House of Cards

(New York Times)

Why can’t I stop watching this show? Only 2 days in and I’ve already watched 6 episodes…

I took the above photo when I went to the dentist a few days ago. I had a 7 AM appointment, which meant I had to take the metro at 6:15 AM. It was dark and the moon was still shining, but the platforms and the trains were already filled with people heading to work, no matter how groggy or disgruntled they appeared… This is D.C. Not the city that never sleeps… It’s the city that gets up really, really early. I respect that.

Touring North Korea

Here’s an interesting infographic on what to expect from a visit to North Korea. I’d personally never visit, but I’m always fascinated by the photos of those who have visited (a large part of that being how eerily similar their experiences always turn out to be – the state choreographs tours down to the last detail).

(Source)

And here’s some secret footage taken by undercover journalists of actual people inside North Korea. The girl in the video is absolutely heartbreaking. She died a few months after this interview was filmed.

Metro ad campaign

I’ve been seeing these ads pop up around D.C. metro stations. There are at least 2 in McPherson Square. I took a picture of this one in Rosslyn:

Here’s an op-ed they wrote for the Huff Post. Interesting.

What Snowquester?

Admit it, Capital Weather Gang. You oversold the snow storm.

6-10 inches? Ha!

The ground was barely dusted with snow at 7 this morning. At 9 am and 11 am there were some heavy flurries and sleet, but no accumulation. Now everything is melting away. I can see most of the grass outside again.

I did get to have a relaxing day at home, though. Cheers.

Happy Friday

Good luck filling your new PR position, WMATA. You’ll need it.

Speaking of WMATA… yesterday the blue line acted up. It went, like, all green line on us for a sec. While in a tunnel near Rosslyn, the train suddenly stopped, all but 2 of the lights inside the train shut off, and we were engulfed in tense, dimmed silence. The conductor said nothing. After 2-3 agonizing minutes, in which everyone remained calm and quiet while I silently panicked that we would end up being stuck in the train for hours and breaking the emergency doors and walking down the tunnel and nopenopenope… We started moving again.

I’m excited that it’s the weekend, but I’m mostly excited to get some sleep and rest. Since I moved up north, I have been constantly experiencing cold-like symptoms that have never been serious enough to lapse into full-blown illness, and this is the worst it’s been so far – constant coughing, congested nose and sore throat. If I get sick, I want to get sick, not just mildly inconvenienced. Scumbag body.

Ugh.

Today was cold and rainy, but I didn’t bring an umbrella. That was fine.

But it eventually got so cold that my fingers froze. I fumbled and dropped my phone. And now my phone screen is cracked. It will cost close to $100 to get repairs, I think.

And then when I got off the metro, the buses had stopped running. Had to walk back home in the rain.

And tomorrow I am going to one of the coldest cities in America.

I hope I haven’t caught a cold.

7 Valentine gifts for single people

This is not a joke.

1. George Foreman grill

2. Large quantities of fuzzy socks

3. Mindy Kaling’s book

4. Sturdy tote for groceries

5. Awesome food trays

6. Coffee

7. A cat (because everyone should get a cat)

1. Amazon

2. Eroswholesale.com

3. theconcernsofmindykaling.com

4. eatright.org

5. jeesoochung.wordpress.com

6. greenmountaincoffee.com

7. flickr.com/photos/notratched

Boohoo.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve been crying a bit too frequently of late.

First of all, I really miss my parents. My dad told me that when he drove by my old college apartment, he felt sad remembering that I didn’t live there anymore. I started tearing up immediately on Skype.

I miss playing with my brother. One of my favorite things to do with him is to grab his head, tuck it under my arm, and rub the crown of his head as hard as I can until he squeals in protest. I miss not being able to do that anymore.

I miss my cat, M, who has not been with us for quite a few years now, but who had been my baby since he was a 2-week-old kitten. He was an incredibly intelligent and affectionate yellow tabby. When I came home from school every day, he would emerge from the bushes and sprint toward me like a dog. I hope he’s found a loving family to take care of him. I want to have a cat again, but realize that I don’t have the time, energy or space to commit to adopting one.

I also miss Asian supermarkets.

But I love D.C. I really do. I got to see the president. I’ve been to a few cool museums, and there are so many more to see. I’m looking forward to cherry blossom season. People on the metro are so impeccably dressed. My coworkers are really great. Whenever I take the yellow line, I smile when we’re crossing the Potomac, and I can see Capitol Hill and the Monument from a distance. My youthful dreams of a wondrous and powerful city, once so far away, now right in front of me.

Spectacular.

this weekend

Hand-carried all of these home on Saturday:

And this, too: (for upcoming work travels)

Today’s lunch – buttered garlic bread and a fruit salad.

Outfits from last week:

Inauguration 2013 – The Parade!

I had an AWESOME Monday. Probably – no, definitely – the most AWESOME Monday I’ve had. So AWESOME that I cannot even come up with a more creative word to describe it. And no, I’m not being sarcastic. Here’s why.

I bought a ticket to the inauguration parade about 4 hours after sales opened on the PIC website. When I went to the Washington Convention Center on Saturday to pick up the ticket, I discovered that I had – by sheer, random luck – gotten a red ticket, which put me in the bleachers right in front of the… wait for it…

… What’s this?…

… WHITE HOUSE!

