cheengoo’s blog

I've been spending the past two weeks in Atlanta for Thanksgiving. It has been so nice to have a refreshing change of scenery from New York. What I enjoy the most about Atlanta are our friends and family. During this past week, my friends and I caught up by hanging out almost every night. I think my liver is dying as a result, so I have promised myself no alcoholic beverages for 7 days. I will also miss simple things like digging in the garden, or sweeping the leaves. What I will not miss is sitting in the car, driving the car, and staying busy visiting everyone in our families. I love our family, but they are so spread out and live an hour from the city. New York is nice for its public transportation and convenient stores. New York a stimulating place to live, but I still have no sense of purpose there (besides working at home as a freelance designer, where location does not matter). I guess I just want to be apart of whatever is going on in the city, and working from home, for clients far away, makes things very isolating. Hmmmm.......

I got an interview here tomorrow as web designer, so wish me luck.

Nytimes

It occurred to me that science and God might both be correct about our existence.  Science has a great way to explain the laws of our universe, while religion does the same, but uses stories. Both answer questions, and both answer none. It seems so bizarre to me that some things around us can be an illusion. Is it true that some people in this world can harness energy and heal other human beings (this is what I am thinking prayer is)? What about psychics like Edgar Cayce? Did he really harness the world energy to have visions of the future? Is this supernatural "energy" the 4th dimension that scientists cannot put their finger on? What do you guys think?

Another rainy day in NYC. Since I can't stand wet feet and pant legs on rainy days, I decided this was a great excuse to get some kick ass, colorful rain boots.

my new rain boots

So remember when I saw Natalie Portman in India? Apparently she was there for the filming of Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Express. Scott and I went to see the movie last night. It was very interesting, especially since we were in the same region that it was filmed. I swear the opening scene train station was the one in Jaipur where we spent the night due to train delays. I also thought it was interesting because while in Jodhpur, Scott and I saw a picture of Bill Murry with shop owners (complete with frame and signature I believe) in a store on the corner of town. Was Bill Murry there too at the same time as Natalie Portman?

Another weird celebrity story. Scott and I went to The Gutter, a bar/bowling alley in Brooklyn with some friends Saturday night. While I was going outside to smoke I sense a presence stepping up next to me, and notice a little man in a plaid shirt lighting his cigarette. Lo and behold, there stands Frodo Baggins....yes, Elijah Wood.

I have always been a fan of etsy.com, but have never made a purchase from their site until this evening. I probably spent about 2 hours browsing dog collars for my Italian Greyhound. I was thinking about some stripey collars that I saw and possibly a martingale, then I stumbled upon this collar on Etsy. It's so cute! Its made of vintage bark cloth. The gals even custom make the collar to the dog, so I specified no more than 1 inch wide and 10 inches long. I can't wait til it comes in the mail!!!! They have so many cute designs, I had a hard time making a decision. If you want to know, her store name on Etsy is "Lucky Fiona". The little charms on them make it sooooo worth it!

Lucky Fiona on Etsy

I am ordering office supplies for myself and am noticing peculiar/picky quirks about behavior centered around office supplies. For example, why is it, there always exists a pen thief? Even when I worked at the magazine I would hide my favorite pens and whenever I let my guard down, that favorite pen would disappear. Now that my office is at home, I often times find my favorite pens in my husbands possession or in a different spot than I last left it. I have decided to order a 12-pack of pens with my mass order on staples.com today (can't decide b'twn gel-ink or felt-tip). My second office supply that tends to walk off are scissors. I have never been able to keep scissors in my possession. Once for Christmas, my cousin gave me a 3-pack of generic black handled scissors, ranging from small to large sizes. That was the best damn gift I think I ever received. Whats funny is that I cannot tell you where they are. Maybe I need to chain them to my desk like banks do with pens. I guess I will add scissors to my cart as well and hope they don't disappear once I get the package. 

We had our first Iggy meetup in Manhattan with Blu this weekend. As usual, she was not that social with the other Italian Greyhounds. I discovered that bringing treats in my bag is a motivator for Blu. Needless to say, I was very popular among the Iggy's at the meetup for this reason.

sniff fest

And there she is in the heathered khaki sweater trying to hide under someone's legs.

blu hiding

I thought I might go to some art openings in Chelsea last night, but I ended up so tired at the end of the day. Our neighbors love Blu so much, that they asked me to bring her over. Scott, Blu and I went downstairs to visit with Annie and Deepak over red wine and an introduction to their awesomely customized condo complete with modern lighting fixtures, electric blinds, and sweet ambient lighting. Unexpectedly, we invited the next door neighbor and his Irish sheep dog over to join us. Blu actually enjoyed hanging out with the Irish pup and performed some play bows. Before we knew it, there was an impromptu party going on consisting of 6 of us and several bottles of wine. I think this is the best human interaction I've had in New York so far. But it gets better.

Scott takes Blu outside for her evening pee and unexpectedly bumps into an old Atlanta friend of ours, Mickey. Gosh, we have not seen Mickey since he moved to Providence 5 years ago and now he lives in Seattle. So we go to this bar with Mickey and a friend of his, a bar that is around the block from us which I did not even know existed (i am finding out there are tons of places like this in NY). The night gets better when we bump into yet another friend, Bill, from the band Rainer Maria. For such a large, isolating city sometimes New York can surprisingly be a small world full of familiar faces. It is a nice change.

Pinkberry is a frozen yogurt chain that I love! The serve frozen yogurt in either plain or green tea flavors. The toppings consist of fresh berries or sugary additions like chocolate chips or oreo cookie crumbs.

my fav dessert

The second place  that is going  to make me so fat is Sugar Sweet Sunshine. It doesn't help that they are located around the block. Sugar Sweet Sunshine carries cupcakes and coffee. My favorite cupcake is named Sunshine which is a yellow cake with buttery sweet frosting. A bonus is that they let Blu into the shop with me!

ummmm...