"Blanket Bag"

Just as important as the outfit we sleep in, is also the environment.

My ever practical parents were harried, hard working blue-collar folks who had little time to themselves let alone raising a daughter and a son. So they have solutions to everything!

Issue: Sleeping kids do not lie still! They do cartwheels, karate kicks, and punches in their sleep; tossing blankets off again and again.

My parents must have gotten pretty annoyed of checking on my active brother and I every few hours, repositioning the blankets constantly, that they had an "Eureka!" moment. After all necessity is the mother of invention and my mom was quite a talented seamstress.

Solution: The "blanket bag"!!!
Almost like a burlap sack but not quite. My mom literally sewed together 2 pieces of fabric together, leaving a hole on top for the head, the two sides for arms, and a zipper on the side.

For the winter, she used stiff heavier material to brave the cold so we look more like rectangle monsters:

For the non-winter months, she used lighter fabric so we can breath so we look more like lumpy people who were previously obese and now have huge skin flaps:

But what about mobility you ask?! Since the original versions had no holes for feet we just hopped around and bent over like worms:

Later one she upgraded the product and opened holes on the bottom. Soon I was running around terrorizing my younger brother like this:

 Ingenious!

What do you see?

The giant clothespin by Claes Oldenburg’s.

What do you see?

Some say they see intertwined lovers. Others claim that the sculpture was commissioned and installed right next to City Hall to warn politicians to not "air their dirty laundry."

I love clever and giant art.

(Photo taken in Philadelphia at 15th Street and Market Street.

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

Whether you celebrate this day with "traditional" turkey, stuffing, cranberry, green beans, pie, and the American accoutrements with your immediate family 

or create your own new traditions with extended family, friends, and strangers with imported mixing and matching of foods, drinks, and stories from around the world

the most important thing is that you are gathering with people who are part of your life now, at this very moment!

It's sometimes is a rare thing to get people together around the same table in this globalized, constantly moving, and ephemeral world. 

So hope this day is full of delicious food, warm laughter, and wonderful company for all!

Fortune Cookie Rule #7: all fortunes are gender agnostic

in bed! ;)

Me want cookie!

Cookie Monster has always been my favorite Sesame Street character.

However his persona has been changing throughout the years: from cookie being a "sometime food" to now being a poster child of patience.

Oh Cookie Monster, you are perfect just the way you were.

To shave or not to shave

...my legs!

As bears need extra calories to bulk up for winter hibernation, us humans lack such evolution talent: eating copious amount of food, storing it all in fat, and then sleeping off the cold season till warm beautiful spring arrives. Heck, we even have been losing most of the hair on our body except on certain inconvenient places!

When winter comes the ultimate question comes up: should I or should I not shave my legs?

(Disclaimer: for an Asian women, whose whole race is seen as relatively hairless, for some reason I have atrociously hair appendages. Not only do I blame it on my father's genes (where most of my aunts and female cousins display the same traits) but this is one of the reason I believe that one of my ancestors is probably a beautiful women from south China who was taking an innocent stroll through the meadows one day. Her beauty captured the interest of a hairy Mongolian warrior who had his way with her and resulted in hairy progenies. The end.)

To solve this conundrum I run down this mental checklist. The following answers are for this very day:

- How cold is it? Well...it's winter so: very. (If weather is 75 degree Fahrenheit then shave, if less than 75 degrees then abstain)
- How lazy do I feel? Well...again it's winter so: very.
- Am I dating anyone right now? No.
- (Even if I am dating someone, what is the probability of him coming to close proximity with my bare legs? If higher than 85% then shave, is lower than 85% maintain status quo of hairiness.)
- Do I feel comfortable with hairy legs? Always.

Beauty from trash

These sculptures are amazing: made by Nigerian sculptor El Anatsui from trash -- hundreds of thousands of discarded gin, whiskey, and rum bottle screw-tops that he finds discarded near his village.

It's astonishing the beauty he creates from things that people throw away carelessly. The metallic curtains look fluid and soft, sharply contrasting to their rigid material. It's mind-boggling to see the hundreds of thousands of intricate rings connecting the screw-top material creating art that is simultaneously delicate and strong.

(Pictures taken at Brooklyn Museum of Art.)

To know what you wanted and pursue it, perhaps with great determination, but without impatience. To enjoy the event as it unfolded, whether it was a journey to see a friend or the impossibly slow, impossibly wonderful act of falling in love.

-- paraphrased from Sharon Shinn's Angel Seeker  

Thought "up" was the status quo...

Once there was a little girl named PJ who was quite the exemplary obedient Asian American girl: going to school, doing well in classes, memorizing the multiplications tables when all the other kids in class barely knew how to add (or count), doing "chores" below minimum wage, and listening to her elders.

Except one thing kept bothering her: the toilet, specifically the toilet seat.

Because here is how the L household looks like:

Now little PJ was very scientifically savvy and knew that since she and mommy were both females they need to sit down on the toilet. On the other hand since daddy and little bro were males they didn't need to sit down (though the actual mechanics were never ever witnessed.)

