this is kind of like 'err on the side of raging'
"rule number 1: always stick around for one more drink. that's when things happen. that's when you find out what everything you want to know."hat tip to agp in nyc
- john berendt 'midnight in the garden of good and evil'
usual suspects update - ceppos is in nyc for the summer (working for my old boss! yay networking!). brogiin will also be moving back to nyc this summer after she graduates from stanford law (smarty pants). diana is moving to dc after the wedding so the boy can go to georgetown law (yay east coast!) and maynard is engaged and getting married in september (weddings! i love weddings!). hooray for the usual suspects!
as for me, it's thursday but it feels like it should be friday. attempting to be productive today as i know i won't be tomorrow. our summer fridays start tomorrow though and i'm really looking forward to a relatively straightforward work summer where i don't have to start a new job or launch a website halfway through. my memorial day weekend plans include ferry friday and hanging out on cody's roof deck. i also have my move on sunday so saturday will be spent packing and prepping.
here's what's on tap for the summer:
4 out of 5 randomly polled people behind AD on Saturday agreed that he is LITERALLY the cutest puppy on campus. Not even the presence of a real puppy could sway their vote.
Sooo CUTE!
so distracted at work today b/c i keep reliving the memories (many hazy) of green key 2011. only way to get over it is to blog it so without further ado i present the tweets of green key:
ping ponging
rowena had a groupon for 'spin' - a ping pong fun land (not sure what the right word is there). think big and open with lots of tables and orange florescent pong balls everywhere. there was also a bar - only in nyc do ping pong bars and bowling alleys have bottle service.
had not played ping pong since my grandparents sold their house on the cape (they had a table on the back porch)/i got into dartmouth and ping pong tables stopped being options for good clean fun and started being conduits for pong 10 years ago. the hardest habit to break was that of frantically chasing down the pong ball after it went off table. i also got yelled at for banging my paddle on the table. oops. but the music was fantastic! lots of led zepplin, bon jovi and ac/dc. fortunately i don't think my pong serve was affected and i will still be able to run table this weekend.
skin cancer awareness month
borrowing this blog to make a quick PSA: may is national skin cancer awareness month. i know this because a girl i knew in high school died from malignant melanoma and the foundation they established in her name sent out a PSA that i am passing along to you. skin cancer is very treatable when it's caught early so please take a second to get your skin checked and remember to wear sunscreen and be smart about the sun this summer.
sprints
had a blast at sprints with stein on sunday. the alumnae row went surprisingly well - the boat was pretty set, though the bow caught a crab as soon as we crossed the finish line - and we actually were moving the boat with every stroke. it was so enjoyable to be back in an 8 that i'm considering training for the head of the charles. i like having something to work towards when it comes to training and wouldn't mind being in rowing shape again. tbd. was also glad to be there because the dartmouth crews had a fantastic day with the first varsity boat medaling for the first time in over 10 years. just great energy and spirit and bleeding dartmouth green all around. stein and i get to road trip again this weekend when we head up to hanover - wheee!
green key
keep singing 'green key green key gotta get down it's green key' to the tune of rebecca black's 'friday' in my head. why someone hasn't made this parody already is beyond me.
since moving to the upper west side for the second time (the first time was in 2006 - i lived on 73rd and west end) i have experienced the totally novel sensation of thinking i love living somewhere in nyc. i like it because it feels like there's a lot going on, but the pace seems slower and quieter, there are more tree lined streets and i feel like i can breathe. it's a nice place to go back to at the end of the day.
