Canada and Christmastime!

The following message is marked "Urgent": Montréal is the best, most kickass city in Canada and beyond, and I LOVED it!!!!

First of all, it's a nice size of a city, with many different neighborhoods and quartiers, including Vieux Montréal which is quaint and sweet and European. It had snowed, and not only was the city a fabulous fairytale of a village under the snow, but the town was completely decked out for Christmas at every turn. Sparkling, glittering lights, snowflakes, trees, wreaths at every corner, in every window. (I told Jens we couldn't talk about it or acknowledge it until the Friday after Thanksgiving though... one holiday at a time!) Also, Montréal was big on live music, lots of performers in every pub, club and bar. Then, EVERYONE we met was PERFECTLY bilingual, it was unbelievable. You've never seen such a well-adjusted city. And they weren't rude little Frenchies about having to switch. The norm was to greet everyone by saying "Bonjour, hi!" and see which language they responded in and continue the conversation from there. Jens and I happily spoke French with everyone, elated that enough had survived to get along just fine. Aaaaand... EVERYONE was SO NICE. I fell in love with every single waiter, waitress, host, hostess, bartender, passerby... I wanted to buy a house in New York City and bring them all home with me because everyone was so polite and sweet. It never failed to amaze me!!

So the eleven hours of my train ride went faster than you'd imagine, but it was definitely starting to wear on me towards the end. The train went straight through upstate New York into Canada, passing into Vermont at one weird straggly spot, and it was lots of snow and iced lakes and streams as a view.



But Lake Champlain was a beautiful view, it was sad we never slowed or stopped nearby it, only zoomed past. There were some mighty cliffs over the expanse of the lake, but I never did get a very good picture of it. I knew we were close, but I just had my music on and was leaning my head against the train window when the skyline across the river became visible, and it was such a beautiful sight!



This is the song I was listening to as I saw it, I thought it was such a great moment, I wanted to remember the song and the view for always.



Jens and I enjoyed Montréal immensely. We slept in, saw the sights, had great dinners and stopped in lots of bars and clubs. We saw Vieux Montréal (where we stayed), Les Quartiers Latin et Chinois, hiked Mont Royal, shopped Rue Sainte Catherine, passed Occupy Montréal in the snow, and visited the Olympic Park.



























(Jens has all the good pictures on his phone, sadface).

As Sunday approached, Jens had a huge surprise for me. Mr Lufthansa Employee was able to get not only a plane ticket for himself to New York City for a few days, but for ME too! I didn't have to take the train back! I got to enjoy an hour and a half plane ride back home! And Jens has been around in New York City with me since, and he leaves to go back to Germany this afternoon.

We've been getting into the Christmas spirit in the meantime. We went to the holiday market at Union Square, and got "gluehwein" (spoiler alert... it wasn't), and Jens bought me a miniature Christmas tree!! Last night I pulled out the like, 3 Christmas decorations I had from my last apartment and tried to put some up. We put on Christmas music and decorated my tiny little Tanenbaum, ate some of the gingerbread he brought me from home, and then watched Nightmare Before Christmas.

Today the tree at Rockefeller is going to be lit so it's all right on time!

Good Morning Neverland!

Hello world! Since it’s too much to go home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I love Christmas a billion times more and prefer to be home for that, I knew I was going to be sticking around this coast for the Thanksgiving holiday. However, getting two days off is just too easy, and without the lure of family, so I booked a trip to Montréal, Québec, Canada where I will be meeting up with Jens, flying in from Germany.

What a hectic two-day work week it was, and I’m not being sarcastic. It was unbelievably stressful with papers, appointments, class, errands, and preparing to leave. I didn’t think I was going to survive, and was worried about missing the train (only one in the morning, the next on Friday!) and yet, I woke up joyfully on time and awake in the morning. I felt like Debbie in Knocked Up when she says "I've had about three Red Bulls in the past 15 minutes. And I feel fabulous!"

And now I am officially en route to Montréal through the Hudson Valley and Adirondacks Mountains and already hate some of the people on the train lololol but I’ve got a window seat, I’m facing forward, I’ve got my laptop, my writing, my book, movies, music, food, snacks and beers. Vacation has begun and I am thankful for that!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LITTLEST SISTER ♥

Hard worker, hipster, emo, Japanese-speakin' and failblog... the baby is 20 years old today!



