Contemplation of e-readers: Interlude in a jellyfish dance

Wayne’s been bitten by the tablet bug. It’s a bit delayed. He fought them (let’s pretend there were little gnat-sized tablets with wings flying around him) off for a while, having decided that his iPhone and macbook were sufficient and that the hybrid of sorts wasn’t all that necessary. Yet. He waited out the early adopters and first devices, but now he wants one.

Which is why I ended up spending my Friday night prancing around Staples– there was a promotion that offered $100 off all tablets. As he contemplated the pros and cons of the various tablets on display, I performed jetés that could never rival the dancing hippos of Fantasia– though they could have potentially rivaled the jetés of the rejected dancing hippos who auditioned just for kicks– and balancing on one tip toe while spreading out my arms and legs to curl and then straighten and repeat in an effort to be a veteran jellyfish who, despite losing many legs, still had the heart to wiggle and jiggle with the store music playing in the background.  Apparently, not being able to find my favorite Pilot G2 ultra fine pens (0.38mm makes 0.5mm look all fat and blotty) causes me to dance as a jellyfish as both a sign of discontentment and a way to amuse myself since those pens are the only interest I have in Staples.

Until I saw the Kindle and the Nook. I took a momentary break from being a jellyfish to play around with the buttons of the Kindle and the swiping abilities of the Nook. I practiced holding both thin, light, small e-readers in my hand while attempting to lounge at the same time, a difficult feat when the e-reader is tethered to the station with little give. I appreciated the portability and convenience of each e-reader and, for few minutes, mused about purchasing one. I imagined keeping it with me at all times since either fit nicely in all my bags. I toyed with the idea of not worrying about ruining the covers and pages of new books with my manhandling and travel. I pretended that I was Captain Picard seated at his desk reading Moby Dick or whatever else that “Tea, Earl Grey, hot”-guzzling, bald, Borg-bustin’ favorite Star Trek captain of mine enjoyed reading for leisure*. But then, after the moment of consideration ended, I missed my books. Holding, bending, flipping the pages. Gently rubbing a page between my fingers and enjoying the feel of the texture. Running my fingers over the printed words and delighting in the feel of the dry ink. Seeing the pale tan color of the pages. And for some books, being completely enchanted by the unevenness of the edges of the pages and the way they were cut; some cleanly, some roughly. And the weight. I missed the weight. The heaviness. For some reason, the heaviness represents a tangible invitation for an experience, an adventure, like a boarding ticket. It makes me excited for the trip in a way an electronic ticket just cannot.

 

 

* Can I point out that I love the fact that Honey Bear** and I have had conversations where she proclaims how much she HATES scifi, while I proclaim my undying love in the next line? Aw, opposites attract! Except in the case of Madewell, because then we are perfectly aligned. Because Madewell is love.

**Dear Wynee, names I call you when you’re not around: Honey Bear.

Surprise!

After walking home from work in triple digit heat (Fahrenheit), I was surprised with a lovely box wrapped with a satin bow…

So…What crazy hot heat wave, East Coast? BECAUSE IT’S CHRISTMAS RIGHT NOW IN THIS APARTMENT! I’ll rip up pieces of white paper, toss them in the air, and make pretend-snow! And maybe rip up some other colored paper to make rainbow pretend-snow (…cuz if you’re going to make pretend-snow, why settle on just white?).

Wayne gave them to me as an anniversary present, but Michel’s Patisserie was back-ordered so Wayne was only able to pick them up today.

Thank you, Michel, for reminding me that all other macaron makers in the DC area don’t have a clue with what they’re doing.

For my review on macarons from Michel’s Patisserie: click here
For additional photos of macarons from Michel’s Patisserie: click here

Ten things Wayne does to make me happy

1. The way you take care of me by minding the small details I don’t pay attention to… like always charging my Iphone…or doing the laundry. Clean underwear is important…I just used to buy new ones to put off doing laundry…
2. The fact that you always eat everything I make for you and are so grateful…even when I mess up the dish and it looks nothing like the pretty pictures on Tastespotting
3. The personalities you give to inanimate objects and the curiously large number of stuffed animals that we have
4. You will hold conversations with me even though my side of the conversation consists of meowing, rawr-ing, and whines, and you completely understand my responses
5. You know that when I ask you if you love me, it means I’m gauging your willingness to go with me to Pitango so I can get my gelato fix.
6. You and your fashion sense like to go shopping with me — I don’t need to go shopping with a girlfriend!
7. The fact that you collect the movie stubs of every movie we see, even the ones we saw before we started dating
8. Your willingness to watch Korean dramas with me
9. You always let me have last bite/sip
10. You know to buy me a box of macarons to make me feel special and to take me to Trader Joe’s when I’m grumpy

Happy two years, Wayne!

Photo Diary: Weekend exploring at home

It hasn’t felt like Wayne and I have been home for the weekend in a long time so I was thrilled that this past weekend was completely dedicated to staying close to home and exploring the area– I think it is amusing that the “area” is comprised of two states, Virginia and Maryland, and the District.

