Someone up there has to be laughing

You know those moments where something is so exasperatingly comical, it seems like someone has to be controlling events to conspire against you?

Well, that just happened to me, but thankfully, it was a minor episode: trying to finalize my phonetics term paper.

1. I finished my paper! 7 pages of transcription, and 8 pages of analysis! Yay!
   
2. I print out all 15 pages, only to find that I forget to center the "References" title. I print out the last page again.
3. I notice that ALL the pages have page numbers in BOTH the upper right corner and bottom center. Not sure how that happened. Delete bottom page numbers.
   
4. I print out the entire essay again and staple it and discover I forgot to include the last page of the essay.
5. I take out the staple and staple it again, only to realize that my conclusion has center alignment (as opposed to right justified). It's the only section of the essay in center alignment. WHY? WHY?!
6. Whatever. If the professor doesn't like center-aligned conclusion paragraphs, I don't like him. OK, that's not true, but I just don't care anymore.
   

In one day (today), I ate ALMOST a whole loaf of challah bread. I decided to allow myself to enjoy non-vegan food till January, so I bought the challah (with egg in it).

And now it's 11:37pm and my stomach is STUFFED with bread.
It could be worse.

It's time to set a date

I haven't posted in a while because I've been overwhelmed with starting my job (working two hours a day. I still can't handle it!) and a lot of term papers coming up in the near future.

Luckily, I spent 6 hours yesterday finishing up my biggest project: a transcription and phonetic analysis of a native Chinese speaker's English. It's actually really interesting to me, and I'm sad it must go the way of so many school projects: loved the topic, but wish I'd had more time to spend on it.

Also, my title of "setting a date" refers to my goal to become vegan. Yes, folks, it's high time I took that step. All the cool kids are doing it (literally--it seems to be a hipster thing, but also CAMMY has been vegan for years now). So I'm trying to set a date for when it will happen. I'm thinking New Year's. That way, I can still pig out on sweets on Christmas and post-Christmas, but once the new year starts, it's purely vegan delights for me! Of which there are many, many, many in New York City. Thank goodness.

OK, back to making final edits on the paper. Hope everyone had a bonne week-end. (And I am too lazy to look up if that French is correct.)

I forgot to mention

Since writing yesterday's post, I realized that a lot, and I mean a LOT of my friends have also done amazing things and taken huge life steps in the last few years.

These people have done things like move across the country, start medical school, start nursing school, start law school, start other graduate studies, move to freaking DC (I don't know how anyone can afford to live there; I think it's more expensive than New York, (although this theory is not based on any fact)), get married....

So in other words, I just wanted to give a little more love and recognition to the friends at home. Or far away from home, as the case may be.

How did this happen?

It dawned on me today that I live, work, (love) and go to school in the heart of New York City.

I have achieved a goal, or dream, that I subconsciously didn't think would happen. And I'm kind of amazed that it actually did happen.

So, uh, the moral of the story is: Go out and achieve your dreams!*


*Even if it means you will have no money afterward.

Confession

I have a confession to make today: I didn't vote.

Argh! It was due to sheer laziness. I suddenly got motivated Sunday night to try to fax in my absentee ballot, but couldn't get my fax machine to work (and if you try to fax at the UPS store they generally charge $1 per page, and the ballot is 12 pages).

So I fail. And I think the Democrats might be sort of failing in this election as well. :(

In other news, I got punched really hard at karate last night (we don't usually do contact, but I got paired up with an aggressive black belt):



The bruise is a bit difficult to see in this picture, but believe me, it's there. I'm a little embarrassed about going into work with this thing, so I'll be wearing sweaters and long sleeves for the rest of the week!

A Sane Halloween (Despite Photo Evidence to the Contrary)

In honor of the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, I had a very sane Halloween. Well, OK, it actually just kind of coincidentally turned out that way.

Bussed down to DC on Friday, which took about 5 1/2 hours, due to traffic and accidents (it was supposed to be a 4-hour trip). Liz and her boyfriend Josh also drove down that night, and we had a massive slumber party in Michelle's living room. Then the next morning we got a not-so-early start (due to delicious homemade walnut waffles made by Josh), which was just fine. Took the fairly packed yellow line from Huntington all the way in to L'Enfant, where we joined the crowds heading to the rally.

Thankfully, the day was GORGEOUS and not too cold, and the crowds were not too crazy. We got a spot to stand pretty far back, but we could see a screen, and hear pretty clearly. I think most of us agreed reading people's signs was the highlight of the event, but I also enjoyed getting to see Cat Stevens and Ozzie Osbourne perform together (!).

