Cook.

Happy Friday!

It's been a bit slow today at the office. I'm a bit fidgety, as the weather is beautiful out, and I can't get started on my weekend. Tonight, a party at Judi to warm her new casa, tomorrow i'm relaxing- reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, going to the Pennsylvania Dutch Market, and maybe making something yummy. Sunday entails a shopping trip with Katie. I'm really excited tonight because I get to see my friends, most of which I haven't seen since Vegas- a shame!

Anyway, I was thinking of keeping this blog food- centered, but not at the same time because it's cathartic to write about life and all that fun stuff. But food is fun and part of life, so- yeah. I want to take lots of pictures of food and funtimes and various culinary adventures.

I recently bought seasons 1 and 2 of Top Chef off of iTunes, and have been watching it like non-stop. It's kind of sick! ha! Top Chef 3 is winding down, with the finale to happen next week. Season 3 just doesn't do it for me- it's good, but 'meh'. I'm sure that'll change once Season 4 premieres, whenever that is. Specifically, I have had this recent infatuation with Season 2 contender Marcel Vigneron:



This might have something to do with my long standing 'professional crush', Mr. Chris Cason who had once worked with my company:



I think it has something to do with the exploding haircuts. The first time I watched Top Chef Season 2 it, I was rooting for Ilan, but now looking back on it and rewatching it, I'm totally Team Marcel. Man! Did they throw that kid through the sh$$! He is such a great chef- innovative, gutsy, and has this certain pretencion that I like. And I find him increasingly attractive as I watch each episode. ? Anyway...

Betty is a pain in the ass and reminds me of the poor man's Suzanne Sommers. Ilan and Frank were bullies. I still like Elia, though I've heard she's been 'braggy' about 'training' Marcel, etc etc. Josie is a favorite, as is Sam, but only because he is sexy. Season 1 has also been good; nothing ever beats the first season. The personalities are so good the first two seasons, and I think that was my biggest dislike of Season 3. Once Howie was gone, blah. That's the reason why they have three contenders for the finale-they all like each other for the most part. Anyway, I'm Team Hung all the way.

In other news and junk, I had a really exciting day this past Wednesday. A production company came to the Rillo casa and shot a short cooking segment about Cooking with Tea, with yours truly. It was a lot of fun yet slightly nerve wracking. I improved everything, as the best way to go about these things is to be natural. The cooking short will be shown at this Chinese tradeshow about tea. I'm in good company as it is part of a series of 15 shorts from all around the world ie. a bit from the woman who owns the famous Tea and Sympathy in NY, a rooibos farm in South Africa, and some other stuff. We ate a whole lotta food...I'll post the video once it becomes available to me. A big thanks to Jacob and Michael at Greenpoint Pictures, for giving me this awesome opportunity.



!I'm ready for fall weather. BRING IT! I'll bring the butternut squash soup...!!!

Gah, i started writing about my vacation, ten million weeks after it happened. Anyway, It's over, I had a lot of fun- San Francisco is beautiful, and if I didn't like the East Coast so much, I could conquer the crazy hills and get brioche at Tartine every morning. Ha. Maybe? We'll see.

Anyway...

I miss things. I can't pinpoint what they are, but I do.

I am still dwelling on certain people I shouldn't, and I don't know why, but it happens and I don't like it.

I am very happy otherwise.

I cleaned out my closet and got rid of a lot of things. I feel better. I read Tim Gunn's Guide to Style and have decided that I need to cultivate one. I'm aiming for feminine, romantic, slightly edgy and preppy. Wish me luck.

I realized tonight that I read far too much celebrity gossip. I need something else to read online.

I've been waking up earlier the past 5 days and doin an hour workout. I feel better, fitter, faster, stronger (cue Kanye here)

I think I may leave my job in six months. I want to stay there for a year, and get more stuff 'published'. I miss the social aspect of work and I feel that it is not doing anything for my social skills.

I helped my cousin fix a dress of hers. We talked about her wedding (in Puerto Rico). I hope Nick can come, because it looks like it will be alot of fun.

I need to read a book (other than Tim Gunn's Guide to Style).

I want to watch more movies. Good ones.

I want to cook dinner for someone (other than Nick. I cook for him far too much).

I want to buy these boots I've had my eye on for the past month. I will, but I'm holding off until PD.

(started like last week...finished 8/21).

so yeah, summer is almost half way over. I got back from my big vacation late saturday. It was such a slap in the face to get back to work. Especially since my boss didn't file any of my emails. Or do my amazon orders. Or auto deliveries. But let's not dwell on that. Lets talk about how friggin sweet Vegas and San Francisco is. Cos I miss vacation. I tend to dwell on things, if you haven't noticed.

