She lives!

Oh, my goodness. I really haven't posted in a long time. Sorry. I had finals and then the holidays, and I'm realizing that the latter can be more hectic than the former when my whole family is home at the same time. It's not that it's bad or anything--it's actually quite hilarious and often farcical--but between everyone's totally different pre-Christmas agendas, the demands of our elaborate family holiday newsletter that went to press yesterday, and the insufficient transportation (the early bird gets the car), my cell phone has never blown up like this.

So before I came home to Chicago, I had a wonderful whole week of Brian visiting, during which we saw a Harold Pinter play, ate many delicious meals including one amazing one at The Red Cat in Chelsea, worked at after school, and also toiled together on two of the many pieces required for my masks and puppetry final. (Yes, I am in graduate school. Shut up.) Then he left and I was all alone, continuing the papier mache marathon, breaking only to dance it up at a weird artist collective party in Long Island City with the departing Dr. Science (sniffle). My finals finished on Monday night, after which I rushed home, packed horribly, and narrowly made it out of town just hours after the transit strike had begun.

And now I'm here, eating fudge and seeing movies ("Munich"...whoa), and getting last minute gifts for people and hanging with Abbey and Taylor and getting excited for Christmas. Oh, and my sister got my family tickets to be part of the studio audience ofWait Wait, Don't Tell Me the other night! For an NPR nerd like me, it was sooo exciting to see the faces behind the voices of Carl Kassel and Peter Sagal (Carl looks just like I pictured him, Peter does not, and both are bald), and the whole thing was hilarious. Naturally, I am now the proud owner of a large commemorative mug.

And that's about it. I love being home for winter break. I love that I have a winter break. Tomorrow's Christmas Eve and all the duties that are left are cooking and eating. Hooraaaaay!!

All things go, all things go.

Two reasons today was a great day:

1) I turned in a crapload of papers and projects and one of my classes is done (although no one really understands how much work I have left with mask making alone...); and
2) I won two out of three racquetball games with Andrew today! This might have been unprecedented. I also accidentally hit him in the temple with the ball and made his glasses fly off, but don't worry, he's fine. I think I was more freaked out than him at the incident.

Also, if you haven't listened to Sufjan Stevens before, I strongly urge you to check him out. Susie wrote about this too. He's started this 50 state project where he intends to make an album for each state, I believe. It seems like a mammoth task, but he's got two of them: Michigan and Illinois. I had to start with Illinois, of course. "Casimir Pulaski Day" has been in my head for three days. I was attracted to it because of it's title; it references a random holiday that is pretty much only observed in Chicago. But it also manages to be one of the prettiest and saddest songs ever, in a good way. It's one of those songs that makes you pretend you're listening to the soundtrack of the movie of your life. You do that too, right?

Snowy snow snow.

Hooray, my blog is back! It disappeared for a few days there and even though it didn't really delay a posting on my part, I still felt a little like my child had run away from home.

Annie and I are in the NYU library, side by side with our Macs, staring out at the snow in Washington Square Park. It's pleasant. You know what's funny? Looking at other people's iTunes over the wireless network. I just realized I could do that, and it feels just a little bit voyeuristic and therefore a little exciting. Who are you, "Ben," and why do you have so much ABBA? And my, "Claudia," that's an interesting Gym playlist. At what point in your workout do you usually listen to Coldplay?

Wow, I'm getting lots of work done.

Shake it, shake it.

Greetings from the laziest blogger ever. On that note, over the weekend I helped my sister edit her paper on digital media and the "second self," and I gave what sounded like very helpful insights from the "blogger's perspective," which is just hilarious to me because my friends actually have to remind me to update my blog. Triste.

Oh well! I had a most wonderful, relaxing, and fun extended weekend (and by "extended" I mean "consisting of real, class-filled weekdays that I converted into vacation days") at home in Chicago. I ate the shit out of Thanksgiving, and then after dinner all the cousins sat around nodding off while listening to our professional jazz pianist cousin play amazing songs for us. I spent the next couple of days hanging out with my sis and my parents, roaming the neighborhood, visiting grandma and grandpa, and seeing movies you have to see with your sister, like "Pride and Prejudice." (The best part about that was when Annie leaned over to me 10 minutes into the movie--when Mr. Darcy is being handsomely difficult and Elizabeth is being lovably sassy--and whispered, "this is exactly how I wanted it to be!" Totally.)

