where cider meets condensed milk: January 2008

where cider meets condensed milk

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

This is not sayonara, but "shitsurei-shimasu!"

Before you assume it's a curse, shitsurei in Japanese means "rude" and shimasu is the verb of doing. You must say this every day as you are finish work: I'm being rude for going home after doing everything required of me!! Forgive me for leaving before you! Man. I'm a world-class jerk! See you at 8am tomorrow!!

(Saying sayonara at the end of day implies that you won't be back for awhile. Feel free if you are actually off on a journey, but if you're quitting your job, it helps to say your foreign farewells with the level of gusto employed by pre-gubernatorial Arnold... BayBEE.)

Phnom Penh and ridiculously cute kids at CCF await! I'm on a plane tomorrow, and everything else is decidedly less concrete. Shitsureishimasu, Seattle. Thanks for the lattes. Back sometime later. Don't wait up.

posted by Raychaa @ 9:57 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Pick Chicago

Little Girls' Night in Chicago started, as all Chicago nights should, with *famous* deep-dish pizza. We ordered a small, which claimed to be for 1-2 people. I think that's only possible if the first person had gobbled up his companion and then was hungry for more. Seriously ridiculous. I was able to meet up with Jon K for a mateccino while Sarah hit up the shops along Michigan Ave, and otherwise we had a pleasant taster-spoon wandering of downtown. Sars and I had a view of the night's lightning storm from our room in the Hyatt, which was our last nice-hotel hurrah now that the NCAA and JET (respectively) have pulled the princess rugs out from under us. Hello, $5 hostels.

The Bean ("that big shiny globe thing") was surrounded by fellow tourists in the rain, and a good dose of crazy people. They say it was inspired by liquid mercury, but I thought it more like that black stuff from the heyday of the X-Files. The truly terrifying art exhibit in Millennium Park was a pair of identical 3-story high screens that showed a blinking, twitching, smirking video of a person's face. Don't walk here alone. You might come out with nightmares. Or, a big booger.

posted by Raychaa @ 2:38 PM 0 comments

Friday, January 11, 2008

Auntie Em! Auntie Em!

Wisconsin was not the chosen site for filming "Twister" but it gets exciting weather sometimes. Last summer when I went on a speedy trip to Madison, a record-breaking 24 tornadoes touched down in the state, and we spent a good part of an afternoon in Scott's Storm Shack with sirens ringing throughout the neighborhood. Naively believing that I had *nothing* to do with this anomaly (or the tsunami, or the typhoon blitz of '04) , I returned to Wisco this month to find below-freezing January temperatures and snowdrifts. All clear.

After a few days, it warmed up considerably, causing thick fog. My sister and parents and I headed from Madison to Janesville in the haze, when suddenly were caught in a foggy white-out on I-90. After a few tense minutes, traffic halted, and would remain so for 3 hours due to a horrific 100-car smash parade less than a mile ahead. A minute earlier, and that could have been us. If fate has anything to do with it, all the tiny things that delayed us, including the alarm going off when I walked out of Borders that morning, may have kept us safe. Fate or the justification of a would-be shoplifter? Odd that it was the 2nd time that week a security alarm went off for me...

Sarah and I left on a bus to Chicago in the morning, arriving in balmy 60 degree weather. Traffic was also jammed up, due to a visit from President Bush. This caused an equal amount of commuter ire as the killer fog had, except these angry people had picket signs. And, lo and behold, a rare tornado touched down that day in southern Wisconsin, smashing a town to bits. It's probably my fault. Alternately, we could blame global warming or feel guilty as a nation for not paying enough attention to Al Gore.

Non-disastrous adventures: seeing Lorian in Middleton! She's a bonafide interior designer now, which means we're both on completely different tracks than those long ago freshman days in Bobb-McCulloch. And of course, I saw my family: g-rents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and all. We all watched the Seahawks limp to victory over the Redskins, which now means they'll battle Green Bay in the next round. Family combat! Go Hawks.

Cousin time at its finest, courtesy Heidi's precocious computer and technology abilities. She took, saved, edited, and emailed these pictures before Sars and I even knew what was happening. Back when we were 8, man, the internet wasn't even INVENTED. (Well, maybe it was... ask Al Gore.)

posted by Raychaa @ 2:38 AM 2 comments

So wrong it's right. And then wrong. And then wrong again... welcome to the inaka.

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Name: Raychaa
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About Me: “No man, not even a doctor, ever gives any other definition of what a nurse should be than this - 'devoted and obedient'. This definition would do just as well for a porter. It might even do for a horse. It would not do for a policeman.” (Florence Nightingale)
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