Happy

When I first moved back into Erica's place, I almost wondered if I'd made some sort of mistake. The place was a dark, stuffy hole in the wall filled with junk. No one hung out and it was incredibly dirty, and what's worse, my bedroom smelled of cigarettes all the time. Turns out it was all Rachel and her boyfriend Devin. They had a ton of junk they couldn't fit into their rooms so they let it all flow out into the common area, they left dirty dishes and their junk all over the kitchen, had a ton of rotting food in the fridge, ate other peoples' food and lied about it, smoked cigarettes and pot in the apartment and lied about it. What pisses me off the most was that I got migraines because of their smoking and they blatantly lied about the smoking. If I see either of them again, I will not be nice at all. Thank god they moved out.

And sure enough, I'm back in the world of "I love my roommates." There is Erica, of course, and just like last year she's barely around, but when she is, she cleans up the apartment, gets new things for it, rearranges things. Well, after all, the apartment is her baby. And then there's Chelsea, who just seems to be really cool thus far. Very laid back, fun to talk to, likes to cook and bake, works at Crumbs and gets to bring home free stuff. I met her after her work on Sunday, got free cupcakes, and then we went to the Chelsea Market and looked at kitchenwares together. She ended up going elsewhere and getting an awesome Henckel's chef's knife. We chat in the kitchen a lot, and both like to cook and bake. We're doing dumpling night tonight. Yum!

I think what I was really missing when living in Astoria is having roommates that genuinely care about the well-being of the apartment. I feel like my main requirements are 1) don't be a pig, 2) don't treat the apartment like your closet and 3) don't treat me like your maid. It's weird how difficult it is to find that...

Happy Sunday

I just had a lovely Sunday. I was supposed to do lunch with my sister and Julia, but Julia felt cruddy, so she asked to do dinner instead. So, I went to the gym, ran for 40 minutes and then took my 90 minute aerialist yoga class. Fortune would have that my very favorite yoga teacher was subbing for my second favorite yoga teacher. This lady is a kooky Israeli yogi hippie, but she teaches a darn good class. One of the hammocks was torn and we ended up being one short for a full class. The girl that ended up getting screwed over raised such a hissy-fit that the yoga teacher just gave the girl her hammock. So, you would think that a girl with such entitlement would be amazing. Nope, of course not. She was horrible, had bad alignment, kept turning to me to say things like, "Well, THAT was a useless pose. It didn't stretch anything." Nod and smile... The teacher initially tried to teach the class by having the girl move over so she could get in the hammock and demonstrate, but I think entitlement girl got this annoyed look, so the teacher started using me as her demonstrator. Mostly, I think, because I was located just off center of her. It was pretty fun, in any case. And once she realized how flexible I was, she started to power stretch me. Who knew anyone could go beyond a split? And she kept going on about how I had a lovely body, amazing flexibility, lovely dancer strength and sense. Phew! Be still my heart, I'm blushing! Guess Weight Watchers with all those dance classes really pays off!
After that I met up with my roomie at her job at Crumbs where I was greeted with FREE CUPCAKES!! Best roommate perk EVER! Last year's free Moma perk is nothing compared to this. I got to pick any two I wanted. Sooo goooood. Then Chelsea and I went to this restaurant supply store which had a lot of awesome things for half the price of Bed Bath and Beyond and William Sonoma. It's located inside Chelsea Market which is an event in and of itself. I'm going to have to bring Axel there. I love those sort of places. Ended up picking up a mini offset spatula and some tips for my future cupcake adventures.
After all this, I went out to Flushing for dinner with May and Julia. We went to a Korean place right around the corner from Gramma's. I ordered a bibimbap and what I got...was not like any other bibimbap I've ever had. Usually it's rice mixed with kimchi and other stuff. This place served what basically amounts to a salad with rice and literally strips of raw beef and a raw egg. I was a tad dubious at first, but then the waitress mixed it up for me and it turned out to be delicious. I'm going to fry the leftovers before I eat them. Hope I don't get tapeworms. On the other hand, if I have a tapeworm, I can eat more free cupcakes! Julia left a little after 9, and I went with May to Gramma's (Gramma wasn't home, playing Mahjongg till sunrise) and we cut up the raspberry cupcake. Delicious! It was actually kind of nice to just sit there with May. It felt almost like it was May's apartment, didn't have the parents or gramma to deal with.
And now I'm home. Nice nice day. Though I've feeling some back twinges and my hands hurt like hell from yoga class. Hope I'll be able to move tomorrow...

