pee break buddies

everyone has a pee break buddy. it's a universal truth- a birth right of sorts. did you know that? over 29 years of living - out of which at least a quarter of a decade has seen me making independent trips to the loo - i've noticed that a person's pee cycle for the day is pretty much set and consistent. At work, there have countless of times i keep running into the same people throughout the day at the loo. the intervals of our peeing are pretty much synchronized. (pple who work at home or anywhere else that doesn't have more than 10 pple sharing a common loo wouldn't have the slightest clue what i'm talking about). i wonder... can people rub off each other's pee cycle when they start to hang out alot -just like women and menstruation cycles....hmmm maybe there's descartian first principles to be distilled here. or maybe fibonacci's theory (his idea on the application of ratios/numbers theory to science and nature... is pure genius) could be applied here somehow.

this pee break buddy observation occasionally boggles my mind, occupying my thoughts...especially when there's time to kill at the taxi line and work you want to be distracted from. like WHY do people pee with the same frequency? how many times does a person pee a day? can you choose your inherent pee break buddy for the day? etc etc etc. i used to think i was neurotic to think about the sociology of pee... but there really seems like a whole body of science goin' on here. maybe i'm spouting nonsense....and alone in this inter-twined study of biology, sociology and loo ecology.

apparently not - there are also other likeminded neurotics out there too...the topic of pee buddies was in last night's ep of tv sitcom scrubs!!! i feel less alone now. still, there are questions left unanswered...

adventures of josie k & jessie t

josie k & jessie t went on a secret mission yesterday. they had to be at a place before it closes at 8pm. stuck in a traffic jam for 40 mins, jessie t wanted to give up cos it was almost quarter to and they were still in the cab. still josie remained calm and confident. "at a place of hope, it never closes on time" she was right-that josie k.

that's all folks for this pilot ep of adventures of josie k & jessie t.

in the next ep: josie k will fly across to the other side of the spectrum to warn people of the world against idealism.

unpublished - but here goes

Landlord

I feel an uninvited tenant
Gnawing at my guts
It’s feasting
It’s digging
Open sealed scabs
Dried by years
Of prescribed smiles


Excursions

In my childhood moments
I remember being a fork once
An owl
And a child starving in Africa
These outings occupied me
Till the sisters came home
When I could finally play myself

Capsule

I’ve put my 18 months into a capsule
And ate it
I killed them in swallow
Hoping they wouldn’t follow
But they’re growing in me
On me
Whirling
Screaming
Excuse me,
While I puke

homeless man on G street

Homeless Man On G Street

I miss that homeless man on G Street
His eyes, gaze
Deep, black and like a pit
Eats me up in bright daylight
With a look, he spoke

I want to take him aside
And feel the lines
Grubby, hardened skin
On his face
And wipe it clean

I want to take his hands
And put in them something warm
To help
With that one sleepful night
I want to take him aside

I know he’s been
To where I’m going.
Homeless man on G Street
Don’t look at me
With sadness, stop

Tears have become unworthy
Hollow-filled
With no feel
Yet they flow
They flow

Oh, homeless man on G Street
Your eyes do not lie
Look away
Aside
Afar

I’m in London
On a train to Coventry
And I know
Time and miles away
You are there

On that weathered bench
We’re seated
On the same ride
Homeless man
On G Street


i had this poem in my head for about 3 years before i released it onto a blank sheet one night not too long ago. it's about a weird, inexplicable connection i had with a homeless man on g street in DC. i saw him almost daily - the constant meeting day after day with this homeless guy strangely made this foreigner feel less homesick. his eyes and face told me about a life that was not just his - but ours, you, me and anyone who has a soul and heart. when we strip it al down, we'll realize that we are all the same trip, the same journey. i owe one person who gave me the eyes to see the world around me as it is. this is yours - your words spoken through me - i give them back to you and everyone else.

my life's an ocean
pour me into a cup
and drink
its tides, the high and low
knows of no moon
it has drowned some in its waves
and others have drowned it
in a whirlpool
a stew of tears
that serves no supper
my life's an ocean pour me into a cup
and drink

13 Things I Hate About Today

Today feels like Friday the 13th, only difference is it's Thursday. Apart from a very HAPPY one-hour lunch & a fedex package from a new friend in nyc (will write an entry in his honor soon) - there were at least 13 things i hated about today.

