End of the Semester

It's been a while, but I'm finally free. It's the end of the semester and the last studio ever! It's a good way to end it, I ended up doing very well in Urban Lab and got my first A in studio since freshman year! And I'm very excited because my semester GPA is a 3.94 (I got a B in my dance class for tardiness...poo...) I'm happy though, it's not everyday someone in architecture has a 3.94 GPA.
Waz and I celebrated the end with a nice dessert party. I should never try to make more than a couple desserts at once because most of them didn't come out right. I did like the carmelized oranges with mascarpone cream...I should try making that again sometime. Also, on the last Saturday before I left, Waz, Cathy and I catered at Dutch's party (Dutch is one of my professors). It was a lot of fun because all of our professors were there. Our Real Estate professor and our "client" for the class were actually the funnest. The food was good - a lot of Asian-inspired peanut stuff. I think I had the most fun because I got to be out and about since I handled the food, whereas Waz and Cathy were trapped in this little side area called the bar...I like catering a lot...maybe I picked the wrong profession...

I am so glad that Thanksgiving is coming up. I haven't seen any of my family in ages. Also, I have to grade 120 homeworks for statics. I still have a whole bunch for GIS, but my parents don't own the technology I require to grade it, so I have to do it all here. I also think I screwed up my timesheets...Ooops...

Blegh

I am so full, I think I'm going to die. If I look at food now, I'll throw up...

Is it Winter Yet?

This morning I woke up to the strange feeling that it ought to be snowing outside. I think the sky being completely overcast and white, me being buried under a giant quilt in a nice warm bed and the air in my room being much chillier than my quilt all combined to make me feel that way. Unfortunately, the still-leafy branch hanging just outside my window is a sure telltale sign that there is no snow. If I didn't have anything going on today, I'd be perfectly willing to just pretend we had just experienced a nor'easter and the only thing to do is curl back up in bed with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate. I miss hot chocolate...and childhood...

Happy Halloween!

Happy All Hallows! This year, I was a toned-down goth - by toned down I mean that I don't seem to have any goth jewelry left, and I can't find my fishnet. I settled on being Emily the Strange, with my hair being long and me having bangs like hers. Except I don't have white mary-janes so I wore black knee-high boots. It's funny that no one could really tell I was "in costume." I guess the black lipstick is still no indication I'm not pretending to be the usual me.
Strange side-effect of being dressed up - me in my sexy-Emily-the-Strange costume and Waz in her sexy-cat costume - we were walking out of class after chatting with a professor and he caught up with us to ask if we'd be servers and bartenders at his annual Christmas party. We giggled a lot the whole time because we thought it was a joke, but now that I think of it, I think he's serious...Bartending at the professor's annual holiday party...could be interesting, no?

Random Thought not for the Prudish of Mind

The strangest most akward thing about taking dance class with guys is that they are constantly readjusting themselves in their tights, if you know what I mean. It's really disturbing how often they're readjusting. Really, don't they notice? Don't they notice anybody else noticing?

Dance Envy

Let me just say, I love Wade Robson's work. I wish I could dance like him, choreograph like him. I'd love to work for him or something. He just did something for Dancing with the Stars this week - abc.com, DWTS 10/18 show about 20 minutes in. It's amazing, worth watching. Makes me want to dance...

Chai Tea

This week, our dance teacher wasn't around so he replaced himself with a Tai Chi instructor. I think it's an interesting form a martial arts, and it does give a person a good workout, but my god... The whole relaxation and slow movement thing was starting to drive me crazy. I started feeling claustrophobic towards the end actually, where my legs felt the need to start running as fast as possible, and I wanted to scream and flail my arms around. I don't think Tai Chi is for me.
O and never do Tai Chi when you're sleepy.

Conversations Long Missed

Today I talked to Ben. It's been about a month since we last talked, and about two weeks since we'd emailed. I know we're not together, but it's difficult not having him to talk to. I really missed the way he could talk to me about anything. We caught up on each others lives - he moved out of his parents house, even went on a date with some girl. Turned out she was crazy, and he just wasn't ready to date yet. I'm glad, I was a little surprised because I don't think I can really move on from him yet. It was so soon.
We talked about my trip to Copenhagen. I think me talking about the people I met there all the time really hurt him because it made him feel as if there was a part of me he couldn't reach, or something along those lines.
When we were about to hang up, he asked me if there was any chance we might ever get back together. I told him that we probably shouldn't consider it now, as I might be leaving when I graduate. I think that must have really hurt him, and I wish I could have just said that yes, I miss him and want to be with him again. But it wouldn't have been right for us, and I don't like always giving him empty promises.
What was nice, though, was that he said that I could call him whenever I wanted.

The Perils of Living by a Church

This morning, I was in the bathroom going through my morning routine. As I was sitting and ... peeing (pardon me), I suddenly heard the voices of several children laugh and go, "Hello!" Wondering where the heck that came from, I looked out the 2-inch crack in the window we left open and see several children from across the airshaft in the church window LOOKING RIGHT AT ME. They must have heard me...they must have heard my roommates! I sat there for a few minutes thinking about what to do, decided I would not make a great moment for them by shutting the window immediately in supposed humiliation. Instead, I waited for a good five minutes, then shut the window and continued with my usual routine.
So now I'm faced with the dilemma of what to do about the window. If I leave it closed, the bathroom can steam up during a shower. If I leave it open, prying pre-teen eyes will most likely see everything they really shouldn't be seeing. I hate children...

Foot Problems

Last night, while working in the computer lab, my foot started to swell. To the point where I couldn't put on my shoes and had to borrow Ken's flip flops in order to walk home. I went to health services to get it looked at. First they sent in some intern girl who had no bedside manner whatsoever. She took a peek and said that I should wear shoes with better support. To which I replied that the swelling is not from me suddenly going barefoot, as I've been running around all of campus barefoot for the past 4 years, and that I dance barefoot. Everyday. I think my skepticism at her diagnosis led her to get the lady who's in charge of her, whatever they're called. Teacher/doctor-lady took a look and said that there was some swelling and that it might be a fracture. I was hoping for circulation problem, but when pressed, she suddenly jumped to the conclusion of gout. Yes, despite the fact that I'm young, slender, not male, don't drink or eat seafood, I must have gout...
Now I'm just really upset, though. What if it's a fracture? Does that mean no more dancing?

Totally Not Okay

Theft is not cool, even when it is just an idea. It's not cool even if it's just for "a stupid concept exercise." I thought for a good couple hours in order to develop the idea that I did, and I thought it was a really good and unique idea. And now that those guys have taken it and screwed with it, my idea no longer feels so shiny and new. Get your own ideas, I hate cheaters.

Who Woulda' Thunk

Today before dance class, Michelle the teacher came over to where I was stretching and sat down, going, "Angela, I have to talk to you." To which I thought, "Uh oh, what am I doing wrong..."
But it turns out that she and my other teacher, Peter, needed an extra face for a video production they're making and thought that me with my acres of bangs would be perfect. Who would have thought my bangs would make me distinguishable enough for people to actually want to film me (albeit for just 5 minutes).
Woohoo! I'm gonna be famous!!! no, not really.

The Indignity

This morning while walking to class, I saw a little boy about 3 years old walking to his school with his dad. I was in a hurry to get by so the dad pulls the kid to the side and said, "Come on, move over. This lady's in a hurry." So I hike on by and hear a tiny little voice go, "She looks like a boy, daddy, she looks like a boy." At that point, I sort of did a snort/guffaw because really, I'm just not sure what to think about that. I didn't hike too quickly, so I was within earshot and the "Is that a boy or girl" topic continued for at least another two or three minutes.
Okay, so I don't think I looked like a boy. I was wearing close fitting jeans and nice shoes. I suppose my hair looked short because I have it tied into a bun for dance class. I guess I need to give the kid some credit, most children at his age think girls have long hair and boys have short hair and mine being black just blends back in on itself.
O, and I'm going to be wearing my hair down for the rest of the day.

Busy Weekend

Now that I'm feeling a little more chipper, I can dish on the weekend. After classes ended, I went home and sat around. Hannah said she would drive us all to the grocery store and then come over for dinner. First she had to run an errand so I went home to clean. And clean I did. I bleached all the kitchen counters, washed all the dishes and was in the process of bleaching the bathroom counter when they all got to the apartment. We went to the nice Giant Eagle on Center Ave where I took advantage of buy 1 get 1 free chicken day. At 7:30 we got back to the apartment where I commenced being Master Chef. I love delegating, really I do. I had Hannah washing and cutting fruit, Ken cutting onions (for some reason, the burn doesn't bother him) and ... well, I had Waz helping, but I can't remember on what. It took about two hours, but in the end, for dinner we had Lemon Chicken, Moro and for desert, a Baba au Rhum. I think everyone really liked it, because there was only a couple bites of Moro left, no chicken and this morning I walked into the kitchen for breakfast and Ken and Brian were helping themselves to the last of the Baba au Rhum. I can cook! Congratulate me!
Today I spent mostly watching Quantum Leap online and grading homework. At 8:30 I went to auditions, fumbled through hip hop, glided through modern (such a lovely dance) and break dancing? Umm, let's just say I'm going to be sore and bruised in the morning. I think even if I don't make it into the group, I had a good time.

Really the moment people leave, I become depressed. I really shouldn't be left alone to think, because the moment I start to think, it's of him and why we're so distant. I hate my life right now.
O and in case you don't know (I don't recall if I've mentioned this) I have insomnia now, like from freshman year when I was so lonely that all I can do is sit on the internet and repeatedly click on my email, checking in the vain hope that someone really wants to speak to me. Except no one really does, so I'm alone, tired and desperate.
Well, at least my food turned out well...

