Rest in Peace Pants

 I think every woman has a pair of panties in her drawer reserved especially for her period days. The ones I automatically reached for every 3 weeks or so were full-coverage, blue with pink strawberries. They were like my period security blanket, I instinctively grabbed them in anticipation of menstrual bat-shit crazy time.

This month, I looked down and to my dismay, saw my hand through the fabric. My underwear had gotten so old and threadbare that I could actually see my fingers peering through. Not that I couldn't have trashed them sooner. There had been two, I counted, two holes gaping at me. But still, I was loathe to throw them out. One more period I said to myself.

Even though I always nag my husband about his torn boxers, I never really think of my own undergarments. Until they jump out at me and say, I'm done. I've done my job. Too well. Time to get rid of me. Once and for all.

So I did. I took them out to the backyard, tossed them into the fire pit and gave them the memorial burning they deserved. My blue strawberry panties weathered quite a lot over the years and for their loyalty, I honored those period-stained, tattered underpants with a moment of silence. And some laughter.

Goodbye dear friend. I'll miss your comfort, but I don't think I'll miss the ventilation.

Traveling with a Baby

Recently my sister and I planned a trip to Portland, Oregon together so that our grandma, now 85-years-old and starting to lose her short-term memory, could see another one of her great-grandbabies. My sister was kind of a pain in the butt to plan with, she had a lot of stipulations: non-stop flight requests, specific times, etc. She was just worried about how well her precious baby would travel. In the end I said, we can go on this really cheap flight together (one stop) or you can go by yourself. We ended up going together and her baby was just fine. In fact, he was an amazing traveler. Distracted by our fellow passengers, books, movies and games on the iPad, he only screamed his head off during our descent into Houston when the pressure made his little ears hurt.

My sweet nephew is half Islander-half Chinese and wholly gorgeous. Everywhere we went, I saw people's eyes light up at his exuberant smile and his head full of long curls. When I travel by myself or with friends, we tend to stay fairly insular, speaking only to each other or wrapped up in our books and phones. When you travel with a baby, you have no choice but to engage with other travelers. Of course, you are constantly apologizing (for kicking their chair, for their screaming, for being so loaded down with bags and bumping people). But more often, it was just the simple act of making eye contact and smiling. Babies and young children do it all the time and it makes you remember that smiling and saying hello is an easy thing to do. It takes much more effort to not look at people.

Insomnia

Sleep. Sometimes you just lay there waiting for it to take over but it never happens. The fan spinning, while cooling me off, is also irritatingly sending little hairs scuttling across my skin, making it crawl, tickling and itchy. I hear your every breath, your random snore and mysterious giggles as you dream. You turn, trapping my hair under your elbow just as I had decided to escape the boredom and the darkness. When I finally and somewhat painfully extricate myself from your unintentional grasp, my hair is a tangled and knotted mess. The animals snore, not noticing the bright light or the tapping keys. The train and traffic are humming outside. I play games on my phone. Watch two movies. Pluck my armpit hair. My mind isn't awake enough to work but not relaxed enough to sleep. When I look at the time again, I laugh. Four twenty. In the morning. I get up, take a puff and wait for it. Sleep.

Gangnam Style by PSY

 This video cracks me up. SO MUCH. Love the visuals, the dancing and the beat. Just one more video for my Korean friend Rachel who does not like rice. What?! That's right, she's from Oklahoma. Read more about the hugely popular video here. This has been viewed over 40 million times and counting already. I can attest that I've watched it at least 10 times.

Lee Jong Hyun - CN Blue

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I'm going all fan girl on this one. He's adorable and his voice is just lovely.

I don't even care that I don't have a single clue what he's singing.

Double Rainbows

I was sitting in my office working when the sky went from dark gray to eerie yellow. Thunderstorms were supposed to be coming in and the sudden light change pushed me away from my desk to take a look outside. I didn't even notice the rainbow at first, completely awed by just the clouds and color of the sky. When I finally turned my head, I saw this amazing rainbow that reached from end to end. It was the biggest, brightest and most brilliant rainbow I have ever seen. It enveloped the entire city and lasted for a long time. Screaming like a lunatic, I banged on my freighbor's* door so she could see it to. Even though I took a lot of pictures, it is impossible to capture the color, the feeling, the amazement of rainbows. You just have to be under it to enjoy it. But just like taking pictures of harvest moons and wandering ghosts, we all keep trying to capture these impossible moments.

*Freighbor - friend and neighbor

Feeling Sentimental

I find myself missing my other blog, The Employee Lounge, a lot. I miss working with my favorite Tina, who is so amazingly talented. I visit so many new places that I wish I had a chance to share with others. I read blogs and am always thinking of ways we can work together again while improving our process. How do we interview people and get more meaningful and thoughtful answers? How do we capture people in new ways to truly show who they are? Can we change the way we work and still maintain the essence of what our blog started out to be?

Somewhere along the way though, it became a job we were avoiding. It became more business than project. Neither Tina nor I are very "business-y" so that was truly a challenge for us. But when people still come up and ask about our blog, when they recommend their service industry friends we need to interview, when they ask us to share a part of their lives, it's kind of hard to say we stopped doing the blog. So I say we're on a break, as we're both busy working making a living. A break, a hiatus, a breather. And I cross my fingers that Tina and I find some time soon to discover Kansas City together again.