Back when I first moved to Hoboken, I was lucky enough to coincidentally move onto the same street as my friend Nina.  Literally, we were 7 or so steps away from each other. Strange enough, a few months later, my friend Emily randomly found an apartment in the same building that Nina lived in. How do things like that happen?  Anyway, Nina & I had dinner dates a few times a month and ALWAYS made the same thing: tom yum kung (spicy Thai shrimp soup) and larb moo (Thai pork minced salad). Always a wonderful delicious treat.

Strange enough, we haven’t found any good Thai places yet in New Zealand.  And the one place that does is ridiculously over priced. Psh no thanks. Looks like the only way Kyle & I are getting Thai food for now is if we make it ourselves.

So tonight I decided to make the classic tom yum & larb combo and I must say, it turned out pretty good. And the best thing is that many of the ingredients (like cilantro, mint, & chili’s) were all conveniently found in our garden!

Mmm Delicious

Larb + Tom Yum = <3

Lately, I have been itching to make something…..anything! So after work while Kyle makes me dinner (thanks!) I search the internet for the next big project.  Little did I know, there are TONS of amazing  blogs out there  all filled with wonderful DIY creations &  words of encouragement.

“You can do it!”, ” I whipped this up in a few hours”, “It’s recycled – all the products can be found at home!”….and so on. I’m sure whatever I make will look as if a 3-year-old made it, but whatever… I’m excited! But what to start out with??

Chain Link Soft Necklace… I think this is SO pretty & from what the directions say, it sounds kind of easy to make.

A toothbrush rug. My Great Aunt Terry makes these. Why can’t I?

Something amazing to embroider like this! MMMM sriracha.  I’m jealous I didn’t come up with idea on my own.

OR … an Upcycled Wallet - made with an old collared shirt.

What do you think?

So, what are your thoughts on Valentine’s Day?

If you met me two years ago, I would have probably said something like, “what’s the point of choosing one day out of the year to celebrate love? You should do it everyday. It’s a hallmark holiday” Blah blah.

I was defensive mostly because up until recently had never spend the day with someone special.  For most of my life, Valentine’s Day was spent three ways:

A) With my family, which was so much fun growing up.  We’d have a special meal & my mom would surprise us with little gifts, letting us know how much she cared.

B) With my single friends. We celebrated the fact that even though we didn’t have boyfriends, could have a fabulous time. We had each other, a good meal, and plenty of drinks.

C) Working. I for one would NEVER go out to eat on Valentine’s Day due to the crowds, but apparently everyone else in the world feels different.  I can’t tell you how miserable it is. But is a night guaranteed to make lots of money.

I was anti-Valentine’s day, not too sure if I was just jealous or considered it too corny to join in. But what did I know? I only spent it with family, friends, and coworkers.

Last year was my very first Valentine’s Day, spent with Kyle. Though we had only been dating for a month or so, were already so good, planning our trip abroad and finding more things we liked about one another as each day passed. Our Valentine’s was spent drinking, watching movies, and making a beautiful dinner of sushi & miso soup. Really, I couldn’t ask for anything more.  This year we took a trip to Ninety Mile Beach, about an hour north from where we live,  to a bed & breakfast.  It was spent on the beach and enjoying the beautiful weather.

Seeing it from both perspectives, I get why I was negative and against the clique.  If you don’t make it special and custom design to your relationship, of course it seems lame.   But knowing Kyle & how we do holidays, I look forward to it. Just another reason to celebrate

For the most part, I am completely out of the loop with what’s going on back at home.  When it comes to news, movies, books, and music,  all I know is what New Zealand tells me… which isn’t a whole lot.

So it’s always a shocker when something has quietly made an appearance to the world and I’m the last one to know. Generally, it’s not that big of a deal.  In fact I’ve been enjoying the break of constant breaking news overload.

The one exception is books.  Last week I was browsing a local bookstore and came across these two gems:

New book by Augusten Burroughs! How didn’t I know this? How could this have happened?

And a new one (finally) from the chick who wrote “Eat, Pray, Love”…the book that absolutely inspired me to take my own travel adventure.

Alas, these two will have to wait.  I’m attempting (I know, famous last words) to finish up books already in my possession vs. frantically binging on the written word….which has been known to happen at least once or twice a year. So we’ll see how it goes.

It’s been three years since I’ve started blogging. How nuts is that? I can’t help but reminisce where I once was and where life has taken me.  Look, my first blog! Not that well written, but pretty entertaining..it was around the time when I first moved to Hoboken and drinking heavily.

“Just Your Typical Tuesday”

Without fail, Tuesday nights in Hoboken seem to turn into a ridiculous time, with even more ridiculous characters. And yes, last night was no exception.  I started off with dinner and drinks at this awesome tapas place in my neighborhood. Since going to the tapas place Savannah, or the artist formally known as The House of Coffee, I have been skeptical of this whole tapas thing. Savannahs was poorly priced and insanely meager. But the place in Hoboken is mm. mm mm mm.