So the kickoff to vacation crazy time was a well deserved venture into the dirty Bruns for Pham's going away party. It was so exciting as that I haven't seen many of these people since either RU Fest in April or way back in September at alumni jug. Anyway, New Brunswick always gets me all teary eyed and slightly nostalgic. Before the party, though, me, and my two littles Reeta and Lou went out for dinner- it was for Reeta who's being all big and bad going to Law School in U of Maryland. Oh man, every one is going on to higher education, I ought to get my ass checked to do it. MBA? MLS? MMM? hehe. All these other people are doing it- Lou to nursing grad school, Pham to med school, Lisa to law school, Q to 2L. crazygrownupmadness. anyway, after dinner, we went to Olde Queens, and to our disappointment there were like 5 people there. Ohwell, went to Pham's party, which was incredibly fun. It is always great seeing APO people, new brunswick. Reminds me good times in college, which is almost two years behind me- tear!

Anyway, my Vegas vacation was hottttttt. So much fun! I like to party, but I've only recently really embraced this into my life. I was a bit nervous that Vegas was going to be overwhelming, but it totally wasn't. You get engulfed in the whole- THIS IS VEGAS!!!! mindset the minute you get onto the strip- it's hot, there's people everywhere, from all around the world, who you'll never see again. You wear stuff you don't wear back at home, you eat what you want, and you get caught up in the bright lights and constant cling-clang of slot machines. We went to 5 clubs, including Rehab which is a Sunday outdoors pool party at the Hard Rock- the others were Rum Jungle Sunday night at Mandalay Bay, Jet at the Mirage, Pure at Caesar's, and Studio 54 at MGM Grand. At Pure we were 'treated' to a free concert courtesy of myspace.com- Mims as in 'This is Why I'm Hot' (sung 2 times, the second time 'remixed' aka he sang it faster). Studio 54 was full og gays or Europeans, me and Judi could not decipher. The clubs are pretty ridiculous, and it's kind of cool to think that celebrities who go out to Vegas also visit the same places. Anyway, Vegas was fun (finished 9/10/07)

I always want to write in my blog, but by the time it comes around to it, I am tired from being at work all day. Also, even though I'm on the comp all day at work, I feel kind of weird updating my blog while I should be working. I mean, I do a lot of stuff at work that I shouldn't, like read trashy celebrity blogs and look at pictures of Daniel Radcliffe, but if I am writing, I should be writing something about tea to feel less of a useless employee.

I can't believe summer is almost over. THough, I still have a vacay coming up to Vegas and San Francisco, which is really exciting. I'm super excited about the food I will be eating, I hope to take lots of pics of amazing things (edible and not). I'm sure ther will be a lot of debauchery too, at least in the city of sin. I just need to go once I think.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is coming up soon- 3 days! I can't believe it. Kyu, Lisa, and I went to see the fifth movie, which was good, but we all agreed that a lot of stuff was left out, it could have been a scant longer, and it was truly a reader's movie (because if you didn't read the book, you wouldn't get half the shit going on). I heard on the news about someone leaking the first 400 pages of the final book online. If it is a true, and someone did that, I'd like to extend a giant FUCK YOU to the useless individual(s) who did it. Be alert HP fans, just in case that the leaked stuff is the actual book. Why ruin it for the fans? Especially the last book? We don't have anything else to look forward to except the final 2 movies and the prospect of Harry Potter world in Universal Studios in Orlando. Or a HP musical (which me and Nick have been working on. By working on, we mean we came up with one line and it sounds really good :P). I will be joining Kyu and Lisa for reading on Saturday morning after we get our books. I'm so crazy, that I'm worried I will not receive my HP until later on in the day (i preordered from Amazon, and I can't cancel it) i'm going to go anyway to b&n at 8am and pick up another copy. Yes, crazy=confirmed. The only break I will be taking is to go to Bryan Adams (my friend, not the singer)' birthday bbq, which is also a potential 'going-away' party.

Speaking of 'Going Away', I am attending at least 4 events that have a certain 'I'm getting the hell out of where I've been living in the past year(s) to go somewhere else that's not within an hour's time. I mean, I understand- there is grad school, job opportunities, and moving on with the rest of you life, but as I glance at my calendar which is dotted with these events, I get a little sad. Maybe it is time that I get going on a 'going away' plan. I might move out early next year. I haven't taken my GREs, but maybe it is time to live a little and move out and experience that thing called life. Not like I'm not living it up to the fullest, but yeah, independent living is a challenge that I might be up for.

Kyu just told me last night about her whole lost suitcases issue she had upon her return from England. Both suitcases! Including her business suits, numerous pairs of shoes, souveniers from her trip, etc etc. I've been reading a lot of crazy things on npr and msnbc about how much air travel sucks during the summer. I have decided that I'm going to pack my week's worth of crap for my vacay in a carry on and my huge north face backpack. I'm also planning to send some stuff to Nisha who is taking the train up to san fran and will be meeting me there for my second half of the week. In vegas, we're just all going to go in on some essentials like shampoo and conditioner and contact solution.

The tea business is going well. It's pretty slow during the summer. I got to go to the Fancy Foods Show a couple of weekends ago. That was nuts! I brought my fellow foodie in crime, Mike and we ate like kings for the day. Everything from olives (there was a lot of olives) to proscuitto, to soft shell deep fried crab sushi, sausages, cheeses, brownies, cakes, cookies, dips, chips, crackers, duck- the finest foods from all around the world, at our disposal to consume. I wish I had my new blog up and running so I could have had a crazy nice post about it, but perhaps next year. Also, I got to meet Paula Dean who signed my business card, which was pretty exciting (y'all).