So. Mom has multiple sclerosis. Doctor thinks that she might have had it since she was 30. I don't really know what multiple sclerosis is. All the medical dramas on t.v. basically show it as a slow disease where people temporarily lose function of a certain part or parts of their body, and it gets worse and worse and the loss of function becomes permanent as time progresses. So basically, Mom probably won't be traveling the world in her retirement as she hoped she would. She'll be sitting in a wheelchair in a home somewhere because she trained us so well as a family to be unsupportive of each other. Congratulations, Mom.

Bushwick, Baby!

I moved back into Erica's apartment last weekend. So far, I've just been slowly setting up. Her apartment is rather grody, and I cleaned it up a bit during my last stay, but it had since gone back to its own ways. I got Erica to clean with me tonight. We'd talked about it with the other girls, having it be a cleaning party. Somehow it didn't feel that way. Erica didn't seem to be in a good mood at all. Rachel did her thing, and I scrubbed down the appliances and threw out a yucky old bag of flour filled with mealworms. Did get distracted at one point by the boyfriend calling me from Haiti. It's been 3 weeks now and he says he's hoping to be back by Sunday.
I was talking to Rachel's boyfriend who is a handy guy. He's been trying really hard to find a job here in the city and then I found out he's a high school dropout. No wonder. Even the verizon service people all have GEDs and they're all as dumb as rocks. He is certainly much smarter than a rock, but just by not having a GED, he is automatically not a candidate. Michael's having a hard enough time finding work without a college degree. To not even have a high school one...wow, that's rough.

Dear Mom

...you really suck. Let me count the ways.

At a family dinner, you yell at me in front of everyone for being a pig and eating too much bread. In reality, I've only had 1 slice.

And then you go on to tell a made-up story about how I'm such a pig, that I start eating anything you put on the dinner table before the table's even set. Never have I EVER done that. May and dad will pick at it, and I generally sit down to eat after they do.

You tell me just after I've eaten that I'm really fat.

You sit down in a row with Gramma and your best friend and proceed to go on with them for half an hour about how fat I've gotten and that it's really bad, and that one day I'm going to be obese because I make bad decisions and don't know how to eat well.

This is all on top of the fact that you have never had a single nice thing to say to me in the entirety of my life. Dad will say, "Very good," if I get a 100 on a test. You will go, "Where's the extra credit points?" May gets similar treatment from you.

Many a time when I come home, the first thing you say to me is, "Go bake a cake for me." What happened to hello?

You never have anything nice to say about any of my boyfriends. Nothing. You never want to meet them, and all you do is spend time talking trash about a man you know nothing about to me and to all of your friends.

The reason I never come home and visit is because of you. I don't want to be around you because all you can do is tell your daughters that they don't know anything, and that they're ill-qualified to do anything right in the world. You're irrational, loud, rude, narrow-minded and completely backwards.

So Much for Togetherness

Axel left last Friday for Haiti. He's there documenting the good work being done by Doctors Without Borders. So far, it sounds like it isn't too bad, if you disregard all the dead, dying and injured. The weather is balmy, the people are nice. I've been very nervous about him being there. This morning there was a 6.1 earthquake, and I texted him as soon as I heard to make sure he's alright. Slept through it, so that's not too bad. I just got this funny little email from him about what it's like in Haiti for the DWB organization:

well - the entire thing is pretty much a black comedy out of the chronicles of disorganization...

we were embedded with the Swiss Doctors without Borders - the deal was that we get food, shelter and logistics
and they get the footage for their own use.
Except the Swizzies dumped us with the Dutchies - which we did not even know until we realized that
there are actually an abundance of borders within the doctors without borders: the dutch somewhat get along with the belgians - but they do not
like the swiss and everybody hates the french.

except: all the individual people from those charters are pretty much from all over the world - so Carlos, a Colombian surgeon who lives in the Bronx
is refused a ride with the Belgians because he is considered Swiss. And we are like the unwanted relatives ;-)
So we crashed on the lawn with the Dutchies until they kicked us out - not because we were an inconvenience (we are not there all day
and at night we sleep on the lawn) but because we are swiss :-)

now we are with the swiss, but they did not mention that they do not have a real house so we are in tents with them - and make us rather unwelcome.
As we are IDP's now (internally displaced people) we also plunder as much as we can. We stole a bunch of cookies from the Dutch and Bananas and water
from the swiss :-)

the swiss just realized that Haiti is not on 240 Volts, so all of their equipment is not working (I just looked it up un the internet before I left). The Japanese came with a super
fancy inflatable hospital but distrust everybody and do not speak a word of french or english.

all in all it is rather interesting and i just had some delicious chicken with shallots :-)

Bitchy Broker!

