Peggy, the Tingling Feeling

Have you ever been overwhelmed by warmth that starts at your mouth, because your smile is so glad and true that it just spreads to the top of your head, from looking at a picture of someone? This someone is so special, yet I don’t know the first thing about her. Yes, Jennifer Aniston and I are in love.

No, no. Her name is not Jennifer, it is Peggy. She and I were friends from when I was three years old. I am not sure how much we were actually friends because she is five years older than me, so when I was still managing bowel movements, she was already learning about really big kid things, like the word carbohydrates (I had that one on a third grade vocabulary pop quiz - it horrified me). Regardless, we were buddies, and in fact, I thought of her as my sister. After a few years of my incessant nagging and playing of the house, she and her family moved to Taiwan, and I did not see or hear from her for the rest of my childhood. Those were lonely years.

Well I mention all this now because over the past few years, Peggy and I have chatted once or twice, and it is always a flood of utter delight to talk to her - to remember how happy I always was to see her when we were little knee-highs. It was a very genuine and innocent feeling, and the best part is, when I talk to her now, I feel that again. We chatted this past week because her family has forgiven the United States of America and is visiting for a week, with a trip to New York on the agenda. Very unfortunately, I will not be here that weekend, but I promised to visit her at her current residence. She lives in the very progressive state of Texas, as an associate professor of psychology at a very large university. Hence, we exchanged pictures via email, which lead me to the tingling feeling that I described above, and felt compelled to create a posting about it here so I never forget.

Sugar = good

You're welcome, Arjun. For some unknown reason, I am knowledgeable about very important things, such as the size of the smallest primate in the world (size of your thumb, found in Madagascar, studied carefully by an ex-Dallas Cowboys cheerleader). But when it comes to very trivial things (my blood type?), I'm clueless.

In other news, my coworkers and I participated in the company BBQ at our client site for lunch. It was one of the few days this summer under 70 degrees, with wind gusts of 16 mph. I think half of the food I ate was actually my hair. We were offered uncooked (not just undercooked) chicken, tasteless lemonade, and no mustard with my bratwurst. The meal cost $6.95 (why not $7?), and no one left happy. I did snatch a few cookies and pieces of carrot cake before leaving, which brings me to my point. Soft, fluffy, sweet things are always delicious and can save every meal. When another coworker saw me walking in with a plate of of cookies, carrotcake, high fructose corn syrup, he remarked, "Oh, a typical Jeanne meal." So what if I had 2 cookies and 3 chocolate dipped strawberries right before dinner last night? Plenty of vitamins and proteins in sugar! How do I know? Because, I am knowledgeable about very important things.

Me English Speak Good

Public Notice: Friends. If you notice that I have mistyped, misSpelled, misdefined or, missed, a word... please let me know. Do not let me continue to embarass myself continually in front of the World. Thanks.

Oh, a TITLE!

Stalking is no longer and art, as it is made easy with all the online-friendship-school-interest networks budding up. Finding someone's personal information (phone number, college, location, bra size) can be as simple as typing their name at thefacebook.com, friendster.com, orkut.com, please-stalkme.com and of course, Google. I will be first to admit that when I get bored, I have typed in the names of anyone and everyone who comes to mind, just to revel at how ingenius (injeanneous!) I am to have found them on the Internet. And then I'll send an email to Shanty about it. And if it's really juicy, Anjum gets one too.

I just spent a good 30 minutes doing the above described actions, shamelessly. I have come across some very interesting individuals. Again, I am not ashamed.

Movie Review:
If you're idea of a good movie is excellent cinematography, phenomenal acting, and questionable subject matter, 'Secretary' is the perfect movie. I LOVED IT. It stars James Spader and Megan Jlylhshahhallll (Jake Jylenenelahahahallll's sister). If you are not so much into stories about sadomasochistic tendencies and bothersome relationships, please skip this one. If you're still curious, l'll tell you more.

Morning from Minneapolis! I thought about putting the link to my photos here... but realized that then my brother's very cute and round 9-year-old face would be prematurely exposed to the Internet and we don't want that now do we?

So, I will send out a link to the Orlando photos in 5 mins. Therefore, if when you read this and have not received the link, you must inform me in writing that you would like a link to the photos. If I do not receive such a notice from you, I will expect that you do not wish to see these photos.

