Election Day is my new favorite holiday

some other stuff to say but who really cares right now because 

YES WE DID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you are always in my heart and on my mind

I am starting to do research for the documentary I will be shooting in December. I am going to make a documentary about the Protest Easy Guns (protesteasyguns.com) movement that was started by a concerned citizen in Northern Virginia after the Virginia Tech shootings.

Reading the stories and watching the videos, I have to say---this is going to be a tough project to get through, but I'm doing it for the right reasons.

It feels good to care about someone so much that it makes you care about some thing so much.

The difference between great people and everyone else 
is that great people create their lives actively, 
while everyone else is created by their lives, 
passively waiting to see where life takes them next. 
The difference between the two 
is the difference between living fully and just existing.
-Michael Gerber

the soul searching has begun

i think i put it off for a long time, inadvertently or accidentally, but it was put off and now it has begun. maybe because i am alone in more ways than one, i am in a new city, in a place i have always wanted to be and feels like the right place to me. maybe because i am doing what i want to do all the time, there are no more distractions. maybe because everything i want is so close, so graspable, becoming more plausible in reality and in my mind every day. in any case, i am changing or trying to change or thinking about how i have changed but haven't quite noticed it yet.

i'm remembering how to have fun again. i'm learning how to slow down and relax. i'm trying to fight off this shaking leg i've had my whole life, or at least understand what it means. i'm trying to eat better, sleep more, and interact with people. i'm trying to be balanced and healthy. being busy is not fun and not fulfilling, even if you are accomplishing and achieving a lot. being at the top is great but it gets lonely fast, as does the climb to the top. it feels great to find something you are decent at but know you can get better at with time and to know that you will be happy just working towards getting better at this one thing. i am learning that not reading every book, seeing every movie, or traveling to every place is not going to make my life poorer, but not taking the time to enjoy the one book, the one movie, or the one location will. it is the quality of the moments, not the quantity.

i am learning not to do things i don't want to. i am friendly and giving and kind but am learning to speak up when i feel taken advantage of. i am growing as an artist and a citizen. i am opening up and acknowledging that i am not quite as honest with how i feel as i used to be. walls were erected for protection, and now they need to be taken down. i need to write more, because i feel like i'm getting stupid. emails and text messages don't count. i am learning to hate computers and email. i have always hated talking on the phone. it's a love-hate relationship with each of them. i desire human contact, shared experiences, close friendship and companionship. past transgressions are slipping away and being replaced by a blank slate, a freshness and innocence. a forgiveness, possibly, or just a willingness to live again.

i try to walk slow. i try to look up at the sky and buildings. i try to not sit down at my computer to check my email every day when i wake up and every time i come home. my problem is my stomach aches with creativity and ambition and they are hard things to shoulder sometimes, especially when you are alone. but i have a love for life, a zest for everything and anything. an energy and appreciation for every moment, even the bad ones. this can lead me to feeling overwhelmed, to wanting to experience everything, wanting to write down every day's proceedings and photograph all my trips to create works of art that will outlive me and explain me. i want to learn things to tell my kids. i don't want to become a person who watches tv every night or be a bad father. i want to be in love again. and i want to win an oscar. but that can wait. and is negotiable. 

wow, all that just came out of me because i took a couple minutes to slow down and read a book in the park. i should probably do that more often...

i drank six beers last night

saw a really funny off-broadway musical last night called "Life After Bush."

i think it is being performed in other cities too between now and the election, so definitely look it up. it had bush, mccain, and obama characters and a whole bunch of others. it was kind of like a series of skits. one was about abortion and included an infomercial type skit for a place called "abortionland"--it was hilarious

i started a blog on a website called Tumblr to keep track of some of the great videos i have been finding recently. i guess i could have just put them on this blog...but i just thought that now and i already created the Tumblr blog, so check it out.

http://jase286.tumblr.com/

i put up two great political videos and one great music video that hits break ups right on the money.