Aida is the most depressing woman you will ever meet. Marlen and I found a posting from her company on Craigslist last year, saw the apartment and decided the apartment would be fine despite the fact that it was lit with fluorescents and the living room light fixture had a hub cap glued to it and a shattered shower door was lying in the kitchen. At the lease signing, she suddenly dropped a "brokers fee" bomb on us. It was listed online as no-fee, which she claimed was incorrect and "worked out a deal" where we had to pay her 1 month's equivalent instead of 1.5 months equivalent, and it had to be in cash.

Now, we're moving out of our apartment, and unfortunately, she's one of the brokers showing the place. The three of us all work jobs with very long hours, so I told her she could pick up keys after 8:30, when at least one of us would be home, or in the morning before we go to work, or some time during the weekend. She said, "No, I can't go out that late or be there that early," "No, I don't work on weekends," "No, I won't go into Manhattan to pick up the keys," and then tried to make me feel bad by saying, "You know, I work very hard. I work everyday from 9-6." Well, guess what lady, 9-6 is a good day for me. The reality is 9-8 on a normal day plus weekends, so quit your bitching! O, you have to commute to work everyday? No shit, so do I. 40 minutes one-way on public transportation pressed against dirty old men, not all alone in a cushy Lexus like you. Then she started threatening me that it's in our contract that we must make the apartment available for showing or we forfeit our security deposit. Really? You're too lazy to meet me at my work to get the keys, or meet me at any of the times that I'm available, and now you're threatening me?

I called Sam, my landlord, who was very aware of how rude a person Aida was. He even said to me, "That's how she is, she always wants to make everyone else do all the work for her. That's why I hired this other guy, he's much nicer." I'm glad he understands. He told me that he would be dealing with her in his own "special" way. I have no idea what he means by special, but I hope he stops using her as a broker, because she is a very bad representative for such a great landlord.

To the New Decade!

Happy New Year!! I just had a wonderful, relaxing, fun-filled weekend and for some reason feel far more well-rested than I did from Christmas weekend. Must have been all the mom drama that I didn't have to put up with. In any case:

Christmas was great, though for whatever reason I don't remember too many details. We went to Eric and Sylvia's house as usual, though Sylvia didn't get to the house till around 9 or 10pm. I brought a delightful little pear-pistachio tart which I thought turned out really tasty. I should have made it bigger though. Maybe next time. We all hung out, watched 2012, chatted. I borrowed my uncle's really awesome new Nikon and went around taking pictures. Gramma got excited that the entire family was together and made us all take family photos. Guess it has to be done at some point...

The day after Christmas, May and I went to a local diner to see some childhood friends. Everyone seemed to be doing pretty well. May's friend who always hated me when we were little is oddly much nicer now that we're all grown up. I think it's because we work in related industries and are the only ones living in NY, so he feels like we have the most in common now. In any case, brunch was very nice.

The Saturday after Christmas, May and I were sitting in May's room playing video games when mom walked in. Mom went into this really long spiel about weddings and relationships and how there was a place for the woman in the home and how important it was to find a man that can take care of you, blah blah blah, sexist stuff. I was all for operation get-May-a-boyfriend, but then mom kept talking and the longer she talked, the less interested I was in helping and the more offended I got at her backwards way of thinking. In any case, the true goal of her lecture was that a northern Chinese neighbor had some boys from Beijing coming over for the weekend, and she and mom decided to introduce my sister in the vain hope that she and one of the boys might hook up. Unfortunately, most of the boys were asian guidos. The one that wasn't, and happened to be the boy of most interest, was actually kind of cute. The downside was that he and May wouldn't talk to each other, and really, they couldn't anyway because May's Chinese is filled with stuttering (no offense, May) and the boy could barely speak English. As for me, I felt like the painted whore in the room because I date white men and wear makeup. There you go, Mom, that's why I'll never marry a nice Chinese boy, because I'm tainted.

Then there was work. I felt incredibly tired. I blame my mother. She causes me a lot of stress which is very draining. Ironically, I was far busier this past weekend, and I feel far more relaxed.