Look! A tiny Washington Monument! Proof of where we were.

Michelle rides back on the packed metro

That night (after managing to pack ourselves into the Metro trains in separate trips), we all got dressed up at Michelle's place, and headed out by 10pm to Adam's Morgan, hitting up a bar/club called Madam's Organ (confusing I know). This was actually a bar that I'd seen many times during my 3 months living in DC, but never checked out (I think mainly because they always have a cover on the weekends). But with ARI to pay my way (yes!), the cover was no big deal. And the music inside was pretty good; a nice mix of Beastie Boys and...hip hop. That's all I can remember. But I do remember dancing to it quite enthusiastically.

The night ended up being pretty long because we didn't catch a train back until 2:45ish, and due to train delays and late-night schedules, we didn't actually get back home till after 4am. We all agreed we are way too old for those kinds of crazy hours. But I suppose Halloween is a pretty good exception to the rule. It was a fun night, and it was definitely worth the long Metro trips to be able to "make the scene" (as my scene-making dad always says) and enjoy the costumes.*

Now, on actual Halloween day, I am rather wiped out. Another 4-hour bus trip back, and an evening of catching up on emails (and avoiding actual school work). But I went to the market across the street an hour ago and saw lots of adorable little children out trick-or-treating, so I'm happy to see that some of us are taking full advantage of this holiday.

Happy Halloween!

*Oh, and I didn't take any pictures of costumes b/c I'm lame and didn't really dress up. I decided to be the girl from the Cake song about the short skirt and the long jacket. And Ari came up with the creative idea of dressing as a marathon runner who was "going the distance." No one knew who we were. Ah well.

So I just spent three hours transcribing an interview with a Chinese speaker of English (phonetics project). And you know what? It's time for a blog post!

I think I felt somewhat overwhelmed/depressed during my first month or so at Teachers College (from hereon out referred to as TC), partly because it felt so weird to be back in class again, stressing about homework and exams again. And partly because I had WAY too much free time (my classes are mainly in the evening), so I was constantly thinking about what I should be doing to maximize my studying time, or my sightseeing time, or my job-searching time.

Thankfully, things have gotten better. I'm more comfortable with the school regime (I'm NOT 2 weeks ahead in the reading! No need to be that far ahead!). And I got a part-time job! (Substitute ESL teaching for now, but my boss said it's highly likely I'll get a permanent position in the next month or so.) And I have extra-curricular activities, such as karate. And going to happy hour (OK, so I actually ditched karate for happy hour yesterday, but it's the first time that has ever happened! And it won't happen again! For a while, at least. Why do I have this guilty conscience, as if my mother is always observing from afar?)

In other news, I will be moving out of student housing come December. I just can't stomach the $1700-per-month rent, even if I DO literally live across the street from TC. However, if everything works out, I will be living in a nice apartment about 20 minutes walking distance away from TC, where I will be sharing a bathroom and a kitchen with a nice lady who is part of the faculty at Columbia (ooh, aah). And I will be getting my own fairly big room, with a queen size bed and a massive collection of books to choose from! I will post pics if I end up moving in (fingers crossed).

One last thing: Ari and I (and pretty much everyone I know) are going to Washington, DC this weekend. It's the "Rally to Regain Sanity" or something like that. Hosted by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. I actually don't really have a strong desire to go to the rally; I just happen to have a free weekend (My midterm got pushed back a week! Yay!), so I figure, why not? And we have a place to crash (chez Michelle, one of the many awesome Davis people who coincidentally also moved out East). So here's to a fun Halloween/rally/quick vacation weekend!

This message from our Student Senate President today:

"And finally this Friday, why do the new gender-neutral bathrooms at TC have signs about locking the door? One official justification is that somebody might enter the bathroom and either be, or cause an other supposed occupant to be, startled. This kind of unintended bigotry is worrisome. No one is remotely concerned about any similar such startling that is of frequent occurrence in the traditional-binomially-gendered bathrooms."

I found this so amusing, I had to share.
Academics. Such weird people.

School Starts (Sort of)!

Haven't posted for a bit because I've been in that weird place where you don't really have anything to do, yet if you think about it hard, you feel like you have a million things to do. Anyone know what that's like?

I think it's part of the whole moving to a new place + starting a new school process. Paperwork, organization, buying of groceries, picking classes...you know. Kind of fun, kind of not fun.

