my moral standing is lying down

So I had the expected two hours of sleep, got on the bus at Port Authority and we were in Philly at 10:30am. Picked up the car and went into the city. South Street feels kind of like Haight Street in San Francisco. But more diverse, so actually kind of interesting and funny. Lots of sex shops, clothing shops. We went into a goth/rock/punk store that had moved around the corner from its previous location -- where it had been since 1980, apparently one of the first punk stores in the nation. Supposedly they'd opened one year before Trash & Vaudeville on St. Marks. The women there were really cool and after we mentioned that we were visiting this weekend from NYC, they talked to us for a bit about goth clubs and interesting places to visit in Philly.

Oh man! Jim recommended going to Jim's Steaks on South Street & 4th Avenue. When we got there it hadn't opened yet, but on the way back we passed it and there was a line out the door and around the corner! I'm looking forward to going there at some point before we leave. (I also have to remember to tell Jim that I have now experienced and more fully understand the benefits of a GPS if you're driving in an area you don't know. It's pretty darn cool. Still, I wouldn't go somewhere dependant only on a GPS, I'd still bring a map with me.)

Anyway, after eating and taking a little time around the South Street area, we went over to the Mütter Museum. It's a bit smaller than I had thought it would be, but it was full of fascinating stuff. Took about 2 hours there before driving over to check into the hotel. I could have stayed a little longer, but it was crowded in there and I'd given my full attention to everything that I thought looked particularly interesting. I really enjoyed it; I'm really glad we went!

We have a tour reserved at the Eastern State Pen tomorrow, and hopefully we'll be able to get to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and possibly the Rodin Collection by the end of the trip.

Tuesday night I got home at 3am and had to wake up at 7am on Wednesday morning. Normally I'd be fine on 4 hours' sleep, but with working at the con this past weekend, not much sleep was had, so yesterday I was pretty tired.

Even so, last night I went to the dinner with my Japanese class over at East, a Japanese restaurant on 44th between 2nd and 3rd. They had Asahi Super Dry (yaye~), and the food was delicious! Yummy sliced beef wrapped around asparagus on skewers, shiitake mushrooms on skewers, excellent takoyaki!, the spinach was fabulous, the most delicious slightly-crispy okonomiyaki I've ever tasted. I really enjoyed having so many dishes to pick and choose from!

And it was really great to hang out and chat with my classmates outside of class. There were about 13 of us, including Miyashita-sensei and Asoma-sensei (the TA), and we all switched seats a couple of times so that we weren't stuck in one group the whole night. We met up at 6pm and intended to stay til 8pm, but we ended up finally leaving the place at around 9:30 or so. It's going to be fun seeing some of them again when I take the 5-6 class at the end of January. =D

And OMG, did I mention that Miyashita-sensei can really drink?! LOL. She's so cute.

Anyway, I must have gotten home around 10:45 or so, took off my coat and shoes, laid down on my bed and promptly passed out. Maryann was online using the computer in my room, but I doubt that even had my computer been free would I have attempted to go on it. I was really beat by that time. I barely moved all night, and forget about changing into pj's. Haha.

So this morning, even though I look awake, I'm still kind of bleary-eyed. All I really want to do is go home and sleep.

On Monday night, for a change, I got home a bit early for me and actually had some free time, so I decided to watch more of Firefly. I kept getting interrupted for some reason or another, so I only watched one episode before going to bed. But I realized I've never actually said anything about watching it, so ( here goes. )

Can we see more of Mal? And maybe throw Kaylee out the airlock? ^_~;

Ycon Report, or What I Did In SF While I Was Supposed To Be At Ycon.

I didn't get a wink of sleep on Wednesday night. My flight was Thursday at 7am, so I was up for a full 24 hours before the plane actually took off. But once I was on the plane and actually sitting down, I passed out so hard that I slept through take-off. ^^;

I had a great time driving around San Francisco! I was actually quite happy to have Judy who needed to go back and forth to her aunt's (who lives in SF), so that it gave us an excuse to drive around the city. I certainly am becoming more familiar with certain parts of the city than I was last time, that's for sure. Also, driving is a completely different experience when you've got a bunch of friends in the car and are chatting and listening to good music, etc., as opposed to driving when you're alone and tired.

