E V E R Y B O D Y ' S W O R K I N F O R T H E W E E K E N D

Working ON the weekend. I can't believe I'm writing this blog entry in procrastination while in my UWS office on a SUNDAY AFTERNOON.

Work SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS. Was the week from HELL HELL HELL. I don't want to be here. I don't want to do anything. But I know this is the only way to prevent another completely overwhelming week, and I PROMISED a co-worker I would have something done Monday morning. Too bad the Jitney buses don't run until 5 AM. I can't work right now, but I know an extra hur in the morning tomorrow won't be enough time. What's a mother to do?


VOMITY VOMIT VOMIT VOMIT.

I'm gonna go watch the Sex in The City Movie a few blocks away at either 6:00 or 7:00 regardless of what gets done here.

eh

it's been forever and a day. and i'm checking in after quite an eventful set of weeks... a vacation back to Cali, an amazing Robyn concert at Hammerstein, a wedding shower for Joy... but... eh.


The summer looks to be jam packed and full of obligation. 2 weddings to attend in the next few weeks, a bachelorette party to throw, many a concert to attend (fun!) and lastly a MOVE to make (preceeded by FINDING a new apt.) It's a tad overwhelming.

work is truly a test of my will to cope with condescension. My primary professional aspiration to date is to be treated like I have a brain cell or 2 (or 12.) I just got teamed up with a recently hired project manager to work on 2 more upper west side midrise buildings (a park avenue high rise project I was working on for several months was discontinued due to the property owner's lack of funds.) Anyway, said new project manager feels that it's necessary to explain every dumb detail of our day-to-day operations to me about a dozen times an hour. I don't think it has occurred to him that I've been working for the company for over a year, and have a little understanding of how things go (while he's been with us for a whopping 3 weeks.) It remains to be seen if he'll go the way of so many before him, and be let go within 3 months.

It also still cracks me up that people I work with believe every day is my first venture into the real world, like "Welcome to the industry!" I've been working "in the industry" since I was 15 - If my count is right, I'm on job #6 for either an Architect or Developer, so please stop looking at me like I'm this wide-eyed 5 year old girl.

heh.

I won't even start in on friends and my significant other, since my favorite line is now "there are no victims, only volunteers." That said, I've put distance between myself and Tony, cuz I can't handle the mess anymore. Easier said than done with a live-in boyfriend. Hopefully moving can put a final rest to things. I believe I am truly ready to move-on.

So, in the slightest chance that anyone in the known universe happens to pop in here - that's my update. :) Happy Spring!!!

W O W

This past week:

The 4th was fun - celebrated my sister's 30th birthday with a concert of Stars & Stripes, etc. at Lincoln Center, and then watched fireworks wth friends at the Statue of Liberty. I don't now that you can get more patriotic than that.

The weekend was better. Caught up with Dave Fab and his roommates and got amazingly buzzed at Star Bar Friday night, followed by a Saturday morning trek with Dan to west jers to have breakfast with Kellei and hack off all my hair (I look good,) followed by a jaunt out to Brooklyn on another beautiful night to get sushi, drinks, and attend an indie rock show at Glasslands art space with Kim, followed by a nice close to the night at home with Lamicious. hah. Today was boring, but what more can I ask for?

And here's some imagery! Enjoy










Coachella

a l i v e a n d W E L L

yeah, seriously. I'm still here. on the planet. doing fine. doing great. been at the new gig going on 4 months now - working on 2 mid-rise residential renovations on the Upper West Side. The day to day business is crazy and busy as has been the case in all my positions (and as is always the case in this industry,) but the people I work with are cool, and honest, and upfront. They're openly appreciative of the work I'm doing which is, in itself, a major step up for me, so I don't so much mind the ongoing issues of the building process. Provided I get back to some regualr updates on this site, I'll go into further detail...

what else...

i put a reservation fee in on a loft condominium in Jersey City at Canco Lofts that is absolutely gorgeous and pretty much my dream living space. (google it for yourself. I'm too lazy to link it.) I still need to put in mortgage applications for contract talks in August, but deep down I'm pretty sure that my credit is not good enough to get me the monthly payment I can afford, which will pretty much thwart my big dreams. But... here's to wishful thinking!

have a bit of a renewed social scene in the city. A friend from L.A. moved out here a couple months ago, so have been enjoying doing things all over the city with a new partner in crime. I've also gotten friendly with some of the younger people who work administration for my company so also have doings with them, and shockingly enough, I ended the mentoring year a little closer with some of my co-mentors, so meet some of them out once in a while. Oddly enough, and despite finally having an occupational base in Manhattan, I find my energy to hang out several nights a week greatly diminished. There is clearly a difference between the me at 24 and the me at 27.

