Friday, December 28, 2007

calling out sick

growing up, getting sick was almost an enjoyable event. when she could, momma V would stay home and take care of me and make chao ga topped with you tiao and ginger tea. on days that she had to work, i would go to ba mua's house just a block down the street from saddler house.

ba mua was a diminutive woman with frizzy, short hair and a kind smile. she was uncle joe's mom. uncle joe was not really my uncle but rather my dad's cousin and by far one of my more americanized relatives. he spoke english with ease and was a huge debbie gibson and redskins fan. uncle joe worked so my sick days at ba mua's house consisted of me amusing myself and watching nickelodean all day. ba mua would feed me buttery corn on the cob but always cut off all the kernals to make it easier for me to eat.

as an adult, getting sick is hardly fun. i feel bad for missing work and lazying around so i'm catching up on laundry and trying to will myself to either (1) make clam chowder or (2) go to the grocery store. theng thinks my body is protesting from being overworked and stressed and signalling that i need to slow down. and maybe she's right. so for now, i'm resting up, curled under my heavy blankets, and about to pop in a DVD and hopefully fall asleep.

Monday, December 24, 2007

bad car-ma

i thought i would do a GOOD and parked on the street, thus freeing up my parking garage spot for the boy. unfortunately, it was on the side that needed to be moved for street cleaning. for those of you that are unfamiliar with street parking in the city, each side of the streets are cleaned twice a week which means you have to "move your car" at a minimum of twice a week. however, because the demand for parking spaces far exceeds the supply, car owners resort to crazy measures to find and keep their space. street cleaning days are an opportunity to (1) grab a spot as someone with inevitably leave to avoid getting a ticket or (2) hold on to your spot by sitting in your car and waiting for the hour and a half window for cleaning goes by. it's a wonder that the streets ever get clean since most of the car owners just sit in their car and hold the spot so that the street cleaning vehicle must go around unmoved cars.

in any case, this morning at 8:30 i diligently went to the car, turned on the engine, and caught up on phone calls and reading magazines. the two hours passed relatively quickly and with no major incident. at 10:30, i left my car, locked the doors, set the alarm, and went to dagastino's to pick up some groceries. then i had a luxuriously lazy christmas eve day with the boy. we napped, met up with jpan and little fat, looked at the window displays at barneys and bergdoff goodman, and grabbed a delicious dinner of pa jun and jae yook kim chi bokkum at kung san gung.

as i walked with the boy to the parking garage, i noticed several notes taped to my car.

"Move your car! Your cheap alarm is Broken!"

"Your alarm went of ALL NIGHT dirtubring the entire neighborhood. Get it fixed or leave it off! Whose going to steal your car??? You're lucky no-one trashed it because of the annoyance!!!"

"Your car alarm sucks"

to top it off, there was a $125 ticket for noise disturbance and my car battery was dead from the alarm going off.

while i understand the annoyance of hearing a car alarm going off (much like i feel about hearing kids screaming in the park near my apartment, stupid concerts in the morning when i'm actually trying to sleep in, or my neighbor nailing things at random hours), it was (1) no way intentional, (2) part of living in the city and NOT A SUBURB, and (3) not necessary to call the cops.

i could continue to rant about it, but i will leave the future of these unsympathetic jerks (#2 needs to learn to use proper english- who is not whose) to fate because what goes around comes around.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

season of giving

post college and among my circle of friends, the practice of exchanging gifts during the holidays had all but vanished. gift giving was reserved for birthdays and accompanied by treating the guest of honor to a fancy dinner. even within my family, the focus for gift giving has shifted to the little ones, and rightly so. in my opinion, christmas is all about the kids.

not that i don't enjoy gift giving, i just hate feeling obligated to do so. . and no place is the burden heaviest as it is at work. of course, for my superiors and associates there is no question or reluctance to give a token gift. instead, it becomes this stressful, expensive, and massive ordeal.

will i offend X if i don't get them a gift?

s**t, now i have to get Y a gift because Y got me a gift!

f**k, i forgot to get Z a gift!!


bah humbug.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

the carpool thing

marv and i have been talking about carpooling for the past year and recently had joked about how by the time we got around to doing it, i will have already switched jobs. . . fate intervened and poor marv's car was stolen and left stripped last week. . . consequently, we have indeed starting carpooling.

the perks:
1. staying awake is a LOT easier with company
2. saving money on gas
3. i don't get in trouble for being late b/c it's marv's fault
4. i only hit the snooze once b/c i'm paranoid of making us both late

the drawbacks:
1. the likelihood of getting out on time is significantly lower
2. i can't use the commute to catch up on phonecalls
3. i miss my alone time to plan out my day, get lost in my thoughts, or decompress

overall, i'm enjoying the experience of carpooling. . . but not as much as i will enjoy the experience of not driving at all. 40 days left (and only 26 spent at work)!!!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

The Man Rules

I got a laugh out of these- maybe you will too. . .

