HELP!

I am trying to find a new tenant for my apartment to replace me. I am headed to NC on May 19th and my studio apartment will be available shortly after that date. Here's the ad on craigslist:

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/apa/2353123198.html

Thanks!

DC Challenge

Eric smiling at the Arboretum because he caught a frog by the leg and accidentally let him go.

Yesterday, Eric and I attempted the DC Challenge. We were all pumped up and excited to read the 12 challenge clues. Using his smart phone and knowledge of D.C., Eric was able to crack a lot of the clues quickly and offer up possible leads for other clues. We had a bunch of sites lined up and decided to go to the National Arboretum first because of this clue:

"When you visit this garden-within-a-garden, we bet you don't realize you're actually standing on the roofs of several different subterranean galleries. To complete this clue, replace "water" with "moon" in DC scandal lingo and you'll find the name of your objective. Take a photo with your team inside the two 9 foot tall, pink granite namesake objects."

So, obviously, we were looking for a moongate. Eric immediately skipped over all of the other details when he realized where he had seen a moongate near a "garden-within-a-garden" before. I had thought that since it said "standing on the roofs of several different subterranean galleries" that it was probably the bontanic garden instead of the arboretum. However, Eric insisted that it was at the arboretum because the moongate he was thinking of was by a bonsai garden within a larger garden. Okay. Eric has been living in D.C. for longer than I have and I should trust his opinion...

However we got there eventually (it was near no metro, and a very long walk which was suspicious of our inevitable failure because there was a time limit for the scavenger hunt and it was beginning to seem impossible to complete the rest of the clues if one was being asked to walk all the way over to the arboretum) and ran to the bonsai garden. It was so beautiful! Sorry for that intolerable run-on within those parenthesis back there...

Eric led me to the moongate but there was no sign of the "two 9 foot tall pink granite namesake objects (moongate)". Those would be pretty hard to miss. We searched around some more and went to the information desk in a small trailer building to ask a man for help. After some more deducing we looked at each other crazily and realized that we should have been at the Botanic Garden all the long, which would have made a lot more sense because it was much closer to the rest of the items on the scavenger hunt list. So, I was right.

Eric felt absolutely terrible about wasting a couple hours of our time and admitted to me that even though his competitive side felt defeated and embarrassed about not returning to the competition to look for other clues, his logical and nature-oriented sides felt it was probably best to enjoy the rest of the afternoon slowly looking at the flowers at the arboretum because there were eleven more clues and only a couple hours left to make it to the finish line. So, for the next hour or so, we walked through the arboretum hand in hand and took lots of photos of ourselves in front of beautiful trees and flowers instead of in front of random clues in the D.C. area.

Love,

Monica

P.S. Yes, those are blue and orange lizards. Long live the head band.

P.P.S. My fish were adopted this past week by a nice lady with some kids and a new pond. Orange and Julius have both out grown their 55 gallon tank and I no longer have the time to visit them and take care of them (they were living with my parents). Orange was about 8 inches long and Julius was about 5 inches long. Now they are the two biggest fish in their new pond called "home" and have made new friends in three little (comparatively) koi fishies. When Eric and I went to the Arboretum there was a big pond with many, many koi. A lot of them were very big and it made me sad/happy about my two koi. I've had them for almost three years and one day they will be the size of a cat. I had always thought I would keep them and one day make a pond for them. It didn't work out that way, though. I feel good for having given them a chance to live outside in a big pond and I will hopefully get to visit them as they grow bigger and happier.

Zombie-themed name

My lovely trivia team finally has a family photo. And it's totally not like one of those awkward family photos or anything.

Valentine's Day

Eric and I weren't supposed to see each other yesterday (because of our late work and class schedules). However, we both got out a little earlier than expected and raced over to our Monday night trivia hot spot to visit our friends (because we love them). We were both a little late and therefore did not get to be on an actual trivia team (there is a six person limit and the game had already started). So, how did I spend my valentine's day? Well, there is a pacman arcade game in the back of the bar, and Eric and I alternated playing and watching the other play for about an hour (so many quarters lost). My valentine's gift was a big, gooey blister on my middle finger from holding the joystick to tightly. I don't know if anyone of you remember how I obsessively played pacman in college, but I get pretty into it.

