[tiffy trying] to find silver linings in snowy, grey clouds

The following story below is a comedy of errors that happened to me and K earlier today. Everything somehow went laughably wrong, but we still had a lovely day despite it all. 

K and I decided last night to do a Sunday daytrip to Belleayre to get in some snowboarding fun. We were supposed to have done a full weekend trip for President's day weekend, but K ended up having a football game on Saturday. So, we ended up cancelling the snowboarding trip so he could play. I guess we should've just stuck to our guns and just not forced the issue because this snowboarding trip was clearly not meant to be. 

1. Booking issues with the rental car

We wanted to rent an SUV for the trip because we thought it would be safer to drive in one. On Hertz and Avis, they were all sold out. Eventually, we decided to rent a regular sedan and just drive extra carefully, but we found out the Hertz in our neighborhood had closed permanently. So, we ended up booking a car with the Hertz further uptown, but K's membership/coupon code wouldn't work. 

2. Rental car issues

We got to the rental car place bright and early so that we could pick up the car and make sure the membership code got logged in properly. The car was available, but there were issues with it: the door lock wasn't working properly, and for some reason, it kept saying that a door was open even though it wasn't. 

3. Breakfast issues

In an effort to save time, we decided to run over to Dunkin Donuts to grab breakfast and coffee to go. The lady somehow screwed up K's coffee, and it was practically undrinkable. 

4. Parking issues

When we arrived at Belleayre, we couldn't find parking AT ALL because the lots were so packed. So, we decided to take a chance and park on the side of the road, quite a walk away from the lodge.

5. Mud issues

Then, K dropped his beanie on a patch of wet, slushy mud. 

6. Belleayre

We were able to catch a shuttle bus which brought us to the lodge, and we were surprised to see such long lines to get to the rental area. When we got to the desk, we found out that all the rental boards were sold out for the day. I told K that he should go snowboard since he already has a board and didn't need to rent one. I could wait for him at the cafeteria, but he really didn't want to leave me by myself. Plus, the lifts were apparently super crowded because of President's Day weekend. It would also have been a pain to snowboard down because so many kids were on the slopes, and it would be hard to avoid all of them. 

7. Restaurant 

There's a restaurant near Belleayre that we've always wanted to try called Peekamoose! We really like the name, and we also read up on the reviews once and saw that they had really delicious food. So, we decided to just ditch snowboarding and have a nice, leisurely lunch instead. As luck would have it, Peekamoose was closed. 

** Somehow, at this point, we were still in a great mood and were laughing the whole thing off ** 

8. Spontaneous sledding

We ended up having lunch at a restaurant near Peekamoose, then decided to do some grocery shopping at Mitsuwa Asian Market, which is basically this Asian grocery wonderland in NJ. On the way to Mitsuwa, we drove by a huge park where a bunch of children were sledding. It looked so fun that we decided to park and sled along with them. We found a discarded plastic "sled" and had a few minutes of fun sledding down the hill. It was super fun and the surprise highlight of our day. The snow was super deep. It was hard to walk, but it was powdery soft. Unfortunately, on the walk back to the car, I fell into a hole that was too deep and twisted my weak knee. 

** At this point we were still super, duper happy! ** 

9. Mitsuwa Asian Market

When we got to Mitsuwa, there was no parking to be found because EVERYONE was at Mitsuwa for some reason. I have no idea how everyone coincidentally had the brilliant idea ski/snowboard and shop for Asian groceries on the same day! It was a struggle to even drive in and out of the parking lot because everyone was just scrambling for a parking slot. While trying to escape this outdoor labyrinth, K ended up backing into a snow bank (really, it was like an ICE bank) and CRACKED the bumper of the rental car. 

** Happy feelings disappeared ** 

10. End of the night

Eventually, we managed to find a parking slot and decided to have dinner there. We shared a really yummy pork cutlet curry dish. We each got delicious green tea matcha milk, and we managed to do our grocery shopping. This totally salvaged our evening. We're so exhausted, but it was still a really fun (and memorable) day despite all the crazy things that went wrong. 

