spicy eyes

i feel like work beat me with a stick.

over the weekend, one of my departments lost an employee who failed to show up for her shifts. there was a call out in another department. i spent the majority of the day trying to keep every department covered which means cajoling associates to work extended shifts, begging associates to cover different departments, and nagging them to take their breaks and leave their departments at the appropriate times. to top it off, i also had two mandatory managers meetings and was scheduled to conduct interviews.

by one, i was a mess. . . what started as irritated eyes which i assumed was lack of sleep turned to a burning sensation, or mat cay, a vietnamese term which literally translates to "eye spicy". at lunch, i found it hard to keep my eyes open as they were tearing up. i removed all my eye makeup in hopes that it was an allergic reaction to a new eyeshadow. when that didn't resolve the irritation and the symptoms continued throughout the afternoon, i decided that maybe i'm allergic to work???

a night in provence

after spending the previous day as a bundle of nerves, i was glad to have tuesday as a real day off. despite having every intention of sleeping in, i started to stir around 7 AM and was completely restless by 7:30. i decided to get up and start my to-do list:

clean & organize apartment
laundry
dishes
catch up on emails
hit the gym

after showering and getting dressed, i hit a lazy lull and spent the remainder of the afternoon goofing off online and watching shrek 3 (great movie with lots of laughs). around 4PM i headed downtown for an appointment and then stopped by bloomies in soho. i did a little window shopping to kill time before meeting up for theng's b-day dinner at provence.

since none of my friends were free to grab a happy hour drink, i decided to pick up a magazine and head to the bar at the restaurant. i ended up chatting with the amicable bartender, shorty, for quite some time. . . turns out he's from australia who majored in math/comp sci in college who came to NYC for a long weekend vacation but ended working in the restaurant/bar industry here for 3.5 years. . . it's always fascinating to discover how people wind up in nyc. in any case, by the time Q2 and theng came, shorty was letting me test cocktails he was working on for a big event this weekend.

dinner was fabulous! the mixed reviews had me a bit worried, but the food was excellent, the service attentive, and the ambience warm and unpretentious. we shared the octopus appetizer served on a tasty bed of israeli couscous and lightly topped with greens. i ordered the flank steak which was incredibly flavorful and succulent (shorty's rec). Q2 ordered the venison which was also wonderful- the meat was not at all gamey and surprisingly sublte in it's flavor. theng ordered the seared scallops, perfectly prepared. over glasses of red wine, we sampled one another's entrees, gossiped, and indulged in girl talk. it was a lovely evening and a perfect end to my day off.

thanksgiving in PA

work was a bit crazy on the wednesday before thanksgving but i was worried about traffic going home. sher and i decided to grab a drink to kill time and let the traffic ease up a bit (hey, one drink is still under the legal limit, right?). we went to legal seafood and had a glass of wine and chatted for a bit.


luckily the drive was smooth sailing and i was able to pick up the boy around 7:45PM. despite stopping for fried chicken at popeye's, we managed to get to PA by 10PM. my parents arrived soon after and stayed up until midnight chatting. after they retired, we all sat around the living room, consumed a couple bottles of wine, and talked until 3 or 4 AM.

around 8AM, i started hearing commotion in the kitchen and decided to join the family for breakfast. my brother made a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, and home potatoes. i was quite impressed. after breakfast, we started preparing thanksgiving dinner- deep fried turkey, oyster casserole, green bean casserole, candied yams, mashed potatoes, sausauge/cornbread stuffing, and ham.

despite missing a couple steps and tools (you try mashing potatoes with a fork and making gravy without real turkey drippings) everything turned out beautifully *and most importantly TASTY* and as with any major meal, the preparation time exceeded the eating time by far.

despite the obvious hazards, i am also a convert and propoent for the fried turkey!! considerably tastire and juicier than the baked counterpart. after stuffing ourselves silling and cleaning up, we watched a bootlegged copy of american gangster and spent the remainder of the night in slothlike, food-coma induced state. . .ahhh, the way thanksgiving should be.

