Anti-Tsunami

So I went to NYC this weekend and I had such a blast. It’s less liberal, more commercial, way more racially integrated (and refreshingly so), smaller, and safer than I remembered. And, more poignantly, I felt so intangibly at home there. I think part of it is that my painfully tremendous craving for legit Indian has been satiated.

I left DC early, and took the Washington Deluxe bus, a $17.50 alternative to the Chinatown bus, that travels between NYC and DC.  The bus was grotesque, in terms of amenities and clientele; no aircon, and a melange of hideous people: hygeinically and/or ideologically . To my left, there was a woman sucking on lots of chicken wings, with a tremendous amount of phlegm, who ordered 2 orders of Nathans fries, doused in K, which she ate with one of those little annoying fry forks. To my right, another woman who was all up in my Kool Aid. She fell asleep and put her hand on my thigh. I finally had to pretend I had something I needed in my overhead bin to get her hand off of me. I wasn’t traumatized. Also, there was a snorer and someone with a flatulence problem. It was just bad news.

On the good ol’ Jersey Turnpike, we passed a tractor-trailer which was fully in flames (and surely the driver died) and some frat brother yelled out "sweet." How appropriate. Made me appreciate the people on my Israel trip. Is the world just getting worse?

On the trip, to escape the situation at hand, I finally read Coetze’s The Lives of Animals, c/o of Joshy Marcus, which I much enjoyed. Though it didn’t make me vegetarian.

When I arrived, Priscilla was the consummate hostess. She picked me up at the bus and took me to her lovely, edgy, little, apartment-behind-a-photo-studio. We ate late night Indian near her "Curry Hill" home. And we took a 50+-block whirlwind tour, with kombucha in hand, of the East Village (with its little japanese restaurants), Greenwich Village (where we watched incredible street performers surrounded by hoards of crunchy hippies and hipsters at 1 AM), Grammercy, Chelsea, Murray Hill, the Meat Packing District. It was amazing how things had further gentrified in my two year absence. One neighborhood flowed into the next with incredible energy and promise. By the end of it,  at 2 am, my feet were blistered and worn.

The next day I woke up, and Priscilla had left me a beautiful note with a Metro card, and I went out and explored the Union Square farmers market (nice, but no Ferry Plaza or Pike Place), and the Street Fair on Park Ave. I shopped until I dropped at Daffy’s and other places (and found so many cool stripey work shirts, I had to stop myself), and ate the BEST FRIKKIN PIZZA EVER. God, if they opened this place, San Francisco couldn’t take it. The sauce/cheese/crust made me believe in love.  It was what pizza is supposed to be.

Later on, I met up with Pizarro, formerly Wendell in the Village. I saw the place where I started hating ketchup — the Slaughtered Lamb. We went to NY’s Martuni’s counterpart, the Monster. The accompanist thought and I sang and got so much attention — people asked to take pictures with me! I felt so cool! I also ate a banana at the bar and they didn’t seem very happy. Afterwards, Pris and I ate yummilicious kathi rolls on Bleeker and MacDougal, and another slice of pizza, because one wasn’t enough.

We then went to Erica’s amazing rooftop party. The breeze, the food, the company (include Susan M from Law School) was all just perfect. I had such a nice time and everybody looked great.

The next day, we had brunch, shopped, I took home DELICIOUS pakistani food from this place Naimat Kada. NY’s Lahore. Delicious I tell you. YUM!

It was just a perfect weekend. I felt so revitalized and so at peace. Because I was so happy in SF, I had forgotten just how much I loved to NYC, until this trip. New York embodies such an interesting compilation of memories, from birth and childhood, to high school, to choir tour, to when Ruth and I went for Spring Break, to Law School. NY is ***almost*** like home to me. I plan to go 1 x a month. So, if you’re there and want to see me, let me know. NY is somewhere I should be planted at some time. Perhaps some time soon.

The bus back was way better. I ate the delicious Pakistani food at the rest stop; the best food that rest stop has ever seen. (I was too embarrassed to eat it on the bus, odor-wise, recollecting to the chicken wing sucker woman.) The aircon worked and a nice unobtrusive guy sat next to me (who I bumped into on-campus today) I read another book - Friendship: An Expose. Interesting stuff - mainly about this hyper reflective guy who feigns modesty. I feel like I might turn into him one day.

PS: Today in DC was so oppressively hot, I thought I was going to melt. It was like 100+ degrees.One day, it was drizzling and so humid that I could not tell the difference between my sweat and rain drops until I tasted them. Yucky.

No internet at home…yet. So, I’m going to keep this short and snappy and stream of consciousness.

Loving the new job. It’s great. My new work environment is just beautiful — apart from students. It’s in an old mansion and my new office is very masterpiece theatre; it has a big brass chandelier, and a fireplace. People light fragrant scented candles. All we need are scrolls and pens with feathers at the end to play the whole thing off. My co-workers are really community-oriented; we eat lunch together, visit each other all the time, and scheme — I love it. My Assistant Director is particularly wonderful. (Another Russian Jew - first all my friends were South Asians, and now the Russian Jews. Interesting trends.) I am particularly enjoying working for a school (GW) whose graduates are so proud to have attended here. I am excited to meet political figures like Wolf Blitzer, Cokie Roberts, Colin Powell, and Mark Warner. Also, I am enjoying paying taxes less and less. I’m almost taxophobic.

