The Bi-Weekly Visit

Every other Saturday I volunteer at Children's Memorial Hospital here in Chicago. I've been doing this for about a year and it's one of the best things I could have done. I specifically work in the Brown Family Life Center, which is a huge playroom filled with everything and anything the kids could ask for including other kids who are eager to play with their peers. The kids are funny, innocent, and amazingly brave in spite of their ailments. They also say the most hilarious things. Snippets of today's conversations:

Me: How old are you Kaitlyn?
Kaitlyn: Two.
Alex (Kaitlyn's bro): No she's three.
Kaitlyn: My birthday's in TWO minutes!
Me: Really?
Kaitlyn: nods authoritatively

Hasam (age 4): We're going to play Fighting Animals. Is your animal a girl or boy?
Me: Mine is a girl.
Hasam: Ok, take this for your Mother's Day! (Proceeds to beat the crap out of my
poor tiny dinosaur and then throws it really hard into a the toy bin)
Ha! She's dead.
Me: Ummm ok...

Me: We're going to the Family Life Center
Kaitlyn: Ok (She then turns around and goes straight for a wall)
Alex: Kaitlyn thinks every wall is the Family Life Center

Kaitlyn: I have to go potty.
Me (after I show her the bathroom): You going to be ok in there?
I'm gonna close the door.
Kaitlyn (with her pants down): No don't. Leave it open please.
Me: Are you sure?
Kaitlyn: Uh-huh (she kinda sounded scared)
Me: Alright (Inside I'm a little anxious - I can't leave the door open with her on the toilet and everyone able to look in! What if her parents come in? So I slowly try to close the door, but not all the way and just stand in the crack.
Marissa (my supervisor): I never liked the door closed either when I was little.

These kids wore me out today!

Sesame Seeds and Tamarind Juice

That dreaded time of the month. This month's food cravings center around sesame seed food products and tamarind juice extra sour. Store bought brands are too sweet for me so I went out of my way to go to a Mediterranean grocery store to pick up some tamarind paste so I could make it to my liking. I couldn't find it myself so I asked a store employee, a teenager with broken english and a mustache grown with the purpose of looking like a bad-ass grown man. He told me to make the juice, I needed "this much" rose water and gave me a thumbs up.

Ummm...huh?

The whole jar of paste and the thumbs up was good to make enough juice that fit a container so and so big which he indicated by motioning some sort of boxlike shape with his hands.

Ok...

My dad and I were too confused by the conversation so we just went with the flow and bought the items. So I bring the container home. It's instructions read "One teaspoon for 6 persons for specific tastes of soups, stews, gravies, sambar, rasam, etc. in any cold, warm or hot preparation." So it seems any way you use it, one teaspoon for 6 persons is the appropriate ratio, hehe. Wonder what sambar and rasam are...Anyways I made a couple of attempts at making the juice and they came out pretty damn good if I say so myself. An hour later...my stomach is making noises...Uh oh...I googled tamarind juice and apparently it's a mild laxative. I think you can figure out the rest.

Friday The 13th

Today at work I was a BLOODY mess.

Well not literally, but visually. Quite a site - damn, wish I had a camera on me.

For those that don't know, I work as a food technologist with a large food company. I specifically work with dressings and sauces, coming up with new products for restaurants that, 9 out of 10, you most likely have eaten at. Now when you work with food you use a lot of supa-dupa concentrated colors and concoctions that make a product look "natural" in color. You'd be surprised to know that a lot of the dressings you buy off store shelves would probably be white or gray w/o some Yellow #5 lovin'. Check your label - you'll see what I'm talking about.

Today though the culprit was oleoresin paprika, basically the oil extract of paprika which is a VERY concentrated orange/red color. In my typical Amelia Bedelia like fashion I spilled a small 4oz jar. But good Lord! It looked like a massacre of a small animal happened right there on our lab floor with me as the villain since my hands were stained with evidence and the rest of me was COVERED in it. So you can imagine trying to clean up this red oily mess...let's just say I have permanently left my mark with the company with a nice orange stain on our half of our NEW floor.

My boss was oh so thrilled.

Wouldn't You Know It

Turns out I was wrong.

It wasn't 30 degrees lower today.

It was 40.

Hello again October.

It's A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

There is something about sunny skies and warm weather that brings out the happy in me. Could it be any better? I love feeling the warmth on my skin. I wore sandals the other day and my poor pale feet were finally exposed to the sun. Knowing Chicago weather it will probably be 30 degrees lower tomorrow but I enjoyed it while it lasted.

Spring Storm

Finally got some long awaited storms tonite. I love rain. I love waking up to it, sleeping to the sound of it, lifting my face upward to meet it. I especially love the smell of the earth and air after a good soaking. Since it's springtime here in Chicago, the air is sweet with the new flowers blooming and freshly cut lawns. I took an extra moment to stand outside and watch the sky turn pink as the sun was setting.

Time, time, time. It felt nice to actually have the time to do that. Last week was fun, everyday was an adventure going to Milwaukee for a Cubs game, the Weezer concert the next day, Rocky's graduation Friday, volunteering at the hospital and meeting up with an old friend Saturday, and finally Mother's Day Sunday. But good Lord I was beat! I still am beat! It's time to slow it down...

So now I am listening to "summertime" on the media player. A nice slow saucy version that makes me recall hot humid nights spent overlooking some dark moving body of water under a full moon. Whether or not this really happened I can't say for sure but that's what I'm feeling. The rain has slowed and now the only evidence of its presence is the searing sounds of tires passing by and a drip from the gutter.

