McDonald's

Freaking crazy overpriced exorbitant robbery costly pricey expensive city!

S: "We don't have much time before our movie, let's go to McDonald's, it's right there."
V: "K"
...
S: "Where's the dollar menu?"
V: "What?"
S: "The dollar menu. I want a double cheeseburger."
V: "There is no dollar menu."
S: "What do you mean there's no dollar menu."
V: "What are you talking about? There's never been a dollar menu."
S: "WHAT? Oh, you mean in Manhattan?"
V: "No...I've never seen a dollar menu at a McDonald's. I spent like 8 bucks here last time. There's only a dollar menu at Wendy's"
S: "You're joking right?"
V: "..."

She wasn't joking. Apparently McDonald's in NY and Boston have. no. dollar. menus. I'm kinda devastated. Not that I eat McDonald's all the time, but it's where I go when I need a quick, cheap, don't care about my health meal! Gah! Poor V, never had a $1 McChicken or small fries or Double Cheeseburger or 2 Apple Pies or... Then I see a sign under the menu:

"Dear Customers,
Prices may be higher
in Manhattan
during the
current promotion."

Freaking expensive, NYC.
----
At the counter...
S: "Hi! 20 piece McChicken please." (V and I were sharing, I'm not that big a fatty!)
Cashier: "What? I can't hear you."
S: "Sorry, 20 piece McChicken."
Cashier: "What?"
S: "20 PIECE MCCHICKEN."
Cashier: "Uh, what do you want?"
S: "A TWEN-TY-PIECE-MC-CHICK-EN."
Cashier: ...
V: ...
S: ... "20 piece McNuggets please."

pwnd

Silly Game

When I went home last week, Ronnie and I went to Joe DiMaggio's restaurant for DAT. We ended up playing this silly game you can only play with one of those long time friends that knows you better than you know yourself. (Btw, Ronnie's the gal in the background of my Blog pic aka Sharon). We took turns asking silly questions and turns out, I know Ronno pretty well. But this girl ended up with a score of I think 2 for 14! Ha! I'm just one big mystery aren't I??

Some of the questions, I can't remember them all. But no answers so I can remain...mysterious...oooh...:

• What is something I am afraid of?
• What is one of my pet peeves?
• Who was my first crush?
• What's my favorite beer? (Trick question)
• What are any of my top 5 favorite foods?

At this point, Ronnie is fed up with questions only Helen could answer because we love the same things (i.e. cheese, coffee, house watching, cheese...) and she actually reads this blog. Hi Helen!! So, now I have to change my questions to "meaningful ones":

• Why did I go to NY?
• If I didn't take my offer with Google, which company would I be working for? (Correct!)
• What was my favorite class at Cal? What was the most important class I took at Cal?
• I gave her a choice between 3 classes for the 2 options and she still got both wrong!
  

My score was something like 10 for 14. Here are some questions Sharon asked me:

• What's weird about my toes?
  
• My answer: "You cut your toenails so short they often bleed."
  
• Her answer: "No. I can crack my toes!" Uh, Ron that ain't some kind of superpower. My answer is better.
• Which eye do I have a mole on? (She covers her face)
• My answer: "...uhh...50-50 chance...THAT ONE!" Pointing to her right eye
• Her answer: Uncovering her eyes and leaning toward me, "...I don't remember, which one is it??!"
• "It IS that eye, I'm right, Booyah!"
  
• What did want to major in before Bus/Econ?
• My answer: "Architecture!"
• Correct!
  
• What's was my favorite class at Cal?
• My answer: "One of those science classes...Physics"
• "I never took physics."
• "Yes you did, you kept trying to explain how a bicycle works and I kept yelling, 'Dude I don't care!!!'"
  
• "OH YEAH! Ya, I really liked that class! But my favorite was Physiology."
• "Close enough."
  
• What's one of my pet peeves?
• My answer: "Too easy! When people color in different directions. Excuse me, I have to go the bathroom..."
  
• Her answer when I get back: "I got over the coloring thing a couple years ago. I hate when people go to the bathroom and leave me alone when we're at a restaurant."
  

New Song-of-the-Month

Under Control by Parachute. Click the image for the imeem link -->

Much overdo post about NYC

Written 2 weeks ago:

I've been putting this off because well, sometimes you just don't feel like analyzing. But here it is, here's what's been going on the last 2 months:

The set up was nothing short of perfect:

• 9 months in NY--just enough time to really experience it, but not so long that I would need to completely relocate
  
• Between April and December, meaning the best of East Coast weather
• Secure job
• Subsidy for transportation, shipping costs, housing, and hey even partial gym membership, meaning I could afford to live, eat, and breathe Manhattan
  
• Market low housing/rental prices
• Market low flight prices
  
• Market low retail prices and no tax on clothes and shoes under $120 :)
• A handful of friends and family, one of which I've known for 9 years and was letting me crash indefinitely until I found a place to live (Side note: THANK YOU VERONICA!!!)
  