Even though we stayed close to home, exploring ended up requiring a bit of driving to all the different places. Luckily, we had our little Shiba Inu key cap that we picked up at in LA to keep us on company in the car. I love his eye brows!

We spent some time in Bethesda on Friday night because Wynee told me about how she found a Japanese restaurant called Satsuma and they had some delicious tasting ramen that I had to try. I was really excited to visit because one of my favorite foods is tonkotsu ramen, which I’ve only had from Daikokuya in LA– I’m extremely loyal to foods I love. After four years of craving it, even skipping classes just to eat it during the non-rush hours, and having it readily available, it was  heart breaking to know that I wouldn’t be able to eat it on a weekly basis(…okay sometimes bi- and tri-weekly basis…and, since we’re being honest here, there were times when I ate it twice in one day for lunch and then late dinner) when I moved to the East coast. Using Daikokuya’s ramen as the standard of measurement, I thought the broth at Satsuma’s was rich with good flavor and also enjoyed the soft and chewy ramen noodles. The bamboo shoots were a little tough and should have been cooked for a longer period of time. I liked the egg a lot but I was confused that I was given only half an egg since I’m used to a full egg. I was extremely disappointed in the pork slices since they were very small, thin, lean and were not tender nor delicately about to fall apart since they lacked the fattiness that I loved. But that is just personal preference as I know that some people don’t like fatty meats. I want to point out that Satsuma charges double the price for a bowl of ramen that costs only around $6 at Daikokuya. And that the service was annoyingly slow…to the point that I walked up to our waitress to ask for the check and then walked up again to give her my credit card. However, while I appreciate good service and over-tip for it, slow service does not stop me from coming back if I want the food. Even though Satsuma’s ramen pales in comparison to Daikokuya’s ramen, I still want to return because I really enjoyed the broth and the noodles and it is relatively close to our home. It should hold me over until I go back to LA and I can get my Daikokuya fix.

After dinner, Wayne and I walked around downtown Bethseda and I was able to pick up a small box of macarons!

Wayne and I head up to Baltimore on Saturday for crabs at Obrycki’s. Wayne went there once with his friends and loved it. He’s always wanted to take me there, and once we found out that Obrycki’s was going to shut down after this season, we knew we had to go! The most unusual thing about Obrycki’s is that it is a Baltimore crab house that does not use Old Bay; instead they put salt and pepper on their crabs.

After Obrycki’s, we walked around Hampden and I found a vintage clothing and knick-knacks store after my own heart.

We finished off the weekend at the National Zoo. I think the highlight of the adventure was discovering the existence of this little creature: the elephant shrew. He looked so comical with his tiny, quivering elephant-like trunk and his long, long antelope-like legs that I instantly fell in love. He looked like he was constantly walking on his tip toes! I think he is so adorable!

* Things not pictured: yet another trip to Pitango (this was purposeful as I was starting to feel foolish about documenting every trip there since I know that my addiction is going to get ridiculous), Sunday morning matinée of Harry Potter 7 Part 2 (I didn’t want to be that person taking pictures of the screen in a dark theater, and apparently the idea of taking a picture of anything else relating to seeing the movie didn’t occur to me), post-zoo snack at Hot and Juicy Crawfish (I made mental note to take a picture but didn’t remember the note until we were completely done and paying the bill)

Summer Addiction: Pitango Gelato

ad·dict·ed/əˈdiktid/Adjective

1. Physically and mentally dependent on a particular substance, and unable to stop taking it without incurring adverse effects.
2. Enthusiastically devoted to a particular thing or activity.

After dinner with my family, Wayne and I took a long detour on the way home to stop by a Pitango so I could get my Pitango gelato-specific fix. And oh it was glorious. We had to wait in a long line because the Pitango we went to was located in the middle of a town festival, but it was completely worth it (and it also helped that the staff were super speedy). Even though chocolate hazelnut is my all-time faayyyyyvorite, I thought that I should try more favors so I picked pistachio and strawberry. Every flavor I sampled tasted so vibrant and creamy that I felt guilty picking the same flavor twice. Channeling my inner Phoebe from Friends, I didn’t want all the other flavors to feel left out and unloved.

(I love everything about Pitango so much; I am even in love with the font!)

Old Conversations

Two vignettes of conversations I’ve had from a long time ago– I’m kind of surprised I remembered them but they made me laugh so hard when I first heard them so maybe that’s why I remembered them. I wanted to write them somewhere so I can find them in case I forget:

On why my friend stopped being a vegetarian (seven years ago during French class in high school):
Friend: I used to be a vegetarian for four years.
Jenny: How come you stopped?
Friend: I got hungry.

On eating healthy (last year when she and Jeff stopped by to see our new apartment):
Wynee: I ate a cucumber salad and a grapefruit. I was really full until I had to pee. Then I was hungry again.

Midnight Snack

Usually I fall asleep at around 10:26 PM. Sometimes earlier, sometimes just a bit later, but usually I’m so predictable that Wayne could set his watches by when I nod off. My yawns become louder and more frequent until suddenly they stop. For some reason though, I have the tiniest bout of insomnia tonight and have actually managed to stay up past midnight! Not going to lie, I’m kind of impressed with myself. In fact, I thought I would celebrate with a midnight snack.

