Turtle Tales

TOKYO!!!!

2010-03-08T18:22:00.003-05:00

I interrupt this long radio silence to announce that I'm in Tokyo, Japan for a couple of weeks decompressing from life and visiting Far East traveler and fellow blogger Mikka. I've been here since Wednesday and apart from vicious jet lag and the disorientation that comes from being more or less illiterate things have been pretty awesome.

Top 5 Things I Love About Japan

1. This is the land of cute. Seriously, this place is adorable; from the cherubic like toys to the legions of happy schoolchildren in navy uniforms to the desserts.

2. It's scrupulously clean. For a city larger than New York that's shocking. Even the public restrooms at the train stations are shiny.

3. FOOD. We've had sushi with fish so alarmingly fresh looking we've been afraid to try it. I'm in love with real ramen, and there are some great Hawaiian restaurants here too. Tomorrow I'm getting up crazy early to go to the Tsukiji Fish Market to see some of the freshest fish in the world

4. The hi-tech toilets. Heated seat? Bidet? A little music maybe?

5. Karaoke in Shinjuku. Need I say more?

Top 5 3 Things I Don't Love About Japan

1. The subway crush. You haven't been on a crowded subway until you've been on the Keio line headed towards Shinjuku station at rush hour. And they're not shy about pushing. The weirdest thing is that it's all silent. Nobody gets mad. No-one shouts. In fact cell phone use is prohibited and you are likely to get shushed for talking loudly.

2. $$$ or should I say ¥¥¥. While some things like conveyer belt sushi are very inexpensive, other things like going to bars ($5 table charge BEFORE you drink), taking taxis ($7 flag-down charge), and getting to the maritime museum from Kichijoji ($7 each way) are ridiculous.

3. The smoking. Smoking is still a big part of bar and restaurant culture here and there are very few places were smoking is banned.

Considering I couldn't think of 5 things I don't love I think I'm ahead. Yesterday I ventured out of the city to Hakone which is near Mount Fuji. It was very beautiful but cold and foggy, and despite the fact that I was right there I didn't actually see the mountain up close. So I, like your, have to console myself with this stock image:

Oh well. But there will be original pictures later and hopefully video of my further adventures. We are headed to Kyoto this weekend to get a taste of old Japan via overnight bus. In the meantime I have to figure out how to get to Tokyo Bay and learn about the history of the shipping industry in Japan.

More later!

Home Again

2009-07-31T11:48:00.001-04:00

I had hoped to fill this blog with pics of my final adventures but I never seemed to remember my camera. Tourism sort of fell by the wayside in favor of hi-jinks with friends. I did manage to do a few new things in between karaoke sessions a 2nd on 2nd, an impromptu Michael Jackson dance party at Fresh Salt, and playing board games at McCarren Park in Williamsburg. My very last day I went to PS1 MoMA in Queens for some contemporary art, beer, and dancing. It was a great send-off and left me missing New York more than I ever thought I would. Staying for that last month and a half was both good and bad. Good in that I managed to get a fair amount of work done and spend time enjoying myself a bit. Bad in that I got a taste of what living there would mean if I had the luxuries of time and money to really enjoy myself.

Since being home I seem to be always doing something. Yet the pace has slowed somewhat. Part of it is just the settling in aspect (and man, it's hard incorporating a studio apartment's worth of stuff into this house), and part of is just the fact that I pretty much left my social life on the east coast.

As for the fate of this blog, who knows? I'm thinking of morphing into a foodie blog devoted to my adventures in fine dining and cooking with brief sojourns into knitting projects. Thoughts?

Memorial Day etc

2009-05-28T10:41:00.007-04:00

Back from a very long weekend in Phoenix, AZ visiting Mary and nursing a sprained/twisted knee while I upload photos and avoid thinking about work. Given my usual knack for injury the knee should come as no surprise although to be fair I didn't fall myself. Rather I was knocked down by a very exuberant Weimaraner. See the culprit, Reilly, here with her very patient owner Max.

Despite this, and two nights with a bit too much sangria, it was a great trip. We hiked in Flagstaff on Saturday (the scene of said accident) which was a nice change of pace given that I usually only experience the desert side of AZ. Flagstaff feels more like Colorado than anything else, cool and evergreen.

Monday we went to the Chihuly exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden. Chihuly is a glass sculptor and this exhibit was particularly gorgeous when paired with the desert flora and fauna and seen in the late afternoon sun. I took too many pics to post here but these are some of my favorites.

Now I'm back, icing my knee, swallowing painkillers, wondering if I absolutely need to go to campus today, and trying not to miss space and sky so much. I never really thought about space until I moved here and now it seems like all of my problems really come down to lack of space. Since making the decision to leave New York, I've been thinking a lot about my ideal living space and coming up empty. I like urban spaces because of the proximity to culture, good food, a variety of people etcetera. At the same time I've overdosed on crowds, dirt, and concrete. Flagstaff seems an attractive area to teach in a lot of ways. Yet I remember how small Ann Arbor felt at the end of my four years there. Chicago too seems crowded and unbearable sometimes until compared with New York in August. Then it seems very livable.

Given the nature of my work, I have to be prepared to end up anywhere and deal with it like a grown up. So for me the real quesetion isn't "What's my ideal space?" but rather "How do I cope once I'm there?"

Yikes!

2009-05-16T11:32:00.008-04:00

Has it really been so long. Eep! How can I possibly condense everything that happened in one short-ish post? Oh I know. Movie!!

The rest of the trip was pretty great, if somewhat stressful. My first day on my own it rained buckets so I parked myself at one the many expat coffee shops in the old quarter and read while drinking many glasses of watermelon juice. The next day I finally ventured out on my own braving the crazy traffic. Crossing the street is terrifying in Hanoi, more terrifying in a way that riding the Se-om (motorbike taxies). The was also pretty awful. That coupled with the crazy jetlag meant that I would walk around in 2 hour stints and then sit down someplace with air conditioning for an hour and a half.

Mikka is now stateside and plotting a new adventure in Japan and hopefully that will mean more trips for me too!

In other news...

