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.

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.

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."

Late Night Laundry

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Find a Mattress

Friday night, my sister concluded that it was obligatory to go to the movies. So, we went to go see Little Miss Sunshine. Everyone should go see that movie. I haven't laughed that well in a theatre since...I can't remember when. It was an excellently good time, and Jesse cackled the entire time. And it ended in a good way; nothing too Hollywoodesque, nothing too Goethe. My favorite character in the movie was Dwayne, who looked JUST LIKE my friend Aaron. Except this kid was with black hair, and a bit shorter, and skinnier, and emo.

Saturday I went out to lunch with Steve and Eliot, my high school boys from PA. We concluded to go to a mall and eat at the Cheesecake Factory. Steve's deathly allergic to nuts, though, and I'm lactose intollerant...so we actually didn't eat any cheesecake...but we had good food! I will fully admitt I have a strange addiction to salmon. We had a lovely time talking, joking, catching up. I gave them some guidance on applying to college. We joked a lot. I proposed to Eliot. Those boys are wonderful, and so old for their ages! Who would think that they're only seniors in high school!?!
Morgan the Mormon swung by at nighttime to say hi/bye. She just returned from working all summer in upstate NY at GE, and was on her way out back to WPI. It's funny because we've known each other since we were 8 or so, and now it's the kind of friendship where we don't really have that much we need to say, but we just want to see each other. We watched a movie with my family.

Sunday was the big day of going to visit Scott at Lake Compounce with Jesse and Jeff (who just returned from a summer in Ecuador). 2 hours of boy-talk, and Jeff telling us his hilarious mishaps while in South America (the key stories: almost being kidnapped in Colombia & dancing with 13 year-olds).
We finally got to the park, which is located in the middle of nowhere. If we weren't making a real effort to find this park, I'm sure we would have never found it. It's in the middle of a forest, tucked between some mountains. And man, it's an old-school park. It reminds me of Canobie Lake park, only more IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, and smaller, and older. We roamed around for a while, lost in the park. Jesse and I are both wimps and refuse to go on rollercoasters, so Jeff had to exercise patience with us and our wimpyness. Scott finally found us, and it was like having the 4 Musketeers back together. Reminisced, caught up, and walked. it was HOT outside, so we were slow, and we sweated a lot, but we still had a good time. We went on a ski lift ride, and Jesse nearly passed out (and hyperventilated, at the same time) from the height.
We experimented with Fried Oreos, which are about as disturbing as the name, if not moreso.
Scott introduced us to his co-workers/roommates. It's really weird when people you don't know at all, or haven't heard of, come up to you and say, "It's so good to FINALLY meet you! We've heard so much about you!" Thanks. Nice to meet you, too?
We 3 sat in the front row and watched Scott's 2 shows for the day: Country Unleashed & Rockin' Radio Replay. The first one was hilarious, because it was all country music, and we danced with the performers. By the second performance, Scott and his partners integrated us into the show, which made it all the better. Scott had to wear a mullet wig that made him look like a caveman. He dances the robot well.
It was a short day, but one thing is for sure: I love those boys.


Finding a mattress & bed frame for my NYC apartment is nearly impossible.
I finished "Breaking the Spell." I think I'll try on "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood for size.

Quasi-Reunions

Friday night after the gym (and after finishing "The Pirates!") I went to Dany's house for a little party. I haven't seen Dany, nor our group of friends (be it churchies or the Fellowship), for probably a year straight. I love that I've known these kids for so long, and so well, that I can see them after a year and it's almost like we've never missed each other. I saw a bunch of old faces, and a few surprise-faces. It was a nice night with them.
Dany's younger sister was also participating in party-ing with her friends. Because they were all high schoolers, though, and Dany & us were all college kids or already out of college, the groups segregated themselves...the high schoolers fooled around downstairs, while us older kids (and the parents) talked upstairs.
I've never realized the true value of the game Apples to Apples until that night. Roughly 20 of us older kids huddled together on the couch and played it for at LEAST a good hour and a half or so. After we finished the game, we just chilled out in the kitchen and talked. Like old people. Reminisced about when we were younger; filling in each other about our current status and plans; updating people on others who weren't there. And I felt slightly out of the loop because I hadn't seen them in so long, and I'm awkward anyways...but they (for the most part) kept me included, like always. I love them.

