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February 29, 2004
February 29
Wow, I just realized today's the extra day we get every four years. How appropriate because it's only every four years that I do a thorough cleaning and I think this is the first non-moving related instance of this undertaking for me. Admittedly, it wasn't voluntary--our landlady is moving and offerred all this furniture to us--it started with a bedroom set and then expanded to several bookshelves as well as a sofa which she wanted to switch with the one we had (our apartment came furnished) which ended up keeping Adam and I busy all day with the rearranging, cleaning, and moving of things. It's almost like we were on an episode of Clean House (which I don't watch, btw--I'm not into home makeover type shows--I think they mainly cater to people who actually own their own homes which only applies to a fraction who live in my city). Admittedly, we were in a bad need of an overhaul but I have an extreme aversion to anything domestic, particularly cleaning, so this was almost a revolutionary act for me.
The awesome things are the fact that we now have some kick-ass bookshelves which now happily accomodate our surprisingly large video and DVD collection (I discovered that Adam's pre-Jen video collection consists entirely of dorky movies and videos, save for a few heavy metal videos) and dresser drawers. To provide some context on the bad thing, we live in a basement apartment and, as I'm sure most of you know, basements tend to be damp, and I think the worst room in our apartment in terms of this is our bedroom. Well, since relocating our bed and clearing all the bags that had occupied one corner of our bedroom, I've noticed our bedroom has smelled like mold and I fear that the carpet beneath these two things is releasing all its moldy goodness now that the things that had covered it are now gone. It's pretty gross--hopefully our carpet will air out, the mold will die, and the smell will go away soon.
Anyway, these are only first steps to what we hope will become an apartment-wide transformation. More reports to come!
Posted by Jennifer at 09:30 PM | Comments (0)
February 26, 2004
February 26
So it's pretty sad, really, but I haven't worked out in a million years. There was a time when I worked out regularly--it started out in college and lasted through a year of working in between college and graduate school, to my first semester of graduate school in San Francisco. During this period, I must've racked up about half a dozen membership cards--I switched gyms with every job and location change which was frequent during that time. Then I stopped living at home and started having less time and money and living in areas with no gyms nearby so gyms were no longer a part of my routine. Not that I haven't thought about rejoining one but life would inexorably move on and one or all of the above factors would work against me joining one. But after Adam and I got engaged, I thought, o.k., I've really got to work out at some point before the wedding and tone down my expanding midriff but the issues of time (or the shortage of) and money hadn't disappeared.
It is now two months before the wedding and I still have not lifted a leg in an attempt to get in shape but I read on a thread on one of the wedding message boards I visit that pilates is a good way of toning down, which piqued my interest. So I posted inquiring about inexpensive pilates places in the city and was referred to one that happens to be having a special on private sessions. The only exposure I've ever had to pilates are the glimpses I've caught on TV and since I haven't worked out in ages I'm sure it will only make pilates that much more challenging for me. But I scheduled an appointment for next week so we'll see how it goes.. Anyone have any experiences?
Posted by Jennifer at 08:45 PM | Comments (1)
February 25, 2004
February 25
Growing pains
So Adam's needed a new computer desk for a while and with my new computer I needed a new desk as well. We had, in fact, considered buying desks on Saturday but ended up deciding against it. We live in a basement apartment and as I was walking home from work tonight, I noticed two desks sitting where we generally put out our garbage and decided to ask our landlady we can have them to which she readily agreed. In fact, she's moving this spring (we get to stay, fortunately) and Adam had mentioned she had some furniture we could have and she took the opportunity tonight to show me said furniture. Basically, it's a whole bedroom set which is cool but will be a PIA to move which we hope to do this year. But I'm not one to turn down furniture--especially when it involves a nice bedframe and a huge dresser which I definitely need but moving our bedframe out and moving around the furniture in our bedroom will definitely be a major PIA.
As far as the desks, Adam ended up bringing them into our apartment and carefully navigating across our heavily populated living room (populated with a lot of stuff that is) into our study room and us having to shift things around in our study room so we could move the desks to their desired locations. I think this ate up half the night. And I still have to finish going through my computer to delete unwanted files before I begin the process of saving all my wanted files onto zip disks and saving them onto the new computer which idealistically I'd like to do before the Roadrunner installation person comes on Friday but realistically probably won't accomplish until the weekend at the earliest.
