Saturday, July 21, 2012

I hate being a girl sometimes.

Forget about not being able to pee while standing, or the fact that we may potentially have to squeeze a watermelon-sized child out of our lady parts.

Unfortunately, I left my headphones at home. When you are at a cafe, this means that you are at the mercy of your neighbor's conversations. Today's topic focused on a girl with a "botched tooth job" and her second racecar driver boyfriend ("this must be her thing..") One of the bottle blondes refused to admit that the new boyfriend is hot ("is this a recent picture?"), while the other tried to be a little less jealous ("well, he was nice and he's pretty funny.."). I don't know how you botch a tooth job, but if that's all they can point out as her flaw, she's probably pretty awesome, and just doesn't know how to pick out friends. Then they moved onto The Bachelorette and I really wanted to stab my fork into my ears.

My other thought as I tried really hard not to listen: I miss cackling with my friends and having strangers judge our conversations as childish and dumb. I can't wait for Meena's return to the US in a few days!! I have a lot to catch her up on. Our neighboring tables are going to hate us.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Wanderlust

Since graduating from college I've moved at least once a year. DC (Chinatown, Woodley Park), Boston, Manila, Seoul, SF (Lower Haight, Lower Pacific Heights). This is the first time that I've been in one apartment for longer than a year. I'm getting antsy.

At first I thought it would be nice to put down roots and commit to a place (and to be truthful, San Francisco continues to amaze me every day), but I very clearly am a commitment-phobe (in many aspects of my life, unfortunately). I'm working on it.

Thank you, New York Times, for publishing an article on Chicago that only adds to my flightiness. I hinted at an opportunity to move in a previous post; the move would have been to go back home. I was just there for work a few weeks ago, and was reminded of how beautiful and lovely the city is. The architecture, the neighborhoods, the hospitality - it was all so good. I have mixed feelings at how things turned out, but I'll chalk it up to growing pains.

I also blame Ruth Reichl for my itchiness. She filmed a series back in 2009 called Adventures with Ruth, where she learns fly-fishing in the Smokies, bread-baking in Bath, the cuisines and cultures of China, Brazil, Morocco - they're fantastic. If money was of no concern and I could choose my dream life, this is it.

Another article from the Sunday Times described so-called "Offbeat Tour" websites that feature personally-guided tours around the world: Canaryhop, Gidsy, Sidetour, Vayable. If I can't have Ruth's life, I guess I can always cough up some money and pretend to be her.

I'll add one last website to this mix. Tripierge - this guy is a delight.