Chinatown

Being Chinese, every time I went on a trip somewhere, it was a requirement that you go to Chinatown whenever it was available. Especially since Memphis had no Chinatown, only a handful of Asian grocery stores, one or two places to get really greasy dim sum, and one “decent” place to eat “real” Chinese food.

Whenever I would go visit Jay in St. Louis for a weekend, we would always have to make a trip to St. Louis’ small little “Chinatown” and buy my dad some Chinese sweet buns; which he would then complain about being too expensive and not tasting that good. But, if I did NOT stop and get him any I was a bad daughter and just plain inconsiderate for not getting him anything at all. Once when I went to Atlanta with Jay to visit some friends and we did NOT go to Chinatown. I thought that my parents were going to have a stroke when I did not come home with a roast duck or roast pork or a measly bun.

So when I moved to NYC, the most important thing for my parents was when I would make it to Chinatown. TWO days after we got here (and remember our stuff still hadn’t arrived so I only had what I brought on the plane) my parents call to check on me and the first thing out of my dad’s mouth was if I’d made it to Chinatown. Not, has your stuff arrived? Nope. He wanted to know if I’d found any good dim sum …

OK, to be fair, we did end up in Chinatown the following day … I mean, I am STILL Chinese! Jay and I took the train to Chinatown and ate lunch at this place called Big Wong, which is set up like a Hong Kong café. It was actually pretty good, food-wise. But since I don’t speak a lick of Chinese AND I was with a non-Chinese guy I was given the evil eye by the waiters (the ones that would even look in our general direction). Granted it could have been for my lack of language skills that I was given the evil eye, but I like to think that Jay had something to do with it too (I can’t shoulder all the dirty looks alone!)

So because I am a good Chinese girl and keeping in touch with my roots, I have been to Chinatown at LEAST once a week ever week that we’ve been here. To be fair, normally it’s to meet people for lunch/dinner, and once we got unpacked and more settled I had to go get my Chinese cooking staples – sesame oil, soy sauce, oyster sauce, dried noodles etc … And OMG, the groceries in Chinatown are SO much cheaper than the groceries in the UWS (Upper West Side). I got 3 lbs of cherries for $3! Oh, and I totally bought 3 lbs of chicken and 1.5 lbs of pork loin for ONLY $6 and carted that meat back uptown (oh you read that right). I mean seriously??? I would have paid at least twice that amount in the UWS

Bless Jay’s heart, he just doesn’t understand why we have to keep going back to Chinatown. I tried to explain to him, that’s just what Chinese people do they go to Chinatown, but I guess growing up not being Chinese he just doesn’t get it. But I’ll learn him good, don’t you worry about that.

I promised him that I wouldn’t make him go this weekend, but I may have to make a little trip out there myself …

My Addiction

At first it started off as just something to do… I mean, I was home, I wasn’t working, I was bored … So I just thought that I would give it a little try. No harm in that, right? Some of my other friends were into it, so it couldn’t be THAT bad … Then it turned into a constant thing. At least once every few hours I had to get my fix. Nights were the worst… I would stay up into the wee hours of the morning just begging. Jay thinks I have a serious problem, but I can stop anytime I want. I really can, I just don’t want to yet… I mean, when I find a job, I’ll have to, right??? I mean, there is nothing WRONG with Farmtown is there? A lot of my friends are doing it.

What is Farmtown??? Are you kidding me? Do you seriously not know what this most wonderful game is? It’s an interactive farming game on FB. Jay has likened it to WOW or D&D, but way lamer. You start off with your little plot of green grass, and you start plowing your fields. Then you go to the store and you buy seeds and plant them. There are also trees and animals and flowers …. I know, I know … It doesn’t SOUND like much, but it’s computer CRACK.

The thing is, you have to have money to keep up all this planting and harvesting, and yes, you can sell your harvest at the Market but that only gets you so much. The best thing to do is to hire someone to harvest your fields and then sell your crops … And if you can score a job, it’s moo-lah, moo-lah, moo-lah. There were many a nights I hung out at the Market begging for work so I could afford my next fix, I mean crop…

I can’t sleep some night … What if one of my “buddies” has a crop that needs to be harvested? What if I forget to harvest something and the crop goes to waste? I spent almost an hour yesterday re-designing my farm so that it would be even prettier; then I dreamed about how fantastic it was.

OH. DEAR. GOD. Someone needs to help me…. I just can’t stop! Oh crap, while writing this, I think my raspberries are ready. Gotta get someone to harvest them for me!

Our stuff finally arrived on July 3. ONE week after we moved into our new apt. It wouldn’t have been so bad EXCEPT we could have had our stuff on Sat June 27. However, the moving company that we used, United, did not call us until the Friday before and tell us that our things would be there the next day. The problem … The property manager needed to “reserve” the service elevator and as we were given less than 24 hours notice. The elevator was booked … ALL DAY!!! (and honestly, we couldn't tell a bit. Everytime we had to go downstairs the "service elevator" was in use)

When we told United Moving of our little problem and their lack of proper notification, we were told that they would not be back in the area for awhile (like 2 weeks), would have to storage our things (and charge us for it) and would drop off stuff off when back in the area. 2 WEEKS!!!! Oh, I don’t think so. I mean, camping out in an empty apt for ONE week is cute, fun stories we can laugh about later blah, blah, blah … But to have to wait ANOTHER 2 weeks for our stuff… I was close to a psychotic break. Someone was about to have all the fury of an angry Asian on them …

Fortunately, our property manager was able to talk to our contact at United and straighten things out, with no extra charge on our part. So, on July 3, our things finally arrives. It appears that United had to transfer all of our belongings to another company, Victory, in order to get everything here in a reasonable amount of time. And can I tell you, I have never been so happy to see 2 men that I have never met in my life coming into my apt and leaving crap all over the place … And at the very end, MY BED FINALLY ARRIVED.