Also, my "Art and Special Education" class was very cool this week. We were doing and lesson on blindness and my professor put blindfolds on everyone in the class, handed us an item and then some clay. We got about 15-20 minutes to sculpt what we felt (smelled or tasted, etc.) and upon the great reveal I was pleased to see that my mini pumpkin looked exactly like the one she had given me (I ingeniously counted how many ridges were around the pumpkin's physique). Next, we got a partner and had to lead the other (blindfolded) around the school. That was really fun. My partner and I tried it two different ways. 1) As the blind person, we held onto the arm of our guide and walked at their pace through the school. 2) As the blind person, we did not hold on to anything and, instead, touched and felt our way around the school. Number 2 was a little scarier, but my partner and I both felt as if we had more control that way since we were setting our own pace and translating the space through our finger tips instead of depending on the voice of someone else.

Also, sorry for the serious lack of updates. I am working about 5 days a week and have 6 classes and my sanity to manage this semester.

Love,

Monica

An Introductory Exercise: A found-materials exchange project...

...based on the following passage from A Friend of the Earth by T.C. Boyle:

"Finally, though--and it must have been late in the afternoon--he pulled her up out of the mud and slid her over one shoulder, nothing heavier in the world, nothing, not stone or lead or all the mountains marching off in the neat ranks to Canada. Down the trail then, down the trail to the trailhead, and out to the road and the car and the hospital in Whitefish. He brought her back, all the way back, out of the tall trees and the wet and the sting of the everlasting day, but it didn't matter to him or to anybody else, because he didn't bring her back alive."

Read and respond to the above narrative using materials you find for image and text. This should be completed on a single base sheet of 8.5"x11" copy paper in landscape format. May be done in color or black-and-white.

Bleep Bloop

Many of you know that I never sleep. Here is one of the many things I try to fall asleep to: Average comedians playing and commenting on their playing of video games...

Oh, and just came back from seeing Arabian Nights with Eric, his Mom and Joe..

It was AMAZING! Pretty much the best thing that has happened to me since I came home to a brand new puppy at the age of 10 years.

Love,

Monica

Costume Karaoke

Tonight I went to Karaoke with Bob, Cailtin, Joe and Eric (Eric's roommate). It was AWESOME! I sang "I walk the line", "Zombie" and "I should have known better". I got off the stage and everyone was cheering and high-fiving me. It was an amaaazzzziiinng feeling. A group of people even found me well after I had finished singing to tell me that they loved me or something. It was like valentine's day or something without all the stupid candy.

Winter Camp Royall 2010

'Nuff said.

No women no children

Snow

There isn't any snow here yet, but it's COMPLETELY wrecking my travel plans. I was going to leave early this morning to drive down to Pittsboro, NC for a week of winter camp. Now because of the snow, my boss might delay the start of camp until Tuesday (I hope she does because I don't think I'll be able to make it to NC by tomorrow morning).

November Camping photos

Here are some highlights from our November camping trip to Lake Anna, VA. All stolen property (Eric took the pictures).

Oh, and

three posts to this neglected blog in under one hour? I MUST be procrastinating writing that paper or something...

I am an adult...

...and this means that I will be taking myself out tonight to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1.

After I write this paper, that is.

If you are reading this

Nichole and, or, Jean...I need the five greatest songs in the world to bring to Monday night trivia. My team (name: "I don't appreciate your boner") got third place again and the prize is to pick the music for next week's game. Any ideas? I'm going to make this post as pitiful as possible ('cause it already is). Here's a picture of a sad, baby animal (panda):

Good and Bad Karma

Note: Please enjoy looking at pictures of my fish from Thanksgiving while you read the post below that is unrelated to them!

Many terrible and good things just happened all at once. I never know how to feel when I am all emotionally-mixed. Anyway, the project I've been slaving away at (and the eventual presentation-giving that I was nervous about) doesn't even matter because my teacher just wrote me an email saying he was sick and canceling class. Also, I may not have to go into work tomorrow morning because the boy that I work with is also sick. That would make tomorrow the best day EVER because my only obligation would be Monday night trivia with the trivia team (family) I adore (and it really isn't even an obligation...more of a choice and dear love of mine).

