Yay for Snow Days!

Last weekend, I had my first snow day! –meaning, school gets cancelled because it's too snowy and cold outside! That was a novel thing for a Californian like me. I got to stay in my PJs all day and watch the pretty snow fall outside. And I even enjoyed the snow on my windowsill, even if it only really lasted for a few hours.

Of course I also had to take advantage of the snow days for some much-needed rest and play time. Friday night, I went to dinner and an avant garde John Zorn concert with my cousins. The show started with a quartet, including a harpist, vibraphone player, electric guitar, and double bass. It was a little reminiscent of Combustible Edison's lounge music, or a sort of retro tropicalia sound with a touch of surf rock, which I quite liked. The vibraphone player was very animated and had hair like The Muppets' Beaker, which made him especially entertaining.

The second part involved Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson (credited in the show as "The Lovers," which apparently they are in real life) reciting romantic Jewish poetry with a chorus of four women as accompanied music. That was really unusual and interesting, but for some reason, I hate to admit: I got super sleepy. Maybe it was the low, soothing quality of their voices. At the end of the show, I saw Lou Reed standing about three feet away from me as we left the theater lobby! Afterwards, we went to Good World, (a Swedish bar/restaurant) where I enjoyed an Elderberry cocktail and way too much dessert.

When I thought the night was over, I went home, only to find that my roommate was hanging out with three of our friends, watching cable tv. (BTW, I told them I saw Lou Reed, and one of them said that he didn't know who that was. Sigh.)

So of course with my arrival, that turned into an impromptu Karaoke Revolution & red-wine party, even though my throat was still healing from a cold. That probably wasn't wise, but it was definitely fun! (BTW, my roommate and I highly recommend the Merlot by "Independent Producers".)

Saturday night, I found it very peculiar to be wearing a mini-dress and boots, under a big puffy coat, walking around snow! I joined some classmates and friends for drinks, dancing and late-night diner food. One of my classmates met up with a cute boy, who kindly paid for all of our diner food, supposedly because we were all students. I think it was more to impress my super-cute classmate, and I think it kind of worked. (Except, that super-cute classmate is spending spring break in Paris with another boy.)

I wasn't thrilled with the house music at Cielo, so I almost pushed to go dance some more at Sway, where they have poppier tunes. But my younger classmates wussed out! But then I also realized it just got way too cold when we left the diner, so I went home around 3am.

Sunday night, I attended a tiny Oscar-watching dinner party. It dawned on me that I had never been to an Oscars party, which is strange, given that I'm from L.A. –Even more ironic: this may well be the year I was least aware of the movies (having been trapped at school for the last six months). I hadn't even heard of any of the foreign film nominees! The only Oscar nominees I had seen were "Juno" and "Persepolis." But now I can say I have friends who worked on an Oscar-winning film!

Kudos to Grace, Geenie, and Erich, who prepared the most delightful dinner, involving: blood orange martinis, blood orange sangria, some-kind-of-artichoke soup, blood orange salad, polenta, pork w/ caramelized onions, and ice cream with home-made chocolate truffles (made from Green & Black's organic dark chocolate)! Amazing.

Also at this dinner party, I met a guy who sometimes DJs at Cielo. I also met an Interactive Designer who briefly worked for the same manager I once worked for at Yahoo! Plus, she graduated from and taught at NYU's ITP program, where some of my other tech friends went. (She said they were instructors when she was in the program.) Also one of the party hosts works for IDEO, and of course he knows the few people I know from their Palo Alto office. Small world.

***

This weekend, we won't get a snow day, but my usual Saturday class got bumped to Sunday. So... I might actually work in time for a date with an animator, who seems to have a lot in common with me. That might be great and all, but I am concerned about developing a habit of meeting great guys three months before I move to another city. (—And in this case, another country.)

But my voice is still hoarse (from a cold that started over 2 weeks ago!), so I don't know if I should go on a date in this condition. Actually, I sound a lot like my roommate's normal voice now, which is kind of sexier, so I guess it's kind of fun. Except if I go on a first date like this, will he be disappointed later when my voice returns to its normal, squirrely, 7-year-old, self?

(Side note: my roommate and I are slowly turning into each other. I got her sucked into tv shows, like "Weeds" and "Make me a Supermodel", and I am growing out my hair to her length and now my voice sounds like hers.)

Either way, I'm making a point of going to see Michel Gondry's "Be Kind, Rewind" art exhibit tomorrow. Now I'm just debating between seeing DJ Jazzy Jeff perform tonight at the Museum of Natural History, or catching up on homework. Hmm.

I told my classmates about the DJ Jazzy Jeff night, and one of them responded with, "Isn't that guy old? He looked old when he was on 'Fresh Prince.' Like thirty-five or something."

Somebody, please shoot this kid.