Good News!

I got a coveted New York Teaching Fellowship! I will be moving in mid-May to New York City! I'll be teaching biology or general science at either the middle or high school level.

I'm so excited. Here's their website: https://www.nycteachingfellows.org

I'll miss Madison and all of my friends, and most definitely CFACT, but I know that it is time for a change. I'm sure I'll type about this more than anyone wants to hear about it in the next couple of months, so that's all for now.

Technology Meets Mourning

I found out today that Eric Passon, a UW senior, died on New Year's Day. The Daily Cardinal article was very short, so out of a morbid curiosity I checked out his facebook profile.

It could be my fascination with death or the fact that it's 10:30 AM and I haven't had caffeine yet, but it seems like he's talking from beyond the grave. There's something profoundly sad about the line that says "about me: why don't you tell me what you want to know ; )" Because, well, you can't.

I think the reason this seems so creepy to me is that his facebook profile looks like mine. I'm older than he is. His last facebook update was December 23. What if this is my last blog post? What happens with his facebook profile? Does someone delete it? When the story really breaks when people get back, will hundreds of people write on his wall? Is it weird that I find it incredibly interesting to see what is written? Why do I feel the urge to write something even though we were at least two steps apart and I have never met him?

I'd like to say that I'm not usually this dark when it comes to death, but that's not true. Read Spook. Watch Six Feet Under and even Dead Like Me. It's good to think about these things.

New York, Day 2 (Thursday)

Brooklyn Day. I just wanted to go to Brooklyn to say that I had been there (why? and to who? I don't know). I took the subway there without any problems. The problem was to walk back over the Brooklyn Bridge. I checked out the Brooklyn Heights Promenade which had some nice views of Manhattan, and also a really stiff fine for not curbing your dog ($1000!). I also found my future apartment. The people inside of it were annoyed that I was taking pictures of it, but I was equally annoyed that they were in my apartment. Bitches.

I wandered through the rest of Historic Brooklyn, and decided to see a little more before I took the bridge back. When I was ready, I found a sign that said "To Manhattan Bridge footpath." I actually took a photo of this sign and thought "Wow, when you're in Manhattan, it's called the Brooklyn Bridge, but when you're in Brooklyn, it's called the Manhattan Bridge. Crazy." After about 20 minutes of walking on the "Brooklyn" Bridge, I got over water and was able to see things. Including... The Brooklyn Bridge. Let's all breathe a little sigh of sadness.

A difference between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges (other than the fact that they are different bridges...) is that the Manhattan Bridge is 8 times longer and puts you into the middle of Chinatown. I ended up walking A LOT, because I had to cross Manhattan to find a subway once I finally got off the damn bridge, and then went back to my hotel room and went to bed early. At one point I saw an emergency phone. I actually considered using it to call someone and tell them that I got no sleep the night before, I was hungry, and my ass hurt from all the walking. I didn't actually call, but now I wish I had.

Stay tuned for Friday and Lindsey's foray into the criminal world. No, really.

Beauty and the Geek

Season 2 premieres tonight. I only watched two episodes of season 1 when I was in New York. I find that's a problem with the MOXI box. I never watch anything new. Therefore, when I do watch TV it is one of the following categories:

1. Law and Order, Law and Order Trial By Jury, or Law and Order Special Victims Unit (Notice, I did not include Law and Order Criminal Intent, because it is a disgrace to the Law and Order genre, as are most other shows, ahemCSI)

2. Something involving gay people or Ireland. I grouped these two together, because everyone knows that Irish people are very inclusive and non-homophobic. And we always let everyone march in our parade. These can be National Geographic shows about Ireland, or Queer as Folk, or the L Word, or even shows about gay people in Ireland. When this happens it is like Christmas for me.

3. A show that is horrible, but reminds me of my childhood. Examples include Saved By The Bell, The Price is Right, Golden Girls, etc.

4. Cartoons. Although many modern-day children's cartoons are definitely sub-par in comparison to my childhood cartoons (Garfield and Friends, the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teddy Ruxpin, Eureka's Castle (not a cartoon, I know), Inspector Gadget, etc. etc.) Some worthy adversaries of today are: The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Home Movies, and of course the Simpsons and Family Guy. If you have any other suggestions let me know, because I love to start the day with a good cartoon. Also, if you are aware of any cartoons about gay people based in Ireland, I'll give you a hug. Or a dollar.

5. "Classic" Movies that people yell at me for not seeing. Recent additions include Rosemary's Baby (5 stars), Godfather (3 stars - would have been more if it wasn't 4 days long), Casablanca (4 stars), 2001: A Space Odyssey (0 stars - I've never been happier to have the fast-forward-function on my remote).

6. Things my roommate records. While this is rare, they include disco-type shows, and I'm pretty sure that that's it.

Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, Beauty and the Geek. It actually looks okay. Watch it. Tonight. The WB. At some time, maybe 8:00 PM.

New York, Day 1 (Wednesday)

Because I have an incredibly short attention span, and because I like to republish my blog, I will separate my trip to NYC into separate posts. Here we have day one.

On Wednesday my flight left at about 2:00 PM. My huge bag, that I thought I had minimally packed, was 3 pounds overweight. I solved this by pretending to put a book into my carry-on.

The flight to Milwaukee was perfect. I had one of those single seats that is both a window seat and an aisle seat, and the flight lasted about 4 minutes. Then I got off the plane, realized that the Milwaukee airport sucks, and proceeded to fly to Newark.

I landed in Newark on time, and found Pete fairly uneventfully. I think I said "Now we're in Newark of all places. You know we're going to get shot" about 26 times. It was still funny. To me, anyway.

I made Pete park the car and come into the hostel with me. It seemed okay, so I said goodbye and went to Starbucks. That night I met a cool girl named Evelyn from Ireland. She was on the second day of a two-year round-the-world-tour. Sadly, her bag was smaller than mine. Much smaller. Also she said "fuck" a lot. I liked her.

I'll spare you the not-so-gory details of that night, but the end result is me, on a busy New York City Street at 8:00 AM in my pajamas on my cell phone telling my dad that I needed to find a hotel to spend the rest of my stay at. I took a cab to the Crowne Plaza where I ordered breakfast and took a nap. I'm not high-maintenance (okay, maybe a little), but this hostel was bad. Uber-bad.

The rest of Day 2 to come whenever I get bored again...

Busy Busy

Yeah, I know I haven't posted in a few weeks. I've been busy. I went to Montreal for the UN conference, studied for finals, passed finals, graduated, took a week off to relax, found out that I actually passed my finals and therefore did indeed graduate.