Intervention

Last night, after a great dinner, Boppy and I went to Michelle's awesome apt for a party. I met a whole bunch of awesome people and drank a lot of alcohol. I slept in Michelle's super comfy bed and woke up to look out the window at a glorious view of the bay. Michelle, I and her 2 roomies (Rory and Chad; as shown in pic) met up with my mom for brunch this morning and then us girls went shopping. We closed the shopping adventure with some iced mochas at Macy's in Union Square and sipped and chatted while adoring this lovely view of the square (see pic).

Later on, we met up for some delish Indian food and now I am absolutely exhausted. These hills are deadly.

"There May Not Be A Heaven. But There Is A San Fransisco"

My trip has been incredible so far. I have never been filled with so much feverish envy of those who live here, especially Michelle and her awesome roomies. Her apartment is incredible with classic architecture and a fantastic view. (See picture).

When we arrived to the SFO airport, we hopped into a classy new mercedes, which took us to The Hotel California. THC is located a stones throw away from Union Square. This historical hotel is laden with song, movie and literature quotes about SF, which adorn the lobby walls and the crests of the rooms. Our suite is decked with several detailed maps of the golden state, which I find really helpful, for my geography knowledge of the west coast is somewhat limited.

Shortly after arriving at our room, we met up with Michelle. She is my BFF from kindergarten-2nd grade, whom I haven't seen in 10 years. I have to credit Facebook for reuniting us. It's a really comfortable feeling, seeing someone you used to spend all your time with, in a different era of your life; after a long break of not seeing each other, and finding that you haven't really missed a beat.

Michelle had made dinner reservations for 6, so we hopped on an adorable little street car and arrived at the ferry building. We walked for a few blocks and got to the chic little restaurant where we were to dine. The food was delicious, but the conversation was even better. Michelle is so dynamic and has so many great things going on in her life. I am really envious of her situation, but not in a jealous way; I am just completely in awe of how great things are for her. Then I look at my life and compare, and yes, I am happy, I feel like I am doing great things as well, however, I haven't taken nearly as many risks as her, and in some cases, I believe that has made all the difference. I mean, she went to Baltimore for undergrad, then moved to SF and who knows where she will live after this. I feel like I have been taking baby steps to get out of my comfort zone, but I am still suffering from not being able to cut the hypothetical umbilical cord. So far this trip has really made me realize how badly I need to go somewhere new for my doctorate. Not necessarily SF, but somewhere where I can make a whole new group of friends and really create a new environment for myself. I have been noticing lately, that as much as I love the awesome group of people that I hang out with in BK, we have vastly different interests concerning our life's purpose. As exhilarating as I find hanging out with artists, musicians and fashionistas; I feel my soul would benefit more from hanging out with scholastic, activist-minded people.

I am considering checking out additional doctoral programs in San Diego or at UCLA. It helps that there are so many maps in this apartment, which I can look to for inspiration and visually explore my options for living in Cali.

Here We Go

Here we go, one more time, everybody's feelin' fine.
Here we go now!
(Yesyesyes herewegoooo!)

-I'm boarding my third flight in a week. Hooray!

San Fran's Ready for Me

I am SO excited to go to SF and reunite with my BFF from 2nd grade, Michelle. She told me that her roomies were planning a party for the night I come in, which is perfect for me and Boppy. One of Michelle's roomates is an artist, and made this kick-ass flyer for the 'event'. I'm just pissed I will be on antibiotics tomorrow, and thus really shouldn't drink. But i know i will still have loads of fun! YAY!

Swine Flu Lullaby

Yesterday, on my way home from maine I started getting the chills and hacking up a lung, while my head throbbed in excruciating rhythms. I sat and waited for the plane while sipping my tea, well knowing that I was liable to infect anyone I came in close contact with. I sat next to a nice, older couple from Florida. I probably infected them.

After finally arriving home, I thought about my predicament, imagining it was swine flu I was infected with. The whole scenario reminded me of 'Lullaby' by Chuck Palahniuk. Lullaby is one of my favorite books, which is founded on the contemporary use of an African culling song that was sung to dying people. It's like a disease that can be caught through the ears.

Anyway, today I went to the doctor and found out that my illness is viral. I got put on antibiotics and I will be able to drink wine at the napa valley wine tour I am taking on tuesday. Hooray!

The Great Outdoors

Tuesday morning I got my tooth fixed (see pic for me on novacaine lol) and afterwards hung out at the g-rents. Granny and I walked to the lake, went on the swings, walked through the woods and did a bit of bird watching. I am really fortunate that my grandparents are so active and able to do outdoorsy activities with me.

