I'll see you in the ICU!

I love this guy

First, I'm a SUCKER for a Scottish Accent. But Craig Ferguson is damn funny. Check it OOT! (these should keep you busy until I can post something :D )

posted by sketchmonkey @ 9:39 PM 0 Comments

An unexpected sort of day

I was planning on cramming med-surg all day saturday and sunday, but I got a call in the early afternoon from my friend Becca (the other architect in the ETP program.) She was heading back into the city from the Thanksgiving holiday at her mom's and was vehicular, so she wanted to take me on a scenic drive--who could say no? Well, she got caught in traffic and we got a later start than we had planned, so that cut into our scenic drive (that and the fact that it gets dark here around 4 pm) so we drove around a bit, and wandered back toward her place in Brooklyn.

In San Fran, we don't know jack about the burroughs the way New Yorkers do (and even they don't know about the other burroughs) so I have to tell you guys, I really liked Brooklyn. It's not the Brooklyn of the movies (and, here I can't think of a single movie that's depicted Brooklyn pejoratively, but I guess every time you see a shady character, or a street-wise youth, he's from Brooklyn)

Brooklyn looks a LOT like San Fran to me. The feel is similar to the Haight-Ashbury area, around Page and Webster, or Lyon and that vicinity. The scale was fabulous on the whole--a "human" scale--the buildings weren't imposing and the street width: building height ratio was spectaular--spot on.

The shops were all boutiques, and I kept thinking of the Hayes street area that was once prostitues and IV drug users when the dot coms took over, and then became bistros and boutiques--it's one of the more sought after areas in SF now.

OK, so that's Brooklyn.

We went to Becca's place, a lovely 4th floor walk up, in which she and her husband Joel had the two apartments on the top floor--lovely, loft like renovation, big enough for them and their two teenage daughters.

As luck would have it, they were going to go see Arlo Guthrie at Carnegie Hall (her mom had bought tickets for the entire family) and one of their daughters didn't want to go, so they offered it to me.

I didn't want to impose, but they assured me the ticket would go to waste, and if I didn't mind a bit of family chaos, that I was welcome to it.

So, we went.



Arlo Guthrie is someone I know precious little about--I know of his father, Woodie, but even then, I couldn't name one song for you. I'm not opposed to exposing myself to new things, so it was great. While it's not my preferred style of music, I could see that for the baby boomers this was nostalgia. Arlo was part of the folk music troubador thing that was going on in the beatnik 60s, war protests and so on. I guess with the general feeling about our current government, he's experiencing a bit of a revival.

He did a lot of his father's tunes, and even billed himself as "Woody" Arlo Guthrie, which we couldn't figure out the reasoning behind.

He had the whole family (it seems) up there, playing, singing or just dancing around. His grandson was on drums, his daughter and her husband were singing and playing guitar (and she has an amazing, angelic voice) and his eldest son is on keyboards, and they had a steel guitar player that I couldn't see from where I was sitting. And of course there were the requisite little kids doing gymnastics (the one in the red dress was the daughter of the husband and wife on guitar) Very cute, very family. Even, one of Arlo's grandkids with the super 'fro and glittery red bass guitar came out and joined them for a couple of numbers--it was awesome.



Afterward, we went thru time square (is it "time square" Or "time's square" I dunno)
and Rebecca pointed out one of her past projects--she worked at a firm that did super-mega graphics and she did one of the building signs in Time('s) square, and the business was gone, but her sign was still partly there.

The business that cleared out left a vacancy that was adopted by Charmin (that's right, the same people that make toilet paper) and is now the "charmin toilets" in Time Square.



and it was so obscene, the whole Vegas, Cirusesqueness of it all. Here's the Nasdaq building--the building as television, which seems a popular idea, we saw several buildings that were just LCD panels up the side, with graphics moving around constantly--it makes you dizzy. This one's not so bad:



Right after this, we turned the corner and they dropped me off at the Port Authority (yikes! I'm alone at night in Time's square and...Hellllllp!) but I made my way to the A train and took it all the way up to 168th and walked home the rest of the way.

It was fun, and a nice capper to the week off.
Now I can cross off "see Carnegie Hall" and "see Arlo Guthrie" off my list of to-do's!

posted by sketchmonkey @ 6:53 AM 2 Comments

My first trip into New York

Ok, so...they've had us so busy that today was my first venture out into New York. I set my sights easily low--the Guggenheim Museum.

I went down into the subway, getting a bit of a late start (2:30 PM) and shoved my MTA card (that allows me half fare for being disabled, so I couldn't just abandon it there, it took MONTHS for them to send it to me, and it's got my picture and name on it) into the machine, and the damned thing got stuck. I wanted to cry.

A few people walked by and one lady offered me her pin on her broach to try to fish it out--darn it, it was way the hell in there! I called the station attendant and she sent someone over, who came back with electrical pliers, and I said "dude, those won't work" and then he went off to get needle nose pliers, and those did work!

I hopped up and down and shreiked "yay! You're my hero!" and threw my arms around him and said thank you, and he laughed. He let me in to the station without paying, but I went back out to the attendant and put money on the card there with her. 10 bucks gets me twelve rides anywhere :)

I got to 68th street, as directed I went up to the street and caught the bus heading toward fifth ave. It looked so much like San Fran that I got all choked up and missed home. It was bitter cold today, in the 40s (bitter cold to me!) and when the bus got to 5th, I walked up the few blocks to the Guggenheim. Of course, it's being rennovated...lovely.



Serendipity! Columbia students get free admission! (It's normally $25 to get in, but I didn't even have to pay the discounted student fee of $15) So, I wandered around and was again, serendipitously surprised to see Lucio Fontana being exhibited.


