A Couple of Squares

Last night my flight was delayed significantly because first the flight crew was late getting in from their previous flight, and then the plane was missing a medical kit so that had to be replaced.  So I got in really late, and then sat on the couch vegging and watching TV.  At 3:00 AM the Disney Channel movie "Brink!" came on.  This was bad, since I wanted to go to bed and "Brink!" is my absolute favorite Disney Channel/TV movie of all time.  I watched the beginning of it, but decided to go to bed since I needed rest and TiVO'd the movie for future viewing.

This morning I got to sleep in a bit, which was AMAZING, then I went to Union Square to meet up with Nicole and Matthew, who were having lunch with Matthew's friend Peter, an NYU student.  I also went to return a book to Barnes & Noble (the extra cash was a big relief for my fraught nerves).  So, Matthew, Nicole, and Peter come into the Barnes & Noble after a quite extensive waiting period, and it turns out that Matthew's church friend Peter is this guy who came on the Harvard-Westlake Edinburgh trip in 2005 (he went to New Roads, but the wife of the program head, Mr. Schrode, was a teacher of his).

We hung out in the book signing/readings area of the B&N because there were a whole bunch of chairs there which was nice, especially since it was raining out.  Then Matthew and Nicole headed back to Princeton, Peter headed back to NYU, and I headed back to my apartment.

I hung out in my apartment for a bit, watched about half of "Brink!," then my friend Jayson called.  He was touring the NBC studios with a group from his school, UPenn, and is staying in my apartment tonight.  He called to let me know he was done with his tour, but it was much earlier than I'd expected him to call.  I headed out and walked to Bloomingdales to return a bra (mostly for the money but also because I'd come to the conclusion that it was unnecessary and I didn't need it for anything specific at the moment since I don't wear a lot of strapless dresses), then tried to take the N or R to Times Square to meet Jayson at Rockefeller Center.  However, the N and R are all weird for a week or so, and I ended up taking the 4 to Grand Central and then the S to Times Square.

I walked to Rock Center, met up with Jayson, and we walked around Times Square for a bit.  We tried to get in for dinner at Bubba Gump, but the line was 45 min. and nowhere else was much better, so we went to the Marriott Marquis hotel and hung out in their lounge thing (and had to buy two VERY expensive glasses of coke to do that!) for a while.  Then we rode the awesome glass elevator up and down (one of my favorite Times Square activities, as sad as that sounds, although Jayson conceded that it was pretty fun -- "like a ride").

We went back to Bubba Gump and the wait was still 40 minutes long, so as a joke (which we'd been talking about in the lounge thing) I go "does it help if my dad helped found the restaurant?"  This is actually true, while my dad was working at Paramount he helped found the Bubba Gump restaurant chain and then acted as chairman.  You can read about it on his wikipedia page HERE.  Apparently, it did help, since they let us go right up.  I'm still laughing about it a little.

Then we wandered around Times Square a little, exploring the Toys R Us, the M&Ms store, and the Hershey's store.  Once again, I got hit on by some guy passing stuff out in Times Square.  This time, he asked "are you two together?" to which we replied "no!!!," then he offered me his arm and said "you can go with me then."  I said, "Sorry, I have a boyfriend," but he then asked what I was doing hanging out with Jayson.  We both virtually simultaneously responded "brother!"  Then we came back to the apartment and now we're watching a rerun of Saturday Night Live hosted by James Franco (whom Jayson did not know of until tonight).

(Another note, Jayson got sucked into a debate on Prop 8 by someone at Penn who is offended by the idea of gay unions being called "marriage."  He tried to persuade Jayson to how offensive this is by appealing to his Judaism (since clearly only Christians have marriages), and asking him how it would feel if gay marriages were called "bar mitzvahs."  The ridiculousness of this argument is not even worth discussing, but I find it hilarious so I felt like sharing.)

Election Night Adventure

ELECTION 2008

So, The Public did a competition with a theater in Florida for who could drink the most cups of free Starbucks coffee on election day.  Alas, we lost 43 to 44 (although it was very symbolic that they had 44 when we elected the 44th President)
I first went to Times Square, because my mom had told me there was viewing going on there.  Half was sponsored by ABC (the south half) and half by CNN (the north half, which is shown in the picture above.  Please also note Santa Claus).  There were a ton of people there, and, since it IS New York after all, a TON of Obama support in the crowds.
These kids (and one more kid and some adult supervisors) were giving out Obama Victory Mix-CDs -- and this was at like 8pm eastern time!
There were a lot of guys out selling Obama/McCain/Palin condoms (as I noted on Facebook, clearly no one wants Joe Biden on their penis).  Each set of guys or individual guy was selling them at a different price though...

