Curious Notions

I finally tried that newish Vietnamese cafe near Lamar and 183. Cafe de Bella. I’ve been craving banh mi (Vietnamese sandwiches) since November 2007 (When I got lockjaw). I thought I’d torture my jaw some to quiet my craving. It’s kind of tucked away in the same shopping center as Din ho and is really charming when you walk in. Clean, cafe-ish, cute.

Aside from the sandwiches, they also have popular American-Chinese dishes (General Tso’s, etc), hot pot, coffees, and shaved ice. I may have to come back and try the other things out. I got the Dac Biet banh mi. Delicious. Not so fat so my jaw could easily handle it. Pickled carrots, cucumber, pork, pate, butter spread, and hot peppers in toasted French bread. Delicious.

Past several weeks I’ve been slacking on the trying new places/new things. Been going to the old familiar places.

Like Chile. Had the Camaroes de Plancha?

And Catfish Parlour. I like their decor.

I’ve been eating my feelings ALL week. I can’t seem to stop. Tiff’s Treats (7 cookies one day, 2 cookies for breakfast another day), fried foods, mashed potatoes, Chinese food, chocolate, gelato, a ‘salad’ overloaded with ranch, Pringles, regular potato chips, more chocolate. I’m starting to feel gross. This also happens to be the one week both Nisreen’s and my schedules changed so we couldn’t meet up to work out like we usually do.

But the pistachio gelato I got at the mall yesterday with Nisreen soothed my moodiness some yesterday. They opened up a gelato stand at Barton Creek! We went to the mall yesterday to have some alterations done and I helped Nisreen picked out some clothes. I got a pretty silk print mini dress altered (I don’t have enough boobies) and cannot wait for it to be warm enough to wear.

Seriously. I need to snap myself out of this funk.

Other miscellaneous bits:

- I saw Slumdog Millionaire with Alan on Monday. I thoroughly enjoyed that movie and have a sneaking suspicion it will be my favorite movie of 2009. It had all these horrific events in the movie but still maintained optimism through perseverance and redemption. I f’in LOVE this movie. Please do yourself a favor and treat yourself to this movie.

- I have major major wanderlust. But the economy is freaking me out. I have been surfing airline websites for deals. Window shopping, if you will.

- I have to wrap my parents’ Valentine’s day package today to hand over to my brother. He’s going home this weekend.

Looking back, my most most romantic moments ever come from girlfriends. Personally, I think most girls would be SPECTACULAR boyfriends. I guess it’s cheating because we know what we want, so of course we’d have an edge over actual boys. (Which is why Alan gets a handicap. Hehe.)

Case in point. My Kim sent me cookies today. Just to spread some cheer. From TIFF’S TREATS. The best cookie (only?) delivery place EVER in Austin. I think the general consensus is that they are warm gooey heaven in a box.

It worked out perfectly because I had chocolate milk in the work fridge today. Nothing beats chocolate milk and cookies for lunch.

She spoils me.

In the meantime, I’ll steal photos from Brenda’s facebook and post it here.

Photos from last night’s meeting from Brenda’s facebook:

Aw!

We have a mommy/daughter pair.

At writing club today, we were talking about the English man who murdered his wife after seeing her facebook relationship status had changed to “single.” (Link)

Brenda’s comment:
“They act like they don’t care and then they go and do something like that.”

That tickled me. It shouldn’t but it did. I enjoy writing club. Perhaps by next month’s meeting I’ll finally have a fictional piece.

It’s 3am Monday morning. I work in 4 hours. My mind won’t quiet down. My weekend had its highlights I guess, but overall I consider it a bust.

I just finished watching The Duchess. I didn’t know it was inspired by a true story.

Oh. I think I’m finally yawning.

I hate that it’s Monday.

I haven’t done a new thing in at least a couple of weeks. This may have contributed to my current lack of joy.

I’ve just listened to this song 5 consecutive times.

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My supervisor asked me what love is yesterday. Stunned, I felt a lot but as for an answer actually being formulated into speech, I had nothing to give her. As I was showering last night, I kept trying to reflect on all the love I’ve given and all the love I’ve received.