Anyway after dinner, I met up with my friend E and we decided to go out and about for cocktails. For the past month or so, we have gone to the same place (The Goldhawk) for open mike night, so figured it was time to mix it up. Where did we go you ask? The Greenrock. The Greenrock is the type of place you have to love because it has dollar drafts and…well… ok, fine that’s it. It is always super packed, the music it way too loud, and the people who go there are generally a sideshow. The girls were dressed up in their finest clubbin’ clothes and dancing with eachother sexually, in hopes of getting the attention of the late 20’s finance men that were surrounding them, discussing who was taking whom home.

And then there was me and E, who were dressed like elementary school teachers compared to these chicks, and kind of standing to the side.

Within minutes, a dude in a blue collared shirt, whom I probably would have found attractive if he wasn’t so wasted, staggered over to me, kind of tap/pointed on my arm and said, “Hey. I’m John. I work in finance and make six figures. Whah do you do? Isn’t it great that even though I’m so young, I make so much money!”

The conversation continued with me asking if he liked his job, which he said no, to then why did he do it then, with a reply of, well because he made so much money, from which I replied with, I’d rather do something I loved and enjoyed and make less money than waking up and hating life everyday.

He made a fist with his hand and went into a dramatic monologue about how there was SO much more to him and MORE that he needed to give, blah blah blah. What he was doing now was to prepare for his future. He didn’t know what he was going to do, BUT SOMEDAY he will make an IMPACT. Then, he looked at me with bewilderment, probably because he wouldn’t usually show strangers this side of him, and rushed off to the bar for another drink.
pff. So there.

Meanwhile, E was talking to one of weird blue shirt finance’s friends, who was cute, oh so tall, and seemed normal. I moved over closer to them to get out of the middle of the room and happily people watched for a few minutes. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw weird blue shirt whispering something to his friend, motioning for him to talk to me. Obviously, they either wanted to keep me entertained so his friend could continue talking with Emily or that I was the “weird – bad conversation – pathetic – left over friend” that could easily be taken home by just about anyone.

yay.

SO up comes this guy who looked sticky and smelled like a dirty grandparent basement. From here, without a scrap of eye contact, proceeded to give me one of the worst and stale conversations I have had in a long time.

So where do you live? Where are you from? Have you lived anywhere else in NJ?
10th and Willow Middletown Yeah, New Brunswick

Why? Where do you work? Where did you go to college?
I went to Rutgers A magazine I just told you. Rutgers

At this point, I leaned over and said, “Hey E. Lets finish these drinks and go?”
I went to the bar to close out while she said her goodbyes with nice friend, and moved on to the Shannon.

Usually, the Shannon is great. But I guess on Tuesdays it consists of old men playing darts. Whatever. We could actually sit at the bar without someone yelling in our ear or trying to push us out of our seats.

At this point, we figured it was late and should go over to the Gold hawk (surprise surprise) for last call.

Walking up, it looked insanely dead, so I said to E, “dude, what time is it? I wonder if is too late to get a drink…”
umm its 11:30.

So we walked in and sat down at the empty bar, ordered beers and lemon drops, and bullshitted a bit. And yes, apparently I was drinking beer last night (?).

Within two minutes, one of the locals spotted us and talked with us the rest of the night. I think about his music, movies we love and hate, and so on. hm.

Last night must have just been one of those nights that I wasn’t on or something, because next thing I knew, E & local were in deep conversation (ha, which today she has absolutely no idea what it could have been about), while I drunk texted a guy I used to date.

Awesome. So then a random ukelalie and mandolin player in a snow flake sweater appeared out of nowhere, talked to him for a few and went home.

Time for Bed. End of Tuesday.

The Aftermath.

7:00 Alarm goes off. Um. no. how about you re-set til 8:25.

8:30 began the scrammble of showering, breakfast and lunch planning, getting dressed and so on. Makeup free and badly work dressed, I rolled in around 9:30. Not bad.

Gotta love Hoboken

I miss Emily! Here’s her on one of our drunky Hoboken nights circa 2007.

Oh boy, 23 year old me in all my glory.

Did I ever show you a picture of my latest tattoo?  I got it back in late August/early September to celebrate the trip to New Zealand. It’s an earth from the view point of the southern hemisphere, with Latin underneath translating to, “prepared for all things“. It was an optimistic gift to myself that everything would turn out great.

I think it did

I don’t know about you, but I am soooo OVER piercings. I feel like they hit their boom back in 2001-2002 and now should be something few and far between.  The only exceptions should be:

• if it’s part of your culture
• a piercing that has been there forever
• or if it fits your personality perfectly. I’ve met people who look naked without a hoop through their nose or bar through their tongue.

Otherwise I’d like to see a ban immediately. It hasn’t always been like this though. When I was about 18, I got caught up a bit in piercings & tattoos.  At one point I had my tongue pierced (ugh traumatizing) and my belly button (kinda drunk when that happened, oopsah.). A year or two later, the piercings  were gone, as well as the love for them. One of the main reasons was because they got popular & it was no longer a novelty; tattoos at least are different. I don’t think I’ll ever grow tired of seeing new tattoos and the creative things people come up with.  It seems that people with piercings, in order to remain a shock factor, have to come up with interesting body parts to get done..