The boys are fine. All of them. I don't see much of Tony and Corey -- Corey got divorced and is in upstate new york trying to re-establish himself, only coming down to jersey/new york for an occassional bjork concert or what have you. Tony has a new significant other who he is all-consumed by, and we're all fine leaving him to his own devices in the world, so it's been a few months since I've seen him. Me and Dan still have playdates every week. Right now, the big thing is riding our bikes to each others' houses and going out for ice-cream (and i'm sure you think I'm kidding.) We also did a beach weekend along with an old mutual friend, Aval, a couple weeks ago. Lamont is still in the picture, somehow, someway... He's gotten me several pieces of electronics equipment since last I wrote, which are probably more for himself. A kid at his school calls him "Cookie Man," (who may or may not be of any relation to "Waffle Woman.") And despite whatever fronts I will forever throw around me regarding him, it's still funny when he accidentally rolls off the bed... so, I guess I sort of like him. hah

what else still...

oh, had an amazing (but too short of a) trip back to Cali for Coachella and to see my friends. I have pictures galore, which as always, I will swear I'll someday post. (I mean it this time. I will!!!!)

I'm back into Tae Kwon Do again... practicing twice a week in South Orange in hopes of getting by 2nd degree black belt sometime before 2010. There's actually a test tomorrow followed by bbq t Steve's house. It could either suck or be fun.

uh.... uh...

I'm sure I'll think of more later. all is GOOD

h o w t o s a v e a l i f e

sorry so absent. I have a new job! in Manhattan! upper west side BITCH!!!!

and ofcourse, much more doins on. all things on the up and up.

tales to tell. pics to share

but now it's all so busy...

& he got me (himself) a flat screen tv!!! hahahah...

in the words of the wise one, miss mary j.... "live your life cuz life is love... "

l i f e i s w h a t h a p p e n s . . . .

before i proceed, and just to state the obvious - i've gone back to basic black. those pesky dots were driving me crazy. too retro for my blood. for those who were unaware, i am a minimalist at heart.

also, please note this post was written a couple weeks ago but I somehow forget to put "post" and it ended up in the "draft" portion of my blog... so here you go, my life 2 weeks in the making (new post regarding valentine's and everything after to follow evenetually.)

*************************************************************************************

this entry's title quotes the cliche "life is what happens when you stop paying attention..." or when you stop trying, or when you stop caring, or something to that effect. People have been concerned about my state of happiness and well-being, but things happen to remind me what life is really all about regardless of occupational or financial status, and I'm fine.

to recap:

Headed up to Albany with Dan on Saturday afternoon as planned. THANK GOD I went. Had an amazing time... I had never been to the NY state capital aside from driving through on my way further north or on college visitation (looked at Rensellear back in the day.) Upon exiting the highway / entering downtown I was blown away by the 4 monolithic buildings that stood authoritatively at the city's center, with "The Egg" arena located amongst them. Obviously the buildings are governmental, and I was later informed they were designed by the same architects who did the World Trade Towers. (same striated exterior. Same idea of building grouping.) I'll Go digging for pics online... meanwhile will stop the architecture geek ranting.

Continued loving the city in our drive further thru, as well. Old brownstones converted into multi-family dwellings. Numerous park spaces. Main boulevards bustling with commerce, bars, restaurants, activity... The gothic state capital building with it's spansive steps. We made our way to Madison Ave. alongside one a major downtown park where Tony's friend Krissy lives. She has a BANGIN 4 room apt. in an as-mentioned old brownstone. (Guess how much she pays for a place double the size of mine in one of Albany's prime locations? $750. Let's all move there!) Her apt. had such a "home" feel: stained oak trim around every doorway, a fireplace, comfortably furnished.

When we arrived, Tony, Brian, Tommy, Phil, 2 girls whose names I forget and Krissy were all prepartying. Quick introductions - everyone was cool and welcoming. We joked how it was nice to finally meet the "in-laws." Tony has been telling tales of his "family" upstate ever since I moved back from L.A.. I can't believe it took so long for us to ever intermingle. They were all down-to earth and great. Got to catch up with Brian, who stopped paying visits to Jersey a couple years ago - he recently lost his mom to cancer and was noticeably a changed man.