Anyhow, as far as the b'day pictures go, none of them are really worthwhile sharing save for the b'day cupcakes ;).
Happiness is box of cupcakes with your name on it.
Posted by Jennifer at 10:04 PM | Comments (1)
February 22, 2004
February 22
Why my fiance is the best boyfriend ever..
My birthday wishes this year weren't that different from the last despite turning the big 3-0 so I wasn't expecting that much present-wise. I had another hair trial on Long Island scheduled for today so Adam and I drove out there, picked up his wedding ring, had lunch, and he mentioned wanting to pick up his mail from his parents so we stopped off at their house. His mom mentioned she wanted him to take a box of his zines so he could drop them off at a local record store so we headed over to the doorway where they were. Adam asked me to pull a blanket off a bunch of boxes which I did and underneath were some Dell boxes. I actually didn't even realize they were a present for me until he exclaimed "Happy Birthday!" It was a total surprise--I complain about my computer sometimes but not enough to prompt someone to buy a computer for me and, especially with all the wedding expenses recently, I wasn't expecting a present like this at all. But Adam is the nicest, most generous soul I know which is why meeting him was the best present a girl could ever ask for..
Pictures of the birthday celebration to come later..(I'm not 30 yet btw!) For now, you might enjoy this image.
If I were a panda, this is how I'd be celebrating my b'day!
Posted by Jennifer at 05:47 PM | Comments (0)
February 17, 2004
February 17
What's up with the Daily Show? Do they get two months off for vacation a year? It's like my fiance said--everytime we get one day off in a week, they get the whole week off. Oh Subway Q&A, I miss you so..
Posted by Jennifer at 11:05 PM | Comments (0)
February 14, 2004
February 14
Very funny Valentines.
Pamie's annual Valentine's Day poems. My favorite one:
Here is something I will love forever:
Now matter how busy we seem to get
I love that you'll drop everything--
All of it--
To dirty dance with me in the living room
And then chase the cats around.
That is how I know
You are The One.
Happy Valentine's Day.
Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
Posted by Jennifer at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)
February 12, 2004
February 12
Cool desert retreat at Joshua Tree Nat'l Park, and the best part is that it was constructed in an earth-friendly manner and it can be replicated for a low-cost in earthquake prone areas!Posted by Jennifer at 10:07 PM | Comments (0)
February 11, 2004
February 11
So I was talking to my mom on the phone recently and she mentioned that her best friend would be coming to our wedding and started on a trajectory about her best friend. She mentioned that her best friend was a woman who's husband was mentally abusive but who she was too scared to leave. That they barely speak to one another because every time they speak they get into a fight and the state of their marriage has been like this for ten years. And despite all this she still cooks for him every day even though he's mentally abusive, has a drinking problem, and they live together in the same house in silence. This is what an old-school Asian woman will put up with. It's pretty sad and scary.
Cool pic's of Nepal.
Posted by Jennifer at 10:02 PM | Comments (0)
February 08, 2004
February 8
The homes in the neighborhood my fiance and I live in are really expensive so when I do dream of owning a home, I think about one of the attached houses on a street my fiance and I walk down occasionally. Today, there happened to be an open house for one of those houses and even tho' Adam and I don't have anything near what is required for a down payment, my curiousity got the better of me and I walked inside. I figured it'd be best to find out what the asking price was first before I took a tour of the place and spotted a paper with the listing for the house on it--$989,000, for an attached house in my neighborhood--so much for my dream. So I was reading one of Big Poppa E's journal entries this week and he mentioned in connecting to a girl that it helped that she laughed at all his jokes when it hit me, why this is such an important characteristic guys value in girls they're interested in from an evolutionary psychology standpoint. Status is really important to males so if the woman he falls for doesn't appreciate his sense of humor then that's a significant blow to his ego or self-esteem and generally a significant strike against her. Megan has a great piece in her weblog this week about the feelings associated with sharing a bed with someone.Posted by Jennifer at 07:52 PM | Comments (1)
February 07, 2004
February 7
So I just planned my birthday and while I'm not excited about turning 30, I am looking forward to karaoke. I was listening to Liz Phair's recent self-titled album when "Why Can't I?" came on and memories of my most recent karaoke shining moment came flooding back. There's a lot of songs I love but, as I've discovered, just because you love them, it doesn't mean you can sing them. But "Why Can't I?" is a perfect karaoke song--it has the romantic streak that I love and the even-toned range I can sing.