So I had my first classes yesterday. But I'm probably not going to be in either of them. So I'm still kind of waiting around. "Literacy and Development" fulfills a "breadth" requirement (it's like a GE course), but it looks like a pretty intense class. You have to create a curriculum for a literacy center, among other things. Or volunteer 20 hours at a literacy center and then write a minimum of 40 pages about your experience.
While I do I think it would be really interesting to do those things; I just think I'd like to get used to being back in school first, and take it a little slower to start with.

The other class (Sociolinguistics and Education) is full, so I'm wait-listed. And I kind of doubt people will drop. Oh well.

My "real" classes start in earnest next week. And that was a very boring post. Sorry.

Hooray for a long weekend!

Rice rice baby

Roger Ebert is publishing a cookbook solely based on things you can make in a rice cooker. Be still my heart.

A pleasant Monday evening.

PS: It's Ari's birthday tomorrow! And I have orientation most of the day.... :(

Map it out

Just a quick update.

Life is pretty much the same since I last posted; I've been wandering around Manhattan whenever possible. (I spent literally 20 minutes at Barnes and Noble deciding which map was the best.) I decided on this one:

(It's not backwards in real life. And the thing that looks like a massive insect behind my head is actually a sprinkler.)

It looks like this inside:

Very useful, you see? Fairly compact, yet still shows streets AND subways AND bus routes. Excellent.

I then proceeded to use to shop at Old Navy. Yes, that's right folks, the shopping ban begins in just 3 days, so this is my last chance for the next 6 months! I found the ON flagship store on 34th street; TWO LEVELS of women's clothing. I refrained from actually buying anything though, since I believe everyone who reads this knows about the money woes of college.

Then watched the Emmys with some girls in my building. No really exciting wins; I just don't care about TV that much. Unless it's Mad Men, 30 Rock, or the Office. At least Mad Men won something; I just can't remember what now.

Also, my room is still quite bare. I noticed this especially when I went to another girls room, and she has it decked out. Huge carpet, six pillows, the whole shebang. Guess I just gotta keep workin' on it.
Next thing to make my room more livable: PLANTS!!

Ici, in NYC

So I am officially moved into my dorm (more like an apartment, really) on 121st street, in the "Monrningside Heights" area of Manhattan. Doesn't that name sound nice? It is nice. The weather has been BEAUTIFUL ever since I moved in here (yesterday morning), and the people are friendly, and...yeah.

My room is great too! I will post pics of it soon. It still looks a little too bare and depressing for me to be motivated to take pictures yet. But I will as soon as I'm satisfied with its homeyness.

I had my first "meet and greet" style orientation tonight, where all the "singles" dorm people meet up for cheese and crackers. It wasn't too bad! I tend to get overwhelmed by large groups of people I don't know, but I met a few nice ladies (it's about 90% ladies at Columbia Teachers College), and quite a few of them (the first 4 I met) are from Southern California! Good? Bad? I'm trying not to worry too much about it. At least I have people to commiserate with about the weather when it goes to the dark side.

So the main issue I'm facing at the mo' is, food is SO EXPENSIVE. There are lots of adorable little "bodegas" around (that's what people seem to call them), but a quart of soy milk costs $3. A box of cereal is $6. Two heads of broccoli are $3. So...I guess once Target starts carrying produce (next month), maybe I'll just make the half-hour trek up there and pick up the stuff I need. No fun. But good exercise!

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On an unrelated note, I bought Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals at the bookstore. I NEVER buy books! But I didn't want to stare longingly into space while I ate my Chipotle burrito yesterday. Anyway, I started it, and it's (not surprisingly) pretty good. He has a very readable, logical style. He actually (jokingly?) advocates eating stray dogs in one section, and he makes it sound very reasonable.

Short clip from a nice evening.

Btw, yes, we DID bring sushi to the latin music concert. (That's the food Ari has in front of him.)

The first week

A few random shots from my first couple of days here.

The night I arrived: Ari made me chocolate pie! With homemade whipped cream. He knows what I like.

Refreshing fountain in Prospect Park

Cool wire bug sculptures on a random building.

The Williamsburg Bridge

Algebraic equations on the ground?

My first Sonic visit, en route to Ohio. Banana cream pie milkshake. I was not a fan of banana-flavored drinks until I tried this. AMAZING.

The Girlfriend Experience

This post has nothing to do with Steven Soderbergh's film. But this weekend I experienced being a girlfriend, and what it's like when you're the girlfriend meeting LITERALLY 50 family members (of your boyfriend).

