Okay, I'm going to say it now. My roomie and her boyfriend piss me off. Their hoity-toity, we're better than you attitude pisses me off. When she criticizes Michael for not doing enough around the apartment IN FRONT OF HIS BOYFRIEND DESPITE THE FACT THAT HE'S BEEN DOING WAY MORE THAN SHE HAS THIS PAST MONTH AND FRANKLY ALL ALONG, it pisses me off. When she opens my door without knocking, it pisses me off. When she criticizes the state of my bedroom, it pisses me off. When she and her boyfriend go, "Waaaait, we have a few more things to do before you turn off the light and we no longer get to use your room as a right of way" and further delay my sleep time even when I have to get up for work an hour earlier than they do, it pisses me off.

When she uses my rice cooker and doesn't do anything with the rice and leaves the cooker plugged in, it pisses me off. When she uses my food or utensils, and neither puts anything away or cleans anything up, it pisses me off. When she leaves all of her bath products all over the tub area while Michael and I considerately keep our bathroom real estate to a minimum, it pisses me off. When I'm trying to go to sleep and she's talking on her cellphone, it pisses me off. When I am talking on my cellphone and she asks me to be quiet because I'm inconveniencing her, it pisses me off. When she alerts me to something and it's obviously a thinly veiled criticism towards something about me or Michael, it pisses me off. When she borrows my DVDs and somehow thinks that leaving it faceup on my dresser or the coffee table is equivalent to returning it to the DVD case, it pisses me off. When she cooks food and leaves it sitting out when she knows she's going to be gone for days on end, it pisses me off.

When she criticizes me for any slight form of a PDA that I might display with Axel while she and her boyfriend pretty much suck face and drown the room in their sappy disgusting love goo all the time, it pisses me off. When she changes the way she thinks just for her boyfriend, and only when he's around, it pisses me off.

And I'm just saying, don't you ever judge me. A person who thinks they're better than anyone based on what they DON'T do in life should take a good hard look at themselves. They're all just frogs living at the bottom of the well.

I want to move out.

Sauna

Last night Axel and I went to the Russian Turkish Bath House. It's this dingy old place in the lower east side that is reputed to be the oldest bath house in the city. I went there once with Rachel (old roomie) after Axel suggested it. It was nice, though I think because it was a Saturday, there was more girl-watching on the mens' part, and I sort of...um...got molested by one of the masseuses.
Much better this time. Being a Tuesday night, it was mostly regulars who come for saunas, not for staring purposes. It's nice when it's like that, and people are willing to talk to each other so it's not intimidating like those swooshy spa places.
The basic routine was 1)go into the sauna (we both preferred the russian radiant heat room), 2) quick rinse in shower, 3) go into ICE COLD pool. Repeat 4 times, with a break for carrot/apple/ginger juice (yum!) and stuffed grape leaves. The pool was ridiculously cold, like dipping your toes into ice water. Axel would hop right in and tell me to come join, but I refused every time, so he'd always swim over, grab me and pull me in. I would cling to him in a sad attempt of not freezing to death and then realize he could easily dunk me so I'd swim away fast. I must admit though, after the extreme temperatures, one feels really nice and relaxed.
Afterwards, Axel took me to dinner at a Bavarian place nearby. The owner and some friends were part of a documentary that Axel was working on about punk polka. They were going to apply for a Grammy, but sadly, it was announced not too long ago that the polka category is no longer. When Axel saw one of the guys in the documentary, he went off to go commiserate and I took the opportunity to grab the check and pay. Mwahahah. Bavarian pork roast, even the watered down American version, is most tasty.

Coney Island

Marlen's brother, Pablo came over for a visit this weekend. I realized as a person living in New York, I don't know much about touring. I hate having to figure out what to show people when they visit. I don't do much here beyond work, eat and shop, and go to dance classes. If none of those are interesting, and shows aren't interesting then I'm really at a loss. Marlen's brother had us all at a loss. No idea what he likes to do, so Marlen just took him to all the places she liked. I took the gang out to Flushing on Sunday morning for dimsum, which I think Pablo and Mark LOVED. Marlen was in the midst of food coma so I took them to Gramma's empty apartment where they just relaxed a bit while I waited for Axel to pick me up.

Axel and I took a little detour into Greenpoint for some coffee and cake, and then we made our way to Coney Island. There was a crowd of guys with zippy looking motorcycles riding around. Axel zoomed right by. They were more interested in revving their engines which I have learned is not a good thing to do to your bike. I did also notice that the girls on the backs of the other bikes were in horribly uncomfortable positions. Mostly because they were all the types of bikes where you have to lean over. Axel's is, to a degree, but I can sit up straight whereas those girls can't.

The beach was still too cold for swimming, but perfect for lying on a towel. We basically just lay in the sun and chatted for a few hours and then we got up and walked around. I tried one of the famous Nathan's hot dogs and then we went on the Cyclone (roller coaster!). Then dinner at an Uygur Restaurant in Brighton Beach. I think Uygur is the northwestern-most provice of China which borders Russia. The decor looked Tibetan, the people looked Turkish, and the food...tasted like Mom's cooking. Axel really enjoyed it and I told him if he liked it that much, he'd like mom's food. The experience was a little odd, mostly because I never expected a Turkish-looking person to cook Chinese food.

Then it was back to Astoria. A whole 45 minutes by motorcycle. A whole 45 minutes of fear sweat. No, it wasn't that bad, but I did whimper a few times when we went over a bad pothole and my butt momentarily lost contact with the seat. And it was gusty, very gusty. Axel tells me that it's an hour motorcycle ride to get to Fire Island, which we're planning on doing this summer. I told him he'd have to pull over every half hour so I could stretch a little. He assured me it wouldn't be nearly as tiring once we hit open road that wasn't pothole-ridden and start-stoppy. We'll see...there was a really nice moment on the way to Coney Island where the roads were smooth and the traffic was negligible. The sun was shining and there was water on one side and happy looking houses and grass and trees on the other.

Blergh

Recently, I keep bumping into people I haven't seen in a while and they all ask me waht's going on with my life and I go, "Work. Busy. Lots of work." Is that really all that's happening? I guess there's more. Dance. Lots of dance. I took my last Thursday night hip hop class for the summer, since the summer hours won't permit me to get to Eddie's class anymore.

Otherwise, what's been going on? Hmm...Went home for Memorial Day weekend. We had a barbecue, hung out with my cousins Jonathan and Ling. They grow up so fast. Jonathan's already going to college. It seems like not too long ago he was just starting high school, and before that, he was just an annoying little toddler. We played Settlers of Catan, which I discovered is only winnable when Eric and Sylvia aren't there. They're just too good.

Axel introduced me to a bunch of his friends at a big barbecue on Memorial Day. We had white wine, prosecco, and grilled prawns. I got a little sick so I left early, but I heard they partied till 2am or so. It seems that now I've met all the friends, the floodgates are open and it's not, "Let's go out to dinner" anymore so much as "Let's go out to dinner with my buddies." So far so good.

Axel was pissed last night because there's a gay man at the network he works for that runs equipment who has a crush on him and makes his life extra difficult because he refuses to be anything but heterosexual. Yuri doesn't help because he tells said gay man that the two of them get it on together all the time. I remain amused.

I will teach my children never to apologize until they really understand what they are apologizing for.

I will teach my children never to take anything for granted or for face value.

I will teach my children to view a dilemma from all sides and accept and understand, rather than judge.

Fat

I like how just now, I was sitting all slumped on the couch and mom comes over and says the Chinese equivalent of, "Gee, Angela. Fat much?"

Thanks, Mom.

Random

Today was pleasantly empty on the train. Marlen and I made conversation as usual even though she looked ready to pass out and Michael stared blankly into the distance. Methinks he wasn't awake yet and was meditating his way into work. This is what I hope anyway.

Last night, Marlen's fun friend Kelly (maybe I will call her "fun friend" from now on) came over. We all had pizza and merlot, and I made mango sticky rice for dessert. Super easy to make. We sang to musicals and danced to Lady Gaga in the kitchen and then read tarot cards. Marlen gave me a really accurate reading, I think. It's nice when I don't even ask the question out loud and still she knew exactly what I was thinking. Maybe it's magic. Maybe she just knows me really really well. I could go with either explanation.

