everyone please please go to harvard-yale!! i really want to see everyone again...so nostalgic

where the beautiful people go

visited my schonmei later in the day at columbia med school. again NY shocks me with the sheer largeness of it; is there anything the city doesn't offer?? is there any niche not fulfilled? immediately after getting off at 168st, i saw, with my own little eyes, a group of students so obviously med students that i was almost convinced i had somehow wound up back at college. it's the "mark," you know, of the unadulterated academic: the fresh, un-made-up faces still idealistic and eager, the northface knockoff jackets, the unfashionable scrunchy jeans tucked into high-top sneakers. the same way i can sniff out stanford students from a mile away.

tired, burnt-out looking resident? check.
nerdy looking guy scurrying to library? check.
crowd of asian students? check.

yup! i was at the right place!

it's so strange, isn't it? PhD students probably in their mid-thirties walked by as i waited, and i could have sworn they seemed younger, somehow, than the fresh-out-of-college twenty-two-year-old bankers i see rushing this way and that around where we live. it's as if the latter are in a hurry to grow up, and the former has resolutely stayed young.

it was soo good to see harvard people again though...had forgotten how nostalgic i am about college sitting around sm's room, i was struck by how comfortable it was! comforting to know that somewhere in midst of the city, there's a nook where...well, nothing really has changed.

schonmei and alvin had an interesting theory that we put to the test: namely, that columbia seems to accept more attractive people than the average med school. after meeting their (all asian!! hahaha) friends, i'd probably have to concur. but a mere two months has passed since i graduated from the University of Homely-er, Inner Beauty, so perhaps i still have goggles on. a pretty med school? i thought stanford was pretty good already. i dunno, we shall see!

shameless flirtation

i'm now convinced that it's so easy for rich guys here in the city. it's the third day in a row i'm squatting at the W, ordering a cappucino with wireless on the side (extra sugar). sitting in front of me is a trio talking in really loud voices: two trashy-looking women, and a private-equity-looking guy. it's immediately obvious that they don't actually know each other. the women (one fairly attractive, one not as attractive, but both mid-30's) are beside themselves flirting with the guy...the body language is obvious that even from my vantage point 7 feet away, i'm feeling slightly uncomfortable. i've never seen body language this forward between strangers before. she's putting her hand on his thigh and laughing awkwardly loudly...he's leaning forward to whisper things into her ear, by "she" and "her" i mean both women, actually. no particular order. they then talk about his haircut and both take turns playing with his hair. his arm snakes-no, not snakes, straight-up slips right behind one of the women's shoulders, and she giggles breathlessly like a loose schoolgirl. this is three grown adults in their mid-30's we're talking about here...not hormone-crazed adolescent teens! and it's the lobby of a hotel in bright daylight, not a hotel room!

within ten minutes they're skirting the topic of lovin'...who does that?! my eavesdropping ears catch a brief phrase: "-sleeping with him for twelve years...no protection-" immediately the conversation jumps to the infamous "man muscle" (a la abercrombie models), you know, that groove that women are so obsessed with:

she says: "ok, so this is you right, you're standing up, your...you know... *GIGGLE* is here. do you have that muscle?? like the hip one?" get this-he actually stands up, and SHOWS them (!!!)

up the level of discomfort for me, puritanical asian girl (TM). at this point i've moved on...scooting to the opposite side of the lobby, where there isn't this shameless display going on, but the wireless still runs strong. get a room, people. but since you were here first FINE, i'll move. as i leave, the guy lets slip the most surprising phrase of all: "hey, you know, my wife..."

good god!!!!

*~*~*

anyway, on the flipside...after deciding that we're all paying way too much of our salaries on rent, i canceled my appointment at bliss and ventured out into queens today for a haircut. extremely scary, considering i don't actually speak korean, and they don't actually speak english. i desperately pointed at a picture of BoA they had floating around, and they sort of laughed (bad sign), but managed to somehow pull it off. i've decided, koreans are the absolute asian beauty experts of the world, and for cheap!

the bill: $15!!! where in manhattan would you find those prices for a long-haired haircut? god bless queens...and asian people...

i finally did it. i gave in and went to the ridiculous nightclub-looking grocery store across the street and bought some ridiculously overpriced fruit for lunch. i mean, what IS this?! tell me it's not crazy. i've seen restaurants that look like bars or lounges, but this is a grocery store! why do you need fancy lanterns to sell cereal? and who calls a grocery store "Azure?"

gripe, i will, but gave in, i did. the universal temptation of yuppies: convenience. since (the awesome roommate that i am) i had to wait for our contractor to come in and fix our windows today, i couldn't afford even the half an hour it takes to trek down to food emporium (where things aren't even that much better...say, $2.99/lb for peaches instead of $3.99/lb. GARGH...damn the city!) so reluctantly, i put on my yuppie costume (formerly known as ibanking barbie outfit) and braved the milling crowd of powerpeople and sticker shock.

it wasn't so bad. the salad bar offers a mix of things, so instead of blowing $50 on fruit so i wouldn't die of constipation, i blew $4.80.

sighs...all in a day's work.

midtown girl

i accomplished something today...i used a powertool to install my curtain rods despite swearing never to touch them again after almost screwing my thumb to a shelf freshman year.

by "powertool," i really mean just the power screwdriver below, so yes, if you're a huge buff guy you'll probably laugh at me. but, to put things in perspective, the battery alone weighed about 8 lbs and the actual screwdriver was something like 6, so the entire thing was around 12% of my bodyweight. since our place is completely not furnished, i had to stack a couple of dining chairs together to come even close to the top of the wall, and even so, the rod had to go about half a foot above my head. so the entire time i was squinting up at the screw and trying to hold a 14 lb hunk of metal with my puny useless triceps while holding the rod and screw precariously with my free hand.

