(Arc II) Act 8: Virtual Cooking and Tourist for a Day

(Arc II) Act 7: Summertime Celebrations and Fashion Conversations

2 Comments November 18, 2021 Kevin C.

I can’t believe it’s already November with the holiday season coming around the corner! Summer flew by so quickly, but I’m also enjoying the transition into autumn and winter with seasonal treats lining grocery store shelves and the cooler weather. They are also playing the Hershey’s Kisses We Wish You a Merry Christmas commercial on TV right now so that’s certainly setting the mood.

I’m going to cover a few things in this post including a birthday dinner and brunch with friends in early July and a few site updates.

A few things popped into my mind when adding in new sections on my site. One section I was thinking of adding was a library section. It was similar to one which I had on my old site but instead of just listing the books which I’m reading, I might provide more information or restructure it another way. I’m also working on the page to transfer the Prezi presentations I made when working with ESL clients in the past. Stay tuned for those!

Recipes / Music

I cleaned up the formatting on my Recipes page and added a few more since my last post. With the new format, everything looks more organized and neat. It was a bit difficult at first since I had to rewrite some of the sections due to some of the recipes being indented improperly.

I have around 10+ recipes on queue to add before moving on to the next set. I’m going to add a few more from the list.

I know it’s a bit random that I’m including music under the recipe section but I have some stories to tie them together with (I promise!).

One of the things that I enjoy when watching food shows is the music. The catchy instrumentals paired with the eye catching dishes create the perfect combination. There were two songs in particular which I tried to look for in the past but couldn’t find their exact names.

One was the song from the Season 4 promo for Next Food Network Star and the other one was from an episode of Nigella Lawson’s show Nigella Express where she made Caramel Croissant Pudding. I finally found the name of the two songs (after 13 years!) just a few weeks ago. The Food Network song was Funky Stars by Xavier Decanter, David Mespoulet, and Steve Halford. The one from Nigella Express was Latino Nuevo by Shahrooz Raoofi.

You bet I searched for them on the store to purchase and unwind to! I was just really happy to find them since I really dug the tunes.

Reading

When I was going through books on Amazon in late July, I noticed that some purchases had points attached to them. I was not aware of the Kindle Summer Rewards program but saw that I was eligible for the beta launch. I liked how they added bonus incentives such as badges. I already knew that there was no way I was going to get them all. haha But it was fun trying to get what I can along the way.

The program had been enjoyable. When you reach 400 points you would get a $4 ebook credit. They provided a lot of opportunities to earn double the points for purchases or getting 350 points for spending $15. At first I was like, I don’t think I would be able to reach the 400 points but with the special offers, I was able to get to more than 400 points and redeem the credit. I definitely would like to see how this would develop in the future when it launches. I was able to purchase a couple of books from food writer/chef Ruth Reichl which I had not read yet. I love reading through her work such as Garlic and Sapphires and have put Save Me the Plums and Remembrance of Things Paris on queue to read.

I used to go through books quickly to try to have a record that I read through “X” number of books, but then I realized that I wasn’t immersing myself and fully appreciating what I was reading. In the past few months I started rereading a lot of the books which I had completed in the past to see if I would gain some new takeaways from them which had not come up from my initial reading. I was surprised to see the difference from this deep dive (and it’s not just from understanding the plot of the story), but I tried to direct my attention more to the characters and themes which the author is conveying.

Toward the end of August, I completed A River in Darkness by Masaji Ishikawa which provided an emotionally detailed account of his family life in Japan and subsequent survival of navigating through North Korea after his father moved them there with the intention of providing them all with a better life. I wrote my thoughts on the book here on Goodreads.

I’ve been catching up on writing reviews on Goodreads for a few books I had reread recently. I think I got the hang of it! I wanted to provide some foundational info on the book without revealing spoilers.

Tying in to what I discussed in with what I had discussed in the introduction, I’m still deciding on what approach to use when having my library page (would Goodreads be the place to have the reviews while I provide smaller thoughts/snippets on the site?). But again, it’s very exciting to continue branching and developing kevinnissimo.

Birthday Dinner

In early July, I met up with a few close friends on separate occasions to catch up. One of my close friends took me out to dinner. Earlier that week she told me to meet her in front of the Barnes & Noble at Union Square around 6 PM.

She took me out to a French restaurant called Boucherie at Union Square. After the hostess showed us to our seats, we sat down and settled in. The environment was lively and absolutely beautiful. We were seated next to the piano which gave us a nice view of the restaurant.

Left to right: Menu, dessert menu, our seating next to the piano, and restaurant

The server was amazing. He was very friendly, attentive, and helpful throughout our dinner. As we were looking through our menus we were deciding on what we wanted to have. We settled on the filet mignon (Filet de Bœuf) and the mushroom ravioli (Raviolis aux Champignons). My friend asked our server for a wine recommendation to go with our meal. He recommended a red wine which paired well with our dishes. For dessert, we both got the chocolate mousse (Mousse au Chocolat), the Pistachio Bombe Glacee, and espressos.