So, Thursday was New Years Eve and I went with Marlen and her friends and met up with Brian, my old roommate. We went to Alice's Tea Cup. I tried to call in a reservation, but you have to actually physically walk in and put your name down so I was the vanguard since everyone else was very slowly puttering. Brian seemed to have a good time and seemed to like everyone. Then I went home and cleaned, and then went to Axel's. His buddy, Yuri, invited us to go to a party, and I invited Brian. Brian almost invited Ken, but then Axel said that we were already riding on the coattails of someone already riding on coattails, and it wouldn't be good to bring too many people. All's better anyhow, I didn't feel like being around people I dislike. They thought Brian was very awkward, but nice. From the two minutes they saw of Ken...well, they didn't seem to care for him so much. In any case, the party was great. I spent a long time just catching up with Brian, and then I spent the later portions of the evening with Axel. Yuri was extremely drunk and kept making me do little twirls. Guess he thought I looked like a pretty-pretty little princess. At one point, I was sitting with Axel on the couch, and then Yuri sat down practically on top of me and started philosophizing about love and family and told me that I shouldn't let my idiot mother dictate my love life because she's trying to grab onto the past which is no longer there. He also mentioned that my being upset is greatly upsetting to Axel. Pooh. He also said something of which I can't remember, but I interpreted it to mean that Axel loves me very much, and that's just fine by me!

Next day, I took Brian and Stacy (from Dancer's Symposium!) to dinner in Astoria and then to my apartment for some dessert. Greek yogurt with honey, walnuts and pomegranate. Brian joked that after 2 years, I'm still feeding him all the time. It was nice to catch up with the two of them. Next day was a huge day of spring cleaning. All the floors are squeaky clean. The next day was a day of sleeping in, and then going to the movies with Axel. All in all a great way to start the new year.

I just calculated that Axel and I will be celebrating 1 year in 2 days. Who knew?! Good thing I thought to figure it out. For some reason, I thought it was a week or so later.

Weekend

I went home this weekend to get my laptop. It arrived last week. It's running Windows 7 which I can only describe as swooshy. Not too sure how I like the interface. If anything, I find it a little difficult to find things. Supposedly you can just type whatever program you're looking for into this search thing on the start button, but...well, I'd rather just do it through the big pop-up menus. Old habits die hard, I guess. The new laptop is a definite upgrade, but the video card really sucks. I tried out Assissin's Creed and it ran very slowly. Knights of the Old Republic runs pretty well, though, and the sound and movie watching quality is awesome. Considering I play video games once a week at most, I'm not too broken up about the lack of video card power. I only paid $800 for this thing and if I wanted a real gaming laptop, that would be at least $1500.

In other news, we had a wierd family lunch today. We were eating rice porridge and mom had cut up one of those thousand-year old egg things. At one point, Dad suggested I have some and I said no thanks. Yuck. May went, "Angela hates runny eggs, right Ange?" And I nodded. Then Dad went, "Well, just wait till she's pregnant. THEN she'll like them." What? WHAT? Where did that come from? I don't plan on getting knocked up anytime soon, thanks very much. And if I did want to get knocked up, well 1) I'd want to have my architect's license first and 2) I would want to have a potential dad who didn't just recently refer to babies as worm-like ugly things. No babies for me, thanks very much. I guess Mom and Dad are kind of freaked out that I'm dating Axel and seem to be in it for the long run. No babies. Ew.

Fancy Partay!

Last night, Karen and I went to a party an alum friend of mine invited me to. Karen and I must be the oldest young people in the world, or maybe she's just shy and I was tired from work, but we left at 10. In any case, the invite said the dress code was festive and after dithering for a while on what that meant, I decided last minute to wear a pretty dress I bought last year from Espirit, and I borrowed a festive red belt from my coworker Mallary. Add to that a nice black faux-fur bolero and bright red sling-backs. I was worried I was going to be overdressed, and I showed up and found out I was perfectly dressed. I also found out that Phillippe, who I was aware was wealthy, is VERY wealthy in that he owns a hedge fund. My guess is the nice older gentleman I met last year at the Presidential Debate Party (who sadly did not show up tonite) is similarly wealthy and probably owns his own hedge fund. In any case, all the people I met were in their late 30s to 50s and they either were hedge fund/wall street people, or worked for the UN or something similarly impressive. They weren't snobby at all though. In fact, if I were to ask Phillippe what he did, he'd be very reluctant to tell. Apparently they're all like that.

