The Good Morning Experiment

So between my last post and this one I've had two of the best weekends of the quarter: Key Laborers back in Cincinnati and Valentine's Day this past weekend with Dan, Mark and Caitlin in town for a visit. They were both fantastic. It was amazing going back to Cincinnati and seeing so many people I love so much. Some awesome things happened there. I left that weekend in the frame of mind I wish I had been in at the beginning of this quarter. I needed it a lot.

As for this past weekend, you should check out Caitlin and my facebook pictures, because I'm not going to write about either of those weekends right now. I'm going to write about what's going on right now.

I haven't been very fair to New York City since I've been here. I've allowed myself to blanket New Yorkers with the stereotype that they are all cold and unfriendly, but that really isn't the case at all. In just the last few days I've had some surprisingly wonderful interactions with strangers.

Friday night I walked and talked with a girl who needed directions to Humbolt, and I told her I wasn't sure but that I thought it was just a few blocks ahead. I told her I wasn't sure because I've only been here for a month and a half, and we chatted about my internship and it turned out she was an NYU grad and aspiring actor from Lexington, Kentucky. As we walked together, it turned out I was right and we did get to Humbolt! She was super nice and very thankful for the help.

Just yesterday I made a comment to a woman in the elevator and she actually told me to have a nice day as the doors opened on her floor.

These kind of things are minor, but they've shown me that when you can break that initial barrier, New Yorkers can actually be very friendly and pleasant. Walking to work every morning, I pass by plenty of people on the sidewalk in my neighborhood, and I have been frustrated that no one ever looks you in the eyes when you pass by them. I've really wanted to dole out a few Good mornings on my walk to work, especially on bright, beautiful mornings like so many we've had in the last week.

Well, today I decided to just start saying "Good morning" to strangers, regardless of whether they'll look me in the eye or not. In the first day of this experiment, I had some interesting results.

First, I said good morning to an old woman carrying bags and walking next to the corner grocery. Much to my surprise, as we walked toward eachother, she actually did look me in the eyes, allowing me to smoothly and happily say "morning" to her. She smiled a toothless crooked smile and gladly responded with a "morning" of her own. My first subject was a success! I was filled with instant joy; this could actually be fun.

Next up was a middle aged woman who refused to look up and make eye contact. As we passed I said "Good morning" and she responded with a high-pitched and very surprised "Good morning" of her own, but she didn't turn around at all or look at me. Her surprise made me laugh as I kept walking.

Finally, as I got closer to the subway, I walked toward an older man who did not look very pleasant or happy, and as we passed I quickly gave him a good morning. I noticed he turned around to look at me, so I turned around to find him looking at me with a huge smile and a seriously confused look on his face. He did not say a word and turned and kept walking. It was great.

So I'm not actually conducting any kind of crazy experiment where I'm really trying to mess with the minds of hardened New Yorkers, I'm just trying to look at the world with a different lens. Maybe somehow I can just have a tiny impact on this city.

Now, I know some mornings I won't feel like putting any effort into saying anything to anyone, but I do hope to keep this up as much as I can. Some people might give me weird looks. People might just ignore me completely. Regardless, It's fun to have a little mission while walking to work. The responses I got helped make my day fun and interesting, and if nothing else, I made a few people smile.

Who knows where this will take me in the next month. I hope to stay relatively motivated in this "experiment," and I'm stoked to see what kind of results come out of this.


Before I go, here is one picture from this past weekend. This is me sitting with a duck listening to Hans Christian Andersen tell us a story in Central Park on Saturday night. Good times.


I hope everyone is doing well! I miss you all.

Ogle Meets Ogre

Last week was definitely a good one. After a few weeks feeling like it would be tough to feel connected to this city in the middle of Winter, I've started to. It was pretty great to just start to notice some of the charm of this place and to realize that there are wonderfully great people here.


