I love the 80s

Well, it's true. History repeats itself. Especially in the world of fashion. First the gauchos of the 80s era returned. For some reason, they are acceptable when called gauchos. But I've been suspecting that the side pony-tail would come back in fashion. And at last that time has arrived. Even as I sit here typing, my hair is swept to the side in a fashionable pony-tail. There are those who will resist the return. But I live in New York. The fashion capitol of the United States. And I would argue that the side pony-tail is indeed in style. Embrace it as you reconnect with your youth...unless you were an 80s baby and therefore too young to remember the once-popular side pony-tail.

I'm not "teachercam"

While I have long attracted both a national and international readership, I recently began to notice more and more people from a wider variety of states and countries. It seems my blog is quite popular. But then I began to take a closer look. It didn't take me long to find the pattern. All of these people found my blog after their google search led them here. And they were all using the same search words. Seems these new visitors were looking for porn. That's right. Porn. On my PG-13 blog.
Sorry. You aren't going to find any pictures or videos of naked women (or men) on this blog.

my recent realization

The older I get the more cynical I become. To be young and naive again...

eat, sleep, work, PLAY

I love when friends come to visit me. It is fun to spend time with them and show them around the City. The people who visit me in New York bring with them an energy and enthusiasm to enjoy as much as possible in their short visit here. After all, they are on vacation.
Unfortunately, I am not on vacation. I live here. I have responsibilitites. And so, I try to keep up. I try to balance my normal life with their vacation attitude. And it exhausts me.
On Monday, my roommate was in town to visit. She decided to come the Sunday evening after I very convincingly told her she should. There is nothing more motivating to finish a paper on a Monday morning than knowing someone will be there Monday afternoon. I woke up early, did laundry and wrote my paper. By noon, I was ready to have some fun... until my evening class. Luckly my roommate has other friends and was easily entertained during the times when I had class on Monday and work and tutoring on Tuesday. Each night we went out as if it really was summer break. Wednesday I didn't have to work, and I decided to skip class. That night we went to Bluegrass Wednesdays. A childhood friend from Dallas met us at the bar for Bluegrass Wednesday. On Monday I managed to convince her to come to NYC Wednesday rather than Thursday. So she did.
So began the next wave of entertaining friends. My roommate returned to Syracuse, and I continued to play hostess. I went to work Thursday morning, then met my childhood friend in Times Square for lunch. I hate Times Square, as do most people who live in New York. So we headed back uptown. After all, even though my friend was on vacation, I still had to babysit. It was only for a few hours, and then it was time for more fun. My childhood friend and I met another friend who lives in Long Island for dinner. I took them to my new favorite restaurant, the Boat Basin Cafe. This open-air restaurant is located on the Hudson River over-looking New Jersey and under the 79th street. And for some reason, Thursday night Boat Basin seems to be the place "where all the men are." I think the ratio of men to women might have been 30:1. And for some reason one of those 30 was a guy I used to date. This is the second time I've run into a former guy in the last two weeks. I digress... After dinner we went back to the Sports bar I discovered on Tuesday night to watch the Mavericks game. The game didn't end well, but our night sure did. Childhood friend and Long Island friend left my place at 1:00am to go to the airport to pick up another Dallas friend.
I worked Friday and Saturday morning. I opted not to go out Friday because I was simply too exhuasted. Instead, my three friends went to the theater without me. On Saturday I rallied for the last big night of friends in the City. I met them in SoHo at a very cute restaurant, then we did some shopping. Afterwards we went back to my place to get ready for a big night on the town. We made it to Nacho's just in time for the last call at Happy Hour. Then we went for an amazing Italian dinner. After dinner we headed to Times Square. I still hate it. But this was their vacation. The first place was empty, so I took them to a little Irish pub just off Times Square. Within three minutes of being in the place, the owner had bought the four of us shots. We stayed there until 3am. I can report Saturday night ended with a BANG!
After crashing at 4am, I'm amazed my friends managed to leave for the airport at 7am. I guess it was a typical New York experience.

the most fun I've had so far...