what a difference a year makes

every year, my company has a thanksgiving potluck luncheon for all the managers. last year i made a french cheese bread that was a hit. this year, i was the last to sign up and ended up with veggies. initially i was excited and planned to make collard greens but was (1) too lazy and (2) still sans stock pot. i decided instead to make an italian mixed vegetable salad comprised of roma tomatoes, chick peas, sliced white potatoes, and green beans tossed in a balsamic vinagrette. simple, fresh, and easy.

at one o'clock, the managers slowly trickled into the training room to feast on a smorgasboard of turkey, vegetable casserole, green bean casserole, yams, rice, stuffing, and various desserts. with the choice of carb-rich, fatty and delicious comfort food, my dish was sadly overlooked.

nonetheless we had a grand ol time. old faithful and TV started discussing which managers were missing from this year's luncheon. lazy L, lori, bangles, chester, and rika to name a few. then the conversation turned to who would be the next ones to leave. old faithful and TV started creating a list with probabilities and even pinpointed time lines for every manager's departure.

retail is a high-turnover business so none of this was shocking. however, the foresight demonstrated in the predictions struck me.

swazye
D
al
tormei
harried
cackle

i guess time will tell. . .

a V moment

it was just one of those mornings that started off. . . off. despite sleeping away the better part of sunday, i still managed to oversleep this morning. the alarm went off at 6:30 AM and i rolled out of bed around 7:15. i was in my car by 7:35 and on the road by 7:45.

as i put the car in drive, i turned on the radio, lights, and started to buckle my seat belt. for some reason, the seatbelt wouldn't go into the buckle. i continued to ram the seat belt in while i pulled out halfway onto the street waiting for an opening so i could cross over to the northbound side of traffic.

after edging my way into traffic, i looked down to see what was wrong with the seatbelt.

wtf!! my lucky cell phone charm was wedged into the seat belt buckle!! this is something only V can accomplish.

i tried tugging on the cell phone charm to no avail. damnit! it was wedged in there pretty good. what a crappy morning, running late and the rain was a guarantee for bad traffic, and now my cell phone is being held hostage by my seat buckle.

i tried to give the charm a few more hard tugs but nothing. so i used the buckle in the passenger seat which was an uncomfortable but quick fix. this is no ordinary cell phone charm. . it holds great sentimental value as it was a gift from da ge, a stone blessed in a Buddhist temple in hong kong. luckily, one of the guys from work was able to free the charm sans three beads.

does that mean i'll be three beads less lucky?

thanksgiving preparation

according to big bro, "we can all help out with the foold". no mention of who is cooking what, what cookware/ingredients he already has, etc, instead a faith that thanksgiving dinner will miraculously come together. . . i dunno if i'm not giving him credit but his laissez faire approach to preparing thanksgiving dinner for 8+ people makes me nervous.

and so i find myself spending part of my day off sitting in my room researching recipes and putting together a shopping list and menu for next thursday. the meats are easy- fried turkey (c'mon, i'm from the south) and ham. i've found a couple of good recipes. . .but what about the "traditional" sides, e.g. mashed potatoes, greenbean casserole, candid yams??

i call my sis to get her take on it.

sis: what are you up to?

v: trying to look up recipes for thanksgiving dinner?

sis: you're cooking?

v: well, what do you think is gonna happen if i leave it up to carter to cook.

sis laughs.

v: yea, i want to keep it simple. i wanna make a sausage and cornbread stuffing and oyster casserole but am not sure about greens. what do you think?

sis: that sounds good. what about an oyster stew. hmmm. or greenbean casserole. that's a standard. and creamed corn. you have to have creamed corn.

v: ugh. this is not helping me narrow down.

sis: well keep in mind that you are going to have a lot of people in the kitchen and it's not very big.