The Victory men were quite tickled with me. As soon as they dropped the boxes off, I was pushing them into the rooms where they belonged. I think i was moving a little faster than they were, but I was sooo excited I didn't care. It got to the point where they would just take all the kitchen stuff and leave it in the kitchen, the bedroom stuff in the bedroom, etc…

Can I tell you that I slept like a baby that night. The building could have been on fire for all I cared, I would not have gotten up off that thing for anything. It was sooooooo comfy (still is). The pillows were so smooshy. The blanket was warm. Things were good …

Now if there was just some way I could all our things out of the boxes without actually having to unpack them myself. I really don’t know what’s worse … Moving … Or moving in. I think I’m missing some shoes … I can’t tell … Hmmmmmm…

Moving to the Big Apple

I moved to New York City last week with my fiance. After living in Memphis Tennessee for the last 30 years of my life, I was excited but really really nervous. I had never lived in a city where a car is considered a a staple of life, not a luxery; where mass transportation (the bus) is something that you bitch about being in your lane and going entirely too slow, not the norm; and a subway??? is that a build-your-own sandwich??? But here I was, landing in my new city on June 24, in a cab, and about to go to the apartement that neither of us had seen before. So being a bundle of nerves is a bit of an understatement.

However, we walked into our new building on the Upper West Side... I was more than pleasantly surprised. There was a doorman, an elevator and the apt was big enough for the both of us, all hardwood floors, heating and AC, and plenty storage space ... The only problem ... The only thing in the apt was the stuff that came with us on the plane.

Don't get me wrong, Jay and I had know that our stuff would be arriving a few days after we got into the city, but little did we know how much longer it would take. We had the foresight to pack an air mattress, one set of sheets, and a towel each. We did not think about the fact that the air mattress had dents the size of plate chargers in it. Nor did we realize how much cooler June is in NYC than in Memphis.

The first night (and the subsequent week) in our apt can only be described as trying, to say the least. That first 24 hours all we had set up was the air bed and his laptop. We went to Best Buy and found a really cheap digital TV and made it back to our apt in one piece. However, since there was no cable, we were only able to get one channel, thank you to the FOX network for providing me with So You Think You Can Dance (god I love that show) and the news that evening. Since we were both tired from the traveling and he had to be at work the next morning, we both went to bed early (I would have read, but as there were no lamps and the overhead light would have kept him up).

Did I mention that there were saucer sized dents in the air bed? A better description would be head-sized dents in the air bed. How do I know this??? Because on that first night I slept on the air bed (with just a sheet mind you) my head kept falling into the dents, causing me to wake up afraid that I had fallen off the bed or that the world was ending. And bless his heart Jay actually had to be at work for orientation the next morning. Needless to say, I was a bit on the psychotic side when I woke up.

Jay had already called and arranged to have the cable company come out on Thursday (June 25), which was another reason that a tv was purchased. The cable guy was supposed to be there between 2:00 - 4:00 that afternoon. I wandered around our new neighborhood for most of the morning and afternoon. I think I went to Rite Aid on the corner of Columbus and 97 about 15 times that day, and to the Dollar Variety about 5 times (and the Dollar Variety guys at Amsterdam and 97 are super nice) to buy random things for the apt. By 1:30 I made it back to the apt to happily wait for the cable guy.

Have I mentioned that we only had an air bed and a tv in the apt? Not to mention the suitcases. That's it. An air bed. a tv. and suitcases. So i settled myself onto the hardwood floor with the computer and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. At some point, I got up and stuffed some dirty clothes into a plastic bag to sit on as my butt was falling asleep. And i continued to wait. and wait. and wait. When Jay came home at about 4:00, I was still waiting and waiting and waiting. At 5:30 he called to see what was taking so long... "The cable guy is stuck on a job, he should be here in about 30 - 45 minutes, we'll call you". So we continued to wait... and wait ... and wait ... At 6:30, Jay called back, and was told that the same thing ... "The cable guy is stuck on a job, he should be here in about 30 - 45 minutes, we'll call you" ... So as it was dinner time, we ordered a pizza, picked it up and ate it. At 8:00 we were still sitting on the floor, waiting, waiting, waiting. You just gotta love Time Warner. So finally, Jay called back, it was only 7:45 at this point. We didn't have anything better to do than literally sit on the floor in an ass empty apt waiting for the cable guy. It was at this point that we found out that the cable guy was not coming this eveing (surprise) and that he would try to be there in the morning between 8:00am - 12:00pm. Yeah, I'm going to hold my breath on that one.

As I was close to my breaking point, Jay wanted to know what it would take to make me happy. All I wanted was a chair, a pillow, and a blanket. That's it. However, since it was past 8:00 and we were not too familiar with the neighborhood, we didn't know exactly where to go. We walked over to Sleepys, which sells beds and pillows, and was told that the cheapest pillow was about $600. No thank you Mr. Are You Freaking Kiddding Me. We'll try somewhere else. So our aimless wandering led us back to Rite Aid (this would only be the 1,453 time I had been in THIS Rite Aid that day). We found some cheap camping chairs but no blanket or pillows ...

While waiting in line to be rung up, we started chatting with one of the other store patrons, Pat. Well, Pat just happened to be one of our neighbors, and the greatest person I had ever met! She offered to lend us ... PILLOWS AND A BLANKET!!!! If I had known her better I would have thrown my arms around her and started to cry. We went to her apt, she gave us the pillows and blankets as well as a coffee pot, some cups, and a cooking pot. I'm telling you, nicest lady EVER.

So now that our camping equipement is set up, all i have to do is wait for my stuff to actually get here.