O yes, last Saturday Marlen, Michael and I threw a little dinner party. I think it could be considered our housewarming. Mark, Axel and Andy (friend of Michael) came and we had a mango themed dinner. Prosciutto, brie and mango for appetizers, duck and mango sauce for dinner and thai mango sticky rice for dessert. It was overall a success. Axel had to leave early because of another business trip, sadly. The evening was overall a success. Axel, of course, said the mango sticky rice was the best part. I'm not sure if I believe him, since this what guys say to the girls they're dating.

This weekend is Mother's Day. I'm going to go buy Mom a cheesecake from Vinieros since it's the most light and delicious one I've ever tasted in my entire life. Hopefully I'll be able to take it to the train and not destroy it in the process. No pressure! We have reservations for a nice gourmet French restaurant called Ondine on Sunday. Mom will be using the $100 gift card that she got from my office for some translation services she provided. I think this is the fanciest Mother's Day we have every had. Hope it goes well.

Coming Out of the Woodworks

Seems like spring has everyone emerging back into the sunlight. I was beginning to wonder if there was something wrong with me since I have spent pretty much all my weekends and evenings at home since just after Halloween, but I think it was just because of the winter.

Friday night, Erica and her band were playing at a place in the lower east side, so I went to go see. It was great - the room was completely packed, there were people dancing. The energy was great, and it was nice to see her and Emma and Kaetii again. I ended up sleeping over her place (feels like home!) and we all went for brunch the next morning at Kellogg's Diner at the Lorimer stop. While Erica was refilling the meter, she happened upon a fledgeling bird that had fallen from his nest. She was upset, so we decided to go and save the poor thing. Kaetii scooped him up and we popped him in a paper bag and took him home. Then, Erica started regretting her decision, and upon further examination of the bird, we thought that he might possibly be sick and was actually pushed out by the mommy bird so as not to make the rest of the brood sick as well. And, we also found out that a fledgeling was extremely difficult to take care of, so in the end, it was decided to take the birdie and release him into the wild. We ended up taking him and putting him in a park behind a fence where there was plenty of plants and shade and space. Not so sure what happened to the poor fellow. Sad to say, but mostly likely, he is dead or will be in a few days.

Then I went home where I was suddenly gripped with the urge to clean. I swept and scrubbed the bathroom, kitchen and living room. I even took the rug and beat a LOT of dirt and dust out of it. A LOT.

This morning, I met Christina and the former-Lehmann for dimsum in Chinatown. 'Twas tasty, but the variety was lacking and I felt that the waiters were very rude. Well, the guy who handled our table for water, tea and taking away empty dishes was about 50 or so. I think he wasn't too pleased with his lot in life. Poor man. Still, the food was tasty. Later we went and bought frozen dumplings for later, and I bought a guava and some mangoes. I had a last minute splurge on the way back to my office. I was walking down the street and all of a sudden, noticed a table full of bonsais. One bonsai in particular, in a red pot. The other bonsais were also very nice, but none of them seem to have the right shape. Red-pot bonsai seems to have the shape with the most potential for fixing, so I took him. I think I'll name him Bob. Bob the bonsai. I hope he lives...

Tired

Is it Friday yet?

My boss told me the other day that I have to start doing more overtime. I'm reluctant. Why? Because what I'm doing is so incredibly tedious that my brain is positively fried by 4 or 5:00. I'm pretty much useless after that. Sure, the other interns work tons of overtime. They also get paid time and a half for every minute they work over 40 hours/week. I don't get paid for OT, nor do I get any comp time. It's also difficult to get excited about lists and working inside a model that's so screwed up from being subjected to multiple first-time Revit users.

I just realized today that what I'm doing right now could be what I'm doing for the rest of my life. I don't find the prospect of that very pleasing. I should have ignored Mom and gone to culinary school.

Good Friday

On Tuesday at lunch, James asked me if I was going home to be with family for the holiday. I went, "What holiday?" He looked somewhat surprised and said, "Why, Easter!" And then I blurted out, "O, we're not Christian!" Somehow I think I shouldn't have told him that. I wouldn't be surprised if I started feeling a sprinkly on the back of my head at work. It'd probably be him throwing holy water at me.

Just now, Eric, who sits on the other side of my wall, just asked his bay if today was some sort of holiday because the trains seemed empty. He actually went to Catholic school. I feel vindicated.

This morning on the train, I saw a girl with a strand of prayer beads doing her hail marys. I guess if you're on the subway for 45 minutes, you might as well multi-task. I also saw a woman pick a dollar bill off the ground and ask the guy next to her if it was his. At his confused look, she laughed and put it in her pocket. Well, she tried. Guess it's her lucky day.

Last night I went to Axel's to see his nice new kitchen. It was indeed nice. He grilled prawns in his backyard and we devoured all two pounds of it with some sort of Cuban sauce called mojo. Tasty! Apparently in the summer, he hosts "Prawn Massacres" and everyone devours pounds and pounds of the little guys with prosecco. Sounds like fun!

This morning, I woke up smelling like garlic.

Shop!

I bought a really nifty jacket from Armani Exchange on my birthday as a present to myself. I was foolishly optomistic and thought I was a small only to find that while I could zip up the jacket, I couldn't move after because of how constricting it was around the waist.
So, yesterday at lunch, I took the jacket to A/X to see if I could return it. The lady at the counter said, "O, you need an XS? We have that." To which I replied, "No no! Wait! I need to go in the other direction! Medium, medium! This seemed to upset her. She proceeded to try to convince me that I was a small at the very biggest. I decided that it's because a medium fits so well that I look like I'm an XS, so I shall happily accept being the hippo that I am.
As I was relaying the tale to Axel over dinner last night, he cut in at the exact same spot and said, "XS, right?" So the question is, is it what people genuinely think? Or is there some sort of conspiracy to tell hippo-girl she looks good while they inwardly cringe?
O, and since I noticed that there was so much more stuff on sale at the store, and there was a giganto sale going on (spend $150, take $50 off), I went a little crazy and bought 2 new dresses, neither of which are exactly appropriate for work, some nice workout clothes and a new purse. Ironically, this is the first purse I have ever purchased for myself. Strange, no?

Alive

My God, I'm still alive...

Axel took me out on his motorcycle today. He wanted to go down into Red Hook which is quite ridiculous by way of public transportation, so we went by bike instead. Once we got there, we were unable to locate the food stalls we were in search of, so we went up to Greenpoint instead. There, we went to a great Mexican place where I had my first taco since moving out of Brooklyn. Delicious. Then he drove me back home. One hour by subway, ten minutes by bike. Sweet.
Funny thing about motorcycles is that the wind blows cold and hard, and it hits very interesting spots, like...your crotch... When we got off at Greenpoint, I began to wonder if I'd wet myself because my pants were quite chilly down there. I've deduced that it was either the wind, or cold fear-sweat.
Over lunch, I confessed to being scared shitless. My knees were knocking like mad while we were going. I think in any other situation, I would have cut and run, but being on a motorcycle, you can't really do that.
I have mixed feelings about motorcycles. I compare to the sea-doo, which I rode with Ben's brother. The sea-doo was awful because he could do any sort of trick he wanted which caused me to bounce every which way, and the wind was in my face. I knew that if I fell off, it'd feel like I just got hit by a truck, just generally unpleasant.
The motorcycle felt much safer in general. I knew Axel is a responsible driver, and there's only so much variation in things you can do on the road. The helmet was also a great feeling of safety because it's like you're in your own little world, the wind whips around you outside. I think what freaked me out though, was that I knew I couldn't leave, there was no ejection button, no bail out. If I started freaking out, I had no way of telling him to please pull over, I need to cry. There were upsides, though. You see waaay more when you're on a motorbike. I never realized it, but you miss so much in a car by not being able to look up. You also move faster because you can nudge your way through any traffic jam. Strangely, my eyesight felt remarkably good while we were on the bike - I can't usually read street signs, but I could on the bike. It was also fun to see all the people stuck in their cars, groaning at how there's yet another traffic jam. It made me feel good that I wasn't stuck in a miserable tin can like they were. One more thing was that I liked that I could see people walking around outside, and they could see me, but at the same time, not really see me. I wonder what they thought when they saw us, guy and girl on a bike, faceless.

Wilting

The new apartment is nice, but certain situations are grating on my nerves. I'm not happy.

Safe!

