Intoxicating

I decided last night while laying in bed that this place is intoxicating - Manhattan. I get swept up in it, and I feel like life is all fun and happy. Which is great except for the fact that one shouldn't really *always* be drunk :-). I do need life to settle down at some point right?!

Watching another Mets game - in the 10th inning again! Go Mets!

One more thing - I don't know if you are reading this or not - shoot me a comment so I know who is reading :-).

So today was another good day. Went to work early, but contrary to normal I really do enjoy the mornings and being out an about in them. It's just that whole lack of sleep thing that sucks :-). I picked up a muffin at a street cart in Harlem on my way in today - a big muffin for $1. That just made me happy - muffin on the go on the street! Took the train - nice public transportation. But it took around an hour and 15/20 minutes total to get from door to door - think I'll definitely do a carpool next week :-). Worked a couple of hours - mostly setting up - then joined my fellow interns at an IBM BBQ! I keep meeting a lot of HCI (human-computer-interaction) researchers which is interesting to me. One girl came from a psychology background to study the social impact of the internet on people/society. Interesting - I wonder if I had been exposed to this field if I would've pursued it. Met more people living in Manhattan - one in my building! Got invited to a bday celebration in the city tomorrow night at a local bar - yippee! Friends :-). It was a warm afternoon, but I can't believe how people complain here over 92 degrees! Sheesh :-). They had all these little games - I did play shuffleboard, but mostly walked around. Finally got back to the office around 3:30 and then had to leave again at 5 for softball!

I enjoyed softball - I really thought of you Christine! It really is a fun team game, and I got back into playing 2nd base. I can catch and throw though I'm rusty. I'm not the best at bat though. But Westchester, NY is beautiful - really green with lots of big trees. It felt like summer and I was happy to be out. Although our team name was NERDY - The Bytecodes... (eye roll). But yeah - I want to go hiking out there sometime - it is pretty. It's funny the dichotomy of the city versus the burbs... and either you are one or the other totally!

I got dropped off at the train station. Decided to talk home when I got back into Harlem - so I walked through Harlem! Although the sun was up and I walked a major street - and I felt totally safe, though I get starred at and I feel minority. Sometime I'll have to go to a soul food restaurant, although I think it's a lot like Southern comfort food. But actually when I got a bit more west, I saw cops on several street corners - someone is actively trying to keep things safe I think - especially around Columbia which has a beautiful campus! There are some beautiful churches here too... I am collecting restaurant names as I go too - found a couple of Ethiopian/African places (Mom!) and a neat Haitian place I want to try. Of course there's the Hungarian pastry shop too. And a billion pizza, deli, Italian and Mexican places. So fun to walk :-). But it took me about an hour the way I went :-).

So another fun day - low key. Tomorrow is more softball and also the UWS (upper west side) birthday thing. Should be fun! I'll try to unpack a bit and not be so intoxicated :-). It takes time - I swear! I don't want to go through withdrawl!