Throughout dinner we were just catching up on how family and loved ones were doing, any future travel plans, and other birthday plans I had coming up. I was surprised seeing the birthday candle on the dessert but was touched by the thoughtfulness.

At the end of our dinner, the server handed me a signed book from Boucherie with a warm birthday greeting. He thanked us for a wonderful dinner. We thanked him for being so hospitable and providing the great recommendations. It was such a great experience, and I highly recommend coming here.

Signed book from Boucherie

After dinner we headed off to Ampersand Bar for drinks to end the night. We mainly stayed with The One with Cucumber since that one was delicious but also tried the Flamingo to mix it up a bit. We continued our conversation and this time I shared stories with her about past dating experiences. Aah! At the end of the night, we gave each other a hug and parted ways. We promised we’d meet again sometime in the holiday season.

Brunch

The week after, I met up with my friend Chris for Brunch. He wanted to go down to the Seaport since he hadn’t been there in a while. He originally planned for us to meet at Industry Kitchen, but they didn’t have any openings ready until 3 pm on the day we were meeting. I suggested either Barbalu for Italian or Seaport House for seafood. He decided Italian so we planned to meet at Barbalu.

We started off with some sangrias (they were really refreshing!). Our server recommended it since it was a warm summer day. For the appetizer we decided on the Burrata with Prosciutto di Parma. The server informed us that they didn’t have burrata and if mozzarella would be okay. We said it was fine. For the main course, I got the Fettuccine with Meat Ragu while Chris got the Spaghetti Alla Carbonara.

The food was really delicious! He and I were catching up on work and how our families were doing. I hadn’t seen him in more than a year so we just got into random topics like coding, data science, and other interesting topics. We also talked about outdoor activities (he’s a big fan of them) and summer plans.

For dessert we had espressos and shared a tiramisu.

He had another event to attend afterward so we both walked together to World Trade Center to catch our trains. We gave each other a hug and parted ways. We planned to catch up again soon.

The summer was great to catch up with friends and family. I was catching up with my brother and aunt, talked to Dr. Cowart before she visited family over the summer, and started on my continuing education requirements. It was really nice to spend time with others while doing some leisurely reading.

Fashion

I decided to separate this part from the reading section since I also wanted to cover one of the past events I attended at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Back in March 2016, I attended one of Fern Mallis’s presentations where she discussed her newly released book Fashion Lives: Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis. I wrote a lot of notes throughout the presentation and wrote up an entry on my previous site. I’ll share this with you before I finish with a note on her upcoming fashion talk at the Y.

One of the great things about New York is that you can experience these talks from professionals in a diverse range of fields. I remembered how lively her talk was and she kept our attention throughout the entire hour. She integrated her own personal stories about how she got to where she was at that point of her career and how her passion for the field pushed her in directions she never would have imagined.

I loved how heartfelt and honest she was (discussing being let go from a job due to the economic climate at the time but then finding another new opportunity). She regaled us with stories from her fashion interviews with designers in the business such as Tom Ford, Donna Karan, and Michael Kors. I noticed how engaged she was with the audience throughout the talk. Although the lecture hall was big, she made an effort to make eye contact and address the different sections while peppering in some witty remarks.

She began fashion week in New York City at Bryant Park. In one of the fashion shows, pieces of the ceiling were coming off and sprinkled the stage and some of the models. Fern then remarked, “We love fashion, but we weren’t going to kill ourselves for it!” She reassured us that everything turned out okay in the end with nothing major happening. It was quite the experience for her and she continued working on New York Fashion Week for the next several years.

After discussing her background in public relations and the beginnings of her career in fashion, she continued with stories of her fashion interview work at the Y. A few stories which she shared included trying to get Bill Cunningham, a fashion photographer for the New York Times to come in for an interview at the 92nd Street Y. Since he was a pretty introverted person who rarely shared the details of his personal life, he declined. It wasn’t until Fern returned from India that the interview came into fruition.

Fern was wearing a chiffon top and met up with Bill. During the meeting he accidentally spilled vodka on her chiffon top and was profusely apologetic. She told him it was okay and to not worry about it. He still continued apologizing and finally told her, “I’m so sorry. I will do anything…anything!” At that moment, Fern smiled and asked him, “Would you do an interview with me at the Y?” (to which he agreed to). We all laughed. It was an amazing story and set the stage for the fascinating details she continued to share from her fashion interviews at the Y.