movie update

Now that my MOS is shot (the footage is ready and I am picking it up on Saturday morning!) I have had time to catch up on some movies and have some recommendations/comments:

Nights and Weekends-devastating, honest film about relationships. Shot on miniDV, very minimalist, great vulnerable performances. The sound is too accurate--it got really annoying listening to characters swallowing and eating (Ex: chewing a banana)

W-great, absorbing, very sympathetic. I left feeling bad for Bush (isn't that sick?) It was a lot of fun to see a cast of different actors playing different Bush family members and different members of Bush's cabinet

The Elephant King-Beautiful, well directed but felt like a first draft of a screenplay. Horrible acting but was brimming with potential. So it wasn't bad...just not worth watching. Wait until the director makes a couple more movies.

Synecdoche, New York-Charlie Kaufman's new film. Hoffman is great as is Michelle Williams (I literally almost bumped into her outside my apartment last week and she smiled at me). Long, complicated, honest, funny, and sad. Not his best (Nothing beats Eternal Sunshine) but it was one of the most entertaining times I've had at the movies in awhile.

He Got Game-a Spike Lee joint made in the 90's. Beautifully shot, great Denzel performance and a tough father-son story. One of Spike's best.

Let The Right One In-A vampire movie from Sweden (?) about a lonely little boy who befriends a little girl that moves in next store to him who ends up being a vampire. Beautiful, every outdoor scene has tons of snow, slow moving, not inappropriately gory, not startling scary but haunting, and I have to say...the ending is just ridiculously gratifying. See this, it's entertaining and will change your opinion on vampire movies.

Now that I wrote all this nonsense and feel like an elitist asshole, I will end my post for today. See some movies and have some fun. All movies have something good about them (per Kubrick). Crap. Quoting great filmmakers. That's elitist.

Getting up at 4:30am tomorrow for a shoot at Far Rockaway Beach.

feeling the itch to write

I need to be sure to write as often as possible, I dare say every day. I resist it, not because I don't want to do it or don't like it, but it is hard. But I guess I don't always need to write creatively. I can write in this blog, I am doing a journal for my experience making my current film, and then I could do some creative writing. I just know I need to do it a lot. My directing teacher, who was Spike Lee's classmate at NYU in the 80's, said Spike wasn't the best among his classmates, but he worked the hardest, he talked and listened to people, and he wrote. A lot. Every day.

I need to write every day. It makes me feel good.

i've got some catching up to do

So it's been well over a month since I've last written and absolutely nothing has happened. New York is really boring and is no better than Manassas, Virginia. 

I hope I don't even need to say "just kidding". A lot has been going on, so I'll try to be brief. The first 6-7 weeks of school were kind of like a boot camp. 8 classes with 8-10 class meetings a week. We made a film/project a week, sometimes on film and sometimes on video, for our directing classes. We wrote the screenplay for our MOS project which is a 16mm black and white silent film which had to be shot entirely outside with no dialogue (MOS means "mit out sound" and is German and I have no idea what it really means but it means no sound/dialogue). In all of our classes we did smaller projects/assignments while the overall arch prepared us for our MOS. Last Monday was the last day of classes and now for the next month we make our films. We are all broken up into crews and each direct our screenplay while rotating crew positions on our group member's shoots. We resume classes in early November and start preparing for our documentaries which we will shoot over winter break all while editing our MOS projects for mid-December evaluations with the entire first year faculty. 

I shot my film first last Tuesday and Wednesday. I had some trouble in post-production finding a location and I didn't cast my lead actress (an 8 year girl) until a couple days before, but I have to say I was blessed with a great shoot. The film is at the lab now so as long as it comes back with images on it (I will find out Monday) I can honestly say I had a great shoot. The little girl I cast is the next Jodie Foster and no that is not an overstatement. She did the same takes and the same action over and over all day without ever complaining and she always hit her marks. She was professional and she could recite my whole story from memory, which she did when asked what the film was about in her audition. She was interested in the camera and learned how to focus on things, learned about the matte box and filters and had a great time clapping the slate. She worked long days and never, ever, ever misbehaved. She made my movie for me and I would have never finished if it wasn't for her work ethic. She would question my judgement about angles and ask "Is this going to look good?" and I would always answer "I hope so." She did a wonderful job so I hope everything I was responsible for "looks good."

