Kitties have grown

I think this is Mara but it is hard to tell...

Motivation to get a job

Well anyways, Brussels was fun. I told my mother today that we saw some wonderful museums and went to a marrionette show when really I was too tired to go to the show on Saturday and told Scott we'd go the next night knowing full well that the shows only play from Wednesday to Saturday, not on Sunday and not before we left on Tuesday. We ate french food instead. The museums, though not particularly far from the hotel, were beyond a few cute shop-lined streets aimed at target market: 20somethings. Oh yep that's me. Yes, we did not make it the ten minute walk to the museums, though we tried four times over three days. I do protest, however, that we here in Beantown got H&M but no Zara.

I finally applied for a job two weeks ago. Yes, the fact that I applied for a job now makes me "unemployed". I haven't even gotten the job. If I could go back two weeks in time, I wouldn't have applied. Yes, President Bush you don't count as "unemployed" if you aren't seeking employment whether or not you actually are employed.

And this is why I guess I need a job even if it means I have to be "unemployed" while I look for one:


I want a smart car. I want. I want. I want.

Who wants a big car. If we all just got along and drove smart cars that don't cause hurricanes that cause flooding that cause a toxic waste pool the size of New Orleans in New Orleans wouldn't the world be a better place?

Oh the poor fish

I love the aquarium. I love the aquarium as much as I love shopping. I know that's hard to imagine that someone can have two great loves in their life, but I do. Shopping and the aquarium.

I was in bed ready to go to sleep doing some knitting before I turn out the lights when I was suddenly super super hungry. So I got up, put on my robe, and went upstairs for some chips and guacamole. I decided to put on dvd we got at Best Buy but never watched called Naked Fish. I didn't want to watch anything that would really wake me up, and this Naked Fish thing is just supposed to be fish swimming around doing nothing. Kinda like that fireplace dvd.

Unfortunately I am awake now. Bad dvd. Bad idea. I just felt so sad for the fish in such crowded tanks. The cover of the dvd looks so pretty, but it reminded me of our trip to Underwater Adventures at the Mall of America. I saw the brochure at the hotel in Minneapolis while Scott was busy at the Microsoft partner conference thing. It was so cute and I love aquariums. And it was at the Mall of America. I mean, aquarium and shopping all in one place?! Must be heaven. So we went.

The fish were all squeezed into tanks way to small for the number of fish. And we're not just talking a few guppies that did it doggie style and forgot to eat their babies after -- there were large sharks and lionfish so overcrowded they were actually dying. And the poor kids there were like "whoa dad look! That shark has a bite taken out of its fin! Cool!" Actually, no you nasty little brat, these huge territorial creatures are forced into a tiny space and are going to kill each other until the largest one is left and has made himself enough space. And the stupid dad was like "yeah that is so cool! Sharks are cool!"

OK, so a small aside: Americans are so fucking stupid. Americans in the heart of America are so fucking stupid. Did anyone remember to go to elementary school?

I won't go on about the Underwater Adventures place. It makes me too upset. I cried when we left because 1. there was a baby shark in the touch tank; 2. the kids weren't made to wash their hands before and after putting their nasty, grubby little fingers in to touch the baby shark in the touch tank; and 3. the baby shark in the touch tank had its pectoral fin ripped off and it was still bleeding. I was so upset I could barely enjoy shopping at the largest mall in America.

Or maybe that was because the Mall of America is like a really bad strip mall that goes on and on and just has crappy stores. And even the good stores (like Guess -- yes, Guess was the only good store there) were poorly designed. I mean, the Guess store was lit like a Walmart and they seriously should have remembered to follow the little guides they put out for dressing the mannequins cause they were so bad.

OK OK OK, enough. Note to self: don't travel into the heart of America for any reason under any circumstances even if the whole world were coming to an end and the only way to save it were if I personally went back to the Mall of America.


Yay Brussels tomorrow!!!!!!!!



Yay that's not in America!!!!!!

Now what Carrie?

I was just running errands today - driving across Comm Ave after filling up on regular unleaded gas +$45 - and I started thinking randomly about my cousin Ivan who just got married last weekend in Hawaii. No, not one of those destination weddings, he lives in Hawaii. Made in Hawaii just like me (not China although many mistakenly joke so Scott). He's lived there all his life, that's the difference between me and him. Me, I got out early. Well, not by choice but lucky I did anyways. I was thinking I should send him a wedding present since I couldn't afford the ticket home to attend the ceremony. Then I realized that I'm not employed (not unemployed) and can't afford a present either. Hopefully either mom or dad remembered to include me on their card.