next weekend is the move and i've already put together the list of things i will miss about my current apartment:
things i will miss
the basement mix i'm making for green key:
1. 'higher' - taio cruze - much prefer the version with kylie minogue
2. 'take me home tonight' - theo martins remix - from the movie of the same name. AMAZING. i wish for a basement whenever i hear it so i can turn up the volume and get lost in the sound
3. 'til the world ends' - britney - ditto
4. 'want you bad' - ke$ha ft travis mccoy
5. 'what the hell' - avril lavigne
6. 'better than a stereo dream' - mash-up - b/c stereo love is awesome but even better mashed up
7. 'do it all night' - darius finlay - great take on a classic
8. 'what do you say' - mickey avalon - one of the best songs in 'the hangover'
9. 'just dance' - lady gaga - it's still my favorite of all the gaga songs
10. 'imma stop loving drugs' - mash up - my favorite mashes are when lots of songs i know are put together. this one fits the bill
11. 'club can't handle me' - go-to party anthem
12. 'pyromania' - cascada - the new 'every time we touch'
13 'i'd do anything for love (but i won't do that)' - no basement mix is complete without some power ballads and i'm kind of obsessed with this one right now
14. 'dynamite' - taio cruz - all i want to do is celebrate and live my life
15. 'where dem girls at' - david gueta - another recent fave
16. 'boyfriends hate me' - space cowboy - kind of funny, catchy song
17. 'patron tequila' - paradiso girls
18. 'top of the world' - cataracts
19. 'i could be dancing' - alphabeats - the last three are all great songs for getting hype
loved this article about crying in public in nyc. i've definitely done it - both streaming tears as i walk down the sidewalk when a beloved boss suddenly announced he was leaving, and sniffling on the subway with the tears welling up as i waited for my stop the day after i reluctantly ended a love affair. sometimes i was drunk, sometimes i wasn't. but i think this article hits on a lot of what it means to live in nyc where so much of life is shared with strangers without ever interacting with them at all.
well worth a read.
growing up on the cape, as you might imagine, my summers pretty much rocked. my dad grew up on the north shore of massachusetts, but my family started coming down to the cape when he was a kid, and eventually moved down full time when his younger brothers were in middle school. they lived a couple of different places in the centerville area, eventually settling in a place called craigville - a small village on a bluff overlooking craigville beach.
we grew up about two miles down the road from my grandparents until i was in 6th grade, when my parents bought 4 acres of woods a mile or so down the road with an old summer cottage on it. we (and i really do mean we as us kids contributed a lot of blood, sweat and tears and got paid in ice cream) cleared much of the woods to build the house my parents live in now and make room for gardens and chickens and assorted other elements of the lyon compound. (it's not really a compound).
my cousins would come up from baltimore and spend the entire summer at my grandparents house so we got to be super close with them i am happy to say. we built tree forts, had sleepovers, went to camp, stuffed our faces with candy from the penny candy store, rode our bikes, and took swimming lessons/hung out at cba - otherwise known as craigville beach association - a private beach on the south shore of the cape.
growing up we'd spend entire days at the beach with my parents, aunts and uncles and grandparents. our days were spent getting frozen milkyways from the snack bar that we'd cut in half to share, building forts under the board walk, and out on the two rafts catching jellyfish.
jellyfish catching was a full time affair - the ocean water on nantucket sound is much much warmer than cape cod bay or the national seashore and would attract thousands of pink stinging jellyfish (not to be confused with moonies which we cheerfully would fling at each other whenever we could). we'd scour stores during the winter for the right inflatables to safely get us out to the rafts without getting stung, use our nets to catch as many jellyfish as we could and then bring them back to shore and bury them under the lifeguard stand. when we did get stung we'd go to the office for meat tenderizer to dull the pain and head out to do it again.
we played ping pong in the upstairs areas where the lifeguards slept (obvi the lifeguards were the coolest and the dreamiest around), played house in my grandparents locker (number 62) and participated in sandcastle day, race day and the other events they had for kids every day during june, july and august. we made pseudo friends with the summer kids at the beach, and eagerly invited our friends to come to the beach for the day to experience the magic of cba and it was a big deal when we were old enough to go to cba by ourselves without my parents. i can still hear the announcement they made at 4:45 every day: 'the time is now 4:45. the lifeguards are off duty and the office will be closing at five o'clock', which was also the signal that it was okay to do flips off the raft and climb up on the lifeguard stand without getting yelled at.
this trip down memory lane was prompted the jayne shelly pierce print i've decided to get for my cousin who's graduating from d in a couple of weeks: perfect day at CBA. i love her art and have a couple other prints of hers of places i miss back home. but those really were the good old days. and never forget your summers.
well kiddos - quick rundown on the state of the union:
have weddings on the brain b/c diana's bachelorette was last weekend in newport beach, ca, and i just received swanny's gorgeous invite in the mail. unfortunately swanny and diana are both brilliant and think alike and have scheduled the big day on the same day, so i can't join in swanny's festivities but i will be thinking of her and looking forward to celebrating at zana's wedding in august.
