Bothered

This happened over a week ago, but it's been really nagging me. My mum had a dinner party and invited some people over, including my old violin student from 6 years ago. He's now a freshman or something in high school. When he got to the house, I went over and waved and said hello. Instead of saying hello like a normal human being, he decided to say, "My violin teacher says that you were a bad teacher." O. Um. O.
Granted he was really the first student I ever had, so not everything was perfect, but...why would he say something like that?

Nude Tights

There is something about wearing skin-colored tights. I didn't think it really made a difference whether I wore black ones or nude ones, but boy was I wrong. The outfit I wore today, I have worn several times. In fact, I wore almost the exact same outfit when I catered my professor's Christmas party last year, and I didn't get a second glance. The only difference is that today I wore nude colored tights instead of black ones. The catcalls, which I normally don't get, were numerous. I saw idiot truck drivers turning to stare instead of watching the road. Obviously not so good.
So... it all came to a head this evening. After the CMU alum event, tipsy me hopped on the 6 train to get to Grand Central. At Grand Central, I switch over to the 7. As I go down the stairs, I just make note that there was a group of hispanic teens hanging around the platform. I walk by them and go about 3/4 the way down and stand there waiting. A few minutes later, I become aware that their little group had moved down to surround me. Wondering and slightly suspicious, I move a little further down the platform. They move with me. I get more suspicious. Then the 7 arrives. I start fast-walking down to the very very end of the platform figuring that if they weren't really following me, they'd just get on the car that stops in front of them. Nope. I get on the very first car and there they are, right there with me. Surrounding me. One guy in particular, positions himself to stare right at me from about 10 feet away. A few stops later, he moves over to the pole that's directly in front of me. The whole time, I take out my newspapers and hide behind them. Fortunately, they all leave ahead of me. I stood around the manned booth in the subway station before heading out, and called every single person I could think to call on the way home. Fortunately, there was no sign of the teens. If there was, I would have turned right back around and asked for a police escort.

On the upside, I had a very nice evening. I went to the CMU alum event and made some new friends. I also, with the help of my nude tights, parted a sea of men as I made my way to the restroom. It's not everyday I can do something as dramatic as that.

Flippin A

WTF! I went onto Facebook this morning and all of a sudden, a million trojans started popping up on my computer! I tried clearing it up with the antivirus software, but it definitely didn't do the trick... Dad and I chatted about it and he said that most likely we'll just have to reimage. Not too sad, since it's not like I'm losing anything important...I will have to burn the music I bought onto a CD or something...Stupid viruses...

Full

On Monday, the company gave us bagels. On Tuesday, the company gave us sandwiches and salad from Cosi. On Wednesday, one of the senior associates made us all redbeans and rice on a whim. On Thursday, the company celebrated October's birthdays with three cakes. On Friday, it was the grand marathon of FOOD. The LCT3 team went out to lunch to celebrate the end of the Design Development phase. We went to Fleur de Sel, which was definitely not something I could afford on my own. I had:

Butternut Squash Soup with Coconut Foam and Truffle Oil
Some sort of delightful Cod dish with pearl onions and a butternut squash sauce
Orange Creamsicle with Vanilla Semifreddo and Citrus Salad
Cafe au Lait

We also found out today that we had dinner reservations. The current LCT3 is at the Duke and our big boss felt it was appropriate to go see the show in order to better understand what sort of space we'll be designing. And since it was around dinnertime, he decided to take us all out to dinner. It was a nice Italian place I've passed many times before, but have never looked into. I can't even remember the name of the place. I had:

Fried Goat Cheese with red and yellow beets
Pumpkin Gnocchi with crispy sage
Some white wine that began with Tx - very dry and fragrant

We also ordered dessert but were too pressed for time and ended up canceling the order. So sad - I've never had basil gelatin before - it sounds fascinating.

The show - CLAY - was surprisingly good. We all walked in very skeptical at the idea of a "hip hop musical." Our expectations were further lowered when we saw a photo of the performer in the playbill in a hoodie with the hood pulled over his face. However, this guy turned out to be such a high-energy, polished performer. Great movement, great presence, he was emotive and never let go of his character. And my god, he rapped for 90 minutes and never once took a sip of water. And he does this every night! It was a suprisingly good show which I think fares very well in the black box space provided. I was none too crazy about the idea of a proscenium set-up, but seeing the show, I could understand why this guy chose to arrange it as it is.
Big boss Hugh and his wife headed home after the show, but team LCT3 went down to Prince St for a few drinks and chatted about the show and other random stuff. It was overall a very fun field trip. And yes, I referred to it as a field trip in front of them and they totally made fun of me for it. They also made fun of me for the fact that I feel the need to raise my hand when I have something to say. I just like to establish that it's alright to speak before I do...

