displaced

In pictures:

1) My bedroom dresser. The world map is marked with all the places I am hitting in the next few months to remind me why I am doing all this.

2) Housewarming gifts from all our partays. The tile says "Home Sweet Apartment"- so very New York City.

3) My fridge. I collect magnets from every place I go. The cats broke my porcelain magnet from Capri, but the Armani model lounging in a boat in Capri compensates well.

4) The daycare below me. In this last month of unemployment, I've been awoken every morning by the sound of little children singing the hokey pokey.

Today I packed it all up & shipped it out. My life yet again packed neatly (ok, harriedly) away in boxes. I've done it so many times before but somehow I never seem to get any better at it, & it's so draining & I swear I'll never do it again, but that's always a lie. And it only gets harder as I get older & accumulate more, because I thought that's what adults do- settle & nest. But when it comes time to relocate, I again curse my materialistic weakness for shoes & again consider just trashing it all in favor of a Zen existence unburdened by unnatural attachments to inanimate objects. My hands are mangled, my muscles are aching, my eyebags are glaring, & I have half a brain left. All I want to do is collapse onto my huge queen feather bed & curl up in the fetal position & whimper, but I can't, because now there is no huge queen feather bed.

I am exhausted. Exhausted exhausted exhausted.

And now to get ready for my going away party. Some things just can't be avoided. ;)

check out these digs

I think I can handle any of the above options (perhaps with some difficulty) but if any of you have suggestions for villas in BALI, INDONESIA to fit 8-10 crazy women, I'd love to hear them. :D

book lust

There is a small independent bookshop in my neighborhood where I go to escape real life for a few hours each week. I pore over the travel section in particular, & drooooool with raw lust. I mean, check out the possibilities.

It's been a few years since I've been back to Asia, & my heart has been aching for it. I feel like there's a huge hole in my life. When I realized I had this opportunity to live in the region again, I knew I had to grab it. I plan to explore Thailand's every nook & cranny, but beyond that, Asia is the world's largest continent. I have a legion of other unexplored countries that await. Now the biggest challenge is trying to fit all of them into my schedule... Hmm.

So today I went home with a brand new travel guide & thus in effect, a whole new country agenda to plan. Nothing makes me happier, I swear. :)

I'll give you a hint. Beaches, palm trees, dancing, diving, spirituality & party party paaarrrrtttyyyyyy!

unleash your inner gay

When I lived in Australia, I had the opportunity to take part in the most flaming & fabulous party in the whole world. That is The Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras. Costumes, wild partying, flamboyance, debauchery. I mean what's not to love? You don't have to be gay to appreciate the show (I'm not). It's all one love after all, right? And what a celebration of that love, in all its diverse & colorful glory.

I was recruiting men to complete the Sydney Gay Community Periodic Survey, which served to track trends in perceptions & risk behaviors associated with HIV/AIDS. The data was used to inform health education & prevention campaigns. HIV/AIDS has been inextricably linked to the gay community for as long as it's been known to exist. This is mainly because when the disease first started rearing its ugly head (around 1981), it was concentrated within the gay community, leading many to prematurely & incorrectly label it the "gay disease." Fast forward years later, & while we still can't shake some of these misguided perceptions, we now know with absolute certainty that HIV/AIDS is not prejudiced or elitist in any way- it is an equal opportunity killer.

I was working, but wow, what a spectacle.



(I wish I took these. But no, I jacked them from other parts of the web).

This year marks the festival's 30th anniversary, so it's bound to be even more fantabulous. And Conde Nast Traveler has even named it amongst the top ten costume parades in the world. The partay starts today, February 9, so if you find yourself in that part of the world this month, sashay shante & go go go! Send me a postcard.

kung hei fat choi!

Or happy year of the rat!

My zodiac forecast (Horse) for the year is pretty awful, much to my dismay. It basically says that anything that can go wrong will.

Horse Rating: "3 neutral and 9 unfavorable months. Horse is the sign that fares least well in the year of the Rat."
Ew.

Horse Career: " Your difficult year will probably extend into your career as well. You will find that projects will become a bit more difficult and delays could be the norm."
Hm well this is probably going to be true. I have no delusions about the work I'm doing in Thailand to be easy. And the program directors I'm working with feel the need to remind me over & over again that business operates at a much... slower... pace... there. So I need to shed my New York impatience & refamiliarize myself with my island time upbringing.

Horse Health: "You may experience signs of decreased energy."
As long as it isn't dengue fever!

Horse Relationships: "Tough times at work will cause you to seek solitude. Relationships may cause you some distress, especially if your loved one is also of the Rat, Monkey or Dragon groups."
Well this is true every year.

Horse Wealth: "This is definitely not the time for risk-taking."
Um. Too late!

Ominous! But: "The trick will be to force yourself to rely more on your head than your heart. That is contrary to the Horse nature, so it won't be easy." Forced to use my head? Oh dear. But the whole point of this Thailand sabbatical was to use less of my head...

It also says that Horses are the nomads of the zodiac animals.

In other rat news, my friend sent me this recommendation on a new dish to try when I get to Thailand. Yum! From bbc.co.uk:

Thai fast food sellers are enjoying a boom in rat sales, as people learn to love the taste of the rodent.

While rat has long been eaten in Thailand's poorer northern regions, a growing number of the country's roadside vendors are now serving it up.

The rats are drowned and sold uncooked or ready to eat, with happy customers purchasing rat meat for as much as 150 baht ($4.82; £2.30) a kilogram.

"It's better than chicken," one customer told the AP news agency.

'Nothing can compete'

"It all depends what you like, but it's a normal meat like any other," added Thongyu Roruchit.

One rat seller, Sala Prompim, said that the hip and liver were the best cuts. "It's tastier than other meats - nothing can compete with rat," he added. Mr Prompim said he only used rats caught from rice fields, and not those found in towns or cities. "They are definitely clean," he said.

The animals are killed by drowning, before being skinned ready for cooking - poached, fried, grilled or baked.

Mr Prompim says he sells as much as 100kg of rat meat on some days.