We did the standard going to Japan Town on Thursday and, not surprisingly, met up with Christine, Sharon, Artemis, et al. It was nice to hang out with them. And though it was for a pretty short time, I think it was the longest I'd actually get to see and talk to them. It was a big change from last year. I think it's partially due to that this new con hotel's lobby is not really conducive to lounging and talking in relative privacy. At the Westin, the lobby was recessed and slightly away from the front desk. In that respect, the new con hotel wasn't the best. However, other aspects made this hotel very enjoyable -- the rooms are HUGE! The beds are pretty darn big too; they weren't doubles -- they were queens! We also happened to get first-floor rooms, which was really convenient. Also, the con rate for the rooms were so amazingly well-priced. Less than $100/night!

So unfortunately, I think I did even less con stuff than I usually do. Previously, I had gone to a panel or two. This year I bypassed everything and went straight to the dealers' room/art show/fan market. I did not pass go; certainly I did not collect $200. On the bright side, I spent under $30 at the con itself.

On the other hand, I spent almost $100 on dinner/club with Nicky and her boyfriend Ryan on Saturday night. But OMG, it was SO WORTH IT! The Supper Club is an awesomely entertaining place. You sit on a bed. And eat at a small table on the bed. There's a DJ and some live entertainment. Our host(ess) was a (very good-looking!) drag queen. One part of the live entertainment was a woman who did acrobatics on a rope that hung from the ceiling. It was HOT, beautiful, and impressive as hell -- she must be insanely strong! I wish I had brought my camera! I didn't actually get to stay and see Grand Master Flash because I had to leave before I got too tired to drive myself back to the hotel. >_<;

Ryan brought two bottles of red wine to share, which were delicious, and considering I usually don't like red wine, they were pretty damn good. The food was also really amazing. They serve a 5-course meal (you don't get to choose what you get, you just tell them if you have any allergies, etc.). One of the courses was a very lightly cooked salmon that was just heavenly. And I don't like salmon. Or even most fish, in general. It was really amazing. Getting to catch up with and see Nicky, and getting to enjoy the Supper Club really made this trip worthwhile.

I got a little ahead of myself -- Friday was also slow. I enjoyed window shopping on Haight Street. There's a vintage and/or Halloween store every other block! Unfortunately, Amoeba Music, which is listed on the Warp11 site as carrying their albums, did not have anything, so I went away very disappointed at not having been able to purchase their newest release. Fortunately, I remembered to ask Nicky to bring me the 3rd album (which I also didn't have), which she'd gotten signed for me when it came out two years ago. Haha. Later that night was just fun and hijinks in the room. Lots of giggling on my part. ^^;

Sunday was basically getting ready to go back home. I had to return the car by noon even though my flight wasn't until 3:40. However! I'm a smart girl and got on standby for the 1:25 flight and got a spot! Sitting in a middle seat and being slightly uncomfortable was definitely worth getting home at 10pm instead of midnight. =D

All in all, a very enjoyable trip. Some pics are here. I think some of the more incriminating ones have been left out. ^_~

BTW, Capital G is an excellent song!

And Happy Halloween, people!

I ate a turkey burger last night. No bread, no topping, etc. It was really delicious, though, and I was so happy; I figured I'd be able to eat regularly again, but oh how my stomach protested for hours later. It was like a big "PSYCH!". You know, haha, fooled ya! =/

On the bright? side, I seemed to have lost somewhere between 10-15 pounds since I last weighed myself. Although it doesn't really look like that much to me.

There's no way I could do this on purpose, though. I usually enjoy food. I do miss having yummy tasting food; I just can't seem to tolerate the idea of actually swallowing anything other than something really plain.

Now if I could just motivate myself to make food at home and eat it for lunch and dinner, I might just keep that weight off.

I'm not a tea connoisseur, but I enjoy tea very much, and enjoy sharing my likes and dislikes regarding what flavors I've tried.

