in Ohio right now

whenever I'm motivated to write in here I'm not in ny...hm go figure
so this past semester, I took like 9 classes and worked more than like 15 hours a week. Now I kind of regret that I made myself so crazy with all of that, but at the time, the busyness seemed like a good idea.
This spring semester, I planned on interning on Mondays and Fridays, but now I can totally see that it would be awful to add more onto my plate and expect myself to do a great job at all of those things. I'm still going to work, but get a better schedule and really start to put myself out there.
I met someone who works at a resturant with live music and he asked me if I would be interested in coming to perform. I'm way excited because I had never done something like this before. Quite honestly, I really should be doing things like this more often. I mean it would mean a lot for me, but not to anyone listening. They should really be concerned with their dinner. oooh, but they might be distracted by my skilzz. just kidding
I've been suuuper lazy in Ohio. Because I only get to see my sister every six months, we spend almost every single day together. We don't really do anything except for bring out laptops in to the den and watch a marathon of america's next top model, degrassi, or anything on tv. we have a good time.
Next semester starts in 2 weeks, but I'm flying back next saturday. I'm really looking forward to some alone time in my apartment, where I can sleep in, clean, and fix those little things around the apartment that have always been bothering me. I will be working that week, and Kara said that she wants to spend some time in the city. Okay, maybe I'll have some company and be a little more busier than I thought, but at least I'll be back in the city!

My parents came on Wednesday. My mom called me after one of my classes and told me that they were close to my dorm & at "Bar G." Bar G? Oh, mom! Bar 6! She's so cute; I love her. When I saw them it was sort of uneventful :) I felt like I just saw them since I was home a little less than a month ago. Nevertheless, I'm still happy to see them. We caught up over coffee & a bit of lunch, and then I had to go to my voice lesson. I met up with them at their hotel & it was so chic. The bar/lounge was decorated like an old library & it just seemed so classy. Their room had a huge window - which is nice b/c I forget that the view of Manhattan is actually awesome. Everything was really dimly lit (hilarious in the elevator). I took them around Bleeker & pointed out the cute buildings and bakeries. My mom saw a little restaurant from across the street so we decided to go there. It was perfect and really small. My favorite part was the 10 piece jazz band and the 6 people dining. The majority of their tunes were in my repertoire so I think my parents think that I learned every jazz song ever.
On thursday my parents woke up late and then went to the met. What?! waking up late? That does not sound like Greg's idea of a good day, but apparently my parents decided to go with the flow this trip. I met up with them for dinner w/ Alex & Rel. Of course ALex & I were late, but I was happy to hear that it wasn't awk at all for Rel to meet my parents without me. We went to this little place called "Arte" (I think). We ate dinner a bit late, but we were the only people in there. oh god, the food was so good. The waiter insisted in being overdramatic in reading the menu & every "r" was rolled & lasted a good 3 seconds - which doesn't sound like a lot BUT IT IS. I was so please by the way that dinner went. I felt like my parents were meeting my boyfriend. At times, Rel would be talking to my mom and Alex to my dad and I was so content. The conversation kept rolling, and everyone really liked each other :) SUCCESS!
Yesterday, I met my parents at Live Cafe right in Tompkins and told them over and over again how I love the east village. We had some cups of coffee and then my mom and I took off to Soho to do some shopping. Bought some things from H&M and a new coat which is the perfect cut. I love it. For dinner, we went to Sammys, which was the chinese place that Alex and I ordered from weekly. It was my first time having it this semester & I remembered why we were obsessed. My parents wanted to see some jazz music and my dad called around to see who was playing where. My dad told me that "Raul Coltrane" was playing at bluenote. Ravi?! YES! God, my luck was amazing. So we went to Blue Note (my first time) and saw Ravi Coltrane. His group was just incredible. I've seen the drummer before - he graduated from new school - what up. In their last tune, they quoted a lot of giant steps, which was really awesome to hear Coletrane's best known song via his son.
Tonight We are going out for Alex's birthday (we as in my and my friends :) not me and my parents), but I'm going to get together with them sometime.