One guy in Times Square (no one in the picture above, this is a different story) came up to me trying to give me a postcard ad thing.  Then he started hitting on me, and then he tried to sell me weed.  I tried to get a picture of him but he made me uncomfortable so I didn't stick around for too long trying to get a good shot.  The picture wasn't very good so I didn't put it up here, but the guy was pretty sketch.
There were also premature Obama victory stickers all over the place.
Outside of Fox they were taping election coverage, and I ran into it on my way to Rockefeller Center.
Rockefeller Center was the home of the MSNBC election plaza, and it was AMAZING.
I saw this guy and he looked pretty familiar so I started taking picture of him, and then it hit me that he was named Casey and I'd met him at that cocktail party for the New Musical Festival I went to a few weeks back.  So I went up to him and he kinda-sorta remembered me and it was nice and awkie so I went away.
They had a map on the ice rink and they would paint in the states red or blue when they were called for McCain or Obama.  I could barely see it, but I did manage to get this shot of the east coast.  I thought this was amazing, though.
They had these ribbon-looking bolts of cloth hung from placards that said "Obama" and "McCain" and then signs saying "270" on each side of the building.  As electoral votes were called for either candidate, the fabric thingy would move up in proportion.  Obama's got HUGE cheers for upward movement, while McCain's got tepid cheers mixed with boos.

Next I took a cab to Union Square, where people were having a drum circle/parachute party under a giant American flag.  It was awesome.  I went up to a Filene's that overlooks the square to get this shot.  Then I went to my friend Madeleine's dorm room at NYU to watch more results come in with her, her roommates, and her friends (all democratically inclined, of course).  We were anxiously awaiting 11:00 eastern, and when it came:
Obama is announced the winner on MSNBC!!!
Much celebration occurred...
...and Madeleine was moved so much she teared up a little, as did many around the world.  It was a really emotional campaign and a really great moment in history, so I understand how many people would be moved to tears.  After McCain's very gracious concession speech and Obama's characteristically eloquent acceptance, Madeleine & co. went to bed from what I understand, while I went out to Union Square again to join the celebration.
It was basically a riot, except everyone was really happy so I don't know what the good word that implies the same level of emotional gathering as a riot is...
People were using all kinds of things to make noise, and chanting "YES WE CAN/YES WE DID," "USA, USA," and singing the national anthem.  My friend Siena got a little emotional telling me about chanting "USA" with Obama supporters at Harvard after the win, saying that she was so moved being able to finally chant the name of her country with true pride.
There was a LOT of American-flag apparel and OBAMA supportive clothing and banners, of course.

And people (and puppies!) were being lifted above the crowd of revelers!

Some guys started climbing on lampposts and knocked one down...
Then this guy went up there (his near foot is resting on the bar from which the above broken lamp fell), waving the American Flag in our very own "Les Mis" moment... until the cops got concerned... (see the lamp on the left of the picture that's about to fall?  That was the concern, as well as messing around with private property)

The guy was led away by cops and taken away in the cop car.  This is pretty much when I decided I should go home soon.
People came streaming into the square witht he brand new issues of the Daily News announcing the new President!!
Fancy old people for Obama!
These nice people took this for me so I have a picture of me actually there at an (yes, AN) historic moment!

I Hate JFK Airport

So, a week ago I lose my driver's license, and now this happens (I promise my next post will be the story of election night, since at least I thought it was interesting, but I need to get this out there first):

I get to the airport in the cab, but the cab thingy rejects my debit card. Mind you, I bought lunch with the same card earlier in the day so I am not expecting this. I do not have any cash. I start freaking out and try the card a couple more times. No luck. The cab driver starts freaking out at me and yelling that he has to call the police because I'm trying to rob him. I start crying. I get out 50 Scottish pounds from my wallet, which I have from the Edinburgh trip over a year ago and have kept in case of emergency. I tell the cab driver that I need to go inside to exchange the money, but I will leave him my passport as collateral. He does not understand this, despite the fact that he is the first American cab driver I have had in New York since pretty much the first cab ride I ever took in New York. He starts yelling that I am going to run away and not pay the fare, so he has to get the police. I try to explain to him that I have the money, I just need to exchange it and I will leave my passport with him. Again, he seems to fail to understand that we're at an airport and I cannot travel without my passport, so obviously I will have to come back. By this point I am hyperventilating. The cab driver yells to a security guard/possibly sky cap guy to get the police. The guy is really really nice and takes me to go get the money exchanged. He tries to comfort me, telling me that some people just want to make you feel shitty (not in those exact words, of course). I say "I thought I still had American money" to him, implying that I was traveling to Scotland, so he doesn't think I'm a giant freak. I don't know why I'm compelled to lie like this all the time, since the situation was pretty much out of my control from the beginning. I pay the $45 fare and even tip the guy $5 because it's what you do in New York. Even though that's less than the normal tip (15% is standard), I wish I hadn't given him anything at all because he made me so upest. I go through airport security in tears, and go into a bathroom near my gate and start completely bawling because I'm so worked up at that point.

