NYC

God I miss this city, especially the friends here. So glad I came back here this weekend, even if just for a day.

I Always Miss College In January

Holiday Plans

Only two more weeks...

Dec. 21-29: SoCal
Dec. 30-31: Cancun/Isla de Mujeres, Mexico
Jan. 1-2: Valladolid, Mexcio & Chichen Itza
Jan. 3-4: Coba & Tulum, Mexico
Jan. 4: Cancun, Mexico
Jan. 5- Back to NYC

Oh What A Week!

This past week was one of the most fun times I’ve had in the city. It wasn’t because of some crazy party bender and it wasn’t because I was going to a bunch of huge events; it was because I got a chance to see so many of my friends in one weeks time and just catch up with all of them in a very relaxed way.

Sunday
On Sunday, I had brunch at Essex with one of my frosh, Devin. I haven’t seen Devin since November and I was disappointed that I was not able to make it back to Williams for graduation. However, it was good to see him and get the rundown of his senior year, how the rest of the entry was doing, and his future plans.

One thing that was kind of embarrassing was finding out that some of my freshman didn’t graduate this year. I’m not embarrassed that they didn’t graduate; I’m embarrassed because I sent them all a congratulations e-mail for graduation that basically said: sorry I can’t be there, but congratulations on graduating (I’m assuming you all graduated, right? hehehehe). Oh well, it was an innocent mistake. I do, however, feel a little bad because I think I may have contributed indirectly to my freshman not graduating. During my junior year (their freshman year), I don’t think I set a very good example in terms of completing my schoolwork and going to class. I think, to some small degree, that rubbed off on some of them. But I take solace in knowing that all of that is somewhat balanced out by the fact that my entry also produced their class’ valedictorian! Congrats Priyanka!

Another great thing about brunch was that we ran into Vero and Elena at Essex. That’s the thing I love the most about NYC: running into people you know in the most random places, in such a huge city!

Later that night, I went over to Korey and Margo’s new apartment in Brooklyn for a “family dinner.” I had not been over since they had finished renovating/fixing up the place and I was pleasantly surprised. They did a really nice job turning the place into a warm and inviting home, with nicely painted accent walls, tons of furniture, photos, new track lighting, etc. That atmosphere really helped make the “family dinner” feel like, well, a family dinner. They invited a bunch of people over, mostly Northwestern peoples who I’ve met over the years, and it was a fun time. Margo and Korey cooked a great meal which included cheese platters, fresh guacamole, potato salad, chicken satay, stuffed, vegan-friendly peppers, shrimp and crab cakes, cheesecake and a vegan-friendly chocolate cake. We ended the night by going to their roof which had a great view of downtown Brooklyn and Manhattan, similar to the view from Korey’s old place. The only sad thing about the night was seeing the kittens, Francoise (sp?) and Maxamillion, who were really drugged up and out of it since they had just been neutered earlier in the day.

Monday
Monday night was a throwback to my senior year. Evan and I went over to Dani’s apartment in Harlem to try and revive our old tradition of poker night. (Dave was supposed to come as well, but he pussied out because he was stressed about work; the NY Times so owns him right now.) Dani cooked us dinner which, as usual, was wonderful. Dinner included a refreshing salad, a pasta salad, lemon and zucchini chicken, and strawberry shortcake with homemade whip cream. One of the things I really miss about college is living with Dani. We had a lot of fun times at Susie Hopkins and cooking was a big part of that. Lately, I’ve been able to convince Dani to cook more food which has lead to me freezer being full over wonderful homemade pasta sauces. Now I just need to get her to make me some of her delicious Irish soda bread.

After dinner, we pulled out the cards and played poker. During senior year, we were pretty consistent in getting a poker game going almost every week. We had a great group of people who would come over to play. Sadly, a lot of them are not in NYC so we are working on trying to form a new group. Playing poker with 3 people just doesn’t cut it.

