tomorrow marks the end of our second week of full-time scheduling, class from 9am to 3:30pm and teaching framework sessions from 4pm-6:30pm. by the end of the day, my classmates and i look as if our brains have been removed from our heads, stuck in a blender and then funneled back into our heads through our ears.
part of the reason why school is so exhausting is that we're overing an insane amount of material in our geology class-- we did volcanoes, tectonics, dinosaurs, geological history of NYC, and geological history of the world in just the last two days. tomorrow we are going to work in central park for three hours in the morning, looking at rock formations and talking more about the bedrock and geological history of new york. i have yet to go to central park and look forward to seeing a little green. also working at the farmer's market tomorrow, taking full advantage of my free afternoon.
this weekend marks NYC pride, which should be fun. i don't really know what is going on, but i'm sure that i know people who do and can tag along. i plan on going with jac, for whom this will be a first pride ever. i will miss being in the rugby clan in seattle, but look forward to watching the parade instead of participating, for once.
have a happy weekend.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
the birds and the bees
I spent last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday hanging out with the bees at the farmer's market. Andrew, the beekeeper and honey dude, was in Lithuania (talking to Lithuanian bees) all week and asked me if I'd open the City Hall market on Friday. While it sounds like not a hard thing to do, this is what it entailed:
*took the train from Grand Central to Norwalk, Connecticut late Thursday night to stay at his house there
*woke up at 4am to load the van and then drive into NYC to open the market
*worked from 6am-6pm Friday, closed everything down, and then drove back to CT
*ate pizza Friday night at a restaurant near his house, one of four pizza places on the same block-- was the closest thing to Mr. Jim's pizza I've had in a long time (big shout out to Fort Worth!), which was nice
*came back to NYC Saturday morning on the train
though it was a lot of backing-and-forthing, as Justin would say, it was a good time. I felt all responsible. And I got to drive in NYC, which I have to say was super frustrating. people here are nuts if they drive regularly.
being in CT was very relaxing. though i have yet to have one of those moments where i've just felt totally overwhelmed by the city, i immediately noticed the sense of peace and quiet that i felt once i was out of town. i plan on asking andrew if i can be a couch surfer this fall when i need to get away-- its a 40 minute train ride to peace and quiet.
he told me before i went that there was food in the fridge and i was welcome to help myself to whatever was there. it became evident once i was there, however, that to a bachelor, food in the fridge = lots of condiments. i made a meal out of some leftover black beans and some honey yogurt. awesome.
the second part of this update has to do with my romantic interests, so uninterested parties can stop reading here, if they choose. don't say i didn't warn you, there might be gross gushing and cooing involved.
last wednesday i went out to a place in brooklyn called hank's saloon, where they have live band karaoke every week. you heard it right, live band. as in you get to lead a rock band for your 3.5 minutes of fame, onstage in front of everyone. total dream.i sang a few songs, including "just what i needed" by the cars, and "celebrity skin" by hole, at which point the guitar player asked if i'd ever actually been in a band before. i told him yes, but really only as a drummer, at which point the drummer offered me his sticks and took a beer break. heaven! i rocked out to nirvana and green day (hello, 1994) and had one heck of a time. a classmate of mine, jac, came out with her two roommates (also fellows) and we all had a blast. things ended with a rather unexpected bathroom meeting in which i learned that she is a) not straight and b) has a crush on me.
:)
we've been out a couple of times since then and it is fantastic. not only do we have lots of similar pursuits (we're both earth science), we also have a really fun time together. i took her to hang out last night at monday night bocce ball at union hall, where she got to meet shelley, my future roommate in town for a few days, aneal, and a few others. it was great. she's great. everything is just great.
last week was my one-monthiversary of coming here to NYC and i have to say that i am in a much, much better place than i'd expected. every day i have some moment where i am proud of myself for making a space to live in this city of millions.
wherever you are, i hope that you feel like you have a place, too.