What Makes a Relationship

I emailed a certain someone the other day hoping that we could make peace and be friends. Today I got a reply that he really liked talking to me so long as we were dating, but now, as "just friends" there's nothing much to talk about. He doesn't even want to be around me unless we are dating. What is that supposed to mean? It really makes me wonder about how we were. Did he ever really care about what I had to say? If he can't find anything to say to me now, then how could he ever have said that he loved me? Does kissing versus not kissing a guy really make that much of a difference in the enjoyment of conversation?
From now on, all my relationships will begin as friendships - this is in the hope that I can still have someone to speak to when all is said and done. He used to be a source of comfort, someone I can hug when I feel like crying. And now I have no one.

A Mistress Blog

Today, I was telling my sister about Paella night, and somehow the topic of putting my recipes online came up. And so, starting today, I have two blogs. I will stay forever faithful to this blog, as it has documented my life for the past six years. I am now also using livejournal as my online recipe book - my ID there is also Irenia321. If you want to learn how to make a great chicken paella, go visit my livejournal. Go go. You know you want to.

Weekends are fun

A few days ago, my sister sent me a recipe on New York Times for a tomato paella. Struck with the sudden inspiration of it and the memory of a seafood paella our family had once at a Portuguese restaurant, I decided to make the dish, and embellish it with chicken and bell peppers. Seeing as I had a humongous skillet, and the recipe was 4-6 servings, I asked if Ken, Brian and Waz would like to join for dinner. Well, only Ken made it for dinner at dinner time, and not only did he help cook(he chopped the onions, my eyes thank him), he also helped carry things and made coffee. I am constantly amazed that he opens doors for me and carries my stuff. And washes dishes...
Our wonderful dinner consisted of paella, coffee, and for desert, flan. Very yummy, good combination. Though, I feel like I should have steeped the saffron a little to bring out its flavor in the rice. Later, Zach, Patrick, Sammy and Hannah came over and helped themselves to leftovers. Brian joined in much, much later as well.
Overall a nice evening of improptu entertainment. I think I should make a habit of it. I really like to cook for people and it gives me something to do so I won't be bored or depressed.
On the agenda for next week - moro and lemon chicken. Delish!

O, and after the dinner, we watched Babel, which I found to be just about one of the most depressing movies I've ever experienced...

Still Sad

During the week, it's not so bad. I think it's because I'm so busy, I don't think about it. But then, the weekend comes and I sit here alone. I'm an insomniac again, just like freshman year. I go to bed at 1 a.m. and wake up at 5. My eyes are still sleepy feeling, but I just can't fall back asleep, so I just get up and stare at the internet until I absolutely have to move. And there's no one online at 5 am...who am I waiting for? I wish a certain someone would call.

Teaching

Today is my first day of teaching the grad GIS class. Everyone's older than me...teehee...
Also, the computers in the Heinz school are the only ones I've found where the MSN Messenger is installed. However, there's nothing that can access AIM. There's also no AutoCAD on these computers, but if you feel like it, apparently you can play SimCity if you're bored. I guess since the school teaches policy management, SimCity is a good way to play pretend-mayor...I wonder if I can start a game and just keep working on my pretend city during labs when no one has questions. Wow, I could be paid for playing SimCity! Sweet!...

Lonely

I feel incredibly lonely - for the first time in three years, I don't have anyone who I can wholly and totally confide in, and I'm not sure why I had to say what I did. All I feel is hurt and sadness and I feel like crying all the time, and I'm tired and have a migraine.
I miss Ben...

Mom is Annoying

Just now I got a random phone call from mom. I think she was originally looking for May and dialed me instead. And then the only reason she was looking for May was so she could bitch about dad and that stupid moving to Mississippi thing. Well...she got me, so she ranted for half an hour about how stubborn dad is, how stupid he is, then she talked about May and how some guy in another department made more money but it's okay that she's not making a lot because she's learning. And then she talked about some meteorologist who didn't want to be a meteorologist anymore and went and got his degree anyway. Which inevitably led up to the usual part where mum tells me to just graduate and get my license. Right, because getting an architect's license is that easy. Nevermind all the IDP credits I have yet to accumulate and the fact that just having the license means I have to pay $100 a year for a piece of paper that I don't necessarily have a use for. Not that she listened, again... And then she kept asking me how I was and never let me get a word in edge-wise about me thinking about getting contact lenses, or broaching the subject of a possible Danish visitor over winter break, or even just how it is so freaking hot over here and I'm sweating like a pig and have a gigantic migraine. Thanks, mom. I love you, too...

Shoes!!!!

Today while cleaning my room, it occurred to me that being back in Pittsburgh allows me something no other place in the world allows me. A whole ton of shoes! I think my parents will kill me when they've seen how many pairs of shoes I've managed to accumulate in the past few years. I hope they keep in mind that I do wear almost all of them regularly. Just a couple have somehow turned out a little too small and thus just look pretty on the shelf. Here's my shoe pair count:
Pumps: 4
Strappies: 3
Slingback Flats: 2
Flats: 1
Sandals: 4
Sneakers: 2
Loafers: 2
Ankle-hi boots: 2
Knee-hi boots: 3

Total comes out to 23 pairs of shoes...oops....teehee....

Back in Pittsburgh

It has been a few days now since I got back to Pittsburgh. It's funny, when I left for Europe, all I wanted to do was stay. Now that I'm back, I find that I've been melancholy. Granted there are a few things I'm grateful for now that I'm back in the states - a keyboard where all the punctuation is located where I expect it to be and websites defaulting to English just to name a few. I really miss all of my new friends, though. I have finally succumbed to using MSN messenger just to keep in touch with people internationally, so I've been sending out messages to people from Copenhagen and Shanghai. Hopefully, they'll want to stay in touch with me as much as I want to stay in touch with them.

On another note, funny thing happened on my eight hour flight back to the states. I was seated next to a horrible middle aged couple that I hate to call, but they are so I will, "White Trash." The whole entire flight, they complained about everything, argued about everything and it was interspersed with the wife saying, "O, Jim, you'a so funny" or "O, Jim, sto-ap it!" Towards the end of the flight, the flight attendent came by handing out those blue re-entry cards and when he got to our row, first he asked my citizenship and then asked if the three of us were a family! Sure, ok, maybe I was adopted, whatever. But the fact that he thought I was raised by that made me wave my arms in an emphatic "NO!" Obviously Mr. and Mrs. Jim didn't notice because then they turned around and joked with me, "Isn't that funny? They thought you were our daughter!" to which I replied with a weak laugh. Urk...

Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Studio

We just completed hell weekend. All in all, it wasn't too bad considering the presentation requirements were akin to what they were in second year, and I work a lot faster than I used to. Still, I only got a couple hours of sleep every night so obviously by the time Saturday morning rolled around, I really needed some help from a wonderful substance called caffeine.
I went to a 7-eleven on the way to studio and got one of those coffee coolatta things and walked very slowly and tiredly towards studio, sipping at my precious frozen coffee when I saw a group of boisterous people walking towards me. A man and a woman led the pack holding hands. Seeing them coming I tried to dodge left, except they went left. Then I tried to dodge right and they went right. With no other option as they were right upon me, I attempted to go down the middle expecting them to break their hold...except that they didn't and basically wrapped themselves around me.
Then I thought, "What the hell?" and turned to look at these insane drunk people. And what do I see but the guy drinking my coffee through my straw! He proceeded to go, "MMMM," and babbled something in Danish to which I just shook my head and looked offended. His girlfried then went, "No, you didn't. Ugh! Unskuld!" (Unskuld means sorry in Danish) and then they continued on their way.
By then I was most agitated and stared at my coolatta in consternation. What to do? Strange drunk man just drank some of my $4 coffee. So I went to studio, told everyone all about what happened and then threw out the straw. I bought the damn coffee and I'm damn well going to drink it!
I hate drunkards.

Sadness

It struck me last night as I was having wine and chatting with Martin and Morten, I'm leaving in 9 days... There's something very sad about leaving newly made friends. I don't want to...
On a brighter note, the sun has decided, finally, to show itself in Copenhagen and its HOT. Must be the latitude, but it definitely seems to shine hotter here. There's a humongous difference between sun and shade so that I'm sweating and freezing by turns. Strange weather, but still nicer than just boiling my bum off in the middle of the night. Poor Mom and May with Daddy having supreme control of the air conditioner.

Kitchen News

Last night I was up late in the kitchen working on my project in my sketchbook. Martin and Morten were nice enough to keep me company. Martin was most helpful - I now have a worderful vision of my art gallery, where people are immediately greeted by the espresso bar where they can indulge in highly caffeinated fare and walk around view artwork with a buzz. Martin nicknamed it, "the Battery Bar." At one point, I took off my glasses and Morten said, "You know, I have to say, you look so much better when you don't wear your glasses." To which I replied, "Hey, you look better when I don't wear my glasses, too!" A rare witty insight on my part and Morten commended me on the comeback.
In other news, Diyana has exposed me to the wonders of Leverpostej - pronounced lay-O-pos-tay. It stands for liver paste. I'm in love. McKinney is grossed out. Today I preached the wonders of it to some of my Chinese classmates and they seemed most interested. Woohoo for liver paste!

Cheep...

So, the past few times that I've happened to be in the kitchen when Morten was around, he has thrown food at me (literally), or otherwise offered it. Perhaps he thinks I look malnourished? In any case, today he gave me some sort of bun-thing that reminds me of a Chinese shao-bing. Mmm...I see new breakfast foods looming on the horizon.

