Happy Chinese New Year!!!

I have today off (w00t!). It's been a nice weekend spent in NJ. Not much going on except lots of food and TV, both of which are always nice. I don't think I've had so much candy in a long time ;p

Work is still consuming the majority of my time. Most of the time it's challenging and fun, with new projects and possibly new staff joining (yes, our organization is hiring!). But this also means it's been very busy -- new contracts means lots of new reports, meetings, performance "quotas," etc. The good news is that our phone has been ringing off the hook with new clients. The bad news is that many of these clients are seeking foreclosure help. Sigh.

On the home front, I've finally started playing my Christmas present -- Animal Crossing: City Folks! I've named our town New NY, in a humble tribute to the City in which I live and to another City in the far, far future, where a beloved Doctor and two of his companions had traveled. New NY is currently inhabited by about 10 animals and two humans: ziasudra and sunnydlita (a.k.a. SunnyD). The ubiquitous Tom Nook is still scamming money out of us all, but it's a good town, with fishes and fossils and K.K. Slider airchecks. Does any out-of-towners want to visit us? *puppy eyes*

In Real Life, I've been trying to catch up with different friends in the City. The l00bs met for a weekend a few weeks ago, which was a lot of fun. I'm also hoping to finally get together with so_severus and sparkly_stuff sometime this week, after months of having vastly different (and incompatible) schedules.

So, Happy Lunar New Year to all! I hope the Year of the Ox will be a good and joy-filled one!

Back at my old apartment to pick up mail, and boy do I have some good stuff among the pile of unsolicited advertisements! I got:

1. From elanorofcastile: A lovely, lovely Snape's Animagus form bat ornament that shall be hanging proudly on my family's Christmas tree from now on :)

2. From saladbats: A gorgeous Snape greeting card with lovely pencil sketching, stamped paper handprint, and a cauldronful of Snape's potions brewed just for me!

Thank you so much! :D

Happy Holidays, flist!!!
To those who celebrate Christmas -- Merry Christmas!

To those who celebrate Chanukah -- Happy Chanukah & Mazel Tov!

To those who celebrate Solstice/Kwanzaa/other wintry holiday of choice -- have a wonderful holiday season!


Holiday cards are on the way -- in moving to my new apartment I had inadvertently lost a box of cards. Need to go back to my old apartment to pick it up :p This means some of you will be getting New Year cards ^_^;;


Thank you to accioslash, dementordelta, dracofiend, smilie117, sparkly_stuff, vain_chan and venturous1 for the wonderful cardses, and to spike7451 for the Christmas cookie! They are all wonderful, every single one of them!

Enjoy the holidays, everyone. Stay warm and eat lots of good food :)

It's official. I'm no longer a Manhattanite. I've now (more or less) moved into Astoria, sharing an apartment with sunnydlita and her current housemate. I still spend most of my waking hours in Manhattan though, so I feel like the only thing I've changed is my sleeping location.

That said, I'm so glad to have computer/Internet access again! Been without my laptop and functional Internet signal for two nights and I was feeling the withdrawal right from the beginning XD

So I feel like I'm waaay behind the times, but...

HOLIDAY CARDS!

If you'd like to receive a holiday (of your choice) card, please comment with your contact info (screened) or email it to me at ziasudra @ gmail . com. I'd love to send them out to whoever wants one! In turn, if you're offering cards, please link me to your card post :)

To everyone who celebrates it, Happy Lunar New Year!

Whee, I have a five-day weekend! And the office closed early yesterday too. That's longer than my 4.5-day Thanksgiving break! I'm not completely off the hook from work duties, though. Mandatory New Year's parade participation on Saturday and Sunday, and the fact that I'm constantly in touch with the State and other non-Lunar New Year observing government/non-profit/for-profit agencies means I'll still be thinking about work stuff throughout the weekend. But at least I get to not set my alarm clock for a few days :)

I've officially been working at my current job for one year. I only started full-time in September, so I'm not eligible for any vacations yet. But my co-workers have known and seen me around for a year, and it's weird to think that when I first took the job, it was originally a sort of self-demotion to downgrade my work commitment from the full-time Internet job to my then part-time responsibilities.y

Looking back, I believe I made the right decision to turn down the initial offer of starting right off as a full-time employee. I had wanted to work less hours, so trading full-time with full-time would have been disastrous, and I very much doubt I'd still be working where I am now had I forced myself to take the offer. Starting as part-time gave me the opportunity to learn the ropes without being fully committed; it also meant less expectation pinned on me, so all my first blunders were overlooked quite graciously.

