This is what 96 degrees does to me

It makes me buy Jamaican Ginger Beer (which I have been craving since last summer; it seems to be sold seasonally) and impulsively pick up Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bars.
 The ice cream bars are definitely NOT vegan. But so cold and peanut-buttery....

Broadway fiend

Since I'm heading back to California in less than a month, I've been trying to think about things I want to do before I leave. And weirdly, I've mostly been fixated on theater. So this past week, I saw TWO, count 'em TWO Broadway musicals (at student rush prices, though, of course). On Wednesday I saw Porgy and Bess (which was pretty good, but the pleasure of the music was moderated by people using their IPHONES during the show), and Jesus Christ Superstar on Friday.

Of the two, I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that I LOVED the significantly-less-classy JCS much, much more than Porgy and Bess. But I know almost all the songs to it! And we got third-row seats! And Jesus' voice was AMAZING (although so was Bess'). Ah well. We can't always control our preferences, I suppose.

Elated after coming out of the show.

Back from Bonnaroo!

Well, uh, Bonnaroo was pretty amazing. I'd been planning to go to this festival (well, that or the Sasquatch Music Festival in Seattle, but those dates didn't work out) since last summer. So this was something of a "I'm DONE WITH SCHOOL!!" trip for me. And it was totally worth it. I'd heard that this was one of the most laid-back, friendly music festivals, and that rumor definitely seemed to apply to my experience.

Everyone was really nice (despite (because of?) the copious use of drugs), and everything pretty much ran smoothly--there was always enough water, always a clean-enough Porta-John to use, and always an awesome band to see. The top five shows for me were (in no particular order, because I just hate figuring that stuff out):

• Radiohead (Kind of obvious. It's been a life goal of mine to see these guys live. But they even played Paranoid Android for the encore! YESSS!)
• St. Vincent (I recently became a big fan of hers, and she did NOT disappoint. She's like 5 feet tall and plays guitar like a monster, and then she ended her show by crowdsurfing and then disappearing.)
• Ben Folds Five (Only playing the songs from the BFF era)
• The Beach Boys (So good still--amazing harmonies!)
• Tune-Yards (I'd never been a huge fan of her stuff recorded, but performing live, this girl is awesome)

We also got to see some comedians in the comedy tent (no Aziz Ansari, sadly, since he was performing at the same time as Feist and St. Vincent), we played on a giant inflatable water slide, and we saw Alice Cooper introduce the movie Duck Soup! (Apparently Alice Cooper was close friends with Groucho Marx at the end of Marx's life?!)

Some highlights from the trip (all taken with Ari's iPhone):

Blurry pic of St. Vincent

The Beach Boys on the main stage

Jellyfish umbrellas! (During the Phish jam sesh on the final night of the festival. We could only handle about 1 hour of Phish before bailing.)

A view of the fairgrounds from the Ferris Wheel on the first day.

My favorite graffiti (there was awesome graffiti all over the walls surrounding the fairgrounds)

The Apple Butter Express (a fun bluegrass band we saw on one of the cute, smaller stages)

Me dressed like an old lady (most women were walking around in bathing suits and quite a few were even topless).

Playing around with glow sticks that people threw into the crowd

Downtown Nashville (we tried to stop here briefly but got stuck in horrrriiiibbbllle traffic because it happened to be the same night as the Country Music Awards).

At least we got to try the delicious "Tennessee Fudge" sundae at Mike's Ice Cream Fountain

We ALSO got even BETTER ice cream at Jeni's in Columbus, Ohio. Ari got some fancy "Cherry Lambic" and "Pear Riesling" combo, while I got more straight-ahead "Salted Caramel" and "Dark Chocolate."

Ah, spring...

When a young girl's heart turns to life beyond graduate school. The weather is (generally) so nice! I am turning in my final big paper tomorrow! Hence, I suppose, the urge to post.
I thought I'd do the ol' Instagram catch up game (assuming you don't already follow me on Instagram, but if you do, here's at least a bit more context). Some highlights from the past couple of weeks:

Easter weekend I got to spend my first Passover with Ari's family. His family always hosts Passover, but this year, it was an especially big reunion, since one of Ari's great-aunts turned 90 years old. So 73 family members were somehow squeezed into the living room/dining room area. In the picture below, the tables are set for only 50 (we had 50 the first night, and then 73 the second night).