Friday night, Kristen and Dan came and met me after work in Dumbo for dinner. While I waited for them, I discovered an amazing rare bookstore right down the street from my office. There is some amazing stuff there, especially in terms of design books. I might have to go back to buy the spanish copy of the information design book, "Open Here."

After we had dinner at Rice, we headed to Union Hall, a very cool bar in Park Slope. The upstairs is like a big den or library and has a full bocce court inside. (Ahh, that reminds me how wonderful Christie's will be in the Spring!) Anyway, we went downstairs to check out some bands playing for an Ethiopia fundraiser. We only got there in time to see one band's full set, Sarah Fullen & the Stanleys. I was definitely a fan. They had a whole lot of soul and a wicked good horn section backing them up.

Saturday morning I woke up early and went over to M&M's World to try and win a lottery ticket to Shrek the musical. I put my name in around 9:30 or so, went back at 10, and was the very first name called! How about that?

I paid $26.50 for a seat in the front row of the right side of the orchestra, but I'll get to that later. After buying my ticket, I headed up to Columbus Circle and walked over to Lincoln Center. Unfortunately it was almost all walled off for renovations, but I hope to head back either for the Evening with Alan Menken or a cheap partial view ticket to the Metropolitan Opera. I'd kill to get inside that opera house. It must be amazing.

After scoping out some books in Borders back in the Time Warner Center, I grabbed a gyro and headed into the park. This time, I was determined to get deep into it.


The two pictures above are two parts of the park I was very excited to reach, the fountain at the edge of the lake and the beautiful bridge at the end of the mall. Both of these feature pretty prominently in movies and commercials and whatnot and are just plain beautiful. I don't have a picture of the amazing ceiling underneath the bridge. Some things you should just experience for yourself.


As I headed into the Ramble it was pretty ridiculous to think about how removed this patch of land is from the hustle and bustle of The City. It was beautiful covered in snow and ice. The lake was also frozen over, with the tracks of animals who braved the ice to cross to the other side. Looking back toward the buildings, everything seemed so calm and peaceful.

I kept heading north, determined to get further into the park, and eventually made my way to Belverde Castle. I climbed to the top and looked out over the park, expecting to be near Harlem by now after walking for what seemed like so long. Of course I was wrong, and I was maybe a third of the way through the park. I made it to the resevoir before I decided it was time to head back for my matinee.


So I got back to Shrek and walked into the Broadway Theatre to find my seat. What I discovered was that on the side of the orchestra in the front row, the stage level is a good six inches or so above eye level, meaning that I couldn't see anything that happened below anyone's waist. Needless to say, as the performance was starting I was eye-balling seats further back where I could see the stage, knowing the show had plenty of gags I was missing, including most of Lord Farquaad's.

Although I stayed up front for the first act, during intermission I went about 3/4 of the way back in the orchestra to an open end seat next to a very nice lady from New Jersey who bought tickets to the show as a gift for her friend and sister. We chatted a bit about co-op and the show and she was very glad to hear how I am trying to make the most of my time here. She was great.

Now I know what you're thinking. A musical version of Shrek? That sounds pretty ridiculous. How good could it be? Well, let me tell you, I went into Shrek having heard good things, but I had no idea how good it would end up being. I've got to say, out of all of the shows I've seen this quarter, (five total) Shrek is definitely my favorite.

Sure, I enjoy the Shrek movies (the only Dreamworks animated movies that I do), but this musical (which has only been open since Decemeber) takes the story and adds so much heart, energy, depth and fun to it that it becomes something really special.

First off, the staging and sets are great. Everything that takes place in the forest is absolutely beautiful. And the creativity and comedy weaved into the staging is fantastic.


Without a doubt, though, the best part of Shrek the musical are the performances of its five leads. Brian D'Arcy James as Shrek, Sutton Foster as Fiona, Christopher Sieber as Farquaad, Daniel Breaker as Donkey and John Tartaglia as Pinocchio were all born to play their parts. All five of them have been nominated for tony's in the past and Sutton has won.