I have like a month & 1/2 of school left, which is just crazy. This whole year has flown by so fast. This kid added me on facebook who's coming to school here next year. How bazaar is that; I'm not going to be a college freshman anymore. During the summer I'm really hoping that maybe I could gig around Cincinnati. I feel like ohio is an untapped resource. Compared to here in ny, Cincinnati has like no jazziness at all. So if I really get in there, maybe I could meet/play w/ some of the good people. Okay, so that might not happen this summer, but hopefully I could break in a little bit.
It was a beautiful day last Friday (not now b/c its raining; god damn april showers that bring may flowers) so Rel & I went to tompkins square park in the east village and had a picnic. We always walk by it at night and talk about how we have to go again during the day. & we actually did. Rel refused to hop a fence - how lame, but we had ate on some nice benches and talked for a few hours. When we were walking home, we saw the CUTEST place: Sympathy For The Kettle so we had to go in. Its this place with over 150 kinds of teas & its just so cute I can't get over it. The cups and saucers don't match and kind of antique-y. I hate to say it again, but this place is god damn cute. I want to have like...my baby shower there b/c...get this...they throw tea parties. I was going to repeat myself, but I don't think I need to.
Next week my parents are coming and staying for 5 days & I'm really excited for that. They're staying at The Bowery Hotel. Apparently, its new and the NYT just did a story on it last weekend, so my mother is an expert on it. Its in a great location in the east village, and besides the fact that it is right next door to "a homeless shelter and a meth clinic, it should be extremely nice and a little adventurous." I really want to show my parents my area so they can understand why I love it so much. I feel like I have a million stories for every street, and I want to be like "this is where I get my muffin, and this is where we play scrabble, and this is that little tea place I told you about." Before, I was glad that they were coming, but now I'm actually very very excited. I don't care, I love my mommy. It should be a lot of fun, and hopefully my mom & I will spend some money in soho together :)
Last weekend, Alex & I hung out with some people from our dorm. It was so much fun because we usually just kinda keep to ourselves and stubbornly just have fun with each other, but it turns out, other people in the dorm actually pretty cool. I must say, I'm kind of relieved that we found some other people that meet our standards, (I kid about that part) because Alex & I have gone almost the whole year and have only found each other. Not like there's anything wrong with that...oh well I can't really explain well...I suppose you get the picture.
I find this hilarious: The latest search at Google had nothing to do with the Internet or lucrative ads. It had to do with a three-foot python that was loose in its New York offices.

I had a really nice break. Partied with some the people who go to state schools b/c we had the same break, went to the spa with my mom, baked, and missed new york/school/my friends. I also went to my high school's musical, Guys and Dolls, which was SO WEIRD! I've never seen one at my high school b/c I've been in them since the 3rd great, so it was crazy to sit there while the overture started. For the most part it was good, except for the parts where I was like pff, if I was that part this scene would be SO GOD DAMN GOOD. But besides that, I really liked going. I talked to my old director, and I remembered how much I loved her. I also talked to the choreographer Dan (or as I liked to throw around "dan, dan, the dancing man." i'm sure he thought it was hilarious at the time, but now that everyone and their mom calls him that I'm sure he doesn't think its so funny.) Dan asked again where I went & I didn't have to go through the its in the village, project runway/actor's studio thang (or the "ha, yeaaah, they closed the 'old school' and opened up my school" aka thanks for making this great fucking school a joke haha, love that!) so that was cool. Then this mom came over and interupt our awesome conversation and bragged to Dan how she taught her daughter how to dance sexy in the "hot-box" scene in the play. After this mom went away Dan was just like "well...that was weird."
So all and all, a good break.
One of my favorite parts of the break was driving back into the city & totally feeling like I was coming back home.

a whole day's/trip's worth of compalining!

