| Hi guys! Long time no post.
I have moved into my apartment, and now that I finally have internet and it's not only in my pantry I can be a real person again! The apartment is awesome (despite the initial Internet-Only-In-Pantry problem). I was so lucky to have gotten it. For one week in July, I spent every single day driving up to San Francisco from Palo Alto (~45 min each way) looking at places, submitting applications, and never hearing back. Finally I found this place, but I almost didn't submit an application because while I was here looking at it, there were 5 other people there filling out applications themselves. When the landlord called to tell me I'd gotten it, I was completely euphoric. Apparently he'd had 11 people submit applications, but he liked me best. Yay! Anyway, it's a great little place. Huge kitchen, good sized living room, big bedroom with a bathroom off it (with a claw-foot tub!), and this weird little pantry area off the kitchen (the location of the only DSL jack in the apartment and thus the only place I could use the internet until my dad miraculously coached me through setting up the wireless after three days of struggling with it). Best part: I have a nice sofa that pulls out into a bed so any and all are welcome to visit!
I started my job August 18 in downtown SF. Well, technically I started it the week before in Houston by going to my company's very intense training program for new grads. But I've been at my office for two weeks now and I'm really liking it. Everyone (all 7 of us) is really nice and fun, there are great restaurants around, and it's a super easy commute for me. All three bus lines that go down my street stop right in front of my office, so I just hop on in the morning, read for 20 minutes, and hop off.
So you may have heard of the street I live on-- Haight... as in Haight & Ashbury, the hippie drug haven of the 60's and 70's. There's certainly some remnants of that around, such as the abundance of smoke shops and places called things like "Dreams of Kathmandu". Mostly it's people in their 20's and 30's though, so it's a nice place to be. The hobos are pretty docile too, must be the wafts of medical marijuana I see advertised in the shops. Golden Gate Park, SF's far superior version of Central Park, is only 10 or so blocks away, and the Panhandle (a little extension of it) is even closer. Buena Vista Park, the oldest park in the city, is a block from me, and very pretty. On clear days you can see the Golden Gate Bridge.
This Labor Day weekend, instead of going to the Smokies for the 35th Annual End of the World Party in Whitehurst tradition (long story), I'm just hanging around here. I'm going surfing tomorrow in Pacifica, a little suburb just south of SF, and then going to Alcatraz and a gourmet foodie convention thing on Sunday. Monday will probably be dedicated to the on-going furniture assembly battle. Only two things left-- kitchen table and desk.
All this to say, I'm really happy to be here and I hope people come visit me! (I'm looking at you, Tulsa people! You too, Cornellians.) | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment   |
| Long time no post. So some of you may know already, but my plans have changed substantially. I thought I was moving to New York to take a job at Leslie E Robertson Associates (they designed the old World Trade Center towers). But after much debating and thinking, I've decided that ultimately I will be happier in the Bay Area. So I called LERA yesterday morning and told them I won't be coming after all. I immediately sent out cover letters and resumes to companies in this area and I've already gotten three responses requesting interviews, so I am confident I'll be able to find another job.
I don't have an apartment in San Francisco yet, but my lease in Palo Alto runs until mid-August. So the plan now is:
1. Get a job ASAP
2. Graduate
3. Go to China for three weeks with the orchestra
4. Come back and find a new place
5. Move up to SF and start the job in August or early September.
Now that I'm going to be here permanently, I want you to come visit me! The Bay Area is great, there is so much to do and it is beautiful around here. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| Earthquake here last night-- magnitude 5.6!
I was in orchestra rehearsal at the time and at first we all thought it was someone moving a piano around on stage. It felt like a low rumble, a little bit bouncy. Apparently in my apartment, which is on the third floor, the glasses were shaking. Nothing fell off the walls; everything stayed put on the bookshelves (which is good because my books are right over my computer).
This was one of my goals for the year in California -- Mission Accomplished! | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| It's over!
PS. Cornell beat Harvard 3-2 in one of the best comebacks I've ever seen. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Time: | 01:32 pm | | Current Mood: | overworked |
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| | MOST STRESSFUL WEEK EVER | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I only have one final (well, two, but there's no point in taking the other). This final is not until the very last day of finals. I really have very little to do between now and then. I'm bored out of my mind.
Things that have kept me amused so far/will continue to amuse me in the foreseeable future:
-BitTorrent giving me the entire first season of Lost, but it doesn't do me much good now because I am a wuss and can't watch things that are remotely scary after dark. This includes TV shows on mysterious tropical islands with roaming polar bears. wtf?
