OMG.

I think all I can remember about this week is all the food I've consumed. I am still reeling from the fantastic korean dinner I had today with family after Ana's baby shower. I specifically requested to be off today because I wanted to attend Ana's shower. I can't even remember the last time I saw Tita Susan and she was flying in just for the day's event and flying back to Mississippi tomorrow.



I've never attended a shower before so it felt reminiscent of a rom-com movie where all the girls would break into a chorus of "awwwwwwwws...." and giggles everytime Ana opened presents and showed them little baby shoes and baby jumpers. They had light finger foods and I attacked the plate of mini beef turnovers which tasted so much like those Jamaican Patties I used to get from ATC. Mygahd I miss those.

Omar was so cute being the only boy at the party. I suppose you can break the no boys in a baby shower rule for an adorable 9 year old. He was so eager to join the games despite everything being baby related and prizes for winners were targeted for females. I wuvwuv my omeeboy.


After the shower, the family headed up to Flushing for Korean BBQ dindin. It was so good, I was in Kimchi heaven. I have got to take Mica and a couple of other people there. It's amazing food and good value for money. OO Ging, dadalhin kita doon. Kung kelan ka man mapadpad dito.

Name drop time!
My cousin Miya is studying at Brown University. She told me this one story about a day she was in her dorm room studying when a girl peeks her head in the door and says something like "Oh wow, you have a quad!" (quad=four to a room, most rooms in Brown are two to a room) Miya looks up and sees Emma Watson standing on her doorway! If you've been reading entertainment news, you'll learn she's enrolled herself in Brown last fall and chose to stay in the dorms like the other students as opposed to getting her own flat. According to Miya, she walked in and looked around the large dorm room and said something about wanting to live there. Miya said she watched her walk around with her mouth open. Miya also says she looks exactly like she does in photos, which would be absolutely gorgeous, by the way. It's very rare I gush over young actresses nowadays. Most of the existing ones you see on magazines now are complete idiots. Emma Watson joins the ranks of young women like Ellen Page whom I very much admire.

I was dangerously close to spending the whole day indoors and wasting a very rare opportunity to NOT be at work. I was lying in bed at 2pm wasting my time on nonsensical crap when Kelly calls asking for a favor. She needed to crash at my place since she can't drive back home to Long Island because of the snow storm. I told her I'd meet her at Union Square then I jumped off of bed and showered, got dressed and zipped up my dandy waterproof snow boots. I am so glad to have the opportunity to wear those again. I was getting worried it was useless getting them since we haven't been having a lot of snow lately. Well, we had a very very very thick layer of ice on the roads today. It's been snowing nonstop since I got off work last night so everything is nice and white.

I took the Q train to Union Square since it ran on the Manhattan Bridge as opposed to taking a train that ran underground. I wanted to see how bad the blizzard is over the water. It was so bad that I can't see anything beyond the Brooklyn bridge. I could barely see the bridge even, just a faint outline and the Manhattan skyline was totally invisible amidst the pouring snow. On an average day, you would never see me out and about on a day like this but my days off have been unpredictably seldom lately and I didn't want to spend my one free day indoors.

I got to Union Square and saw a few people milling about. Some kids were having snowball fights, some parents were with their kids making snowmen in the park and there was a group of guys still hungover from the Superbowl playing a freezing game of football in the snow.
I've been very unlucky with jeans this week. All three of my work jeans have ripped which forced me to buy three pairs today. I decided to go the cheap route and head on over to Old Navy. Kelly said I should just keep wearing the jeans since ripped is supposed to be a "style" anyway. I told her I agreed, but not when the tear is on the inner thigh crotch area. All three pants had the same rip. My mom says it might be due to all the machine washing. Kelly got so excited about the major clearance sale they were having and couldn't help gushing over the 8 tops she got for only $18.

