costumes

so tonight i went to dinner with the guy i've been hanging out with.. and me being me, i just couldn't keep it in any longer. so after dinner and a game of scrabble, i asked why we hadn't kissed since the second date because i'd like to, and it seems like he would too.. until the 3 minutes while we're saying goodnight. he said he thinks you shouldn't rush into relationships before you know the person, and it's important to be friends first and then see what it turns into. but he does feel sparkle for me.

and while we were sitting there, that all made sense to me and sounded alright.

but on the drive home, i decided that doesn't sound fine at all. becca and abha are married to men who look at them like the world revolves around them. and they looked at them like that from the first day they met. and they knew they wanted to be around that person forever.

so i don't know. i'm going to hang out with this guy as friends and maybe he'll be right, but i want to be in a relationship where you think about me throughout the day and you look forward to the next time you see me, and you can't imagine me not being in your life. and you're not afraid to start something and see where it ends up. ..and to be honest, i'm lovely. and if that isn't obvious to you after 5 non-dates, then we probably shouldn't be together anyway.

so, that's that. i'm bummed because it felt so right, but it's better to know a month in instead of getting more and more invested only to be disappointed. on to the next!

zaijian

cate and i went to sushi for lunch today. we needed to get out of the house. i had only planned to get it to go because she has very limited patience for sitting still, since an 8 month old has not fully mastered that skill quite yet.. but the woman who owns the restaurant with her husband was very insistent that i stay. 'it's best fresh. it will only take a minute. she has kids of her own and she knows that mama's never get to eat their own lunch with a baby running around.'

so first i explained that this is not my baby. i don't know why i feel the need to do that, but i do. anyway we decided to stay. luckily, no one else was in the restaurant, so we had the run of the place. she threw snacks all over the floor, we walked around, she stood at the fish tank and watched the fish.

i took a piece of tofu out of my miso soup for her, and she loooved it. it was also the messiest thing i've ever seen her eat. and i didn't bring a bib because i figured she would be fine with these little crackers i brought. 

the owner came to chat with me while i walked cate around. turns out she's from taiwan (could you see that coming?). she lived in taipei until she was 5, so she knows of taoyuan, which is about an hour south. we spoke chinese, we talked about bushibans, we bonded. she taught cate how to say ni hao and zaijian (hello and goodbye). or tried to, since cate can't say anything yet. 

so it was a very pleasant afternoon. glad we went. the sushi wasn't that great though, so jill and her mom took me to a fancy sushi place for dinner. it was delicious. and we had a cosmo and hot green tea. i was in sushi heaven. 

last day with the baby tomorrow! 

secret society

so while i've been in houston, i've been meeting up with several long lost friends. last night i met up with a guy who i met one time at a birthday party in 2006. we hit it off then, and we've chatted once or twice a year since then. so when he heard i was in houston, he said he had the perfect place we could go to.

his text was kind of like a treasure map. 'go to this location, take a right, park in the first garage. it's on the first foor, i'll meet you there.' so i got there a bit early and sat outside while i waited. there was a bouncer checking ID's and greeting everyone by name. and when i say 'everyone' i mean, men in suits, women with high high heels, people with fancy bags, people my age in button downs and slack. my favorite was an asian businessman with a gray suit and bright blue (like M&M blue) patent leather shoes. he waltzed in like he owned the place.

so my friend got there and we went in.. at the desk there were 7 or so iPads for you to check in on, and then they gave you 3 gold coins as drink tokens. turns out the place was a popup bar for Chivas called 1801 club. there are several throughout the US, apparently. you 'become a member' by filling out a form online, and then they have lots of promo events like last night with free drinks and whiskey tastings and things.

it was all marble and dark wood inside. my friend said the man who used to own the building worked for bernie madoff, and he was liquidating his assets now, the club being one of them. i forget the guy's name.

anyway the most amusing part was making friends with one of the waiters who was walking around with the passed hors d'oeuvres. they had seared ahi tuna on a cracker and a little chicken thing with spicy guacamole, and chocolate, but our favorrrite was a teeny pancake, the size of a quarter, with fresh mozzarella and sun dried tomatoes on top. the guy got a kick out of the fact that we loved them more than anyone else in the club, so he kept swinging by with more. it was fun.

and that was my tuesday. jill left for work an hour later than usual today and she gets back almost 2 hours early, so today is easy.