It's funny though, the general personality of the people there was kinda boring. A lot of awkward conversation that died quickly. Wow, you're an architect and you make buildings! Yeah. So... Soo........Hmmmm....

There were actually two young ladies that Karen and I spent a long time talking to. I think they're both around my age. On of the girls' mom is a lesbian who came out and dumped her hubby when she was 8, and her mom's girlfriend is her age. Funny, no? And she's comfortable enough with her mom that mom came along to the party. I would NEVER take my mom to a party with me.

In any case, Karen and I got bored and ditched the party at 10, went to Grey's Papaya and got hot dogs and pina coladas and then trekked home. Fun fun fun. :)

Mosying On Up

God. I just got handed the responsibility card.

The office has lunch seminars once almost every week where people come in, present their product or teach a class. They bring food as an incentive to make people show up, though I find that a lot of people are just really rude jerks that just run in, grab food and run out, but I digress. The responsibility person who arranges all of this has a one year tenure and one of the bosses just came over and asked me to take over for the next year, and it'd be kind of awkward to say no and I think he knew that. Evil. That's a lot of work....and talking on phones....

Well, at least I know they aren't planning on firing me....

Down in the Deep South, Y'all

I went on my very first business trip last week. It wasn't actually that they needed me, but it was more because I had been working on the project for a really long time and they thought I should see what I've been working on. Soooo, it was mostly like vacation!

I flew into Jackson with James' wife and baby. The baby is quite the screamer. She screamed during the entire flight and then she screamed the entire ride into town. I thought her eyes were about to pop out of her head. Fortunately, it was only 20 minutes to my hotel. I'm sure to the casual passerby, it looked like James was picking up his wife and child and that adopted daughter from a previous marriage.

The hotel room I stayed in was bigger than my apartment. I had my own personal foyer, balcony, gigantic bathroom, two televisions and turn-down service. Actually, I didn't like the turndown service because for some reason they always turned on the television and all the lights...2 hours before I got back to the room to turn it all back off... In any case, having all that room and not having to share was quite unsettling. I kept expecting a couple of people to show up at any moment to say that I don't get all that space to myself. The hotel was really nice. It's located in downtown Jackson where, surprisingly, nothing happens at all. Everything closes around 7 or 8 so when my flight arrived super late, I had to beg the innkeeper for a little food. She was kind enough to take me to the kitchen where I grabbed a bowl of cereal. Breakfast was great though. Grits are amazing, and so are freshly sliced and herbed tomatoes.

Day 1 was pretty much me following Hugh everywhere. I had breakfast with Hugh and his wife. Then we went to a meeting where they selected the artist that would have her work displayed throughout the courthouse. The first one had a really lovely presentation. Her work is very spatial, very architecturally imbedded into spaces. That's why we were all surprised when she showed us her proposal for the court house and it was just a rectangular chainmail curtain hanging over a stair case. The second prospective artist was a nice old man who made what amounts to steel mobiles. I think the court's qualm with that is that it looked like mobiles of little shiny knives. The last one was the unanimous pick. It was a colorful, frothy, happy looking cloud made up of strips of glass. After that, I had to sit in on a punchlist meeting - basically where the client and tenant griped about what they didn't like and what they wanted us to fix. By then it was the end of the day, and I went out to dinner at a fancy place called Julep with my former coworker, Mary, who just happened to be going to school in Jackson.

Day 2 was tiring. James and I spent the entire morning running around the building making a field observation report. Then we had lunch with his family (they were in Jackson for the 2 week stay as well). Back to the site, back into the building. At this point, my steel toe boots had become like shackles. They're tight around my ankles, so it keeps rubbing when I walk. Fortunately, we just had a quick jaunt through the mud (at one point, I got stuck because of the suction and had to pull myself out by holding onto the fence) and then we went to the roof and back to the trailer where I was released for the day. After going to my room to change into my comfy shoes, I walked to the local architecture school where Mary's class was giving final presentations. I liked seeing what their school looked like and what they were working on. Very different focus from CMU. I can honestly say I never poured a block of concrete in my life, nor would I really know how to begin. The presentations themselves were a little disappointing. All the drawings were really small and no one showed any process work. Ah well. I gave Mary a few suggestions. Don't know if she took them or not. In any case, after presentations were over, she took me to a Vietnamese place for dinner. Giant bowls of Pho for only $5.50!

