Catpunzel

My hair is getting sooo long! I could play the Chinese version of Rapunzel. Now, I am just waiting for my prince to show up. Note to sweet prince: remember to bring some lobsters, and crabs and clams for me to munch on... otherwise, Catpunzel will not put her hair down! Anyways, once you are at the bottom of the castle with the seafood basket, follow directions as set forth below :-)

Crocheted Rapunzel & Sweet Prince by SimpleArtsPlanet
Hairdye job by Bella

Happy Chinese Tamale Day!

Today is Chinese Tamale Day, aka Duanwu Festival, aka Dragon Boat Festival. Being a delinquent Chinese, I am unsure of the holiday's origin or its significance, but supposedly it's when all the stars in the heavens line up or something like that. Anyhoo, Chinese people eat Chinese tamale on Duanwu Festival... usually it's made of sticky rice, either with Chinese ham (for salted tamale) or jujube (for sweet tamale) as filling. There would be dragon boat races between the villages before they eat the tamales... here is a picture of Baby Cat racing a dragon boat when she was itty bitty.
Picture courtesy of Hello, Kai Lan.

Joy Ride

Wheeee! Just got back from a super special trip to Seattle... here are a few pictures to share with you! Approaching Seattle with downtown in the middle.

Closeup of Seattle: Space Needle on the left and downtown to the right.

View from the cockpit: Mt. Rainier with Mt. St. Helen behind it.

Chateau Ste Michelle, Seattle, Washington

What a beautiful winery -- we even saw peacocks here! They are such goofy birds with that humongous tail at all. But alas, I think human boys should emulate the peacocks, groom themselves well and be our eye candies, hehe :-P

Summer is here!

Hammock... so comfy... I can take a catnap, or brainstorm on a mystery novel (set in pre-Communist Shanghai! It was a dark, rainy night...), or day dream about yummy food... kekeke, so many things to do... Purrrrrr.

Music

Beautiful music... such a sense of hope and renewal -- reminded me of when I was little, last day of school year, walking home along the tree-lined street, with a long carefree summer holiday ahead...

Boo Boos

I made a few booboos on my humble little Catmobile AND my neighbor's very expensive Mercedes... doh! Would it fix things if I put a few band-aids on the scratches and give them a kiss? Well, actually he scratched my car a while back too, so we've decided to call it even. Hmmm, on second thought, maybe I'll save the world with a big band-aid and a big MUAH too! K, Happy Memorial Day!

Cupid

I am playing Cupid for two dear friends. I think they are lovely people and would make a lovely couple. Anyhoo. With the girl, all I need to do is flutter my wings a little, and shoot my dainty little bow and arrow, and her heart is in the right place.

But with the BOY (argh you know who you are), I may need to take some drastic measures like tying him to a bull's eye and whip out a pair of huge ass bow and arrow...So MSG to BOY, stop thinking so much and get on with the evolutionary program! Otherwise, this is what you'll see tonight!

Earthquake, again!

We just had a strong earthquake here... Stood under door frame for a few seconds. Goodness, this is the second strong earthquake in less than a year... so scary. meow.

Panda, why so sad?

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon an article about a sad panda lurking around lower Manhattan. I am a sucker for cuddly animals so it made me all sad too. Today, I went to the financial district, and spotted the sad panda myself! He looked so sad...He was standing there alone, I felt a little uneasy so did not go up to give him money, I wish I had though. He may be homeless! So sad... we all deserve a home and food on the table, sniff sniff.

The Sad Panda was looking at these people molesting the Wall Street Bull.

After Wall Street, we went to Chinatown and had really good Sichuanese food. I think the trick is not to order all spicy foods. Order a few spicy ones, then balance them out with a sauteed veggie dish. We had Chinese gourd and it was yummy.

Everything in this Chinese dessert shop was $1, so cheap!

Bye Bye NYC... view of Empire State Building from JieJie Cat's apartment.

NY, NY

New York, New York, it's helluva town... blahblahblah... Empire State building and lower Manhattan from the Rockefeller Center. If you look closer, you can see Lady Liberty!

Central Park and upper Manhattan from the Rock -- weird they call it the Rock.

Grand Central Terminal - love the American flag!

St Patrick's Cathedral - interesting contrast, huh?

Lunch break at Central Park.

Finished the day with some Shanghainese food: drunken chicken and spring rolls...

Sauteed shrimp and XLB... it was okay. A bit disappointed. Tomorrow we'll try Sichuan cuisine. Thanks J for coming out to meet us!

Harvard Club, Pussy Cat Store, etc.

Old school, huh? Interesting to be a woman lawyer attending a meeting at the Old Boys' Club... they probably all thought I was a law student!

Yeah, time's getting tough... even Saint Cat is resorting to drastic measures to make ends meet.

Everything seems old school and Mohagany-ish in NYC...

Ribs... dig in! I was a bit embarrassed when at the end, my pile of rib bones was much higher than both my sister's and her guy friend's... *blush*

Cat's in ...