When we were at the Big Day Out a few weeks back, I saw BY FAR the worst piercing ever. After hearing the band Jet perform,  the entire crowd broke up and moved this way and that, looking for new music to enjoy. It’s always uncomfortable being in a huge packed crowd, UNTIL you are  pushed to that next stage of discomfort….A HUGE MOLE…. ON THEIR BACK…..PIERCED.

I repeat.

Back.Mole. Pierced.

!!

I don’t know what else could have been worse.  Moles are hideous. Why draw that extra attention to it?  Oh god…..  at the same time basically, Kyle & I pointed and gasped,

“Oh My God. WHY???? Why oh why oh why???”

So at the end of the day, I say yes to : pierced ears & sometimes the nose. Otherwise, over it! Lets think of a new way to express ourselves.

Since leaving LA, I have not touched one drop of vodka.  It wasn’t a decision made for any real reason. I didn’t wake up one morning and think, “hey, lets see how long I can go without vodka”.  Basically,  buying bottles of vodka are super expensive here, and if you go out to the pubs and order a drink, they have one choice (Smirnoff) and the cocktails are watered down. No thanks.  I’ve been content sticking to wine & beer.

Last night Kyle & I attended our very first Burns supper.  It’s a tradition  in Scotland to celebrate the life & poetry of Robert Burns. I think this dinner will be coming back with me to the states.  Celebrating your national poets..loves it! Jamie & Marc, our Scottish friends, did a fantastic job hosting the shindig.  They insisted that everyone wore some sort of tartan, played traditional music, read Burns’ poetry,  and even had a haggis. How they found one in New Zealand is a mystery, but a Burns dinner without a haggis is one not worth celebrating.  I was excited because when else in my life would I have the chance to try haggis? Well I have to say, I’m not a huge fan.

Kyle was given the honor of addressing the haggis.

Anyway, Kyle & I have been a bit lonesome for vodka lately – me, a nice vodka soda & him, a good old dirty martini.   We decided to take  the plunge and split a  bottle. I don’t know what happened – could have been the fact that I haven’t drank it in a while or the mixture of vodka and haggis – but I woke up this morning with the worst hungover of my life. LITERALLY I felt as if I had alcohol poisoning. After pseudo-recovering after a full day of rest, I think my relationship with vodka is over.  I don’t have it in me anymore and quite frankly, I’d rather not spend my precious days off nursing a hangover.

So it’s wine & beer for me…..it’s over vodka, move on.

Big Day Out is a HUGE touring music festival (starts here in New Zealand and then makes a few stops through Australia) that Kyle, a few friends, and I had the pleasure of going to last weekend.

SO much fun.  We packed up, grabbed some beers for the road, and took the three hour trip down to Auckland.  Here in New Zealand (so I’ve learned)  it is very ok  for the passengers to take a few cocktails along for the ride.  How crazy is that? The driver of course can’t drink, but everyone else gets the luxury to have a few drinkies while taking a long drive.

The journey to Auckland is absolutely beautiful.  It’s mainly country roads with perfect scenery and lovely water views. Definitely a nice chance from the New Jersey Turnpike.

Anyway, we popped by our friend Paul’s moms’ (he grew up down there) for a glass of wine and then headed to the hotel to check in and get some food.  After dinner & being completely spent, somehow I made my way to bed, hoping to god I wouldn’t be hungover the next day.  Turned out, drinking while traveling is not good for me and I found myself pretty typsy when we arrived at the hotel….oops.

The next morning I felt kinda refreshed….BUT the excitement of the day ahead boosted my spirits.  We were off to the Big Day Out!  Compared to American shows, I can tell you that the one thing that struck me was the vibe; it was wonderful.  Everyone was happy. You felt safe and a part of something good.  Personally, I found myself smiling for no reason – pretty much amazed that not only was I (a) in New Zealand  (b) enjoying summer in January, but (c) going to see some bands that I liked, but never really thought to go see!

The best bands by far were Jet:

Eskimo Joe:

And of course, Muse!

After a full day of good music and tons of sunshine,  I left feeling happy, exhausted….and burned!

Obviously being an Island, you don’t have to travel far to find a beach here in New Zealand.  Yesterday, Kyle & I had the day off together, so decided to check out this beach that was supposed to be absolutely unreal.

Maitai Bay – about an hour and a half north from where we live.

It was beautiful. There really are no words to describe it.  Coming from New Jersey, where sometimes you are sharing one small area of beach with 50 loud beach goers, Maitai Bay felt like a gift to just Kyle & I.  Literally there was 4 of us, including two sweet black lab puppies.

The water was crystal clear and the sand was like walking through that super soft sugar that is used for baking – I couldn’t get over how comforting it was.

So we spent the afternoon lounging around and reading, collecting seashells, and fishing.