Subway Celebrity Site-ing (the best kind in NYC)

I saw Arvind Sloane (aka Ron Rifkin) last night on the 2/3 heading north from Wall Street. He looked like himself - there was no wondering ("wow he looks an awful like Ron Rifkin") - by golly it was him. Of course, I was questioning why he would be on the subway and only until I left and went back to the world above did I realize. It was sweltering out as in - it was the humidity! - humidity so present, you could cut it with a knife. A downpour was ominous. The city had that electricity that as a ten plus year resident you usually yawn about when people mention it - but this was real. I didn't quite get it until I got into a cab (the place to which I was traveling to - Chelsea Piers was too far from the subway to warrant me going on the local to 23rd Street and then getting on the bus or [gasp!] walking). We went one block and then we stopped. And we continued to stop. Traffic my friend. Traffic so thick you could cut it with a knife! And then as we were moving ever so slowly the entire 9 blocks and two avenues - those clouds continue to threaten and they threatened so much that the cats and dogs began coming down. It was one of those scenes where even if you have an umbrella you are still soaked. Oh did I tell you I didn't have an umbrella? Anyway, the traffic, the clouds and the eventual rain means the Hollywood man I saw on the subway knew exactly what he was doing.

And that, dear reader, is why your friend and Sydney Bristow's enemy, Ron Rifkin was on the subway last night.

I am sensing a pattern here

Too bad the cool kids aren't updating blogs once a month - because well, then, I surely wouldn't be talking to you!
So, a month later and certainly a month wiser. (see post 3/26).
What if someone wrote a blog and nobody came to read it? I think that is the experiment we (as in me and you) have going on here. But what if someone wrote a blog about everything that happened to them in a single day - every thought, every move, every movement. Well, I am sure there are blogs out there like this. I can barely tell you what happened in the past month without leaving some huge thing out.
For starters, I had a job interview and that is still in process, I took three midterms, completed one paper, and started on three more. I also had Spring Break and break I did. I totally broke down the days after my sister left for London. To live there! The exclamation point is two-fold. How awesome for my sister and for me that she lives there and how much does it suck at the same time?! Ah, the dichotomy that we call life. We, as in the philosophers of the world.
Last night's marketing class was one of the best all semester. A blogger - in some circles the world-renowned blogger - Steve Rubel - was the guest lecturer and I learned some things I needed to clarify. I won't mention them here simply because they are so basic in the blogosphere and it would show too much of my green-ness. As if the once per month post doesn't do enough of that already!
But this morning it made me think of perhaps the obsolescence of many things - primarily a masters degree in business. Maybe instead of school I should spend my time updating my blog and figuring out who I want to reach (aside from you dear reader) (hello? hello? anyone out there) and why. But really there is no "instead of school", I am in school (school is in me?) and when I am out of school I can spend all the time I want thinking about blogs. For now, it has to be limited to this - the scraps defined as whatever I am thinking at the moment though there is so much more than the moment sometimes. Ah - but is there?
And also limited to this.

A month later and a month. . . wiser?

Well, a month has gone by and in fact I didn't feel the doomed emotion I had predicted on the night of that quiz though I did feel a bit doomed when I received my poor grade the following week after the professor returned the paper. But now, post quiz and post a midterm (one which I hope helped bring up my grade) the doomed feeling is long gone. The reason? Grad school is not about the grades. Just being here is enough. Ha as if just being nominated (as in for the Oscars) is enough. Not such the case for Brokeback Mountain which at the beginning of the month lost Best Picture to Crash. (No comment on the fact that while Crash was a movie I like it was in no way of the caliber of Brokeback or Capote either for that matter) My votes for the 2006 Oscars would NOT have looked like what came to pass aside from Best Actor. That was Phillip Seymour's to lose. Which he didn't. Nice job.
So my ballot might have looked something like this.

Best Actress Felicity (although I think I say that only to be contrarian because Reese was fantastic, great voice, great spirit etc. but as another web poster had noted (who the hell know where I read it?) she played the part of a real person - which when considering the "art" of acting does not take as much talent/wherewithal/(insert your own word here and please, have it make some sense with the rest of the sentence) than playing a person who is a character on a page (in a book, etc) as Felicity had only the authors idea and creation of "Bree" and "Stanley" to work with.

Best Supporting Actor: Jake Gyllenhall or Paul Giamatti (I simply could not vote for George Clooney - on my imaginary ballot since I haven't yet seen the performance. The reason for my Jake Gyllenhall vote has everything to do with my upcoming vote for Michelle Williams. Paul G - well I am just a fan and would love the anti-Hollywood guy (aka Pig Vomit) to win. And you know what - he is a fantastic actor and was as he always is fantastic in the role. Oh and he as robbed (robbed!) from even being nominated for his performance in American Splendor (yes, based on a real character interestingly enough).

