than my head. |
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| this is manny. |
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| this is andy licking manny. |
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| katie zipping away! |
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| the ktoads racing! |
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| andy getting ready to fly. |
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| birthday boy coming in!!! |
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| here comes katieeeee!! |
sunday, september 23
started the day watching moulin rouge just because, for some reason, we were all in the mood for it all weekend. we soon had to drop andy off at the airport so he could get back to madison. :(
we then went and hung out with john soh who was in town for the weekend with the cmu fifth year trip, and showed him around cambridge/mit. we got all nerdy visiting eero saarinen's mit chapel.
birthday shenanigans ended with a birthday/rosh hashanah dinner at the magic's, more cake and happy family time - a lot of which was spent watching baby phin's antics around the dining room.
i think that can be called a success. take that, "meh"!
next zipline excursion has already been planned for next march, ie. my birthday. interested? hit me up. :)
in case you need persuading, here's video i took during the longest zipline on the tour. enjoy!
Saturday, September 15, 2012
twenty-one miles, two wheels, a picnic lunch and mancala. and puppies.
a la the outdoorsy fix from the last post, aaron and i biked the minuteman bikeway today. we started at the bike stop in arlington, ma and traveled down to arlington center for town day, and then biked back up and past the bike stop to the end of the bikeway at the historic bedford depot. we then stopped for a relaxing picnic lunch of sandwiches we'd made this morning, bacon chocolate and a few rounds of mancala. we then wandered around historic bedford for a bit - they're apparently big on trains - before getting more air in my tires at the bikeway source and heading back down.
total mileage: 21 miles. as a first attempt, i'll take it. there were actually quite a few bikers out and about today, as well as an impressive number of rollerbladers. people seriously still rollerblade nowadays! who knew?!
it was pretty fun. a nice, short trip to make while getting exercise and going somewhere new. i hadn't really used my bike past commuting places, so just riding it for the sake of going for a bike ride was a different experience. but it's something that i've been meaning to get into, and what better time of the year to try it than the end of summer? with the weather cooling down, but before it starts to turn gross and gray, i figured, why not?
plus, going to arlington's town day also meant seeing a bunch of cool stalls, buying a new handmade ceramic mug and seeing a ton of puppies.
overall, it was a nicely productive, but still relaxing day.
quote of the day
[at a lemonade stand set up on the side of the bikeway in lexington. (yes, kids still do that nowadays, too!)]
(quite young) kid #1: "one cup of lemonade for a dollar!!!" (what happened to 25 cents?? stupid economy...)
(even younger) kid #2: "two for twenty cents!!!" (um...)
(much older) aaron: "quick! they're having a fire sale! let's turn back before it's too late!"
loved it.
tomorrow's agenda
brunch with danny + becca at the painted burro in davis square. i'm excited.
cleaning the apartment, like whoa. seriously. it's like all of our belongings just exploded everywhere. and seeing as next weekend will be quite busy, and someone actually has to try and sleep on our couch, we should probably clear the shit out of the there...wish us luck.
total mileage: 21 miles. as a first attempt, i'll take it. there were actually quite a few bikers out and about today, as well as an impressive number of rollerbladers. people seriously still rollerblade nowadays! who knew?!
it was pretty fun. a nice, short trip to make while getting exercise and going somewhere new. i hadn't really used my bike past commuting places, so just riding it for the sake of going for a bike ride was a different experience. but it's something that i've been meaning to get into, and what better time of the year to try it than the end of summer? with the weather cooling down, but before it starts to turn gross and gray, i figured, why not?
plus, going to arlington's town day also meant seeing a bunch of cool stalls, buying a new handmade ceramic mug and seeing a ton of puppies.
overall, it was a nicely productive, but still relaxing day.
quote of the day
[at a lemonade stand set up on the side of the bikeway in lexington. (yes, kids still do that nowadays, too!)]
(quite young) kid #1: "one cup of lemonade for a dollar!!!" (what happened to 25 cents?? stupid economy...)
(even younger) kid #2: "two for twenty cents!!!" (um...)
(much older) aaron: "quick! they're having a fire sale! let's turn back before it's too late!"
loved it.
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| the minuteman bikeway through the lexington depot. wikipedia. |
tomorrow's agenda
brunch with danny + becca at the painted burro in davis square. i'm excited.
cleaning the apartment, like whoa. seriously. it's like all of our belongings just exploded everywhere. and seeing as next weekend will be quite busy, and someone actually has to try and sleep on our couch, we should probably clear the shit out of the there...wish us luck.
Friday, February 3, 2012
shipped back up to boston.
so on february 1st, aaron and i emptied out the apartment, stuffed what was left into the car, and took off on another journey: back to boston.
after two days of driving approximately ten hours each (day and person), we're back in beantown. we stopped briefly in pittsburgh, for the sake of having somewhere to rest up and crash, and to see some friends, attend our respectively practices as creepy alums and give puppy a break from the stress of sitting in her cage crammed into the backseat of an 03 camry.
tobyfair, she actually took to the drive a lot better this time (the last time being the pittsburgh-madison drive), and this one was twice as long. she's now sitting in my room adjusting to a) being out of the car, b) being in a different place altogether and c) hardwood floors. let's just say her first time taking a leap out of the cage and onto the floor was somewhat comical, in a sprawling, scrambling fashion. she has figured out that the hallway outside is carpeted though, and that she can use my suitcase to gain enough traction to jump up onto the bed, where she can quite easily wander around as she pleases (as long as nibbling on random things she finds is kept to a minimum).
considering this was my first time driving long distance, it wasn't too bad. i took my fair share of approximately half the hours, and i don't think i did too bad (except for one minor incident when the cruise control went creepy weird on me and temporarily wouldn't go off).
some photos from along the way:
on another note, being sick seems to have waited until i got back to boston to appear. i'm now somewhat sniffly and sneezy. gross. though i will admit that i'm glad i didn't have to deal with this while driving. that would've made things significantly worse.
future plans
+ superbowl sunday at brayden's new place out in worcester!
+ continue writing more urbdezine articles.
+ successfully find a job.
+ find a new apartment.
+ move into said apartment.
+ finally adopt my adorable graduation puppy.
+ finally live the life i had been hoping for post graduating from college with an unfortunately-specific, though professional degree.
+ be happy.
+ call up them madison friends and have them come out for a visit (clambake!).
sounds reasonable, right? :)
after two days of driving approximately ten hours each (day and person), we're back in beantown. we stopped briefly in pittsburgh, for the sake of having somewhere to rest up and crash, and to see some friends, attend our respectively practices as creepy alums and give puppy a break from the stress of sitting in her cage crammed into the backseat of an 03 camry.
tobyfair, she actually took to the drive a lot better this time (the last time being the pittsburgh-madison drive), and this one was twice as long. she's now sitting in my room adjusting to a) being out of the car, b) being in a different place altogether and c) hardwood floors. let's just say her first time taking a leap out of the cage and onto the floor was somewhat comical, in a sprawling, scrambling fashion. she has figured out that the hallway outside is carpeted though, and that she can use my suitcase to gain enough traction to jump up onto the bed, where she can quite easily wander around as she pleases (as long as nibbling on random things she finds is kept to a minimum).
considering this was my first time driving long distance, it wasn't too bad. i took my fair share of approximately half the hours, and i don't think i did too bad (except for one minor incident when the cruise control went creepy weird on me and temporarily wouldn't go off).
some photos from along the way:
.jpg) |
| sad, empty apartment once again... |
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| rd leaving wilson bay apartments for the last time... |
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| rd in pittsburgh with the cathedral of learning! |
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| for old times with the money mellons, rd at a sheetz. |
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| puppybutt taking a nap in the backseat. |
future plans
+ superbowl sunday at brayden's new place out in worcester!