Last night I joined several friends to go listen to live bluegrass music in Greenwich Village. It might seem like bluegrass musicians would be a little out of place in the City. However, throughout the night more and more musicians joined the "band". They were playing guitars, banjos, mandolins, harmonicas, an upright bass, violins, and a flute. Even with all the different people, they all knew the same songs. With the wide variety of instruments and the many harmonies, it was very impressive. These people were old and young, men and women. At one point at least 15 people were playing and singing bluegrass music.
The night was filled with a variety of bluegrass characters:

• The leader of the group was a guy my age who is a PhD student by day and bluegrass musician by night. He resembled Orlando Bloom. I will admit, he is part of the reason I fell in love with the experience. Even though I later caught him in a private jam session outside, followed by a not-so-private make-out session outside, I still admire his musical talents.
  
• The young and cute harmonica guy wore a harmonica belt aka artillery belt. As one friend said, "He was packing." He had an impressive collection of harmonicas.
  
• There was one very conservative Jewish guy who walked around in his hat and beard, carrying an instrument, but never joining in.
• There was the guy who stood at the back drinking a beer. Of course, when he did finally join in he was really good.

When I first arrived at the Baggot Inn, it was empty. But just as the musicians kept on coming in, so did the audience. By 11pm, the place was packed. I left long after the climax of the evening. Even as the last remaining musicians jammed at their table, I enjoyed the music.
Bluegrass Wednesdays just might be a new tradition...

reaching out

I love email. It is a great way to stay in touch with people all around the world, send random thoughts, ask quick questions, play the ABC game, discuss LOST with a group, try to make sense of life and many other things. I think email can become too easy. I spend a lot of my time in front of a computer. I am constantly checking. It doesn't take much time to read an email or send a response. I can compose an email and send it in hardly any time. But that's just it. Time. Convenience. Email gives us both. I whole-heartedly believe that email does allow us to make meaningful connections with people. But should we allow this to be our only way of connecting with others?
When I lived in Thailand, it wasn't cheap to call the United States or vice-versa. Yet my parents called me every week. And sometimes I would call them. Why? After all, we had email. Couldn't we just send a message and save the money? Not really. While phone calls still don't allow the face-to-face communication, there is still comfort in hearing the voices of people you love. Now that most people these days have cell phones, long-distance calls are inexpensive. I can call friends in Texas, Colorado, Arizona or New York- and most of those calls are numbers of several other states.
I talk to my parents fairly frequently. Sometimes I may talk to them once a week, others every day. When I was feeling sick, the first thing I did was call my mom. Being in Texas, she couldn't do anything to help me. But it was comforting to talk to her and seek advice.
I have one friend who calls me or I call her at least once or twice a week. Everyone else tends to be much more sporadic. But I like to call them. I am making the effort. Since I've made the choice to live here, I know that I miss much of their daily lives I was once a part of. Which means, there is always something to talk about. I've got my fabulous (and sometimes just ordinary) New York City stories. And they've got their stories. What happened to them that day. Or what is going on with our friends. What they had for lunch that day. Anything and everything can be discussed.
I know not everyone likes talking on the phone. Sure, there are some people, like my sister, who frequently go over their 1000+ minutes. But there are others, whose minutes just keep rolling over and adding up. Some people just aren't phone people. My dad always wraps up the phone conversation saying "Well, you know I don't really like talking on the phone..." True. But you did talk on the phone. Because it lets us connect to the people we love when we can't be with them in person. To truly hear them and understand what they are saying. It isn't always convenient. It takes time. It takes effort.
Remember E.T.? All he wanted to do was phone home. Making the effort can be so rewarding.

some assembly required

It is finally warm in NYC! Monday I went to my new favorite place in Central Park- the Great Lawn- to lay out. I actually got a tan. I have a feeling I'll be spending a lot of my free time this summer on the Great Lawn. Not only did it remind me of the parks I visited in Europe, but it even had a great view of a castle!
Now that I can say it feels like summer, I've realized I will be getting hot. Just this past Tuesday I walked home from tutoring like I normally do. By the time I reached my room, I needed a cold shower to cool off. Today's package delivery was perfectly timed. I got the window AC unit I ordered. Unfortunately, when I opened the box the first thing I saw were loose screws. This means I've got to figure out where they go and then install this thing. It's times like these when I really wish my dad would visit NYC. Instead, I've got to see if the man in the basement will help me install my AC. I hope it doesn't get too hot in the next few days. I have no idea when he'll be available.