Sardines

Something's up with the 7 train. I get on in the morning and it's already packed. And then the train just sits in the station for another 10 minutes and it gets more packed. This morning, some lady got on at the third stop and just started screaming at some guy who kept apologizing and looking innocent. I wondered if a fight would start. At the best, it'd be entertaining. At worst, they'd stop the train and wait for the police to show up and make me late for work. Well, nothing happened, but then innocent-looking-guy decided to use the same pole as me and I spent the next half hour staring into his armpit. Delightful.
I can't wait to move to Brooklyn. It'll be a sardine can, too, but at least it'll only be 20 minutes as opposed to 40 minutes worth of armpit torture.

Movin' On Out

Last night I had two really good apartment search prospects and they both turned out to be fabulous in different ways.
The first apartment I'm going to term Urban Bohemian. It's a converted warehouse with beautiful gigantic windows. The girl who owns the place put up rooms with gigantic lofts. These lofts are huuuuuge - a little low on the ceiling and a little dark, but they also have little windows in the wall that look down into the living room. The decor is very hodge podge, lots of different rugs, textures, mixed up glasses and cups. I loved that there was exposed brick walls, warm colors and a decent looking hallway. The girls are kind of like the girls at CMU so I think I'll get along with them just fine. And there's a kitty!
The second place was a polar opposite in living situation - the apartment was painted completely white and very well decorated in a minimalist, light and nature friendly manner. It was a very beautiful aparment - sort of what I might aspire towards, eventually. I think the only thing is that the girl who lived there had a very clear idea in her mind of what she felt the apartment should look like and how it should run, and I don't think that would work too well for me in the long run. She does make a great butterbean soup, though.
Both apartments were really close to the subway and felt equally safe, and they were the exact same price and had the same amount of furniture. I'm going with apartment 1, though. I've always been fascinated by bunk beds, and now I'll have a huuuuge one!

Family Feud

I always thought of my family as somewhat zen despite the overall general negative quality we all exude (glass is half empty sort of deal). We don't generally get in fights in our own little family or in our huge, ginormous extended family. Recently, Daddy got yelled at by Gramma because he didn't sell off her stocks. In times of financial crisis, you don't sell off your stocks... Well, Gramma didn't understand and totally B****ed him out until he sold off all her stocks and now he's so mad he refuses to see or speak to her. Now everytime Gramma calls, my mum fields the calls. Even more awkward is that my parents came into town this weekend and mom told me specifically to pretend like they never came. This despite the fact that mom also dropped off a huge bag of my shoes at my aunt's place and I'm somehow supposed to explain how they miraculously showed up here when they never came to Flushing. I really don't like lying to Gramma...

In other words, I'm on the apartment hunt! Tomorrow, I'm going to check out an extremely promising place out in Williamsburg. Hopefully it goes through. Gramma is cool, but I don't like that she tells me to go to bed and shrinks my clothes in the laundry I don't want her doing.

Who?

Today I checked my "professional" e-mail account - the one that doesn't have any spam, just strictly job related stuff. I got some email from a girl who wants an interview for CMU. Um...Am I an interviewer now? And isn't New Haven a little far? Why the heck didn't CMU send me any notification?

Storm Cloud

I'm in a baaaad mood. Living with Gramma is really starting to get on my nerves. To top it all off, Gramma keeps washing all of my clothes, and shrinks them! A new white shirt I got not too long ago doesn't fit me anymore.
On the train this morning (running LOCAL which made me that much more angry), some guy's hand kept slipping down the pole and touching mine and normally I'd just be mildly irritated. However, being in the state I was in, I gave him the laser glare of doom (inherited from Daddy dearest) and he promptly backed away and found a different pole to hold. Nice.

Hell Hath Frozen Over

I just talked to Mom...and...for once she said something positive about me. Positive. Not followed up by something negative at all. Wha--? Who is she, and what has she done to my mother?

Granted, all she said was that I was prettier than any of the bridesmaids at some wedding she went to this Saturday. That's still something. Right? Right?