To give you a better idea of what the show is like, here's a video for you to check out. This is Brian D'Arcy James, out of make-up, singing Shrek's beautiful "I want" song, "Who I'd Be." This song definitely reflects the big layer of depth that the musical adds to Shrek's character. (1:39 is where the song starts if you want to skip to it)

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Pretty cool, eh? I love the piano in the bridge.

Don't worry though, this is a unique sensitive moment in the show for Shrek, he's also the Ogre we all know and love with plenty of farting, burping and off-color jokes.

Here's just one more video that shows some more of the humor mixed with the heart. This is Sutton Foster as Fiona. You might recognize Sutton as playing Bret's sign-holding girlfriend Coco in the first season of Flight of the Conchords.

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Sutton was definitely my favorite in the show. She has amazing comic timing and performing talent. She's the one I gave my standing O to. She plays Fiona the way she was meant to be played, strong and quirky without the occasional annoyance of Cameron Diaz.

I'm a big fan of that song. And actually if you can't wait for the cast album in March, this song can be downloaded on the website. Enjoy.

Daniel Breaker, as I said was great as Donkey, and apparently he still hasn't seen the movie. Christopher Sieber, who was also in Spamalot and played Mary-Kate and Ashley's Dad on Two of a Kind, was a great Farquaad, pulling off what has to be one of the most physically demanding roles on Broadway, and he also was responsible for one of my favorite moments in the show, a send up of another favorite musical of mine. John Tartaglia was an amazing Pinocchio, which in itself is funny, since John himself is a very talented puppetteer, having stared in the original cast of Avenue Q and playing the title character in Johnny and the Sprites on the Disney Channel. I had a huge smile on my face during the big fairy tale creatures' number in the second act. Then again, I think I had a big smile on my face the entire show.

There it is, my drawn out and unnecessary full review of Shrek. I loved it. I'd see it again in a second. If someone was coming to New York, I'd tell them to see Shrek. It was hilarious, heartwarming, and full of energy and joy. And there is certainly not a better cast on Broadway.

Awesome.

Alright, its Wednesday night. The week has had its ups and downs, but Friday I'm headed back to Cincinnati for the Navs Key Laborer's retreat. I am absolutely stoked to see people and take part in the weekend. It will be amazing.

You know, it's really fun to write this blog. I don't know who reads it, but I'm just glad to have everything written here, to help me store my memories.

New York, I'm actually enjoying living here. Let's see where this relationship goes, eh?

Getting to know The City

I didn't get a chance to write a post about last weekend, and I don't have the patience to do it right now, so instead of a long drawn-out post about the weekend, I'm going to give you this instead. Here are a few pictures of some of the things I did and saw last week.

The view back toward Manhattan on the Staten Island ferry.

The tenement museum in the Lower East Side. (the one with the wooden front on the left) You take tours through the building and see what life was life for the immigrants after they got off the boat. From when it was built in 1863 to the time it was condemned in 1935, 7,000 different people called this five story building home.

The New Zealand Consulate on Flight of the Conchords. (In reality an old trashy medical office)

$14.50 "Can't say no Sundae" from Serendipty 3. I felt pretty sick after eating it...exactly how you'd hope to feel after eating a $14 sundae.

Docks near Battery Park. I love it, it's so "Hitch."

The Woolworth Building, aka where the ball and dragon fight at the end of Enchanted take place

For the ladies, the apartment from Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Body parts from the Muppet Whatnot Workshop in FAO Schwarz. It's basically Muppet build-a-bear, and it's Amazing. Unfortunately its $90. If I got a surprise bonus at work I'd be very tempted...

Last Tuesday night in the park right down the street from my house, filming a scene for the FOX show Fringe

Lady Liberty, as beautiful and impressive as ever.

Hope you enjoyed these shots. I'll write about this weekend soon. It's been very solid so far, and can only continue to be awesome with the Super Bowl tomorrow!