So, I went into the whole LEED exams thing a couple of months ago with a lot of enthusiasm. After half a year of going to work and having nothing to do after, I was bored. And then there was LEED. Stress, stress, stress. It was worse than having to take a class at school, because the LEED exam costs $300, and if you fail, you're $300 down. If you pass, then the company reimburses you.
I was particularly worried when yesterday, I hit a study barrier. I was midway through reviewing EQ when I just realized I could no longer absorb any information. None. So I gave up and went to Axel's and we watched a tv show about some chem teacher who found out he had terminal lung cancer and somehow decided that he would sell crystal meth to make fast money for his family and "Old Boy" (which, by the way, is an f***ed up, but very good movie). Good brain refresh.
O, and I was further hounded by bad omens when, on the way to the testing center, I completely tripped and fell in the middle of 7th Ave and scraped my knee. A couple of ladies were kind enough to pick me up and hand me the chapstick I dropped. Stupid potholes.
Ill feelings persisted as I was unable to answer the first TEN questions of the test, but things got better. I think the best part was one I realized that one question answered another question that I wasn't sure about. Caught you, LEED! Mwaha! Ironically, as bad as today seemed, I passed! Woohoo! Hello, boring evenings!

R.I.P.

Tonight, a former floormate was killed. Morten just told me. R.I.P. Torben.

Edit: Torben was a guy who lived on my floor when I was studying abroad in Copenhagen. I knew him as well as I could, for only having been around him for 2.5 months. We had some beers together. He was always very amiable, asking how I was enjoying Copenhagen and things about school.
Last night, Morten told me that Torben was killed by the Danish police. A doctor had declared him mentally ill and sent officers to his home to get him. Apparently, he was in the middle of a post traumatic stress episode (he served in the military in Bosnia) and attacked them with a sword and a knife. He tried to get one of their guns, and they shot him.
Today, his story was splashed all over the Danish news. From what I could read, he had apparently gotten back in touch with his family for the first time in many years. He was not happy, and said he was going home to them. He had gone earlier yesterday to the hospital to try to get help. They sent him home. When they went to get him, well...everything went wrong.
This was not something he deserved. Torben, I'm so sorry.

Breathe

Today is absolutely gorgeous out. Michael and I went onto the roof and I wandered around while he had a cigarette. The sun feels wonderful, the birds are twittering, there's a soft breeze blowing over the city. I can't wait for true warm weather to be here. I can see us having a picnic on the roof.

Miscommunication

My boss asked me to send Life Safety drawings today to a consultant. I looked around and couldn't find anything updated, so I contacted the consultant who handled those things and had him send them to the appropriate people. Fine, handled. I shoot an email to my boss to let him know what's going on. He then replies that the "file" is in some sort of update package for millwork. Millwork? Why would Life Safety and Millwork be together? I don't think you need to be in the industry to realize that's like putting together a circle and a square. Confused, I look around and say I don't see it, and can he give me more information. He replies saying that it's in our 3D model or in the CAD documents. Still confused, I reply, "Are we still talking about the life safety drawings?"
And then I realized that he somehow forgot that we were talking about Life Safety drawings and was going by the subject header of the emails which pertains to millwork. Shoot. Me. Now.

In other news, one week till my LEED exam. I feel woefully underprepared.

The Indignity

Tonight after a gigantic dinner, I stand up from the table and mom decides to say at that moment that I might be just as fat as a particular cousin of mine who is...well...not thin. Thanks, Mom. Way to make a girl have no self confidence. I just ate, you know.

Mm hugs

This morning on the subway, there was a gigantic doggy! Unfortunately, he belonged to a police officer who kept warning everyone away, saying, "Don't touch him! I don't want him to take a chunk out of you!" He seemed nice enough to me - sniffed the end of my coat and sat down and yawned. More than anything, I just wanted to scratch him by the ears. I think the officer could tell since he kept glaring at me. But...but...so...cute....

Just now I was speaking on the phone with a consultant who was having problems with autoCAD. I asked him how familiar he was with the program and he seemed to get offended. He asked me, "So, how long have you been using autoCAD?" Thinking nothing of it, I replied that I've been using it reliably for about the past four years. Then he said, "Well, I've been using it since 1993!" As if he should win some prize. I don't think the amount of years you've spent using a program dictates how well you use it. Anyhow, I replied with, "Well, I was in third grade in 1993. I couldn't spell reliably much less use a computer program like that." Yeah, I went there.

Friday the 13th

Happy belated Friday the 13th. This was indeed the world's unluckiest weekend for me. First, I got sick - and am still sick. Then, I got a virus on my computer (from Facebook...again!). This one absolutely destroyed my poor laptop so now I have to reformat it. Apparently my virus-killing skills are no match for whatever I got this time, and the virus is using my computer to spam people. Deslightful.
And now, I can't find my major credit card - it's the one I rely on the most. I think it's in my room somewhere, I just don't know where or why the hell it wouldn't be in my wallet. Life sucks.

Sick

After a season of near misses and being surrounded by people who were sniffling and sneezing, I have finally gotten sick. I hate it.

Sniffle

The new girl at the office - Lissa - and I have come to the conclusion that we have really poor indoor air quality in the office. That would explain why I'm sneezing all day. I'm considering getting an air purifier...

The New World?

My first day out of my Brooklyn apartment and I feel desperately sad and confused. It was not how I expected it to be at all.
The place was kind of dirty. The living room light isn't working. The walls are in desperate need of painting. All of this is going to be done during the week. Great. I don't have keys to the place either seeing as we got the keys on a Sunday. I'm going to stay at a friend's tonight because no one else is staying there tonight and I don't have a bed to sleep on.
What's nice about the place is that the neighborhood is amazing. There's a 24 hour grocery store that has a gigantic selection of foods at a very low price. And that's not the only one, there are 5 or 6 options that we walked by. I had to resist myself knowing that all of my cooking supplies are currently in Connecticut.

So, Marlen and I decided to go to a cafe in the lower east side and just sit for a bit. It was nice, the place was nice. I enjoyed my hot chocolate. Marlen decided that the barista was sweet and that I should date him. Already playing matchmaker...

Then I went to take the L-train. It runs in a demented way on weekends because of construction so that there is one shuttle that goes between Bedford, 1st and Union Sq. The problem with it is that if you get on at 1st, you have no idea what direction it's going in. I decided to sit while I waited and tried to figure out which direction was which. A couple of guys next to me turned in my direction and asked what direction was which. The girl on the far side of me said, "O, this only goes to Brooklyn." To which I replied, "Well, it actually runs to Union Square." And the girl all of a sudden gets all offended and goes, "Well, thanks Miss Know-it-all, Miss Snooty-Mc-Snoot-Snoot." So I clarified that I was just trying to figure out my directions, so the girl turns to the lady on the other side who points us in the right direction. She then turns back to me and says, "O, well now that's solved. Sorry I snapped at you." I just grimaced and shrugged and looked away. It's uncomfortable after all. And she then said, "Wow, way to take an apology. That's really big of you." Yah...wow...I wish I was better at comebacks.

Fire!

It seems like they test the fire alarm in my building at least once every two weeks. It's gotten to a point where we just completely ignore it. There haven't been any intercom announcements thus far to explain all the flashing lights and yet here we sit at our computers as if those strobes are just part of our usual everyday. One day it's going to be a real fire and we're just going to keep sitting here and go up in a fiery nest of construction drawings.

Jeebus!

Not for the faint of heart - really! REALLY!!

Visit at your own risk.

I haven't a clue why anyone would ever do that to themselves. No wonder it's vegetarian.

What a Fiasco!

So, this morning, Merton and I were supposed to go pick up some models at Lincoln Center. There was an SUV that was supposed to meet us there at 10. Knowing that we had a million little models and they were all disassembled, I decided to go there first thing in the morning so that I can pack everything up all nice for the transport. I show up a little past 9, go to the main door. There's a janitor cleaning right by the door. I go to open said door. Locked. I knock. The janitor waves his hands and points at the sign that says that box office does not open until 10. Great.
So, I go down into the tunnel, and try the other door. Locked. Crap.
I go to the stage door where I knew there would be a receptionist. The receptionist tries calling lots of people to see if I could be let in. Meanwhile, I'm telling the guy of course no one's going to be around to let me in because they're all in a meeting right now with my bosses. At 9:45, the stage manager finally comes by to let me in, and all the while is yelling at me that we can't just show up unannounced and all.
Finally I'm in, and I see Merton up above also trying to get in. I run to the front door to try and open it and call out to him. Nope. Locked in. I make a million phone calls, finally get his cellphone number and then I call him. I tell him to go to the stage door and try and enter from there. The receptionist, yet again, won't let him in. And this time, apparently, there's no one available to take him up there. I try to go back down only to find that the stairwell I took in the first place is locked. Essentially, I'm locked in! Finally, the other guy in the receptionist office took pity and let Merton up. He's horrified to see that we have a million little boxes that I'm trying to assemble.
Finally, everything's all packed up. Thankfully, the front doors were open this time, as it was past 10.
What a fiasco!