Sincerely,
The Management

On another note, D.C. will be my playground this weekend. I anticipate tourist sight seeing, serious bargain shopping, and a little bit of partying. Just a lil. More to update soon.

I want to post photos of Orlando trip- but am confused as to how to proceed. Anjum, helllllp!

So, Orlando was tons-o-fun. I am dark yellow now; sort of like a ripening banana. A beautiful, dark yellow, ripening banana.. little brown spots and all (damn mosquitos). What did I do in Orlando?

Epcot, Magic Kingdom, SeaWorld, Universal Studios, Nick Faldo Golf Institute lesson, buffets for lunch and dinner, and took hundreds of pictures like the Asian tourist that I was. I hope to put them up soon (ANJUM!!!).

I watched 'Closer' while waiting for my delayed flight to depart (late by 3 hours. After traveling on a plane 2x per week for the past 6 months, that 3 hour delay hardly peeved me at all. I knew all this travel lead to some good). The movie gets my nod of approvavl and a quiet introspective smirk. I can't wait to watch it again so I get all the little nuances. That's what the entire movie is about - nuances. [Edit] And Natalie Portman's bum.

I've rented two more movies for this weekend: The Secretary and Decalogue X. I don't know what either is about, but of course, I will be reporting on them here. Asian reporter, Trisha Takanawa, back to you in the studio.

(If you don't watch Family Guy, you 1-won't get the last quote 2-need to get over yourself and watch an episode)

Orlando is fun, despite:

1. The sweltering heat - my family likes to go as close to the equator as possible during the hottest times of the year, as exemplified by our vacation choices for the past few years: Taiwan, Hawaii, the Bahamas.

2. Exhorbitant ticket prices - we have spent over $2,000 on entry fees so far to visit three Disney Parks + Sea World + Universal Studios. That could have been another vacation... to a less sweltering destination.

3. Masses of vacationers - who not only seem large in quantity but also in their size.

A few more days to go and back to normalcy in New York. What strikes me most here is not the shows, music or attractions - it is the sheer number of shops within the theme parks. The last time I saw these many things on sale, I think I was standing on Wall Street. OOHHHH! The commercialism drives me a little nuts, but for the sake of those traveling with me, I refrain from complaining about it...too much.

In the past five months that I have been traveling the MSP-LGA weekly commute, I have met 3 people so far that have given me their cards/contact.

The first fellow traveler I met, I tried to ignore (there was PowerPoint to be tweaked), but he was persistent in talking to me. Turns out, he admires the work of consultants, claiming that we are able to turn ideas and disparity into tangible networks and solutions. It made me wonder what line of work he is in. After a few minutes of conversation, I started to enjoy it; talking about the latest research on consumer behavior, popcorn sales, traveling around the world for a year, and advertising. Turns out, he is the president of kirshenbaum bond + partners, a small but very reputable ad shop. I will contact him if I want to change fields.

The second gentleman I met, the neurosurgeon, I already mentioned in my first blog entry.

The third I met this weekend on my flight to Orlando. A French-blooded, Southern-accented, talkative and fairly attractive beverage-bottling-machine technician. He has lived in Orlando for 19 years, but travels so often that he has over 500,000 miles banked with Continental Airlines. The unpredictability of his job requires constant flights to irregular destinations for indeterminate stays. For this reason, among many others, he and his fiancé split. We chatted about many things, mostly places we've been and what/where we ate there; but really, he wasn't listening. We were conversing because he likes to listen to stories about how he felt after a seven-month stint in Fargo installing a new bottling machine (bored), and hobbies outside of work (architecture). What did interest me about this guy were his hands - they were so worn. His face was that of a sun kissed, blonde hair blue-eyed, 30 year-old bachelor. His hands looked like they had been through both World Wars. His fingers were crooked, like trees bent leftwards from constant ocean winds, slightly larger at the knuckles. I kept wondering if working on bottling machines caused such an alteration, or if it was a genetic disease, or if he actually spends all day cracking and bending his knuckles for a living.

I won't be calling him for, "If you want to try out a new Arabian restaurant I've heard a lot about," but the next time I drink a Coke from a plastic bottle, I might think about the strenuous effort which was required to bottle it that could have molded Nils' hands.

P.S.- What, pray tell, is an 'Arabian restaurant'? Is it located in the dictionary next to 'Oriental person'? Or is correctly used and I am just overly sensitive on behalf of Anjum? Lastly, Happy Independence Day... really.