Coming Out of the Woodworks

Seems like spring has everyone emerging back into the sunlight. I was beginning to wonder if there was something wrong with me since I have spent pretty much all my weekends and evenings at home since just after Halloween, but I think it was just because of the winter.

Friday night, Erica and her band were playing at a place in the lower east side, so I went to go see. It was great - the room was completely packed, there were people dancing. The energy was great, and it was nice to see her and Emma and Kaetii again. I ended up sleeping over her place (feels like home!) and we all went for brunch the next morning at Kellogg's Diner at the Lorimer stop. While Erica was refilling the meter, she happened upon a fledgeling bird that had fallen from his nest. She was upset, so we decided to go and save the poor thing. Kaetii scooped him up and we popped him in a paper bag and took him home. Then, Erica started regretting her decision, and upon further examination of the bird, we thought that he might possibly be sick and was actually pushed out by the mommy bird so as not to make the rest of the brood sick as well. And, we also found out that a fledgeling was extremely difficult to take care of, so in the end, it was decided to take the birdie and release him into the wild. We ended up taking him and putting him in a park behind a fence where there was plenty of plants and shade and space. Not so sure what happened to the poor fellow. Sad to say, but mostly likely, he is dead or will be in a few days.

Then I went home where I was suddenly gripped with the urge to clean. I swept and scrubbed the bathroom, kitchen and living room. I even took the rug and beat a LOT of dirt and dust out of it. A LOT.

This morning, I met Christina and the former-Lehmann for dimsum in Chinatown. 'Twas tasty, but the variety was lacking and I felt that the waiters were very rude. Well, the guy who handled our table for water, tea and taking away empty dishes was about 50 or so. I think he wasn't too pleased with his lot in life. Poor man. Still, the food was tasty. Later we went and bought frozen dumplings for later, and I bought a guava and some mangoes. I had a last minute splurge on the way back to my office. I was walking down the street and all of a sudden, noticed a table full of bonsais. One bonsai in particular, in a red pot. The other bonsais were also very nice, but none of them seem to have the right shape. Red-pot bonsai seems to have the shape with the most potential for fixing, so I took him. I think I'll name him Bob. Bob the bonsai. I hope he lives...

Tired

Is it Friday yet?

My boss told me the other day that I have to start doing more overtime. I'm reluctant. Why? Because what I'm doing is so incredibly tedious that my brain is positively fried by 4 or 5:00. I'm pretty much useless after that. Sure, the other interns work tons of overtime. They also get paid time and a half for every minute they work over 40 hours/week. I don't get paid for OT, nor do I get any comp time. It's also difficult to get excited about lists and working inside a model that's so screwed up from being subjected to multiple first-time Revit users.

I just realized today that what I'm doing right now could be what I'm doing for the rest of my life. I don't find the prospect of that very pleasing. I should have ignored Mom and gone to culinary school.

Good Friday

On Tuesday at lunch, James asked me if I was going home to be with family for the holiday. I went, "What holiday?" He looked somewhat surprised and said, "Why, Easter!" And then I blurted out, "O, we're not Christian!" Somehow I think I shouldn't have told him that. I wouldn't be surprised if I started feeling a sprinkly on the back of my head at work. It'd probably be him throwing holy water at me.

Just now, Eric, who sits on the other side of my wall, just asked his bay if today was some sort of holiday because the trains seemed empty. He actually went to Catholic school. I feel vindicated.

This morning on the train, I saw a girl with a strand of prayer beads doing her hail marys. I guess if you're on the subway for 45 minutes, you might as well multi-task. I also saw a woman pick a dollar bill off the ground and ask the guy next to her if it was his. At his confused look, she laughed and put it in her pocket. Well, she tried. Guess it's her lucky day.

Last night I went to Axel's to see his nice new kitchen. It was indeed nice. He grilled prawns in his backyard and we devoured all two pounds of it with some sort of Cuban sauce called mojo. Tasty! Apparently in the summer, he hosts "Prawn Massacres" and everyone devours pounds and pounds of the little guys with prosecco. Sounds like fun!

This morning, I woke up smelling like garlic.

Shop!

I bought a really nifty jacket from Armani Exchange on my birthday as a present to myself. I was foolishly optomistic and thought I was a small only to find that while I could zip up the jacket, I couldn't move after because of how constricting it was around the waist.
So, yesterday at lunch, I took the jacket to A/X to see if I could return it. The lady at the counter said, "O, you need an XS? We have that." To which I replied, "No no! Wait! I need to go in the other direction! Medium, medium! This seemed to upset her. She proceeded to try to convince me that I was a small at the very biggest. I decided that it's because a medium fits so well that I look like I'm an XS, so I shall happily accept being the hippo that I am.
As I was relaying the tale to Axel over dinner last night, he cut in at the exact same spot and said, "XS, right?" So the question is, is it what people genuinely think? Or is there some sort of conspiracy to tell hippo-girl she looks good while they inwardly cringe?
O, and since I noticed that there was so much more stuff on sale at the store, and there was a giganto sale going on (spend $150, take $50 off), I went a little crazy and bought 2 new dresses, neither of which are exactly appropriate for work, some nice workout clothes and a new purse. Ironically, this is the first purse I have ever purchased for myself. Strange, no?