life the sun into the sky

spent the day with grandma joan, joanne and a bunch of monahans. my extended family on my mom's side is pretty interesting. they're all outspoken, fun, earthy, drinkin, crazy people with lots of stories. we grew up in texas/california/arizona while all of our relatives live in upstate new york and new hampshire, so whenever we visit there's always a bunch of stories and family friend connections.

it's fun for me to get together with them because they always tell me the stories about my parents when they were young and family history i haven't heard. tonight joanne told me that my mom said she had a feeling she was going to find whoever she was going to marry when she headed to california from new york, and that's where she met up with my dad. my parents dated when they were in high school and my mom wasn't old enough to drive so my grandma would have to drive my mom home. but they reconnected and got married in their late 20s.

there's something about dinner parties with my grandparents generation that's so much better than our dinner parties. the stories are the best part. tonight one woman who i don't think i'm related to by blood but who's in the circle was telling me about how she and her husband come from italian families so they made wine every year for the town. they received shipments of zinfandel grapes from CA and then they'd squish them all and go through this elaborate barreling process and make tons of wine. it sounded like fun.

well i broke out the flannel jammies tonight. it's fall!

zha nan gua

this is mrs. chan a long time ago. it's funny how much she looks like amanda. this picture makes me laugh because every day i bothered her about always wearing pants and how she would never wear a dress with me. she says you can't wear a dress and cook at the same time and she's too thin.
i just called the kuo's and she answered and she speaks a mile a minute. it reminded me that she's on facebook now. love her.

mr. kuo is playing mahjong at his sister's because they have a typhoon. some days i feel like i'm in taiwan. skype is so cool.

two truths and a lie

have you played two truths and a lie? ..i'm pretty sure of the people who read this, half are under 30 and half are between 30 and 86.. sometimes we just have generational differences. but if you haven't played, you tell 3 things about yourself. 2 are true, one isn't.

ready?
1. i got a library card at the library of congress today and had to pretend i was doing research on american presidents
2. i tripped and fell down half of the stairs on the metro center escalator
3. i was wearing my dress inside out for 10 minutes in H&M before realizing it, throwing on a coat and rushing back to the dressing room

if you said two was the lie, you were right. though tumbling down the escalator is a major fear of mine in DC, thankfully i haven't fallen yet. i diddd get a library card though, woo! they make you promise you're doing research so a bunch of people don't just get them for a souvenir. i've been told there are amazing reading nooks there, so we will see. i'd like to read both of samantha power and both of the president's books.

then i went on a shoe/pant hunt. found some sort of ugly but sort of comfy shoes.
note the GIANT elastic band and velcro. but they get the job done and they don't make it feel like i'm walking barefoot on concrete. and they were $20.

the only other ridiculous thing today was at H&M when i noticed a couple kind of looking at me oddly while i was trying on a coat in the mirror.. then i saw that the lining was sticking out from under my dress. i tried to pull it down but it wasn't budging. thenn i realized the big lacy pattern that's supposed to be on the outside was missing. then i realized my dress was on inside out. then i watched in the mirror as my face went from white to red. i booked it to the dressing room, with the coat on, and fixed it. embarrassing.

i'm going to continue the online search for comfy office shoes. if you feel so inclined, you're welcome to leave you own 2 truths & a lie. i'll guess.

p.s. let's talk naturalizers.
are these screaming '90s [or '70s] to anyone else? their whole collection is like that.

baby it's cold outside

it's hard to warm up in this town. it's cold outside, it's cold inside. thank goodness for sweat pants.

it's going to be 78 tomorrow so i'm going to wear my pink sundress. i think from here on out it's just supposed to get cooler and cooler. i've been told i need a good pair of gloves. this weekend my big project is better shoes. i need at least one pair with more than 1/8 inch of padding on the bottom.

i'm exhausted. hope everyone had a nice week and plans for an american/taiwan/finland fab weekend

and so it is

i turned on the water in the shower tonight while i was brushing my teeth, waiting for it to warm up, and it never did warm up. i took a cold shower. that is unpleasant after you just came in from the cold and were hoping to get warm.

nothing today except this little exchange..
megan and old man get off bus at the same time
old man almost gets run over by an erratic scooter driver who clearly hasn't mastered the art of balancing at slow speeds
at the intersection, megan goes one direction, old man goes the other
megan contemplates taking front entrance to building but decides she's freezing and takes the side entrance, which she thinks is a slight short cut
megan walks down the long hallway, only to meet up with old man in front of the elevator
both laugh as they make eye contact
me: you beat me!
him: i'm a fast walker
me: i always take the side entrance because i thought it was a little faster
..i forget what we said after that, but it was nice. we were both laughing. what a nice way to end a very long day.

i think i'm supposed to be some kind of teacher. i really like helping people when they have questions and training them on how to do things and telling them the trade secrets.

4 minutes to midnight. goodniiight

give us love in the time we have

miriam has moved in! it's exciting because she taught english in china for 6 months so tonight we had a big conversation about living in asia and what it's like to come home and how you don't know where you're going but you feel like you can do anything now that you've tackled asia.i stole this picture from facebook. that's miriam. she visited my school in taiwan and met all of my friends so she actually knows exactly where i'm coming from which is really nice. it can be frustrating answering the 10 questions strangers ask and then never talking about anything more.

it's like any experience you have where only a couple of people know what it's really like and can relate to your stories. in college, i studied abroad in england at the same time 3 of my best friends were in/around london and we traveled around to munich, salzburg and prague for 2 weeks before we went home and we had the beeestt time. flat stanley, 21 sausages, skating on frozen ponds, bitter beer, getting kicked out of first class trains.. lots of fun memories on that trip.three of my besties. andy, becca and will. that 4 years ago. crazy!

aside from that, let's talk about goal setting. we didn't have a goal yesterday and we did X amount of whatever we were doing. todayy we did have a goal and we did twice as much stuff with a few less people. it's amazing what a little motivation can do. for me, it's about getting to the end of stacks of work or crossing things off a list. that's the whole joy of grocery shopping.. the list. sometimes i wonder if i'm a bit OCD. i like clutter too much though.

time to read. right now i'm reading david lebovitz' the sweet life in paris which is really personal and gives you a taste of parisian life. and a book called my family and other animals which is about a kids' life in greece with his family. he loooves nature. the detailed descriptions of spiders' lives and his dog are pretty endearing. and i'm thinking about beginning the bridges of madison county and maybe bill clinton's autobiography which i spied on the shelf.
what are you reading/what's on your list/don't you think travel books are better than every other kind of book?

move part 2

so the other day i moved blogs and today i moved rooms. it's all changed up around here. my friend miriam is moving in so we're going to share the big room and ruda moved into my little room. i'm kind of excited about sharing a room actually. it's been long enough since i lived in the same room with someone that i don't remember any of the bad parts.

there are days when there's just nothing to say and today is one of them. i'm loving the new purse, the weather is cooling down, my new bed is comfy, life is good.

i love this woman and everything she posts. today is especially good.