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Tuesday, October 31, 2006 ( 7:14 AM ) teahouse  All Hallow's EveHappy Halloween!! I can't decide what kind of costume to wear. I know, I know! I'll dress up as a stressed out lawyer! Ohhhh, is anything scarier than that??? # 0 comments Monday, October 30, 2006 ( 7:13 AM ) teahouse The Worst of Both Worlds Last Thursday night I had trouble sleeping, due to the loud traffic and yelling people in the streets of Manhattan outside. Then I had to wake up at the crack of dawn to catch a train so I could do my reverse commute out to the 'burbs. Half an hour after getting off the train, I was driving to the office when I came within 2 inches of crashing my car. A deer jumped out of the woods, leaped over my car hood, and bounded off into the distance. I slammed on my breaks and cursed, almost causing a 10-car pileup (which I avoided, but I'm pretty sure I stripped my breaks in the process). Finally getting to work, I looked at my sad little paycheck, and was reminded of the enormous paycut I took to leave BigLaw and go in-house. After I left work, I went straight home and then wrote out another check, in an amount equal to my entire pay, to my mortgage company for the payment on my tiny Manhattan apartment. # 0 comments Thursday, October 26, 2006 ( 7:10 AM ) teahouse Matchmaker I met two female friends for dinner last night. They've both been good friends of mine for over 5 years, but neither had met the other before. To be honest, I didn't think they'd like each other much. They have very different personalities. Although I love both of them dearly, when I introduced them to each other, I suspected that there wouldn't be much for them to talk about, and that I'd be the main one driving the conversation. I was dead wrong. The whole evening it was like the two of them were soulmates discovering each other. The following things were uttered over dinner: "Are you the youngest in your family? So am I!! We have so much in common!" "Were you looking to change jobs? Why don't you interview at my company? We'd love to hire someone like you!" "Did you just get married? Me, too! Which florist did you use? Isn't it a letdown after the honeymoon? It's like you suddenly have so much time! What did you do about the gifts you had to return?" "I have a 2-year old niece, and I love her! You have a 2-year old niece as well? Aren't they so much fun? We should get them together! I can't wait to have babies, can you? We're going to try right away." "Oh, my gosh, I feel that way about the current geopolitical situation, too! I didn't think anyone else agreed with me! THB certainly doesn't!" I barely spoke at all over dinner. I felt like the third wheel! 0 comments Tuesday, October 24, 2006 ( 7:31 AM ) teahouse Nerds on the Run Last night I had to leave work early to meet the Boy for a very important mission. We had to find him new glasses. His frame broke last week, and for the past few days he's been wearing his old glasses that pinch his head. The alternative is walking around with his lenses affixed to his broken frame with scotch tape. Very nerdly. The thing is, he can't even go shopping for new glasses without me. Because he's so blind without his glasses, that he can't even see what other frames look like when he wears them! Which makes for an interesting situation. He's basically helpless without me. Hahahaha. Last night he tried on several pairs. When I said, "Those look great on you!" he looked suspicious..as if he didn't trust what I was saying. But then he figured that my desire to NOT be seen walking down the street with his dorky self outweighed any other supposed desire to make him choose dorky looking frames. And began to trust me accordingly. We found him a very nice pair. I went to sleep early, my purpose in life fulfilled. # 0 comments Monday, October 23, 2006 ( 7:20 AM ) teahouse I Can't Relate Anymore Over the weekend I had dinner with 3 friends in the City, all lawyers. I knew them from my law firm days, and it had been a while since we'd all gotten together. Ever since I went in-house and started this long commute, it's been hard to coordinate schedules. We've known each other since we were first year associates. But it's been a while, so now all of them are pretty senior in their firms. That means they've got more and more responsibility. And they're nearing partnership, which spurns them to work even longer hours for the prize. It used to be that when we got together we'd all complain about the partners we worked for and how awful