Using her advance math powers little PJ discovered: 

 

With that discover, little PJ then observed this constant trend:

It wasn't until she finally stepped into a friend's house for the first time ever in junior high school that little PJ realized that toilet seats in American are usually "down" not "up"!

That blew her mind.

The End.

I see your survey and I also raise it back

I see your survey and I also raise it back

1. Best time doing the sex?
10:30 pm. I like to go to bed early.

2. One thing you’d change if you could.
My height, or lack of. Plus it's been proven that taller better looking people. Since on average for every inch of height a taller person gets $789 per year and with my height differential I can realize thousands of $$$ more! Think of all the money I would earning through compounding! 

3. Song you hate to admit that you love.
No such thing, because I am shameless and love all sugary senseless pop songs.

4. Favorite dating website.
Match - surprisingly less creepy and actually have contestants who wants to date.

5. Least favorite dating website.
EHarmony - takes too long and too many flakers
OK Cupid - low/non-existent barriers to entry attracts a lot of even flakier and weirder people.

6. Would you take back any of your exes?
No, because there are good reasons why we broke up in the first place.

7. What are you hoping to get for Christmas?
A rocket ship, perfect non-Lasik eyesight, or catching up with friends old and new.

8. Are you currently fighting with anyone?
No, not as I am typing this post. Even I am in a fight I'll probably lose due to height and weight restrictions.

9. What’s your dream job?
Food and travel host/writer -- oh to eat and travel on someone else's dime!

10. If you could only live in one place for the rest of your life, where would it be?
I can't pick but it will have to be a city with decent public transportation. The thought of driving to get an emergency gallon of milk or aspirin scares me. Plus it's really for the safety of the general public: I am a terrible driver. 

11. What’s the meanest thing you’ve ever done?
Being mean to myself but not believing I am not good/smart/pretty enough, that in turn bleeds onto other people.

Fortune Cookie Rule #1: always always always add "in bed" to the end

I'm obsessed with fortune cookies, not necessarily going out of my way to eat bad take out Chinese food to get them but I've been saving/hoarding every little scrap of fortune since I can remember! 

While fortune cookies are served ubiquitously at Chinese American take out joints across the US, the cookies are actual not served in China or even invented there! That doesn't diminish my glee as I crack open the brittle shell to reveal a "fortune," and then proceed to add "in bed" to the end of every fortune.

So let it be proclaim that every Wednesday is Fortune Cookie Wednesday, where the more amusing fortunes are shared :)

To kick it off:

...in bed! ;) 

Just cuz!

Yes they can: apple pie in vanilla cake + pumpkin pie in chocolate cake = Pumpple Cake!
Genius!

Perfect companion to the Turducken in your life!

(Photo taken at Flying Monkey in Reading Terminal Market.)

The Crappiest and Bestest of Friends

I have the crappiest friends!
Friends who:
- Live far far away and you don't get to see much, making you miss their gentle/crazy smiles, wit, and warm hugs
- Are just such amazing people who humble you in ways you can not expect
- Are sick/need surgery/in pain and don't tell you about it! Instead they listen to you prattle on about your aching heart, burning ambitions, and righteous indignities with open mind and accepting hearts

I have the bestest friends!
Friends who:
- Let you talk/sob/express/rant your heart out about dreams, hopes, disappointments, feelings, fears, joy and life without judgement
- Willing to lend a helping hand/shoulder/ear, not necessarily all the time but at times that seem just right
- See the value and beauty of you, supplying that confidence/trust/belief/love/compassion in yourself when at times the world or even you have given up on yourself: they haven't!

I'm very lucky.

Sending luck, good health, laughter, and adventures to all my friends.

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

-- Neil Gaiman; author

There has ceased to be a difference between my awake clothes and my asleep clothes.

-- Mindy Kaling, comedian

Hello World, Welcome, and An Introduction

Hi and welcome to Sense of Pajamas! You can call me PJ for short =)

So why the moniker PJ?

Because we all have a set of PJs that we have that defines who we are. Whether it is comfy flannel set, sexy lingerie, onesy, worn and somewhat ragged college t-shirt, or just whatever that is relatively clean and not lying on the floor, it's the outfit that we wear to bed at the end of everyday to sleep, perchance to dream. We are comfortable, familiar, and relaxed in this setting and perhaps our truest selves without the make up, fashionable accessories, brand names, and labels. I hope my blog will reflect this.

Additionally growing up in an immigrant family, I never had a "sense of pajamas" - my ever practical parents just put my younger brother and me to bed in an elastic waist outfit that we then went to school in the next day. Literally just roll out of bed and go! See below for a few outfits that were my favorite and I still think fondly about:

A bit about me: I am a woman, I am Asian, and I am American. The blog will have thoughts, stories, and musings from all 3 realms of my life. Even if you do not come from these walks of life there will be components that will resonate with you. Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoy the reading, and come share this journey with me.