One interviewee who was known to be quirky in the fashion industry kept asking Fern if she could smoke during the interview. Fern replied, “No! We’re inside a building in New York City!” The interview continued, but the interviewee asked again if she could smoke. At that point, the audience at the Y was laughing and Fern was thinking, “How can I get her to answer the questions?!” After a bit of time, the interviewee stood up and asked the audience at the Y, “Do you have any questions for me?” Fern replied, “You’re asking them that when you’re not even answering my questions!” Fern then started laughing.

Left: Poster of the event outside the auditorium
Right: Fern sharing her stories at the podium

She then continued discussing other fashion designers such as Tom Ford who had a sold out event. The place was so packed at the Y that they also streamed at another section on a wide screen on one of the other floors to keep up with the demand. Tom Ford charmed and seduced the audience (as he always does during his interviews). Tom shared a quote with Fern, “The most important thing anybody ever taught me is to only hire people you want to have dinner with.”

You can check her out in Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. She told us that the next interview will most likely be in the summer, but she’s not sure yet since she’s still ironing out the details.

Although she discussed her work in the fashion and public relations world, she also provided a lot of sound advice and information for all of us in the audience (this is also applicable to any other other field). Someone in the audience asked the question, “Do you have any advice for aspiring fashion designers?” Fern replied, “Be nice to everyone because you never know who you will bump into in the future.” She then continued with, “…also, people like to hire and work with nice people. No one wants to deal with diva behavior.”

Regardless of our backgrounds, we all form relationships with everyone whom we collaborate or work with. There are always things you can learn from others, and Fern’s stories showcased this aspect.

At the end of the event, Fern signed copies of her book for the audience members. It was such a wonderful talk and really made the night enjoyable.

Fast forward to November 2021. I started rereading her book again in anticipation of one of her next talks on November 22 with Prabal Gurung. She has a great way of steering conversations and making her interviewees feel comfortable throughout the talks.

My signed copy of the book (such a great read!)

I’m very excited to watch the event this coming Monday! Since I have work, I will be attending virtually rather than on site at the 92nd Street Y. The upcoming event brought up so many memories. I didn’t anticipate including this section for this blog post, but it all tied together after reliving these memories as I wrote about them.

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season! I do have other things I wanted to write about (such as things I’ve cooked), but as I had discussed in a previous entry, I don’t want to put too much information in one post. Definitely looking forward to providing you with more updates on the recipe and food side of things as well as adding in new sections on the site. Take care everyone.

(Arc II) Act 6: An Overdue Outdoor Reunion

Leave a comment July 5, 2021 Kevin C.

I did not expect things to get incredibly busy in the past few months! Things have been going well. Hope all is well with you and your loved ones! Continuing education and work (along with being able to see family and loved ones post-vaccination) were the main things which I had been focused on recently. Now that I have time to sit down and update, I’m excited to share some pictures and going-ons with all of you! One of the things I’m going to experiment with is adding short video clips to include with my entries. For this entry, it’s going to be simple with the ferry to and from Governors Island along with a clip of me walking down the Highline. (Again, kevinnissimo is all about experimenting!) If I end up liking it, I’ll make more elaborate clips later on for future entries.

Before I get into my main entry regarding my trip to Governors Island and an evening of tapas and drinks with my friend at Hudson Yards, I’ll share some quick updates with the site.

Recipes

I scanned the majority of my recipes and will add some more this week after I publish this post. I believe the most recent ones I put up were the Old Fashioned Beef Stew and Cinnamon French Toast. I have a couple of them set up already such as a few brownie recipes, rustic lasagna, and chicken Diane to name a few.

As I was scanning the recipes, I decided that I needed something more high powered since I also planned on digitizing my notes from college and scanning old developed pictures. I was in college in the early 2000s, so I have stack of notes in my house which are almost 18 years old. I purchased a Fujitsu ScanSnap ix1600 from B&H Photo and started scanning notes this past weekend. I tested it on my notes for one of the art classes I took as an undergrad, and it took me less than 10 minutes to scan an entire semester’s notes. I loved its ability to scan both sides of the paper (duplex scan).

So moving forward, I will use this for my recipe and picture approach! Now that I have a new scanner, it should make it easier to transfer these into my computer. 🙂 I might still have to rewrite or retype some recipes (my uncle’s handwriting for his vegetarian lasagna was a bit difficult to read). But this certainly makes things a lot easier to work with.

Reading

Aside from reading scientific articles, I’ve tried to catch up with some leisurely reading. One evening I just dove into one of Mindy Kaling’s books, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? after I prepared dinner. I read both of her books (that one in 2013 and Why Not Me? in 2016). I enjoyed her work as a writer (along with her portrayal of Kelly Kapoor) in The Office, and when I read her first book, I had just begun diving into her new show, The Mindy Project.