My plane is delayed leaving, and then we're delayed on the runway as well. I finally get to Boston but take the wrong shuttle bus so I have to double back to get the bus that will take me to the Red Line to Harvard. The Boston subway system is so much less sketchy than the New York subway system. The stations and trains are much nicer and cleaner, and I felt completely safe taking the subway even though it was midnight, which is NOT true in New York.

I stayed with Siena, and it was good to see her and her roommates at Harvard are really nice. The leaves are still changing and falling and it was beautiful. It was also a little rainy, and the smell of wet fallen leaves reminds me of being 1-4 years old living in Bronxville. I met with Jack Megan, head of the Office for the Arts, and he was really nice. Then Siena's mom took us to lunch and I had my first hamburger in over a month.

After that Siena and I ended up hanging out in her dorm for a little while just catching up and relaxing. Then I took the T (Boston code for public transportation, mostly the subway) to Carolyn at Tufts, and she took me for hot chocolate and we caught up and it was really nice because I always love hanging out with Carolyn. She's in two shows at Tufts right now as supporting leads, of course since she's really talented, and I wish I could go up to see her production of "Urinetown," but it goes up on a weekend I'll be in L.A.

Despite the horrendous start, it was a pretty pleasant trip overall, and at work right now I'm working on some research for Barry and his Education task force he's part of at The Public, which is SO much more exciting than the scanning project, (although some of the scripts I'm working on are really interesting), but I still can't wait to go home next weekend.

Two Sad Things

a) Michael Crichton died yesterday. As flawed as his views on global warming were revealed to be (at least as he put them in "State of Fear"), he was inexplicably one of my absolute favorite writers. Michael Crichton is what Dan Brown and Robin Cook can only achieve in their wildest fantasies. I read "Jurassic Park" for the first time in sixth grade and fell in love with this man's writing. Not all his books were amazing, especially the later works ("Prey"), but that is more than made up for by "Jurassic Park," its sequel, "Timeline," "Airframe," the list goes on... Although the movies weren't always great ("Timeline"), sometimes they were classics ("Jurassic Park"), and I think it's sad that his life ended at the same time his television show ("E.R.," which he helped create and continued to produce for its run) is coming to its own end. Michael Crichton's daughter was one year ahead of me at Harvard-Westlake and we were friendly aquaintences until she switched schools. I ran into her with her father at the "Timeline" premiere and he seemed like a very nice and intelligent (well, obviously) man.

b) I'm still sickened by the blatant denial of civil rights to gay people this country has decided is the right course of action. The adoption ban in Arkansas is the most disgusting piece of legislation, but the marriage bans are still incredibly offensive. My sister is friends with these two girls, twins, and over the summer my family went to the wedding of their mothers, which I believe I went into in my last post on this subject. Well, apparently at least one of those girls showed up to school yesterday and was in tears for most of the day. I can't imagine that anyone could see this and not be moved (I didn't see it, but I know the girl and I can imagine it and it makes me really sad and angry that people who profess to be in favor of "family values" would destroy her family like this. I mean, it's not like her parents are splitting up or anything, but their destroying the legal bond her parents made and as a consequence rendering their emotional bond as secondary to "normal" people). I'm also still angry at the girl I know who voted for the marriage ban in Florida (which needed 60% of the vote to change their state constitution and received 62%). Arizona is less personal but still really offensive. At least California was the closest of all these, but it's still horrible that it passed.

Yesterday this guy I did a summer program with in 2007 sent me a facebook IM asking what Prop 8 was (it was in my facebook status). I told him, and he said that he thought gay marriage was morally wrong but did not believe that the government should force one group's beliefs on the entire state (or, god forbid, the country). He also said that integration of people with different backgrounds and beliefs is really important to this country. I have to admit, I was little surprised by this. He is from Kansas, and is very religious and conservative. Although it makes me sad that he views homosexuality as being wrong, I'm heartened that I know someone who, even though he disagrees with the moral issue, can still understand that legislation like this is a complete violation of civil rights.