***Please note.. these are all numbered "1 " on purpose

1. Men are NOT mind readers.

1. Learn to work the toilet seat. You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1. Sunday sports. It's like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one: Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become Null and void after 7 Days.

1. If you think you're fat, you probably are. Don't ask us.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one

1. You can either ask us to do something or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, Please say whatever you have to say during commercials.


1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not A color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," We will act like nothing's wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, Expect an answer you don't want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine... Really.

1. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as baseball or motor sports

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape. Round IS a shape!

Monday, December 17, 2007

spa hells

had a lovely friday off. normally i spend one of my two days off running random errands. on this particular friday, celestial actually had the day off so we kept each other company. met up at grand central at noon and headed down to chelsea. we stopped at t-mobile where they miraculously fixed my phone, shopped at shoegasm (yes, that is really the name of the store), then grabbed lunch.

after warming up over a bowl of soup, we braved the cold again and headed to bloomie nails on w 23rd and 7th ave. . . i had been looking forward to this for a couple weeks as it had been years since my last manicure and/or pedicure. mostly b/c i am too cheap to pay for something i can do a decent job of myself. however, my very generous and thoughtful friend theng got me a gift certificate for my birthday.

i asked for a mani/pedi and celestial requested a mani + 10 minute massage. we picked our colors and sat down. eugene, a quiet and young woman straight from korea helped me. before she put on my polish, she gave me the bill and i handed over my gift card.

eugene shot me a look of confusion. i explained that i had received a gift certificate within the past month and showed her the business card including the location we were at. this started what became a frenzy of chattering and debate in korean, chinese, and english. an authoritative associate came up to me and insisted that the gift certificate was not valid at their store. she explained that the owners had changed over and bloomie nail and spa belles are no longer affiliated. my argument that the business card i had been given the certificate with included the bloomie nail locations fell on deaf ears. i reluctantly pulled out the cash and asked to speak to the manager.

this lead to yet another frustrating conversation where it came up that this problem had occured before but out of respect for the spa belles owners being "korean too" they had not wanted to make waves and complain formally! instead they allow spa belles to continue to falsely advertise by continuing to use bloomie nail's name and consequently confuse their customers. i somehow felt cheated out of my relaxing afternoon and ended up canceling the pedicure.

my blood was boiling and it wasn't until later in the afternoon, after some more window shopping with celestial and grabbing a drink at markt that i had cooled down. i guess i learned my lesson to always confirm everything. . at the very least, eugene did a fabulous job and i have a new favorite nail color- russian navy!

Thursday, December 13, 2007

forecasting

it all started wednesday morning.


lauren: did you hear? there's supposed to be a huge snow storm tomorrow. you should call out. the roads are going to be terrible.


v: well, we'll see what tomorrow's weather really brings. besides, i would never do that.


lauren: no, i know you wouldn't.


v: the only time i've ever called out was when i had pink eye. . . and only b/c i knew it was contagious.


of course, i went and checked the weather forecast online. wintry mix. that didn't sound so terrible, right? that didn't stop every other customer speaking ominously about the weather, associates fretting over the road conditions, and callouts to start rolling in during the afternoon. i was starting to worry that this was THE snowstorm of the season. . . you can imagine my surprise when i left work at 8pm to find only a light dusting of snow and a minimum of ice on the windshields. luckily, the snowplows had already made their way through the parking lots and the rain had melted away the remnants of snow on the roads. lucky for me- it was smooth sailing home.

