Grandma Is Out of ICU

Palette of Sorbets

Sitting Area Is Cool

Patrick O'Connell's Back

I think. Private fancy birthday party. Mayor's house there too.

Curtain Canopy Thing

It's cooler than it seems.

Little Inn at Washington, Room 4

One Year Ago

Michael Jackson died, and we got our wedding favors done.

I remember I went to get a facial and on my way home I heard "Going to the Chapel" on CBSFM. They were kind of promoting an all day celebration of June weddings, and they also advertised something about having food themed-songs too. This was pretty appropriate since I was getting married that Saturday, and we had to finish our favors since the day before the actual wedding would be a complete nightmare to complete anything. (We were throwing things that I planned on doing under the bus left and right.)


Hand-cut parchment paper.


Hand-cut caramel made my Jon. (Note caramel was a huge pain in the butt--it had to be pliable enough to cut but not melting. It melted often.)


Wee loves it. She LOVES it!

Anyway, I remember it being around midafternoon when the CBS announcer said that there are reports that Michael Jackson is dead. He noted that the reports were from TMZ though, but that they're usually right. Unfortunately, TMZ was right. And they played "Man in the Mirror" and a bunch of other Michael Jackson songs for the rest of the evening. We didn't complete the chocolates and caramel wrapping and box stuffing until midnight.


Stuffing the boxes.


That silver blob on the top right? Chocolate.


Handmade, hand-cut, and hand-wrapped caramels and chocolates.


Indiana Jones running through our favor boxes and being chased by a huge panda bear.


My mom also worked on the crudites for the after ceremony snacks.


I have no clue what I'm doing here, but I'm in my parents' hall, picking through the empty box that my flowers came in that's now full of garbage. So actually, I know that I'm picking through garbage here, but I can't remember why. Haha.

One Week Ago + One Day

I turned 27.

Even though I took a sick day because I thought I had bronchitis or asthma and had to go to the doctor, I still had the best birthday ever.

Wee hung up on me because she thought I was a creepy man.

Wee came over with my two favorite donuts: strawberry glazed with sprinkles and a Boston cream. She also gave me the best card: a baby with a princess crown--such a cute baby!

We went to the pool for a few minutes. It was really cold. REALLY cold. She beat me at laps.

We ate Chinese food for lunch with Grandma--who was lucid enough to remember my birthday!

We watch 15 minutes of Gilmore Girls and then went to the doctor.

The doctor made me take a test to make sure I didn't have asthma. It was 20 min. of being drugged to induce asthma and drugged with Albuterol and LOTS of breathing. Breathing is hard, yo.

We picked up my Fudgie the Whale cake from Bergenline and dropped it off at our parents' house.

Then we went to my apartment where we ate Pam's delicious green tea flavored treats before heading to the roof party where the weather was perfect. (It looked like it might rain for a second.) There was baked macaroni, a bunch of delicious little puff pastry wrapped items, fresh fruit, string beans, cannoli, etc. Music WAS provided by a DJ. Lux danced for all of us and there was a standing ovation.

We took these photos of us and the sunset against Harlem.












We had Fudgie the Whale cake.



The next day I had a summer Friday off, so Wee and I got her car fixed and then went to the mall where I bought 3 rompers, pants, shorts, and a tank top. We ate the leftover Chinese food and passed out while watching Party Down. Dani came over and brought delicious cupcakes from Crumbs, and I made a butter pasta dish to eat on the roof. It was really nice and then it got cold. When Jon came home, we had more treats that he brought from Sarabeth's.



I think there's still more Whale though. Mmmm....Good, good birthday!

I'm a World-Record Breaker x2 This Week

It was a big week for me.



I participated in the world's largest yoga class, which I mentioned got rained out.

I was also published in the world's longest literary remix.

Here's my passage:

Page 104 by Christina Solazzo

“Then all I can say is, strangers, that you sleep uncommon sound.”

“I do, except for my sleep apnea,” said Bickford. “What about them fairy godmothers? Any of them around?”

“I think so,” said the Pike, “but it was dark. Maybe midnight. There were pumpkins and mice. Their squeaking woke me up. I saw a glass slipper, and in the canyon, a man’s voice echoed ‘’ella, ’ella. Eh, eh, eh.’”

“Do you think he was singing the ‘Umbrella’ song?”

“‘Umbrella!’” the Pike, incredulous at the suggestion, spat out. “No, he was calling for Cinderella. The Rip-tail Roarer of Rihanna knows all of her lyrics. I can whip my weight in karaoke-ing Rihanna—”

“Yes, we know you can,” interrupted Joshua. “You demonstrated it to us yesterday and the day before and last Tuesday at happy hour.”

