Thanks Hong Kong :D ! Part 2

Okay, I have notes from our trip because I'm lame and always take notes wherever I am in case it can make good writing later (I told you I'm lame) but some of the days kind of blur into one another. I'm gonna do my best to remember each day as accurately as possible but I may mix up certain meals and events because we did a lot in ten days and well, I was out of my mind tired with jet-lag and diseased more than half the time.

Where did I leave off? Oh yes, breakfast. After breakfast I went to lay down a but because I was still kind of sickly and early enough in the day that I didn't feel the need to start conquering China like my Energizer bunny boyfriend. Apparently on his lone exploration he stumbled on a music video shoot for a pretty big star. The back-up dancers were wearing shiny big pants and there was a pink Chinese dragon.

We met up for lunch and ventured around the hotel. The Luxe Manor is right off of Nathan Road, a sort of Newbury St./Istiklal Caddesi for the Kowloon side, so right out the door we were smacked with food stalls, stores, massage places, and Indian men hell-bent on selling us, "Copy watches sir? Copy purses madam?" They didn't even bother pretending their articles were genuine! Throughout the next ten days, Elliot would get approached more often than I did, weirdly enough, because along with fake watches and bags, they were hawking tailor services. "Tailor suit sir?" This question was often delivered in a low, machine-gun fire rhythm that had us staring uncomprehendingly at them for a second before realizing that no, we did not want a suit. After a while we started snickering to ourselves because the thought of toying with them was kind of irresistible. Like, seriously what would they have done had we stopped dead in our tracks, opened our mouths wide and just went, "REALLY?! YOU HAVE COPY WATCHES?! WHY, SHOW ME, MY GOOD MAN, SHOW ME!," What would they do? And on a related note, have they really attracted anyone with that sales pitch? Hong Kong is so cheap, you can get the original at probably a very reasonable price. And people do judging by the mansion-like Louis Vuitton, Prada, Coach, and various other stores on every block. I'm not exaggerating. Hong Kong is the city of labels. Every woman, and I mean every, single woman and most men had the LV monogrammed bag and each store was at least two stories tall or more. Not to mention, the giant malls everywhere. I kind of regret not going into to one to compare prices actually because again, Hong Kong is cheap. I will refer back to this several times.

Anyway, we found a nice little restaurant not far from our hotel, though not on our street. I don't know why but I guess the street we stayed on was wedding dress central. Every other store was a bridal shop. And some of the dresses, whoooo-eeeee. I wouldn't be caught dead in them as a joke on Halloween. The first place we chose to eat at in Hong Kong, the center of quality Asian cuisine, was a Japanese place. Another thing that will get reiterated a lot; the comparison between China/Hong Kong and Japan and the fact that we ended up at Japanese places more often than you'd think in a world food capital. I guess we couldn't quite shake off our first big vacation together. Elliot had some udon in black sesame broth and I had my trusty katsu with curry and rice. We decided to head back to the hotel for a quick nap (Elliot still hadn't slept unless you count the couple hours on the plane and I was still sickly feeling and hadn't gotten any more rest that morning. I accidentally spent it watching The Powerpuff Girls on Cartoon Network Asia. I don't know what it is about travel but it always makes me watch cartoons. My sister too, every time we've been in India we've ended up falling asleep to Dexter's Laboratory and various other kids shows). It was around 2 pm by this time so we set the alarm for 5 and curled up like cats.

We didn't wake up until 4 am the next morning.

Sure, we set an alarm but after hitting snooze several times, and after convincing a zombie Elliot that no, we would not be missing out on anything by sleeping because if we wandered around like sleepwalkers that'd hardly be "experiencing" Hong Kong either. So we turned off the alarm and slept for 14 hours. I woke up a few times drenched in sweat which I took to be a good sign that my fever had broken (yep, had been chilled/hot this entire time) so by the time we were up, I felt much better. Elliot decided to go take pictures of the city waking up and I stayed in the room and finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. It was a bit long-winded and I didn't get completely sucked in until well over 200 pages but the ending was infuriating which is why I am now reading the second book, The Girl Who Played With Fire. I like the main character and she reminds me of me sometimes. You know, besides the psychotic passive-aggressive sociopathic tendencies.