HERE WE GO STEELERS, HERE WE GO!
Now for the other hand...

Imani

Last weekend I finally got in touch with Martha, the woman I will be helping start her business in Namibia this summer! She told me a little bit about her plans for the business, "Imani," so I could get started thinking about design work.

She has registered the business as Imani Investments CC, made up of Imani Properties, Imani Books, Imani FM, and Imani Café. In Swahili, Imani means faith. Martha told me that her vision for the logo and identity of the business is to reflect the themes of faith and illumination. Her main target market is youth and young adults, and she wants everything to feel alive, vibrant, and perhaps even a little funky.

Needless to say, I was stoked to start coming up with some ideas for the logo. Without a whole lot of information about the business itself and with communication being kind of hindered by the thousands of miles between us, I decided the best thing to do would be to start coming up with ideas, see what Martha and people think of them, and proceed developing from there.

I started with a pen and a blank sheet of paper. (Go figure. I should really do this more often). I wrote down some of what Martha had told me and jotted down definitions of the words illuminate and faith.


Next, with some visual inspiration from Google image searches, I started to sketch out different ideas for how to visualize the things I wrote down. Nothing was stupid or wrong; any stroke or shape was a potential idea. Trying to reflect themes of light, faith and celebration, I sketched.


From there, I took an "i" and started playing with it a little. Thinking about what an "i" could represent. I was excited to see an i come to life on the page, and got to a point where the i became a kind of abstracted celebratory figure. From there I decided to start playing around in illustrator.


Taking my abstracted i, I created the raw, sketched figure and type you see above. As you'll notice in a lot of the designs, I was really drawn to more raw, less rigid styles. Here, the i becomes a figure full of joy, with its head turned up to the sky. The sketched arms also have a lighthouse kind of illumination to them. I know there is a disconnect between the thickness of the "i" and the "mani," but perhaps when taken in the context of Africa, it will not be difficult for people to make the connection. This is one of the directions I like the most.

On the bottom left, I took the i from the first direction and made it a little more corporate and streamlined. It's probably a little too much like a sports drink right now, but it might have some potential.

To the right of that is a fairly simple direction, where the font does most of the work. I like the roughness and life of it, though.


From there I got pretty excited as I started to take the rays of light and actually play with breaking apart the letter forms. This resulted in something that again felt very raw and vibrant. To me, this effect as used in the middle row definitely seems to have a lively African style to it, but I don't really claim to know anything about Africa right now. The last thing I want to do is to create a design that is just a reflection of American stereotypes of what is "African" (he says while listening to The Lion King soundtrack). That being said, I do really like these designs. I think they're definitely different, but seem to have a kind of energy and illumination to them.

My roommate and Graphic Design student extraordinaire, Dan, told me that he liked this direction the most, and recommended that I try a few different versions of it. In the last two designs above I tried using some arches and straight lines.


Next I started experimenting with the usage of a hand, raised in a kind of worship. I don't know how spiritual or secular the logo should be, but I thought I'd give this idea a go. I obviously love using white space, and after I liked how the arm inside the "n" turned out, I decided trying the same thing with the figure of a celebrating person.

Last night, Dan sent me links to a few logo-inspiration sites and I started to check them out. When I did, I realized I needed to do a little more work, and should consider a logo that has a stronger symbolic element, something that the actual type could accompany.

I thought that a kind of sunburst would be the best shape to experiment with, so in my free time today I played around with these forms. Some of them are similar, some are very different. The ones formed with i's in the top left are definitely more corporate than some of others that look a bit more tribal. I can't really decide which of these I prefer. I know too much flourish is not good, like the two in the center of the second row. Note that the word "imani" would still appear under or next to one of these shapes.


Anyway, it would be great to get some feedback about what people's thoughts are, what you like, what you don't like, or any other directions to experiment with.