I have been seriously craving fudgey, moist brownies for the past week. I thought tonight would be the perfect time bake a box of brownie mix and pair it with a scoop of slowly melting vanilla bean ice cream because staying up past midnight always makes me a little Proustian for specifically that combination, right down to the fact that it has to be a box of brownie mix. Back in high school and during breaks from college, Naomi and I would frequently have sleepovers, and we would watch movies while we impatiently waited for the brownies to bake. Then we would eagerly cut crumbly squares of steaming hot brownies because we couldn’t wait for the brownies to cool and settle. I loved the pool of the black-speckled, cream-colored melted vanilla ice cream that would surround my thick, dense square of brownie and then seeing the brownie crumbs get carried away as my plate gently tipped to different sides as I held it in my hand.

Twitter Filter

Reason why my Twitter page doesn’t have as many tweets as it could have*:

Jenny: I used more words to describe the huge-ness of my ass than anything else in the email.
Wayne: Hahahahah
Jenny: Can I tweet that?
Wayne: No.

*I get the feeling everyone is thankful for Wayne.

Good gesture, not so good thoughts

Is it wrong that the only reason I walk over to our apartment complex’s front desk to pick up Wayne’s packages is so I can snag a complimentary cookie that the front desk provides to visitors?

Mayyyyyybe.

But.

In my defense, let me clarify and say that these are seriously good cookies. Gooey. Soft. CHEWY. Yet, still with a satisfying crunch at the beginning. Or maybe it’s more of a crispy crunch into the chewy cookie.

And, oh GOD, the chocolate chips. It’s as if chips know when to melt and just how much.

And then sometimes there are little rainbow candy-coat chocolate bits inside the cookie instead of chocolate chips, which are now completely put to shame, and it’s 4th of July all over again in my mouth.

Okay, I’m a horrible person.

But I made sure Wayne got his package…so I’m still a good girlfriend, right?

Photo Diary: 4th of July Weekend

Wayne and I went on a family roadtrip with his parents and his sister (Mika the kitty held down the fort and protected the house from groundhog invaders and any birdie air strikes) through New York. Originally we were going to do some national state park hopping and finish off the trip with some manic outlet shopping at Woodbury Commons. Things didn’t go quite as planned, but I think it was more fun. We ended up only visiting one park, Seven Lakes, because when we arrived in the random area of Poughkeepsie to check into our hotel, we discovered that there was a lot of great history and interesting sites that we wanted to see in the area. Wayne’s dad had picked a hotel in Poughkeepsie since it was only minutes away from one of the state parks we were planning on visiting, but, once we got to the hotel, we ended up skipping the state park and visiting Samuel F. B. Morse’s and FDR’s seasonal homes instead. Awe-SOME!

We also didn’t really have the manic Woodbury shopping experience, either. I was turned off by the huge crowds, the lines to get into stores, the bad selection, and the rain.  But it was all good for my credit cards. So…inadvertently awe-SOME!

Seven Lakes was actually quite crowded with people in bathing suits while having cookouts, but we managed to find a serene spot.

Our hotel was actually next door to Samuel F. B. Morse’s summer home. We checked in our hotel and walked over before dusk so we got a great view of of the sunset over the Hudson river from his backyard.

Visiting FDR’s home was actually the most exciting part, despite the fact that it rained nearly the entire we were there. Wayne’s mom took this picture of us with the statues of FDR and Eleanor during the few minutes that it was not raining.

Poughkeepsie

 Route 1 in New Jersey

I loved that we managed to accidentally catch TWO fireworks shows, one on each night. We had a great view of the Poughkeepsie fireworks show from the outside of our hotel, while the second fireworks show was in New Jersey on the way home on Route 1 where so many cars either slowed down or either parked alongside the bridge with their hazard lights on.

Wayne and I drove back Virginia on the 4th of July and stopped by Baltimore to drop off Christina. But before we dropped her off, we walked around Fells Point a little.

I finally got to eat at Bertha’s Mussels after seeing the bumper stickers on everyone’s sketchbooks during high school. I think it is worth its numerous bumper stickers’ commands to “EAT BERTHA’S MUSSELS”. I would love to go back!

We finished off lunch with a stop at Pitango for gelato. I got the hazelnut chocolate and raspberry. The flavors were so vibrant and tasted so real– Wayne’s lychee tasted as if I was eating a real lychee! I loved that the gelato was so so smooth and creamy. I could definitely taste the difference between this gelato and ice cream. I can honestly say that it’s the best gelato I’ve ever had, and I am SO HAPPY there are FOUR (!!!) locations in the DC area .

After we came home and took a nap, Wayne woke me up to ask if I wanted McDonald’s for dinner. I was confused because we rarely eat at McDonald’s until he told me that our friend, Albert, pointed out that McDonald’s is the most iconic American food. In pop culture, nothing quite says AMERICA like McDonald’s. Bravo McDonald’s marketing! Bravo!