-Monday's Mini World Cup in which I played on a mostly Nigerian team. We made it to the quarterfinals and lost. I couldn't play in that game ([joke] that's probably why we lost [/joke]) because I had to go to...
-Chi Epsilon induction. Yes, I am a member of a fraternity now. The National Civil Engineering Honor Society not-a-fraternity-anymore fraternity.
-My final presentation of my research about levee failure in New Orleans. Conclusions: Levees were a mess, and New Orleans is screwed in the long run.
-Cornell men's lacrosse game this Saturday. We are in the playoffs and I still haven't been to a single game yet so I am for sure going to this one. Maybe I will use my hockey-acquired cheers to taunt the lax players from Massachusetts. "Sieve, sieve, sieve, sieve!"
-Russian feast Thursday night = lots of free caviar.
-Orchestra board meeting tomorrow, in which I have to break the news to the rest of the board that our director has cancelled our plane tickets to Berlin. This should be fun.
-Packing...? I guess I should do this at some point. Hard to come to grips with the fact that I have to move out of this apartment. I've only been here for like 4 months. Amanda's going to move my shit to the next apartment which means I don't have to pay godawful amounts to store it over the summer, hoorah.
Yup, I guess that's it. Tell me of any other good tv shows that I should download entire seasons' worth of episodes. I've gotten hooked on Coupling too; it's a like a British version of Friends but with more sex. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | I´m in Costa Rica! It´s very warm here but a nice break from New York. Haven´t seen Liz yet, she´s off farming with her sister but should get back this afternoon (hopefully). I´m staying with a no hablo ingles family, this should be interesting. Going whitewater rafting tomorrow, can´t wait! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| YAY I got everything back and it only (HA) cost me $2000.
Everyone, BACK UP YOUR DATA RIGHT NOW. Because $2000 is a lot of money. I could have gone back to New Zealand with that. Ahh... New Zealand...
Fucking prelims. 2 this week, 2 next week. Then Costa Rica! Can't wait to get out of sunless Ithaca to the tropics. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | I have a computer! My old one is on its way to Secaucus, NJ to be gutted. Hopefully they can get my memories back. | | comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
| So Matt spilled cider on my computer and killed it. The hard drive is at Best Buy trying to be saved. I should get a new in 2 weeks. So I'm going to be computer-less for the next 2 weeks. This is bad. I have a powerpoint presentation due on Wednesday about myself. Which means I need my pictures. And the powerpoint slides that I already made. Yarrrrrrrgh.
On the other hand, I get a nice new computer so that's good.
Also, the HARVARD GAME is tonight. Biggest game in Cornell hockey. We throw fish at them. | | comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Conversations | | Subject: | Good things! | | Time: | 05:05 pm |
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| A list of good things as of late:
-I just bought my tickets for spring break. Costa Rica, here I come! Now I just need to brush up on my non-existent Spanish
-The Cornell Symphony Orchestra is FOR SURE going to Berlin to tour this summer. We even get to sit in on a Berlin Philharmonic rehearsal and concert. Whoa.
-My advisor/professor thinks I am like the smartest person ever. He made me switch into his graduate-level concrete class.
-I spent the afternoon at the 2nd Annual Cornell Concerto Competition, which was really fun and interesting. Plus I had to hock t-shirts and CD's to fund the aforementioned tour.
-Cornell hockey beat Colgate last night in the first of a home-and-away series. This is huge, because they were the only thing standing between us and 1st place in our league. Plus it's fun to be mean to them because they have obnoxious, drunken fans so I don't feel bad yelling "Safety School!" and "Cor-nell Re-jects!" at them. We know it's true, they know it's true, and most importantly, their hockey players know it's true. Yay merciless taunting.
-The away game of the series is tonight and it's actually being broadcast nationally. So not only will I get to watch it here in Ithaca (since it's sold out), my parents can watch it from Tulsa and see their first ever Cornell Hockey game. Too bad it's not broadcast from Lynah (our rink) because that is the ultimate experience in college hockey. Supposedly it's the worst rink to play in because the fans are so loud and into the game (see above). If you get ESPN-U, check it out! Tonight at 7PM (EST).
-Tomorrow is the Super Bowl. I don't care about this at all, but it's a good excuse to do nothing all evening and eat unhealthy food. I only barely know who's playing.
OK, I swear I just heard this conversation outside my door:
My roommate's friend: "So, what happened to your cell phone?"