We walked on over to Dallas BBQ and since I only had that soup this morning, I was so hungry I ordered a caesar salad (which was humongous btw) plus a bbq ribs and honey roasted chicken combo with corn bread and yellow rice. Kelly only had half a bbq chicken with rice, corn bread and corn on the cob but I wiped my plate clean while she pushed her food around halfway through the meal and eventually gave up. She did, however, have three goblets of long island iced tea while I enjoyed a single serving of strawberry frozen margarita.

We got home and watched 50 First Dates with Caitlin while Kelly finished off the remainder of my bottle of Riesling (I swear that girl is an alcoholic, and she knows it too). I chatted with my mom a bit on skype and here I am lying in bed not doing what I'm supposed to do, which is finish Benny's postcard flyers for his show in April.

Ok fine I'm gonna do it now...

*****

On a completely separate note, Neil Gaiman is celebrating his blog's 9th year by having blog readers post a photo of them with the number 9. Let's see if you can find me here. Hint: photo was taken by Jammi during my last TPC shoot.

Oh and OMG, Neil has an awesomly sick house:

the house and his dog, Cabal

I'm struggling to stay awake just so I can post these photos because I know if I don't do these now, I will never be able to do anytime soon.

Louiie has been trying to convince me to start a food blog. She says she wants to capitalize on my culinary streak, whatever that means. She says I cook more than she does (not counting the hundreds of meals she busts out everyday at The Wynn of course). Although she's right. I HAVE been cooking quite a lot lately. I just haven't been taking photos of any of my recent exploits and I'm sorry about that. I've been getting a lot of feedback from people who seem to enjoy consuming all the stuff I keep producing. They keep saying I should go to culinary school. I'm flattered but I think I may be too old to get into that business now. I have Louiie to guide me anytime I need help in the kitchen anyway. Maybe one day when Louiie finally decides to put up her own restaurant, then I will consider applying to be her sous chef :)

I now only go to Starbucks when I'm running late for work and don't have time to make my own coffee. I make them better. Hehe. Now only if I can get my hands on those toffee nut syrups...hmmm...

Well today was one of kitchen days. I woke up and made my usual espresso + caramel cappuccino. I made blueberry pancakes again with fresh strawberries and blueberries for breakfast.


Mica was on the phone with one of her friends when she suddenly mentioned something about inviting them over for dinner. I immediately got excited and we began planning the night's menu. We made:

Soup Starter:

Corn, Cheese and Potato Chowder with turkey bacon

Salad:
Mixed greens with bell peppers, grape tomatoes, slivered almonds and french artichoke dressing

Pasta:
Pea and Tomato Pasta (a recipe we got from Giada de Laurentiis)

Entree:
Chicken Roulade with garlic herb roasted potatoes

The night's beverage of choice were several bottles of California Riesling.


Dessert:
Blueberry Cheesecake (extra whole leftover pie from the batch I made for Mica's party last Saturday. The cheesecake was a smashing hit, btw) No photo for this one, it was mutilated before I could

We were out within an hour and I bought kitchen items I would need to prepare dinner. The roulade was a suggestion from Louiie, who I called for help for menu ideas. She dictated the ingredients and procedure over the phone and I tried to re-create everything tonight.


We got home later than planned and started cooking only minutes before guests came in. We fed them the usual cheese platter with dried fruits and nuts, kalamata olives, baguettes, biscuits plus an added bonus of prosciutto that I picked up from Murray's cheese shop this afternoon. We had the usual brie and goat cheese plus, by suggestion of Louiie, I bought a quarter block of Brillat Savarin. She has kept talking about this cheese for weeks and keeps insisting that I get them. When I finally went out to get them, I find out that she has failed to mention how ridiculously expensive it was. How much? They were $28/lb!!!! So my measly little quarter block cost me a little over $10. But were they good? Oh fuck yes they were good. Our usually popular choice of double cream brie was ignored.

We played Cranium after dinner but I noticed the Cranium games that followed after that game night with Louiie, Angel and Kelly was never quite as fun.