Then Brian came home from Hong Kong on Sunday, and the fun continued, since I decided to skip classes this week and not come back to NY until Tuesday night. Woot! We did everything from seeing "The Squid and the Whale," which I definitely recommend, to having sushi with Abbey. I even went to one of his law school classes on Monday, which was quite interesting. I learned all about authenticating evidence. Law school is so different from educational theatre...

And now I'm back, trying not to think about how fun and easy it is to be at home, and facing about a week and a half of ridiculous amounts of work. But then I'm done, and I am SO ready for this semester to be over! Not that it hasn't been great, but sometimes you've just had enough of certain classes. I'm trying to be very active and zealous in my approach to my final projects...we'll see how it goes.

You don't understand. There were SEVEN of them.

I ate so much goddamn pie. Mmmm.

Dinner with the other Susie in my life!

So, Susannah has made it back overseas from England, and we celebrated with our much-anticipated yummy dinner. Be sure to read about it on both of our blogs, because I always wanted to be a part of her mouthwatering accounts of the meals she has. Here's my account: She met me after class and we walked through the West Village before settling on a place called Westville. I had kale soup, Susie had grilled cheese (not just any grilled cheese-- this one had gouda and cheddar and interesting-looking bread and greens), and we split this "market vegetable" thing, where we got to choose four different veggie sides--through a very egalitarian, football draft-like process--that were all amazing: beets with walnuts, spaghetti squash with nutmeg, artichoke hearts with parmesan, and snow peas with sesame and ginger. Afterwards, feeling very healthy and veggie-riffic, we went to Cafe Angelique and had fancy coffee drinks and the biggest slice of french mousse cake ever. We caught up on our lives since we both left Ann Arbor and went various places (England, Chicago, New York)--or rather, we filled in the blanks, since we already know so much from stalking each other on our blogs. I hadn't realized how long it had been since we'd seen each other. Thanks for calling me Susie, it was the perfect end to an otherwise boring weekday!

While we were enjoying ourselves at dinner, I was able to ignore my nagging cold symptoms...but now, not so much. I went to bed with a sore throat and woke up with a slightly worse one. However, I feel it could go either way here. It's one of those times where I know that by the end of the day I'll feel way better or way worse. We shall see--the morning's always the worst, right?

Owww!

I feel like all I want to do is be asleep, but I haven't been able to wind down yet. Today was a really intense day, for so many ridiculous reasons. For one, Mondays are always stressful this semester, because I have classes that go late at night, and usually I have something due. And I don't get to eat in between, and anyone who knows me knows that I don't do well when not fed.

But today was hard for lots of other reasons too. I got up in a good mood, well-rested, and decided to do some research on the courses I need to register for tomorrow and other things like scholarships and financial aid. I felt really on top of things until, after about six different phone calls, I discovered that in order to keep my scholarship, I'm going to have to take more credits than I was planning to, which affects how soon I finish my program, which affects where I go and what I do next year, which affects Brian's possible plans, which also affect me, and so on. On top of that, I realized that I'm one credit short of the requirement for this semester, which I think might be solved, but I had to scramble to fix that problem too. It's not that I was greatly saddened by the news or anything, it just really shook up my worldview with a whole bunch of new things to consider.

On the way to the train, while carrying many things and trying to eat a sandwich, I bit my lip so hard that it hurt my teeth. That was just the icing on the cake, because I was already harried due to the many places I had to go: First I had to go to work for a meeting that I was late for, then I rushed to NYU to rehearse a scene that I absolutely hatehateHATE and think is horrible and annoying, then went to mask class (for which I had to carry two heavy bags and a large piece of cardboard on many subways), then I had to go to class and perform the scene that I hatehateHATE, but which fortunately wasn't quite as horrible and annoying as it had been. I have subsequently bit my lip about seven times since the first overwhelmingly painful encounter, but at least class is over. (I apologize if that was tedious to read...but it was a tedious day. What can I do?)

Here are things that make me happy:

- I had an awesome weekend, spent mainly at a staff development retreat with my coworkers. We went to a summer camp place upstate, where we did ropes courses and other activities while bonding and finding each other hilarious. Seriously, everyone should get to work for people as supportive as that.

- I began to build a giant pig head today in my masks and puppetry class.

- I got my ticket home for Thanksgiving. 10 days till pie.

Pretty paintings and yummy cupcakes.