...I've spent the last eight months rooming with Meg in the Financial District just two blocks south of the World Trade Center site. July will find me back in Chicago to spend the year writing my dissertation, traveling to different archives, knitting, cooking, and learning how to make cheese. Oh yeah, I got BIG plans.

But that also means that this blog will no longer be about New York livin'. Guess I'll have to find a new subtitle.

Hanoi Lenora Pt. 1

2008-06-30T00:38:00.004-04:00

Hello all! Here I am in Hanoi crashing with world traveler and former fellow budget-foodie Mikka.

This trip is a series of firsts for me, first time in Asia, first time on the back of a motorbike, first communist country. The flight was long and slightly surreal. Crossing the International Dateline means that I lost an entire day, last Thursday to be exact so I spent the first 2 days feeling pretty disoriented. Conversely when I go back I will leave at 11:20 pm on Sunday, and arrive in L.A. at 9:20 pm, also on Sunday. I learned about this way back in elementary school, but I still feel that this should violate some kind of law of physics.

When I arrived I was immediately accosted by a group of teenagers who wanted to take a picture with me. Somewhere in this city a bunch of fresh-faced Vietnamese kids are laughing at the panicked sweaty frizzy-haired American clutching at her bags. Mikka informs me that this is pretty common as foreigners still attract a lot of attention. This is also why they stare a lot. Once you get accustomed to it, it's fairly easy to ignore it.

The first thing that struck me about Hanoi was how completely moterbikes outnumber cars as the primary form of transportation. I could probably devote a lot of blog space to motorbike culture here since it's so much a part of getting used to the rhythm of the city. They've even replaced cyclos, which are now mostly a tourist attraction'

The second thing that struck me is how young people are. Walking or riding around it seems that most of the people out and about are between the ages 0f 17 and 25 zipping along on vespas and bikes, managing cafes, out in front of shops, eating bowls of pha. It gives the city a kind of bouncy high energy feel. The guidebook says that this is sort of a commercial renaissance period for Vietnam and also the longest sustained period of peace since the 80's. That may be oversimplifying things a bit, but the atmosphere is definitely upbeat. There's a lot of commercial activity and a lot of construction.

It's pretty hot and humid but no worse than Chicago or New York in the summers. After it rains the air is fresh and cool for several hours which is wonderful after a long day of picking your way through narrow streets looking at silk and silver and baskets of dragonfruit.

We spent Friday and Saturday exploring the Old Quarter before heading out to Halong Bay on Sunday. More about this later when I can post pictures and video.

TBC...

Things About Hanoi that are Going to Take Some Getting Used To*

2008-06-28T03:11:00.002-04:00

Staring is not considered rude.

Small children ride with their parents on motorbikes.

People here are tiny.

Chickens walk the streets.

I am probably one of three people of African descent in a 100 mile radius.

TBC...

*Did I mention I was coming to Hanoi? Nope. More about that later.

Miss Me?

2008-05-05T00:15:00.007-04:00

(cue "Morning" by Grieg)

Apologies for the lack of activity here but it's no fun writing in a fugue state. It's also impossible to write about life in New York when said life is...well...this:

Granted my lab is a windowless shared office in the basement of the same building that houses my department but you get the general idea. At any rate, I finally have something to write that isn't about stress, inertia, or panic.

Kate, Sonny, and Betty were in town last month. Kate is one of this year's Poetry Society of America's National Chapbook Award winners for her Dream of Water series. You can see the accompanying images as well as some of the poems here.

We also saw the Tisch School production of El Grito Del Bronx . I am truly ashamed of the fact that this was the first time I've seen anything at Tisch, which, given that it's right here and student tickets are insanely cheap, should have been a no brainer. But there it is. Chalk it up to lack of imagination. Oh well.

If this was typical of the quality of work the students are putting out then I will definitely be back. The play itself was very episodic, going backwards and forward in time. The first act felt uneven, but the pacing was better in the second act, although I'm not sure if that was a problem with the play or my own need to adjust to the rhythm.

Winter here wasn't particularly harsh but kinda clingy so since the weather's turned nice Spence and I have been exerting ourselves to be outdoors more. Spence bids farewell to NYC in about two weeks and is trying to cram the things he hasn't seen over the last four years into the space of a couple of weeks. Tales of his recent exploits avec and sans moi are here.

One of my new favorite places to go on a nice day is the South Street Seaport to look at the tall ships. It's a cheesy touristy area but you can't beat the tall ships and the view to Brooklyn.

Appropriate since I've decided to write about ships.

See what I mean about the view?

The weather hasn't been consistently great, yesterday windy and rainy, today, gorgeous. I was prepared to hole up for a second day in a row and catch up with missed TV on my DVR when Spence texted me: "It's gorgeous. Go outside right now." He wasn't wrong. I took the train to Prospect Park and wandered around a bit before finding a place to sit and read for an hour or so. Prospect Park is the other large park in New York designed by Frederick Law Olmstead. I can't say I actually have a preference for Prospect Park over Central Park but, being a Brooklynite, I opt for distance over fame.

Ah, green space.

Once again, I am decamping to Chicago before this wonderful weather turns vile. Next year will see me in a new apartment and, possibly a new neighborhood. I'm crossing my fingers that I find a place not too far from where I am now. Moving will be traumatic enough without the added nuisance of establishing a new routine regarding grocery, laundry, and train.

More soon-ish.

"It's simply beyond words. It's incalculable."

2007-10-22T22:37:00.000-04:00

I am coming off a hellish few weeks in which I experienced the multiple joys of paper grading , mid-term grading, and having a professor evaluate one of my sections. I had a whole spiel about how teaching the classics makes me feel a bit like Michael Scott at times, but I fear my Google-savvy freshmen.

"I am an adult. I don’t have to think…or…do anything!"

This blog has suffered greatly for two reasons. One: I spent the summer mentally convalescing in Chicago, which was great for me, but not so great for blogging. I had a ball reading Hawthorne and going to the farmers' market, but that kind of fun doesn't always translate . Two: Since coming back to New York, time that isn't spent reading for exams, prepping for teaching, and teaching is spent actively avoiding anything that involves rigorous thought. Yes, this blog is dinky, and shouldn't require much. But that's how far gone I am. This post took three weeks to write. Previous posts were starting to veer off into that scary place where grad students go which is rife with words like "epistemology" and "othering." Yeah. Gross.

