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| i'm sorry guys. i don't know if you actually missed me writing on here, or maybe took me off your updates or your protected or whatever b/c i've been so absent but i guess i've just been really busy enjoying life in the moment and haven't had much urge to write about it. i miss talking to those of you i don't see as often but honestly i think i prefer the live phone calls or gchats, even if more sporadic, to the mass half-anonymous missives (half-anonymous b/c you never really know who reads and takes it in, you know?)
well anyway, not to bash xanga, it has its uses. i probably just don't think enough deep random thoughts anymore now that i listen to music while i commute instead of ponder.
anyway i'm on spring break right now and doing a road trip of the northeast. friday night i went to boston & stayed w/ helen, then explored boston from top to bottom on saturday & met up w/ sophia (and helen was w/ us the whole day) at harvard, stayed in boston a bit sunday morning and then drove up through new hampshire & the coast of maine to our b&b. we stayed the night in the same town as the l. l. bean factory, and monday morning went cross-country skiing at a beautiful farm with km & km of trails. then we drove up to quebec, where we are now! the rest of the week it is on to montreal, then down to vermont, new hampshire, and back to new york. SO excited, having so much fun!
here are highlights so far:
1. Pizza in Boston with Helen, giving New York a run for its money
2. A conversation, of which the following are excerpts:
Me: "Is there a lighthouse near here?"
Rugged New Hampshireite: "There's no lighthouse on the island."
Me: "We're on an island?"
Rugged New Hampshireite: "Oh dear."
***
Me: "We just rented a car and drove North."
Rugged New Hampshireite: "Where are you from?"
Me: "Washington State."
Rugged New Hampshireite: "Honey, you've been driving East."
3. Following the Freedom Trail in Boston & finding Paul Revere's house & grave, inspiring future generations
4. Eating Google's food & playing a very very long game of pool at
Google while trying to play "Apologize" with Helen on the piano
5. Drinking beer in Maine made from Yakima Valley Hops & winning over grumpy waitress
6. Pulling off the freeway to take state sign pictures, incidentally, of states with very aspirational slogans:
New Hampshire- live free or die! (but don't drive free- over $15 in tolls so far!)
Maine- the way life should be!
7. Seeing Grand Central Hip Hop Act in downtown Boston
8. Traipsing about Boston in the snow (sort of) looking for hats &
gloves only to find the stores in Boston are all selling swimsuits
& Easter hats.
9. Dipping toes in the Atlantic. Also, buying layers of warm clothing
at H&M b/c we apparently did not pack for winter in the Northeast.
10. Midnight pilates session in charming Maine B&B.
11. Women in tourist town boutiques showing zero interest in off-season customers, closing the register WHILE we were browsing.
12. Crocs for $15!
13. Port & Molten Chocolate cake at Harvard with Sophia & Helen.
14. Large quantities of attractive, strapping young lads in the greater
Northeast Region, several of whom were spotted having a post-St.
Patrick's Day Parade tea & pastry break.
15. Grannies spinning wool into yarn at the NH welcome center.
16. Muffins! Banana chocolate, Pear Ginger, Raspberry White Chocolate, Pecan Strudel . .
17. After multiple $1.50 tollways, finally one for a mere 60 cents.
18. Rental car with Florida license plates & bleeper.
19. Boston clam chowder with oyster-cracking bar tender who couldn't stop telling Helen how beautiful she
was.
20. Doing I'm a Little Teapot with stranger at Starbucks at Quincy Market, Boston.
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| surreal. i am in malaysia, at an internet cafe in kl. it is totally dark and silent in here. the woman next to me is wearing a hijab and looking at lol cats. at the islamic arts museum of malaysia we found a book called 'i can wear it anywhere!' celebrating the hijab as a gift allah has given women to wear and showing the many different places a woman can wear it: playing hopscotch in the lane, cooking with mummy, at the sea shore. there is one illustration of girls wearing it in the school play yard and there is one girl on a swing who doesn't have one on. but she is frowning, because she doesn't get to wear a hijab. i am not wearing a hijab and i got whistled at by a bus driver, while walking with avi. that is the only real heckling i have gotten from local men, however i have been stared at creepily by elderly europeans (ew) and less creepily what i think may be 2 cute persian guys. i did wear my hijab, ie, pashmina, when i went to the mosque and actually felt very Katharine Hepburn, so no complaints there. | | |
| have you missed me?