Kathleen is The Great Equalizer. Everyone gets along with Kathleen and she creates a lot of harmony in the family and can smooth out everyone's issues with each other. Lololol. Kathleen was telling me that she was really freaking out about turning 20 and not being a teenager anymore, so I've rounded up some pictures with anecdotes to share the Kathleen I know with everyone, to show that you have lots to be proud of, much more to look forward to, and remind everyone how lucky they are to have her!

I have always been a camera queen, and I would raise Kathleen to be on the other side of it so I can always been in front. See that derpy little boy on the blanket behind me and my fabulous cat? That's Kathleen, and she was routinely mistaken for a boy. My sisters and I used to have to translate whatever she said for anyone else around, lulz.



We had the most fabulous, wonderful, fun-filled roadtrip from Riverside up to Vancouver, Canada one summer, winding down through some western states, and Kathleen and I had so much fun! Here are a few snapshots of the journey...

Waking up on the Oregon border. See what I mean by emo? That hair fall was NOT on accident



On the Oregon coast. I remember making Kathleen pick me up after we wrote "Yeah the Knicks Rule All!!" in the sand here


Oregon coastline


In Seattle. I kept trying to slap her derriere


At the top of the Space Needle!


Somewhere in western Washington


As we drove through Idaho... I remember because this picture was saved as "Idaho Schnuggle" lololol


On the last leg of this trip, we were in Las Vegas and Kathleen was in the worst mood ever! This is us trying to walk the strip, but Kathleen was all blah and didn't want to be there. We compromised to take one picture and then went back in. Here are the results of that one picture. She's really not happy


Okay so this was a farewell BBQ for me before I left for France, here are me and some of my cousins, but let's all take a moment to acknowledge that ridiculous shirt that Kathleen is wearing. She made it herself by making bombs of fabric and GLUING ON ARMY MEN. Nothing but class.


Here's me and Kathleen at Disneyland one Thanksgiving break after Shannon's first play. It took us forever to get there that night because I locked my keys in my car and we had to wait for AAA to come to us in the parking lot of Shannon's school. The passenger side door lock was never the same after that!


She stole this sweatshirt from me, got paint on it one day in the high school theatre shop, and then I stole it back. Now, I have no idea where it is. She probably stole it back back and I never even noticed


This is typical Kathleen. I had no idea she was behind me


Here's another Disneyland session, our picture from Space Mountain


One Fourth of July, Kathleen came down to San Diego with me and friends, here was us at Carlsbad Beach that day


And at a family picnic when Uncle Carl served up some righteous Uncle Carls, we toasted to each other this way


Here was Kathleen in NYC with me last summer. I was deathly ill and probably snorting out a lot of snot, I did not look or feel good on this day


Kathleen was also in NYC for Snowmageddon. Here is how we spent my day off, in Central Park


And when she dragged us to the Brooklyn Fridge at midnight on her last night in NYC. There was a reason we were the only people out there!


And just this summer, we found ourselves at Disneyland yet again!


And just as a little comparison, this was me on my 20th birthday. I remember it was on a Tuesday, and it was finals week (as it ALWAYS was in college!! Argh). My roommates took me out to a sushi dinner and here was dessert. Nom nom nom. That feels like ages ago! But only 5 1/2 years. Lulz.


And two years ago (I think?) on Kat's bday all the seesters went to Disneyland to celebrate.


And what the heck happened to our Peter Pan hats?? We wanted to get "Kittens" embroidered on hers but apparently you have to PROVE your name by showing documentation. How stupid is that?!


Alrighty well back to work with me. Happy Birthday little Kittens...! ONE MORE YEAR and then we won't have to put up with THIS underage stuff no morez!


Shannon: YOU'RE NEXT!

Home Away From Home

The Triple Crown and I have become involved in a pretty great love affair. I love the Triple Crown, I love all the memories of all the happy hours past, I love how it's always the same two Irish bartenders without fail that never say more than two words to you unless you're J Evans, I love how I can go in any day of the week and join some old coworker, some group of friends, for a drink, I love the stupid pillars that block half of the room and I love the outdoor space in the summertime, and I love all my old work family that love that place just as much.