Indecency!

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's dishonesty. If you say that the lease is for January 1st, then it's for January 1st. Nowhere in that phrase is it implied that the current tenant is trying to get out of her lease early so there's a possibility that she may stay till the end of her term - in this case, January 31st.
Well, not they're waving the possibility of January 15th in our faces. Seeing as I have my place till January 15th, that's not too bad. However, anything past that and I'm not going to have a room anymore. Then Marlen and I have nowhere to keep our stuff for 16 days. I'd have to drag everything to Gramma's and crash at her place (perish the thought). My third roomie, poor fellow, is already doing the 4 hour daily commute from Wilton.
In desperation, we went to go see a few places today. The first two weren't bad, but weren't good either. The last? Let's just say I'm having nightmares tonight. The moment we were on the subway, I shook out my coat, and checked everything on me at least three times to make sure I didn't have any accidental passengers. ARGH!
Can't do it! I don't want to apartment hunt anymore!!!!!!!

Things I'm going to miss about my current apartment:

1) The apartment itself - I love lofts!
2) My roommates - they're all so wonderful and interesting.
3) The taco shop - delicious!
4) Music!

I'm going to have to visit them all the time. Seriously the best living situation I have ever been in.
I hope living with Marlen and Michael will be as good if not better.

Small World Incident Alert!

Holy crap. Some things you just never expect. You expect that someone steps into your life, and then when they're gone, they're just that. Gone.
But then...
So, if you knew me in high school, then you knew who my world practically revolved around in ninth grade. He pretty much ruined me for all other men. Nothing compares. It's also kind of scary when I look through the slew of men I've been interested in, and they all remind me of him. Tall, dark-haired drummers make me melt for a reason.
And I just found out today that my roommate's boyfriend is best friends with him.
And he just broke up with his girlfriend.
What.
The.
Hell.

...well, I don't think the "just broke up" thing works at all in my favor, but still, it's like God threw me a bone just when I was feeling down...

Thanks, God.

My Poor Tummy

With the little bit of food poisoning that happened while Morten was visiting, my tummy is already not in a happy place.

Today really sucked so far. Mini-boss and I went up to Lincoln Center to measure the sprinkler heads in the basement of the library. The stacks are in this tiny little 7.5' high space where the lights are the cheapest fluorescents possible. The first time I was there with Vanessa and we spent five hours there. The high heat made me get a migraine that lasted three days. This time, the temperature was very acceptable. However, the lighting or something about the air really got to me. We had half the place measured when my stomach started feeling worse and worse. I rested for a minute while Mercedes ran around and measured some things. Then we measured some more and I had to sit down again and put my head down on the table to keep myself from upchucking. My hands were shaking pretty badly. We got the last things done and I sat down some more while she photographed.

It's funny, just leaving the room made me feel amazingly better. Mini-boss theorizes that it's because the fluorescents are hard on the eyes. Apparently the vibrations you hear from those lights are actually the sound of the light rapidly turning on and off. The louder the hum, the slower the rate and the harder it is on your eyes. And it was a loud hum. Well, I guess cheap fluorescents make me sick to my stomach.

Apartment Life

I'm going to be very sad to leave the Troutman apartment. There's always so much going on! Tonight there was a photoshoot for some sort of fanboy site that Erica works for. In between shoots, she played some of her songs, Emma sang backup and I improvised on violin (sans G, Rachel's string broke and she hasn't fixed it...). Erica really likes my improvising - she invited me to guest play at a few of her shows. I gotta say, it's a lot of fun...
I wasn't home for the first shoot, but the second shoot was sort of odd. The girl models showed up and then decided to back out for whatever reason. Then, the guy stayed and did some sort of separate shoot. He was cute enough...seemed really empty headed though. Empty heads are not my thing.
O yes, and Rowena just emailed me. I might be having a couple of house guests for New Years! Nifty!

I have really big issues about being told what to do. This is a reason why I don't particularly like to go home. It's also a reason why I couldn't stay at Gramma's anymore. I don't like being told when to go to bed, when to pack. I don't like being told to put away the milk. I know damn well to put away the milk. When the fuck did I ever NOT put away the milk.
I survived five freaking years on my own at college. In all my years, have I ever once missed a flight? Have I ever once had to call home and ask for something like more money? I managed myself just fine. My time. My money. Do you really think that all of a sudden I graduated college and FORGOT how to be a responsible adult? Jesus fucking christ.

Merry Cheeriness!

Merry post-Christmas to all! I'm suffering from way too much food and a strong urge to go to the gym and work out. But what's the point if I can't go to my favorite dance class? So sad...
Morten came to visit. The first couple of days I had to work so he basically would just meet up with me after work and we'd go out to eat or stay in and I'd cook. I took him to go see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular (on the company dime, we were each allowed to invite 10, but I decided to keep it at one). The Rockettes were fun to watch for the first few minutes of each performance, but after minute five, you tend to get a little bored of watching them do formation after formation after formation. Frankly, they may get all the publicity, but the other dancers are the ones that get all the fun. Maybe I'll try out one day, it looks like it could be fun. I wonder if they have height requirements for all the other people, too...But I will admit now, I fell asleep during a few times while watching the Rockettes. O, and they had real camels for the nativity scene. I turned to Morten and asked him only to realize he was about to ask me the exact same thing, and we confirmed the realness of said camels when one turned to look at the audience and chew his...cud...
We also went to the MOMA (for free! thanks, awesome roomie Emma!), the Museum of Natural History (this time, being not 3 years old, I didn't cry my little eyes out at the sight of all the scary stuffed cavemen), Little Italy, Flushing, Chinatown...uhh...hm, felt like we did a lot more. I nearly got struck with a panic attack when we decided to push our way through Macy's. Bad idea...I blame myself. O yes, and we also went to Christina's birthday party. We had dinner at a place called Nyonya where I had tripe noodle soup and Morten sampled the stingray (tastes just like fish...nothing special...). Lots of fun, and it was nice to see Christina again. We always talk about hanging out, but never actually manage to...
So yes, now I'm alone again. Saw family for Christmas. We experimented with oatmeal cookies and made some with white raisins, dates and ginger instead of cinnamon. I think they came out really well, though a tad on the sweet side. Now I know what I can make for the big office bakeoff. Whoo! O and Eric and Sylvia made a crazy eggnog which was more like a very light and frothy pudding with lots of alcohol. I wish I could have finished it, but dad was poking at us that it was time to leave. He had to work the next day unfortunately. He says its my fault because I had to stay in the city on Christmas Eve to see Morten off. Well, even if I hadn't, I wouldn't have gotten out of work until 3 anyways, and with that plus the train plus the extra one hour drive to Hartford, we wouldn't have arrived till 7 or so anyway. So there!
But yes, Happy Holidays to all!

Saaad

Pushing Daisies has been cancelled...mid-season! I don't understand why all the shows I like to watch get cancelled so quickly. They are getting rid of Lipstick Jungle, too. In the spring, they also got rid of a nice quirky show called Miss Guided. O and all those years ago, there was that awesome show, Freaks and Geeks? Cancelled!
I just realized that the guy who created Pushing Daisies also created Dead Like Me. Loved it. Cancelled! He also worked on Heroes (I think in the first season, when it was still good...I can't even watch it anymore...). I think the only reason they haven't canned Heroes is because it did so well in the first season. Well, maybe now that they've canned Pushing Daisies, Fuller will go back to Heroes and make it awesome again.
He made another show called Wonderfalls. I think I have to watch it so I can lament another brilliant but cancelled show...

Happy

When a special someone is back in town, I remember why I want him around. He makes me happy. :)

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return."

-Lautrec in Moulin Rouge!

Maybe

I am not a cat person. I hate to admit it. I wish I was a better person and loved the little beasties, but they are needy, needy animals. Granted, my roommate's cat has been sorely neglected by his owner, but why does it have to cling to me? He wakes me up any time between 4, 6 or 7am meowing and trying to break down my door. Then, he winds around my legs everytime I try to take a step and I end up kicking him/stepping on him/tripping. I don't get it, don't people say cats are independent creatures? I remember my own cat sitting outside my window at 8 am on Saturday mornings meowing her little head off so I'd let her back in and then she'd do the leg winding thing too. Don't they realize that when we're walking, that's a bad place to be?

