Tried to explain Chinese preserved eggs (1000-year-old eggs) tonight. I don’t think it worked.
2 years, 3 months ago
Coworker came into my office and said, “I can smell your banana”. Good thing I was eating a banana at the time.
2 years, 3 months ago
Don’t expect to be loved unconditionally if you can’t do the same. But isn’t that just a condition itself? What a paradox.
2 years, 3 months ago
A Visit From Big Sister
8
Misun, aka my big sister, visited from France yesterday. We gorged ourselves on all-you-can-eat sushi, and I let her surprise me by choosing not to know what she ordered for us. Now I wish I had kept note so I could order the same things again.
It was hard to argue with her about the bill. She kept insisting that she pay because she’s older (from her Korean culture), and I kept insisting that I pay because I’m the host (from my Chinese culture). I even used the argument that if it’s the elder who pays, then she would always be paying. Unfortunately, the hostess took her side and refused my money.
She was only able to stay in Ottawa for the night, but before turning in well beyond our bedtimes, we caught up as people can only do in person. We’d been keeping in touch the whole time we’ve been apart, and now had the chance to fill in the details.
The time I most felt like I knew what it was to have a sister was when we brushed our teeth together in the bathroom. Afterward, we compared grey hair, me laughing at her three strands, as I have a steady diet of salt added to my pepper.
When I woke up, I found this cute note, with our faces (including Dolly’s) drawn on it.
You know you’re right when the devil’s advocate sided with you.
2 years, 3 months ago
Need to pee, but I’m sucking on a lolipop. Would it be too weird to be standing at a urinal with a lolipop in my mouth?
2 years, 3 months ago
Follow-Up
(I love these entries.)
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First: listen to this. Some days I feel exactly like this song. Those days are pretty good.
I remember reading the blog once of the guy who said that his aunt was Nancy. She was a Canadian woman who suffered from mental instability and killed herself (“It seems so long ago/Nancy was alone/a forty five beside her head/an open telephone”), and Cohen read about the story in the newspaper, and penned this song about her.
Anyway.
I like him. He’s very unbiased. He doesn’t try to coddle me or side with or against me or force me into thinking anything. He offers perspectives that no one else can give me.
I wasn’t sure where to start, so I just tried to bring him up to speed on my life in the time that passed between us. It began briefly with how well I was maintaining the progress we had made but quickly drifted to the relationship, and that pretty much took the rest of the session.
(From here on out, I’m going to refer to it as the relationship. Just cause I’m tired of writing “half-relationship” or “relationship” in quotes like that. I’d say that two people as involved as we were would certainly be considered to be in a relationship.)
Every time I watch my Hong Kong markets video (http://vimeo.com/3621051) I think to myself, “I wish Julie could have been there”.
2 years, 3 months ago
Turned the heat on today. Have to admit, it’s nice to be warm when stepping out of the shower.
2 years, 3 months ago
Sometimes, I’m really glad I don’t get these pop culture references. Otherwise, that would mean I’m privy to all this crap right now.
2 years, 3 months ago
Off to see my therapist soon and I’m still not sure what to say to him yet.
2 years, 3 months ago
Tatiana
Some portraits of Tatiana. As a person into voyeurism (more specifically, on the end being observed), she’s more comfortable with her clothes off than on. I love working with people who are comfortable with their bodies. You get total creative freedom, instead of the frustration of having to walk on eggshells, lest you offend a model’s sensibilities.
I’ve discovered that when doing nude photography, you need to open up the aperture so that a greater portion of the person is in focus than in conventional portraits. If you focus on only the eyes, you lose the nudity and it becomes a distraction. If you focus on nakedness, you lose the eyes and it becomes vulgar.