Jenn: the nomad

First of all - a shout out to my Mom - Happy Birthday!

So before I report recent activities that apparently make all my readers tired, I'm going to explain why I'm a nomad. It might be Mom's fault. But here we go. I know you have told me that I exhaust you with all my travels - that you can't keep up with where I am. It's not that I like the travel (who does with airports/airplanes these days?), but I like the places. I'm an addict, really, and I got some of my Mom's need to see everything. I don't quite understand it - why I can't just let some things/places/activities go. That's what Naveen would do. But really - I've been thinking about it recently - is it a fear of missing out on things? I don't know. But it's a big part of why I plan. What I really am passionate about is roaming - experiencing new places, new things, new people. Why do I have a thirst for the different, for the new? Why can't I enjoy a routine and getting more done and comforts of home. Well, I can, but knowing me I'd change it up pretty quick. Maybe I'll settle "down" later. An intern said something interesting the other day - we were talking about whether any of us had been on stage. The answer, if yes, was always "in high school and middle school". In college, especially in grad school - who has time for it anymore? You only do it if you are REALLY passionate about it. That struck me as interesting - do we just do everything when we are young, then grow up having found the things we really like and doing just them? And we have less time... Well, I'm not done exploring yet - in fact, maybe I can term myself an explorer. Travel is what makes me feel alive. The only problem is that a lot of it is cursory, surface-level. Naveen prefers to live in a place to really know it, not just visit for 2-3 days. Another thing to balance.

And along the same note - I find New York wonderful, and still unknowable. There are just TOO many things here to know, to feel familiar. Maybe a subset can be familiar - the things you are into. Portland felt so much more knowable. And Austin - I miss Austin. People definitely have flare there. I heard someone here say they hated the chains moving in - taking away the small corner deli or individual family store. But I would never imagine a slogan such as "Keep Manhattan Weird". But there you go - maybe my not being able to know Manhattan really has to do with me wanting to know a sample of EVERYTHING about a place. I don't want to miss anything! But it's impossible here. But I do love this place - this alive place. Everything is tangible, and everything makes you feel part of it - to a degree :-). Just walking my 3 blocks to the subway, passing churches, a grocery store, my favorite pizza store (well, their garlic knots are the best - except for my breath), a fruit stand, a deli, picking up a paper on my way down the subway... Living in the city - you are part of it just walking out the front door.

Which reminds me - Naveen went to our farmer's market (just outside the door) this morning and loved it :-). Yay for that! And I came to work obscenely early with my new carpool girl, and worked out and showered here. Ok not obscenely early, but I have to leave at 7:12 from my place to meet her. And she routinely works 10 hour days here. But I don't even want to tell about the better-timed carpool that is run by an extortionist manipulator. Sigh.

But the rest of the 4th of July was splendid - the run in the park made me happy. More cityscape - I'll have to take pictures one day. Then we saw the new Transformers movie in the theater - it was neat! We liked it - Naveen was like a happy little boy :-). So yes, it was cheesy and the characters and plot left a little to be desired, but it was entertaining and cute and the robots were very cool. The action - computer and human together - was done very well. So yay. Then we walked across town to join the throngs waiting hours for fireworks. We got pizza along the way :-). Happiness. I have some cool intern friends. We were on the upper deck of FDR with a great view of the East River and the barges that set off the fireworks. We even waited through some rain to see them finally a couple of hours later. So the fireworks were pretty awesome - saw cubes, hearts, smileys, planets, fractals, champagne fireworks. We saw stars and stripes that were awesome - they actually had stripes sort of hover high in the air on parachutes or something because they stayed there for several minutes! And there were awesome ones close to the water that reminded me of flowers - there was a center, then a trailing cone behind it. But they would shoot up a ways, then shoot back down, then shoot back up and continue oscillating. Sorta different. The only problem was that we missed some of the fireworks, and the effect of the finale because of the extreme smoke left in the wake of the previous fireworks. It really obstructed them entirely! We were unfortunately up wind of other other barges... But a fun night - we made our way across town to get home. Of course getting out of the area was hard - it took about 45 minutes to go a block because we ran into tons of people, but after we integrated with traffic again, we sailed home. Some of the interns mentioned the crowd was sort of sedate - no singing or hollering or anything. We pointed out it was still a weeknight...

So yeah - good times. The excitement of Thursday was that I found out I can get US Open tennis tickets through IBM!!!! I was so excited... The tournament is the week before and after Labor Day and we can even ride the subway to it. It's a life-long goal of mine to go to a major tennis tournament! So holy cow. So through some of Naveen's friends we have an opportunity to go to Belize over Labor Day weekend and scuba dive. I'm totally excited about that, too. See me, with the doing of all things? So we are doing both of course - we'll just go to Belize for 5-6 days and then come back for the tennis tournament - we got tickets for 9/7 - we are going to see the women's semifinals for only $40~ per ticket! So excited! We are going with some other intern friends - I've found that although events are really fun and important, people is what makes it. People are awesome, and I've met some cool ones up here - they make everything better. These random opportunities - they aren't just about things/places - they are about PEOPLE which is just so much better. Ah, life, and the human experience.