Saturday, I impulsively drove up to Maine to visit Jessica over in Ocean Park. The town is adorably miniscule...and looks like something straight out of a 1930's picture from the Saturday Evening Post. You can only drive at a slow crawl through the town. They've got all of 3 shops down there, a shuffleball court, and one is an ice cream shop called the Soda Fountain. The houses are all small, and the ones in the center of town are all white. And it's right on the beach, which is the highlight of it all.
After 2-hour traffic, I joined Jess on the beach for a few hours. We lazed and soaked in some sun. We talked a bit, caught up, girl talked, talked about books. Tyler (her brother) and a bunch of their friends joined us behind their house. They're funny kids. A lot of them were Canadian. Scott called, and I put him on speakerphone so Jess and I could both talk to him for a while.
We went out to grab some dinner at a local diner, and grabbed some DVDs at some local video shop. We also stopped by the Soda Fountain (with the entire town in line before us) and grabbed ice cream (frozen yogurt for us lactose intolerants). I didn't watch the movies with them because I had to drive home.

Sunday was low-key. I think I bruised the bone in my left foot, which is sad. I grilled some steaks (which the grill decided to engulf in a sea of flames...charbroiled it is) and we had a summery dinner. Jaynie and Giard stopped by for a while and we chilled outside. We concluded that I talk too much.

NYC: The Good with the Bad

Another weekend of fruitless apartment hunting. My frustration is accelerating every day I get closer to starting classes again. It's almost as if some higher being is prohibiting me to getting it for some reason unknown and uncontrollable to me. And, if that's true, please let me know.

I was supposed to drive into NYC on Friday after work. But, sadly, the rain down there was so intense that it flooded a lot of the highways and bridges, and they shut down the freeways in, trains and airports. I was stranded in North Andover until the morning. I lamented for an hour at Borders, where I splurged on a hardcover of "Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenom" and a new paperback, "The Pirates!" It's interesting, because now whenever I hit up a bookstore (which has been quite frequently), it's like a crackwhore attacking a crackhouse; I want them all, and I want them all now. Have I no shame?
I also went over to Jesse's house for a shin dig until around midnight. It was a highly entertaining place to be and watch people, and most of the people I hadn't seen in a year, so it was interesting to see them all now.

