Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Political Influence

dude...if all political activists looked like gigi ibrahim, i'd follow her revolution.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Strangers

wow...it's been a while since i've done anything with this site. suffice it to say that the lone reader that still subjects themselves to reading this lowly medium into my random thoughts has moved onto newer and shinier objects in the webosphere. but whatever, my corner of the blogosphere remains to simply allow me to throw junk into onto the internet, and i will continue to do so.

i don't really have anything insightful or truly thoughtful to post this morning, just thought i'd post this wong fu productions video that i found hit particularly close to home.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Cabin Fever

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needing a good weekend outside the confines of the district, a bunch of friends and i rented out a cabin in the shenandoah for a few days of hot tub relaxation. it allowed for friends to gather...play a few games...drink you libation of pleasure...taste the local wines...and rest the dc weary minds for a couple of days.

night one...a surprisingly fun drive through a blustery winter evening ended with patrons of my car being fearful of driving into the woods with a classic horror film beat down pickup truck following us down winding mountain roads. though it did eventually veer away, what started out as a cheap scary movie allusion quickly turned into a muted, but genuine fear felt among all riders. but alas, we ended up at our assigned cabin in hot tub heaven and proceeded to hot tub and play drinking games until the wee hours of the morning.

day one...a day of wine tasting and vineyard frolicking. our caravan of two cars hopped from winery to winery. making stops at fox meadows winery, to linden vineyards, to narmada winery where we finished off our day reliving our childhood days on a playground as we watched our friend's dog chase down sticks and tennis balls.

night two...we finished that day with burgers and shrimp, our poor man's surf and turf. with everyone exhausted from a day of wine-ing, the night seemed to end earlier than most nights i've spent in dc. but surprisingly, that was a very welcome night's sleep.

day two...pack up and clean up. check out at 10...and we were back on the road. no sooner had we left our diamond shaped urban prison for the rolling hills of the blue ridge mountains were we back, ready for another week on the grind.

but for a few days, a quick drive westward, and in the company of good friends, one can escape and just have fun the way it's supposed to be had.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Prom

another year...another february...another excuse to don the tuxedo and head out to tysons for the winston health policy ball.

ever since my first visit in 2008, as a naive and wide-eyed young staffer, i've looked forward to this event each year. this year was particularly rewarding as i had to wrangle my way into the ball as a guest of a friend so as to not rankle the unusually strict reading of the ethics rules my boss had. but i wiggled my way around the rules and was able to bring out my tux from the corner of my closet and pull out my shining black dancing shoes (though no dancing was to be had).

but what i really took away from this year's event was the growth i've had since 2008. i remember that first year, not knowing anyone besides the few coworkers and staffers in a ballroom of hundreds. so new that no one really wanted or needed to talk to us...with only a few lobbyists making their a work-demanding effort to reach out to us junior staffers only because we were of the finance committee.

then moving onto that second year, with the entire health world reeling from the uncertainty of a post-scott brown era. with the bill languishing in the freezing nights of snowpocalypse, we gathered in the ballroom all a bit more somber and what a party should have been.

but this year, full of energy and with a new and some more respectable role as a true health care staffer, i realized that i knew a lot more people and was able to walk down the hallways and not feel as if i was that freshman in high school who didn't know anyone as the seniors and popular kids mingled and ignored you. instead, this year i was able to inject myself in conversations as opposed to having be introduced.

by no means do i feel like i've made it, but there are minor moments in my day-to-day where i do feel that i've done something. that i haven't just been a prop in the ever changing moments of life. and those days aren't too bad.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Brotherly Love

no no...this really has nothing to do with my brother, whom i do love very much and is doing well in shanghai.

this is about a random weekend trip i made out to philadephia to visit a few friends from san diego. being my first trip out there in my nearly four years on the east coast, i was fairly excited. though it probably wasn't smartest to head over there in the dead of winter.