At The End of the Day

You're another day older lalala...Must get Les Miserables out of my head! Anyways... another long day today! Everyone at work had that Monday look on their face. Like please don't talk to me - I am sleepy. Including me. The weekend was great. Erasure concert Friday, Chocolate Fest in Long Grove, shopping and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Saturday, and more Chocolate Fest Sunday (although it was pretty damn cold!). All in all, a weekend to make me forget another crappy week at work.

Today. Ugh. Test batch early in the friggin' morning with the Quizno's chef there to watch too. The place was a mess, so embarrassing. We're hoping the visitors were as sleepy as we were and didn't pay too close attention. I HAVE SO MUCH WORK TO DO!!! I am convinced I will never get everything done. So discouraging. And I have my yearly review coming up...eek! But oh well, this weeks activities will help make things better. I will be extremely sleep deprived, but I l will be happy. That's what matters anyways right?

I just realized...Mexico next month! Woot-woot!

Weekend Recap

Bright Spot

Whenever I talk of deviating from the safe, stable science career route I'm currently on, my mom gets this look in her eyes like she's pretending she doesn't hear what I'm saying. She's not much of a risk taker so she doesn't like it when I even slightly suggest I would do anything other than traditional occupations.

But I know her weak spot. She is one huge flower lover. Yes, how typically asian mom-ish. And while I would take pics of nature stuff anyways because I love it myself, I like showing it to her because I think she secretly swoons over my shots. She's starting to see how important this has become to me and actually compliments me. (You don't know hard it is to get a compliment from this woman.) She even suggested I take it up semi- professionally. While I am light years away from actually doing that, it's nice to have my mom finally support me in something. :)

Maybe It's That Spring Feeling

I don't know what's come over me lately.

I just want to get out of here. Be somewhere else, do something else. I feel like I've been holding my breath for so long and now I'm ready to exhale.

Maybe it's because everyone around me seems to be going through important "life" changes and I want in.
Maybe it's because I am less than liking my job and I'm wondering what if...
Maybe I'm just bored and need drama.
Maybe it's that spring feeling and how, for me, that implies change.

I don't know...Just been feeling restless lately, ya know? I'm waiting for that next big thing to happen but there is nothing on the horizon. Actually what's sorta propelled everything was an interesting conversation I had with this sociologist Kris Cohen, who is working with Surry University. He contacted me through Flickr to discuss photography and the web. Very interesting guy and well spoken, although with parents yelling at each other in Tagalog and the movie "Ray" playing loudly next to me, I was easily distracted and probably sounded like a moron. I later read the breadth of his research more in depth and had a real doh! moment when I realized he wasn't just some Joe Schmoe off the street. Ugh! Should have put on my intelligent hat. He's got an interesting project going and asked thoughtful questions about my pics. He's lived in Chicago as well so he was really familiar with my photos taken around town which pleasantly surprised me.

Although our conversation was probably a fleeting thing for him, for some reason I was left with this urge to do SOMETHING with my life. I mean he's got one of the coolest occupations - he gets to interview people all the time and discuss social changes. Hmm that didn't look to interesting once I wrote it. But because of where I grew up and the people I work with the discussion of social patterns truly intrigues me. I just feel like this is another incident lately that has awaken old aspirations that were long forgotten. I've got some serious thinking to do.

Concert Season Begins

Maroon 5 Concert at UIC Pavillion. Our seats were pretty damn awesome, not too far and center section-ish. Weirdest thing was running into old friends from high school and college who I hadn't seen in ages. I was just thinking about them too recently and here they were. I love live music - it's always better live. Better energy, better sound and you get to enjoy it with room full of people who love the music as much as you do. Concert season begins. I can't wait for weezer!

Minion

Eat, sleep, work.

Eat, sleep, work.

Eat, sleep, work.

Repeat.

Photo Respiration

Photo Respiration
Originally uploaded by *snapdragon.

A photography exhibit by Tokohiro Sato at the Art Institute of Chicago. Very interesting. Sato used long exposures and "entered" his photographs, using flashlights or mirrors to reflect light back to the camera. While you don't see him, his presence is obvious by the glowy lights throughout his pics. What's neat is that the photos are mounted as transparencies in front of a bright light so the lights from Sato are more vibrant. You just have to see it for yourself.

Happy Birthday to Pepito!

Happy Birthday to Pepito!
Originally uploaded by *snapdragon.

Happy Birthday to my little sis Felice! I am so very very very lucky to have a sis like her. I wish she wasn't away at school so we could pig out on Lutz strawberry-whipped cream cake together. :)

Hello World

Woke up this morning to April showers in Chicago.

I actually love waking up to rain. I don't mind the bit of cloudiness and hearing the soft tapping on the roof actually soothes me. The only way to make the day better would be to stay in my jammies, curl up in bed and stay in to watch Oprah. A girl can dream, but a she also has to earn a living and so off to work she must go.

Something out of the ordinary today. Went to a wake of an older friend who battled cancer. The only other wake I've been to was about 2 months ago and these couldn't be any more different. In the first wake, the funeral home was packed with mexican jehovah's witnesses, making for a hot room and a very confusing ceremony since I couldn't understand a thing. The visitors filed semi-orderly in line fashion, greeting the family then making their way to the casket. All very solemn and serious. The wake today was very laid back, people in groups laughing and reminiscing with casual visits to the casket. Different but not bad.

Morbid subject for a first post? I don't like to think so. To me, in both instances, I walked away with my eyes opened a bit wider to the endless possibilities of tomorrow and to keep yourself open to the ones you care about. Sometimes it's hard for me to keep that stuff in mind but at times like these I have my rare moments of clarity.