Walking across the Manhattan Bridge

Today I decided to go into Chinatown to get my hair cut. I thought it'd be fun to walk instead of taking the train, crossing over the Manhattan Bridge to get into Manhattan. It took me about 15 minutes to get to the bridge, and then I took the pedestrian walkway, which looks like this:


It took about 10 minutes to cross the bridge. I was going at a pretty brisk pace, because I was meeting Jess after she got off work to sit before her class at 6:20. Here are some pictures from the view of the bridge:


Once I got into Manhattan you could see lots of graffiti on the rooftops:


I made it into Chinatown and got a haircut from an older woman. They are mostly Cantonese in Chinatown, but she spoke a bit of Mandarin and I did my best to talk to her. The haircut was only $8. Woohoo!

I started walking North to meet Jessica. On the way I picked up some dumplings. They sell pot stickers 5 for a dollar, which hits the spot. I got some vegetarian ones for jess too. While walking I heard someone yelling '10 dollar, 10 dollar! bike 10 dollar!' A man was trying to sell his bike on the street. I have thought about getting a bike, and 10 dollars was too good of a deal to pass up, so I stopped him and bought the bike. Take a look, can you believe I got it for so cheap?



I met with Jess later and she laughed at my on-road purchase. I gave her the dumplings and we talked a bit before she had to go to class. Then I biked over to the Franklin D Roosevelt highway where people jog and bike along the coast. I found an area with bars and things where people were working out, and I stopped in and did some pullups and pushups. Eventually, I biked back across the bridge home. A good trip!

feeling significance

standing on the sidewalk outside my building and staring up at my newly empty second story apartment i feel it a bit, the feeling of significance. moving everything out my apartment was significant, driving my things down to brooklyn is significant. renting out my place is significant. tonight, in the quiet of my friends condo, when i am finally alone, i feel it a little more, this is significant. my life should be significant.

Moving continued

Everything's been moved out of my condo and as far as I know, my tenant has moved in. I spoke with her briefly on Friday night and left her a desk and my mattress, which I was unable to sell. The rest of the apartment was empty. I didn't have much time to look around and take in the change. I'm in a slight state of shock/disbelief that it's all done.

Late Friday night Jeffrey and I drove his sister's car down with all of my stuff in it. We left around midnight, and arrived close to four in the morning. Surprisingly, Jess was awake. I found her cleaning the bathroom. The apartment was very muggy and hot. We moved everything in, and talked for a few in that early morning hour while we showered. Jeff replaced my shower head with one he had bought me and we went to sleep. In the morning I woke up around 10. Jeff showered and we noticed that the sink was leaking. He mentioned that there was something wrong with the shower, that the pressure was erratic. It appeared he broke the shower's pipe when he replaced the old head. That meant we had to call someone to take down the tile and replace it. What a headache!

So this morning someone is supposed to be fixing it. Poor Jess has to use the bath and splash water on herself instead of showering. Yesterday after eating lunch with Jess I drove back to Northborough to visit my father. I made it in time to see my brother play with his band in a restaurant.

Moving

I"m often unmotivated to write, right when I have the time to do it. Usually it helps to do a little reading, and then I'm right again. It's like reading something good reminds me what I might do with writing.

Much has happened in the last week. I decided to move to New York, and have since put in my resignation at work, and rented out my apartment. Jess looked for apartments in New York, while I showed my own in Boston. I came down this weekend to help her look, and decided on a small two bedroom unit in an area both of us like. The rent is very reasonable, and we have our own yard and an extra room. The living room area is not as large as we'd like it to be (it's a living area combined with kitchen that looks just like a big kitchen), but I think it's a fair compromise. We wrote our checks and sat in the bedroom after they left, excited at the possibilities. I really enjoyed it.

I got a call later from my friend who's acting as my real estate/property manager. He told me he rented it out to a woman who works with autistic children in Newton. I have until Saturday to sell all my things and empty out the apartment. It's so soon! Right now it is a very full house in there, with lots of furniture and things.

Before my tenant moves in I have to:

Packing:
-my clothes into garbage bags and move them to a friend's place
-my computer and electronic equipment:
video and digital camera
audio mixer and microphone, and midi keyboard
Cancel:
Electricity
Cable

Alert:
Condo Management Company
City of Boston

Weekend Retreat

This weekend my arts collective held a retreat at the home of one of its members. The purpose of the retreat was to bring up some energy behind the group so we can start putting together some great events again. Some of the things we've done in the past include a response show to Miss Saigon and a national Spoken Word Summit, a three day weekend where asian american poets and writers from across the country came to boston for workshops and community.

There were 9 of us there, and we began by writing down our introductions into the group and our favorite moments. I first met the group during the Miss Saigon response show, and one of my favorite events was a concert with an independent rock band. We wrote these down on nametag stickers and shared them with the rest of the group. After lunch, we made a giant timeline, with a sticker for every event we'd done. When we finished, we placed our own nametags with our personal choices on there, and mapped out our course through the organization with string. It was an interesting way of looking at the organization.



We came up with some goals for the future and ended the day with a BBQ and poker. I got home shortly after midnight, feeling tired but happy with the day's events.

