Controlled Chaos

and finally, a sweet potato blossom…

I’m from a small town. My friend Chris Seip, who played football with me and whose mom used to give me rides home from practice in high school, just joined MySpace, and had these pictures posted. I think this evidences exactly how small a town I’m from:

One of his sons riding a sheep like he was born to do so.

His other son riding a goat. Goats need to be ridden so they know their place.

One of my best friends from high school riding a bull! (He does this regularly. He actually cracked his sternum once, and bled from his ears another time.)

When Vicky and I got up, we went to the library and got library cards.  It made us both feel more like Noo Yawkers.  Then, we went to Bank of America, where she needed simply to show ID to finalize an account setup she had completed online.  But we waited for about 20 minutes, and watched a dismal sentencing hearing for a child killer.  It must have been a slow news day, because even the ticker had information on the sentencing.  Anyway, eventually we got out of there, went and got Vicky’s high-SPF lotion, then grocery-shopped at Fine Fare.

When we got back, I boiled some sugar peas, and later made some bread with tomato, mushroom, garlic salt, Italian seasoning, cheese and oil.  By the time it was done, Emem and Kelly had arrived for movie night!  Before we could start, my outgoing roommate came home and had a conniption - but that’ll be over soon, thankfully.  Then I chilled out by watching Zodiac killer, Notes on a Scandal, and Pecker.  I made posters and “Questions, comments, suggestions” boxes (i.e., the fun part of teachering).

Today my roommate for next year showed up.  I let her in, she unpacked, then when Kelly got back we all headed downtown to meet Emem and get food.  We ended up finding a diner, where Kelly drank someone’s leftover syrup through a straw.  We talked a bunch, but that was definitely the highlight.

Then, when we left, I tried to take Emem to the green line, but instead ended up walking her four avenues out of the way.  Who knew the green line stops at 33rd, not 34th?  (Probably a lot of people).  Anyway, I felt bad, but she got home just fine.

And then I headed to the Ginger Man, to meet Marya, who was almost a teacher at my school.  I talked with her, but even more to her brother, who was hecka cool.  Eventually, he and I left, though she kept going strong.  And then I got to sit and wait for an uptown train on the red line for over an hour, which was ridiculous.  I fell asleep hard as soon as I got home.

A while back, TFA offered free tickets to CMs who wanted to attend a screening of Power of 10.  I got four, but only my friend Dave actually didn’t flake.  I met up with himat his house to smoke some mint sheesha from the hookah, then we headed over.  On the way, he told me about the job he just got - his first as an attorney.  He is working for someone who is organizing a music jamboree, which seems cool and like a great idea (the jamboree - the job is obviously a great idea).  The jamboree is in October, so maybe I’ll be attending that and meeting a bunch of indie artists… =)

We got to the show, waited in a long line, and were finally let into the Kaufman Astoria Studios, which was where Sesame Street and the Cosbys were filmed, amongst others.  We had great seats - second row, and when the show airs you will clearly be able to see me whenever they show the audience histogram (I have white sleeves).  Between bits, the held little raffles, and I actually won an iPod Shuffle!  The show was pretty good, too.  One guy won 100,000, decided to go for a million, and lost.  (Sucks for him!)  After the show, Dave and I got some much-needed food at a diner across the street, then I headed back.  Now I’m home, getting ready to sleep.  As of tomorrow, I have to be back in teacher mode…

Today I got up, worked on some Fulbright stuff, dropped off a book at the Post Office, and then headed up to the tip-top of the Bronx.  One of the students at my school, Leomar, had his appendix removed earlier this summer, and now is battling Crohn’s disease.  Syeda, Steven and Xiomara met me at the train, but Sye was the only one not getting on it.  When we get to the hospital, there was Leomar, strung up on some system that negated his need to eat or use the bathroom - indeed, he’d done neither for about two weeks.  Also present were Adam, Izzy, and a Carlos I hadn’t before met, but who was cool.  Anyway, I jumped in on some monopoly, and met Leomar’s family, and hung out for awhile.  He seems to be doing ok, although he’ll be there for another month as they run tests.  When the nurse came to change his sheets, a bunch of us decided to head out.  Don’t worry, we didn’t ditch him - Miladys showed up just before we left.

Then I made a ridiculous trek down to the East Broadway stop on the F, in the bottom of Chinatown, to see my friend Hunter’s new place.  I checked out his room, then we went up on the roof, whichhas a pretty good view.  Then we got some Blue Moon, my favorite beer, and hung out for a while.  The apartment is very hipster-ish, with neon green walls that were just painted over neon blue.  His room is a sort of salmon color.  Anyway, it had a lot of character.  Eventually, I had to part ways with it, and head all the way back up to Harlem.  When I got there, I played on my computer for a while, then went to sleep.

Today, I met up with fellow J-school Ad J grad Sharon Lin.  I never met her even though she was right behind me in school.  We decided to find each other at the Astor Place Cubic, which was kind of cute.  Then, she walked me over to a wonderful Taiwanese restaurant near Ray’s pizza.  I had almond tea, and it was delicious.  I also had samosas, fried bean curd, and spring rolls, and all of it was delectable.  The conversation was great, too.  We talked about how the poor in any society are best regarded by both people and governments.  Don’t know how we got there, but we both had a lot to say.  I hope we can talk about other topics some time soon.

I finally finished my Fulbright proposal (first draft, anyway), before I left for the lunch.  Now I have to write the personal statement, which I should have done tonight but instead decided to watch (and then kind of regret watching) Reno 9/11.

Young blogger loses battle with cancer - CNN.com

I spent most of the day lounging.  I met Julia and Kristin for Uttapams at around 8, then had Tasti-D-Lite for the first time ever.  Double-mmm…

I went to my friend Dave’s, drank margaritas, smoked his hookah on the balcony while looking over New York’s skyline, and watched old, old-school Batman ([{POOOOW!!}]).
I ended up falling alseep there.