I am working from home today, after sitting in traffic for about 2 hours (it took me close to an hour to get from exit 131 to exit 133 on the parkway) and then after waiting out a bit in the Clark Target, I decided it was probably best for me to jsut go home and work again from there. I hate switching up my home days- i'd rather have my home days every other (tuesday and thursdays) as opposed to back to back. Most likely, I will head up to Nick's anyway to spend the night and get some needed cuddlin' from my sweetie. I heard the commute tomorrow morning might be bad. Apparently this was all due from inclement weather, which backed up the parkway north from union tolls south to me in edison. Crazy. I hate commuting, especially when it's all dumb and backed up like that.

Sigh. Time for eats.

I'm in works on starting a new blog. It's going to be about me, cooking, buying shit I don't really need, and me taking lots of pictures- consumption, pretty much. We can only hope. But yeah, I'm working on it on paper for now- hopefully something will be of fruition soon-ish.

oh boy, talk about long time no update.

I'm watching Lost right now, and ummm I'm very Lost. I'm somewhat upset that this show has been dull lately. I used to be really really into it, but I can't even remember what happened the week before. Anyway,it just ended and eh! I don't know. I guess I'll have to wait until next week!

Work has been super hectic this week- of course, it is the week before Mother's Day and everyone wants to get mom, grandma, aunt, sister, wife tea. There is something wrong with the FedEx Express program and FedEx is being a huge n00b and coming to fix it. I've been in the office all week- which is new, because I've been doing my home days on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the past couple of weeks. It's been frustrating because I'm still not well- versed enough in what goes on in the office/warehouse to take care of issues without any guidance from my boss. Sigh.

Anyhoo, I'm pretty tired. The commute home sucked. Every weekend after this one is booked with weddings and trips- my cousin's wedding (the West Coast side of the family is coming so that will be nice!), Jen's wedding, Nick's birthday camping trip, and then World Tea Expo- Atlanta! Looking forward to all these events, but nonetheless- very hectic.

I'm published- www.teamuse.com- every month! yay.

Tired, tired, tired.

I acted like a total brat last night to Nick, and though he accepted my apology, I still feel bad. What should I doooo? I was thinking about buying this wine he likes so much from Utah. I need to come up with ideas.

Anyway, I registered for some seminars for the World Tea Expo (woohoo! Second weekend of June- the biggest convention about tea)- Tea- What Makes it Tea (discusses the different processes that make black, white, green, and oolong so unique, and the processes within those processes etc) and 3 Tea and Food Pairing classes- tea and chocolate, tea and cheese, and tea and dessert. Fun, fun, fun! i'm looking forward to June- camping weekend with Nick and friends, and then my first business trip. Excitement!

Anyhoo, I thought I had a real update, but I'm just really tired and I'm watching Bad Girls Club. SO GOOD.

I haven't updated in a while. I've been busy at work, or unmotivated to write (which I should get out of, since I will be writing for the company). I've been toying around with lots of ideas for what I would like to write, but I'm not yet inspired to actually start taking notes. I guess it's due to the lack of knowledge about the subject; tea. Still so much to learn! I want to have the facts rolling off my tongue like some sort of demented tea robot.

One thing I've been dwelling on is the idea of time. I went to visit Stephanie in DC, which is always a fun, this past weekend. It felt like I had just been there, even though it was back in November when Megha and I last visited. I love DC-and northern Virginia. I think it might be my second favorite metro area outside of NY. We went out as usual- to Dupont Circle for one of her friend's birthday gatherings at this fun pool hall/sports bar (lots of people our age, cuties, pool, etc etc) and then headed to Georgetown for her co-workers birthday, at this club that played allright music, and where I spent 51 dollars on shots. Lets just say the ride back on the Metro was hell.

Anyway-Time. I feel like the year has gone by so quickly. I went to Rutgers last night to see the APO talent show. I haven't been out of school that long, but everything felt so foreign to me- for crying out loud I got lost getting to the Busch Student Center. (AND they put a Burger King where the Wendy's was! WHOA! ). I got to see Suesie, which is always a treat. While we were talking, I realized I hadn't seen her since she moved out of the apartment early May. We correspond semi-regularly through the mail, so I didn't feel like I had lost in touch with her-it was just weird that I hadn't seen her in such a long time, but good that we were able to chat away like it any other night in the attic of 110.

I also felt sort-of grownup. I showed up in a blazer,, in the clothes I wore to work. I'm usually very casual, but yesterday I was wearing a button up, leather flats, and a blazer, with my new amazing bag from Express I bought this weekend. I felt subdued in demeaner, and much older than everyone there. I was thinking about how I used to act in APO- loud, slightly obnoxious (i'm still obnoxious), etc. Now, I can't imagine me acting that way. I mean, I'm not a total bore; maybe it was the lack of energy from working.