Yesterday I yet again made a special guest appearance at the work happy hour (I have yet to miss a happy hour since coming to New York, not to mention that I haven't been employed there for the past six months) but it's gotten a little bittersweet. With a slow and weird transition of the corporate admissions team to Boston, the staff gets smaller, everyone has been getting less interested, and it's just not the same as the hustling bustling center that it was when I first came. But it will always be a familiar comfort symbol of my initial transition to New York, and remind me of my first springtime when I crossed the country to live here and spent all my time at my home away from home.

Still, last night was the same shenanigans with my usual crew (minus sober Jenny not being able to drink alcohol and telling all the laughing drunks around her: "That wasn't actually funny" lololololol) and I pulled my usual Irish goodbye and woke up this morning not even hung over, but possibly still drunk.

Lastly, I discovered this song yesterday and can't stop listening to it. I L-o-V-E it and it speaks for itself.



Now you're just somebody that I used to know.

Indian Summer

I was thinking today about how odd it was that I was walking outside with a light jacket and didn't even need my scarf-- and it's mid November. I am happy to soak up as much of autumn as humanly possible, but it does seem rather late in the year to have such great weather (today, though overcast and gloomy, was up to 69 or 70 degrees I think!) A woman in my office said we were having an Indian Summer, and I agreed. Then I went back to my desk and looked it up because I had no idea what that was (lololololol).

An Indian Summer is a meteorological phenomenon that occurs in the autumn. It refers to a period of considerably above normal temperatures, accompanied by dry and hazy conditions, usually after there has been a killing frost. Depending on latitude and elevation, the phenomenon can occur in the Northern Hemisphere between late September and mid November. (via Wikipedia).

Killing frost! Remember the freak snow storm on October 29? And today is exactly mid-November! It's exactly that! I think it means that winter might last really long (sadface) but I suppose the more of autumn we have, the happier I am.

Also, someone recently played for me their live, acoustic rendition of The Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie (aka Peggy O) and I was so enamoured by the soft and melodious interpretation that I later went home and opened up a research project on all the versions of the unknown-author folk song. I was not at all impressed with the twangy, bluegrass sounding tracks by Bob Dylan or Simon & Garfunkel, and not even the Grateful Dead compared with what I had heard over the weekend. I had it in my head and wouldn't rest until I found something similar, and I happened upon this youtube version of it.



Ironically, I think it's done wonderfully, and the guy sounds EXACTLY like Jack Johnson... I am convinced Jack Johnson has a track of this song out there somewhere that this joker just dubbed over his visual, buuuuut either way I still get to listen to this, so it's win-win. I find it to be splendid, relaxing, beautiful music for fall weather.

Would you marry me pretty Peggy-O?
Would you marry me pretty Peggy-O?
If you would marry me
I would set your cities free
Free all the people of the area-O

I would marry you, sweet William-O
I would marry you, sweet William-O

Touching Down on Bourbon Street

Yesterday I had to work another alumni event in midtown, which normally I don't mind at all dressing nice, getting ina cab and spending an evening with an open bar and appetizers, but I hadn't been feeling well, and it was getting worse. Then, three of us in a cab with our coats on, stuck in an erratic taxi slamming on his breaks every 2 minutes in the Park Avenue traffic with the windows up gave me nausea I never really got over all night long.

When the event was finally over, I was still nauseous so the last thing I wanted to do was get in a cab, so I decided to walk to the subway and take that mode of transport home. Sure am happy I did because I got to witness the Empire State Building's private lighting. (They called it "tie-dyed" and it didn't say was the occasion was because it was private). The east side was oranges and yellows and greens, and my picture didn't turn out very well, but this west side view of it was much better



Sooooo cool! I am so easily entertained. And I passed by this super fancy store with the window display that changed colors the whole time, it was really easy to stop and stare



All the pretty colors make me happy.

Aaaaand, in honor of 11/11/11, I would like to share my favorite excerpts from the CNN article talking about how people around the world are celebrating this historic numeric date

In China, November 11 has been celebrated each year as an unofficial “Singles’ Day” since it was first created by a group of college students in Nanjing in the 1990s. The ones in the date represent “unattached sticks,” a Chinese term for single people.

Lolololol, please call me an unattached stick from now on. The "unattached stick" reminded me of this picture that I saw that makes me lolololol



When I, an unattached stick, find my other half, another "unattached stick", I hope to re-enact this furry creature's elation, and I will also have this blown up poster-sized to be signed by all the guests at our wedding. It will be our engagement photo.

