omnipresent... now i get it.

on Sunday, we had a special event for the japanese earthquake relief fund.  it was very nice, actually.   i had not planned to attend but since i walked in as it was going on, i couldn't just say no.

the hall looked very pretty.  light through the glass window with all the biblical stained glass scenes reflected on the golden panel at the state and the simple japanese aesthetic decorations with one big calligraphy piece with the chinese character for heart.  a BBS teacher conducted a japanese tea ceremony for the victims of the earthquake.  it was a really nice time.  i just felt this overwhelming feeling of peace and wonder.  even there i felt the presence of God.  the teacher that was doing the the tea ceremony made a comment which i thought was interesting, it was something along the lines of "how fitting that we are doing this offering in a place originally used for offerings to higher being."  the hall used to be a chapel. 

i very much enjoyed that time.  the paper cranes the students made were presented to the Japanese consul in Boston to bring to Japan.  it was very nice.  it was weird that i left the place feeling a certain peace and with a sense of surprise, a pleasant surprise.  :)

happy spring! (in theory)

hello!  i've been MIA for a while but after someone reminded me that i haven't posted in a bit, here i am.  back to my craziness.  recently i was traveling for work--NYC and ATL.  i was hoping to take a couple of days to chill in atlanta but it turned out otherwise and i wasn't able to.  it was a good trip overall.  i'll share a bit of what went down.  

as i mentioned, i went to NYC for a work visit en route to Atlanta for a federal training of sorts.  for the trip to the Big Apple i took Amtrak.  it was a nice ride, specially since i dont have to deal with them planes that have been scaring me for a while.  that's another story though... anyway, my friend Tonia was going to take me to the airport and i told her we could leave at 10:30am since my train left at 11:13am.  it shouldn't take me too long to get to South Station, right?  right... i didn't actually buy my ticket until about a half hour from leaving to the train station.  finally, we headed out and made it there just in time. they were already boarding and i had just enough time to print my ticket--thank  God for no lines---and get to my business class, quiet car seat.  i sat down, elated with all the leg room for my short legs, and looked out the window.  i realized that i didn't like the size of the window and decided to move to the other side.  unfortunately, i had put my carry-on in the overhead compartment but figured that this was not rush hour so i just left it a couple of seats behind.  

at Back Bay some people got on and a guy who wanted to use the overhead compartment where my bag was didn't look too happy.  i said, "oh, that's my bag.  i was just too lazy to move it.  i can take it if you'd like?"  he was like, "how about i move it for you?"  so he did and we were all happy.  after we stopped in Providence a bunch of people got on so i moved my bag in case someone wanted the seat next to me. that's when i looked up and saw this very attractive man walking down the aisle.  he came to the empty seat next to me and sat down.  no hello. no smile.  no acknowledgement that we had just made eye contact when he was half way up the aisle.  no polite anything.  he seemed like one of those busy hedge fund or investment banker people or something because he had his laptop on all along.  he got up quiet a bit to go somewhere--bathroom? bar/cafe? air? don't know.  the thing is that he would not stop sighing or making those tsk, tsk, tsk noises people make when they're tyring to kill time in a cartoon or something.  he would do this as he work on his laptop.  i would just go about my business and read or check email.  he would brush his arm against mine every so often but never said excuse me or anything.  at one point he asked me to plug his computer cord into the outlet, which i did with a smile.  but the sighing and exhaling/inhaling routine went on, mind you, it was the freaking quiet car!  finally, towards the NJ/NY border i had to say something but was struggling to keep my mouth shut.  it was too hard, so i said, " you sound like you're having a stressful day..."  he looked to me, smiled--with his amazing teeth and totally handsome face--and said, "this is not stress, trust me."  "you mean, it gets worse than this?" said yours truly.  "yes, a lot more," said our handsome eastern european stranger--he had an accent which sounded pretty Russian-Bulgarian-ex-USSR-kinda.  with my two thumbs up i ended saying "at least is friday!" with a sarcastic smile and we both went about our business.  when it was time to disembark i asked if he wanted his laptop unplugged and we went separate ways.  to me that was a weird encounter and a very weird train partner.  what was that sighing/moaning/tsk-tsk-tsk/"ah...."/ahem, ahem/neck-cracking? not to mention this looking my way every so often but not even saying good morning?  i forgive him 'cause he was hot but he was totally weird-hot. 

then, i got to new york city...  [to be continued.  i know as if you haven't had enough..]