i know i've been really absent on here lately but there's a good reason- i'm happier with my real life than i was last year, i have friends in person, in my every day life, that i finally feel i can be me around and for that i'm so grateful. i know it doesn't really contribute to the excitement of this blog to rave about how great i'm doing in real life, and that isn't really what i mean, it is just to say, after a year of trying so hard to force some relationships, i've finally seen returns on the hard work of investing in people i'm not as similar to naturally, in some cases, and i've finally met some people i click with as well as i click with you, my dear long-distance friends. so for this i rejoice!
that and there is a bit of a LSC but in the most harmless of ways; on a challenge, i've been playing by 'the rules' (wikipedia the rules for dating) and it has been an interesting experiment. i have gained a new appreciation for what i am worth, what i do not have to stand for, that i am worth a person being inconvenienced for the pleasure of my company (what a revelation! i don't have to make it as easy as possible for a person for them to want to spend time with me! i can assert when i feel i have been mistreated and am worth the annoyance of having to hash it out! who knew?) i made someone walk me to the subway the other day after going out for drinks. i let people open doors and smile sweetly. i obtained a locker i can reach without a school, i got a guy to jump up and get me a book he had i needed to borrow. it is strange, but there is an element to it i really enjoy. of course, not being able to initiate conversations kills me: if he doesn't, we just don't talk.
fortunately this past week or so he initiated more than his fair share of conversations with me . . . every day i saw more and more of him, can't tell if he used me for my superior legal knowledge (on a realistic note, doubt it, as he's more arrogant than needy), or studying was a pretext for me . . . either way, i have never had so much fun studying for an exam before- everyone should cultivate a flirtation with a smart, good looking philosophical opposite before exams . . . :)
didn't get to see him before i left, after the exam- wonder if, in a month, i'll even care anymore. he's kind of an @$$ so it isn't like i really want anything to come of it but that doesn't mean it isn't fun.
and in a week, off to singapore . . . shikes! i'm not even done with my last exam yet!
oh, and please see/subscribe to/comment on my food blog . . . i don't plan to stop talking about it any time soon so you'd best comply now and save yourself the trouble of resisting. whatsinthepot.blogspot.com, svp.
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| hey first years . . .
good luck!!!
if you need to vent or want last minute study tips . . .
ll i have to say is, i don't know how i did that last year. the sheer amount of energy required . . .
***
sometimes i wonder if, by sheer force of thinking about things, they happen . . . or if we just notice them happening & they happen anyway? of course that is the more logical but i swear, sometimes i'll be thinking of how much i want to hear just one specific song and i'll have my mp3 player on shuffle-all or turn on the radio and it will play . . . maybe it is God just throwing me a bone, like, Hey JR, FYI, I see you. Sometimes I think God throws me a bone I really don't deserve, not in the 'grace' sense but in the 'I've mishandled this before' sense. Which, I suppose is grace, but maybe grace on steroids? Grace beyond the usual grace that is inherent in all the good I receive.
For example, I know nothing will [or should] come of the guy I sort of have a crush on here but God knows it still makes me so happy to have interactions with him. Now that we're in finals mode they're more infrequent than they had been so it is kind of a bummer . . . but last night after a hard, lonely night of studying [I finished my Con Law outline version I! whoo whoo!] he was on his way out of the school just as I was finishing bundling up and we walked together most of the way to my subway stop. And I found out we have a class together next semester- yea! It was a nice treat. Especially given the constraints of the rules challenge, which I haven't written about yet but I'm sure I will soon. Ask me if you're curious.
Am a bit nervous for christmas break. i want to be 'good' & do what is right in the long term but i don't want to be rejected . . . strange mix. dunno if it is possible to come away from it not hurt in some way, but i suppose that is the chance i took.
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