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| i escaped from the desert!okay it wasn't really the desert, it was the lower east side. but it felt like the desert because i just kept walking and walking and it was only public housing for as far as the eye could see. what's a stupid little bridge and tunnel connecticut girl to do?!? how could i find my way out if there was no grid to guide me? i mean, seriously, it didn't seem like anyone i passed on the street even spoke english! why, why did i have this bright idea to go see the waterfalls on the east river?!? granted they are way better than those stupid orange banners they put in central park that one year, but still was this really worth it?!?
wait.
those of you who actually know me know i'm not a pretentious little twit. actually, the reason i didn't ask anyone for directions was because i was afraid they'd expect me to speak spanish. those of you who know me know i have a huge pet peeve about people assuming i can speak spanish when i can't. grumph.
and let's face it, it felt like the desert because it was a million bazillion degrees yesterday and the concrete was emitting heat additional to that beating down from the sun so it was NOT a good time to get lost. was it wrong that all i wanted on the island of manhattan was a freaking starbucks and i was in the only starbucks dead zone in the city?!? (okay i don't know if that's really true, i'm sure there are other dead zones, but it was just freaky because i've never been in one before)
and for the record i tried to use my phone to figure out where i was and what direction the streets were oriented but google maps was not cooperating and i was worried that if i kept using the internets on my phone, my last bar would be used up and then i wouldn't be able to get in touch with the friend i was supposed to meet up with. who would have guessed that it would take me over an hour to find my way out and get uptown?
so i did the only thing left. i just kept walking and hoped i would run into something familiar sounding. 2 miles later, i finally found a subway stop. BUT, then it took me like 4 trains to get where i needed to go because apparently the V doesn't run on weekends and you can't transfer from the F to 6 uptown at Broadway-Lafayette, only to the 6 downtown. what's up with that?!? jerks.
by the time i found my friend at a starbucks in midtown i was completely frazzled. luckily he was in no rush to get to p.s.1 so we got me back to baseline in the comfort of corporate a/c. we did end up going to p.s.1 for a bit which was actually pretty cool. great people watching!!! there was plenty of shade by the time we got there and there was what sounded like a decent electronic music d.j. spinning. music to my ears! another pet peeve of mine is the extreme lack of good d.j.'s in new haven (any and all types of music). urgh, it's really horrendous really, to the point where i just gave up on going out dancing. so yeah, good job mr. d.j. and to the random mellow 3 chicks that came on after. also the museum was still showing a few of the olafur eliasson pieces from the earlier larger exhibit so that was nice. all in all a good afternoon.
in fact, despite getting lost in the desert, it was all in all a good day. the morning was spent going to various places with my friend who is looking for a wedding dress. great girl time bonding! i love girly crap like that like looking through wedding dresses. we also had a really delicious lunch at this random place called burger joint which is this hole in the wall sketchy looking place which somehow is in a really really nice hotel. we couldn't figure out what came first, the hotel or the burger joint? and how do people find this place since there are no signs? the line was intense! and with good reason, i have to say, that was an excellent burger. way better than the ones i rave about to people in new haven. my favorite place in new haven (prime 16) has been going down lately because their bread is no good. i still love their beer and their meat, but man, with no good bread, it kind of ruins it. burger joint on the other hand, had excellent bread. nice and toasty. simple and delicious.
skip forward again. after p.s.1 we came back to manhattan and had yummy japanese bbq at this place called gyu-kaku where we ate more yummy meat (and yummy tofu, and yummy green tea ice cream). rock on.
caught the 11:30 train and got home by 1:30. too bad it was a million bazillion degrees in my apartment. so i stayed up another hour waiting for the a/c to freaking do something already (who am i kidding, i was also up because i forgot that dr. horrible was about to not be free and i hadn't watched it yet! so i did.) and then called it a night.
today was good too. injected some mice and got most of my last errands in preparation for germany. 1 week left!!!