Anyway, visitors offer good excuses to play hooky and be out and about so here goes.

The parents were in town a couple of weeks ago, which is always fun especially when it includes dinner at Lupa and Pastis.

I love my parents but I love them more when they feed me.

At Pastis we ended up getting into this long involved conversation with two sisters about politics because my mom was wearing this:

Apparently these shirts are designed to smoke out Republicans even in French restaurants in the meatpacking district. The details of the conversation are hazy but we did hit several points including the Iraq War, Israel-Palestine, Ayn Rand, abortion, and the decision of one of the sisters' daughter's to become a sex therapist. It ended with them wanting to have dinner with us the next time they're in Chicago. Who says there's no hope for bi-partisan civility?

BFF Mimor* was in town this weekend, and I got to see Harlem up close and personal for the first time.

Fun trip, Indian food, shopping, and one valuable lesson learned: there is no such thing as an unmonitored subway platform.

TBC...

*I kinda hate myself for trotting out the oh-so-mature BFF, but it's late and the 2 of you that have been bugging me about my lack of posting should be grateful I can find the mouse. So, suck on it, and good night.

George Lucas's Worst Idea Ever

2007-08-01T00:40:00.000-04:00

This should have warned us of the horrors to come.

That's one of those things that happened, and I just have to live with it.--George Lucas

Brooklyn to Chicago

2007-05-30T16:29:00.000-04:00

A reenactment in 1 minute.

Spencer:"Lenora, you must choose a lane."

Spencer: "Wow New York's really pretty when you're leaving it behind.

Me: "Kali's throwing up."

Me. "What's that smell?" (Smell proves to be cat poop in the crate)

Spencer: "What do they mean by blue detour?" (20 minutes later) "Hmmm, I guess it means scenic route that takes you back to where you started."

Spencer: (after being stuck in construction traffic for 30 minutes)"Bored now! I have to pinch you."

Me:"No touching!"

Me:"Are we still in Pennsylvania?"

Spencer: "Your turn to drive."

Me: (after 2 hours night driving on mountain roads) Twitch.

Spencer: Give me the keys.

Cats:(while being smuggled into hotel room)"Yowl!" which is cat for, "Let me out of here so I can pee on something you love."*

Spencer; Wow! Ohio is really boring.

(at this point Spencer falls asleep while I concentrate on not killing us before we get to Chicago)

Me: Chicago!!

Spencer: (observing the madness that is the Chicago Skyway toll) "This is insane!"

The End (Well for me at any rate. Spencer still had 2 days worth of driving ahead of him which aren't work documenting here as the cats had little to offer in terms of conversation other than "meow!" Which I can only assume means, "Why do you hate us!")

*This turned out to be an empty threat but I still submit that it was a credible one.

Shameless Promotion

2007-05-13T18:46:00.000-04:00

Domestic Goddess and fellow feaster Mikka has started her own craft blog. Having conquered the worlds of knitting, jewelry making, photography, and cooking, she's embarking on her next campaign, quilting.

An Epitaph

2007-05-13T15:18:00.000-04:00

I'm in the process of trying to wrap up the semester which constitutes hurling the remnants of my energy and enthusiasm into one final paper which will, hopefully, while not be great, not suck hard.

This will of course THE final paper. As of tomorrow, I am officially in that interstitial part of grad school between trainee and professional. When I return in the fall, I will be facing teaching undergrads classics and medieval literature, and preparing for exams, both designed to test my mettle as Ph.D. material.

In a way this is the part that I dread. Instead of merely being responsible for your own education, you're suddenly on the other side of the desk, opening up the week's lectures for 20-odd freshman. And when you're sitting in front of 3 professors being grilled on 9 months worth of reading at least 1/3 is impossible to get through, there's no hiding those chasms and fissures in your knowledge.

At the same time, after three years of course work, I think it's time. I'm ready to feel as though I'm working towards something rather than writing disconnected term papers that may or may not contain the embryos of my dissertation.

I've also purposely arranged things to give myself the rarest of rarities; space and time to think. Ideally I wouldn't be going back to my parent's house where I will to some degree be at the mercy of my family. But solitude is, literally, a luxury I can't afford. So Chicago it is where there is a deck were I can read, sip, coffee and recharge, a lake, a dearth of nightlife, and a lot of books. Despite the daunting length of my exam lists (and I'm tempted to post them to illustrate in detail exactly how crazy one must be to become an academic) I am excited to do something I haven't done since I was a teenager; spend the summer reading. Ah the decadent life of a grad student.

Of course you will hear from me when I awaken to the downside of being trapped in Hyde Park.

Progress Report

2007-05-01T20:36:00.000-04:00

Completed:

1 full term paper

2 mini conference papers

2/3 of my exam lists

To do:

2 full term papers

The topics section of my exam lists

storing and cleaning in preparation for my subletters

Acquired:

1 spanking new pair of Chuck Taylors as reward for finishing first paper

Chest pains due to stress-related case of heartburn

Grad school is trying to kill me.

Happy Spring

2007-04-23T23:37:00.000-04:00

Ah Spring, when a young woman's thoughts turn to sandals, the Enlightenment and the slave trade, and the impending exodus to Chicago.

If my last post left some of you in doubt as to my happiness with living in New York, never fear. This last month has been packed with fun little escapades. In an attempt to mix business with pleasure, my Moby-Dick class took in "Moby-Dick Rehearsed" the night it closed. We finished out the night, appropriately, at a bar on Water Street, the site of a tour I took last fall of Melville's New York. The play was jarring at first. It resisted the kind absorption that I usually look for in plays, but in way that was the point.

