Gender-benders, Star Wars, and Ira Glass

I am just about recovered from a cold. I am also mentally in a daze, because quite a lot of remarkable things happened over the last couple weeks, including (in chronological order, and thus also revealing my "secret project"):

1. I heard a great episode of "This American Life," (well, it's also a bit sad--) called "Quiz Show." They interviewed various puzzle/quiz show competitors, including a guy who competes in the annual MIT Mystery Hunt. His puzzle-solving team is called, "Dr. Awkward" (You get points if you notice something interesting about that name).
   
   So I recommended this episode (on Podcast) to my friend who is big into puzzle competitions. Within a few days of hearing this episode, he just happened to meet one of the Dr. Awkward team members!


2. I met a very knowledgeable hermaphrodite, who likes to garden and tinker with her (his?) computer system. (What did you think I was going to say?)


3. I stayed up all night, finalizing toy design drawings and a portfolio for a college interview in New York.


4. I flew to New York and showed up at the interview, with about 6 hours of sleep over two days.


5. I entered what I thought would be a 1:1 interview, to discover a classroom of applicants, sitting alongside still-life arrangements of toys. We all drew toys for 30 minutes, for our drawing test.
   
   (After three straight days of constant drawing and coloring, my arm was about to fall off, from pain.)


6. One of the applicants looked like a very feminine woman, until she (he?) spoke, in a somewhat low voice. And I think someone called him "Doug."


7. As I observed some Illustration students debate whether Lando Calrissian was played by Billy Dee Williams, it dawned on me that perhaps a third of these applicants were about a decade younger than me, and that I was probably the 2nd oldest applicant in the room.


8. At my 1:1 "interview," I showed my work, and they didn't ask me any questions. Otherwise they seemed to react positively.


9. I nursed a hangover after dancing in NY Chinatown until 4am with three of my girlfriends: one from college, one from last year's SF training hikes, and one from work. It's great to find my different circles of friends merging together!


10. I found myself laughing at how cold it was, and how unprepared I was, as I walked to the New York MoMA in falling snow. I was in a miniskirt and open-toed shoes (and leggings, but no socks), walking in falling snow. Luckily I had a hat, coat, and gloves. (It wasn't snowing when I left the house!)


11. I discovered that with a California ID, you can get an 11% discount card at Macy's New York (resulting in a fantastic celebratory Tokidoki bag purchase, after completing my college interview)



12. I joined a group of coworkers to see a one-man show of Star Wars at the Post Theater in SF (It was very amusing, except I wish I had seen the movies recently, to have fully understood what was going on.) The Canadian actor, Charles Ross, has been doing this show for five years, and he also does a one-man show of "Lord of the Rings"!


13. I got a call at 6am from the Toy Design college, informing me that I'd get a letter and email. (They keep thinking I live in NY.) I dragged myself out of bed, to check my email. It said that the faculty is recommending me for acceptance into the program! (pending my transcripts and general formalities) --woot!


14. That same day, I learned that another team would be stealing--er, borrowing me at work, thanks, in part, to some pies. I didn't even get to have any of this pie, cuz I went home sick!


15. As I started to figure out my plans to move to New York, I pondered the idea of purchasing an adorable red-and-white VW Vanagon, for a road trip across country, like some kind of "Little Miss Sunshine" fantasy.


16. I discovered that they're making a TV show out of "This American Life"! And Ira Glass looks much cuter (in that totally nerdy Jewish way that I love) than I remember! (But he's old and married and in Chicago. Oh well. Did you know that he's related to Philip Glass and had a bad breakup with comic artist, Lynda Barry?)


17. Today, I met one of the guys from the Dr. Awkward team. He was visiting from L.A., AND get this: he attended the New York Toy Fair, where he was promoting a game he designed about "CSI."


18. It was 77° in San Francisco today, and I drove with the convertible top down. Beautiful.