Geek in Heels - Page 39

Nov 21, 2012 • In Aerin, Facebook, Motherhood, Personal, Relationships

What Are the Chances?!?!!!

Yesterday was a cool yet pleasant day. With temperatures in the low 50s and the sun shining overhead, I decided to take Aerin for a walk despite my lingering cold. (Claire was with her grandparents.)

We walked the 22 blocks to my favorite children’s park and I sat Aerin down on a swing. She hadn’t been there since the temperatures took a dip, so she was obviously over the moon with glee.

As I continued to push my giddy daughter on the swing, I noticed another mom with her baby…

Now, other moms will attest to the fact that making mommy friends is hard. It’s like dating all over again, except that — in my experience, at least — moms can get a lot more catty than single men.

But this mom seemed nice enough, so I took a deep breath and introduced myself.

It turns out that the family lives in the next town over. They got married a couple of years ago and had their baby earlier this year, and this mom too had trouble making good mommy friends in the area!

We had a pleasant chat together, and we even exchanged emails for future playdates.

Yay! I had found a new mommy friend!

(image source)

After we returned home and I put Aerin down for her nap, I decided to be a creepy stalker and looked up my new friend on Facebook. I was almost certain that we had at least one friend in common — you see, I have a theory that Asian Americans are separated by only three degrees, not six, because everyone seems to know each other somehow, especially here in the tri-state area.

Her Facebook profile wasn’t hard to find. And yes, we did have a couple of friends in common!

I clicked on over to her full profile page…

…then my jaw dropped.

She is married to my ex-boyfriend!!!

The breakup was NOT amicable and we had ended things on a very sour note. There was no way in hell that our families can comfortably hang out together.

I also felt a bit defeated, because I had gone to the park in yoga pants, an old hoodie, with no makeup and my hair a mess. Add to that my red and runny nose from this darned cold. Oh why oh why oh why couldn’t I have met her when I looked more polished?

(And to those thinking that I must still have feelings for my ex based on the paragraph above, I’m sorry to disappoint you. After all, what woman doesn’t want to be prettier/thinner/smarter/funnier than her ex’s current wife or girlfriend?)

But seriously, guys…

What are the chances??!!!

Feedly: A Better RSS Reader

A couple of months ago, my friend Tara blogged about Feedly, an alternative to Google Reader.

My knee-jerk reaction upon reading the title of the post was, “Why would anyone use anything besides Google Reader?”

But as my eyes scanned down the body of the post, the more I wanted to give Feedly a try. I mean, look how pretty it is!

In this fast-paced, highly visual world, Feedly allows its users to browse their RSS feeds in an aesthetically-pleasing and easy way. How does it work? By linking to your existing Google Reader account, which also means that there is no need to transfer anything…and it syncs with your Google Reader account so that if you want to go back to Google Reader for any reason, everything — including your saved items (“Starred” in Google Reader) — remains updated. Continue reading »

Star Wars Business Cards

The past few days have been rough. Little Aerin fell ill for the very first time in her life — thank goodness she had gotten her flu shot last month! — and I ended up catching her cold too. We sent Claire away to her grandparents’ in hopes that she won’t get sick, and the household has been a disarray of used Kleenex, dirty laundry, and VapoRub.

But I remain in high spirits, because my beloved Knickerbockers are 5-0 for the first time in almost 2 decades. 🙂

Needless to say, inspiration has been running dry (inversely proportional to the level of snot and phlegm in my respiratory system), but I quickly wanted to pop in to share these Star Wars business cards from Etsy seller frommntoyou, who explains that her sister gave these to her when she was a kid.

A Creative and Inspirational Poster

“Dirt Poster” by Roland Reiner Tiangco — a poster which requires your participation for completion. Enjoy!

Aerin’s Dol

When I had written a short update on the morning of Aerin’s dol, I had been worried about Hurricane Sandy’s impact on the party.

But while we could not hold my younger daughter’s first birthday at a banquet hall as we had originally planned…

And more than half of our guests could not make it due to the impending storm…

(Together with the fact that we ended the party early in hopes that everyone will get home safely…)

We ended up having a great time. 😀

First, the decorations. I only decorated our dining area (we don’t exactly have a dining room, per se) because I only had one week to plan and prepare everything.