I like both cold and hot teas. I really wish that the US had iced tea on tap like in Japan. That's probably got to be one of the things I miss most about Japan -- the abundance of, not only tea, but of delicious tea! Tea in the US, more often than not, is so very tasteless in comparison.

My favorite tea (for the last couple of years, although I don't go out of my way to try new flavors because no one else shares my love of tea... except, I've found out recently, tehhoboking) is Chrysanthemum tea from TenRen. I'm still kind of surprised I like it, because it definitely has a flowery taste, which is often not what I like. I also really like the standard English Breakfast, and Darjeerling.

Anyway, the point of this post is that I also (surprisingly) recommend Starbucks' Tazo Wild Sweet Orange tea. It's actually pretty flavorful and yummy -- it has orange, lemongrass, licorice root and I think something else in it. And it's a nice complement to their pumpkin cookies, when they have them. =D

On Friday -- our usual hangout day -- Angelica went to Church with her family, so that left me with nothing to do. (Don't say anything about how this just emphasizes my last post.) In any case, I was working at the UN, so I got out at 5:30, and caught a ride home with my parents. I guess normally I'd hang out with my sister, but she was going to a sleepover that night, so I really had nothing to do and I was so NOT going to stay home stuck with my parents all night.

I caught a ride home with them so I could change into more comfortable clothes, and then when they drove my sister over to her friend's house (which is a few blocks away from the subway), I could get another ride and go back into the city. I still wasn't sure at this point what I was going to do, but I didn't feel like staying home, so back into the city it was.

I got on the E into Manhattan and was obviously more tired than I thought because I promptly fell asleep. Woke up at 23rd Street and sort of vaguely thought I'd just go on to Canal Street and walk up to Mott Street to the arcade. But I woke up again at West 4th and ran off the train just before the doors closed. Then I stood there like an idiot, thinking, Why did I DO that?.

Shrugged my shoulders resignedly, and exited onto the street. Passed by Crazy Fantasy looking in the window... Foo Fighters guy wasn't there. If he had been I might have stopped in, might have been tempted to get another piercing (I've been the space on my cartilage just below my first cartilage piercing). Therefore am I glad that he wasn't there. Whew! What a close one! Walked down to 8th Street and turned up toward the 6 train (Astor Place).

Of course, you realize this is the street with all the shoe & clothing stores, cool t-shirt & patch stores, etc.? Looked in the windows of a few shoe stores, saw one that had these kawaii shoes that I have one of the styles. The brand name is Volatile. The shoes are platform sneakers... some have velcro fastenings (like the one I have) and some have laces. The ones that I want desperately have laces, black with silver or red flames on the sides. I like the silver much more than the red, but the red is cute too. So, saw the red flame shoes in the window, went in, then saw the silver flame shoes. Asked if they had them in a 9 or a 10. Waited. Waited. Came back and said no. Damn!!! Fine.

Left and kept walking. Didn't see anything else I liked. Got to Wheels of London. They have lots of stuff I like. All the time. Boots. Platforms. Kirei. Have I mentioned my big/wide/clunky boot fetish? Sigh. Took my usual look around. This time decided to try something on. Sonax, approximately 3.5-4" heel, including about 2" platform, big, wide, clunky. Oooooh, I like. Tried them on in a size 9. Ooooh, they're wide! Have I mentioned I have a wide foot so can't get many nice styles 'cause they don't fit? Ooooh, they're roomy! Walk around the room. Ask opinions of two salesgirls. They say they like, I take it with hope, and a grain of salt. Consider. Think. Consider. Look at price again. Wince. Look at price again. Wince. Look at price again, even with the 10% discount it says. Wince. Decide to buy it anyway. I like.

I just realized I've been reduced to one- and two-word sentences. I must stop this.

So, I walked out of Wheels with my $100 purchase, with a stupid genki smile on my face. Finally continued on to Astor Place where I got on the downtown 6 and got off at Chinatown... went to the arcade where I played an uninspired game of DDR 5th mix (playing by oneself means no competition, and therefore is very boring). I hate screwing up a lot just because I'm not competing against anyone. It doesn't make sense! Well, at least it wasn't a total bust. I saw Jason, which was nice. Poofy-hair-freestyle guy wasn't there, so that was disappointing.