Best Supporting Actress: Michelle Williams. Let me first talk about Rachel Weitz. She was great. I love Tessa. I love the idea of a Tessa. I actually love the name Tessa and after seeing the movie definitely wished my name weren't so close to Tessa as I would love to name a daughter Tessa. But it would be too self serving and too much like I was naming the poor kid after myself. Not a good way to start what will already (by virtue of familial situations and just how things turn out - see Deborah Tannen's new book about Mother/Daughter relationships) be a loving yet tumultuous relationship, I am sure. (let me just add here - I am not pregnant and do not currently have a daughter.)
Now where was I - Rachel W was very good in the role but in a Rachel W way. She seems to be the same in all her roles. The good one. The virtuous one in a humble way. Ok in Shape of Things she was not humble. She was not the good one but she had an air about her that everything she did was the right thing even if it didn't seem to be on the outset. So, basically she kind of annoyed me in the movie.
And Michelle Williams played a role with few lines so well. Her facial movements. Her eyes. Her tears. Her non-tears. Wonderful. So, the reason Jake would have to also win is a movie about homosexuality could not solely have the actress playing a straight character be the only award winner.

Best Screenplay should have gone to Dan Futerman from Capote. That is all I have to say about that. And it was the most interesting entertaining movie I saw all year. That's strong writing.

Best Movie - Plain and simple - I do think it should have gone to Brokeback but not because Crash was simple in its look how complicated the world (aka LA) is way.


So now, how I ended up on my Oscar ballot a full three weeks later, let's not try to figure out but let us try to figure out how to end it?
How about with the Christina Applegate anecdote? (So odd - Oscars to Christina Applegate - aka Kelly Bundy?) I like the non link merely for the non linked ness about the topics.
So - basically "The Play is Over" is the way I want to always remember this story.
It was Harley's bday party at Sortie (51st btw 8th and 9th) and Christina was there. After two Green MarTEAnis I was not leaving without letting her know I was a fan. So - I informed her (she with the seemingly crazy eyes) that she was the best thing in "The Sweetest Thing" (well, her and the denim patched jacket she wore in the final scenes). She said Thank you and then I said - good luck with the play and well, the play is over as she told me. BAAAA! Well, good luck anyway I retorted. Take that!
And that is the story of why you don't talk to fake celebrities at 1 am on a Friday night/Saturday morning.

Deferred entry

Tomorrow is the first grad school quiz I will ever take. After I take it I am no longer new to grad school, I move from the newbie stage to the beginning to be jaded stage. The been there, done that stage. I am ready. For the quiz, that is. At least I think I am and well, there is no way to know until about 7:30 tomorrow (class starts at 7:35 pm). That is when I will either start feeling nervous/doomed or just nervous. Let's hope for the latter.

I am also ready for the been there, done that stage. Sometimes newness can get old. Although so far in the past four weeks it hasn't. I like the new schedule. The new people I am meeting. The new library. And the new swimming pool. Definitely one of the best perks of school. Who knew?

Tomorrow night post quiz should also be interesting. For another test I am going to take. To be continued. . .

You say snow. We say souffle.

This, and three others like it, was our weekend's work. It was tough. But we did it. (It wasn't that rough and I knew we would do it.) What I didn't know was we'd do it on the same day the city would have its largest snowfall ever! (24.9 inches in Central Park.) My goodness!

(and here's
the link to the recipe for the souffle in the ramekins.)

I said it.

It's not that I don't want to make a difference. I know I have and I know I will continue to. But maybe I don't want to be special or make something of myself. Maybe I don't want everything that everyone else wants. And I don't mean for me. For me, I do want happiness and I do want companionship and I do want shelter, food, and a great handbag (still working on that). But maybe I just want to be ordinary. I just want a job that I can go to everyday and be productive. I don't have to change the world. I don't need to. The world is the world is the world. And maybe by my NOT striving thriving to change it it will in fact continue to be what it is. With its ironies and its poetries. Its wins, its losses and its tragedies. Tragedies like someone who is not ordinary trying to be.

Sure, I know exactly what you mean

Today was orientation. I was getting oriented to my new status as a student of graduate school. There was a semi-interesting Keynote Speaker. An alum of the college. And here is the one single item I jotted down during his whole presentation.

Net Present Value of Future Cash Flows at appropriate Risk Adjusted Discount Rate.

That is all I wrote. Or should I say, that is all she wrote. I am wondering if I knew what it meant when I wrote it. And I wonder if I really thought that several hours later I would STILL know what it means. How optimistic of me.

Maybe in two years, when the program ends, I will know exactly what this means. Maybe I will. Maybe I won't. But I know, either way, it will be worth it.