Vehicle Registration

Oh my. Today I had to renew my vehicle registration. I couldn't do it online or by mail because I have to get new license plates. I'm not sure why I need to get new license plates, but that's what it said on my renewal notice. Any one know why the great state of Texas says I need new plates? I like my old plates. They had character. The front plate was bent from the time I parked a little too close to that pole. I had memorised the plate, now I have I new one to memorise. It doesn't have 4 numbers on it to tell the folks to buy 4D with. They couldn't understand why my license plate didn't have 4 numbers on it. At least the new plate has the letter "K" on it, which is cool. But it has the dreaded number 4. But so did the old plate. At least it didn't have my hated number 8. I hate number 8. It's not good luck.

The queue at the tax office on Chimney Rock was absolutely insane. It was out the door down the hall crazy. When I finally got up to the window, I asked the lady what I needed to do to have my name changed on my registration (because now I have a new married name) and she said that I would need to fill out a form and bring my title in and change it. I asked if I could mail it, she said I could, but said that it would be better if I came in with it, because it might get lost if I mail it. Well, then. I'll to plan another day to visit the lovely tax office and queue for an hour.

Next stop will have to be the Social Security Office to get a new card that won't say "Not Valid for Work without INS Authorization" because I am Valid. I'm not an Alien. I'm a human being. And I don't need anyone's Authorization. So there.

Monday bleah

Yeah, I'm feeling it today. The kind of day where you wish you had a window in your office and not just a photograph of the window you used to have 7 years ago. Yeah, it's time.

::update::
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
um, seems like I needed to clarify this post. I was hoping for a window to look out of because it was such a beeyootiful day and what a drag to be stuck in a windowless office! I was not looking to jump out of a window. To all who had that perception, I apologise.
::end update::

Friday Cat Blogging

Behold, Princess Mia Bella spies on the enemy from her paper bag fort. 

Something New

On Tuesday night, there was a free preview screening at the Angelika for the upcoming movie Something New starring Sanaa Lathan (AVP:Alien vs. Predator, Brown Sugar) and Simon Baker (The Ring Two). It is a lovely romantic comedy about finding love in unexpected places. Um, what that means is black woman meets white guy and hesitantly falls in love with him and gets through the obstacles (namely herself) that is preventing her from being happy in love. It was smart, touching and thought provoking. After the screening at the Angelika, there was a panel discussion with individuals in interracial relationships featuring my amazing husband, a black lady who had married a white man and a black guy, married 14 years to a black woman. The audience asked questions or made comments about their thoughts on the movie, interracial dating, the state of black relationships and so on. A lot of what was said, I felt was very close-minded. A dude said that if the interracial couple were in the relationship for the right reasons, then that was OK, but if they were in it for the wrong reasons, such as, I don't want to date black women anymore, they're too much trouble, then they are wrong for having an interracial relationship. The panel's response was simply this, it's nobody's business but the people in the relationship why they are in that relationship. You can't see an interracial couple in Kroger and decide whether or not they should be together because we do not know the reasons for their choice. It's none of our business.

Some ladies in the audience talked about how the pool of eligible black men shrinks the older they get or the more successful they become in business. While conversely the pool of women for these eligible black men increases with age and success. I wondered why they put these limits on themselves in this arena when clearly they don't limit themselves like that in other aspects of their lives. But then that's just me. Naive.

The dynamic of race in America is something that I am still grappling with. I don't expect that I will ever make much sense of it. If my parents were in the US at the time that they got married, they wouldn't have been able to. Consequently, I wouldn't even exist. These are all sobering thoughts to me. But then that's just me. Naive. Oops I said that already.

I felt that the movie was a good watch. Thoughtful and thought provoking. The discussion afterward was heated and prejudiced and enlightening as well. I had another date night with my Dear Husband (two nights in a row!!) so I was happy!

So...

Lenny Kravitz and Aerosmith were awesome! We had a great time. LK came on first and rocked the house. He is always good. He had a little cold and sounded a bit stuffed up and he apologized for it. He said, "I had the flu a few days ago and my throat is still acting up, but I'm gonna sing till I have no more throat" He really did his best. He was on for about 90 minutes with 1 encore. The only song he couldn't really do was Fly Away, but he got the crowd singing the parts he couldn't reach. It was a good show. And he is still so FINE.