Strange journey, this past year. I like unpredictability and working a different schedule every week; I'd choose a job I love with low pay over a so-so job with high pay, hands down. Sometimes I look back at where I was and where I am now, and genuinely wonder how the heck did I end up in such a normal, white-collar office job.


And since it's Chinese New Year, I bring you the sage wisdom of The Fortune Cookie:

My Fortune Cookie told me: Confucius say, it is time to lift a stone only to drop on your own feet. Get a cookie from Miss Fortune

Thank you, luciechan and mingbutterfly, for your beautiful cards (and the beautiful words written inside them)! :D

Had a late start today, but I'm excited about going to Lisa's for the l00bs Christmas party. (Lisa, if you're reading this, I plan to take the 12:46 train from Penn Station.) There will be exchanging of gifts, eating of cake, and just general t00bing around in celebration of a belated Christmas and early New Year.

---

Oh, and guess what I found in my building's garbage room today? An upright lamp in good condition that someone had thrown away -- and it WORKS!!! Merry Christmas to meeee! It's now standing proud and tall in my room where the old lamp was, next to other furniture my roommates and I had salvaged from the garabage room in the past: a bamboo chair and a nice little night table.

I love it when my neighbors decide to redecorate their apartments with new furnitures. Now if only the neighbor decides to throw away a second upright lamp... *g*

Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it!!!

The weekend has been a blur of playing Rock Band. Boy Cousin is the resident "Expert Level" guitar player (though I hasten to add: I'm better at the real guitar than he ;p). Girl Cousin and I switch off playing the drums, but mostly I'm relegated to singing because I've figured out how to change pitches to match the arrow going up and down on the screen. This doesn't mean I actually know how to sing any of the songs. Oh, and I've found out that singing "la, la... blah, something... blah" is just as effective as singing the actual words *g*

I hope you're all enjoying a peaceful and restful holiday... or just a Tuesday that you have off!

Because a certain someone asked me over the weekend, I finally got the needed push to write up my holiday wish list. No particular order, and the items don't necessarily all make sense:

1. Write or draw me stuff!!! I love getting anything creativity-related :)
   
2. Metrocards. Yes, the good ol' Metrocard for New York City public transporting. I use them, it's practical, and virtually ubiquitous in the Big Apple. Per-ride cards are love; unlimited cards would go to waste.
   
3. I am in much need of a floor lamp. The kind that sticks up vertically and gives light at the top. I prefer brightness over design, since I'm one of those people who like to take off the lampshade part of lamps in order to get more light. And please, one that uses regular light bulbs. The death of my previous lamp that brought about this request, unfortunately, uses some sort of obscure halogen light bulb that I can't find anywhere.
   
4. Speaking of light bulbs, I would love to get a few of those energy efficient light bulbs that they sell in Home Depot -- n:vision or other similar brands.
   
5. I also find myself in dire need of a telephone we can use for the apartment (as anyone who has tried to call probably knows). Cordless phone with answering machine would be great, though in reality, anything functional is already fantastic.
   
6. Espresso beans to feed my espresso machine. Ungrounded whole beans or finely grounded beans only, please.
   
7. To go with the above item, I need a small metal pitcher with handle and a thermometer, for the purposes of holding the milk and measuring its temperature while steaming.
   
8. I find myself in need of a combination lock. Yes, the kind where you set a number sequence, then click it shut.
   
9. Gift cards. In direct response to a certain someone who asked: I tend to "shop" at fandango, K-Mart, Starbucks, Duane Reade, Whole Foods, Best Buy and, er, Chinatown.
   
10. Donate to your favorite charity of choice. Seriously, I'd much rather someone give to a worthy cause than buy me things I never end up using. If you're in need of a suggestion, Heifer International is always a favorite of mine.

And a thank you to lynkemma, shipchan, dove95, and sealcat -- I got your cards!!! :D