I went to see Patrick Wolf out in Greenpoint at Studio B which was on odd experience. Patrick Wolf is the kind of artist who's music makes one think he is more popular than he is. In my opinion he should be. But the venue was on the small side and the opening band was a three girl pseudo punk band that was so bad I was embarrassed for them. It was one of those moments where you understand certain prejudices about female bands and hate yourself for it. Patrick Wolf more than made up for it. Who knew the viola could be so sexy? He also had a violin and bass accompaniment that were astonishingly good. My unplayed violin has spent the last two weeks mocking me.

That was pretty much the end of my fun until mid-May. This week I will be putting the names of my professors into a hat to decide who's going to get the late paper this time around. And, yes, rather than nail biting my way through another summer here, I'm going to Chicago for two months. My lack of shame at going home to let my parents nurse me through the process of preparing me for exams should embarrass me. But I'm beyond any kind pretense towards absolute independence at this point.

Visual For Today

2007-03-29T21:14:00.000-04:00

What grosser than gross?

This.

What's grosser than that?

What I saw today: a pigeon humping a dead pigeon.

Sometimes living here is like that.

Dream Beneath A Desert Sky

2007-03-20T10:56:00.000-04:00

It's really all about the simple pleasures when you get right down to it. Good friends, direct sunlight, drinking eighty cent vodka cocktails while dancing to Depeche Mode, wine and cheese after shopping and salon time, the bad politics of John Hughes movies, Cubs versus White Sox at Spring training, homemade salsa, a St. Patrick's DAY U2 marathon, a good pool game, a bad movie, and maybe a few doctors to flirt with.

Yep, I'd say it was a damn good Spring Break all the way around

I Heart _______

2007-03-10T16:20:00.000-05:00

I've been wondering lately if I'll ever come to love New York in that intense defiant way that seems to characterize die hard New Yorkers. This is a city that simultaneously shocks and awes you with its amazingness and alienates you with its open wounds. It's not exactly easy to love a place that resists intimacy.

Right now, I'm sitting with my bags packed waiting for my cab to take me to the airport so I can run away to the desert for a week. If I don't leave now, I may turn into a puddle of nerves. Yet, I always miss New York more than I expect to when I leave. I miss weird things like the subway and the Greek Coffee cups and the confidence of always having really good sushi within reach. I walk too fast for other cities now. My luck is such that today the weather finally shaped up so being outside is no longer painful. And now I'm leaving. Oh well.

Mikka's Challenge

2007-02-10T00:48:00.000-05:00

see: question 27

Challenge is this: Answer each question with exactly 3 words! YOU MUST USE 3 WORDS EXACTLY. (no more no less)
Not as easy as you might think...

1. Where is your cell phone?
on my desk

2. Boyfriend/girlfriend?
boys are stupid

3. Hair?
needs a trim

4. Your mother?
short and loud

5. Your father?
batman of academia

6. One of your favorite teams?
the ORIGINAL Bulls

7. Your dream last night?
likely something odd

8. Your favorite drink?
dirty vodka martini

9. Your dream girl/guy?
Jon Stewart baby!

10. The room you are in?
my tiny room

12. Your fear..?
ending up mediocre

13. What do you want to be in 10 years?
tenure track somewhere

14. Who did you hang out with last night?
my roomie Spence

15. What are you not?
short and squat

16. Are you in love?
not right now

17. One of your wish list items?
new summer clothes

18. what time is it?
seven to one

19. The last thing you did?
brushed my teeth

20. What are you wearing?
pajamas and slippers

22. What book you are reading?
Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver

23. The last thing you ate?
pasta and spinach

24. Your life?
is slightly uneven

25. Your mood?
grumpy and sleepy

26. Have a best friend?
yes I do

27. What are you thinking about right now?
hack cough wheeze

28.Your car?
all paid off!

29. What are you doing at this moment?
surfing the net

30. Your summer?
reading for lists

31. Your relationship status?
perpetually between boyfriends

32. What is on your TV screen?
some dumb rerun

33. When is the last time you laughed?
today I think

34. Last time you cried?
earlier this month

35. School?
here now always

SAD in the City

2007-02-02T14:30:00.000-05:00

It's not so much the cold. Chicago's got New York beat there. It's the gray; buildings, pavement, the water, even the people. I look into the mirror and I can see the gray creeping along the edges of my jaw line. I don't exercise for muscles, but to see color in my face.

Is it unique to New York? Probably not. When I lived in the midwest I wasn't immune to the gray. Perhaps, it was because it was easier to stay indoors; more space, regulated heat, and the city didn't seem to mock one for wanting to stay at home.

Everyday is a calculation. How to layer so to avoid getting overheated once in doors; how to map out errands the day before, and then scratch them because it snows or rains and you can't take the shopping cart out. Despite the urban setting, the lack of a car, gives everything this odd man against the elements quality. One carries, hauls, pulls, and trudges to get things done. An hour of multiple errands is equivalent to a cardio workout.

And yet...there's something comforting in knowing that this is the downtime, the reading, cooking, knitting, thinking time of year. The smug cheerful types that never leave California or Florida don't really get it.

Which of course isn't going to stop me from escaping to warmer climes come March.

Quote for Today

2007-01-26T12:36:00.000-05:00

"What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say."--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happy Holidays

2006-12-26T00:21:00.000-05:00

Common Cold, Flu, Syphillis, Madcow, and Mono all wishing you a healthy holiday.Toys are from ThinkGeek.

Writing at Bobst

2006-12-18T12:02:00.000-05:00

Why don't people shower during finals?

Edited to add: People, put on your fucking shoes! This isn't your mom's house.

Break From Paper Writing

2006-12-15T11:46:00.001-05:00

Yes it's that time of year again, and despite the fact that I have about 4 days to throw down a lot of writing, the simple fact that I don't have applications to fill out, and an uncertain future to contemplate, has me in a completely different head space.

I've been making sounds of distress to friends and family about my quickly approaching twenty-eighth birthday, but the truth is I don't have much to complain about. My problems are mostly manageable, and aging a bit is less distressing because I don't that gut-wrenching sense of going nowhere.

The odd thing is that I find myself entering into long conversations with people applying to Ph.d programs. I tell myself that I have to spread what advice I can far and wide because it's part of what one does when gets lucky. But I also feel like I'm actively seeking moments to relive the agony of those weeks, in order to avoid lapsing into smugness.

