Gnomes and Diamonds

Just to recover some sanity left in my brain, let me wrap up my weekly life...

Grandparent story: The MORNING Aimee and I were to drive them to the airport for their flight away, grandma pulled this MASSIVE pout-fest. She had apparently hid a small container of a single piece of baklava in the dining room (3 days before) under a napkin. When the boys came over, I was trying to clean up and made the executive decision that she no longer wanted the dessert, and that I could eat it. And it was eaten. That morning, I woke up to find she'd be upset and throwing a fit all morning about how "it was just nasty" that me and my friends came in and ATE all of the sweets in the house. She made it a point to say that it had been OK if it were all "family members", but this was just unacceptable. "We had to eat salty things for breakfast." HEAVEN FORBID! And things got worse from there....
Anyways, for those of you who know my grandparents, this went on all day until we finally dropped them off. No tearful goodbye this time.
Aimee and I vented it out at Cheesecake Factory in Cambridge while I exchanged an Ann Taylor dress.
And that night, after a fruitful and fun run around the neighborhood, I fell asleep on Muck's lap while watching "Dodgeball".

I grabbed hot cocoa with Garrett. Just to get out of town, we found ourselves in a Dunkin Donuts in Salem, NH. We had a good 2-hour conversation about life and whatnot. He is such a great guy, I'm so glad we still talk.
And Jessica came over to watch Dane Cook, who is a very sexy man. It was a good night.

Yesterday I ran a lot of errands, focusing mainly on France things. And then I went to say goodbye to Craig before he moved back to NYC. Lucky bastard.

I FINALLY got an email back from Darrell. You know, I don't care what's going on with this whole......thing. I just get frustrated when friends don't keep in good contact with me, especially when I care a lot about them and am going to a FOREIGN COUNTRY in about a month. Common courtesy, in my POV. Agh, men.

Went into the North End with Steve F. today to have a lunch date. We talked in french, I told him about college life, tried to help him out with some of his problems. He acts a lot older than he really is, and I'm so impressed by him.
Wisdom teeth surgery victim Scott and I went out to dinner and a movie later tonight. We basked in the gift card glory at TGIFridays, and saw "Blood Diamond". It was a very good film. A lot of violence about the West-African diamond black market and it's relations with the RUF. Makes you frustrated with humanity, that's for sure.

I would like to take this time now to shout out to Deejay. I see you reading my blog. Hey, you. Let's chat soon.

I don't know anyone else who reads it, which is why I'm perplexed why someone in Latvia or Algeria would stumble across it....which they apparently have.

Back at Home

The chocolate thing I had was, in fact, the flu. Just to let you know. The worst jogs of my life...
Moving out of the apartment in Manhattan was a real bitch. I had to pack everything up all by myself into the car in the basement garage. Where Buck was so conveniently placed TIGHTLY (as in no moving room) between a BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, and Escalade. I'm serious. Rough 2 hours of packing my life into a Buick LeSabre.
And did I mention that there was a protest outside of my apartment at the time? Something about police brutality in Africa. There were more cops than protesters, I swear. That means Wall Street was completely blocked off, and the COMPLETELY PACKED garage was not able to get rid of any cars. Rough.
The drive home was uneventful. Dad and I talked some. I pined some. You know how I do.

Back in NA, life is same-old-same-old. Translation: lots of time. It's as if time abruptly slows down like you've hit a patch of molasses when you get to the burbs from the city.

The morning after, after a terrible run (again), Scott and I went shopping with Mom. Mom had gotten in a car accident, so she was pretty bummed out, but we tried to make her happier. Both of us kids got haircuts (though, Scott forbade me from cutting more than 1 inch off...). It was a short shopping trip, actually. We ended up getting dinner at the Loop, and then talking in my room for the rest of the night.
The grandparents came in, and my life got harder automatically. Not the cute ones, the evil ones. The biggotted ones. It's been an interesting few days.
Aimee brought home her cat, Ron. He's adorable, but a bit feisty.

I went to the doctors to discover my actual flu symptoms were legit. And I had a sore on my foot. Good, clean fun for everyone. And Jesse came over to say hi for a few.
We ended up (Jesse & Craig & me, that is) going to Dany's house for a party. Lots of people. One hour limit, thanks to the other 2 who didn't know anyone at the party but me. It was nice to see them all, but I sadly realized how far apart I really was from a lot of them. There's not as big of a connection to everyone as there used to be. Craig and I ended up going back to his place to discuss my boy problems.

Christmas Eve was uneventful. Aimee and I went to the grocers for Mom's birthday, the family went to Wilson's to get food for Xmas, and that's about it. I cooked dinner.
Ido called me, surprisingly. I was so glad to hear from him. I missed him, and it's nice to know that we can still talk. Though, his English isn't as good anymore. Oh well, I'm used to it.
Aimee and I went to Church for Candlelight Mass a bit early, where the youth came together to say "hi". Again, there was a stronger disconnect between me and the other Andover kids, which surprised and disappointed me. Oh well, que sera sera, right?
It was interesting going to church after my personal seperation from Christianity. Lots of interesting things are heard when you're not so hooked on the religion.
Grandma has the most hideous, shrill, out of tune singing voice I've heard in a long time. It made a lot of us giggle during the songs.

Christmas was fine. My family woke me up in a cruel way: continuously calling my mobile until I came downstairs.
Too many presents. I got what I wanted, and then some. I plan on donating some key things to charity, along with a lot of things from my room already.
What did I get? Money...gift cards...a piece of lingerie (thanks, mom)...a gnome (thanks, aimee)...and other joyous things.
Dad and I went for a jog around the neighborhood. It wasn't too bad.
Ido and I talked again for a while. Aparently he's going to call me more often so he can work on his English, and I owe him a song?
Scott saved me from the family, and we went to go see "Dreamgirls". Not a bad movie. MAN, do those women have chops on them!!!! Jennifer Hudson's GOT PIPES!!! That movie's really made me want to get back into the jazz singing scene.

Today, well, was amazing. After lunch with the family, Jeff and I ended up going to Salvation Army, where Jeff found the most ridiculous clothing to buy for a grand total of $15. And we ran into Maxx & Molly, which was great fun for all.
Jeff and I talked in Starbucks for an hour about life, futures, and politics. And I talked to his girlfriend on the phone.
We came back and took a long walk around my neighborhood, and talked some more.
After I made us dinner and we took pictures of Jeff being sultry, Scott joined up with us, where we decided to go to Salisbury Beach after a glass of Pinot Grigio. We sang carols on the beach, and joked about life. And we found the most dismal bar on the beach. Big place. We were the ONLY people in the bloody place. Dismal, I tell you! We had a few chuckles and headed back to my place, where Jesse stopped by for a while.
I love them.

Oh, Wow....

So, last night I didn't feel very well. At all. I was hugging the toilet for perhaps 2 hours, praying that I'd get the job done and feel better once and for all.
The kind where you can't really think straight, and it's a little harder to walk outside. The kind where you forget what happeed exactly the next day.
We, being Mom and me, think that it might be a mix between having some kind of bug, the stress from exams, the current events that have been going on in my life (which I will not discuss on my blog), PMS, and the fact that I OVERDOSED on chocolate. Yes, I ODed on chocolate. It can happen.

The funny thing is, apparently I felt compelled to write to Ido. I haven't talked to him in a few months. I wanted to know how he was, I guess. So, I got onto the computer, and started making an email for him. I got the "To" part right. The subject said "recap". I assume I was going to write out what I had been up to or something.
The body of the text: "hey ido,".
That's it.
Sent.

How do I know?? Because Ido responded to me this morning. His response was something along the lines of, "...call me on Friday...."

I'm still laughing about this.

Some Results...

Managerial Accounting - B+
Français - A
Global Economics - B

Not bad...I could have done worse. 2 more results to go!

Cleaning Up Shop

So, I should probably fill people in on what current events befell me over the past few days. As briefly as possible.