Moral of the story: As cheesy as it sounds, even when things go wrong, things can still go right. :) At various points of the day, K and I could have easily turned on each other and just taken out our frustrations at one another. Finding a way to laugh about the craziness and embracing little surprises helped us turn a potential "worst-day-ever" to a "funniest-day-ever." 

Now, time for "best sleep ever." LOL

<3,

Tiffy

[tiffy trying] life in NY

In the past few months, I:

(1) graduated and become a master of something (MA Communication)

[ right before my final project Prezi at my summer fellowship ]

(2) moved to the big apple

[ skyline, street lamp & silhouettes at sunset ]

(3) watched a bunch of concerts (Goldfrapp, The XX, Sara Bareilles, The Neighbourhood)

[ amazebuckets ]

(4) ate a ton of delicious, decadent things

[ one of many food collages I have made & eaten ]

[ outstanding in the field - epic epicurean feast ]

(5) got inspired and cooked a bunch of (almost) amazing things

[ baked scones for tea time & styled the table like a boss ]

[ made truffle butter pasta w/ mushrooms & chicken ]

(6) saw a bunch of cool art (Paola Pivi, James Turrell, Sheep Station, Yayoi Kusama)

[ I was a little rebel and snapped some photos ]

[ baa! ]

(7) got engaged to my wonderful man of 6 years

[ a postcard I made of us months ago ]

(8) embarked on new adventures by trying and learning new things (Kangoo class, Gelato making class, experimenting with nail art)

[ my cousin and I rocked those cutesy nails like 9 year olds ]

(9) turned another year older/awesomer(?)

[ not me, but it could totally pass for me ] 

(10) got hitched

[ our wedding garland & my new, blue wedding shoes ]

Stories and details to follow soon. :)

<3,
Tiffy

[tiffy trying] themed collages

Summer semester has wrapped up and I've finally finished my MA degree. I have to wait a few months before my diploma gets mailed over to me.

In the meantime, I've slowly been compiling snippets of my summer and organizing them into collages of different themes. My favorite ones are "Tales in Transit" and "NY City Sights and Night Lights." I'm hoping to turn those into their own independent blog projects because I like pretty pictures, and because I think I can find a way to weave some stories into those snapshots. We shall see what becomes of those. 

Til then - 

[ a summer of studying //

a collection of laptop selfies ]

[ a selection of sweet treats ]

[ ongoing project theme: tales in transit]

[ bling and other pretty things ]

[ NY city sights & night lights ]

<3, 

Tiffy

[tiffy trying] summer semester: of me & memes

My spring semester ended a few days after my last blog entry. I had two short, blissful weeks of summer before the new semester and my work fellowship began. It's funny for me to be typing this now because in one month, my summer semester and life as a full-time grad student will come to an end. I'm having mixed feelings about this.

[on one hand, I'm thrilled that homework is coming to an end.

on the other hand, I'm sad to be re-entering the "real world" when academia's been so nice.

on the other hand, I'm excited to do something w/ everything I've learned AND earn an income!]

And what happened to blogging my grad school adventures?

[ image credit: Gemma Correll] 

Well, that kind of fell by the wayside... sort of.

I ended up replacing Blogger (temporarily, because I'm back! I think...) with a mixture of Instagram and Twitter. Instagram was a way for me to document some of the activities I've gotten into over the course of the summer, while Twitter was a way to keep tabs of my cutting edge (if I do say so myself) research project (for my fellowship) on the utilization of Social Media in Emergency Preparedness and Response. I'm still in the process of finishing this up but so far it's been such a wonderful adventure. I love doing research. I love social media. I love writing. And I love thinking about how communication can actually make things better. This research project allowed me to combine all of those cool things. I read a lot of news bits and post mortem analyses on events, reached out to key folks in the industry and got to pick their brains, checked out the DigiDocs center at the American Red Cross HQ, and got to use a mix of traditional research and social media to get all of this underway. I feel like I'm making great progress on the topic but I'm also enjoying the entire process that's going along with it. So, I already feel happy and rewarded (and exhausted).