but whatever, off i go...just a quick weekend trip to see the liberty bell, independence hall, old told philadephia, constitution center, reading terminal...you know, the standards. but coming from a city full of historical importance, i did find it ironic that the only thoughts i had while standing inside independence hall was about the movie "national treasure"...typical.

it's okay though, the purpose of the trip really was just a quick break from the district, to visit some old friends, and to enjoy some good philly cuisine...which i did, here, here, here and here. overall, a pretty decent day and a half. a nice little escape out of my tiny little city.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

We Reach For The Stars

it's easy to blame...it's easy to complain...and it's easy to make excuses. it's hard to accept...it's hard to understand...and it's hard to take responsibility. but in light of the president's speech tonight, it is upon all of us to seek the humility and the humanity that we seemed to have lost.

except, in the wake of tragedies like the one this past saturday in tuscon, there are never any words to say or actions that can be taken that will ease the pain and suffering of the victims.

at these moments, we look to our leaders to guide us. and though sometimes i hope that aaron sorkin would come to the rescue and put his rhetorical magic into the mouths of our public speakers, i know jeb bartlett will only speak to the "streets of heaven being too crowded with angels" in the annals of television history.

but sometimes, reality surprises us. oratory, when given well, has the ability to move us like music and deliver us an emotion that we could not have conjured ourselves. and while the president's speech tonight touched on many issues: anger, acceptance, humility, hope, and remembrance of those loved and lost...i will focus on his foresight and desire to see what we can be in light of what we are. expectations...to ourselves and to each other...all summed up in the eyes of a nine year old girl, a role model for the innocence and optimism that our country and political arena are built on, that too often we forget.

"i want to live up to her expectations, i want our democracy to be as good as christina imagined it, i want american to be as good as she imagined it. all of us, we should do everything we can do to make sure this country lives up to our children's expectations"

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Citronelle

not being made of money (or work in the private sector in this city)...a visit to citronelle is definitely only called for on a special occasion. and as a send off to my very good friend and fellow foodie, my ucsd travel buddy, and former roommate, ting, before she leaves the district, i felt this a very worthy chance to spoil myself with some of michel richard's delectable cuisine.

opting for the 3 course dinner prix-fix as opposed to the promenade gourmande, i chose the mosaic to start, the venison as the entree, and finished it all off with the napoleon for dessert. throw in an amuse bouche as a little appetizer and another for dessert, and i left with my belly stretched and my taste buds satiated.

i would have to say that the amuse bouche was a very welcome starter. it included bites of quail egg topped with ikura, a salmon tartar wrapped in pickled jicama, and a mini cupcake with creme fraiche icing...all of which i quickly popped into my mouth followed by "holy crap...this is great" comments after each morsel. though i would have to single out the quail egg as the best of the three.

as for the venison, you must enjoy the gaminess of the meat to fully appreciate this dish. so if you already have trouble with lamb, stay away from the venison. as someone who has a rather indiscriminate palate for food, i rather enjoyed the dish...leaving me with my only criticism that there wasn't enough of it to go around. served with a cabbage cannelloni and a very succulent gravy, i was almost tempted to just lick the plate clean...but felt the inappropriate for the standards and class of a place like citronelle.

and to finish it all off, a creme brulee napolean. and i'm usually not a big fan of desserts (or sweets in general), but my first taste was immediately followed by another "holy crap" moment. the puff pastry that divided the vanilla creme brulee slices were perfectly flaky...the assortment of fruits that covered the dish were fresh and exquisitely paired with the passionfruit sauce. i must say, dessert usually being the course that surprises me the least, this one stood out.

so after the rave review, why only a 4-star rating you ask? even though the food was great and the service was top-notch, it is difficult to justify the costs even for a foodie like myself. there aren't many things that i'm willing to unconsciously drop large sums of money on, and food is one of them. but it is still without a moments pause to think that you have to be prepared to shell out a couple of benjamins if you want to savor the experience that is michel richard. personally, i'm glad i came, but it would take another momentous occasion to bring me back. i'll stick with his much more accessible and equally delicious central for my standard monday evening meals.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