We had our Chamber Choir concert last Friday. And the parents stayed in the city to see it.
It went really well! We sang a handful of chamber music, and some not-so-chamber music (i.e. The Beach Boys). I had to conduct the Jabberwocky song because Noah was playing the piano for us all. But we had a pretty good show up, and we sang well. We recorded it, and Darrell's making us all CDs (to be sold online sometime?) of the show. It's all very exciting.
I am so glad I'm in chamber singers right now. This semester has been wonderful, and with our newer members, we have a really powerful connection between all of us. The very first practice this semester proved that not only were we good singers, but we had some really strong bond/love for each other. I love them all.

Saturday, Mom&Dad brought Aaron, Neil, and I out to dinner at this really nice place called Pietro's. I got the swordfish, and the boys got steaks. It was a good time, and my parents approve of my choice in friends. The boys seemed to enjoy the time, too. And we ate too much. We slowly walked back to the subway.
I got home 10 minutes before I started hosting my Chambers after-party. Darrell came over early to help me get ready for it. Unfortunately, only half of us were over, but we still had a blast of a time together. As always. Twister, Photobooth, politics, and SINGING! Lots of singing. My lord......we made a bit of a mess, so Darrell stayed over to help me clean up in the wee hours of the morning.

Sunday, the parents offed back home, while I went to work on homework with my class groups. And, though I had had 2 hours of sleep, I went with Dad's assistant Robin to a concert of the "U2 of Pakistan/India", Ali Azmat. We enjoyed it, he was REALLY GOOD! But we both were so tired that we agreed to go home early.

Tuesday, I had 2 final tests, 1 final paper, and a final presentation. It was a long day. I aced French, did either alright or failed Business Law (I doubt the latter), and my paper/presentation group did really well (above average) on both the paper and powerpoints. Good job, us!
Danie came over for dinner, where we feasted on pasta with Tequilla/lime-sauce. It was delicious.

Wednesday was crazy. I ran uptown to do a focus group with this start-up SoSauce. It is a really cool group of NYU-grads who are making a new blogging site (sorry, Blogger). I think they've got some good ideas, and the guy that I talked with was really great. We had a good conversation for about an hour.
I then grabbed tea with Emily from Chambers. We talked about boys, and England, pre-biz minors, and other assorted joys. Good times, I'll miss her a lot.
Then, I quickly ran up to meet Liz from french class for tea at Think. We also talked about boys, and school, and we just chatted. She's a darling girl.
THEN, I ran into Dan right before going home. We ended up getting coffee, too. And we talked about stuff. He called me a player, and I resented it. It was a busy day.

Thursday we had a Chambers E-board meeting. There's a lot of things we have to do before I leave for Paris. Oie vay.
I then studied my brains out with Jean-Claude and Mariam (at different times) for global econ. Long, long day. Mariam and I ended up at her apartment, eating Chocolate Sorbet, talking about what we need to do when I come back. She gave me a holiday gift, and I love her for it. I have come to realize I know wonderful people.

Friday was my global econ final. It was a decent final. I think I did my best on it. My phone rang off the hook (vibrate, ahem) during the whole final. The last call was my friend Rob who was sitting next to me during the final but left early. He was just calling to make me more embarassed during the test. Nice guy.
I grabbed dinner with Neil and Dan. They always have an interesting debate with each other, but this time I just wasn't into it, so I just enjoyed their company while spacing out.
Darrell came over afterwards and we made mac 'n cheese. It was REALLY GOOD, but way too rich. Heart-attack quality. Oie, my arteries. Emily kept on calling me for fashion help during our cooking, so really Darrell cooked it all. Good job to him, he's got me impressed. The rest of the night we talked about it all. It was a good night, and morning.

The Yesterday, Aaron and I ended up in Brooklyn at Grand Army Plaza, and walked around the park, relishing in the green open space. We headed back after a while and went to Lemongrass for dinner. I made him go see 2 movies later; The Holiday, and The Departed (which I'd already seen). The first one was the perfect chick flick for me right then and there, and the latter? Well, it's still good.

Today (Sunday), I walked around for a while. I talked on the phone with some people. I grabbed coffee with Matt Dell, and it was great to see him and hear what he's up to right now. He's got quite the interesting life, I must say.
Craig and Alex H. came over for dinner, to help me finish the mac 'n cheese. They joked around with me, Craig left early, and Alex & I watched Y Tu Maman Tambien. Once again, a good movie. He just left after a raher large talk, and I'm tired and ready to go to bed. NIGHT!

Finals Approach-eth

It was Aaron's birthday on Sunday. I took him out to Indian Row and we ate at this nice place called Brick Lane (yes, based on the London street....). We ate sooooo much food! And I got the manager to bring him a birthday dessert with candles and singing. It was really nice. Though, I got sick from eating so much. Bad choices.
Afterwards, we came back to the apartment and watched "Y Tu Mama Tambien". It was excellent, but a bit surprising on my end.
Two presentations done, one to go.
4 finals to go.
And, 1 paper done, 1 to go.
ALMOST THERE!!!!

This picture was taken out of my apartment. It's my Holiday wishes to all.

There's a bit that's been going on, but I just want to sleep now. Night!

Frustratingly Remembering

So, in order to procrastinate on my work, I've been stockpiling this list on LibraryThing with all of the books I've ever read. Ever. Which is difficult in the first place, but it's fun to remember the books that I've read once upon a time, all of 10 years ago, and then add them to my ever-growing list.
And today, I remembered a handful of books and series that I read. After seeing "Fast Food Nation" with Aaron, the list just grew.
The problem is, I can't for the life of me remember the names of the books, so all I have are the general storylines in my brains, the covers of the books, but no means to find the books. I have been googling as much as I can, but to no avail.

So, for my own sake, I'm going to list the general jist of these young adult books I can't find (hoping I'll find them some day):
1) 4th grade reading: A story of a young boy who has to solve a mystery (perhaps a murder?) where there is a blue car, footprints going to a house, a lot of plastic pink flamingos....and a dog, which I think might be his. I feel like cookies may or may not be involved, but that might be my own wishes.
2) A trilogy where some girl befriends a ghost-girl in her room, during the summer time, and they try to make things right in both of their lives. The cover is very 80's-style, where the ghost girl looks shocked that she's dead, etc.
3) A book about a girl who all of a sudden starts channeling a girl who lives in ancient Egypt...it might very well be her in a past life? I think it's in the summertime, as well. The cover was also illustrated, with a girl looking shocked while staring into a river to see another shocked girl who looks like she's from Egypt.

If you have any idea what books these are, LET ME KNOW. It's driving me nuts.

Oh yeah, and I hung out with Dominique and her boyfriend today. We ate indian, and then we hung out in their temporary condo over in Times Square. It was incredibly pimp.

Fast Break

I've been in the Stern computer lab for roughly 8 hours now.

I've been working on my Brooks Brothers presentation all day. And my presentation on Chile and China's Free Trade Agreement.

I just finished this week my french presentation on Burundi, Africa (THANKS JEAN-CLAUDE!!!). Without that guy, I would have actually had to have researched for my french project. But, his brain was the Wikipedia of my project.

So many powerpoints.

Aaron and I went to see "Flannel Pajamas" last night. It was alright, very much "day in the life"-type movie. I don't know why, but it ended making me overwhelmingly sad. Aaron had to walk with me afterward and talk me into a happy state.

I had an IBEX luncheon this week, where the advisors told us all that, essentially: "You all have A LOT of work ahead of you."

My phone broke. I was at Think Coffee, and all of a sudden it stopped working. I had to spend 2 hours (I walked in-and-out 3 times straigh) at the Cingular store to get a new FUNCTIONING phone. I hate RAZRs.

I'm keeping this short and sweet today, people. I'm far too busy to indulge in good storytelling. My profound apologies.

This week, otherwise, has been work, work, aaaand....work.

Thanksgiving

Wednesday, I woke up a bit lately and tried as quickly as I could to get to Laguardia. After getting into Queens, I hailed a cab to share with 2 other people to get to the airport. I was in the itty-bitty shuttle terminal. I got on the early flight home.
I took the T and Commuter Rail to Reading for Jesse to pick me up and drive me home.
Mom drove me back into Boston late at night so I could spend the evening with Alex. We went to a bar, then I helped him pack for his weekend (and do his laundry). Every time someone called me, he made groaning noises to distract me. Why do men find it funny to distract people with unsettling noises? We talked a lot.
He drove me back home late at night, for me to quickly pass out in bed.