The Pike rolled his eyes at Joshua, who only mastered the lyrics to “Love Shack” and ABBA, but Mr. Bickford appeared to credit this statement.

The Pike resumed his story. “Anyway, I hopped on my scooter and gave them chase.”

“Did they see you?”

“They did.”

“Why aren’t you dead then?”

“Why?” repeated the Pike. “I’m the Rip-tail Roarer of Rihanna. They knew they were no contest against my skillz.”

“Fo sho!”

“Kill any of them?” asked Joe.

“No, I left my tuner back here, so I couldn’t properly warm up to actually start anything.”

“It’s right there,” said Joshua, who put it back next to the Pike’s pillow because his own tuner had no batteries.

The Pike took it and played a note, which he then sang a little sharply.

“Then they’re not going to make it to semifinals?”

“No, but I drove them away. They won’t trouble you any more.”

Christina Solazzo is a managing editor at a children’s publisher.

The guy who will probably win one of the prizes did this:



And I'm okay with not winning a literary contest or that there was rain at the yoga event. It was just nice to be invited to participate.

I Rushed For This?

Mass Exodus

We did a set of basic moves, and then the sky opened again. And there was lightning and thunder.

Rain Ain't Going to Stop the YOGA!

Ommm....helicopter.....ohhhmmm....

Rain

F*cking Raining

Yoginis

Happy Father's Day!

We adopted a mine-finding/TB-detecting rat for my dad for Father's Day. I drew the above, printed it out on card stock, and bought a frame from the dollar store for it. It looks really nice, if I do say so myself. He's going to put it in his office.

Why? Read this NYTimes article. It was "most e-mailed." Adopting a rat really did seem cooler than something from the mall.

And we didn't use the stupid site the NYTimes suggested (for what they wanted money for was dumb--what do I care about schoolchildren watching the animals in action?). Instead, we donated a year's worth through this other site. I hope we didn't give our to some warlord though.

He's the photo of Chosen One from the website:



Hope your dad had a nice Father's Day too.

Birthday Minicakes

Birthday Cupcakes!

Matcha Birthday Dessert Party!

ER

heart.

so, i went to the ER on sunday because i felt like it was really hard to breathe and my hands and feet were going all pins and needles.

jon and i went to the ballet, and, like, right as it started, i felt like i really needed to leave. it was so cramped. like our entire row was full (which is unusual considering the last few times we went there were a few seats on the end that were empty). and it smelled like old people (like diaper-wearing old people and massive amounts of perfume). i thought i was going to die. my stomach and chest hurt so much--like they felt cramped and bruised. i could feel my heart racing and i couldn't calm it down. i felt like i was sweating and dizzy. i was so thirsty. the damn thing WOULD NOT END. AND the ballet we thought we were seeing was switched or something. i made jon flee during intermission. i thought it had to be food poisoning or a bad reaction to some delsym (cough medicine that i might be spelling wrong) and the inhaler (albuterol--which i also might be spelling wrong) since we just had lunch. the thing is that jon ate the same thing and had the same medicines except for the inhaler, so i don't know.


lungs.

so we left during intermission, and in the car i still felt like it was hard to breathe. my chest felt really tight, and i couldn't relax. about some point in the lincoln tunnel i could feel my hands going numb (pins and needles) and jon called my house and got wee who called my mom (who was at a baby shower in brooklyn). by the time my mom called us back, we were still in the tunnel and my feet felt tingly too. (my dad would normally be home, but this week he's in california visiting friends.)

anyway, we get to palisades ER, and some comical stuff happens: the ER entrance that is actually clearly labeled is for ambulances only--to walk into the ER you have to walk around the building's back side. note that there's no walk way leading you from the side to the back, so if you wanted to walk on the sidewalk you'd have to walk even further--but at least they had wood chips and not bushes against the building to run over. jon helps me check in and then some kid who might be a life guard (and looks fine, but maybe had a fever or something) starts asking me what's wrong. at this point, i'm sitting and shaking my hands and breathing moderately but hard--i look kind of freakish, but i swear everyone else in the ER looks absolutely fine--like if i were them i'd go to work fine...and i'm like, kid, are you kidding me? so i tell him that i'm having a hard time breathing. and he's like, you should try to breathe more slowly. seriously. he's like 15, and i fucking KNOW i need to try to breathe more slowly, but it's really hard when it's hard to freakin breathe and have pins and needles in your hands and feet!


hands.

eventually my feet feel better, but i keep on shaking my hands. i think it's all of 10-15 minutes but a nurse (who looks so bored out of her mind and definitely needs to brush up on her social skills because she was kind of a bitch overall) took my blood pressure, temperature, and pulse, i guess (they put a metal thing on my finger).