I used to watch the Ph.D students with this knot in my stomach that was two parts envy and one part resentment. And what all of them seemed to share, despite occasional existential crisis, was at the least the knowledge that they were accepted and had a professional home for the next few years. It was such a contrast to what I and some of my MA compatriots felt that I couldn't conceive of ever having that peace of mind.

The strange thing is, having pierced the veil, I find that the peace of mind is both true and not true. There is no endpoint yet. We're only over the first hurdle. But that first hurdle even after one has cleared it is so very high. And as much as I enjoy having done just that, I feel vaguely guilty, not for having cleared it, but for so happily leaving behind that feeling of uncertainty.

So I talk and I offer advice, and cringe at my own eagerness, because I know, and at the same time I wish I could forget.

NYC is Like Middle School

2006-12-07T13:19:00.000-05:00

This is the time of year where to counteract the double-stress of papers and holiday shopping, yours truly turns to odd and varied coping mechanisms. This year, I've taken to holding impromptu dinner parties with friends, drowning my sorrows in butter, fresh herbs, organic veggies, and cheap wine.

Last night we fried up some latkes and roasted a chicken* for an early Hanukkah party and settled in to watch the season finale of the reality train wreck known as America's Top Model. I won't defend this. It is indefensible. Whatever. Caridee rocks and (S)Melrose can suck on it.

After, we picked the carcass of the chicken while watching Sex and the City reruns. Watching Sex and the City when living in New York is an interesting experience. On the one hand there is the obvious separation of fantasy and reality. You also realize that the New York experience transmitted by the show is highly specific in terms of class and race. On the other hand...well...take the episode on Modelizers. On a typical day in Manhanattan, it's not unusual to see a troupe of these

waltzing down Broadway or flitting around Barnes & Nobel. My first year here I had the unfortunate experience of sharing a bathroom mirror with two such creatures. (Shudder).

Living here has raised the "look at me" stakes in a way that hasn't been the case for me since I was thirteen. I've been resistant to it but it's wearing me down. For one thing this town eats shoes every six months so one must have a lot of them. For another, if I am to be faced with models in the mirror, I better have a good shade of lipstick on.

It's silly that this picks at my self esteem but that's not the only part of it. The other part is the single thing. Just typing it makes me squirm, so let me make this as clear as possible. In addition to frequent model sightings, it is also not rare to see one of these

Hanging on to the arm of someone who looks like this.

Yeah. It's enough to make you want to move to Pittsburgh.

*The chicken turned out really great. So great in fact that I simply must share.

ingredients:

1 3-5 pound whole chicken
1/2 cup plus one tablespoon unsalted butter
1-2 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs (the Poultry assortment works fine)
5 springs fresh parsley
1 lemon
3 cloves or garlic, crushed
Salt and pepper
white wine

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Melt half the butter and whisk in herbs, salt and pepper. Cut the lemon in half. Melt the rest of the butter in a roasting pan. Wash chicken, pat dry, and rub salt on outside and in cavity. Rub some of the butter and herb mixture underneath the skin and inside the cavity. Reserve the rest for basting. Put parsley inside the cavity and half the lemon at the opening. Remove roasting pan from oven and add garlic and a splash of white wine. Add chicken and roast for 20 minutes. Baste, lower heat to 350 degrees and baste every 7 minutes until an hour has past. The chicken should be golden brown and juicy.

Funny Items From Last Week

2006-11-06T23:08:00.000-05:00

Courtesy of Miks,

Item #1:

On the American Girls Dolls:

"I want them to make a Japanese Internment doll named Mitchiko, with her own apple picking basket and straw mat."

Item #2:

On the state of the bathrooms at Bobst library:

"NYU undergraduates are feral!"

GOOAAALLLL!!!!

2006-10-22T01:07:00.000-04:00

I reached a professional milestone on Friday. I gave my first academic paper at a conference.

It's difficult to accurately convey the depth of my anxiety prior to delivering this paper. At best, I was hoping to get through the delivery without vomiting on my myself. At worst...well...it really wouldn't have taken much more than the vague look of disappointment in the eyes of my profs to send my packing back to Chi-town.

But it went well. Amazingly well. I can actually write and deliver a paper with a degree of confidence ands style. Perfect it wasn't but no glaring flaws, and alot of compliments from professors not previously familiar with my work.

The other papers were good too, one on Raleigh's navigational texts which was a nice compliment to my own slave ship theme. And another on automatons in the 18th Century. One additional presenter had a death in her family and did not present, which was a bit awkward for the facult respondents. But it was a nice time. No deer in headlights moments.

So, the professionalization process is in full swing. Next up: term paper topics. Fuck!

This Is Just To Say

2006-10-08T14:07:00.000-04:00

Play the game. Feel better.

Best Celebrity Encounter Ever

2006-09-26T20:10:00.001-04:00

Since moving to NYC I've encountered my share of celebrities, some more than once:

Chris Noth three times, around NYU;

Molly Shannon also three times, at the Starbucks across the street from Chelsea Markets;

Scott Speedman twice, once outside Space Market and once at VBar;

and one of the Olson twins three times on NYU campus.

All the rest were one timers:

Kanye West at Corner Shop Cafe;

The Gyllenhaals on 9th Ave;

Dave Chapelle on Sullivan Ave,

Sandra Bernhard also at Chelsea Markets;

Richard Dreyfuss at the Union Square Barnes & Nobel;

Chris Parnell also at the Union Square Barnes & Nobel;

and Ana Gasteyer, on the subway.

Today I shook the hand of this man:

I love this city.

Summer's Gone a Summer Song

2006-09-04T21:48:00.000-04:00

Summer's Gone a Summer Song

It's the night before classes begin and insead of being a good little organizer I sit noodling about on the computer whilst sipping zinfandel, listening to Calexico, and thinking about random things such as Yahtzee and trips to Queens. This summer? Altogether better. Beats the hell out moving (yes we're no longer moving, issues with asshold neighbor at a detente). Less financially thin although thinner than I would have liked. Sangria, the Met, trips to Park Slope, pedicures and shiny sandals. New music, new people. New York is conquerable and I am on my way.