Working. I was thinking about how nice it was back in school when I could stay up until 3am working on some paper, reading, watching tv, and get up by nine the next day. And how there was room for naps in my day. I miss napping.

At Stephanie's we talked about how weird it was that the teenagers tramping about the National Mall were born in the 90s, and not in the 80s. We reminisced about the wild times we had in the Mid Atlantic last summer. Last summer. Felt like yesterday. It occured to me that this summer would be 2 years since Stephanie's moved down to VA. I have been dating Nick for six months. My birthday is coming up, and a year ago during my 23rd birthday I was all over the place. I looked at old pictures while I was uploading our pics from the weekend-I feel so different from the girl I saw in those pics from May, June, July, August. I was having a lot of fun, but hung up on such dumb shit- like the Bro and I was lazy in searching for a job.

I'm not totally different, of course. But I feel like I've matured within the past months. I don't know if i has anything to do with getting this new job (the commute sucks), being so happy with Nick (I AM! oh, that's such a fun, fresh, different, awesome relationship! fer serious! ), getting to see friends (even though I don't see some nearly as often as I would like), etc etc. I don't know.

It's interesting that time has gone by, enough time that I can sense a change in myself, but it hasn't felt like it's flown by, per se; I still feel like have time to do all the things I still want to do, and ought to do.

On a side note, I am watching Lost. I feel like every other episode ends with this dumb ukelelee feel-good music montage of everyone sharing and caring that they aren't on an effing island with crazies and big ole clouds of smoke that eat people.

Things I'm Looking Forward to in the Next Couple of Days:
-staying over Nick's tomorrow (shorter commute for Friday morning!)
-seeing Kyu and various others on Friday night!
-New episode of The Office tomorrow night ! (I'm going to kill Jim Halpern-!!?!?! can't wait. haha)
-Family time on Saturday- my cousin's surprise bday party
-Easter tea with Mommy (and perhaps some new accessories)
-the wholesale reps will be in the office next wednesday (company!)

okay, gnite.

rip them out of me!!!

I am not feeling too well today. Just the typical 'yucky' that comes with lady troubles. But i've been drinking a lot of tea, so I guess that helps. I will do some retail therapy, later, and see the queen of hugs, Beth and feel loads better, I'm sure of it.

So, I am at the new-ish job. I have pretty much gotten my bearings, and next week my boss will out of town so I will be on my own for the most time. It shouldn't be so bad; he had to go on a business trip Wednesday, so it was my first time 'home alone'. Anyhoo, I will get to play my music loud (I already kind of do) and talk to myself about stupid things (yeah...)

I am getting anxious for Spring...for when there is warmer weather, and more fun things to do. April is pretty busy: this weekend, I am going to VA with Judi to visit Stephanie, there is a family party the weekend after that, Radigals conference, a trip back to Providence, Jen's wedding shower, and my berfday! The dirty two dozen....

I am on live support right now, and someone is trying to bargain for free shipping. What a jerk. This is also the same person who thought you could put a plastic implement on a stovetop (uh, no).

I guess since I'm working at a tea company, I should post some of my favorites teas as of late:

Jasmine Pearls- ours bloom in the infuser, and omg I LOVE JASMINE. they remind me of the native Filipino flower, the Sampugita. So fragrant, it's like sipping flowers.

The Earl Grey Aristocrat- i used to not like Earl Grey, but this has some lavender in it, and you can smell and bergamot- another favorite scent of mine. It's my "Wake-the-eff-up!" morning tea.

that's all I've been drinking as of late. I really ought to catalog all the tea I drink with my observations so I can learn more about how to really taste tea. It's fun, but I pee a lot now. It's ridiculous. I will get up like ten times an hour.

I really hate live support. I wish we didn't have it. I can't really leave to do my other work, bc I have to hang out and wait for someone to go on it and ask me some dumb question. Oouf. I do enjoy it when I actually have a conversation with someone on it though, and I learn something about tea. I had a charming conversation with an old man who lived somewhere west of the Mississippi R. and grew fields of this certain lavender tea. Sounded very relaxing.

My first project/proposal for the company newsletter is to be a tea room critic- how fun! I want to take my mom to tea at this laura-ashley-esque place in Yardley, Tea with an Accent, and the lady has a British accent. My old co-worker recommended it to me. i'm planning to have that as my first review. There are loads in the city alone; all different kinds- I hope to cover a range of different types of places, with different types of people in relation to me- mom, relatives, all my different groups of friends, boyfriend. I hope to be able to have a certain 'experience' with each place- like Tea with Mom at Place with Frilly Frilly Things, and compare the food, type of tea, environment, and any other activities we do before or after the tea visit. I think it'll be fun, and compelling. I'll try to make it more interesting than the standard review you would see on the website. We'll see. It'll give me an excuse to take pictures and stuff. Or maybe, I can go incogneito, Ruth Reichl-like, and not tell anyone I'm a critic. But I don't think anyone would really care.

