taken from the SKEM blog

for my own records...in case anything happens to the SKEM blog.


Hey there SKEM,

long time no post. I hope this means that you've all had really amazing and busy summers :) Since it's Labor Day today, and I didn't know I had work off (doh!), I'll regale you all with my summer tales...

I'm not sure where to begin, so I guess I'll start with an update of today. This morning, Fernando packed his bags and flew home to LA. Finding a job in NYC was just not happening this summer. He applied and applied, and didn't hear back from anyone...not even a no. Just silence. Which is ironic and maddening, especially in a city that is so fucking loud all the god damn time. So, we both decided that it was no longer a positive experience for him to stay in a city that in and of itself grinds people down - can you imagine what it does to someone who is already demoralized? I told him to go home on Friday - regroup, remember that he's not a piece of shit, and surround himself with family. He left many things here, like: his grey suit and half of my closet full of shirts, a chewbacca doll, his diploma, a book on samurai swords, his beloved leather jacket, and two giant suitcases full of clothes, so I know he'll be back..we just don't know when.

In any case, summer in this city with Fernando has been great. Of course it simultaneously felt and didn't feel like summer to me. This having a job business is certainly still weird to me. What, we don't get summer break now? Even last summer felt like summer even though I was working at least 200x harder hahaha -- and this was because I was still on a college campus and in Boston, which of course was an amazing experience in all of its empty glory. This summer was still summer-y in the sense that I felt like there were more tourists around and less NYU drunkie freshmen running around in the East Village. I can't tell which is the lesser evil, honestly. It was also felt more summer-y because the hookah bar across the street was bumping all night long, every night. Thank god for my ear deafening $60 air conditioner bought second-hand off of the craigslist. It drowned out almost every noise coming from outside. Of course, it also meant I could not hear for the life of me whatever I happened to be watching on Netflix and now can't watch anything without subtitles, even if the volume is perfectly fine. But I digress.

This summer was lovely. And it was pretty low key. I didn't do anything crazy, and we didn't travel anywhere, except for our first romp in the south at the beginning of the summer - a trip that still makes me smile so huge even just thinking about it for a second (which, btw, Eleri, please please share those Chattanooga pics!! I don't have enough photos with you guys, and I would love to see those :) thaaaanks and I know I've asked you like a million times already this summer for them hehe). This summer was filled with a lot of after work walks home in the NYC humidity; lots of post-work beers and purple-lipped evenings with wine while watching King of the Hill; a few refreshing hours in movie theatres watching the many summer blockbuster hits; the several walks a day to the dog park next door imagining what the tall, loping greyhound is thinking as it walks by the stout french bulldog named "Funions" and poking fun at the incredibly ugly yet adorable brussels griffons hold their own against the army of malty-poos; an evening in Central Park staring up at the sky, surrounded by thousands of other New Yorkers listening to the NY Philharmonic; another evening in Central Park watching M83 do what hipsters do (apparently not much); a few all-nighters dancing to the likes of Madeon and Eric Prydz and like true New Yorkers complaining about all the "bridge-and-tunnel" folks fist-pump their nights away; lots of restaurant discoveries around Alphabet City and 2am meals at the yakitori place on St.Mark's as we dodge drunken hordes of stiletto wielding gaggles or pitbull owning vagrants...it was a lot of routine, and it was too short.

I went home once in August for my dad's 60th birthday celebrations and saw the ocean, which was soothing and nostalgia-inducing. Watching the surfers, the beautiful, tan women glide through the sand and the convertibles and crisp, dry heat (as opposed to the East Coast muggy humidity) made me wonder why anyone, including myself, left LA. I also went back to Wellesley and stayed at the college club, the one weekend there wasn't a wedding going on, and walked around the lake in high-humidity; ate at Lemon Thai as soon as we arrived; drove to Target and the Natick Mall; picked up late-night ice cream from Wellesley Town (can you guys believe there's now a J.P. Licks in Wellesley?!?! And it's open late!!); walked around the campus; talked a pre-frosh who had already decided on Cornell to reconsider Wellesley and when I realized it was too late, told her 8 year old sister to remember how beautiful the campus is and try to come back even if she doesn't want to be a Wellesley woman; visited the CWS just to see what was going on; wrote a note and left it on my Arabic professor's office door; sat in the Lulu and stared wistfully into Punch's Alley; and took moonlight walks around the empty campus. Such space, I've never appreciated until I learned to stare past people even if you're squished in a metro and are just barely kissing someone's chin.

Well...that's enough nostalgia I guess. I'm going to go stare at some dogs, get some groceries and try to enjoy this newfound solitude. Miss you guys...and do tell. What did you do this summer?

-SLee