Tomorrow shall be less exciting since I have to do laundry and really have to sit down and finish Ifang's pre-natal photos. I shall need to attend a district meeting at my friend Rie's house tomorrow night so I need to finish all my tasks early. I've been unable to attend a lot of SGI's meetings due to conflicting work schedules but I'm glad I can make it tomorrow specially since Rie (pronounced REE-YEH) is leaving to head back home to Japan by the end of the month and I will surely miss her. I haven't told you anything much about her but she's become one of my really funny friends here in NY. She even treated me to a lavish Japanese sushi dinner on my birthday. It was the best (and most expensive) sushi dinner of my life. I was wobbling home from all the raw seafood plus amazing sake.

So...

Off to bed for me...It's 3:30am already and I have laundry tomorrow.

The words I planned to write about the preceding week have long gone but the photos are here and ready for viewing. I meant to write a lot. But the essential descriptions are written in the description section for each album and writing any more would only be redundant. Let's have the photos speak for themselves shall we?

So without further choo-choo, here are the albums:
Charades Night
Visit to The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Cafe Boulud Lunch
Cedar Beach, Long Island
Le Cirque Dinner
Brooklyn Flea Market Part Deux
West Village Food Tasting Tour
Louiie's Food tasting event

These are ONLY photos I have, there are more in Louiie, Angel, and Kelly's facebooks. Some of which were photos taken during the time I was working (mostly of Louiie and Kelly gallavanting in Chinatown).

I had one of the best weeks ever. I was soooooo sad to see Louiie go. There might have been tears there, I tell you. She will be back, I know it. SHE KNOWS IT.

Bonus Update! Death of a Lobster

Another sunny Sunday in Brooklyn was spent roaming. This time we kept to the confines of our own city without finding the need to cross the bridge. We went to the Brooklyn Flea in Dumbo underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. Mica brought her camera and we didn't hesitate on using it despite looking like tourists. We then went to Carroll Gardens where we got lost for a bit before eventually ending up in Buttermilk Channel for dinner. We tried walking up the stretch of Court St. to Borough Hall but found it too far, gave up and took the bus. We went to Barnes and Noble and scored the new edition Cranium game then to Trader Joe's where we got more snacks to stuff ourselves with. Cranium is a minimum 4 player game but we managed to make it work last night with just the two of us, with hilarious results. I've just discovered that Mica is the worst sculptor and drawer in the planet. I had tears streaming down my face from all the laughing and for a short evening, all my worries about everything else in my life at the moment had dissolved.

Sitting on a sidewalk along Dumbo, sipping snapple iced tea and having a ciggie break.
Kari: (points across the street to an old building with a distressed brick wall)
"Kunan kita dun dali, hawak ka ng yosi tapos guluhin natin buhok mo a la Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona"

Mica: "Pwedeeee!!!"

More photos can be viewed here.

This will be a mixed rundown of yesterday and today.

I joined Rann and Eisa for the SGI Filipino meeting yesterday at the center. The meeting was okay and they were considerate enough to explain a little about Soka Gakkai for the benefit of the guests that arrived that day. There aren't a lot of filipinos who practice here in NY but they still manage to make time each month to meet, share and update each other. They seem like a fun group of people. Rann and I joined a few of them for lunch after then headed back to the center to attend a graduation ceremony for SGI's young women's division. The large auditorium was filled with women of all shapes and races. What I noticed right away was how everyone had a permanent smile plastered on their face. Everyone looked happy and they all spoke to each other like family. Watching them interact made me a little jealous. Everyone seemed so close and tight knit and I longed to be part of something similar, specially being in a place where I have no close friends. I looked at the faces around me and they all looked genuinely happy and at peace. I want that. More than money, career or independence. For 2009, I want peace of mind. I may struggle with my job, or bills but I want, even for a while, to have a period wherein I can relax and live my life in the now. I would like to stop worrying so much or thinking so much. I want to feel serenity within myself and have the ability to excude a gleaming sense of pride in whatever situation I find myself in. I spoke with Louiie today and she was quick to point out how different my vibe was. I no longer whined, complained or sulked on the phone. She said, that whatever this SGI thing was or whatever else that's been rubbing off on me, was doing me a lot of good and I should go on and get more of it. There's no other way to say it, I feel so ALIVE, like I've been sleeping for so long and I've just recently opened my eyes to my potential.