The film cost me a lot of money so I am hoping to do some temp work before classes start again between classes to pick up some extra cash. I am also hoping the film comes out like I hope it will (I got all positive feedback from my peers and friends who read the screenplay which is very unusual for something I have written) so as long as I am a competent director I should end up with a decent film, which could equal a decent film festival run which I hope equals prizes that will help me pay off my debt and begin working on my next film. In the spring when we return from break we begin editing our docs and begin writing our next project: an adaptation. Before break we will be given about 12 short stories and we choose one to adapt in the spring. I am really, really excited about this project because I have never adapted something before and I am starting to find that I am very interested in fiction based on true events, so it will be good experience for me. I hope we are given some well-known, famous short stories and not just stories from MFA writing students but I guess it doesn't matter as long as there is some good subject matter. I just have a couple short stories in mind that I would like to take a crack at.

I started looking for internships for this summer. I want to get one with Spike Lee's or Michael Moore's production company so I am started early. NYC is expensive. It is getting cold here. I saw two movies in the theater yesterday (movies are $12 here and none I've been to have a student discount). There are two plays I would like to see this week/soon: one that is compiled from thousands of true stories of people's first time having sex and the other is a musical titled "Life After Bush." There are also some plays with some famous people (Katie Holmes, Peter Sarsgaard, one directed by David Schwimmer)on Broadway right now that I would like to see. We almost ran over Michelle Williams and Spike Jonze with the cart full of camera equipment last week right outside my building. She smiled at me (she is so cute). They watched as we struggled and smiled in sympathy because they don't have to carry their own equipment. 

That's about it for now. I will try to update more regularly again now that I have time to myself again. 

my first week of grad school is over

Well, my first week as a grad student is over (as the title of this blog says). I have to say, I absolutely love the Graduate Film program. We have been incorporated into the film/Tisch family and are already being treated as professional filmmakers. We have joined a family that includes the likes of Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese, and it feels great. Everything is about us and all of the faculty give us the tools we need to succeed, and every single one has said the same thing: it isn't about talent but instead work ethic, and if each of us do exactly as they say and work hard we will achieve what we want to. I know that if I work harder than I ever have before on developing my skills and my craft, I will be a working director in no time. That's no longer a hope but a solid reality thanks to this program. And there was another party in a different Tisch department we were invited to last night so more free beer/wine. 

My weeks are busy trying to balance office hours and my eight classes and additional editing labs, but I'm doing what I love and living in NYC for free so I have no complaints. I'm making some great friends and interacting with some great filmmakers/fellow classmates. I wrote an outline for our first project (a four-minute silent film that will be shot entirely outside on black and white 16mm film). I met with my writer teacher and she really liked it. She gave me some tips on how to improve it and told me to bring it to class to workshop it. I am proud of myself for having written a draft so early in the semester. Now I have plenty of time to play around with some other ideas and strengthen the one I already have.

Going to see my first Broadway show for free on Sunday night with some fellow classmates (all Tisch students got a free ticket to Spring Awakening as a "welcome"). I'm excited. 

Meeting up with Jeff (from Towson) for some drinks tonight. It's raining here for the first time since the day I moved in. Everything gets wet, crossing the street is like walking through a stream, and umbrellas get popped open from the wind that streams in between the buildings. But I love it. 