I like how she switches between personal anecdotes from her life and her lists and random musings (e.g. “Best Friend Rights and Responsibilities”). I remembered when I first looked at the Table of Contents for Is Everyone Hanging out Without Me?, I thought that the pacing would be random. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see it flow when I transitioned to a new chapter. It was interesting to dive into the book and get a glimpse of Mindy’s thoughts. It’s like having a conversation with someone over lunch or dinner and you end up jumping through different topics over the course of the meal (whether you intended to or not).

It was a nice, casual read which I finished this past weekend. I’ll provide more of my thoughts over at Goodreads (which reminds me, I should probably put a place to link all of my stuff here on kevinnissimo).

I didn’t get to do as much leisure reading since early May, so I decided to devote 1-2 hours per day to dedicated reading time moving forward. It was refreshing to just sit down and dive into a book while tuning out any distractions.

Outdoor Trip to Governors Island

Around late May, family and friends wanted to coordinate to see each other in person again (since everyone was getting vaccinated). I was excited to hear from them to start making upcoming plans for the summer. The weekend before I caught up with my brother and two friends and we just ordered food, watched random video clips from Youtube, and caught up.

Two weeks ago, I met up with my close friend S to catch up. We had not seen each other since last March so we were very excited to see each other in person.

We had planned to meet with each other a few weeks beforehand (and were counting down the days). We were bouncing ideas off of each other such as a beach trip or shopping. Taking all of this into consideration, I asked her about a day trip to Governors Island. Since we figured that we needed a lot of time to spend catching up, a nice walk outdoors along with a picnic seemed like a perfect outing.

I purchased the tickets for the ferry the day before for the times we agreed (12:40 PM departure and 5:00 PM return) which would have provided us with a time cushion to get to South Ferry.

I arrived at the World Trade Center Oculus around 11:45 AM. At that time I was focused on taking the R train to Whitehall Street-South Ferry that I completely forgot that the 1 train was also available (and a shorter walk from my train). I got to the platform for the downtown R train and there were a lot of people waiting already. After a few minutes, I saw an alert on the MTA app that there was a brake issue being investigated, so the R and W trains were temporarily suspended. I then remembered that I could also take the 1 train, so I had to walk back down the Oculus to get to the 1 train. I was a bit nervous since I needed to be at the Maritime Building around 12:20-12:25 PM to get ready for check-in, and when I was heading down the stairs for the 1 train, it was around 12:10. A train arrived in 2 minutes so I got to the Whitehall Station in time.

My friend S and I finally got to see each other after a year and a half! We gave each other a big hug and joined the line for the ferry check-in. We started with how family is doing, plans for the summer, and a general check-in on how other things in our lives were moving now that things are reopening. The weather was sunny that day which made the ferry ride pleasant and relaxing. The breeze felt nice. I was caught up in conversations with S that I suddenly realized that my finger was in the shot of my video. 😅

On our way to Governors Island

Song: Fredji – Happy Life (Vlog No Copyright Music)
Music provided by Vlog No Copyright Music.
Video Link: https://youtu.be/KzQiRABVARk

We disembarked and the first thing we wanted to do was eat! That morning I just had a bowl of cereal and coffee and she had a doughnut, so we were both ready to dig into some lunch. Originally, we wanted to get food from the Kimchi Taco Truck but they weren’t there when we went. Alternatively, we went to Little Eva’s since it had the food and drinks which were close to what we were going to order at Kimchi Taco Truck. We walked around the island for a bit and then arrived at Little Eva’s where we ordered frozen margaritas, a cheeseburger, and a fish taco.

(Left to Right) our food from Little Eva’s and walking around Governors Island

We freshened up and start chatting while we ate our food. A main thing I discussed with her was my future thoughts and plans on the next step in life: plans on settling down, if I had set a timeline for when to have children, and whether I had any travel plans in the near future. It was a very interesting discussion where I bounced ideas off of her and explained my thought processes. I also told her about devoting more time to my hobbies and creative pursuits. S was very encouraging and shared some insight when I showed her my cooking pictures and musings. As I had discussed earlier in this entry, I’m setting aside time for leisure reading (which S advocated for other aspects of life too–we’re both proponents of self care). So, I should be able to focus on My Life in France and get my thoughts up on Goodreads soon.

The time flew by so quickly so after lunch we walked around to find a place to set up our little “picnic area”. We first stopped by Joe Coffee right next to Little Eva’s to get an iced Americano with milk along with two scoops of the chocolate chip ice cream. We found a nice shaded area to relax at. When we sat down, I gave S a little gift–a cheeseburger teddy bear. The toy had a lot of symbolism of our friendship with her love of cheeseburgers and my love of We Bare Bears.