I thought about the random text reminders my brother gives me to let me know if there is extreme weather the next day. He knows I have a habit of going to Alan’s to stay overnight and hardly ever bring clothes for any dramatic change in weather. I thought about all the sacrifices my parents took to provide for my brother and me. Mary Ellen and waking up at 5am her time to wake me up for work if I haven’t been getting sleep. The laundry I do for Alan. The tickets to the Killers he got me for Christmas even though he really doesn’t like them. The calls I make to Mary Ellen sobbing because she’s the only one I really feel comfortable experiencing my ugly cry. How usually she just listens. The ice cream I shared with Kim while reflecting on our goals. The fights I have with Mary Ellen and how as they happen, I’m secretly enjoying the fact that I know that she knows that we both know, this is all going to pass and we’ll come out laughing – eventually.

I remember the tears that instantly came when I found out my dad got sick and was too worried that I’d be worried to tell me. I thought about hugs and kisses and hand holding. How sometimes just the presence of someone serves as comfort and sense of security. How I want my family and friends to be happy and successful. How I hurt when they hurt and that uneasy feeling of helplessness when they hurt REALLY badly and I’m at a lost of what to do to help. I think of Dave leaving me singing voice mails and calling me pookie when I’m down. I think of random letters in the mail box, dates (both platonic and romantic) and flowers (mostly platonic).

I thought about unrequited love and how it really does, like Charlie Brown says, take the taste out of peanut butter. I thought about falling out with a few friends and being lucky enough to salvage back a friendship. I thought about how I’ve only verbally shared my love with 2 of my 4 boyfriends. How one of them said it and never heard it back.

I thought about everything I could remember about my modest experience with love and here’s what I got on it.

Love is courtesy, respect, commitment, protectiveness, sacrifice, gift-giving, supporting, cheer leading, commiserating, gratitude, appreciation. Love can be joyful, sad, heartbreaking, interdependent, safe, scary, risky. Love is choosing to be there, after all the initial chemistry fades. Love is loyal, kind, trustworthy. Love expects the best and inspires action. Love is keeping your word and following through. Love is seeking forgiveness and forgiving. Love is valuing one another and understanding our time is limited, so let’s take care of each other.

Love is a lot of things and if I were to sum it up, I’ll just say love makes living worthwhile. Perhaps this is why we’re willing to risk a lot and hurt for the sake of it.

Edit:
me: I mentioned you in a blog about love.
dave: Oh. I don’t know much about it.
me: You know a lot about it! You have love out the butt
dave: haha that’s a first… maybe i should start the morning each day w/ that phrase. “i have to love out the butt today”
me: LOL no. You HAVE love out the butt. You can’t LOVE out the butt. That just sounds like anal….
dave: yes yes, my bad

We’re listening to Roxette’s It Must Have Been Love. Yay late 80s/early 90s rock.

I’ve been bad about packing my lunches and eating the unhealthy lunches the drug reps bring us. Today I actually brought in my Lean Cuisine with yogurt and Cheesecake Factory’s Godiva Cheesecake (Thanks, Alan!). Somewhat balanced meal. I failed though when I saw the Chilli’s food they brought in. Had one buffalo wing, one fried chicken tender, one Southwestern egg roll, one bar burger, and then my cheesecake. I like to have what I call color (veggies) in my meals today everything was brown. Ick.

I often hit up my friends in the Billing Department randomly during the weekday for snacks and to tell them my jokes. They’re the only ones who really enjoy and appreciate my humor. Only ones! Cept Kim and Kevin. Albert is usually the one who feeds me. Good healthy snacks like popcorn, “berry delight” (his prepared strawberries and blackberries and blueberries), and pretzels complete with mustard to dip. I told him thanks for always feeding me.

“No problem. I like it. Because I miss my dog. You make me feel like I’m feeding a stray and if I keep doing it you’ll keep coming back.”

I’m Albert’s stray dog?

Hey at least I get snacks.

We all took our blood pressures today. The girls here in the Research department. We’re all good and healthy when it comes to that. I’m at 95/58. Just so you know.

Time to crank out more golden eggs at work.

In case you missed it, here’s a link to the text.

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