Lonely

I've been trying to get ahold of my parents since I got to Copenhagen. First few times I called, no one was home. Then I called over the weekend and got through, but the microphone was broken and dad couldn't hear me. Now, I just tried again, but no one's home and mom's not picking up her cell phone. I've been trying to get a phone card, but every single store I've been too either has run out or the machine is broken. And, it's not like I can just stay in the city until it's late enough to call when everyone's at home, because the metro shuts down at midnight. By that time, only mom might be home and I'd end up missing the train even if I managed to get through. Stupid time zones. Stupid phone cards...

Photos

København

Hullo from Copenhagen. It's been a few days since I arrived so I'm all settled in. I've come to the conclusion that this city is amazing. The public transportation is great, the streets are so interesting, and every single photo I take makes me feel like I'm an amazing photographer.

Funny thing: In the pamphlet for dorms, they said that every person gets their own bathroom. When I inspected it the first time, I saw toilet and sink. Then I realized that the entire room was the shower. There'a a little curtain that conveniently shields the toilet half so the toilet paper doesn't get drenched. How thoughtful. The rest of the room is Ikea happiness. I've rearranged the conveniently lightweight furniture about twice now.

My floormates are ever so nice. Our dorm is organized so that each floor only has one DIS student, and everyone else is Danish. I have been spending time talking to Martin, Mørten and Trine. There's also a silent giant named Silas, as well as a guy named Joseph who disappeared after the first day. I think he's at a festival.

Class has mostly consisted of a history lecture blitz. We have one lecture in morning from 9-12. Then another one from 1-4. It's just to prepare us for what we're going to be seeing on our study tour in Stockholm and Finland. We had our first studio yesterday and my professor is, unfortunately, none other than the Danish version of Eric Fisher. Crap.

Other than that, I'm loving the city. O, and 7-Eleven's chocolate croissants.

Ballroom?

I found out a few weeks ago that Arthur Murray offers a first free dance class. After watching an entire season of Dancing with the Stars, I decided it would be a swell idea to get Ben to go. So, finally, we went together tonight. Our dance instructor was Edgar and he taught us a very very basic foxtrot step and a very very basic swing step. I didn't have problems with the steps, but I tended to drag Ben around a little (bad Angela). All the big ballroom cliches started swimming up in my head and at some point I said to Ben, "Lead, Charles! Lead!" I don't think he or Edgar got the reference to Charlie Brown and Lucy. Ben, to my surprise and great happiness really enjoyed himself. He stomped around like wild slon, and had a look of consternation on his face, but when we got back to his place, he did the rock step just fine.
So, all in all, we had a lot of fun, and Ben actually seemed interested, but then we found out how much it cost...for a low low price of $1080, we can take 10 classes! Maybe when Ben becomes an oil tycoon we can consider it, but for now, I'll stick to my 12 for $50 ballet classes.

SYTYCD

For the first time ever, I get to actually watch So You Think You Can Dance when it's on TV! Amazing! First year it was on, I was stuck at Gramma's apartment where she had no cable. Second year, I was in China. Fortunately, since everything in China is pirated, I was able to keep track until Youtube locked down on all of it. And now, well, I only get to see the first few weeks, but that's more than I ever got to see before!

So...early favorites:Lacey, Anya, and Sara. No great boys this time. Maybe it's just because the dances showed off the girls more, but the boys just didn't pop out at me. And all the other girls, some were just not so good (I feel bad for the first girl who had to do hip hop) and the rest were pretty stuck up and didn't dance well enough for me to think they could be that way. We'll see. O yes, and by far my favorite dance was Lacey and Kameron's contemporary. Love it!

Back in Pittsburgh

Well, I'm back in Pittsburgh. My parents and sister saw me off at the airport yesterday morning. I was kind of sad to leave them. Well, at least now there's peace and quiet.
I was a little horrified when I got back to my apartment. I know Zach is particularly fastidious about his personal space, but I didn't realize he was THAT fastidious. When I first walked in the door, I thought we'd been robbed or something because the hallway was so bare. My hall table was moved, my phonebooks are gone, all the small appliances as well as my cooking implements have been hidden away somewhere. I suppose it looks cleaner, but it's kind of a shock. And really, did my cooking stuff absolutely have to be moved? My bedroom wasn't too bad, fortunately.
When I looked in the bathroom, all of my things (shampoo, toothbrush, etc.) were missing. Zach told me he threw them all out because they were covered in a thin film of mildew. In fact, the entire bathroom was covered in mildew. I definitely scrubbed through the entire bathroom before I left. Somehow my ex-roomie and her boyfriend managed to take the bathroom from pristine to fungal-infested. I thought Japanese people were supposed to be clean... Well, at least Zach got rid of the blue carpets. Those really weren't to my taste and the yellow pollen-stuff coming off the toilet cover scared me enough that I never tried to change them. I am annoyed, however, that he threw out my shampoo and my razor. The shampoo bottle was only half-used and the mildrew was only on the outside. As for my razor, that was one of those ones with replaceable heads, so I could have just rinsed off the handle and replaced the head part. O! And he threw out the pumice stone I got in CHINA!!! WHY!!!!???

Endless Chatter

After four weeks of being home, my mother's endless talking is REALLY getting on my nerves. Not that it never did before. If I'm sitting in the living room, CLEARLY reading a book, she'll still keep talking the whole time. And it's not anything new or important she talks about. She's told me about some lady whose husband wanted a divorce about five times already, and every time I remind her she's already told me, she says, "O, I thought I only told your father."
Today I thought I'd try something different. Hide upstairs in my room to read. Mom FOLLOWS me upstairs and starts talking about more useless things. I really need some earplugs or something...

Never EVER Sublet

When one of my roomies for next year suggested we sublet to someone over the summer, I thought it'd be a good idea. The subletter is someone we all know, and someone we knew valued personal space and therefore would take good care of the apartment over the summer. UNFORTUNATELY, we've had one problem after another.
First, my former roomie decided to let her boyfriend stay in the apartment after her part of the lease was over, encroaching on my subletting friend's space and time. When we got the boyfriend to move out, I thought, "Good, my problems are over."
NOW, MORE PROBLEMS HAVE SPRUNG UP.
1) The basement key is lost?!! I don't want to have to pay for a lock cutter...?!!
2) My subletting friend has managed to piss off the apartment building people and now if his car is so much as seen in the vicinity of the building, it'll get towed...?!!!

At least former-roomie's-boyfriend was polite enough to return my call as to how to return the apartment keys...

Supersized

Yesterday, my sister and I had a lovely day out. We went to get the car washed, we went to her comic book store, went to the mall. I decided that I was in the mood for some McDonalds so we went to the one in the food court. As I stood there, I thought that I was seeing things wrong. What happened to the six-piece chicken nugget option? Maybe I needed my glasses. I put on my glasses and realized that not only was six-piece gone, the only options now are 10 and 20!! 10?!!! 20?!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the small fry? I thought a small fry came in those little white paper bags. What I got is what used to be a medium. Scary....

Ups and Downs

These past couple of days have had their ups and downs.
I think I'll talk about the downs first because that's what depressed me enough to induce me to write off some steam. So, my former roomie has moved out. Her lease expired May 15, and I let her stay a few extra days so she could graduate. Unfortunately, when she left, she also left behind her boyfriend without telling me. He is staying until the end of the month at which point he leaves for Japan. What is not good is that we have a subletter coming in who started his sublet least on May 15 and he is very finicky about private space. This means he cannot move in until the former-roomie's-boyfriend moves out. Technically, my subletting friend has every right to kick former-roomie's-boyfriend out as my subletting friend is basically paying to let former-roomie's-boyfriend live in my apartment. So I need to call my former-roomie so she can vacate her boyfriend out of the apartment so that my subletting friend move in, or he can pay the rent for half a month. That seems to make sense to, as my subletting friend is currently making a 90-minute commute until he can live in the apartment. Except that when I try to get in touch with my former-roomie, she's never available to answer my calls or emails. So...I'm annoyed and frustrated.
On the upside, I had a satisfying trip in New York. I didn't buy anything new. In fact, the only thing I spent money on was a can of ground Japanese tea to keep me happy in Copenhagen. Delish. I did get a creepy Chinese chef stare at me in that creepy creepy way while I was waiting for my mum outside a butcher shop. I think he thought I was looking at him, while I was actually looking to see what my mom was doing. Yah, he wishes. Dirty old man...

Loneliness

Is it just me, or am I running out of blogs to read? I think that my sister is the only person I know of who still regularly updates her blog, other than me. May, are we lagging behind? Have people found a new way to entertain themselves that we haven't yet caught onto?
In other news, I went to New York with my mom and my aunt yesterday and we were unsuccessful in finding the mysterious antique shop my mom read about somewhere. Poor mommy. O well. We had lunch in Little Italy which was nice. I had a $7 cherries jubilee for dessert, and it was tasty. Not sure if it was truly worth the $7, though. It wasn't really a fun trip to NY, it was mostly to give me something to do to make my time up in the northeast go faster. I can't wait to go back to Pittsburgh where there's public transportation!

Ready to Go

Being at home is starting to get to me. Today, dad gets home and is fine for about half an hour. All of a sudden he starts to yell at me, calling me lazy, saying I'm home all day and I still can't manage to help around the house. I sit and wonder what he's talking about. Apparently a package got delivered today and the person just set it outside the front door. Well, how was I supposed to know? 1) I didn't know he was expecting a package, and 2) I didn't know to look out the front door because no one rang the doorbell. If someone did, I don't remember hearing it in my sleep.
Also, at my old home, I was used to having some measure of privacy. We've gone from a tree-surrounded 1-acre plot to an open-lawned .25 acres. Children are wandering through our backyard, and everytime I so much as look out the window, I feel like I'm spying on the neighbors. Funny thing is, I feel like I have much more privacy in the city, where everyone is supposedly so much more crammed than I do here. And for some bizarre reason, it's 75 degrees outside and our house is STILL freezing. We don't have air conditioning or anything. I think I will forever associate being in Connecticut as being cold.
I'm so ready to go back to Pittsburgh.