Parties are why we make movies

Orientation continued on Thursday. We met in small groups and were introduced to the Arri SR, the film camera we will be using to shoot our first MOS project. We set the camera and tripod up and practiced loading the magazine. It ended up being a refresher for me because I've shot on an Arri before, but it was a much needed and much appreciated refresher. I found out that we get production allotments from the department for each of our projects, including rolls of film, vouchers for film processing and transfers, and sometimes we just get a check to cash and use for whatever we need to in the production of our films. That is sweet. I will end up spending a lot of money of my own, but this is going to save me a ton. If I play my cards right, these allotments, scholarships, and graduate positions could make this educational experience a whole hell of a lot cheaper than anyone could have expected. 

In the evening we went to the Dean's welcome and gathered with all of the undergrad and grad students of Tisch. Every department had to stand up. Undergrad film=huge. Grad film=small. I like that. We are special. Afterwards there was a party for all first-year grad students in Tisch (party 2 of the week). There were waiters and waitresses walking around with snacks. There were free drinks and we each got Tisch bags and stylish Tisch flip flops. 

I must go back and mention the best part of the production orientation on Wednesday that I forgot to write about in the last post. One of the things we have been learning a lot about is insurance, how we use the school's insurance for equipment and shoots, and how a couple huge losses in the past couple years have threatened the school's insurance plan (one grad student had a whole truck with the equipment inside stolen and another burned a truck to the ground by closing the back door when a generator was running inside because it was too loud). The head of the production center gave us a formula to prevent equipment theft: he drew a circle on the board with two Xs for eyes + a crowbar x 30 seconds= THEFT. The formula is read like this: take a crackhead plus a crowbar, give him 30 seconds, and your equipment is jacked. It was hilarious. He invented the formula and was wearing a sweatshirt and t-shirt with the formula on them. He sells them on his website. I will definitely be getting one of those. 

Friday each production crew checked out equipment (which we will be keeping for the entire semester) and moved it to different crew members' apartments. We had a few last orientation sessions in the afternoon and a town hall meeting with all of the students in the program (2nd-5th years) and then, of course, a giant party (number 3 of the week). Great finger foods, desserts, and drinks (CORONA!). We ate and drank in the same room many of us interviewed in. It was unreal. I drank and ate and met Amy Fox, my screenwriting professor (the writer of Heights) and talked about the movie and what it was like to get it made. I also met my Aesthetics professor and we jammed about Obama. All of the professors were drinking and talking with the students, including the Chair of the department. Around 11pm we got kicked out and most people headed across the street to the Apple Bar, a common NYU hangout. The Chair, Amy Fox and some other professors came and stayed until well after 1am. We drank some more and hung out. I got to meet the last couple people in my class I hadn't officially met yet. And a little before 2am I finally went home. It was a great night. And I will say, I took advantage of the free beer at the party (5 coronas) and the drinks my friends bought me at the bar (2 coronas, a SoCo and lime shot) but remained responsible and in control throughout the entire evening. 

It all starts Tuesday. A year from now I will be a different person and a very different filmmaker. 

"Your professional film career has already begun."

There is a lot to say. I will try not to make this post too long, or I will break it up into multiple posts.

One of the things that has stayed with me after all of the days of orientation this week was a particular moment during introductions the first day of orientation. Everyone stood up, said where they were from, where they went to undergrad, if they had any film experience, and other stuff about themselves. The ages of my classmates vary (there are five to six 22 year olds, the rest are older). When a couple of the older students introduced themselves, they expressed how overjoyed and relieved they were to be here. Years of working in jobs or pursuing careers that were unfulfilling had beaten them down (they didn't say it, but you could hear it in their voices) and they felt so privileged to finally be able to do what they wanted. Maybe it took them a long time to realize they wanted to pursue film or maybe they knew all along and never wanted to admit it or were afraid to, but now they were facing it head on and were ecstatic. I always knew I was lucky to not only get in here but to have the ability to come here, and hearing the stories of some of my older classmates, it made me really appreciate my current situation and this wonderful new school and community of filmmakers I have become a part of.  I have always tried to be a person who is grateful for all of the advantages I have and my classmates have reminded me that humility and appreciation for all of my blessings are qualities to be cherished now and forever. I want to help others achieve their dreams, because just getting by is not living. A nice job, car, apartment, house, clothing, vacations, etc is not living. People need a chance to be really happy.

