Day 90: "Feels like I've got spring fever...and it isn't even spring..."

...but it's almost spring!!! Technically, it already is, but it hasn't felt like it the past few days with all this cold weather and rain. But today, I went to Union Square and saw flowers in bloom! Yay spring and sunshine!!!







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Day 88: what the heck was I thinking?

On my way home from my impromptu dance class (I decided to do a Monday course just for funs), I stopped at Duane Reade for water but was drawn to organic sparkling green tea. Orange flavor. Don't know why, but it was intriguing. So I bought it and drank it on the way home. Idjot! It was so nasty! But I was so thirsty that I kept drinking it anyway...





Never again!!!

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Day 87: cherry blossom sleeve

Anyone want to guess if my mom will kill me if/when she sees this?

Day 86: I think I am officially a dog person

These wrinkle faced dogs just keep stealing my heart!!! Maybe it's because I don't see enough babies or something... But this dog was super cute, and super friendly! The lady who's by him?Sooo not his owner! It's the lady sitting by herself who owns him. Hahahahah tooooo freaking cute!!!





Such a great way to start my weekend in Jersey with the Aguons...and Chico!! :)


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Day 85: the Pen Fifteen Club

Today, Brandon asked me to be a part of the Pen Fifteen club. I had never heard of it, and he sounded so excited; so when he asked for my hand, even though I was a little worried that maybe he would stab me with his pen, and eventually gave him my hand to let me join his club...






Pen15. I am an idiot. Hahahahahahha

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Day 84: Self portrait = epic fail today

I went on a date today. And it could have been a really good blog post. If I had taken a picture of my date. But I didn't!!! Such an epic fail!!!! Which means, le sigh, my collective void/four avid followers, you guys have to live with a self portrait. To immortalize what an epic failure I am at blogging when it's most important!!!! Shame on me!!! I couldn't even take a picture of the Frosty and french fries we had at Wendy's!!! For shame!!!!



**For the record, this is probably my first date in a really long while. It wasn't too bad. We met for a drink at some swanky too-old-for-me bar, after which, I convinced him to go to Wendy's, because we were totally supposed to go there in the first place.

I have never seen myself as much of a dater. Before I got my first actual boyfriend at age 20, I really didn't hang out with guys all that often, much less date them. And then I had the one boyfriend for a very long while and tried dating a little bit after we broke up and then went on to another boyfriend and well... now I'm being thrust back into the dating world, and don't exactly know what happens on them or what it's supposed to be like. I do know that I've been quite reluctant about it, because I really don't know what to do or say or how to act of any of that...

I will say that I'm quite glad I went. It was an experience to learn about someone new and to enjoy a person's company and stuff... at the very least, I found out that I have nothing to be scared of when it comes to dating. It really is a liberating feeling to not care whether or not the person will like you for what you present yourself as. It's so much easier to be as close to the version of yourself that you think you are when you figure what you are isn't any worse than trying to be someone you're not just so someone will like you. It's also interesting to see that people actually enjoy your company. (And by "you," I really mean me, hahah)

So. Yeah. I guess dating isn't so bad.

Now. Whether I will have the energy and time to do it again... well... that's an entirely different question... but one step at a time, I guess...

Day 83: just another day

Didn't do much today. Went to work, went home. It's almost 10 and I am attempting to be in bed early. I tried for 9 and failed. :(

I've just been so tired lately and need the rest! The problem with trying to get sleep, though, is that I don't get time to do anything interesting. So today's picture is just another day at work. This is Brandon at lunch, doing his crossword like he does everyday... Lucky for me, he's nice to look at, so just another day at the office ain't such a bad thing. :)







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Day 82: the boy in the red shoes...

...would be Luca.




Spent tonight singing karaoke, eating korean food, having dessert at red mango and laughing and talking the whole way through... So nice to spend the night with one of my best friends. Having discovered that we have spent too much time apart, Luca and I are making a concerted effort to hang more often. Tonight was just the beginning!

How did I get so lucky to have so many good friends in my life?

Love love love

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Day 81: Staring out the window, watching life pass me by...

Today, I had a follow up doctor's appointment for my foot (yay, no more plastic booty in the shower!!!!) and had to take the LIRR to shave some time off the commute there... and it was weird looking out the window. It was an express train, so most of the stuff outside just blurred past me and all I could do was look outside and try and will the train to go faster so I could just get off and make my way to the doctor's already.