After, I went to eat at Wonton Garden, which I haven't been to in a while. I wasn't in the mood for Hainan chicken, if you can believe it. I got beef stew Cantonese style, instead (that's beef stew with the thin yellow noodles).

Then, started walking back to the E on Canal Street. Eventually got home around 12am. Wasn't too bad considering I was by myself and sort of bored the whole time. LOL. Except on the train 'cause then I was reading LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring. If you remember, I had left off in the middle of the Council of Elrond. Before that, it had been sometimes interesting, sometimes immensely boring. But after that it picked up quite a bit. Although there's no real way for me to picture the characters other than how they looked in the movie, I would have liked to know what images my mind would've produced without the visual aid. Then again, knowing me, I would've been completely off in my image of them.

Anyway, getting back to the topic of today's post (my dead wallet): yesterday Liz, my mom, and I ended up going to Roosevelt Field because I really wanted to go to PacSun to get some more jeans for myself. And since the one on 6th Avenue in the village closed, the only location I know of is in the Roosevelt Field mall, and not being able to drive prevents me from getting there on my own. So I asked my mom to take us, and she did. Liz and I spent about an hour in PacSun trying stuff on, and we finally ended up getting 2 bottoms and 1 top each.

I got a pair of dark blue (but not indigo, which I really like) JNCO jeans, $45, (not as wide as I usually like, but it seems that style is slowly fading away and it's much more difficult to get recently... which really sucks, 'cause I really like it!). And a pair of dark gray Dickies work pants, $30. Oooh, they're nice. I can wear them with my new big/wide/clunky/high-heeled boots and they look pretty. Then they had a navy blue with light blue stripes jacket on the $10 clearance rack in my size, which I got.

Liz got a pair of light blue Bullhead jeans (not wide leg ::sniff::) and a pair of navy blue corduroy flares (oooooh niiice!) and a navy blue with yellow stripes polo top (kawaii!). Her clothes were all on sale, total: $50. So unfair!

Oh, and did I mention that my monthly unlimited MetroCard ran out last night? So I had to fork out $63 this morning to get another one in order to get to work?! Kyaaaaaaaaa! The fates conspire against me, I swear!

So this is why my wallet is dead. I didn't have money to burn to begin with. ::smacks self upside head::

Good thing I'm working this Sunday at GCS again. Although that won't even make up half of it, at least it's something.

...is no longer on my list of good places to eat. EVERYTHING was too salty! And... does anyone like deviled crab? It tasted so... bleh. Everything is WAY too expensive for the food you get. I guess this may just apply to my neighborhood Red Lobster.

Oh! And our waiter was HORRIBLE! He kept going away and not coming back... we didn't get our drinks until practically half way through the meal! And he brought my sister's food later than everyone else's... and it was COLD! So she sent it back to be re-heated or whatever and when he came back he spilled some water on her or something. Then he went away again. And so when he passed by the table (without even looking in our direction) she glared at him -- GW fans take note: this was an all-out, full-blown Yuy-Glare-of-Death™.

I mentioned to my mother that she looked like she wanted to jump across the table and claw the waiter's face off. But later she told me that what she really wanted to do was jump on him and stab him to death with a dull knife.

Do you think we're violent...?

...nah.

But other than that, it was a great dinner. Amazingly, there was NO fighting whatsoever. No arguments, no yelling, no snide comments flying back and forth across the front lines. I think that's got to be one of the very, very few times that's ever happened. Definitely a moment worth remembering.

I will say this for that Red Lobster -- they had good music. It wasn't the typical mainstream/pop/boy-band/teen-girl-singer garbage they usually play. Actually, they had quite a few good songs. I think it must have been an older CD selection that they were playing, though. It had Melissa Ethridge, Oasis, I think Collective Soul. Not awesome selections (nothing great like NIN or Metallica, mochiron) but they were respectable.

Well... back to playing C-23 with my sister (Elizabeth).