carindow

"This city isn't fair"

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 03:28:24 -0500

As honey said, as we ate our FABULOUS first meal in Barcelona here:

But let me start at the beginning:

We arrived around 10am Barcelona time, which is 4am for our bodies. And after barely sleeping on the flight, we were understandably a little groggy, but still excited! After getting super-confused by the train schedule, we finally made it on the way to center city.

Getting off and finding our hotel was an adventure, as we decided to just wing it. Who could complain when our walk looked like this:

We unloaded at the hotel, I took the most amazing shower, and by then we were ready to explore some alleyways (what’s with the super-clean alleys in Barcelona, anyway?)…

…and take the Metro to the beach where we would have some lunch! And again, we got a little lost:

But again… who could complain?

But we got there just on time (you know, lunch is only served 2-4 and dinner only 8-10 at the good places, but there’s plenty of tapas bars and cafes for all the time in between). And got the full treatment, with olives and pa amb tomaquet which I devoured:

A bottle of cava, the Catalan sparking wine (yes, I said a bottle. Europeans know how to drink. There was one small set of like 8 wines you could get by the glass, and then about 6 pages of wines and cavas you could get by the bottle!)

And then, of course, the seafood paella:

Which I believe was the point when PJ said… “This city isn’t fair.”

After lunch, we walked right onto the beach…

Then toward Port Vell and the Museum of Catalan History

Where we proceeded (I blame the bottle of cava) to make out in corners and giggle at the students and pay absolute no attention to the museum itself. When in Spain, right?

Speaking of… great city + great food + great cava + great company is the perfect recipe for the sex-and-siesta after lunch break!

We woke up past dinner time but strolled La Rambla and grabbed un cafe and a beer, some tapas and a pizza with octopus and an order of sangria (which is a pitcher) and the classiest minutemaid I’ve ever seen:

And then of course… great city + great food + great sangria + great company + european soft porn on TV = well… you can only guess.

But now, honey is awake, so it’s time for day #2!!!!

janeklee: Kiss Me | Mina Shin feat. Fo Onassis Link to...

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 20:08:43 -0400

janeklee:

Kiss Me | Mina Shin feat. Fo Onassis
Link to download.

Do me a favor and click play. It’s Mina’s first single and she’s gonna be huuuuuge!

Go mina!

The Joy of Silence

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 19:26:48 -0400

… oh, how I miss you

Are things really going to be different?

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 18:18:03 -0400

Are things really going to be different?

thedailywhat: This x That: Know This: “US sorry over deliberate...

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 22:59:26 -0400

thedailywhat:

This x That:

Know This:

“US sorry over deliberate sex infections in Guatemala.” I should hope so!

RIP: Stephen J. Cannell, legendary television producer/writer, dead at 69.

Read This:

Today’s Big Read: White America Has Lost Its Mind.

Issue of Archie Comics featuring first gay character sells out, gets first reprint in Archie history.

The Other:

NewsFeed: Yosemite National Park: 120 Years in Pictures.

Techland: Facebook Pics in High Def Will Show Us Who Is The Fairest of Them All.

Nerve: Five Comedy Albums that Changed My Life.

Tea x Time List: 12 Dumbest Things New Yorkers Do.

Above: Schuhle-Lewis. (via.)

Random Ramblings

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 22:23:02 -0400

I haven’t written anything in a while. I’m starting to think that I drank all my creative juices before the age of 15. Been so deprived of writing for me, I damn near spilled my soul in my thesis prospectus.

Started watching SATC 2. Remembered how complicated relationships are and decided to go to a bed race. A bed race. Alone. After the initial excitement was over, I walked home, ran into a guy who I met freshman year on the bus and whose path I seemed to cross every semester. He just spilled his soul in his thesis prospectus, too.

Oh, RU. It was a good run.

I need a good run. It’s all been as easy as sticking my left foot in front of my right, my right foot in front of my left. Repeating.

Damn.

Everything was so sure a year ago. Of course I was going to get a job publishing in NYC. Because certainly that was my dream.

