and be glad in it

fun weekend. went to another farm fundraiser last night, and two of my favorite girls came. i'm kind of hunting their friendship. as we've discussed in the past, it's hard business becoming friends with new people sometimes. so i was glad they came and hung out.

this afternoon i jailbroke one of my volunteers out of his retirement home and we went to the symphony in the tiny town where we live. he's the youngest one there, and he just wants to get out and about and do normal things. my journalism adviser from high school is on the board of the symphony, so when they need volunteers last minute she calls me, and i've helped out a few times, so she donated her tickets to us so we could go. he really enjoyed it. we had a nice time talking. he couldn't believe all of the different things i've done since graduating.

the symphony itself was chamber music from the 1700 and 1800s. this man beside me was really into it. i mean, i enjoyed it, but this man would start giggling during certain parts, or rocking from side to side. at one point, my volunteer whispered 'he would make a good boyfriend' in my ear. but the man was clearly in his late 40s, and had a wedding ring. what is it about elderly people playing matchmaker?

so that was my day. waiting on udon noodle soup at sushi niichi right now. it is so busy in here. the soup is worth waiting for.

friday

do you want to know a fun fact? when i send emails, i almost always use the day of the week for the subject line. i was an english major in college, and the most agonizing part of every paper was the title. i just hate summing things up in a few words for some reason. so with the day of the week, it's just done.

this is my favorite find of the day:

happy 11/11/11! (it happens to be 11:11pm at the moment, too). the day which most closely resembles corduroy.

one is silver and the other's gold

are you on pinterest? since my main blog audience is extended fam, i'm going to guess you haven't. its kind of like an internet bulletin board. you 'pin' things you find all over the internet. i have 6 categories (food, flowers, home, recipes, etc.). and i was all into it when i first joined, cleaning out my folders of links and just pinning things instead. when people click on a pin, it takes them to the original link you found.

it's gotten really popular in the last 6 months. i get an email every time someone follows my boards (they see what you post), and every time, i feel like writing back and saying 'don't follow me. i never post anything new.'

anyway, it's worth checking out. seems like most people get really excited in the beginning and pin in flurries and then taper off. or maybe i just think everyone has tapered off since i have.

twirl you all around the floor

i think rose water is the secret to rose milk tea. tonight i made a normal cup of tea with gram's black tea of choice, salada, a lot of milk, a tsp of sugar and maybe 1/2 tsp of rose water, and it was pretty close. they make it with a lot more sugar in tea shops, and they steam the milk which makes it all seem a little thicker.

in the summer, i like a teaspoon or so mixed into lemonade. it sounds kind of iffy, but it's good. a lot of people on the blogs say they like it in apple pie or in muffins. it isn't strong, but it adds another layer of flavor.

one last update on the guy: we went to a coffee shop and played scrabble this weekend (i whipped him by 100 points).. and i think the sparkle is officially dead. it's interesting how it's so different to be around someone when you're romantically interested in them vs just being friends. i didn't rush to fill the gaps in conversation, or think about which way i crossed my legs. my friend steve in taiwan used to always comment on how if you cross your legs away from someone, it shows that you're not interested in them. i can never get that out of my head now when i'm sitting beside someone.

speaking of taiwan, the o'sullivans had their baby. tegan clare.
jeremiah wrote me a really sweet email in march of '09 when they had just signed up to teach in taiwan and had read my whole blog. he said 'we did get a little addicted to your blog and i think i ended up reading almost every post in four days (shhhhh, don't tell anyone) and my wife is dying to be caught up.  i would have to say the addiction was up there with our six feet under addiction we had over the summer.' 
it's still one of my favorite emails from the blog. now we're all fb friends.

tiny calendar

maybe you've noticed, but one of my strategies for success in life has been to tell everyone i know every detail about everything that's happening to me, or that i want to happen. sometimes this works out very well.. like the white house internship. sometimes not so well, like failed non-relationships. 

it's good for following through though. if i tell a million people about something, there's a lot more pressure on me to complete it than if i just make a decision by myself and no one knows. 

anyway with that idea in mind, i invited a bunch of my friends to participate in 'lipstick november,' in which we wear lipstick four days a week each week in november. 

lipstick can make you look so much more put-together, but i find it hard to put it on and keep it on for some reason. usually i put it on (and by usually, i mean once every 6 months), feel overly made up, and tissue it off. 

so i made and printed this teeny calendar so we can easily keep track. me and 10-ish friends are doing it. but! i made a little one for you to print out if you want to share or join. it prints at like 2.5 by 3.5 inches. 

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!