Where the Hell did July go?

2006-07-21T16:38:00.000-04:00

This summer is slipping by in a series of lost evenings at Iggy's, hella hot days, and exploding kitty asses. Yes, there is a story behind that last one. No, I'm not going to explain it. Suffice to say, I rock as a roomie.

Note to all NYC Men

2006-07-01T14:28:00.000-04:00

Never ever try to pick me up at 3:00 am on the subway.

Dog Days of Summer

2006-06-18T15:04:00.000-04:00

I have a new gorgeous Macbook that is seriously beginning to cramp my social life. I wish I were kidding. New tech toys tend to bring out my not so inner geek. Last night, Spence made me go out to the Laurie Anderson concert in Prospect Park for which I am incredibly grateful. Spence: combating my shut-in tendencies for almost two years now.

The concert was good. A little avant-garde form my taste, but one must expand ones horizons. We've been spending more time in Park Slope on the weekends since classes let out. There's this wonderful German restaurant on 7th Avenue called Café Steinhof which serves a decent and economical brunch. Go for the Kielbasa. Stay for the sour cherry martini. Yum.

In other news, another move imminentent. Sigh. I hate moving. But I hate our downstairs neighbors more. More specifically I hate the husband. He's a bully. There is no justice when bullies win.

Ma Vie En Bleu

2006-05-20T01:42:00.000-04:00

Paris Postmortem

2006-05-12T17:53:00.000-04:00

Le sigh. A week just ain't enough time. The food the food the food. Cheese to die for, mostly camembert (Sorry Kohlmeister) wine, bread, chocolate. My first night there I had this wonderful cassoulet with beans and choucroute, good hearty Southwestern food, at this place called Chez Papa in Montparnasse. It was across the street from, the Cimetaire du Montparnasse where Baudelaire, Susan Sontag, and others I'm forgetting are buried.

Paris is an interesting mixture of cosmopolitan and quaint. I think that's what separates it from a city like New York where quaint is kind of hard to find. Maybe it's the pink apartment buildings with the wrought iron balconies, or the profusion of flower stands. Maybe's just hearing French, which sounds piquant regardless of the speaker. Maybe it's the fact that nobody seems in a hurry. I was always walking far too quickly wherever I went.

I didn't do much in the way of planned sightseeing. I only went to one museum, the Musée d'Orsay, which I missed back in 2001. I've become hopeless when it comes to the regular tourist things. I just don't have the energy for standing in front of a piece of art and really taking it in. But I did see some fabulous Monets as well as Rodin's scupture of Balzac. Cousin Bette is on my reading list for this summer. I call my myself a Transatlantic 19th century person but my French novels are seriously lacking.

Met up with Stanford Dude on Saturday. And he took me to Montmarte and Sacre Couer of Amelie fame. It would have been more charming without the tourists. First week of May is also unfortunately when the beginning of the American/Australian/German/Canadian invasion. My parents were a little jarred by hearing so much English after 5 weeks of feeling the like only Americans around. Walked through the Jardins Luxembourg and then hung out with Stanford's Parisian Scientologist friends (yup) and had the humbling experience of not being able follow a conversation at all. Luckily the language barrier kept me from saying anything scathing about Tom Cruise.

Sunday and Monday were both rainy and largely working days for me. Oh the joy of carting around library books. Note to self: be a better planner.

Tuesday the parentals had to scramble and pack, but we did make it to the Eiffel Tower which was lit blue. We also had another great meal, at La Coupel also in Montparnasse.

Wednesday, after the museum I loitered around the Latin Quarter, popping into bookshops, buying chocolate, eating gelato. The Latin Quarter is busy but in very non-rushing kind of way. Good place for a coffee or carafe of wine. Sit and watch pretty French men with shaggy hair smoke and talk.

I ended my trip by running into Stanford Dude and tagging along with him to a tango class. Nothing quite like trying to learn a difficult dance in a foreign language, but in the end it was a lot of fun, lack of coordination notwithstanding.

So all in all, not a bad trip. I didn't force myself to do a lot, and in the end there was nothing I was especially dying to see. Staying in one place for an entire week is kind of novel for me. Usually my European excursions involve 2-3 days in once city before moving on. Next summer I will hopefully have the chance to stay longer and really soak up the atmosphere.

Pics to follow eventually.

Thoughts After 3 days in Paris

2006-05-06T18:51:00.000-04:00

French Scientologists: who knew?

17 Euros is way too much to pay for a copy of Image-Music-Text.

Paris is a lot like New York, only charming.

TBC...

Notes Composed After An Abortive Trip to Bobst Library

2006-04-30T19:49:00.000-04:00

To the Powers That Be at NYU: Build a Grad Library now please.

To the architect of Bobst Library: I could live with the bleak panopticon design, if there were more outlets available at the desks. As it is, 45 minutes of wandering around looking for a place to park with my laptop left me wanting to kill myself. Seriously, next time you do a library, think light, think fuzzy, think thousands of kids with laptops.

To the numbers of undergrads wandering around gabbing on your cell phones: If you are the jerks who have left your dell, backpack, wallet, and ipod unattended to have an angsty conversation with your mom/dad/best friend/boyfriend/frenemy/current crush/latest hookup: Please be aware that I am one more afternoon away from stealing your money and wiping your hard drive.

To the lone person WITHOUT a laptop sitting at the large table near an outlet near the best sunny window: You deserve to DIE.

Thank you,

Me.

Je Suis Une Mal Etudiante

2006-04-26T17:43:00.000-04:00

A week from today I leave for Paris.

Between now and then I have approximately 35-45 pages to write.

What am I doing now? Blogging of course.

Word.

And the Winner Is...

2006-04-11T00:12:00.000-04:00

(drum roll please)...NYU for the next 4-6 years people. Yeah big surprise huh. But it's amazing how much sense it makes to stay here. Everyone is very warm and fuzzy, which will undoubtedly cool once they see how bad my thesis turns out.