fish face

went to dinner with mark tonight. we used to work at the paper together in college. his family is from taiwan, so we always discuss taiwanese things. today we met in chinatown and went to get rose milk tea (my faaavorite. i bought some loose oriental beauty rose tea to make at home too. soo excited.) and hot pot. it was so yummy. his family always has it with noodles and without rice. i've always had it the opposite way. yum though.

in china, they do this double hot pot with the divider in the middle. usually one side is plain and one is spicy.. whereas everywhere i've gone in taiwan, there's either one big hot pot in the middle with plain broth, or everyone at the table has their own individual one. i like having my own. i also like the taiwanese style broth and dipping sauce better. they have all sorts of interesting stuff you can mix into your sauce.. peanuts, peanut butter, soy sauce, fish flake stuff, scallions, spicy peppers. i guess everyone likes what they're used to. 

and this is how the rest of my day looked. cate is such a good girl. she took two long naps today. we're working on her walking and holding onto only one of my hands. she's strong enough to do it, but she doesn't know she is.

sunday

i went back to austin this weekend for a couple of parties and a day at the park with the boy. it was a lot of fun, but exhausting. i don't know why my legs are so tired after a three hour drive. i guess just lack of movement?

friday i went to karaoke with friends. i've never had so much fun at karaoke. i don't like to sing up at the front, but i do like to sing seated with everyone else. saturday was a house party. the people who own the house are two of my most austin-y friends. they used to live in a bus. they have chickens and ducks. they have a foreign exchange student house mate. they have a garden. one's a physicist and one's a journalist. at the party, people brought honeydew wrapped in prosciutto and all sorts of interesting potluck fare. you could hear groups of people speaking spanish-from-spain and there were lots of boys in tight pants and glasses.

and today the gentleman friend and i spent five hours lounging at the park, chatting and eating early dinner.  it's really odd to talk to someone who's so much like myself. i don't have any friends who i have sooo much in common with when it comes to how we think about things and what we want for the future. so that's been fun. also kind of an interesting mirror into what it looks like when you overthink things, as i tend to do, as you might have noticed. ;)

one more week of babies!

stop to hold their hand

i used to be a really good girlfriend. i often ignored the rules of waiting to call such and so amount of time or the appropriate time to bring up certain topics.. but i always felt like i had a good sense of how things were supposed to go, and i'm good at dinners with parents and dinners and a movie.

but it has been so long since i've done any of that properly that i've completely forgotten how to do it. i say that keith was my boyfriend in taiwan, but we were only there together for like 2 months, and we really weren't in a relationship. and 'bf' is part of 'twbf', but we never even kissed. so. not counting them, it's been almost four years since i've been in a relationship. !. (jim just got engaged a few weeks ago, incidentally).

also before i go too much further, i should mention that this guy is definitely not my boyfriend. it's been two dates since we even met, but my point is that i feel like i've never done this before. suddenly i'm thinking too hard about how often i text or email or call.. and all of the protocol for the time period before you're officially dating someone. now that we've kissed once, do we always kiss goodnight now? do i invite him to group stuff as my date? when do we chat about exclusivity?

..i guess the only thing you can do is let it happen naturally and all of that just works out. it's definitely fun to have butterflies and someone always running through your mind though. it's just a little bit hard waiting to define it when i really want it to stick. keep crossing your fingers.

barefoot

we made it through half the week! it's downhill from here.. until monday when a new week begins. jill and zach are very interesting parents. you could have guessed it if you knew her in college, but jill is one of those moms that eats the food of of cate's face. the most disgusting thing that happens is the snot sucker.

(photo from amazon.com)
it sounds gross, it looks gross, it is gross. but jillian and cate both love it.

other than that though.. everything is good. cate kind of has a cold and a cough, but she was really happy today, and i think i've mastered nap time. she starts face planting on the carpet when she's tired, so we just get a bottle, lay her down in her crib and she's usually out within 5 minutes of me closing the door. it's baby magic. today we walked around in the grass outside because it was so nice out. windy and in the 70s. she can stand holding onto one hand now.

she may or may not have eaten a few pieces of grass.

in the middle of a rock show

well, so far so good with baby cate. she can crawl now, which is very exciting. her favorite thing is holding your fingers and walking around. i wish i was like 6 inches shorter so i could do it without slumping so much. it's fun though and it tires her out. she took 2 long naps today.

met a friend from college for tea tonight. mark and i always talk about the problems of the world/nation. he just began his masters in counseling, and i'm an over-analyzer, so i guess that comes naturally to us. i told him about how majjy raised us telling us to find what we love to do and then find a way to make money at it, and that we could accomplish anything. he said those are very well-adjusted psychological techniques to use.

