snow on a windy day

snow 

dancing in the air

wandering about

carefully deciding where to land

some land on a branch of a tree

resting quietly after a long journey from the sky

some land on the frozen pond

becoming a part of ice, floating until the spring arrives

some even succeed to land on a jogger's shoulder

hoping to travel a little bit further

and some decide to land on my porch

hello there

i hope you are happy about your decision

poor Lincoln

Yearning gaze at the perfect bed from the not-so-perfect bed

This is one of the pictures on the wall next to my bed. Who wants to be looking at the picture of the bed while laying on the bed already, right? Really. I don't know what I was thinking when I got it up there. I think it's from one of the Anthropologie catalogs came in the mail a while ago. I thought it was nice. Well, when I pay attention to the detail now, it is actually nice. This bed with the cute pink pipe frame is obviously for a couple, one side is for her and the other is for him. Two matching bed side tables, reading lamps, and books. Can't be more perfect than that.

I have a big bed for one person, and I always sleep on one side and other side wide open as if I'm always expecting someone. I have two pillows too when I only need one. Looking at this photo really makes me yearn for dozing off and waking up next to you and feeling complete again (so funny someone said, "each day is incomplete until I watch this video.")

my new discovery, Gotye

So, I've been listening to Gotye's music all week, ever since I discovered him last Sunday night while I was half-jokingly watching the Grammys just so that I could tease and tweet about Carrie Underwood's ridiculous LED dress. So, discovering gem like him there came as a complete surprise. I think I had heard his Grammy winning song, "Somebody that I used to know" somewhere briefly before and thought it was nice but never paid close attention to it. When I listened to the whole thing last week, I was like wow, holy christ, where have you been all my life? I guess he's been famous for a while now, but I always happen to be the last person on earth to find out about everything. You guys do such a fine job to keep me uninformed of all the goodies out there. Anyway. He was a nice discovery, and I love his music.

And today, I found this documentary, The Making of Eyes Wide Open. It's simply enjoyable to eyewitness the process of making a song and it really shows you how carefully, meticulously, yet spontaneously he creates his music.



He's truly an exceptional artist. Not to mention he's so hott and can speak Japanese.
Damn!

Oh aye Friday night!

Ahh...Friday night! The best time and day of the week! I was waiting for it all week. I've made it. I'm celebrating it with a real matcha, strawberries and leftover Valentine's Day chocolate. Ah, life has just become a bit more beautiful now.

This week went fast, and mann, I was busy! I don’t remember which day, but one day this week, I was getting ready to go to school and I was in the bathroom, putting some make-ups on or brushing my hair. I realized how untidy the bathroom was; clothes laying on the floor just as I took off before taking a shower, all the cosmetic stuff, earrings and rings were all mixed up, lying scattered next to the sink. I sighed looking at the mess and looked at myself next. I looked tired and stressed. I was running late, and I didn't have time to tidy it up or lament the current state of being. I said to myself in the mirror, “Why am I always so busy, doing million things at a time! When will I ever be not busy???” When will I ever have time to read all the books I want to read that are on my kindle? Or movies I want to watch? The DVD’s on my dining table keep piling up. The list of things I want to do when I'm free piles up while more new duties pile up even higher, catching up and eventually overtaking and swallowing all the fun part of my life before I know it.  

I couldn't afford for just standing there thinking about it all day, so I grabbed socks (of which took forever to find the matching pair) and left my apartment. By the time I got to school, I realized that all my life, I'm always either really busy or sunk by absolute boredom, so I'm always on either side of two extremes, never comfortably busy or comfortably not busy. Well, I don't know if anybody can possibly relish the state of being "comfortably busy", but it's ironic that when I run out of things to do, meaning when I'm free,  I don't know how to be "comfortably not busy." It should be easy, right? but I really don't know what to do. I only manage to glance at all the books and movies I'd put aside when I was too busy to do so, in hopes of indulging myself into them when I have the time to do so. Strangely, when I'm actually free, I don't feel like it anymore and kind of become unsure of what to do with all this free time in hand and sort of miss having million things to do and the state of busyness all together. Yeah, it's nuts. 

Well, tonight, I tried to enjoy this state of being comfortably not so busy but ended up tidying up my room a bit while listening to Gotye, my recent discovered gem. Talked with mom and dad on Skype and later with mike. I will have to finish Chapter 4 tomorrow, so I'm gonna be hella busy again, and no, I won't complain. I will enjoy the state of busyness while it lasts and keep looking forward to next Friday.

Valentine's Day ritual: green tea cupcake-making

Here comes my Valentine's Day ritual...yup green tea cupcake-making! This morning, I had mil de cosas hacer, like reading four chapters for the evening class, preparing for tomorrow's class, typing up my thoughts for the group project, etc., and I had to do all that before 1pm. I tried to ignore that it's Valentine's Day and attempted to complete the assignments but when it was past noon, I put the books down and shut off my computer. Forget it. It's Valentine's Day for god's sake! I couldn't resist it any longer.

I dug out the recipe I used from last year and started cooking. It took only 30 minutes or so for the entire process. I only managed to make 8 of them though. I ate two (yeah I had to taste two of them to examine carefully if they're edible, right?) and gave the rest to my friends.

The photos below green tea cupcakes are homemade fish-shaped chocolate from my former students. They stopped by my office in the evening. How sweet...! It is delicious, and I'm munching this all up with strawberries as I type :)

Hope everyone has had a happy Valentine's day today!
Sending much love to you all...

'real' news

So I was wrong, about mom only emailing me whenever she has news about Nene, the cat. She prove to me today that she actually does send emails with 'real' news. That 'real' news was...my sister-in-law, Kazumi is pregnant with her second child!
Here is an email from Kazumi that mom forwarded to me:

("Just came back from the doctor. I'm six weeks pregnant. I will go get the maternity book later. It's still as small as 'slime', but I could see its heartbeat on the screen. I'm happy!")

So I'll be an auntie again by this November, I suppose?
Life is good.
Real good.