It's was a short walk from the hotel to the bay and ferries that cross back and forth between Hong Kong and Kowloon. Though we were in Hong Kong technically, we were staying on the Kowloon side, just to clarify to avoid confusion. It's like Boston and Cambridge or Istanbul with it's Asian and European sides. Along the way was the Walk of Fame with various Hong Kong stars' names and handprints on the ground as well as a huge statue of Bruce Lee. Elliot had explored there in the morning but I didn't go until later on in the trip, just caught glances as we walked by it. The ferry across to Hong Kong from Kowloon was about 30 cents and we used it often. My first time we did it early in the morning and the view was kind of awe-inspiring. Hong Kong looks like a very modern, very alien settlement with a very geometric and tall skyline. It towered over us in the daylight but it was beautiful at night when we were crossing back and all the lights were on. Except for the tacky season's greetings signs plastered and lit up all over the buildings. Seriously, I don't think I've heard, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," as often as I did it there. Christmas music was blaring everywhere. From the underground subway stations to the malls to the random crappy little restaurants on the streets. You have not lived until you've listened to, "Feliz Navidad," surrounded by screaming Chinese women. That's another thing. People never had normal conversations there. Because of the language, everyone just sounded like they were yelling at each other all the time. It was not a place for quiet reflection.

We made our way up to the Peak, one of the highest points in Hong Kong by way of a tram. We headed up the hill on the steepest incline. We were sitting down but it felt like we were about to flip over and go sliding back down to the bottom. There was also a Madame Tussaud's at the Peak and we took a couple pictures of the Bruce Lee figure for Elliot who is a huge a fan. At the top we had a beautiful view of the city and Kowloon too and we had delicious drinks of milk tea with coffee before heading back down where we wandered, quite by chance, into the Botanical Gardens and Zoo. There were all these gorgeous orchids and I saw a Venus Fly-Trap in real life! As well as a, um, raccoon. You see, I love raccoons (thank you childhood viewings of Pocahontas) and I've never seen them except in movies and they had one in a cage at the zoo. It was so fat it looked like it was wearing pants. I loved it. There were also several swinging monkeys, chimps, a bunch of turtles and giant tortoises, and many, many birds. I saw a crane for the first time too. I've never really cared for cranes and barely paid attention to them in artwork such as Japanese, but they were so big, and so elegant I couldn't take my eyes off them.

As we wandered back down the hill (the gardens and zoo were at the base of the Peak but still uphill) we followed our ears to some music. We came across a marching band celebrating... something. I'll have to ask Elliot what it was for but they were amazing. At one point we both realized we knew what they were playing. The band was dancing and waving their trumpets and trombones in unison while they played Lady Gaga. Yep, 'Bad Romance."

After that little show we headed to Queen's Road which is the Newbury St. counterpart in Hong Kong and wandered among the vendors. I got myself one of those bags used for carting rice with a picture of an elephant. I love these bags and have wanted one forever but they went for upwards of 100$ in the States. I got it for 100$ Hong Kong dollars. Which is about 14 dollars. Hong Kong is so cheap! We had lunch at a mall called The One right by our hotel. It's a place that's 10 stories high with various, hilarious, store names (such as Rapee Living) and we had the best pork buns I have ever tasted in my entire life. Oh dear Lord they were heavenly. Soft and juicy and flavoured with scallions. I almost wept. I also had noodles with chili and peanut sauce that burned my mouth to high heaven but were so worth it. Elliot had a few other steamed dumplings and a noodle dish and our meal, in a really nice place, came out to probably like 20$. Hong Kong is so cheap!

I bought a shirt with a bunny that says sex on it from there. The mall, not the pork bun place.

Hong Kong is 13 hours ahead of Boston and I got tired pretty fast in the day. I can walk a lot but am no match for Elliot (and my mother in some cases. Man, traveling with those to two together would really be a special kind of hell. I love you guys, just kidding. But while you two would hike up a mountain, the rest of us would probably die on the trail). There's a restaurant in Boston called the New Jumbo and it has a huge panoramic painting of Hong Kong so one of our goals was to go to the original and have a drink there. But seeing as how we were so tired, we kind of called it an early night again, though we did send an email off to our college friend and my first RA Nikki who lives in Hong Kong. We had many night activities planned, including a trip to the metal bar a reader at MetalSucks had told me about. Thanks Hong Kong :D !