I'll also take the time to admit now that I'm not too fond of dogs either. Those things have way too much pent up energy. The only dogs I've ever particularly cared for were the bassett hound my neighbor owned when I was three (because back then, slobber didn't occur to me as gross) and the bulldog my ex's friend owned (because she was the laziest dog in the world and just couldn't be bothered).

And the hair. Cat and dog hair EVERYWHERE!

Gah! I want my sleep!

I realized today that recently I've been going through life feeling completely numb. I'm in search of something that will make me really feel something. I could use a really good cry, or a really good rant, a good bout of laughter.
I'm hoping that this week will change things around. I need some euphoria.

Busy!

I feel like for a few weeks, I have nothing going on and then all of a sudden there's so much that there's not even time to sleep. Maybe it's just the holiday season. I'm most excited.

What An A$$

Marlen and I plus extra-random-roomie-guy from-Wilton-that-seems-really-cool went to see a place today. The ad on craigslist is most beautiful. In fact, all of the ads by this guy are. However, the broker - Seth of Sunrise Realty - is A DICK. I don't use that phrase lightly. In fact, I never call people that. He, however, is in all senses of the phrase, a DICK.
When I called, he was very brisk and pushy. Marlen said the way he talked to her was downright rude. I stated our budget, but he kept trying to push us higher despite me constantly telling him what our absolute limit was. Then, I asked about the advertised place. Is it close to the L train? Yes. How is it a 3 bedroom? How much does it cost to split a master bedroom into two rooms?
Instead of stating clearly what he requires from people, he said, "You do realize you have to bring money." To which I replied, "Huh?" The way he phrased it made me feel like it was a drug deal of some sort. And it had to be cash, or a cashiers check or something along those lines. He wouldn't even show us a place unless we had the money to put down an immediate down payment.
So we decide, it can't hurt to see the place. I find out that this place is not on the L line. In fact, it is 6 crosstown blocks from the L line! It is however, right near the G. Then, after he told us to meet him somewhere, I call and he tells us to go to the building. Well, why didn't you just give us the address to begin with? We get to the building and he thinks my name is "Anthony" for some reason. We go up and he shows us around. He seems nice enough about it, but then he said that to put up an extra room would first require someone to be acrobatic - because there's be a ladder involved - or require some serious money. On the phone he said that to put in an extra room, it'd be $800. Then, once we were there, he said it was $800 per person! Well, why didn't you say that earlier, jerk...Michael was late, so I went down to get him. While waiting, a guy in the next building was just getting home and I asked him how he liked the place and he said that even after being there a month, their place was still unfinished. And then, when I went back upstairs, Marlen was in the process of discovering that one of the tiles in the model bathrooms was loose. I pick it off and we see some really shoddy craftsmenship. Aargh! So it's all a house of cards! We tell Seth we're not interested and he pretty much just bolts out the door without turning off all the lights and without even closing the door. Marlen yelled down the stairwell, "What should we do with the door?" and he said, "Just close it behind you!" Eegads! That's a fricken furnished model apartment you're just leaving. I could have gone back in and helped myself to that refrigerator. We had 3 people and a car. Hell, who wants a washer? But no, we were honest people, so we just closed the door and left.
God...what a dick.

The Things They Carried

Carrying a dog in your tote bag is an acceptable New York tradition. Little yorkies or chihuahuas with their tongues lolling at passers-by is a common sight. I was, however, unprepared when on the L-train today, I heard the mewling of a kitten from a purse. No, not a tote or an open bag. It was a zipped up leather purse and the kitten inside was crying. I suppose the purse is far more attractive than a kitty-crate, but in terms of humane, one should seriously consider a type of situation where the kitty could, I don't know, breathe?

Happy Post-Thanksgiving

Noodle pudding! Mashed potatoes! Peking duck! Yams!

Must...go...to...gym.

Happy Birthday, Marlen!

Today was Marlen's birthday. To make up for the past five years of absence, I decided I'd go all out. I got her a nice new Calphalon stainless steel stir-fry pan and a chocolate ganache cake from Whole Foods. We cooked a tasty dominican meal of moro and beef and invited over Marlen's boyfriend, Mark, as well as a girl that we could potentially live with. Large topic of conversation was how much Marlen hated the cat. Poor kitty. Though..the potential future roomie has a cat, which may not jive so well for her. After dinner, Mark showed me some tango music and then we practiced for a bit. He does far more complicated things than my tango teachers have done. Fun fun fun. Too bad Erica wasn't here, she would have really enjoyed this evening.

Sleep

I decided to go to bed early last night because for whatever reason, I was sleepy at around 10:30, and I figured I might as well get a good start to the week. So, I went to sleep. And then, starting at 4 am, the cat starts trying to get into my room. He pounds on the door, and then goes around to the kitty door on the side that I locked, and starts scratching, and then goes back and forth again. Then, he started meowing, over and over and over again. This morning when I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth, I let him stay with me. But when it comes to peeing, I can't have an audience. So I kicked kitty out. And he MEOWED the whole minute. O dear. Neediness. Blech. So...I didn't get a good night's sleep.

And on the L train this morning, there was a medical emergency. We stopped for 15 minutes at Lorimer and then another 10 minutes or so at First Avenue. People around me were most agitated. I saw it as an opportunity to get some "quiet" quality sleep time. Still, the medical emergencies - if you feel like you're going to pass out, could you at least do it on a platform instead of on the train so everyone can get to work on time? Alice was on the same train as me, so we comiserated on the elevator. Delightful.

Kitteh

It's been about a decade since mom gave Goose away, so I guess there are things about having a cat that I didn't remember.

Things I like - kitties that will crawl up and get all friendly when I'm lonely; kitties that do really funny things like sleep in a wierd position; kitties that sneeze.

Things I don't like - kitty hair literally floating through the air, kitty hair on my clothes, kitty claws and teeth on the plastic bags (Goose never did that, but the roommate's cat does...I try to take them away when I see him chewing), kitty claws and teeth on me (ouch), kitty meowing out of loneliness at 7 in the morning and trying to break down the door.

I suppose I could kitty-proof my room and let him in, but I'm lazy.

Nostalgia

I just picked up a violin today and played for the first time in... I don't know how long. I didn't realize it, but I really missed it. What's frustrating is that I seem to have completely lost dexterity in my left hand and the right is just as sloppy... It got a little better after half an hour, but I have a lot of work to do if I ever want to get back to where I used to be. It's just a lack of strength and precision when I hit the notes that's bothering me. At least my shifts are still pretty clean...
One of the girls I live with plays violin in a rock band - it looks like she took lessons a long time ago but stopped before it was really completely ingrained in her head so she has some thing and not others. Stiff vibrato, prefers to play at the tip even at the parts that really should be at the frog...whoo jargon! I gave her a mini violin lesson, but I don't know if she'll take me seriously or not. There is, after all, that nagging little voice in my head of my former violin student telling me I was a bad teacher.
Well, I'm thinking of bringing my violin over to NY along with my Pleyel duets. I think my old violin teacher will be pleased to see I can still sight-read without any problems. I guess that's the one thing I got out of all those years of not practicing.

What a great day. Welcome to a new era!

Freedom

Today, I moved into my new place! It's really great! My roommates are really cool! And we have a cat!

Cat, by the way, seems to have fallen in love with me. He walked right up to my face at one point (I was sitting on the floor and he was on the coffee table) and stuck his nose right onto mine. Cat kisses! And then he jumped off the table and started rubbing up against me and lay down next to me with his tail curled over my leg. And now, he's on my bed...on my blanket...and he just farted!!!! Yah...on my blanket...guess I'm doing some laundry now.

I inherited whatever Daddy has that makes cats adore him.

Bothered

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

Nude Tights

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

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

Flippin A

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

Full

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sardines

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

Movin' On Out

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

Family Feud

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

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

Who?