Tuesday was Annie's birthday, and consequently a very fun New York day for me. It's so easy to get into a routine of school and work, and not make time for the things I should really be experiencing while I live here. The main part of the day--before the party at night--included a visit to the Met to see the exhibit of her fave Renaissance master, Fra Angelico. It's gorgeous, and even better when you see it with someone who studied him and lived a block from his monastery in Florence, so can therefore explain all the nuances, narratives, and symbolic meanings, as well as provide explanations for why certain saints are always shown with knives in their foreheads, and other fun facts. It was great.

And despite her best efforts to thwart our plans, in the evening we pulled off a little suprise gathering at Beauty Bar, at which we had cosmos and cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery. Brendan and I then whisked her to a fashionably late dinner at August in the West Village, which was deeeelicious. (Schutt, this is for you: I had an amazing Portuguese bean soup with chorizo and veggies, Brendan had tarte flambe, Annie had butternut squash and roasted garlic pizza, and we all had apple strudel for dessert.)

It was an early night, but don't feel bad for my birthday girl sister. We didn't go home early because it was a school night, or because she had to work the next morning. No no, the festivities ended early because they were GOING TO ITALY FOR ELEVEN DAYS TODAY. That's right, the Met exhibit was just a little whiff of the incredible art they're going to see for the next week and a half, and the nice dinner was just a whisper of the ridiculous cuisine they'll be enjoying. And I'm not jealous, nooooo sir-ee! Love it. Love. it.

But speaking of lovely experiences, I got to go to a beautiful wedding at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago over the weekend. Yes, aren't we fancy? It was soo pretty, I've always wanted to see what it would be like to dine and dance among contemporary painting/photos/sculpture/installations, which in our case was a gigantic, wildly colorful collage mural covering the wall above our table for the Brazilian "Tropicalia" exhibit. Awesome!

Why am I still awake at 2am? What am I, in college or something?

Rock Lobsters make the best dancers.

It's all about the claws.


Peter Pan (me) and Elvis and Priscilla Lobsters (Annie and Brendan) in the midst of Halloween revelrie last night.

Halloween is fun. Also, Hail to the Victors.

Soon I will post pictures of my various Halloween experiences. All I'll say is that Brian was a perfect Tinkerbell to my Peter Pan, and vice versa. He looks hot in satin and tulle, and I rocked the green tights. Also, last night my Monday class got out at 9pm and I found myself right in the absolute middle of West Village Halloween Parade madness. And it was definitely madness...too bad I couldn't capture any of it with my teensy camera phone.

More when the pictures arrive (ahem, to a certain someone who dates my sister).

As for the rest of my weekend, Michigan beat Northwestern. I was there with a bunch of NU people...that's right, Brian and I are on opposite sides of that rivalry. We went to a tailgate before that was quite fun--thankfully it was a night game. It's too bad the Wildcat fans in the group were all sad after their loss, but I had a great time watching my team win. Fortunately, there were also tons of UM fans in the stands with us, and definitely a guy with a cowbell right behind us (do-do-do-do-do-GO BLUE!). Gotta love the cowbell.

Almost famous.

Hooray, Brendan got an agent for his novel! Who knows where it will take him next, but as he put it, it might be the happiest he will be during the whole process, so it was reason to celebrate. To do that, I stopped at Beauty Bar last night (where he DJs from 6-11pm on Tuesdays, anyone in NYC!), gave him a gift of his favorite candy bar, and had a pint of Pumpkinhead ale. And it really tasted like pumpkin. It was strange.

My weekend was fun...strangely it's almost the weekend again in my mind, since it's Wednesday. Brian was in town after three endless weeks, and we managed to go to my after school program (he runs a mean game of Simon Says, lemme tell ya, got me almost every time), go to clandestine sake bars with my roomies, visit his friends, hit a hot club, play racquetball (yes, I lost this time, shut up), and see Capote, all before he became deathly ill with the "little bug" I had when he arrived. Apparently the weird stomach pains and feverish feelings I was having on Friday were contagious, and they hit him ten times as hard. Poor guy! I felt bad, but we did have a good time before he became bedridden.

Now I have to plan fun activities for the kids today and look for a Halloween costume.

Forgive me Susie, for I have sinned.

Yesterday I committed a cardinal sin of roommatedom. I mailed the Netflix disc back before Susie was done watching it. And it was Six Feet Under. Oops. I actually realized it a few steps from the mailbox, turned around, went back and stared at the blue box as if there were some way I could retrieve it. I even checked Blockbuster later on, just in case. The final episode was just that good.

