Morning Lulz.

I love starting my morning off with something humorous, even just a sarcastic comment or witty remark can help put me in a good mood for the day, that's why I have my Urban Dictionary word of the day email, and The Office page a day desk calendar. But despite these, this morning it all came from the transcripts of the Charlie Sheen rants from the weekend.

"I have cleansed myself. I closed my eyes and in a nanosecond, I cured myself… It’s the work of sissies. The only thing I’m addicted to is winning. This bootleg cult, arrogantly referred to as Alcoholics Anonymous, reports a 5 percent success rate. My success rate is 100 percent" lolololololol and of course the other:

"I'm on a drug. It's called Charlie Sheen".

Lulz.

Stretching My Dollaz

I have always been an incredibly stingy saver of money. I used to live off of $80 a month after rent when I first moved to San Diego. (How did I do that?!) I always felt like I would need money for the "next step", even if I couldn't see it or know what was around the bend, but I was always terrified of being given an opportunity of something that I wouldn't be able to pay for. Now I make much, much more than that, but in New York City, saving anything is close to impossible, and even the necessities necessitate almost all I make. So while I can only scrimp saving meager amounts from the bottom of the barrel, I've definitely seen that God continues to provide for me always. I pay my rent, I buy groceries, I get to go out with friends, I have a work and play clothes, I furnished my place and have some nice things and I don't know... it's just nice to be content with the simple life. For once i've decided I'm not going to be furiously stingy but instead relax and play in this stage of life, because I love New York City and the life I'm building here.

In light of this, I went out last night with Jayna to go to our coworkers' band's show in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and hung out afterwards. Tonight I'm having family dinner with Ronnie, Betsy and Casey, and though I was saving the rest of my bank account for my electricity bill, I found out it wasn't due until after my next paycheck, so I treated myself to a manicure and pedicure from the nail salon downstairs. It's a beautiful, clear day and it's warming up. Life is good.

Wakey, Wakey

I slept in a lot today. But after finally getting up, I was able to Zumba my way into a state of alertness (um, 20 minutes was enough for me too, geez that thing is killer) now I've got my coffee and going to spend a cold winter day indoors completely revolutionizing my apartment. How did I come with only 2 suitcases of clothes and now my entire place is crammed and cluttered?? I'm working on rearranging with all the new furniture I have, cleaning, and maybe later on some laundry. I love the days when I'm actually in the mood to clean and get stuff done!

Also, I never did post picture of my beautiful roses I received on Valentine's Day.


These were the flowers at my desk


It's actually like, sixteen


And when I finally brought them home.

Okay. Off to clean now.

Lamebook

I just love funny things, and everything that makes me laugh, this is one of the good ones from lamebook recently.



Ironically it's not lame at all, it's hilarious.

Chowder Powder

We lost cute little Chowder (WOULD I?!) over the weekend. My favorite memory of Chowder was when I was holding him facing me and poking his chest, and he actually boxed my face! It was this incredible, swatting the sides of my head a few times before jumping out of my arms that I had never seen before, but it was so cute (minus his agony at my annoying him).



And through all of this we have to wonder: BELLE, HOW ARE YOU STILL GOING?! My little baby is 19 and still going strong, even though everyone else around her seems to drop like flies. Keep on keeping on, Binks. Chowder... we miss you :'(

ZUMBA

My goal of continuing to be physically active throughout the winter is only taking shape now... at the end of February. Way to go, self. Well better late than never. I now own a gazillion DVD's of Zumba workouts, including the toning sticks. I am SO EXCITED to get this off the ground. Everyone, prepare yourselves for Kristin's upcoming washboard abs. And thank you thank you thank you Aunt Patricia!

The Way to Boston

I kept forgetting it was a three day weekend. On Friday night a friend of mine suggested I come on up to Boston, so I found a last minute ticket on a bus and got a one-way, since I seem to go to Boston so often now I can't bring myself to buy the train ticket, which costs triple.

Did you know that Boston can be so significantly colder than New York City that we had to spend the majority of the weekend indoors? I don't think I had ever been so cold before, just walking a few blocks to get Starbucks with the wind made my face feel like it had frostbite and I had to duck into doorways to take a break because it was SO COLD. I can't even describe it. But it was my first time in Chinatown in Boston, so I still got to see something new.

Today when I decided to finally buy my ticket back, I just could not justify the extra amount for the train, so I bought another bus ticket, and I am on the bus now, I'm somewhere in Connecticut or Rhode Island, and considering the buses are charter, and have outlets and WiFi and bathrooms, they're really not all that bad, and considerably cheaper. My only problem is that on road trips now I can't sing out loud like I used to do in the car. But I can't do that on the train either.

Global Warming Warning...!