*took the train from Grand Central to Norwalk, Connecticut late Thursday night to stay at his house there
*woke up at 4am to load the van and then drive into NYC to open the market
*worked from 6am-6pm Friday, closed everything down, and then drove back to CT
*ate pizza Friday night at a restaurant near his house, one of four pizza places on the same block-- was the closest thing to Mr. Jim's pizza I've had in a long time (big shout out to Fort Worth!), which was nice
*came back to NYC Saturday morning on the train
though it was a lot of backing-and-forthing, as Justin would say, it was a good time. I felt all responsible. And I got to drive in NYC, which I have to say was super frustrating. people here are nuts if they drive regularly.
being in CT was very relaxing. though i have yet to have one of those moments where i've just felt totally overwhelmed by the city, i immediately noticed the sense of peace and quiet that i felt once i was out of town. i plan on asking andrew if i can be a couch surfer this fall when i need to get away-- its a 40 minute train ride to peace and quiet.
he told me before i went that there was food in the fridge and i was welcome to help myself to whatever was there. it became evident once i was there, however, that to a bachelor, food in the fridge = lots of condiments. i made a meal out of some leftover black beans and some honey yogurt. awesome.
the second part of this update has to do with my romantic interests, so uninterested parties can stop reading here, if they choose. don't say i didn't warn you, there might be gross gushing and cooing involved.
last wednesday i went out to a place in brooklyn called hank's saloon, where they have live band karaoke every week. you heard it right, live band. as in you get to lead a rock band for your 3.5 minutes of fame, onstage in front of everyone. total dream.i sang a few songs, including "just what i needed" by the cars, and "celebrity skin" by hole, at which point the guitar player asked if i'd ever actually been in a band before. i told him yes, but really only as a drummer, at which point the drummer offered me his sticks and took a beer break. heaven! i rocked out to nirvana and green day (hello, 1994) and had one heck of a time. a classmate of mine, jac, came out with her two roommates (also fellows) and we all had a blast. things ended with a rather unexpected bathroom meeting in which i learned that she is a) not straight and b) has a crush on me.
:)
we've been out a couple of times since then and it is fantastic. not only do we have lots of similar pursuits (we're both earth science), we also have a really fun time together. i took her to hang out last night at monday night bocce ball at union hall, where she got to meet shelley, my future roommate in town for a few days, aneal, and a few others. it was great. she's great. everything is just great.
last week was my one-monthiversary of coming here to NYC and i have to say that i am in a much, much better place than i'd expected. every day i have some moment where i am proud of myself for making a space to live in this city of millions.
wherever you are, i hope that you feel like you have a place, too.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
the chemistry of love?
today was our first day of real class, not immersion stuff. we're in intro to geology, which means we started today with introduction to chemistry. chemistry is what i get. chemistry was always my favorite science, and frankly i am surprised that i was not assigned to chemistry as a fellow. the first part of the day i felt like a rock star, remembering all the specifics about s-p-d-f energy levels, stuff like that.
during our review, it started to become evident to me that there are things in chemistry that very much resemble relationships-- specifically lesbian relationships, but definitely holds true for other folks as well.
when we discussed chemical bonds and their relative strengths, i began making the connections. the long-term relationship lesbians, the serial monogamists, the u-haulers who hunker down as if the world is a combat zone and their love is a foxhole-- those are the covalent bonds. they are formed when properties, or dogs, are shared and can be very hard to break. their relative size once bonded also shrinks due to the inward pull of the combined charges, which any of us who have ever been to Relationship Island can vouch for.
then there are the ionic bonds-- these ladies are the ones who get together because they want something from each other, whether it is a rebound relationship, regular access to a ride, or just because they think the other person is cute. these bonds form much more loosely than their covalent counterparts and take only the slightest amount of effort to break. when exposed to a little heat or water (read: summer, alcohol), these molecules bust, joining readily with any neighboring and complimentary charged atom. the funny thing about these ionic bonds is that they are so easily formed that if the bonds are broken, but the system (read: bar) is saturated (read: dead, or everyone is hooked up), the bonds can re-form until the system is heated again. spring and summer in seattle is the best proof that i think i have ever seen which tells me that this law is true.