Saturday morning's drive in was full of occasional traffic, flash rain in Connecticut, and hydroplaning through the Bronx. I finally got into the city, where my father took the car at Herald Square for his own drive home. Interesting how my family works; it's almost like at least one person has to be in NYC at all times. In and out. I hit up my first apartment meeting with Innovative Apartments. As a prelim meeting, I didn't get to see any apartments, but she made me feel hopeful that I'd get someplace when I need it. Allah kareem.
I checked into the hostel, which was very close to Union Square (big plus points). It was a cute little walk up apartment-turned-hostel. It was small, sure, but it did the job. I wanted a bed, I got a bed.
After I inspected the Trader Joe's recently put under the Palladium dorms, Andy and I met up at Washington Square, where we concluded to walk. It started raining, so we took refuge over in the Virgin Cafe (appropriately? che pas...) and talked for a few hours. He kept squealing about my weight loss endeavors, which made me blush quite a bit. After the rain let up, we ran over to the Barnes & Noble across the park, where we both greedily man-handled a plethora of lusciously covered books and novels. We even took photos of books.
We met up with his roommate Natalia and their friends Dan (straight) & Kevin (gay). Finding out that I was with a group of 24-28 year olds, I felt extremely young, and tried my best to not be that awkward little kid with the big kids. I think I did alright. We went to a really nice restaurant, Havana Central. And we ate. Oh boy, did we eat. Appetizer samplers, huge entrees (and quite pricey), drinks (I took a smoothie due to my medical testing this week), and a desert sampler. And the food was amazing. Really, really, amazing. And there was so much food!!! We all overate, a lot. But the conversation was nice, we had a great time, laughed a lot, told good stories...good times. I always have fun with Andy's friends. They're always good kids, and I enjoy them immensely. Does that mean something?....(Andy, I know you read these, so I'm going to ask you: can I be you?)
After shelling out a hefty sum, we rolled out of the restaurant and agreed to meet up in about an hour to go out. It was already 10pm and I was ready to sleep, yes, but that doesn't mean anything when you're in NYC. The night starts whenever you start. And never ends, ever. Ever.
I hobbled back to the hostel to meet my "roommates". And, being more full of food than God is full of love, I was quite the sociallable talker while getting ready to go out. I first talked to 2 nice LA girls who were in for the night to read, which sounded tempting to join them. Then I noticed there was indeed a guy in our room, sleeping on the bottom bunk next to my top bunk. He was Indian-Canadian (which, as you might think, perked up my ears) , 28 years old, called himself Sunny, lives in San Fransisco, and (get this!) works for Google. Wow. Wow. Google? As in, I have a Google account and Google blog, Google? As in, I've done more case studies about Google in school than any other company in the world? Oh yes, ladies and gentlemen. That Google.
We started to talking. Unfortunately, being sociallable AND naturally flirtacious, I flirted. But, surprisingly, and almost too obviously, he flirted back. I always enjoy a good flirt, so it was fun, and I highly enjoyed the conversation. He was planning on going to Alphabet City with some people he met to a party while I planned to go...somewhere. So, we swapped numbers and agreed to text about our whereabouts for the night. Since I was going out with a bunch of 24/27 year olds, anyways, it wasn't like he'd be that guy joining a bunch of young college kids.
I met up with the group down in the Lower East Side and, after about an hour of looking for a place that had no bouncer (because I was the only under-21er in the group, they were trying to be nice and help me out.......even though I wasn't going to drink anything anyways...ironic...), we hit up a little liquor bar called Schiller's. Adorable, really nice atmosphere, I loved it. And I got a smoothie that rivalled a lot of other smoothies I've ever had. We kicked back, talked, laughed some more. Found out that the 27 year-old friend of Andy's that I was flirting with had a girlfriend and became immensely embarassed, good times. Until about 1.30am, where we were all exhausted and opted for an early night. Crashed at the hostel to sleep.

But you'd think the night would end there, right? Oh, no. No, no. About an hour into my tired slumber, 2 new backpackers crashed into the room, talking in full voice, and started unpacking and being "romantic." In fact, they (girl and boy) decided to go get into the shower together. Hostel, people. Paper-thin walls. The giggles started, and LA girl #1 and yelled at them that we were trying to sleep, so knock it off. The 2 newbies came out and started apologizing (I think), and I mumbled, "whatever, just go to bed." End of story, right? Nope. Never.
As soon as those 2 start getting into bed, Sunny comes back into the room. How do I know this? Because for about 5-10 minutes, while I was slipping into a twilight, I felt like someone's watching me. I open my eyes, to see Sunny looking at me. Oh boy. He comes over and puts his arm on my back, and starts asking me how my night was. "Short. What did you end up doing?" He started telling me, and I realize that he's really, really close to me. Really close. Mind you, I was half asleep, but I could still notice how close he was. Close enough to...with retainers in my mouth and everything (color me dorky, but I like keeping my teeth as straight as possible), I finally giggle and say, "and, goodnight." I know, I know...I blow it everytime. But come on! Taaaact! Oh well, next time?