Spence and I went to see this band tonight at Avalon, formerly Limelight, of Party Monster fame. Awesome show. Must now become obsessed with all things Shiny Toy Guns-related. It was the first of three shows we're seeing this week. Next up, The Sounds, and then Ladytron. I never go see live music and now three shows in one week.

It was a nice way to celebrate the end of the application process, reintroducing myself to NYC in a very New Yorkish way. I've been resting lightly here for nearly two years. Now I'm looking at staying in the same apartment for another year. It's nice to have a feeling of permanence.

I Could Blog About Graduate School...

2006-03-15T00:35:00.000-05:00

...but I don't wanna. This time-waster is courtesy of Mikka who is foxy and not at all self-deprecating.

adopt your own virtual pet!

->

Hee hee. He hops when you click him.

Eeeek!

2006-03-01T20:18:00.000-05:00

In at Stanford and University of Illinois-CU!!!

The Story So Far

2006-02-25T10:44:00.001-05:00

So in case anybody is wondering, here is the annotated grad school list.

Berkeley--Accepted, still waiting on the financial aid package. Amazing school. Berkeley was the dream school before I came to NYU.

Brown--Accepted. Best financial package so far. 5 years funding plus 3 summers. Good program, not terribly exciting.

New York University--Won't know till next week at the earliest. Signs point to yes. This is where the decision gets difficult. I know the people, I know the program, and they've really put together a crack team of Americanists. But I'm ambivalent about staying in New York for five years. This year has been hard for a number of reasons, and I think I'm projecting alot of that onto the city. Living in Berkeley would also be just as expensive with the advantage of more temperate climate.

Stanford--No word. They started making phone calls yesterday. Sigh. At this point it would be greedy to whine about not getting in, especially since Berkeley is better for what I do.

University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana--No word, low on the list. The lure of Urbana is first and foremost living 2 hours away from my parents. That's me, the big baby.

UCLA--Accepted. Fully funded for 1 year, plus 3 year teaching stipend. Good school, not crazy about the idea of living in LA.

University of Maryland--No word, although doesn't matter on this point. Pretty low on the list.

Yale--No word, but they have started making phone calls, so it's probably a no. Yale was an application that I probably should have abandoned. They have a few really good professors but all of them are on the job market.

So that's where I am so far. It's a good place to be. Two weeks ago I'd get queasy every time someone would ask me if I'd started hearing from schools. It's also kicked my senioritis into overdrive, which is a very bad thing. Working on my thesis begins in earnest today.

Fama turned me on to a livejournal community which she has very aptly termed grad school crack. I am very glad I didn't know about this site two weeks ago because even without the stress of rejections it's very addictive.

The Method to My Madness

2006-02-22T18:20:00.000-05:00

Chime in.

3 for 3

2006-02-20T17:55:00.000-05:00

In at Brown.

I was so giddy when they called I'm sure they're rethinking the acceptance. Oh well. I did a mental victory lap and then proceeded to completely flub my 18th Century Novel presentation.

How Much do I Rock?

2006-02-17T20:28:00.001-05:00

I'm in at UCLA and Berkeley.

Life is fucking sweet.

Anarchy

2006-02-12T11:27:00.000-05:00

It's the first major snowstorm of the year. I celebrated by slipping through the streets of the East Village in search of a karaoke party. The atrocities were well documented by one Fama, who is superwoman, and also newly admitted to Wash U.

Last week Kate and Betty came to New York and let me tag along in pursuit of good food and good art. I need more people to visit me here so I can learn to love this city. Saw a great play called Major Bam, or How I Learned to Love the Dirty Bomb. It was my first trip to DUMBO (short for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass).The theater was a converted warehouse space. Very hip'n'trendy.

I have severe senioritis and too much work to do. These updates have been few and far between and that probably won't change. Oh well.

Home (cough) Again

2005-12-23T18:57:00.000-05:00

Yes I am home. And I am sick.

Spent the weekend in Salt Lake City. Family, Food, Mary, U2, concert, a mad rush to finish those last two papers. I'm not complaining. I'm just glad I missed out on the whole transit strike.

And now this whole semester has come crashing down on my head in the form of a chest cold.I blame the million and one screaming snot-nosed babies on my flight into Chicago. Still better to be sick at home than sick in New York. And it's finally ending. I think I'll go ahead and sleep through Christmas and my birthday right into the New Year. Except for the six hours I'm going to be out partying with this crazy bitch.

Progress Report

2005-12-13T14:07:00.000-05:00

Done: 1 paper & 2 apps

To do: 2 papers (~30 pages) & 6 apps.

I've reached the Zen equivalent of absolute misery.

'Tis the Season to Feel Nauseous

2005-12-03T15:48:00.000-05:00

Holy crap! Is it December?

School has a way of taking over. Right now I'm supposed to be busy but I'm caught in that inertia panic mode where I have so much work that I can't do anything except futz around on the internet.

October and November melted away into a muddle of presentations, tests, and application hurdles. Just have to push through. 8 applications. 3 papers, 2 plane trips, 1 concert, and a partridge in a pear tree.

I've been meaning to blog about a couple of things, but writing right now is hard. Writing about New York is especially hard. I'm in this bubble of uncertainty until I find out if I'm getting into grad school. It makes one not want to look to closely at the future. A future in which I will be 27 years old, unemployed, and 80 grand in debt. I'm pretty confident. But I'm also not finished.

Off to work I go.

Buzz Buzz

2005-10-09T21:16:00.000-04:00

Cold and rainy weekend. Friday night was happy, as in University sponsored happy hour in the West Village, made even happier by free drinks. They won't fund the Masters Students but if we start a club they have all this money available. Ours is not to reason why. Ours is to order free vodka tonics and talk about school.

Friday was special because I got to see some of my old Masters Seminar compadres. Every 1st year Masters Student has to take a seminar on How To Be A Graduate Student. We all bonded over deconstruction theory and the shared experience of going deeply into debt in the name of a career that may never pay us anything. Our last class was a six hour marathon in which we all delivered our papers over wine and Chinese food. It was the sort of experience that one simultaneously misses desperately and hopes never to repeat.