My apartment is great. It’s all furnished with beautiful furniture (sans a sofa; i just purchased one on overstock.com, http://www.overstock.com/?page=proframe&prod_id=1909949 and am excited about it). My bed is so comfortable I can barely wake up in the morning. And it’s in the most central location, walking distance to everything. 

I joined Netflix for the second time in my life thus far and am not using it again. I’ve been super busy. Eating too many salads and sandwiches, which is the fare here. After numerous attempts at suitable Indian, just found a Pakistani place, Mehran (which I was pointed to by a cabbie) nearby and really liked it. Other places I’ve enjoyed food-wise include: Amsterdam falafel, Coppi’s organic pizza, Gifford’s ice cream, and Lauriol Plaza (I recognize how cheesy it is and don’t care). Last week, I checked out Whole Foods and loved it. Bought canvas bags, and turkish figs, greek yogurt, cherries, cashew butter. Eating it all and loving it. Also, I’ve been taking my vitamins. I am missing my chiropractor - hard-core. But, my gym is awesome - and yoga starts very soon. Need to check out Eastern Market.

I’ve become a psycho about ironing. I never thought that would happen. I spend about 30 minutes a day ironing.

I bump into people pretty much every day; one day I bumped into 4 people in one day. I bumped into Anne Hardenbergh, Ereni Roez, Julia O’Donohue (who I also bumped into in South Beach), Mike Helfgott, the list continues… I feel like D.C. is one big college campus.

Visitor-wise - I saw a blast from the past, from Amherst, Karen Kohn (hadn’t seen her in 13 years), and Mary Brevdo and her brother Eugene, who is a great kid, came up. We saw Belle and Sebastian and I felt hella old. Tom and Merinda also passed through on their move to Seattle.

Socially, this is the land of the happy hour and the dinner party. I have no objection to this, except that I am probably drinking too much. Last night we went to a happy hour after work and I got dizzy after two citron martinis. Of note, the other day Kitty made me excellent, and I mean the best, turkey burgers ever. I am going to teach her how to make meatballs next week. Megan Newell and I attempted try #1 of butter chicken - we did it in two batches - the first ended up tasting like a West African stew; a good one. We did two key things wrong. So, I am going to re-attempt. I recognize this is a year’s long skill to develop.

I’m having a lot of fun. My expectations weren’t super duper high. And, it’s not San Francisco in a lot of ways. But, everyday is just dandy. I don’t really have a "group" out here, but I’ve been creating some ad hocs, and it’s going smoothly.  My busy-ness is the reason I am not taking advantage of Netflix (that and the absence of a couch). I have seen and would like to spend more time with so many people, including Mercer and Ellen. But, I guess we have all the time in the world. Made a really good new connection - with Erica Laudano’s buddy - Jennifer.

I found this incredible independent movie theater here (at 11th and E) - heaven (student discount rate is good). In addition to seeing and liking An Inconvenient Truth, Jennifer and I saw a really life-changing movie called Islam: What the West Should Know (Which only played for 3 days in Atlanta, Chicago, and DC, apparently has FBI agents in the audience, and elicited very strong reactions in audience members). It’s definitely propaganda, but very powerful conservative propaganda; a sober "primer" on the Nation of Islam.  The premise is basically that Islam is inherently violent, expansionist, deceptive, and fundamentalists are the only ones living a true Muslim existence. Some of the depictions were downright disturbing, like a machete-wielding crazy man who suggested that he planned to chop off every jew’s head that gets in his way. Scary as hell. This movie really challenged my PC-ness/relativism, in that their evidence corroborated with a lot of information I’ve heard before. I need to probe the facts a lot more before I develop a position, but I’ll admit that I am a confused cat right now. It was like Fox News, not on crack. The best counterexamples I have heard are the witch trials,  the crusades, slavery, and guantanamo bay.

The humidity is not as treacherous so far as people had suggested it would be; I am considering purchasing a bike; without hills it seems feasible. But, my assistant director had her’s stolen right after purchasing it. D.C. is a far more violent town than San Francisco. People don’t smile as much either. I have met many women with large gold earrings indicating their zodiac sign, which has allowed me to "break" certain people. I heard this really disturbing story about this 27 year old dude unloading his trunk in Georgetown last week. Tried to succomb to the assailants’ advances, and his throat was slashed. The assailants included a woman and a kid; they were found eating at Wendy’s right afterwards. Horrific.

Travels: I am headed to New York City this weekend (it’s been well over 2 years since I’ve been: 2/04) - to Erica Laudano’s rooftop birthday celebration and shop (DC shopping lacks), and eat Albanian pizza. Also, headed to Kentucky for Elizabeth Cooke’s wedding in August, and back to SF for JIll and Chris’s nuptuals in September. Not sure if I’m going to freak when I go back because I love it there so much. I think I’ll realize how happy I am here when I go back there. Funny how I think my reactions are separate from my logic.