 The special Seder plate with all the things you have to use at various times during the reading of the Haggadah. The only one I can still remember the significance of is the parsley, which represents spring and new life (but you dip the parsley in salt water to represent the tears of the Israelites, so it's not all fun and games). 

Then! A week later, we rented boats to row on the lake in Central Park. It was a nice day. Worth the 1 1/2 hour wait, I'd say.

 Ah, the rowing life.

We were with a few other Columbia friends (who out-rowed us by an embarrassing distance).

 We found a pretty cherry tree in Central Park (not captured too clearly in this shot, unfortunately).

 We also went to see the cherry trees at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, which were GORGEOUS.

 Ari waltzes down the aisle of cherry trees.

Then, last weekend, we actually got to EAT a cherry leaf at this super-fancy Japanese Shojin-style (i.e. Buddhist monk) restaurant called Kajitsu, which is all vegan. The dinner was thanks to a belated birthday gift from my parents; thanks M & D!

 After dinner, we went to this new bar on the main street near our apartment called 739 Franklin and just barely avoided getting caught in a downpour. We tried to wait out the rain for two rounds of drinks, but eventually we had to sprint home with our jackets over our heads. 

Finally, yesterday we went to a "Meet the Programmers" event at Film Forum, which is one of my favorite places in New York. I attend this theater virtually weekly; it's a pretty great way to start a film education.

 There were free HUGE croissants, which was a big draw for me. And attending this event made Ari and me realize that we are apparently the only members who are under 40 years old. Ah well.

That is all! I hope you enjoyed the photos, and that spring has been good to you thus far!

6 hours in the library on a Saturday

and one page of writing to show for it.

Sorry for the whiny post--but I am feeling especially whiny. It's my last semester of graduate school--I'm so ready to be finished (never mind that I don't have a plan yet for what I'll do afterwards)!

Amusing Subway Story of the Day

Today, I rode the subway next to a lady wearing a black fur coat. And in her arms, camouflaged into the coat, was a black rabbit. She kept talking to it to calm it down (it was, understandably, freaked out about being on the subway), and when I made conversation by asking its name, I was informed it was called "Bunny Buns."

The best part, though, was the toddler who kept yelling "Bow wow!" at it.

Whew!

I just got off the phone after an hour-long interview with a representative from the English Language Fellowship Program. I'm hoping to teach English abroad through this program after I graduate from Teachers College, but it's a pretty long, thorough process before I find out if I'm actually going to get the fellowship.

They're supposed to get back to me in March to tell me if I've been "shortlisted" for any one project, and then if I get selected for that project, great! But if not, then it's back to the drawing board to hopefully get shortlisted for another project. So for now I guess I just wait. But it's nice to just wait sometimes (with fingers crossed)!

Just thought I'd post a quick update on my life for the people who are reading this blog from farther away. Now, back to assessment reading!

Back 2 School

 "Test analysis is another essential part of test administration. Just as the unexamined life may not be worth living, the unanalyzed test may not be worth administering."

--Favorite quote (so far) from my assessment class reading

If ya gotta read about how to write a test, ya gotta to be grateful for the rare bits of humor, am I right? 

Beyond Vietnam

Today I tried to do my own commemoration of MLK Jr. by listening to his "I Have a Dream" speech, and his "Beyond Vietnam" speech. Notice my choice of the verb tried. I actually did not have the stamina to get through all of this second speech (King's quite harsh (and fairly unpopular at the time) critique of the Vietnam War), even though it was interesting and eloquent (of course) and still relevant today. It also happens to be about an hour long, so I only made it through about half. Sigh.

Did anyone else do anything relevant to the holiday this weekend?

Since I'm still putting off actual work,

I will now post some pictures from my trip to California that were not posted on Instagram. (I joined Instagram through Ari's phone, since I don't have a smartphone myself.)

These were some of the fun times:

 We went to Little Tokyo and I bought some mochi balls covered in goo which were quite delicious (and which Ari didn't like as much as me; I suppose it's an acquired taste). 