As stated in a previous post, I had DIY’ed Aerin’s dol towers using beans glued onto paper towel rolls. Those suckers were a lot of work, y’all! I stayed up late every night in the week preceding the party to finish each tower — if I had more time, I would have made some additional ones with colorful gumballs and/or other candy, but this was all I could do on our tight deadline. Continue reading »

Eric Carle’s “A Game of Thrones”

Here’s one for all the Game of Thrones fans who also happen to be parents. Because, “if Westeros had a picture book to teach preschoolers the house sigils and words, Eric Carle would write and illustrate it.” 🙂

Via Something Worth Having.

I’m Married to a Korean Celebrity

It is no secret that I was not attracted to J when we first met. Even when we were friends, I would often wonder why other girls found him attractive.

(And in case you’re feeling sorry for him, don’t be. He is well aware of this story and likes to remind people that despite all this, he still managed to snag me. 🙄 Besides, his ego is big enough as it is.)

In fact, his pretty boy features are not my type at all. However, I know that this is — and has been for the past decade or so — what’s all the rage in Asia.

We’ve even been informed a few times that he looks like an Asian celebrity. On one occasion, a waitress at a Korean restaurant actually asked me if he were someone famous!

I remember a friend telling us that J reminded her of the Korean actor Youn Sang Hyun. I didn’t think much of this until last night, when I was going through the pictures from Aerin’s dol…

When J had styled his hair down instead of high and spiked as he usually does…

And then I saw it.

They would never be mistaken for twins, but you can’t deny that there isn’t a resemblance.

The best part? When J switched his Facebook profile picture to the one of Youn Sang Hyun above, no one batted an eye. And when he finally pointed it out, one person confessed that he thought it really was J…and that this picture was a glamour shot or something similar.

I wish I too, looked like a celebrity, but the only one that I’ve been told I look like (and on two occasions, by different people) is an Asian porn star. 😥 And no, I won’t give away her name — you can figure it out yourself if you’re that curious.

Happy Birthday, Aerin!

One year ago today — at 9:20am, to be exact — our Aerin Isabel entered this world.

You have taken me through laughter and tears. You have encouraged me to take life less seriously.

But most of all, you have taught me that while there is no way to be a perfect mother, there are a million ways to be a good one.

Happy birthday, my sweets. May you never lose the joy with which you embrace your life.

Love,

Your Proud Mother

Hurricane Sandy: The Aftermath

We were extremely fortunate in the wake of Sandy. While the vast majority of our friends who reside in the area lost electricity, water, or both (a big thanks to social media for keeping everyone updated), we made it through the hurricane without much of a fuss, and are happy to report that we, as well as our family who live in the area, are all safe and sound.

Just how lucky were we? Our damage report only consists of two rooms that lost electricity (yeah…don’t ask me how the electricians wired this place) and a complete power loss for a mere 5 minutes last night. And I’m pretty sure that this short blackout was due to workers fixing whatever killed the electricity to the rest of our condo, because when the power returned, all the lights and outlets in those affected rooms began working again.

As was the case with Irene, all the bottled water and canned food we had purchased in preparation for the storm still sit unused. We never lost access to water, so the bathtubs and pots we had filled with clean water also went to waste. Gas was not an issue either, so we are able to remain warm in this cold front.

I doubt the girls even knew the most destructive hurricane in decades had just passed through the area — our household was that drama-free!

But like I said above, we were EXTREMELY lucky. Our condo building was one of the few in the area that still had electricity — even the apartment complex next door lost power! We were also just outside the flood zones; streets just a few blocks from us were flooded, and practically the entire city of Hoboken (which is a mere 5 minutes away) is still under water.

Additionally, J has been working from home since Monday, and will probably continue to do so for the remainder of the week, because his office is in downtown Manhattan and the majority of lower Manhattan is still without power.

We have also been hearing sirens and emergency workers working non-stop since the hurricane first hit. 🙁

Last night, I stepped outside for a few minutes to take some pictures of Manhattan from across the river. Despite the fallen trees and the plethora of traffic cones littering the area, there were many photographers out and about.

A shot of midtown Manhattan. Although I know that parts of midtown are still without power, its lights still looked normal to me last night.

You can see the contrast between midtown and downtown in the picture below. I haven’t seen NYC look this eery since 9/11.

And lastly, one of downtown Manhattan. It looks like the southern tip of the island (just left of the bridge in this picture) had regained power as of last night.

I wish I had brought a tripod — the non-grainy shots all came out blurry due to the slow shutter speed. 🙁

I hope everyone remained safe and dry throughout Hurricane Sandy, and that your loved ones are all accounted for. Do you have any Sandy stories to share?