I know Elliot wants to save and show off the pictures himself but here's a sneak. He took all the photos as he's our excellent photographer.

The dancers.


Sun coming up over Hong Kong and the bay we crossed with ferries everyday.



The street right outside our hotel.


At the top of the Peak.


Bruce Lee at Madame Tussaud.


Orchids at the Botanical Gardens.


Marching band.


Stores at The One.

Thanks Hong Kong :D ! Part 1

My darling boyfriend and I decided to take a vacation. Now normal people enjoy warm weather and beaches and the Caribbean, we prefer the cold, weird places, and try to stay far, far away from sand. So naturally we decided to go to China. But not just China, ten days in Hong Kong.

Interrupting myself for a second though, I just got the new Hardcore Superstar record, Split Your Lip. It is absolutely fantastic and totally deserves it's place on the year's top fifteen list I wrote for MetalSucks. Coming soon, stay tuned. My copy came signed by the whole band! I shrieked and ran to show Elliot who just nodded encouragingly but really didn't know what the hell I was dithering about (he was playing Fallout). I'm such a fangirl, how am I a "music journalist?" It's ridiculous.

The trip started out innocently enough. We'd packed the night before so we kissed our little Egg good-bye and left for the airport at around 9:30 in the morning on Dec. 1st. Security was harmless enough even though we had to take our shoes off. I can't begin to explain why this pisses me off so much. NO OTHER COUNTRY DOES THIS. Why in the good God's name do I have to take my damn shoes off? One time, just one time, someone smuggled something through that way. And now we have to suffer this. TSA, you are worthless, a waste of money, and no you do not make us safer. You make traveling a fucking ordeal for everyone involved. Jump off a cliff because your presence is what inspires homicidal thoughts in me and probably most others too. Believe me, when someone finally snaps and tries to take you out, any weapon they have on their person will not be in their DAMN SHOES. But I digress. I digress a lot when I write. Anyway, we got through and sat. And sat. And waited. Then waited some more. Our connecting flight was through Newark and apparently Newark in it's infinite generosity, decided to have the storm of the century and restrict all flights coming in and going out.

A lot of people were connecting through Newark and going on to Hong Kong along with us, along with a Chinese lady and her baby. I seemed to be the only one who could understand her garbled English so I had to translate what she said to everyone else without making it too obvious. I think everyone's blank expressions might've tipped her off though. Finally, after letting us twiddle our thumbs for two hours without really giving us any answers (thanks Continental!) they booked us on an alternate flight. Instead of a straight shot to Hong Kong from Newark, we'd be going to London then on from there, adding about a day's worth of travel.

Which would've been awful had we not been booked on Cathay Pacific.

Oh. My. God.

I don't know if it was because everyone made such a fuss that the Continental people booked us on a rival airline (American to London then Cathay Pacific) but I'm sure as shit happy they did. Let me put it this way, you know how the Japanese are the best at everything including their airlines? Cathay Pacific puts even them to shame.

After making sure the Chinese lady and her baby were also taken care of, Elliot and I trooped back home much to the kitty's delight. We hung out for a couple hours before heading back to go through security and re-check our bags all over again. Taking our shoes off again (grrrr...). Our flight to London was pretty uneventful. We were on the same flight as some hardcore band I think. They were dumb. One had a head of bleached hair and Elliot and I called him Billy Idol (under our breaths) all the way there. When we were getting off, one stewardess went, "Ohhh I didn't know Billy Idol was on this flight!' I lost it and almost fell over laughing.

London was freezing. Everywhere was snow and ice and I think I got my first cold symptoms there. Oh yeah, I got sick and I'll get to that in due time. My throat was sore and I could feel the stuffiness coming so I got a few preventative medicinal things there and napped the four hours we had in between flights. Poor Elliot sat awake the entire time. At that time it was 11 am in London, 5 am in Boston, and he hadn't slept yet. But then we got on our Cathay Pacific flight.