I wake up after not really sleeping, completely wiped, to go to another apartment meeting. Said bye to Sunny, left him a little note in his bag, and checked out.
I get to the agent's place on the Upper East Side. I wait in their lobby for 30 minutes to get bitched out at for another 30 minutes about not being in town for more than the weekend, that I was wasting their time, and that I had the NERVE to go to them LOOKING FOR APARTMENTS! And I was "so unprepared"! Though I was fully prepared... Apparently, the plan was for me to purhase one of their places that day, no buts. Uh huh, right. Basically the guy was a complete jerk (censored, of course), and I will tell all of my friends to NEVER use Homestead Reality in NYC ever! Because they're there only to waste your time and steal your cash. That was in a nutshell.
Discouraged and raging mad, I go downtown again to get some comfort food; Challah bread. I find out then that my favorite Jewish Deli of all time, 2nd Avenue Deli, has been shut down! Closed, gone. I'm devastated.
The next meeting I had I didn't get an address for, so I had to cancel (since I didn't know where to meet them, anyways) on a dying mobile. Screw it, I decided, I'll just go back home now.
Took a Greyhound back to Boston. Was carsick for 2 hours of the trip. Cold for all 4.5 hours. I got to the South Station entrance to get haggled and harassed by a few creepy guys outside. Great day. Went home and slept off the frustration.

People, all I want is a 4 month apartment near school for less than $1500/mo! Is that too much to ask for?! I guess it is...

Un Vieux Ami

So, I'm diligently working on Wednesday at my desk, doing some kind of data input or mail sorting or something hideously dull, when my mobile rang. Now, normally I get upset when I hear my phone ring ("No phone, no phone, I just want to be alone today..."), but I decided to pick it up instead. To my utter surprise, it's my good old friend from Nice, Arthur! He called to tell me he was back in America for a few more days, and wanted to see me before he left! We-he-he-ll, don't I feel super special? So, we planned to met each other after I had work at Stephen's Memorial Library to go get some tea or something.
I didn't even recognize him at first.
Same height, but he looked tired. And he had hair...not to mention in an interesting hairdo. But when I got closer to him, he was same old Arthur.
I was surprised because for some reason I thought he was going to speak really broken english, which is how he was most of the time he was here. But his english was excellent, and he was TALKING! Lots! Now, for those of you who may have ever met Arthur know he's not one to talk a whole lot, but when I was hanging out with him, I let him dominate the conversation...he had a lot more to say than I did!
We went to Starbucks, grabbed some green teas, and just talked. Some of it was silly, some of it was profound, some of it was small talk. It was a wonderful time. I sometimes forget how good people can be, and how well I chose friends for the most part.
He's happy, he says. Tired, works too hard, but still content. He likes what he's doing for the most part, and he says he's calmed down quite a bit. He still helps his family out a lot. And he's going to trade school this year for carpentry. I say, bon travail!
I'm going to call him up when I am in France this year, and see if he's free when I go to Nice.

I finished "The Kite Runner" last night after my french outing. That book is excellent! I couldn't have been happier with a book, right now! I'm almost upset I finished it.
What book to read next? I'm going to try to steal "Blink" from Jesse, or the library. Peut-etre un francais roman, aussi? Who knows?! I have slews of books I want to read.

My mom's been really upset that Ido plans on moving back to Israel right now, with the whole upset over there (mostly in Lebanon, Gaza Strip, Jerusalem...). I emailed him about a week ago telling him of her concerns. He responded, tell me that he's kind of debating whether or not it'd be a good idea to go back, after all. Maybe he'll stay here!

Summer Weekend

This weekend I actually was at home! Shocking, I know, I was surprised too. The only reason why I think I stayed around was because of Scott. Scott came home for Thursday night and most of Friday, so I made it my point to see him as much as I could before he drove back to CT. Jesse came over when Scott was at home, and we made Ghiradelli Brownies from scratch (Actually, Jesse did most of the baking....who knew he could cook?). You know, the extra gooey ones with the chocolate chips in the middle that make them ever more crunchy and good? Delicious.
So I realized I'm probably lactose intolerant. That was fun.