WHOOO SPRING BREAK 2007! in ohio. whoo.
I had a whole schedule for yesterday morning because my ear-trianing midterm ended at noon & I had the shuttle was picking me up at 2. I had a lot of things to do in that 2 hour slot. The majority of those things I didn't have to do, but I'm killer at fitting things into a schedule.
First thing I wanted to do was return the ugly shirt from Forever XXI & get new pair of leggings & etc.
Yesterday I decided go shopping at H&M & ForeverXXI aka my best friends. I knew I had a voice lesson at 4.30, but thought I had pleeenty of time. So I have lotsa stuff in my arms, I look at my cell, and its 4.08. ehh, so I just decide to buy everything I have. & I made it to my voice lesson 2 min late. god, I'm amazing; I couldn't believe I wasn't more late.
When I got home, I tried on my purchases, and I loved everything. Again, I am amazing. Well this on shirt was a total miss. TOTAL MISS.
Since the store opened at 10, I was just going to return it before my midterm. So after doing ehhh on my midterm, I walked over to union square, pick out some things at FXXI, and go to the register to exchange it. The people at the register were all mmmyeah, our computers are down, so we can't do any exchange or anything at all really. do you have cash? if you don't, then our big store full of reasonably priced trendy clothes are worthless to you. I asked when they thought the computer would be fixed and they said mmmmmmtommorow? maybe? fuck this, I was so annoyed.
However, after the midterm, I went to an ATM & bought the leggings, b/c everything else was packed up & I didn't want to meet my parents back in Ohio w/o pants. What would they think?
Then I absolutely had to get my coffee&amuffin. & let me tell you, today was the best coffee&amuffin experience. I go in there, this one woman (who I like to think is the mother of the guys behind the counter) smiles and asks how I'm doing. I say great b/c she's talking to me like I'm a regular (which is my ultimate goal). One of the guys behind the counter smiles and tells me my order (b/c he knows it b/c I'm almost like a regular), and another one hands it to me and calls me sweety (not like creepy man sweety, like part of the family aw lisa hey sweety here's the best muffin in the whole glass case). When I pay for my muffin the woman behind the counter asks me about the weather. They love me, not as much as I love them, but its all good.
I came home & started to pack up. I changed into just leggings and a tank top so i could be aerodynamic comfortable. This was like, its too cold to be naked, so i'll sport this kind of outfit. Of course like 5 min later tiff & her boyfriend came in...super. So the really nice security guard called me down b/c someone was there for me. I just assumed it was Rel b/c who else would it be? It was the shuttle guy. an hour earlier. I started to freak out b/c there was no way I was going to be ready, but I told the guy that he was suppose to come at 1.50, no 12.50. So he was all oh my b my b & then he left.
An hour later, alex helped me bring my bags downstairs, and then I got into the shuttle from hell. It lasted like 50 minutes, but it was 48 minutes too long.
The first guy that gets in the car, and I could just tell he was an asshole. He called his wife on his cell phone & proceeded to recap his weekend. loudly. He was intown working on a business deal, and he would soon be the Anderson's (the vice president's) "right hand man." He said "right hand man" about 82 times. Then he kept joking about getting an apartment in the city blaahh blahh. He thought he was hot shit, but honestly, if he was, he wouldn't be in a $15 shuttle w/ up to 9 people. Where's your town car? thats what I thought. bitch.
After picking up 3 other people, we stopped at a hotel and literally spent 20 minutes waiting outside for the people we were picking up. Note: I really hate when people say "literally" & they don't mean it at all. Like my math teacher once said "I literally bit off more than I can chew." "Literally, freeman?" See, it sounds ridiculous when one reflects on this. I say this just to make it clear that these 20 minutes were actually 20 minutes. I was already in a bad mood b/c I was leaving the city & it was raining, so when the 4 girls who took 1/2 of my life to get onto the shuttle, I already hate them. I could tell that they were from out of town. Like, not even Cincinnati, maybe like 40 miles east of Cincinnati. They had on really disgusting jeans & these really huge sweatshirts on. The girl who got into the front had this coach bag & it was atrocious. Like the fabric was all bunched everywhere, and it looked so cheep and tacky. What is she going to say when she goes home: "Hey Y'all! Look at this neat bag I got in New York City" (The "New York City" was suppose to be said like the guys from the salsa commercial)*
When I got to LaGuardia, I had 2 hours until my plane boarded. sweet. So I got a green tea & sat down with my handy-dandy sudoku book. I finished about 6 of the medium ones, and then found out that my plane was delayed 2 hours. & then I waited a bit longer (2 more hours).
When I got on my flight there was one guy in my seat, my aisle/window single seat. I was really polite and told him that was my seat, and he said to me "Oh, I thought this was seat C." I replied "oh, no, its seat A," "Oh...then I guess I have to move." I wanted to be a douche and be like YEAH, I GUESS YOU DO.
a million annoying people and hours later, I finally got home to Ohio :)

