Week #10: Less than 5 weeks left? Really?

Apparently, I didn’t take any pictures this week...just to warn you that my blabbering will be uninterrupted this time ;-)

Last Saturday Lisa and I went to the Lower East Side to see a band called Walk the Moon. I had never heard of them but they’re from Ohio and Lisa has been listening to them. Having seen a lot of college bands, I wasn’t expecting much, but they were pretty good!! Then we hung out in the LES (yes, I'm cool enough to abbreviate it). It's known for being another "hipster" area like Williamsburg, but a cooler hipster area apparently. Oh, the social complexities of the city never fail to amaze me...

Sunday I finally tried this place in Brooklyn called “Arepa Arepa” that I’ve been meaning to go to for a while. An arepa is a Venezuelan sandwich with a corn pancake-like shell with stuff in the middle. I got one with white cheese, black beans, avacado, and honey plantains. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think it was the best non-dessert food I’ve tried in the city so far! The mix of the flavors was soooooooo delicious. If the place weren’t in such a sketch area and so far away, I’d probably eat there multiple times a week!

Sunday night was UCB once again, and it was a crazy-awesome UCB show—I can hardly believe I saw it for FREE! Amy Poehler (SNL), Seth Meyers (SNL), Jack MacBrayer (Kenneth from 30 Rock), John Lutz (author and also in 30 Rock) Bobby Moynihan (SNL), and John Hamm (Madmen) were all doing the sketch comedy this week (along with a few other lesser famous but very funny regulars). Pretty incredible! Side note on life: Jack MacBrayer is my new hero—so funny! And I brushed past him after the show…yay!

Monday and Tuesday were not that exciting. I was starting to feel restless Tuesday night because it’s been getting dark before 5pm (blegh), so I decided to walk along the Hudson almost all the way down to Battery Park again like I did a few weeks ago. Then I realized I didn’t bring my metrocard, so I walked all the way back to 29th street. I walked for two hours, more or less. It was good though because it certainly cured my restlessness. Plus, it was an extremely nice night and the city looked beautiful.

Wednesday I sat in on a CLMP (Council for Literary Magazines and Presses) meeting for one of my bosses. The point of the meeting was for some big-time publishing professionals to instruct all the smaller avant-garde ahhhhrists (the prolonged syllable is necessary in this case) how to market their books more effectively. I felt a little out of place, but I took my notes like a good little intern. I also found out that afternoon that I got tickets to the Tyra Show!!! Heck yes! I'm going with Anna, Fallon, and possibly someone else (extra ticket for any NYAPer who can get work off and wants to go). The taping is a week from Monday and it’s for TWO episodes—double the Tyra fun! I can’t wait to see what the topics are—hilaaarious.

Thursday when I got to work, I found out Ed Sanders from the Fugs was stopping by to meet with my boss. The Fugs are known for being a fairly influential pre-punk band. Ed Sanders also ran a literary magazine and helped bridge the beat and hippie movements. My boss described Ed as Allen Ginsberg’s “mentee” of sorts. This is almost a direct quote: “Ginsberg was a mentor as much as anyone could mentor someone on how to be a beat-nik. ‘Here son. Here’s some weed. Go smoke it.’” Anyway, Ed was a cool guy—very gracious. He introduced himself, talked to me about a famous musician he knew in Prague named Charlie Soukup, and after the meeting, he went out of his way to find me (I was doing some filing) say goodbye, and wish me luck on my writing—like I said, very gracious. He also referred to Allen G. as just “Allen,” and I eavesdropped while he told stories of his days in New York. Some of which included Burroughs and other such characters.

Tonight I went with Amanda to a Bikram Yoga class. WOW, it is INTENSE yoga. The classes are 90-minutes long, and they keep the studio so hot that I practically started to sweat as soon as I walked in. I don’t think I can explain the ideology behind it that well, and I’m not exactly positive what it is anyway—probably something about detox and clearing the mind and all that jazz. I do feel quite good now, even though toward the end of the session I started feeling as if I was going to throw up. Participants in the class are allowed to stop and rest, but they can’t leave the room except for emergencies. I only had to stop a couple of times for a moment, so I think I did pretty well considering it was my first yoga class ever! I’ll probably go a few more times before I leave…it’s quite the experience!

In other news, it's getting colder and the mice of NYC are taking refuge in 305. Today I saw a mouse in our ROOM! There have been mice in the basement and kitchens, but I think this is the first one in a room. Agh! We cleaned everything and haven’t seen it since, so hopefully it’s gone.

A bit of good news before I get some sleep: I was selected for a second-round interview with City Year! The interview is this Thursday at the New York office, so wish me luck! I’m sure I will write about how it goes next time.