we got two free muffins from babycakes because they were closing when i got there. lady was sort of a biz though. as i was eating it i said, "i really want to like this muffin and say it's good because everything tastes good when it's free... but its not."
and andrew goes, "yeah.. they're kind of dry."
then i was like, "waiiiiitt a minuuuute. i think they're vegan!" and confirmed that fact after reading the flier the woman gave me.
andrew practically spit the muffin out at the moment i said the v word. and complained the whole time saying he couldn't believe i gave him vegan muffins. he was so disgusted like i gave him dirt or something. hahahahahahah that was hilarious. i seriously don't know what he has against vegan food. the first time we tried angelica kitchen and he wouldn't stop saying how he needed to eat a huge burger and steak while eating our gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, animal-free meal.

anyway, i'm not a fan either, but it's not that big of a deal. i prefer my pastries moist, thank you very much.

taken in the lower east side on the way to see the extraordinary ordinary life of jose gonzalez. which, obviously, would be sold out. people were standing around waiting for scalped tickets outside the rooftop films venue. we ended up watching tree of life instead, which was too long. and i didn't enjoy it much knowing that i was missing out on the extraordinary ordinary life of jose gonzalez, which is probably pretty extraordinary.

on another note. it's august now. the best month to start loving summer again, because soon it will be over and fall begins. summer can be pretty exhausting with all the fun heat. i used to hate summer, but when i think of winter, i realize i'd rather have the heat.

west village, nyc

Rirkrit Tiravanija's exhibit – ‘FEAR EATS THE SOUL’

may 12, andrew's birthday
on our way back home

world trade center
PATH station

sometimes,
when i take this route,
i think that some of the other commuters walking around are really ghosts,
but they don't know it. and i think that i might just be in purgatory.

to all the victims of 9/11,
may your souls rest in peace.

the city guide

k + a

I sort of lost momentum from blogging and I have slowed down on taking pictures for reasons other than the weather. Luckily my friends came over and sort of gotten me out of this rut. It seems like such a long time ago since Karen + Alison were here when it has only been a week. They only stayed for four days, but we did so much not even my thyroids could handle it. Having them here was really nice and I got to finally do things in the city I normally wouldn't get to do. So, it was a vacation for me as well. I miss these gals already.

scene 1
city bakery

lunch at city bakery. i love this place because everything is so fresh.
all their ingredients come from the union square farmer's market.
the chocolate chip cookies are warm and chewy and gets crispy as it cools.
but, this place can be pretty crowded, especially during the weekends.
i didn't realize this as i usually going during the week.

scene 2
ceres gallery

we saw Masayo Nishimura's exhibit
Recollections: From New York to Tokyo
Japanese photographer who photographed NYC subways pre-9/11
and then the Tokyo subway scenes.

they've got a bunch of exhibits going on here as well and it is FREE.


scene 3
then we walked across town toward Les Halles for dinner.
where it was loud and crowded and the food was decent.
we were seated close to the kitchen,
and we caught a glimpse of the new chef, Carlos Llaguno.
i really liked the feel of this restaurant. it feels old world and homey.
and the fact that Anthony Bourdain has graced this place with his presence,
it's kind of holy to me.




scene 4
ACE hotel lobby becomes a bar at night.
the cocktails are overpriced
and their photobooth malfunctions.
but their employees are well dressed.
& the stumptown coffee roasters are some fine looking men.

scene 5
we didn't stay there for long and headed off to Barcade,
where some serious tetris playin,
craft beer drinkin and whiskey shots went down.


(image by k.)

scene 6
i want to say i forgot what happened after this,
but trying to get to the happy ending lounge in the les
got us all sobered up. and we somehow ended up in congee village.

but the night did not end with congee much to my dismay,
instead with some doners.


more to come...

from a walk around the village and the rest of the roll of lomo film. i had to adjust these on photoshop just because i do not like it so red. i know the film is supposed to be red. but it hurts my eyes. i have 2 more rolls of this film, which i will use in our lomo cameras instead.

i've gone shutter happy the last couple of weeks and have developed 6 rolls of film already. this is insane, i know... and i kind of regret it, because i'd have 1 roll of film from a single day and it lacks variety. i should just stick to taking one picture of anything as the case is 90% of the time i end up liking the first picture i took anyway. so i've stopped taking pictures and gave the cameras a rest. plus we haven't gone anywhere else and most of it is at home.

i asked andrew if shooting film is as good for him as it was for me, because it is just too exhilarating for me. he makes fun of me now saying that i'm addicted and my love for taking pictures is comparable to having an orgasm. hahahah!! yes, we cracked up about this for a good half an hour.

so, is taking photographs as good for you as it is for me? :D

*edit*

here are the originals and other images i took with the lomo redscale film

music finds and rediscoveries
day 3 of staycation

hearing: angus & julia stone playlist

i've been bored as of late. well, maybe not bored, more like being too busy to search for new music and other pleasant things to distract occupy my mind. rediscovered angus and julia stone on kcrw "mornings become eclectic". and i can't help but think, why do i listen to such achingly sad music... and admittedly so?
anyway, this one's great.

for the windy city:

.

so since its my vacation and was looking forward to chicago, i've been all sorts of nostalgic for life and the people there. i think it might have been why i've done the unthinkable. but hopefully this will keep us in touch, since at times it can be too hard or too busy to do even that.