Don't worry, color (and who knows, maybe gradients) will come later. Right now it's just about the style, emotion and message evoked by the designs. The next step will involve much closer precision and focus.

Any and all critiquing will be appreciated, even if what you say is wrong.

Thanks so much! I hope everybody had a wonderful weekend. I'll try and write a regular post sometime this week!

A New York Minute

I've now been in New York for three weekends, and the time has kind of flown by. Finally, this weekend I feel like I was able to hit the city pretty hard but also have time to relax and get my bearings a bit.


Friday night I met up with Kristen and her fashion friends Milan and Andrea for dinner. We ended up heading down to Soho for some delicious food at a cool little place I think was called Soho Park. From there, the other girls headed home and Kristen and I went and grabbed some tea and chatted. I'm definitely thankful Kristen and I are both co-oping here, since we haven't had much quality hanging out and talking time since freshman year. It's been nice.

My usual theater-companions Dan and Emily were out of town Saturday, so in the morning I got up early and tried to get lottery tickets to both Shrek and In the Heights. Unfortunately, I wasn't successful with either, so I ended up getting a student rush ticket to the play Speed-the-Plow, starring William H. Macy, Raul Esparza and Elizabeth Moss.

While waiting in between the lotteries, buying my ticket, and the matinee time, I putzed around midtown some more, including checking out the ice rink at Bryant Park. I don't think I will ever get tired of seeing the beautiful Empire State Building pop up out of nowhere as a kind of north star telling you which direction is which in the city. The afternoon also included grabbing a warm gyro from a street vendor for lunch that hit the spot as I strolled through Central Park killing time before the show. It was delicious.

I ended up having a ticket to the show in the dead center of the front row (student rush is a beautiful thing) so it was pretty cool being just a few feet away from a big time actor like William H. Macy. I really didn't know what the play was about when I bought the ticket, so it was great when it turned out to be about Hollywood and a movie studio executive.

The play was short but very good. William H. Macy was never supposed to play the role he did, but he and Norbert Leo Butz stepped in after original cast member Jeremy Piven had to drop out due to mercury poisoning. This made Macy a little too old for his role. It would've been a little more convincing if someone who was more like 40 years old than 60 had played the part. I actually would've loved to have seen Norbert Leo Butz in the role. I think he would've had some more youth and energy in the role. (For the record, Norbert was the original Fiyero in Wicked and was in Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years opposite Sherie Rene Scott).

That being said, William H. Macy was quite good, and Elizabeth Moss (from Mad Men) was great, but Raul Esparza steals the show. I'm a fan of his from his role as Jonathan in Jonathan Larson's Tick, tick...BOOM, the recording of which I love. Raul goes a mile a minute and hits it hard. Yeah, it was good.


After the show, I walked over to Grand Central Station which I'd never been to, and absolutely loved. It's so weird to walk outside in the city and at times feel congested and surrounded by towering skyscrapers and then walk into a building like Grand Central or St. Patrick's Cathedral and feel so open. Very cool. From there, I took the subway down into the Village and grabbed some hot chocolate at Café Pick Me Up, before heading back home.

I had the apartment to myself, so I hung out and relaxed for the evening. I had picked up the book New Moon at Virgin in the morning, so I read a few chapters, made some dinner, poured a glass of wine and watched the classic New York flick, Breakfast at Tiffany's. Not the most masculine evening, to be sure, but we're all entitled to a sensitive moment now and then, right? I'd also like to think I made up for it Sunday night with beer, pizza and football.

Before football on Sunday, I just felt like I needed to take it easy, so I relaxed, listened to a Mosaic podcast, did some more reading and cleaning, and then headed down to Prospect Park to meet up with my Daap architect friends Joan and Drew. Joan is a big steelers fan, so we went back to their apartment and hung out, ate and watched the game. How unbelievably awesome, the Steelers are going back to the Super Bowl! I am absolutely stoked and cannot wait. I was actually surprised how much black and gold steelers garb I saw around the city this weekend. Good work, New York.