The plane was huge and so spacious, even in Economy. It was nowhere near full so Elliot and I took over the four seats in the middle and took turns sprawling out and sleeping. Each seat had a video monitor and selection of TV shows and movies, as well as games. You had your choice of about 15 episodes per show too. I'm not kidding. Elliot watched a season of The Cleveland Show. The stewardesses were pleasant Chinese ladies with perfect English and the food was actually edible. It was the most comfortable I've ever been on a ten hour flight. We were so spoiled. Kind of dreaded the flight back where we'd be stuck on crappy Continental. But in the meantime, bliss.

I definitely got sick though. Nose got stuffed up about halfway through and then I got a fever. I couldn't know for sure because I didn't have a thermometer but I know when my body has a fever. My hands get unbearably hot as well as the rest of me but I'm cold to the touch and the slightest movement sends chills down my spine that wrack my body with shivers. Not good. I drugged myself with Tylenol PM and hoped sleep would make me feel better. I was out.

We arrived at 7 am Hong Kong time, on Dec. 3rd. Yeah, we traveled all the way through the 2nd. It wasn't too bad though, originally we would've arrived at night on the 2nd so we didn't really miss anything. The Chinese lady and her baby made it all right too and we waved bye-bye to them after the passport control. Our suitcases showed up no problem (mine was red, in honor of China bahaha) and we took money out and got our Octopus cards at the airport. Hong Kong has a system for travel called the Octopus card. It's basically a metro card you can keep putting money on and use it on every source of transportation and in most convenience stores. It was great. Best system. We hopped on the airport express and rode it all the way to Kowloon. Cue my ten days of quoting Cassandra from Wayne's World, "Oh my GOD, I WAS BORN IN KOWLOON BAY." The first half of the trip we were on the Kowloon side before moving to the Hong Kong side on the 6th.

Then we got lost. We got yelled at for trying to take our suitcases up the escalator (though we were dumb and missed the huge sign that clearly told us to take all, "hefty baggage," up the lift) then we couldn't find the bus even though a patient lady tried to help us. At this point, I begged Elliot to just let us take a cab and we did to our hotel The Luxe Manor. It had huge Chinese fortress doors and a snazzy, modern lobby with a giant plush red armchair. Breakfast was complimentary so we dumped our stuff in our room and went down to eat. It was 9 am at this time. After breakfast, feeling more or less ok and non-feverish on my part, we headed into the town.

Five steps outside and I walked smack into a Turkish kebab place called Istanbul Kebap. It's like there's an invisible cord connecting me to the motherland at all times. Thanks Hong Kong :D !

My airport express ticket.

Eyes Without a Face

I'm a little bored of the old layout so back to my MS Paint collages because that's the extent of my skill. I've always been intrigued and grossed out by eyes and since this blog is kind of edging out from just being the Like A Muse project to just me, I felt it was a nice, neutral lay-out. I'll probably go back to the old header at some point since I saved it.

In Egypt and Western occult traditions the left eye is considered a lunar trait and a symbol of northern direction. The right eye is a solar symbol and represents southern direction.

The "third eye" is referred to as the spiritual eye, the intuitive eye, or the eye of the soul. It is associated with the brow chakra (or Ajna chakra) which facilitates intuition and extra sensory perception. The third eye is depicted on the forehead of Shiva, and is symbolic of the inner eye that sees all things within a cosmic perspective.
In Dreaming the meaning of eyes indicates an opening into a new dimension. This is symbolic of your vision clearing and focusing in on a new direction. It may also indicate your ability to see past what is common and spiritually arrive to the point where your inner vision perceives all things in their divine glory - even the simplest of things become imbued with an exquisite quality inherent in all nature.

The symbolic meaning of eyes also carry a message of prophesy - literally seeing "a vision of the future." This translates well with ancient alchemists and astrologers speaking of eyes of the sky foretelling certain events as they chart the stars in certain patterns to ascertain various outcomes.

Happy Hindi Day! Yesterday...

Yeah, so you people make fun of my country on Thanksgiving (huh huh, do you have a lot of turkeys in Turkey?) so I'll pass on the favor and make fun of India because in Turkish, Hindi means turkey. Oh how clever of me.

