pi

deery-lou.
my friend leta, back in the states, who is an amazing photographer has now added jewelry making to her resume. she has a unique line called bent which is available at some shops in seattle and i believe online as well. if your looking for something a bit more edgey, cool, and handmade be sure to check out her site. you definitely won't be disappointed.



leta, you rock girl. still waiting for a ring. hint.hint. luv ya. beware of the wild coons.

stay gold & be well…

these days

deery-lou.
well tomorrow begins the lunar new year [aka chinese new year]. the year of the pig [ding hai]. so long to the dog, what a bummer of a year it turned out to be. here's to hoping for all the best in the pig.


to start the new year off on the right foot i decided to clean, and i mean really clean, my apartment. fresh start, fresh year. my boss gave me some wine for the holiday. i also got a box of asian pears and some socks. oh joy more socks! i passed the socks off to one of the new teachers. this week was also valentine's day. i scored numerous amounts of chocolate from the kiddies. as well as some from the teachers. score!!

this week my ipod has played nothing but learn to sing like a star by kristin hersh. i can't get enough of it. i keep finding new favorites. then today i stumbled upon her video for in shock on youtube. oh, how i love youtube.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!

stay gold and be well…

winter

deery-lou.
the beauty of korean commericals. thanks to burning seoul for bringing this jem to my attention. it'll definitely be a good thursday now.



stay gold & be well…

warm and sunny days

deery-lou.
sunday was spent strolling around the jongno area with princess. on our quest for food princess took me to this area of jongno she had discovered the previous week. it kind of reminded me of the marina in sf minus all the white people and their attitude. the restaurants were much more upscale then most korean hoods. this was first date mecca. there were lots of cafes, galleries, and museums along the street. as we wondered about looking for food we stumbled upon this great find:

welcome!

people sure do love owls. we didn't go in. i'm not that much of a fan. however it did make me think of the owl tree/the owl bar [i forget the name] in sf. this bar is completely decked out in owl crap. it was like being at home. my mom was a huge owl collector. she's not so much anymore. we also saw a sign for the chicken art museum. chicken art! how fantastic. we never found it although later in the day we'd see a poster for it. instead we ended up in some neighborhood area that had awesome old style houses. i so want to live there.

my dream house

by the time we found our way out of the maze-like neighborhood we were near insadong. still no food and by now completely hungry. princess remembered that our favorite indian restaurant namaste had opened up a new one in the millennium mall complex. the quest had ended. as always the food at namaste was waaaay good. with full bellies we headed off to gyeongbokgong palace. here's a sample of what i saw there:

sexy guard

inside the palace gate

the rabbit

aren't we fab

a very friendly korean stopped me to snap his picture. he commented that he liked my hairstyle then proceeded to give us a brief geography lesson in 30 seconds naming all the countries he likes but has never been to. which lead to all the expensive countries and so on and so on. it was like he was so excited to practice his english. i basically nodded and smiled a lot. princess was pulling out her hair.

to see more exciting pictures of jongno & gyeongbokgong go here.

feeling exhausted and needing a pick me up we went in search of a coffee shop. seeing that we saw so many earlier we didn't think it would be difficult. however, we were wrong. the first couple of cafes we went into were completely packed. one of the places told us they had no seats and we'd have to put our name on a waiting list. oddly enough they had a few open tables that we could see clearly. coffee was a bust for now. we opted to hit toykino our main reason for being there. here's a glimpse into the beauty of toykino:

toykino sign

the bat-e

supergirl

smurfs

the guys at toykino 2, yes there are two of them within seconds of each otehr, was quite friendly and spoke english very well. he chatted me up a bit and mentioned that he liked my shoes. tk2 had mostly old-style toys. tk1 was where it was all at. i thought i had died and gone to heaven. at least my version of heaven.

for more images of teh goodies inside toykino go here.