New House

So, its been a couple of days since I got back to Connecticut. So far its been COLD. Well, by cold I mean upper 60s since Pittsburgh has pretty consistently warm these past few weeks.
So this is what I think of my new house: It's HUGE. I didn't think it was very large when it was empty, but once all the furniture is in, you realize its a long long walk from the stove to the dinner table. It's okay, I suppose, if you don't think of all the architectural travesties that our professors teach us not to do in high architecture. I think I'll get used to it eventually, but right now, I still feel somewhat like a guest.

Freedom!

At last, freedom! This years hell week wasn't nearly as stressful as previous, probably because this time around there was help. I managed to get five hours of sleep every night except this last one where I got 20 minutes on the green cushion in the corner of the lab.
I think that the first time I had to work with a partner, it really scarred me. Fortunately, this time's partner and I got along better and I think that together, we made a really great project. Part of it might have been because of guilt from my last parter experience where I basically hid from work because the social aspects of it weren't to my taste.
Our reviews went alright, I suppose. I was annoyed when, yet again, everyone got stuck around one design element, the same one every time. I don't think architects understand that prison is not lollipops and summer camp. I got a little annoyed in after the first ten minutes and after another ten, Brian started getting offended. When he spoke up, I finally got a chance to speak up and I think the critics realized just how offended we were, so we changed topics. Thank god.
Not the smoothest reviews, but they ended on a good note. One of the critics said she loved my section (kudos to me) and the elevations (kudos to Brian). So, something for everyone. I just hope we don't have to present again on Friday. I shall keep my fingers crossed because that was just hell.

Heck Week

So, this semester's Hell Week for some reason doesn't seem particularly stressful. The watered down version has been dubbed by me as "Heck Week" where the work load is high, but the stress just doesn't seem to be there. That's why I'm happily typing away on my blog instead of slaving away on those horrid sections.
I think last semester had me scarred where I started my Rhino model the week of and ended up scrambling for crappy plans on the DAY OF. So, to keep the fear of that away, Brian and I had our plans set two months in advance and everything now is just a matter of tweaking.
O yes, and one of my favorite professors stopped by the lab just now to tell us that she bought $500 worth of Chinese food for the first years and we should help ourselves. Lo Mein for everyone!

A Bit of Fun

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Homeless

Today, my parents and sister moved our things out of the home I lived in since I was four. It's very strange that within two days, my home will no longer be my home, but the new home of a little Indian girl. My new home is in a very bland place that I don't know so well.
I used to know exactly how much longer it would be till we got home. I'd see the gas station, the atrium, the high school and then, within minutes, we'd be pulling up the driveway.
It's funny - I haven't felt homesick in years.

I don't think I ever mentioned: Ben took me out to the Cheesecake Factory a couple of weekends ago. It was very sweet of him. First, we asked for a table, got a beeper thingy and wandered the mall for a good 50 minutes. By then, we were starving and my poor darling was starting to lose his patience. I got back in line to tell the receptionist that we give up and we're going to eat elsewhere when the beeper went off. Perfect timing. We got seated in a nice little booth and our server had to be just about the nicest server ever. She even asked me where I got my jacket (Louise, if you're reading this, the brown ruffled shirt is awesome - I love it). Ben ordered a quesadilla thingy of some sort, and I ordered a breaded chicken with lemon sauce, which comes with a side of mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus. While we waited, we munched on bread. Did you know Cheesecake Factory has chocolate bread? Tasty! I ate all the chocolate bread and Ben ate all the regular bread and then the food came. Amazing food, worth every dollar Ben spent (mwahahah). The meal actually only came out to be about $5 more expensive than eating at TGIF or Applebees, but I think the quality was much better. I ordered a Chocolate Raspberry Truffle cheesecake to go. I ate it later that evening while Ben played video games and I think I nearly died of sugar overdose and went to heaven. All in all, a nice late-birthday dinner.

Aging and Decrepit

I think I'm getting old. Indications are as such:
1) I turned 22 recently.
2) I can't pull all-nighters all the time like I used to.
3) I feel like a mom sometimes with the house-cleaning and cooking and loving cute little babies and all.

I think the worst is this though:
I was talking to a freshman the other day when she commented on how much she liked my black and white striped socks, to which I replied, "Yah, I really like them. They remind me of Beetlejuice." I got a blank stare in response. Apparently the "younger generation" doesn't remember the depraved cartoon wonder of Beetlejuice and Lydia Deets.

I'm old...

O and Lily is coming over to Pittsburgh this weekend. So exciting. Hope she doesn't mind my insane hours.

?!?

Tonight, Ben took to the mall for dinner. As we were walking towards the food court, a couple of kids that looked to be around 13 walk by and one says something that sounded derogatory that ended with, "...at least we're not that white guy with that chinese girl." To which the other replied, "Man, that's totally racist." At which point I turned to look, noticing that Ben and I were, in fact, the only present white guy/chinese girl combo. Then the offending kid yelled, "Yah, you heard me." Turning back, I saw two Asian women walk by and kind of glance at me with that look, kind of like, "Wow....yah...did that just happen? Wow..."

On a funny note, Ben quote of the evening - "MM...dinosaur. MM... tire rotation..."

Life as I Know It

I think it's been an incredibly long time since I've bothered to write in my blog. In fact, it's been about a month. I have no idea how a month just passed, but it has, and it's scary. I'll try to catch up on things that have been happening, but I think that most likely, I'll forget something...

Studio: working on the "New Orleans Community ReIntegration Center" with Brian is good so far. We seem to be at a good place in the project and seem to be in relative agreement as far as form and function concern. Little fights appear over things such as structure. I blame it on him, of course.

Roomie Search: At the beginning of March, I entertained the possibility of living with Estee, but she backed out because she wants to live ALONE. Why would anyone ever want to do that? I did for a summer and it was depressing, I tell you. Depressing! Anyhoo, after momentary panic, I managed to find not one, but two roommates. Yes, starting on May 15, Ken and Brian will officially be my roommates. It should be good.

Spring Break: This year for Spring Break, I decided to bring home Waz. I figured she can sort of shield me from my mother and her incessant lecturing. It worked out quite well. I spent most of my days with May, and Waz spent most of her time in CT unconscious. We got to see my new house and mom took us on a little tour of suburban America (Waz fell asleep during the tour). In the end, Waz came away with two important revelations: "Your mom is very loud," and "Your dad is very reserved." I think that's pretty accurate. Then we were off to NYC.
Day 1: Emergency room for Waz - I, being a know it all, forced her to go see a doctor about a UTI. Getting a kidney infection is a sure-fire way to ruin your break. We called my cousin Ni-ni at work at around 10:30 and she said we could catch a ride back to Flushing with her. She showed us a nice little Japanese restaurant just outside her building where we stuffed ourselves with donburi until Ni-ni and her little sis, Lily, showed up. Then we went to their home where Lily, still in high school, stayed up WAY late and we all watched an episode of "The Black Donnellys."
Day 2: Hanging out with Ken and Mike C. We woke up early, had a "small breakfast" at my favorite NanBeiHe in Flushing and explored Flushing mall where I nearly died of happiness when I found out a store there sold Cop Copine, and nearly died of sorrow when I found out that since they were unofficial retailers, everything was about double price. Then we took the Chinatown Express and met up with Ken and Mike for dimsum, walked on the Manhattan Bridge, explored Soho and went to dinner at a Texan BBQ place near NYU. We waited there for Waz's physics teacher from high school, who arrived pretty late. We all chatted for a bit before Mike and Ken got going. Then, Waz's physics teacher took us to a sake bar practically right next door to Cooper Union. I was tempted to break in to the building to see what their studios were like. Ken attests to the fact that their spaces are much smaller than ours. I suppose that's some consolation. Evening ended with us getting home around midnight and Waz meeting my aunt who greeted her with a "OOOO, you're so skinny!!!" (which, I would like to note, was the exact greeting my mother used).
Day 3: MOMA with Waz. Ni-ni got us free tickets and we explored the museum for three hours and then played around in the store for another hour. We met up with Ken in Soho to see the Hess exhibit at Fuse Gallery and then Ken's dad was kind enought to drive us down to the South Ferry. We rode on that for about an hour, taking many many photos of the Statue of Liberty. Then we wandered the entire southern tip of Manhattan forever. Ken took us around Battery Park, Winter Garden, Stuyvensant, Ground Zero, Wall Street - we finally ended up in Little Italy where we ate a wonderful Italian dinner while people were filming an episode of "The Sopranos" across the street. Later, Ken's dad drove us up to Times Square. Ni-ni was still working so we entertained ourselves at Virgin Records which was surprisingly still open at midnight. Then we rode home with Ni-ni.
Day 4: Waz had to leave real early. REAL early and neither of us were feeling particularly well rested. After she left, I went back to sleep, woke up and typed out my resume and cover letters. I couldn't get them printed, unfortunately, so I had to wait on that. I managed to make it over to Archi-tectonics after searching half of Chelsea and was rudely greeted. Fat chance of ever working there, I think I'm too friendly for them. Then I met up with Nestor at Whole Foods, the one I worked on, and he walked me through everything. It was a wonderful bit of reminiscing and it was cool to get to see all the stuff I designed actually made. Nestor, his employee and I went back to their brand new, spacious office where I said hello to Fabian and met the new girl. I sort of stuck around a bit until my other former boss, Jonathan, showed up, at which point more reminiscing ensued. I noticed that when greeting them, both my bosses kissed me on the cheek, Euro-style. Is that the new NY way? After that, I wandered over to Rawlings where I dropped off another resume and coverletter. Hopefully I have more luck with that one... Then, I bought some gelato, hopped on a train and went back to blissful, sleepy CT, which I quite enjoyed.