We continued our chat and this time we caught up on how things were going with her and what her plans were. We enjoyed the coffee and ice cream while taking in the scenery. There were kids running around doing a scavenger hunt while their chaperones/parents were giving them instructions. Other people were biking while families were taking strolls together. It was a festive atmosphere which S and I loved being surrounded in.

After a bit of time we started planning what to do for dinner. We were still full from our lunch and coffee and dessert, so S was looking at places which had light food and some drinks. S mentioned that there were a few places around Hudson Yards which had interesting menus. She suggested Mercado Little Spain after going through a bunch of places. It checked off everything on our list: (1) having filling food and drinks which were not too heavy and (2) the menu items were dishes we were interested in trying.

Onward to Hudson Yards

Our return trip for the ferry was at 5 PM. Around 4:45, we started packing up and headed to the port to return to Manhattan.

Return trip to Manhattan

Song: Fredji – Happy Life (Vlog No Copyright Music)
Music provided by Vlog No Copyright Music.
Video Link: https://youtu.be/KzQiRABVARk

We took the R train uptown to 42nd-Times Square to transfer to the 7 to head to Hudson Yards. Even after all of the walking on Governors Island, we still had a lot of energy to walk around! We headed into the shops and went down the escalator to Mercado Little Spain.

We got to the front and were able to be seated right away. S and I settled down, and we were reading the instructions on how to order. For this, we had to scan the QR code, register our table, and then order from the menu. It was straightforward once we both navigated through the menu on the app.

After freshening up, we looked through the menu and ordered our drinks. We started with frozen sangrias, Gambas al ajillo (the garlic shrimp), Calamares de La Plaza Mayor (calamari), and the Spanish bread. I added in the Pulpo a la Gallega (octopus served with mashed potatoes). The one thing we liked was that we could just continue ordering if we wanted some more food. After we tried all of our dishes, S suggested the Garbanzos con bacalao (the cod with chickpeas and a soft boiled egg).

The service was really quick and everyone was really friendly. We didn’t wait long before the servers gave us our dishes.

The food was good! Everything was to our taste (except the calamari which was a bit salty–it wasn’t bad, just a bit salty for us). S took a candid of me sipping on my drink while I took one of her cutting into the cod. On the lower right you can see our dishes (the calamares and octopus to the right, the bread at the bottom, and the shrimp in the middle).

Over dinner, the conversation moved towards reminiscing about past events and sharing funny anecdotes. There were a lot of laughs and we just enjoyed each other’s company. We dove into our upcoming plans for the rest of the weekend.

We finished up with dessert by ordering the Tarta de Queso (the cheesecake) and Flan al estilo “Mamá Marisa” (the flan).

Once we were done, we walked around to explore Hudson Yards. They were playing a film on a giant screen while people were sitting down and watching. I snapped a few pictures along the way. We sat down to chat some more regarding evening plans. Once it started getting late we headed back to the station. I got off Times Square to transfer to my train, so we gave each other a hug and planned to hang out again soon.

Hudson Yards Part 2

I hung out with another friend, E this past weekend and we met up at Hudson Yards. We also ate at Mercado Little Spain but this time it was during lunch. There was a 15 minute wait so we headed near the tables at the entrance to catch up. E has always been a great conversationalist so the 15 minutes went by when we updated each other on how things went for us during the past year. Once I got the text that our table was ready, we headed to the front. When we sat down, I told E that the table I sat with S during my catch up with her was the one right next to us.

We had a few of the dishes I tried with S but this time E and I also tried the Croquetas de Pollo (chicken fritters), Gazpacho, Mollete con sobrasada y queso mahón (Cristal bun with sobrasada spread, mahón cheese, and honey), and Tarta de Chocolate (chocolate cake).

The new choices were equally delicious and service was very friendly and top notch. Time also flew by really quickly. After sharing anecdotes, we planned to check out the Vessel (since he hadn’t been there yet). E told me that the Hudson Yards area hadn’t been as developed yet the last time he came here, so he was very surprised to see the shopping area, restaurants, and the Vessel set up.

(Left to Right) Croquetas, Gazpacho, and Tarta de chocolate with an Americano (forgot to take one of the mollete..it was really good!)

As we headed out, a photographer approached us (his IG is onlykenonlyken) and informed us that he takes pictures of strangers doing wacky, creative poses. It caught me off guard when he asked if he could photograph me doing silly poses.

Here is a pic that E took while I was being photographed:

It was fun overall. E was apologizing because he’s generally very friendly when people approach him and he told me, “Sorry Kev if I got you into this!” We both laughed and told him it was fine. I had fun since it was an unexpected surprise.

After the impromptu photoshoot, we walked around the shops and the Highline. We originally had planned to go to the Vessel but due to the upcoming thunderstorm, they informed us that everyone had to be evacuated out of the Vessel for safety purposes.