Aside from that research project, I am immersed in two other projects for my other classes. One project is on rebranding a city to make it even more of a tourist destination. The other project is an environmental campaign to get DC grad students (like myself) to embrace reusable water bottles instead of purchasing disposable plastic ones repeatedly.

So far, I'm pulling A's in my classes. #HumbleBrag

[ Angry Expectations Asian Father would be pleased. 

I'm proud too because of all the hard work I've been putting in]

Moving on...

The non-academic parts of the summer have been wonderful. I oscillate between NY and DC during weekends exploring new parts of these two cities that I haven't gotten to see yet. I've gotten to spend a lot of time with K's family and my own family as my parents made a quick detour to NY to visit. K and I have gone on a lot of date nights to make up for all that time apart doing long distance. Together, we've managed to hit up a lot of the food events in NY, double dated with a bunch of other couples, attended two weddings, hung out with different groups of friends, squeezed in some time for fitness activities, and caught up on a bunch of TV shows (although admittedly my taste in TV seems to skew heavily towards embarrassing reality TV). On a more serious note, I feel incredibly happy that I've been able to balance all of these fun things with my schoolwork and still feel okay.

[ how I look like at the end of every week day]

Well, maybe not TOTALLY okay. I'm definitely exhausted as heck, but I'm utterly grateful for everything and extremely excited for what's to come, whatever that turns out to be. :)

[ I actually, for real, dance like that]

<3,
Tiffy 

[tiffy trying] to do homework but updating blog instead

   4 Final Papers
+ 3 Oral Presentations
+ 2 More Weeks Left in the Spring Semester
----------------------------------------------------------
1 Stressed Out Grad Student

To illustrate:

welp!

And now, back to homework. 

<3,

Tiffy  

[tiffy trying] a DC snowstorm!

It's been a while since I've updated. So long in fact, that another snowstorm has decided to hit the Northeast again. This time it's hitting DC, although from the weather reports it seems that it's hitting Virginia and Illinois more than it's hitting DC. This snowstorm is being dubbed "Snowquester" because of the controversial Sequester (budget cuts throughout the nation) that kicked into effect last Friday. Mother Nature seems pretty upset about it.

[weather today]

[yikes]

[blankets + leftover pad thai + super awesome light saber chopsticks]

So, I'm spending today under the blanket in front of the TV watching Sex and the City reruns interspersed with CNN while researching and typing up homework. Grad School work is insane and it seemingly never ends. I've got a bunch of stuff due next week before Spring Break (yay!) and then a bunch of stuff due after (boo)! The last few weeks have just been piles of reading and writing and I can't believe I'm already approaching my 7th week of the semester. Time is flying by really quickly!

[photo from one of the late nights I pulled writing a paper]

Last weekend though was a nice change of pace from all my NY weekends. K came down to visit and spend time with me here but unfortunately he had come down with something and spent all weekend feeling pretty terrible. I did my best to make him feel comfortable. We went out briefly to have lunch with my friends V&N and to grab groceries so I could cook dinner. Indoors, we installed my new Xbox Kinect and had some fun playing around. 

[cheat day dinner because I was too busy with 

homework to cook]

[double date feast at hot n juicy. 1lb crawfish + 

2lbs shrimp + corn + sausage + fried zucchini]

[at-home date night: chicken noodle soup, greens,

baked chicken w/ olive oil w/ parmesan & bread crumbs]

My NY weekends have been really great though. K and I went out for a belated Valentine's date at Brushstroke which is an amazing Omakase restaurant downtown that served the freshest, most delicious Japanese food. We also celebrated my cousin's last weekend in the States by feasting at Momofuku and ordering their famous duck platter, which was massive, yummy, and ridiculously filling. 

[hilarious v-day surprise that brightened up my thursday]

[duck feast]

The week after that, I was able to check out Sleep No More, which is a pretty alternative theater experience loosely based on Macbeth. Basically, the audience wears masks and has the opportunity to wander around the McKittrick hotel and poke around and follow the cast as they are doing scenes in various parts of the hotel. Pretty cool stuff. 