v: oh really?

sis: yea, don't you think alabaster will be in there cooking.

silence.

sis: yea maybe not.

v: ok, lemme think about this some more.

sounds of kids in the background.

sis: wes stop strangling your sister. do not jump on top of her. be gentle. you are hurting her!!!
(to me) sorry, i should go. i can't multitask. talk to wes.

v: wes, are you being a bad boy?

wes: huh?

v: wes, were you hurting your sister?

wes: she bit me!

v: well, that's not nice of her. but you shouldn't hurt your sister. apologize to t.

wes: i'm sorry ma ni. i'm sorry t.

v: ok, be nice to t. i love you.

wes: love you. talk to t?

v: sure.

t: hi ma ni.

v: did wes apologize to you?

t: no

v: yes he did, i heard him apologize.

t: yes he did.

v: did you bite wes?

t: yes.

v: why did you bite your brother?

t: he jumped on me!

v: was he trying to hurt you or play with you?

t: he was playing with me.

v: well then, it's not nice to bite people. he was not trying to hurt you. you are brother and sister and have to take care of eachother even if you are annoyed. ok?

t: yes, ma ni.

v: ok, i love you.

t: i love you too.

only a mother would boast

i've been running around like a madwoman these days with the holiday season. i go back into my office to grab some papers and notice there is a VM on my phone. . .

missed call. vern.

hmm, that's odd. my family almost never calls me when they know i'm at work. i call the VM to see what's going on.

vern: i just wanted to call and tell you that your nephew finally pooped on the potty today. twice! he'd been holding it in for days and he finally did it!!!

the pride in her voice was noticeable. ha ha. . i think this is something i will only understand if & when i have children. (yes taz, if and when)

of course, i was proud of the little tyke and felt bad when vern was so upset it was taking him so long. . so i called him up and praised him for being such a big boy.

v: wes, i'm so proud of you!! i heard you pooped on the potty. what a big boy you are!

wes: i did it! i pooped on the potty. only babies poop in diapers. i pooped on the potty!!!

talkers

i stopped by eulalie's parents' house on the way home from work. while i always love seeing eulalie, i was sad for the reason of her visit back east. her grandfather had passed away last weekend and she had flown back to NY to spend his last days with him.

as the way with eulalie's family, they welcomed me into their home with warm embraces, interesting conversation, and a home cooked indian meal. fish curry, dosas, peanut chutney!! twas a beautiful way to unwind after what felt like a long day of dealing with difficult customers.

after dinner, eulalie's parents, eulalie, and i sat around in the living room and talked about relationships for our generation- marriage, the prevalence of divorce, commitment, etc. it was an interesting and candid discussion that i could never imagine having with my own parents. before i knew it, three hours had passed and i had to drag myself home.

the evening was a reminder of how much i miss my conversations and enjoy my friendship with eulalie. here's hoping she'll find her way back to the northeast. . .

rolling with the punches

last week, one of my bosses announced that she was leaving the company for a better position at another company. . . a major shock and just one more change during an already tumultuous time at my branch. i was happy for her. a strong, brilliant, and personable leader.

she has contributed a lot to the company and deserves to move on to bigger and better things, nevertheless, i am sad though to lose a mentor and role model. . .for all my complaints about work, the one thing i have never lacked is encouragement from my superiors, faith in my ability, and confidence in my future.

needless to say, attending her going-away happy hour at metro 53 was bittersweet. all i can do is hope for the best and see what the future unfolds.

regaining order in the household

all in all, my family's visit was great and it was wonderful seeing my niece and nephew. however, it took me a solid evening/morning of cleaning/organizing to get my apartment back in some semblance of order. i came home on sunday night to find a box full of food (mostly non-perishables), a bag of random things (hats, chicklets, shoes, etc), three pillows that aren't mine, bedding, etc.