Now, I'm sick.
Our kitchen is ripped up (floors are being put in...), so we've postponed the real dinner until Saturday.
On Thanksgiving Day, we went to Angelica's for dinner.
I went for a jog on the treadmill.

Friday: Penny, Mom, Aimee, and I went shopping. I bought 3 pairs of shoes, and a DVD. Penny bought shoes and a watch.
After the shopping, Jesse & Craig joined us at my house to hang out.
Jesse has a promise ring. Everyone giggle.
Then Jeff swung in so we could team up and hit Dany's house party in Andover. We left everyone at my house.
We stayed at Dany's for an hour. It was the most overwhelming hour I've had in a long time. Basically, almost all of my Andover friends from childhood to now were packed into this 3-story mansion. In an hour, I had to talk to all of them, catch up with them, and make plans with people. There wasn't enough time for everyone. I got so stressed/excited, that I started to get flushed.
When Jeff and I got into his car, we both stopped for a minute in complete dumbfounded silence, and said, "....What the hell just happened?"
When we got back to my house, Shivangi and Erin were there.

And I have to do all of my homework tomorrow.
Will this chaos never stop?

I'm going to bed now.

International Emmy Awards: Brief

The Int'l Emmies was very, very busy.
I got to the Hilton around 11am to set up. I was on the operations volunteering group, so I had to put together the gala ballroom, and get 1200 gift bags organized and stacked.
Lunch was fully catered for us workers. It was delicious.
The downside of the Hilton was that all of the cheerleaders from the Macy's Day Parade had just been checked into the hotel, and were clogging the elevators and hallways. Damn cheerleaders with their tacky-colored windbreakers.
I met a lot of new people. During lunch, I befriended 2 girls who were cousins, 1 woman & man from the Ivory Coast, and an assorted amount of other NYU students working the gala.
After lunch, I befriended this guy (I want to say his name was Iten, or Eat-on, or something?) while dressing the dining tables. He was a 25 year-old student from Manhattanville College (finance major), who is from Tel Aviv. He reminded me of someone, yet I couldn't quite pin down who...do you hear the sarcasm seeping out of the sentence?
After we finished up our jobs, we got dressed for the gala. I wore my black cocktail dress, crystal necklace, and open-toed heels. I won't lie...I looked really cute. And I felt it, too.
For the gala, my job (with the rest of my crew) was to greet the guests, give them their tickets, answer questions, and be pretty. We were complimented on how attractive we all were by countless amounts of foreign celebrities. It was utterly wonderful.
We ate in the press room with the rest of the workers.
I was freezing cold for 4 hours straight.
My friend Jean-Claude was working the gala, too...only he was with the group of kids who performed as escorts for the celebrities. They got to hang out on the red carpet, and meet the celebrities, and chill out during the gala with the famous people, and have an all-around better time. I am insanely jealous of all of them. He brought me over to his group of people during the end of the gala (where we feasted on fabulous, succulent desserts) and I met this wonderful person named Navide (?), who was half-Japanese-half-Iranian, working on his 3rd masters, and spoke more than enough languages.
Did I mention that I spoke french a lot of the night?
After getting our gift-bags and checks, we all sally-forthed to the after party at The Grand. Let me tell ya; dancing to club music at a hip club with a bunch of drunken old middle-aged men (and women) from around the world IS REALLY WEIRD. When you notice that there's a 40-something German man dancing to Kanye West's "Golddigger" right next to you...that's when you know something's not quite right.
I stayed at the after party for about an hour. I gave my email to a few of the kids I worked with, and went home by 2am...exhausted, and not ready for class in 6 hours.

That was the brief version.

International Emmy Awards Gala

Well, I'll talk about this later....

Happy Birthday, James!

James came in very early Friday morning (his 21st birthday). Luckily, he wanted to nap as soon as he got here, so I could sleep some more.
When we both agreed to wake up, we decided to sally forth outside. We were trying to find a DMV on Greenwich Street (which apparently exists, but we absolutely could not find), but ended up walking all the way up to campus. Since we were at campus, I grabbed my sneakers at Coles so we could jog together. I also made James go to Whole Foods to grab a heap of groceries for his birthday dinner party that I was cooking for. Lots of food. We got into an interesting conversation with our cashier...apparently he was only working for the hell of it. He had plenty of cash and investments, but he liked working for the sake of human interactions, and such. It was an interesting tale.
I got home to realize I had missed my very important meeting with my advisor about studying in Paris! I called and beseeched her, and she found mercy on me. I ran to campus for a meeting (at which I found out that I'm over credits, and not only do I have enough credits to graduate on time, but I have the ability to graduate a semester early if so feeling inclined). Oh, stress cometh!
The dinner was nice. 7 of us gathered around (after my manic cooking festivities). I was the only female around. The men lavished me with compliments on my fabulous cooking abilities and wonderful hostess skills. Loved it. And Steve, James' old roommate, took out his shaman rattle, and we took a journey with our animal guides. It was very interesting, and I think it really added to the party.
I journeyed to a place in the White Mountains I went to when I was in middle school. There was a large lake with a shining moon lighting it up, in a large open surrounded by forest and mountains. In the middle of the lake I saw a naked woman with long brown hair standing above the water. There were fish swimming up towards her. She was telling me to get into the water, but I kept refusing the proposition....when I was going to finally give into her orders, Steve brought us back out of our journeys. I'm very interested in it what that could have been all about.
After dinner, James, Neil, & I made the mistake of going to see "Let's Go to Prison". Mistake.

Saturday was a late morning for James and me. We woke up around noon and got ready to go visit his old suitemates in Brooklyn. It was a fun afternoon of guitar playing, singing, art showing, and poetry reading.
When we got back to my place, we agreed to go for a run outside. We ran up around City Hall, over towards Battery Park, and around the tip until we returned to my place. It was a nice run, and James told me I was a good runner (way to make me excited!!!).
Afterwards, James, Dan, & I went to the NY Comedy Club. We laughed, and we didn't laugh. Perhaps 60% of the show was good and funny. The rest was forgettable. Though, most of the comics picked up the fact that I was with 2, not 1, men. One assumed I was going out with Dan, one with James, and one assumed I was having sex with both! I laughed at that, hard.
Neil met up with us afterwards and we hit up a sake bar for a huge dinner and a 4-hour political/social debate. Ah, it was like old times. I was in my element. We got home around 5am.

On Sunday I had to wake up early to go to school for some meetings. Long, long meetings. And I had to run a Chambers rehearsal, which was slightly frustrating.
Then I met up with the 3 boys to go to a Japanese Tea House for a tea ceremony. It was very interesting to watch the woman go through the meticulous movements. And it was very relaxing. The tea was excellent.
We went nextdoor for some sushi and sashimi. Aaron met up with us, and we returned to the Tea House for some more tea, only without the ceremony. James and I got into a physics discussion and its role with the uncertainties in the universe, as well as God, and morality. Very intense. Aaron and Dan got in an argument about morals, too...but on a different level than us.
Afterwards, James and I went back to my place to sleep. We ended up getting into a Kim-needs-to-vent-and-tell-her-emotions-to-James conversation. He only had 2 hours of sleep. Bless that boy.
I love my boys. They are my home away from......life.

Bare With Me

Lots has happened. Little time to tell it all in.
Will write in incrimental blogs.

Last Thursday, Aaron and I went out to dinner and a movie. The Thai food was good, but slightly overpriced. I've been eating all Asian food with him, which I think wil just be our "thing", but whatever.
We went to see "A Good Year" with Russell Crowe. Much to Aaron's surprise (and dismay), it was a chick flick. Thing SUPER chick flick. French/British fusion romance. It was hilarious. He hated it, and I gobbled it up.
Then we watched the first half of "Borat". We walked out. He was offended, and I was slightly disappointed.
So, we walked into the midnight showing of "Happy Feet". It was refreshing. Still sad, but I enjoyed it a lot. I love penguins. Oh, so so much!

How The Internet Ruined Me

You know you're the worst student and best procrastinator when you realize you have a midterm during the week.....and though you should be studying, you've been extremely productive.