Sunday, December 09, 2007

getting drenched in the spirit

normally, the very day after thanksgiving, i set the christmas music station on my car stereo and blast it like it's no one's business. maybe it's working in retail and dealing with one too many angry customers and struggling with understaffing, but i have been feeling everything but festive.

this morning was somehow different. . .and somehow i felt the holiday spirit. i woke up early, made some coffee, decorated my mini-fake christmas tree, played some christmas music, and wrapped presents.

for lunch, i met up with celestial for dim sum in c-town. since it was just the two of us, we were seated with a bunch of strangers and got the sucky seats. . . the ones on the inside with the worst access to the cart ladies. i guess the restaurant had been recently rennovated and the new layout was not conducive for easing cart navigation. for the first time ever, i actually saw one lady run into the heels of the cart pusher in front of her. the lady in front turned around with an annoyed look on her face and shouted expletives in cantonese. kinda funny. . .you never expect to see a collision. the downside of our location is that we ended up only ordering three dishes which didn't completely satiate my dim sum craving, but did lead to the cheapest dim sum i've had yet!

after dim sum, we headed to soho to do a little shopping. we checked out the new muji store and cb2. i loaded up on cosmetics gifts and celestial and i went to forever 21 where we both went a little crazy. i picked up some cute, cheap jewelry and celestial got some fun going out clothes.

by 5, i was starving ($5.50 worth of dim sum is really not filling) so we headed to kura sushi for an early dinner. . . totally hit the spot and i feeling quite happy after two glasses of otokoyama. hopped on the 6 back home to find it was pouring. my paper bags completely disintegrated and i was left trying to carry my goodies home while shielding them as much as possible with my body. i'm sure it looked quite comedic, bags falling apart, merchandise spilling onto the ground, me trying to juggle it all. . . i was a mess but somehow managed to make it home in one piece and with everything in fairly good shape!

Thursday, December 06, 2007

the countdown begins

Q2 recommended that i start counting down the days before i start my new job . . . that makes it sound like i hate my current job which simply isn't the case. what i do hate and will not miss for a second is:

1. the commute
2. the irregular hours
3. the commute
4. the expense and annoyance of having a car in nyc
5. and, oh yes, the commute

i am excited for the new year, beginnings, and better quality of life. . and most significantly, finally finding and moving towards a career that is more befitting of my skills and interests. not that i expect it to be a piece of cake, i know i have a lot to learn and will have to prove myself in a new environment, establish a solid reputation, and develop new relationships.

but i cannot wait to begin. . . not that i'm counting. . urm, just 60 days. . .

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

promising beginnings

it's been my personal goal for quite some time to establish a partnership with HRC and co-sponsor an event. unfortunately, my crazy work schedule has made it quite difficult to meet up and i've had to cancel on more than one occasion. so after months of playing phone & email tag, and with much relief, i was finally able to meet up with the LI coordinator for Human Rights Campaign (HRC) on my day off today.

we met up at her office in midtown west and chatted for nearly an hour, discussing different ways of partnering with HRC and participating in their upcoming events. there is an upcoming holiday party on tuesday, some events in long island in january, and the big annual gala in february. while i'm 110% behind this and believe in the cause, i have a limited amount of time to figure out how to make this happen (1) during the busiest season for my company, (2) amidst major changes in the leadership, and (3) being overstreched as it is in my current role.

it's a little daunting, but i've made a personal commitment and plan to see it through.

Monday, December 03, 2007

overhaul

since it looks like i'll be settling into my apartment more permanently, i've decided to invest more time and money into fixing up the place and making it more "V".

on my wish/to-do list. . .

1. new paint job
2. get rid of the futon and get a real bed with real matress (biggest mistake was getting rid of my mattress during the move here)
3. paint the hallway table red
4. replace the current light fixture with a chandelier
5. install a magnetic strip to hold knives
6. grow plants! (lucky bamboo, herbs)
7. get an old style phone so i can buzz people in
8. replace the old t.v. and table with a sofa bench
9. fix the spot lights in the kitchen

hmm. . .somehow, i suspect that by the time i finish my expanding to-do list, it'll be time to move. . .

nights in

work has been hellish of late- the holidays season and event on top of event is bringing all the crazies, scam artists, and assholes out of the woodwork. unfortunately, my fatigue (which i'm starting to attribute to irregular work schedule and hence sleep cycle, a noisy radiator, and crap blinds) wears away my patience and i'm finding myself growing increasingly irritable.

inability to sleep thursday night completely wiped me out and i had to cut ladies night short. while i enjoyed a delicious dinner prepared by celestial, i was unable to satisfy my dancing fix. luckily, i got a solid night's rest friday night and was able to celebrate theng & kev's b-days saturday night.

the b-day couple hosted a cranium/wii party hosted by the b-day couple. theng ordered chips, salsa, and guacomole from el paso taqueria and made spareribs and chicken. q2 played bartender. some interesting discoveries, (1) the boy and i both dislike and hence suck at "star performing"and (2) i can't name a tune to save my life. . . it was the perfect way to unwind- relaxing night in with good food, friends, drinks, and games.