Blog Entry's WHINY FACTOR: VERY HIGH

1) I woke up at 740 am. I'm on the 730am shift. Got to work in 20 mins flat feeling like a wreck.
2) I'm still jet lagged
3) I'm having THAT time of the month
4) I ate so much during lunch (forgot my dinner last night) - that i had a sickie feelin' all afternoon
5) Mapped out work for next two weeks and realized that I shouldn't expect any life till november
6) Met my personal banker & signed my life away...i hear my sister's voice and mom's echo: "welcome to the every day think about money world." (the tone deadpan, self deprecating - tinged with some self congratulatory element)
7) Wrote my to do list - which took up 3 post it pages.
8) I hate it when i get all whiny and PMSy
9) I'm feel inhibited.
10) I make a fool of myself at the train turnstile. everyone was so polite about it except for this one guy who laughed his head off. i appreciate his honesty. i hated everyone else who didn't laugh. cos it made me feel even sillier. am i making sense?
11) taxi driver who drove me home was a terrible driver that made me carsick in 5 mins
12) when i walked in my room: noticed that maria AGAIN has my curtains up when i always want them down cos i don't want my neighbours to see me running around naked in my room as i rush to work in the mornings
13) my friend josie tells me that my solution has a name. i hate it cos she is right.

i'm feeling super irritable.
rereading this makes me feel worse. i'm just picking on any and everything today. stop.apast multilayered dialogueemerges. i called my sister on her cell some time back and rattled on how everything was all shittie .... i must have sounded like how a bee sounds like when it hums (is that correct usage: a bee hums?) anyways... so after griping for like an eternity i punctuate with the only words i deliberately recall from that call. "i'm just not ready!!!!" she tells me to relax. she puts down the fone. i didn't know it then: but my sister took my conversation with 3 others in the same cab listening in to her side of the phone call (which was uhuh ummms ya... ok ...and me on the other side of the phone yellin' i'm just not ready!!!! and she ends call with "relax.")
as it was later recounted to me: a person in the cab asked my sister what i was not ready for. and my sister said: life.
i'm such a dufus. to many, i guess my list would be like ... unchallenging, or simply put:"chicken feet!"

recalling hemingway two sundays ago

on a rainy day
we made our way to the hemingway house
cassie with her pretty pink collar was with us
we made a couple of wrong turns before we found our way
as we walked
we passed the hemingway museum
it was closed
we passed the hemingway hotel
and bistro
we walked
i looked up and saw the overcast sky
through autumn leaves strung by branches
of trees that lined the streets
hemingway roamed about
as a kid
i looked down
and saw my feet
shuffling by
the golden brown fallen ones
that have chosen their spot
after the drift from above
the pavement is damp
so is the air
my heart
i look ahead
and see him waving
he's found the hemingway place
i follow
but first a shot of the pretty yellow house
that stands not too far across
i hurry along to the birthplace
cassie goes before us
we paced the porch
and peered through the glass doors
and imagined
a life
a mirror captures us
and brings us inside
we laughed at how smart we are
art suggests a shot of me, my journal
on the hemingway porch
i dig for my moleskine
and sat
maybe like hemingway did
but mine was a pen from another era
words from another season
i'd love a conversation
with hemingway
but it's just a photo for now
we interact with the hemingway house instead
our discourse has taken place
between pages
i'm content
as i write a staged entry
for art's picture
my words
begin with
oct second
sunday
530pm
on the front porch
of hemingway's birthplace
it has just rained
and the roads are still wet
and the raindrops still trickling from the branches
it's cool and breezy
it ends
i state the obvious
but it won't be so
when i leave
this sunday brought me my many firsts
an evening with hemingway
then a seat behind the wheels
not long before
an unexpected dinner
with fresh garden herbs
inmy honor
he tells me later
dinner warms more than my stomach
we drive back to the city
i'm mixed about my departure
which way is home
which way is home
i find myself echoing
his words
we're all on the same journey
that's all that matters
in my walk to hemingway's