I am exhausted. And I hate the 4:45-5:00pm rush- people see that live support is going to shut down at 5pm, so they all try to get on it ten to 5, and ask me dumb questions they could just email me about. OOUF.

I was also up late last night looking up airfare for my vacay this summer- Las Vegas with Mike, Judi, and Carin for three days, where my cousin, Ferds might come meet up with me, and then it's to Sucker-Free aka San Francisco to meet up with Nisha for another four days. The only thing that sucks is that I have to find 3 separate flights, but it's only a little bit more expensive than getting one round trip, which I don't mind. I'm really excited! It's the first time I'm getting to go out to see other cities on the West Coast besides Seattle. I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

Another thing about this job, is that I think people threw disregard any sort of proper grammar, English, simple sentence phrasing when they are talking to me. And also email, which I think is more embaressing that hand- writing a badly written letter. Seriously, these people are like :

HEY Plese helpme with youre teapot itsbroke n and fix (Hi, how are you? I'm great. do you think you could help me with this teapot I purchase? It is broken, and I would like a replacement. I'd be happy to pay for shipping. No, thank YOU!)

Excuse me do you have orginnicly growned tea? (Excuse me, do you have organically grown tea?)

iwannaa not be fat, what tea does that (??? oh boy)

anyhoo, it's another form of retail, but with normal hours, no being on my feet all day, and if you mouth off of me via typed word, DELETE. Love IT.

Grown-up business.

Today was my first day of my new job. It went pretty well. The girl I am replacing is training me until Friday. Her name is Amanda and we hit it off really well. she too, was once a b&n slave, so we talked about that. I think I will miss her when she leaves. She took me out to lunch at the pizzaria, which was nice because we got to go outside and walk to it on this beautiful day. The downside about the job is, well other than staring at a computer screen all day, is that it's just me and my boss, Michael in the office, with about 6 or 7 people in the warehouse. Everyone seems nice though, so that's good. I just don't know how I'm going to handle not talking to people (in person, I am doing live support via chat) and not having someone to just bullshit with all the time. I will however have aim, so ummmm talk to me if you see me. I will probably appreciate it :)

I started my commute at 7:30. They asked m to get there at 10, and I didn't want to take any chances on the traffic. However, I left at a good time, arriving in Garfield at 8:40. Since I was obscenely early, I camped out at the dunkin donuts nearby. The 9-6 shift won't be bad, because I left early enough to beat most traffic, and leave late enough that the commute home isn't that bad. I got to Route 1 quarter to seven. I got home at 8 though, because I stopped at Target to pick up padded envelopes, post-its, a new tupperwear, and um cheese-its. I almost passed out from hunger though.

Another perk of the job is all the damn tea I get to drink. I had 4 cups of first flush darjeerling and it was delicious. I use the bathroom though. But, at least I can just drink tea all day, as opposed to snacking- no vending machine, but I plan to stash some granola bars and carrots and healthy junk like that. I have to figure out when I can workout. I don't want to exercise too late, but I don't know how I feel about waking up extra early.

Perk #2, I get another laptop. Sahhhhweet. It's an MacBook Pro. It's pretty sweet, and I only got around to customizing my widgets. I plan to add more when I'm bored. i need to clean it up a little, customize it more to me as the user. It sucks though, because I have to bring it home everynight (they don't want it left in the office). I plan to use it at home for alittle bit to get more familiar with all the stuff I have to do, but I don't want to turn into those people who do work when they are not. I do have to check emails on Sunday night, but only for alerts for the Monday morning shipments.

AHHH. What else? Vacay recap:

WEdnesday- my last day at work! Very nice, I didn't do much, because I realized, hey, I don't work here anymore (after six). My coworker Rana made me a chocolate cake, and Charlotte, another co-worker got me these pretty mugs from Villeroy and Boch. Very sweet. A bunch of us met up at Fridays, the favorite B&N store 2646 watering hole for drinks and fun. It was nice to hang out. Katie came, as well as Nick on his day off. I got emails and lots of hugs. I also bought a bunch of books:

The Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution (Caroline Weber)
The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette (Carolee Erickson)
The Slaves of Solitude (Patrick Hamilton)
The Good Solider (Ford Maddox Ford)
The Portable Dorothy Parker (Dorothy Parker)
Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier)
i Capture the Castle (Dodie Smith)
Catherine the Great (Virginia Rounding)
+a Moleskinne Notebook (for my job notes)
+some magazines. For the Vacay.

Anyhoo, I would have bought some more, but I did a lot of price-comparison shopping btw Amazon.com vs my store discount. Plus, I have a lot of books now, and not so much time to read, unfortunately.