After Uncle Moe got back from work we all ate dinner together. G & G got lobsters for us to celebrate my accomplishments. I realized that I haven't had lobster since 2003. I kind of realized that I don't really like the act of breaking apart the lobster. It is kind of gross and animalistic. Not to mention that lobsters are like huge underwater cockroaches. There is actually a breed of cockroach called 'the lobster cockroach'. Go figure.

So Relieved There Are Still Some Good People in This World

WOW. The scariest thing just happened to me. I left my bag with my wallet, i-pod, flight info, and numerous other treasures in the waiting area for the air train. I don't normally do stupid things like this. I rode the air train around in a circle in hopes that someone had brought my bag to the authorities or held onto it to hand back to me. Luckily, by the time I made it around the airport and back to where I had left my bag, this nice, young couple was standing there calling my name and holding my bag. Thank GOD there are still good people in this world.

After my brief encounter with a heavy load of stress, and a session of chipping away at my nail polish, imagining the horrible things my mother would do to me if my belongings were indeed lost; I thought to myself. There is so much that one can find out about someone by looking through their purse. Then I thought about this blog. It's like an open purse or literary news channel of the happenings in my life. Part of me thinks this invasion of privacy is detrimental to personal freedom, however, I continue to post my innermost thoughts for the world to see, if they are so inclined.

This event makes me think about this website http://inyourbag.instyle.com/
This is where people willingly report what is in their bags. This seems like a sincere violation of privacy where individuals don't know who they are until the contents of their purse is compared with the contents of other purses. Thus this representation of oneself through the contents of their purse (rather than the contents of their brain) is a new commodity of self expression, where one is able to use Cooley's process of the looking glass self to help people define themselves by the commodities provided by their society.

Table #5

We were hands down, the most fun table at the wedding.

Come Together

Tonight I went to Dani and Russ' wedding. It was lovely and I had SO much fun. Back track a bit. This morning I woke up and lounged around for a bit and then come noon I had appointed a lunch date with the fabulous Dr.Rogers (aka my scholastic role model). We discussed this summer, my future as a scholar, assignments I should give to future students and ways of commanding authority in the classroom. Nathalia truly is an amazing woman who I aspire to use as a figure of excellence in my pedagogical life. She kept telling me how proud she is of me and that really boosted my ego to a lofty and sky high position, thus starting my day on an incredible note.

Come 2 O'clock, Lauren came over and we started to pre-game/get ready for the wedding. We bonded and laughed and had a jolly ol' time. Later on, Carrie, Erika and PJ showed up and we continued to prepare for the upcoming nuptials.

I can't believe what good looking friends I have. Sometimes I feel like I don't fit in and dont belong, at least in a traditional way, or something. It's really weird. Maybe I just don't see people the way other people see them. I don't know.

The wedding was short and sweet and beautiful. At the reception, I danced until my shoes and girdle came off and tore up the dance floor. I couldn't imagine having a funner time. I don't know if it was the constant stream of champagne running through my veins or the pure awesomeness radiating off of the people I was there with, but table 5 a.k.a. the corner table, was the most kick-ass table at the party. We ordered a round of shots from our waitress and kept the party going on the dance floor more than any other table. Lets just say, if the tables at the wedding had to team up and capture a flag, break a red rover chain, or have a color-war, table 5 would have kicked all the other team's asses.

I love my life.

24 Hour Date

After running errands for approximately 8 hours yesterday I met up with Blair to watch Gattaca. He cooked me a delicious dinner and we spent a lovely evening eating waffles on his balcony and watching movies. I proposed that we go to Coney Island today, and he said he was thinking we should do the same thing. Needless to say, when we woke up this morning, we hopped on the F train and got to the beach. It was sunny with the perfect whisper of a breeze. We lounged on the sand and read books, while children lost their parents, people flew kites, tripped over garbage cans, played catch and teasingly danced against the frigid waves. After getting a nice sun burn on the backs of our legs, we walked around and got some pizza, went on the wonder wheel, and got pistachio ice cream. We went for a walk and then found ourselves sprawled out on the sand again, reading. I wont bore you with my increasingly awesome times with him. However, I must say that he keeps me laughing, thinking and smiling. After the backs of our legs were bright enough to provide light to a distant planet we hopped on the train home. Blair kept making fun of all the freaks around us and I kept being oblivious, but catching on after the fact and giggling. We got back to his apt just in time for the clouds to roll in. Then he made me dinner AGAIN and I had to leave. Part of me just wants to hop on a plane with Blair and go somewhere exotic or not, where we can explore and hang out continuously for days...weeks...months... But as all of my girly how-to-get-a-guy handbooks say, it isnt that simple and I have to keep busy and use a formidable amount of forbearance to get what I want. Not that I actually have the time or resources to go on a crazy vaca with him at this stage in my life. Anyway, I am babbling. I am a happy Nico.