Summer in New York

The plane ride home was...just kind of delightful. Nothing really went wrong except that Dickyi got her knife confiscated in kuwait. It felt like a really short journey back. In new york, we just got out and hopped in a cab and we were back. as soon as we got back we went to Dickyi's brother's apartment, but no one was home so we dropped our stuff off at a neighbor's place across the hall.

Entering this neighbor's apartment was my first encounter with a western home after being away for awhile and it struck me as freakishly clean. I mean, it was clean, even by western standards. But to me it was so glorious. I kept saying how clean it was, how clean it was. I think they were semi weirded out.

After we got back to the apartment (and discovered that in fact there was someone home) we went, on my request, to go to laundry. I mean I just brought my entire duffel to the laundromat. Why not. I could have stood there and watched my clothes get tossed and turned in that glorious way in which clothes get cleaned. I was like that's right rinse cycle, you mix those up real nice. That's right, you sud those up and subsequently throw them around the machine and then drain out that dirt. You drain that dirt right out. Is this making anyone uncomfortable? I could have stayed there for the whole cycle, but we walked around instead and got snacks and icecream. We caught the last part of the washing and the drying, which was also glorious because I love dryer-fresh clothes.

While I was folding my clean, clean clothes, dickyi was like "look at your ridiculous face" because I was beaming with laundry-induced joy.

wow. Ok, the next day we rested and watched friends and walked around manhattan. The next day we found out I couldn't attend action camp as previously planned because I 1) have never been to action camp before 2) am not protesting at the beijing olympics. So i had to find somewhere else to stay for three nights. I know a handful of people in the city, but I wanted to see my friend sheel, so I called him up. The bonus is that his apartment is right in manhattan at 96th and 3rd. That's right by the park and right by the shopping on madison and fifth and and right by the met and other museums. So i got to hang out with sheel and ivan, and ivan's friend dave who i'm really glad I met and, by default, sheel's other, incredibly white roommate and his incredibly white girlfriend. So white I thought about asking them if they also attended prep school in connecticut.

I got to go shopping and to the met, which was really amazing. I really enjoyed it and i think that means i'm growing up because I found museums pretty boring before. sweet. I met up with like everyone--amy and I saw danny and peter ross and peter's girlfriend one night randomly when i went with sheel to dinner with them at peter's place. Me and amy met up with danny and sheel one night for hookah and ended up in williamsburg at this harvard guy's place. random, but cool to see williamsburg.

I met up with sumi and tom, sumi's boyfriend and his friends one night for drinks and then sumi and i had dinner with doug, another hotchkiss friend. Great to see them. I saw sumi and doug again on saturday night at 230 fifth, this really nice rooftop bar. that night i went out with sheel, ivan, dave, and savi and we first went to this bar taj which was really beautiful and packed with harvardies.

Met up with jennifer one night for dinner and then the next day i met up with sarah and jennifer in the east village for brunch at 5A, which was good and cheap and apparently frequented by the hot guy from entourage. We went back to Jennifer's place and talked about people in middle school who have gone crazy.

Who else...I got to see Tim and Lindsay and Justine one day at brunch and that was great. We were supposed to see more of them, but it just never happened.

Hm what else...hit up the natural history museum on monday, which was great. Oh,sunday after the east village I went to lincoln center to meet up with sumi and tom to see a movie about a coke lord, but it was all sold out so instead we decided to go out to dinner. Tom knows this friend who is a huge foodie and can pretty much navigate you to a good restaurant from anywhere. So we found this restaurant called "Mozart" and the food was AMAZING. Really delicious. Afterwards, I went to Union square and met up with dickyi at the sft office for an sft party. it wasn't really a party for me since I was falling asleep, but the sleep was good.

All in all ny was such an awesome time and I felt good because sometimes it's hard to meet up with people you haven't seen in a long time..it's really draining. But I saw everyone I had intended to and had a good time with everyone. all the friends I've kept in touch with have kept it real so it's not all awkward like it is when someone tries to be cool or whatever.

i feel like I multifisted new york such that each of its orafices contained a corresponding one of my appendage. What I don't feel good about was that I totally forgot my sisters birthday whilst all this multifisting was going on. I felt like such a douche. Also when I was on the phone and realized it (because my mom told me) i couldn't even talk for a long time because the elevator had come and we were going out. douchey. then I talked to my cousin when she came to pick me up from the airport and she said that she forgot my sister's birthday too. Apparently the day before they were hanging out with my mom and my mom was like "i have to go get noodles for tomorrow" and erica was like wow I guess yeeyee just has a hankering for some noodles. didn't pick it up. Didn't pick it up when my sister called her twice on June 23rd and was like "hey erica, feel free to come over for some noodles". Finally erica answers the phone and is like alright i guess i'll come over. She saunters in like it's a fast food joint and proceeds to shovel noodles in her mouth, asking for seconds and thirds and also drinking all amounts of soda and intermittently consuming dumplings. Finally after she sauntered into the bedroom, she realized, from the giant bouquet of flowers, that it was emilie's birthday. my poor sister. we're going to make it up to her.

boston was great--got to hang out with dave, ryan, jackie, and of course, the last of dickyi :(. It was sad saying bye to dickyi and I am really going to miss her..have gotten used to her company and I feel like Ive gotten to know her so much better and I just feel miles closer to her than I felt before, which is pretty damn close. We agree that it'll be easy to stay good friends after this. I hope so. The good news is that I'm not afraid to stalk my friends and force them to keep in touch with me. I feel so lucky to have found someone so chill at Harvard. In the cab ride to the airport we were like how did two such chill (translation:ass-lazy like nobody's bi-ness) end up meeting each other and befriending each other at a school like harvard? pretty sure we're lazier than like 98 percent of the general population.

I'm back in toronto now, and I'm just waiting now to meet up with Tanaz, who's coming back from a cottage visit. I'll spend tonight with her and then tomorrow I'll head to ottawa to be with the fam.