i guess because in the car i took off my rings (i didn't want to lose them by shaking them off or misplacing them while in the ER), it was hard for them to identify jon as my husband, so they kept looking at him kind of funny when they asked when the last time i got my period was and if i can disrobe to get an ekg done.

anyway, got a urine and x-ray done too. (the nurse that helped me get to the x-ray room and do ekg was so, so nice.) at some point the admin lady--very efficiently took my insurance/employment information.

anyway, everything turned out normal. and i don't have bronchitis. the ER doctor was kind of lame as far as answering my questions. he really wanted more information about what i told the nurse about a heart flutter--which i was told and got checked out like 4 years ago, and all i know is that i'm fine. after about 3 minutes he seemed a bit impatient and all i got was that i'm fine, and if i feel nauseous, I either will or won't throw up, and that for sedation I should take benadryl--and I was like, what? to make me sleep? and he's like a lot of the antianxiety meds have blah blah, which is also in benadryl, and i guess the drowsy side effect too. i really wish my mom or wee were in there with me. anyway, i was fine when i left and through the night.



brain.

i still feel like i get panic attacks though--or somewhat severe waves of discomfort in my chest and stomach, heart racing, and blood draining from my head, which causes it to feel like a lot of pressure, and super dry mouth. i feel that having a bottle of water helps and having a distraction helps, but anticipating that i could feel like that again at any moment kind of pisses me off.

on monday i tried taking benadryl, and i just got really, really tired. i even took a nap during lunch. but i still thought that the bus ride in would kill me. and then in my office i felt really sick and couldn't really function for about an hour--just moved papers around slowly and then took my time with the rest of my work. yesterday i had a lot of work to do so i slept for about four hours and didn't take the benadryl. i felt fine until i was about done with my project (a horrible book i was proofreading). jon and i ate out, but it was so loud and cramped, it was exhausting trying to stay calm. and this morning's bus ride kind of freaked me out again--but i tried keeping myself superdistracted. i don't know what's wrong with me. i hate it. right now, i'm fine. i just want to stay fine!

so far, work today is okay though. i found that if i talk a lot, i cough a lot. so i'm trying to talk less than normal. i'm going to my family's primary care doctor (who's a pulmonary specialist too) tomorrow, so i'm hoping he can fix me.

i'm hoping mostly that this is just the end of being 26 and not the beginning of being 27.

Rain Today

Flower Has Furry Pink Petals!

Rice Ball!

Mitsuwa Food Fair!

Birthday Party for Me?!

Who's in? Come over after work. I turn 27. It might be awesome.

Tastes Bad or Spoiled

Kinda sad.

Lincoln Center Fountain

New and pretty impressive water show.

New Yorker's "20 Under 40"

Per the NYTimes article, here are the writers (links to NYTimes reviews and profiles of their books from this other link):

• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi (Profile | Reviews: ‘The Thing Around Your Neck’ | ‘Half a Yellow Sun’)
• Chris Adrian (Reviews: ‘A Better Angel’ | The Children’s Hospital | Gob’s Grief)
• Daniel Alarcón (Review: ‘Lost City Radio’)
• David Bezmozgis (Review: ‘Natasha and Other Stories’)
• Sarah Shun-lien Bynum (Review: ‘Ms. Hempel Chronicles)
• Joshua Ferris (Reviews: ‘The Unnamed’ | ‘Then We Came to the End’)
• Jonathan Safran Foer (Times Topics)
• Nell Freudenberger (Reviews: ‘The Dissident’ | ‘Lucky Girls’)
• Rivka Galchen (Review: ‘Atmospheric Disturbances’)
• Nicole Krauss (Reviews: ‘The History of Love’ | ‘Man Walks Into a Room’
• Yiyun Li (Reviews: ‘The Vagrants’ | ‘A Thousand Years of Good Prayers’)
• Dinaw Mengestu (Review: ‘The Beautiful Thing That Heaven Bears’)
• Philipp Meyer (Review: ‘American Rust’)
• C. E. Morgan (Review: ‘All the Living’)
• Téa Obreht
• Z Z Packer (Review: ‘Drinking Coffee Elsewhere’)
• Karen Russell
• Salvatore Scibona
• Gary Shteyngart (Times Topics)
• Wells Tower (Profile | Review: ‘Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned’

I created a list on Amazon for anyone to peruse all of their available books. (Note: Since Foer's latest book is nonfiction, I didn't include it.)

What books do you recommend from the list? What books are you looking forward to reading?

Kind of really want this vase.