Then it started to make me depressed thinking about Ivan and getting married (not that I'm engaged but I might be some day). Once you get married you can practically reach out and touch the end of your life. Nothing new or exciting is likely to happen to you (unless you get divorced or someone dies). You will follow some age-old formula: married --> children --> work --> retirement --> grandchildren --> death. But really, does falling in love and making a lifelong commitment to that person have to imply the end of adventure? And if my parents never got divorced forcing my mother to move us to Mercer Island would I be just like Ivan? Would I find my love in Hawaii and never wander beyond that tiny island paradise?

It actually made me cry. I love Scott so much and we will probably get married and grow old together - given that he doesn't do anything stupid and remembers to do his expense reports. But have I lived my life? Am I ready to statistically give up the chance for adventures? Would I be giving up my chance? What do I see myself doing five years from now? Ten? Twenty? What is it that I want from life? If it's love, then what further purpose do I have for living now that I've found it? Why do the end the series when Carrie finds her "Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can't-live-without-each-other love?" I mean, after Carrie finds it what does she do for the remaining forty years of her life?

I know, not every marriage is the same. Not every couple is the same. Maybe we will get married (in Hawaii probably) and still go traveling around the world for the sole purpose of partying. But even just the words "husband" and "wife" open a whole box of boredom, drudgery, responsibility, and mundane. When you are out with someone and then they say "my wife," one immediately pictures the poor guy waking up, going to work, coming home, sleeping next to the "wife", waking up, going to work, coming home, sleeping next to the "wife", repeat. That's exactly what I pictured when we were out with that poor guy with Peter in Minneapolis. So boring was he that I can't even remember his name. Sean. That's it. So then is that what will happen to Scott when we get married? He will be at some big event someplace sexy - London or Milan or Hong Kong or Singapore - and he will say something like "I'll be right back I have to call and check on my wife" and the cute, young 21-year-old chick sitting next to him will picture my poor baby doing the whole wake up go to work come home sleep next to wife wake up go to work come home sleep repeat thing?

"Jess"

Although the name Jess causes an active mind and a restless urge to explore new ideas, we emphasize that it causes a materialistic approach that frustrates higher humanitarian qualities. This name, when combined with the last name, can frustrate happiness, contentment, and success, as well as cause health weaknesses in the solar plexus and reproductive organs.

The name of Jess brings opportunities for success in business and financial accumulation. It fires you with ambition and promotional ideas, ideas that are original, progressive, and large-scale. With this name, success to you is a foregone conclusion, for you cannot conceive any reason for not reaching all your goals, as you have self-sufficiency, supreme confidence, boundless energy, and enthusiasm. As long as you have a sense of freedom from monotony and drudgery, and can see progress being made, you feel buoyant and optimistic.

My take on yarn stores around Boston and knitting in my age box

Now that I have graduated and I'm relaxing while recovering from the horrors of the first 21 years of my life, including but not limited to 17 years of schooling (not including preschool), I have taken up knitting for its meditative powers and ability to fill up whole days with nothingness. The best part is at the end of the day you can measure your "productivity" by how much more you've knitted.

Anyways, I've been checking out the area yarn stores since I didn't really know yarn stores existed until that one fateful day I was coming out of my favorite store on Newbury Street (Stil) and came across Newbury Yarns. I was pleasantly surprised since I do a lot of shopping on Newbury Street and didn't realize there were still stores there I hadn't found. I went in and found a cozy little store in the back of the building with a beautiful round table. The walls were lined with so many beautiful yarns. I found a beautiful striped scarf made of camel hair and the store's owner, Aldrich, retaught me how to knit (my Popo had taught me when I was little and I had since forgotten) when I mentioned how beautiful the scarf was but I don't really know how to knit. So, complimentary service I guess, although my friend pointed out that once she had taught me to knit then I could come back and buy lots of yarn. Anyways, Aldrich was a very good, patient teacher. After finishing my scarf, I went back and got mission falls cotton yarn at Newbury Yarns and made the yoga mat bag from the KnitWit book. Aldrich was very helpful in choosing some beautiful colors for the stripes. Oh, and Newbury Yarns has cute little club cards by the door - just like Avalon.