Don't you feel that life is that way sometimes? Like you're just sitting on the train, rushing past all the crap outside the window til you get to your destination? I feel like in my life I've spent a lot of time doing that. Always taking the train to where I needed to go, and missing all the stuff in the stops in between. Sure, it's always nice to have something to look forward to, but I've noticed recently that sometimes, you're so busy trying to get to where you need to go that you don't get to enjoy where you're at. It's sometimes hard to stop and enjoy the moment you're living in now. Maybe you feel pressed of time, or you want to be prepared for what's coming ahead or something.

...but lately, I've been thinking. What if there is no moment after this one? We spend so much of our lives planning for the future that sometimes, it feels like we're living only for the future and never living in the exact moment we're in. While it's probably likely that I WILL have many tomorrows and I should plan accordingly, I also know I want to live my life like there is only today. To say the things I need to say, and do what I want to do... in case I won't be able to say or do them anymore...

I don't ride trains as much. I walk a LOT. Maybe it's because I know I'll get there soon enough and I should just start enjoying how I'm getting to where I'm going...

"Life is a blur of color
So fast
You don't know you're flying..."

Day 80: Chico's stolen my heart...

So Gil's parents left their pug Chico with him and Jenny, while they went to Seattle for a month...and HOLY CRAP!

Chico is the coolest dog, like, EVER!!!

He pees only where he's supposed to, and then the rest of the time, he just chills out!!! It's utterly adorable and comforting!!! He actually jumped up on me this morning and slept by my side on the couch, snoring away until we all woke up a few hours later...

So...We were up waaaay late last night, and I snapped this picture of Chico with Matty at like, 2 or 3 in the morning, and just thought it was tooooo cute!!! It was so funny, Matty threw his leg over Chico and he woke up because he had a hard time breathing... So shortly after I took this, he pulled himself out from under Matty's leg and then went back to sleep. hahah



This is what life is about. Little things that make you happy, like catching a boy and a dog sleeping by each other in the wee hours of the night...

love love love

Day 79: first day of spring!

Today was such a sunshine-y day! Completely befitting of being called the first day of spring!

I ended up at Central Park today with a pinkberry parfait and it was just so awesome to see people hanging out and enjoying the sunshine! I caught sight of some dudes playing sand volleyball and it made me miss home. Because it would have been called beach volleyball back home!!

Regardless... Today was an awesome sunshine-y day!






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Day 78: Nothing worse than a sunny day...

...when you're stuck in the office! All I wanted to do today was be outside!!! Instead, paperpushing most of the day away! Lameness.



To make things even lamer, Brandon and I got stuck in traffic so despite leaving at 5, we didn't get home til almost 7. :( thank goodness tomorrow is going to be Saturday and beautiful!


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Day 77: Blood, sweat, and tears...

...well maybe just blood.



I've been covering two desks all week and it's really been exhausting. I can't believe they let my gimpy ass be the one to run back and forth between desks. Hahah

In the flurry of activity and trying to get things done in time, I ripped my finger open with one of the vessel file folders. Totally did NOT make my day. Whoever said working in an office was safe did not know the hazards of my job. :(

If you think a papercut is bad... Well. Try a thick ass folder. :(

Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday!!!!

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Day 76: I see the light...

I was driving home with Brandon today with the sun shining down on us and snapped this while trying to catch the last rays of sunshine for the day...

It's as if the road to redemption lies in McDonalds. Or that if I were to die, McDonalds would definitely be in heaven...or maybe it's on the way to heaven? Or the thing that's standing in your way? I don't know, but I love this shot. Makes McD's look almost divine. :)




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Day 75: Spring must be on its way...

...considering the Mister Softee truck is out!



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Day 74: Where's a working MTA bus when you need one??

I honestly don't know the answer to that. I had to go to the doctor's today for a post op checkup and I clocked out at 3:05ish only to stand outside and wait for a working bus to come by until after 330. Really MTA?? Really?? Like at least six NOT IN SERVICE buses passed by before a Q6 showed up! WTF???

On the bright side, I got several chances to take this shot. :)







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Day 73: Discovering Hipstamatic on a Rainy Day!

Because of surgery on Friday, not to mention the crappy weather outside, I have basically spent most of my weekend indoors...

This morning, somewhere in between watching Spaceballs and The Cutting Edge, my cousin Jenny and I decided to download the Hipstamatic app for the iPhone... It's pretty cool stuff, what it does to the pictures...

Here's Matty looking at the dead Christmas tree that's still in Sharon's apartment:



I love this app!