I joined my boyfriend and his family for Thanksgiving this year. The joy of having an American boyfriend and friends; their families are always so generous and absolutely insist on inviting me over too. In high school, my best friend Kit's mom would cook a whole Thanksgiving feast in her apartment in Istanbul and she always had the best food so I've been kind of spoiled for all others but yesterday was delicious. We went over to Elliot's aunt's house and I'd met them on several earlier occasions so his cousins and I were already pretty comfortable around each other. Kung Fu Panda was on TV and we managed to get some quality viewing time as we waited for food. I did get to meet his uncle and grandmother for the first time, though. They were equally pleasant and welcoming and when we picked up his grandma and she came to the car carrying a pecan pie, well then. I followed her around much like cats at the fish market in Istanbul. I love pecan pie. It's my favorite. I just love pie. And cheesecake. Those are my top desserts and they had both. Elliot's cousin had made this delicious pumpkin spiced cheesecake with caramel and walnuts and there were cocoa cookies with white chocolate chips. But that was dessert. For food we had turkey, of course and it was delicious and I had a little bit of the white meat too even though I'm a dark meat girl through and through. You have my permission to lewd that up in any way you like. We also had a rib roast and stuffing (my favorite) and sweet potato puree and asparagus wrapped in bacon.

Miraculously, I didn't quite eat myself stupid. I was okay by the end of the day because today Elliot is taking me to the Afghan restaurant we went to the first time I came to visit his family and it has the best saffron chicken I've ever had in my life. Shh, don't tell my dad or my fellow Iranians.

Tonight I think we're meeting up with his old high school buddy for food (again) and at some point today I think I might coax him to drive me to an H&M. As my fashion blogger friends know the Lanvin and H&M collection premieres today and I've been really looking forward to it because all the pieces look amazing. Especially the Chanel-esque furry coat.



If the crowd look too daunting, since it is Black Friday, we'll avoid it but I'm going to take a peek at some point. I know every girl worth her weight in couture and online fashion will have a piece from the collection but I never buy anything that's "in fashion," just because it is, anyway. If I like something, I'll get it. Not because everyone has it. Like those Jeffrey Campbell Lita boots. They're not at all my style but I know at least three people who have them. Good for them, I admire people who can clomp around in heels all day. I'm good with my Converse sneakers and Iron Maiden Vans. Though I did recently switch it up and get a purple pair since my Maidens are falling apart and I always get black or grey shoes.

Other than that, I was just in New York visiting with my mommy and sister. My cousin and her family were also there (as well as another cousin who also attends NYU with my sister. Yes, I have a large family and we're together constantly). Now I know I've always come back from NY spewing vengeance and hate and crying out for the blood of the city, especially cab drivers. But I am allowed to change my mind. It was the best trip. Not only did I get to see family and have a long, fun lunch with them at this little Mexican place (La Rosa Mexicana by Colombus Circle. They had really good guacamole and my cousin expressed her wishes to have one of their succulent avocados. So I sneakily hi-jacked one as we were leaving. No one saw. I am a master thief) where we talked and I showed off my most prized "possession," my kitty (in pictures. I didn't actually bring her though I know some wouldn't put it past me. I mean, she's here in Virginia right now... yeah we drove 9 hours from Boston with the cat), but my mom and I met up with Carlito Dalceggio who I've talked about here. He's become sort of like a foster son to my mom because she has this bright, wonderful energy that draws people to her. Plus, he was just in Istanbul with her and got sick and stayed at our house. He has converted to Zeynepism. We went with him to an art gallery where he kind of had an "audition," and the owner really loved his stuff so hopefully that wiill come to some sort of fruition.



We also met up with my dad's cousin (I told you, large family) who hadn't seen us in 15 years. She had an art show too, which I unfortunately couldn't attend, but she came to lunch with us and Carlito the day I left.

My mother and I had dinner with Carlito and his girlfriend at some point. I was there from Thursday to Monday but the days kind of blur into each other. She's the sweetest, kindest girl ever and we all had the most, well I don't want to say profound because that sounds dumb and pretentious, so pretend I didn't say it but an evening along those lines. We went for drinks in Brooklyn at this cute little bar and then to dinner at a Vietnamese place which of course I loved as it is my favorite. I had pho. Surpirse. We just talked about EVERYTHING. From travel to dreams to food ("Our food had no taste in Poland, it's all potatoes!"), to weird connections between people. I was wearing my peacock print coat and they brought me a single peacock feather that Carlito had decorated with his signature acrylic, bright red dot.