Thursday and Friday nights were both spent in Manhattan with Nick, celebrating his friends' birthdays, which are on the same date. On Thursday we went out with his friend Brian and his father for Thai, a show at Upright Citizens Brigade, and drinks at a piano bar. Then on Friday we met up with Andrew and Nicole, and hung out in the East Village, ate more Thai, dranka lot.
Saturday, Nick talked me into going north with him to go pick up greeder, who was in Midtown. We had a couple of drinks and left. Sunday was nice, because Nick and I went out for breakfast, which we hadn't done in a while. We always go to this place on Church Street in Montclair, which has good brunch. We also went to the Montclair Book Center, my favorite bookstore ever, got cookies at Gimme Jimmy's, and then he drove me home. We took a detour to the driving range right outside of New Brunz. We bought a small bucket of balls to hit. It was the first time I've been to a driving range, and I had a pretty decent swing, according to Nick, by the end of it all. We also ran into Colin, a co-worker of ours (well, ex to me, hehe) who was also at the range. .

i cleaned on monday. exciting.

So other than hanging out, I was watching the American version of the Office, which I am so hooked on. I rented it off of netflix, and couldn't resist but to download them off of itunes. It has been the only thing I've been watching, except for a break Monday night to watch last week's Lost, and right now, where I'm watching the newest episode. Anyhoo, I've become a big Office fan. I heart BJ Novak. He's my temp. boyfriend. I'm also reading Mindy Kaling's blog (mindyephron.blogspot.com) she is such a pretty, smart, funny girl. Her blog is mostly about stuff she buys and how much she loves them. I love it.I love her too. her character cracks me up! She's my newest Indian Princess (I have several). i am all caught up in the whole Jim loves Pam business, and I can quote the show all the time. Rainn Wilson is in the new movie The Last Mimzy; the trailer just went on. My obsession has gotten to a point that on Tuesday night, when Nick was hanging out with me, he said I was acting like Dwight. Who is the best. I guess I have to watch the British original to get the whole picture.

"I hate so much about the things you choose to be". Casino Night. Season 2 finale. Oh boy.

My first day at my new job is tomorrow!

Wish me luck.

a real post will be coming soon.

So, in the midst of answering one of those stupid surveys on myspace bulletins, i came across a question, "Who was your crush?". it was one of those surveys 'how much you've changed in 5 yrs, 10 yrs etc' and this was the five years ago series, when I was 18 and at johnson and wales. I was wracking my brain for the answer to at least one of my crushes (the other two were mark from what feeds the fire who i nicknamed evil jay or hardcore jay, cos he looked like my boyfriend at the time but hotter and he was in a hardcore band and um, dude bro pat), so in my curiousity, i decided to check if my old live journal was still up from that time. I wrote in it up to my sophomore year @ rutgers, then stopped. I typed in the web addy, and lo and behold....


IT STILL EXISTS. omg. naturally, I had to scroll through it. It's so funny ! I was (well, still am) weird. And so different! holy shit, midtown is definitely not my favorite band anymore. Anyway, i'd post the link but it's incredibly embaressing- I have lots of entries where I LOVE JAY and how horny I am. woof. good lord. There's also this dude who was my lj buddy and for the love of god, I don't know who he is.

anyway, if you ask nicely, maybe i'll letyou see it, because I think it's funny. But perhaps that's because I'm a little too full of myself.

oh btw, I had a really STRANGE dream regarding the Guy from last May (Bro-Ham) and ...wtf? UGH.

I just had a late-night snack of my mom's famous chicken and chickpeas slow cooked in tomato sauce. YUM.

Some news on the front...


I GOT A NEW JOB!

yay!

I will be in charge of customer support for adagio teas, which is an online and retail gourmet tea business (www.adagio.com or google tea and we're the 3rd thing on the list!). I'll have to do the grudge work of answering emails, tracking orders, etc but I get to do some fun stuff too! I have to cultivate and sustain the loyal customer base by creating topics on the website's message board and I get to write articles- anything about tea! Woo-hoo! It's a small company and I'm excited by the fact that there's no huge bureaucracy if I want to pitch an idea. I had my interview with the owner and we talked for two hours. Sweet. I have creative freedom over my writing, which is cool because I can get those skills I got in college (I was quite the research machine) as well as let my inner Martha out. Oh, and they are paying me a LOT more money than i'd make a year at the bookstore. The kicker is that it's all the way up in Garfield, which is an hour away, and will prob. turn into a 2 hour commute each way. Whoa! But I think i'll be able to manage for a couple of months; I have family that lives up there and of course the boyfriend. In a couple of months too, I will be able to work from home, thus saving more money. I plan to move back up to Northern Jerz by the end of the year, if not sooner.

I can't express how happy I am! I've been on a cloud 9 of sorts, with some bum-outs, such as working a stupid busy President's Day. Man, do the crazies come out! Ugh, they were taking up the aisles, pulling every effing book off the shelf, screaming (the children), whining (the adults), and making a mess and not buying anything. Fer serious. I just kept on retreating into the back, where I was comforted by the thought that I will be here less than a month.

So, in prep. for my departure from B&N, I've started to order all this stuff I want. I found these awesome cupcake notecards and ordered a bunch. And a book on the world's most beautiful libraries. And 2 Filipino children's books. I had this whole thing where I was going to buy a lot of stuff before I leave, but I was looking at prices for the books I want on amazon and it usually is a dollar cheaper with shipping, or the same price. It's going to be very weird to have to pay for books at full price. In fact, it's going to be very weird and a bit disarming not to be working at the bookstore. I have to subscribe to the NY Times weekender to get the book review or i'll never know anything about books again.