Wednesday consisted of long sessions about the post-production and production centers. We also chose class representatives and had a brief financial aid session. For lunch I decided to finally use my meal plan and try out an NYU dining hall. Now, I'm a grad student, so I've done the whole campus dining thing before, but when you're on an urban campus at a new school looking for a dining hall to eat in all alone because no other grad students have meal plans, well, it can be an uncomfortable (embarrassing) experience. Every dining location that was listed on the map was in a residence hall. I had no idea how to get in and I had no desire to ask. Freshmen streamed past me giggling and sucking on their binkies (exaggeration) and I grew even more uncomfortable with the idea of a meal plan. Eventually I wandered to 14th street and found a quiet dining hall in a building that has a fitness center, meeting rooms, student housing, and a career center (I don't even know what you would label this building) and is supposedly across the street from a house Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes just bought. I had lunch and declared my first NYU dining hall experience a minor success. Dinner, however, would be the same thing all over again. Except it was late, I was tired, and once again didn't feel like asking for help. So I walked all the way back to 14th street after unsuccessfully hunting down a closer dining facility, got some pizza to go (you can swipe a meal to get into a dining hall and then fill a plastic container to take with you instead of staying there and having to eat yourself with all the other eat-by-yourself losers) and went back to my room. I changed my meal plan to a more flexible plan and had no immediate plans for venturing into a dining hall anytime soon. Nevertheless, the next day I found a much closer dining hall and food court with a Quiznos and other good food (one meal gets you an actual meal, meaning: a sub, chips, and drink. Take that Towson meals) that I have been enjoying (for FREE with my FREE meal plan) ever since. 

Living in NYC is riding waves. It's highs and lows. Peaks and troughs. Great food, culture, excitement, walkability, movie everything--high. Crowded sidewalks, unfamiliar NYU dining facilities--low. I was pretty unhappy with NYC when I couldn't find a dining hall to eat dinner in. But as soon as I ate and settled back into my apartment and looked out the window as this beautiful city, I was riding high once again. 

James Franco is my classmate

Today was the first day of orientation. I was a bit nervous, so I arrived at the Tisch building a bit early. When I walked in, I passed James Franco, who was sitting on a bench in a lobby. I thought, "that's cool." I went up to our meeting room and sat down. A couple minutes passed and the room began to fill with students, and in comes James Franco. He sits down among the students and listens to all of the orientation stuff. I kept thinking, "I wonder when James Franco is going to stand up and tell us cool stuff about the film industry." It wasn't until about an hour passed that I had the realization that he was also a student there, one of my classmates in fact. Pretty exciting because he has experience working in the industry and might have some helpful knowledge he could pass onto us. I keep referring to him as James Franco. I need to introduce myself and get to know him as James and stop pretending I know him. If he somehow reads this post I'm gonna be mad embarrassed. 

During orientation we got to see a couple student films. We also got to meet most if not all of the faculty members, the Graduate Assistants (who are 3rd year students in the program who get FREE TUITION to be assistants in the department), and the Associate Dean, who was awesome. I got the impression that all of the faculty and the dean are genuinely invested in our success and are here because they really care, so that's cool. We had a one-on-one session with our advisors. Mine is working on a documentary she has been shooting in Afghanistan. She provided us with yummy Italian cookies, was funny, and had some great advice about writing. There was a mixer in the evening with the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th year students. The department provided beer (Corona!) and wine. It was good to meet some more people, to talk film and how the world is ending (read: climate change, peak oil, over-consumption, overpopulation, species die off, the possibility of McCain getting elected), and to hear some unfiltered comments about the department. I basically heard nothing but good stuff, and we start shooting next week, so I am very excited. If I work hard, write my ass off, and believe in myself, I will come out of this program a working filmmaker, no doubt about it. Over the next couple years I could have films at Sundance or Cannes, I could be having meetings with industry professionals who want to buy my screenplay, I could be shooting documentaries in other countries. It's all within reach, I just need to work hard and believe I can achieve it all. 