The last day was the construction meeting. I sat between James and the guy running the show. It was pretty boring, just going through the schedule and making sure things are in compliance. At one point, the tenant freaked out at James for not updating our drawings to reflect what they changed and the client freaked out that we weren't giving the tenant what they wanted. James just blinked. I got a little riled up. The client forgot that THEY were the ones that told us not to make the changes. Ugh. The tenant also later criticized James for not thinking outside the box, and all I could do is write in my sketchbook, "So says the 'architect' with the baby soft hands and cushy government job." That guy hasn't even tried to think outside of the box in years. He can't even read shop drawings right.

Whatever...After the meeting, I hopped into a car with the security consultant and he drove me to the airport. The last stretch of flying from Atlanta to New York terrified me. Everytime we got turbulence, I'd break out into cold fear-sweat. Urgh, I hate flying.

It was a fun trip, but I sure am glad to be back in New York!

Partay!

Yesterday was the big office 5 year anniversary. I think it turned out really well. Lots of peoples showed up even though it was raining out, there was lots of food and these special "H3-tinis." Some mixologist came up with the recipe and it was basically a cinnamon flavored Prosecco and some apple sugar on the rims of the glasses. I had three and got very tipsy and loud...and I remember gesturing wildly and talking very animatedly to a couple of the senior associates and one of the clients, and one of the girls from the office named Lissa. I also got caught at one point by the guy who did the wallpaper for our office. Very nice man, but he talked at me for half an hour. Mallary noticed, fortunately, and rescued me.

I left around 10:30 and on the way out, a couple of the girls at the office started raving about how great I look everday with the pretty dresses and the perfect hair. I guess Yuri wasn't the only one who noticed. Funny how Axel always just goes, "Of course, that's just how she is." Either way, it's nice to know my efforts aren't lost on people.

Best thing is that this morning, I open the fridge and it's chock full of all the leftover fruit! They put it alluringly in a big glass bowl in the fridge. There was also a tin with leftover cheesecake and cupcakes. James promptly grabbed them...all of them....O well, I'm on a diet anyway. I have a happy little pile of grapes sitting next to me.

Awkwardness

Oy, one of my worst nightmares happened last night.

Axel just came off of a harrowing week of 16 hour day shoots, so he suggested we go to the Russian Turkish Bath House. It was "fun" as usual. Sit in the Turkish room, sweat a lot, go out and take a plunge in the ice cold pool. Then go in the Russian room, sweat a lot, go out and take another plunge. Repeat. Axel seems to take great pleasure in grabbing me and pulling me into the pool. Something about me squealing in consternation because he's up to something mischevious I'm sure.

Here's where the nightmare began. Around 9:30 or so, we're still sitting in the Turkish Room and I'm chatting with this old fellow named Abe and who walks in but Acrobat Guy - this guy I dated way back last September. I made sure to introduce Axel, but AG didn't really look at him too much, just chatted with me. Could be because Axel was sitting on one of the upper levels and having hurt his neck, AG found it difficult to look up at him. Or maybe it was because Axel was giving him the glare of death. Who knows? Well, AG and I caught up on things and then he went on his merry way. After a few minutes, Axel and I left too - not before I got dunked in the ice water of course.

Fight!

There was a fight in my subway car this morning, and for once, it was right near me so I got to see all the action. A hispanic woman was getting on the train when a gray haired hispanic man saw her and shoved her off. Then a black get next to them shoved the gray haired guy off in retaliation (I guess for him, there's no excuse to harm a lady). The gray haired guy got angry and in all his hurt pride, decided to hold the train door open, thus ruining our morning commute and dashing all hope that we'd get to work on time. 10-15 minutes later, the guy is dragged out the door and as the doors close, the lady starts shouting at him in Spanish. Marlen said at one point she yelled, "Yeah, I may be a slut, but I'm a proud slut." My guess is that the lady and the gray haired guy knew each other, and she had cheated on him.
Be that as it may, when you're already at a point in life when your hair is completely gray, you should be mature enough not to hold the train doors open. That makes him look more like a selfish fool than a vindicated jilted lover. The lady sitting by us was annoyed and said that this only happens with street people, and they should not ruin it for the rest of us who actually have jobs and work for a living.

Roommate?

My roommate, the bipolar gay one, has decided that he is no longer able to handle the pressures and temptations of the city and is moving out. Now Marlen and I need to find someone for the last 3 months of our lease. $600/m with around $40 extra for all utilities. Anyone know of anyone?

