red text space

On December 18 last year, we went to a restaurant for dinner in the village, we eaves-dropped, trying to figure out who the party sitting next to us were: they were celebrating this familiar-looking older guy’s birthday. We knew he’s the guy we see around the city selling potato peelers, and the guy, who was obviously very interested in him, has to be a writer.

On the way home, we were extremely obsessed and tried Googling their names on the phone. And voila, we were right: writer Howard Kaplan was celebrating Joe Ades’ birthday that evening. It was Kaplan who wrote the article about Joe Ades’ amazing story for Vanity Fair.

Last Sunday, Joe Ades passed away. Obviously I don’t know Mr. Ades, I haven’t even bought a potato peeler from him. I might have seen him a few times in my years living in New York. Nonetheless, I feel sad. Sad because knowing I was right behind him when he celebrated his last birthday not even 2 months ago. And he seemed really contented that evening.

While the heat wave is on it’s 4th day here in New York, heading towards its end in another day (hopefully), I decided to take a bold move last night — I slept without the a/c on, yeah, the unthinkable!!! I laid open my sleeping bag on the floor, put a sheet on top, and slept with the fan on and windows open, naked.

Well it’s true that I haven’t stopped sweating throughout the night, and when I got up this morning, it was hot. The morning sun was boiling hot. But the truth is, it wasn’t that bad. The fan was cooling, so it was hot but definitely not unbearably hot. As a bonus I didn’t have to walk out of the cold room in the morning and get into the heat — I hate that feeling. It was hot all along! There was no drastic change of temperature for me. I always thought it would be easier for me the handle the heat if I can get used it a bit more by minimizing my a/c usage.

One thing that I couldn’t avoid is the a/c at work. I have to stay with it for a good portion of the day, but it’s also the hottest hours of the day, so perhaps it’s not that bad afterall.

Spring started on the March 20th, the Vernal Equinox, and finally today it felt like Spring.

I got to get outside during lunch, and ate my falafel sandwich (from the Halal cart) under the sun. The sun was warm, but not too hot; I sweated a little bit under my sweater and it felt really good. I love this time of the year, when I can really get to enjoy the sun without being annoyed by the sweat. I hate the summer sun, which is always too hot for me.

We have been buying from cb2.com for random home goods a while now, and most of the time we are happy with the stuff we got. For furniture, we have got a table and some chairs and we like them okay.

I was longing for their first store to be opened in New York, which finally did open. We paid a visit last night and boy, was it a big disappointment! The merchandise was poorly displayed, everything was so cramped together. The store was like hodge pot of everything (cheap merchandise) poorly arranged, just like another Bed Bath and Beyond. The merchandise, honestly, was not attractive.

I have to to say that they have a much better and inviting catalog than their store front. Their sofas are cheap-looking and lame, and it also means that everything is overpriced. I am glad that we didn’t buy any of the sofas, when we almost bought them through the catalog.

Enough said, cb2 is the Gap, or even Old Navy, of Crate and Barrel. Very disappointing indeed.

P.S. Meanwhile, MUJI will be opened right next to cb2 next week. I took a peek inside the store last night, now that’s is going to be good.

The sort of Manhattan skyline view from our new apartment.

Last Friday I got to meet Tony-award winning stage actress Sarah Jones. She gave a special performance at the UN as a call to action to stop violence against children.

Before the performance, I got to see and meet with her at the UNICEF. I spoke with her briefly and of course, I told her I was a big fan of hers. She was just so cool and nice. I was so excited to meet her as I admired her talent and work so much.

I saw her Bridge and Tunnel show before it went to Broadway, she was playing multiple characters in the show, speaking out on different issues.

Photo: Sylvia Plachy

So finally, after weeks of frustration and stress, we moved. We moved to Queens. Frankly, we will have to adjust. We have been living in Brooklyn for such a long time that we are experiencing a little bit of culture shock, even though it’s still New York City!

Boxes are everywhere in the apartment, as I simply have no energy and time to do a lot of unpacking. I am just so tired. The stress that this move has induced on me simply made me sick, literally. I am feeling sick.

However, we like the new apartment very much. It has great light, 3-side exposure, great view and of course, a huge amount of space. I love the kitchen, which has so much cabinet space to put things in. It’s truly a great apartment, and we are glad and relieved.

On a side note, I am looking forward to switch to green power for the apartment. There are so many green power providers to choose from, and I am in a daze. If you know anything about choose a green power provider, please let me know!!!

The controversial appearance of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can now to found on Columbia University’s news site on the SIPA-World Leaders Forum with President of Iran. Must read/watch.

In my last job our office has been evicted numerous times. I have actually got accustomed to it and not to be afraid of it. This morning we got a notice delivered to us by the landlady asking us to vacate the apartment by the end of next week. The reason being, she wants to sell the building.

We are on a month-to-month rental and she would like get rid of us while the FOR SALE sign is standing obnoxiously in front of the building. What baffles and irritates me is that she didn’t even have the guts or courtesy to call us and tell us that she’d want us to leave. I was rather prepared to move, but what really upsets me is that she didn’t even treat us like normal human beings. Not even a call? She’s definitely one of the most horrible landlord I have ever encountered in my entire life. And she’s out of her mind to ask 2 million dollars for the crappy building. It’s probably going to take months for her to successfully kick us out, good luck to her.

Summer time is always the season for yummy fruits. When I was growing up, there was always abundance of heavenly delicious fruits: watermelons, lychees, longans, rambutans, custard apples… and oh of course, mangoes and papayas.

God bless Chinatown, most fruits are always available there, though their prices are insanely high. $2/lbs for lychees (which are small and tasteless), $3.5/lbs for longan, and $8/lbs for rambutan. $8 for rambutan!? Are you kidding me? And no, I didn’t get the $8 rambutan, I just couldn’t do it.