OK, so I confess I can be a huge snob. Like there are so many things I wouldn't knit because they look like "old people". Sorry Popo, but it's true! And, once I've knit something ugly, then what do I do with it? So I figure if I wouldn't buy it, like seriously buy it not only if it were on sale, then I shouldn't make it.

Well, since I discovered this whole genre of shopping in yarn stores as opposed to like Michael's or something, I thought I'd poke around online and see if there are other yarn stores in the Boston area. And anyways, I don't have anything better (that I want) to do. I found that there was a store in Brookline Village, very close to my house, and a couple in Cambridge and one in Needham. Well, I don't know what I have against Cambridge, but I always seem to get lost whenever I go there. So I decided to check out the one in Brookline Village and the one in Needham.

A Good Yarn, in Brookline Village is another cute little yarn store right off the T on the D line. It's also right outside of where we go to yoga class which is convenient. I've also seen people bring their cute dogs into the store, always good. I've only talked to the younger chica that works there and she uses that fake nice voice that people use when they talk to kids. But besides that, she's always been helpful with any direct questions I have (where is this yarn where is that yarn). Definitely she is not as experienced (duh she's not as old) or helpful as Aldrich at Newbury Yarns. It seems like the people who shop at both Newbury Yarns and A Good Yarn are both "old people" and people in my age group.

The yarn store in Needham, whose name I can't remember, is definitely not for my age box. It was so hard to look at any of the patterns because they were so disorganized. The woman there was really nice, but I guess once you get further out of the city the more older people get. God forbid the day when I get old and move out of a real city and into endless surburban sprawl.

What would be really cool would be if someone would open a store on Newbury Street that has a martini+juice bar mixed with cute cafe setting that also sold yarn and already-made, expensive handknit things for chic shoppers that aren't about to spend a week making a super cute yoga mat bag. I really hate how articles and stuff call trendy stuff "fashion forward" because if you're using the phrase "fashion forward," then it definitely was - in like the 80's. I also really hate how many of the "chic" knitted things out there use "funky" furry yarns (I think they call them novelty) but they're still ugly and tacky. Like maybe you might see a furry scarf at the Brass Plum (preteen section of Nordstroms). Maybe.

Kittens

Max & Mara (Mara has the white back toes).

I'm so bored living life

So hi to who knows who. I've never written a blog before but I'm bored out of my mind and can't think of anything else to do with myself. I'm even so bored I can't go back to sleep. Yeah. Sigh. So here's a little about me: I graduated in May from Boston University with my bachelors in Biomedical Engineering, went to China with my mother's family and found my roots or something like that (along with a huge market for real flushing toilets), and spent the rest of the summer mid-July onwards relaxing/moving. The boyfriend, Scott, bought a condo two doors down from my old apartment and we have been moving. Scott, being very very disorganized and making more money than he should and therefore buying more toys than he should, had so much stuff to move and sort through it was miserable.

Here we are at today. The boyfriend is in Asia and has been for almost two weeks and will be for another week. Since I got angry at him for making me finish moving alone (very very bad from fourth floor apartment without an elevator) I decided we should break up and then he bribed me into not breaking up with him by buying me a plane ticket to meet him in Tokyo next week. But then he didn't buy the ticket and now I don't know what to think because I fell for the non-existant bribe sigh. I have just been sitting at home knitting a sweater all day because now I can't even be bothered to care. I'd take pictures of my sweater-in-progress but I think half made things look ugly so the world can see it online when it's done. Maybe I'll get a job next week instead of going to Tokyo.

We live in the periwinkle house with a plastic picket fence.

Some pictures from Hong Kong

Me and Scott drunk in the elevator at the Park Lane Hotel in Hong Kong.

That's my brother Jon next to me. He's busy eating a burger. Yum Hong Kong burger. We just got in from the clubs and we're not only so drunk and starving, but we have to be at dim sum with my Popo at like 8am (that's like 3 hours from when this picture was taken..). I think I also just got off the twenty hour flight from hell from Boston to HK before we went out, too. I couldn't take my D&G sunglasses off the whole time at dim sum. Popo was mad because we were meeting some long lost relatives for the first time who mostly only spoke Chinese. Anyways, isn't that like the cutest halter top?