You realize that you have:
1) Planned a dinner party for the upcoming weekend.
2) Called your mother. Twice.
3) Made an extensive weekly grocery run.
4) Efficiently replied to EVERY email that has come into your mailboxes since yesterday.
5) Video-chatted to your German friend at Frankfurt's European Business School (Felix) on Skype for 3 hours. Straight. Until he fell asleep while talking to you.
6) Organized your computer files (finally).
7) Called a friend in Tel Aviv (Ido) that you haven't spoken to in months.
8) Played phone tag with multiple people throughout the night.
9) Choreographed (and danced) a graceful routine to a handful of shuffled iTunes songs.
10) Written a blog, and edited your website.
11) NOT STUDIED FOR YOUR MIDTERM HAPPENING IN 3 DAYS!!!!

DC

Thursday, Aaron and I ate some Korean Food and watched 2 movies: "Babel" and "Running with Scissors". The former was excellent, I liked it. The latter was, well, disappointing (to say the least).
I finished "The Secret Life of Bees". It was a good book. Cute, and a little overly-sappy for my own liking.

I went to DC this weekend to visit Aimee. The trip was nice. I got in around 7pm because of a slightly-delayed flight. Laguardia isn't the best airport in the world, that's for sure. We went to an Epuricurean and ate LOTS of sushi. Lots. And then we spent an easy night in her apartment discussing the future of the world.
Saturday I made my sister play tourist with me. We walked from the Potomac River to the Smithsonian Mall area. Aimee complained about her shoes a lot of the way. It was a lovely day, though, so I made her suck it up. We heard Madame Butterfly playing in the park, and we mosied from place to place. Took pictures. We strolled into the Air & Space Museum, which wasn't nearly as interesting as I anticipated it to be. We made fun of the spaceships being made out of the astronauts' wive's aluminum foil rolls, and we mourned the death of Pluto's status.
We ate at Macaroni Grille before spending another lowkey night at her place. We watched "Pride and Prejudice"...and Degrassi.

Sunday we got breakfast at the Reef with Erin, and we talked about boys and boobs and other girly flares. I almost missed my flight check-in (basically, had to beg my way on), but it was 2 hours late, so no matter.

Aaron swung over after I got home to look at my music and be completely distracting.

Romantic Autumn Adventure

by peter_madera

Yesterday was a wonderful day out; just cool enough to feel alive, crisp enough to feel awake, and the perfect amount of sunlight to provoke nostalgia.
So, I went for a walk around my favorite parts of New York: Chelsea and the West Village. It was one of my best romantic adventures.
I walked around 12th & Hudson and stumbled upon some magnificent architecture. The stores were very posh, but the feeling of the overall area was something straight out of an old movie. The buildings looked slightly worn by age, but not run down at all.
I found myself walking into a building housing the Chelsea Marketplace. I fell in love. It's this simple 1-story marketplace full of food shops and delis; bakeries and patisseries; restaurants and live Dixieland Jazz. Though I felt somewhat guilty for being there because it was obvious that only wealthy affluent people could go there casually and shop (and there were a lot of people like that there), I felt like I had discovered the best private romantic spot to frequent...someday.
How marvelous!
And I continued walking through the Village to find my favorite shops lit up ever so....just enough to make me feel complete love for the area and miss it a lot. It's one of the places I miss when I'm abroad.
Since I was so satisfied with my walk through, I decided to continue on downtown back to my apartment over at the tip of Manhattan. Yes, it was quite the long walk, and my shin splints cried out a bit, but it was still great.

I put on my heels and met up with Aaron to eat Indian and go see "Outing Wittgenstein" over in Midtown. It was an interesting (and short) play ultimately about identity and the role of social constructs (i.e. gay, color, gender...). We discussed it a lot afterwards before we went to go see "The Prestige". That movie went slow enough to be thorough, and had entertaining qualities, but I was a little perplexed and somewhat disappointed about it for some reason...
Beforehand, we also went out to get more food at some Thai restaurant. I always forget how much men can eat.

The subway ride home was hilarious. I befriended some other woman in painful heels (like me), and was sitting in the train with a completely wasted boy from Fordham, or some other non-Manhattan college. There was a group of us younger people on the train where I was, and we were in stitches from this drunk guy's comments. Not much of it made sense, but I recall him hazing some girl about drinking Hawaiian Punch: That HI-C guy is just ballin' it on that can, just drinking that sugary goodness...you listen to your Radiohead, HI-C guy.
Who knoooows what he was trying to say???

Catch Up

I haven't been up to much, lately.
I would just like to make some passing comments.

Today I went to lunch at the NYU Torch Club (wicked fancy alumn place), paid wholey by Stern. I only go to these things for the free, expensive food. Nevertheless, I always have some interesting experiences.
Today's lunch consisted of a system comparable to "speed-dating", only with the heads of all of the departments in Stern. Every 10 minutes, another head of some department would come to our table, talk to us about the major, give us pointers, all of that advisory stuff. I was placed at the Finance table. God has a sense of humor.
The head of Finance was quite interesting. He is from Australia, had a very interesting life and lineage of careers. The best thing he said, though, was how he looked at all of the investment bankers on Wall Street and disapproved of their lifestyles. "I realized that non of them are married to the same person they were married to 2 years ago. And they don't dedicate any time to their families or friends. They lead these dismal lives of pure money," he reflected. Stern is KNOWN for cranking out investment bankers, so I found his views particularly intriguing. After the comment, the investment banking candidate at our table disregarded him and started asking about what the "best way" for getting into the industry was.
I also talked to the IB head (who's my professor for Global Econ) briefly, and stumbled into an interesting conversation with the head of Marketing about the new form of marketing: Social Marketing. Basically, marketing based on social responsibility. I like the sounds of it. And, seeing this woman is straight from Britain and quite the seasoned traveller, I felt a bit encouraged about my path.

I am having issues with thinking in partial French throughout the day. Franglish is my native tongue. Few understand me. Many scoff at me.

Yesterday was Danie's 22nd Birthday. Danie being one of my closest girlfriends at NYU, whom I've known (with Cassie) since the very first day of NYU Orientation. We have even formed our own "sorority": Delta Kappa Chi, Omega Chapter. We're hilarious.
Cassie and I took Danie out for lunch yesterday (our other 2 girlfriends Lara & Azadeh joined us). We surprised her with the restaurant where we 3 first met: OTTO. We feasted on several pizzas and gelato. And we talked about how we've changed, the differences between urban and rural societal constructs, and boys. It was lovely.

Aaron and I had a movie night at my place tonight. We made a stew (which turned out very, very nicely) and threw in a few Tofu Steaks. We watched "Bridge on the River Kwai". It was an interesting movie, and very typical British, methinks. We then got into a heavy conversation about the social, economic, and environmental issues with capitalism. It was a long conversation, and it resulted in pulling out my textbooks and him getting moderately upset about it all.

Otherwise, I am the world's largest dolt. I have stuck around the apartment doing virtually little. I've begun contemplating whether or not I should start packing up already.

Buffalo, NY

I went to Buffalo, NY this weekend to visit James (who's recently transfered to SUNY Buffalo) and see my old hometown.
Initially, it was stressful. I had to wait 2 bloody hours for my flight to take off! I read 200 pages waiting for takeoff, while poor James had to wait in the airport to pick me up. I finally got in around 1am, so we cabbed it to his studio.

Before I describe the weekend, I have to make a few key points:
1) He has a massive studio. I daresay it's as big as our convertible 1 BR apartment. The kitchen was cute, and James is such a minimalist, it seemed as if it was too big.
2) James doesn't buy much food, so we ate oatmeal, rice, challah bread, and sponge candy all the time. We drank lots of green tea. I took him out for the first time, to an Indian restaurant. And he made me salmon one night. But it was quite amusing to me how James went from eating more than a bear before hibernation to complete bird-style.
3) We didn't have a car, so we did a lot of hanging out in his apartment. I think he has acquired ADD by living alone and not venturing out too often with comarades. He was all over the place in his studio! Bouncing back and forth, it was quite humurous.
4) I'm so glad I got to see him. I miss him a lot, especially since he's one of my personal therapists. We talked a lot about some really interesting things: religion, spirituality, humanity, our relationships with people, personal issues, and so so much more. We did argue a lot, but it was always about silly things: "Kim, don't do the dishes!" "James, don't sleep on the floor!" "Kim, don't pay for that!" "James, don't wait for me so long at the airport!"
5) Keep in mind I was born in Buffalo, and lived there until I was about 4 years old. We have one family of friends (the K's) there still, who my mom still keeps correspondences with (I haven't seen them in over a decade, though). They have 3 kids that were Aimee and my playmates (there was a girl a year younger than Aimee, and 2 boys one and two years older than me). The youngest boy, John, and I were "married". I left John an email (though I haven't seen him in FOREVER) about visiting a month before, and I called the mom to see if I could visit the neighborhood. John hadn't gotten back to me, and the mom didn't think they had time during the weekend to see me.

