My new Timex which I got on sale for $19.99 at Century 21. Like the women in my family, if I like something, I tend to buy more of the same. I had this same watch but with pink straps for the last 2 years and when the battery died a couple of months ago, I thought it was probably covered with speckles of bacteria and unseen spores of C. diff from work and decided it was too gross to continue using again. So I put it in a bag of things to donate to the thrift store. I'm just kidding. Anyways, now I have a brand new watch!

Neil has been making delicious food lately-- as always really. -chicken liver terrine, roasted honey walnut brie, & fresh French baguette -salt-brined heritage pork shoulder -braised pork shoulder with sesame pancake, fresh cilantro, pickled carrots & jicama

So glad to be back home. Now I can try to forget about work and wind down by eating leftover congee from Big Wong and watching one of the two Netflix movies I get every month. This time it's Herzog's Encounters from the End of the World. I will take advantage of my time home alone to watch this one since I think the last Herzog documentary I made Neil see (Grizzly Man-- quite grizzly indeed) was probably one of the strangest things he's ever experienced... Well, perhaps it is a bit odd that I could watch 8 hours of Ken Burns straight, but I find documentaries so calming! From the folksy violin soundtracks, and the grainy clips of old footage, to the neutral, soothing voice-over.

In the Mood for Love. I could watch this beautiful movie over and over again. Especially when I can't sleep. Sigh.

I found the best carrot cake. After spending 5 hours at a salon to straighten my hair (yes, I know... it's already straight), I happened upon a cute little bakery called Pinisi. Nothing else I've tried there is really that great, but I'll refrain from saying bad things about small shops-- this carrot cake is amazing! It's got this delicious crumble on top with really moist cake and yummy cream cheese frosting, of course.

Another day at the hair salon

The things we do to look beautiful =)

Tonight I met up with a friend who I haven't seen since I was probably 10 years old. We used to be childhood pen pals and we recently reconnected through Facebook. We went to Grimaldi's in Brooklyn for some thin-crust pizza and soda. Then we decided to try Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar, where we had crack pie, soft-serve ice cream, organic strawberry milkshake, and pistachio cake. Momofuku is getting some serious press-- we happened to see Padma of Top Chef grabbing some dessert to go. My new (old) plates from an Etsy seller arrived today!

Photo shoot by Lisa Warninger via Twigs & Honey, who made the floral embellishments. The pretty dresses are by Elizabeth Dye, who is making my wedding dress. I can't wait to see what she does!

There was a period of time about 4 years ago when I would watch episode after episode of Law & Orders. I couldn't stop because no matter what time it was, or what channel, there would always be an episode on. This morning I feel I have regressed. Currently on the third one. It's way past my bedtime.

I could eat carrot cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, especially if it's from the Little Cupcake Bakeshop. Thanks, Mandy! (and thanks Neil for the last one!) Watching Braveheart before I sleep. William Wallace has just won a battle, arms up in victory, YAAAHHHH!!!

Background Music

When I'm at work, I don't normally get a chance to sit down until about 1 am and then I have to keep running around every few minutes because patients keep calling throughout the night. But at around 3-4 am, things usually quiet down. We've usually finished our notes by now, and unless something bad happens, this is when we can surf the web, eat lunch, put our heads down, etc. The radio is constantly playing in the background at the nurses' station. The same songs keep playing over and over, but sometimes a song will come on that we haven't heard 10 times already, like this old school slow jam, and everyone will just hum along quietly. Alright, time to start making rounds again...

As I was flipping through this week's issue of the New York Magazine, I encountered an interesting article about a topic we were frequently exposed to during our labor & delivery class in nursing school-- home births. It's not surprising that a school with a midwifery program would try to persuade it's students that a natural home delivery-- without an epidural, fetal heart monitoring, or an obstetrician-- is the ideal way to give birth (another hot topic was breast-feeding, though it's much less controversial.) Despite the lectures and videos that made us all think we wanted to give birth in hot tubs (just google home births), the field of midwifery seemed like a path that few students wanted to go into; I remember hearing someone stereotyping midwives and their clients as hippies or bitter feminists that lived by mantras like "I am Woman. I am Strong." While at my clinic in the hospital, the labor and delivery RN's seemed like the toughest, meanest nurses I'd ever met. And I didn't blame them. That experience was enough for me to know that I did not want to work where all my patients would be 100% women. Women in pain. No, thank you. Anyways, this is a topic I don't plan on thinking about for at least a few more years. By then, I hope that either of the options, home or hospital, won't seem like such frightening experiences. In the meantime, it's interesting to see yet another movement, or fad, gaining popularity these days.

Last night (this morning) I accidently stuck myself with an insulin needle. And most likely exposed myself to pneumonia. Twice. Oh well. I am working 7 out of the next 9 nights. But I'll survive... I am Woman. I am strong.

Delicious lobster from McCormick & Schmick's, where I had a feast for my birthday, complete with fried oysters, calamari, and creme brulee-- a treat from my aunts & uncles in California. I love seafood and eat it almost everyday, since I prefer it to any other kind of meat, but it's become increasingly difficult for me to decide what to eat or what to buy at the market these days. For the three of you who were there for this meal, you know that this lobster was not mine, that I instead ordered a "Chilean Sea Bass" in guilt! I thought that eating seafood meant that I was being healthier, and in some ways it is, but I also think it's important to try and consider the environmental impacts of our consumer choices. For example, demand for blue fin tuna (yup, that buttery melt-in-your-mouth toro) is so high that a whole fish can sell for more than $100,000 in the market. Farm-bred fishes, like Atlantic salmon, have higher levels of PCBs due to the synthetic feed, and are more susceptible to developing parasites because of overcrowding and have to be treated with antibiotics. Does that sound appetizing? Even though all the salmon at the market kind of look the same to me, should I pay twice as much for the wild salmon? Do I really want to think about all the implications, or should I just continue to enjoy eating the patagonian toothfish while I still can, before the species becomes extinct? Decisions, decisions...