then there are the metallic bonds-- multiple atoms of the same element chain together in a way that allows them to conduct heat and electricity through each other without actually having to form new molecules. i believe the other term for this phenomena is lesbian friends.
lastly we have the Van Der Waal's bonds-- these are the kind that i have been experiencing most recently, the weak attraction resulting from a completely random and quickly fluctuating arrangement of electrons around a nucleus. situational girlfriend might be another term for it, but i believe there is a formula to express this bond, this attraction, where the strength of the attraction (A) is inversely proportional to the distance (D) from the other person, comme ca:
A= 1/D
everyone with me?
it also occurred to me that lesbians are kind of like elements in their classification column in the periodic table of life. the halogens, the ultra-reactive, dominating, steal-electrons-from-other-elements substances? tops, obvi. the alkali metals, the ones so close to being complete that they freely, and easily give up their lone outer electron? bottoms, you guessed it. i think that i classify myself more in the metalloid category-- metalloids are also often semi-conductors either freely taking from or giving up to another element depending on what that other element is and how it behaves.
it all makes sense.
there will be a quiz on monday, class dismissed.
during our review, it started to become evident to me that there are things in chemistry that very much resemble relationships-- specifically lesbian relationships, but definitely holds true for other folks as well.
when we discussed chemical bonds and their relative strengths, i began making the connections. the long-term relationship lesbians, the serial monogamists, the u-haulers who hunker down as if the world is a combat zone and their love is a foxhole-- those are the covalent bonds. they are formed when properties, or dogs, are shared and can be very hard to break. their relative size once bonded also shrinks due to the inward pull of the combined charges, which any of us who have ever been to Relationship Island can vouch for.
then there are the ionic bonds-- these ladies are the ones who get together because they want something from each other, whether it is a rebound relationship, regular access to a ride, or just because they think the other person is cute. these bonds form much more loosely than their covalent counterparts and take only the slightest amount of effort to break. when exposed to a little heat or water (read: summer, alcohol), these molecules bust, joining readily with any neighboring and complimentary charged atom. the funny thing about these ionic bonds is that they are so easily formed that if the bonds are broken, but the system (read: bar) is saturated (read: dead, or everyone is hooked up), the bonds can re-form until the system is heated again. spring and summer in seattle is the best proof that i think i have ever seen which tells me that this law is true.
then there are the metallic bonds-- multiple atoms of the same element chain together in a way that allows them to conduct heat and electricity through each other without actually having to form new molecules. i believe the other term for this phenomena is lesbian friends.
lastly we have the Van Der Waal's bonds-- these are the kind that i have been experiencing most recently, the weak attraction resulting from a completely random and quickly fluctuating arrangement of electrons around a nucleus. situational girlfriend might be another term for it, but i believe there is a formula to express this bond, this attraction, where the strength of the attraction (A) is inversely proportional to the distance (D) from the other person, comme ca:
A= 1/D
everyone with me?
it also occurred to me that lesbians are kind of like elements in their classification column in the periodic table of life. the halogens, the ultra-reactive, dominating, steal-electrons-from-other-elements substances? tops, obvi. the alkali metals, the ones so close to being complete that they freely, and easily give up their lone outer electron? bottoms, you guessed it. i think that i classify myself more in the metalloid category-- metalloids are also often semi-conductors either freely taking from or giving up to another element depending on what that other element is and how it behaves.
it all makes sense.
there will be a quiz on monday, class dismissed.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Always a Breaker, now a Lion
Before I even moved here to NYC I did some research on the rugby scene here and checked out my options. There is a Div 1 team here, the NY Women's side, but they are way good and way intense about practices, training sessions, etc. While I have no doubt that I would have a good time, I don't anticipate being able to commit a whole lot of time to rugby, especially in fall when 15s start. The team I was most excited to check out was the Village Lions. They practice on the Lower East Side (heretofore known as the LES), which is not super close to me, but not too hard to get to. They just started their 7s season for the summer, so I decided to come out to training this week.
