"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.)