Flew into JFK on Weds night, and spent a day lazin' around on Thursday before making the 9 1/2 hour drive from Brooklyn to Youngstown, Ohio to meet Ari's parents and siblings and extended family for the first time. They were all super nice, thankfully, although Ari had warned me that his mother could be scary (she served in the Israeli army, after all), it was all hearsay. They were all very welcoming and sweet, and the whole family gets along ridiculously well (I wasn't sure families like that actually existed).

Anyway, there was a reunion/birthday party on Saturday night for approximately 50 relatives/friends, and I think I met them all. Platters of food; a birthday cake in the shape of a 3D castle, and 10 boxes of pizza. It was a fun night.

We packed up to leave on Sunday morning, and got 30 miles into Pennsylvania, only to discover at the first rest stop that our brakes weren't working! So 2 hours later we were towed back to Youngstown, spent an EXTRA night in Youngstown, waited for the car to get fixed, which took until 7pm. So we got back to Brooklyn at 2am this morning. Hooray!

Highlights of the weekend:

• Handel's Ice Cream (a Youngstown institution)--we bought 5 different flavors (chocolate pecan, mint chocolate chip, cookies and cream, peach, black cherry)
• Learning Rummikub (a family institution, apparently)
• Finding a cool random Indian/Pakistani market on our scenic walk around the car repair shop
• Walking around the lake (Newport Lake) that is literally less than a block from Ari's backyard. And the area is so lush and GREEN in summer! And humid. I felt like I was in Hawaii.
  

New York, New York

What a wonderful town!

At least, when it's not as humid as it is right now.

Going for a walk in Prospect Park, and then latin music later.

Curse You, New Yorker

BTW, I did NOT achieve my goal of catching up on all the issues of the New Yorker before leaving.

I got through about 10 of them, but I still have about 5 more. I am bringing them with me. And my dad gets to keep receiving them back here, in LA.

I will consider getting my own subscription, but it doesn't seem very logical. Perhaps TimeOut New York will be more my speed.

Aargh. Sorry to leave that depressing previous post up for so long. I have not been wallowing in sadness these past few days, as one might assume.

In fact, I am almost done PACKING! Two massive suitcases and one roll-y carry-on. And a purse. Yeah, I'm moving, what can I do? There's really no way around sweatin' a lot during the trips to and from the airport. Especially since I'll be lugging the bags through NY, which apparently is still suffering from humid heat waves.

Oh well, Ari's picking me up at the airport at least, and I'm arriving at 10pm. So it shouldn't be too bad.

I am excited!!!! My enthusiasm about moving to NY has picked up again; I'm pretty sure I won't be able to sleep tonight (since I couldn't really sleep last night either; my excitement kicked in two days in advance).

Just listened to a news story about the LRA, a group that recruits child soldiers in several countries of Africa. It seems the LRA is getting stronger, and the issue of child soldiers isn't at the top of the list for the US government, with so many other problems in the world.

Sometimes NPR just makes me cry.

It's good to be free

I've been off work for 2 1/2 weeks now, and it's been pretty great. I loved my job (teaching ESL in La Verne), but I don't miss it yet.

The only problem with having this much time on my hands is that I start thinking about more activities I need to take up--mainly musical instruments, artistic outlets, and sports. Perhaps dulcimer, ceramics, and karate are in the cards? Not sure how much time I'll have once school gets started, but I hope to find at least one "extracurricular activity" to do.

Anyway, recent events:

• Camping at Lake Cuyamaca over the weekend: Gorgeous and luxurious! I've never before eaten potato/avocado/tomato/bell pepper/squash scramble for breakfast while camping. And I reached a mountaintop by 8am on Sunday. This is what it looked like:
  

• Free Monday concerts at Spaceland in Silver Lake! I can never check these things out on work nights. Leah and I saw 3 (unknown to us) bands: Vanaprasta, Tomorrow's Tulips (I think), and White Arrow. Vanaprasta was the best; the lead singer looked like Zach Galifianakis, and was quite energetic.
  

• Met up with Anja in Downtown LA on Tuesday to get scrumptious "Smac & Cheese" and mint lemonade at Nickel Diner and then ridiculously indulgent waffles and ice cream at Syrup Desserts. I heartily recommend both spots.

please pay no attention to the random woman on her laptop in the background.