Friday he had class, so I woke up late and went for a jog around his area. It was alarmingly cold, and in the middle of my jog it started to rain a bit. Cold, cold runs are a lot more exhilirating than I remembered! I enjoyed it quite a bit, though I lost $2 on my excursion. And the last snow storm took down a LOT of trees, so I had a lot of obstacles to run around during my run.
After my jog, I got back to find out I had a voicemail. At first I thought it was Mr.K because the voice was so low. Then I realize it's John! He wanted to meet up with me since I was in town. I called him back, and we talked on the phone for 45 minutes (as I was trying to wait for a bus to get to the campus and meet up with James). It was as if we talked the day before! Not awkward at all! After realizing I was waiting for the wrong bus all along, he decided to drive over and bring me to campus himself.
We met in Starbucks. At first I was nervous, since I haven't seen this person in such a long while. I was afraid that it was going to be one of those situations where you haven't seen someone you were close with in a long while, and they change so much (and so drastcially) that you become disheartened because you can't see your old friendship working out. But as soon as he waltzed into the place, it was just like meeting up with a friend I see hanging around school every week. It rekindled my faith in friendships and people! He turned into such a great guy!
We had a great time catching up, just talking and joking around. Before we picked up James on campus (and they hit it off, too!), we went for a carride around. Poor John was my chauffeur for 2 days straight.
That night, James and I gorged ourselves on Indian food. I haven't felt that overfull in a long time. We veged out in his studio all night. Well, I veged out. James bounced here and there....

Saturday, John called when he woke up. Though he had work in 2 hours, he agreed to pick us up and drive us 30 minutes to my old neighborhood. We continued the funfilled conversation as I slowly regressed to being a 4 year-old. The trees were everywhere, so it gave me a sad feeling. But overall, the neighborhood was just as I remembered it, only a bit smaller in size.
And the K's renovated the inside of their house! I remembered most of it, but the kitchen was different, and the basement was different, too! Those 2 places were our jungle gyms way back when....
Basically, John drove us to his house and back to James' place for my sake. I owe him, big time. We got pictures, and he gave me a great bear hug goodbye. Hopefully we can keep this 20-year friendship (yes, I'm calling it that, because I think it is one) going for longer.
James tried his first sponge candy (which is truly only known in the Buffalo region....no one knows about it!). He asked us if it was really sponge in the candy, and John & I laughed hard. We knew better.
James and I veged out the rest of the night after talking a walk to Tops Grocers for some food. We watched Dr.Strangelove and Motorcycle Diaries.
We talked a lot.

Sunday I had an early flight.
I took a cab to the airport.
The cabdriver assumed that James and I were boyfriend/girlfriend, and I was too tired to explain our friendship, so I just went along with him and his ideas on our "relationship". He was upset that James "left" me at NYU and didn't "help keep our relationship easy". My favorite line from Mr. Cab Driver: "If I was your boyfriend, I wouldn't have transfered away from you. I would have talked to you about the situation, how and I wanted to make it work and live with you in an apartment in the city." I got a good hearty chuckle out of it all.

I finished the book "Running with Scissors". It was alright. I want to see the movie more.

This Just In

I'm very excited.
I have this Marilyn Monroe cocktail dress (only it's black) here with me in NYC, but nowhere to wear it to.
I was very distraught about it.
It's a pretty dress.
Where does one wear a cocktail dress when they can't drink cocktails?

Oh, but I have a place to wear it now: The International Emmy Awards!!!! Because I'm working there!!!!!!

Old

I have been noticing that I'm starting to get lines on my face. Just little creases that I'm sure not many people take the time to notice...but I do.
The thing that's been bugging me is the fact that not only I'm finding gray (no, more like BRIGHT WHITE) hairs, but my FRIENDS have commenting a little bit about it! They think it's cool, while I'm freaking out.
I'm not old enough to be feeling old! What's this all about?! I feel like a decade older than I should be.

Dear World,
Tell me I'm not alone, please!
Love, Kim

What have I to comment on today?
I've been procrastinating on studying for my 2 midterms this week.
I have put tea bags under my eyes to attempt washing away the black puff rims I've unknowingly acquired (yet another sign of my premature aging). If anyone has any other remedies, let me know!
I have been doing more experiments to gain a few extra bucks.
I have started investigating the concept of "resting".
And I'm starting to wonder who reads this blog. I see a few locations on my StatCounter that make me feel flattered because I'm not sure who I know there (i.e. Berkley, CA; Madison, MA; etc.). Let me know!

Check

Today I helped my old roommate Lauren cast her pilot for a final project. I felt so cool, telling people where to go, what to do. And deciding who was going to get roles and who wasn't worth it.
And I had time to finish "Interpreter of Maladies" (Jhumpa Lahiri). A book of short stories, all related to India/Bangladesh. Sad, yes, but I liked it a lot.

Aaron and I saw "Little Children" tonight. Excellent movie, I was delightfully surprised. Go see it.
We also decided to go to Staten Island today for a while. I now understand why people say, "There's nothing to do in Staten Island. Just avoid it and you'll be no worse off."

Midterms Almost Done!

Yesterday a bunch of us from last fall's music theory class, and a bunch of my Chamber Choir, went uptown to see my favorite teacher ever's composition be played in a concert. For the record, I love Sophocles Papavasilopoulos. And I love Sophocle's music.
But the other pieces were very...interpretive. I think I liked maybe 2 songs (including Sophocles') out of the whole concert, 6 songs. They were so atonal and experimental...and dissonant. Don't get me wrong; I love my Stravinsky, and Ives is sometimes a nice thing to crunch on...but there's something very different about what I heard yesterday and those composers.
For instance, Stravinsky is dissonant. And dissonant can be very good. But when I listen to Stravinsky, though there's a lot of stuff going on that doesn't necessarily make sense, I still feel like dear old Igor is holding me in a safety net while I am swimming in mild confusion. I feel like I can still grasp the intent; the theme, and direction, is recognizable. But what I heard yesterday...I didn't feel safe. I felt confused. I felt like there was no real direction. I felt like it was just upsetting chaos that really has no rhyme, reason, purpose. I feel like those composers are trying too hard to be deep, that they're taking music and sound to frivolousness. And frivolousness can be good, too. But this "music"? It seemed to me to be purely masturbatory.
The last song had no conductor (to our horror), and the ensemble stood and played random notes, and walked around....and started babbling! My group and I, unfortunately, couldn't contain our giggles very well. People scoffed.
Sophocles had a great song, though. Beautiful. Conceptual. Reasonable.

Tonight Stern paid for me (and about 30 other Stenies) to go eat at this très ritzy place in the Village, Jane Restaurant, so we could listen to a drunken (no joke) alumn talk about his successes and early retirement and advise us about how to become as successful as him in 20 years time. It was an interesting night where I held my tongue about my ambitions towards diplomacy and the Peace Corp (gasp!) and accidentally got in a debate with some Republican about capitalism.
Luckily, I sat next to my friend Mariam and we oggled the food most of the night. Stern overfeeds us on their tab. We had a magnificent 5-course meal: Shrimp pizza, bread, calamari w/ chutney, gnocchi, scottish salmon with brussel sprouts, and a banana brulée that made me believe I had never lived before (not to mention the free pomegranite lemonade). Mariam and I hobbled all the way home, moaning about how much we overate and felt sick to the core. I'm still nursing a bulging gullet.

