It's the Little Things :)

She awoke to the alarm and got ready for work.
He got up a few minutes later and prepared food.
She made coffee for two.
He washed the dishes.
She took out the dog.
He walked her to the train station.
Together they sat on a bench...
And he waited with her.
A few shared moments in laughter,
The arrival of a train,
One hug, one kiss goodbye.
She sits down.
He walks back.
They turn back around for one more wave.
*Heart smiles* .

♥

My 2009 Christmas

Well, i really wasn't expecting much since i knew i'd be working both nights of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day =T .. But i made the best of it. ♥

It started on Friday night, December 18. My friends from work gathered together at Verlaine Lounge in SoHo for a Holiday party. We've been waiting for this all month! A chance to get together outside of work and let loose! I brought my boyfriend, and he finally met them all.. my sisters.. and they all approve! hahaa. Never-ending wine, cocktails, and food. I love these people, and i love that we can share good times together at a more relaxed social setting other than the stressful hospital workplace!

* * *

Sunday night, December 20. It was a night i've been planning and re-planning in my head for a month. I wanted to get together with my closest girlfriends from NJ/NY for a Holiday dinner and call the event "Shirl's Girls Holiday 2009". If i could, i'd bring the ones from Cali, Savannah, and Vegas as well. *sigh* . I think the world of these girls. They've each saved my life (and my heart) on more than one occasion in their own individual ways. So to get them all together to share a night in celebration of Christmas would be the greatest gift. And so that's how it went. Despite the terrible snowstorm we had the night before, there was still a handful of us who were able to go. I reserved a table at ilili Restaurant in the Chelsea area. The place was gorgeous, albeit quite empty considering the snowy conditions, but it was intimate nonetheless. We exchanged gifts and then toasted to our sisterhood. The food was delicious and plentiful: Mediterranean/Lebanese cuisine mixed in with red and white wines. I'll find myself there again very soon.

* * *

Tuesday, December 22 finally arrived, and so did our new 50-inch Samsung flatscreen!! Merry Christmas indeed! =P .. My brother and i bought it together on Black Friday (online of course, never at the actual store on Black Friday! Come to think of it, he still owes me his share of the payment!). Well she's beautiful and treats us very kindly! My brother is excited.. he's planning New Year's Eve in HD with friends at our house this year! With his new Super Mario Bros. game and Mario Resorts for the Wii, DJ Hero, and with Bailey's & cupcake chasers (our tradition lol), it will make for a family fun-filled night!

* * *

Wednesday, December 23 was the eve before Christmas Eve when i had to work, and i spent it with my boyfriend. Our first lil' Christmas together=) . We had dinner at this delightful Italian restaurant where thin-crust pizza is their specialty. Tell me about a place that serves good thin-crust pizza, and i'm there! we had so much on our plates! We had it with red wine and wrapped up whatever we couldn't finish, which was ALOT!! On the way back home, he took me around the neighborhood to look at the pretty lighting decorations on all the houses. This one's our favorite:

We got home and exchanged gifts. I love my gift! and it's purple!! i played with it all night last night lol. I gave him a bunch of stuff too, from socks to a top-of-the-line Jawbone bluetooth earpiece.. and there's one more thing i plan to give him the next time i see him (i hope his friend hasn't spilled the beans about it yet because he's the one i consulted about it with! ooohh he better have kept his mouth shut lol). Anyway, after gift exchange, i got us some Tim Tams and he made hot chocolate (♥), and i taught him the Tim Tam Slam--which, by the way, is the most awesome thing ever!! Then we planned a movie night with his friends. We all have been dying to see "Avatar", so that night was the perfect time. We saw it in 3D and was simply BLOWN AWAY!! The effects are out of this world, and the story was actually good too!! I cant wait to buy the dvd to watch on my flatscreen hehee. Everyone should see this movie. James Cameron did it again. So that was our first Christmas to go in the Memorable Moments file =).

* * *

24 (Christmas Eve) and 25 (Christmas Day) - WORKED!! But it really wasn't just work. It was spending time with great people, exchanging gifts, and eating an abundance of food we all brought from home. Both nights were unusually busy however! It was surprising.
But in the meantime i was able to keep in touch with my brother and mom who celebrated at our family friends' house. It's funny-- i was the one who ran around the past several weeks getting everyone's presents AND i wrapped them all, and i wasn't even there!!! Amazing! It's like that every year =P .. I'm the designated Santa AND the elf ... *sigh* lol. I came home Christmas morning to a pile of gifts in the living room with my name on them, opened them up, then went to bed to prepare for another night of work!

* * *

The weekend after Christmas i was off, and i planned to continue celebrating. So Saturday the 26th i rested all morning and afternoon, then i visited my boyfriend at work: the Nets vs. Rockets game! hehee. It was a close game but as usual, the Nets lost. And as usual, the bf did an awesome job! ♥ ♥ i get so proud whenever i see him out there!*tear! hehee. but my night ended early because the next morning i'd finally be celebrating with my best friend....