In our efforts to catch up - Dan and I went to the liquor store around the corner. Dan made his usual Saturday night purchase cheap-ass champagne and I reverted back my late-90's homegirl ways picking up (2) 40 bottles of O.E. (one for me, one for T.T.) On with prepartying back in the apt - we blasted Mary J's "My Life" album with a Dan, Krissy and I sing along, most notably with Dan doing the worm on the floor. haha...

Drinking, smoking, talking, joking.... we eventually piled into cars and made it to a nearby spot which I can't remember the name of. Bar downstairs, dance club upstairs - Krissy, and Tony recognized friends. 2 skeevy puerto-rican brothers from Schenectady hit on me and Krissy repeatedly. We drank more, danced, chilled on the outdoor roofdeck (yes, in the sub-zero cold.) The place stayed open til 4, which was impressive, considering we were out of NYC. Dan, Tony and I made a Pizza run then back to Krissy's... Blew up a team of air matresses until the apt. looked more like a military barracks. Me passed out on the living room floor, Dan in the Dining room, Tony and Brian in the kitchen. hah. Last thing I remember before passing out was Tommy coming back in from god knows where looking for food (ofcourse, there was none left.)

Nobody woke up until 2 in the afternoon. Superbowl Sunday preshows - we all sat and watched a rerun of the Nathan's 4th of July hot dog-eating contest on ESPN, and then the World's Strongest Man Competition. Funny shit. Tony took me and Dan on a driving tour of the city, and again, I have to say I was really impressed --- Nice to get out of our somewhat overwhelming urban-area to a more balanced and low-key one. It was really such a breath of fresh air to be around normal, working-class people (as opposed to swarms of bullshitters.) Tony's tour included the infamous bus station where he'd been stranded many a time (and recounts such events with joy and humor. hah.) It was a little odd that most everything is closed on Sundays, but we managed to find an open deli to grab sandwiches and coffee.

Me and Dan hung out back at Krissi's for another hour or so, and headed back to Jersey right before the superbowl started (call us un-american, but there was NO traffic since everyone else was somewhere watching the game.) Was kind of a buzz-kill to return to the traffic jams of JFK Blvd, but a great time was had by all. Oh, and the other thing to be adored about Albany --- a full weekend of activity only cost me $40!!! Eat that NYC!!! haha...

************************************************************************************
Wednesday there was a bail hearing in Brooklyn Supreme Court for Mike Sandy's 3 assailants. I previously posted about what happened to Mike - but then took it down. Rather than recount it all, I'm just gonna offer up the link.
Again, the magical trio of Dan, Tony and I went to the courthouse and sat in on the hearing along with Mike's family and about 10-or-so other friends. What an experience...

I'll give vivid detail when I have more motivation (this has already been such a long post.) Long story short - the proceedings went well and in our favor. One of the assailants, Anthony Fortunato, had raised $1.3 million to post bail, but was denied. The other 2 were just there for the general proceedings but had no financial appeals for release. Following court, a team of reporters approached our group of Mike's family and friends. Several articles were in the papers the next day (NY Times, NY Post, etc.) featuring quotes from Mike's parents and our friend Patrick. I'll re-edit this post in the near future to include links and all that, i promise...

After court, our group of supporters had lunch together at a Williamsburg ultra-hip diner, Relish. Mac-and-cheese and designer cocktails all before 1 pm. Mike's father again illustrated his strength and amazing-ness as he relegated more stories about Mike and encouraged all of us to do the same. The cousins are also really cool people. I remember having felt disconnected from his family at the hospital and funeral because obviously those were such difficult times. It was nice to finally get a chance to talk with all of them about Mike and other things to realize what great, positive people they all are. It's also reaffirming to feel that Mike continues to bring all of the diverse and wonderful people in his life together.

w e e k e n d p r e v i e w s . . . .

I didn't get a Wii... yet. The small, pragmatic part of my brain intervened and decided it would be of best interest to both my mental health and financial status on if I held off. Atleast until Valentine's Day. haha...

even tho it's been a couple weeks, everything blurs together, so not much to recount. Last night was a lot of fun, tho. My mentoring organization did another night out near Washington Square Park. This time it was a dinner with just my immediate team of co-mentors + our team leader, writing consultant, etc. 12 of us total. Had a really good time - dinner at Otto was amazing. There was a little moan and groan in the planning stages of the night over having to do a prixe fixed meal, but it ended up being a great idea... we were catered to by a staff of about 5 waiters who served us an seemingly endless supply of wine, bruschetta, antipasti, carpaccio, 5 varieties of amazing thin-crust pizza, gourmet ice-creams, gelatos, and coffee. Would definitely recommend both the restaurant and the prixe fix experience to anyone looking for a fun night out in the city.