on the 95th

the lift swallowed us
and brought us to the 95th
where we reminisced
and saw beyond
till the sky met the earth
where the blues
kissed the whites
where buildings turned into grids
where boats became kites
up in the sky
where the river shimmered
like silver flags
flapping in the wind
where gary indiana emerged
at the end of our finger tips
where chicago appeared on my guccis
where the sun stung our eyes
and colored our cheeks
where conversations faded into noise
where words became hopes
and hopes became dreams
there on the 95th

my yoko ono minute

messenger tutorial- the b-grade movie

art has a hotmail account but has never been on messenger. i decided to be a good samaritan - to connect the unconnected and evanglize the wonders of the messenger.




eager student arthur paris ( who's also store owner and budding photographer)














eager tutor jessica tan




























































teena the wine distributor pops by to pick up a check. "she used to date the lead singer in a rockband called urge overkill," art tells me. her dad used to teach economics at the national university of singapore,she tells me. small world





we all chatted












still eager student arthur paris

finding old friends and making new ones

so i arrived in chicago unprepared. with phone numbers of most friends long lost. apart from abbi whom i'm staying with - i've basically lost touch with most of my school friends here.
when i got here though i emailed some peeps and googled others. iris my honduran friend is in DC - a press sec for a senator. darlene my taiwanese flatmate is in LA. daschell's working for a non-profit in hyde park. and as i discovered on my first night here that dalia a classmate from cairo has left us. sad and shocking news to say the least. i remember her as very intelligent,witty and passionate about her views on politics and current affairs.

on some days - i've been wondering around chicago - in my meandering i've found myself walking into memories old and new.

i got lost the other day and was required to make a u-turn on an el ride. waiting at the chicago stop - i remembered how my eyes swelled up once while waiting for the train couple of years back.it was cold and i was suddenly homesick that very day.

i also noticed that the amercan airlines office near the wrigley building is no longer there. i shot a news package there once. i walked past the bennigans where we had a group outing once and the cosi coffee shop where i caught up with a friend visiting from oregon.

there have been new highlights in the city too. that centerpiece over at millenium park.Abbi and i call it the bean, arthur has been correcting me. "you mean you didn't know it's called the cloud gazer?" a beautiful metallic sculpture that takes in the city skyline and whoever that gazes into it. it's housed at the millenium park which was so perfect for that lunch we had.




i used to be terrified of cats, but looks like mr beans and i are now friends. although he seems a little aloof in this picture. hah

carnival grocery

right at webster,cleveland and lincoln stands carnival grocery. according to the floormat at the shop, it has been sitting on that intersection since 1962. the shop's cool 'cos while it's pretty much your regular grocery shop - it also has some quirky touches - in its beer section, you'll find a japanese brand ichiban and chinese beer tsingtao (which i didn't see at trader joe's the other night.) it also sells pineapples and vegetable scrubs in the shape of a half-sized potato. the black and white checkered floor completes the indie look of the shop. and i love the warm lighting in some parts of the store.

the people who work there are appear to be minorities of sorts just like carnival. i have my suspicions that they're all more alert than they look. they have become familiar faces this past week. like my surrogate family - i see them almost daily but hardly know them. i greet them along the aisles with a half nod and a soft hi pretending i belong. not long before i scurry past the sticky flappy curtains that divide customers and employees. and hang at the office upstairs. they seem like decent folks who could possibly make reels and reels of american splendor like movies. * (cross ref: google movie title american splendor if you have no idea what i'm talking about.) i think if i were to sit with them for coffee i'd find myself with a bunch of very interesting life stories. i'm just passing through town. again.

i stumbled on carnival in a neighborhood paper inside about 4 years ago. i had a school project to work on and needed a small business owner to profile. i found arthur in the pages. and we've known each other ever since. rather serendipitous, isn't it?



arthur checks out the freshness of this cucumber.ha ha.