My Birthday: I convinced Ben to take me somewhere nice for our Birthdays. Somewhere REAL nice. We couldn't last weekend since his family was celebrating his, my and his gram's birthdays all at once, so perhaps this weekend. For me, he got Dreamfall. For him, I bought a glass from Urban Outfitters, a business card holder from MUJI, and a cute little voodoo doll I like to call winkie because of something on the doll's pants. Ben likes Winkie best too. My birthday started off on a poor note this year - I taught an extra recitation from midnight to 1:30am and then worked until 3 am, and I had a cold besides. But, the actual day of my birthday was good. I cooked taro nian-gao and egg drop soup for Ben and he actually enjoyed it, much to my relief. Then we watched Rounders, which was most entertaining though I was tired enough that I nodded off for parts of it. All in all, a good birthday, though.

So, I suppose that's it? I suppose so. I feel like everyday is just work and dance, work and dance, and I collapse in a pile of exhaustion around 2 every night. I suppose 2 isn't that bad. I think I'm getting old...

Moola

Yay for income! One of my professors offered me a TA postition for next fall teaching at the Heinz School! Yay!

Happy Chinese New Years!

Xin Nian Kuai Le! I think this is a great way to start off the new year with fluffy white snow falling outside and much less work to do.
Last night, Waz and my two months of intensive frustration and labor paid off as we watched out models strut their stuff at the Lunar Gala show last night. I think that the moment the first models started out, I decided it was well worth the trouble. No more sewing knowing there's a deadline approaching, no more working at Waz's till 2 or 3 am. No more hurried trips to JoAnn Fabrics. It's done and it was great.
So far, we've had offers for the hoodie, the word tunic, two pairs of pants and my assymetric sports coat, so maybe we'll make back some money. So exciting. Not only did we show our collection, apparently its still wearable enough that people are interested in buying. I think we ought to just start making lots of clothes for ourselves. We'll be our own advertising boards and everytime someone asks where we got that badass shirt, we can say, "Well, we made it. If you would like one, just let us know." Or something. It'd be cool. Though I told Waz that I don't want to design officially next year. "I'll help you out, but I don't want to be a designer." Mostly, I think I just want to dance, or maybe model. I should model just to say I've done it all for Lunar Gala. Except I'm nto too good at walking...
All in all, a wonderful experience.
Happy Chinese New Years!

Love is hugging and kissing me even though I've been puking my guts out and otherwise occupying your bathroom for hours on end all weekend long. Thank you, Benny-bean. I love you very much.

Monkeys

Tonight was Lunar Gala practice. As usual, Waz and I lug over every outfit we're working on and spend time putting them on the model and have Sophia hem and haw over it. Sophia, yet again, was displeased. In fact, Sophia is always displeased. And mean. And rude. We keep getting threatened over and over about how we have to be completely done with all our stuff by Thursday despite the fact that we technically have two weeks left till show time. I don't see what the hurry is. Really. We'll get it done in time. Don't worry.
We got all the models together to go over stuff. Being that earlier I was sewing in my black jacket, my black jacket was covered in tons of tiny gritty things and pieces of thread and muslin. What I found particularly amusing was that first, model Justin started picking things off of my back and shoulder, and then model Grant joined in and picked a thread right off my "bust radius" (aka my under-boob), to which Justin stated, "Yah, that one bothered me a lot too, but I didn't think I should try to get it." I suppose it's okay since Grant seems quite ..um...flamboyant. Still, very funny. My monkey models.

Hapa hapa

So you remember how for a while, it seemed like everyone new I met thought I was a halfie? Well, it quieted down for a bit and for a while I thought, wow, I guess I'm sufficiently Chinese now. So... I just got invited to join the Hapa dodgeball game this Friday..... Maybe I should just start telling people mom is Mexican.

It's 11:30 Already?!

Time? What's that?

First Day

Happy New Years! I keep forgetting to update and what do you know, it's already halfway through January. I suppose it's time for an update.

Winter Break: Fun. I slept a lot, saw lots of family, ate lots of yummy food (I actually lost weight over break...fancy that. I blame you, Waz), went to Manhattan with my sister where we visited the Met, fashion ave. and her comic book store, "Forbidden Planet." All in all, a satisfying break.

2007 so far: Pretty busy. I got back a week early and Waz and I did what little we could based off of the shitey measurements the girls at Lunar Gala took. Way to go girls, way to not measure a guys inseam correctly. We've been making the outfits for a couple of the models and a lot of things are far off mark. We seem to have a very poor understanding of the male body. I think that the girls will be much easier. Still, things are going well, and hopefully it will be well underway by the time classes pick up.
Classes are going well. The ones I've had so far anyway. My Digital Fabrication assignment is to make a crazy cube thing for Tuesday. I thought I had it. Nearly had it. It'll be cool, though. Except that I have to actually document everything and put it on a website. I'll be borrowing people's cameras for a few weeks.
Then there was Jazz. I'm actually horribly low on the waitlist, but I think there's still hope of getting in. The teacher let everyone who showed up stay, so maybe she'll let me in. Pretty please, pretty please. It was, all in all, an amazingly fun class. One of the acting majors said to me after class, "It's such a pleasure to see someone doing what they were born to do." I guess I was born to dance. Hope mom and dad don't mind.
My next class which I was also on the waitlist for is GIS, aka digital mapmaking. I think I'm going to enjoy it, it's so wonderfully structured! We have a calender and a syllabus, regular homework assignments. All very exciting for a person in art school.

After class, I attended a boring TA meeting where we were all reminded yet again (fourth time for me) that we can't date the student. If we are in a relationship with a student in the class, please quit the class not the relationship. Yes, I know, thanks for wasting an hour of my day. Then it was rush over to Waz's and sew sleeves, then rush to Point Park. OK, so, Point Park's community jazz class is NOT WORTH $15. Five maybe. The warmups were horribly disappointing after my earlier jazz class, though things picked up towards the end when the teacher started getting a little creative. If she had a better warmup, I'd be tempted to keep taking, but no. I might take a try at Dance Alloy next week and see how I like it. And I'll finally get to meet the mysterious heartthrob Estee has been raving about.
After dance was LG practice. We measured models, talked with models, Waz pointed out I only said the work "crotch" around girls and gay guys. So I'm shy, and I don't like to touch boys unless I'm dating them. So see me and my prudery. See May, I'm a prude too!
So here I am at home at midnight. Time to start the homework! Joyful fun!

Yesterday: Went out with mom, didn't see anything of interest to buy. Talked on the phone with Ben and got into a fight.
Today: Baked delicious cookies, bought Christmas presents, caught a cold.

Finally

It's been a long semester and I finally feel free to relax. Almost all of my grades save one (I have a feeling my poor professor was recently inundated with a semester's worth of work from every single student) are posted online, and most of them were surprisingly better than I expected. So, even if I end up with a bad grade for the last one (by bad, I mean B because he's apparently very lenient) I'm still pleased. I only ended up with a B in studio, which is a little disappointing because this is definitely the best semester I've had in a while studio-wise, but I think it was a good strong B, not like the just barely I got last semester, so I'm still okay with it. After all, its not the grade but the portfolio that matters, after all.
I am a little surprised with one very difficult class I had, in a couple of ways. 1) I definitely bombed the final test and somehow I got by with a 99.... and 2) The teacher hasn't posted the final project grade yet so I'm assuming it hasn't been factored into my final grade. I think that it might be that this time around, I got what I did solely because I sucked up to the professor (I swear I didn't do it on purpose).
Still, the semester's over, and I'm looking forward to next semester where I'll be taking only a whopping 6 classes with one of them being a mini (and it's just CSW - aka how to use Excel because apparently one can't graduate CMU without knowing how to work Excel) so that doesn't really count. Five classes, what a vacation...

Cursed

I wonder if someone has placed a jinx on me for the last week of classes. I feel like my luck is usually pretty darn good, and for some reason this week, small things have been going wrong.
My laundry card: I can't even remember which day it is, but I was doing the laundry this week and I somehow managed to drop the laundry card into that horrible little crack between the wall and the machine. I tried to move the machine and obviously it was way too heavy. I fortunately was able to get it out with the aid of my ruler and a lot of duct tape. Later in the week, I lost the laundry card yet again while walking down to the laundry room. I suppose it was because it was early, but I remember looking down into my basket as I walked in and seeing the card, but when I set down my basket, I found the card wasn't there. I looked through the basket, looked all over the room, traced my steps and found the card lying in a sad little corner outside the stairwell. I suppose it flew out while I was struggling my way through that horrible doorway (whoever thought having a 5' doorway with two 2.5' doors is an idiot because it's so hard to get through with a laundry basket).
My wallet: On Thursday, I ran down to the vending machines to grab a couple sodas for me and Waz. I ran back up, supposedly with my wallet in hand, but I didn't realize it was missing until about 4 hours later. Panic ensued and I ran through the hallways looking for it, and I suppose some girl recognized me and could tell I was upset about something and told me she found the wallet a couple hours ago and turned it in to the UC info desk. I got it, fortunately with all my affects intact.
My flight: normally I breeze right through ticketing and just hop on a flight. This time around, I walked to USAirways, realized my ticket was for United, so I went to United. At the United counter, I was told that they had NO flights to NY. "But I bought a United ticket online, United flight 2758!" The lady told me as if I should've known, that it was moved over to USAirways 1096. I go back to USAirways where the machine says there are no tickets under my name for the flight, so I panicked. Then someone behind the counter made me wait 20 minutes while she discussed baggage with another person. Fortunately, she was able to print out a ticket for me. Upon arrival at the gate, I found out that the flight was delayed 45 minutes. 45 minutes later, they informed us it was delayed again by another 45 minutes. All in all, our plane took off at 10:10 instead of 8:30, and I ended up arriving in NY at 12:30.
So yes, I think I might be jinxed.
At least I got to chop off all my hair so now I'm comfortable.

