Quickie "I <3 NY" Tidbits

Before I get into my tales of Toy Design school, here are some fun NY moments of the last week:

• Getting asked by Rob Corddry (of "The Daily Show" fame) to watch his laptop at the local Starbucks


• Meeting a tv writer for "30 Rock", a writer of a new book about art & knitting, and a film curator who works for Martin Scorsese, at my cousin's party (The film curator told us about how he sometimes gets mistaken for some kind of celebrity food critic, and it dawned on me that he was, indeed, the doppleganger of Jeffrey Steingarten, who I've often enjoyed watching on "Iron Chef.")


• Getting days off from school for Rosh Hashanah!?


• Karaoke-ing at Winnie's, a funny little dive bar in Chinatown, right around the corner from my apartment. I went with four of my friends, and we realized that we were the only Asians in the whole bar.


• After a late night of drinking and singing at Winnie's, the Crasians wanted to get some food, and somehow we ended up at a "Chinese" restaurant called "69." This was the most Americanized Chinese food I had ever seen, because I could hardly recognize the food choices. One of the Crasians just gave in wholeheartedly and ordered Egg Foo Young & Egg rolls.


• Going to book-signing at a Chelsea Art Gallery, for a book about the new wave of knitting art, where I met a sculptor/part-time E.R. physician who turned out to know my brother from when they worked at the same hospital in Chicago (!?!?)


• My doorman greeting me by saying things like, "If I had a red carpet, I'd lay one out just for you," "It's like a dream come true," and "Did you notice how the lobby got a little brighter when you arrived?"


• Catching up with Dubbledubs and my original ex-boss from the old days of Yahoo!, over food and drink in the East Village. We ate at Momofuku and then drank some more at a hidden little bar called Angel's Share, where I enjoyed a delicious peach-flavored sake, and my ex-boss randomly broke a stem glass (either because he doesn't know his own strength or because he had one drink too many)


• Stumbling upon the Kid Robot store and picking up a "Smery" (stinky tofu) doll.

And as a side note: It turns out that the missing box and magazine rack from my move --they weren't missing at all. I thought the wardrobe box in the hall was my roommate's, but in fact it's mine. Yay!

Happy Rosh Hashanah to me.