[warning: hasty writing, bad grammar ahead. ]

onto what we did on the second day of my break. yes, i know this is completely self-indulgent, but what is a vacation for, but to indulge. and having said that, what is a blog for?

what to do for pleasure...

yesterday i spent the day with sofia. took the train to the city. she loves that. i asked her in the morning if she wants to go to new york, and her eyes lit up, she's smiling and said, "NEW YORK CITY!" so i said, "okay, new york it is." she loves riding the train and prefers to stand. she doesn't like sitting next to strangers. and inches closest to the edge of the seat near me as i'm standing in front of her. and no we don't bring strollers because it's more of a hassle bringing that up and down the subway. met up with andrew for lunch at the shake shack and had a "shack"ago hot dog. it came pretty close with the whole cucumber, peppers, onions, tomato... but the dog. no. definitely not chicago. the fries were good though. the burger was juicy and it's on a potato bun which makes it yummy. after that we were on the bus to go to the lower east side, but after a couple stops i notice the momofuku wall and realized we were steps from milk bar. had to scoop sofia up from her seat and got off that bus. this time i got only the birthday cake truffles. i swear whenever i eat that it always feels like its my birthday. one for me, one for sofi. we were eating that outside a bench. some guy passes by and says, "nom nom nom". sofi pauses and looks at me. she smiles and nods her head. "nom nom nom" she said, as she savoured that sweet ball of nomminess and swinging her legs back and forth.

got back on the bus. for some reason, only some stops let you pay at some machine before you board. you insert your card and it prints you a receipt. so you can show it to the driver if he asks, other wise you can just walk right in, like the lightrail. anyway, i figured ill get back on the bus and use the same receipt, since it valid for going the same way and expires in an hour. so to heck with it. the bus is coming anyway and i don't want to have to pay twice for the same bus ride. all i did was stop to pick up cake truffles for me and my baby girl, surely that's no sin. so i got on, showed the guy my crumpled receipt. looks over it he goes, "you know this ain't the stop for this." so i said, "i know, but we started walking and ended up here." he looks at me, rolls his eyes and said, "you can't be doing this next time..." yeah, okay.

we got off houston. crossed the street and ended up at the playground on 2nd ave. sofia climbed the ladders and went sliding down slides. meanwhile, this old lady kept yelling at some kid. while all the kids look at each other and to me, all wondering who the heck is she talking to. then she'll yell again, saying "not you, i'm not yelling at you, i'm yelling at him." still don't know who she's talking about or to whom she's talking. we shrug it off and continue with our climbing and sliding. there is a woman sitting up on one of them forts with the better slide which sofia doesn't bother to climb because she's up there. any how, she starts saying, "that's not nice... that's not nice. you think i over sell myself .....!?!." repeating it over and over again while her voice gradually climbs up to shouting. i thought she was yelling at her kid, who is smaller than sofi. i look up and see she's on her phone. gosh, seriously. she is sitting smack dab in the middle of a playground, wearing an all pink velour jogging/hoodie get up. she goes on and on, and finally hangs up the phone. she comes down with her pale white kid looking like dakota fanning starts running towards sofie and wanting to play with her. so she's following her kid and i'm like, "oh sofi, say hi." the lady looks at me, she goes, "sofie?" points to sofi, "my daughter's name is sofie too!" oh... yeah.. great.
so the rest of the playground experience was trying to divert ourselves from these two because her kid keeps following sofia but sofia ain't having none of that. and also we have way too much in common. just kidding. but, no really.
anyway i got tired of the playground, but she wanted to stay. but i said, we gotta go, its cold and i'm not about to stay out and wait for rush hour. luckily the F was right there, so i was able to get off the next stop to soho. i wanted to go to uniqlo. but damn, i forgot it was veterans day and people are everywhere. any way, i'm pretty sure it was a good day to teach sofia a lesson about not holding my hands as that she insists she will walk as she darn pleases. oh and those damn street carts keep attracting her. she'd stop and go, mmm and points to those halal carts. that really made me laugh a little. she didn't even know what she wanted from there, cause when i asked her she'd look and look but could only point to water as it's the only thing she recognizes. anyway we didn't get through the store, it was too crazy, so we immediately left the store and got on the N. it was the closest stop out of there. sort of got confused with this train ride and got off on 8th st. didn't realize the stop was on broadway and not close to the PATH at all. so luckily i realized this before walking up those steps carrying sofi. so we waited for the next N. got back on and got off on 33rd, which the sign clearly says transfers to PATH. yay. they make it easy. i thought it was 4:30 already, luckily the JSQ train was already there. got seats because it was the first stop. looking at this family across us with strollers. everyone else have their eyes closed. yeah, it's pretty tiring. i look at sofi and she is also sleeping. she slept right through even on our drive back home. we got home at 4:30. which is awesome when you think it's already 6.

anyway, now i'm waiting for a package. i found a sign on the front door saying there's a package for me, but they will come back and try again tomorrow. so here i am spending all my morning at home. as if it was a waste of my time. no, i'm not complaining at all.

and yay, it's friday. have a relaxing weekend! also, if you read all the way down here, it means you love me.

i heart you too <3

rainy monday mornings are only good for sleeping in...



because you do not want to deal with heavy traffic, subway signal failures,
and angry sardined passengers.