driving in houston is no fun. it's confusing, there are lots of lanes, the roads aren't that good. fajjy kept harping on this GPS app he bought for his phone and i kept declining.. but i think i might download it. the problem is that i don't seem to get service everywhere in this city.. so i guess that might not be that great. for tonight's trip, i used the old paper + pen method. it worked surprisingly well. it really feels like my life has hit some kind of magic green light with the way things have been working out. about time!

sunday

right now i'm in houston so i can help out jill for the 2 weeks between when she starts her new job and when her childcare is available. cate and i are going to spend the days together. she's 9 months now so she can crawl and she's babbling a lot. it should be fun. we're going to split our time between jill's parents house and her grandma's house. they live about three blocks away from each other.

other than thatt.. it's been beautiful in austin lately. we're in the mid 90s or high 80s and it's just beautiful out and you can open the windows in the morning which is nice. the last couple of weeks have just been going exactly according to plan.

pay dirt

yesterday i was all happy about how accurately my monthly horoscope mirrored my life right now.. i even gloated about the fact that it told me i was going to have to spend my entire paycheck. even after spending $350 on my car, i was happy it wasn't actually my entire paycheck. 

but this morning when i went to pick up my car after its oil change, new wiring harness and new inspection sticker.. the check engine light turned back on before i even pulled out of my parking spot. $80 diagnosis later.. i owe another $350 for replacing the glow plugs themselves. 

universe - 1, megan - 0. 

so what does a virgo do when the world pushes her down? cleans her room. restores some kind of order. 

in the process of cleaning my room, i came across an envelope full of dirt that my [ex-boy]friend, [if we're being honest], keith, had sent me from canada. we met while were were both teaching in taiwan. 

i wish i had done this a long time ago, but he included nice notes about not only the city and province location.. but also kind of a description of where it was from. 

(i added the more detailed captions to the back of the tag so i would remember later on). 

after filling three little container store containers, i added the leftover dirt to our garden in the back. now it's an international garden. 

saturn in your money house

today i read my monthly horoscope for november. you have to see some of it.

It's not your fault that you aren't making what you feel you deserve, dear Virgo. Saturn, the taskmaster teacher planet, has been touring your second house of earned income since October 2009 (the month the internship in DC began when I was living on savings alone), and while Saturn had a brief absence from that area for your chart from April 7 to July 21, 2010 (while I worked at camp for the summer), it was too short a period to notice much difference. You have been coping with tight funds for so long now, it must seem forever.


Joint resources - funding and infusions of cash from outside sources - will take your total attention the full moon, October 11. Saturn will oppose the full moon directly, so if you do get money, the sum you get seems to be already spoken for, and so the money will go out of your checking account as fast as it goes in. 
that's today. and today, i dropped my car off at the shop to get an oil change, and then i decided to have them replace my glow plug wiring harness so i can get the inspection i need for november, so today i spent a few hundred dollars on that.. which is almost the same amount as i deposited this morning from my latest check. 


this is my favorite paragraph: 
This has been a lesson you've been dealing with since Saturn entered Libra from October 2009 to April 2010 and then again from July 2010 until the present day. You may be saying, "I've learned! I'm reformed! I am done!" Yet Saturn has his own schedule for you and will continue your cosmic course in money management until October 2012. Agreed, you HAVE become remarkably good at finding ways to find - and buy - quality goods, at bargain prices, and often below retail. Indeed, in time you will be pleased with the way you negotiate savvy bargains. You've also become good at finding ways to bring in more money too, and you are more careful about avoiding identity theft and losses through not keeping track of your belongings when you travel.


and this:
Starting next month, Mars will enter Virgo and stay not the typical seven weeks but an astounding EIGHT MONTHS. During part of that phase, Mars will be in perfect angle to Jupiter and Pluto, forming a grand triangle in the night sky. This will happen in time for the holidays. You are about to assume your rightful place at the head of the parade, as the one sign given some of the most outstanding romantic aspects. All this will start in mid-November, so be patient, dear Virgo. Your time for love is coming, and when it arrives, it will be a big trend!


