The Vagabond Vagabonds On

It's weird. It's the summer and I'm in New York. This has not occurred in a number of years. I should be traveling. Needless to say, I'm a bit antsy. My biological clock knows something is off. No moving back or forward a few hours.

Oh just you wait clock, just you wait. Because soon enough I'll be the closest to East Asia than I've ever been before. Okay, actually I'm only doing a pit stop in Hong Kong on my way to INDIA! INDIA! INDIA! Oh yes India!

Twenty-eight days (29 1/2 if you could travel time) in INDIA!

Okay so this actually isn't happening until December, but I'm already preparing myself for a full sensory overload. Scents, colors, heat, damp, light, beauty, pain, grit, dirt, tastes, all.

CANNOT WAIT

A New Set of Wheels

After seven years of living in the city I finally got a set of wheels! A two wheeler that is (please, cars and I don't really get along). Monday I decided to go on Craigslist to peruse the bike posts, and to my surprise, I found a perfect bike for me conveniently being sold in Williamsburg.

I arranged to meet the seller and after a few laps around the block, I was the proud owner of a red Fuji Sports 10 (from the 70s?). It's a little bit rusty, a little bit worn, which could describe the rest of my Brooklyn life. Meaning, it fits perfectly in my life.

Is the bike a perfect fit? Weeeeellll, the frame is an inch too big, I can't really stand over the bar, but the handle bars are comfortable, the bike goes fast. I've even managed to control it with one hand!

Biggest accomplishment on my soon to be named bike: Biking from Williamsburg to Astoria and back. Not bad for a girl who in the not so distant past scraped the skin off her left leg while frantically trying to get her foot out of the peddle harness of a bike 60 degrees from the ground as a car zoomed closer and closer on the cobblestone street outside of Musee Picasso. Oops


Lessons Learned: Bikes and Biking

1. If the seat is crooked, the bike goes crooked. I attribute this to the weight being off centered

2. Good back breaks are important.

3. Parents have absolutely no regard for their children's lives when crossing the street

Louis Louis Louisville Highlights

Top 10 Louisville Best

10. Half way decent sushi in the middle of the country. Just say Yes to raw fish.

9. 13x$ hotel points. Yes Mr. VL, thank you!

8. Commuting from Indiana to Kentucky and back every day. One more state closer to my four new states this year goal.

7. Team workout challenge. Kiyomi's Workout Day Count: 0

6. Food Baby growing rapidly due to failed workout challenge and over-eating. Yum!

5. Cabbie restaurant suggestion in Indiana: Hooters


4. Accents. Lots and lots of accents.

3. Concealed gun licenses


2. TV = Access to the ROW

1. Sketchy cabbie, driving the most rank smelling cab ever, playing Red Light City, 'an adult cartoon avatar game, where you can get naked, have sex, and do anything you can in real life'.

Looking professional has its ups

Awww the picture I'm using for my company's internal CV. It beats the busted picture downstairs security has of me. Perhaps I'll even get picked on a project or two. Also, perhaps I should make a greater effort to be more groomed...okay okay....

Getting Old: Part II

I think I have too many white hairs to do anything about them at this point. I think I'm going to have to embrace them or go bald by plucking them out. It's bad that it's fun to examine them up close (which one can only do by taking them out). Mine are half colored, half clear/white. Sometimes they are all gold tinted, clearer that not. Ehh? At least they are 'unique'. I guess I'm not going white, I'm going clear.

My eyes have adjusted to their new state. They no longer hurt or go blurry; they have settled into their worsened condition nicely. One day I'll actually make a doctor's appointment. Yay legitimate health insurance.

Ironic...

Louisville, the 16th largest city in the USA, home of Muhammad Ali

I hear all about Louisville's attributes, touted by the mayor on motion sensor as I make my way out of the Louisville Airport. I must say, I can believe that Louisville is the home of Muhammad Ali, or Cassius Clay, but the 16th largest state in the United States. I wonder where all the people have gone, or how far the city limits extend. Downtown is quite small from my perspective, and food options are limited.

In all fairness, I suppose my view of Louisville is quite narrow, seeing as I live two blocks away from the office. Within those two blocks is a Starbucks, Wolfgang Express, and a not so good too hip, I'm trying too hard, fusion restaurant. If anyone ever gushes over the sushi in Louisville, that person has obviously not tried sushi anywhere else in the United States.

Besides the politeness of the South, and the fantastic ribs (find Smokey Bones, it's damn worth it), I've yet to really discover what makes Louisville Louisville. I know it's hiding somewhere, and I'm excited to see what I can see. Moreover, I'm planning some fantastic spring trips with a colleague that promises to take me to the South's finest cities. I'm eager to see more of the United States and that's the great thing about my job, it affords me the chance to do just that.

Along with the proximity to the South, Kentucky also boasts some impressive cave formations and wilderness. A mini weekend trek anybody? I suppose I should save my hotel points for my anticipated trip to Japan (anticipated meaning gradually formulated in my head). If only if only...

Inside the Vagabond's First Aid Kit

Band-Aids: These babies are top priority, not only do they fit nicely around pinky toes for the pair of shoes that pinch, they can also go around bloody finger nails that crack after hitting airplanes. They can also go around said finger nails as to not get caught in hair, thus preventing further bloodiness.