But seriously, I'm so mad I could puke.

I'm trying to get my anger out about this issue in this post, so that in the next I can put up some pictures and (attempt to) tell the narrative of my incredible election night exerience. This didn't end up being the rant I expected it to be, probably since thinking about Michael Crichton being dead was very sad and thus put me in a more somber state of mind, but at least I got to air some more of my grievances. I hear there are going to be a lot of protests, but I'm not going home for over a week so they'll probably have quieted down by the time I get back to L.A. If not, you know where you'll find me!

Prop 8 Passes

Honestly, as excited as I am about President Obama, I can't help but feel intense anger right now because of the anti-gay sentiments expressed by voters in various states, especially in California. California, Florida, and Arizona now all have explicit anti-gay-marriage laws and state constitutional amendments in place, which sickens me. What sickens me even more is that in Arkansas a ballot measure was passed that banned gay couples from adopting children. What the fuck?!

The Florida and Arizona measures were up this year (update on previous info I had here), and both have passed by wide margins (wider in FL), and someone I'm close with voted in favor of it in Florida which saddens me. If she's reading this now I know she probably doesn't appreciate that comment, but I'm OK with that since moral issues are an important part of a personal relationship and I feel very strongly about this.

I don't yet know of anyone I'm friends with in California who voted in favor of Prop 8, and I hope I don't find any. The first wedding I ever attended (only so far) was between two women who had been together for 30 years (longer than my own parents!) and have two daughters that are great friends of my sister. I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but I actually teared up a little bit when their friends told the story of the 30-year relationship and the road to this ceremony. It was really beautiful and I'm so glad that was my first wedding, even though it no longer counts as legal.

And in response to all those people who have decided that gay marriage ruins the sanctity of marriage, I think we should have a boycott of the institution of marriage in a protest against denying gay rights. I know few people will follow through on this (if this is still an issue when I want to get married, which at least certainly won't be during Obama's first term, I don't know if even I'll be able to follow through on it, but hopefully I will), but I think if even in the short-term the number of marriages went down at least noticeably if not significantly it would be a great protest.

ELECTION NIGHT

Tonight was absolutely amazing.  I NEED to sleep now, so I'll give a full update tomorrow but I hit some major NYC hotspots as well as hanging out at NYU and it was all absolutely incredible.

OBAMA VICTORY!  HOORAY!

More Election Anxiety

Today has been an incredibly unproductive day at The Public. No one seems able to focus on anything. Well, anything besides getting free coffee from the Starbucks across to the street for our contest with a theater in Texas for who can collect the most free cups of coffee. But everyone here is really antsy about the election and it's affecting everyone's work ethic. It's not helping that the computer I'm using keeps freaking out and kicking me of the Public network so I have to re-synchronize in order to access the scan files I'm supposed to be working on.

Today was the birthday of Carl, one of the IT guys. We had cupcakes (delicious!) in his honor and forced him to give a little speech. He said thanks for the cupcakes, etc, and that it's exciting to have his birthday on such an important day, and then said if the election doesn't go the way we hope it will, we can all go crash at his place in Canada (come on, people, it's a theater. did you think it would be anything less than overwhelmingly liberal?).

The work day ends in 36 minutes according to the clock on my computer, and Madeleine doesn't get out of class until 6:30. Not like anything will be clear any time soon, but it's still very nerve-wracking.

Vote!

Don't forget to vote!

http://dedicatemyvote.blogspot.com

One Day Left...

So, if you have never read a blog post of mine, I'm very, very liberal and so tomorrow I will be rooting for an Obama victory (technically today on New York time, but BARELY).  I voted via absentee ballot this weekend while I was in L.A., and I'm also very nervous about certain state issues.  Prop 8, the ban on gay marriage, is a huge deal.  I really don't believe that anyone's civil liberties should be restricted, and I'm also in favor of gay marriage in general but in this case it's more than just that issue.  I'm also against prop 4, which would require parental notification for minors getting abortions.  This doesn't actually protect anyone and should definitely be voted down.  Then there's prop 2, which is about animal rights on farms.  The big issue here is chickens.  While I do believe that animals shouldn't be kept in tiny little cages and such, it is true that this would raise the price of California eggs and push consumers toward non-CA farmed eggs that cost less, ultimately hurting the California economy, which is highly entertainment and agriculture based.  I'm voting no on this because I thought about it and, as much as I love chickens, when I'm in the market I buy the absolute cheapest eggs, and especially with the economy in a downturn I'm not gonna change that in favor of protecting chickens.  Those are the big moral issues on the California ballot.