• A handful of other associates in the office, even on my team
• Joining a team at work that seemed awesome, busy, smart, great at what they do, friendly, and welcoming
  
• Sublet my room to someone who was my age, needed it, would enjoy it, let me keep my furniture there, didn't care too much about rent/terms/length, got along with Minna, and works at Google
• Heading to a city I've wanted to live in since I was 10 years old staring at Broadway St. from the Empire State Building at night

Needless to say I came to NY giddy, excited, optimistic...the best word really, is "ready". I was so ready to be here. Ready to live, eat, and breathe new air in a city that I always admired. Ready to get out of the 20-mile radius that I'd been in for 22 years. Ready to be challenged and confused. It's the same bug that shipped me to Cambridge in '03, DR in '05, and London in '06. It was almost a rite of passage for me to live on this coast for a while. Superficial, I know. Point is, I crave change and NYC has quite a lure.

Then the reality:

• It took a month to finally settle on an apartment share, only to realize that I wasn't comfortable in the space
  
• It took another week for me to find a better place, only to get shot down and locked into the aforementioned
  
• It took another 3 weeks to fully unpack my suitcases, only to have another couple boxes of stuff somewhere in Jersey
  
• The handful of friends and family aren't the "Yo, what are we doing today?"-kind, but more the "Hey, are you free to grab dinner next Tuesday? No? Ok, maybe next time."-kind
• The other associates came here because they already have a life here
  
• My team at work is definitely awesome, busy, smart, great at what they do, friendly, and welcoming. But I happened to join at a very odd time--when projects were too far along for me to join in and the organization decided to change about 14 times
  

So basically, in my home life, social life, and work life (which totals my entire life), I don't really have a place here. It's been 2 months and my feet are not planted. I don't know where I fit in this city.

Would it have been easier if that perfect set-up wasn't there? If I had shipped myself over, broke, not knowing another soul, forcing myself to "make it in the big city"; you know those stories. My story is much too safe to be one of those. Don't get me wrong, I'm so grateful for this opportunity and everything that made it happen. I just mean that when you play it safe, you forgo the challenge and reap a smaller reward.

How did I uproot myself in '03, '05, and '06. Heck, how did I start college, work, or any big stage of my life? Oh ya that's right, I always had a default network. "Fast friends", I call them. College-->dorm/fellowship friends. Study abroad-->program friends. Work-->Associate friends. Home-->HS friends. I realized that every new chapter of my life, I started with a big ol' group of other newbies too. Instant bond. Sure there were other newbies that came to NY in my program. But like I said, they came here because they already have a life here. It's like me going back home in January. Open to making new friends, but hey, I already have my core. I spent 22 years in a 20-mile radius, so I established a pretty grounded life in the Bay Area.

Now I'm in this amazing new place, but I feel like I'm experiencing it by myself.

When I was studying abroad, toward the end I wanted to travel more. When it came down to actually planning it, turns out those that wanted to go were broke as a joke and had to sit on their hands for the remaining few weeks (aaand, that is why I budget!!). I could have still gone by myself, but I didn't. Not that I think there's anything wrong traveling solo. But for me personally, traveling is more about the experience you have with those you are with than the things you see or do. For me, it's less meaningful gazing at the ceiling of the Sisteen Chapel without discussing the details with the person next to you, or climbing the stairs of the Eiffel Tower without someone to high five when you reach the top, or eating the best food of your life without offering it to the person across the table to try. So I stayed in London with those friends, discovered new splendors exactly where we were. I had a blast. (Unless of course, you are on a journey of self-discovery like Liz in Eat, Pray, Love. In that case, solo travel is the only way to go! Side note: Helen I bought it for $1 at an awesome bookstore!)

You know what would solve all this? A BOYFRIEND. It would take care of this problem don't you think? :) JUUST KIDDING! Let's not going to go there...I'm just joking. (Side note: When I was joking about this with Sharon, she straight up forbade me. No, not because it's silly to rely on a boy. She's afraid that if I find Prince Charming, I'll never come back! So I promised her I'll only aim for Prince Mediocre then, or Prince Just-for-a-few-months hahaha)

So by now I've been asked well over 100 times, "How's NY? How's it going?" and my answer is always the same: "It's going well, for the most part." And that's truthful. Despite feeling a little...lost, ungrounded, uprooted, lonely...I love this city. I love that I have the chance to live here for a while and be challenged. I love that I've figured out more about myself and my life now that I've removed myself from the Bay Area for longer than a couple months. And you know what, it's only been 2 months. And 2 weeks of those have been/will be spent back in SF! Finding a "home" takes time. Making quality friends, takes more time. I just hope that I find it before it's time to go.

Sham-WOW!

Helen said I would elaborate on this on her last post, and I most certainly will!

At the Union Street Fair/Festival, we watched a demo for the ShamWow, and I must say...WOW! The guy (no, he didn't have the handless mike) did the demo where he pours a can of soda on the carpet:

1) Lay the ShamWow rest on top of the mess, it'll soak up 80%

2) Turn it over and it's soaks 90%

3) Wring it out and pound the ShamWow over the surface, and it EVEN gets the liquid underneath the carpet

Holy moly, they really work! I'm not kidding, they really do. I secretly wanted to buy some and purposely make messes just so I could use it. When I move into a house, I'm buying 19.

WOW!

Funny stuff

Read the reviews for this awesome wolf shirt!