Continued from CNN: One mall in northeastern China’s Shenyang, Liaoning province has asked employees to dress up in bear costumes and beat couples showing signs of affection with inflatable hammers.

China seems to have the best celebrations, don't they? At 11:11 on 11/11/11 I was just sitting at my desk working on Excel and listening to the Primitive Radio Gods (a song you all know from this one-hit-wonder of the 90s). It's one of my favorite songs lyrics-wise, it's very profound, but also super melancholy.



Just so I didn't spend that whole 60 seconds listening to a depressing song being depressed, I also texted mah gurl Jayna to mark the occasion. Just another day in the life.

The Portrait of a Lady

I'm not sure if it's due to the time change or if I finally got my act together, but lately I've been able to wake up with enough time to make lunch and get dressed leisurely (and not be so sleepy that I pack my dress and put on steamed vegetables by accident) that I've been leaving early and getting to work early. But the age old question comes into play: Who wants to be at work early?

I work right next to a small community garden and park, where many stay-at-home moms and nannies and dogwalkers (sorry, some of the kids look like that) bring kids to play during the day. So instead of waltzing in 15 minutes early, I decided to enjoy the brisk air, and the NYC fall scenery, so I sat on a bench in my red coat and heels and put a solid 15 minutes into Henry James' The Portrait of a Lady. As I did I thought to myself, I wish someone would paint a portrait of a lady (me) reading The Portrait of a Lady. And then maybe a photographer could take a portrait of the painter painting the lady reading The Portrait of a Lady. And in my mind came screaming back "I'm a LADY, I do LADY things!" from this gem of a skit:



Please, please watch this skit. You will never hear "lady" again the same. HELLO LADY!

Yaaaaaay Sri !!

On the road visiting potential business schools, Sri got to make a stop in NYC over the weekend to have tons of fun with me!

The weather was fabulous... crisp, cool, chilly, and bright sunny blue skies without a cloud nearby. Occupy Wall Street, Katz's Deli, The Nexus of the Universe, Crocodile Lounge and plenty of fun bars with friendly bartenders was just the start. Breakfast brunch, The San Francisco 49ers game, pool at the Fat Cat Jazz club, and late night Dunkin Donuts (should they rename that to Drunken Donuts?) we had SO. MUCH. FUN!! We packed in everything we possibly could for his time here and I am still exhausted today, despite the hour we gained over the weekend.











Sri also loves Seinfeld (always nice to have a fellow Seinfeld fan around to get all the jokes!) so if you watch this, you will see why we were so excited to see ourselves at the below intersection





Also, I felt like we heard this song in every bar we were in, I officially declare it the Song of Last Weekend



Sri left this morning for Philadelphia to continue his business school visits and I am sleepy at work. It was fun to have a friend in town this weekend! It's amazing what we were able to do in such a short time.

Paramental Activity

I keep my brain stimulated during mundane or routine tasks with music. Actually with any task, I have at least one headphone in (and suddenly I wonder how fluent I would be in Spanish if I had been playing some Rosetta Stone tapes all the while instead?) and today... I. FORGOT. MY. HEADPHONES. It's like the Opposite of Clockwork Orange where they repeat the same song... it's Counter-clockwork Lemon and all I have is silence that's driving me up a wall. I guess I could play my music low but then I risk becoming "that girl" who plays Ke$ha or puts Arcade Fire on repeat (and I love to repeat songs over and over again). So I've been taking breaks to mindlessly look at websites that I know make me laugh, and this G-Rated one was so cute!



When I read that first line from the cat I knew it was worth it! This is why I lovelovelove cats. They're not mindless drug-induced crazies.

My life turned so hectic recently. With Chicago and Halloween, then work turned into a stress-storm with this last minute event for alumni in Milan, I'm behind on grocery shopping and laundry, taking in dry cleaning, having presentations and assignments for class, and Sri is coming into town this weekend. On the one hand all I want to do is just go home and sleep. Play with my rats, watch Breaking Bad, and sleep. Buuuut everytime I feel exhausted and think "Screw it, cancel everything, I won't go" I think "Soooo after work I'll just go home...?" BORING! So I continue to run around in a self-induced tornado (think Tasmanian Devil) going to classes, going to the sign language group, hauling groceries from the Trader Joe's on West 72nd, and wondering when will be the best time to pull the fire alarm in the building so as to meet the firefighters at the station next door.