Montreal and Quebec City

This weekend in Montreal and Quebec was cooooooooold but so much fun!

Checkout my pictures here:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2131336910

My new homework

Monday:
7th Heaven
Everybody Loves Raymond

Tuesday:
Scrubs
Gilmore Girls

Wednesday:
West Wing
Law & Order

Thursday:
Joey
Will & Grace
Apprentice

Friday:
Amish in the City
Medical Investigation

Saturday:
Rest

Sunday:
Law & Order
Desperate Housewives
Simpsons

Am I missing anything?

Another snow story

This weekend, New York received a foot and a half of powdery fresh snow. It was beautiful! With each passing, cold, slushy day, I become more and more attached to this time of the year. I used to take winter for granted, but I've rediscovered the joys of the season this year by engaging, rather than avoiding, the bitterness.

On Sunday afternoon, we went for a walk in Central Park. There were lots of people out and about - tots on plastic discs being pulled along by their parents, people with cross country skies or snowshoe gear trudging through the woods, little girls making snow angels in fresh powder. We tried to assemble a snowman, but the snow wasn't good for packing or rolling into big balls. Instead, we created a giant octopus with cute round eyes.

I am in love with New York!

In other news, not having an American driver's license was a deal breaker for my dream case, and somehow I avoided the Atlanta case too. I may end up on a local project for an entertainment magazine. While unqualified for the subject matter, I'm excited that I may learn more about pop culture. On my last media case, I learned what 'CSI' stands for.

Today was also an exciting day because my Red Sena iPod mini case finally came in the mail. It fits perfectly and while I still think the blue would have matched better, this lipstick red is growing on me. I love my iPod so much, I want to buy Etymotic Research ER-6i Earbuds for it. I also enjoy revisiting songs that I haven't heard for years, that bring back lots of emotions and memories. For example, I stumbled upon "One" by U2 tonight, and the other day I found "Romeo and Juliet" by Dire Straits.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH

This is killing me!!!!!!!!!

I have a perpetual scream ringing in my ears now. It is my brain shrieking with frustration. I just got back from the DMV, after an unsuccessful attempt to get an American photo ID. Apparently, people here on visas can't apply for a driver's license when they have less than 6 months left on their visa, and I have only a month before my visa expires.

This means that I won't be able to get my driver's license til, at best, the middle of February. It is very unclear as to whether this awesome case will still want me, given above. I think I'll end up being shipped to some stupid place where I'll have to do boring work and fire people (which also super sucks).

I am really starting to question the value of my Canadian identify. Where does national pride end and utility begin? I also hate being an alien and being less cool and have less rights and more difficulty than everyone else. I've been counciled to find an American boy who works for a 501C(3), whatever that means, and marry him for instant citizenship. Ugh. Any takers? I'm free this weekend.

Sometimes, being Canadian isn't best

Today, I was excited to hear from the case manager that I want to work with for my next project. The project would be right up my alley, because it's non-profit (albeit government), it's related to health/science (which I find really interesting), and it doesn't require travel Monday through Thursday. The alternative is a fairly boring travel-intensive case to Atlanta.

But then my heart sank when she asked me, "do you have an American driver's license?" Apparently the client has really buckled down on admitting foreigners to their offices, and would require a lengthy background check of all visitors without US issued identification. I was screaming "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" in my head. I've been meaning to do this for many years, and reminds me of how I felt when I realized I had no American credit history while applying for my first Manhattan apartment, because I had been using my Canadian cards over the years.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I'm going to the DMV tomorrow morning.

adventures and passions

This past weekend, I was really good! I made my project team very happy with good work on a module I'm responsible for, I met with my Mandarin Chinese tutor to start off a New Year's initiative, and I also came away from Sunday's ski trip unbruised, uncut, and unbroken.

The rest of the week was not so great...

Monday night, I was excited to find the vacuum cleaner that I had ordered on Amazon.com waiting for me at the front desk. I had done a lot of Internet research the weekend before, after being very frustrated with the poor performance of my stick vacuum on carpet. This Bissell vacuum is amazing - it has a HEPA filter, an indicator light to tell you when each spot it runs over is clean, and many brush attachments for nooks and crannies. I opened the box and started to assemble my vacuum. I read the instruction and thought, 'how clever, I only need a screwdriver to put the whole thing together!' Half an hour later, with band-aids around both my thumbs and a bump on my head, I finally was able to plug it in and try it out. Luckily it was all I had hoped it would be, or I would have been very unhappy.

Earlier that day, unbeknownst to me because I had my cellphone off all day, I'd accidentally locked Christine's friend Yuki in our apartment. She was on her way out to an audition, when she found herself unable to get out our front door. I felt horrible!!! I think part of it was my sleepiness when I left Monday morning, part of it must have been because I'd become used to living alone all month...in any case, the smart girl had her boyfriend look up our building's phone number on the Internet and then called the front desk to have them come up and let her out.

I am currently passionate about brussel sprouts - the little green ping pong balls are yummy and fun to harvest off their stalk. I am also falling back into some of my habitual passions, like knitting.

1 Hit Wonders

I've started listening to AIM's free radio service (a poorer quality version of the radio that comes with AOL subscription).

My favorite station so far is "1 Hit Wonders" - I just heard "I love you, always, forever" by Donna Lewis. What a great song!

But I was thinking that it would be really sad to be a 1 Hit Wonder artist, and hearing your song on this station =(

You too can get free radio at:
http://ns-radio.netscape.com/radio/radioclient/radioweb/html/download.html

More iPod news

They've just announced a beautiul $99 iPod. The iPod snowball is unavoidable! It plugs right into your USB like a thumb drive. Maybe I need another one?