I'm not sure how I feel about 7s as a version of rugby (thank god the games are only 15-20 minutes, otherwise I might die), but the ladies are really great and we co-practice with the men as well. Coming from a team like Seattle where we have little interaction with the men, its nice to see a team that has a good relationship with them. One of them even got me drunk on Thursday after practice (thanks Steve!)
7s involves a totally different set of skills than 15s does, and as the coach said Thursday, we all have to re-learn our bad habits for 7s. Want to run sideways, rather than forward, to take up time? Go ahead! Basketball pass the ball over your head to someone across the field? Why not? When we're playing touch with the men, it looks more like a crazy game of hot potato than rugby. I hope that this week we'll do some tackling so that I can feel slightly normal again.
So far I've gone to the bar post-practice Tuesday and Thursday (closed the bar on Thursday and ended up wandering Manhattan, didn't get home until 4:30am!) and we went to go watch the US men's select XV play against England select XV last night. Today there is some sort of bbq going on and then I'm going to a Lesbian Frat Boy party hosted by Aneal. Its been since Molly's birthday that I've played flip cup and I'm starting to go through withdrawals. Just wish Alison, Jo, Sarah, or Lauren were here to be my Beirut partners. Oh well, guess I'll just have to stick to what I'm good at- shot-guns!
Hope you're having a great day. Its 92 degrees here and I'm melting.
I'm not sure how I feel about 7s as a version of rugby (thank god the games are only 15-20 minutes, otherwise I might die), but the ladies are really great and we co-practice with the men as well. Coming from a team like Seattle where we have little interaction with the men, its nice to see a team that has a good relationship with them. One of them even got me drunk on Thursday after practice (thanks Steve!)
7s involves a totally different set of skills than 15s does, and as the coach said Thursday, we all have to re-learn our bad habits for 7s. Want to run sideways, rather than forward, to take up time? Go ahead! Basketball pass the ball over your head to someone across the field? Why not? When we're playing touch with the men, it looks more like a crazy game of hot potato than rugby. I hope that this week we'll do some tackling so that I can feel slightly normal again.
So far I've gone to the bar post-practice Tuesday and Thursday (closed the bar on Thursday and ended up wandering Manhattan, didn't get home until 4:30am!) and we went to go watch the US men's select XV play against England select XV last night. Today there is some sort of bbq going on and then I'm going to a Lesbian Frat Boy party hosted by Aneal. Its been since Molly's birthday that I've played flip cup and I'm starting to go through withdrawals. Just wish Alison, Jo, Sarah, or Lauren were here to be my Beirut partners. Oh well, guess I'll just have to stick to what I'm good at- shot-guns!
Hope you're having a great day. Its 92 degrees here and I'm melting.
joys of college, part 2
so i was a little mistaken in understanding what the advisor told me on wednesday. i don't have to take 45 science credits, i need 45 total for the degree- 36 as required by the state and 9 credits worth of earth science prerequisites.
not so bad after all, and most of my class mates have to take 42-45 credits as well. we're already planning our end-of-summer party at jo's soon-to-be beach apartment on long beach, long island. i don't envy her commute, but beaches are dreamy, even around here.
one of the other great things about college in new york? random obscure jewish holidays off! i don't have school monday or tuesday this week. woot woot!
not so bad after all, and most of my class mates have to take 42-45 credits as well. we're already planning our end-of-summer party at jo's soon-to-be beach apartment on long beach, long island. i don't envy her commute, but beaches are dreamy, even around here.
one of the other great things about college in new york? random obscure jewish holidays off! i don't have school monday or tuesday this week. woot woot!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
oh the joys of college
so classes in the immersion program are going well. the days are long, 10am-4:30pm, but the content is nice. aced my first quiz today, no doubt.
met with my advisor today and found out that in order to meet the state's earth science masters degree requirements, i have to take 45 (!) science credits. that's 15 classes, folks, on top of my education classes. oye.
the reason this happened is because, though i have science undergrad classes, they were not in any concentrated subject area. thus, i have a handful of credits that apply toward the general requirements, but none toward my content.
good news is that some of the classes sound relatively cool, but i'm looking at two falls, two springs, and three summers. *sigh*
met with my advisor today and found out that in order to meet the state's earth science masters degree requirements, i have to take 45 (!) science credits. that's 15 classes, folks, on top of my education classes. oye.
the reason this happened is because, though i have science undergrad classes, they were not in any concentrated subject area. thus, i have a handful of credits that apply toward the general requirements, but none toward my content.
good news is that some of the classes sound relatively cool, but i'm looking at two falls, two springs, and three summers. *sigh*
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Life in general, updates...