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| right field: not an invisible outfield position after all!so in the quest to do things i'm not good at in order to:
1. be comfortable with the idea of imperfection
2. learn how to learn and not interpret learning as failure,
i've been playing softball with my department's im softball team (mostly because they need 4 girls on the field at all times so "awful girl" is better than "no girl." the captain continues to be extremely supportive of the fact that, unlike most hearty american youths, i never played softball, baseball, or any kind of little league. i said, "i can play catcher because that seems to be the position in which i cause the least damage." she said, "whatever, it's not like we're not making playoffs, play whatever position you want!" so i chose the position of next least damage: right field. ie. the part of the outfield where the ball is never hit so i can just stand there and be "part of the team" without actually doing anything (read: without costing us runs).
however, those genius med students that we were playing (*shudder* oh how i dislike most med students!), somehow managed to hit it to right field. i couldn't believe it! i was totally spaced out and by the time i realized the ball was coming straight towards me, the right center fielder figured out that i was spacing out (oops!) and caught up to it. doh!
the rest of the game i managed to stay alert and for the most part, stopped the ball before it could do any real damage. not to say that they didn't score a home run and a triple off my sad excuse for fielding, but whatever. i could have (and have) done a lot worse. i'm sure i've gotten better after playing a few games and going to practice. i'm actually having fun and will totally play again if people organize it! who knows, maybe next year (or next game we have one game left!) i'll actually learn how to catch the ball. whahaha.
and i admit it. playing as part of a team makes me happier than sitting on the couch in my studio alone.
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| stimulating the economyit was a big spending day...
gas $50
backpack for my trip $90
new digital camera (it's pink!) $200 (with case, memory card, and "dropped it in the toilet, oops" insurance)
other assorted items $25
that with my car's property tax more than uses up my stimulus check. bummer. hope the lovely state of ct enjoys my sales tax and uses it to keep the highways nice and spiffy!
now... if only the city of new haven would go ahead and fix the potholes on my neighborhood streets...
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| nice people rule.after inhaling, well, as of tonight, much of the spinach dip i made for my friend's 4th of july cookout, i decided not going to ultimate this morning was not an option... even though the sky was ominous. there were a decent amount of mud puddle lakes on the "field" but i made it out alive. my old sneakers... not so lucky. i think they may be due for a replacement/i also need to buy cleats. anyway, normally when i go to these ultimate pickup games it's all scary (though dorky) guys and also scary girls. when i say scary, i mean, really good and intimidating. i'm pretty sure most of them have been playing for years whereas i have only been playing since spring (and "playing" should be in quotes since our IM team did not know what we were doing). as a pleasant surprise, today when we were deciding how to divide up teams and i declared, "i'm really inexperienced if that makes a difference," the girls instantly offered to help coach me whichever of them would be guarding me. it was so great! they were way nicer than the usual scary girls! so yay for them. yay for nice people. i definitely learned some new cutting skills today. rock on.
i admit it: i used to be the meanest of mean people. i would not be accepting of people who were anything less than competent. okay who am i kidding, i'm still kind of intolerant of incompetent people (especially bad drivers, and people who are not good at their jobs, especially when it results in causing me a delay). however, as i delve into the realm of "trying new things that i am not good at," slowly but surely, i hope i will become more tolerant... of other people, and of myself.
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| not a whole lot going on... countdown to germany just over 3 weeks!i realized it's been almost two weeks since my last post, oops! well, that's because not a whole lot of anything has been going on. i realized many/most of my recent posts have been about the drama in my previous apartment and well, that just doesn't exist anymore. my current apartment is up to 80% livability! yes, still not 100% (and therefore not ready for a housewarming), but damn livable. cozy in fact. i kind of love my little nest.
i went to the shrink yesterday and really didn't have that much to say. everything is just kind of rolling along. nothing causing me to be stressed. maybe part of that is that i've done one (one?) experiment in the last month. oops. way to be a not efficient grad student, becky. the results are, well, underwhelming, but the advisor thinks it is not a failure. what he did say is that now that i've done this one i now get to do a bigger, badder one. ...great... more work for me. hopefully my tech won't get stolen this time so i will be able to cruise.
maybe i can talk about how excited i am about my trip?!? less than 4 weeks to go!!! the plan is as follows:
1 week in berlin (staying with my friends who are getting married)
6 nights in munich (alone, hopefully i'll make friends at the hostel in the room with 14 beds! good lord that's a lot of beds!)
5 nights in zurich (alone, but with a shared room, we'll see what happens)
2 nights in german wine country (back with friends who are also going to the wedding which is the real reason i'm going to germany in the first place)
tips anyone? it's my first time in europe! i'm hoping to bring like 4 sundresses, flip flops, heels, sneakers and some hiking clothes and just do laundry every so often. is that crazy? i just don't want to bring a lot with me. i also need to buy a new camera and a medium sized backpack for the trip, again, any recommendations?
i'm really scared of feeling lonely for the 2 weeks that i don't have travel companions, but we'll see what happens. hopefully i'll be blogging along the way.
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