Cherish, my cousin who has been living in Istanbul for the past two years, has moved back to New York to live with her sister Ana for the next 6 months while she works to save up enough money to take her masters in Film in Manchester. I haven't seen her in a very long time so I went to Ana's place in Brooklyn where Chen and I decided to bake a red velvet cake for Christmas. I slept over at Ana's last night and Chen and I spent hours updating each other about our lives and our plans for the future. She said a lot of stuff last night that made me think about my own life and how up until recently, I've had the mentality of going along with the flow, waiting for fun things to happen to me instead me going out there to make things happen for me. There are a lot of things that still need to be defined in my own life but it helps to have that realization of being proactive rather than reactive. A lot of the things she said follow the sames lines of the stuff I've heard so far about Nichiren Buddhism so it feels more like everything around me is falling into place. I told her about SGI and she got so excited and wants to join the next meeting.

I woke up this morning and Chen, Ana and I had breakfast and chatted some more, mostly about our own family dynamic and how we relate that into our own lives. It's been a very philosophical and eye-opening two days. I left Brooklyn and didn't really feel like going back home and sitting in bed all day. I also wasn't in any condition to brave the bitter cold and walk around so I hung out at Rann's resto while I sat and people watched by the window. I may still be a bit confused but I can safely say that I am eons away from the mess that was me a month ago.

I got home, showered and Tita Chon and family, Ana, Chen, Poy and I went out for dinner. We went to this thai restaurant here in Queens that Cherish swears is the best thai restaurant in New York. I'm not going to drag this on but I will say that it is, indeed, the best thai restaurant I have been to, EVER. They have a WIDE array of appetizers, entrees, soups, salads and desserts all categorized in their menu. Each dish is labeled and photographed to make your mouth water. I am NOT kidding, it is the ABSOLUTE BEST. The name of the place is Sripraphai (it's hard to say it) and it's located in Woodside near the Filipino restaurants on Roosevelt Ave. If you google it, you will see that it has received very good reviews and is a high-rated resto. Kung andito kayo, kelangan niyong pumunta dito, walang biro. Sorry, wala ng sinabi ang Jatujak.

Since Ana and Poy are spending Christmas and New Year in Manila, we went back to the apartment and enjoyed the cake me and Chen made for dessert. We took some groups photos since we won't be seeing Ana and Poy until they get back from Manila in Jan.


I'm planning on buying A New Earth since Ana and Chen swears it's an awesome book. Books of this sort have NEVER been my kind of thing but I've been so open to a lot of things lately that it shouldn't hurt to check it out.

The rest of the photos from tonight can be seen here.

Had dinner at Tribu Grill with Mama, Chriselle and her dad today. Picked her up at the hotel in Burlingame and headed out to San Bruno for pinoy food.

(and mag-iwan ng di kanais nais na public comment dito sasapakin ko)

Marmie and Me

Chriselle and daddy-o

Chriselle chose the resto since she was craving for laing. We also had sinigang na bangus belly, binagoongan rice, tuna sisig, eggplant salad and I had a glass of gulaman, yum!

For dessert, Chriselle's dad drove all the way to San Francisco to have ice cream at the Ghirardelli Square near Fisherman's Wharf. It's been a year and a half since I stepped in San Francisco. I'm not going to lie. Being there did pull on the ol' heartstrings and made me sad despite my stand on no regrets. I miss the city, I really do. I love SF so much and I've wanted to live there since I was young.

Mama's first time at the square.
I'll see her one last time on Saturday before her flight back to Manila.
From there, who knows when I'll see her again?

Chris and I are going back to the city this weekend to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. I'll have to stop myself from wanting to linger over to the next block where a certain man in a hat store works where I can be ready to pounce on him as soon as I get a glimpse of his flat headed face. Ugh.