Anyway, I'm nervous for all of those tomorrow (mostly President and prop 8).  I also think I'm gonna go to the nearest polling station (which is pretty close to The Public, I looked it up online) and take some pictures at points during the day.  And hopefully I'm gonna watch election returns with Madeleine at NYU later, otherwise it's me and Chinese take-out yelling at the TV.

Today I went with my co-worker Jess, an intern for the artistic producer Maria, to help move some boxes for a friend of Maria into her apartment.  It was actually pretty nice to get out of the office, and walk back to The Public with Jess from Washington Square Park, which is a neighborhood I haven't explored.  I didn't do much else exciting, just the usual scanning, filing, and copying.

I have to shower and SLEEP now, so good night all, and to all a good night.

Halloween

Earlier today I told Leland "if they got rid of all holidays except Halloween and Christmas I'd be happy." He made a pretty good case for Thanksgiving (and Leftovers night!), but the point is that lately Halloween hasn't been everything I've wanted or expected.

Last year I spent Halloween frantically finishing my early application to Yale, and quite a chunk of that time curled up in the fetal position in my kitchen.

This year, despite having a nice time for a while with Leland at his house and Harriet's house, was even worse. I didn't even think it was possible. First I got to the airport in NYC just over 1/2 an hour before my flight was scheduled to leave. The self check-in kiosk wouldn't print my boarding pass -- it made me register for standby on a later flight. I tried asking an American Airlines lady about it, because I was getting pretty worked up and my flight was leaving in half and hour, but she kinda got snippy with me and was like "well you got here too late!" So I took my standby thing and decided to just go through security with that and get my boarding pass at the gate. However, I patted my pocket and discovered that my driver's license had disappeared. In the cab I had paid with a credit card, and I'd pulled my ID out of the wallet while I had it out so that I wouldn't have to go into it again. However, I guess the license fell out of my pocket when I got out of the cab. So I'm running around the terminal, searching for my license, crying, and muttering "This isn't happening to me, this ISN'T HAPPENING to me!!!," when I run into the same American Airlines lady. She tells me to go on standby or something, I should have shown up earlier (traffic isn't my fault, neither is being unfamiliar with the amount of time it takes to get to the airport in a city I don't actually live in), blah blah blah, and I just kinda went into how my flight was leaving so soon, I NEEDED to make that flight, I'd lost my ID. Then she started in at me, saying how I couldn't get through security without it and getting kinda upset at me, but clearly I knew that otherwise I wouldn't be standing there crying about it. I went to security anyway, and told them I was 15 and I didn't have a driver's license. Luckily for me, I look kinda young (since I am), I wear very 15-year-old type clothes when flying, and in my experience people tend to take a lot on faith if you seem worked up enough. I get into the terminal, and thank GOD my flight was leaving from a nearby gate, since they were giving the announcement for final boarding right as I walked up. I RAN to the gate, and, on the verge of tears, beg them to give me my boarding pass, which they do since thank GOD (again) the flight wasn't overbooked. I get on the flight at the very last minute, and I'm SO worked up. The guy in front of my leans his seat back ALL THE WAY, making it extremely hard for me to lean forward and sleep on my tray table. In my worked-up state I take it somewhat personally and start pushing my head hard into his seat. He turns around and says "you are pushing this forward" (gesturing to his seat -- he didn't speak English too well), and I just say "oh, uh, sorry." (Later in the flight I saw him trying to turn his light on by standing up and pushing on the actual light, rather than the button on the armrest. It's not the biggest mistake ever but I got some sick schadenfreude out of watching it). The flight wasn't too bad, and when I got in I got to see Leland which is always nice.

But later I tried to go to the parade in West Hollywood and I was meeting people there but they were maddeningly unspecific about where I was supposed to meet them and extremely bad about returning my increasingly frantic phone calls. I ended up just going home, because I was just too pissed to have any fun. I'm just annoyed. So now I'm sitting here eating Halloween candy (my mom "accidentally got two bags" this year, which is WAY more than necessary since my house averages about 2 people on a busy Halloween), drinking a big glass of milk, and getting ready to go to sleep.

I'm voting tomorrow on my absentee ballot! Very exciting!

There's a pro-prop-8 (the anti-gay marriage bill) rally tomorrow and I might go take some pictures. Or I might go to the Obama phone bank and make some calls/take some pictures. And there's an anti-prop 8 rally on Sunday that I'd love to go to as a participant and also to take some pictures, but I'm leaving Sunday afternoon so I'll probably either be sleeping or maybe hanging out with Leland. (or taking a nap with Leland, which would be the best!)