Merry Christmas, Sarah Winchester!

I've been very busy lately, and part of that business came from the fact that I was planning my vacation! That's right, I'm on vacation - my family paid for me to come back to San Jose for a week to surprise my siblings! (And oh, how I wish I had filmed the look on my sister's face when I walked into my old home and screamed 'what's up, bitches?!')

There's a lot I wanted to do this week (and I still have a few days in California to do some of it), and one of the things at the top of my list was to visit my old workplace, my ever-beloved Winchester Mystery House. This is a great time of year to do it, too. The way the staff decorates the House for Christmas is always beautiful - last year, it was my favourite time of year to be at work, and this year it was just as beautiful.

Of course, I wasn't expecting to take a Christmas tour. I just wanted to stop in and say hello to everyone after hanging out with a friend/former coworker for a chunk of the day. But then I found out I could take one for free (hooray for worker perks - tour guides get passes to give to who they choose, so I used my friend's pass) and, well, I had to! And this year, unlike last year, guests were allowed to take photos in the House. Which means I can now post photos of the big, beautiful building that still owns a big portion of my heart...

Ten Cheap NYC Dates I'd Love to Take

One of the quickest and hardest lessons New York will throw at you is that if you want something, you'd better go for it, because your chance will evaporate into thin air quicker than you think, and you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

(In fandom words? Be Alexander "I am not throwing away my shot" Hamilton rather than Aaron "Wait For It" Burr.)

What this means for me? I'm playing the lesbian dating fields again, messaging girls on OKCupid (I never used to message girls first before) and the like. I'm ending 2016 single, but I'm hoping if I play my cards right, I'll either end 2017 not-single or I'll be much more assured in my singleness. And while I'm playing, I might as well list dates I'd like to maybe go on.

Now I should specify. This is not a 'best dates in NYC kind of thing'. Not even a little bit. I haven't been on the East Coast near long enough for that. This is just ten that I would like to go on with someone.

As usual, these are in no particular order other than the order I thought of them.

Matcha Swedish Pancakes

I know, I know, I have been a bad blogger lately. One of my two jobs fell through and right now much of my time has been spent job hunting, which doesn't make for very good blog entries. And while I do still make it to many museums, I'm unsure how many people want to read yet another "LOOK AT THIS MUSEUM I WENT TO YOU GUYS" entry. What's a blogger to do?

How about instructions for a quick and easy recipe I make all the time?

Swedish pancakes are a bit time consuming (as are regular pancakes), but they're easy and delightful. They're thinner than American pancakes, though not as paper-thin as a crêpe, and rather than stacking them and drenching them in maple syrup, they're traditionally spread with butter and/or jam and then rolled up. Though you certainly can drench them in syrup if that's your preference. I won't judge.

The matcha flavouring is optional, too. I just happen to love matcha in everything. I love the slightly-earthy, slightly-sweet-but-in-a-bizarrely-umami-way flavour just a little bit of matcha powder adds to things. I love the eye-catching green colour, too. If I had it my way, I'd be having matcha something every day, whether it was a matcha latte, a matcha ice cream, or, well, these things!

It's easy for me to get a cheap tin of matcha powder - they sell tins of it in Chinatown - but if you can't find it or just don't like it, you can easily leave it out for regular Swedish pancakes.

So! Let's do this!

Subway Therapy - A Little Thing I Love About NYC

This is a short post I meant to have up ages ago.

In the days following the election, New York City was reeling. I remember the Thursday two days after election day very well. I happen to have been near Union Square, having gone to lunch with Sarah nearby as we tried to make sense of what was happening together. And as I descended into the subway to make my way back to Weehawken afterwards, I saw this:

A nearby sign and a stack of post-its on the ground encouraged viewers to add their on messages of peace and solidarity. I was touched and did so promptly, but didn't think much of it at the time.

The next week when I went back it had taken over most of the subway station.

It's called Subway Therapy, and it has attracted the attention of everyone from Mayor De Blasio to National Geographic's instagram page. And I'm a little obsessed with it.

It's been a month now, and it's still up, this little ray of hope. The MTA, usually quick to crack down on this stuff, has apparently chosen to leave it up. I'm not sure why I love it so much, except that I know that each of those post-its - and by now there are over 1,000 probably - is made by a different person. It's an almost-visceral reminder that, despite everything, here in New York, people stand together.

Times are dark. But I am not alone.

-Nym