+ continue writing more urbdezine articles.
+ successfully find a job.
+ find a new apartment.
+ move into said apartment.
+ finally adopt my adorable graduation puppy.
+ finally live the life i had been hoping for post graduating from college with an unfortunately-specific, though professional degree.
+ be happy.
+ call up them madison friends and have them come out for a visit (clambake!).
sounds reasonable, right? :)
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
And The Preservation Award Goes To...
so i was going to do a recurring post off of last week's www idea. but then i realized two out of the three would be the same as last time. :P so that probably won't happen until i at least finish the distance between us.
news update.
we'll be moving back across (half of) the country, back to boston, in january/february. aaron will be leaving his job before then, and it just makes more sense for us to go back to boston since, at least for me, the job hunt here isn't working out too well. i'm nervous, excited and dreading the move all at the same time; pretty much for various, entirely separate parts of the move.
part of this move now means, that i have restarted my job search in the boston area. ugh. but i'm hoping that, this time around, things will work out for the better. part of this plan is that being a bigger city, with more architecture, more jobs and more historic architecture opportunities that i know the city actually cares about, i'll be able to find a position to take up and put an end to this unemployment streak.
as result of this step, i've recently taken up the new position of news contributor for urbdezine, an online architect, design, urban planning and historic preservation magazine. while not a paid position, it sounded super fun and exciting, and a way for me to get my voice out there in the architecture world, as well as educate myself more about the city that i hope to be working in and contributing to very soon. it's a relatively new web-zine, started by bill adams, a lawyer involved with land use and urban renewal in san diego, and it has slowly been growing and spreading to other cities in the country. most recently, this list of cities has expanded to include boston (check out the right-hand side of the page!) and new york. since i'll be moving back pretty soon, i have committed to contributing to the boston chapter, and have just had my first article put out there.
i've been super excited to get started, even while trying to work through all the glitches that the user website seems determined to throw in my way. (i have a couple of posts pending because the one button that allows me to add a photo to my article has somehow disappeared on me...) and while i have a strong interest in historic preservation, i'm making a solid attempt to post about news and events that are outside of that realm and touch on other parts of the architecture and design industry.
if there's anything you feel like spreading the word about, i'm still trying to get my feet off the ground and looking for new material to write about every day. :) and feel free to browse the articles from the rss feed on the right of this page (you may need to scroll down a bit).
news update.
we'll be moving back across (half of) the country, back to boston, in january/february. aaron will be leaving his job before then, and it just makes more sense for us to go back to boston since, at least for me, the job hunt here isn't working out too well. i'm nervous, excited and dreading the move all at the same time; pretty much for various, entirely separate parts of the move.
part of this move now means, that i have restarted my job search in the boston area. ugh. but i'm hoping that, this time around, things will work out for the better. part of this plan is that being a bigger city, with more architecture, more jobs and more historic architecture opportunities that i know the city actually cares about, i'll be able to find a position to take up and put an end to this unemployment streak.
as result of this step, i've recently taken up the new position of news contributor for urbdezine, an online architect, design, urban planning and historic preservation magazine. while not a paid position, it sounded super fun and exciting, and a way for me to get my voice out there in the architecture world, as well as educate myself more about the city that i hope to be working in and contributing to very soon. it's a relatively new web-zine, started by bill adams, a lawyer involved with land use and urban renewal in san diego, and it has slowly been growing and spreading to other cities in the country. most recently, this list of cities has expanded to include boston (check out the right-hand side of the page!) and new york. since i'll be moving back pretty soon, i have committed to contributing to the boston chapter, and have just had my first article put out there.
i've been super excited to get started, even while trying to work through all the glitches that the user website seems determined to throw in my way. (i have a couple of posts pending because the one button that allows me to add a photo to my article has somehow disappeared on me...) and while i have a strong interest in historic preservation, i'm making a solid attempt to post about news and events that are outside of that realm and touch on other parts of the architecture and design industry.
if there's anything you feel like spreading the word about, i'm still trying to get my feet off the ground and looking for new material to write about every day. :) and feel free to browse the articles from the rss feed on the right of this page (you may need to scroll down a bit).
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| Lowell's Boat Shop, 459 Main Street, Amesbury, MA |
Thursday, December 1, 2011
another whirlwind adventure.
thursday, nov. 17th, 2011.
my trip started at 7:45am when i was out and ready to catch the badgerbus to the milwaukee airport where i was to catch my flight to new york via cincinnati. this may have been one of the worst travel experiences of my life. okay. not really. but it wasn't good. everything was fine until i got to cincinnati. then, after sitting at the gate for over an hour, the gate agents announce that the plane is here, but there were a few minor issues that needed to be taken care of before we departed. okay. no problem. a half hour later, a few minor issues turned into, "um...we found an oil leak. it's something to do with the hydraulics, so...it's not good". okay...still not terrible. turns out, it didn't take them long to reroute all of the passengers with connecting flights from jfk and then find the remaining passengers another aircraft. at the other end of the terminal. so we haul ass over there, board, taxi out from the gate. only to then taxi back in five minutes later. cue, "sorry folks, we just found a small technical issue with our communications system". excuse me? so then began yet another hour-long wait while that got fixed. then finally, onward to new york. onward to whirlwind weekend adventure #2 with the j-twin.
i don't think i ended up getting into brooklyn until 10pm-ish (i was supposed to get in around 7-ish), which, considering my travels began at 7:45am that morning, wasn't fun. it really shouldn't take fourteen hours to get from madison, wi to brooklyn, ny. just saying.
anyhoo. met up with jess, and had a nice, late dinner at a japanese place, where we each got delicious dinner boxes with sushi. mmm...have i mentioned i love japanese food? Then, we turned in for the night and hung out at the apartment since j had an early morning the next day.
friday, nov. 18th, 2011.
jess worked the am, and left instructions to check out some really good coffee at cafe regular down the street. so i went and got myself a really good latte and hopped on the subway and wandered my way through ny to meet her at rockefeller center. since i figured i had time to kill, i got off the r a stop early and just decided to walk over. stopped in at bryant park along the way. they had their holiday stalls up so i meandered my way through. unfortunately, being unemployed and on a very tight budget, i had to refrain from getting anything. fortunately, being human, i had to eat at some point. om nom nom…enter my nutella + banana crêpe. mmm…i had actually wanted something savory, but it turns out i’m bad at turning down banana and chocolate wrapped in a delicious pancake.