I had never seen Aerosmith live before, they were very cool. They had the full stage set up with the light show and the screens with imagery. Lenny didn't use any of that, it was a down home rock show with him. But with Aerosmith, the only thing missing was pyro, but I think that's kinda fallen out of favor now. They played all the good songs, old and new including my absolute favorite Aeromsmith song, Dream On. Although the best version I've heard before Monday night's was by Train with Pat Monahan singing when they performed at the Woodlands a couple years or so ago. Now that man can sing. Toyota Center holds up to 19,000 for concerts they say and it was full. We had a great time.

No pictures cos the tickets said no cameras, so we didn't bring the camera. I know.

Belated Christmas

Yay! Today DH and I get to celebrate our Christmas pressies to each other which were concert tix for Aerosmith and Lenny Kravitz. The concert is tonight at Toyota Center. We've seen LK many times, but never Aerosmith. V. cool!

Friday Cat Blogging

Behold, Princess Mia Bella having a nap, but still lets us know that she sleeps with one eye open.

Hard to fathom

On the way to work, I listen to Pacifica Houston (KPFT 90.1 FM), mainly because they have the BBC news hour on and it's soooo much more interesting than npr at that time in the morning. This morning they had a story on about a firm in Germany that instituted a no whinging rule at work and making it a sackable offence! They are allowed to make constructive complaints, but no complaining for the sake of complaining, which is the best kind of complaining, isn't it? Can you imagine not being able to complain at work? All I do is complain in my head anyway, given the "unique" work environment I have here. I wonder if the people at the German firm do that as well. The announcer today was Owen Bennett Jones and he spoke to another long time Brit journalist (can't remember his name) after the whinging piece and they both agreed that whinging was part of Britain's national pride and "we can't all be like the Americans, always happy". I busted out laughing at that. There's some truth to it. All these shiny happy people bouncing around. I dunno how happy I am on an American scale of happiness. I try to make a conscious effort to be happy, though I'm not always successful.

Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper

Krinkle Cut Kettle Chips are the devil. I rue the day I found them on sale at Kroger and convinced DH to give you a try. Damn you, Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper Krinkle Cut Kettle Chips and your crispy salty pepperiness.

Drama Tuesday

Very drama. My MIL had a car accident yesterday. DH called me at the office and asked me if I could go to where she was, which was near the office. I went to the accident site. She was not injured, just frazzled by the whole thing which is understandable. She was leaving the supermarket, making a left turn out of the carpark of the strip center where the supermarket is. Going across the median to make the left turn. She was waiting in the median to turn left and got swiped by an Accord.


Sucks. The police were there when I got there. I sat in MIL's car and tried to comfort her. She was very upset. Because of the location of impact, it caused her vehicle to spin 180 degrees. She was freaked out. The police officer was in his car writing the incident report and then he went to the Accord people and spoke to them and then came to us. He said that he wasn't going to issue a ticket, but did feel that MIL was at fault because she was causing obstruction on a major roadway. MIL got very upset with him at this point. I was thinking to myself, like, oh dear, how how? I tried to, I don't want to use the word calm or soothe because that implies that she wasn't just in her reaction, but it was a 'lil drama, shall we say? I understood why the policeman said what he said and I know that he has to follow the law, and I know that his conclusion is not personal. Poor MIL was not happy at all. I tried to be reassuring, but I don't know how reassuring I am in general because I'm so cut and dry about most things.

See her poor car.


And the useless Accord. boo hiss.

Friday the 13th Cat Blogging

Behold, Princess Mia Bella, giving the Eyes of Death to the Back Porch Intruder, also known as Upstairs Neighbour's Cat.

Amazing

Have you read about the 2007 S-class sedan? It sounds v. cool. Mercedes always comes up with and implements the most cool technology. Maybe one day I'll be able to afford the luxury. For now, I'll just admire from afar.