And R. Kelly said I could. (Think Space Jam, circa ‘95, ‘96)

We would be engaged within a year of graduation, marriage on our 10th anniversary. I would find my dream house/apartment and be a homeowner before the age of 26. We would wait until we accidentally got pregnant and I would start working from home more often so I could watch our babies grow. We would travel, work in fulfilling careers, learn to do all the things we wish we could do, grow to be just the people we wanted to be. And we’d love with a love that was more than love, I and my PJP.

No regrets.

It all seemed to be falling together so flawlessly. Until it got close and started to shake me screaming: SNAP out of these fairytale dreams. The college-career-marriage-house-kids-happiness formula. C’mon Carin… this is like when you, Nicole, and Doni all wanted to be dentists and buy fabulous houses right next to each other on a cul-de-sac, to raise your beautiful families. It ain’t real, chick.

So what is real? Carrie and Big losing the “sparkle” and letting tv and take-out take over their lives?

Ugh. The surrealists weren’t geniuses. They were cop-outs. I can do this stream-of-consciousness shit all day, baby. All day.

I told myself awhile ago that I need to start dreaming bigger so...

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 09:38:19 -0400

I told myself awhile ago that I need to start dreaming bigger so I could accomplish bigger things.

…now the dreams are flooding in. Being “realistic” was so much easier…

Day 1 of senior year: Worked all day, hung out with the roomies...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:58:25 -0400

Day 1 of senior year: Worked all day, hung out with the roomies at night :-)

"The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a..."

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 12:55:01 -0400

“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can’t be any large-scale revolution until there’s a personal revolution, on an individual level. It’s got to happen inside first.”

- Jim Morrison (via kari-shma) (via sine-qua-non) (via nathanielstuart)

ANNIVERSARY WEEKEND!

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 23:09:19 -0400

Plans are finally finally set for this anniversary. This 7th 7/17 :-). I wanted to do something special… something different from our small anniversary outings (a few picnics in the park, a jazz show, lots of dinners, maybe a movie, BROADWAY/Bubba Gump Shrimp was AWESOME! so was the one in AC (when the pier was brand new)… but still :-P). So what evolved from “let’s go camping so we can bring Hugo” became “let’s stay at this amazing bed and breakfast!!” and then Hugo got sick and he couldn’t get his boosters so camping was out and then our budget was $200 lower (vets are expensive, man…) so the really nice B&B was out, then we would have gone to a less amazing, but still cute (and cheaper) inn, but this was of course the weekend before and so EVERYWHERE was booked except for cabins in campsites which again, Hugo couldn’t go to. And we weren’t about to leave our Huggo :-):

So, preview for the actual weekend to come (if no other craziness comes!)

Friday day: Drive to Lambertville/New Hope <3. This one was my choice… with this historic inns and picturesque river and valleys, and antique shopping and quaint bookstores and outdoor cafes and wineries and… yeah. Used restaurant.com for that $25 gift certificate for a dog-friendly indoor/outdoor restaurant that I’ve heard great things about! May or may not go to the botanical gardens.

Friday night: Will drive to Philly after we can’t deal with the heat any more. Grab a cheesesteak at Pat’s (This one was PJ’s choice). Hopefully Hugo will be knocked out and won’t mind us going out at night ;-). Staying at a pet-friendly hotel in Center City.

Saturday morning: Anything else we want to see in Philly I want to knock out in the morning because we can check into our next room at 3pm!

Saturday afternoon - Sunday evening: Staying right near the Delaware Water Gap/Appalachian trail. I have to walk the trail a bit, Hugo has to learn to be a hiking dog, lol (it should be a little cooler up there on Sunday but not much lol) looking forward to this change of scenery, a little escape not too far from home :-)

And by then, I’m sure I’ll be out of the money saved for this mini-vacation and we’ll head home fulfilled. :-). That’s the plan… though it probably will not be this easy.

:-). I can’t wait! It’s never been just the three of us.

Here’s to our first family vacation! :-D

Experience Points.