Posted by Jennifer at 07:50 PM | Comments (0)
February 03, 2004
February 3
So Adam and I have encountered several unpleasantries while living in our apartment, including several encounters with flying ant infestations but one of the worst nightmares for any residential dweller happened to our apartment today.
While on the phone with me early this evening, Adam noticed water pouring into the corner of our apartment. Now before I go any further I should probably provide some insight into our humble abode. Adam and I have a ton of stuff and all this stuff exceeds the space within our apartment. Among this stuff are many boxes piled up against one side of our apartment and this happened to be the side of the apartment that the water was streaming into. So Adam quickly sprung into action and started moving our things to the other half of our living room and called the landlady who we were also very lucky (the first lucky thing being the fact that Adam was home early) to have just walked in the door (she lives right above us). She identified the source of the flooding--a blocked drain near our front door which lead to all the water and melted snow from the heavy rain tonight to stream inside our apartment--and quickly sprang into action trying to clear it. This stopped the flooding but by this time, an inch of water had already accumulated over a quarter of our living room and we had to move a lot of our things in the affected area to the other side of our living room so we now have to gingerly navigate our way around the living room in order to get from one point to the other. I'm also really scared about mold--a similar incident had happened inside my bedroom at my last apartment and a whole colony of mold sprung up in the affected areas and I had to throw away a lot of the articles and other paperwork I had in piles on my floor. I asked our landlady to look into services for removing water from carpeting but she favored covering the floor in towels and us using our dehumidifier to absorb some of the moisture. I'm not sure how this will completely dry out our carpet or the bottom of the boxes which got wet but hopefully the cold weather will discourage the mold from sprouting.
Posted by Jennifer at 07:48 PM | Comments (2)
February 02, 2004
February 2
Damn, I'm glad I'm not living in Williamsburg this year...I lived in Williamsburg a number of years ago but not for that long--I think it was for only half a year or so since I was subletting. I returned to the area not long after and lived in Greenpoint for over a year before I returned to Queens and since then I've returned to Williamsburg only very occassionally. But I have a long-standing attachment to the neighborhood--in the late 90's I surveyed the streets for potential street tree sites as part of an internship. Then I moved to San Francisco, then I moved back to New York and jumped at the chance to live in Williamsburg when I got the opportunity. I jumped back and forth between LIC/Astoria and Greenpoint/Williamsburg and chose to do my thesis on Williamsburg. Then I gave up on the thesis and moved to inner Queens.
Since this seems to have turned into a Williamsburg post, I was dismayed to find out this restaurant has closed--I'd wanted to try it ever since I'd heard about their chocolate brioche sandwiches. It's pretty sad though--where I once did my thesis on the Southside I now almost never go there.
Posted by Jennifer at 07:47 PM
February 01, 2004
February 1
This weekend flew by faster than any weekend in recent memory. Yesterday I tried to take advantage of tax-free clothing week with no success and went to pick up one of my bridesmaid's dresses. I was dismayed when I first saw them bring out the dress since it wasn't the color I had expected it to be (the sample that everyone had tried on was a different color from the one I chose).
I ended up picking one of those very ambiguously named colors thinking or at least optimistically hoping it'd be a certain color but when I saw them bring out the dress I had ordered, I wanted to say, "No, that's not my dress.." But, like it or not, it was and I was in the middle of complaining to Adam over the phone when in walked one of my other bridesmaids. Sheer coincidence. She had driven into the city specifically to pick up the dress and I was figuring out how to kill time before dinner so we ended up hanging out at a cafe. Then it was off to dinner with none other than Rich Collier.
Today we had plans to see Adam's family so we took advantage of being on the island by seeing a jeweler about wedding rings which we actually ended up picking and doing a trial with a potential hair person (unfortunately I ended up with a head full of Grecian curls but I did think she had some potential). My initial disappointment about the dress was transformed as well once I saw Adam's sister wearing the dress which is a good thing.
Good post on bluishorange. I like this part especially:
I consider myself to be a sensitive person. nearly every major emotion i have consumes me, at times to the point where i can feel it in my chest as a heavy sort of sweetness, like my heart's been soaking in syrup. it's why i'm able to recall with such intensity what i went through nearly four years ago. It's why i'm so easily affected, it's why i'm so easily hurt, it's why i always, always fall in love.
Posted by Jennifer at 07:43 PM