the hours are, and how we had no lives outside of work, and how there was no chance for advancement in a firm unless we played the game the way the men did, etc. This time, the three of them continued as always, with a list of grievances and complaints. But I found that I had little to add. Having left firm life, and no longer having an evil senior partner to complain about, seriously curtailed the material I could add to the conversation! So I found myself saying things like, "Well, uh, I just got my green belt in tae kwon do! And gosh, my Grandmaster is demanding!" # 0 comments Thursday, October 19, 2006 ( 6:45 AM ) teahouse A Cold Breeze I had some problems with the windows in my apartment earlier this week, and yesterday someone from my building's maintenance crew finally came around to help me. He was very friendly and helpful. He fiddled with my windows, and brought in a ladder to go up and inspect the installation of the glass. I kept yawning while he was fiddling around. "Long night, eh?" he asked. "Yeah," I laughed. "I was up late last night watching the Mets playoff game." A sudden chill came over the room. "Oh!" he said. After a few minutes of silence, he added, "I'm a Yankees fan." I tried to backpedal by insisting that I love all of the New York baseball teams. But I was too late. The damage had been done. My windows are still not fixed. Curse my loud mouth!! # 0 comments Tuesday, October 17, 2006 ( 12:25 AM ) teahouse Illusions Shattered It's amazing the things you learn about someone you think you know. I was talking to the Boy on the phone tonight, and somehow we started talking about the classes we took in college. "Yeah," I said. "I took calculus. I started in high school. I took Differential, Integral and Multivariable calculus. Then I took Differential Equations and Linear Algebra." The Boy confessed that he'd only gotten as high as Pre-calculus in high school, and never took any calculus at all in college. The conversation came to a grinding halt. I was speechless. "You've never taken calculus?" I asked incredulously. I think he was taken aback by my emotional response. "What?" he asked. "Plenty of people don't take calculus. I was a pre-med." At my college, pre-meds had to take calculus. But not at his, I learned. I couldn't stop thinking about this for the rest of the conversation. I was full of questions. "How could you not have taken higher math? You're Asian! Are you some sort of mutant?" "Does that mean I'll be the one who has to help our kids with their math homework?" "So you can't even take the derivative of a polynomial? How have I been dating you for so long and never picked up on this?" I was so perturbed, that after I hung up the phone I called my sister. She laughed at me. "I can't get over the fact that my boyfriend never took calculus..." I kept muttering. "Does that make me shallow?" She laughed some more. "Well, it doesn't quite have the 'My boyfriend makes less money than I do' or 'I don't like his car' or 'He's losing his hair' kind of shallowness," she said. I guess I'm nerdily shallow. # 0 comments Friday, October 13, 2006 ( 7:04 AM ) teahouse Relax It's been a tough week. I was out sick yesterday. My doctor said that my asthma has come back. Six months ago he told me I was cured, and took me off the meds and inhalers. But I guess we celebrated too soon. I'm pretty sure it's stress related. Which sucks. Having asthma again makes me more stressed. Which makes the asthma worse. It's a vicious cycle. At this week's orchestra rehearsal, I was gasping for air. Not good for a wind player. It doesn't help that people keep calling and emailing to ask me when I'm going to leave New York, since obviously it's too dangerous to live here in light of airplanes flying into buildings, etc. So I'm trying to breathe deeply and think about pleasant things. Like bunny rabbits and cool breezes and the beach and my warm bed in winter and Kumamoto oysters and bologna and liverwurst sandwiches and hot chocolate and green tea and milk chocolate with almonds and my favorite bathrobe and fuzzy slippers and the Mets making the playoffs. But so far, the only thing that relaxes me these days is drinking. Somehow I don't think that's the answer. # 0 comments Wednesday, October 11, 2006 ( 7:59 AM ) teahouse I'm So Ronery...Poor Rittle Me I miss my parents. They moved back to Asia 2 years ago. So right now they're a 20 hour flight from me. They're supposed to return in 5 years when my dad retires. But sometimes I wonder if they'll change their minds and never