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| café regular. |
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| my delicious (and pretty) latté. :) |
jess worked the am, and left instructions to check out some really good coffee at cafe regular down the street. so i went and got myself a really good latte and hopped on the subway and wandered my way through ny to meet her at rockefeller center. since i figured i had time to kill, i got off the r a stop early and just decided to walk over. stopped in at bryant park along the way. they had their holiday stalls up so i meandered my way through. unfortunately, being unemployed and on a very tight budget, i had to refrain from getting anything. fortunately, being human, i had to eat at some point. om nom nom…enter my nutella + banana crêpe. mmm…i had actually wanted something savory, but it turns out i’m bad at turning down banana and chocolate wrapped in a delicious pancake.
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| mmm...crêpes... |
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| setting up the rockefeller christmas tree!! |
eventually, arrived at the rock and wandered some more through the nbc experience store, where i again mentally listed the things i wanted but probably shouldn’t get and/or don’t actually need without actually buying anything. found j-twin, and then made our way upstairs to check in and get our tickets to see late night with jimmy fallon LIVE. okay, so not going to lie, i’m not actually a huge fan of jimmy fallon, but these were free tickets to a live recorded show. in itself, pretty damn cool. and the show itself turned out to be pretty funny.
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| woohoo!!! |
quick side note for anyone who watches 30 rock: remember that episode where kenneth has gotten fired, is working for another network and is in the process of sorting audience members for the live show in terms of attractiveness? yea, we were pretty sure that wasn’t too far from the truth. after getting seated (in the front of our section, btw!), we look around to realize that there seemed to be a strange coincidence where any audience member over the age of thirty seemed to be seated in the back half of the room. dude, what??
so, it turns out, “late night” with jimmy fallon meant that this show was actually being shot at 5:30pm in the afternoon. nice. long story short, michelle williams was there to promote her movie, my week with marilyn, which could be interesting; i’m not sure what i think about the casting, but we’ll see. alton brown came on to show everyone the correct technique to opening a bottle of champagne with a 15th century french rapier, a replica of which he then gifted to jf. comedian iliza shlesinger (yep, had to look up how to spell her name) came on with a little stand up; she is hilarious. she brought her adorable puppy and did her own rendition of sarah mclachlan’s aspca commercial. musical guest, the roots (+ animal from the muppets), played an amazing show. jf himself? actually pretty funny in person. watched two random guys get covered in goops of all sorts (mostly perishable), and watched one of them win $200. the show ended on a high note, where i got to high five + shake hands with jimmy fallon. y’know, nbd.
the stage of the show isn’t all that big. and yet they find the space to maneuver five massive cameras around to get all the right shots. it was seriously an impressively well-oiled machine. having my only stage management experience being back in high school and being impressed with how that went, this was incredible to watch. i can only imagine the stress levels of the stage manager we watched work her way through the scenes, and when she turned to give instructions to the audience only to hope we’d respond in the way they needed. sick.
by the time we came out of the show, it was dinner time. i quickly bought a late show pint glass, which i would later leave at dinner by accident :P, and we headed back into brooklyn for dinner at the stone park café, a nice, schnazzy restaurant not too far from jess’ apartment. it was delicious. we shared a mussel appetizer to start (really fresh) and i had a fantastic salmon dish, while jess got squid ink tagliatelle. so good. no, really. so good, i forgot all about my souvenir pint glass i had set down on the floor by the window.
so ended another great day in nyc.
saturday, nov. 19th, 2011.
slept in a little. woke up to meet anna to go to the smorgasburg market. breakfast pretty much consisted of any delicious eats we decided to taste while wandering around the market. meatballs, chicken wings, lamb burger, anchovies, asia dogs, oysters…so much goodness. retrospectively, i’m not sure my stomach agreed with my decisions. but, i regret nothing! we, then, made our way to union square where the holiday market had been set up. this led to more wandering and more “window-shopping”. we managed to lose anna at least twice, with each time resulting in her appearing with somehow more food. sliders the first time, and then belgian waffles the next; the latter of which was, again, delicious. i finally caved and bought my one big purchase of the trip, an orange, enviro-friendly tote by engage green, a global-warming-awareness company who makes a bunch of products out of recycled plastic bottles. it seemed pretty cool, and it was a good cause/idea. again, good decisions all around. it was either going to be the bag or a long-sleeved, hooded shirt that had a cute dog/cat face on the front and ears of said animal on the hood. adorable. or maybe it was a graphic t, which i decided i had too many of anyway. hmm…yea…it was that. now i actually do want that hoodie-shirt. damn.
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| omnomnom! |
after the third market of my trip, we all headed to korea way for an early dinner before anna had to peace out back home. we went back to wonjo, though this time going with the nakji (octopus) bibimbop. mmm…so full. post-dinner, we wandered the gap down the street to work off the fullness. anna went home, and jess and i made our way to the movie theater. we had originally planned to watch the descendants, but being a new movie, it was completely sold out for that night. so we bought tickets ahead of time for sunday and then headed back to brooklyn to another movie theater to watch happy feet two in 3d. i had originally invited anna to see this with us, but afterwards realized it had probably been good that she couldn’t stay in the city too late since, being ocean-themed, it involved at least one giant whale scene. it would’ve ended poorly. it was entertaining, with significantly more adorable than the last one, more ridiculousness and more crazily unbelievable song choices. if you’re just looking for a funny, feel-good film, that would be the one to check out.
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| the before... |
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| ...and the after. |
and so ended a very successful (and a little out of order) day three to my whirlwind weekend in nyc with j-twin.
sunday, nov. 20th, 2011.
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| post yummy congee breakfast. :) |
okay. so this day was kept light to counter the incredible foodfest we had had the day before. (my stomach was not agreeing with the sundae from the night before very well. though, it got over it.) we started it off with a very chinese-y breakfast of congee in chinatown. so simple, but so good. afterwards, we walked off breakfast by visiting the new (and old) phase(s) of the highline. there were definitely aspects of it i really enjoyed. and it’s most probably going to stay near the top of my list of places to keep going back to whenever i’m in ny. later on, we finally took advantage of starbucks’ buy-one-get-one offer for the weekend. had a light lunch before heading to our afternoon showing of the descendants. we were easily the youngest people in the audience. but despite that realization, the movie ended up being quite good. i had my doubts about certain members of the cast, but they ended up being quite unnecessary. the movie was enjoyable, and quite the contrast to happy feet two the day before. in comparison, if you’re looking for a mellow, serious drama with some surprising casting choices and appearances, this would be the movie for you. it’s got my thumbs-up.
