To the New Decade!

Happy New Year!! I just had a wonderful, relaxing, fun-filled weekend and for some reason feel far more well-rested than I did from Christmas weekend. Must have been all the mom drama that I didn't have to put up with. In any case:

Christmas was great, though for whatever reason I don't remember too many details. We went to Eric and Sylvia's house as usual, though Sylvia didn't get to the house till around 9 or 10pm. I brought a delightful little pear-pistachio tart which I thought turned out really tasty. I should have made it bigger though. Maybe next time. We all hung out, watched 2012, chatted. I borrowed my uncle's really awesome new Nikon and went around taking pictures. Gramma got excited that the entire family was together and made us all take family photos. Guess it has to be done at some point...

The day after Christmas, May and I went to a local diner to see some childhood friends. Everyone seemed to be doing pretty well. May's friend who always hated me when we were little is oddly much nicer now that we're all grown up. I think it's because we work in related industries and are the only ones living in NY, so he feels like we have the most in common now. In any case, brunch was very nice.

The Saturday after Christmas, May and I were sitting in May's room playing video games when mom walked in. Mom went into this really long spiel about weddings and relationships and how there was a place for the woman in the home and how important it was to find a man that can take care of you, blah blah blah, sexist stuff. I was all for operation get-May-a-boyfriend, but then mom kept talking and the longer she talked, the less interested I was in helping and the more offended I got at her backwards way of thinking. In any case, the true goal of her lecture was that a northern Chinese neighbor had some boys from Beijing coming over for the weekend, and she and mom decided to introduce my sister in the vain hope that she and one of the boys might hook up. Unfortunately, most of the boys were asian guidos. The one that wasn't, and happened to be the boy of most interest, was actually kind of cute. The downside was that he and May wouldn't talk to each other, and really, they couldn't anyway because May's Chinese is filled with stuttering (no offense, May) and the boy could barely speak English. As for me, I felt like the painted whore in the room because I date white men and wear makeup. There you go, Mom, that's why I'll never marry a nice Chinese boy, because I'm tainted.

Then there was work. I felt incredibly tired. I blame my mother. She causes me a lot of stress which is very draining. Ironically, I was far busier this past weekend, and I feel far more relaxed.

So, Thursday was New Years Eve and I went with Marlen and her friends and met up with Brian, my old roommate. We went to Alice's Tea Cup. I tried to call in a reservation, but you have to actually physically walk in and put your name down so I was the vanguard since everyone else was very slowly puttering. Brian seemed to have a good time and seemed to like everyone. Then I went home and cleaned, and then went to Axel's. His buddy, Yuri, invited us to go to a party, and I invited Brian. Brian almost invited Ken, but then Axel said that we were already riding on the coattails of someone already riding on coattails, and it wouldn't be good to bring too many people. All's better anyhow, I didn't feel like being around people I dislike. They thought Brian was very awkward, but nice. From the two minutes they saw of Ken...well, they didn't seem to care for him so much. In any case, the party was great. I spent a long time just catching up with Brian, and then I spent the later portions of the evening with Axel. Yuri was extremely drunk and kept making me do little twirls. Guess he thought I looked like a pretty-pretty little princess. At one point, I was sitting with Axel on the couch, and then Yuri sat down practically on top of me and started philosophizing about love and family and told me that I shouldn't let my idiot mother dictate my love life because she's trying to grab onto the past which is no longer there. He also mentioned that my being upset is greatly upsetting to Axel. Pooh. He also said something of which I can't remember, but I interpreted it to mean that Axel loves me very much, and that's just fine by me!

Next day, I took Brian and Stacy (from Dancer's Symposium!) to dinner in Astoria and then to my apartment for some dessert. Greek yogurt with honey, walnuts and pomegranate. Brian joked that after 2 years, I'm still feeding him all the time. It was nice to catch up with the two of them. Next day was a huge day of spring cleaning. All the floors are squeaky clean. The next day was a day of sleeping in, and then going to the movies with Axel. All in all a great way to start the new year.

I just calculated that Axel and I will be celebrating 1 year in 2 days. Who knew?! Good thing I thought to figure it out. For some reason, I thought it was a week or so later.