on our way back to the station we stopped in at egg cafe for some coffee. it was very cozy cafe. we spent the rest of the wee hours just chillin. it was a grand end to a grand day. princess took some good snaps of me at egg. here's one:

egging it

stay gold & be well…

p.s. this ones for you hugel…

under the gun

deery-lou.
…and sometimes a little bit of happiness comes our way.

i purchased the new kristin hersh, learn to sing like a star the other day. my immediate thought was "why did i wait to do so?" like instant pudding, it was instant love. granted i'm a bit biased when it comes to kh and anything she does [throwing muses, 50footwave] but this cd definitely struck a nerve with me. it's amazing how an artist and their music can invoke such emotions from you. this is what the songs on learn to sing like a star does for me. it came just at a time when i needed it and its a most welcomed gift. kh is truly one of the most talented and underrated artist out there. it's such a shame to think that an album as solid as this will probably get lost in the shuffle. as for myself i will treasure it dearly.

Pinned by a dream state
You are fearless
And your empty arms
Waiting for no one
You wanted to be wanted
— In Shock

stay gold & be well…

sunset

deery-lou.
in december 05 i went to see a fortune teller. he told me that the year of dog, which i am, was currently in a 3 year rut of bad luck. apparently 2006 was the third year of this bad luck. the teller couldn't have been more right. with only 12 more days until the lunar new year the last month of the dog has been nothing but grim. it first started with stomach problems. granted in the past i've been struck with such problems but they only seemed to last a day or two at most. this on again, off again problem has seemed to last well over a month. yesterday, i went and got more magic pills/powder from the pharmacist. they seem to be doing the trick. although the power stuff tastes awful. then there was the news of my friends death which i spoke about it a previous post. i received her obit this morning. as i read it, there were things i didn't even know about her. it didn't really sound like the shortcake i had come to love in sf.of course it was written from her parents perspective so perhaps they had a different vision of her. whatever the truth may be, it made me sad to read it. for it only confirmed that which i had hope was all a bad dream. as if these two things weren't enough, on saturday i got word from misty that my kitty wasn't doing well. misty's been taking care of aikea since i left for korea. at the time i left, aikea was ill. she had stopped eating and was hiding in my closet as i packed. at the time i figured it was because she knew something was up. that was three years ago and with some fluids and love from misty and ted she seemed to be doing much better. when i was sf back in august last year she seemed to be her old perky, bitchy self. meowing as i tried to hold her and only coming to me on her own terms. i felt happy because i knew then and there that aikea had adjusted to her new life with them and was doing fine. but as life goes on, things change. during my conversation with misty on saturday she informed me that aikea had stopped eating again. they took her to the vet but the x-rays turned up nothing. the vet suggested doing an ultrasound but misty held off wanting to speak with me first. we came to the decision to wait and see if the anti-nausea pills would do the trick before having an ultrasound done. i didn't really want to put aikea through much more. she's never enjoyed going to the vet or anywhere in the cat carrier for that matter. we also discussed future events. i told misty my thoughts on everything and let her know that whatever she and ted decided was fine with him. after all we needed to think of aikea. i always knew that i didn't want her to suffer and i believe they feel the same. on monday misty informed me that the vet had gotten back the blood work. aikea's kidneys have completely failed and there's nothing that can be done. sadly this lead to only one solution: putting her to sleep. putting one's pet to asleep is always a difficult thing but when you have to do it for a friend it must be extremely tough. i feel bad that my dear friend has to deal with this matter. i know it's hard but i completely support her. after all i'd be doing the same thing if i was home. aikea's live a great life and there's no way i want her final days to be in pain. knowing that aikea gets completely traumatized when going anywhere, misty has arranged for a vet to come to the house. i'm thankful for that because i know that her final hours will be in a place she feels comfortable and with people who love her. i only wish that i could be there with her to say one final goodbye. i will surely miss her screaming, bitchy self. she's truly one of a kind.

about two weeks ago ted sent me a video of aikea. its hard to imagine so much can change in such a short period of time. i'd like to share that video here.



stay gold & be well…