Ridiculously Busy

I remember how at the start of the semester, I was raving to my parents about how easy and carefree this semester has been. How wonderful it will be and how much free time I would be looking forward to.
Well, pretty much since mid-semester, it's been non-stop work that just intensified after Thanksgiving. In the process of all that, I somehow managed to fit in spending time with my boyfriend and celebrating my best friend's birthday. Other than that, this is what I've managed to achieve this semester:
For Figure Drawing, I completed my portfolio (which I still need to pick up. For dance...well...I've been dancing. I just made it by this mini with two absences, both due to hell week. It's a good thing I saved up for those. I've also managed to make a sketchbook, a book arts info book, a different from the normal, portfolio worthy box and a lab plate in book binding. For my two enviro classes - well, I feel bad about those because I have been just hanging on all semester long. As for studio, this has been one of the best semesters ever, and I hope that I can continue to do this well. (I think that I have a good solid B this semester, keeping my fingers crossed for something better....doubtful though).
I'm also really annoyed, because before I leave tomorrow, I have to help my acoustics group put together a project, work with my mechanical systems group to put together another project, and work with another group to do the heat gain calculations and construction diagrams for yet another project. I love how all of that has to be done by the end of today.
Other than classes, I had the worst DS show I ever did, mostly because I've been so busy that I haven't had time to really go over the dances or, for that matter, show up to people's extra rehearsals. I feel like I wasn't that great a statics TA, but oddly enough, Oppenheim asked me to TA structures again, this time not even waiting for me to ask.
In my personal life, my relationship with the Benny-bean is going well. He seems oddly okay with my leaving for a month. I suppose after three months of me being on the other side of the world, three weeks of me being on the other side of the region is quite all right by him. I only wonder if someday he'll get fed up with my leaving all the time and just dump me. Who knows...boys are fickle.

PS I just had a mini heart attack when I checked my account and saw I owed $11000. I wondered for a moment how it was possible to spend that much money on printing, before I noticed the money was for spring tuition. Yah...I'm good...

A Good Day

Today started very early for a Saturday morning. We had a field trip for our mechanical systems class (HVAC...yay...) that left campus at 8:30am so I had to wake up at 7. Amazingly, I woke up on time.
First, we went to Antiochian Village. It sounds like a retirement home, but is actually the national headquarters for some Christian religion or other. We toured the museum and auditorium, and then Jerry, the professor, took us to his favorite room of the building - the boiler room. I thought it was a little boring, personally. Looking around, I think a few people agreed. After that, we took the bus to the new dining hall. It was big. It was orange. It looked like a humongous log cabin. Jerry said the architect cried when they decided to put the faux log-cabin siding on. He also told us the architect said that was the ugliest building he ever designed. Poor architect. Again, we went to the boiler room and looked around. O yes, and the whole time, our bus driver (Mr. Chuck) walked around with us.
So then we all went to lunch. It was really amusing, because so far, when we moved from building to building, we've been taking the bus to just cross the street. I predicted to Waz that we would just drive 20 feet before we had to get off again, and lo and behold, we drove about 20 feet. I think there was a Mary Kay cosmetics convention because when we walked into the parking lot, there were an abnormal amount of pink cadillacs, and inside the entryway, there were a ton of pink things. It scared me. A lot. When we all picked drinks for lunch, I saw blue colored juice, and being that the more toxic it looked the more appealing it was to me, I picked it. Then everyone made fun of me. Meh, blue juice is more fun than red juice. The nice thing about archie field trips is that you're so familiar with all your classmates, that you could sit with just about anyone and still have a good time. It was a good lunch. I stole cookies and we ended with a debate about who was better, Matt Damon or Leonardo DiCaprio. Since I personally think that Leo looks like a very ugly woman, I went with Matt.
Next we went to Jerry's very own home. We approached what I thought was the driveway going up to his house. A very narrow little road that Jerry's own SUV just squeezed through somehow managed to accomodate our schoolbus. I feel like we drove a mile on that road before we reached his house, which seemed to be about the same size as Mount Vernon. Apparently my professor is quite affluent. We were greeted by an adorable three-legged german shepard mix that decided to run a circle around me while on his leash, nearly making me fall over.
The inside of Jerry's house was the most American looking house ever. The kitchen and gathering room were warm colors, the other rooms looked either very stately or very country craft-like. His wife told us she was starting to decorate and one of my classmates said, "Starting??" Then she clarified by saying she was starting to decorate for Christmas. They plan on having a total of 27 Christmas trees. 27! Jerry took us all into the basement to show us his pride and joy - a 3 ton geothermal heating system. Then we went upstairs and looked around his house. The study had a tiny little spiral staircase which led to a tiny tiny little room at the top. When I got up there, I don't know if it was the staircase or the size of the room, but I felt a little faint so I went back down. Claustrophobia, I think. All in all, a gorgeous house that a state politician would love. We finished our visit with a sampling of Mrs. Jerry's Christmas cookies. Very yummy.
The bus ride home was very quiet because everyone fell asleep. Well, almost quiet. Chang snored way too loudly for me to be able to sleep well. Fortunately, my trusty new earmuffs made it a little quieter.

Halfie

I guess growing up in America has made me a little too white-washed. In the past week, I've been asked twice if I'm a halfie - by halfie I mean half asian, half white. I can't figure out why people think so, in fact, it's a little upsetting since I feel like, if anything, I seem a little more fobby after being in China all summer. My friends can't pinpoint what makes me look distinctly not-Chinese. It's not just here either. When I was in China, practically every talkative cab driver asked me if I was from Japan or Korea, or something along those lines.
I guess I shouldn't let it bother me. The guy who asked me today said, "It's a good thing." His reason for asking me was because my hair's really black. All of my cousins have really black hair, too, so I thought that was a little odd for a reason. Another friend said it's my eyes, but my mum tells me I have very nice, Chinese almond-shaped eyes. I guess I just have a wierd combination of features. Poo. Mom said that when she was in college in Texas, she was regularly mistakened for hispanic. In fact, if we go to Manhattan, very often some poor tourist will start speaking to her in fast Spanish and she won't even know what language they're speaking. Well, since people think Mom is hispanic, maybe I look half hispanic...?
Maybe I should just say, "Yes, yes I am," because, after all, with family history who knows?

Me and My Stupid Mouth

Today I think I win the prize of saying inappropriate things. Well, I only recall two instances, one of which I noticed myself in hindsight which I very much regret, and the other one I noticed when Ben pointed it out, and it was actually quite funny. Just for entertainment's sake, I'll tell you the funny one.
So, my roomie has been receiving a million packages in the mail. Constantly. I don't know what she orders, but they always arrive in teeny little bags. In any case, I got home today and opened the mailbox and took out a few pieces of paper that notified me that we had received a package. While talking to Ben on the phone, the doorman brings out a big box and I said, "O my, that's a large package." Fortunately, the doorman, being about daddy's age, didn't notice either and said, "Yes, but it's quite light." Ben, on the phone, burst out laughing and in a very suggestive tone said, "Yes. Yes it is. A. Very. Large. Package." Yah, apparently I'm dating a pervy one.
Speaking of my pervy boy, we were watching "Sex and the City" Season 5 the other day - the season where Sarah Jessica Parker was pregnant so there were only eight episodes. About half way through episode six, Ben offhandedly mentioned that her boobs looked bigger. I never told him she got pregnant that season, so he must have come to that conclusion on his own. Is it just my boyfriend? Or is it all men? And how come, when I look at that show again, I still don't notice any change? Maybe it's just because I'm a girl and I don't really care...
Well, enough of that. I think that last paragraph can be added to my list of wildly inappropriate things. Speaking of which, to my friend, I feel very badly about what I said. If you noticed it and it upset you, I apologize.

Facebook Group

I started a nifty little group on facebook a while back to keep track of friends who went to my Chinese School. I checked on it recently and there's three people from CUNY Brooklyn and Stuyvensant. My question is - did they actually go to my Chinese School (and if so, why on earth would anyone want to travel so far for a Saturday morning class?) or did they just randomly decide to join? (and if so, should I try to kick them out of the group...?)

Glassed!

Today is halloween. In true halloween fashion, I put on a make-everyone-stare outfit. I'm quite proud of it. Think Jay McCarroll's final collection super long green scarf mixed with his 2055 outfit. Very cool, I think. I also put my hair in two buns on the top of my head. Whee! It only took 45 minutes to do....I really need to grow out my hair...or chop it all off again...
On a different note, I bought a bottle of snapple today and right when I was about to chug the last bit down, I noticed I could hear a tinkling noise in the bottle. What's this? I think, and look closer. Lo and behold, lying at the bottom of the bottle was a little piece of glass. I really hope I didn't swallow any, though I doubt I did. I called up Snapple after class and complained. I'm getting coupons...Well, I suppose that when I'm recovering from a tear in my stomach, they might come in handy...

Fashion!