On an upside, I am officially passing all of my classes (or at least 60% of them...I don't know about 2 of my grades). I got a high mark on my marketing case study, an average B on my global economics midterm, and a slightly-above-average mark on my accounting midterm! French I'm assuming I did alright on my midterm.
I took the Business Law midterm today. 123 points. 100 questions. NOT CONCEPTUAL AT ALL! Basically, the test was seeing whether or not you had done the homework and gone to classes...each question was something along the lines of, "based on a class case we worked on about a dance studio, true or false blah blah?" Listen, professors: I am not paying you to see if I go to your classes. I am. TEST ME ON WHAT I STUDIED! Not on what I did! JESUS!

Idiosyncratic

I saw Producers on Broadway yesterday (tickets provided FREE through Stern...god bless). It was a good show, I was entertained the whole time. Too bad the tickets were in the VERY BACK row of the balcony...hello, vertigo! But it's ok, because I hung out with a girl, Katherin, from a class. This girl's life story is amazing! A few months ago, she had cancer surgery in her throat. And now, her mom has ovarian cancer. Next weekend, she's going to San Francisco to run a 27-mile marathon for cancer research......and she's going to Barcelona when I'm in Paris. Amazing!
We made friends with some guys from Univ. South Carolina. They were hilarious because during the show, whenever there was a homosexual joke made, they looked oh-so-shocked. I giggled oh-so-hard.

I had to fight my midterm grade for Managerical Accounting to be boosted up by about 2 letter-grades because my TA was beastly and didn't give me partial credit for anything...and marked me wrong for a correct answer!

I ate lunch with Bhinish today. I worry about that boy.

As a personal happy note...I can run 6.2 miles an hour! Not a great feat, I know...but it's something!

And I talked to Felix (in Frankfurt, Germany) on the phone for an hour today. I love talking to that boy. And his English is always patchy at first, which makes me giddy. We had a great catch-up conversation. And we plan on hanging out more next semester when I'm in Europe. Viva friendship!

OH! I have a Parisian flat! Be excited! And it's wicked nice!

I went on a date tonight. Ate at Dojo's, and saw "A Guid to Recognizing Your Saints" (not a date movie, just to warn you). The night was enjoyable. I have no idea what the verdict is on the date, though....quite a quiet guy (which is odd for me). Whatever.

Congeal

I have a lot of things going on.

Midterms are amist.

I had some of the most disappointing chocolate (mostly because it was white) today.

I have been eating like an elephant on weed.

I'm trying to fit in seeing friends as much as I can, in between meetings, working out, classes, and studying.

And I talked to a homeless man from Barbados about America and the corrupt policymakers. It was a very interesting conversation. I will cherish it forever, in my brains.

It's Been A While

I've been very, very busy.
In a nutshell for the past week or so, I have (not in chronological order):
~Seen Jersey Boys the Musical because Stern provided me with a free dinner and $10 ticket. It was pretty good. I like the Four Seasons.
~Had my first midterm in Managerial Accounting. I either did pretty well on it, or failed.
~Saw NYU Steinhardt's production of Urinetown the Musical, mostly because Craig is the drummer. It was alright. Funny show, the acting was great. The script, though? Meh...
~Met up with my girl Celina one night. We had a few laughs, and some great dumplings. Her friends were nice, too.
~Pulled an all nighter against my will. Which led me to complete exhaustion and me napping on Aaron's bed while he did homework before we went out to watch "Science of Sleep". Seeing as I was half asleep while watching the movie, and I have been struggling lately beause I think part in english & french, it wasn't until about 30 minutes into the movie that I realized they actually were talking BOTH english & french. It was a really peculiar movie, but I'm pretty sure I liked it quite a bit.
~Went to see a Yankees Game, but got there at the 7th inning. Aaron and I have issues finding out the times that things start. We keep getting to things too early or too late. Luckily, we both didn't mind TOO much...it was a funny story, I think. We walked around the Bronx highways a bit, but quickly realized that such areas aren't great places to walk around.
~Had coffee with old suitemate, Jen. We talked about Paris. I apparently will be helping her learn french, too....that is, if I can help myself...
~Watched "An Inconvenient Truth", with a guest speaker from the UN. Needless to say, I am not really worried about the world, Al Gore is my favorite person ever, and I want to lower my carbn dioxide emissions. While at the screening, I ran into about 4 people I haven't seen in a year, which was nice. We all agreed to hang out sometime soon, which makes me really happy.
~Ate dinner with Dad at a nice little place on Cornelia Sreet, Po. We both agreed it was excellent food. And we had a nice talk. He helped encourage my interest in diplomacy...let's see where this goes.
~Went to a Study Abroad alumn reception. Free food and drinks, and gift bags. That's about it. Cassie and I didn't really know anyone...but then JT from London came over, and we talked for a while. He is a ridiculously amazing person. And then Manny from London swung over, and we talked about his former position at the UN and what he's done with foreign policy and such. We plan on getting together sometime to discuss it more, which makes me excited.

On a more personal level, I have had a few thoughts in the past week that I need to put out there:
1) I think I'm getting dumber. I don't know why, but I just feel like I'm not as intelligent and well-knowledged as I was, say, a year ago. I feel like I don't know much of anything right now. I don't really know how to remedy this, but it makes me feel awfully melancholy about my brain's capacity.
2) Why do I feel like, when it comes to men, when it rains it pours? I kind of feel like I'm getting too much attention right now, like I'm being some kind of saucy vixen without even knowing it!
3) I really miss London. I didn't think that I would miss it so much, but there it is. It's surprising, really...
4) I'm a bit emotionally defunked right now. Don't ask me what that means, or what's not 100% right...it just is so. It's like my hormones have just decided to build a theme park inside me and ride on the rollercoaster over and over again. I'm happy, yeah, but just a little more girly when it comes to feelings.

Today I'm meeing up with Aaron to go to the UN, so I should get going...

Lionhead Rabbits

Aaron and I saw a movie this week: Hard Candy? It was on cocaine, really. It was basically about some online stalker who was pursuing this 14 year old chick. Turns out, the teenager ends up torturing the stalker to the point where he contemplates suicide.
The movie gave me nightmares.

I also realized why they pay so much money for people to do psychology experiments: they're mind numbing. I had to stare at a screen for 3.5 hours. I had to look at pairs of words, and determine if I could relate them. It. Was. Hard.
The last one I just did showed me disturbing pictures on a screen, and I had to determine the background color?
Hey, $45 I wouldn't have had normally.

Chambers started back up. I'm really glad with how the group is turning out. We're all nut cases! We were being goofy together and it was wonderful! I just met these kids, and I already connect with them. And the new kids were so glad! Because they were afraid they'd be the weirdoes in the group, when in reality, they're quite normal.
That's a good feeling.
And we can all sing well!
Methinks we'll be fine. Viva la classical music!

I saw Alex last weekend. He's an interesting duck, to say the least.

And, I must say, this Paris planning is freaking me out.

A Memo

Dear Men,
Please don't think that by ordering females around you will either attract them OR get your way. We are not obedient pups waiting for our next command. Yes, we admire a guy with some good, healthy confidence and initiative. However, when it comes to telling us what to do and then scolding us for not concurring...that is unacceptable. You might as well pour a cup of slightly-hotter-than-scolding staining coffee on yourself. Thanks, but no thanks. We can handle our lives just as well as you think you can.
Two more comments:
1) Know our individual names
2) Don't EVER start the conversation with the words "whore", "hoe", or "bitch".
Love,
Kim, a Female

On that note, Aimee and I just had a great day. Not only did we go to the Bodies Exhibit, but we also ate lunch in Little Italy at the San Gennero Festival. And we ate chocolate at Max Brenner's chocolate shop, and watched the hilarious show Hairspray. An A+ day.

Sushi of Champions

I'm having issues with my thought process...it's in Franglish. Now, I'll want to say something, but it's French that tapers into English. I'm pretty sure no one would be able to understand me.

Yesterday I took a good, relaxing Pilates class. It was delightful.

My girlfriend Elana, that I haven't seen in a grand total of 1 year, invited me to see her at this Latin Ballroom Social. I had to sweet-talk the girls at reception into letting me get in for free. I went for maybe 20 minutes; I said hi to Elana, talked to some Russian named Igor (I kid you not), and jetted as soon as they had an all inclusive salsa.