Happy

I'm happy right now. At this very moment. Here's why:

1) It's Friday.
2) I have a job and it's fulfilling and generally great.
3) I have a whole bunch of friends - dancer friends, work friends, friends of friends, alum friends - and they keep in touch and we hang out.
4) I have an amazing boyfriend. 'Nuff said.
5) I have my dance hobby.
6) I've established two goals that I intend to work towards:
a) taking culinary classes and making amazing food
b) becoming a teacher at a school, preferably for BIM or Structures.

Mom Wants a Castle

So, a few months back at a dinner with friends, Axel told a funny anecdote about his family. Apparently he is descended from landed nobility. His great-grandfather had one of the most modern and largest brick factories in Germany, and he bought Axel's grandfather a large castle/manor as a wedding present. There they lived until after World War II when the Russians came. Being in East Germany, Grandpa left the key in the door, grabbed the kids and ran into West Germany where Axel grew up.

I told my mother this story as part of another overall funny story, but boy did she fixate on "CASTLE." The other day, I call her up to ask her how to make sweet potato soup (which, btw, consist of sweet potato, ginger and brown sugar) and she started asking all about the castle. So the conversation went somewhat like this:

Mom: So I think Axel should take the castle back.
Me: I don't think he wants the castle back, mom. What would he do with it?
Mom: Well, he doesn't have to live in it, he can charge the tenants rent.
Me: I don't think so, Mom. It's currently the city's townhall and police station. You can't take away town hall.
Mom: He should be able to go and say, this castle was mine before the war and I'd like it back now. The Native Americans do it with land.
Me: Sounds like a hassle. And he would have to take care of the thing. And besides, castles aren't nice to live in, they're dark and drafty.
Mom: I still think he should get it back. Tell him he should try.

I mentioned it to Axel later, mostly because I thought he'd find it amusing. And indeed he did, and he also mentioned that he wouldn't have a right to it, seeing as the war was lost. I think the conversation had him get curious about the manor, so he dug up a photo, and researched his family history a little. It's pretty interesting stuff. I wish my family had history to keep track of. Maybe there is, but my parents are both pretty sparing with their stories.

HOW MUCH HAVE YOU CHANGED IN 15 YEARS

***15 YEARS AGO (1994)****
1) How old were you? 9
2) Who were you dating? Boys?! Ew.
3) Where did you work? Does elementary school count as my profession?
4) Where did you live? Danbury, CT
5) Where did you hang out? Home, Meredith’s
6) Did you wear contacts and/or glasses? Glasses, giant blue framed plastic ones
7) Who was your best friend? Meredith Freed
8) How many tattoos did you have? None
9) How many piercings did you have? None
10) What kind of car did you drive? Couldn’t drive
11) Had you been to a real party? Nope
12) Had you had your heart broken? Nope
13) Were you Single/taken/Married/Divorced? Boys?! Ew.
14) Any Kids? I WAS a kid.

***10 YEARS AGO (1999)***
1) How old were you? 14
2) Who were you dating? No dating, just pining for Brendan Irving.
3) Where did you work? Carvel Ice Cream Bakery (under the table, shhhhh)
4) Where did you live? Danbury, CT
5) Where did you hang out? Home
7) Who were your best friends? Christina Dalonzo, Heidi Brainard
8) How many tattoos did you have? None
9) How many piercings did you have? None
10) What kind of car did you drive? Still couldn’t drive
11) Had your heart broken? Nope
12) Were you Single/Taken/Married/Divorced? Always single.
13 Any Kids? Ew

****5 YEARS AGO(2004)****
1) How old were you? 19
2) Who were you dating? Luke
3) Where did you work? Didn’t work yet, though I had a summer job at Williams Sonoma, and another at Filene’s
4) Where did you live? Pittsburgh, PA
5) Where did you hang out? Studio, the computer lab or in the Dungeon with all the engineering guys
7) Who were your best friends? Waz, Zach
8) How many tattoos did you have? None
9) How many piercings did you have? None
10) What kind of car did you drive? No car, still couldn’t drive
11) Had your heart broken? More like I was extremely disappointed, once, but I lived
12) Were you Single/Taken/Married/Divorced? Single, but dating!
13 Any Kids? Nope

****TODAY (2009)****
1) Age? 24
2) Where do you work? H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture
3) Where do you live? Astoria, NY
5) Who are your closest friends? Waz, Marlen, Erica
6) Do you talk to your old friends? I live with one, and talk to the other online almost every day
7) How many piercings do you have? none
8) How many tattoos? None
9) What kind of car do you have? What is this driving you speak of?
10) Had your heart broken? Nope, but I think I’ve broken a few
11) How many kids? 0!
12) Are you Single/Taken/Married/Divorce? Going steady with a nice guy.
13) Contact or Glasses? Glasses – tried contacts but they hurt too much

Premiere!

