Lazy Saturdays are very necessary.

"I will love you unconditionally,
There is no fear now,
Let go and just be free,
I will love you---unconditionally."

From the song Unconditionally by Katy Perry.

We all deserve to have a companion in life.

Always see for yourself.

I need a career.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year, I'm thankful for so many things.

It's funny how I spent the holiday completely alone last year in Bangkok, and now I'm back home in NYC surrounded by my friends, and planning to go to a holiday dinner with my sister and brother-in-law tomorrow at a relative's place.

One thing all this has truly taught me is that no matter what rough or challenging period of life you're going through, it will pass. Whether it be physically or mentally, you will at one point no longer be in that exact place or situation, and that alone is usually enough to keep me going through any trials of life.

It's really so great to be back for the holidays, and I hope everyone has an enjoyable Thanksgiving with lots of food, gratitude, laughter---and even a little bit of obligatory family dysfunction.

Happy Turkey Day!

"I thought I found a way to enter,
It was just a reflector..."

From the song Reflektor by Arcade Fire.

Heart.

"This is the time for food lines. No, not the ones where people wait to buy artisanal cheeses, organic turkeys and handmade pies for Thanksgiving. It's the time for food lines because the end of the month is near, which for many families means their food stamp allotment has run out and dollars are tight.

Most working New Yorkers don't actually see these lines because they are too busy working. But scattered throughout the city, like latter-day versions of depression photos, grandmothers and children, men and woman wait hours for a bag of groceries at a food pantry. Many of the hungriest are children and the elderly. And many have jobs whose hours and salaries have been cut.

Mind you, they are the lucky ones.

'So many of the people using the food pantries are doing the right thing, and still it's not enough,' said Joey O'Loughlin, a Brooklyn photographer who has been documenting hunger in the city. 'They are the people around you, the workers in your building, the air-conditioning guy, the people in the stores where you shop, the housekeepers, nurses, municipal workers. But when I tell people, they are surprised and don't believe it.'

This is not unexpected in a city where the gap between haves and have-nots is wide. But while the persistent image of the hungry in New York is that of the bedraggled, single homeless man, the real faces of need look much different, said Margarette Purvis, the president and chief executive of Food Bank For New York City. The food bank enlisted Ms. O'Loughlin to document its work, which includes not just feeding people but also offering help with an array of social and financial services.

Her group estimates that 2.6 million New Yorkers have problems buying food. While homeless men were their target population when the group began its efforts 30 years ago, children now account for 500,000 of their clients each year. Another fast-growing group, Ms. Purvis said, was elderly residents on fixed incomes. They, and working adults who cut back on food in order to meet rising rents, are the faces her group wanted to highlight to combat the myths about hunger."

From the November 27, 2013 New York Times article, Finding Comfort and Food on Lines, by David Gonzalez. 

I'm currently living in Greenwich Village for a little while with a friend named Thomas.

His entire 18th floor apartment overlooking the old St. Vincent's Hospital is really amazing---and even the living room alone is enough to invoke so much emotion.

Thank you, Thomas.

Hello.

This moment is fleeting, and I can't figure out if that's good or bad.

I'm here to listen.

Put the crazy-volume on mute.

"It is easy to drive past Willets Point, the 62-acre tangle of auto shops, car parts and grease covered mechanics tinkering with automobiles, that sits hard by the Unisphere of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. Passing by is far easier than driving through: The streets that cross each other at odd angles here in the glossy shadow of Citi Field looks as if they has been blasted by land mines. They are pooled with dar, oil-slicked water or rutted with knee-deep holes that suck in a car's tires. The chalkboard scrape of chassis meeting pavement sounds through the air here with the regularity of a bell tolling the hour."

From the November 23, 2013 New York Times article, The End of Willets Point, by Sarah Maslin Nir.

The room is still spinning...

*Mental Cartwheels*

I sure do appreciate the weekend.

Triple Stack Pink Supermans.

Whenever I come to Queens, it feels like I'm back home.

Dear friends,

My first food story for VICE magazine was published earlier today.

Please give it a read if you have the time: SOJU IS RESPONSIBLE FOR SOUTH KOREANS PASSED OUT ON THE STREET

Thank you very much.

best,
thwany

Mutter. Utter. Stutter. Butter?

You've got to grow up and try.

Some people's version of reality is so deluded and over dramatic---you really just can't trust idiots like them at all.

Hot yoga at 6:30am makes me feel sane.

It's only Tuesday?

Family Meal is the best.

Requisite.

"Do you dance, do you dance?
To the beat of life..."

From the song Beat of Life by Anything Box.

Taking my younger cousins to dinner and for a night out this past Friday was such a blast.

"Meanwhile, millions of American live tenuously close to hunger, which is barely kept at bay by a food stamp program that gives most beneficiaries just a little more than $4 a day."

From the November 16, 2013 New York Times opinion piece, The Insanity of Our Food Policy, by Joseph E. Stiglitz.

Referring to yourself as a foodie doesn't mean shit.

Thick skin.

Now that I think about it, I made a lot of mistakes while dating in my 20's.

Being able to learn from life lessons is so humbling.

It doesn't exist.

Last night was one of those Saturdays with endless bar-hopping and fun. Too bad I stopped taking pictures after stop 4.

"Beloved, when did all this become okay?"

Said by Iyanla on her OWN show, Iyanla, Fix My Life. 

"When the District of Columbia is compared with the 50 states, it has the highest percentage of adults who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, according to Gallup. At 10 percent, that is double the percentage in the state that ranks No. 2, Hawaii, and nearly triple the overall national average of 3.5 percent.

The Census Bureau looked at where the highest percentage of same-sex couple households were also found that the District of Columbia ranked far higher than the 50 states, with 4 percent. The national average is just under 1 percent."

From the November 16, 2013 New York Times article, The Gayest Place in America?, by Jeremy Peters.

I was just at Woorijip in Koreatown to get some breakfast about an hour ago, and the only other customers in the store besides me was a young Korean couple. It's funny because they were getting some food, and then proceeded to sit down to enjoy it with a bottle of soju, even at 10 something in the morning.

Seeing them together made me feel really happy that they had each other.

My terrible hangover this morning was way worth it. 

Here is Judy and me getting our Wednesday-night drink on yesterday at Sweet & Vicious. 

Oh and sometimes, I let her text shady people from my cellphone.

Functioning drunk.

The past few weeks or so.