2010 Post Mortem

beyond producing some verbal vomit every so often into my little corner of the interwebs, these yearly memorials have been a fantastic time capsule for my already addled mind. so to ensure that i will always have a lasting visual of what my life once was, i will continue to type my babbles.

last years inaugural posting reflected on the seeds that i have planted while looking forward to a year of progress. looking back on it, i can say that it has been a year of partial successes and half failures. certain things moved forward while others stayed completely the same. so this year, no lofty goals, no inspiring quotes, just another year gone by.

december
a rambunctious and surprisingly productive lame-duck congress finally put an end to the 111th congress, the most active and successful congress in decades. though happily, unlike 2009, i wasn't forced to sit through endless hours of cloture votes this month and i was able to make my trip out to taiwan for a long overdue visit to my family.
november
this was the first year in quite a while that i was the sole chef for the thanksgiving table mainstays (turkey, ham, blah blah blah). and i tried a new recipe...and joined (though i've heard it many times before) the brining revolution. probably one of the best turkeys i've ever pulled out of an oven.
october
a month of political chatter and electoral banter led up to our shellacking of november's midterm elections. but us liberals did get a nice reprieve from the consecutive appearances of sarah palin and glenn beck with our own rally with our icons on the left...jon stewart and steven colbert.
september
a birthday month with a much more extravagant and costly (thanks friends) than i expected. it also came with a nice visit from a good friend from the other side of the country. another year older and another year wiser...well, i definitely got the year, but not necessarily the wisdom.
august
crossing off another state on my futile and not really active attempt to see all 50 states, i got a visit to minnesota taken off my list. as the new representative on health care issues for the senior senator from minnesota, i made my rounds around minneapolis and st. paul meeting all the players.
july
of all things that progressed in my life, my career was probably moving at the fastest pace. and with all the glory and reputation of working on health care reform, i was surprised that my half-assed and semi-unprepared job search ended in such swift conclusion with my hiring at the health legislative assistant for senator amy klobuchar of minnesota. also, i did get to make a very nostalgic visit back to california for a very nice reunion of san diego friends at helen's wedding.
june
before my move to the hart office building, i took a reward trip to boston as a reward for a year and half of being stuck in the dirksen office building. so while unknowing that i would cross minnesota off my list of unseen states, i got to add massachusetts to that list as well. i was sure to hide my lakers jersey while i walked the streets of celtics territory.
may
on this look back, i realize that i did a fair amount of traveling this year...taiwan in december, minnesota in august, massachusetts in july. for the month of may, we can add montana and new york to that list. montana for work for the old boss...a victory lap around the state to sell the bill law; new york for a vacation with an old friend...a personal celebration with drinking and debauchery.
april
like last year, april seemed to have dragged on, but in a much better way than last year. this april was more a "take a breath and relax" month as the finance committee's health team finally got some time to sit down and enjoy the spoils of success.
march
what a month march was. with another around-the-clock effort, democrats on the hill followed the president's leadership and determination to finally pass health care reform and the accompanying reconciliation bill. march 23 will now represent the peak of my legislative career.
february
this was a tough month...with our seemingly dead health care reform legislation sucking in its last breaths while being pumped by life support. not to mention that the entire district was snowed in by our own little version of snowmageddon.
january
before the political earthquake of a scott brown victory for ted kennedy's historically liberal democratic seat, the entire health care world was roaming around the floors of the capitol building, darting in and out of bicameral+white house meetings working on a conference health reform bill. though it included extremely late nights and painstaking negotiations, it was probably my favorite part of the entire legislative process.

so there it is, the year in a nutshell. i can't seem to find a proper wrap up of the past year or an appropriate prediction for next year. maybe it's my lack of imagination or creative instincts, hopefully it's not an omen for the future, but i'm having a hard time deciding whether my glass is still being filled.