Did you survive turkey day and Black Friday? I ate then re-ate the crab pasta (miến xào cua), which I have to say was pretty tasty…I’ll youtube the cooking instructions soon:
Tbe apple pie was also yummy enough for seconds and thirds:
There wasn’t really anything I needed this year that required getting up at 3am for the doorbuster sales, but since it’s tradition and all, we went to Target at 4am and got a hard drive, extra memory for my digicam, and another set of luggage. I wonder this every year if I shouldn’t invest in really good luggage and be done with it, but I can’t complain when my $34 luggage set (yes, I said $34 and set in the same sentence) gets beaten up on the road. Even the best of suitcases can’t take the pounding I’ve seen on my trips. I know it’s all about the TVs and netbooks this holiday season, but I passed on the netbook since my mac is already pretty light and small. $200 for another shiny gadget is so tempting but I’ll wait till next year when I can get an even better computer at that price…or whenever my mac dies on me.
So by 5.30am I’m already back in bed dreaming of CHANEL sales. I woke up with an onset of a cold, though, and that’s why I haven’t been here till today. I blame it on the woman who sneezed on me as we reached for the suitcase set at the same time Friday morning! I’ve got to shake the symptoms before getting on the plane this week though. The last thing I need is to be quarrantined by customs officers.
All told, my Black Friday was quite uneventful…oh wait, I think I did sneak out to Saks on Friday to see if I could score any shoes, but in between coughing fits I only managed to find one pair of sandals for presale. I didn’t have any energy left to scour the rest of the store for more treats.
Tomorrow let’s go back to where I left you in the desert.
Tags: Black Friday, Target
It’s Thanksgiving Day here in the US so I’ll take a break from baking–and by baking I mean pop a frozen pie in the oven–to wish everyone a safe and restful turkey day. I’m cooking crab pasta this year for the Thanksgiving entrée. You might say we pardon turkeys year-round in my kitchen!
Hopefully you get to spend this holiday with family or at the very least with family on your mind as in my case. It’s been a tough year for many of us in this country, but today I’m thankful that one of my dearest friends still has the gusto for life even though her father is dying from cancer. I’m thankful another friend’s nephew survived a horrific car accident and learned to drive even without his feet! I’m blessed to be inspired by strong, brave people who opt to overcome personal struggles day after day instead of asking why me.
Most of all I’m thankful I get to wake up every day under this great blue sky and see what surprise awaits me on the road. Thank you for taking these trips with me at my blog.
Tags: Thanksgiving Day
I lived in Phoenix for a very short time right after grad school. It was a somewhat confusing time in my life, but the aesthetics of the desertscape left a huge impact on my mind’s eye and it was clear that regardless of my internal chaos, I would always find the calm in the center of any storm by heading to the desert. When I left the city I didn’t know if I’d ever come back, and on this long overdue return I hardly recognize the town. Gentrification has come to this once sleepy haven for the snowbirds (retirees) escaping their winters. Yes, of course you can still see them in their golf attire walking around town today–and perhaps that’s why this city always feels like it’s on holiday to me–but now next to the endless array of golf resorts there are bars and restaurants full of swinging singles benefitting from the construction that must have mushroomed after my departure over a decade ago. Why couldn’t it have been this fun when I was there?
It’s a straight shot across the 10 freeway to get from LA to Phoenix, and along the way you cut through Palm Springs where you can see this wind farm. The mills are like stars…the longer you look, the more they appear across the horizon:
And as it’s on the way anyhow, I stop by one of my favorite outlet malls where I pick up this cardigan–Gucci is having an additional 50% off all RTW so I couldn’t resist:
After this quick shopping break, the rest of the drive is all desert. If you’re not the designated driver you’d probably snooze through most of the way, but I love looking at mountains and cacti and weeds and the way nature finds survival in such desolation. But let’s face it, after the 1000th cactus I do wish it were possible to teleport myself.
It’s just before sunset that I make it to downtown Phoenix then into Scottsdale. The golden sun glares over the red mountains but I have to remove my sunglasses to take it all in. The effect is incredible; the entire landscape glistens before me like a silky mirage.
Other than the orange-red shimmer over this entire city, the first thing I notice is how beautifully the adobe houses blend into the desert landscape. The camouflage effect is so sublime yet powerful that I have the urge to race back to LA, pack up all my books (and shoes…and bags), and move to the mountains here. Could any of this be the sanctuary I seek?