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

Storm Cloud

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

Hell Hath Frozen Over

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

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

Radio City

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

I Don't Want Average Joe for President

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

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

Enjoy

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

Buffet

Tonight, Gramma and I decided to check out the East Buffet in Flushing. My parents were considering going there because of the good things they'd heard about it. All you can eat, which includes Peking Duck, steak, and steamed lobster for only $15 per person.
I'll admit, the Peking Duck was really good. The steamed lobster, on the other hand, was completely not worth it. First, people were fighting for it - literally fighting. A new tray would come out every 5 minutes or so and the moment the tray was set down, people would start swarming until it was empty, which took approximately 20 seconds. I didn't feel like fighting for it so I stood in line for the Peking Duck instead and watched the mayhem. It was ridiculous to see some people walk away with a plate piled high with lobster claws. Gramma decided to try for some lobster at one point and she made the mistake of waiting patiently while the tray was getting set into the buffet. I watched some guy pretty much shove her to the side while making a grab for the stupid lobster. Well, Gramma successful got away with a few pieces. I was a little disappointed with the results. The lobster was overly salty and it was stringy. Not too sure why people were so crazy about it.
O, and some little old lady shoved in front of me in the line for Peking Duck. She just wheedled in and refused to look at me. I don't care how old you are lady, you should at least say excuse me.
Dessert was good though, Gramma and I each had a little chocolate cup filled with strawberry and banana. Yum!

Observation

After a client meeting and watching "Cinderella Man," I wonder, who runs things? Where are the actual creators on the totem pole? The architect doesn't actually do the work, it's the associates and interns that do the actual designing, and yet they don't receive credit. At meetings, we all take the back seat while Big Cheese puts on a show. In "Cinderella Man," the fighter is down and out during the great depression while the people who set up the show sit back and relax in their cushy chairs.
It seems like the producers, the ones who do the actual work, are there to get stepped on. The ones who organize and talk and manage are the ones who will always reap the benefits. Shouldn't it be those who do the actual work who should be getting the reward for it?

Huh?

I woke up this morning at 6:30 am to someone pounding on our door. I shuffled on over in my muddled state and opened it to see the doorman and some little old lady. Doorman told me in Mandarin that there was a huge leak coming from the ceiling of the little old lady's apartment. I'm not entirely sure how to respond to that, so I just stand there. Then, Doorman thinking I don't understand Mandarin, switches into some other dialect and tries again. Gramma crawls out of bed and tells them to come in. We show them the bathrooms. See? We're not running any water, neither of us have even flushed a toilet since last night. It's not our water. Doorman and little old lady leave. I get ready for work since I lost that last precious 15 minutes, and Gramma with her insomnia goes to the living room to watch tv because she can't go back to sleep.

After three days of working from 9am till midnight, I was a little peeved.

Monogamy?!

After a few months of frustratingly long and boring commutes and not being able to play music out loud while building models, I finally broke down and bought myself an iPod Shuffle - the red one! I set it up on my sister's computer and everything was fine. Later, when I hooked it up to my computer, it said something about how the music isn't authorized on my computer and would therefore have to be deleted. At work on Sunday (yes, work on Sunday) I asked one of my coworkers what that was about, since everyone has had iPods for years except for my family.
I have a monog-iPod.
Shuffles have strange authorization settings that other iPods don't where if the new computer doesn't have the song on it already, then the song on the shuffle has to go, too. I knew that orange nano was calling me for a reason. I should've bought myself a sluttier iPod...

In other news, our central Revit file has corrupted and we're frantically trying to repair it. Fun!

I'm lonely.

Gym

I joined Crunch gym when Gramma told me I look fat. I don't really think I got all that much fatter, I just think that I'm not as toned as I'd like to be. But anyway, I digress. I took the hip hop class today. Normally, when I take hip hop, I feel very much like an awkward chicken. Fortunately, this hip hop guy is a jazz dancer, so it was something I could figure out.
Odd thing about gyms, they're filled with guys just checking girls out. Everywhere I walked, I could see guys blatantly staring - at me, at the half-naked tattooed girl that just passed by. It's like a hunting ground where overly muscular men look for suitably anorexic girls to salivate over. Fascinating. I'll stick to the dance classes. And maybe try out that elliptical machine...after I get something to listen to music with...

Happy Mid Autumn

Happy belated Mid-Autumn Festival! My gramma received a gigantic box of moon cakes and this Taiwanese mung-bean shallot and meat dumpling thing called Lu-Dou Pung. They're yummy.
Gramma and I went to a Japanese/Korean place for lunch. By Flushing standards, it's a relatively expensive place (What?! $9 for 6 kimchi appetizers, a gigantic bowl of food and a bowl of soup?! Preposterous!). I had bibimbap and Gramma had a seafood tofu thing with red bean rice. We had some nice conversation about random things. She can be a pretty cool gramma sometimes. The lady next to us ate an entire mackeral, soup, rice and appetizers. I figure the enormous appetite was because she was very pregnant and was eating for two.
Later, I met up with Julia, a nice lady I met at one of the alum meetings. She was getting her hair done in Flushing so we went to a Shanghai-nese restaurant that my parents love to go to. Fortunately, Julia enjoyed it a lot as well. There was lots of chatting, mostly about work and boys (I suppose man problems plague women of all ages) and then, since she could speak Chinese, I dragged her home so I could give her a couple moon cakes. We stood around and chatted with Gramma who she later deemed as a cool gramma. Gramma is most pleased.

Stranded

New York is a lonely city. You're surrounded by so many people, but because the culture is to turn inwards and people don't speak to each other on the streets, you might as well be alone. You make of it what you will, and you go out and try to meet new people. It's so tiring to meet new people. I'm glad I have Estee and my cousins. I'm glad I know Christina's around and Marlen's around somewhere, and some classmates that I talk to. I'm glad that some of the girls at work occasionally spend off hours going to a show or a dance class with me. I just feel this constant nagging and I fear it's a growing dissatisfaction with distance. It didn't bother me so much when I was in Pittsburgh and everything was fast-paced, draining and I lived with friends who I could chat and argue with at the end of the day. But now, just living with my grandmother who I have to hide things from and pretend to be a good little girl...I really need to get back into the swing of things somehow.

Today on the train, a little old Chinese lady and I were both standing. When a seat opened up, I waved her towards it and she laughed and shook her head telling me to take it. When another space opened up, she finally took the seat, knowing I wouldn't be stranded because of her. And then when we got off at the last stop, I helped her figure out where she was trying to get to. I suppose there's small things like that that make New York a little less lonely.

Flipped

On a whim today, and because someone at Meebo so conveniently provided the link, I decided to retake the Meyers-Briggs personality test. I recall taking it in high school, back when I was a homebody, and getting INTP - aka, the architect. How appropriate that I went to architecture school. Except that now, I realize that when they say, "Architect," they're referring to Howard Roark, Starchitect. Uh, no.
Well, to continue, I retook the test twice just now, once where there was no gray-area option allowed, and then a different test where the option existed. The first one, I ended up with ESFJ which is completely the direct opposite of INTP. Has college really changed me that much? The second test I took made a lot more sense to me (http://www.kisa.ca/personality/) and I ended up with ENFJ, and strongly so. Apparently ENFJ is called "the Teacher." I figure the description of it is mostly correct concerning myself, but I'd hardly call myself popular.

On another note, we had a forum discussion yesterday about the redesign of our company website. I strongly advocated the addition of a company blog that would exist in the form of a journal of various cultural activities attended by people in the firm. So far, the bosses seem to be really going for the idea. Score!

Commute

This morning, I thought I had it perfect. I left perfectly on time, made it to the station even faster than usual, got a seat in a nice corner. The express went smoothly until 61st-Woodside, when all of a sudden, we came to the stop and just sat there. The emergency brakes on the express train in front of us got stuck, so we had to wait and then reroute to the local track. Then, at the next stop, we came to a stop and just stopped. I wondered what was going on and why all the doors remained closed. Then, I realized that I was sitting across from the conductors booth and could therefore listen in on everything people were saying. Apparently, someone had decided to choose this morning's rush hour for his heart attack and it happened to be on my train. Crap. So, after 20 minutes and a stretcher later, we started back up again. And I ended up at work 15 minutes late. Crap.

Let the Schoolin' Begin

The public schools started classes today. I noticed an unusually large amount of people in the subways as well as walking around on the streets this morning. Darn...I guess this is what it's going to be like until June.
Cute thing I saw on the 6 train - in a forest of tall business men, a teenage boy in "gangsta" clothing tightening the backpack straps and fixing the glasses on his kid brother and then saying to him, "You think this is bad, wait till we get on the S-train."

Quick! Hide the Laundry!

