Sunday, September 23, 2012

Things I'm Learning

This last weekend has been, shall we say... eventful. There was some shit with someone in a position of authority, and there was a panic attack, and there is still a lot of freaking out and wanting to go home going on.

But!

I am choosing to try to focus on the positives. And I'm learning things now, about what kind of person I am/want to be, the kind of person I do not want to become, and the kind of people I have surrounding me.

Positives:
1) Calling Mom always helps.
2) Hearing about Brother's ridiculousness also always helps.
3) Even if I don't believe him when he's telling me, I trust The Boy when he tells me everything is going to be ok. And I appreciate him for dropping everything to just be there for me when I need him.
4) The Boy and Superman are awesome, awesome friends, and I seriously could not have gotten through this weekend without them. They blew off a hike that they had been looking forward to to help me with my stuff, and didn't get mad or defensive when I displaced some anger/frustration/panic/general unpleasantness on them. When I tried to protest the cancelling of their plans, Superman turned to me and said "I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to [The Boy]. Now be quiet and let the men speak." They take really good care of me, and I can't appreciate them enough.
5) I get to look forward to having dinner with The Boy's parents tomorrow and Superman's mom next weekend. Not quite as awesome as it would be to have dinner with my parents, but a close second. It's nice to have parents around, and it helps me feel less homesick.
6) No matter how bad this gets, it won't be the end of the world. Things will go on, I will find something else to be successful at, and the people who love me will still love me. I asked, they promised.
7) Skyping with Bestie is awesome, even when the internet connection sucks. I am so proud of how brave she is.

So anyway, I have a lot of shit to continue to take care of now, so I should get back to it. Remember to be mindful of the way you treat people and be mindful of the way you allow others to treat you. Focus on the positive, and cultivate a strong support system. Do your best, because that's really all you can do.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

The Center of the Universe

Last month, The Boy and I went to NYC for his brother's engagement party.

It was pretty cool.

The Boy's brother works for some sort of real estate hedge fund thing (I'm still not sure what he does, exactly, but it involves buying malls and office buildings and stuff), and his fiance is a lawyer. They have this really cute apartment (with an actual bedroom with a door that closes!) in the West Village (which is not the same thing as being on the West side of Greenwich Village) and lead such fabulous (albeit, busy) lives and I must admit I was more than a little jealous/insecure hanging out with them and their friends. They have such cute clothes and do such glamorous things and eat at such wonderful restaurants and, well, I am poor and live in the city (town?) that I live in, and let me just say, it isn't glamorous, even a little bit.

While we were there, we stayed in SoHo (it means South of Houston St, which I had never known before), which meant we did a lot of shopping  looking at things that we couldn't afford, like the cute D&G cocktail dress I found at some sort of Last Chance store for $300, or the Italian shirt the boy tried on for $100. It was nice, don't get me wrong, but it was a button down. Not exactly worth it, in my opinion, but it was fun to browse, minus the parts where I was dismayed at how poor I'm going to be for years and years to come. I told my dad this, and he was like, "No, that's like thinking you're fat when you're pregnant. You're not fat when you're pregnant, you're just pregnant! And you're not poor now, you're just a student!" I don't think he's quite right there, but whatevs.

We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where we saw some pretty cool stuff. The boy and I quite enjoy going to museums. It makes us feel cultured. There is one downside... he really likes modern art and I really, really hate it. I think it's really ugly, and have some sort of visceral, disgusted reaction to the celebration of random squiggles. I was able to convince him that we could go to MoMA on a different trip to NYC... unfortunately, I'm pretty sure he's going to hold me to it. After the museum we wandered through Central Park (it's huge!) and I was disappointed to learn that Central Perk is not a real place.

We also ate some amazing, amazing food. The night we got in, we went to this Italian place that was near their apartment, and everything was SOOOOOOOO good. So delicious. Like heaven in my mouth. We also got the requisite bagels (delicious) and pizza (delicious), and the best tacos I've had in America from this taco truck. I really wish I could remember the name--I think it was "[Some Neighborhood (I think it was the one South of SoHo)] Taco Truck. Super delicious. We also ate breakfast across the street from our hotel in a very Seinfeld-esque diner that was fast, cheap, and also, pretty delicious.

We also got to see a show off-Broadway, which was pretty exciting. We went to a discount box office called TKTS, which sells tickets to Broadway and off-Broadway shows for 30-70% off face value. We had several options, but the available Broadway shows were all things we were unfamiliar with, and since tickets were $90-100 a piece (that's half off!) we decided to see Newsical, which we were told was "Fucking Hilarious" and "a million times better than Avenue Q" (which was the off-Broadway show that we were planning on picking if the Broadway stuff didn't work out). One of the reviews said it was basically The Daily Show set to music, which it was. It was pretty funny, but not "fucking hilarious" or "a million times funnier than Avenue Q". I still enjoyed myself, though. Next time we go, we'll need to see a show on Broadway, though.

It was a really great trip, and I'm glad we went. I really like the amount of traveling that The Boy and I get to do together. It's nice to make all these memories and have all of these adventures.