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| me + j-twin on the highline. |
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| new seating arrangement on the highline. |
dinner was had at bareburger near nyu. omg. so good. this place offered all sorts of burgers, from beef to ostrich to bison to elk. ridonculous. again, so full. of delicious burger and a dessert of a peanut butter chocolate milkshake. mmm…
monday, nov. 21st, 2011.
jess had work again, so i slept in a little before packing up, showering and then heading out to meet her for one more lunch before i headed to the airport and back to madison. i met her near her office, and we had a super easy lunch at an italian place. after lunch, it was time for me to make my way back to the airport via subway (an experience in itself), and get on my plane back to milwaukee to get picked up by B. the trip back was a lot calmer and less stressful than my trip there. thank god. only one minor hitch where i had to power-walk my way through the entire minneapolis airport, which by the way is a lot bigger than you’d think, because i had booked my connections unfortunately close together due to what was available to me at the time. but at least i knew it would happen ahead of time. it didn’t make the power-walking any easier, nor make my calves any less sore right after, but at least i had been expecting it.
 |
| sad, lonely, little dude on the runway... |
overall, it was a seriously fantastic weekend and visit #2 to see jess in ny. got to go see some new sites, as well as revisit some old. i’m still very impressed with my own tackling of the new york subway system, with little to no instruction from j-twin. made it there and back in one piece, though probably back with significantly more poundage. :P
now, only twenty more days before i embark on the ridiculously-ever-so-long trip back to hong kong for christmas. i was hoping to bring B with me on this trip, but it looks like a separate, not-so-family-oriented trip may be the better option. it’ll happen. and it’ll be awesome when it does. i can’t wait.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
since i could hold my head up high.
so it's been awhile since i last updated. mostly because, well, there hasn't been much to update. but here goes:
what's the same.
i'm still unemployed and actively job-searching. it's still eating away at my soul and will to keep doing it. i'm still playing ultimate. i still have a bunny who poops like a maniac on crazy pellet-inducing laxatives. i still want a kitty but am in no financially-sensible state to adopt one.
job searching.
economy has been messing with the job search, which makes it super unfortunate, but i'm doing as much volunteering as i can i guess. i'm volunteering coordinating winter workshops for the madison trust for historic preservation, while also building with habitat for humanity dane county/habitat young professionals every other weekend. i've also been in contact with nps lowell to discuss potentially doing some work for them remotely, but so far they're still working out their budget so see if that's even going to be a possibility. fingers crossed.
hot yoga.
i restarted doing hot yoga at the studio on willy st. there happened to be a groupon around the time i was trying to find a place to do some restorative, low-impact workout nearby so i jumped on the chance. its been great. i really love it there. the instructors are awesome. and its actually gotten me into practicing at home every morning too. unfortunately, my groupon deal is running out and, while they're offering a deal for groupon users for their first month of membership, i still can't afford it because a) i'm unemployed and can barely make rent anyway and b) the deal is only for the first month out of a three-month obligatory contract/commitment. boo. so i'm doing what i can for now and am crossing my fingers real hard that i'll find a job soon that a) i'll really like, b) will be able to support me financially and c) allow me to afford the things on my to-do list, ie. adopt a kitty, keep doing yoga and pay for my ultimate expenses.
fall league!
so since i last updated, summer league and the club season ended and fall league has both started and finished. aaron and i both played in two back-to-back leagues because we both realized that one game per night twice a week wasn't really enough, especially considering the club series had ended already. our early co-ed team, why did it have to be snakes, finished the season going 7-8 and trailing off at the end due to multiple injuries on the team, including myself. our night owl team, snake eyes, fared a little better by finished the season with a 9-9 record. we started out strong, hit a huge slump in the middle, but then locked it up and finished strong again by winning through playoffs to win the championship. :) we then went on to play the other division champions and won on universe to be big boy finals champions. and this was when we were missing toby and sarah, two significant assets to the team, and only having 3.5 women, as i was still coming off a sprained ankle and could only run at about 65%. all in all, a decent season. apparently it became snake eye's thing to only win close games. all of our playoff games went to universe. so our final plus-minus came out to a whopping +3. whoops.
visits!
aaron and i got to have a fun visit from corey + gail this past weekend. it was definitely good to see them an take them around madison. although, as we soon realized, there isn't all that much to take them around to, especially since their trip was under 48 hours long. :P turns out, the shorter the trip, the less we really want to spend significant chunk of it sitting in a car to get places. saturday night was a lot of fun. dinner at graze with andy, jake, melissa, shultz, sarah and brando. then hanging out and wandering down state st to the chocolate shoppe. this probably wasn't the healthiest weekend, but it was a good one. :) can't wait for more visitors.
------------------------------------------------------------edit------------------------------------------------------------
so going through old posts, i realized i actually could post videos. and this one is too good to miss. the video is only really the first seconds, but i don't really have the capabilities to trim it right now.
------------------------------------------------------------end edit------------------------------------------------------------
etc.
other than that stuff, life has pretty much been the same. hanging out with mad udderburn folks. job searching. hanging out with B. more job searching. figuring out christmas vacation. figuring out a possible trip to ny to visit jess and anna. more job searching. preparing for my first madison winter. planning for my first madison thanksgiving (weird.).
just a little extra something.
what's the same.
i'm still unemployed and actively job-searching. it's still eating away at my soul and will to keep doing it. i'm still playing ultimate. i still have a bunny who poops like a maniac on crazy pellet-inducing laxatives. i still want a kitty but am in no financially-sensible state to adopt one.
job searching.
economy has been messing with the job search, which makes it super unfortunate, but i'm doing as much volunteering as i can i guess. i'm volunteering coordinating winter workshops for the madison trust for historic preservation, while also building with habitat for humanity dane county/habitat young professionals every other weekend. i've also been in contact with nps lowell to discuss potentially doing some work for them remotely, but so far they're still working out their budget so see if that's even going to be a possibility. fingers crossed.
hot yoga.
i restarted doing hot yoga at the studio on willy st. there happened to be a groupon around the time i was trying to find a place to do some restorative, low-impact workout nearby so i jumped on the chance. its been great. i really love it there. the instructors are awesome. and its actually gotten me into practicing at home every morning too. unfortunately, my groupon deal is running out and, while they're offering a deal for groupon users for their first month of membership, i still can't afford it because a) i'm unemployed and can barely make rent anyway and b) the deal is only for the first month out of a three-month obligatory contract/commitment. boo. so i'm doing what i can for now and am crossing my fingers real hard that i'll find a job soon that a) i'll really like, b) will be able to support me financially and c) allow me to afford the things on my to-do list, ie. adopt a kitty, keep doing yoga and pay for my ultimate expenses.
fall league!
so since i last updated, summer league and the club season ended and fall league has both started and finished. aaron and i both played in two back-to-back leagues because we both realized that one game per night twice a week wasn't really enough, especially considering the club series had ended already. our early co-ed team, why did it have to be snakes, finished the season going 7-8 and trailing off at the end due to multiple injuries on the team, including myself. our night owl team, snake eyes, fared a little better by finished the season with a 9-9 record. we started out strong, hit a huge slump in the middle, but then locked it up and finished strong again by winning through playoffs to win the championship. :) we then went on to play the other division champions and won on universe to be big boy finals champions. and this was when we were missing toby and sarah, two significant assets to the team, and only having 3.5 women, as i was still coming off a sprained ankle and could only run at about 65%. all in all, a decent season. apparently it became snake eye's thing to only win close games. all of our playoff games went to universe. so our final plus-minus came out to a whopping +3. whoops.
visits!
aaron and i got to have a fun visit from corey + gail this past weekend. it was definitely good to see them an take them around madison. although, as we soon realized, there isn't all that much to take them around to, especially since their trip was under 48 hours long. :P turns out, the shorter the trip, the less we really want to spend significant chunk of it sitting in a car to get places. saturday night was a lot of fun. dinner at graze with andy, jake, melissa, shultz, sarah and brando. then hanging out and wandering down state st to the chocolate shoppe. this probably wasn't the healthiest weekend, but it was a good one. :) can't wait for more visitors.