That’s right. Right in front of Lafayette Square.

However, the novelty of sitting in front of the White House wore off after about 30 minutes. It was frigidly cold – I arrived at 8 a.m. and did not leave until after 4 p.m. – and I was not dressed sufficiently for January weather in D.C.

To entertain the blue-lipped, shivering spectators in the stands, the volunteers coordinated several cheer-offs between the crowds on both sides of the street. My favorite:

Across the street: “BARACK! OBAMA! BARACK! OBAMA!”

Our side: “MICHELLE! OBAMA! MICHELLE! OBAMA!”

Across: “SASHA! MALIA! SASHA! MALIA!”

Our side: (after a pause, with sudden fervor) “BO! BO! BO! BO! BO!”

At around 10 a.m., there was a sudden outburst of hysterical screams, and everyone scrambled to get a better look – the president’s limo had arrived at the White House.

A woman who had rushed to the front of the bleachers for a better look came back, looking smug. “I saw him!” she said. “He’s studying his speech in the car.”

Back to the crowd: there were several women wearing Obama beanies, which I thought were the cutest things ever.

Some media outlets were filming to my left…

And across the street was the presidential viewing stand.

This was rumored to be Joe Biden’s limo…

Some very dapper men in uniform passing through; wish I had some idea of who they were! They got a huge cheer from the crowd.

Those of us who had been in the parade bleachers since the early morning got a rough deal when it came to the swearing-in ceremony. We had no screens, no jumbotrons – just a radio put on speaker. The crowd fell silent and listened intently to the entire ceremony, with the radio hosts occasionally interjecting commentary – “he’s walking up” – “so-and-so’s about to speak” – “the girls are wearing shades of purple” – and in a way, I almost felt as though I were transported back to an earlier time in history, a time when everyone listened to important events playing out over the radio, when FDR had his “fireside chats”, when the lack of technology brought people close together… and it was a peaceful, surreal feeling.

Oh, and there was a huge cheer for Beyonce. Naturally.

Noon came and went. I had brought a large quantity of homemade pancakes for lunch, but ended up only eating a small chunk of it for several reasons: 1) it (the weather) was really cold; 2) it (the food) was really cold; 3) my homemade pancakes were bad; and 4) I was trying to avoid having to go to the bathroom for any reasons.

Around 1 p.m., the parade route became congested with buses. They were responsible for bringing in the hotshots, the ones who got to sit in reserved sections and the presidential viewing stands.

There was a huge excited cheer for Rahm Emanuel, who appeared out of nowhere. By the time I turned on my camera, I could only get a blurry picture.

This person got a much better shot of the same moment.

He looked just as he does in photos – very shrewd and self-assured. A powerful man, for sure.

Some more VIPs filing in… No one was sure who they were, as they were so far away.

At this point, I realized that there were sharpshooters on the roof of the White House! Their silhouettes were surprisingly large and easy to spot.

And then motorcades began to roll in. The show had begun!

Wait, is that…

… a British furry-hat-thing?

Some more awesome formations…

… which became increasingly British in nature…

THE REDCOATS ARE COMING! THE REDCOATS ARE COMING!

And then… the crowd rose into a collective scream.

Only one person could have made it happen.

It was…

The man and woman of the hour.

Barack and Michelle Obama.

My legs were trembling like mad. I couldn’t believe it was him. It was actually him, in the flesh, on the same street as me. It felt like a dream – an absolutely impossible dream – but the President of the United States was there.

The first thing that struck me: he was beaming. A huge grin on his face. Happiness was radiating from every pore of his body. And I do believe that at that moment, he was the happiest man in the world.

The President beamed and waved, beamed and waved.

In that moment, as the President walked before them, everyone seemed to forget everything around them. Nothing was important or relevant anymore. The focus was on him and him only. I only remember doing 2 things: checking to make sure that I had captured at least one non-blurry picture on my camera, and waving furiously to the President, while he waved back at us.

My favorite picture from the day:

Straining my neck to get a last glimpse of the First Couple…

Shortly after, the Vice President arrived. It was exciting, but it also felt more real – the VP is known for being a more down-to-earth kinda guy.

He was so spontaneous! Strayed away from the others in the parade and walked over to face the crowd, greeting the front-rowers with outstretched arms, as though saying, “guys, check ME out!” What a character!

“Uh… Mr. Vice President, do you want to, I don’t know, maybe get a move on now?”

The woman behind me: “Why is she wearing those heels? She clearly hasn’t broken them in yet!”

The VPOTUS was clearly over the moon…

Dr. Biden turned around, finally…

They were followed by Vincent Gray, mayor of D.C., which made for a rather awkward moment; he made a beeline for the people at the front of bleachers, aggressively shaking their hands one by one, while they didn’t seem to recognize him.

And then some awesome people (the U.S. Park Police) came by on some cool horses.

The sky was beginning to darken at that point, so I decided to call it a day and take the metro home. Farragut West was – predictably – extremely crowded; it took a lot of creative shoving, squeezing and grunting to fit into small crevices among other metro passengers. I can’t begin to imagine how insane the commute must’ve been 4 years ago.

So yeah. Awesome, awesome day. Definitely one of the top 5 days of my life so far. I’ve been obnoxiously telling everyone I know about how I got to see the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES in person – but hey, everyone in D.C. has that moment, right?

AWESOME.