I Miss This #2

Where Have I Been?

I've been busy, but here's a little of what I've been up to:

FIRST UNTEREKKIE OF 2009!

Check out my win and you can click my Tag to see my awsum contributions to Karen's blog. Really stellar stuff.

Stars Aligning

Next week I will be on the road for work. First stop is Hartford for work training. Not looking forward to 8 hours a day of class time about insurance, but there is an added benefit. Since I'll be on the East Coast and had plans to spend the weekend in NYC, I got my boss to approve of me working from NYC after my class is over and now, instead of having to pay for my trip to NYC, work is footing the bill.

Add on to that the following:

-Kee Won got me a free ticket to the Sneaker Pimps show featuring Big Boi, Cam'ron, Clipse, The Cool Kids, Wale and DJ Clark Kent; Kee Won's working the concert

-Kee Won's job is footing the bill for his hotel and I'm crashing there

-Arnaub and Wen are coming in from Boston for the weekend for the concert; Korey and Margo are also coming to the concert

-Anna is coming back from Mexico for 3 days and it happens to be when I'm in NYC!

-Karen is coming back from DC for Maria's bday party!

-Phil is back in town for the summer and is having his housewarming when I'm back

-School ends for Dani that week so I know she'll be down for getting drunky

The only thing that would make this trip better is if the weather holds out.

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

Sad News

I found out that a classmate of mine at Williams, Emily Driscoll, passed away in a car accident yesterday in Brooklyn. I didn't know Emily that well, though she was good friends with many of my close friends. She was an amazingly talented artist and always extremely kind. When she graduated, she received an arts fellowship which she used to start an art gallery in Red Hook called WORK.

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.

American Idol 6 Reject - Sarah Goldberg

This is from last night's episode of American Idol. This girl went to Williams. She was a freshman when I was a senior. Though I think she's saying that this was all an act (which is believable), from what I remember of her, she was sort of a nut job. Either way, this is kind of hilarious.

Oh Williams...I Don't Miss Thee...

As much as I liked the life of the college students, especially compared to the daily grind in the workforce, I recently talked to a friend of mine who's still at Williams, and it looks like I got out of there just in time.

During my senior year, I ran into a little bit of trouble with the school administration as well as a little bit of academic...let's call it "struggle." On a few occasions, I actually thought that I wouldn't graduate, but eventually I made it through my senior year, albeit, not as smoothly as I would have liked. However, after talking to my friend, it looks like I could have gotten into a whole lot of trouble my senior year and basically got out just in time. Without being too specific, our school started cracking down on people this year and a couple of people I knew got suspended and others reprimanded. In most of these cases, other students basically "snitched" on others to avoid punishment. I don't really like to talk about the whole "stop snitching" epidemic that seems to be such a popular thing these days, but I have to agree. How can you sell-out another person who was nothing but good to you? Again, to keep it as general as possible, my friend said my name was brought up a couple of times and I know that if I was still in school, some people would have thrown my name in to save their own ass. Williams is full of some cowardly, disrespectful people.

So yeah, do I miss Williams? Not really, though Clap You Hands say Yeah and Robert Randolph are performing for Spring Fling which I wish I could be at.

Just bombed my Chinese final. I didn't know how to answer half the test.

also, JA selection letters went out today...a lot of unhappy people...

[edit]
8:15 am- Chinese paper done and sent via e-mail
now gonna grab some breakfast, finish my chinese homework, write some more american studies bullshit, go to class, write some more bullshit and then pray
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another all-nighter...

current progress: 100 characters written for a 650+ character essay that was due yesterday at 5 pm. Aiming for finishing it by 12pm today.

3 pages written for american studies paper due last wednesday. aiming for finishing it by 5 pm.

Not much time left and a whole lot of classes and other shit to finish inbetween.

4:30 am...committee is finally done. Probably one of the toughest, most grueling, and emotional experience I've gone through in a long time. I actually broke down at the end of the meeting tonight; part of it was cause I've slept only 6 hours since Tuesday, honestly. I broke down to tears during committee, and I thought that after the final discussion, after it was all completed, I'd be fine. But as I walked back to my room, I continued to weep. I almost felt like lying in the slowly growing mounds of snow. It was so intense and then I come back to my room to find other things that remind me of my limitations and maybe my character flaws. Why people do certain things and say certain things, I will never know, but I seriously started bawling in my room. I was almost afraid I was going to wake up my frosh. Man, I really need to sleep and take some time to reflect on this experience and tonight. I'm in a hard place right now.

On another note, this is for someone specific, cause I know you read this:

You can keep yourself only so far away from people. The closeness can be painful, but its necessary. The good, the bad, they are all there, but I promise, the good stuff is worth the pain that may come along with it. And as much as we'd like to define ourselves as complete individuals, we cannot forget the people around us who also contribute to making us so beautiful.

another all-nighter tonight and with the way my schedule is shaping up for tomorrow, it looks like another all-nighter tomorrow as well.

first words of my paper finally written....I want to collapse. I was coughing and fighting myself all-night long. I can't remember if I was awake all-night or dreaming the entire time, but I definitely remember debating my topic with myself....very strange. God help me...

2:08 am and still not a word written for my American studies paper due tomorrow...still not sure if I even have a topic.

Oh my god...how I hate and love committee...4 am and i'm still just starting my homework for tomorrow. give me a snow day or some shit.

man i love my frosh...when I'm actually in the entry (which almost like never), i get to see this amazing, thoughtful side of them...damn...

I hate this place right now. I hate the lack of respect. i hate the lack of trust. and I hate that I'm bitchin about things, when honestly, I should be overly thankful that I'm blessed and lucky enough to be here. I hate that this place does this to me.

Almost 3 am...had a tutorial paper due at noon yesterday...still not one word written...still not finished reading...slowly inching towards my bed....slowly drowning...

Fuck...response paper frantically written in 25 minutes....Chinese presentation in less than an hour and very little done to prepare and a tutorial paper, draft due at noon....research still not even done...not one word written....

Plus, class from 12-4, meetings from 4-7, and then meetings again from 10-2. Can I write and do research for my paper in less than 3 hours?