only the best

one of my best friends married one of the best guys this past weekend. it was a lovely affair -- more photos to come :)

me and gillian, the most beautiful bride!

**i look totally prego in this photo, but i assure you i'm not :)

MCMC

i purchased this sample pack of fragrances from brooklyn-based perfumery MCMC a few months ago. It's been fun trying out some of their fragrances before purchasing a whole bottle. My favorite is Maui, but Humanity and Garden are very pretty too.

they're offering 30% off the sample pack, today only. Thought I'd let you know!

**use coupon code Sweet30**

on the continued theme of inspiration

watch this:

springspiration: kate bosworth

a slightly less substantial, more superficial inspiration of late: kate bosworth -- or more like, just this round up that a blogger put together of kate bosworth's looks.

i love the consistent muted palette combined with a splash of coral. this is my template for spring 2011 :)

(from the citysage)

saw some close-to-coral scarves at eastern market ... i may have to make a return trip :)

inspiration: alice waters

one sunday morning in high school, while getting ready to go to church, i flipped on the television to pbs and found a documentary on alice waters. immediately transfixed, i plopped down on the couch, halfway dressed, and watched through the end (nearly missing church altogether!). since then, i've been obsessed with the soft-spoken and whimsical berkeley chef who many call the mother of the organic, slow food movement.

thanks to a dear friend, i had the opportunity to dine at the chez panisse cafe in berkeley last year. i still dream about the perfect sweet peas and linguine with clams I ate as the hazy afternoon light streamed into Waters' perfect restaurant.

this saturday, while exploring hill's kitchen in eastern market with a friend, i flipped through In the Green Kitchen, and within two pages I was hooked. I rushed home and ordered that and one more book from Waters. they need to arrive ASAP! I cannot wait.

here's a little excerpt:

To wash lettuce, fill a large basin with cold water -- your kitchen sink or a large bowl. Before washing heads of lettuce, remove any damaged outer leaves and cut off the stem ends. Separate the leaves, dropping them into the water, and swish them around with your hands. Leave the lettuce in the water a minute or two to let any dirt or sand settle to the bottom, then lift the leaves out of the water and into a colander to drain .... 

she goes on to explain how to dry the lettuce (with a salad spinner or a clean kitchen towel), make the dressing (with a mortar and pestle), and dress the salad (with your hands, so as not to crush the leaves).

OK, so is it rocket science? No. but it is inspiring, simple, and practical advice. what i love is that Waters does whatever she can to bring beauty and elegance to her "daily bread," if you will. she relishes in the simple pleasures of cooking and eating well. it's enough to make this busy 28-year-old want to run out to the farmers' market every saturday morning and spend all week washing, drying, and dressing seasonal greens.

care to join me? :)

for your edification, here's a great 60-minutes interview with Waters.

(btw, does anyone else find the 60 minutes reporters really old and totally out of touch? for example, they picked him to interview Anna Wintour??)

float

Float Documentary Trailer from Phil Kibbe on Vimeo.

see you soon ...

i am so thrilled that we scored tickets to see the indomitable adele in the spring. i love how she can put on such a strong show with just keys and guitar to back her. it's all about the voice, as it should be.



also, rethinking my aversion to fake eyelashes. sorry chris!

i lurve you

dear sweet readers, i lurve you all. I don't know who reads this little blog-o-mine, but I appreciate it. hope you are having a great valentines and/or "anna howard shaw" day.

this weekend chris was taking a woodworking class in maryland so i flew solo and spent a good long saturday cleaning, laundering, and then browsing used bookstores with one of my bff's. then sunday was church and a long drive out to VA to visit my cousins and their newborn. I so appreciated time with my older cousin Tina -- we chatted, noshed on donuts, and played with baby G.

tonight i will feast with chris at the blue duck tavern, wowee!

as a gift, chris gave me his woodworking class project: a beautiful bookshelf. I think this is my most prized possession right now. It is so special.

so pretty, no? it's a combination of red oak and walnut

it's pretty from the back too -- this panel slides so you can put more books on if needed

my gift is super lame in comparison :( 

chris wins this year. haha.

rainbow connection

how did i miss this as a child?



this is the sweetest song i've ever heard!
according to wikipedia :

"Kenny Ascher and Paul Williams received Oscar nominations at the 52nd Academy Awards for the score of The Muppet Movie and for Rainbow Connection, which Allmusic described as an "unlikely radio hit ... which Kermit the Frog sings with all the dreamy wistfulness of a short green Judy Garland"and went on to add that "'Rainbow Connection' serves the same purpose in The Muppet Movie that "Over the Rainbow" serves in The Wizard of Oz, with nearly equal effectiveness: an opening establishment of the characters' driving urge for something more in life."

Thanks to Chris for sharing! 

fantastic fleet foxes

ok, i beg you, get the best headphones you can find and plug them into whatever e-device you are currently using to read my blog (thanks for reading, by the way!) and click play below.

allow yourself to be transported to a fast-moving train riding along the california coastline. the year is 1966 and you are running from your helplessness blues.


Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues by subpop

you're welcome!

squash it up!

some of you may have heard me talk about squash, the greatest sport in the universe. well here's a little video of chris and me playing squash. we don't have the best rallies, and you'll have to excuse my crappy gym clothes (forget lululime or whatever ... i go target all the way), but this might give you a bit of an idea of what squash is like. we stop in the middle because chris starts to feel sick and needs to eat some pretzels, but i think he ended up winning the match 21-20 ... I was so close!

enjoy :)


Squash Match! from Jeannie Choi on Vimeo.