I studied him with Marco Cianchi in Florence--an amazing artist (whose work would have made my father have an aneurism!) He came up with this canvas as the artwork and space as the medium thing that was brilliant, and so simple. I don't think many people "get" him, as no one was looking at his work! Everyone was so busy being upper east side and talking about the Dalis and Picassos... Yeah, yeah, they were great, but come on! Lucio Fontana! Not every day you can see his work in person--and I never had, only seen slides in my "Arte Moderno Italiano" class (taught in Italian! you should see my notes--what a fun class that was!)

Anyway, I got a postcard to send to il bravo professore Cianchi to say hello.



Then I went and had a nice light lunch, that lightened my wallet, but I didn't care: I was treating myself. A nice French Bar like I ate at in Paris, and the Proprietor and clients greeted each other with "Ca va?" and "Geniale!"

I had a delicious potato leek soup, excellent bread, arugula salad, and a spinach and goat cheese quiche, and washed it all down with a nice chilled glass of white wine.

Tres magnifique!

Then I discovered a Dean & Delucca and thought to myself "I could die happy right now, looking at all this salmon, and breads...REAL bread, not that white sponge I have been eating! delicious crusty european style bread like from Acme bakery back home...

I'm SOOO going back there.
I had a great day for the first time since getting here.
Finally, some humanistic sanity.
Ahh.
I feel like a real little boy, Gepetto.
:)
Miss you guys.

posted by sketchmonkey @ 4:38 PM 0 Comments

Cool

I got into the paper cutting/folding thing when I was at CSM. I never did use it for an architecture project, but I still like it. I really dig some of these, especially the ones that seem to be making a statement about our mortality/frailty. Enjoy!

posted by sketchmonkey @ 10:42 AM 0 Comments

Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda...

Ok, so I have already said how fubar the administration is here. As organized as some kinda fire drill. I found out yesterday that we don't have classes all week this week. Here I was thinking it was just thursday friday and the weekend.

So, I'm actually going to use it to get caught up, do some shopping, maybe a little sight seeing, and catch up on my sleep.

A flight home, last minute, including the car to and from the airport would have set me back about 6 or 7 hundred bucks, so I said, meh.

It's George's Birthday next Sunday, too. :(

This sucks.

Oh well--It will be worth it in the end.

I'm missing home like mad.



Just listened me some Tony Bennet :(
The lyric seems...extra poignant now...

The loveliness of Paris
seems somehow sadly gay,
The glory that was Rome
is just another day,

I've been terribly alone
and forgotten in Manhattan,
I'm going home
to my city by the bay.

I left my heart
in San Francisco,
high on a hill
it calls to me

To be where little cable cars
climb halfway to the stars
The morning fog may chill the air,
I don't care.

My love waits there
in San Francisco,
above the blue
and windy sea,

When I come home to you,
San Francisco,
your golden sun
will shine for me.

:(
Miss you all.

posted by sketchmonkey @ 5:17 PM 2 Comments

Mods

Oi, this makes me miss my scooter :(

posted by sketchmonkey @ 9:11 AM 0 Comments

Greetings from the Fray

oh my goodness, what an awful couple of weeks it's been.

I'm so deliriously tired, I can't believe it.

I'll make it the cliff-notes version: for two weeks straight we've had back to back tests, then assignments, group projects, due. This is SO much worse than summer was--and they said summer would be the worst! There's a fair amount of disagreement between the students, too. Some people have looked at me and said "what are you, high? Summer was TERRIBLE!" and I completely disagree. Still others agree whole-heartedly with me. I just don't know how to keep up this pace. I'm closing my eyes "for a minute, to rest them" in lecture, and when I'm standing around, like waiting for an elevator. Am I falling asleep on my feet?

It's possible. I have pretty big feet.

So, this weekend is no different than the last three--I'm swamped. I have a huge paper to write and no idea how to write it, what's expected, etc. The professor is another passive-aggressive who seems to dislike us, and she's brought it up once, but only in the context of "don't forget your case presentations are due monday" and then playing this "bigger than a breadbox" style game of answering emails as cryptically as possibly (not actually answering the question) and then replying to the whole class--in case we all had the same question and wanted...what? no answer? thanks! that's so helpful!

I shot myself in the foot the other day. I left one test having felt really good about it, I was the first one done...and I went over my answers...still no one handing anything in--Ok, I over-studied, again...ten feet out the door I had a feeling I missed a whole page of questions--so I couldn't go back in and get my test--once you hand it in and leave, that's it.

I ended up with a C on that test, because she marked them all wrong--and I emailed her and asked her, and said is there anyway you can grade me out of the ones I did take?

Oh well.

SO, even the easy classes that I would normally be acing or in the High B range, I'm sabbotaging myself and shooting for a C.

I'm not too happy about that.

Pathophysiology is very tough, but not impossible. Assessing Clinical Evidence is a class I will be very happy with a C (God almighty! P-values, confidence intervals...why are we doing this NOW? this is a GRADUATE level class!! what a waste of our time in this hectic year, but I love this professor, she's Canadian (don't hold that against her) and she's very nice, accessible, funny, and an 80's girl at heart.)

So, that's it for the school drama.

I'm trying hard to keep my grades up, but my big fear is passing at all. I worry about that constantly--they're so hard on us, and the expectations are so damned high--on top of that it seems they take every opportunity to work against us in the form of misinformation, or half-informations...you spend most of your time chasing things down, getting 4 different answers from four different people, etc.

What keeps me awake at night is thinking that my grades are going to suck so hard that I'll not get into a master's program in California...and I'll be forced to come back here, to the sinking-ship on fire CRNA program where the director has no clue.

Ok, that's the rant for the day.
I could go on (and frequently do, on the phone with hubby) but I won't, anymore.
I miss you guys and can't wait to come home for the holidays.

posted by sketchmonkey @ 5:33 AM 0 Comments