[sleep no more mask and cards]

[sleep no more lobby/bar]

Also managed to take some pictures of gorgeous NYC. 

[5:30am subway ride]

[empire state]

And here are some pictures of some of my pasta experiments. 

[tuna on whole wheat pasta w/ olive oil & black pepper]

[farfalle with tomato, basil and peas]

I'm hoping the weather clears up by tomorrow so I can make it up to NY for another whirlwind weekend. I've got 2 despedidas, 3 birthdays, and K's football playoffs that I'm looking forward to attending. 

<3,

Tiffy

[tiffy trying] a jam-packed nyc weekend

Last Friday morning, I headed up to NY to spend some time with K, my cousins, and some friends. I took an early morning bus and arrived in the city at around noon.

[ instagram photo of DC flurries at 6:30am]

Grabbed lunch, took a quick nap, then proceeded to work on homework before meeting up with my cousins for dinner. Dinner was takeout from one of my favorite places, a Cambodian sandwich shop called Num Pang right by Grand Central (which was celebrating its 100th birthday that day). We headed over to my cousin's apartment where we had some dessert before prepping food for a baby shower that she was throwing for a friend the next day.

[grand central's 100th birthday party]

[artsy b&w instagram pic of grand central]

[cheese & proscuitto platter for dessert]

[more dessert: blueberry chocolate clusters, orange-hazelnut slate,

mango-paprika slate. yummy in my belly]

[cupcake production and frosting by yours truly

with LOTS of help from cousin G]

Saturday was spent doing laundry and finishing up homework before our double date with "MuDy" for Mu's 30th birthday. We ended up having dinner at Ninja New York, a fun ninja-themed restaurant complete with mystery boxes, strong drinks, flaming food, crazy waiters, and a magic show to cap the night. We followed that with mini-golf where I proceeded to win all the way up until the end, where everyone else scored a 3-way tie and I lost by 3 points. Terrible.

[ ninja ny ]

[animal-themed mini-golf at the putt putt hutt]

Sunday morning was a lovely, lazy Filipino brunch at Jeepney with Kathryn, Carlos, K and cousins, followed by errands (K needed to buy some stuff and return some stuff), then cleaning the apartment to host a Superbowl viewing party. We were mostly cheering for the 49ers except for cousin Allen who cheered for the Ravens (just to spice things up). Turns out he backed the right team. The Ravens won after a really exciting (and slightly stressful) second half.

[chori burger w/ egg, arroz caldo, bulalo beef hash w/ egg

not pictured: longsilog & avocado shake. yum]

[crazy superbowl sunday spread: KFC chicken, cheese platter,

cupcakes, sugar cookies, proscuitto, bacon peanut brittle,

microwavable chicharon, pizza (not pictured), a LOT of beer,

coffee & doughnut flavored custard from shake shack]

On Monday, I had lunch with a friend from home and a bunch of her friends from her old industry. She made reservations at Aldea, a Portuguese restaurant that had restaurant week specials. The food was pretty yummy and the conversation was really entertaining. Unforgettable quote of the meal "if he could stick it into a keyhole, he would..."

[mussel soup w/ coconut curry & chorizo, 

skate wing w/ brown butter & parsnip-cider puree, 

gianduja mousse w/ toasted orange pound cake, 

banana brulee & frozen Greek yogurt]

I headed back to the apartment to wrap up some more homework (it really never ends) and surfaced in time for dinner with K and the cousins. We hit up Keens which is a really old steakhouse, which used to be an old boy's club that has been there for generations. They are known for their extensive pipe collection, some of which have been smoked by famous men like Albert Einstein, Theodore Roosevelt, and so on. They also have the original program that Abraham Lincoln was holding when he was assassinated in the theatre. It is framed in the second floor of the restaurant. The food was great - lobster bisque, porterhouse, mutton chops, thick slabs of bacon, bananas foster and chocolate cake. We went to a beer hall after for a quick drink before calling it a night to get some rest before the early bus back to DC.

[porterhouse, mutton chop, bananas foster & lady M chocolate cake]

<3,

Tiffy