One particularly simple but memorable thing my advisor said to my group today was, "You deserve to be here. Believe me." She talked about how extensive the application and selection process is, and that even though most of us probably have doubts about ourselves and think it is an accident we ended up in the program, she assured us it was not, and we deserved to be there. It was nice to hear. I typed those simple words up and taped them to my door so I see them every day.

Tomorrow I register for classes in the morning, and then orientation with the post-production and production departments along with some info on financial aid. Supposedly if you do well the department gives more money to their students as the years go on, along with my housing job and the possibility of being a GA my third year, this program could be a whole lot cheaper than I ever imagined. More updates to come. NYC rocks!!

a city of millions can be very lonely

New York City can be a very lonely place. Even though there is so much to do, and so many people, it's tough sometimes when you don't really know anyone. I've done a lot of walking around myself and reading, so I'm looking forward to film orientation tomorrow so I can meet some new people. However, as lonely as I am, this remains the greatest place on earth. 

Been working for housing a lot. It hasn't been too hard. Pretty easy stuff and it's been passing the time. It's definitely worth it considering all of the benefits. Today a bunch of boxes of those cool twisty energy efficient light bulbs were delivered to my residence hall. The university purchased one light bulb for each resident to use in their room to help make the university greener. I read about a lot of stuff NYU is doing to go green over the summer. Very cool. I've been told that I will have a lot of free time in this position once everyone is moved in (I am already experiencing that), so instead of doing homework or doing nothing I may see if I can use my time to work on a green project for my building or maybe I could work with my building's hall council to do something good for the two homeless shelters that flank our building.

School starts a week from tomorrow. Orientation is tomorrow. Let's hope this is the start to good things. I have a lot of things I want to accomplish in my life, and I really, truly hope this education gives me the tools I need to accomplish my goals. Especially because I'll have a quarter of a million dollars in loans to pay off when I graduate. 

Oh well. It's only paper.

Chipotle

I worked all day today, so as soon as I was free I grabbed my bag and camera and hit the streets. I walked towards West Village, but didn't stay on track. I let the streets and crowds guide me, and crossed a street whenever the crosswalk signal told me to. I stumbled upon a huge comic book store (I was drawn in by the The Dark Knight display in the window). Across the street was a movie theater, which was premiering Traitor, the new Don Cheadle film. I saw the red carpet and all the photographers, but the stars hadn't started arriving yet.

I pulled my camera out and starting taking pictures, but had a quick realization: taking photos of buildings is not that interesting, but taking pictures of people is. It's hard to raise your camera and take a picture of someone you don't know however, plus you never know how a person is going to react. So I started taking pictures from my hip, lining the camera up as best as I could and just taking pictures. A lot of the pictures were bad, but one or two were decent, so I think I am going to make a whole thing out of this. I am going to take my camera out as much as possible and take random, secret pictures of the people of new york just living their lives. Maybe after awhile I'll have enough good photos to do something with them. I will post some of these pictures as soon as I can. 

For dinner I tracked down a Chipotle (there are two near my school and apartment!). It's amazing to me how going to a chain restaurant or buying a brand name can be comforting. I don't think it really has anything to do with the quality assurance of the product, or even brand recognition. Americans take comfort in our Wal-marts and McDonalds when we are traveling. They remind us of home, even though they are all the same. If an American is walking down the street in an unfamiliar place and they are feeling a little homesick or uncomfortable, and they come across a Target and a church, I don't think I need to even say which I think the American would choose. Sadly enough, I took comfort being in the Chipotle, it reminded me of all the other good times I have had in Chipotle, at Towson and at home. And I love the food. Mind you, I know no one here, so I'm getting a bit lonely, but it's still pathetic that I felt comforted being in a restaurant that I have never been in before that looked like a restaurant I'd been in before and served food I've tasted before and liked. 