the weekend for diana was fantastic. we were at a house on newport bay that was just right for large gather
ings of boozy and giggly girls. (view from the back steps to the left). i had the theme song for the 'oc' stuck in my head all weekend.
i flew out on friday morning after an accidental late night celebrating cinco de mayo, which meant with the time change i effectively stayed up until 5 am EST three nights in a row. i am getting too old for this. but i digress.
flying cross country is a serious business. america is a really big place. i knew this already but you really start to know it when you've been on a plane for 3 hours. however, at rush as undergrads we would use 'how far would you drive them' to describe how much we liked someone. it is safe to say i would fly cross country for any of the usual suspects any time.
was joined by elise, brogiin and karla from the sd side, and we met diana's friends from high school who were fabulous. i have girl crushes on all of them, they're all honorary sd's, and it is abundantly clear that the wedding is going to be a real blast with all the amazingness that will be in attendance.
spent the weekend sunning, boozing, talking about hooking up and laughing over stories/memories from the years we've known each other. it both felt like so much time had passed but also hardly any time at all. i tweeted the gem quotes as they came up, but i think my favorite was 'are we going to slice that salami or is it here for entertainment purposes?' (answer: both).
we got dru
nk and rowdy during all you can drink at a mexican place on saturday afternoon. put on like a prayer and sang to the bar until we were literally cut off (from the music, not from the booze). i want my dollar back. we also rode a mini ferris wheel that was kind of ripping around (drinking made this more exciting) and did an impromptu photo booth session at the 'fun zone'. saturday night we headed out for dinner and dancing. one thing i will say in la's favor is they let you dance on the banquettes if you take off your shoes. done and done.
all the usual suspects were missed but can't wait until we meet back at the local saloon in july. kept thinking about the quote 'it's funny that pirates were always going around searching for treasure when they never realized the real treasure was the memories they were creating.' that's what it's about folks - memories and stories.
otherwise - have had a crazy busy week social and work wise. lots of dartmouth stuff going on, including a lecture by the chair of the classics department and tour of the discovery times square 'pompeii' exhibition on friday night. really looking forward to continuing my culture kick.
heading down to camden on sunday with stein to row in the alumni 8 at sprints (crew playoffs for you non rowers). looking forward to getting back in the bow and road tripping with her. and then next weekend is green key where i get to see kevin, fresh off of finishing up law school. excited to hang out on campus with him and colin, who will also be putting in an appearance.
in non-dartmouth news, i am getting an award at work which was surprising and unexpected but i'm thrilled that they're happy with the work i'm doing and recognizing that it hasn't been a walk in the park these last few months. am having fun thinking about how to spend the money - mac book perhaps?
i also signed a lease last thursday on an apt on 96th and amsterdam. i'll be living with a gay guy who has a kitty! seemed to be the best combo of the things i was looking for (in particular staying upper west side) and it's good to know what direction i'm headed. did realize that it's been almost a year since i lived with someone, and a good 4 years since i lived with someone i didn't know, but i figure this will work for the time being and we'll see where i net out around this time next year. everything can change and it usually does. i'll miss this apartment but onwards and upwards.
super short on sleep so i'm headed to bed. mwah!
i became a fan of jim altucher's blog after my dad sent me a bunch of articles of his that i actually read for a change (as opposed to the myriad articles he sends that i don't). jim is a venture capitalist and finance writer and i like his take on life, as i said a couple blog posts ago.
was surprised to find an article in the latest issue of new york magazine on one of his most prolific and controversial topics: is college worth the cost? (btw i think i like ny magazine for the same reasons i like readers digest - something for everyone).
i find the argument that higher education is really just a bubble, like real estate, silicon valley in 2000, the south sea bubble in the 1700s and the tulip craze in holland in the 1600s to be compelling and i think the article is worth a read. sure i had a great time in college and i learned and grew a lot but at a certain point smart people will be able to do those things regardless, and i sometimes wonder if i had $200k to do whatever i wanted with, instead of having gone to college, where i'd net out. i also think about insuring my brain as it is by far the most valuable thing i own at this point in my life.
