Look with your eyes, not with your hands.


Such a minute fraction of this life do we live: so much is sleep, tooth-brushing, waiting for mail, for metamorphosis, for those sudden moments of incandescence: unexpected, but once one knows them, one can live life in the light of their past and the hope of their future.



A grad student muses on her life, film, friends, politics, reality televizzle, and music.

 
If all days could be the good ones.

I just had one of the best birthdays in recent memories - which says quite a bit, because I approach this year (22) with a bit of reluctance and can't help but say it's the end of an era or something. Since I was a little kid, it might be argued that all I ever wanted to be was old and maybe now, my wish is coming true. So 22, the end of 21 and the last exciting birthday (perhaps ever?) on the calendar, and I am making my way as an independent and slightly more mature grown up.

Yesterday John and Nates surprised me with two awesome gifts - the MoMA design store salad spinner that I've been pining over and my 6 train subway tshirt. Such great presents and it just made the day more special. I started off late in the morning and met Abby for lunch at the Cooper Hewitt. We sat in a great European cafe on the Upper East Side, had "civilized" open face salmon sandwiches and gabbed away as we managed to avoid a passing rainstorm. So nice to see her. The evening, as planned, brought me and some pals to Andrea's long-reccommended "The Coffee Shop" in Union Square for Brazillian food and some lime-rum-sugar drink that I couldn't pronounce for the life of me, but I'd gladly have it anytime. It was described as what the Cubans fucked with to make a mojito.

Post dinner we went into the postmodern, voyeuristic paradise that is the remote lounge. I should have found this bar a long time ago and it's about two blocks from my office. Well, it just so happenned that it was 2 for 1 night (fun). So you go in and sit down at a Jestons looking-computer board. The bar is wired with tons of cameras, and from your seat, you can flip between cameras, move them around, and then if so inclined, pick up a phone and talk to someone else in a different part of the bar. Oh, so much fun. i loved every minute of it. Then, if you are sick of treating the place like a meat-market / .com style - you can flip to the program channels that alternate between new media art works and films - and last night's film - get this - "Farewell My Concubine" my first Chinese film. It was magic and perfect and I am so glad to have found this place at long last. We left before it was terribly crowded and took the train to Westchester, watched a little skinamax and hit the sheets. Such a great birthday, I am willing to turn 22 whenever.

Today is low-key and it just needs to be. Laundry, air conditioning, made rattatouille and pico de gallo, rented movies (Lord of the Rings, Amelie, and I am Sam). Hit CVS and had film developed - very colorful photos from the intern party, oh my, got some new nail polish and cards to send to my friends in far off lands. The New York Times is here and just waiting to be read. Lately I've come to realize how wonderful my friends are - but every now and again, I need to recharge by myself, not comprimise my daily plans or what I want to have for dinner, and in general, just have enough of interest and substance to give back. The perfect thing right now is to be in a cocoon of good feeling and knowing that NYC will be a very far place in just under two weeks.
posted by lmjasinski at 4:20 PM