Today, Dan and I got up and went out to the American Museum of Natural History. It was pretty cool, especially the Dinosaur exhibit and the Cosmic Collisions Space Show in the planetarium. A definite highlight was meeting up with my future neighbors in the hall of African Animals. It was kind of an information overload, though, and it was packed with families for the holiday, so Dan and I didn't stay too long.


From there, we walked over to Jerry Seinfeld's actual one-time apartment on W. 81st, then took the Subway up to Tom's Restaurant at the top of the Upper West Side. Tom's is of course known to most of the world as the setting of Monk's on Seinfeld. Dan and I were starving, and the cash-only diner was super authentic. I went with an awesome breakfast special called "The Lumberjack," and Dan opted for a man-sized rueben special that came with a steak knife. I could definitely go back there.

On our way home the snowflakes were some of the biggest I've ever seen. It was amazing. I tell you what, if it wasn't for snow, winter in New York City would be pretty horrible. It would feel very cold and lonely all the time. This place is beautiful in the snow, though, and the brightness of everything at night as light reflects off the white ground is awesome. Every day on the way to and from the subway, I love walking by McGolrick Park, a.k.a. the park from the french song in Flight of the Conchords. It's especially beautiful at night covered in lamplight, but it's pretty great during the day, too.


Tonight I started doing design work for Africa, and I'm actually really excited by what I have so far. It's been a lot of fun. I'll post some designs here in the next few days probably.

I'm getting pretty seriously stoked for tomorrow. It should be an amazing day. I am always proud to be an American, but I'm feeling it much deeper than ever before right now.

With the Steeler game, the day off today, Inauguration tomorrow, LOST on wednesday, and the weekend coming back up soon, this should be a week for the ages.

I still have a lot to figure out here, but I think I'm slowly becoming more connected to the city.

I hope everybody had a great weekend, and I hope the next few days are wonderful.

Yes, America, yes.

Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand

I saw this in Lindsey's blog and thought it sounded cool. Unfortunately, for the most part my list did not turn out anywhere near as interesting as her's did. I knew it wasn't going to be pretty from the very first song. Anyway, here it is:

Let's see what your music has to say about you.
Put your iTunes on shuffle, one song for each answer, press the next button. Write the song no matter how silly.

1. If someone says "is this ok" you say...
["Save A Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" —Big & Rich]
2. What best describes your personality?
["Straw into Gold" —Idina Menzel]
3. What do you like in a guy/girl?
["Under the Stars" —Hans Zimmer: The Lion King]
4. How do you feel today?
["A Part of That" —Sherie Rene Scott: The Last Five Years]
5. What is your life's purpose?
["Brown Sugar" —The Rolling Stones]
6. What is your motto?
["Silver" —James Newton Howard: Treasure Planet]
7. What do your friends think of you?
["I Will Love You Tomorrow" —KC and the Sunshine Band]
8. What do you think about often?
["Kids in America" —Kim Wilde]
9. What is 2+2?
["Pittsburgh’s Headed to the Super Bowl" —High Powered Home Boys]
10. What do you think of your best friend?
["Finale" —The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee]
11. What do you think of the person you like?
["Bless the Lord" —Godspell Soundtrack]
12. What's your life story?
["Fighter” —Christina Aguilera]
13. What do you want to be when you grow up?
["Time After Time (acoustic)" —Norah Jones]
14. What do you think when you see the person you like?
["Papa Loved Mama" —Garth Brooks]
15. What will you dance to at your wedding?
["Grace" —U2]
16. What will they play at your funeral?
["Tell Her" —13 Soundtrack]
17. What is your hobby/interest?
["End Duet/Transformation" —Beauty and the Beast Broadway Cast]
18. What is your biggest secret?
["Nessun Dorma" —Pavarotti]
19. What do you think of your friends?
["Sometimes" —Britney Spears]
20. What is the worst thing that could happen?
["Get Up Stand Up" —Bob Marley]
21. How will you die?
["In this Room" —Lauren Kennedy and Rozz Morehead]
22. What is the one thing you regret?
["Golden Moments" —James Taylor]
23. What makes you laugh?
["Wonderful Maker" —Jeremy Camp]
24. What makes you cry?
["Love You Out Loud" —Rascal Flatts]
25. Will you ever get married?
["Too Much Food" —Jason Mraz]
26. What scares you the most?
["Tonight’s the Night" —Crazy for You Soundtrack]
27. Does anyone like you?
["Laker Girls Cheer" —Spamalot]
28. If you could go back in time, what would you change?
["Where is Your Heart At?" —Jamie Cullum]
29. What hurts right now?
["Size 14 Feet" —Alan Menken: Lincoln Soundtrack]
30. What will you post this note as?
["Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand" —the Beatles]