His girlfriend had written a poem in beautiful calligraphy in her native language, Polish, for my mom (my mom gave her an evil eye bracelet the day before and she'd loved it) and Carlito had presented her with a small picture with a key attached. My mom collects keys. He had no idea, he just said he felt like the portrait needed something extra and the key seemed right. It was such a lovely night and won't get into too much detail because I'm saving the conversations for my novel. Man, I'm just filled with pretention with this post. But I was at a block and our night will translate so well into it. It was kismet. Oh, you might have actually seen his girlfriend. Her name is Magdalena Frackowiak. She's a pretty amazing model. Her modeling ice queen shots are the polar opposite of her personality.





My mom is actually off to Montreal today to see Mercan who I've also talked about in the same post with Carlito and more so here. He and Carlito did the opening of the Music House and he's another "spiritual" friend of my mom's now. I swear, when she's 90 she'll have reached guru status.

I also met up with a few friends. People might raise their eyebrows at the concept of an, "Internet friend," but in this day and age, when so many of us have blogs and websites and rely on connections through them, why is it still weird? I mean sure, watch out for them pedophiles, but I think a few of my closest friends now are those I've met through reading about their lives and vice versa. Three of these ladies came to stay with me last year for a couple days and I hadn't seen them since. So, last Friday two, Beth and Chelsey, came by to my mom's hotel where we met up at the bar where we treated ourselves to Bellinis (Proseco and peach juice. Let's send this into pretension over-drive because though it was good, I prefer them in Venice. Hey, I can be picky, I'm not a sweet alcoholic drink person anyway) before heading out to an improv show and a few other places. I love how my friends identify me with liking metal. I do, it's true, but rather than laughing at me, most support me and want to show me a good time by taking it into consideration. Like my best friends treating me to Kuma's corner, the heavy metal buger place, in Chicago. I love this. Chelsey said there was a metal bar in Brooklyn so we ended up in Williamsburg at 12 at night in this most excellent little basement bar, Duff's. It was absolutely wall-papered in posters and fliers and had a nice little back room with booths. It was so empty. We definitely got stared at by the few patrons but the friendly bar lady offered us free shots on the house because, "we looked cold." The night may have been disappointing on some counts (for my friend) but for me it was so fun just getting to hang out with the girls and even getting to know them a bit better. No more awkwardness for us.


There was a third lady in the group that visited me last year and she and I met up for drinks on anther night. I think my family and the way we function amused Hilary to no end. We were in the hotel bar again because it's comfy and hey, charge it to the room! But my sister came by, my cousin came by, then she came by again with her boyfriend and another friend, then my sister came by once more and Hilary basically met half my immediate family and their acquaintances right there.

I did some shopping too because I'm a girl and we have to. But I mostly got books and make-up. So my intellectual side and my superficial side were pretty balanced I'd say. I got Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil because I always thought I'd read it but my friend actually had and told me about it and I'd seen the movie so I figured it was time to go through it myself. I also got Modoc, it's about this boy and an elephant and it's the true story of how they went from Germany to India to a circus in New York in the '40s and all about their adventures and friendship. I'm sure it'll make me cry but it was written by one of the first Hollywood trainers to use love and care when handling animals (so hopefully I won't get all upset by animal cruelty. Yes, I like fur and leather and I eat meat but you kick a dog and I will stomp on your testicles till kingdom come) it'll be something interesting to read on the 16 hour flight to Hong Kong.

Oh yeah, Elliot and I are off to Hong Kong this coming Wednesday. Wacky adventures to follow. But seriously, I'm looking forward to another weird trip with him (we went to Japan a couple years ago and we're still boring our friends to death with stories), pissing him off by quoting Cassandra from Wayne's World every time we catch sight of Kowloon Bay, ("Oh my GOD! I WAS BORN IN KOWLOON BAY,"), meeting up with my first RA Nikki (who I haven't seen since freshman year), and eating in one of the foremost food capitals of the world. Yeah, everything comes back to food doesn't it?

Last Rites

I've broken 15,000 words on my "novel," because I am a pretentious writer. The goal is 50,000 by the end of the month but I don't think I'll make it. I'm trying though. It's just, I keep second guessing myself and I'm thoroughly convinced the 50 or so pages I've written so far are complete crap.