Sat in a pretty precarious spot for the dinner, tho. Seated on the cusp between 3 of the male mentors on my team, and a trio of female mentors (including my co-mentor melissa.) Found myself having a bit of an A.D.D. attack jumping in and out of conversations about the Super Bowl, Jersey City (one of the guys works there as well,) how "rad"/non-persistent our mentees are, dumb boyfriends/why it's impossible to find a girlfriend in NYC, job searches, accounting exams, bar exams, gre's, lsats, undergrad, grad school, business school, and on and on and on...... At some points in the conversations, i felt like a dumbass with not a ton to contribute. Or, maybe moreso, I couldn't force myself to really care or relate to some of the issues discussed. As nice and well-meaning as all the mentors are, they are also primarilly yuppie transplants working in finance, and I'm sorry to say I find a lot of their observations, interests and ramblings to be bullshit. I found myself more akin to my co-mentor for the first time, as she is in a bit of a starving-artist position while she is temping and looking for work in film/tv. We laughed and commisserated at coinciding points.

After the meal, on the coat check line, I found myself playing Debbie Downer while explaining to 2 other mentors why I and my friends didn't live in Manhattan - how growing up in the area, I saw the Meat Packing District and the LES in their artsy/affordable heydays and could never bring myself to cough up $2000 a month to live in a studio. They were sort of astonished by the concept, and I had to laugh. I know a large part of me getting invloved in the mentoring experience was about broadening my social spectrum, but I had enough trying to squeeze my square peg into that circle back in college, and can't really muster desire to try anymore. So it goes...

Following dinner, festivities did continue... I drove myself and 2 others (the coat check duo,) to Bulls Head Tavern . I guess it was the east village, or maybe Gramercy area... There was such overcrowding at the door, that we were all initially turned off, but the crowd seemed to ease once we pushed ourselves to the back of the long room. A decent cover band played timeless 80s classics (always great) including "She Drives Me Crazy" by the Fine Young Cannibals. Definitely brough a smile to my face. I drank a Stella while continuing to try and ooze the schmooze with my co-mentors.

At some point a few of us got to talking about New Orleans. We all had the common experience of spending time down there. (As mentioned in a previous post, I spent a summer there as a teen, studying architecture at Tulane.) Another mentor talked about her recent volunteer efforts with Habitat for Humanity. Now, confession be told... upon losing my job and with time to ponder, I have many times considered that maybe it would be worth taking a trip back down there to see what kind of work there is. My passion remains for redeveloping distressed urban areas, and what better place to carry out this vision... An article ran in the New York Times around the same time as my lay-off discussing how (obviously) affordable it was to travel to the Gulf Coast, and how a "vacation" could include volunteer efforts. Part of me instinctively felt it was where I was supposed to go next... But it just hadn't seemed pheasible or worth discussing for a variety of reasons. Vocally expressing my interest last night with other service-minded individuals, tho, sort of made it seem like a realistic possibility. I was reminded that in my younger years, I wouldn't have thought twice about picking up and pursuing the idea...
So.... while I complain a little of the forced social scene, it did serve to motivate my train of thinking and professional desires. Maybe worth looking into this week...

And I'm sorry the entry has gone so long and in a winding direction (once again, my A.D.D. at work...) FOR THE WEEKEND:

No mentoring tomorrow, actually, as the kids are taking their pre-PSATS. I did, however, promise to help my father find a new computer. The reward of that experience will be inheriting his printer (at the moment, I have none.)

I also plan on leaving for Albany tomorrow afternoon with Dan and Tony. Tony lived there for 5 years (when I was away at school) and goes back about once a month to spend weekends with his friends. Pretty much everyone we know has made the trip with him atleast once except for me. This weekend is his friend Brian's birthday, (whom we've all met and spent time with in Jersey.) I'm looking forward to getting out of town for a minute and having a good time up there.

That should cover me for now... anyone concerned about the absence of job & relationship recountings - I would talk if there was anything to say. :)