Waz and I are OFFICIALLY fasion designers in the school's biggest fashion show of the year! Rejoice at the opportunity! Lament the work that's coming...
Random note: Today I found out that my best friend Waz and my cousin Louise went to elementary school together. It's a small world...

Updates

There's a strange man in my apartment and all I know is that he wears odd high top sneakers. And sandals in cold weather. For the past month, my roomie has been inviting mystery asian man over for sleepovers and occasionally not coming home, so my only conclusions are that mystery man is her boyfriend and that he is abnormally unresponsive to cold.
In other news, my midsemester grades were pretty darned horrible, mostly due to the fact that I've been focusing more on studio and dance than usual so the enviro classes kind of suffer. O, and by horrible, I mean I only got two As, so don't panic.
Also, after working for about four weeks straight on gut-wrenching heart-stopping gotta-meet-the-deadline work, I finally had a relaxing weekend where I just focused on crocheting a scarf for the long winter ahead. It was most amusing actually, what's been happening with that. For most of the day, I walked around with a ball of yarn tucked under my arm, the scarf around my neck and the "active" part was expanding with every minute as I chatted with everyone. At one point, I was sitting with Ben in his room watching him play Dead Rising and I got called downstairs to help out with something, so I wandered down, not realizing I was leaving a long trail of yarn behind me. Ben ever so kindly picked all of it up off the ground before the cat realized it was there and put it in a pile. Also, right before he was going to bring me home, I was reviewing the state of the scarf, and, to my chagrin, it has shrunk a lot in width. I have no idea where I'm losing stitches. So, I was quite upset, and grumbled while rolling all of the around the current ball of yarn I was on. What resulted was a fuzzy big ball roughly the size of a watermelon. I kept grumbling while I packed stuff up to go, turned around and found Ben curled up around the ball, shielding it from "destructive mommy." I thought that was funny. Not many boyfriends would try to rescue their girlfriends' botched crocheting projects. Isn't he sweet? :)

Exhausted

It's funny how I thought fourth year was such a breeze. I think part of it was the relief that we would be doing something more on the level of what I can understand. However, workload doesn't seem any less. For taking one less class than usual, I seem to still spend very little time at home.
Last Sunday, I had a big studio project due. At least, we all felt like it was a big studio deadline. Little did we know it, but on Wednesday, when the other studios had their presentations, what they pinned up was grease-pencil drawings on yellow trace. And here I spent $60 to make a book. That doesn't seem very fair. At least the review went well.
Immediately after that, I studied for a lighting exam, which I felt went well. Wednesday was my usual night off after discussing Lunar Gala with Waz. Thursday, whilst everyone partied and recuperated, Patrick and I sat in the computer lab putting together the beginnings of our lighting presentation. Friday, all day, I spent drawing the little people that went in our Lunar Gala design portfolio. They turned out fabulous. All of Saturday was spent grading homework and working out solutions for students to study off of. Sunday was all grading homework and Lunar Gala. The deadline was at 10 pm, but we were a little short on time when we found out that the printer didn't like 11x17 paper. But, in the end, we made it work - I even powerwalked between studio and the third floor computer lab. We got the deadline extended to 11 and exactly at 10:59, Waz and I grabbed our barely completed portfolio and sprinted full tilt over to the dropbox - and made it! Yay!
Then, of course, there was still Lighting to do, which is what I did last night until 4:00am. I think the presentation went will, though I feel that today, my thought process is significantly slower than normal because the exhaustion is setting in.
Dance at noon, right before the presentation - we had a substitute who had some interesting moves, many of which went too quickly for me to pick up. And, of course, it was very hip hop and if there's one thing that I really suck at...It should be fun though, a lot of my friends are in the class this time around so there's people to talk to.
1:30 was lighting, and then at 3:30, Waz and I had our Lunar Gala interview where we were solidly praised for the quality of our portfolios. I think we have a good chance, though they tell us that rehearsals are 6 hours a week, Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30 till god knows when. That will suck...and they start next week!
So now, here I am, with an hour and a half of free time before I teach recitation and then dance for three hours. Woe is me and my lack of rest. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow evening where I can just completely relax.

Sleep Walking

Have you ever woken up after a nap and gotten really confused on just what, exactly, happened? I pulled an all-nighter last night, and basically worried myself away all weekend long so I found myself in a state of zombieness today.
O and it just so happened, as well, that out of everyone in the entire studio, I had to stay the longest for my extra crit today, which, by the way, I really enjoyed because they had such nice things to say. After that, I went to dinner with Waz and then went home. Upon arriving home, I saw that it was around 7, and was a great time for me to take an hour's nap before doing some homework and then going to dance rehearsal - dance rehearsal that I lead, since I'm choreographing.
And then I woke up. About ten minutes ago, with the cell phone alarm clock thing on the nightstand next to me. How did it get there? I definitely set that thing on the other side of the room so I wouldn't turn it off in my sleep. And the funny thing is, usually, if I do that, I can vaguely recall myself turning the phone off, but this time...nothing...and I'm amazed I didn't trip over anything in my room because it looks like a typhoon came through here.
So all in all, I still have a lot of crap I need to do and let down a whole bunch of people who had to drag their butts to campus in the middle of the night just because of me. And I'm still sleepy. Crud...Sorry, guys...

A Detriment to Studio Culture

Cheers to me! According to my best friend's ex, I am a detriment to studio culture. According to this guru of feelings, I make my best friend feel bad about herself and I badmouth him to the entire school of Architecture.
I wasn't mad at him before. In fact, I was willing to give him a chance. I didn't talk to him unless he talked to me; since my best friend is working things out I figured I wouldn't do anything that might botch things up for her. I thought, 'Lend support to my best friend, try to be positive.' That was what I was trying to do.
And now this. I don't think I did anything to deserve hearing f***, s*** and b***** flung at me several times each over the course of three minutes. I don't recall spreading any information about him. I don't think I even discussed it with anyone who wasn't already aware of the entire situation. In fact, and I probably already said this, I didn't even hate him or dislike him until he decided to call me up just now. Not only was he rudely yelling expletives at me, he was self-righteous, condescending, arrogant, and ever so unaware as usual that he's, yet again, trying to displace the blame. Frankly, I'm offended and hurt. And yet, I still try to give him the benefit of the doubt...

Not Feeling the Love

There's something really depressing about standing at the front of an empty classroom. There's also something really depressing about going upstairs to remind people that there's recitation right now, at this moment, and no one's interested because they're too busy playing poker or eating dinner. Hey, let's add to the depression by having me haar my students joke and laugh about how I'd yell at them for not paying attention because they'll be too busy playing poker in the back of the classroom. Thanks guys. I'M STANDING RIGHT HERE! I'm not impressed. In fact, right now, I'm feeling more than a little resentful of these people.
So, I'm just standing here at the computer, waiting to see if anyone will show up for recitation. My guess is that no, no one is interested, and in approximately 10 minutes, I'll be walking out that door myself, fuming at the insolence of the little buggers. Loving TA I am not. Whawtever. At least I'm making $5 for just standing here and typing on my blog.

Edit: So, half an hour late, but three people managed to show up (they had to finish their poker game first). They were polite enough to sit through it all, and they had questions afterwards. How nice. Still, where's the other 55 people?

No Heat

So today I planned on doing the laundry, since it's been about three weeks since I'd done any. However, the hot water in the building is down and no one knows when it will be up again. While I'm a cold water laundry person, I was warned that the hot water might back up and ruin my clothes. So, alas, no laundry for me. Whatever am I going to do with...all my free time?

Fascinating

I had a good weekend. A few things happened of note, I suppose.
On Thursday, a little red-haired girl at the busstop decided I would be a good conversationalist and talked to me about bugs and dogs. She was very serious, and, for someone who looks like she must be about 7 or 8 years old (though I'm a bad judge of age when they're that young, she could be 10 for all I know) she was very well spoken. I think her mother is a professor or something at the school. That would proably explain things.
This weekend was quite relaxing. Ben and I enjoyed our post-anniversary by christening his brand new XBOX360. Well, rather, he played a LOT, and I watched. Sometimes. Mostly, I dozed in the chair next to him or graded homework nearby. Still, it was nice and relaxing.
Last night, I had the first rehearsal for my dance at 11pm. It went well, I suppose. I might have imagined it, but I kept feeling like everyone was staring at me thinking, "My god, why did I sign up for her dance. We're going to look terrible..." But maybe that was just nerves. I'm not good at leading when I actually know that I'm in charge. Hmm, now that's a revelation.
Today I got a wonderful package in the mail. I ordered two 1GB flash drives the size of trident gum online, and lo and behold, they came in a box that was 8x5x10. For two pieces of trident gum. What's more amazing is that the packaging material, styrofoam, was in larger pieces than the actual flash drives, making me have to dig and thereby torture myself with that horribly styrofoam noise.
Still, 2GB! YAY!

:(

Days like today I just don't feel good about myself. In fact, days like today, I don't even like myself. Life is unfair. No one gives a crap how hard you work, you still get screwed over in the end.

Depressed

So I've got a few things that make me depressed.

1) It's raining and cold, that makes for a bad combination.
2) I have a huge blister on my toe from dance auditions on Saturday and it seems to get more painful with everyday.
3) The blister wasn't worth it - I still didn't get into the one dance I really wanted. Darnit.

On the upside:
1) I got a really good set of dancers in my dance (except one of them seems to have combined my existence with Alice W., which offends me to the core)
2) I made a new friend in the Afro/Caribbean dance class
3) I got a lot of sleep last night.

I'm not sure if it's all evened out. It might be even, but Depressed Reason 3 seems to tip the scale in its...favor?