So my PayPal payment for my iPod case finally cleared, but the eBay vendor emailed me today to tell me the blue color is no longer available! Soooo frustrating. I am debating whether I should get the cranberry/apple red or mustard yellow case for my blue mini. I am leaning towards red. Or I could wait another month for him to restock his blue cases.

Speaking of snowballs, I can't wait to learn how to snowboard on Sunday. I have vivid visions of myself rolling down the hill and accumulating snow until I become a giant snowball.

Related to DD's what if

Reading DD's what if has inspired me to think about my own what ifs. These are my top aspirational what ifs, off the top of my head.

I have some 'what if I were meant to be's (things that you can't control yourself, things that you would just happen to have the fortune of being born as) and 'what if I chose to be's (things you can control, but which are pretty unlikely given your current life).

What if I were meant to be:
- a deciduous forest, always changing but mostly a long-time observer
- a musical note, in the c major scale, who got to appear wherever the note is summoned
- a clown fish, unconscious bringer of joy to millions of Disney fans
- a stapler, a red cherished Swingline stapler
- born a jungle dweller, with grass skirts and long hair

What if I chose to be:
- an Antarctica underwater science researcher - per an IMAX film
- a home furnishings tester/critique - specializing in beds, maybe for the WSJ
- a full-time traveler/collector - anywhere and everywhere
- a microfinancier - in SE Asia
- uncaffeinated and untired - though neither National Geographic nor Time could find anything really wrong with caffeine
- Canadian again, i.e. go home and relish in my homeland
- single, in Chicago, with CB
- really really settled

What are your top what ifs?

Serendipity, but better

Yesterday night, I went skating in Central Park, just like they do in the movie Serendipity.

It was WONDERFUL!

The air was crisp, but not too cold. They played fun dance songs that brought me back to high school, or other skating rinks. The rink was surrounded by pretty willow trees lit up for the holidays, and the bright city skyline was set a bit further back in the distance. I was with friends and had a great time catching up. I didn't fall once. There were so many cute things to notice. I think I spent half my time along the boards people watching.

My favourites include:
- Fearless kids: They are too little to be scared of falling. They skate as fast as they can, wipe out, and do it all again and again.
- A couple salsa dancing on ice: They were really good at salsa and skating... I thought it was awesome that you could bring activities from such different backgrounds together
- A little boy with the biggest head, eyes, and smile you ever saw: He was being dragged around and around the perimeter by his parents and didn't look that excited to be towed along...but every time he would pass me, I'd smile at him and he would break out into the sweetest smile in the world, oblivious to everything else around him
- These tough looking guys: Teenage thug wannabes who were trying to twirl like figure skaters, as they were watching this really good guy doing jumps in the middle
- Skate patrol: They are the same here as they are in canada. Speedy skaters who think they're police officers because they have a whistle to "toot toot" at you when you break the rules. Hilarious!
- Cute couples holding hands: Sigh! Also good protection against falling down and having your hands slices by a wayward skater.

We capped off the evening with a delicious Vietnamese dinner and more movie fun with desserts at Cafe Lalo of You've Got Mail fame.

Things like this really make me LOVE living in New York. I was so happy!!

My beautiful iPod is getting....OLD!

I think my beautiful iPod is started to show signs of wear and tear! The previously pristine white click wheel looks like it's got some darker scruff marks. And some of the metallic blue paint on the back (where the white clip usually makes contact) looks a bit duller than it should.

This is like the rude shock of finding a stray white hair or a fine wrinkle.

I am so mad the protective case is taking so long to come! Why does PayPal require a week to clear a transfer from my pre-approved bank account, when I can pay a credit card bill instantly from the same account??

And yet I can't resist the temptation of listening to it everyday....it makes me so happy! Have you ever seen the rather depressing short animation about the 'bliss goggles'? My iPod is like a pair of bliss goggles - when you have them on, all the noisy yucky stuff around you (people talking on the bus, traffic, other distractions) melt away, and you are surrounded by a rhythmic happy hypnotic drug.

All by myself...

Wow - I think I'm starting to feel like how Christine felt in November.

After the whirlwind of activity before Christmas and up til New Years, I'm finding that living alone is very, ...well, lonely. Also, it allows you to do whatever you want to do, unchecked by fellow human beings, which means that you get to revert to your craziest.

So what have I been doing this past week, that is out of regular roommate character?

1. Coming home very late from work: I have a lot of work to do, but that is no different than how life was before the holidays. Since there's nobody at home to look forward to seeing and chatting with at the end of the day, why not just get everything done at work instead of lugging the laptop back and "work" with dinner/in front of the TV/in bed.

2. Sleeping in: I can't get out of bed anymore. There's nobody to worry about disturbing with your blasting Chinese radio alarm, so instead of turning off the alarm and hopping out of bed, I snooze til infinity.

3. Staying up late: Elvin got me the coolest cutest blue mini iPod for Christmas! It came late and I just got it Tuesday night. Since then, I've successfully wiped out the iPod's operating system, scratched up the iTunes installation CD, fixed the operating system, installed iTunes at work and at home, downloaded all my online MP3s to my iPod, purchased a beautiful blue leather protective case, and equalized the volume of all my songs. This has required a lot of dedication, given point #1 and #2 above. I think a good roommate would have told me to stop.

4. Gone tidying crazy: With all the extra time I have, I've been constantly puttering around the apartment cleaning, tidying and putting things in their place. I feel very domestic. What is going on?!

Christine, come home soon!