------------------------------------------------------------edit------------------------------------------------------------
so going through old posts, i realized i actually could post videos. and this one is too good to miss. the video is only really the first seconds, but i don't really have the capabilities to trim it right now.
 |
| andy decided to give aaron a ride. what would possibly go wrong? |
 |
| smile and wave for the camera! |
oh right. that. that's...bad...?
------------------------------------------------------------end edit------------------------------------------------------------
etc.
other than that stuff, life has pretty much been the same. hanging out with mad udderburn folks. job searching. hanging out with B. more job searching. figuring out christmas vacation. figuring out a possible trip to ny to visit jess and anna. more job searching. preparing for my first madison winter. planning for my first madison thanksgiving (weird.).
just a little extra something.
from thisisindexed.com by jessica hagy
Sunday, December 5, 2010
finally.
an epically accurate fortune i got out of a cookie yesterday with dinner. boomtown.
i am officially done with my final studio of my undergraduate career at cmu.
sure, next year i'll have thesis, but that's different. at least it seems different. it's different. this semester was definitely hell, but its finally over.
now to finish off issues, udm and modern architecture & theory with a bang. and hopefully, somewhere in there, i'll have time to add to and resubmit my thesis proposal before dec. 15th. it's just for the grade, but still. it's actually something i want to do, not just for the grade, but for the project. i think i can do it. i'm hoping i'm right.
for now, a chill night of laundry, a bunny, a kitty, some tv, some B, and most of all, some sleep.
:)
<3
Monday, November 29, 2010
turkey for me.
so i just got back this morning from thanksgiving 2010 in boston. as well as catching up on the crazy amounts of zzzs that i had missed out on during the semester, i once again spent thanksgiving with the magils. :) had plenty of fun with plenty to nom. and got to hang out with friends, old and new, to pass the time. aside from the fiasco of trying to get back to campus this morning, and aside from the fact that it was a little too short, it was still a good break.
tuesday AM: wake up ass-early to catch the 28X to the airport. pretty smooth sailing. get to boston. decide to plant myself in the arrival terminal to finish some homework before heading home so as to not get distracted by the warm, toasty bed and pass out before i can get my work done. one hour later, on the way home by t. get home. mess around on the computer a bit before passing the fuck out for about five hours. :) good choice, me.
tuesday PM: wake up to some B-cuddles. spend the rest of the night chilling and just hanging out back with familiar company. plenty of time to catch up on some hulus with B. 30 rock. community. glee. you name it. we gots it. boom.
wednesday AM: was pretty much non-existent for me. (see next point.)
wednesday PM: finally wake up at 1:23pm. aaaawwwww yea! that's what i call a good night's sleep! spend the rest of the day putting together shuffle video, which i'm having trouble getting to work right now. lame. but at least i got to start getting familiar with adobe premiere pro. it's schnazzy, but definitely useful. just got some kinks i need to learn first. i discovered the game of spore. weird. definitely weird. learned that the history of living creatures was so much cuter and more fun and simpler when they were hopping around without any worries or stresses of "society". :P also, learned that i am a creative genius when it comes to designing, creating and naming said creatures. everybody, meet B-rickshithaus.
thursday AM: happy turkey day morning!!! get up to start preparations for stuffing myself silly with delicious turkey day goodness. :)
thursday PM: TURKEY TIME!!! nomnomnom...
friday AM: wake up to head to the gym for some training, only to discover that it wasn't going to happen. something about being stuck in NH. umfortunate. so our schedule got rearranged to get stuff to make a beauty dish for B. that...was harder than expected. who doesn't sell cheap, plastic bowls anymore?!
friday PM: spend the rest of the day recovering from turkey day food coma (by stuffing ourselves more with qdoba deliciousness, clearly). put the thingymajiggy beauty dish together (also tougher than expected due to small alterations for a different flash model than designed for). but overall, pretty productive.
saturday AM: gym time hooha!! rescheduled gym time for 10:30am. slightly delayed, but still good for post-turkey day recovery. lost count of the number of squats that were performed by all involved. good times. :) now to get the same work and soreness out of my core.
saturday PM: meet up with LL and fechfech and brayden for some chinatown nomnoms. considering quite the nerves involved with ordering for the table due to being the token eyjen. hopefully everyone left that meal all full of delicious nomnoms. :) the plan had been to go skating at frog pond, but one step out of the park st. stop and "heeeeell no! i'd like to not die from cold, blistery winds, thank you very much!" s'okay. went to berryline in harvard sq. instead. mmm...then headed home to kill some time playing world of goo (weirdest game ever. almost.) later, headed out to JP to brayden's for some hanging out. come home to crawl into bed around 3am. i'm still recovering from the semester's lack of sleep. yea. let's go with that.
sunday AM: more turkey breakfast. mmm...turkey divan. turned out pretty well. tasty.
sunday PM: hangy-outy. mommumimmy while cuddled up in bed. before finally dragging ourselves out of bed to eat at jumbo's for some delicious honey hot tenders, a burger, garlic knots and a blast from the past in the form of mash. omnomnom. home again for some 30rock. what a great way to end the night and a good break.
monday AM: wake up ass-early to catch my 7:00am flight back to pittsburgh. only to have it be delayed 45mins. get off the plane to power walk my way outa there and have the 9:15am 28X rush straight past me as i turn out of the terminal and towards the bus stop. so much for making my first class. maybe i can make it in late if i just get on the 9:45am bus. no dice. 2nd bus is a no show. 10:15am rolls around. no show. there's some news that one bus broke down on the highway. ass. now i'm close to missing my second class of the day. bus finally shows up around 10:30am. get in in time to only be 5mins late and still not the latest one. this morning could have gone better. thanks, port authority. needed that.
monday PM: grab some noms, decide i'm too burned out to keep working. head home. writing this blog. heading to bed.
mmm...turkey day. it's a keeper.
on another note: snrt.
tuesday AM: wake up ass-early to catch the 28X to the airport. pretty smooth sailing. get to boston. decide to plant myself in the arrival terminal to finish some homework before heading home so as to not get distracted by the warm, toasty bed and pass out before i can get my work done. one hour later, on the way home by t. get home. mess around on the computer a bit before passing the fuck out for about five hours. :) good choice, me.
tuesday PM: wake up to some B-cuddles. spend the rest of the night chilling and just hanging out back with familiar company. plenty of time to catch up on some hulus with B. 30 rock. community. glee. you name it. we gots it. boom.
wednesday AM: was pretty much non-existent for me. (see next point.)
wednesday PM: finally wake up at 1:23pm. aaaawwwww yea! that's what i call a good night's sleep! spend the rest of the day putting together shuffle video, which i'm having trouble getting to work right now. lame. but at least i got to start getting familiar with adobe premiere pro. it's schnazzy, but definitely useful. just got some kinks i need to learn first. i discovered the game of spore. weird. definitely weird. learned that the history of living creatures was so much cuter and more fun and simpler when they were hopping around without any worries or stresses of "society". :P also, learned that i am a creative genius when it comes to designing, creating and naming said creatures. everybody, meet B-rickshithaus.
thursday AM: happy turkey day morning!!! get up to start preparations for stuffing myself silly with delicious turkey day goodness. :)
thursday PM: TURKEY TIME!!! nomnomnom...
friday AM: wake up to head to the gym for some training, only to discover that it wasn't going to happen. something about being stuck in NH. umfortunate. so our schedule got rearranged to get stuff to make a beauty dish for B. that...was harder than expected. who doesn't sell cheap, plastic bowls anymore?!
