A Weekend in NYC (again)

Right after work on Friday I FLEW over to South Station with Mucks to catch a train to NYC for the weekend. The trip down was fairly uneventful...Mucks and I napped and talked and make fun of each other.

Once I stepped foot off of that train, though? All bets were off. I was in complete SPRINTING mode. For the whole weekend.

And, we're off!

I first start off by meeting up with Neil to get dinner at Indian Row. I ate lots, and he ate lots. Good conversations helped me encourage him to perhaps visit me while I'm in Paris. And he has created an adjective/noun out of one of my life experiences! The word: Idoian. I believe those who know me well will be able to understand what that means.

After a 2-hour rendezvous, I haul over to the Chelsea Piers to meet up with Rob for a hockey game. I didn't even know that NYU had a hockey team! I don't care for the sport very much, if at all, but it was an interesting experience nevertheless. At first he started telling people that I was his wife/fiancée, which flustered me about what I was doing there for a bit, but then he ended up confiding in me and asking for love advice. Seeing as I'm almost the equivalent to Dr.Phil (if not better), I tried my best to advice him in his worries.

Craig picked me up from the rink to walk around (in the cold) and get a cup o' tea with me. A brief goodbye, but it's okay because it's Craig and we are like siblings. He has to love me and stay in touch.

I finally took a cab to Andy's apartment to crash on his floor around 1am. James started texting (and calling) me while I tried getting ready for bed because he was at a pub in Buffalo and found it boring. He's not the social type, anyways, so after a failed attempt at scolding him, I talked to him until I was ready to sleep.

I woke up a bit early to calm myself down for the day with some yoga.

And then I ran downtown to see Karan for an hour. We babbled a bit incoherently, and chuckled at our silly selves. I missed him....And then he walked me over to Aaron's dorm so I could meet up with him in time.

Aaron brought me all the way up to Columbia University. Seeing as I had only 2 hours with him, the trip was pushing it a bit. We tried to get into a few of the campus buildings, but we were typically thrown out. The walk was entertaining, though. My London flatmate Erin called me to make unexpected drink plans for the evening, which slightly stressed me out.

I love hanging out with Aaron, and I'm going to be missing all of our adventures when I'm gone.

BUT he made me late for my next date. Well, him and my running into Clarence for about 5 minutes (cue blast from past).

I ran into the restaurant where Chambers was, and I was on the verge of tears (and shaking). There were so many deadlines to make, so many people to see, so many goodbyes to make. It was overwhelming. But they welcomed me warmly and calmed me down in a few minutes, and I spent a magnificent timed slot with them at dinner. I went around the table, and I realized there how much I loved all of them. What a wonderful group to be a part of! We parted ways and some of us walked over to Think so I could meet up with Deejay.

And Deejay came, and it was good. I ran over to him and jumped on him, and I almost took down a few coffee drinkers while doing so. Sorry about that. I LOVE THAT BOY!!! I missed him way too much! And the best part was that when we got back together, it was as if we had been through a mere time warp and we had never left each other, truly.

Some more goodbyes came with Chambers kids, and Deejay and I (the dynamic duo) got lost via subway in Brooklyn to get to the South Street Seaport. Feel free to laugh. We met up with Erin and a few of her friends. Having not eaten much for the day, my one drink got me a little silly, so Deejay and I left early to meet up with Danielle for dinner at RED. Lots of talking, fun, laughter, pictures. I brought up a BAD conversation starter and made it awkward for a few minutes, but we prevailed!

After dinner we walked to Mariam's apartment for her Toga Party. Upon arrival I could tell we wouldn't stay long. I love Mariam. I love music and dancing. I don't love Stern children who won't dance to DANCE music and only talk about classes. Some of the people were nice and cool, but the conversation still lacked in comparison to our 3 personalities. A few dances and a drink later, we cruised out of that port.

Deej and I talked in his room until 4am. I got back late, but Andy and his roommates got home later.

Sunday started rough. I had to cancel a coffee date with Michelle so I could make my job interview at MDPPublicity. The woman was great, her apartment was impressive, and I think after an hour or so of conversation, I've landed myself at least one PT summer job. GO ME!

Darrell and I got together for an hour to chit chat, though we didn't get to talk about everything I wanted to talk about, so we'll be calling him soon.

I had an hour to myself to sit and deflate.

Cassie came over and ran me to the bus station, where I got onto the bus and didn't move for 4 hours straight.

OIE VAY!

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...."

Boo, Boston, Bridesmaid

Bad: B- in Business Law, blech. Hard work unrewarded.

Good: I had a great day today with Brandon, a Bass from Chambers. We met at Rockingham, went for a bit of a gander, drove down to my house and looked around my town, went to the Loop to get dinner, and just talked all the time. Good conversation, good friends.
I also had a splendid night with Penny and Jaynie. More to come on that later...

Better: I got my French visa. I DON"T HAVE TO WORRY ANY LONGER!!!

Best: Penny just got engaged!!!! Her wedding is June 2008... And what's better is, I'm one of FOUR BRIDESMAIDS!!!!!! Are you as happy as I am???

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.

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.

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.

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!!!!

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!

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.

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!