Saturday, I decided I really wanted to go somewhere. So, I put on a summer dress, told my mom to get in the car, and we drove up to Portsmouth, NH. Parked at Strawberry Bank, but did not actually go into the museum because it was sweltering outside. Instead, I went to the waterfront and read for a while. I got sunburned, which is both nice and bad. Afterwards, we hit up the downtown area and shopped. Bought too many CDs at Bullmoose Music(Stadium Arcadium, Ganging Up On The Sun, Senor Blue...), bought novel gnome magnets at Marco Polo, and whatnot and what have you. Splurged at lunch at some cantina place. It was a good day.
Shivangi came over later that night and we scurried off to Blockbuster to find a flick to watch. We aren't in there for 5 minutes and some employee comes over and gets ALL UP IN OUR GRILLS! I mean, this guy was just in our faces, trying to help us get a movie to watch. Nice guy, very much, and was all enthusiastic about helping us, but it really kind of freaed us out. I can't explain it well, but he was all over the place! Shivangi giggled the entire time, and we just humored him as he ranted off his favorite movies. I made the mistake of bringing up that I used to work for a New Line company, Lord help me. He finally left us to our devices, where we promptly put away all of the movies he recommended, and picked up "Sideways" in the end. They didn't have "Clockwork Orange". Shivangi is determined that the guy was hitting on me because he was so eager to help out, and basically only talked to me, but I'm pretty sure that it was just because I kept giving him responses while she giggled.
We ended up putting on the movie, but not watching it. We girl talked instead. Ah, the things we girls do.

Sunday was supposed to be Penny and my romantic day at the beach, but she never picked up her phone, which depressed me immensely, but I carry on. I had to mow our hideous lawn, anyways. 2-hours of fun-filled grass covering every inch of my skin (and eyes), sunburning on my sunburn, and trying to push a broken, disgruntled lawn mower up a 50+ degree incline.
After the swearing and kicking inanimate objects, I showered and concluded to escape the cave which can be considered my house. I did not know where to go on a 95F Sunday afternoon, since most things were closing early, and it was too hot to commiserate outside. Thinking fast, I hit up Panera, bought an iced green tea, and read "The Kite Runner" (which, so far, is pretty awesome) for a few hours. When they closed, I transfered over to Starbucks to read for another hour.
My girlfriend Becky called me then. She is leaving for China today, so wanted to see me, and half of Andover, before she left. So I met up with her and some other kids at Bertucci's for a dinner out. Shivangi (a hostess there) sat us, and gave us a free tiramisu. I overate a lot. Rolled out of the restaurant and cooled off at Becky's house for a while, and slept.

And now boss #1 is breathing down my neck, so I'm going to leave thy vain bibble babble, bibble babble...

Have to Make a Note on This...

There's this new book I checked out while I was in some London School of Economics bookstore. It looked very interesting, and I really want to read it: "Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon" by Daniel Dennett.
So yesterday after work I headed to some small bookstore in Andover to look up the author of the book. They had a few left in stock, so I decided to examine the summary and author information. The guy lives in North Andover, Massachusetts!!! HOW NUTTY IS THAT?! I found the book in London, and the guy's from my bloody hometown!!! It must be fate. I've made an agreement with myself to read this book very soon.

Right now I'm reading Rudyard Kipling's "Kim." Yes, the title had some reason for motivation. The other motivation was that it was about an English boy brought up in India as an Indian. Sounds interesting, but I'm lukewarm about it.
Next, I'm going to read Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner." I'm very excited about that one.

