Next stop: last century

I had the pleasure of riding on an old-time train (more like a few old subway cars from various eras linked together) today. It was the last weekend that the MTA would be running this special train for the year (it ran on the "V" line, which is on my way home anyway) and I'm glad that I got to experience it, even though it took a while to wait for it.

There were three types of cars. The signs said they all originated in the 1920s and were in service until the 1970s but they all had a very different look and feel. The first car I walked into was very dim, with yellowish lightbulbs and rattan-like seats. The walls were a greenish olive and the seats were configured in "L" shapes, much like the trains today (not the long benches on either side).

The second type of car that I walked through was similar to the first in dimness but had red vinyl-like seats. The third car was very bright, with fluorescent lights, blue and yellow designs painted onto the floor, and rattan-like seats. The walls were monochromatic gray and blueish-gray, like the newest trains on the "L" and "N" lines. I overheard someone say that this train was gutted and re-done as a prototype for something and so, is most unique.

I think every car had fans screwed into the ceiling for those hot and humid NY summers. Every car also had ads from through the ages (fifth anniversary of UN, admonishments against spitting, 200th? anniversary of Columbia University, Campell's passing off their foodstuffs as from chefs when now they are viewed as machine-processed canned food). The TA ads back then (like about spitting) were as cheesy as today's (I think they are inspired by these old ones) but back then it didn't seem so cheesy.

Some observations:
- The cars all smelled. It didn't stink of bums or greasy food like modern subway cars often do -- it was like a smell of diesel mixed with some burning rubber.
- Some people were afraid to board the train. I guess they didn't see the posters about this special train and thought they were in some strange world, traveling back in time.
- For every person who was surprised (pleasantly or not) about this old-time train, there was a person who purposely waited around for it. There were more than a few train buffs (some wearing subway/train-related clothes) spewing off trivia.
- Lots of people were taking pictures (some with disposable cameras, obviously not as prepared as those who planned for the train, with SLRs or video cameras).
- Some people got really into it, dressing up in old-time clothes. I don't know if they planned it or not, but people were taking pictures of them, as if they were models. Interestingly, I found it difficult to tell the woman was wearing period clothes because wearing vintage clothes and platform peep-toe shoes are in fashion now. Her hairstyle was a bit old-fashioned but there were no dead giveaways, as with the man who wore a bowler hat, suit with wide tie, and had a handlebar mustache.
- There are a lot of of weirdos who enjoy trains. Aside from the geeks that you might mistake for sci-fi nuts, there are some real wackjobs. I couldn't tell if they just really enjoyed trains or had a screw loose: guys who imitate the conductor by reciting all the stops and connections at each stop and make the sound of the closing door chimes; people that refer to trains by their model numbers; people who mutter train facts (or is it fiction?) with a stoned look; people who got really, er, passionate about certain trains not being in the lineup; or a certain person who would act like a regular geek but every once in a while exclaim "Stay away from the dictator!" If we were on a normal everyday subway car, I would have avoided all eye contact for fear that they would lash out in violence.
- There were moments when the train passed through a section of track and the lights would blink or go out completely. I had forgotten that that used to happen. Do trains still do that?
- The seats, though softer, were not very comfortable. For one, they were a lot narrower so that it could only fit 1.5 butts in the two-seater. There was also a lot less legroom in the corner of the "L" seats. One guy sat in the seat perpendicular to me with the typical macho position of legs spread out wide (I hate it when people feel like they have to do this to prove something) and I had no room whatsoever. The smaller seats did make the car did seem more spacious. The seats are also straight-backed and flat-seated (the slight curve in today's seats make a huge difference). The seats also felt flimsier. When people plopped down in the seats behind, I felt it move. It makes me think that even though today's subway interiors are so ugly, it is a lot more comfortable (but is it worth the $76, soon to be more, per month?!).

Belated merry Christmas

Christmas has come and gone and I barely feel it. This year has felt holiday-less to me. First, it was too warm to even think about and when it did get colder, I was inundated with commercials rather than Christmas carols. There were weekly/daily emails for Black Friday deals (nothing good enough for me to take part in), free shipping, express shipping, last minute shipping, last minute express shipping, and then the not-too-late for gift cards. I thought there was also a lot of emphasis on holiday entertaining this year too, from buying fancy clothes, to preparing sumptuous feasts (does anyone really throw holiday parties when everyone is harried with all the other aspects, like shopping, etc.?).