come back. I'll have to go to Asia to visit them every year until they die. I don't like where my parents are from. It's crowded and noisy, and my extended family all disapprove of me. They're always telling me to sit in a more ladylike way, and not to talk so much. And I hate to fly. So yeah, if they stay there it could really suck. I've avoided telling people online which country my parents live in now. I used to joke that it was North Korea. But in light of the recent events there, maybe that's not so funny anymore. I'll have to pick another "joke" country now. # 0 comments Monday, October 09, 2006 ( 9:00 AM ) teahouse The Good, The Bad and the Ugly The Good: This weekend, the Sister came up to visit me. She's having a garage sale next weekend to get rid of a bunch of crap, so we cleared through some stuff our parents had left in storage when they moved abroad. We got a lot done, and we felt good about it. Oh, and I was able to fit into my "skinny" jeans for the first time since law school. The Bad: My parents still have a bunch of stuff in storage, and I still have to keep paying for the storage space. And they're far away, and we miss them. And I have to work today, even though it's Columbus Day. The Ugly: The way my butt looks in said skinny jeans. Children ran away in horror when they saw me walking down the street. Mothers shuddered and covered their eyes. # 0 comments Friday, October 06, 2006 ( 7:03 AM ) teahouse Mahhh-velous Mollusks Last night I had no plans after work, so I stopped in at one of my favorite oyster bars. I sat at the bar, chatted with the bartender (who is an oyster connoisseur) and tried about 10 different varieties of oysters. In case you aren't as into raw oysters as I am, they're like different varieties of wine. Delicious, subtle and infinitely interesting. I had 2 dozen, along with 2 pints of beer. A man sitting next to me tried to pick me up. He said, "Let me buy you another dozen." I politely declined and left. But walking out, I started laughing, realizing that that was a first for me. I've had men try to buy me a drink, but that was definitely the first time a man tried to buy me a dozen oysters. Isn't that like, "Hey, baby..let me buy you a gallon of milk!" or "Allow me to buy you this raw steak!" # 0 comments Thursday, October 05, 2006 ( 7:06 AM ) teahouse Hey Hey Hey HEY! Ooooooohhh..Whoa!!! The Breakfast Club was on tv last night. I hadn't seen that movie in ages. The first time I saw it was at my childhood friend Claire's house. We were 11, and she was having a slumber party. Her parents had just bought one of those humongous contraptions - a Video Cassette Recorder. Her dad hauled it home from the hardware store. It came in a huge box, and hooked up to the tv with a bunch of thick wires and cords. It was so exciting!! We could watch the movie as many times as we wanted, and we could hit "Forward" and "Rewind" and watch the people walk across the screen really fast. It was the most thrilling thing I'd ever seen. Claire said not to tell my parents we were watching this movie, since it was rated R! Yes, this was before the days of PG-13, and I guess the multiple use of the F word and talk of sex put it into serious adult-movie territory. It was deliciously forbidden. The teenagers were angsty and rebellious! They yelled and cursed and destroyed school property and talked about wanting to lose their virginity! Fast forward to last night. This time, the movie was featured on the ABC Family Channel. What a difference 20 years can make. # 0 comments Tuesday, October 03, 2006 ( 11:45 AM ) teahouse  Work ItI'm in my pajamas working from home today. Instead of getting up and hoofing it to the train station as I do most mornings, I got up and ran in Central Park with the Boy. We made our own little path around the park..we cut through some of the lesser-known paths and created our own meandering jogging path through the trees. We climbed hills, we zipped past baby strollers, we raced dogs. The weather was perfect! The sweat evaporated off my face as I ran. Autumn is definitely here. I really had a tough time going home after the run. Had to drag myself inside from the sun and breeze, to get ready for a 2-hour telephone conference. Even when I was inside, I kept staring out the window the whole time. In fact, I'm doing it now. I can't see my keyboard. I have no idea what I'm typing. (drops laptop and walks, zombie-like, drooling to the window..smacks head and passes out cold). # 0 comments |
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