...but more than that, I love the people I've been taking pictures of and with. I spent all weekend with Jenny and Gil and Matty and Arn and Cheryl, and even though I've had weekends in Jersey before, and thought I couldn't be more grateful to have them around as I already was, it turns out that I can continually be amazed at how awesome it is to be able to spend time with them, and I find new depths of gratitude that they're so close by to hang with, to eat with, to be with, to laugh with... And goodness knows, we can never have enough laughter in our lives...

Day 72: A Day At The Aguon Household

Because my cousin Jenny married her husband Gil on Guam and they subsequently moved to Washington where they lived since 2006, I hadn't really gotten to know my cousin-in-law all that well...until now. Now that the Aguons live here in the New York-New Jersey area, I have more than enough time to hang out and spend time with them... And I love it!

My quality time started yesterday when I went home with them after my surgery. We had such a fun day today just hanging out and watching movies. Lots of cracking jokes and laughing... Perfect way to spend a rainy Saturday indoors...:)

In between movies, I caught this little gem of a picture.. Gil officially starts training clients tomorrow and he was practicing with Matty today...looks like Daj and Matty will be sparring someday...





It's seriously such a blessing to be able to have family around. Especially on a weekend like this where I've been immobile and lonely...

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Day 71: light sedation is kind of nice

**Possibly a backblog to come later as it's 3 am and I may not be coherent due to a combination of drugs and exhaustion...

I had minor foot surgery today. Just something small that would need only a stitch or two supposedly. I was supposed to have local anesthetic only, but after remembering the pain of the needle going into my other foot last year for another thing, I was a little apprehensive about having to go through it again. Enter my awesome doctor who gets the in-house anesthesiologist to lightly sedate me so I won't feel a thing! I wasn't supposed to pass out really, but I was pretty tired to begin with so I did and was a little loopy for a while. I DO remember waking up in the middle of it and asking for my phone so I could photoblog, but they were a little too busy to accomodate me... On the bright side, before I passed out, the anesthesiologist let me take pictures of him sticking the IV in and stuff. :)




Such good service! They're so nice to me!

I was done before I knew it, and left with my cousin Jenny and her son Matty to go get her husband Gil and hang at their house, which was totally such a blessing they were there because I was suuuuper loopy for a while afterwards.

Drugs can be so awesome.

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Day 70: "Hey cheer up. You still have pretty hair."

I love my cousin Sharon. I haven't had the easiest of days today, and even from far away, Sharon knows just what to say to make me feel better.

I wasn't wrong when I said I believed that psalm that says, "God is close to those whose hearts are breaking." At just the right time, I get people like Sharon and her sister Jenny and Jenny's husband Gil, who somehow know just what to do to cheer me.

Best line of the night? Sharon, whose first text said, "Hey cheer up. You still have pretty hair."

Hahahah love love love

Day 69: Vincenzo's first ever fruit roll up

One could say Vincenzo is a worldly man. He grew up in Italy, moved to the US, married a beautiful Peruvian lady (twice! To the same lady of course), and they look like they've done a bit of world exploration... I probably don't know the half of how interesting his life must be so far with all the experiences he's had all these years, but I can say that his life truly did not begin until today. After all, you have not lived until you have a fruit roll-up. :)




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Day 68: I is tired

...which means you get a random last minute photo taken on my way home.

What? At least I'm consistent. Just not at effort. :)




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Day 67: call it the mcghetto

Really??? Really McDonalds??? This is how you make a Big Mac???

Day 66: They Came, They Saw, They Conchord. :)

I love how my friends humor me...

So... one of the awesome parts of my neighborhood is that it's where Flight of the Conchords was filmed... and somehow I have a hard time finding people who are as excited about that little tidbit of information as I am... until yesterday!

I completely forgot that Stephen and Luca are FOTC fans, and they got so excited when I showed them the episode where Bret and Jemaine discover hair gel and they're standing super cool on a corner and then I told them that...well... that's MY corner! Sort of... It's in my neighborhood!

Anyway. Today was such a beautiful day, and who knows when I'd have the two of them in my neighborhood again, so I had them pose in positions similar to the ones in that part of the episode...

There was a grumpy Chinese man sitting in the corner blocking where Jemaine had stood, and he did not want to move, so we had to make do with grumpy Chinese man. hah You can't really see him, but his head is there a little bit in the shot...



I <3 my friends. They're so willing to appease me.

***For your reference, here is the shot we were trying to recreate...



Aww, have I mention how much I love my friends? hahhaha

Day 65: Strolling down a Japanese memory lane...

Soeren is here from Germany just for the weekend, and Stephen came up from Virginia. Together with Luca, that rounds up our little Japanese reunion...