..we'll talk about that in mid-november. 

football

jeff and i have been watching football together on the weekends. we always watch the longhorn game, and then lately we've just been watching any old game we can find a reason to cheer for.

me: lawrence. mr. hunter lawrence.
..a couple of seconds go by..
jeff: aren't you going to try it on for size?
me: you're right. mrs. megan lawrence. ..nah.

maybe a year ago, i decided that since i don't know who i'm going to marry, and with no boyfriend, i have the freedom to choose my own new last name. all i need to do is find a guy with it. the holy grail of last names is Mango. then i can be Mrs. Megan Mango. ..but since that's unlikely, i just try out all kinds of last names.

i guess jeff has been around a lot when i try out last names, so it's kind of become a thing. we usually try to find M last names. there's a football player with the last name mintsy. mrs. megan mintsy.

case

stitched together a case for my computer today using some leftover yoga bag fabric. need some kind of closure.. but for now, i'm just glad it won't get as scratched in my purse. 

it rained today! so i did everything you're supposed to do on a rainy day..

stay in bed until at least 10

wear glasses all day

drink a mug of delicious chai

make vegetable beef soup

wear long sleeves and shoes with socks

craft project

about to add 'read a book' just as soon as i hit 'publish post.'

ps here are kara's pictures from the farm benefit last weekend. 

done the deed

jeff is moving out. majjy and i are bummed. she cried.

other than that, life is good. lots of friends, lots of fun, i'm busy at all hours of the day and night. convinced the entire office to go get japanese octopus balls.

woods

had the most fun volunteering at an event in dallas today! we had to get up at 4 and then drive 3 hours, but it was fun to bond with some of the other girls.

somehow i lucked into volunteering in the photo reception room by standing in the right place at the right time, so i took people's bag and made sure they grabbed it on the way out. very exciting. i had a blast talking to the photographer and security while we all waited for people to come inside.

one of the coolest things about events is how the people you meet are so eager to motivate you. i got to sit at a table at the luncheon for a bit once the event got going, and the two people on either side of me were amazing. there's a real sense of support and a desire to see the younger generation succeed in a field that the older generations have carefully set up.

pulling on a line

saturday.was.crazy. i had to leave the house at 10 to be at this community garden in austin at 10:30. so naturally, my day started like this..

9:50: megan goes outside to check on ripley and jigsaw. ripley is always on a zip line because she can't be trusted. jigsaw just wanders and never seems to go further than the neighbors. ..until today. i walk outside, she's gone. 

9:55: i put on shoes and walk down the street a bit. no dog. 

10: text friends to tell them i won't be there on time.. call jeff to tell him i lost the dog

10:02: get in the car, drive around neighborhood 

10:07: see a white tail out of the corner of my eye and find jigsaw, following around the tiny little poodle-furred dog that is constantly wandering around the neighborhood

so then i headed to the community garden where people were volunteering with urban patchwork for the national day of service. we were taking out bermuda grass from half of this woman's front yard and then rototilling it (which i did without hacking off a foot or anything!) and then making these berms and swails (dips) full of compost and mulch to be planted later. the idea is that we create these little urban farms throughout the city to lessen the dependence on trucking in food, and to teach a new generation how to farm so we can sustain ourselves. 

(every time the cat goes missing, i always find him on my bed.)

it was a lot of fun, and we met a lot of cool people. i spent a lot of time talking to a freshman in college who's majoring in international relations.. and a woman in her 60s who's a writer. the woman and i were blowing the girl's mind. she was asking about how important it was to volunteer and what would really help you when you graduated. we told her you have to run things and execute events. i think we should start a consultancy for college students that helps them make smart decisions. because you just don't know what it's going to be like when you get out until it's too late.

also spent a while talking to a guy from india and a bunch of ladies about ayurvedic body types while we ate lunch. we had a long discussion about pitta, vata & how to cook quinoa. it was all very austin-y.

(this picture is jeff and i on friday working on the front porch. it was sooo nice out in the 70s with a nice breeze.)

we finished planting the garden at 4:30, went straight to our weekly meeting, covered in a fine layer of dirt and mulch dust. i was supposed to go straight to this farm benefit, but i was so disgusting i went home and showered and then went back. 

the benefit was for green gate farms to raise money for the farm and for the wildfire victims. when i walked in, the woman at the donation table, who owns the farm, told me they had just killed her favorite boar, and i should try the stew they made with him in the yellow pot. kind of weirded me out a little bit, but it was delicious indeed. i brought lily's pumpkin chocolate chip cookies which disappeared quickly. 

anyway the highlights of the evening were chatting with a guy about education policy and teaching, overhearing/popping into a conversation with another guy whose girlfriend is an ayurvedic health specialist, and getting to wear long sleeves! it was actually pretty chilly by the end of the night. busy weekend.