Who remembers every dress you ever wore

The weather has been terrific, but if it weren't for other people mentioning it, I don't think I would have noticed. What with working 9-10 hour days (comp time for traveling to NY), school, homework, boxing, playing music, and spending (and waiting to spend) blissful weekends with my wife, my time is swept up. It's a weird feeling. The biggest problem with this is that I still need 7-8 hours of sleep a night, so I'm feeling like my time has been eaten up. Since I'm either too tired or have too little time to reflect (which I think I mentioned earlier wasn't doing much good anyway), the days fly, sort of. I want a freaking vacation. This swept-up life seems interminable, or something, I really don't feel in control at all.

Eh. Elisa and I are planning to visit some museums this weekend (she gets in free to most because of company perks), and she mentioned something about some place that had great belgian fries. I think we'll also head out to NJ to visit the ever fun Mitsuwa center, and eat some really yummy ramen.

I go to classes, but I don't wear my glasses

I started grad school this semester. The course I'm taking is spacecraft thermal design. Right about now I don't want to go to my stupid 2 1/2 hour class that starts in about thirty five minutes. What the fuck am I thinking. Where do all the people on the planet get all their energy from? So many fucking people take classes and work full time, or work two jobs, or are just working non-stop, why can't I have some of their energy? I'd love to go home and spend the night reading 'In the Wilderness'. I love me some Sigrid Undset, I've started and stopped so many books lately, finally I found one that's kept my attention.

The golden age begins

It's been an exhausting weekend, but the wife is pretty much moved in to our NY apartment. We're still lacking a few things, namely a more comfortable bed and a dining table. We're thinking that we might do it Korean style, with a futon on the floor and a low coffee table to have dinner cross-legged in the middle of the studio.

Alicia Keys filmed a video right under our apartment window. Evidently this kind of thing happens alot. I've heard the song before, Unbreakable? I don't know much about Alicia Keys, but I was surprised to see that she was no skinny model; she was thick thighed and filled out.

Anyway, yeah, New York. So many pretty girls, and so many expensive jeans, purses, and watches. You know, I'm not falling in love with it. I feel a strong knee-jerk reaction to it, actually. I'm thinking that if I do end up living there, I'll sport denim shorts and bright hawaiian shirts, and wear a timex. Or maybe I'll just dress like I do to work, buttoned-down plaids and relaxed-fit jeans. Your fashion doesn't look that cool multiplied a million times! I've had enough of your faded shirts and processed denim! I especially hate your aviator glasses!

I'm the luckiest guy on the upper east side

That's a slight change on the Magnetic Fields song. I'm in our studio in the UES in NY right now. It doesn't make me very happy; a weekend relationship is not exactly ideal.

Alas. NYC is intimidating, I must say. I know my way around the DC metro area pretty well. It's home, and despite it's size, I can get around. There's a song by Seam called 'Little Chang, Big City', and that's just about how I feel. Man, New York is huge and I'm tiny, I'm a fucking insect. People also talk weird here, I find the New York accent overly harsh and unpleasant. Also, I don't feel particularly poor in DC (though there are some rich fuckers there), but in NY I feel poor and unhip. Stupid NYC. What's so great about this city, anyway?

I say that, but when I was about to enter the Lincoln tunnel from New Jersey, I got a chance to enjoy the Manhattan skyline. It's a gorgeous city, simply magnificient and amazing. It has a pulse, or energy, or something. I can't really explain it.

Anyway, I dunno. Maybe I'll feel better tomorrow.

'Give Up'

Search For Self Called Off After 38 Years

If this doesn't hit the nail on the head, I don't know what does. Coincidentally, I was thinking this morning of how futile navel gazing really is. Just give me my bourbon, world poker series, boxing, and UFC, and my evening is packed!

Naked as we came

I'm sitting at work, staring intently at the screen with my headphones on. 'Naked as we came' starts playing, and it makes me miss my wife pretty badly. I haven't heard this song in a while, so it's almost like hearing it for the first time again. I miss waking up next to her in a tangle of sheets and blankets. I miss her.

She says wake up, it's no use pretending,
I'll keep stealing, breathing her.

Party at ground zero

I've been reading up a bit about buying real estate in NYC. Despite the unbelievably high median price (~750K) of apartments, there are quite a many studios in lower Manhattan that are selling below 300k. Now that my wife will be working there for the foreseeable future, owning a small apartment doesn't seem terribly out of line. We still have to do a bit of research. Maintenance costs for some of these apartments are phenomenal ($700+ for a 250 square foot studio?!?), and apparently many of these co-op apartments require 20 percent down. Another thing is, what differentiates a co-op from a condo? I have some experience with cooperative living (I lived with a friend in the Greenbelt Co-op), but I'm not certain what the drawbacks are. Well, I suppose a big drawback would be the fact that I probably couldn't rent out my co-op, or treat it as an investment property.

Anyway, I'm not sure how realistic it is right now. We don't have an abundance of cash, though I could conceivably refinance my current mortgage to prepare for buying in the future. Ugh, we'll see.

***

Life goes on and on, and the grand experiment of a long distance marriage commences.

She missed the last train to Mars

Cool project I'm slated for

I'm not a hundred percent certain what I'm working on, though it sounds pretty esoteric and narrow, having to do with testing the precision of sensitive optical mirrors. Optics is a good field to have more knowledge in, so hopefully this'll be a good experience.

You know, I complain about my job, but I have to say that there is something cool about pursuing knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Of course there is something specifically pointless and galling about a lot of the 'pursuit of knowledge for the sake of knowledge blah', but I'm thankful at least that I'm not developing the newest smart bomb, though my id finds something extremely cool about that as well.