 We celebrated the eighth night of Hanukkah by frying up homemade latkes and forcing Ari to sing Hanukkah songs for us in Hebrew. 

 After going to see a really fun Pink Martini show at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with my parents, we took blurry New Year's kisses at the Thirsty Crow in Silver Lake. (Hey, if you can't be a hipster in Brooklyn, you gotta find the hipsters somewhere.)

 Leah was there too, back from a year-and-a-half abroad in France and Spain! 

Last but certainly not least, we got to spend hours upon hours playing and cuddling with Cosmo.

It was a fun-filled nine days home, and I'm looking forward to seeing my parents again in May, at GRADUATION (if it comes to that).

Bizarre Pizza

Ari and I finally had a chance to head over to the new pizza joint a few blocks south of our place on Classon, PeteZaaz. (Weird name, I know -- apparently one of the owners is called Pete.) I was intrigued by their "General Tso's Tofu" pizza, which actually has General Tso's tofu on it. I LOVE General Tso's tofu. No really. Ari can tell you that I get it approximately once a week at some Chinese takeout place or another.

Anyway, we ordered it:

And it was kind of ridiculous. Grated carrots, broccoli, cottage cheese, basil...and spicy tofu on top. We each had about two slices and then decided it was too much, and took it home. I'm pretty sure we'll finish it eventually, but it was a little too weird. I'm disappointed, because the restaurant itself is cute, with vintage pinball games on the wall, and antique light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. Ah well. Pizza, you were worth a try.

Secrets of a Wannabe Brooklynite Living in 20-Degree Weather

I have found the secret to surviving winter when the laundromat is 4 long blocks away: have a never-ending supply of underwear.

You can always wash it in the sink if you need a fresh pair! And you don't sweat nearly as much as in the summer, so you really don't need to watch your clothes very frequently!

Sorry if that was too personal, but I'm quite happy to have made such a valuable discovery.

Frohes Neues Jahr!

So, here I am at the TC library, ostensibly writing my master's paper. But after working on it for the past 4.5 hours (and adding a whole page to it, no less), I have gotten distracted by Google Reader and realized that it's been a while since I updated. Time for a somewhat belated post about the new year (2012, in case you weren't sure)!

Here are my rather brief thoughts about 2012: A pretty great year for me personally, a pretty bad year for the world.

Me: Continued to live in NYC and live it UP (well, at least not work on grad school stuff all day every day), move in with Ari in Brooklyn, finish my first year at TC, and have a great summer going to the Adirondacks, the Hamptons, and back home to spend quality time with the 'rents and Cammy. I spent time with good friends who luckily moved out to the East the same time as me. AND I finally got to see Leah at Christmas after her return home from Espana and la France.

The World: Protests all over the Middle East (which seemed wonderful at the time, but apparently have not led to a lot of wonderful changes, but my fingers of course are still crossed), ending most disturbingly with Ghaddafi's death. Occupy Wall Street (which is also great, but...I'm just not sure how much it achieved) followed by peaceful students at my alma mater, UC Davis, getting pepper-sprayed by campus police. And then of course this whole presidential election coming up just scares me half to death. The nominees that are considered credible--I just don't get it.

That last part turned into something of a rant. But I can't help feeling somewhat distressed at the prospects for this coming November.

In other news, I survived a whole year being (mostly) vegan! Hooray! This year, I plan to continue being vegan as much as possible, but probably not as strictly as last year (exceptions may be made for cookies and cheese pizza when absolutely necessary).

Now, here's to a better year for the world in 2012. No ending, World, OK? Not yet! I know the Mayans predicted it and all, but I don't think they'd mind if you existed a little longer.

OK. Now I shall head home in the 20+ degree weather.

Movies and Books

So now that I have finished reading Jane Eyre (I finished it in record time, for me--2 weeks! For 400+ pages!), I have commenced with viewing as many film versions of it as I can get my hands on.

Today, I watched the 1943 Joan Fontaine/Orson Welles version (I think the first version?) at Film Forum. Quite heavy handed and melodramatic, as one might expect from an early adaptation of the book. I mean, the book is quite melodramatic as well! But I LOVED the book. I did not love this adaptation. Joan Fontaine was too pretty and too old to play Jane. And Orson Welles was actually pretty good for a Rochester type. But I don't think the film made it clear why they'd be attracted to each other. But of course it's hard for a plot development such as people slowly falling in love to be portrayed in a film with the same clarity as the book.