Last night was the premiere for Axel's documentary. It's part of a film festival called Urbanworld which is hosted by BET and HBO. As a filmmaker, Axel got a pass for himself and for a guest, so I got the niftiness of getting to be his guest. We went to the opening of the festival on Wednesday night where they showed "Law Abiding Citizen." It's directed by F. Gary Gray who was being specially honored by the festival, and there to present the award was none other than Gerard Butler. Axel and I were sitting about 4 rows back, right in the center so I was pretty much eye to eye with Butler. First super famous person I ever saw in person and recognized! The movie itself is good - very fast paced, enjoyable, surprising. I'm not a huge action movie person, but I enjoyed it. I didn't look at my watch a single time, and maybe yawned twice. Axel and I went out to dinner after, at around midnight, but the area was pretty dead and we both had horrible salads at a little diner. He did order a moussaka that was quite tasty though.

Friday night was kind of star-studded. I wouldn't say it WAS star studded, but there were a lot of famous people from the industry there. Thing is that they don't appear to be famous unless you had a very intimate knowledge of the industry. Celebrity-wise, Fat Joe and DJ Cassidy were there, as well as another person who's name I can't remember. Axel pointed out some guy who had a blingy mansion in the Hamptons. For the most part, I stood around looking lost and forlorn. Axel was very busy giving interviews and greeting newcomers. I didn't want to be that annoying girlfriend pasted to his side, or the clingy girlfriend who butts into every conversation, so I stood off to the side and considered hiding in the bathroom and reading a book till Axel's friends that I do recognize show up. Finally, Axel's landlord showed up. He's a very rich Jewish guy that lives up by Central Park and decided to jog to the premiere. I learned something new. At hip hop events, the more dressed down you are, the more important people think you are. The landlord was wearing a track suit and sneakers and everyone immediately wondered if he was some up and coming Jewish rapper. Hilarious. We ended up chatting about real estate. He asked me if I lived with Axel to which I replied, "Nooooo." Then he said that there's an apartment on the 3rd floor of Axel's building if I was interested, to which I replied, "NOOOOOOOO." A girl needs space. I am happy with adjacent neighborhoods.

The documentary was extremely well received. The audience was very engaged the whole time, and laughed at everything. Axel hopes very much that the people at BET noticed and will buy his film. At the end, there was a Q&A - not for Axel who made the movie, but for Johnny. At the very end he yelled, "To all those ladies out there, I'd like to introduce David Beckham's stunt double, single and disease-free, Axel!" To which I semi-audibly went, "single?! SINGLE?!" If I ever get Johnny one on one, I'm going to bitch that man out. Single my ass.

The after-party was at a nightclub called Greenhouse. Apparently, Johnny worked out a deal with them, and Heineken and Mountain Dew sponsored the after party. Then we all showed up and the bouncers were really rude and not letting people in. There were supposed to be banners up all over and there weren't any. And THEN, the most offensive part - Greenhouse only let the open bar go until midnight. The screening of the movie ENDED at midnight, so no one would have been able to make it at all. Johnny had made that very clear several times. Greenhouse basically stole liquor from the sponsors. Axel stopped for a burger and we chatted about the movie. I actually think I enjoyed that moment the most out of the evening, because I finally got to actually talk to him and have him to myself. After that, we stood outside until the bouncer FINALLY noticed us and Axel went, "Let us in, I'm the producer of the movie." Swoosh, the ropes parted and we walked by a bunch of bankers and baby-faced, acne-ridden boys and freezing girls and went down into the darkness and pounding music. I stood awkwardly in a corner again and tried to pretend I was enjoying myself. All I did was reaffirm that nightclubs aren't my scene. Fortunately, everyone including Axel thought the party sucked and we cut out after he made his rounds. I swear, I permanently lost some hearing in that stupid club. Axel went, "God, you couldn't pay me to go into places like that. $1600 for a table a night? F@#$ that!" Agreed!

Phew, what a night.

Tomorrow, I'm going to the tranny ballet with Estee. Yay!