Walking down the Highline

Song: Fredji – Happy Life (Vlog No Copyright Music)
Music provided by Vlog No Copyright Music.
Video Link: https://youtu.be/KzQiRABVARk

After meeting with E, we planned to hang out again this summer (and invite another mutual friend to join us). I gave him a hug before my stop and wished him a safe trip home. Before traveling home, I stopped by Lush at Union Square to pick up some things. Since I’m not usually in the City as often now, I try to take care of anything I needed whenever I head out there. I got the Face Masks (the coffee and rosy cheeks) along with a peach bath bomb (y’all already know my love of peaches 😉). My plan is to just have a relaxing bath day sometime around my birthday.

(Left to Right: Walking along the Highline, a screen outside of The Edge attraction inside the shops, and my Lush purchase)

It was so nice catching up with my friends the past few weeks. I liked that we were able to continue on from where we all left off. The beginning of summer definitely provided some positive vibes which was greatly appreciated. I’ll try to get more recipes up later this week (hope they have been interesting for all of you!). Please continue to stay safe and well!

(Arc II) Act 3: A Path Forward

1 Comment January 12, 2021 Kevin C.

Before I begin, I want to wish everyone good health, continued safety, and peace as we move into 2021. 2020 has been quite challenging for the world (with 2021 having a rough start), so I’m hoping that we can return to some semblance of normalcy moving forward this year.

Arc I started as lecahierdekev and now Arc II will continue as kevinnissimo. I started kevinnissimo around Fall 2019 because I reflected on what I wanted to work on moving into the new decade. During my time with lecahierdekev I wanted to cover a lot of topics since it was my first website. It was exciting to dive into writing handouts for English writing and grammar, ethics, and mathematics. However for kevinnissimo, I am going to primarily focus on topics related to the health sciences and biostatistics as well as hobbies outside of work. I plan to take a more focused approach to this site after experimenting with lecahierdekev.

In terms of the blog entries, I’m going to continue with the spirit of my past entries. I always loved taking pictures and videos to accompany my posts. (1) It helps jog my memory when I’m writing the draft of my entries and (2) they bring in a lot of inspiration as I relive moments as I write.

I’m sure all of you already know where this is headed 🙂 I was going through the pictures on my phone, and I came across a few dessert pictures on a night outing with my friend back in November 2019. When I had first met my friend earlier that year, we instantly connected over a discussion about food. Ever since that time we continued to have our dinners and impromptu outings to catch up and talk about life. We would sometimes surprise each other when one of us would choose a restaurant and get each other hyped up on the way there. For this evening, she first took me to Ribalta in Union Square. We were so hungry that evening that we ate our food before taking pictures. The food was absolutely amazing.

We shared a bottle of wine and ordered pizza (the Margherita), fried calamari with shrimp, and the truffle gnocchi. Throughout dinner we spent a bit of time bouncing thoughts with each other (one of those things where I asked her, “Am I reading too much into what _____ texted me?” haha). She has such a warm and open attitude that I can tell her whatever is on my mind. We continued with our banter and jokes which always ended up with huge smiles on our faces.

After dinner, she took me to Patisserie Fouet for dessert. Luckily, we remembered to snap pictures this time!

After our heavy dinner, we settled for the 70% chocolate cake and caramel cheesecake. She wanted me to try another dessert that she really liked the first time she came here, but it wasn’t available the night we were there. We both had tea to accompany our desserts (we might have been up all night had we ordered coffee). She got Earl Grey while I got Chamomile.

The chocolate cake above and the caramel cheesecake below

It was a nice, quiet evening. We shared some more lighthearted stories as we settled into our cozy spot inside the café. There were a lot of events happening in my life during that time and with the holidays coming up, we didn’t know what to expect for the new year. I discussed my thoughts on starting a family in the future and personal endeavors I wanted to pursue regarding research. I also provided her with my two cents when she shared her own thoughts and plans. This reciprocity is a major thing I value in relationships (be it a friend, family member, or significant other). It’s a great feeling when you have close people in your life who you know will be there to be supportive and keep you grounded.

I snapped a picture of the interior before we headed out and parted ways

Books

I was organizing my reading list on Goodreads because I thought it would be a lot easier to have everything grouped up together there. However, I realized that I should have been writing the reviews after I had finished each book! So what I’ve been doing now is rereading the books which I had completed. It has actually been refreshing since it brought back a lot of memories from when I had first read them. I started with Alexa Land’s The Rest of Forever which I had originally finished in 2018 since I really enjoyed the story overall (who doesn’t love a heartwarming romance novel?). I completed rereading the book and wrote up a review on Goodreads.

The story is cute and full of heartwarming moments but that’s what makes it so fun to read! This reminded me of a conversation I had with my friend prior to the holidays. We both talked about watching cheesy holiday movies on the Hallmark Channel and getting engrossed in them.

