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.