Dreams

The past two nights I've dreamt about serving at the restaurant.

P'ton & B'day

First of all, the ticket is $4 more than when I was a student. What is that? Annoying. Secondly, I managed to catch a double-decker express train that only made 4 stops total (the 2nd of which was P'ton Junction). That was pretty cool.

It was weird to be back. Getting off the dinky, walking toward Blair Arch, I actually felt a bit nostalgic. Warm and fuzzy even. That was dampened a little bit by the appearance of what, in my mind, are typical-looking Princeton students. (You know the kind I mean.) I went to Sakura Express fora lunch of my old favourite - Unagi-don - until Rebecca met me. We then went to Small World and chatted nonstop until it was time for her capoeira class. While she did that, I went in search of Ueda-sensei. I discovered she was on leave (which I had suspected) and that she was going to be the undergrad representative next year. Exciting, in a way, though perhaps a little annoying for her as well (administrative work always interferes with personal goals). I need to email her.

I then hung out in Frist, preparing for my Sunday SAT class, and then browsed the U-Store bookshop. I picked Rebecca up from Dillon, and we headed to The Bent Spoon (she had two gift cards). I ran into Meg Meyer, who had been the choir's soloist at Carnegie Hall, there. Rebecca and I chatted some more (she was very excited about having received her capoeira name "Rapunzeo" that day) while eating our ice cream, stopped by a wine store afterward, walked to her apartment, stopped so she could shower, then went to her friend Roger's house for dinner. Dinner was a lovely home-cooked meal of tabouleh, mushroom and barley soup, guacamole (which was really good, and I don't like avocado!), brownie cake, mango sorbet (from the bent spoon), and red wine. It was a large-ish party of grad students, all interesting and fun. As an undergrad there, I would have felt much more awkward about going with Rebecca, but it was just lovely now.

The next morning I left Rebecca's place around 10 and walked to campus. I sat in a Kalaa rehearsal, the first rehearsal of the battle scene (they're doing the Ramayana for this spring's show). It was a lot of fun to watch and reminisce how the group operated when I was there, and then I hung out with Uma afterward. We watched clips from their show last year (which was really awesome!) and just talked about the state of the groups and plans for it etc. Then Julia called me from Frist, so I met up with her, Ryan, and Lev. After some confusion, we all decided to go to the matinee show, though Darren would have to come in at intermission. The party in the end consisted of Darren, Lev, Julia M, Ryan, Emily, Dave, Ed, Ed's girlfriend Sarah, Don, Julia R (Don's fiancee), and their friend Bry/ian. The show was alright. There were only 10 people in it, no girls. Gus is abroad, so not in the show, and no one knew where Wendy was (though her name was in the program). After the show, Julia, Ed, Darren, Don, Lev immediately jumped up on stage to juggle. I chatted with Julia R and Sarah, the latter of whom has some pretty interesting stories from her job at a publisher of Science Journals.

We then went to Tiger Noodle for dinner (I ran into Arthi on the way, who'd been a freshman in Kalaa my last year), where Lev's friend Eric met up with a us. We strolled down Nassau St, I stopped at the Princeton Record Exchange for a birthday present for Brett, while the others checked out Micawber Books (which is closing). My phone died. We stopped at Bent Spoon again so those who wanted to get ice cream could. We then began parting ways. Sarah and Ed went to Sarah's family's house. Don, Julia R, and Bry/ian headed to their car, the others went to Lev's. I stopped in the U-Store again where I picked up a Joyce Carol Oates novel, then headed toward the dinky. Unfortunately I'd just missed it by 10 minutes and had to wait another 50. I went to the lobby of the Berlind Theater across the street and plugged in my phone while doing more SAT prep.

When I got back to the city, I met up with Brett and Jordan in the lower east side, though I was tired and in an asocial mood. We found a less-crowded bar where we had a drink, then headed back to my apt. The next morning I taught SAT class, which didn't go fantastically. As the material gets harder, I definitely confuse more students. I met up with Brett afterward, we got brunch at a diner, then went back to his house. After watching Happy Gilmore, I promptly fell asleep until 9pm. Though I was so unwilling, Brett managed to wake me up. We headed back into the city to see Brian Blade at the Village Vanguard. Though people are annoying, and the place a bit crowded, the show was really really good. Afterward we got a midnight dinner at Veselka, a 24/7 Polish place at 9th and 2nd Ave.

A very full weekend.

Tired and annoyed, among other things

So I've been working five nights a week at the restaurant, about 7 hours a night. It's worth it. I'm earning about $100/night, if not more, and finally making rent and a dent in my debt. That feels good. What doesn't feel good is that I no longer have nights free. A birthday dinner for Brett with his parents has to be rescheduled to a Sunday brunch that I have to leave early anyway in order to attend a staff meeting. Introductions with our future roommate (once I move into the house) have to be postponed repeatedly because he works days and I work nights. Of the two nights a week I don't work at the restaurant, I spend one teaching SAT class. Most of my other free time is spent sleeping or vegging out on Brett's sofa because I'm so tired.

Meanwhile Kaplan hasn't paid me a thing yet. And I went all the way out to Flushing a couple Saturdays ago to start my second class only to find that they'd forgotten about me completely and assigned the class to someone else. Fine, it's not worth my time to go out to Flushing Saturday mornings anyway. If anything, it interferes with my making better money at the restaurant. And if I hadn't said something, I bet no one would have come to observe me teach. As it was, someone finally showed up in Session 9 (of 12). Kind of late to give me pointers on how to check on my students' progress and get more involved. If my kids' don't do well, yeah, I'll feel guilty, but I'll also blame Kaplan. I don't have time for this nonsense, to run around after them and find out what they're not telling me.

Luckily, I'm only taking one class this term. That's not to say that I think Wednesday's test went well. It was very very different from last term's tests. We weren't allowed calculators for what little math there was. Normally that doesn't bother me too much, but they didn't use nice round numbers that are easy to work with. Everything else was very conceptual, which is something I think I need to be better at, so I'm glad they tested it, but that also made it harder for me. If anything, I now know what to expect from these tests, and they'll drop the lowest grade in the end.

In other news, I finished Yael's book Overture. I enjoyed it, better than her mom's novels (of which I've read one and a half) too. It's nothing brilliant, definitely has a pop appeal, but it was enjoyable, and once I got into it, it was hard to put down. We'll see what my sister thinks of it.

Speaking of my sister, I have purchased a ticket to California over Spring Break. Not only to see my sister, but also to be at my nephew's 1st birthday party. And Brett's band plays at SXSW in Austin the same weekend.

Test tomorrow

Not really sure what to expect or how to prepare. Don't feel too troubled by the homework, but I somehow expect the test will be quite different. I've also been informed I will be observed in my SAT class tomorrow. Hmph. Finally. I think they don't know I'm around or something. I have yet to be paid a single thing. Beginning to wonder if it's really worth my time. At least the restaurant is going fairly well.

Next weekend (23-24) I go to Princeton to visit Rebecca and see the Juggling show. Then the 25th is B's birthday.