Yesterday it got to a balmy 54 degrees and what a difference the world here became! Jayna and I got ice cream after lunch, people were out walking the streets and cafes even brought tables out onto the sidewalks. This morning I noticed how much snow had melted, and how much wider the sidewalks were without those mounds of frozen snow taking up half of the walkway.

Today at work we've been amusing ourselves by lip synching to someone else. For instance, I'm hiding under my desk singing out "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga and Jayna is standing up and lip synching to my singing. It's nice to have your manager out when it's a Friday.

Office Shenanigans

I love my office. I thought it would be difficult to adjust from functioning independently in San Diego to being on the 4-person team here, but... I love it! And considering the stressful and demanding jobs that we all have here, we find ways to keep our sanity.

Take for instance, passing around newfound memes...













And the latest is that Jayna started bringing down candy from our vending machines to some of the IT guys on the 2nd floor who are too lazy to come up and get it. They've been paying her 50 cents extra for everything they order, and when she started to make a couple bucks profit, she decided to start a whole business of it. I keep trying to make her let me join, but she says she needs all the money for Lasik Eye Surgery (I need that too!). She made a "menu" and sent it out, and I convinced her to include me on it, this is what she sent:



So what did I do? A quick fixes here and there, and turned myself into a competitor:



Welcome to capitalism! Also, to tug on the conscious a bit, I included this image of myself to my business announcement email



I love my office and coworkers. I can keep my sanity here... but just marginally.

Uncle Carl the Man

I am so proud and happy to see how well everyone has responded to turning those dour-named cranberry-vodka drinks into a vibrant "Uncle Carl". Family, friends, and coworkers alike are all spreading the good news!

I forgot to send out the memo that Kathleen, while she was in New York, submitted a definition of an Uncle Carl to Urban Dictionary, and it was approved! Urban Dictionary is more street slang and lesser known uses of words that people can submit (but must be approved by their staff!) Below, you can all see for yourself.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=uncle+carl

On the right side of the page you can also give it a "thumbs up". With The Real Uncle Carl in surgery yesterday, I think we are all more motivated than ever to get this thing off the ground. Let's infiltrate society and commemorate this forever.

Blessings, love and prayer to Aunt Judee and especially Uncle Carl right now.

Fur Coats

There are still too many people with fur coats in the winter. Mainly pretentious old white women. I'm not even against fur for animal rights purposes, but they're just so... UGLY and I feel like they are so antiquated! I mean, with all these down coats and the technology today, who still NEEDS or even WANTS a fur coat anymore?! And again, they're hideous.

I had a nice day yesterday. I even have a dozen red roses blooming on my desk today.

Listen to Youtube

Thank you, Kathleen Arielle, for enlightening my music world with free music, via ListenToYoutube.com. I've learned that the secret to getting over Taylor Swift is the year 2000, aka 8th grade when my top music selections were Deftones (White Pony album), Korn, Rage Against the Machine, and especially Garbage. I spent a good chunk of time yesterday just getting all these gems into my iTunes library.

I had a good weekend. Yesterday I was with a friend and we were just wandering around New York City and ended up on those red bleachers on the north side of Times Square, and I was just thinking about how lucky I was to live in a city where Times Square is just my backyard, just my hangout spot. It's so fun!

This morning a student came and gave all the student services roses. I just love the casanovas these students try to be.

Big Love

I am obsessed with Mormons, and I don't know why. Ever since I learned about it, or Mormon friends invited me to church with them, I started researching it and have devoured books on the history and theology, by both inside and outside sources. You know that part in Mean Girls when they see Ms Norbury at the mall and Janice Ian says "I love seeing teachers outside of school, it's like watching a dog walk on it's hind legs". That's kinda how I feel about Mormons!

Well when HBO came out with a show on fundamentalist polygamist Mormons, I was stoked, and thanks to Pam and Priya in San Diego, I was able to start from Season 1. I got Season 3 for Christmas in 2009 as soon as it came out, and until last night I had been devoid of any further seasons, and they just began the 6th (and last) season last month, so I finally got to Netflix season 4 which came in last night, and they had CHANGED the opening intro, but it is BADASS!



I am just in love with it, I think it's amazing.

The Links I Like Today

So it IS possible to have a penguin? I MUST HAVE THIS!!



Aaaaaaaaand I found another heartwarming report from Egypt's newfound tolerance for religious freedom, and a cautious update

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/10/my-take-why-egypts-christians-are-excited-but-nervous/?hpt=T1

Anyone else seen anything good out there?

The Subway Mass

A bad subway ride can take all morning to wear off. Today was fine, but yesterday was miserable. If a train is delayed even a few minutes, the platforms become so congested and people are just throwing themselves into the trains and it is crowded and miserable and blah. Even in the evening it was like that, when Ronnie and I hopped on the L train (after a ride on the 1 train which was actually Daddy Day Care)!