At first, I was killing everyone; Evan even had to buy back in really early. However, my luck soon changed and I was struggling just to stay in the game. Before we knew it, it was already 1 AM. We were all getting pretty tired, but how can you end a poker game without at least bankrupting one person? So on what turned out to be the final hand, I went all-in having two pair, aces and kings; I thought I had it. Dani went all-in with me too. But then Dani flips her cards over…4 aces. What a way to end the night.

Tuesday
Tuesday afternoon, I got a call at work; it was Sean, one of my frosh. Like Devin, the last time I had seen him was back at Homecoming in November. Sean was going to be in the city that night and wanted to grab dinner and drinks. Before dinner, he came by my apartment to get a quick tour (which doesn’t take long since I live in a studio). Then we went to Brother Jimmy’s to grab some beers and BBQ.

I was really happy to see Sean and catch up with him. Sean was definitely one of my favorite frosh and one that I spent a lot of time with, mostly because he lived right across the hall from me and because we were always so terrible at getting our work done and as such, we were always up until 4 AM in the common room together, frantically reading and writing.

The other connection that Sean and I share is that he was my only frosh to become a JA. I think he really enjoyed that experience, just as much as I did, and I’m glad he did it. He’s just such a laid back and likeable guy, and I’m sure his frosh appreciated that.

Wednesday
Wednesday was a brutally hot and humid day in NYC. It was so bad that we even had a power outage that hit Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx. This shut down some of the subway lines making the running subways that much more packed with sweaty, smelly people. So what do you do on a gross, hot day? Go get a big, hot bowl of Ramen!

So, probably not the best idea in the world, but I had dinner plans to meet up with Crystal and we both really wanted to try Momofuku which is a noodle shop on the Lower East Side. It’s usually pretty packed so we figured that any chance to eat there without waiting in line was worth it. Turns out, most people are smarter than us and decided that hot soup on a day like this was not a good idea. We were able to grab a spot at the counter right away.

Dinner was good, but it was less about the food, and more about catching up with Crystal. I hadn’t seen Crystal in a long time, even though we’ve both lived in NYC for the last year. In the last few months, I’ve ran into her at some parties, but this was a great chance to really talk with her and hear how things were going.

Right now, most of my friends are in a very exciting place. Most of us are 2 or 3 years out of college and have been working. This is the prime time for changing jobs or going back to school. I’m sort of in a similar boat so it’s always nice to talk to other people to get their perspective and to hear how they are planning their careers/lives.

After dinner, I had some time to kill so I went to the Barnes and Nobles in Union Square. The scene was hilarious. I went to the third floor to grab a few magazine to read. The entire floor was packed with people sitting against the walls, reading magazines, and enjoying the free air conditioning. I settled into a nice spot and before I knew it, I had passed out. The heat was just that bad today.

Once I woke up, I booked it downtown to meet Jessica. We were going to see “The Banquet” at IFC for the NY Asian Film Festival. As I was waiting in line to get into the theatre, someone came up to me and yelled my name. I turned around, and for a moment, I had no idea who this person was; then it hit me…it was Cindy Lin! I hadn’t seen Cindy in at least 4 years and then, of all places to run into her.

Cindy has been living in NYC for many years now. I knew that she lived her, but II just never got around to calling her. The funny thing is, I was going to the movie with Jessica, who also knows Cindy. Crazy Minnesota people meeting up in the West Village in NYC. Anyway, it was good to see Cindy and we all have plans to get together for dinner soon and also to get Kathy Chen to join us well. The more Minnesotans, the merrier!

Friday
On Friday night, I met up with Vero, Kerel, Victoria, and some other girls down in the East Village. We grabbed a few drinks at Swift, which was fun, but then Kerel and I split off and headed to the Highline Ballroom for the Pharoahe Monch concert. Opening for Pharoahe were The Cool Kids, Polyrhythm Addicts, and Black Milk.