Auditions and Food

Yesterday was Dancer's Symposium tryouts. I was most apprehensive because I'm choreographing and I hadn't actually ever practiced the dance that I had to show people. Needless to say, when I went on stage, it didn't go so well. O yes, and did I say I missed the choreographer meeting so I didn't know what to say when I went on stage? Well, I suppose as choreographing went, it wasn't too bad. It wasn't a good selection. Most of the girls who are really good weren't interested because it seemed too easy and the girls who did try out just aren't very good. So, I'm changing it. I think they'll all be mildly horrified when they find out that the nice slow song has turned into a moderately fast song and it's slightly more hip hop and a lot less lyrical. I think I'll teach them what I've got so far and if they screw up, well, I'll go back to the easy one. Most important is having girls who can do this.
As for auditioning itself, I think it went well. For once, my pirouettes were on the spot. I'm really hoping I get into this one lyrical jazz piece, but if not, at last I'll have a few others. And if I did far worse than I thought I did, well, at least I have my own to look cool in.
After dance, I ran home and cooked for Waz's housewarming potluck. From what I'd been hearing from Waz, it seemed like there weren't many people bringing food so I decided to bring two dishes, a dinner and a dessert. For dinner, a cod and mushroom casserole that many people enjoyed. For dessert, an almond tofu (not actually tofu, just looks like it) with fruit cocktail mix of deliciousness. That went over particularly well. Waz told me that at the end of the evening, there was only one bowl's worth of the dessert left. Similarly, according to my calculation, there was exactly one bowl's worth of fish casserole left over for my enjoyment.
Ironically, I didn't have to worry about people not having enough to eat, since most of the people Waz invited decided not to show up for some stupid reason or other. I'm most annoyed with them. I managed to bring Ben, and he lives 20 miles away. Ben, by the way, was afraid he would be torturously bored or antagonized and found that he was neither. Well, maybe he was a little bored. It wasn't a problem anyway, since we left around 9 so his dogs didn't have to be locked in the house with no where to pee for too long. I brought a bit of the almond dessert I had left over to his place and gave it to his parents. His mom seemed to like it.
So, to sum up my weeked, I danced relatively well and I know I could make a pretty good dessert chef. ^_^

Hamsters and Ballerinas

I came to a strange conclusion this morning after ballet. For the majority of the day, I'm like a hamster. I like to slump over and huddle in a little area and just eat and sleep. And if I'm out and about, I just kind of sit there and look. Well, maybe I'm not a hamster per se, just a lazy fat rodent, like a guinea pig...
However, it seems after ballet class, I seem much less guinea pig-like. I guess something about the stretching in the class just makes me stand straighter. I look so much thinner after dance, or it could just be something that bothers me when I'm not exercising, that I'm getting fatter because I'm getting lazy. Who knows, my brain is wonky apparently. You can thank Barthes for that.

By Dose is Clogged

Translation: My nose is clogged.
Ernesto seems to have caused me to get a bit of a head cold. Never fear, Sinus Decongestant is waiting for me upon my arrival home. Thank god.
Other than that, nothing of note has been happening lately. I had a nice Labor Day weekend with my benny-bean. He was very nice and drove me all the way to Ikea and suffered through the whole ordeal. To pay him back, I'm going to make a delicious spaghetti dinner for him. Hopefully I don't burn anything.
Right now, I wish I had a tissue...

First Week

Classes seem to be in full swing now. I actually find myself enjoying it so far. It possibly has something to do with the fact that I am only (only!) taking six classes this semester and most of them are fun, or at least, interesting. I think the only one I'm really not excited about is the Mechanical Systems one, but that's mostly because it's so early.
I had a most pleasing day yesterday. For studio, we had to make that occupancy poster. So I made mine. I might post it, but basically it's a big grey word (Occupancy) going diagonally across the page, and I altered a few letters and turned them into the phrase, "Occupancy - function of habitation." There was actually no hyphen, it's just implied. And then I made little red silhouettes sit on the words or around them.
I was quite worried in class when everyone hung up their posters and basically all of them were chock full of words or images. And then there was mine. Four words, four silhouettes. So I started to worry and then continued to worry as the studio progressed and went on for an hour where it seemed absolutely no one noticed my poster. Finally, my professor says he's been waiting and waiting and I guess he just didn't want to wait any longer, and he wants to know all about the Russian Constructivist poster. I felt like a bad student as I wondered what the heck that meant, and felt even dumber when I realized that he meant mine. And what's worse is when I started talking about it, he thought I was talking about the wrong poster because I didn't turn my head all the way to look at it. Yes, everyone, my eyeballs are quite flexible too. So I just muttered about the poster a little bit, basically saying that there's not much to say and then he says he really likes it. Then Stephanie chimes in and says she likes it too! Yay! So I guess I wasn't a complete idiot.
Then my day became especially pleasing at bookbinding. Passion-wise, I think I've found my calling. I love books. I love reading them, I love making them. I do think that I would willingly sit at a table for hours and work on a book until it was perfect. When the professor mentioned that one of his former students is in NY with her own firm specializing in letterpressing and bookbinding I got to thinking, maybe that's all I really want to do. Maybe when I'm all done with school and have worked for a few years, I'll just start a little business where I can make pretty books for gifts, cards and whatnot and even do custom binding and such for those who want fancier portfolios. It wold be like Kinko's except that the employees would actually have brains. Sounds like a credible business, maybe? I think it might work, though mom wouldn't approve because she would probably think that it wouldn't have much in the way of customers. Who knows?

The Rising Tide of Doom

Every year on the first day of classes, I always feel waves of dread as the teachers, who act as if they were going easy on us, assign one assignment after another.
Still, the day went well.
I started out the day by going to my Mechanical Systems class where the teacher talked about how he intends to go easy on us. Then he gave us our homework. We have to go to a fast food restaurant and stare at the vents, and hold our cheeks against the cracks between doors. As silly as it sounds, there is a point to it. I'm going with a couple of people today so we don't look like complete idiots.
Then, I sat around with some people for three hours since we don't have any studio space.
Studio consisted of an hour long lecture by Laura Lee and various higher ups in the department. Apparently our school is hosting the AIAS northeastern quad conference. I wonder what that's going to entail. Then we went to our new studio and stood around for what felt like another hour until our professors decided to show up. They all gave really long course descriptions, but fortunately, all of them sound good (in comparison to last year, anyway). I'm looking forward to whichever Professor I end up with.
I ended up the day with a ballet class at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater. The thing about dancing there is that most of the people there have been dancing there, with the same teachers, for years. Many are professional ballerinas. So, needless to say, with basically five years of spotty ballet lessons, I felt horribly ungraceful and fat. Still, I felt great walking out of class, so I'm going back for more torture on Thursday, hopefully with a classmate in tow.
Now I have to figure out how to define "Occupancy." I looked it up in the dictionary, but somehow I doubt that the teacher was going for the exact definition. I see a big word on my 11x17. A big diagonal "Occupancy" and probably a smaller "Habitation." We'll see where I go with that.

The Unfairness of it All

So, since the non-major jazz class in the school of drama stopped for good last semester, I worked with the class president (or whatever his official title is) to put together a good, technique based dance class together. Today, I found out that there will be a class (yay), but, like all the other classes I want to take, it's during studio (curses!) So, yes, I'm feeling very put out about that.
On the upside, I contacted my landlord the other day, who just happens to be a former ballet dancer for the PBT about dance classes. Today I talked to him on the phone about it and he is good friends with the head of the ballet department at Point Park, which I hear is very very good. So maybe I won't have a technique-less year. After trying to get back in shape this summer, having a year where all I do is forget how to keep my hips aligned is horrifying. Here's to Point Park.

The Unfairness of it All

So, since the non-major jazz class in the school of drama stopped for good last semester, I worked with the class president (or whatever his official title is) to put together a good, technique based dance class together. Today, I found out that there will be a class (yay), but, like all the other classes I want to take, it's during studio (curses!) So, yes, I'm feeling very put out about that.
On the upside, I contacted my landlord the other day, who just happens to be a former ballet dancer for the PBT about dance classes. Today I talked to him on the phone about it and he is good friends with the head of the ballet department at Point Park, which I hear is very very good. So maybe I won't have a technique-less year. After trying to get back in shape this summer, having a year where all I do is forget how to keep my hips aligned is horrifying. Here's to Point Park.

Cow?

Today we had a family outing. Yay! Where did we go as a family? Grocery shopping! Yay!
The main reason for shopping today was that we're going to be having a big barbecue tonight and there's a lot and lot of people coming over. So we went to Stew Leonards, a local supermarket where everything is extra fresh, and mom and dad stared at different cuts of steak for what must have been twenty minutes. While they were doing that, the oddest thing happened.
The thing about Stew Leonards is that it's a family friendly place, so it has little robotic things that come alive at a push of a button and do something cute, like lay an egg or sing a song. Occasionally, there's people in cow or duck costumes that walk around and play with kids. Never grownups, occasionally teens, but mostly kids. Which is why it was really odd when a cow came up to May and me while we were waiting for our parents. We were talking in a corner and all of a sudden, there's a cow...standing...right...there... My first response is, "O my god." It waves and then holds its hand in mid-air, and I wonder why, and then May gives the cow-person a mid-five, because it certainly wasn't high enough to be a high-five. Then the cow turns to me, so I respond with another uncertain mid-five. And just like that, cow-person turns around and walks into the back room.
Random. Very odd.
So we stood there for the rest of the time trying to figure out what the deal was with cow-person. At first I thought maybe it was someone I knew. Then we theorized cow-person was sent as an undercover cow-scout to figure out why we were just standing in the corner for twenty minutes. As if I would take that long if I wanted to shoplift...