Binghamton, NY

So on Friday, I went for a jog after work, and drove 5 hours to Binhamton, NY. If you'd like to know where that is, take the map of New York state, and go to the bottom border, and then divide New York in half. The left area is about where Binghamton is.
That's where James (& the family), Ben, and Mike live.
Because Binghamton had tremendous flooding lately, I-88 was shut off partially, so I got terribly confused, and after a mild panic attack at the wheel while James & Co. tried to calm me down, I finally ended up at the local Wegman's parking lot. It's interesting, because there's so much to do inside a Wegman's, all the time, and yet there is not much to do outside of it in this area of the town.
The boys met me there, where we proceeded to Mike's to play some video games before collapsing of exhaustion. James took me back to his new house, which is completely and utterly ridiculous in both size & style. Each bedroom even has its own bath. I am in love with his new house.
I honestly went to Binghamton just to see James & the boys again. After roughly six months without them, I was feeling kind of sad. It was really nice to just be with them. I didn't even really require talking, just being with them around me was what I wanted. And needed. James tends to bring me sanity...a feeling of balance.
Also, I love James' mom. She and I have a bit in common. And we have nice conversations. She's really open & friendly. And acts like I'm just part of the family. I love that.
After waking up & eating breakfast, and after James' mom gave him a much needed haircut, we started working on cleaning out the basement and garage of items they didn't want/need & were going to give away to flood victims. James actually tried to discourage me from helping out, claiming that I was there to "relax", but I felt that it was a good idea to help out, and his mom encouraged me to join them. Sure, I like doing physical labor. No joke.
We started watching "The Last Samarai", and stopped halfway to go to his old house (that they are refurbishing before selling it) to picnic with pasta & speedies.
Off to the movies we went with the rest of the boys to see "Superman Returns". It was during that movie that I realized I hung out with mostly men. They were being such boys during the movie. James tried helping me out with the comic plot, since I'm not much of a comic strip afficianado, though sometimes he distracted me from the movie with his all too humorous remarks.
Carrides happen to the gas station (for tire air) & Ben's house. We played Apples to Apples. I won.
My role as the woman became apparent when Mike insisted that I cooked for him, and cleaned. James took over the role by cooking instead.

Sunday roled by too quickly. I read some of "Kim" before James woke up. We finished our movie, talked a bit, went to Lowes with his mom, and to a little restaurant called Little Venice. It was a sad goodbye, since James might not be returning to our college, but transfer to SUNY Buffalo. Let's hope all turns out well, though.
The drive home was pretty wretched.

Book 1 Done

"Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell. Very good. Very trippy. I highly recommend it.

Next obstacle: Stephan Hawking's "A Brief History of Time." Short. Physics-driven. Nice break for a week or so...

Hobo

The flight back from London was a long 7 hours. I didn't sleep at all because the sun followed us the entire way back to Boston. I read some of "Cloud Atlas", ate too much (Virgin Atlantic food is great), and watched 2 shows. "Good Night, and Good Luck" was wonderful, I really applaud that cast. "Sex Traffic" is a 3 hour show about human trafficing in Bosnia/Sarajevo. I was really into it, super interesting. However, 20 minutes before it ended, the plane turned off the screen for landing. Damnit. I swore a bit.
I was immersed into immediate culture shock. I heard Texan accents in the customs line, the weather was hotter, and CNN was on the TV. I didn't remember American news on CNN being so sensationalized and NOT IMPORTANT! Honestly? I don't care if the Royal Family watches American Idol. I really don't.

In more recent news....
I can't believe it is so difficult to find a job here in Massachusetts.
I have put my name back in with the temp agencies, because I've applied to millions of internships and other paying jobs, and none of them have pulled through.
Luckily, Melissa at Officeteam seems hopeful. She likes me a lot, and says that she's been really pulling out the stops in trying to help me find a job. God bless.
I went to a job interview today. Much to my dismay, however, it was a company that sells Kirby vacuums door-to-door. Not OK.
On a seperate note, finding apartments in the city for fall semester is nearly impossible right now.
I have so much stuff to do this summer!!!
In other news, I am glad to be driving again. And with Buck (my car), nonetheless!