Expecting the show to not start on time like pretty much every hip hop show I’ve been to, we got to the Highline a little before midnight. Unfortunately, they had already started and I missed The Cool Kids open, which I was pretty bummed about. However, we still got to see everyone else perform. The energy in the room was crazy. Pharoahe Monch is not a mainstream artist which means that if you’re going to pay to see him perform, you really want to see him perform. That’s probably the best part of going to underground/indie concerts.

Pharoahe had a live backing band which really made the difference. A lot of Pharoahe’s beats have a heavy rock influence so having a live band really suits the songs; plus the band was just having a great time with it. Pharoahe is also one of the most energetic performers I’ve seen and he quickly passes that on to the crowd. One highlight of the night was Styles P walking on stage to do his guest verse for “My Life.”

After the concert, it was close to 3 AM already, but Kerel and I still had to make it to late night so we hopped a cab downtown to Automatic Slims to meet up with Vero and everyone else. I love Automatic Slims. It’s a small bar with not a lot else around it, but it’s always good time with drinking and dancing. We stayed there for another hour or so, but then everyone started getting tired and we decided to call it a night….a very fun night.

The Office Olympics

I think we've hit the wall at work today. The boss is out of town for the next week and there is basically a skeleton staff here today. I was watching "The Office" last night and saw the episode with the Office Olympics. In that tradition, I started racing around the office in my chair which suddenly turned into our assistants actually doing a head-to-head race in chairs down the hallway...just as someone walks into the our office!

Wish I Were A Kid Again

Spider-Man Week In NYC begins today! Best believe that I'm picking up my free comic book on Saturday. And I'm intrigued enough that I might swing by the Apollo to listen to some Spidey-inspired raps!

Shit! I'm in Amsterdam. Well, I'm in Schiphol Airport on my way out of Amsterdam to Rome!! I can't wait to get there, though my flight just got delayed for 1.5 hours which means I will be wasting away at this computer at a fuckin' 1 Euro per 5 minutes of internet use, but its worth it. I realized how spoiled we are in the US with Internet access everywhere. I thought Phil had a connection in his room, but it turns out his computer lab is like clear across town. Anyways, these last few days have been just a big haze, jumping from Amsterdam to the Hague then back to Amsterdam and running into so many Williams kids. It was crazy, just having 7 of us in Phil's room last night, sleeping on the cold ass tile floor. But its been worth it and I've spent way more money than I ever wanted to, but whatever, I'm on vacation so I might as well enjoy it while I can. So I'm off to Rome in a couple of hours where I will visit all the wonderful places Sil suggested and hopefully meet up with Nicky and Jordan and the Beal family!!! And then its off to Florence with Nicky and Jordan to meet up with Jennie and Chae and god know what other Williams kids we will run into. Rak, where you at?

weird night.

got my frosh drunk.

got bit and licked by a girl.

drank alcohol straight out of multiple different bottles.

danced

danced with my frosh

watched my frosh get on each other while dancing

averted a naked run through the dorm

porn with the frosh

tried to go to bed

had to throw a frosh out of my bed

cleaned up broken glass

finger bleeds

looking at an almost finished handle of vodka

finished bottle of baileys

almost finished bottle of khulua

wishing home could be this crazy

debating sleep...

Damn...it has been a while. Wish I could have caught up sooner, but this week has been crazy. It all started last Friday. I was still writing my damn econ policy memo when the clock struck 6:30 am and Nate picked me up. He dropped my tired ass off at Albany and thus began a 8-hour trek by plane and train to Northwestern to make my second Dillo Day appearance. It was a fun time. Arnaub and Chris also came down, but the best part was seriously seeing all those Northwestern kids cause I love them all to death. I'm a little hazy on all the details as we were drunk quite a bit and I was really tired from the week of no sleep, but we partied hard. I got to see Margo's apartment and actually slept there all three nights. Kind of crazy. We watched some good movies while there too. Saw Matrix 2, ehhh...its was good, but bogged down by all the info it had to get out. Equilibrium was pretty hot, though I passed out for part of it. X-Men 2 blew me away. Was totally reliving my whole childhood. For a while I had forgotten all about my comic book nerd days; god I miss those. Anyways, we missed the porn today. No episodes of me, Margo, and Jon outside the auditorium, chugging wine before sneaking into see some dirty ass 70's porn with a Jason Lee look-a-like. But it actually turned out that me, Margo, and Jon hung out a lot again this Dillo Day. We broke off from the group and did our own thing every now and then. And again I went and bought liquor with Jon. Funny shit. We def. did not drink as much this time around and we def. napped a whole lot more. Just the stress of school I figure.