I met up with old roommate Lauren and her flatmate/my girl Denysha. We went out with their other flatmates, and assorted other friends, to go get sushi at Sushi Park. One of their flatmates is an Italian exchange student, Nina. She brought 2 of her co-Bocconi guy friends, and we battled language barriers all night. They had never eaten Sushi, let alone Sashimi, before. I shared a plate of Sashimi with Nina, and the boys shared a plate. We (being Denysha, her roommate, and me) had to teach them how to use chopsticks, and how to eat sushi. They weren't nearly as successful as they thought they were, but at least the food managed to mostly enter their mouths. And they loved the sashimi. The whole dinner made me ecstatic: Foreigners and Sushi?! Pure bliss.
It was a large group, too. 12 people?! Sushi Park didn't like us very much, but we flipped a big bill, so they got some reward in the end.
We had a great time, though. Lots of laughs. I made an agreement with one of Nina's friends, Fillipo, that I would help his English if he taught me Italian. He's very, very nice, so I'm going to hold him up on that.
We left the restaurant and started walking to some bar. I'm not exactly sure where they were intending on going, but the Italians had a mission, and I wasn't going to be the one to stop them. We ran into the OTHER Italian exchange students on the street. They were very drunk. And they are Italian. Wonderful combination. Very interesting, loud conversations happened for about half an hour on 11th between 2nd & 1st. We melted into an even larger group, and started crawling (the Italians were walking REALLY slowly!)back to campus to go to some Belgium place. The NYU kids were walking in front of the group, the Italians far behind...and ranting in Italian!
One of the Italian exchange students, Rafaele, is particularly good-looking. He started talking to Lauren and me (Lauren said that he was "totally into" me, and wasn't paying any attention to her...at which I retorted with a good & hearty chuckle at the thought), in which it became quite apparent that not only was he sober, but that he understands that he is attractive. He was trying to give me a few Italian pointers, of which one he told me to tell him, "Tu stei bello." You are handsome. I laughed at that phrase, and told him he was silly. I much rather the lessons from Fillipo.
The bar wasn't open anymore, so they hit up another place nearby to grab a few drinks. Lauren (who was more involved in her Odwalla bar) and I left early, at 2am.

I love that whenever I go out with Denysha or Lauren, something ridiculous happens to me. And they're always the type of situations where I know I could write a book about them, if only I was better at storytelling.

I woke up early today to go to an IBEX meeting. Some woman from Sciences Po was here to talk to us going to Paris. I'm not as worried as I was before, but I'm still annerved about it all.
And I'm exhausted.

Off to the gym....

I LOVE Macbooks

I received my new laptop yesterday. It's wonderful. I feel like the good karma came all around full circle, at last.

Last night, I went with Aaron to a debate with surprisingly skinny Thomas Friedman (NY Times journalist) and "ho ho ho" Joe Stiglitz (former WorldBank big guy) called, "Making Globalization Work". Overall, I was moderately disappointed. You would think that Stiglitz would be more of a public speaker, seeing as he is a professor at both Columbia and Amherst. But he paused a lot, stuttered a bit, and he talked far too much. He ranted for about 45 minutes to summarize his new book. Friedman was obviously more used to giving public speeches, and he related with the audience a lot more. Though, he was almost flamboyant...theatrical? Their points were well made for the most part, and good points at that, but sometimes they would get off topic to (it seemed) attempt to validate themselves. But, I stayed the 2 hours, and I am glad I did, in the end.

Dance class moderately whooped my ass on Sunday. It made running on Monday a bit rough. But, while dancing, I was horrified to see how much I unintentionally buffed up my shoulders. Girls' shoulders should not look like this, unless they're into the more masculine sports. I guess I'll have to cut back on the weight training, eh?

Danie, Cassie & I were all wearing the same tremendously bright color of pink today. The girls decided to create our own 3-girl sorority. I passively went along with the idea. Delta Kappa Chi? Because of our first-name initials? It exists somewhere...but not at NYU. Therefore, we're being original. And, to make it more silly, we're the Omega chapter. For those of you who aren't Greek buffs, Omega is the last letter of the greek alphabet. So, we're the last chapter. Get it? Eh, eh, eh?

I've signed up to do some (paying) experiments at the school's Psychology department. Let's see where this takes me!

Late Night Laundry

I'm currently doing my laundry, so I have some time before I go to bed to quickly make some key remarks about life as of late.

I just finished Lonely Planet's short-story book called "The Kindness of Strangers". I highly recommend it to all people who love to travel, and would like a rekindled faith in humankind.

Aaron and I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Friday. It was pouring outside. I had a movie moment before we entered the museum; a truck drove by me and covered me in water from a street puddle. I walked into the museum, in other words, completely soaked (as if I had just escaped from a lake). It was a nice day there. We hung out with the Egyptians for a while, flirted with Chinese Buddha, admired a pianist playing an antique Concert-B Steinway, and glanced at some post-plague (aka dismal) artwork.

I went to a Graduate school fair on Thursday, and became rejuvinated about my potential career paths. I am thinking about getting a Masters in International Affairs/Policy/Relations, and perhaps concentrate on Public Policy or something of that general persuasion. The one Graduate school at the fair that really struck my fancy was University of Melbourne. And it's number 19 in the world! Of what, I'm not sure, but it's still impressive. The only question is: what are my parents' points of view on that?
Nevertheless, I accumulated 13 pounds (I'm serious, I weighed it!) of paper from grad schools that I am going to look over sometime soon. Some of it's Aaron's, so it won't be that bad, but still....

Chamber Choir auditions have been going on this week. In other words, I get to listen to a bunch of college kids sing, and then I get to judge them. We're not a large group....and I think there's a reason for that. Most of the kids are not that great. I mean, don't get me wrong, most of them have an ear...they're not bad (actually fairly good). But a lot of them play on as if classical singing is their forte, when in reality they are more meant for Rogers & Hammerstein. Nothing wrong with that, just not for a chamber choir.

I have concluded that I hate chick flicks. They make me depressed and resentful.

For the last two nights I have hung out with Danielle in her apartment. We do homework, or chit chat about assorted musings. I event turned down hanging out with people tonight because I was going over to her place to do some Law homework! Then again, they wanted to play beer pong. I, being the non-drunken type, excused myself with the lamest reason of all: my acid reflux disease. I scapegoated out of it, but I'm almost sure I offended a few people with my silly reasoning.

I have concluded that I need to start investing more of my life into some more social clubs or meaningful groups/organizations. I feel like my life is ticking away right now, and me just sitting here blogging about it is counterproductive. We're only young once, right? So why am I not acting more youthfully? This is a predicament that I will chew on for a few days until I come to a conclusion.

Quick Update

I'm fine.
I've been very, very busy lately.

If I haven't announced already...Fred, my laptop, has died. He was a good laptop. Struck with a terrible cancer that kept him bedridden for weeks. I'll miss you, little buddy.
I am eagerly awaiting a new MacBook (thanks to James' advise). Oh, frabscious day!

I have been trying to fight a $300 additional fee to my speeding ticket in NY State. Those Oneonta court employees are a terrible people, and are making my life hard.

Aaron and I went to the Museum of Natural History on Friday. Though he claims to be mostly vegan (or low-impact, whatever), he ate a full plate of pulled pork at the museum, before our tour of all 4 floors. He should have known that he would feel sick the rest of the time. Nonetheless, we had a joyous day. Lots of sights to be seen in that museum. I dragged him to an astronomy show called "Cosmic Collisions", narrated by Robert Redford. It was well done, and once again I am questioning why I didn't major in astrophysics.
We walked through Central Park to get to the Guggenheim, where we saw a bunch of architecture from Zaha Hadid. I'm not much of a buliding buff, and we strolled through the museum quickly. And he moaned and groaned the entire way down. I had a good chuckle at that.
That night, I went out with some girlfriends for my friend Azadeh's birthday. We ate at a very chic restaurant (Mercer Kitchen). We were all decked out in makeup and heels. It was a good night. We walked over after dinner to watch the Woody Allen movie "Scoop", which I actually enjoyed more than I thought I would. Scarlet Johannson is a gem. And Hugh Jackman is............marvelous. The movie ended around 2:30, so I got home late.