It's hard to even fathom how many people are in this city. When I leave work, if you head up to Penn Station, EVERYTIME the crosswalk is green, the flood of people walking straight in is overwhelming, it looks like the million man march.

Today all I want to do is go STRAIGHT HOME and watch my Netflix disc of Big Love's Season 4, which is supposed to be there today!!

Scissorhands...

Saw this picture from a link Maka posted for the 20th anniversary of Edward Scissorhands. I love this movie! I remember watching it as a kid and loving the parts when he cuts all the hair, and when the mom puts the makeup on his face, and I hated when he came out of the shadows of the attic, and pops the waterbed in the middle of the night.

Isn't this picture beautiful though? It really gets the essence of his pain, I think.

Superbowl Sunday.

When I moved to New York, I said goodbye to the traditional house party as I knew it. There just isn't the space out here, and even though there is a Costco or two out here, loading up on normal groceries alone is a pain, forget about party size. And that, for the most part, was fine because who wants to stay indoors while you have the whole city around you? Well I forgot about Superbowl Sunday.

No one in the city was having people over (because all the apartments can only fit like 5 people anyway) and I really wasn't down to go sit at a bar ALL DAY with overpriced drinks for a game of two teams that I really couldn't care less about. So Ronnie and I got sushi in Queens and watched the game on their TV's, before swinging at some creepy snowed-over park and then coffee.

On the way home, a homeless man approached me and asked if he could tell me something. He was completely sober, and earnest, so I said yes. He told me that it's hard to be homeless, he doesn't want to ask for money because people don't want to give it, because it's theirs. They say the homeless smell, but would you give him your clothes? And he doesn't have soap to wash them afterwards. But if I would go home and read Ecclesiastes 4:10, I would understand, and the whole city would be better off if they read it, and if I saw him again, I should wave and smile at him. I agreed, and he smiled at me so warmly before he got off the train. He wasn't even that old either. He was black and bohemian too. As soon as I got home I looked up the verse:

For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up...

Alphabetical Rankings

Somehow in high school, the girls in my government class came to the conclusion that the goal of marriage was to progress in the alphabetical rankings of society. So I have a decent chance of moving up in that world with a current last name of K, since there are 10 letters that come before it, while someone who already has a last name of A shouldn't even try.

I think the same could be said for the state you live in. In California, whenever filling out electronic forms and needing to select my state, just entering "C" would be enough, as California was the first one. Now, not only do I start by entering "N", but I have to scroll through Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New Mexico!! It always feels so tedious after what I grew up with. You just don't know what you have until it's gone.

Egyptian Protests

I keep up on politics, but I don't like to discuss them. In these days, it's a fruitless and ruthless battle, and not worth the arguments. Is anyone really going to change anyone else's mind?

At any rate, I'm sure everyone's heard about the uprising in Egypt which totally stole Tunisia's thunder. One of my coworkers in the corporate office has been keeping us all up to date on the progress, and she re-posted this picture that was up on Twitter, which I absolutely love, I think it is so moving.



This is a chain of Christian Egyptians protecting Muslim Egyptians as they pray during the riots. Why does it take such adversity to remind us that we are all human? I think I am remembering this wrong, but in high school when learning about the Cold War, I believe JFK said something to the Russians like "We both care about our children" or something. That in the end, we were all human and simply wanted to continue with our lives and families and to preserve the world for our following generation.

In a world religions class in college, when learning about violence in the name of God, a student asked "how can religion justify killing?" and the professor replied "religion is the only thing that can justify killing, don't you think?" A supreme being with a will above our own would be the only means of compensating for taking lives of our peers (if it were indeed true, and of course this is up for debate).

However, doesn't it seem like love is so much more moving, and cover over a multitude of sins? I love looking at this picture, because that is what it represents to me.

L ♥ V E

One of the worst things about New York City is that everyone's single (and apparently wants to keep it that way). One of the best things about New York City is that everyone is single.

It seems like every day you wake up is something new, and everywhere you go is another opportunity to meet someone, and everyone seems really open to new prospects, and good at flirting. And there are so many people, and it can be so casual and just good practice. I mean, who knows how to date anymore? Like today I went to Radio Shack to get an HDMI cable to connect my computer to my TV, and the guy helping me was so friendly, and chatty, and it was such a potential situation.

Everyone who meets someone in the city seems to have such a great story of how they met their partner. In California, it's all work, school, or mutual friends. In New York, the best stories reign. You know, the barista at Starbucks mixed up our drinks... we rode the elevator in my building together... he accidentally sat on me in the subway... and I even found this article about it with New York couples specifically!

So you just never know!

Did You See That?!

A Stephen Colbert heart bubble just came out of my head.

They are just never ending... I LOVE HIM!

The Brooklyn Fridge

For Kathleen's last day in New York City, I think it's sufficient to say that we took it quite easy. When we finally got motivated to get up and get out, our only plans were to eat.