MIA

not the kitty, but as in missing in action. MIA because of various reasons, but the most compelling one is because of the evil Qwyzzle. Have you heard of Qwyzzle? It's the devil. Don't try it or you'll get sucked in and won't be able to do anything else. You have been warned.

Just for the record

I saw TWO Lotuses today. One yellow on Waugh @ Dallas and one black on Westheimer @ Fountainview. I'm being inundated with Lotuses. I'm trying not to care, but everytime I see one I still feel uneasy. I'm such a loon. How now?

chocolate covered soy nuts

are the devil. But oh so tasty! Guess what I'm eating right now. A ha! too easy!

In a rare moment of generosity, zee bosses took me out to lunch today. I'm not sure why they offered, but I never turn down free food. We went to Piatto di Santi Italian Grill on Bissonnet. It's a fairly new restaurant and I don't think it's been discovered yet, but the food is amazing. Practically every item on the menu comes with a soup or salad. I haven't tried the soups yet because the salad is so amazing. Lively greens in a light creamy I dunno what dressing with blue cheese, slices of apple and crumbled pecans and diced tomatoes. It is the tastiest salad you will ever taste. There's no denying it. And that's just the house salad. In fact, while we were there, we ran in JC, who was there for the first time on the recomendation of one of his colleagues, who advised him, "whatever you get, make sure it comes with salad." For the main course, I had, ::drumroll::, Eggplant Parmesan, ::snickers:: because I'm an eggplant addict. So now, 2 hours later, I'm having my dessert of devilish chocolate covered soy nuts. Very tasty.

Friday Cat Blogging

Behold, Princess Mia Bella doing an excellent turtle and giving the photographer a stern look.

Lotus

When I was in Secondary School in, gasp, the late 80s, I saw a Lotus on the way to French Class (at the old Monk's Hill Sec Sch) one day. I don't remember the exact details, but I remember forming an association between seeing the Lotus and doing badly in French. Of course, it had nothing to do with the fact that I never studied, and usually skived French class to hang out at Far East with my girlfriends. Since then, everytime I see a Lotus on the street, I wince. I hate the sight of them. When I was in SG over the hols, I saw maybe 4 or 5 Lotuses, um, Loti, perhaps. I was so traumatised after I saw each one. I would be expecting something bad to happen after each sighting. DH would be chastising me for being silly and getting worked up over nothing. Nothing bad did happen, except the death of my digital camera by drowning. That was really bad. And sad.

A lot of good things did happen in SG: I got to visit with my parents, I got to visit with all my grrls, I got my status adjusted (details to be revealed in a future post) and DH was with me. I think it's time for me to put my Lotusphobia behind me.

IMG_1586,
originally uploaded by singaporegrrl.

On one of my numerous trips to Little India I saw a bucket full of lotus buds. Something about them just made me stop. I looked at them for a little while but had to keep moving because I was being hustled along by some lovely Thai ladies behind me. A minute later, I stopped and turned around and took the picture. The camera hadn't died yet at that point. I'm not sure what it was that drew me to them but it was as though the flowers were eminating calmness and serenity. Very interesting. They were beautiful, even in the plain blue bucket.

First Post of the year!

Happy New Year, folks! So far, so fantastic. I am feeling positive about '06 and I know that it's going to be a good year. I think I'm done with the jet lag for now and it's back to work for real tomorrow. I had today off which was mandated by law and excellent. tee hee. I got to spend the day with the kitty and we had a fine time. She's gotten rather demanding since we've been back. She's always been vocal, but now she seems more so. She's taken to talking back when she's being reprimanded, the cheeky girl. I'll have to nip that in the bud. DH had to go back to work today because HISD designated Jan 2, 2006 as a Hurricane Makeup Day, so everybody had to go back to school! bleah. Good thing I don't work for HISD!

First task for the year: Now that I have PR status (I'm free! I'm free! yay! No more H1B) I'm looking for a part-time job for some extra cash. I was looking online today and saw all these fabulous real jobs, full-time jobs that I could be applying for....which makes me even more optimistic for when I make the big move to a new real job. But shhh!! that's still under wraps. ;)