You probably don't know what I'm talking about. And by "you," I mean the collective void. And my three known "followers." (Hellooooo guys!!!)

Anyway.

Soeren, Stephen, and Luca are guys I studied abroad with in Nagoya in 2004. Together, we took on Japan, made a bunch of awesome memories, and, as it seems, forged the kind of friendships that span distance and time. It's been six years since we've all been together in the same place (though I've been able to see everyone separately at least twice at some point during the six years), but it feels like we were never apart. I love it! We spent an entire day singing our little hearts out (while sometimes simultaneously talking and catching up and laughing) in a small karaoke room. Soeren had to leave early this morning, so we basically had less than 24 hours to cram all that stuff in! Talk about awesomeness in concentrate!

Also loving how we mostly don't seem to have aged much either....wonder if it will be the same in the next six years...(probably not. The other shoe is bound to drop at some point.) And hopefully, it won't be another six years before we all get to see each other at the same time...

So yeah... this is the three of my boys at the 34th street train station waiting for the F to take us all home, at which point, I just had to take a moment and soak it all in...:)




**Side note: I find it so interesting how I spent the first part of my life being almost completely surrounded by girls allllll the time, and now, I'm spending this part of my life being almost completely surrounded by boys alllll the time. Kind of balances out, I suppose. :)


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Day 64: Spring is upon us...

...it must be, if it's still light outside when we leave the office now...

OR.... we just left wayyy earlier today than we have been... yeah, that's probably it.

Brandon and I left work at 5 today! It was AWESOME!!!!

I love when it's still light out!!!

Day 63: Never Leave a Banana In Your Backpack...

...and no, that is not a euphemism for anything. I am serious.

So to remind you... on Sunday, I did the MS Climb at Rockefeller Center. (66 flights in 24 minutes was a new record for me!) Well, the NYC Chapter for the MS Society was kind enough to sponsor this event and to support the climbers, they had these breakfast stands where they handed out water and bagels and bananas and potato chips and protein shakes... Well, I took a banana, a bottle of water, and a bag of potato chips... In the midst of taking pictures and finding out my time, and everything, I didn't get a chance to eat, and when it was time to go, I just stuffed everything in my backpack and later went to brunch to celebrate another year of having done the climb.

I completely forgot about the stuff I left in my backpack until I was riding in the car to work yesterday with Rich and he was asking the lady at the McDonald's drive thru if they sold bananas... When I got home, I KNEW I should have cleaned out my backpack, but decided to put it off, meaning, another day for my banana to ripen in my backpack. Oh lordy.

I was going to stage making a face for today's picture where I took the banana out, but it turns out, that the actual reaction I had when I pulled it out for real is much much more interesting and honest. hahahah

...Oh mang, it was disgusting. Well, it wasn't half as bad as I expected (thank goodness it's winter and not summer), but it sure was mushy! And smelled like... mushy banana, which I didn't seem to like too much...

SO...yeah... Never leave a banana in your backpack.

Day 62: if you donate, I bake. That's the deal.

I am not fond of baking any more. There is too much cleanup and I am always just too tired, and my state of mind is just so different from where it used to be when I used to bake regularly...

But for certain people at certain times, I will bake.

Today's recipients worthy of my efforts are my coworkers and boss. After having so generously donated about $800 to my MS Climb, the least I could do was bake some pecan tarts for them. So here I am. Slaving away.

If you're worth it, I will bake for you.




**That's me chopping freaking pecans because my magic bullet (kitchen appliance, not lady toy) broke down on me...

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Day 61: Chasing light

I'm so intrigued by light. And so lazy by lack of internets at home...




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Day 60: the shady bodega is gettin' fancy!

Yup! Today, while waiting in line to buy our drinks at the shady bodega near work, Rich and I discovered fancy m&ms!!! Coconut and Strawberried Peanut Butter (two separate flavors, not one; that'd be gross)!

I couldn't help but buy both just to test 'em out. But of course I bought a bag of regular peanut butter just in case it was a bust...


...so it turns out, both are kind of weird. I can't decide which tastes worse. Some people prefer coconut to strawberried peanut butter and vice versa, but I guess I will have to concede that Rich's dad and Brandon are right: you shouldn't mess with m&ms. Plain and peanut. That's it. Maybe peanut butter is okay too (in their opinion. I already consider it the triumvirate of m&ms). You can also make them weird pastel colors but that's about it. Never mess with the flavor... Doing so is like blasphemy and the result is an abomination...

Epic fail, m&ms! Grrrrr

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