Sitting here with my gramma, parents and uncle and aunt, I find that they sure do chat about the funniest things. They just had an hour-long conversation about the merit of tatami floors versus beds, and who had the most comfortable beds and which hotels had the better beds. They've since moved on to coffee makers and blankets.
Meanwhile I hid in the room and completely reorganized the closet and the drawers. Before leaving for the holiday weekend, I hid as much of my laundry as possible so my grandmother wouldn't decide to be the martyr-servant-grandmother who does all the laundry. Sure enough, the few articles I left in the hamper (for bait, to convince her I wasn't trying to hide all my clothes from her) were washed and tossed into the closet in various states of rumpliness. My parents show up, see that she did my laundry and of course, yelled at me for making gramma do my laundry....It's not like I went, "Here, Gramma. My laundry is dirty - wash it!" God...And in fact, it's preferable that she doesn't do it because we have different opinions on what can be put in the dryer and things inexplicably shrink. Worse yet, she also reorganizes all the hangers so pants are on the triangle hangers (wierd little bumps on the hip!) and my really nice dresses are on wire hangers and random shirts are hanging on the hangers with clips which are for the pants...no idea why she does that. I'm glad my mum wouldn't mix things up into wierd hangers, and considering I'm more anal than she is about my clothes, at least she doesn't wash things that I prefer to wash myself.

Um

Reading some old posts....here's a piece of an entry from August four years ago:

"O, another note (this paragraph is not as happy as the others, so feel free to stop reading), when we got home, my mom got a phone call from a sort of acquaintance/friend/client of hers and apparently they are having a bit of trouble right now. The trouble? Their three year old son was playing in the kitchen and managed to get his own left hand chopped off. Very sad, it is. Though, if we looked at it from a better angle - at least he didn't have too much time to become attached to that hand... "

Delightful. I don't even remember that happening. I wonder what happened to the poor kid. I should ask mom...

Argh!

I hate it when the 7 runs all local and they don't bother to tell anyone in advance.

Argh!

I hate it when the 7 runs all local and they don't bother to tell anyone in advance.

Secretary

I met the illustrious clients of our high profile secret project last week. It was sort of an odd situation. The room we were sitting in, as part of a historic building, was still very much styled as it was back in the 60s - that dim lighting, the walls a drab shade of off white, the carpet...let's not go there. And the clients, all of them were very distinguished looking white men in their 50s and up. And then there was me - the lone female in the room wearing a polka dot dress very reminiscent of a 1950s. Ironically, as the intern, all I did was sit further outside of their circle and take notes. If I was auditioning for the role of secretary, I'd say I was very appropriately dressed.

Affirmation

Every time I go to my parents home in Connecticut, I reaffirm that I love trees and breezes, and big houses with big windows.
I also reaffirm that I severely dislike loud children. SEVERELY. The neighbors seem to like to have barbecues every single weekend, and they'll invite lots of families with their kids. They'll play on the swingset and shout at each other. That's fine. But when they start to literally scream, like the shrill scream of a woman about to get eviscerated, then I start to feel a little high strung. And when that goes on for hours, I start to get a migraine. Yes, a literal migraine.
Finally, after the three weeks before I started work and the several weekends of it afterwards, I got fed up. Today I walked on over and put a bright big smile on my face. I introduced myself and apologized for intruding. They offered me some wine. I declined and told them I was "trying to get some work done." Of course, in truth, my work includes...er...playing video games that I haven't touched in a few months. But still, I just want them to stop screaming. One of the guests walked away saying, "Uh oh, we're in trouble now!" And the guy said, "OK, we'll move them over to tne farther swingset" (which they didn't) and then decided to criticize me and say, "Why don't you try coming over just to introduce yourself next time?" Douche. Bag. And the kids are still yelling, but at least they aren't screaming...
And I should add - I heard one of the guests saying while I was walking away, "We should get them to be as loud as we can." Okay, how old are you? You have children? What they hell kind of parent are you?

Shocked and Appalled

If NY is really the center of the universe, why doesn't it have a good cupcake shop? Everyone talks about Magnolia and Billy's, the local cupcake go-to staples, but upon closer inspection (and in a few cases, tasting them), I've discovered that they don't have nearly the quality of Dozens or Coco's Cupcake Cafe in Pittsburgh. For one, there's no variety. Magnolia only has chocolate and vanilla. Billy's most "exotic" flavor offering is Banana. Now lets review Dozens. They offer among other classics, lavender, pancake, root beer (and it really does taste like rootbeer), strawberry lemonade and more. Coco's also offers delicious vegan varieties such as green tea with crystallized ginger and chocolate coconut. Regular varieties include things like Orange Kahlua, Raspberry Cabernet, Mimosa and Cinnamon Bun. Come on, New York, where's your ingenuity?
Quality wise, it's very much the same in both places, though I do prefer how Dozens cake is somewhat crispy on the outside.
Presentation-wise, I also find New York bakeries lacking. New York bakeries will make their layer cakes lavish pieces of architecture. However, they seem to think that a dressed up cupcake involves just sprinkles. Toss a little confetti and top and we have a party! Where's the art? It's something any lackluster mother could throw together for a kid's birthday party.
Let us compare:





The first two are from NY, the next are all from Pittsburgh. Is that coconut on the presentation photo actually dangling off the edge? I can understand it if it happens in an even or a deliberate asymmetrical manner, but the topping is done so unevenly. And the icing on the set of four cupcakes does not speak of smoothness. Now look at the ones from Pittsburgh. I think they speak for themselves.
Everyone's all about cupcakes in both cities, but sadly, NY is behind on the times. Admittedly, there's some hope for the future - http://kumquatcupcakery.blogspot.com/.

Fun fun fun fun fun

Other than me getting rained in on Friday, this weekend was great. Well, Thursday I went with Eric to go see the Ahn Trio at Damrosch Park. Unfortunately about three songs in, it started to pour so we sat under our umbrellas for the duration of the show. On Saturday, I met up with Estee and her friends from Colorado and we went tango dancing in Central Park. The free class was taught by some lady from Dancesport who I didn't particularly care for because she was teaching everyone choreography, not how to dance with a partner. Estee and I were both disappointed enough that we decided to ditch the class and go back to where the more experienced people were actually dancing. I danced with a little old guy who looked like Hannibal Lecter, another little old guy who wore nazi paraphrenalia, another old guy who looked like just a nice grandpa and a little old Catonese man who was very informative. I noticed that everytime I have trouble dancing with someone, it's because they took lessons at Dancesport. I get the feeling I won't be going there for lessons. I'll stick to Baila Tango, where I'm going to go tomorrow night for another lesson, actually. After the dancing, we all went to a Mexican place called Caliente Cab where we had delicious guacamole and highly alcoholic drinks. Estee was nearly passing out by then. Then we went to a pub for some beer and I decided to end my evening at 3. I met up with one of my friends and stayed over in Brooklyn instead of going all the way back to Flushing. Safer that way.
So today, I met up with Estee again and we went to the Lower East Side. There was a small fashion show showing off the various retailers of the district. The highlight was definitely DeMask's collection. It's a bondage shop so they had a girl come out in an electric blue police officer rubber catsuit/dominatrix outfit. Then some poor guy came out with a wierd dog head mask on his head, and he had a collar that had short chains that ended cuffed to his wrists. I think he thought it was hilarious and was really working it. Good thing he had his mask on because he was probably dying of laughter underneath it. The next outfit was most definitely a gimp suit, and the crotch part was very...uh...prominent. Then there was some unenthusiastic girl walking around in a wierd straight jacket. Not my thing, exactly, but really amusing. All the other clothes were normal - lots of vintage, etc. They also had free juice, free hand massages and free eyebrow threading, all of which I partook in. My eyebrows are all nice and neat now! Ending the day, Estee and I went to TeaNY - Moby's tea house. I had a lovely coconut egg cream sitting outside on the benches. There was an odd looking couple sitting near us - a seedy sort of hispanic guy and a really pretty model type girl and her little dog who had a full body mohawk. We played with the dog and chatted a bit with the couple all the while thinking the guy looked familiar. I mentioned it to Estee who said that he might have been on some tv shows. Maybe he played some druggie on Law and Order....

Birthday Meme

Go to Wikipedia. Enter your date of birth, then pick 4 events, 3 births, two deaths, and one holiday.


EVENTS
1844 - The Bahá'í calendar begins. This is the first day of the first year of the Bahá'í calendar. It is annually celebrated by members of the Bahá'í Faith as the Bahá'í New Year or Náw-Rúz.