From Thanksgiving on, there were glimpses of Christmas cheer beginning to settle in (when it snowed for the first time this season and it looked like a wintry postcard of New York with the snow falling onto the Christmas trees being sold in the street or when I finally decided to line up all the colorful Christmas cards we received this year) but that warm fuzzy feeling just didn't stick around for me.

This Christmas, needless to say, had been very different without Dear around. I was unmotivated to shop since I knew we wouldn't see all the relatives until next year and we wouldn't have those big gatherings with lots of hub bub (boo hoo!). Even more different is that I didn't plan to be around for Christmas either (until JetBlue decided to be the arses that they are and cancelled my flight, causing me to fly out in the darkness of Christmas morning). And it was very different to be driving around in an unfamiliar (albeit beautiful) city (Savannah, an hour from the compound that Dear is staying at) on a rainy night to make it to one of the two restaurants open in the entire city on Christmas night. And to experience the "Southern hospitality" of said city while vacationing for a short while was different as well. But no matter how different (good to start new traditions, not that we ever really had any to begin with), it was just good to see Dear again. He has just 8 more sessions to survive before he's back home! With New Year's and graduation, that brings him back in about two weeks. Yay! (Zoiks, I gotta clean up the apartment!)

I visited the campus/compound that Dear is at and it is seriously just a step above prison. It was as if they got a huge vacant field and then thought, "We need a classroom and some offices" so someone took a bunch of cinder block and dropped it in boring rectangles or they took bunches of trailers and connected them together. Everything is beige or gray (even the grass is beige). Dear's drab room has a chintzy curtain that looks like it was on deep discount that even a fleatrap motel rejected. The front door is scuffed and has visible handprints on it (is it so difficult to put on a new coat of glossy paint?). I can't imagine there being worse rooms than Dear's (but there are).

Moving on from the ugly and depressing horror that is the compound, upcoming, I'll provide a brief overview of our trip to Savannah.

Ode to Oxi

I swore off the white powder long ago
But with dirt the enemy and stains the foe,
I knew that I had to try the new cleanser Oxi Clean.
It's all over TV, in commercials I know that you've seen.

And indeed, at first try some whites did look whiter.
But hark! Its true strength is as a stain fighter.
There were new stains: food, blood, makeup, and sweat
And even those I thought had already set --
But the Oxi gently lifts all and washes away.
If only it could keep new stains at bay!

I scrubbed and I rubbed one stain of ink
Ready to bid the shirt good bye
So it was with amazement I did blink
That Oxi worked with nary a sigh
Oh my dear Oxi
You sure are foxy!

This rhyme is getting old
So just let it be told:
For bathrooms, kitchen, and laundry
Use Oxi, it really is extraordinary!

Jaws

I am just a bucket of ailments lately. This weekend I couldn't open my jaw (again) and it seriously cut down on my food intake. With my small bites, I felt full by the time I finished half a plate a food. (With my laziness to cook, I am truly withering away!) The big mystery is how I got to such a state. The quack dentist I go to kept asking me if I had recent wisdom teeth work done (yeah, like three years ago!). He prescribed a muscle relaxant and said he couldn't do much else. Another dentist at the office, who checked my nightguard for proper fit, wondered if maybe I clench my teeth and mentioned the possibility of TMJ*, which would require the help of a specialist. I then went to see the doctor and he said I had the classic signs of TMJ (pain at the joint, inability to open the mouth wide). He guessed that the cause was stress (very likely) and that sitting hunched over a desk/computer screen would cause my upper body to tense up, even my jaw to possibly clench (I noticed some signs of this when working on a project launch). He prescribed an anti-inflammatory and said sometimes physical therapy can help. So I asked my p/t about this -- all three of the staff said it sounds like TMJ (they were eavesdropping plus I am such a fascinating patient). The head p/t was most helpful of all. He said most cases you can take an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory (no need to spend $10 on prescription meds) and since the joint is so shallow, you can just rub an ice cube over the joint and the surrounding area, though ultrasound and shock therapy (which I get for my knee) may help too. He simply iced my jaw and it felt 100x better! Why couldn't the other medical professionals tell me something so simple like this?! The p/t's explanation was that in your jaw joint there is a disc that sometimes moves out of position when you bite on something hard or open your mouth really wide to eat something like an apple, or even to yawn. Bingo! The first time this happened, I was yawning like crazy. So he said to prevent yourself from yawning too wide, just touch your tongue to the top of your mouth (again, really simple and effective). Besides icing, avoiding chewy foods like bagels should help too. Worst case scenario: if I'm not able to open my mouth wide after a while, he could force it, which sounds awful and makes me feel like fingers down a chalkboard at the mere thought of that happening.