some points that resonated from the article:
i was on the cape, having just returned from my doc trip (woo c 33-34 moderate/strenuous hiking!). i had just met boxa and mulley for the first time (though boxa swears we met during our official visits for crew our senior years of high school). i was getting dressed to go to my waitressing job at the paddock - a restaurant down the street from my house on the cape, as i still had a few more shifts to go before i went back to hanover to start my freshman year - early that morning.
my friend mary chatted me over aim to turn on the tv, as a plane had just crashed into the world trade center in nyc. not having been to nyc before aside from a quick trip to run a cross country race at van cortland park in the bronx my freshman year of high school, the world trade center didn't mean to much to me, and having just spent 4 days in the woods i thought she was trying to trick me into believing something so inconceivable was happening.
i turned on the tv in the b&b room (short for bed and breakfast room in my house - story for another time) and was shocked to find out she wasn't kidding. i watched the second plane crash into the second tower in real time, and the towers collapse on live tv. later i went into work and we all were tuned into the television in the bar for the rest of the lunch shift waiting for news on what was happening 5 hours away in the big city.
i was fortunate to not have been touched by september 11th beyond that experience, and my first experience with the world trade center site when i moved to the city in 2006 when, while walking around downtown, i was surprised to see a big open area in the middle of sky scrapers. only when i got closer did i realize that the reason it was so open was that buildings were missing. but today i've lived in new york city for almost 6 years, and the capture of public enemy number one hits closer to home because this is my home. it's a great day for new york and for america and for peace.
i discovered the letterpress studio at dartmouth my senior year - it's in the basement of baker library and is this incredible suite of rooms with at least three hand presses, and copious different collections of typesets in all sorts of different fonts, as well as book binding classes and materials. as a person who has always been more of an audio/verbal person instead of a visual person, words as art resonate more with me than pictures and this was basically heaven on earth.
the studio was essentially free after a small activities fee, and it was never super crowded - i got the sense most students didn't even know it existed. i printed some ee cummings poems and messed around with my name and graduation announcements with fun fonts, inks and images on luxurious paper. finished projects would be hung in the hallway between the reserves and sanborn library and always included a few save the dates and/or wedding invites and i'd think about coming back to hanover one day to print my invites at the letterpress studio.
there's a blog i like that ceppos turned me on to called 'a practical wedding'. don't even get me started on why i'm reading wedding blogs when i'm the furthest person i know from the altar, but was pleasantly surprised to discover a post on printing your own wedding invitations with a letterpress.
as i was reading the post and reflecting fondly on my time at dartmouth's letterpress studio i was even more surprised to discover that the poster was a dartmouth grad and had discovered the letterpress studio on campus in time to do her wedding invites as an undergrad. couldn't figure out who it was, but i had to comment on the post to chime in on the wonderfulness of having a letterpress studio as a resource and the pleasure of making something beautiful by hand. :)
“Walk tall, kick ass… love music, and never forget you come from a long line of truth seekers, lovers, and warriors.”
“Let us toast to animal pleasures, to escapism, to rain on the roof and instant coffee, to unemployment insurance and library cards, to absinthe and good-hearted landlords, to music and warm bodies and contraceptives… and to the “good life”, whatever it is and wherever it happens to be.”
well friends - reporting back after the 'side walk' - aka our walk circumnavigating the island of manhattan. we had great weather yesterday for the feat - about 65 and sunny for most of the trip. we started at 9:15 from the highline's south entrance and walked until we ended up back at 14th street around 9:30 pm- all in all we walked about 35 miles yesterday. it's no wonder my hips are killing me and i have some brutal blisters on the bottom of my feet!
when we did the 50 miler on memorial day of freshman year, we had wrapped up the crew season the week before, so i was in much better shape than i was yesterday, but the 50 miler is also an additional 15 miles and summits five mountains. still the side walk gave us a run for our money.
the team who completed the walk with me is olverson, vik, ece, hopper and ashley, and mallika and maura joined us for parts. it's mostly just really cool to think about the fact that we walked around the entire island, but we saw some unusual stuff and areas of manhattan that we never would have experienced if we hadn't done the side walk:
