Tuesday, April 26

i'm with stupid.

so i just came off like a total idiot for about 15 minutes to a judge's law clerk.

i'd only been in the office for about 10 mins, sitting down to my half-bagel, cream cheese and lox with coffee, when i get a phone call from a judge's law clerk asking me about a summary judgment motion we filed 2 weeks ago.

huh? who? whatsit? where? my brain literally drew a blank as to what she was talking about. granted we're a third-party defendant so we're not the primary name on the caption when people usually quote the case. but i literally couldn't remember what we'd done or what our argument was. in the foggy recesses of my brain i vaguely recalled something... i had to put the poor law clerk on hold while i went through our office calendar to see what was on for the upcoming motion day. and as luck would have it, we have 5 cases up for hearing on April 29th. i scrambled to grab the file for the one i presumed it was (same plaintiff's name) only to have it be wrong. all the while leaving the law clerk on hold on the phone. SOOOO not a good idea.

finally got things sorted but it was more of an interactive process between me and her as i re-read what i had submitted and our attached exhibits and did a stream-of-consciousness-think-out-loud process of deduction to answer her question.

i guess i should count my blessings it was only Special Civil Part so the papers weren't too voluminous.

Saturday, April 23

Heartwarming

HungryHungryHippo and i differ in a lot of respects.  from our outer shape, size, and looks [i am a marshmallowish mid-height "pleasantly plump" asian; she is under 5 ft, super skinny, and looks like a 12 year old] to our personal tastes in music, clothes, and style. there are 2 things we do share though: an appetite for food and a desire to get out of the thumb of our domineering and overbearing Chinese mother.

i've learned a better coping mechanism than TripleH, but that's something that's learned with time (aka patience and understanding). TripleH is only 18 years old, so she's still got a big learning curve to hurdle.

what's interesting is that although TripleH wants to get away as fast as she can from our home in NJ, she's never been too keen on getting into NYC. when i was in high school and college, i thought the entire world revolved around Manhattan. i would try to go into the City every chance i got-which wasn't very often, protective Chinese mother and all. she always thought i would be kidnapped and sold on the black market. i wondered if TripleH's lack of interest in the City was a result of lack of exposure.

so for TripleH's 18th birthday i decided to take her into the City. granted, we're too far apart in age for me to be "ok" with sneaking her into her first bar or taking her to buy cigs or a baggie which i guess would've made me significantly "cooler," but i'm fine with not being "cool." it's such a relative term anyway. instead i took TripleH to Cocoron for some "heartwarming" Japanese food.  Cocoron means "heartwarming" in japanese, and the small, intimate restaurant setting and the simple but delicious food all convey that sentiment.

we chose the Kyona Salad ($5) and the Pork and Okara Croquette ($3.50) as appetizers. since we sat at bar seating, we got to watch the chef make all our food. while not the prettiest kitchen set-up, the ends truly justifies the means in their kitchen. the salad was super light and topped with raw quail egg and what tasted like ponzu. the croquettes were piping hot when served, freshly fried and delightful, crispy little balls of whipped potatoes with ground pork. the okra was not too prevalent in the taste but i'll take their word that they were in there.
Stamina Soba, with pork, scallion, and chicken meatballs
for entrees, TripleH opted for the Pork Kimchee Soba ($9 when we went; now the website says $9.80) and i went for the classic Stamina Soba ($8 when we went; now $8.80). both of got them tsukemen style which means the soba is served cold on a woven plate next to a small nabe pot on a burner filled soup to dip the soba noodles in.  you swirl the noodles in the hot soup for 4-6 seconds and then munch away. i was a bigger fan of TripleH's Pork Kimchee Soba than of the Stamina Soba, but that might just be because i'm a big fan of kimchee. btws, look how ginormous the spoon they give you is!

when you're done with the soba, the server comes around with a teapot of hot water to dilute the soup. if you attempt to drink the soup before you dilute it, get ready for a giant salt-fest. patience, grasshopper.

as a dessert, TripleH ordered the mochi ice cream ($5.50). i can't remember exactly what flavor it was: green tea? peanut? but she liked it.

in addition to her mochi dessert, i also took her over to Doughnut Plant for some non-traditional donuts. the Creme Brulee donut was to die for. it had the perfect crusty, hard glaze exactly like real creme brulee.

Wednesday, April 20

False Advertising

this is going to make me sound like a racist.

i just had to get that caveat out of the way. if you continue to read this, don't get mad at me because you've already been forewarned.

that being said, i'm going to briefly discuss Lisa See. the acclaimed writer of various books, all centering around the Asian-American/Chinese experience and primarily female. although i'd heard about her before, i wasn't interested in reading her novels (that was a period where i wasn't doing any recreational reading aside from my law school books).  fast forward to a month ago, when asian entertainment news is going nuts over the movie version of her novel, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.  so i decide to check her out via Google and the one review that stands out/pushed me over the edge to actually try and read one of her books stated that she was "the Amy Tan of this generation." o really? because i really liked Amy Tan's books (for a while-then they got a little repetitive). and Joy Luck Club was just recently aired on tv again and i bawled like a baby. convinced of the merits of Ms. See, i went to the local library and checked out 3 of her books: Peony in Love, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, and Shanghai Girls.

i haven't been able to make it past page 30 of Peony in Love. to the author's credit, it's well-written and interesting, i've just been particularly busy and it's hard to break bad habits of watching tv or going on-line.  there's also another aspect to it tho: Lisa See looks alarmingly non-Asian.