Tomorrow I’ll take you into town.
Tags: Arizona, Gucci, Palm Springs, Phoenix, Scottsdale, wind farm
Just when I was thinking about the importance of family–and distance–I got a big old jolt of it in the form of a 2-year-old energizer bunny; my 17-years-old niece Z had dropped off (yikes, since when can my baby niece drive!) her baby sister M with me very early this morning. I know I had bed hair and no makeup on, but M’s shrieks upon looking at me really gave me an inferiority complex. Well, the shrieks and also the clinging to Z for dear life. Do I look that bad in the morning?
Luckily, my furkids came out to sniff her and provided a great distraction so that Z could stealthily slip out the door before M could howl again. And right on cue, as I refilled the stray kitten’s bowl outside, he came bouncing toward us and magically M clung on to me, pulling my hair in excitement every time the kitten looked at her. Her shrieks of fear now turned into peals of laughter. Is there anything more delicious than the uncensored laughter of children?
If you’ve looked after a toddler, you’d laugh at me. You do that day after day like the superhero that you are, and I can barely change a diaper without being traumatized. How can something so cute and tiny make poop the size of their heads? And why can’t they sit still for like one second so you can get out of your pjs? Is it wrong to feed her watermelon and popcorn? In hindsight I would skip on the watermelon as that only made diaper changes more frequent.
M’s mom texted me about M’s nap time between 11am and 2pm. She’s joking, right? I texted back: how do I make her nap? By 12.30pm M had shown no sign of winding down, and she needed to be entertained constantly. Earlier we’d tried Skyping her grandparents and the novelty of that lasted about 3 minutes before she tossed my laptop aside and went barreling down the stairs. This is after we’d been running up and down the stairs for about 40 times. She also insisted on doing the stairs in these flip flops:
Finally I turned on some music from my phone and the dancing did the trick. Who knew Echo & the Bunnymen would be my lifesaver! We jumped up and down until her eyelids got heavy. I asked if she was ready to nap and she grabbed her stuffed penguin and did not resist when I put her in bed. I’m pooped; it’s me who needed the nap!
An hour later she popped right up, ready for round two. It’s not so much the boundless energy that wiped me out; it’s the swath of hurricane-like mess that she left behind in her fervor. I was chasing after her and tidying up in the same breath. I don’t remember being such a mess as a child; if you ask my parents they’d probably tell you I’ve always been neurotically OCD since childhood. Everything had to be neat and clean and placed just so or I’d have a fit. I was starting to wonder how M and I could be related…that is until she picked up this heavy shopping bag and gleefully dragged it all around the house…
But the clincher was that she threw a tantrum and pouted when I tried to take it out of her hands and then batted her lashes at me until I gave her the shopping bag back…
We are totally related!
Now that my sisters and I are grown up with our own families, it’s really been ages since we’ve celebrated any big holiday under one roof. The last time we did that was about 3 Christmases ago, at my house, right after my younger sister’s fall wedding and some months before my older sister’s wedding. When Thanksgiving then Christmas rolls around, I often wonder what it’s like to have a tradition of everyone flying home to grandma’s for the holidays.
I have my own tradition of spending New Year’s eve in some city where I’ve not seen the year end before, and it looks like this year I’ll do that again. But in all honesty, the 25th and 31st of December have become just another day in our house. You might say the commercialization of the holidays has sent me running away from the celebration all together….even if Christmas has always been my favorite time of the year.
But before you say bah humbug, I’ll confess that one of my most memorable experiences was one NYE spent in Argentina. We carried suitcases, ate a grape, and walked backwards–all while the clock was striking midnight. We were told by the hosting family that as silly as it all was, it was a guarantee of good luck in the new year. I don’t know about the luck part but that trip set my imagination aflutter…and helped me diagnose myself: restlessness was a symptom, and travel was my cure.
Anyway, this post began when I started my online search for cool stocking stuffers. I don’t know what’s on anyone’s wish list this year yet, so the pressie hunt will be challenging. But so far I’ve managed to finally snag mini Karl for my own stocking. A pressie from me to me! I hounded the NY store for a few months until the item showed up online. I bet they’re glad I can stop calling them now.
Do you have any cool present ideas for me?