So here I go - struggling on, adventuring on. It already will be a great weekend...

P.S. More later on alternative careers, the American way of "working is everything", and where I fit in :-).

All-American 4th of July

Happy 4th of July and Independence Day! I'm excited it's the 4th.

Last night I did the all-American thing and went to a Yankees game with friends! It was lots of fun - we ate hot dogs, soft pretzels, sang the anthem and "Take Me Out To the Ballgame". Very American :-). They were playing the Minnesota Twins, and although 2 out of the 8 intern group that went were Twins fans, and the Yankees have been doing horribly lately, we won! We left in the middle of the 8th inning and Yankees were up 8-0. We even saw a home run! It was great :-). We were in the bleachers, but after the sun got out of our eyes - it really was a great view of the field. And nice day - nice temperature. All-in-all fun. I liked Cano - he was good at bat. And we came away with a souvenir cup and a little helmet with their logo on it (it held ice cream :-)).

So I had been feeling sick all day - my stomach was bothering me then I felt a little feverish and light-headed at the end of the day, so we basically went home and crashed. I think my body was telling me to get some sleep! And it felt good to just sleep in today - I think I slept close to 12 hours - woohoo! Feeling better...

Now Naveen and I are planning more American activities while I'm off work today - going to see an afternoon movie, then going to join large throngs of people for hours to get a good spot to watch fireworks this evening! I'm excited :-). Oh yeah - we will run in the park first because we love that.

I keep hearing more things to do here and I'm going crazy! Hope I can do most of them and feel like I've experienced this place, but I probably shouldn't worry :-). Yes I've been pondering a lot lately - about planning and anticipation and trying to fit everything in and not miss anything and variety (trying new things everyday) versus doing what you know you like/being more stable... and what are you passionate about and what is a researcher and judging versus being inclusive. And even Manhattan being a special magical place with tons of new opportunities, or it being just another city with a few individual traits, but basically offering the same as other large cities. Too much pondering. It's usually Naveen that brings these things up, but not always, but it hurts my head to question myself all the time - or hurts my confidence. So rather than focus on all those today - I'm going to go enjoy my day off with Naveen :-).

Happy 4th!

Finally home

Had a good weekend - more low key than previously :-). We did end up going out and meeting up with my friends at a club in midtown - it was really fun! The DJ played great hip hop music, and we had some fun drinks - I enjoyed a B52. My friends were fun - Naveen got to meet a bunch of people from IBM. But wow, were the Europeans (after being influenced by the crazy CMU guy) totally crazy and really drunk! How weird... But we danced and generally had fun - took the subway home at 2am and felt very safe!

So another sleep in day - I needed it after this week! Someone was going to come fix our leaking sink from 10-11, and they didn't get here until 3pm - bummer! But we got settled in - did more unpacking and organizing and it was really nice to feel more settled in. After the fix-it man came, we went for a nice run in Central Park! I love that place - it feels so alive to me. We passed some beautiful fountains, a concert, hoola-hoopers and of course other exercisers, people chillin in the lawn, and kids playing. We went the RIGHT way this time, and actually found the 4 mile loop which was nice. Running feels good (when my knee isn't hurting) and I'm proud of myself for feeling I could go even farther!

So this evening we went out to find dinner - we happened upon a Turkish restaurant we had seen before - called Turkuaz at 100th and Broadway. The reason I'm giving you the info is that I'd highly recommend it!! We loved it - it hit the spot. I've been wanting Middle Eastern food, and I definitely got my eggplant kick fulfilled (I've been loving eggplant lately). But this place was awesome - had great atmosphere - Turkish rugs, antique-looking lanterns, and clothe was draped everywhere so we felt like we were in a tent. We got some wonderful dishes - zucchini pancakes, a cold eggplant and peppers and garlic and tomatoes fried concoction, yummy bread, and a lamb specialty with okra for our meal. Plus I got pomegranate juice, and we got authentic baklava and real Turkish coffee for dessert (which apparently you can't drink without a little bit of sugar at least! - strong stuff). Everything was divine, and brought to our table very fast and promptly. The second we finished anything, they took the plate from the table, and were very on top of maintaining our table and refilling water. The wait staff was all very personal and nice. Just a great night out! Very satisfying :-).

So we walked around a bit on the way home, and stopped by the grocery store! Very exciting to actually stock up on some food, and be prepared for the week. Now we actually feel like we live here :-). Things are getting more normal and routine, and as Naveen says - we have some time here, and I don't have to worry about missing out on things because we will always do things we enjoy. So settling in feels great :-). I really feel like our apartment is home, or will be for awhile! Now - to get ready for Monday and another day at IBM...