Other than that, I've been working on pieces for MetalSucks and various other writing endeavors. I recently got to interview Bobby Liebling of the band Pentagram. Pentagram is one of the pioneers of doom metal (no, not Turkish Pentagram who, I'm sorry to say, are kind of terrible and I only like one song of theirs) and he and I had the longest, most interesting conversation this past Monday night. It was my favorite interview I've ever done and it wouldn't have been possible without his wife Hal. I follow her blog, which is pretty great, and got in touch with her and she helped set it all up.

I head to New York tomorrow to see my mom and sister and a few friends I haven't seen in a while, and then Virginia for Thanksgiving with Elliot and the kitty. Yep, she's going to visit her first roommate, Elliot's mom's cat Miss Grace. I'm sure she'll be angry and growly but we'll give her food and she'll live for a couple days in the company of another cat.

We're coming up fast to the end of the year and I'm going to be pretty busy. I hope I can get to the point where I'm satisfied with all my stuff because my deadline is the end of January. I won't think about this now but I really hope that won't turn into a dead end. If I start thinking about that, I might as well curl up in a ball ad give up on everything right now.

Elliot and I have another trip planned for this December but I won't talk about it just yet. Instead, enjoy some stuff from my tumblr. Because having a blog, a Facebook account, and twitter wasn't enough I had to get a photo blog too.











God, you can really tell how much of a crazy cat lady I am.

Saturday Afternoon Madonna Break

Don't tell my editors at MetalSucks.




Madonna - Like It Or Not (Confessions Tour)
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Madonna - Nothing Really Matters (High Quality )
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Madonna - Sorry
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MADONNA - MILES AWAY (http://rhoroe.blogspot.com
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Can I Play With Madness?

Scrapped the old book idea for now. Using an idea I had for a script as an idea for a novel. I really wish I had a machine I could hook up to my brain that would record all the sentences and paragraphs I have running in it rather than type it all out. It would make my life and my procrastination a lot easier.

Read my review of the Devin Townsend show! Here's the link. As usual, pay no mind to the commenters. The internet spawns some real dodo heads. Yep, just said dodo heads. They infuriated my sister to the point where she created an account just so she could comment back and yell at someone. I love her.

I made lasagna last night and my hands still smell like garlic. I washed them like nineteen times! I also got a haircut today. This is unrelated to the lasagna and garlic. I don't know if I like it yet. This entry is all over the place. I'm going to go check on the laundry, hug my cat, make tea, and write for the rest of the night. I'll wash my hands again too.

The Devil in the White City

I love Chicago. It's filled with coffee shops, kids my age, and an easy to navigate public transportation system. Look at this:


It's a DeLorean in a coffee shop! The place was called The Wormhole and was decorated in all '80s stuff. There were cartoon lunch boxes and posters Goonies, Top Gun, Ghostbusters, Raiders of the Lost Ark and more! They had a video game corner and an old Trivial Pursuit board game! THE BATHROOMS HAD CALVIN AND HOBBES FRAMED PRINTS.


Yes, I took my phone to the bathroom to take a picture. It's a perfectly valid reason to.

Why does Boston suck when it comes to coffee shops? This is THE college town. Yes, I realize there are places in Cambridge and 1369 is an all right place but where are all the ones that are supposed to be right next door to me where I can go and be a pretentious writer with my laptop and a latte? No, instead I have 3 Starbucks' on my street. That blows. That is an unimaginative coffee establishment. Chicago had a place called New Wave Cafe with couches and old Duran Duran records. Chicago had Cafe Moustache which was separated into sections, all to support someone wanting to work on a laptop in private. Hell, maybe I'd do more work if I wasn't stuck home all day but I don't want to go to Starbucks! I need panache, pizzazz, and other p-words (providence? Pulmonary embolism? I guess that doesn't count) for my coffee shops because, well, I don't really like coffee I just like the production (production!) of getting it and settling down to work with it by your side.

