Busy Farewell

Lots of things have happened, but I don't have the time or patience to discuss it in depth right now.
Guru is a good movie about Indian capitalism and corruption.
Idlewild is strictly on LSD.
I went out with Alex all Friday night/Saturday afternoon in Boston. Met a lot of HMS kids. Alex's bed is super comfy (and platonic). Tea with HLS kids at Algiers was fun, too. I love David a lot.
I also love my Harvard u-grads, Jeff and Chris. Dinner and drinks was awesome.

I'm leaving for Paris in less than 24 hours. So, farewell to Kim is Domestic!!!!

If you want my detailed life while I'm away for the semester, please go to my International Blog: Kim is Foreign.

Have fun in America while I go party it up at Sciences Po!

Fast Break

Just a few notes I would like to make before I leave for NYC this weekend....

• "Happily N'Ever After": Watch this movie ONLY if you have very young children. Otherwise, you might feel like God is punishing you for something you've done in the past.


• "My Boys": My life. In a nutshell. Basically, that's me in, say, 7 years from now, or so...


• "Dreamgirls "Soundtrack: I've been howling to that CD for roughly a week now.


• This job: Needs to end soon...


• Preparing for France: I have to translate my birth certificate into french. Feel free to laugh along with me.


• The Beach: I thoroughly enjoyed the scene where Leonardo DiCaprio has started to go crazy (from lack of human contact) and imagines himself in a video game. It might very well be one of my ultime favorite scenes in any movie. I have felt like that before, too...


• This weekend: Is FREAKING me out because I have it booked by the hour. Literally.


• The cold: Is slowing my metabolism down, and making me sluggish, and thus making me pack on some hibernation pounds. WHICH I'M NOT OK WITH!


• Crèpes: Are a lot harder to make than you'd think. The batter kind of lumps together in places on the pan. Instead of being a super smooth, flat piece, it is more pancakey and, well, ugly.


• Phone calls: EVERYONE calls me on the same days. It's like there's some kind of subconscious message being emitted from my mind and reaching all of my friends to call me within a very small time frame.


• At home: Everyone else is at school, or in school, and I'm getting rather lonely. Or, as Kim Jung Il might say, "I'm so ronery...."

Another Grade, Another Day

Consumer Behavior: B-

Not so great...but passing, right?

Meh...

One more grade, and I'll stop thinking about it.

New Years was alright. I went to a party where my 2 friends and I were the youngest people by at least 20 years...we hid in a side room all night, and the ball was dropped, and that is all. Dom and I stayed up all night talking about boys, like the little girls we are.

Some more days, some more people.

One night Scott, Jesse, Bri & I drove up an hour into NH to see Jess in her UNH apartment. It was cute, we talked a lot, ate lots of chocolate. The car freaked out on the way back, in which we had to pull over on the break down lane in the middle of nowhere and pray that the window would go back up.

Last night Dom and Scott came over to eat dinner and watch a movie (Devil Wears Prada, anyone?). At Joseph's, I gorged myself completely and relentlessly on all of the foods I shouldn't have ever dreamed of consuming. And I am now 7 pounds heavier (no joke) than I was before this week. I'm devastated.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.