friday PM: spend the rest of the day recovering from turkey day food coma (by stuffing ourselves more with qdoba deliciousness, clearly). put the thingymajiggy beauty dish together (also tougher than expected due to small alterations for a different flash model than designed for). but overall, pretty productive.
saturday AM: gym time hooha!! rescheduled gym time for 10:30am. slightly delayed, but still good for post-turkey day recovery. lost count of the number of squats that were performed by all involved. good times. :) now to get the same work and soreness out of my core.
saturday PM: meet up with LL and fechfech and brayden for some chinatown nomnoms. considering quite the nerves involved with ordering for the table due to being the token eyjen. hopefully everyone left that meal all full of delicious nomnoms. :) the plan had been to go skating at frog pond, but one step out of the park st. stop and "heeeeell no! i'd like to not die from cold, blistery winds, thank you very much!" s'okay. went to berryline in harvard sq. instead. mmm...then headed home to kill some time playing world of goo (weirdest game ever. almost.) later, headed out to JP to brayden's for some hanging out. come home to crawl into bed around 3am. i'm still recovering from the semester's lack of sleep. yea. let's go with that.
sunday PM: hangy-outy. mommumimmy while cuddled up in bed. before finally dragging ourselves out of bed to eat at jumbo's for some delicious honey hot tenders, a burger, garlic knots and a blast from the past in the form of mash. omnomnom. home again for some 30rock. what a great way to end the night and a good break.
monday AM: wake up ass-early to catch my 7:00am flight back to pittsburgh. only to have it be delayed 45mins. get off the plane to power walk my way outa there and have the 9:15am 28X rush straight past me as i turn out of the terminal and towards the bus stop. so much for making my first class. maybe i can make it in late if i just get on the 9:45am bus. no dice. 2nd bus is a no show. 10:15am rolls around. no show. there's some news that one bus broke down on the highway. ass. now i'm close to missing my second class of the day. bus finally shows up around 10:30am. get in in time to only be 5mins late and still not the latest one. this morning could have gone better. thanks, port authority. needed that.
monday PM: grab some noms, decide i'm too burned out to keep working. head home. writing this blog. heading to bed.
mmm...turkey day. it's a keeper.
on another note: snrt.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
say the first thing that comes into your head.
at around 10:30am this morning, i received two pretty much simultaneous texts. one from B, one from Tamar.
the difference in tone was so amazingly apparent, I almost laughed out loud. if only i hadn't been in the middle of class...
tamar: "is it weird if i still hope to run into you on the T?" [awww...]
...pretty much immediately followed by...
aaron: "I'M SO UNCOMFORTABLE! AAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHHH..." [what. the. ass.]
love you, B. :P
love you too, LL. :)
the difference in tone was so amazingly apparent, I almost laughed out loud. if only i hadn't been in the middle of class...
tamar: "is it weird if i still hope to run into you on the T?" [awww...]
...pretty much immediately followed by...
aaron: "I'M SO UNCOMFORTABLE! AAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHHH..." [what. the. ass.]
love you, B. :P
love you too, LL. :)
Saturday, August 21, 2010
early morning without warning/woke me with a scare.
:: quick recap of summer 2010 (by category of events) ::
work
i essentially spent the summer working for the national park service. initially, i was just an intern in their historic architecture program, which was actually quite interesting in itself since it consisted of working at/for various sites, including the adams national historic park, the frederick law olmsted national historic site, and the nps regional office in lowell, doing things like helping them photo document the site and the house, cataloging their historic items, database entry, architectural descriptions, with a little CAD-ing thrown in. then, since my summer budget was winding down a lot faster than i had planned, i "applied" for a contract editing job, didn't take 'no' for an answer, and spent half of july and all of august editing the historic structures report for the new bedford whaling museum as the last step of the editing process before the book went out for publishing. so that was pretty awesome. something i had a decently large part in is being published! it was an achievement. and the $2400 i got for the job wasn't a bad perk either.
club ultimate
after ending the college season of 2010 with a decent showing at sectionals and breaking seed to finish 5th (the same result as the year before, just sans approx. 10 seniors who had graduated), i jumped right into the club scene trying out for ballometrics, a mixed team out of boston, at bell crack, a co-ed tournament in philly. after making that first round of cuts, since starting tryouts (i started late in the process), i didn't feel like i was quite playing up to scratch and, surprisingly, not having as much fun as i would've liked with them. unsurprisingly, i got cut not long after in the next round of cuts. meh. no biggie. at that point, i hadn't really decided if i was really feeling the people on the team anyway. then, i decided to try my hand in the women's ultimate scene in boston, since my college coaches had pushed for me to play women's more anyway, and tried out for hatch. again, made the first round of cuts, which i was pretty happy with. unfortunately, i then followed that up with a couple of pretty embarrassingly bad practices. talk about conservation of greatness. who knew it applied to a much bigger picture. again, unsurprisingly due to my disappointing showing that week, i got cut. by this point, i was seriously burned out. had figured i'd just train and condition for the summer. get into better shape for the next college season and then try again next year. cue unexpected email from 7th wheel, another mixed team out of boston, sent out to ultimate players known to be in the tryout process for teams announcing their final tryout and an invitation to join them. for shits, i said "why not?". it's more practice in a tryout situation. what harm could it be? plus, another chance would be nice. day of, started off by appearing pretty damn stupid getting lost and going to the wrong fields. got there late. turned out we hadn't missed too much, so jumped right in. unfortunately, we also had another event planned later that day and had to leave early. so here was my thinking: i got here late (super late in the whole process), and have to leave early. man, i must look like a jerk. two days later, to my surprise, i get an email offering me a spot on the team. well, crap. i was burned out. but excited! i would end up playing for the club season after all! :) so far so good. i'm happy i've gotten the chance to gel and play with a great group of people and having fun. i feel terrible for having to start school so early, but i'll still be flying back to boston for club sectionals on sept. 10th. again, excited. :D
7th wheel after our first tournament win!
summer club ultimate
i came back for another season with merge. we had quite a decent season, though again with a bunch of frustrations and annoyances. ended on a decent note. didn't get to where we wanted to be at the end of the tournament, but that's okay. had a great day one, going 4-0 against some pretty alright teams. day two, we tanked. the weather was meh. we had lost a few people. energy was low. errors were high. it was unfortunate. but we got to end the season with a fun team pre-tourney dinner at brayden's and a post-tourney meal at heidi's.
miscellaneous, but still awesome
- got to go to DC with aaron. :) even if i spent half the time either in terrible pain or nauseous as all hell, it was still a good trip and i'm glad we got to do it. p.s. the national zoo is awesome! and free! which makes it more awesome. seriously, the number of photos we collectively take at zoos is ridiculous.
- for the pre-tourney dinner, we whipped up a batch of chocolate guinness cupcakes from a recipe i had randomly found online awhile back. they were delicious. seriously. so good. i really should try and find time to make some more this year and share their glorious existence with everyone here.
- went to the franklin park zoo. yup. more zooing. more ridiculous photos. it was brilliant.
- watched a bunch of movies: despicable me (twice! so adorable!), karate kid, iron man 2, shrek in 3d, inception (so good! want to see it again.)
