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...