The Big Apple! Chomp, munch, chomp! Yummy apple!

School Girls in Republican China

I came across these two photos of students at a missionary school for girls in Beijing during the Republican era. They were taken by Sidney Gamble sometime between 1917 and 1919. I was particularly moved by this one: the girls looked happy and proud. They were probably full of hopes and dreams (they were girls and they were given an education!) not knowing what's ahead of them was in fact the horrors of the Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese Civil War, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution... and yet, their hopes and dreams are forever frozen in time in this photo.

These are the elementary school girls. You really should enlarge it and see how adorable they are! And also, look at how neatly their feet are crossed...they have been taught proper manners, unlike Ms. Cat here. Scratching self with paws :-)

Екатерина!

That is my name in Russian! A Russian colleague wrote it out for me... hehe, isn't it the most beautiful name? Definitely befitting a princess... ah. Sorry, suffering from a relapse of the I am oh so modest syndrome :-)

Let's be marrow donors!

Hey peeps, this is serious and important stuff. I got this email today about an Asian American who is fighting for his life. Jason is suffering from leukemia and medication is no longer working. He needs a marrow donor to stay alive but so far he has not found one. Although it is more likely for an Asian to be a suitable donor, people of all race and ethnicity are potential candidates.

I am going to go next weekend and get tested and see if I could be a donor and save someone's life. Hey, I've got like nine of them, so I can spare one or two :-) Here is Jason's email:

Hi Everyone,

I really need ALL OF YOUR HELP to save my life.

In January 2007, I was diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML), which is a cancer of the blood. I was able to take medicine the past two years to slowly cure the cancer, but recently, the medicine stopped working. The doctor switched me to another drug, but that failed as well. Now the only option for me is to find a match for a bone marrow transplant. There are two things working against me on this. At present, there's no direct match for me in the National Bone Marrow registry. Secondly, the highest likelihood of a match is from an Asian donor…and unfortunately, Asians represent less than 10% of registrants across the world.

I am working with Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches in organizing a bone marrow drive on May 17th, between 3pm - 6pm at the following location:

Almansor Park (under the tents where the tables are)
800 S. Almansor Ave.
Alhambra, CA 91801

Please come to the drive. Your help can really make a difference. And please forward this email to your friends, family, co-workers, church groups, other affiliations, etc. and encourage them to come out.

I appreciate any help you guys can provide, I hope to see everyone there, God Bless.

Jason Chen

Catmobile's Injured...

Again! Arrrgh. Stupid nails.

City of My Birth

I was born in a rather obscure city in China... lived there when I was a baby, then got shipped off to grandmama's house. However, I did go back to the city of my birth for about a year when I was seven or eight. My mom and I had taken the train back and it was due to arrive very late at night. I remember being so sleepy. My mom sat next to the exit door cradling me waiting for our stop... when we got out, the air was cold and crisp, the entire city was dark and asleep, so the silvery moonlight guided us home... it was so quiet, just my mom, and me, and our shadows, walking back... here is the same city over two decades later...unrecognizable. Is that the same river bank where my mom and I picked wild vegetables?

Catfucius says again...

Dear peeps:

Several of you have asked me about the point of my previous Catfucius Says post. I put it out there because I think that's one of the biggest life lessons I've learned. Especially for Asians, we tend to be a bit hesitant, out of fear of failure. I remember dealing with an Asian junior associate on a closing. She was so fearful of making mistakes that she proof read everything five times, and there were like twenty documents! People were so annoyed at her at the end that she was taken off the next closing. In truth, she was a very detail oriented person, and of all the people, she probably didn't have to be that cautious. I guess at certain points, once we've proof read once or twice and used our smarts and thought through the pros and cons, we need to make a decision and get on with life!

Property Virgin

I am thinking of buying a place and lose my property virginity :-) Went to a few places today and this one really caught my eye. It's a renovated older building, with two bedrooms, a loft, a rooftop balcony ... I love the palladian windows and the airiness of the living room area... sadly, it doesn't have a formal dining area, could be problematic... oh, I wish you guys were here to help me with the property hunt!

Not too crazy about the cabinetry...

The second bedroom has a balcony.

Catfucius says...

Alright, the eminent sage Catfucius would like to dispense some life wisdom to all her loyal readers (eh, like five of them...) Anyway, being a Chinese American, and a lawyer, I used to be pretty risk averse. I was always afraid to make "mistakes" or disappoint Mama and Papa Cat. But a few years ago, I saw a Korean soap opera (K, no laughing or giggling, we all have our guilty pleasures) and one line struck a cord.

Basically the protagonist was asked if he still wanted to take a certain action although there is no certainty that it will work out. To that he replied: people die and yet they still go on living... The message is that at certain points in life, we have to make decisions and go with them... To be paralyzed by fear of what may or may not happen or of making "mistakes", is like abdicating our God given right and obligation to live. I'd rather take risks and face the storms head on than crouch in fear in a safe corner and never go anywhere...