- went to my first red sox game. it was the sox vs. d-backs. so much fun. we won. got some adorable photos out of it. yay. :) another thing off my bucket list.
- went to toad & katie's wedding. it was beautiful. congratulations to them! i wish them all the best! :)
- wildwood. won hardware - best in bracket, bitches!! didn't get ridiculously sunburned. had a lot of fun. may have given myself first degree burns on the bottoms of my feet from running on the sun-baked sand a whole lot.
- had puppy come with me this summer! :) she lived with me in my room all summer and, though i may have developed an allergy thanks to all her shedding, i'm so happy she made the trip with me this summer. :)
work
i essentially spent the summer working for the national park service. initially, i was just an intern in their historic architecture program, which was actually quite interesting in itself since it consisted of working at/for various sites, including the adams national historic park, the frederick law olmsted national historic site, and the nps regional office in lowell, doing things like helping them photo document the site and the house, cataloging their historic items, database entry, architectural descriptions, with a little CAD-ing thrown in. then, since my summer budget was winding down a lot faster than i had planned, i "applied" for a contract editing job, didn't take 'no' for an answer, and spent half of july and all of august editing the historic structures report for the new bedford whaling museum as the last step of the editing process before the book went out for publishing. so that was pretty awesome. something i had a decently large part in is being published! it was an achievement. and the $2400 i got for the job wasn't a bad perk either.
club ultimate
after ending the college season of 2010 with a decent showing at sectionals and breaking seed to finish 5th (the same result as the year before, just sans approx. 10 seniors who had graduated), i jumped right into the club scene trying out for ballometrics, a mixed team out of boston, at bell crack, a co-ed tournament in philly. after making that first round of cuts, since starting tryouts (i started late in the process), i didn't feel like i was quite playing up to scratch and, surprisingly, not having as much fun as i would've liked with them. unsurprisingly, i got cut not long after in the next round of cuts. meh. no biggie. at that point, i hadn't really decided if i was really feeling the people on the team anyway. then, i decided to try my hand in the women's ultimate scene in boston, since my college coaches had pushed for me to play women's more anyway, and tried out for hatch. again, made the first round of cuts, which i was pretty happy with. unfortunately, i then followed that up with a couple of pretty embarrassingly bad practices. talk about conservation of greatness. who knew it applied to a much bigger picture. again, unsurprisingly due to my disappointing showing that week, i got cut. by this point, i was seriously burned out. had figured i'd just train and condition for the summer. get into better shape for the next college season and then try again next year. cue unexpected email from 7th wheel, another mixed team out of boston, sent out to ultimate players known to be in the tryout process for teams announcing their final tryout and an invitation to join them. for shits, i said "why not?". it's more practice in a tryout situation. what harm could it be? plus, another chance would be nice. day of, started off by appearing pretty damn stupid getting lost and going to the wrong fields. got there late. turned out we hadn't missed too much, so jumped right in. unfortunately, we also had another event planned later that day and had to leave early. so here was my thinking: i got here late (super late in the whole process), and have to leave early. man, i must look like a jerk. two days later, to my surprise, i get an email offering me a spot on the team. well, crap. i was burned out. but excited! i would end up playing for the club season after all! :) so far so good. i'm happy i've gotten the chance to gel and play with a great group of people and having fun. i feel terrible for having to start school so early, but i'll still be flying back to boston for club sectionals on sept. 10th. again, excited. :D
summer club ultimate
i came back for another season with merge. we had quite a decent season, though again with a bunch of frustrations and annoyances. ended on a decent note. didn't get to where we wanted to be at the end of the tournament, but that's okay. had a great day one, going 4-0 against some pretty alright teams. day two, we tanked. the weather was meh. we had lost a few people. energy was low. errors were high. it was unfortunate. but we got to end the season with a fun team pre-tourney dinner at brayden's and a post-tourney meal at heidi's.
miscellaneous, but still awesome
- got to go to DC with aaron. :) even if i spent half the time either in terrible pain or nauseous as all hell, it was still a good trip and i'm glad we got to do it. p.s. the national zoo is awesome! and free! which makes it more awesome. seriously, the number of photos we collectively take at zoos is ridiculous.
- for the pre-tourney dinner, we whipped up a batch of chocolate guinness cupcakes from a recipe i had randomly found online awhile back. they were delicious. seriously. so good. i really should try and find time to make some more this year and share their glorious existence with everyone here.
- went to the franklin park zoo. yup. more zooing. more ridiculous photos. it was brilliant.
- watched a bunch of movies: despicable me (twice! so adorable!), karate kid, iron man 2, shrek in 3d, inception (so good! want to see it again.)
- went to my first red sox game. it was the sox vs. d-backs. so much fun. we won. got some adorable photos out of it. yay. :) another thing off my bucket list.
- went to toad & katie's wedding. it was beautiful. congratulations to them! i wish them all the best! :)
- wildwood. won hardware - best in bracket, bitches!! didn't get ridiculously sunburned. had a lot of fun. may have given myself first degree burns on the bottoms of my feet from running on the sun-baked sand a whole lot.
- had puppy come with me this summer! :) she lived with me in my room all summer and, though i may have developed an allergy thanks to all her shedding, i'm so happy she made the trip with me this summer. :)
summer 2010 :: it's a win in my book.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
happy birthday to...me...?
i'm 22. damn. when did that happen?
i guess it hadn't really it me that i was turning 22 until we were getting ready to head off to some tournament in the fall and at least one of the rookies came and found me at practice to let me know her waiver will be coming in very last minute because she needed to mail it home and have her mom sign the chaperone form [note: only for under 18s]. damn. i'm old.
anyhoo, as per usual, my birthday came and went with pretty much no event. pretty eventless. had a terrible start to the day even before i managed to get some sleep. woke up early to head out to 8:30am practice only to find none but one [and the coaches] had bothered to do the same. thank you for wasting our time. :P sat around a little. waited until my partner for studio came in so we could finalize our board and plot it in time for mid-review in studio at 1:30pm. boring. more stressful than necessary. mid-reviews came and went. i presented and bailed into some other studio/up to the clusters to futz around some more. already exhausted beyond belief, i headed up to geagle to restock up on the greens for Puppy dearest. stopped by a couple of stores to search for that ever-evasive winter aviator hat that i've been looking for. no such luck. headed home to drop stuff off and grab my computer gear to head out to anna and john's for some good ol' take out thai food. delicious. guess it serves as some semblance of a birthday meal. no cake. but that's okay. got to get my new laptop, a birthday present from the parents, with rhino. meant to get other stuff too, but that shit fell through. now i'm back here. in my apartment. remember that i still need to pack, clean up the apartment, feed the bunny and study for a quiz for which i have no idea what to study all tonight since i then take the quiz tomorrow and then hope on a bus to the airport, which would then take me to hop on a plane out of town until the end of spring break.
so all in all, not a great birthday. could've been better. thought for once, there might be more to it. but oh well.
but man! spring break!
so here's the plan:
mar. 4-8 - boston, ma. with my B having the best date and birthday weekend ever.
mar. 8-11 - brunswick, ga. for high tide. i'm excited. three full days of sun, sand, ultimate and partying. baller.