Aaaanyway, my parents were in town this weekend, which was lots of fun. I showed them my place and my neighborhood, we walked all over Brooklyn, went to the NY Transit Museum (check it out!), we met my sister's boyfriend's parents (which could have been deathly awkward but was great), ate some yummy food, and caught some sketch comedy. It was so nice to see them. I didn't realize how much I miss living three blocks away from them like I did until just a few months ago.

In other news, I'm plugging away (and by "plugging away" I mean "posting on my blog instead of working") at my latest lesson plan, that I have to present in class today. I am sooooo going to Beauty Bar after class.

Harmony.

So we got a new couch, which is super comfortable and very pretty. And since Josh is somewhat of a spatial genius, he rearranged our entire living/dining room space while none of us was home today, and the results were miraculous. He found space that I could have sworn was not there before, and visual arrangements that we would never have thought of...this little nester says thank you!

Ahhhhhhhhhh......!

Remember when I beat Brian in racquetball?

Oh my goodness, I spent so much time watching Six Feet Under this weekend it's embarassing. But it was raining, a whole lot, and I was two discs behind my roommate. Hmph!

So Susie S., who I love, who lives in England, and whose blog I read with great frequency, has instituted this system where she lists five songs that she's listening to and enjoying a lot lately on her blog, then "tags" five other people for them to do the same on her blog. And she tagged ME, and I'm ever so flattered. So here goes, they're in no particular order:

1. Your Ex-Lover is Dead, Stars
2. Calendar Girl, Stars
3. Te Regalo, Carlos Baute
4. 10 $, M.I.A.
5. ...and I need a little more time to think of the other, I'm drawing a blank.

I'm going to tag people now, it doesn't matter what kind of songs they are. And if you don't want to do this, then seriously don't worry about it, nobody's pressuring anybody here. And if you don't have a blog and do want to do it, just put it in my comments section. Then I'll feel special. Tag: Brian, Brittnye, Graham, ATF, Max, Annie (does she even know I have a blog?), Brendan. Ready, go.

Hear ye, hear ye...

It's a few days late, but it must be said:

Yours truly BEAT Brian two games out of three in an intense racquetball session over the weekend. It might seem over the top to announce it on my blog, but you must understand how unprecedented it is. I wish I had a victory photo. Alas.

Anyway, the weekend was fantastic, of course. I had class for a big chunk of the time, but luckily my sister and her boyfriend generously kept Brian entertained and plied with interesting drinks for many hours at Brendan's restaurant, The Modern. And when I was not in class, we had fun. We walked in Central Park on what was possibly the most beautiful day of the year, and walked around much of lower Manhattan as well. Oh, and we had wine and cheese. (And in the process tasted the stinkiest cheese ever. Don't get me wrong, I loves me some cheese, but this was stinky on soooo many levels.) Sunday we saw this great exhibit at the Met about photography from the turn of the century that attempted to prove the existence of ghosts and other spiritual phenomena by capturing them on film (or pretending to, depending). I recommend it. And did you know that there is a phenomenal rooftop garden at the Met, with sculptures and a breathtaking view of the city? I did not.

So this weekend I'll have some free time (!) since my work has finally slowed down, and I'm hoping to do some more city exploration on my own. I feel like I've fallen into a definite routine, but there's so much more to see and do that it's mind boggling. And exciting.

Mama.

Funny how when I'm at my busiest I find the most time to post...

My mother ran a half-marathon today, which is a goal she's been training for for a while now. I'm so proud of her, and she came in 5th in her age group! The best part was her method of motivation during the race: she said that, in order to keep herself going, she decided to think about a member of her family for each mile she ran. She essentially meditated on each person's personality, strengths, unique characteristics, and contribution to the family for the entirety of a mile, and then moved on to another person. She had plenty to occupy her thoughts, and she looked forward to every new mile. Is that a great thing to do or what?! My mom is such an inspiration.

Sleepytime.

So I got through another week, and in this particular week the stakes were much higher due to the fact that I started my job. The first couple of days were just okay (not disasters at all, but not what I was hoping for), and were generally characterized by craziness, confusion, and what seemed to me like wasted time. But Friday, oh Friday was one of those times, so few and far between, where I left school with a big dumb grin on my face, thinking "oh, learning!" I worked with the very very little ones, and we had fun drawing creatures in the forest and reading Where the Wild Things Are, and then I got to work with the best 3rd grade ever, a group of kids that was crazy and loud, but committed to learning new things, and actually helping each other be creative and improve. Like, whaaa...?? I was able to let go, and let their momentum dictate what we were doing next, which is a really big deal for someone like me who finds comfort in outlines. And then I got to go to class all weekend which (besides the fact that it was annoying cause it was class on the weekend) was great, because I got to reflect about the stuff I do, and do fun drama activities.

