as good as i once was

well friends - i'm eating chocolate covered espresso beans (the kick of the brahma bull rosi once called them) in an attempt to get geared up for the february dartmouth club of nyc board meeting. 

these things are generally long, drawn out, painful and uncomfortable so the extra joint of energy will be needed. 

was up in hanover this past weekend for winter carnival and club officers weekend 2013. of course our travel plans were stymied with the arrival of the noreaster that planned to dump snow along the 91/95 corridor. ended up driving up thursday night with a friend of jason's for company instead of friday afternoon. we got in to hanover at 1:30 in the morning but it was a straightforward and uneventful trip up. 

i worked friday morning from my old favorite studying location - the first floor of baker. of course in my day it was a lot less comfortable and i think they yelled at you if you had food/drinks in that area of the library, but it was lovely to sit inside and be warm while the snow fell outside. 

friday afternoon i went ice skating on occom pond - something i haven't done since winter carnival our freshman year. it was a great temperature, and the snow was falling and we were swooping and flying on the ice. so dartmouth right?

had club officers weekend stuff to do on saturday - i was on a panel on marquee event planning and went to the dinner and awards ceremony on saturday night where the d club of nyc won metro club of the year. this was very much an unexpected honor and a really great validation of all the work we've been doing to make the club better (also sort of ironic in light of the above meeting environment of the club as of late). 

in between i played two games of harbour with shirtless skiiers (yum!) so it was yet again a ridiculous sober game at dinner. can i just say that harbour was not a big thing when we were undergrads? the first time i played was junior homecoming with XH's from the track team (though we played at SD). for the longest time it was a 10 AM big weekend thing only. and now everyone and their brothers is playing it multiple times a weekend and i'm not saying that's a bad thing i'm just saying. 

after three nights in a row of staying up until 3 AM i have been in rough shape the last few days - ergo the 'i ain't as good as i once was, but i'm as good once, as i ever was. this is a problem b/c the next few weeks are kind of crazy.

on saturday i'm driving to charleston, sc with my parents and sasha care bear. that's 12 hours in the car folks. i am looking forward to seeing my parents, my grandparents, and a bit of charleston but it's going to be interesting. 

monday night i fly to SF for a conference and meetings and then red-eye back on wednesday night in time for steger's nyc trip. i get a few days in NYC and then an alanta/miami trip is materializing. kevin comes and then we go back to LA for a weekend. somewhere in between all of that i turn 30. yeah. 

reflections on turning 30? ain't nobody got time for that. 

Living it up while I'm going down

Two of the three subway stops I use in Brooklyn Heights (and the two I use the most) have elevators to get from the subway platform up to the street level.

I don't like them - the stairs are much faster but you know, every now and then there's a homeless person sleeping in them and the stairs are really bad for things like situational awareness and avoiding death and stuff. Ergo - I often take the elevator.

Elevator etiquette is always a little interesting but the subway magnifies it. One of the best parts of NYC is the annominity. You're out and about, completely surrounded by people at all times, but you're in a bubble of headphones, focused on where you're going, moving past people without acknowledging they are there.

Elevators put a halt to this; we all have to wait together for the elevator car to come after a subway has let us off at the station. We stand together - not looking at each other, attempting some sort of deference in terms of who was there first and who gets on next. A judgement call has to be made about when the car has reached capacity and when we've waited long enough for stragglers that it's time to shut the doors.

It's even worse when there are only a few people. How long is long enough when the doors have almost closed several times and people are still coming? Should we all know when it's only fair to wait and take the next one?

NYC is a fascinating study in behavioral interaction but the 'elevator in a subway station' is a new one for me.