• AFTER dinner and dessert with Anja, went with Leah to the Kogi truck in Altadena! Waited 1 1/2 hours (until midnight) to get a tofu burrito. So not worth it. Although it wasn't a terrible wait, since it's kind of a social event. Lots of folks chillin' on the street and sidewalk. But by the time I got my burrito, all I wanted was to go to sleep.
  

That is all. Going to see "Surfin' Safari" (a Beach Boys cover group) with the fam at the Coffee Gallery tonight.

One more week till I leave for New York!

The Bands I've Owned and Abandoned

The NPR All Songs Considered Blog recently asked its readers which artists have put out the most music they own but never listen to. For example, some band you were obsessed with in the past, and whose CDs you continue to buy, but never actually play.

The far and away most popular response was (not so surprisingly) Dave Matthews Band. Boy am I glad I've NEVER been into him! Well all right, I did have a brief phase during the time that "free hugs" music video came out. But I can't even remember the song that went with it.

Anyway, the artist that I would have to confess to never listening to is Radiohead. I realized this upon reading someone else's comment: "Probably Radiohead. I love them, love their music, love seeing them live — and am almost never in the mood to listen to them."

This describes exactly how I feel. Although I've never actually seen them live, I hope to some day, because I've heard they're awesome. But I went through a Radiohead phase in college which lasted a couple years, and haven't really gone back since, despite continuing to buy their CDs. Radiohead's music creates such a strong, and often depressing mood; I'm often unable to tolerate it unless I'm willing to sit down and focus on a whole album.

Anyway, anyone else have an artist they feel this way about?

Went to see In the Heights tonight with the fam, in honor of my parents' 31-year anniversary. (Thank goodness they still invite the kids.) I was a little worried before the show because I know the musical has a lot of hip hop, and I wasn't sure the folks would go for it. But thankfully, the production was really good! Great singers, catchy tunes (not too much rapping), and a sweet story. I recommend it.

And now I want to visit Washington Heights when I get to New York.

Best Purchase of the Weekend

Bought this on vinyl for 40 cents at Armadillo Records. I think it will set the mood nicely in my dorm.

Upon my impending move to New York, (and my current 3-week vacation), I will make another attempt at resurrecting this blog. Ideally, I'll post little anecdotes from my life in Manhattan/Harlem, so people who are interested can stay up-to-date.

But I'm not in New York yet! So I will post some other random thoughts/activities instead.

1. My goal before leaving is to finish all the issues of The New Yorker. My father and I somewhat thoughtlessly subscribed to it back in December, after I made my first trip out to visit Ari and kind of fell in love with the city all over again. Did you know that you get a new issue every week? Thus, it's a bit challenging to get through one when you're also working virtually full-time. Anyway, I've made it through about 5 issues in one week; I've got to speed up my game here.

2. My mother and I have created a "No New Clothing" pledge, which I've read about on some fashion blogs. The idea is not to buy any new clothing for a certain amount of time; in our case, six months. No new clothing or jewelry purchased, although shopping at Goodwill or Salvation Army is allowed. This is an excellent time for me to take up this challenge, since the starting date will be my first day of classes at Columbia.

3. Cooking again--I found some inspiring recipes on Andrea's blog that I've been meaning to make for a while. Vegetarian chili first! And after that some Thai curry (not from her blog, but just my own attempt).

4. Going to see terrible movies! Ok, not a goal, but it seems to be happening regardless. I saw Dinner for Schmucks last weekend with Michelle in Davis, and it was pretty much the worst comedy I've seen all year. Made the mistake of NOT consulting my trusty LA Times beforehand. And then today I'm probably going to see Sex & the City 2 with Leah. Although at least that will only be $2.

That's all I can think of at the mo. Alright, time to get back to my New Yorker. I must finish another one today!

Haven't posted in a while, but Salinger's death today inspired me.

After hearing about this death, I'm sure almost everyone flashed back to their "Salinger" moment (if they have one); I personally remember middle school, when I worked as the computer lab T.A. for Mrs. Soja, and had way too much time on my hands. I finished Catcher in the Rye during one of those slow days, and then immediately started reading it again. I enjoyed it so much I didn't want to put it down. So I read it twice in a row, with a time span of about 2 minutes between readings.

I also have memories of reading Nine Stories in Mrs. Swanson's 11th grad English class, and acting out scenes from the stories. Such a weird, albeit creative, idea. Nevertheless I remember feeling greatly moved by those stories as well, particularly the last one, entitled "Teddy."