I plan to buy a lot of Moleskins. Last week I bought Trivial Pursuit The Book Lovers Edition. Who's ready to take on me and Nick in a game?

ps: I forgot. If anyone with simple html knowledge could email me codes (christine.rillo@gmail.com) for like italicizing things, posting pics in the page, links, etc. My blogspot for some reason (maybe it's my browser?) doesn't pull up the typical editing bar on top.

I posted a new profile pic. I'm bring lobster back. Oh, and sexy.

happy valentine's day!

so I feel loads better. My work week is a total vacay: I ended up calling out early Sunday for my closing shift, then left early due to still not feeling well on monday, and today and yesterday we closed the store early because of the weather. SWEET.

I didn't do anything special today for v-day. I was pretty happy we were going home early (though the greater population of princeton was probably pissed bc where-am-i-going-to-go-on-this-snowday. go to fucking borders dudes or stay at home with the books you bought last week). I bought Marie Antoinette today (!) which I love. It's so frikkin girly; I love the costumes, the desserts, and I have allowed kirsten dunst to reenter my life since I saw it back in October (we were on a break during that whole oooh i'm with jake gylenhaal thing). Plus Jason Schwartzman, I mean does it get any better? I watched it with my mom over some weird paella thing she made tonight. Whatever, it was warm and gooey.

Nick was off today and because of the weather he wasn't about to come down here, nor would I let him. Tomorrow we celebrate. I ordered him abottle of wine offline which I should be getting on friday, hopefully. Note to you all, you can't order wine into nj or pa! Maybe it's only by a bottle, next time i will get a case.

I wrote some letters today, updated my book journal (for my Remains of the Day, Atonement, and Brave New World entries). I started About Alice last night by Collin Trillin; a damaged copy I got free from work. It's very short, and I like it. Trillin writes about his late wife (he's a staff writer for the Times, writer of other family-humor kind of stories). It's very cute-that's not really the word-very heartwarming, endearing, and even the in the few pages I've read, it shows he really loved his wife. A nice V-day read, indeed. Next up on the book list is The Cement Garden, by Ian McEwan. I think I've become a fan, but I shouldn't say that until I read another book of his (he wrote Atonement. SO GOOD).

Oh, btw, I have an interview on Friday. Wish me luck! You know what that means? Shopping! haha. I need a professh shirt. I honestly don't have one. Well, I have one but it won't match my black pants. And some shoes. Cos all my shoes have bows on them. Not very profesh.

sick day.

i bought these Stacy's pita chips with cinnamon and sugar. I ate a couple, and I would be better satisfied if there was some sort of dip, maybe a sweetened cream cheese kind of glaze. I thought they would be like churros. I put one in the microwave. They are not like churros.

I'm watching the food network, which is airing all chocolate related shows all day long in honor of st. valentine's day. i want truffles right now. i did buy dark chocolate with almonds, but champagne truffles would be better.

I want to leave my house very badly, but I know /should stay at home so I can feel better and go to work tomorrow. I don't know where I would go either. I would love to go shopping, but the mall I prefer is too far, and wait! I have no money. I was thinking about going to target. I wish I had bought some bad magazines to read, but I do have some reading to keep my occupied, which will allow me to utilize my brain cells in a better way.

I made some crafts yesterday. Though I was sick, I went up with nick back to his house. We went to michaels and bought craft supplies. He painted, and I made these little plushes. I only made two, which don't look very good. It's too cold in the basement to go sew, plus I have to get all my stuff together, since my mom scattered my supplies all over the basement since I've moved in. Built by Wendy has cute spring patterns; one is for this dress:http://builtbywendy.com/onlineshop/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16905&category_id=296. I think it's darling.

I'm going to read some of What Color is my Parachute?, get depressed, polish up my resume, and send it out to at least 5 places today.

I don't think people make churros anymore. In the latest food and wine, the back page recipe is for churros with hot chocolate- how lovely! I want to make those tonight.

What happened to being the type of sick where you dont want to eat anything at all and sleep all day long...?

LALALA.


So, my mini vacation was fabulous. It was only for a few days. Nick and I traveled to Portland, ME for a couple of days of cold weather, cheap lobster, and lighthouses. We're pretty corny. I got a good deal on a hotel room at the Inn @ St. John, which was like a victorian b&b. Upon our arrival, we got a complimentary upgrade to the superior room, which pretty much had just a bigger bed (wink, wink haha), a big screen tv, and some 'jets' in the tub. It helps to be probably the only people staying at the place. We got dinner at this place called Demillos on the waterfront, which was a converted yahct. I ate 2 lobsters for 20 bucks. Sweet and tasty. They gave me a bib, and I must confess it was my first time eating lobster like that. It was fun, somewhat messy, and I also sustained an injury to my left middle finger, a rogue spike on the lobster claw or something. We ended the evening watching the Top Chef finale, where I won the bet (Ilan won!) and Nick owes me a paperback of my liking.