Anyway, Chicago was amazing. I got to see two of my best friends (unfortunately the last member of our group wasn't there and I still feel a twinge about that but hey, Des you have a life! Deniz and I don't. This is how we make ourselves feel better. Besides, San Francisco is on my list. I'm going to descend upon you at some point next year) and had a glorious time. We went to the zoo (oh my God the big cats. I loved them so), and had burgers at a heavy metal burger joint (which you can read about here), and watched Firefly and smoked nargile/hookah every night. My lungs probably hate me (delicious jasmine and mint and orange tobacco every night) but it was exactly what I wanted. Plus, I got to reintroduce myself to Firefly, a show I always forget I love, and I still get chills watching some episodes. My favorite, "Out of Gas," still brings me to the verge of crying. It is fantastic, I recommend it. My friend also recommended me a book with the same title as this entry, and I've started reading it, as visiting Chicago has made me all curious about it. It's a fascinating city with a cool and sometimes twisted history and the book is all about the famous World's Fair and how that came to be along with the murders that took place there. It's exactly the kind of book I like; historic but with grisly little touches. We went to see the site of the fair even though it's just a museum now, the rest of it burned down decades ago.

That was the day we spent downtown seeing the city and the famous "bean," sculpture.

My Denny Bunny, Deniz, in front of the bean. I have stupid nicknames for my friends. Kit has become Kitten and Destine is Desi.


All three of us reflected in the bean. What a well-planned photo.


We also went up 96 floors on the John Hancock tower and had drinks up above Chicago. It had a beautiful view of the lake and the city and we got to watch the sun set.



I really liked it. But it did live up to the moniker of "The Windy City." We didn't so much as fight the wind as get attacked, abused, and beaten down by it. It was pretty funny trying to walk downtown with my dress around my ears. At least I was wearing leggings so nobody really got to see a show. In my underpants. It's still a city I'd be happy to live in though. I always need bodies of water where I live and the giant lake makes it seem like it's right on the shore of a great sea.

Oh I almost forgot! I met a woman who toured with My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult. The really cool/terrible band in The Crow. At a tapas restaurant I complimented the waitress on the music and she said that iTunes had a good Halloween mix and named that band and I made an offhand comment about liking them and she was like, "Uh yeah I know them."

!!!

Okay this is exciting to me. I even did some stalking and found out who she is. She's not blonde anymore but I recognized her face. I am so creepy. Hahaha.


After cooking us many delicious meals, Kit sent me back home last Friday right as Elliot got back from his business trip to Seattle. The cat was happy to see us. But that goes without saying.

Pinkness! At the top of a tall building downtown at night.


We both came back on Friday because we had a concert to go to. It was his birthday gift; I got him tickets to The Devin Townsend Project along with special access to meet him. He is the funniest, most personable, silly man. Meet and greets are usually so stiff and boring but he just hung out with a group of us fans, answered some questions, played some songs, and basically talked like we were all old friends. That's how meeting someone you admire should go and I'm so happy I got to give my boyfriend a gift he really loved.


The concert itself was so good. It was so fun, and he had so much energy, the entire place was vibrating. I just a wrote a piece for it for MetalSucks so when that gets posted, I'll add a link.


Yesterday was Halloween but I was a feeling a bit under the weather so I half-assed my costume. I was Lydia Deetz from the cartoon Beetlejuice.


I put my hair in a high pony-tail, lots of purple eyeshadow and just wore a black poncho I had with red tights. How sad is it that I basically have this weirdo outfit in my regular wardrobe? But I love Lydia, she's another great female heroine I admired when I was younger. I think I identified with her, surprise, surprise. Don't fit in anywhere? Call up your wacky, possibly deranged ghoul of a friend and go to an entirely different, bizarre place. It'll be like coming home. I thought it was so funny and so weird and so pleasingly gross. But, we just went to a friend's house and watched a terrible movie, hung out, and came home before too late.

It was a lovely end to a wonderful week and now I'm back in Boston and back to writing. I have a challenge this month. 50,000 words by the end of November. It's National Novel Writing Month and I'm sort of taking part but also just trying to get this story out of me and done, at least in a first draft. When an idea sits in me too long, I start doubting it and it turns stale. Like the script idea I had a couple weeks ago. It kind of dried up before I managed to spit it out but hopefully I can revisit it at the end of the month. I have till the end of January to get all this shit together. Can't let stupid worries of wasting my time prevent me from actually doing anything with my time...

If only I had a quirky coffee shop right next door. Or a giant dinosaur sculpture.