Nyanko's Basket

I haven't posted in a while - more than 2 months. Part of that is because I haven't been good about remembering to update, but it's also because of ( being quite busy )

I'm leaving on a week-long vacation tonight, which will take me to Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis:

- I'll be meeting tanyad in Chicago and hanging out with her. While I'm there, I need to try some authentic Chicago pizza (sorry testing4l, but Pizz'a Chicago in San Jose is probably not the real thing) and check out the city - would you believe I've never been to Chicago before, even thouigh I've passed through O'Hare several times?
- On Friday afternoon, I'll be driving down to Peoria for the Old-Time Piano Playing Contest. It's my first time taking part, and I am a bit nervous about it, particularly since I'll have to play all my contest entries from memory! Fortunately, most of them aren't a problem since they're ragtime pieces I'm familiar with - the only one that might be difficult is Gershwin's "Someone to Watch Over Me", which is the required non-ragtime entry. The other pieces I'm performing are "Queen of Love" by Charles Hunter (who is probably more known for "Tickled to Death"), "Kitten on the Keys" by Zez Confrey, and "Swipesy Cake Walk", "Peacherine Rag" and "Maple Leaf Rag" by Scott Joplin.
- I'm meeting a friend in Carbondale on Monday, and will head back to Chicago to arrive on Monday evening. The reason is...]
- I will be taking a train to St. Louis! It's the first time I've taken a train since I took the Acela in 2007 (from Boston to New York), and it'll be nice to enjoy the countryside without having to deal with traffic or rest stops. :D
- I'll be spending an evening in St. Louis and have several places in mind to visit (thanks to some suggestions from reannon) before I fly out the next morning.

I'm going to miss Belle and Lillian, but I have a cat-sitter coming over to feed and play with them daily, so I hope they won't be too miffed when I return. Speaking of Lillian, I uploaded some new pictures on Flickr of her on the harness - she seems to like it more than she used to!

People and places I want to visit this year:
- samurai_ko and her hubby will be moving to Seattle, so I will definitely need to visit them more often.
- saraphina_marie and reannon - the best way to meet both of them would probably be at a con, but I also have an invitation to have breakfast with saraphina_marie at a Pfunky Griddle in Nashville. This makes me happy. :D
- I might drive to Vancouver to visit my aunts- I've been putting it off for the last 3 years, for no reason in particular, but this year is as good as any.

I'm really looking forward to the rest of this year!

I haven't updated since I got here, because I have been busy running around town, meeting friends and catching up on all the things that happened while I was away.

Outwardly, a lot of things haven't changed - most places still look the same (although Orchard Road and Clementi look very different now), and I can still find my way around without getting lost. :) There are a lot of new bus services now, though, and some existing bus routes were altered (some in ways that are rather incomprehensible). A lot of my old friends are still around, and even my former primary school classmates have found me on Facebook. It's really surprising to hear from them after almost 20 years - a lot of them are out of Singapore, but we can keep in touch through messages and so on. Quite fascinating that a lot of them are in the US and Australia, though a fair number are still in Singapore :)

There are also a lot of new places around - I went to a tapas bar with my sister, my friend and some of her friends and we had a really good time relaxing and talking about life in general. Working overseas means you have more to talk about with people, too - you can ask them about where they work and what they're doing, how the hours are, and things like that. And in return, they ask you about life in the US - it's quite illuminating talking about it with other people. A lot of people are settling down or getting engaged; perhaps that's just because I've been away for so long, but it comes as news to me. People have been asking me too when I'm going to settle down, and for the time being I haven't thought about it in particular.

The weather is still the same, and it took some time to get used to, but it's good to be back with humidity and tropical rain showers. :D Other things are the same too, like the home environment - I'm glad that I don't have to deal with it full-time...

My visa interview is tomorrow, and hopefully there won't be any problems. We'll see, though; if I need to extend my stay I'll do so, but it won't be particularly cheap (I think the change fee is $200 plus the difference in the ticket prices).

The last few weeks have been really busy (so much so that I didn't have time to post). I've been really busy with work mostly (dealing with servicing can be quite immersive), but among other things that happened:

- meerkat also came up to Seattle for the Veterans' Day weekend and we had a good weekend together - I finally went to the Space Needle for the first time even though I've lived here for almost 2 years! We also swung by the Cornish College of the Arts, went to a Seattle Symphony performance at Benaroya Hall, Ernestine Anderson's 80th birthday celebration at Jazz Alley and watched (or started to watch, rather) A Taste of Tea. Which reminds me, I should get around to finishing that...

- I went to several karaoke bars and killed my voice made other people deaf had a pretty good time, trying out some new songs that I didn't know I could do, including Glenn Miller's "Chattanooga Choo Choo" (which makes me think of saraphina_marie even though she doesn't live in Chattanooga) and Sara Bareille's (sp?) "Love Song" (I'm not going to write you / a love song / to stay ~ ) as well as (I am somewhat embarrassed to say this) Lil' Mama's "Lip Gloss" from the Xbox 360 game "Lips" as a duet with someone else, in which we each scored over 4 million points. Um I mean.. ^^;;; *hides*

- I met a friend in Seattle who has a pretty interesting goal in life - she wants to be an organization consultant (and is currently doing that on the side). Basically her clients hire her to deal with things they've been putting off, or messes that are too much for them to even think about, and then she provides suggestions about how to organize their homes (and what to buy to get things sorted out). So far we've gone out twice for coffee/chocolate and dinner and felt like we've had a great time both times, but that's all I'm going to say on the subject right now. :P

But more currently, I just got confirmation that wao is now in the state of Washington, and is probably going through immigration right now. I shall be leaving to pick her up shortly, and I'm sure the month that she stays here will be full of happiness, joy, going places, and cats.