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 10:55:05 -0400

Yesterday while falling into our food comas at Skylark (by far the best diner I’ve ever been to haha), me, max, and pj decided we were going to measure our summer in experience points (and, apparently, awesome points). The Philippines should have been a million experience points. So much was new to me, so much a valued experience. Finding the nearby dog park we now frequent and falling in love with Highland Park could be a +1. Finding the gem of Skylark a +1, eating the chocolates gets its own +1. Working at RUP need a +1 for every bump in the road I come across. It has definitely been a new experience. I’ve been “the intern” for way too long that having so much responsibility and stress and doing real work there on my own needs an adjustment of mindset. I don’t have the confidence yet to make some of these decisions and stick by them, and I feel way too young for this. Nevertheless, I know I can do it, the challenge is good for me.

I’ve learned from this experience that I don’t want to enter the corporate world, even if it is in book publishing. I think if I, as an assistant editor somewhere was offered a chance at being a head managing editor at Random House, I would have to turn it down. It all sounds good on paper; in fact, sounds good coming out of the mouth, but there’s no heart behind it. I think in 5 years, I’d rather be a barely making the bills but creative with my money, occasional writer/editor, volunteering as a music therapist, occasional interior designer and wedding planner, selling pottery out my RV or running a doggie daycare out of my garage. Saving up to purchase a tiny bookstore/cafe that will make little-to-no-money but would keep me smiling all day.

I hear the mantra “do your best” haunting this ideal scenario. I know I have the potential to do many a great thing… to reach the top of a career path, to help people… to make everyone proud. I don’t want to feel like I’m wasting my potential with these small pursuits of happiness, but I don’t want to feel like I’m passing on pure joy for a more conventional definition of “success”.

21-year-old female. Searching for a way to pay all my bills and still have money for new experiences, express my creativity with my work, avoid the 9-5, have a flexible work schedule, do something meaningful for someone other than corporate, not measure results by profit margins.

OK. So I just had my first bite of an artisanal chocolate from...

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 08:50:24 -0400

OK. So I just had my first bite of an artisanal chocolate from the best chocolatier in New Jersey, Diane Pinder. It was an olive oil and sea salt truffle. And it was amazing!

To all those in the New Brunswick/Edison area: Head to the Skylark Diner NOW. She’s there making her delicious chocolates! Now for my rosemary-infused balsamic truffle. hahaha

creativity/refusal to grow up

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 00:59:22 -0400

Bought a pad of pink wide-ruled paper to begin my senior honors thesis.

Had decided I needed it to inspire me.

A few hours later, Real Simple magazine informed me I was a right-side-of-the-brain thinker and organizer who loves to be surrounded by color and chaos.

Phew. And I thought I was just a childish slob.

I can’t believe I’m still jetlagged… I can’t...

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 00:47:57 -0400

I can’t believe I’m still jetlagged… I can’t stop sleeping… until about 5 in the morning, and then I’m good to go, only until about 12 pm.

We got in about 2am Monday morning, was home in Galloway only for a day. It was good to be with my family and friends again (and my dog!) I had a great time in the Philippines… spent a lot of time with new friends who I now consider family, experienced a new world, felt more comfortable with a new language… I enjoyed myself a great deal… but it’s a different type of happiness here. I find myself smiling to myself here in a way that I don’t on vacation. I think it’s because when I’m away, I simply enjoy myself; when I’m home, I feel a happiness that reaches the core.

I’m excited for the new life I’m about to start here in New Brunswick. It’s our first summer away from home, I have a bunch of new roommates and a new position at the Press. Things feel different here, but not so different that it feels foreign. Amy described PJ today as my rock, the one person that makes anywhere feel like home and that’s absolutely true. Abroad, whenever I felt overwhelmed or homesick, I just had to spend a moment in the little bubble we make to forget the world outside and I kept my sanity. I’m glad now that I never ventured to study abroad. Experiencing new things is cool, but I like to keep it as an experience, not a relocation of home, which you begin to feel after a few weeks.

That said, I’m absolutely glad I went, I learned a lot, even learned some things about myself…. I already miss everyone there. Everyone was so sweet and fun to be around. Oh, and I miss the food… and even the sticky heat… this cold rainy nonsense is bringing me down.