*I'm well aware that these observations are very snobby & shallow...but I was in a bad mood & when I caught myself thinking these things I started to laugh b/c it was just so stuck up & ridiculous.

Last night, Alex and I went to La Taza De Oro which is this Puerto Rican diner & its so good. When we go there, we get rice & beans, meat, bananas, and avocados. I don't know why I haven't had Puerto Rican food before b/c its so good. & Isn't bad for you.
Then we came back & I watched the office (OMG, seriously, Roy? Seriously? Pam wanted back into the relationship & you go ape shit @ the bar? Not cool, not cool. I'm worried about Jim b/c, c'mon, Roy works at the warehouse. Jim needs to seek refuge...like in my bed oh, snap!)
My mom was trying to get her camera to work with her computer. This was hilarious. The hilarity doubled when my mom & Amanda got on Amanda's camera together. The tree of us were basically laughing non-stop the whole time we were talking. Then Greg came in and said that Amanda had to start packing b/c she was leaving for China tomorrow (aka today).
Yes. Today. uh god, I hate crying, but I did for like two hours today b/c my sister is leaving for China, which is weird that I was so upset b/c our good bye happened in January, so its not like our goodbye is happening now. Okay, I'm rambling, and I know that the only one really reading this is Amanda, so...Amanda, I love you so much and I just know that you are going to be amazing. Your fabulousness will translate. But, you are throwing the Mohar's universe totally out of wack. I mean Dad cried. Dad cried, Amanda. I didn't even know Greg had tear ducts.

Basically I love New York like its my job, but I kinda would rather be in Ohio w/ my mom & sister

I'm back in the city, but leaving Ohio was harder than I thought it would be.
The last week of my break, I was basically all by myself. Which means I woke up at like 10.30, sat around and ate all day until my family came home at like 6. I got so bored. But then when my family did come home I had a really great time. I really just hung out with my sister all of the time, and I realized how things are going to change when she's gone in China. I mean not just that she's not there, but like she doesn't have a summer break. She basically became an adult and that really freaks me out. & it was really hard to leave because of that.

Just packing made me start to cry. uh just the thought of leaving my sister & my mom totally broke my heart. So I cried all morning, cried in the car ride to the airport (at 4 in the fucking morning), cried in line for security, and cried on the plane. But when I got back into the city, I realized that I was actually coming back to something really wonderful here. & that wonderful thing is my boyfriend. aka NYC.
But Rel was really great, we caught up (which we had been doing all month long) & walked around out city. which we love sosososo much.
Its funny b/c I feel like this is my home. & I say its funny b/c I get the same feeling in Ohio. Its just so nice to walk along the same streets and be comfortable. It felt like I was gone for a week. :)

"Got a smile on my face for the whole human race..."

My dad sent me this email today, and it just made me so happy.

Hi Lisa,
I was gidy thinking how proud I am of you. I thought you should know that.
Love, Dad