Thursday, we got up somewhat early...well, no, we got up at 9 to go to the Twin Lights State Park. We saw the lighthouse that Edward Hopper used in his painting, Lighthouse at Two Lights. Afterwards we went back into the city to visit the Portland Art Museum, which wasn't so bad; a lot of NC Wyeth, a Hopper, Henri, etc. We made hte bad decision to eat lunch, and because we were so hungry we over ate- a plateful of bacon wrapped shrimp and mussels, and giant lobster rolls each with fries. It was quite Good though. The rest of the evening was spent walking around Old Port, looking into shops and stuff before everything closed at five or six (ahh, New England cities).

Thursday night's dinner was delayed, because we were still full, so we went back to the room to nap and sit around. I played online cos we had free wireless and watched tv. When we finally did decide on dinner, around nine, we were somewhat rushed, cos in Portland, kitchens close at nine-thirty. WTF? We ended up eating at the smae place we had lunch, which was good, but it was weird because they were ready for the 'nightlife' time of the evening. Apparently, this place had a DJ every night, which I could understand in any other city, or rather, a big city, but in Portland it didn't seem to make any sense. The poor waitresses/bartenders assured anyone who came into the bar (which weren't many to begin with, as they turned right around at the sight of about five people, two of which-us-were still nursing our dinners, sitting around watching a Disturbd video on the plasma screen above the bar) that the place did get crowded, but much later. But how much later? Shit, stuff closes at 1 in New England.

Anyway, we ended out the night and then went back to our place. We left Portland in the morning after some last minute walking around, and drove straight to Park Slope, where we had a 'couples' night with Dan and Keith, Andrew and Nicole, Nicks's friends. There was plenty of wine and booze, and lots of talking among the boys. It was cool, because I finally got to meet Nick's oldest friend, Andrew, who is like, for example, the Megha in my life. He was very funny, and his lady friend/date, actually was an old friend of theirs that they new since high school, and that Nick was fairly good friends with after high school and hadn't seen in ten years. It was a fun time, and we ended up crashing there.

Saturday, the two of us got brunch at my favorite place to eat in P. S. , the 2nd Ave Cafe, where I had the french toast with the fruit butter (!!!!! I dream of this stuff at night...omgomg) and the chicken apple sausage. Heaven. We headed back home, where I eventually got back to P'ton. Saturday night, to end the festivities, Mike, Carin, and Judi came down for dinner. We acted like fancy adults and got dinner at LaHiere on Witherspoon Street in P'ton. I got the scallops (so much seafood the past couple of days...not complaining) and creme brulee. Mike also brought some wine from his cache, so we had a glass or so each before heading out. After dinner, Judi wanted ice cream so we went to the Halo Pub, and then walked around the campus so Mike could check out any ivy league hotties. As it was almost zero degrees, no one was out, and we all were just very cold.

Judi left when we got back to my house, but Carin and Mike hung out for a while. We looked at pictures from our youth; high school and Providence ,and talked about how much we've changed. And we have! Looking back on the crew our pics, it's a bit of a startling feeling. Not to sound vain, but we all look good now! It's so funny how the teenage years, no matter how put-together you were, or at least you thought you were, looking back to it, it really was a trainwreck. Mike and I talked about my love of sweaters (pref from A&F or AE or AERO...geez) and this stupid black duster I wore everywhere. I was at least fifty pounds heavier, and didn't know my way around a makeup/grooming kit to save me. Our faces look so young, and though none of us have really gone through huge changes in our lives, it's interesting to see how we've matured, both on the surface and on the inside. We found plenty of blackmail fodder, believe me. It was a good time reminiscing about the past, stumbling across the 'oh, you remember the time __________________', pictures, providing lots of laughs over the stupidest things we used to do. Everything was so frivolous back then, though we were so certain we knew what we were doing. Good times, indeed, and finally ! someone(s) came to visit me in stupidbumpprinceton. yay!

**^&%^$ i can't wait for my vacation.

today i did something stupid at work and i'm still kicking myself about it. i basically let some choice words slip out of my mouth in front of kids, and yeah. i apologized like crazy because I don't want to be one of those people who are disgruntled and awful; the same people I don't like. So, i stepped out of line, and fortunately, the woman who complained was a beautiful, agreeable person, who understood that I was having a bad day.

I feel like I'm always having bad days. I'm not really happy with my life right now; aside from Nick, my friends, when I get to see them. I'm not motivated to do anything as of late. I drove through new brunswick last night after my cousin's birthday and really didn't want to be there. I feel so far away from that life; college and whatnot, but so faraway from anything remotely "adult". I don't know what's going on. All I know is that I'm ready to get out of NJ for a little bit, perhaps collect my thoughts, figure out what's going on, cuddle in the cold weather, and eat lobster. I checked the forecast for Portland and the good news is, no snow! yay!

Not everything has gone to waste though. I started working out a couple of days ago, and already I feel tons better.