* * *

Sunday the 27th. I woke up at 6:30 am! Arrived at Kim's house at 7:30 am! We were on our way Radio City Music Hall to watch "Christmas Spectacular" starring the Rockettes!! But first we made a detour to Dunkin Donuts to get some much-needed coffee. hahaa. Then we were amped! The show was great! I couldn't believe the backdrop.. it was so realistic. It was really 3D but this was more like 3D times 100! I'm glad we finally went; we've been talking about it all month. Then we saw the Rockefeller tree, window-shopped along 5th ave, and i visited my ♥Penelope the Pup♥ at FAO Schwartz.

Then we found ourselves the Upper East Side for lunch at Parlor Steakhouse. We frequent that place all the time, not only because the food is spectacular, but Kim used to work there and we love her manager and coworkers. They treated us like royalty! We stayed for 4 hours eating and drinking! She even bumped into a regular guest there who gave us each a certificate for a free mani-pedi at the salon across the street! i wanted to stay longer to see what else we can get (lol) but i caught food coma.. I slept all the way home.. Thank goodness Kim was driving! hahaa

* * *

... that was my Christmas =) . A month ago, i was depressed thinking i'd just be working through it all, but my holiday turned out quite nicely. I hope yours was just as blessed!

Miles of Books, and I'd Take on the Whole Journey

One morning I got out of work, and strangely enough, I didn't feel tired. Nevermind the fact that I had just worked a 12-hour night shift in the busiest unit of the hospital, and it was a particularly busy night with codes and direct O.R. admissions happening simultaneously. That was all behind me as i walked outside and took in the morning sun and cool wintry breeze. I looked forward to where i was going next. I was on my way to Strand Bookstore in Union Square! The excitement gave me a second wind of consciousness, and away went the fatigue that had accumulated the night before.

I went into Strand with just one item in mind: a Moleskine 2010 weekly planner. This is the really nice planner i was referring to in my last entry that my friend Candee also has. The legendary notebook of Hemingway, Picasso, and Chatwin. I finally had the time to go get one for myself! I've always had planners of various types in a perpetually haphazard attempt to organize my life, because it somehow manages to get out of my control, but i never found one good enough to do the job. Hence the wonderful mess that i have now, growing spontaneously also known as My Life. So imagine my excitement and determination to get this awesome datebook to end all datebooks, with the radical idea that my life could possibly and finally have some organization to it! I walked in that bookstore... eyes widened in sudden intrigue... and i knew... i knew i wasn't going to just get that one item and leave just like that. The bookstore aptly quips itself as, "Strand: 18 Miles of Books", and i was ready to take on the whole journey.

I wasn't exactly sure where i'd find the Moleskine planners, and i didn't bother to ask for help. I was happy winding, weaving and hovering over books, finding my own way. I lost myself in complete content, and with that, i lost the sense of time. I was off that day and had no time-constrained plans, so i was a kid in canyland. Or better yet, i was like Belle in "Disney's Beauty in the Beast", practically living off books! Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda, and founder of the Wu-Tang Clan The RZA-- some of my favorite writers.

I opened up a small pink book, "Love Poems" by Pablo Neruda, and found "The Queen" under my fingers.


I'd like to share this poem's timelessness:

"I have named you queen.
There are taller ones than you, taller.
There are purer ones than you, purer.
There are lovelier than you, lovelier.

But you are the queen.

When you go through the streets
no one recognizes you.
No one sees your crystal crown, no one looks
at the carpet of red gold
that you tread as you pass,
the nonexistent carpet.

And when you appear
all the rivers sound
in my body, bells
shake the sky,
and a hymn fills the world.

Only you and I,
only you and I, my love,
listen to it."

*Heart melts!*

I didn't buy that book though. I was intrigued by The RZA's latest book, "The Tao of WU". I'm a student of Life, and i love learning new insights to broaden & deepen my own perspective on it, and the RZA has much to teach. His lessons are inspiring, including his references to Kung-Fu flicks and comic book heroes symbolizing Faith. I suggest everyone give him a chance. I read a few pages there in the bookstore, and I already felt at peace. So i bought it to bring home and read with my bf =)

"Studying lessons and reading great religious books is an excellent form of prayer. But whichever you choose, don't pray to have something pop up under your Christmas tree. Don't pray for a thing. Pray to put yourself in harmony with God. Do that and your prayers will be answered." --the RZA

I proceeded on to the next tables to indulge some more, slowly collecting enough literature to add up to at least $50 (so i could get a free Strand tote bag!)... Then finally i came upon the Moleskine planners. I was so happy. I got it in black. ♥

~ Peace ~