Saturday was a great time though. Woke up nice and late, hung out on the rocks at the lakefill. Saw Blackalicious and The Crystal Method. Such a good time. Ran into John Ostlund by chance in the crowd and he brought exactly what I needed. Then Margo and I got crazy and sniffed around for some other friendly people. The night was so much fun, especially seeing Kee Won, Wen, and Margo crowd surf. The crowd was crazy. Some how I made it to the very front and we were wrecking the riot gates. They almost fell over. Anyways, Dillo Day was fun and the day after, just chilling with Margo and the rest of the crew was good too. Lots of time to relax.

Then I headed back to Williams to move out. That was a bad move...leaving campus without doing any packing. Also, going out on Monday night to party again with my JA class and not packing was a bad idea. I was up all Monday night packing and then spent all of Tuesday moving stuff to storage, moving furniture, driving a U-Haul (yeah, you should have seen me drive that thing), and moving into Fay. I got really stressed during the whole moving ordeal because I didn't feel like everyone was doing their equal share and it sucked being the JA prez and worrying about everyone. I have to realize that you can't make everyone happy, especially some people. But after moving all the stuff, we had a good time kicking off JA training. Partied hard. The nakedness started as a bunch of JAs streaked Morgan (all 4 floors plus the basement). It was pretty funny. My co was all in that. I guess I'll just be the modest one since she likes the nakedness.

Wednesday was...interesting. I was so fucking tired that I was falling asleep in like every meeting. Nicky and I had some confrontations with Dan and Maria, which I really didn't want. I think the two of them are great, just some minor conflicts arose. I still love them. Also, we had the infamous, JA Scavenger Hunt. So much fun. So much nakedness. So much crazy shit. God I wish we still had the pictures. Let me just say that my JA nickname is "Rubber Duckie." Ask me about it sometime. We partied pretty hard on Wednesday night. Lots of good times there, sneaking beers into the Log, getting some good JA training in by dealing with drunk, puking people. Thursday was good too, but kind of a downer, knowing that it was the last day of training. But we had fun. Some really great discussions about diversity which made me see my fellow JAs in a totally different light. Damn kids are so smart and articulate. Partied again at night. Got jolly and then crashed hard, I took it pretty easy today, trying to get all my reimbursements in and getting paid. Chilled will Mikey and Denise, which was fun. Barb and Gail (love those two ladies) took care of me today and made sure I had food to eat. They're like moms for the whole frickin campus. Chilled with Aron. He's leaving for Boston tomorrow and then starts his cross-country bike trek on Tuesday. That is going to be so freaking awesome. Then I went to the MCC and watched movies and MTV all night and hid from security. That's what pisses me off so much. Now that school is over, we are no longer treated as students, but strangers. The school has cut off access to all of the building for most people. I had to even beg the MCC to give me access. Wtf? I work my ass off for the MCC and they won't give me access. I actually have some work to do, but I also want to chill there too. I mean, if we are allowed 24-hour access during the year, then why the hell not in the summer? Shit, I have stuff stored there that I need to get before I leave. Anyways, I'm keeping it chill tonight cause I've been partying for a week straight and its gonna be the same story next week. I'll be back soon...just needed to get this written down.

