Curious Notions

Today is pay day. Transferred 200 dollars into my Emergency Fund. I promised myself no big trips til I have a year’s worth of safety net. Since January I saved 2K. Mostly because January is long month and we got paid three times instead of our usual 2. I put most of the extra paycheck in. I still need 10K more (5K after June because CD matures). This personal deadline of mine is giving me WANDERLUST. I keep fantasizing about my reward trip. Where to go?! One of my new year’s resolutions is to add one more state to my state list. Maybe I can road trip it to pitiful Oklahoma.

This website is awesome. Makes my stomach growl.

Here is how you can reach me:

Blogs: Here, Ink Spots
Facebook: check
Myspace: http://myspace.com/sweetcynic
Phone numbers: 3 numbers at work you can reach me at (1 not direct at all, 1 direct, 1 super direct), cell phone number where I also have unlimited txt
Twitter: http://twitter.com/sweetcynic
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/104097
Chat: I’m on gchat which also logs me into my AIM as well
Emails: One at work, one personal, one email forward
Snail Mail: My apartment address.

I’m feeling very accessible.

Spoilers ahead.

I didn’t know F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Did you? I finished this story in about 2 hours tops. I saw the movie a couple of weekends ago with Katambra. We loved it. The movie was ADORABLE, all the way through, adorable. I love the old man C-list character that got struck by lightening 7 times. So I was excited to start reading the book. After reading, I found myself preferring the movie over the book which I rarely ever do.

The book wasn’t very descriptive. It went over 50 plus years of Benjamin Button with a few sentences each for each phase of his life. I guess that is why the movie had so much room to digress and flesh out. In the movie, Benjamin was left on a doorsteps of a cute Black lady who ran a nursing home. She cared for him as if he was her son. In the book the father never gave him up.

What won me over to the movie and turned me off towards the book was that Benjamin met his love in the movie at age 7 with him looking elderly. It was a coming of age story about the two of them with tons of hit and misses. They finally meet in the middle and he eventually leaves her after they have a baby together. He thought it was the best thing for his love since he didn’t want to have her raise her husband as he gets younger and their child at the same time.

In the book however, he meets the girl later and as he grows younger and better looking, he gets embarrassed and turned off from his wife because she gets older and uglier. My heart sank as I read that.

Very original idea though. I liked the the story enough to make me want to reread Great Gatsby. I only remember one scene from Gatsby. It’s where Nick criticizes Daisy for being a bad driver (like I am) and she responds that it only matters if she runs into another bad driver.

Ink Spots was created 9 months ago; I joined 8 months ago. Today was our best meeting in terms of attendance and participation. I’m very proud of us. I’m usually not a fan of amateur poetry but each time Lanay shares, I find myself very moved and touched. Roz shared a pretty unconventional and creative cover letter. Katambra left me hanging with a story about a girl hiding from a possibly dangerous exboyfriend? Katambra drove me back home today and we were both impressed and agreed that tonight was the best meeting yet. We left inspired, proud, and motivated. Hopefully this carries through. I’m not much of a fiction writer but my new goal is to just write and not worry if it’s utter crap. I wrote my third fictional piece ever (2nd unfinished piece) about a girl battling the Valentine blues, making the best of her day without any available girlfriends or boyfriend when she runs into an exboyfriend. My first and only completed piece was about a guy with a rotting penis. ONE time I write a somewhat R rated NON-exotic story and every time I read from then on, they ask me to give them the rating even though it’s been PG ever since.

I snagged a few photos from Brenda’s facebook from tonight.

Friday night, I took my little out for her first experience of bubble tea. I think I finally put together why she scowls a lot and invades the personal bubbles of complete strangers. The kid has glasses and doesn’t ever wear them! She can’t see so the scowling is her really squinting. Poor child. I took her to Coco’s and there is a poster on the sidewall with pictures of some of their popular drinks and the girl marched right up to the wall where there was a family sitting to look at that poster. Luckily, they have a smaller version of the sign on the counter you order at.

She first picked the coffee drinks which I vetoed since it was 8:30 in the evening. She then pointed to the honeydew flavored drink. I asked her if she knew what honeydew was. Little had no idea. I made sure she didn’t want to try something safer, like chocolate or vanilla. She stuck to her guns. Brave girl! Happily, she loved it. She sucked up the first tapioca ball and spat it out, examined it, and then popped it back in her mouth. She said she can’t wait to try the other flavors. New cultural experience was a success.