um, what?! how can she be the "next Amy Tan" when she's clearly not Chinese? granted, her novels tend to have a historical context to it and that's what historical fiction is: a lot of research and interviews to try and write fictional works based on historical facts and experiences. and, actually, she is Chinese-or at least part of her is, although my Google searching has failed to turn up exactly how much of her is Chinese and the answers provided on her website and Wiki are all sort of vague.

after i saw her picture on the back cover of Peony in Love, i couldn't get myself motivated to read it for the next 2 weeks. it felt...weird. after psychoanalyzing myself about it, i think my problem is this: the comparison of Lisa See to Amy Tan made me have a certain expectation of her as a Chinese-American dealing with the trials and tribulations and culture of growing up in a Chinese family while balancing against American culture. however, seeing her picture promptly dispelled any of these thoughts and made me immediately judge that she couldn't have had the same experiences as me because she didn't "look" Chinese.

while i'm sure she dealt with other types of issues (i've seen True Life), she's clearly not me. it took me a while but i've dispelled those expectations of her and will attempt to finish reading her book.

although i did just pick up Waiter Rant from the library...

Monday, April 18

Lady Gaga was right

meaning you should "just dance" as she tells you to.

HungryHungryHippo got me an amazing birthday present: Just Dance 2!

such a fun game! at first, felt a little self-conscious dancing on my own while TripleH and the cousins watched, but that feeling quickly passed. the moves are easy to follow but super fun and the Dance Battle mode was great to play against TripleH (i dominated the Dance Battle).




i highly recommend this game. i played it on and off with TripleH for the better part of an hour+ and by the end i had worked up a sweat and panting while laying on the floor in exhaustion. word of advice: don't dance to  "Jump Jump" by KrissKross unless you want to be in the same condition.



such a hilarious game to play with friends.and probably a great workout too. just to point out how out-of-shape/old i am, my arms and legs were sore the day after playing this game.

Friday, April 1

Get Me Some Gingko Biloba STAT!

i'm not usually a birthday party kind of person. i get really stressed out trying to plan bday parties, regardless if it's for a friend or for myself. the biggest stress to me is picking out a venue that fits everyone's tastes. the venue is the first step. and if you start out badly on the first step, you know it's only downhill from there.

i wasn't planning on having a bday party, but then Gecko asked me what i was doing because she would come to NYC for that weekend. concurrently when i learned of that information, i also got an invite to ChubbyBunny's birthday party. ChubbyBunny's bday is 2 weeks after mine but she decided to have it on the 23rd jointly with a friend. CB's bday invite, for the afternoon at Boat Basin Cafe, in conjunction with Gecko coming into town, spurred me to spontaneously decide to have a bday party.

before i could back out, i created a Facebook event and started researching venues. when making my FB event, i remembered another stressor of throwing a party: who to invite. FB makes inviting people super easy and convenient since almost everyone and their mothers are on FB now. however, 1st you have to deliberate whether you want to make the event public or private. public allows your guests to invite other people, which is great in case you forgot to invite someone, so i made it public. but since it's public, anyone you don't invite will be able to see it, should it come up in their news feed or if they happen to glance it while on an invited guest's profile, which can be super awkward (even if they never confront you about it). this was my 2nd deliberation. as i haphazardly checked off friends to invite, the biggest dilemma was those individuals who i'd met before, hung out with, but never really talk to if it wasn't for "Y" (the person who introduced us and whom I'm actually friends with). as i checked the box to invite "Y" i'd have to decide whether to invite that acquaintance whom I knew on FB but didn't really know. would they care if they weren't invited? would they want to come because "Y" was coming but didn't know if it would be ok because I hadn't invited them? i felt like my brain was going to explode.

once that was done, i returned to the difficult task of choosing a venue. when i thought back on my past bar/club experiences, i realized how limited my memory actually is. it was like as soon as i tried to actually access my Manhattan venue database, i completely drew a blank. instead, all i could remember were places that i clearly couldn't have a party e.g. Kenka.  then there were places that would be great venues if i and my friends were willing to throw down $300-$450 per bottle to reserve a table and deal with line hassles e.g. Cabana, Hiro, 230 Fifth, Gansevoort, etc. (plus i find Meatpacking slightly annoying to get to via subway). every venue i could think of had its drawbacks: the Park (can't reserve a table upstairs in the atrium), Circle (too Asian), PS450 (west side + midtown), Pianos (cover after 11 and super crowded), etc.

i also can't believe how many places i can't remember the name or location of. i would vaguely remember the "feel" of a place, or the people i was with, but most of the time i couldn't remember "why" I was there or "where" it was. there was 1 particular night when Gecko and i went out and attended W's bday party. Gecko remembered the venue for W's bday party and i couldn't except for some vague, hazy recollections. initially, neither of us could remember where we'd been earlier that night, although i'd remembered having a really good time. so i decided to dive into the archives of this blog and see if i'd written about it somewhere. of course, i didn't. go figure. but it was really funny to read about all the hijinxes we used to get into back in the day. there was 1 month where i kept arriving home at 8 a.m. from nights out! and i found an entry where Oppa got into a fight!

while i remembered most of the events coinciding with the entries, i have to admit that certain details/aspects of the story i'd completely forgotten had ever happened. clearly, it did happen since i wrote about it, but why can't i remember? i'm seriously concerned about this failing memory. i'm not sure if it's a sign of old age, brain damage, or impending stupidity...