argg. . . my parents accidentally took two of my pillows which offered the perfect amount of flatness (unlike most girly girls, i am not "into" pillows, like them flat, and need one. . though i have two for symmetry) and left theirs. . . so not only am i missing my two pillows, i no longer have a matching set of white cotton sheets. this is highly disturbing. .. sigh. . . but what can i do?

the OCD girl in me enjoyed the process of organizing. working in retail, i've managed to accumulate a large number of cosmetics sample products, vendor gifts, etc. i carefully arranged these in labelled ziplock bags (com'on, i admitted i'm OCD) and cleared a great deal of shelf space.

i still have a fair amount of stuff that i'll have to return to my parents over thanksgiving and donate to salvation army, but otherwise to have successfully decluttered!

matt pond pa

i'm one of those people that has always enjoyed music but can never remember a band's name, a song name, and am downright lazy (and too cheap) to explore new music. over the years, my taste has evolved thanks to friends recs, etc.

of late, this has been especially true via the boy who has been my music guru from the get go. my new favorite band is matt pond PA who i had the pleasure of listening to at the williamsburg hall of music on monday night. the venue was set up exactly like bowery ballroom which makes sense since it's the same owner. the sound quality was excellent and the band sounded just as good live as recorded which was great.

after the show, which ended much too quickly, we headed to anytime where i picked up a burger to go. then we went to zablowski's for drinks. we made friends with the bartender and whiled away the night sampling beer, music, and enjoying good conversation. . . before we knew it, we had closed down the place.

survival of the fittest. . .or is it wittiest or loudest?

my sis, bro-in-law, niece, and nephew arrived around 1 pm today with enough time to unload bags and bags of luggage (seriously, are they staying for two weeks?) into my apartment before dropping of their rental car at hertz.

from the minute i squeezed between t and wes in the backseat of the car, the two were battling for attention from their current subject of interest- that means, whoever is "new".

in terms of cuteness, they are both evenly matched. however, their strategies were completely different and interestingly enough, reflected gender roles.

my niece used her intellect, reminding me of the places we had visited the last time she was in new york.

is Q2 coming? we ate at that chinese restaurant with the dumpling soup with her.

she was also great at engaging and keeping your attention as long as possible.

ma ni, let's talk! we can talk about our favorite things. my favorite number is 100. listen to me count to 100.

1. 2. 3. . . .50. 51. 52. 53. .. .99. 100!!!

my nephew on the otherhand was all about being physical and loud. after cuddling with my arm in the car, he proceeded to hit me in the stomach (a love tap?) and make honking noises. as we walked to the subway stop he showed off his jumping skills.

look ma ni. aren't i a good jumper? watch me jump!

it was an action packed afternoon. we lunched at lombardi's where my niece showed off three different ways of eating her pizza. the traditional way, folding it in half ny style, then by taking off all the toppings and eating them separately before biting into the crust- end first- t style. we split a large pie but my brother-in-law was still hungry so we decided to get dessert. we walked by ruby's and after i raved about their burgers he decided to stop for one. next stop was coffee for me and cookies for the kids before we made our way down broadway.

we stopped at various random stores before heading into pearl river mart where i found some great notebooks, two new varieties of trainer chopsticks, and bacon mints!!! luckily, wes was able to nap for a couple hours in his stroller, resembling a mini-hobo, while we took our time checking out various shops. around 6 we headed to the west village via train and decided to walk around a bit there before grabbing dinner at pardo's chicken. we stopped in a cute little boutique which had little unusual and random trinkets- interesting salt & pepper shakers, pie/cake cutters, egg whisk, pens, etc. now fully awake and hyped up, my nephew touched everything he could get his hands on and made a mess of the displays in the back of the store thereby invoking the ire of the storekeeper.

at that point, we decided to head to dinner where we met up with theng and Q2. food was delicious and the loud, family style atmosphere was perfect for the kids. now overly full, ready for bed, i await the arrival of my parents who i'm sure have gotten lost. . .