We chatted in my car as we sipped on our drinks. I tried to explain to her how credit cards work. Little fell asleep on me just when I got to interest rates.

Saturday night, Boyfriend, his roomie, and I went to our first Bingo hall. I don’t remember the name of the hall but there’s a night club right next to it with a funny name.

So we were all a bit overwhelmed by Bingo. We thought there was going to be a lot of elderly people but we were pretty wrong about that. Alan got me 9 card sheets which was just enough for a newb. He and Sae were wooed by the best buy which is 36 card sheets for 15 dollars. Umm keeping up with 36 cards at a time is impossible for first timers. There was this middle aged man who helped us out a lot and told us 36 was way too much for first timers. The boys even complained about dizziness and nausea. If there’s a next time they should split a 36 card set.

There are signs to help you keep up, including numbers that have been called and what kind of formations they’re playing. The one in the photo is called a “crazy L.”

We didn’t win our first time. I had a lot of fun but the poor boys didn’t. Playing 36 cards was a bit too stressful and fast for them. I took a hint from my supervisor who recently went for her first time and saved a few Bingo sheets to gift wrap presents. We like being green.

On the way to Gregory gym yesterday, I saw this guy dancing/jiggling his belly on the Drag and 24th street. I don’t think he was asking for money. Just dancing. 3 cops walked by and stared at him for a bit before breaking out into smiles.

Finally distributed my Fun Dip valentines at work today. I kept forgetting to bring them in!

I hung out with Brenda and Katambra for a short while on Valentine’s. We were drinking wine and munching on cheesy Doritos and making lists: “10 Things We Love about Men” (i.e. facial hair and eyes), “10 Things We Hate about Men” (i.e. how they make us eat our feelings, sometimes they smell), and “10 Things We Look For in Men” (i.e. arms which come before a good job.) I also painted my nails with Valentine nail polish. It was then that I realized painting my nails inhibited me from munching on the Doritos.. So Katambra fed me. She likes me.

Alan treated me to a romantic early Valentine’s dinner at Joe Dimaggio last night. Holy Crap was the food HEAVENLY. We had crab cakes to start; Alan had the steak and I had the seafood risotto. We also ordered sides (family style like Eddie V’s): lobster mashed potatoes, DELICIOUS polenta, and broccoli and cauliflower. I asked Lloyd for a restaurant recommendation that served great steaks but not exclusively. He said Joe Dimaggio had better steaks than Ruth’s Chris. That’s quite a bold statement and knowing that Alan’s a steak aficionado, I figured he’d appreciate trying a steak that’s allegedly better than Ruth’s Chris’s.

I tried not to disturb the other diners so the photos were all without flash. Picture of the steak. Alan’s verdict: Comparable to Ruth’s Chris’s.

Alan’s verdict on the crab cakes: “It’s like a crab just walked into my mouth and died.” Translation: Damn good.

My entree; my verdict: SO good. Scallop was tender and perfectly cooked and I like my shellfish.

Have you even heard of lobster mashed potatoes?

The decor very masculine, old elegant (1930s?), high back booths, candles, black and white photographs of Dimaggio, Marilyn and important baseball/Hollywood people.

My morning patients brought me Valentines! Cute. I like the ornament. She told me it was perfect to hang on wine bottles. Inspired, I hung it on my water bottle.

One of the patients was the pee cup artist. (I’m too lazy to link but if you search my blog for “pee”, you’ll find some of his earlier works.) He snuck in different colored markers in the lavatory this morning and as usual, gave us a festive urine sample. I guess our black sharpie wasn’t enough for the artist in him today.

As I was cranking out golden eggs at work (I’m currently very swamped at work), I couldn’t help but notice that despite the work stress, I’m feeling pretty good. So far, my Valentine celebrations have been sweet and I haven’t even had my Valentine lunch date with girlfriends tomorrow yet. I didn’t think my Friday the 13th could get any better but then I received a beautiful bouquet and chocolates from the boyfriend. Sigh. His card, concise and sweet, made me warm all over.

My little enjoys taking pictures. Just look at her posing.

She also very much enjoys icecream.

Last night I baked for the boyfriend and the 4 girls in our department. I had a cupcake to taste last night and a slice of Alan’s heart shaped cake for breakfast. Only to come into the office with chocolate dipped heart shaped pretzels waiting on my desk. What a fun holiday!