winter's last hurrah

it's going to be spring in about three weeks which means that winter is about to be officially over but there has not been a major snowstorm as of yet.

until today.

and no, i did not pray for it. i experience a mild snowstorm last week and i swore it was fun at first but at the end of the day, i was already channeling "bora! bora!" as i waded through snow and sleet, with tough rain to boot!

so today we woke up with about three inches of snow and there seems to be no let up.


checked the news, and it said:

Winter Storm Pummels Tri-State Area
Sleet, Freezing Rain Expected Friday Afternoon

NEW YORK (CBS) ― A winter storm will be impacting the tri-state area throughout Friday with snow, ice and rain. Snow will dominate the morning hours as temperatures will still be able to support the flakes.

Sleet and freezing rain will work its way in by the afternoon hours though as temperatures rise.

oh well. what can i say. it's just another day.

Type rest of the post here

Read More...

Summary only...

snow day!

while i was in manila last november/december/parts of january, i kept on calling my roomies to ask them if it has snowed. they told me it did, but it was not much. when i got back last month, there were a couple of instances where there were snow flurries. snow flakes, that's all. barely there to cover the ground.

then this week, the weather center said that there's going to be an inch of snow. i rejoiced. it's not that i have not seen snow, because i have. and it's also not because i haven't seen snow falling on cedars (that was a stretch...), because i have too.

what i have not seen was 10 to 12 hours of non-stop snow, with the flakes covering the ground slowly. after this, our courtyard was covered with about three inches of fresh, powdery and ultra-white snow.


i was ecstatic. then i remembered the email that circulated in the filipino community years ago, about this guy who was so happy to see snow for the very first time but after a week of shovelling and living with snow, he was screaming, "ibalik niyo ako sa pilipinas!" ("bring me back to the philippines!"). then i laughed. i was still ecstatic.

roomies are kinda weird. while it was snowing the entire day, we were indoors, watching the snow fall from the living room window. sometimes, we opened the veranda to feel the breeze. temperature was around 10 degrees F, but with the wind chill, it was more like -5. it was bitterly cold. perfect for a mug of hot chocolate! or tea! or cafe latte! all of which i had because it was just too cold outside.

me and the girls @ the courtyard of our apartment stepping on fresh snow

bored out of our wits, someone suggested a movie. by around 8, we were in the car, braving the snow-covered road to go to the cineplex about a mile away. we watched "the eye" (review forthcoming. hehehe) and after the film, we went out and we saw our car covered in snow.

nice! we didn't have the necessary tools (scraper, among them; salt, shovel) so miko had to scrape the snow on the winsdhield with plastic fork from a chinese takeout. nice!

drove back to the pad and had some white wine. it was a good day!

Read More...

Summary only...

mercury falling

winter has only a few weeks left and i still have to feel/see the new york winter i have always dreamed of. the past two weeks have been quite moderate (yes, considering it is winter) but last night, it was damn cold.

there were reported snow flurries somewhere. too bad we didn't get to see it. the temperature dipped to around 10 early this morning. it's around noon and it's only 16 degrees. factor in the wind chill and it feels like 5. degrees. fahrenheit.

it's good i don't have scheduled appointments today although i have one tomorrow and according to my widget, it's going to snow tomorrow. good luck to me. more postings coming up soon. lots to blog about.

Type rest of the post here

Read More...

Summary only...

hiatus

after an almost two-month trip to manila, i am back. and boy it is cold. i was in LA for less than 24 hours (which was spent with friends having dinner at a thai-japanese place (it's confused!) in long beach and a cup of hot java at hot java also in long beach; then crashed at j's place, then ofc, then off to burbank for a flight to jfk).

the cold wintry breeze of new york greeted us at 5 am when we arrived. it was dark and it was still dark around 6ish. i missed the apartment, the subway, central park. hahaha. yeah, i missed nyu and the memories, too.

so i am almost nback from an almost hiatus. mom's better, she's in therapy. yes, she's still on prozac. anyone here who can hook me up with cheaper prozac? it's almost 150 pesos in manila (with the dollar @ 40, it's like almost $4 a pop. kinda expensive if you ask me). oh well.

i have been trying to readjust to my normal lifestyle here and it has been quite an effort. last saturday, we had an appointment in rego park at 1. it's a colleague's client and it's a chinese-japanese restaurant. yeah. so we got back around 4ish. i decided to sleep it out since i was too sleepy. i woke up 8 hours later. yes, shortly around midnight.

i forced myself not to sleep any further because it would definitely give me a headache. i tried to stay awake for about 3 hours, when i realized that if i didn't sleep, i'd end up sleeping the whole day sunday. which is not possible because i had appointments for sunday. damn jetlag.

so dunday, we were off to st. sebastian church in queens for the sto. nino feast. wow. ang daming tao! it's like they brought the sinulog to new york. earlier, we had lunch at thai chef, a french-thai resto. yeah, what's up with that? the food was great through, had green curry chicken which was very spicy and april had the sea bass, which was gloriously good. damn. it tasted like melting butter. it was that good.

so today, i am off to a meeting. i'm braving the 20 degree weather. forecasts of snow and rain today but so far, wala pa naman. i bought my second-ever scarf. which brings my scarves to around 3. allen and ana gave me a topshop scarf last christmas. salamat!

before, i found people wearing scarves around their neck maarte. hahaha. i'm from california (and before that manila) so you'd have to excuse me. i thought that scarves were nothing but accessories. i didn't realize they have their purpose. so now, i no longer find scarf-wearing people maarte. sorry about that.

i have to make a mental checklist of things i need to have before i leave the apartment. scarf, check. ear muffs, check. thick jacket, check. gloves, check. it's hard. sometimes i misplace my gloves, or one of them. or worse, my scarf. sigh. mental note: don't forget the necessities. it gets cold, really cold outside.

Read More...

Summary only...