Tonight's dinner: -baked mac & cheese with gruyere, emmenthaller, & chedder -Vietnamese-style grilled pork chop (not organic-- just discount meat from Pathmark!) -strawberry lemonade (courtesy of Emeril Lagasse) -old fashioned rice pudding, which I overcooked I just so happen to look over at Neil and his computer screen and what do I see-- he's added a 40-inch HD flat-screen television to his Best Buy cart!!! The only reason why it's not a sealed deal is that it's for in-store pick-up only... good thing it's in Texas. But now I've got to pay closer attention, I don't know what this fatwallet is that he keeps talking about. "I have to keep checking every hour, so I'll be one of the first people to get the deal..."

After a few sips of wine, beer, or any kind of alcohol, my face usually starts turning pink. After more sips (about half a drink), my face becomes the color of a plum and my skin starts developing small dots. Thus, my usual response after being offered a drink is to decline it. The embarrassment of turning near purple usually trumps my embarrassment of not being able to drink, even though I do feel a little left out sometimes. But now I actually have some facts to base my strange aversion towards alcohol, thanks to the NY Times. My hunch was accurate-- turning purple is a warning sign!!! (Do you hear me, Charles?!) Speaking of cancer, I just off from work. Relatively smooth night with 6 male patients. One of them told me I need to get a life after I said I spent my day off sleeping (this coming from a 71 year old.) So... I'm going to try and stay awake today. And do something other than sleep.

Reading a book on the train home from work this morning made me laugh to myself: "I admit I have an ugly fondness for generalizations, so perhaps I may be forgiven when I declare that there is always something weird about a girl who majors in French... She has been betrayed into the study of French, heedless of the terrible consequences, by her enchantment with this language, which has ruined more young American women than any other foreign tongue." -- The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

I am studying French on my own. Oh, why lie. I'm not studying anything-- I'm watching American Idol (what would I do without DVR?!) It's my favorite week... country!!!

To celebrate my birthday, I wanted to go to Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a restaurant on a Rockefeller estate headed by chef Dan Barber. After reading a review hailing it as the most important restaurant in America, I had high expectations. After eating there, I can say that I appreciate the farm-to-table concept which is based on the locavore movement-- and the food was indeed very good-- but I still would have preferred dressing down and eating at their cafe instead. So after the four-course brunch and after roaming around the estate to see the greenhouse and animals, we headed home. On our way back towards the city, we stopped by Stew Leonard's to pick up some groceries and decided to prepare a feast of our own. Below, dinner.



“In Brooklyn, to be into food is do it yourself, to get your hands dirty, to roll up your sleeves. You want to peek in the kitchen in the back, as opposed to being served in the front.”

From this article about food in Brooklyn. Okay, so the quote is a bit self-righteous, and locavorism has become very trendy lately, despite the fact that it would take a whole lifestyle overhaul to stick to the tenets of the movement. But it's true there is a distinction between Brooklyn and Manhattan dining, and it's interesting to observe the trends and differences. While only buying/using locally grown or manufactured food can be difficult nowadays, preparing food yourself is really not a new concept... after all, isn't cooking at home how most people in this country eat?

On a different note, King Arthur has been playing on television for the last hour or so. I look up from my laptop and see Kiera Knightly in face paint and what looks like an iron bikini top, running towards Saxon warriors armed with shield and sword to engage in battle-- sorry folks, can't miss this.

Lovely Day

I just slept for 14 hours straight after being awake for 30 hours, and I'm trying to remember what I did before working the last string of shifts. Ah yes... I was happy. We saw Mamet's Speed the Plow at the Barrymore Theatre. William H. Macy played producer Bobby Gould after Jeremy Piven withdrew from the role on account of mercury poisoning, from what he says is due to eating too much sushi. I really don't know why they would cast Piven for that role in the first place. Another thing that made me happy was going to a movie under what I think are the best circumstances-- during a late-night weekday showing, and arriving at least 30 minutes before it starts! I feel a little like Alvy (Woody Allen) in Annie Hall when he refuses to watch a movie because they missed the first 2 minutes of the opening credits. Anyways, so we finally saw Waltz with Bashir, which is the opposite of a happy feel-good movie-- but that's not why I wanted to see it. Right now, listening to the soothing voice of Natalie Merchant, eating spaghetti, and fantasizing about a new career (like this). Also wondering if there is some way I could start an IV caffeine drip on myself.

Lately it seems the city is quieter and just a lot emptier than usual. But it could be just me... I don't get out much. I take the N train home when everyone else is headed to the city to start their day, and then I sleep until the sun is down. Sigh. My sister is visiting this week, and since there is no good Thai food in Toronto, we decided to take her to Sripraphai in Jackson Heights for dinner. Our friend who lives on the same street asks, "Why do we have to drive all the way to Queens when there's a Thai restaurant across the street from us in Brooklyn?" Because after 10 years of eating great Thai food in Southern California, I have never had anything like their fried watercress salad. It's worth the 25-minute drive. Besides, the food comes out in like 3 minutes. And you can watch Alton Brown (or the Yankees game in the summer) on the TV screen while you wait. I love the atmosphere-- unpretentious.

Happy Valentine's Day!