I don’t think I’ll write a review for every book that I have read, but I’m going to do them for ones that stood out. I’m still deciding which one I will write up next.

Blog and Redesign

I aggregated my past blog entries into a Word document and will slowly add them to the archived blog section of my site. Some of them have videos and other formatting considerations which I will reorganize as I transfer them here onto kevinnissimo. Rereading these past entries brought back a lot of memories, and I’m happy to share them with all of you. They will be labeled with (Arc I) for reference purposes.

I’m enjoying the redesign of this site similar to when I had first worked on lecahierdekev back in 2012. It allows me to be creative and experiment on new styles. If you followed lecahierdekev since the beginning, you saw all of the changes that the site went through. It was sometimes a challenge to decide on the next theme to incorporate while keeping the essence of the site.

I took a look at this site on mobile and really liked how the layout came out. Right now I’m figuring out which pages to include in the menu bar. One of the major things I need to migrate are the handouts and presentations which I kept on different websites such as Weebly and Prezi. Indeed, it’s a work in progress!

Shows

I completed Hotel del Luna this past November! After a year of starting the first few episodes, I finally marathoned Episodes 11-16 while eating my dinner. It was nice to see the backgrounds of the hotel employees get fleshed out and understand what they had gone through in their original lives. The story arc with the killer felt a bit rushed, but it did have moments of intensity which were paced out well.

My friend who keeps up with a lot of dramas also recommended Crash Landing on You on Netflix. My other friend (from the dessert section above) highly recommended Schitt’s Creek so that’s on my to watch list. I generally don’t watch a lot of television, but when I find something that captures my attention, I go all out. 😉

I can’t count how many times I watched Home Alone 1 and 2 this past holiday. There were so many interesting movies on the Freeform Channel and both Home Alones would show up back to back on certain days. It was fun to just have it on the background while I cooked or took care of other things since the soundtrack is fantastic.

Writing this entry and redesigning everything brought back so many warm feelings whenever I outlined topics for my blog entries years ago. I’m really happy to get back into the groove of writing. It was exciting to organize the outline for this entry and choose the dessert pictures accordingly. It’s not only with blogging or working on the site, but also doing new things like writing mini book reviews.

Definitely looking forward to getting kevinnissimo up and running!

Act I: The Chapter Begins

Leave a comment September 29, 2019 Kevin C.

Time to write my first official entry for Kevinnissimo! Before I get to the main entry, I’m going to briefly highlight how I’m going to organize entries for this site.

I’ve been enjoying the intuitive and organized design of WordPress. It’s been quite helpful since it allows me to keep all of the information in one place. An example is regarding my handouts. Rather than having the PDF in a separate page or site, I can have them as a downloadable link at the end of the entry.

As I had said in my introductory pages for this site, I wanted to keep things a bit more simple. To begin, I ran through different ideas and finalized them to the following topics for the first entry in each category:

Personal	Archive	Learning
Best friend’s pre-wedding venue visit Korean music and drama	One of the fashion talks I attended One of my museum visits (The Met or the American Museum of Natural History)	Nutrition Microbiology

For personal blog entries, I usually cover two to three topics per post. There would be a main topic (such as an event, holiday/vacation, or an area of interest) with one or two other minor points of interest such as a TV show or a past memory. I’m also going to divide entries into smaller chunks. Looking back at my former archived blog entries, they were quite large. Again, I want Kevinnissimo to be more simplistic and easier to read. I found that stuffing too much information into one entry is quite a task to read.

The blog entries which will be placed in the Archive were the ones I had previously written on my first site. The entries will be kept in their original state. I wrote the original entries when my first site was created using Flash. When I spoke to tech support, they informed me that the entries would not transfer over when I switched my site to HTML5. That would not have been good since I would have lost five years of blog entries! What I did was save everything into a document before I performed the site conversion. With these entries on hand, I can add them along the way here.

Finally, the Learning section will be similar to my handouts, but I will instead spread out the information. Rather than having information divided by chapters, I’m going to break them down into smaller sections/units.

Now on to the main entry! 😀

Since this is the first official entry for the personal blog, I felt like my best friend’s wedding preparations would be a great start.

My best friend and I spoke over the summer to plan a time to catch up. On May, she told me about how her boyfriend (now fiancé) proposed to her. She showed me pictures of the proposal which were absolutely adorable. We scheduled a time the weekend after Labor Day to have lunch at the venue where she is going to have the wedding and reception. The venue is Maritime Parc located at Liberty State Park.

It was the perfect day to catch up. The weather was gorgeous. It was that comfortable cool which you experience during early autumn or spring. Usually, I would be at Liberty State Park during the summer for barbecues (and it would end up raining somehow!) when the weather was a bit hotter. So it was nice to not have the heat beating down on me!