I'm especially upset Britney snuck into my list. Some of them are ridiculous. Others aren't so bad. I was actually excited to see Christina pop up where she did.

And actually the 2+2 is relevant because
Pittsburgh is headed to the Super Bowl!

Here we go! I have the day off tomorrow, so I will give a weekend post sometime in the next day or so. Other people should do the itunes list too. I want to do it again but that'd be cheating. I might just do it one more time to see what happens.

The Grand Tour

So here it is, the apartment tour. I've meant write posts like this on my last two co-ops, but I never did, so here you go now!

Let's see, we'll start in Dan's nice red room. Our rooms didn't have any furniture in them, so we're both rocking air mattresses. It's nice to see how little furniture you can actually get by with.

Here's my room. It's actually bigger than I thought it would be. The double aerobed is key, and some milk crates are nice, too. Right now I'm standing in the doorway to Dan's bedroom and the door to the living room is on the right. Dan has to walk through my room to get to his. I'm not charging a toll...yet.

Here is the view in the living room looking back to the open doorway of my room. You can see I actually do have a nice chair in the corner of my room that I sat in as I finished the last few chapters of The Last Lecture tonight. You can see the nice futon and some of Liz's pillows and decorating.

Looking to the opposite corner, here you can see Dan happily sitting at the table and giving a solid thumbs up. There's the tv (it's nice to live without cable once in a while) and original Nintendo. You can see more of Liz's decorating here, which makes the whole place fun and homey. The pink is the kitchen.

Here's our kitchen, no dishwasher, no microwave, plenty of pink. It gets the job done great though, and feels kind of 1950s. The open door is to the bathroom.

I stood in the shower to take this picture of the bathroom. Again, nice pastel colors. It's tight, but wonderfully New York.

The place has worked out really well for all of us and is in a nice location. Dan and I are both very happy.

In other news, this morning when I got off the subway at High Street, I'm pretty postive I walked by an actor named Fisher Stevens. I couldn't tell you his name at the time, but I did remember him as being on the show "Early Edition" about the guy who got tomorrow's paper today and tried to stop the bad things written in it from happening. When I checked out imdb, I remembered he had a part on LOST last season as Minkowski, the crazy sick guy inside the ship!

I forgot to mention I also saw Mario Lopez before the Little Mermaid, didn't I? That was funny.

Finally, I have to say after hearing friends talk about their co-ops here in New York I've been feeling very lucky. I have been blessed to work with people that are super nice, appreciative and compliment me on my work. I know that not everyone is working in an environment like that. Sure, once in a while at work somebody asks me for help moving heavy things, putting together a shelf, or running down the block to the hardware store to pick up something in a picture-hanging emergency, but for these people it's not a pain. I'm happy to help however I can.

I don't know if anybody at work realizes how much a "thanks," a smile, a handshake, or an invite to play a game of foosball means to me, but it all really means a lot. These are awesome people, and I'm thrilled to get to spend the next ten weeks with them.