So that is the exciting stuff that's going on. Other than that, for me the "City That Never Sleeps" is becoming the "City That Never Sleeps Because It Has So Damn Much Homework." Seriously, I have no idea what fun stuff is going on in this gigantic, culture-filled metropolis, because right now my world consists of the space between my apartment and the laundromat. It's Saturday and the most exciting thing I did tonight was make a cup of green tea in a nifty electric tea kettle.

But one of the reasons I'm doing all this is because Brian is visiting again next weekend! Can you believe it? Neither can I!

My head is spinning!

Actually, I feel much more relaxed than the past couple of days, which might not be saying much. The other night I went to bed fully aware that I was going to have anxiety dreams about class and work and my new job, and sure enough, I woke up freaked out that my acting/directing teacher was shaking her head disapprovingly at the way I had handled my first day with the kids at the after school program. I guess it's always like this at the beginning of a semester, but I feel like the work is just piling on, accompanied by anxiety about lots of little stuff. I start my job at after school today, and I think my desire to be dazzlingly fun is actually the most nervewracking thing for me right now. That, and the fact that in one of my classes I have to direct and act in a scene from a play that I don't feel like I understand very well. I thought coming up with a directorial "analysis" and "concept" was a strength of mine...maybe not so much. Normally I can sort of see it playing out in my head while I read it and in this case it just seemed so awkward. Unfortunate! Oh well, I guess this is what "challenging myself" should feel like. Right?

On a lighter note, the things I'm doing are incredibly exciting. I feel like I've learned so much already, and I really do look at most of my work as a good way to improve. I read faster than I used to, work more efficiently, and last night, I slept quite soundly.

You can take the boy out of the city...

What is that he's carrying?

In case you don't know, this is Brian, and he is indeed sporting a very hip messenger bag, or "manpurse" as he calls them. He pretends that he doesn't like them, but he wore it well and he knew it, despite his weak protests.

Brian came to visit this weekend, and was finally able to see our place and everything. We made all kinds of lofty plans, but did very few of them, instead spending time walking around, eating tons of cheese and other great food, lunching in Central Park, running around Astoria, going out with my sister and staying out waaay too late and getting up waay too early, and going to a mod-themed party. He comes back in two weeks (actually, ten days), so maybe then we'll actually do some of our planned activities (the Met, a play, etc.), but maybe not. It really doesn't matter cause it was all ridiculously fun anyway. I mean seriously, we had text messaging races and they were tremendously entertaining. Who is this boy? Where did I find him?

Too bad I have a crapload of work to do. Still, it's exciting work. I spent six hours in a class today and I enjoyed pretty much all of it. I think that's a good sign. After class I went straight to the Upper West Side--which is very pretty--and saw a production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle, directed by my Masks and Puppetry professor. His company, the Mettawee River Theatre Company, does amazing mask and puppetry work--incredibly artful and beautiful--and this performance, held outdoors at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (since when does Manhattan have ginormous European churches?) was really, really cool. I felt very productive and enlightened, and then I read about directing while sipping coffee on the bus ride home.

Mawiage.

I have been a tremendous slacker when it comes to this little blog thing, and I apologize to those who care. There do happen to be a few of those individuals, who chastised me more than once about my lack of blog updates in the past few days, which made me feel special. Thank you, Brian and Susie S.

So, for the sake of being up-to-date, rewind about a week. I went to Chicago again, to see my dear friend Sara get married. It was lovely and fun...and crazy to watch. It was definitely the first wedding of a friend of mine, which is a bit of a trip, you know? I got to participate by doing a reading during the ceremony, which I really enjoyed because it felt like I was able to contribute something personal. It was an exhausting weekend, because we did the whole shebang, from a group manicure-and-mimosas session to the rehearsal to the whole big day itself. It was fun and I just found out that yet another friend of mine got engaged, so there's plenty more where that came from! Crazy!

So then on Monday morning I came back. Back to a new routine and lots of reading and a job to start soon and many many things to write in my very high-school-like, very not electronic planner.