I know that the grass always seems greener on the other side. But nostalgia sets in fast. For now, at least, I’m glad to be home. I’m pretty vacationed-out. Still, this summer includes a few weekend trips to NYC, Boston, D.C., New Hope, P.A./Delaware River, and finally, at the end of August, down to Mississippi and New Orleans to visit my sister! That one I’m most excited about. I miss her…. Get a break for September and October, until I splurge on a 4 day vacation with my girls in November ;-). December/January hits and I have a month off. If she doesn’t come up, it’s probably back down to Mississippi for me. January-April will be just me stressing to finish my senior thesis and graduate as best I can… and then that’s it. It’s over folks. About 18 years in the education system (if you include preschool haha). And then it’s just over. A part of me is in denial and keeps suggesting that I’ll go back to school soon, get my Masters like everyone wants me to, become a professor, or librarian, or writer, or whatever it is that my favorite professors hope for when they urge me towards grad school. There’s a bit of an academic in me, I know there is. Maybe I will end up trying for Teach for America… to test-drive (sail?) those waters of educating. I seem to realize more and more that if I’m bound to work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, like the rest of America (and I still don’t really believe that I am bound) I don’t think I can do it behind a desk. Publishing was my out… run around with deadlines and project organization, transport to different worlds in the books I work on (behind a desk) seemed to be my compromise, but publishing involves a lot of desk work too. I feel so uncreative that I can’t figure out a reasonable alternative. My coworker asked me today what I plan on doing after college, and for the first time in a while, I really had no answer.

Same old change

Fri, 07 May 2010 00:51:47 -0400

So I was going through my boxes of books and realized how drastically my reading tastes have changed in the past few years… How I have changed in the past few years… And then I saw an old notebook: ” I hope to refocus my faith and get in shape and get my applications in and read the books I have backed up to read” Yeah… Funny… Four years later with the same to do list….

There’s no way I could not post this. I may be a little...

Thu, 06 May 2010 08:20:51 -0400

There’s no way I could not post this. I may be a little late, but I just saw this this morning. Haha, yeah, gotta love my school :-D

YAY RU!!

"There will be time to murder and create, And time for all the works and days of hands That lift and..."

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 21:13:53 -0400

“

There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

”

- The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (via tseliot) (via awritersruminations)

meaghano: tenrewnna: The Alot is an imaginary creature that I...

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 21:14:27 -0400

meaghano:

tenrewnna:

The Alot is an imaginary creature that I made up to help me deal with my compulsive need to correct other people’s grammar. It kind of looks like a cross between a bear, a yak and a pug, and it has provided hours of entertainment for me in a situation where I’d normally be left feeling angry and disillusioned with the world.

For example, when I read the sentence “I care about this alot,” this is what I imagine

(via Hyperbole and a Half: The Alot is Better Than You at Everything)

I LOVE THIS ALOT!

"I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be..."

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 21:00:49 -0400

“I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life. I’ve learned that making a “living” is not the same thing as making a “life.” I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back. I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one. I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

- - Maya Angelou (via quote-book)

One of my favorite quotes of Maya Angelou. Thank you Nikki for posting!

(via beyondxreality)

picquotes: At the end of your life, you will never regret not...

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:39:27 -0400

picquotes:

At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, or a parent. — Barbara Bush

So absolutely true. I constantly wonder if I’m really doing the right thing for me in this life. I’ve loved this college experience, I really did. And I know it will open a lot of doors. The biggest question is, are those the doors I really want to go through? Should I have gone to film school to work half my life editing movies and making small independent films that really matter to me? Should I have gone to an art school and found a real outlet for my art and passion? Should I have gone straight to work and found a simple, but fascinating job as a tour guide of the natural beauties of the country? I grew up (thanks Mom and Dad!) knowing that I have talents and brains that can get me “far” in life. But this “far” reeks with a corporate undertone that doesn’t quite seem to fit with the things I realize truly makes me happy.

But I know I will do it. I will graduate college, go on a brief soul-searching, but come back to find that job that will make my college efforts seem worth it. I’ll put my degree into good use, I’ll work on (slowly) paying off my college loans, find the apartment, work towards the house and the car and only the occasional vacation. I’ll do it all as I’m “supposed” to. I just have to work on not losing myself in the process.