Anyway, I'm kind of rambling. I shall now sign off. (I just wanted to post this to show that I haven't totally given up on blogging!)

P.S.-I also go to see Citizen Kane for the first time (it was part of a double feature with Jane Eyre), and enjoyed it more than I expected to. Not as boring as people said it would be (although not mind blowing, either).

It's really fall now

I wore the first tights of the season today. Black tights with a navy skirt. Yes, my students probably all think I'm color blind now, but oh well. I don't have any navy tights (yet).

Happy fall weather! When it's not raining here (as it has been for the last 3 days), it's gorgeous!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Should I ever need to attend a red-carpet event, I have found my dress:

 

Yes, Claire Danes may have beat me to the dress. And yes, I probably couldn't afford it anyway. But those are trivial issues compared to the awesomeness of this dress.  As Jessica of Go Fug Yourself described it, it's "like a groovy mosaic at the bottom of the most amazing swimming pool."

Anna or Jane?

So this week, I checked out two female-centric tomes:

• Anna Karenina from the New York Public Library
• Jane Eyre from the Brooklyn Public Library 

Will I actually read either one? I'm not sure. I don't really know why I picked them out.

Since I probably will not have the stamina to read both of them back-to-back, does anyone have a recommendation about which one I should read first? I'm leaning towards Jane Eyre, since the beautiful (and talented) Michael Fassbender is in the new film about it....

That's why we only work when we need the money

So this semester (my second to last), I am planning to take it easy. I am only taking one class (which is actually a practicum--I'm gonna be teaching in the Community English Program) which meets 8 hours a week, and two workshops, both of which meet 10-6pm for two weekends each. And I'm writing my master's paper (well, once I decide on a topic).

That sounds pretty good, right? Then I just have two more classes in the spring (one of which is supposed to be the devil--one class that gives you the workload of two), and I'll be DONE!

If everything goes as planned (which it never does, does it?), this year will be a breeze.

I kind of wish I could have done this schedule every semester since starting grad school. But then it would take me about 4 years, rather than two. But is that so terrible? New York City is pretty awesome. I'm in no hurry to leave.
 -------

On a totally unrelated note: Ari and I went to see Godard's Band of Outsiders yesterday at Film Forum. It was so good! Apparently (I looked it up) this film is generally considered the most accessible of Godard's films. And it has some great iconic scenes: running through the Louvre, dancing to the jukebox in the cafe (which inspired the dance scene in Pulp Fiction), the "minute of silence" when there actually is a minute without any sound....

Go see it! Or if you've already seen it, tell me how much you liked it!

10 years

Today is the 10th anniversary of September 11th. All over the city there are memorials, exhibits, concerts and films happening. Yet I have to admit, I still don't feel a really strong emotional connection to the events that happened that day. I was living in California as a junior in high school when the Twin Towers fell, with no family in New York.  I felt almost as if it were a tragedy that happened in another country.

Today, reading the essays and tributes of people who lost loved ones, it is impossible for me not to shed tears. However, I am somewhat frustrated by the distance I feel from my other countrymen who were more directly impacted by the events of September 11.

Despite these feelings, tonight I plan to go out tonight and view the Tribute in Light, which is two bright beams of light that will be shining where the Twin Towers used to stand. This will be my own way of remembering our country's loss. 

No more Irene jokes, please

Ah, so many things to post about, and I am too lazy to post about them all. Which is why this blog only really functions (can a blog "function"?) when I'm supremely bored (read: summer break with no Ari around).

Anyway, I will bullet-point some of the highlights from the last couple weeks.

• Anja came to visit! Well, actually, she came to live here. In New York City. But before she moved into her place today, she crashed with me and Ari for a few days (+1 fun extra day due to HURRICANE WEATHER).
  

• Due to HURRICANE WEATHER, we played a fair amount of Bananagrams, Scrabble, Yaniv (Israeli card game), and 500 (card game similar to Gin Rummy). We also enjoyed a very pleasant walk to Cobble Hill Cinemas to go see a good, underrated film, The Guard.
  