**note my awesome victory dance at 1:39 :)

haters

sometimes working with writers is the pits ...
that's why i need this in my office ... like pronto

buy print here

but here's the thing about "haters" -- they are just wounded people, like you and me. love them, love them, love them. god, teach me to love them.

rolling in the deep

can you tell i tend to obsess over an artist in cycles?

d.c. disappoints/thrills

Chris and I are consistently disappointed with D.C.'s food options. each time we try and brave a new restaurant we walk away shaking our heads at the high price and subpar meal, while trying to be as optimistic as we can ... "at least the server was nice?" ... "yeah ... and ... the water was cold?"

thing is, we are NOT foodies by any means. the best meal we indulged in recently was a quick pit-stop at mcdonald's. i twiddled my fingers with glee waiting for the light-blue cardboard box that housed my perfectly fried fillet-o-fish. chris downed two cheeseburgers and fries. it was awesome.

so, no. we are not foodies. 

but I cannot STAND paying a lot and not getting much in return. this is not a grievance with portion size. this is a grievance with bad ingredients and microwaved entrees (here's looking at you tonic, taste of india, rice, and radius). when this happens, chris and I have the same convo: we are not picky eaters, but this is just crossing the line. and then we immediately go on yelp to see what other folks have said about these places, hehe :)

knowing this, i've realized that it is absolutely necessary to only go to restaurants that come highly recommended by friends with palates you can trust. case in point: on friday night we went to a random indian place (let's be adventurous!, we thought foolishly) and the food was not so good. on saturday morning we went to 2 Amy's (which comes highly recommended by just about everyone and their moms) and the food was awwwwwesome.

2 Amys

oh yes

so there you have it folks. word of mouth is TRUTH!

here is a list of some of the best places i've tried in D.C.(VA/MD):
perry's, eatonville, pasta mia, the source, moby dick's, pica taco, pho 14, four sisters, ren's ramen (temporarily closed!), and many others.

**p.s. 2 Amy's makes donuts on weekends that will rock your world. They only make one batch, so go early.

adele, 21

listen listen listen

adele. stream the entire album on NPR

my new desktop image

I am the ultimate pig! this photo is of the most amazing bowl of ramen in new york that you don't have to wait 2 hours for: Menkui Tei, east village. If you are within a 10 mile radius of the place, go immediately -- run, if you must -- and get their tonkatsu ramen and katsu curry. that's an order!

hair talk with helen

jeannie:

  i really like having short hair actually

  you didn't like it?

helen: 

  no

i need long hair

i'm like samson

violence and courage

Kristof, today's column:

I was on Tahrir Square, watching armed young men pour in to scream in support of President Hosni Mubarak and to battle the pro-democracy protesters. Everybody, me included, tried to give them a wide berth, and the bodies of the injured being carried away added to the tension. Then along came two middle-age sisters, Amal and Minna, walking toward the square to join the pro-democracy movement. They had their heads covered in the conservative Muslim style, and they looked timid and frail as thugs surrounded them, jostled them, shouted at them.

Yet side by side with the ugliest of humanity, you find the best. The two sisters stood their ground. They explained calmly to the mob why they favored democratic reform and listened patiently to the screams of the pro-Mubarak mob. When the women refused to be cowed, the men lost interest and began to move on — and the two women continued to walk to the center of Tahrir Square.

far east movement

here's the thing about far east movement ... their music is so-so, but i appreciate how they challenge stereotypes about asians. their videos show asians drinking, partying, being "sexy," etc. I say, good for them. goes to show that no matter what your race, there are the nerdy, conventional folks, AND the rebellious, partying folks.

i went to college with a pretty substantial asian-american student population and we ranged the full gamut -- nerds, churchy folks, partiers, druggees, math majors (here's lookin' at you chung), writing majors (me! i suck at math), computer scientists, artists, dancers, etc. etc. etc. sometimes people ask me questions (is it true that asians *blank*?) and I want to shake them: WE ARE NOT ALL THE SAME! just like you are not all the same.

at the same time, there are some asians who fully live up to every stereotype there is about asians. So be it, because freedom from racism is freedom to be whoever the hell you want to be.

so, thanks far east movement. like i said, i think their music is so so, but i like this one. enjoy watching asians (and lots of other folks) live it up.

here's watsup

Lots of fun, food, family, and friends in my life these days -- but I feel myself growing homesick for my sister and my parents. Why do I live so far from them?  I have no idear.

I'm thankful for my "urban family" though. Community is important -- I learn that more and more as I get older. while in new york last weekend, I met up with some old college friends I have not seen in a while. it was delightful. when i think of them i smile so big that i feel it in my insides, as if my heart itself was curling up at the edges. thank you lord for bringing such good, kind, generous, lovely people into my life.

ok, enough sap. here's what's been goin's on these days:

cousins jennifer, tina, tom, and baby G at the Suns Wizards game! ohana!

metachris! at the ymca, on a break during one of our epic squash matches.

stuck in the snow in central park!

eskimo chris in time square -- almost fell over in the
middle of the street to capture this moment.

Uncle Chris and superbaby Caralyn

Chris and me after Billy Elliot!

To come: **hopefully** a video of Chris and me playing squash! and a how-to hair tutorial. I've discovered this fantastic method of creating perfectly wavy (but not too curly) hair. have i ever told you that my secret desire is to be a hair stylist? if this whole editor thing doesn't work out, i'm totally going to beauty school. in the meantime, perhaps I can share my amateur hair knowledge with you all?