My roommate: "Oh, I ate it."
Friend: "Oh, okay. I just noticed it wasn't on the table anymore."
I may (may) have misheard something along the way there. But I'd rather just go on believing it as it stands. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| Seen on CNN.com this afternoon:
"Super Bowl? What Super Bowl? I'm Watching Puppies." | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Hooray! | | Time: | 01:51 pm | | Current Mood: | chipper |
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| Things are looking up again!
I sat down with my notoriously hard-to-track-down advisor yesterday and worked through some of the glitches in my courses (like the fact that I wasn't getting any credit for all the Russian I'd taken). In the process of that, I got to see my file, including my high school recommendations. I just got a glance at them, but someone said that I was a "highly motivated student." So that's nice to know.
Also, in looking through my checklist, I realized that after I finish this semester I only need 18 credits to graduate. So theoretically, I can graduate a semester early. Or, if I do well enough this semester, I can enroll in the honours programme and be even more awesome.
One of our assignments for Engineering Communications was a job application letter. It was fun writing out all the reasons why I'm wonderful and people should jump at the chance to hire me.
I really have no problem with self-confidence, do I?
//Edit: I wasn't intentionally trying to be all snooty with the British spelling of "honours programme," that's just how it came out when I typed it. I guess New Zealand seeped into my brain more than I thought it did. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Time: | 12:51 pm | | Current Mood: | despondent |
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| Today was a bad day. All night I dreamed about New Zealand and hanging out with my friends there, eating at all our old haunts and joking around. Then I woke up feeling really weighed down by loneliness and there's no one to talk to. I miss everyone so much and I can't help but feel that I won't see a lot of them ever again. I watched a bunch of the farewell videos that Matt (Matt from Iowa, not my Matt) made for us when we left. I just want to go back so desperately, to laze around at Sumner beach, or go surfing at New Brighton, or even just have another meal at the Asian Food Court. I can't shake this feeling that those four months were some of the best of my life and I'll never get them back. How did they slip by so quickly? I was looking at my pictures from the first trip to Sumner and remembering how the whole time just stretched out infinitely in front of us. We had all the time in the world then, and now it's gone. I can't express how hard it is to leave a place you know as home, knowing that you may never see it again, and even if you do, it will never be the same.
So here I sit, holed up all alone in my little room in Ithaca, dreaming of a place 5000 miles away that won't ever exist again. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| So I've been in New Jersey hanging around with Matt and Amanda for the past few days. Went into NYC one day with Matt and his bro and met Amanda there. Went to a weird techno-jazz fusion concert that was cool but a little out-there for my tastes. Went to the Princeton-Cornell hockey game at Princeton where 90% of the crowd were Cornell fans (but we still lost, don't understand how that happened!). Came outside to find it had snowed an inch while we were in there. Went into Philly with Matt's family and toured a ritzy but impressive art museum in the 'burbs and then racked up $600 bill at a Japanese restaurant (I'm surmising here, I didn't actually see the check). So that was fun. Then today Matt and I drove up here.
Met up with Laurel at her salon and she cut my hair for me and we reminisced about NZ. Got my boxes delivered to me. Discovered some funny things I'd packed away last May, like a day-by-day calendar stuck at May 18, 2005. Still trying to get unpacked. It's a bit of a challenge because our apartment last year was MUCH larger than this year's and so there are a lot of things that have no homes right now. So we'll see what sort of ingenious plan I come up with, if any, to store this stuff.
It's a lot more work moving in than I'd remembered. But it's sort of fun at the same time, like Christmas. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| Man, I just realized I have to actually care about school again. I can't just take off and go whitewater rafting for the weekend or whatever. And there will be prelims and homework and my grades will actually count for something. Neeeeeeeew Zeaaaaaaaaalaaaaaaaand!
It doesn't help that I watched The Piano the other night and it got me reminiscing about Kiwiland all over again.
Man, these posts are really getting tedious, don't you think? Yeah, I think I'll stop for a while. But expect another one in a couple weeks. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Hey, can I go back to New Zealand now? I think I've had enough of the US for a while. Thanks. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Heard on the BBC tonight: "I think all the nations of the world are starting to consider drugs." | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Laura's Scrabble results this evening
Number of seven-letter words played: 2 ("soupier" and "necrose")
Final score: 419
Most questionable word played: "whomp"
Dirtiest word played: "anal"
Word which I played but didn't know the meaning of: "mog" | | comments: Leave a comment |
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