So I think it's time for something a little more uplifting, well, at least a post that isn't so depressing. I'm still a little sick, but definitely feeling much better. I made a good decision and slept a lot yesterday. It made a huge difference, plus I had some yummy hotpot with CASO. So good. Reminded me of home. Which brings me to another great thing. I decided to go home for a couple days over Spring Break. At the moment, I haven't decided how long I want to be at home, but definitely for some time cause I miss my family, I miss having a car, etc. It'll be nice just to relax and do nothing. Then I'll come back to school and catch up on all my work which has been building up.

I'm actually excited to be on campus over Spring Break. Sulgi, Hamaad, Kalona, and a bunch of people will be here, so I won't be all alone. Plus, I think I might have found a job, which is exciting, especially since I really need the money.

I think another reason I'm feeling so much better is cause this weekend has been very chill, but a lot of fun. On Friday, I was still dying cause I had so much work which I still hadn't finished at 4 pm, and then there was the AASiA meeting. As stupid as it sounds, it was kind of nice to have the meeting on a Friday instead of a Sunday. It feels great right now, being in my room, listening to music, with the window wide open, not being in the damn AASiA office on a Sunday, especially such a beautiful Sunday as today. It's like 60 degrees out, bright and sunny. There are a bunch of Mills kids on the roof outside of my window, sun-bathing and doing exercises. Gavin and I are really different people, which makes us being HCs together a challenge and a blessing. I kind of wish I could be as carefree as him, cause he's on the roof right now, kiddie-pool and all. But anyways, after the AASiA meeting, I went to dinner with Sulgi at Thai. Wasn't planning on going out to eat, especially since I've been trying to save money lately, but it was so much fun. We ate for a really long time. It was totally relaxing and I got to know Sulgi better. Plus, the Thai restaurant gave me free dessert again. I love them. I wish they were getting more business.
Last night, we went out for Evan's birthday. I'm becoming really good friends with Evan, which is great. He's a nice guy and if it weren't for him, I'd probably be dying in math right now cause he always lets me copy his notes when I miss class, which has been really often since I've been sick. Anyways, we went to North Adams and had fun. The company was a little weird cause not everyone there were friends, but I think Evan had a good time. He was pretty beat after just getting back from NYC. For the rest of the night, I pretty much chilled with Evan and my suite, and then went to clean up the One Blue Link concert. Let me just say that I agree with Matt and now Kyle does too. Jeremy Da is a total dick. Trying to cheat us out of our money by paying us $10 flat instead of $10 an hour. Please Da, do you think we are morons? Kyle and I busted out of that place after an hour. Also, Phil was there, drunk off his ass, yelling at Charles, something about Vero I think. At one point, he was like, "you can understand why I hate you so much, right?" It was kind of insane, but I love Phil.

Today has been really chill so far. Last night I suddenly got struck with this antsy feeling and contemplated just getting in a car and driving to Boston today and studying in the city. It would have been hella fun, but pretty impractical. I would have screwed myself for all my midterms this week. But its not like I have been studying at all today. Whatever, its better for me to relax now and get better so I can make it through the week. But yeah, I was feeling kind of weird last night. Crazy thought and crazy dreams. That's for a different post though.

Anyways, I've started playing around with Acid Pro, making some beats, etc. I went through some of the stuff I made this summer. Some of it was total crap, but a few of the songs were pretty good. Too bad I lost all the loops so I can't go back and add some finishes to the songs. But yeah, this is going to be bad cause it's going to be my new distraction for the week which is not good news for my midterms. Oh well. So yeah, things are much better than they were last week. I still got some things on my mind, but I'm gonna save them for another post.

So I'm gonna recap Wednesday because it was such a great day and I meant to do so earlier, but fell asleep reading my damn history. Anyways, Wednesday, Becky and I went to run some errands, the usual stop to Wally World and then to our new favorite place, Big Y. We got some fun Valentine stuff for "people." Then we went to the Store at Five Corners which is a great little store with a bunch of baked goods, etc. We bought a bunch of truffles. Fun times.