I lost touch with far too many of them. One in particular. Mikka was one of the few who I saw outside of class. We had an abortive adventure in Long Island last fall, involving the Gin Blossoms, a Yankees game that ran over, and a train we needed to catch far too early. Good times. Anyway she was there. And Mike. And Spence came. Each time I have a fun outing I feel the residue of this past summer finally slipping away. It's hard to be social when broke and stressed.

I made up for being social by not leaving the house at all this weekend. Bad weather kept us in. Plus I spent half of Friday night getting eaten by mosquitoes. Our new apartment has torn screens. Fun. Worst place to have a mosquito bite? The pinky knuckle.

Tea, Pizza, Cocoa, Mansfield Park, Netflix.

Just A Perfect Day

2005-10-02T12:28:00.000-04:00

Fall is a good time to be in New York. Especially considering how miserably hot this summer was. S and I were sitting in Washington Square Park on Friday, after having cappuccino and chocolate mousse cake at this Italian place (R dubbed it The Pane and the Chocolate in lieu of actually pronouncing the name), and he said, “I hate days like this because they fool me into thinking I don’t hate New York.” And he’s right. In the summer, the heat makes everything worse. The subway platforms, the missed garbage pick-ups, the people everywhere. Everything smells. On a really bad day you end up showering at least twice, because you come back feeling like you’re coated with grease. By the time August hits, and you’re waiting for the subway on a platform that is ten degrees hotter than it is outside while watching two rats fight on the tracks, you think that you’ve had it. New York has beaten you.

And then the weather cools. And somehow the sidewalks don’t seem so crowded. The smells that cut through the air aren’t of sweat, and urine and garbage, but of roasting nuts and coffee and sausages. And you’re aren’t running from air-conditioned place to air-conditioned place, so that if you have an hour to kill you can sit in the park, and pretend to read while you watch the dogwalkers try to keep their leashes from tangling, and nannies running after toddlers, and listen to a parkbench debate between NYU professors.

On Friday S and I went shopping for new spectacles por moi and ended up meeting up with friends. Indian food on the Upper West Side, and drinks in the East Village. I end up being taken so many new places for food, that I never remember the names of restaurants. Since I moved here I’ve been to dozens of places to eat but I can only remember about ten. This place at really good samosas and served food out of these adorable copper dishes. At Odessa’s we met up with a bunch of students from the English department and talked about pollution in Mexico City with a first-year Ph.D who’s from there over the cheapest wine I’ve ever had here. It’s funny. We live 30 minutes outside of Manhattan but because we get Unlimited Monthly Metro Cards we end up seeing far more of Manhattan than before. Still it’s nice to leave at the end of the day. Hop the F train, nod off slightly and then go home and sleep.

I Feel Cool

2005-09-25T12:38:00.000-04:00

I had my first velvet rope experience last night. And I got in, and some of my friends didn't.

I wouldn't feel smug about this except that said friends are slightly obnoxious hipster fashionistas, and the bar was slightly obnoxious hipster fashionista-ish. And I got in looking very un-hipster and fashionista-like.

Yup.

Deliver Unto Me

2005-09-18T19:48:00.000-04:00

Lately I feel that most of my day is swallowed up by waiting for deliveries. It's the irony of online shopping convenience . Point and click, and poof you're done. Except if you miss that 8 hour window of delivery, you spend a day tracking down packages, and poof your day is fucked.

I know that it's not just a New York thing, but living in New York intensifies the cult of delivery. Not having a car just makes it inevitable. If one has more than eight blocks to go and more than an armload to carry, shopping becomes a frigging pain. Especially grocery shopping. Hence the popularity of Fresh Direct.*

Last year I sampled one of the more self-indulgent sub-groups of the cult of delivery; sending out the wash. Our coinless on-site laundry was really no more than a washer and dryer stuck in a shack, and my roommate and I discovered belatedly that we wouldn't have access to our on-site laundry during the winter because the water would be shut off. Moral: ALWAYS READ THE FINE PRINT.

For some reason (and this is still the case) the idea of spending a day at the laundromat was unthinkable. I've always had on-site laundry, coined and coinless, but always, always in or near the the building. So the concept of walking two blocks, paying to do my laundry, and losing a day of reading (or whatever) was just unacceptable. Being me, I went to Google and discovered yes indeed, one could in fact, schedule a laundry pickup and delivery, all online. It was a bit odd actually. Nobody aside from my mom has done my laundry in years and the idea of people touching, and possibly losing (er something), articles of clothing was troubling. But strange as it my seem, my roommate and I decided that it was worth a shot for the price. So we did. And for a while it was. It was very decadent to receive a bag of neatly folded, freshly washed clothing, and not have to the bear the indignity of hauling, washing, and folding. The drawback was, of course, the four hour pick up and delivery window, amounting to a total of eight hours of being held hostage in our house. It seemed worth it at the time. And then service fell off.

Yeah, it was bound to happen. Clothes came back late and damp. Pickup times were missed. Luckily right around then we got our laundry room privileges back. So things were good. Until I moved and had to figure out how to get laundry done again.

It's inevitable. Unless you physically have control over something i.e. buying it and bringing it home, or carrying and folding your own damn laundry, you are at the mercy of screw ups and even without mistakes, you still end up waiting. And paying for it.

Lately I've been splitting the difference. If I can buy it and bring it home I do. For some things, there's just no way around the delivery thing. Like the bed frame and mattress I bought. Books and stuff though are easily dealt with. On the laundry front--well--I still contract that out. Oh well.

But I do drop it off and pick it up myself,.

*Freshdirect is probably the one service I could wholeheartedly participate, if they would ever see fit to deliver to my zip code.

Prologue

2005-09-11T21:35:00.000-04:00

It has been suggested to me that I since moving to New York (one year ago Sept. 2nd) I've acquired a cache of semi-interesting stories, vignettes, and anecdotes. I've hesitated because the truth is I haven't done all that much. But one does not always start a blog because one has an interesting life. And perhaps the drive to post inanities will inspire me to go out to do and see more. Who knows? Anyway I'll try it, and see.