anyway, needless to say, the entire ordeal (3 windows worth) took about 3 hours, when a nice muscular contractor probably could have finished in...oh, 3 minutes. but it was strangely satisfying. kinda made me crave beer and...oh i dunno, watch football and make lewd jokes about chicks or something (what do guys even like to do nowadays?) it's such a sense of accomplishment tho...when the screw finally digs into the drywall and the rod is bolted dead to the plaster. i guess for a moment, i could FINALLY understand why guys like to...screw so much.

anyway, the moment passed and i had to hurriedly get dressed in a nice skirt in preparation for meeting my roomie erika who came down from jersey to hang out. problem was, i was already so sweaty and gross-feeling that i felt kinda out of place in a nice restaurant. like icing on an overpriced manhattan cake, "Uptown Girl" started playing as soon when i went to Bed Bath & Beyond later in the day, making me feel even more butch.

but looking back at the day, would i really prefer to be an uptown girl all the time? it'd be kinda bland (and i wouldn't ever had experienced the great satisfaction that is powertools!!) so yeah...not prissy chauffeur-abusing uptown girl or hearty childbearing beef-stew-guzzling downtown girl but something in the middle would be perfect...like a midtown girl?

***

on the flipside, maybe i'm already disgustingly yuppie-fied, but i really, really didn't like walking downtown today. as soon as we reached the 40's, i was suddenly irritated by the increased frequency of sewer smell, the puffs of dust, the construction, the crappy little stores selling crappy electronics, the milling crowds and confused tourists and just...the masses and masses of people. i missed the clean skyscrapers that surround our crappy little place in east midtown (mostly bank highrises), and the delicious yuppie lunch i had with erika at djando. most scarily, i actually missed walking amongst businesspeople dressed in powersuits and golddiggers decked out in dior.

oh god...and so it begins...

are all hot guys assholes?

that question's been plaguing me for ages now. for some reason, i seem to be able to meet gorgeous girls who are really sweet, but every hot guy i've met seems to have a stick up anonymous unpleasant hole (the rare exceptions all turn out to be gay). this effect seems to double for asian guys. WHY??!

some theories:

1. ugly duckling theory: girls just have more appearance issues growing up, so they might not even realise they're hot until much later. so early in life they learn to have a good personality. later, they just become hot with a good personality.
2. competitive market theory: i bet you ec people think this is the most plausible. basically, there are just more hot girls than hot guys. that means hot guys can effortlessly get with hot girls, but there are a miscellaneous number of "leftover" hot girls who are just floating around, bereft of guys as good-looking as they are. they get desperate, so they become nice.
3. spoilage theory: hot guys never have to work hard for anything (let alone get girls) so they're emotionally stunted...unable to actually relate to what it might be like to do something for someone else. imagine that!
4. vanity theory: cuz hot guys usually tend to be a bit more vain than other guys, they spend their time worrying about frivolous things usually only girls worry about...become less manly and more catty. that makes them wayyy less attractive, personality-wise.
5. masochism theory: girls just inherently like asshole-ish guys. therefore, if a guy is only ok but acts like an asshole, she all of a sudden suffers the illusion that he's hot. if a hot guy is too nice, she loses interest. or just thinks he's gay.

hmmm! i want counterexamples!

so i'm sitting here at the W Hotel nursing a $6 cappuccino (small price to pay for mooching off their wi-fi for the entire afternoon) when i see the hottest asian guy known to man. powersuit, light green striped dress-shirt with collar popped (my favourite!)...everything.

ALREADY? i've been here but a day!

***

on another note...i'm hopelessly addicted to coffee. it's ridiculous. i've never been so addicted to anything in my life.

ah...midtown on sept 9th 2006, a california girl uprooted and came to the city, with nothing in her suitcase but...103 lbs of clothes.

starting over...starting afresh. what do i want to do? i want to...

1. be a better sister
2. be a kinder, gentler JuJu
3. truly cherish my friends (whom i looove!)
4. truly cherish my luck (to find such friends, and a place walking distance from the office!)
5. above all, do nothing to hurt anybody...to the best of my ability. ie. talk less shit...talk more praise. be a logical listener. care about people not only for their company...but for their well-being.

and enjoy the wonderful view from our wonderful rooftop yes...our ghetto little place has a rooftop that looks up adoringly into the massive office buildings, luxe condos stretching 40 or some stories above us, and Wachovia next door. it's a little sketchy, but so blissfully new york.

sex and the city: broke asian girls version, here we come!

my five guiltiest pleasures

5. photoshopping random things onto my friends (eg. Spock hair, china farmer hats)
4. Costco muffins (two at a time! that's 610*2 = 1220 calories!)
3. askmen.com
2. horror movies that i later regret seeing
1. incurable addiction to UsWeekly

***

speaking of that...this is really stupid, but ever find that things really are less scary during the day?

late last night i wrote an entry about the twelve most disturbing horror films ever made, but then in a strange fit of cold sweat and chills, i deleted said entry. the rationale at the time: unlike the creepy girl in The Ring, i'm not really into spreading the seeds of...gore and violence. this morning, in the light of day, i kinda regret wiping out all that great summarizing...two hours of work worth!

reason #102 that life is ultimately unfair:

jarah mariano, first asian to gain the coveted status of victoria's secret model

34'-24'-34'?! wtf!