These cancelations would free up my day completely and give me more opportunity to fix one of the bad things that just happened: I was walking to my car to bring a couple of my ceramic sculptures back to my apartment and dropped one. It was one of my favorites and one of the biggest ones I made for my thesis. It broke in like 6 or 7 pieces. I am very, very upset and brought it back with me anyway because I realized it isn't going to get glued back together sitting in the basement at home. It will get glued back together tomorrow at my apartment. Another bad thing that keeps happening to me are these darned allergic reactions. My eye is still really puffy and I keep breaking out in hives. I am starting to think I am allergic to life. It's either that or I'm allergic to being allergic. Wow.

Love,

Monica

Domestic Violence and Divorce

That's not what this post is about (but that IS what the homework I'm supposed to be working on is about). You may be asking yourself, "Monica, aren't you getting a degree in Art?" The answer is, yes, but none of that matters in my "Sociology of the Family" class.

And none of the aforementioned matters, either, because it's three in the morning (AGAIN, I know!) and I am procrastinating. I found these photos from May and they made me laugh. What am I even wearing (a dress and jeans at the same time)?

"Could we schedule a play date, Monica?"

Today I worked my first day at my new job. For those of you who don't know I was recently hired as a "Special Needs Facilitator" at Adas Israel's preschool called the Gan HaYeled. It is in Washington D.C. and merely a six minute metro ride from my new apartment. The kids that I am working with are mostly three year olds while some are four. They are so tiny and cute and funny and they all speak hebrew (aka very, very cute).

Some reasons why today was a great day:

1) I was playing with one boy for a while at second recess today and when we were walking back to meet the parents, he said, "Monica, I think you are beautiful. You are beautiful.". Sure, it's nice to hear that from your boyfriend, but when a three year old says it, you know he means it!

2) I have multi-colored finger nail polish on and the kids were looking at it. One of them, a teeny-tiny boy, was touching my fingers with his fingers and that's when I noticed that his fingernails were awfully shiny. I said, "Hold on a sec. Do you have nail polish on too?" And he was like, in a matter-of-fact tone, "Of course I do!"

3) I made really good friends with another teeny-tiny boy today. He gets my sense of humor and he is really serious and polite (he's like a business man in a toddler's body). At the end of the day, as I was leaving, I ran into him and his German nanny (a student, my age, studying in America for 2 years). I got to walk back with the two of them and the girl was so refreshingly nice and fun to talk to. We both went into the metro station and as we were about to take trains in the opposite directions, the little boy said, "Monica, I would like to schedule a play date with you. Could we schedule a play date, Monica?" He asked me in a very business-y tone.

4) The same boy from number 3 asked me if I had any children.

5) FREE FOOD! And not only that, good free food. Today for lunch they had falafel, pickled turnips, tabouleh, pita, roasted eggplant and lots of veggies.

6) Everyone is so nice!

7) I am getting paid money to have fun!

Facebook

Just wanted to let people know that Facebook has de-activated/disabled the account that I've been using since Spring 2006 (in other words, that is a lot of information that I have very suddenly lost access to). I tried to log in last night to check some important messages and it said that it was disabled. I followed a link that led me to a page that explained that I had been using an illegal name and that I would need to prove my identity in order to have my account revived. While I am in the process of doing this right now, I am not hopeful that I will ever get my account back and I am not too upset about it. It is a really big inconvenience, but not unmanageable and I kind of like the idea of being forced off of Facebook for whatever reason because it will prompt me to not use it as much (or at all) and move along in life.

So, contact me here or email me at either of these:

mhuang@elon.edu

Monica_Huang@corcoran.edu

It's kind of ironic, though, because the only way people found out about my blog was from it being listed under my "website" section on my Facebook profile. So...

Love,

Monica

P.S. I'm very excited about dinner tonight with a bunch of girls from my grad program (I heard rumors of sushi?) and then swing dancing afterward (I've convinced Eric to come and dance with me).

P.P.S. The other good news about not being on Facebook anymore is that I will probably have more time to make quality posts on this blog. Get excited, readers (Nichole and Mommy)!

Avadakadavra

Bzzzzz

Spring 2010, straight from the wacky minds of Ashley and Aubrey.