Crunch Time!

It seems I may be revamping my summer plan a bit. It looks like I won't be taking that grand trip to another country before school starts. I know, it's sad.

But I promise to make up for it when I graduate. Right now it seems too over-priced (and humid) to go to Western Europe like I hoped, and I wasn't able to find someone to go to Costa Rica with me, because most of my friends just went there within the last year. And the rest just don't have vacation time or can't leave town in late July.

(--Unless someone out there offers to be my Costa Rica travel buddy. Airfares look good for it right now! Anyone? Someone?)

But this may be just as well, because I haven't yet pinned down an apartment in New York. So I may decide to leave San Francisco sooner, like end of July or August 1 to stay with my NY cousin temporarily while I find an apartment!

Well, this way, I can spend the remainder of July, enjoying more of being in San Francisco, refining my home-karaoke system, finishing my homework, and gradually preparing for my move (selling most of my furniture, car, and a third of my clothes & junk). And like KT said, going to NY is kind of like one giant vacation away (unless I end up staying there).

I've been apartment-hunting in NYC for about 3 days. I have 6 more appointments tomorrow. There are interesting prospects, but nothing so far seems like the perfect combination of features/ location/ safety/ quiet/ neighborhood-feel/cost. It seems there are near-good places, but each one has its one random thing that's just a little off... so hopefully I'll find something that feels more fully-well-rounded tomorrow.

Anyhow, I don't think I'll realistically lock down an apartment this week. I've been targeting Chelsea, Upper West, Midtown, and I looked at one Greenwich apartment. I was amazed by a brand-new high-rise luxury building in Midtown, a block from Madison Square Garden, but the neighborhood is a bit manic, and I don't think there's a lot of affordable restaurants nearby. It's a bit pricier than what I hoped to pay, but the amenities are fantastic (in-unit-laundry, gym, glorious city views, eco-friendly design, valet/concierge services, 24/7 doorman, etc.). Also I still have to sort out if my roommate and I will even financially qualify! And then someone else pointed out that there's a PAROLE office right near it. Hrmm.

If anything, it's been interesting to see the variety of apartments available. It doesn't seem quite as hopeless and scary as I thought, but maybe I'm just a bizarre optimist that way. My friend Dubbledubs just moved here last week, in temporary housing, for work. When I told him what I had seen so far, it kind of made him worried about how he would find a good place.

Well, I better go get some rest now, before my last day of manic apartment-hunting in 90+ degree weather! Wish me luck!

The 10 BFF Factors

It has occured to me over the last year, that there are common themes among my very good friends. If you basically can identify with the following 10 BFF* factors, you can pretty much almost guarantee being my new best friend.

1. Food-lover:
You enjoy all kinds of food, cheap and expensive, various international cuisines, raw, cooked, meaty, veggie, carbs, seafood, cheese, desserts, etc. and will even venture into things like stinky tofu. You love to try it all. And you feel sad for people with food restrictions.

2. Karaoke-enthusiast:
You like a good melody and you're not afraid to let it out, even if it is KC & JoJo, Fergie, Tupac, or Hall & Oates. And you've probably scoped all the local karaoke venues.

3. Dancin' fool:
You've got rhythm & moves, and you don't have to wait for others to get on that dance floor; well maybe a drink sometimes helps. Bonus points for knowing how to pair-dance, as in salsa or swing.

4. Parappa the Rappa:
The combination of animals, rap, cuteness, great illustration, bizarre humor, and a cleverly designed video game pretty much puts you on cloud nine.

5. World explorer:
You've visited other cities and at some point ventured into Europe and Asia. And you want to see more.

6. Rushmore:
Yes, Max Fischer was kind of a jerk. But you love him anyway. And Wes Anderson. And wasn't that soundtrack fantastic?

7. Shoe freak:
You've got good shoes. You probably have a variety of them --maybe too many, but you certainly don't mind.

8. Color embracer:
You're not afraid of color in your wardrobe. And when I say color, I mean, beyond gray, black, white, blue, and beige.

9. Nerd love:
You are in some way, kind of a big nerd. --Maybe not in a totally awkward way (anymore), but you likely get really obsessive about certain topics, and maybe you're a little embarrassed by this, but you can't help it. It keeps you humble, anyway. Maybe it makes you delightfully strange. Or you have probably have dated some nerds. I guess they tend to go hand in hand.

10. Maker-folk:
Whether or not you are a creative professional, you have a craving to make things, like food, photography, pillows, jewelry, cards, cross-stitching, RFID-based stuffed toys and the like.

Those are my BFF factors. What are yours?

* "Best Friends Forever," for those who have forgotten their Junior High school days

New York, New York, it's a helluva town

It's strange visiting New York right now, knowing that I'll be moving here in August. I don't feel the pressure of having to go see the sights. This time I'm actually enjoying just being in the environment and figuring out the strange irreglarities of the subway system.

So far, I'm loving the warm 80-degree weather that lasts way into the evening, the diversity of people, and the bustling activity that exists through every part of town.

When I say "diversity," I don't mean just ethnicities, but I also mean their ages, styles, and the industries they work in. I am staying with my cousin, the psychiatrist, and his wife, the filmmaker. We had dinner with his friend, the writer, and my future roommate works in the insurance business. My classmates come from various educational backgrounds, ranging from Biology, Illustration, and Fashion. None of them work in tech, and I find that to be rather refreshing. As a creative person, I crave this kind of diversity in perspectives and inspiration. So I'm looking forward to living here for school.

I've been kept pretty busy with my school workshop this week, in perspective-drawing and marker-drawing classes. We've had homework, and even after today's last class, they assigned us homework to work on over the summer. I have to design three more toys and color a 3-d shape in markers to practice my blending/shine effects.

But in my free time, so far I've visited Pinkberry two nights in a row, eaten some tasty ramen with my ol' college girlfriend, walked in the rain at night without an umbrella, pigged out on Korean food with ex-coworkers, played with a friend's two little daughters while walking up 5th Avenue, gone on a sushi-&-drinks date on the upper west side (I know! I haven't even properly moved here yet, and I got a DATE!), and gotten lost on the subway (I have to pay more attention to the local vs. express trains).

Today, on my last day of the school workshop, my class had a picnic lunch on the rooftop of FIT with the dean, one of the Toy Design graduates, and one Toy Design senior who was at an internship with Fisher Price. They have all warned us that the program is crazy-intensive, and basically I won't have a life outside of school. Hrmmm. Well, if I'm not going to have a life, at least I'll be busy learning how to design TOYS!

Okay, I'm off to go meet my future roommate in Central Park, in my purty summer dress in this beeeyootiful weather.