White ice pack decorated with blue stars: I didn't even know these gems still existed. It looks like an inverted shower cap with a screw lid on top. Make sure you get one that does leak. Very useful on a rainy day whilst wearing leather soled shoes. Slippage is a definite danger. Apply to hip bone and elbow. Sue if you must, but at the very least get a free salad.

Nail clippers: Sometimes the TSA steals nail scissors, so bring these as an alternative. Very useful for the multiple nails that break on tables and chairs, computers and beds.

Ointment to sooth burns: When making white bean soup for roommate on a late Sunday evening, watch out for flying soup. It will burn skin and leave ugly red welts.

Sunscreen: Who knew that Miami sun was so strong. To avoid unslightly bra strap tan lines while eating lunch in the sun, apply generously.

Consultant Speak

If I thought I would improve my vocabulary, grammar and all around speaking capabilities as a Corporate Vagabond, I thought wrong.

The English language is expanding by leaps and bounds thanks to my fellow consultanty colleagues. And perhaps not for the better. It's a curious thing how corporate language develops. Who decides to create phrases that describe something oh so perfectly in a nonsensical manner?

So far I'm resisting...resisting the metaphors, the words, the grammar -- Everything! But we'll see how long until I say things like:

- "We have to compare apples to apples" (why not oranges, watermelons? puppies?)

- "I will have more bandwidth on Friday, let's meet then" (Do I look like an wireless internet connection? Oh if I were only that cool).

- "I'll be out of pocket all next week" (I'll I want to know is what does being 'in pocket' entail?)

- "To your point" (To my point what? What is the point of my point?)

- "As you were speaking to in our last meeting" (I was speaking to you and you and you. That's WHO I was speaking to)

- "I need you to create a deck by Monday" (This deck is not made out of wood and extends off the back of your house, if you needed clarification).

And today there was something about a right hand speaking to the left hand. I'm going to leave that one alone.

When Any News is Bad News

Now that I actually have access to a TV, I'm finally getting a bit more news coverage (also my worldliness is being broadened by rfi.fr), but it's nothing good let me tell you. Besides the death and destruction taking place in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, the Middle East, Asia, African, everywhere, the United States is chock full of home grown, corn fed raised violence.

First of all, why would a 15 year old girl want to kill her little sister's nine year old playmate? Really though? Was is to satisfy some gruesome urge, some uncontrollable, overwhelming desire, bloodthirst lust. I don't know, but I for one never had fantasies of killing little girls when I was 15. Hopefully, no one who is reading this had either, or else I must say that I'm going to have to re-evaluate our friendship.

Most close to home. A school in my school district, a neighboring school, a school against which we'd play high school basketball is in the news these days, for not the happiest of reasons. During the homecoming dance, a fifteen year old girl gets drunk in the parking lot with a whole bunch of guys just haning around and at least four of them decide to gang rape her, out in the open, additionally with 'foreign objects', while all the other guys (reports say fifteen - twenty) laughing, jeering and taking pictures. It only stops, when word got around the grapevine that this was happening, and someone who actually had a conscience, someone who is a respectable citizen of this country called the police.

What the fuck! I wonder what goes through the heads of these guys while they are either participating in this despicable act or allowing it to go on. Fuck mob syndrom. There is something fundamentally wrong with their value systems.

Anyway, there goes my rant for the day.

P.S - sorry friends, but if any of you participate in the aforementioned acts, let me make myself very clear. We are not friends. In fact, I'll call the police on your ass and you will go to prison for a very long time, sharing a cell with Wicked Willy or Big Bertha (I'm very gender equal with my rants aren't I now). This means you! =D

The Consultant Regime

Humph, well let me say that there is none, as of yet.

Every week, I bring my exercise shoes (that I've used about 6 times since 2005 when I bought them. Also they are white, pink, gray and extremely ugly, but that's another story all together). And every week, they stay put in the Forever 21 bag in my carry on.

I bring my bikini, in hopes of using either the inside Family pool or outside Tranquility pool, but can't seem to get myself out of my room past 7pm, after coming in from a day of work with my take out.

And you know what I notice, I do exercise in New York, just by going up and down and all around the subway and the city (OMG FREAKING BABY BE QUIET! BEEEEEEEE QUIEEETTTTTTTTTTTTTTT). And I walk really really really fast. Laugh if you want, but it makes a huge difference. And it's almost painful for me to walk so slowy. Painful I tell you!!! I don't know how slow walkers bear it!

So instead, I do absolutely nothing, but eat eat eat. Being that I'm California, fortunately, I have quite a few choices of cuisine. Sadly, I'm no longer eating a ton of Japanese food, but I get by nicely on fruit fruit fruit, soup, salad, sandwiches, fruit fruit fruit. I eat two fruit salads a day at least, and sometimes a third for dessert. How spoiled I am! Sometimes, however I wish I could have a half bag of edamame, tofu, a bit of pineapple, some sauteed corn, and a papadam or two for dinner. You know, something completely random, but oh so perfectly satisfying my food cravings. Alas!

So what does this corporate vagabond do? Walk to the bathroom a lot (because no one can fault you for using the restroom)...hey what can I say, I drink a lot of liquids. Plus it's a great way to give your eyes a rest from the computer screen. Walk to and from various parking garages and non descript buildings.

But I promise: I shall check out more of the hotel's facilities next week...my last week in sunny LA.