So, what have I learned through all this? I'm gonna try to stress less at work, avoid hard and chewy foods (I've always preferred soft foods like soup, yogurt and congee anyway), try to sit properly at my desk, and avoid dentists at all costs.

*TMJ: really TMJ dysfunction, as TMJ is the name of the joint

Congee comfort

After a brief morning cycle through the neighborhood this past weekend (chilly but refreshing), I used some leftover rice and made a pot of congee for a very satisfying and warm brunch. For those unfamiliar with this Chinese dish, it is a guilt-free version of risotto. You can make plain congee (like I did) with just water, or you can flavor it with stock or other ingredients that you add either in the beginning, or when serving. The thickening is done purely through the starch of the rice (no cream or butter, as with risotto).

I made the plain version without even salt or oil because I knew that I would be using the homemade preserved salted eggs from my aunt-in-law. I never thought a warm, heaping bowl of thick, creamy white rice could be so comforting on a cold fall day. But the eggs were the star of the show. The egg white was really concentrated and salty, the texture like gelatin, while the yolk was a bit grainy but very rich. The yolk was the color of gold. One egg was enough for a giant bowl of congee. If only I had the recipe for the salted eggs (even my MIL doesn't know it)! In the middle of the week, I finished the rest of the congee and egg for dinner. It wasn't as good the second time around because I overcooked the egg, hence the sulfurized yolk in the picture (I don't think the refrigeration helped either). I also threw in some leftover chicken hearts at the end (unfortunately also heated a little too long). Chicken hearts and egg -- what a way to make congee more of a guilty pleasure. :)

Martha Martha Martha -- NOT!

I used to worship Martha Stewart -- her magazine has/had? tons of creative (yet not tacky) crafts, she demonstrated lots of delicious recipes on TV and she has tons of tips for every aspect of life (how to clean, cook, decorate, fix things). I was excited to pore over her Weddings magazine and website for advice on my wedding way before marriage was even in the picture. It also helped that she went to my alma mater (who else could boast that the "domestic diva" lived in the same, albeit probably more nicely adorned, dorm rooms?). Even after the whole jail thing and the Kmart fiasco (I always disagreed about her whoring out her name to such a cheap store), I stuck by Martha, looking forward to her TV segments or turning to her website for creative ideas. I even watched some of the horrid Apprentice episodes (but promptly stopped after realizing that the show wouldn't showcase anything really crafty).

Now Martha has a new show that's shown on Fine Living each night. How upset I am about it. Besides the stale content (a lot of it is compilations from her past shows -- I think she and her staff have run out of ideas), there are also a lot of ridiculous things that don't apply to most normal people who don't live in the lap of luxury (the episode with the raising of various breeds of chickens comes to mind -- I hope that she at least makes them into a good meal once in a while). But what peeves me the most is her excessive marketing of her products on her show, effectually becoming an hour-long infomercial on some days. In one particular lackluster episode, she answered questions from the audience because I'm sure no one would have wanted to trek out to the studio just to watch a few recorded sessions on a giant TV (I guess they couldn't get all the "star chefs" to come in at the same time). Anyway, one audience member's question was about cleaning her Le Creuset cookware. First of all, I'm not sure Martha actually listened to the question because she kept talking gibberish (or maybe she needed someone on her staff to quickly Google "how to clean enameled cast iron cookware" and to then type it onto the teleprompter for Martha to read and seem somewhat knowledgeable). Somewhere in this monologue she had to push her line of enameled cast iron pots sold at Macy's (if you didn't already know since that's mentioned in every episode). As if her incessant marketing wasn't enough, when she finally got around to answering the question, she talked about cleaning the inside of the pot whereas the question was about cleaning the outside of the pot. After she got clarification about the question, she chided the young woman for boiling over her food before realizing that it wouldn't be good for PR and had to throw in, "But that's OK" a little too late as the woman was probably already embarassed to the heavens. In the end I'm not sure Martha even answered the question fully but jabbered on some more to fill in the time because she really couldn't handle being put on the spot any more. That excerpt just epitomizes almost all that is wrong with her show and her endeavors nowadays.

In desperation I will still probably watch her show if there is nothing else on and if I need a good laugh to catch her at these moments when her character slips into her true snotty self, but I just have to publicly denounce my fandom and tear up my homemade Martha fan club hand-embroidered badge if I had ever been crazy enough to make one.