We had reservations for 12:30 PM. My best friend (Jenny), her fiancé (Paul), and I bumped into each other at the parking lot and greeted each other with hugs. The hostess was very friendly and gave us a warm smile as we were promptly seated. We chose to sit inside, but were next to the deck overlooking the waterfront.

For drinks, I got the iced Earl grey tea, Jenny got the strawberry cucumber cooler, and Paul got a Coke. We were catching up on things such as how our summers went, work, family, and the general “going ons” in our lives.

After a bit, we ordered our food. Jenny got the steak and eggs, Paul got the burger, and I got the lobster mac and cheese. We got a very hearty lunch!

Our food: Steak & Eggs, Lobster Mac & Cheese, and the MP Burger (cut off at the side)

We discussed the details of the wedding and how preparations were going. I’m pretty excited to be a part of the wedding party. We were discussing colors, ideas, and other fun stuff. You’ll see everything in action in 2020 when the time comes. It’ll be wonderful! 😉

After we ate our meal, we still had room for dessert. I got the coffee and tiramisu while they shared a chocolate cake.

It was really nice catching up. The last time I saw them was during Jenny’s birthday last October. We went to Chelsea Market and went karaoking afterwards with her family. I enjoyed seeing them all again after such a long time. Here are some pictures we took back then:

Playing around with Jenny’s bunny filter

As we were eating dessert, we shared stories of vacations, Disneyworld, family members’ quirks, and other vibrant stories. It made me want to go back to Disneyworld! Who doesn’t love a good theme park?

After a bit, we decided to walk around and enjoy the views from the park. We went to the top to look at the event space; however, they were fixing up so we couldn’t go inside. We did take pictures of the park from the top though!

Overlooking the waterfront (there’s Jenny on the right!)

We walked downstairs and sat on a bench close to the old railroad terminal. As we were sitting, there was a wedding party walking along the path to get wedding photos taken. Since the place where Jenny and Paul want to take photos is a bit farther away from Maritime Parc, they were sharing ideas on how to transport the wedding party from one end to the other. One of the ideas we talked about was golf carts which made us smile.

People were walking their dogs, biking, strolling with family and friends, and were just enjoying the sunshine. I’m sure a lot of you try to take advantage of any free time you have to relax and unwind. This was definitely one of the highlights I had from catching up with Jenny and Paul. Despite our hectic schedules, we’re able to laugh and share stories with each other.

After we conversed, we parted ways. We had one final talk about chicken wings and how we’d all drive out somewhere just to get good food. Food is so comforting! Afterwards, they had to meet with the photographer, and I went home to finish up laundry and relax. We promised to catch up again before the holidays.

Over the summer, I began watching Hotel Del Luna. My friend who is a big fan of IU (아이유) brought this to my attention. I watched the first two episodes and fell in love with the story. Here is the official poster they released for the drama:

IU has such a sweet and kind personality, so it was wonderful to see her showcase a different personality in the drama. I loved her unique wardrobe since it perfectly matched her mood when interacting with the other characters. You could tell she was the one “holding the cards” throughout each encounter. Overall, the entire cast was incredible and got me emotionally invested in the drama.

My friend was already halfway through it, so I have to catch up! I’m pretty excited though since I loved the dynamic between the two main characters (Jang Man-Wol/장만월 and Ku Chan-Seong/구찬성). One of the scenes that stood out was Man-Wol trying to test Chan-Seong by making him bring the coffee to her without spilling the drop. I don’t want to spoil what happened along the way, but I was in suspense at what the outcome would be at the time.

Additionally, the soundtrack is phenomenal. At the end of the episode when they played Another Day, I was hooked. Then you have such talented singers like Taeyeon/태연 and Gummy/거미 contribute to the soundtrack and you know it’s going to be a treat. I actually enjoyed every single singer who contributed to Hotel Del Luna’s soundtrack. (Now I’m going to probably end up binge watching the entire drama!)

But indeed, I’m looking forward to finishing it up and going through the story within the next few weeks! It brought back so much memories of college.

It feels so great getting back to blogging. Despite random schedules or new life events popping up, I always feel at home when I write. I tried to get into Twitter, but it didn’t take off for me. I do have an Instagram account set up for Kevinnissimo so that might be something that I can push forward with. Since my blog entries have pictures already, I can highlight a “main picture” in my Instagram. So stay tuned for that!

I’ve been playing around with the widgets here on WordPress and trying to come up with a style I like before I launch the site. I think I pretty much have all of the main elements in place. I don’t want to overthink things before I end up getting too caught up in the details. I think I’ll launch the site tonight and adjust things along the way.

Kevinnissimo: Adventures and Inspiration

My quirky adventures, notes, and musings. Helping to make financial and health information more accessible to the public.

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