On the way back to school, we passed this amazing hill across from Mt. Hope. We parked the car, trekked up the hill and did some rolling. You've got to realize that we've been getting fresh snow almost every day here in Williamstown so it was gorgeous on the hill. It was so much fun rolling down the hill, but we had to stop so many times cause we got so dizzy. At one point the ground was jumping up and down nonstop. Trippy shit. Anyways, after we got back to school and warmed up, I took a little nap cause I was still dizzy beyond belief. Then Becky and I and Kate had some amazingly good tea, Russian Earl Grey. Highly recommend it.

Anyways, somewhere along the way, I ran into Giles and Cameron and we all went to the international dinner at Baxter, which was way over hyped. The dining hall just can't seem to get a recipe right. Anyways, later that night, I want to an anti-war poetry meeting over in Goodrich with Kim. It was a good time, so interesting poetry and debate erupted. After the readings, Kim and I stayed in Goodrich and talked for like an hour and a half. It was good, just catching up on things, telling her about my Winter Study in Hawaii. Eventually we both had to do work. I had a couple of hundred pages of reading to do for the next day and by now it was almost midnight. Of course, I read for only an hour and then ran off to my second home, Prospect to visit Amber, Faith, Chlo, and the rest of the Pro-Hoes. Of course Amber and I got into a long ass discussion about random shit. Something to be proud of though is that we didn't resort to watching a movie, the Simpsons, or our new addiction, Gargoyles. She has every episode on VCD. Its getting a little insane. Anyways, we got on to the fact that I am a complete pushover. At first I didn't want to believe her, but its true. I basically let people walk all over me. And I'm usually fine with that. I drop everything for my friends if they ask me. She said that the reason I'm always broke is cause I always spot people money, never make them pay me back, etc. God she's right. I guess what matters though is my reasons for being such a pushover. Whatever, tis something to think about a little, but not dwell upon.

Okay, now to today. Ahhh!!! Woke up very late and barely was able to finish my history reading which would have been bad since I'm still scared of my history prof. But I did talk in class today and stay awake. The no-doz helped but made me so jitter; even more so since i was nervous. Also, I'm desperately looking for a new job. Applied to Vermont Color Photo, Arugula, and tried to pull some strings at Thai, but it seems that all of them are experiencing a lull in business. Feel bad for them. Also, I went to the health center today to get my hand checked out. The doctor suggested that I get x-ray cause I might have a fracture so that's my big event for next week. How did I hurt my hand? Fell of a 1o foot cliff in Hawaii a couple weeks back.

Oh, the AASiA broomball team won another game tonight. We beat the Choir team. Yeah for us Asians!!! And finally, I got my Valentine "project" finished so we'll see how that works out tomorrow.

All I can say is, "God damn last night was amazing!!!!"

Open mic...is there anything better?

I read some of my poetry tonight and I think it went pretty well. A lot of my friends showed up to support which I am always thankful for. This is my second real time reading in public. I had to do it once last year for class. It was required so I don't count it. The only time I read was at the Asian-American showcase this summer at the National Poetry Slam.

Tonight was so much fun. Reading was a thrill, but hearing all those other people read and sing, shit, I was really jealous. So much talent and sadly so few people come to see it. So if you are at Williams, get you ass to the Open Mic. I'll continue to barrage people with e-mail notices anyways. And if you don't go to Williams, I can't stress how important it is to go out and hear and see up and coming artists and just some experimental expression.

On another note, I'm gonna be up all night cause I was stupid and didn't start my problem sets until now.

Homecoming Baby!!!! Except for the incident with Matt's car, been a great day so far. Let's hope for an even better night.

What a great night. Just saw Ben Folds perform and he was amazing. To top it all off, he got pulled over by the Williamstown PD right after the show for going the wrong way on a road. Shit, my head hurts from the champagne we guzzled at the show. I still have a problem set to start and finish but for some reason, I left my book bag across campus in Anna's room. Oh well, my bed calls.