1871 - Journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his trek to find the missionary and explorer David Livingstone.

1963 - Alcatraz, a federal penitentiary on an island in San Francisco Bay, closes.

1970 - The first Earth Day proclamation is issued by San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto.


BIRTHS
1685 - Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer
1958 - Gary Oldman, English actor
1978 - Kevin Federline, American dancer/hip hop artist (AHHHHH!!!!!)


DEATHS
1617 - Pocahontas, Native American, daughter of Powhatan
2004 - Ludmilla Tchérina, French ballet dancer and actress


HOLIDAY
Ostara - Neopagan festival of Ostara.

The Things I Never Knew

Gramma is a mahjongg fiend! She only just got home from a full day of the game, and she has appointments for all day playing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It's great that she's got her own thing going on. I can only hope I'm that active when I reach her age. I'll try not to grumble about things as much as she does, though.

Blah

It's fun listening to the synchronized divers count off before they jump. The Canadians counted in French, and Chinese girls didn't use any intonations at all. The Chinese girls are absolutely robotic, it's amazing.

Gramma's on a cooking and cleaning frenzy. Last night she decided to buy potatoes because I randomly mentioned liking to cook them, but she had no idea what to do with them. Looks like she figured it out though, because she made an apple-potato salad much like what mom makes. Not bad. I also came home to some freshly washed laundry, which sort of disturbs me. I should go through the rest of my laundry to make sure I don't have any random things in the pockets so we don't repeat the chapstick disaster (Years ago, Gramma took some things from my room and threw it in the wash and the chapstick I left in the pocket ruined a few shirts. Mom had a good time yelling at me until I pointed out that I hadn't put the pants in the wash in the first place, so it wasn't really my fault. Victory and vindication. Mwaha.)

Coolness

They're filming an episode of Lipstick Jungle downstairs, apparently. I thought it was supposed to be like Sex and the City - why then, pray tell, are the women all dressed in metallic "I Dream of Jeannie" costumes?

Weekend

This weekend, a whole bunch of archies came to town. We went to the MoMA, PS1, a Japanese place called Ippudo..uh... The current exhibition at MoMA was great - prefab. They had actual prefab houses on exhibition in a side lot which we all walked through. Olafur Eliasson had an exhibition at PS1 which pretty much consisted of a giant mirror suspended from the ceiling, slowly rotating. It was so enamoring that we went and lay on the floor staring up at it for a grand total of an HOUR.
I escaped the archies to join Marlen and her boyfriend, Mark for some tango dancing. First time tangoing ever, second time I've ever tried dancing with a partner. I think it went well - Mark gave me a quick run through of some tango moves. Then Marlen and I attended a free beginners tango class where I danced with a Parisian man named Philippe who had danced a couple times before. It was hilarious at one point when he said in his super French accent, "It is forbidden to pass." Of course, he was talking about the rules of dancing in the circle. No passing, no switching of direction. There are a whole bunch of other rules. Only a man asks a woman to dance, never vice-versa. It starts with eye contact, the woman nods and the man approaches. And the code-word for, "I no longer wish to dance with you" is "thank you." And if you agree to dance with a person, you dance for 3-4 songs, at which point they play a completely un-tango-like song to indicate a change partner moment. Argentine tango...mm...rules... An old guy named Joe kept following me around until I agreed to dance with him, and it turns out he's very good at leading and taught me a few things that Mark didn't show me. There was another guy who insisted on a "close embrace" (that's what the hold is when the two partners are closer together) and being the total beginner that I am, I wasn't able to see his feet and didn't really know how to go along with it, so he kept stepping on my toes. Lots of fun, though. I'm going to go to a free tango class tomorrow!
Also, my cousin Ling and her family were over for Friday and Saturday. I was out all Friday so I didn't see them, but I spent the earlier part of Saturday with them. Ling, the sprightly little 7-year-old that she is, watched me put on makeup with many questions and then insisted I hold hands with her when we walked to have a delicious dimsum lunch. I wondered if people looked at us and thought I was her mother... On our way out of the restaurant, my aunt whispered to me, "Hey, that white guy just checked you out." I turned around and sure enough some white guy was staring at me. I just thought it was funny that my aunt pointed it out. O, and gramma's moved back in since Jonathan came back from Germany. Let the gluttony begin!
Speaking of hitting on me, today after I got back to Flushing after spending a few hours with a friend in Brooklyn, I decided to go get some snacks. Ariel, my boss at work, has dubbed me "Snack Queen" so I'm only trying to live up to my title. Anyhoo, walking along, someone suddenly asked me a question. I smiled and nodded and kept walking. Then he kept walking with me, and kept trying to get me to talk to him. I wasn't particularly interested so I just smiled and shook my head and tried to speed away. Except that its Flushing, and you can't speed away because there are too many d*** people everywhere. So I kept going, shaking my head - he asked if I spoke English, I shook my head. Asked if I was Chinese, shook my head. Japanese? Shake my head. Korean? Malaysian? Singaporean? Thai? (Thai?!!!) He tried to give me his business card - I don't get how he'd expect a girl who didn't speak English to call him...
O, and today on the subway I saw a beautiful mixed couple. I think they were both half Chinese, half whatever else. Both gorgeous. I hope I didn't creep them out, but I kept staring...

R.I.P.

My computer died! Dead, kaput!
Good thing my uncle's getting me a nice almost new laptop this weekend.
It's like immediately replacing my old dog with a brand new puppy. I'm so bad...

Elevator Stares

This morning in the elevator, this guy who stood in front of me kept turning around and looking at me. Repeatedly. I began to wonder if I had something on my face so when I got into the office, I immediately looked into a mirror. No, nothing on my face, nor do I look particularly haggard. My only conclusion was that he just wanted to keep looking at me. Guess NY men like me more than the French men do.

Weekend

Fun and busy weekend - I went out to see Fuerzabruta on Thursday with some coworkers where I met with one of the performers and went out drinking with him and his friends until 3 in the morning. Got home at 3:30 where my dad (mom and dad were at the apartment because they were leaving on a tour of Niagara Falls in the morning) yelled at me for being out so late on a school night. Poo to you, dad, I had fun dancing on a bar at Coyote Ugly.
Friday night I went out with Estee and her friend from Goldman Sachs. We were going to go watch Dance Brasil's free concert in Central Park, but when we got there right around start time, the line was way too long. Figuring we had no chance of seeing the show, we wandered down to Greenwich Village and had a delightful dinner at a Scandinavian Restaurant. I got to use my knowledge from Denmark to explain what nearly everything was on the menu - fun, fun! They had Smorbrod (open faced sandwiches) but I opted for the goat cheese and beet salad. What can I say, I love goat cheese. After dinner, we went down to Little West 12th to meet some of Estee's friends to go clubbing. Upon arrival, we found out that the group wanted to get a table - which is fine except that it cost $1600!!!! They seemed to think it was reasonable that we all pay $200 each. NOT. ON. MY. SALARY. So we left and went to the rooftop bar of the Peninsula Hotel which was also expensive and had no good places left to sit, so we decided to call it an evening.
Saturday I spent doing laundry and sleeping off Thursday night. I was going to go to a dance class, but when it started thundering and pouring, I decided to download a nice workout video from Netflix and follow along with that instead. Call me crazy, but I feel a little dumb doing a workout routine all alone in the apartment. Anyhoo, performer buddy from Fuerzabruta, Jon, gave me a call and we went to hang out in his neighborhood, Williamsburg. What a cool neighborhood... Marlen, can we live there? Jon and I had a long discussion about what I want to do with my life, and really, I didn't think about it until today, but I just feel frustrated. I felt pretty well established at CMU - I had my dance friends and my archie friends, I knew where I stood with everyone and had positions of responsibility. I liked being able to teach class and having that freedom to take dance classes whenever I wanted. Here, I just take orders (making copies on the copy machine, model building without any creative input...) and I don't get to impart any of my experience or knowledge. It's like I got here and just stopped. Well, hopefully things will pick back up again in a few months...
Anyway, Sunday I woke up with a finicky stomach from drinking beer on an empty stomach the night before, and hobbled my way over to a contemporary jazz class at Broadway Dance Center. It was fuuun. And today, my upper abs feel like I've been doing crunches all day, but I don't recall doing any at all. Must have been all the contractions we did in class. Mmm...dance...