Lots of cats.

Even Especially [*] in the snow.

[*] (c) 2004- testing4l. "Especially in .+" is a registered trademark of testing4l and may not be reproduced without testing4l's permission. Or else the zombies/wumpii will come get you.

A brief rundown of what I've been up to over the past few weeks, in no particular order:

- Saw Ahmed Jamal perform at Jazz Alley live, which was definitely worth the money (though maybe next time I should try and go with someone :P)
- Attended the CoX meet & greet at PAX, where I met naeko and wolfieboy, among other people
- Drove up and down between my apartment and the Seattle Convention Center several times over the PAX weekend
- Actually went to the second day of PAX and sat in on the NCSoft panel, as well as randomly wandering around the exhibit hall and getting a sneak peek at Gears of War 2 as well as Lode Runner for XBLA (!!!)
- Went for the opening night of the Seattle Symphony's 2008/2009 season at meerkat's suggestion. It was totally worth it! Also, I loved the impromptu rendition of "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off" both singers performed as the last item, as well as Aaron Copland's "Simple Gifts" and "I Bought Me A Cat". It is too awesome to describe in a single post, so I'll just have to leave it at that. :D
- I helped itsacz move from one blob to another, and helped another friend pack up his belongings as he prepared to return to Singapore for good. While it was a lot of work and my arms are still a little sore, I feel good at being able to help, and got some things out of the bargain, too.

I still have about 6 months' worth of photos to post, but that'll have to wait until I'm at home.

I finally have a little time to breathe and update my LJ now, after the crazy action-packed Friday and Saturday nights.

On Friday, summercomfort was in Seattle on the last leg of her road trip, together with her friends, and I met them for dinner in the International District. It was quite convenient for me since the 545 ends right at the ID (5th and S Jackson) and Ichiban was about one block away. We ended up eating at a Cambodian restaurant, though, which was quite surprisingly good. We also had bubble tea and then retired for some karaoke, during which I somehow managed to sing several songs without losing my voice in between! (I think the sake might've helped too)

Saturday night was mostly bar-hopping with my friends and me suffering from having too much MSG two nights in a row .^_~ I totally didn't do anything today, and am about to sleep now.

Looking forward to next weekend with meerkat and testing4l though!

I sang White Rabbit tonight (after being primed with some drinks and food ^^;;;; ) at our monthly Karaoke @ Microsoft social event (it was at a dive bar in Kirkland this time :P) and it actually went off pretty well - the original was sung in a female voice, so I obviously couldn't match it, but I tried my best and it was pretty good. I don't have any photos though (I forgot to ask my friends to take a picture XD). The funny thing was that when I sent in the request for this song, I was reminded of mewryuu who introduced it to me almost 7 years ago. That seems like it was a really long time ago and I wonder what she's been up to since then...

It was pretty fun, and everyone tonight sang really well. It's a pity that itsacz didn't want to join us, but maybe one day I'll get him to sing too >o

I normally go to work on NE 40th Street and then through the Overlake Transit Centre Center to work. Most days, I cycle on the road (after making a left turn from 148th) and then take the pavement sidewalk through OTC into the Microsoft campus.

Today, though, I took the road as usual and promptly got stuck in traffic because they had closed two lanes of the overpass above 520 (there was only one turn lane and one through lane). So I just hopped off the road and cycled on the sidewalk until I got to OTC. It was priceless. D:

It's cleaner (less chance of inhaling noxious fumes) than cycling on the road, although the tradeoff is that sidewalks tend to be more uneven (they have a lot of ups and downs, as well as having to wait for traffic lights) and there are pedestrians too, which makes it slower. One good thing though is that you won't have angry/impatient drivers honking at you, flipping you off, rolling down their windows to throw things at you (!!!) or getting out of their cars to talk to you (!?!?!). Not every place has a sidewalk wide enough, though...

I did get a little bit wet on the way, but I don't really care about that, since I'm in my "heated" office right now (I have 8 computers which are all on). ^_^

I had a short stay in Singapore, and didn't manage to get some things done that I wanted to, but overall it was really enjoyable. ^_^

Touch 2008 was really good and by itself was definitely worth coming for. But equally important was meeting up with friends and relatives, and having a good time.

Though I was shocked to find out that the piano at home is pretty much a gone case now. T_T But maybe I'll buy a piano in the US...

I'm landing in the US on Monday morning (March 3rd), and will be going back to work the day after.

Off I go to the gate now~

Started posting this from Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport in Ohio (though what's international about it, I don't really know...) and continuing from Grand Rapids, MI, and then eventually at my cousin's house. What a long post. ^^;;

( Skiing at Whistler Blackcomb )

I came back from Whistler pretty thrilled about it, especially since I had a lot of delicious hot chocolate with whipped cream. ^^ Things were pretty quiet both at work and in terms of social life, although it did snow quite a lot on December 1st, to the point that it was a winter wonderland:

( Ooh, pretty snow~! )

I went to San Jose for a work weekend, and met testing4l, gemlikeflame, relsqui and zigdon there and much fun was had over Fluxx and Mongolian BBQ. Though I must say relsqui and testing4l are pretty good at changing the rules to suit themselves. ;)

One of my friends was going back to Singapore the following weekend, so we organized a trip to a gun range for her, since she wouldn't be able to do that in Singapore. And so it was that I fired a weapon for the first time (since I never did in NS), even if it was a 9mm pistol:

( At the gun range )

Snow and Shooting

I left for Michigan last night to spend a few days with my cousin, and so here I am. :)

To everyone who celebrates it, at least.

And it snowed here again ^^;