On Saturday I exposed Denysha to sushi, which she hestitantly explored. It took a lot of cajoling that the eel really wasn't that frightening. It was wonderful sushi. The last person I took to that restaurant was Ido, and that was a while ago, so it was nice to revisit it.
Afterwards, we went back to my place so she could see it. We finished off pints of ice cream/frozen yogurt, and we watched a chick flick. We also ran into a post-college frat-like party on my roof! I wanted to show her my view, and we get on the elevator with a bunch of men in their late 20s/early 30s, sipping beers or cradling hard liquor. They made a few passing smartass comments, and to our horror the number of them multiplied by 10 or so. And the music was, well, a conversation starter.

Sunday I went to school and studied and started watching "Clockword Orange" in the Avery Fischer Center.

Oh, I have become a jogger/runner (which I fully blame James' influence on). The ellipticals are not sufficing my need for sweaty shirts, so I have started to utilize the treadmills at Coles. It makes me sad and I miss going backwards.

Otherwise, uneventful.

What I Don't Like

I have a new reason of contempt for McDonald's. It's the food.
For those of us who have been disenchanted by the fast food franchises (particularly McDonald's), it is simply cruel to see bags of fast food being toted in public.
Especially when those of us are absolutely starving and riding in a public transport to get home, completely absorved with what could be consumed as quickly as posible when finally back from a long day.
We see you people who have chosen to sit next to us, with a bag of McFries in your grasp.
We see you dip your fingers into the granulated grease, and licking your tips of the residual lipids.
We smell the heavily fried chunks you stuff into your esophagus.
We, for these purely trenchant moments, want these fries. Badly.
We begin contemplating the notion of either stealing the fries from your own hands, or sacrificing 99 cents from our own wallets for the quick and easy satisfaction these McFries could bring.
We flit with the betrayal of our own gullets and lifelong health.
And the sudden realization of what our thoughts have been led astray to lead us to immense guilt and self loathing from our weak guts.
Is this fair? I assure you, no.

Current Events

Penny gave me a surprise visit this weekend. She acted like a tourist, as I showed her around the city. http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif We had a lot of fun, and walked a lot. A lot. Exhaustion. And we saw one of the best movies created in the 1950s: "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?". Utter genius. I laughed so hard I snorted during the film, and Penny cackled.
And we did everything a tourist in NYC should do, ever.
We made a small cameo at Brazillian Day, too.
I even made 2 men walking dogs that I was a foreigner with very broken english as we walked towards the UN. The conversation was something along the lines of "Uh, scusay, U-N?" "Ohh....YOU. GO. UP. TO. THAT. BIG. BUILDING. OVER. THERE." (Mind you, they're flailing their arms around, trying to further excentuate their words.) "Oh! Sank yooh!" Priceless, and imagery galore.

But, alas, it's been pouring a lot lately.

Aaron and I concluded to take a walk around Central Park last night. That was a pleasant gallavant.

Otherwise, classes started today, and I will definitely have my work cut out for me. To write a lovely list of my enjoyable business classes: Business Law, Managerial Accounting, Consumer Behavior, Int. French, and Economics of Global Business. Start squealing with delight, boys and girls. This semester will be full of rainbows and chocolate-covered cherries. And lots of sarcasm. At least most of the professors seem to have personality, so I should enjoy myself somewhat.

I miss certain people.

Chaos

Before I left NA, I watched "Big Fish" with Mucks. It made me weepy, somehow.
And Jeff (have I mentioned he had 6 wisdom teeth pulled?), Dom and I went for a carride to Newburyport to eat at Not Your Average Joe's. You know, considering I used to work there, I'm impressed that I still want to go back. We also walked the harbor/boardwalk. But the best part of that day was when Dom purchased a "Celtic Pure Chill" CD and made us play it while we cruised with the windows down. It was the kind of CD where the makers obviously dubbed out the original singers of the song (think Bryan Adams, Mamas & Papas, Elton John, etc.), and replaced it with celtic flutes. Hilarious.

I'm back in NYC. Watched the "DaVinci Code". My move-in experience was wretched. Note to future locals: if you live on Wall Street, DO NOT move in during weekday lunchtime. WORST IDEA EVER! My mom was attempting to drive in circles, since you can't park on the sides of the narrow streets down there, but kept getting stuck, lost, etc. It was humid, I didn't have my name on the tenant list, yet...and most importantly, the girl that I was replacing in the apartment hadn't moved out, yet. Her double-sized bed, along with ALL of her stuff, was still in the room. We had to attempt to make my twin bed fit somewhere in the mess. What a mess.
Craig was a dear and helped us bring stuff back from Bed Bath & Beyond. I had to buy everything, sans desk.
I saw my girls, Danie the Trini & Cassie from NJ. We ate Thai food and acted girly. And I saw former roommate Lauren all day yesterday. We ate Indian food and walked around. I mutilated my feet in my heeled flip flops. It has been raining rather consistently, and not the soft British kind, either.
Since returning here, I've been honked at, asked directions, interrogated by a friendly old man who was either speaking Hebrew or something Slavic. And I've been asked if I want some cocaine (et cetera). I love being back in NYC.

The More You Know

The Bad News - I failed at making a stir fry. A stir fry!
The Good News - I have learned one of the key distinctions between stir fry and stew: tomatoes. Ladies and gentlemen, if you do not wish to slurp your stir fry, do yourself a favor and omit any tomato ingredients from the recipe.

Yesterday my boss at job #2 took me and my 2 other coworkers out for lunch. We went to Lee Chen's down the road from the office. It's a cute little sit-down Chinese restaurant, more upscale than a buffet, not so fancy that you can't wear jeans. And the food is very good. I got steamed stuff, and wonton soup.
It's funny because my coworkers are no less than 10 years older than me. All of them. So, here I am, eating lunch and talking (more listening than talking, actually) with these much older people, as if I'm their equal of some sort. I felt very old, yet terribly young à la même fois. I was kind of suspended in this quasi-reality all lunch. Then back at work, all was normal again.
The day before at job #2 the office (Michelle's) I work in had file boxes taking up all of the extra space. The file storage company came in a few days earlier, and the boxes were all gone by yesterday. It was kind of sad; the boxes made the office more busy looking. I joked with Michelle at how she could have used the boxes to make a wall in front of her desk as a barricade....like in the French Revolution. She could wear a berét and the ruffled french bourgeoisie outfit, look over the side of the boxes, swear in french, throw something at people outside of the office, and then hide again behind the wall. She laughed at the idea. Probably because she would do it, if she knew french...and had the hat.

Late last night (by late, I mean 10pm....because I'm an old working woman) Shivangi, Vivek, Nimesh, and 2 other people I don't know came over. We decided to join up Erin & Jesse (and other kids I don't know) at Erin's house for a bonfire. At first, Vivek didn't quite understand that "bonfire" doesn't necessarily mean (for us suburban preps) riots and hillish mounds of stuff being lit on fire. He's a BU student, cut him some slack, right?
We got there and made smores in the campfire and talked. We talked about Bob Sagat, Pluto's demotion to a "dwarf planet", tea, war, college, and other assorted joys. We were kind of loud, but no one told us to quiet down. It was a nice night, fire and all.

Today is my last day of work. Thank goodness!

Can You Believe This?!

So, yesterday when I was at job #2, I became slightly bored, and decided to scope out the world's newsreels.

I found this article on MSN yesterday at work:

Controversy for Indian Restaurant

It's ridiculous! Someone actually wants to advertise themselves through Nazism!? What are they on?
I think one thing is for sure: Mumbai's got a problem brewing....and it ain't pretty.
Let's just hope that it doesn't catalyze India's role in the recent "War of Religions" over there...

Ladies and gentlemen, I feel the world is ever-so-quickly getting into one giant...well, the picture says it all.

On a completely different note, there was a man who apparently got completely stuck in chocolate at a factory. Terrifying, I'm sure. That article was also of high-end quality. The link is: Trapped in Vat.

I'm trying to do last-minute back-to-school shopping. It's harder than I remembered!
I'm leaving Sunday to move into my NYC flat. If you care to know.