This guy was quite the Dick Van Dyke from Mary Poppins, look at all that he's got going on! Kathleen wanted to give him money, but she was "scared"


I made Kathleen admire my nose piercing while we were waiting for the train

Since Crocodile Lounge was carding, we got gyros from a street vendor, then went to Chipotle for chips and salsa, and a Corona for those of us who were of age ;) Even after all that, I hadn't had coffee yet and had a huge headache, so we went to the Starbucks in the Village and just sat


Look at her just sitting.

While in Starbucks, Kathleen got it in her head that she wanted to see the Brooklyn Bridge before leaving. Mind you it was already around 10pm, cold and misty and damp and freezing. Since we were basically sitting on the train stop I acquiesced and we made the trek.

Our shots on the Brooklyn Fridge:




Our shots in the skyline:




Because of the misty wetness, all of the snow had a layer of ice over it, which made it look like fake, plastic snow you would see at Disneyland, I can't tell if it translates in this picture or not


Today it is miserably icy, the sidewalk is under an inch of ice, it's like an ice skating rink, only worse because it is organic and uneven, and everyone walks against the wall, holding railings and baby stepping. It is ridiculous. I am at work slaving away and Kathleen is probably still sleeping. She's coming to my work later today and we will schlep out to JFK for her return flight (assuming it's not canceled). I called her but she was grumpy and sleepy still. Mrah! Kiki so sad. We've had such a (long!) FUN time together, now it's going to be lonely...

♥

THE COLBERT REPORT ♥

Yesterday was the culmination of my years in love with Stephen Colbert, all thanks to Pam who got me into The Colbert Report when I moved to San Diego, and I spent the first few months of unemployment looking for jobs whilst watching the show. I LOVE STEPHEN COLBERT. He is the best! And ever since I started watching him, really all those other hosts: Conan, Jay Leno, etc, no one seems as funny anymore. Stephen takes the cake by far.

So I tried to get standby to see his show before in the summer, but didn't make it in. Kathleen and I decided to try yesterday, so we may have overcompensated and got there a few hours before anyone gets checked in, and we're not even sure if they're filming and soon we are so cold from just standing it was unbearable. Even some of the workers said to us "you know they don't check people in until 4, right?"


Notice how NO ONE is around??

When they finally took names for the standby, we were numbers 1 and 2, and then we ran away for an hour and a half to get warm in a Starbucks and Chipotle, respectively and made it back to see if we got in. I was excited enough that we got called to go in, but there was way more in store for us...





We enter into the holding tank and go through security. As I'm putting my jacket back on, and Kathleen is going through herself, one of the workers pulled me in and said "Hold onto this, they'll call white tickets first and then you get to the front of the line."



Why he gave this to me, I have no idea, but we guarded it with our lives. When they opened the studio and announced white tickets first, I felt like we had Golden Tickets from Willy Wonka's chocolate factory as I had to hold it up and fight through the back of the crowd to the front. So, we got to sit FRONT ROW. Absolutely a dream come true.

They had some guy come out and do some warm up, just mess around with the crowd and get us all in a good mood. He kept pointing to me and Kathleen and saying that he liked our energy. He started talking to me and asked what I did. I said I worked. He asked if I liked my job. I said no. He asked what I wanted to do. I said be Stephen's wife. Everyone started laughing and he told me security was talking about me now and had an extra eye on me already. Oops! He kept pointing me out.

When Stephen ran out I almost fainted, I COULDN'T BELIEVE I was seeing him in front of me, there he was! He ran along the front row and even gave us all high five's. I probably could have just left then on cloud nine.

They gave us a lecture about laughing loudly because "they couldn't hear smiles" and we had to have energy for Stephen to feed off of, and I was so concentrated on that, and also just so out of my head watching Stephen Colbert film in front of me that I really don't remember much from what he was saying or filming. Being front row we got quite a few expressions and eye contact out of him, especially during the commercial breaks.

At the end of the show he came and shook the hands of everyone in the front row. I got so worried that he would pass over me I screamed "Stephen!" and he grabbed my hand and looked me in the eye and said "thank you for coming". It was the defining moment of my life! We had to slowly file out but I was beyond myself.


This was on the wall of the holding tank lobby.

I feel like a little middle schooler with Bieber Fever but I can't help it! I'll never forget that moment when I learned that The Colbert Report was filmed in New York and thinking I'd never be able to see it, so this was a dream a long time coming! And front row and all? Indescribable. Heart bubbles coming out of my head all night long, and even today they're still floating out!

http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=372818
This is the link to the episode. You can see us for a good 2 seconds at the beginning when they scan the crowd. I have a pink shirt showing from under a gray top.

Oh, and then I was on such a high that Kathleen and I went to the East Village and I got my nose pierced. No big deal.