***

My First Migraine

Yesterday I played basketball after work, at a local park near my apartment. The sunlight seemed extraordinarily bright, and I felt a strain in my eyes. I continued to play and didn't think much of it. Soon the pain in my eyes drove its way back and I felt a tightening in my head. It was uncomfortable, but not unbearable. I filled up my water bottle and drank more, thinking it was just dehydration. After another game, it started hurting worse, and I called it a day. On the way home I stopped by the supermarket to pick up some meat, and it continued to get worse. As I walked back home the weight from my groceries felt very heavy, and my head was in immense pain. I bought a nutritious shake from another grocery store near my place and swallowed it down, thinking my body might be starved of healthy nutrients. When I got home, I prepared some rice and jumped in the shower. I poured my self several glasses of water.

After my shower the pain began to subside, and I prepared dinner. I made chicken breast stir-fried w/mix vegetables, and poured it along w/some black beans on to a large mound of brown rice. I ate and thankfully began to feel much better. I finished my meal with some ice cream, and lay down on the couch relieved.

I read about migraine today online and it looks like it's what I had yesterday. I'm not sure if you get them, but apparently they are more common for women than they are for men. Light sensitivity can be one of the causes/symptoms. And they can last up to 72 hours! Thankfully that was not the case for me. I don't ever want that to happen again.

I woke up early yesterday morning, around 6am. The sun was barely past the horizon, and I took the opportunity to take a walk outside with my camera and snap some photos. I took the train to Boston University, and took some photos of the Martin Luther King memorial.



Then I went to the esplanade by the Charles river. It was a beautiful morning. People were rowing kayaks down the river, and joggers/bikers were on the esplanade getting their early exercise. I really liked being out there, and hoped to make it a regular thing, but this morning I didn't want to get out of bed when the alarm hit, and woke up much later around 8:45.


Boston along the river

I learn a little each time I take the camera out. I'm discovering how light will translate in the frame, and am thinking about making images more dynamic, so they seem to 'pop' off the page. I know this is helping my eye and will translate well to film. I've thought a little about filming and would like to do some video projects before the summer's end.

If you want to see the photos that I like, you can visit see them here: http://flickr.com/photos/11507905@N07/. I will try to update that regularly.

7/18 Reading Event

I couldn't wait for the weekend to come. Friday was a slow day at work, and I sat around my desk until 1. When the office cleared out, I went to the gym, and decided to stay in Harvard Square until my book reading.

I live in Boston but work in Cambridge, on the other side of the Charles river. It's a 15 minute ride between the two, at least, from where I live and work. On Friday the arts collective I belong to was hosting a reading with a Chinese American author named Ed Lin. I was pretty excited to meet him and was planning on helping set up the event. The reading was taking place at a bookstore in Cambridge at 8pm. So at 5, I met up with Van, another woman from the group and we made our way to the bookstore.


(I can't recall if I've told you about the arts group before. You can read more about them here.)

We got there around 5:30 and started cleaning up the store. Because it's completely volunteer run, the store doesn't have a set schedule, and isn't often open. We occupy the space at least once a month though for events like this one, and often there is sweeping and cleaning that needs to be done.


Van surveys the state of the store.

Ed Lin arrived at the store pretty soon after, around 6:30. We talked to him for a bit while setting up. He was very easy to talk to and smiled a lot. I took some cash from the register and went to buy some refreshments and snacks for the event.

I stopped by Au Bon Pain and asked if they had any spare trays. My work has catered from them in the past and I know they usually have some lying around. A young woman there was kind and found me some to take free of charge. I then went to this small coop market and purchased some strawberries, grapes, carrots and nuts. Then I stopped by 7/11 for chips, soda, ice, and paper cups and plates. When I got back, some familiar faces were at the store, and I started laying out the food. There was a lot! I was worried that more people weren't going to come, but by 8pm a few new faces came into the store, and we had a fairly full house. Jeff came too, at my request.



Ed's reading was great. He read from his latest book, a novel about a cop in 1970s Chinatown. He stayed after to sign books and we sold a few. (The organization ordered 22 books, so we have a lot extra). By 10 pm everyone was out, and Van and I cleaned up the foods and locked up. There was lots of food left over. I went home w/Jeff and took a bag of chips, grapes, and carrots with me. Because it was still pretty early, we decided to go to Jeff's to hangout.

Jeff stopped by the grocery store to get some ground beef, and we made some dipping stuff to go with the bag of chips we had. We drank several shots of vodka and talked until 3 or 4 in the morning when we dozed off in the living room. I woke up again in the night and I couldn't fall asleep, so I watched a movie until morning. The sky began to lighten and I decided to grab my camera that I had left in Jeffrey's car. I was worried that with the heat and humidity it might get damaged. I walked out and was surprised to see people jogging across the street at so early an hour.



I also grabbed a book I'd been reading and went back into his condo. I went to the bedroom and laid on the bed and read, hoping it might help me sleep, but my mind was pretty sharp. Sometimes when I get past the normal time for sleeping, I just can't fall asleep, no matter what I try. I did push ups trying to tire myself out, and I put on an eye mask to try and block out the light, but every time I lay there with my eyes closed I don't feel the least bit tired. So I read the book on the bed until it was done.



Jeff woke up around 7:30 and found me still awake. I said good morning and got a glass of water. My head hurt from little sleep and the vodka I'd drank earlier. I took an advil and went back to the bed, and waited complacently for sleep to take me.