Happy Thanksgiving!

I have a lot to be thankful for this year.

I am generally thankful for being healthy, happy, and living comfortably, in an exciting city, while doing creative work with interesting people. And I am thankful for my diverse friends and family who inspire and encourage me.

I am also happy to be at a point in life where I am comfortable with my independence, but I am also at ease with social events (the very few that I get to nowadays). I am happy my for many of my close friends who have finally found the loves of their lives, many of whom are getting engaged/married.

And I am thankful that this time-sucking school life is temporary! :P

I am also thankful for customizable technology, (even though I know it's hard for you all to understand that I still do not want an iPhone nor a Wii). Today I was tinkering with Google Maps and so I created a map of supply shops for my toy-making classmates (zoom out to get a better overview):


View Larger Map

I am thankful that I can be kind of a nerd, and I have (some) friends who even encourage it instead of mock it. And I am thankful that I can indulge in toys and girly things and justify it as career research.

Now I need to get back to my homework (which I am not so thankful for) so I can go shop up a storm tomorrow (which I am thankful for) with my visiting girlfriend (the awesome one who just finished her Obama campaign gig as a Field Organizer).

And I'm thankful to live in a country that voted for Obama! Woo!

Welcome back to New York!

Congrats to Princess Tatertot and Prince Big Bird!



They threw one of the most fun and touching weddings I've ever been to, and I'm not just saying that because I was a bridesmaid. Also kudos to the Maid of Honor who designed the beautiful invitations, programs, etc. And kudos to the Best Man who did a nice job in his first time as a wedding officiant.

Aside from the hairdresser burning my head, I had a fantastic weekend in surprisingly warm and sunny San Francisco, playing tourist with my L.A. friends.



Then I took a red-eye flight back to NYC (complete with a free Great Lash mascara sample from Jet Blue!?), only to be welcomed back with a day of fiascoes:

1. The building super informed me that he had to tear HOLES in the walls of my apartment to fix a plumbing leak. Later this was determined to be the result of our faulty laundry machine which I told my landlord to replace ages ago.

2. My cable bill which should have been transferred to my name was still emailed to my old roommate, but with my name spelled as a completely crazy and unfathomable name.

3. My Canadian bank account (from my summer job) sent me a money order to close my account, but they printed my last name as "Smith." FYI, that's not my last name. It's not even CHINESE.

4. Due to the economic crisis, one of my accounts was frozen without warning, right when my advisor placed some investment purchases, resulting in a crazy-negative balance on my bank account!!

5. I still have a pile of homework to catch up on, plus unpacking to do. And I didn't really sleep well on my red-eye flight, even with the nice sleeping mask and earbuds that Jetblue gave us.

So I started to take care of some of this, but by the afternoon, I started to fade. My landlord came over to supervise the Super, because she doesn't trust him. So I just went to sleep and figured maybe when I wake up, things will be much better.

After I woke up:

1. The holes in the wall were filled, and the leak was fixed. (but they still have to paint and clean it up.) But hey, this means the landlord will finally get us that new dishwasher she promised us! (Or we will be living w/ a big gaping hole in our kitchen)



2. Ehhh I'll deal w/ the cable retards later. It's just tv. Oh, and internet. Hmm.

3. I sent the money order back to the Canucks, who promise me they'll get it right this time. (I also picked up a delicious Mocha at the Le Colombe on the way to the post office. And I discovered that I live across from an awesome photography supply shop called K&M Tribeca. And the new shoe store beneath my apartment is nearly ready to be open.)



4. My financial guy had me fill out some forms and said it'll get resolved very soon... I trust him! It'll all be good!

5. I checked the mail and got a brand new digital camera in a pretty brown color, from my brother!

And today, I got an adorable pink camera case to go with it.



Then I got my credit card bill, which was surprisingly tiny. I checked the details and realized that a chunk of my tuition got refunded! That means my application for New York residency went THROUGH!

Yep, it's true. I have a New York driver's license, I'm registered to vote here, and now I'm a true New York resident. YAY!

Oh, about that homework... Um, after some compulsive Facebooking with all the adorable wedding photo updates, I need some more sleep now. I'll deal with school in the morning. I needed my recovery time after my flight anyway. It all works out somehow.

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!

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.