Radio City

Today I worked in Radio City! Open House New York asked our firm's founder, Hugh Hardy, to lead tours in the building, since it was he, in 1999 that was essentially responsible for the complete renovation of the building. They also needed several volunteers to shepherd tourists along as well as get drinks and such for Hugh. I ended up being a shepherd. I said, "We need to rejoin the rest of the group now, sorry," more times than I wish to recall. Sadly, the tour didn't go into the backstage area - I was hoping we'd go backstage at an opportune moment and I'd meet one of my favorite comediens, Margaret Cho. Not the case...ah, well. During the first tour, which I was on survey-handout duty for, I saw a limo pulling up so I hung around to see if it was her, as there were camera people everywhere. But no, some 14 year old girl in the sluttiest, shiniest dress ever got out and started to pick her underwear, right in front of us. Kathy and I nearly died laughing. I went off to go find food, but Kathy later told me that the girl was there for some sort of old black guy's music video. They filmed it once where she ran up to him and talked to him. Okay, well, that just sounds messed up to me somehow, having a little girl put on a slutty dress and run up and talk to some dirty old man on camera. Apparently, Radio City didn't condone the activity either and on the loudspeaker blared, "Young man, you are NOT allowed to film here, this is private property!" Mwahah. But anyway, to go back to the tour, it was fun. Hugh's a very good speaker - I suppose that's what got him to where he is today. And Radio City, itself? Lux - lush - rich - bold - warm - vibrant. Loved it. There were a lot of art deco stylings, of which I am a big fan, but Hugh explained to everyone that though they borrowed elements from the art deco movement that was big at the time, the actual style is more American Modernism, because in the overall project, there were too many simple, undecorated elements for it to be true art deco. Still reminded me of "the Hudsucker Proxy"...
Also, just now, I was in a Korean bakery getting a chocolate croissant (mmmmmmmmm) and the girl at the cash register saw my H3 tote and asked if I was an architect. I thought she just saw the OHNY pin on it, since OHNY is mostly architectural stuff. So I just smiled and said yes. Then, it turns out she works part time for Penny Hardy...some relation of Hugh? And they designed the graphics for the bag. Nice.

I Don't Want Average Joe for President

After listening to the first few debates, I'm fervently hoping that Obama/Biden will win the election. I don't understand what America's fascination is with Sarah Palin being "just like any other regular American." Sure, she's in touch with some of the struggles that people of the middle class go through. However, do we really want just another American leading this country? Isn't the point of choosing a leader to choose someone who can handle the big decisions better than the rest of us? Can "just another American" see the bigger picture and make the right decisions? I wouldn't trust myself with that, nor would I trust another average person. Who's the most informed? Who can think the most critically and decisively, objectively? An urban planner can see the ebb and flow of a city the way the average citizen cannot, and that's why we hire urban planners to design cities and make the decisions they make. Shouldn't we find a similarly informed person for any other office? Someone who is more knowledgeable about the scope of what he's going to be dealing with?

Shouldn't a shining city on a hill be achieved by aspiring towards excellence? We're never going to get there if we put the average American on the pedestal and repeatedly cast aside those who can take us further. It reminds me of the man making his wish to the genie to be smartest man in the world, then realizing that he didn't get smarter, just that the rest of the world got dumber.

Enjoy

I really like my job. They feed me. I learn things. I get to have the occasional bit of input. It keeps me busy. I do a lot more now than I did when I first started - I can definitely see a difference in the amount of responsibility they're giving me. O, and they let me be in the same room as the clients from time to time. So far it's a "Be seen, but not heard" situation, though at the last meeting I chirped up when they started talking about the amount of mirrors in a ballet room.
Today was Vanessa's birthday. The Lincoln Center team decided to all go to a place called Markt. It's a Belgian Cafe that serves all sort of Belgian beers and ales. Trappist ales included! When everyone else ordered a glass of wine or beer, I decided, heck, why not if everyone else is doing it. It was the most delicious Hoegaarden I have ever had, almost cinammon-y. I don't know too much about beers, but I think it was because it was on tap instead of out of a bottle that it was more flavorful. And since it was Vanessa's birthday, we didn't have to pay! Good because my meal would have been around $30 without tip...
Another funny thing - even though everyone was sent out to Revit training at the office, some of the higher ups aren't too familiar with the program due to the fact that they do very little of the actual documents. They just make the big decisions, mark up drawings and talk to the clients. Today, my boss decided to get into the model himself and was absolutely petrified. He had me stand next to him while he copied and pasted a copy of the central file to his local drive and resave under a different name. I suppose I was a little afraid of the whole central file idea myself, at first. Knowing you could possibly screw up the entire model by corrupting the main file makes one a little tense. Fortunately, Mercedes had just made an archived copy just the night before, so if anyone screwed up the current one, we'd have only lost a day of work. I am so glad I took Kristen's class in college.