• During said film, we sat in front of the Most Annoying Woman You Could Ever Sit in Front of During a Film. Well, OK, she actually could have been worse, I suppose, had she talked though the whole film. Instead, her phone rang literally 5 times (and she took quite a while to turn it off each time). She actually answered the phone the first time and talked to the person on the other end while the movie was playing. She got up and left the theater and came back multiple times.... It is because of people like that that I am a proud film snob! Thank goodness Film Forum's clientele is 90% people over 60, so most of them probably don't even have cell phones.
  

• Ari's birthday party was on Saturday night (the night when the hurricane was supposed to hit). Thankfully because Anja was crashing with us, we had at least one guest. We really didn't expect any more; the subway system was shut down indefinitely, so no one who wasn't within a few blocks could come by. But then THREE of my coworkers came! Hooray! And brought their friends! So we actually had a pretty decent party, ending with Ari playing keyboard and us singing along to "Rock Me Like a Hurricane" by the end of the night.
  

• Ari and I went on a nice lunch date today at the High Line, which has been open all summer, but which I haven't really had a chance to enjoy till today. Ari brought homemade hummus and Mexican salad and chocolate for us to enjoy while looking out at the views of traffic (no really, it's kind of fun looking at traffic when you're above it and somewhat removed from the noise).

OK, so my lazy summary turned into a somewhat longer, detailed post. I must still be somewhat bored.

School starts Sep. 7! Woohoo! That will probably take up some time. It has in the past.

Scrumtrellescent

For those who may be curious about my recent CSA intake: this week was especially good!
Yesterday, we got:

• Bok choy
• Lettuce
• Zucchinis
• Cucumbers
• Radishes
• (White) Carrots
• Corn!
  
• Peaches

This scene looked a lot prettier on my kitchen table (the colors didn't really come through), but I did the uncreative (yet delicious) thing and put all the veggies in an awesome salad (adding a few grocery-bought veggies such as tomatoes and avocado). And I'm saving the corn for dinner tonight.

Leaving for California tomorrow! San Clemente Beach, here I come!!

Chairs stickers: Unveiled!

Because I know you have been waiting with bated breath, I will now unveil the ripped-vinyl coverings I chose for the second chair:

For the seat, a Goethe-Institut sticker from my high school German club days. (Some of you may remember those days.)

And for the back of the backrest, more nostalgia from my undergraduate days--the college radio station from UC Davis. Sadly I was not cool enough to work there, but I had friends that did (and were)!

Fifties'd Out

Today I unwittingly went with a 50's theme. First, for work today I wore a retro scarf in my hair, as I have admired all the cool kids doing:

A couple times the wind blew the scarf ends into my face and it seriously freaked me out both times -- I thought someone behind me was reaching for my face (with silky-soft hands).

Actually, if you want to know, this way of wearing the scarf (with the long parts hanging down in the back) is not exactly on-trend. The style seems to be to wear a shorter scarf, and leave the ends sticking out kind of like a bow, at the front of the head, and not the back (like this girl). Ah well.

Then, I finally used my Groupon for the Film Biz Prop Shop, which is this cool thrift store of props donated from movies that were filmed in the city. I bought a pair of 50's diner chairs. The funny thing is, I can't carry more than one at a time (damn you, Ari, for not being here!), so I had to make two trips (one yesterday, one today) carrying each chair on the subway. I kind of felt like I was doing some kind of performance art, what with carrying my own chair onto the subway and sitting on my own chair while waiting at the subway platform.




The chairs have a few rips in the vinyl, so I have covered one rip with this delightful vintage picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Still deciding what to cover the other rips with.

So I watched Chasing Amy last night (romantic comedy), and rated it three stars on Netflix. Then, "based on my rating," Netflix recommended Silence of the Lambs (violent, disturbing, horror film).

HUH?

SINCE YOU'VE BEEN GONNNEEEEEE

It just dawned on me: since Ari's been gone at camp (1 1/2 weeks), I have been eating the archetypal bachelor's diet.