mar. 13-14 - philly, pa. for philly classic. again, excited. this should be fun. and new. and challenging. all good things.
consensus = awesome. i plan on coming back to pittsburgh tanned, sunburned, sore, grassburned, bruised...and grinning like an idiot. fingers crossed this actually happens.
wish me luck! :)
i guess it hadn't really it me that i was turning 22 until we were getting ready to head off to some tournament in the fall and at least one of the rookies came and found me at practice to let me know her waiver will be coming in very last minute because she needed to mail it home and have her mom sign the chaperone form [note: only for under 18s]. damn. i'm old.
anyhoo, as per usual, my birthday came and went with pretty much no event. pretty eventless. had a terrible start to the day even before i managed to get some sleep. woke up early to head out to 8:30am practice only to find none but one [and the coaches] had bothered to do the same. thank you for wasting our time. :P sat around a little. waited until my partner for studio came in so we could finalize our board and plot it in time for mid-review in studio at 1:30pm. boring. more stressful than necessary. mid-reviews came and went. i presented and bailed into some other studio/up to the clusters to futz around some more. already exhausted beyond belief, i headed up to geagle to restock up on the greens for Puppy dearest. stopped by a couple of stores to search for that ever-evasive winter aviator hat that i've been looking for. no such luck. headed home to drop stuff off and grab my computer gear to head out to anna and john's for some good ol' take out thai food. delicious. guess it serves as some semblance of a birthday meal. no cake. but that's okay. got to get my new laptop, a birthday present from the parents, with rhino. meant to get other stuff too, but that shit fell through. now i'm back here. in my apartment. remember that i still need to pack, clean up the apartment, feed the bunny and study for a quiz for which i have no idea what to study all tonight since i then take the quiz tomorrow and then hope on a bus to the airport, which would then take me to hop on a plane out of town until the end of spring break.
so all in all, not a great birthday. could've been better. thought for once, there might be more to it. but oh well.
but man! spring break!
so here's the plan:
mar. 4-8 - boston, ma. with my B having the best date and birthday weekend ever.
mar. 8-11 - brunswick, ga. for high tide. i'm excited. three full days of sun, sand, ultimate and partying. baller.
mar. 13-14 - philly, pa. for philly classic. again, excited. this should be fun. and new. and challenging. all good things.
consensus = awesome. i plan on coming back to pittsburgh tanned, sunburned, sore, grassburned, bruised...and grinning like an idiot. fingers crossed this actually happens.
wish me luck! :)
my new pooter! :) all new and shiny...and now covered in stickers.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
dreidel, dreidel, dreidel! i made it out of clay!
winter break plans:
dec. 11th - 18th - BOSTON (Chez Shavit)
dec. 11th - 18th - HAPPY HANNUKAH!!! :)
dec. 18th - jan. 4th - HONG KONG (Chez Moi)
dec. 25th - MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! :)
jan. 1st - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! :)
jan. 4th - 10th - BOSTON (Chez Magil)
jan. 10th - back to PITTSBURGH
dec. 11th - 18th - BOSTON (Chez Shavit)
dec. 11th - 18th - HAPPY HANNUKAH!!! :)
dec. 18th - jan. 4th - HONG KONG (Chez Moi)
dec. 25th - MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! :)
jan. 1st - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! :)
jan. 4th - 10th - BOSTON (Chez Magil)
jan. 10th - back to PITTSBURGH
meet dug. i have just met him. and i love him. :)
thank you, B! <3
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
i really think it's just a matter of time.
thanksgiving rundown.
tuesday:
* took off from PIT @ 7:37pm to land in IAD @ 8:49pm
* took off from IAD @ 10:15pm to land in BOS @ 11:34pm
* wait through crazy traffic to finally get picked up by my B!!!
* 30 Rock and awesomeness before passing out
wednesday:
* wake up
* lunch @ Johnny D's in davis sq. with LL!!!
* watch Gleeeeeeeee
* watch Definitely, Maybe
* get a long-awaited and much-needed massage...mmm...
* pass out. again.
thursday:
* wake up THANKSGIVING MORNING
* help out around the house - cleaning, cooking, whatnot
* have an absolutely fabulous thanksgiving meal
* be thankful :)
* more pie
* watch Up!
* more relaxing, massages and passing out. again.
thanksgiving breakfast!
snowman cookie!!
snowman cookie did some poos...
friday:
* wake up
* thanksgiving breakfast!
* harvard sq. for new converses and a haircut for B
* lunch with rob @ felipe's
* make stepford cookies, ginormo cookies and cookie snowmen
* leftover thanksgiving dinner
* more 30 Rock
* pass out.
B's mini stepford cookies!
all fresh and tasty!!
my ginormo cookie vs. B's stepford cookie!!!
[i may have been overcompensating...]
saturday:
* wake up
* more thanksgiving breakfast
* Berryline :)
* more leftover thanksgiving dinner
* hang out with LL and Puck
* heading out to JP to hang out with mergelings
* more cookies and ice cream
* more 30 Rock
* pass out
sunday:
* wake up
* more thanksgiving breakfast
* meet meera for some adviseeness and more Berryline
* more leftover thanksgiving dinner
* more 30 Rock
* pass out
monday:
* brunch at Sound Bites in somerville with B :)
* head to Logan to head out back to PIT
overall:
* super productive break
* super fun
* pretty relaxing
* uber loads of fun times with my B :)
let's do it again some time. ;)
<3
tuesday:
* took off from PIT @ 7:37pm to land in IAD @ 8:49pm
* took off from IAD @ 10:15pm to land in BOS @ 11:34pm
* wait through crazy traffic to finally get picked up by my B!!!
* 30 Rock and awesomeness before passing out
wednesday:
* wake up
* lunch @ Johnny D's in davis sq. with LL!!!
* watch Gleeeeeeeee
* watch Definitely, Maybe
* get a long-awaited and much-needed massage...mmm...
* pass out. again.
thursday:
* wake up THANKSGIVING MORNING
* help out around the house - cleaning, cooking, whatnot
* have an absolutely fabulous thanksgiving meal
* be thankful :)
* more pie
* watch Up!
* more relaxing, massages and passing out. again.
thanksgiving breakfast!
snowman cookie!!
snowman cookie did some poos...
friday:
* wake up
* thanksgiving breakfast!
* harvard sq. for new converses and a haircut for B
* lunch with rob @ felipe's
* make stepford cookies, ginormo cookies and cookie snowmen
* leftover thanksgiving dinner
* more 30 Rock
* pass out.
B's mini stepford cookies!
all fresh and tasty!!
my ginormo cookie vs. B's stepford cookie!!!
[i may have been overcompensating...]
saturday:
* wake up
* more thanksgiving breakfast
* Berryline :)
* more leftover thanksgiving dinner
* hang out with LL and Puck
* heading out to JP to hang out with mergelings
* more cookies and ice cream
* more 30 Rock
* pass out
sunday:
* wake up
* more thanksgiving breakfast
* meet meera for some adviseeness and more Berryline
* more leftover thanksgiving dinner
* more 30 Rock
* pass out
monday:
* brunch at Sound Bites in somerville with B :)
* head to Logan to head out back to PIT
overall:
* super productive break
* super fun
* pretty relaxing
* uber loads of fun times with my B :)
let's do it again some time. ;)
<3
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