More work tomorrow. Work on Saturday and all day on Sunday when all the kiddies move in. I'm excited to start school orientation next week so I can meet some people and get started doing film stuff. 

My life in the capital of the world begins

I am finally here. I can't believe it. I am overwhelmed, overjoyed, and ecstatic. I moved in this past weekend with the help of Pablo and Melissa. After moving in I took Pablo and Melissa to see the World Trade Center site and then I saw my first movie in NYC with Melissa: "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2." Pablo left early Saturday morning, and Melissa and I explored the city for the rest of the weekend. On Saturday, we walked almost 60 blocks to Central Park. On Saturdays in August the city closes streets for walkers and bikers, so we were able to walk almost the entire way in the middle of the street. It was a great activity for my first day in the city. We enjoyed a walk through the park, got a lemonade, and took a long break to people watch. That night we had an awesome dinner in Little Italy. It was so packed full of people Mulberry Street was closed to cars. White, green, and red lights stretched from building to building. The light poles were painted with the Italian flag. We had a bottle of Lambrusco and shared dessert. It was a wonderful night.

On Sunday we went to Whole Foods and had all-you-can-eat sushi. We tried 10 different types of sushi. They were on a conveyor belt in front of us and we were able to grab whatever sushi we wanted as it passed. Most of the sushi was good, though anything with shrimp, avocado, or cucumber was the best. After lunch we walked halfway across the Brooklyn Bridge and saw the waterfalls in the East River. We walked down to the South Street Seaport and did one of the walking tours that Melissa bought me. After the tour we made our way to F.A.O. Schwartz, which unfortunately was closed, checked out the underground Apple store briefly, walked Central Park a little, and then had dinner at Serendipity (yep, the restaurant from the movie of the same name, not that many people have heard of it, or have seen it). The wait was ridiculously long, so we made reservations. The food was ok. Melissa and I shared a frozen hot chocolate (which is what they're known for). It was scrumptious and tasted like a fudge-sical. They had a lot of desserts on their menu but they were very expensive. 

The next day Melissa shopped while I did some training for my job. We had lunch at a small pizza place in midtown near Penn Station and then, unfortunately, Melissa had to go home. I left the train station for the first time alone in the city. I rode the subway back to Bleecker street and walked back to my room, where I unpacked for the rest of the night. I was exhausted and sad and numb, but so excited. I felt like I had been waiting for my life to begin over the past couple of years, and now it actually was. No matter what I did every day from here on out, as long as I was in the city, around people, seeing and experiencing new things every day, even minute things, I was living more than I ever could anywhere else. Just looking out my window and the complex composition of buildings was a gratifying activity in itself. 

On Tuesday and Wednesday I began working as a GHA in my building preparing for the arrival of the residents on Sunday. On Tuesday I explored the NYU campus a bit, checked out the campus bookstore and computer store, got my NYUID, and had dinner in Washington Square Park. The sun was setting, and the park was full of people eating, talking, sleeping, playing with their pets and children, reading, and just enjoying each other's collective company. On Wednesday I headed into the East Village, an area I had not been in yet. I found the Anthology Film Archives and the Angelika Film Center. I went into a number of small, corner grocery stores and wrote down prices of food so I could find the cheapest place to shop. I wrote down the location of a psychic and some other cool places I found. I walked for about an hour and a half through the East Village, the Lower East Side, Little Italy, Nolita, and Greenwich Village. I found a park with a playground, basketball courts, and a couple small soccer fields. There were a number of soccer games going on. I liked this park, and I definitely think I will go back again.

To explore Thursday: more of the NYU campus, the salvation army one block down (if it is open), visit Tisch School of the Arts, maybe the West Village. 

I want to post pictures of New York on a regular basis. I will post a link to some sharing website as soon as I start doing this.