ARRRRR!

I hope to never be too old to dress up for Halloween. With or without the trick-or-treating, there is too much fun to be had, to ever pass it up. Case in point: the barn dance I attended with all of my friends fully decked out in an awesome assortment of costumes, ranging from Beanie Man to Princess Pretty and pirates replete with pirate jokes (Why are pirates always angry? Because they ARRRRRR!).


I'm simply choosing to not grow up. That is all.

Ode to Concerts

Last night I stayed up too late to take part in one of my favorite forms of entertainment: a quality concert. I know I'm getting a little old for the dingy punk scene, especially when I see kids there with their parents, but I can't help myself. There's something about seeing a band live, hearing them sing all the tunes I already know...I can't get enough of it. I love the t-shirts, buttons, stickers, crowd surfing, and the people with funny clothes and haircuts. Then I started making a list of all the concerts I've been to, since I graced the DC area...

Green Day/Jimmy Eat World
The Killers
Rufio/Alkaline Trio
Weezer/Kaiser Chiefs/Foo Fighters
All-American Rejects
Brian Regan Live
Yellowcard/Mae
Coldplay/Fiona Apple
Harry and the Potters
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Eisley
Pretty Girls Make Graves
Third Day
Franz Ferdinand/Death Cab for Cutie
State Radio
Mat Kearney/Joshua Radin
Dashboard Confessional
Guster
National Symphony Orchestra playing Nintendo tunes
Jack's Mannequin/Daphne Loves Derby/Copeland/The Hush Sound

It makes my heart smile. Each is a gold mine of memories. I am a concert junkie. The end.

abby talk thai

I have a friend, Tricia, who is out here working for the Thai Embassy for a month (well...since that military coup, her timeline is a little up in the air...) and last night, I got this BRILLIANT idea that we could go to Thai Square, a restaurant that I had heard was very authentic. I figured, the girl lived in the country for a year and a half, she'd know the difference, right? Right? Tricia neglected to tell me that she eats Thai for lunch EVERY DAY. My bad. But she was a good sport.


I didn't know it would turn into a culture lesson. In between bites, Tricia filled my head with all sorts of gems of information. For example:

* Pad Thai is NOT a "very common Thai dish that everyone eats every day." In all her time there, she ate it thrice.
* If someone asks you if you speak Thai and you actually understand the question, you should say, "ngu ngu ba ba," which, directly translated, means "snake snake fish fish." Somehow, this is one of their colliquialisms that succinctly conveys the message "No."
* When you see someone you know in Thailand, you don't ask how they're doing. You ask if they're hungry.
* We think we have bad traffic in DC? Try driving in Bangkok.
* Speaking of Bangkok, its real name (which doesn't even have "Bangkok" in it) is the longest name of a city in the world. It's about six lines long, and is basically a long string of superlatives that says something about a city of angels and the god Indra.

And, of course, the food was awesomely delicious.

I've been avoiding BlogLand forever. Oh well.

In an effort to keep everyone up-to-date on the whirlwind of adventure that is my life, I've succombed to the temptation of starting up a blog. Welcome. Relax. Enjoy.