• Sunday night: Takeout Chinese
• Monday morning: Cereal
• Monday afternoon: Leftover takeout Chinese
  
• Monday night: MORE leftover takeout Chinese, followed by cereal for dessert
• Tuesday morning: Cereal
  

Yes, since the weather's been over 90 degrees (and only our bedroom has decent a/c), I have been on something of a cereal kick. (I usually eat oatmeal in the morning, but it just makes me sweat even more than I already am.)

I have also discovered the joys of mixed vegetables + General Tso's bean curd = $9.00 and feeds me for three meals.

Yikes. This is starting to look pretty pathetic. My excuse is, I'm just getting by until I leave for CALIFORNIA on Saturday!

HP7P2 Spoilers! Sort of.

I finally saw the last Harry Potter film yesterday. Despite the film's overblown "IT ALL ENDS" tagline, I have to say that it was kind of a big deal for me that the series was finally ending. And unfortunately, I don't think the final installment was particularly powerful. I felt that the final scenes (Snape's secret love of Harry's mother, the white void that Harry goes to after he dies) were fairly uninspired, and the choice to have all of the same actors play themselves 19 years later was kind of silly (Jenny and I couldn't stop laughing).

Maybe we just weren't into it as much as we should have been. But does this picture look like the picture of someone who wasn't into it?

Happy anniversary to me, and me alone.

Today is Ari and my second anniversary. Hooray! Except...he's out in the countryside somewhere (I don't even know which state, embarrassingly enough) working as a camp counselor for the next two weeks, without even cell phone reception!

So I texted him "happy anniversary," but I don't think he'll get it for another week or so. Nevertheless, in some ways I'm kind of glad not to see him, since I went to the Adirondacks last weekend, which was a GREAT trip, but which also was responsible for giving me 12 mosquito bites. So right now, I'm intermittently scratching myself like a lunatic all over my body (shoulders, legs, neck, ankles), which perhaps is the not the most romantic way to behave on an anniversary.

Bridgehampton

I got to spend last weekend in the Hamptons, courtesy of Ari's aunt, who has a summer house there. We were in Bridgehampton, to be precise. (There's also Southampton, Easthampton, and some others, hence the name "the Hamptons." I never knew that before coming there!)

It was basically a weekend in paradise. No really. The sun was shining with clear blue skies, we found some bikes in the basement and biked to the beach, swam in the pool, cooked dinner together and ate it out on the patio, and then biked some more to Sag Harbor the next day before taking the train home (a 2-hour trip from Brooklyn). The only minor mishaps were my getting knocked down by a monster wave and getting some painful scratches on my back, and then Ari taking a spill on the bike (it was too small for him) and him also getting some pretty nasty scrapes on his elbow and knees. Battle wounds!

The tide came in really high at the beach.

Sag Harbor

I think the best part of the weekend was how quiet it was. And the fact that I probably only looked at my watch twice.

CSA update!

My friend Micki works at a CSA near Columbia, and thanks to her connections, four of us decided to go in on a share of fruit, veggies, and EGGS! (Yes, I actually went up to the farm and met the chickens and confirmed that they were happy and ACTUALLY free range, so I don't have qualms about breaking my veganity for these specific eggs.)

I've been getting the food for about five weeks now, and it's a pretty interesting haul. Although I have to confess that Ari, the cook of the household, gets much more excited about it than me.

For fruit, which has been mighty tasty, we have gotten:

• blueberries (The best)
• strawberries (small and super sweet)
• rhubarb (Ari made rhubarb muffins out of the stalks. The muffins were essentially cinnamon muffins but with rhubarb bits. Very tasty)

For veggies, we have gotten:

• radishes
• 1 whole beet (more to come, I believe)
• carrots (only 3 carrots, actually, once we divided up the share)
• epazote (interesting green; apparently it reduces gas after eating beans)
• LOTS of varieties of lettuce
• rue (which is apparently toxic in large quantities and can give you blisters...we decided not to eat it)
• purslane (kind of tastes sour, but good in small quantities in salad)
• mint
• cilantro
  
• chives
• green onions

Ari loves to make salad dressings from scratch, so when we get a lot of greens, we generally just make a huge salad, which is kind of awesome. I usually feel very healthy afterward!