Dear World,

I have a gazillion things to figure out/do between now and October 22nd. Please, please, pretty please help me make it to October 23rd in one piece. I promise to work my hardest to get my work done and find an apartment. I guess I’d be okay with a few mental scars and even a few zits on my face, but nothing too serious – like a broken arm, blindness or being admitted to a mental institution. I don’t want to be a hot mess when I see Emily 1, Megan and Peter. I’m sure they’d love me just the same, but I’d rather not press my luck. Thanks a bunch :)

Love, Deva

myers-briggs and my friends

I am a (moderate) extrovert (and an ESFJ).

Several of my closest friends claim to be introverts. I found this a little strange, especially for a couple of my friends who seem to be just as (moderately) social as I am. It got me thinking, “how am I – the (moderate) extrovert – friends with introverts? Perhaps there’s a very big chunk of introverted-ness hidden somewhere in my personality…”

Then I found it:

Yikes… That’s an extreme out-of-preference for intimacy.

I guess it makes sense now.

omg 100 (or 101)

Happy 100th post day! Well, my previous post was #100, so that makes this one #101.

Oh well. It’s still a milestone.

This might just be my first 100th anything. Okay – not anything, but again – it’s still a kinda big deal. I’ve never been able to keep up with a blog for this long. Generally, I get bored with a website then I stop writing. I guess there’s something charming about this particular instance.

My readers and wordpress have been good to me. Thanks everyone!

still tired

I’m still tired from last weekend.

I think the last time I did that much walking was while I studied abroad in Spain. I walked about a gazillion miles a week.

Yeah – so, Patrick and Emily 1 came to visit Adam and I, and it was good times. As stated earlier, we did a whole lot of walking. Lots. For hours and hours.

Unfortunately, they only spent around 36 hours here, so we had a lot of places to visit in a very limited amount of time. We didn’t get everything done, but we sure as hell crammed a lot of into those 36 hours.

The picture version of the weekend:

bienvenidos al bronx zoo

adorable pig/hogs

peacocks were all over the zoo

mama gorilla

Then:

Asian snacks

And:

crowds in Little Italy

Brooklyn Bridge

Eventually, after walking into and out of a couple of weird shops and eating dinner at an Indian place with terrible service, we made it here:

lower-ish Manhattan

I apologize for the blurriness of my pictures. Unfortunately, you have to be perfectly still to use the night shots on my camera – except the bridge wouldn’t stop shaking.

That was all on Saturday.

Sunday we slept a little later, had some brunch, then walked through about 1/7th of Central Park. At 2:30pm, we left Patrick and Emily 1 at Penn Station to return to VA/MD.

All in all, it was a successful weekend. Emily 1 visited NYC for the first time, everyone went to the Bronx for the first time (except for me – I lived there until I was 7), Patrick tried eggs benedict for the first time (and liked it), Emily 1, Patrick and I “discovered” a mouse in Adam and Ryan’s kitchen cabinet while trying to fall asleep, and the weather was great.

Hooray.

Next weekend: my parents come to visit. More good times to come.

evening commute

Between the 1 train and the 7 train, I ran into these guys (and ladies)*:

How fantastic!

I almost walked by without stopping to listen, but when I saw the massive crowd of people waiting for the 7, I knew it would be best to stop and listen before going downstairs. My favorite part, of course, was the girl jamming on the trombone. My second favorite part was the dude on the bari sax (who was also jamming).

My third favorite part was the dude who managed to put together (almost) an entire drum set on his base drum. Of course there were 2 other drummers, but their drums weren’t nearly as cool as the bass drum.

Just seeing the band kinda made my day.

*Unfortunately, they started playing something way cooler as soon as I had to catch the train. Lame.

lessons learned.

I waited until the last minute to get this application on the website. That was a really bad idea, and you can bet it WON’T happen next year. I’ve learned my lesson.

My head was in a whirl all of today. There were so many things to do. Somehow, I managed to leave work at 6:45pm with the important things done. I stuck with the September 17th deadline and THANKFULLY I didn’t get any phone calls from people wondering when the application would be on the website. That probably would’ve driven me crazy.

Sorry – this post is fairly vague. If you really want to know, I work here. We just launched another round of applications for our fellowship. I can’t wait for the avalanche of phone calls to begin.

Actually, I can.

Do you have any idea how many people don’t believe that my name is really Deva? I hate introducing myself over the phone.

the gym, for my brain.

Just in case you were ever curious about my intelligence, here’s a little something you should know:

Yep. My brain age is 20 (the ideal age). I’m awesome.

lazy weekend

I haven’t written in a while because I haven’t really done anything blog-worthy. My life right now goes something like this:

wake up at 6:15am, leave for work at 6:45am, get to work at 8:50am, work until 5:30-6pm, get home at 8:50ish, eat dinner around 9:30pm, watch some tv while gchatting, sleep at 12:30am.

How exciting… except not at all.

Last Friday, I broke away from my dreadfully boring daily ritual and had a mini dinner party with Adam and Ryan. Adam made chicken biryani (from scratch – none of those rice mixes) and it was tasty – and spicy.

I’m not a huge fan of really spicy food, but the biryani was manageable. Since Adam made dinner, I agreed to make dessert… so I whipped up a cookies and cream cake (also from scratch).

Well, it wasn’t the prettiest cake, but it was pretty delicious. I’m no Ace of Cakes or anything, so don’t hate. Ryan mostly sat around. He was kinda sick, so it’s probably best that he wasn’t making any food. We ended the night with Smart People. I only gave it 3 out of 5 stars. It was kinda depressing.

Then yesterday, we just roamed around Manhattan. Adam bought an ipod touch and I was jealous. Today I did work. At home. It was a lazy day.

Wow. What a weekend. I hope I’m ready for the craziness this week will bring…

At least Emily and Patrick are coming to visit next weekend. I’m REALLY looking forward to that. It will be awesome.

condo, co-op, or rental?

I need to leave the state of Connecticut. My daily commute to NYC is at least 2 hours each way and I spend well over $300/month on transportation. 

wtf.

Here’s the deal. My dad really, REALLY wants me to buy a condo in Manhattan. Or maybe Brooklyn. One of those 2 places. Anyway, I’ve already told him that I’m absolutely not ready to take on a mortgage and take out a loan for $100 gazillion to pay for it, but he doesn’t care. He believes that if I properly budget the (very) small amount of money I make from my nonprofit job (as well as take out loans), I can afford a condo. 

At the same time, I’ve been constantly checking craigslist to find inexpensive places to live in Manhattan (with roommates). So far, I’ve been successful – there are plenty of rooms available for under $900. This is much more agreeable with my salary. 

And NOW, I’m beginning to learn about co-ops. I’m still not 100% sure about what they are, but it doesn’t hurt to do research, I guess. 

So, basically I’m open to suggestions/comments/anything on the best way to go about this. I can’t see myself spending more than 3 years here in NYC, so yeah. My head has been swarming with all kinds of information, but I have no idea where to start. 

blarg.

i’m a mess

I went to Starbucks this morning. I feel like a bad person.

I wouldn’t feel so bad if I hadn’t gone to *bucks twice this past Saturday… I thought I was having a caffeine headache, but it didn’t go away after my first caffinated beverage. So I bought another. And it still didn’t go away…

What a waste. I had a for-real headache, but Starbucks got $6 out of me. Fantastic.

I promise not to go again for a really long time. I swear.