Yesterday I took the LAST, the Liberal Arts and Sciences Test, which is required for all teachers in NY. The overachiever in me made me borrow a test prep book from Meredith, but after completing two practice tests and missing only three questions out of 80, I realized I was overreacting a little.
Is it weird that I kind of enjoy taking tests? I'm sure it is.
Anyway, the testing site was this high school in Far Rockaway (yes, like Rockaway from the the song "Lean Back") and was in the projects. It was my first exposure to high-rise project housing and total urban decay and despair. Scary. Once I got to the school, I immediately found like the one other homo there and we exchanged glances but didn't talk.
The test was easy and I was the first one done in my testing room, then I immediately hopped back on the train and made the three connections back to my house.
I ended up going to the Cattyshack and was approached by none other than the girl from the test-- Sarah. She's friends with rugby girls, she's a teacher, she's way cool and she has a girlfriend. She would make a great buddy though and I look forward to hanging out with her more.
Today I had my first full shift at the farmer's market and was slightly hungover for the train ride into Manhattan, but it was great. The people at the farmer's market were really cool nice. Andrew is a little bit to deal with sometimes, as he's quite neurotic, but he charms the bees and the customers. We worked well together and he left for a significant part of the day and I was running the show. It was pretty seamless and we sold a lot of honey.
I had the pleasure of meeting and selling honey to two different people today:
Piper Perabo
and Sam Rockwell! 
Piper was very nice and cute and has a new short haircut.
Sam was very nice and we talked about Matchstick Men a bunch, then he bought some honey and some bee pollen, for his seasonal allergies.
Then I took the money I made today and bought myself a vegan sandwich, as I haven't had money for any significant meal for a week. It was lovely. Good day.
Tomorrow is my first day of school/training. I know nothing except I need to be there at 9am with a notebook and a pen. Updates will follow once I know what the hell is going on.
Is it weird that I kind of enjoy taking tests? I'm sure it is.
Anyway, the testing site was this high school in Far Rockaway (yes, like Rockaway from the the song "Lean Back") and was in the projects. It was my first exposure to high-rise project housing and total urban decay and despair. Scary. Once I got to the school, I immediately found like the one other homo there and we exchanged glances but didn't talk.
The test was easy and I was the first one done in my testing room, then I immediately hopped back on the train and made the three connections back to my house.
I ended up going to the Cattyshack and was approached by none other than the girl from the test-- Sarah. She's friends with rugby girls, she's a teacher, she's way cool and she has a girlfriend. She would make a great buddy though and I look forward to hanging out with her more.
Today I had my first full shift at the farmer's market and was slightly hungover for the train ride into Manhattan, but it was great. The people at the farmer's market were really cool nice. Andrew is a little bit to deal with sometimes, as he's quite neurotic, but he charms the bees and the customers. We worked well together and he left for a significant part of the day and I was running the show. It was pretty seamless and we sold a lot of honey.
I had the pleasure of meeting and selling honey to two different people today:
Piper Perabo
and Sam Rockwell! Piper was very nice and cute and has a new short haircut.
Sam was very nice and we talked about Matchstick Men a bunch, then he bought some honey and some bee pollen, for his seasonal allergies.
Then I took the money I made today and bought myself a vegan sandwich, as I haven't had money for any significant meal for a week. It was lovely. Good day.
Tomorrow is my first day of school/training. I know nothing except I need to be there at 9am with a notebook and a pen. Updates will follow once I know what the hell is going on.
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