there has been so, so much going on lately. here's the low-down in list form.one) i left a job that afforded me to basically hang out with awesome people everyday and get paid for it.
two) i moved out of a beautiful mansion in dc.
three) i moved into a teeny apt in new york city.
four) i've been unemployed for the first time in a year and it's strangely not bothering me.
i promise to provide semi-eloquent blogs about these events (along with my last few wonderful weekends spent in the district of claws) in the near future, but i've got something else on my mind at the mo.
about two hours ago, i returned to my apt after a harrowing and wholly overwhelming trip on a chinatown bus. after an occasionally difficult, occasionally exuberant weekend in dc, ben accompanied me to chinatown and we proceeded to wait around for 2.5 hours for a bus that i could safely embark. my advice to all bargain travelers between dc and new york... avoid NEW CENTURY TRAVEL at all costs. i had a ticket for the 5pm bus, but as the minutes ticked by and more and more people began to accumulate on the corner of H and 5th NW, it became painfully apparent that the possibility of my getting on the next bus without being trampled was slim to none. the phantom 5pm-er showed up at about 6 and people shoved and pushed each other like cattle. i backed away a little after i realized that i couldn't breathe and my back was sweating even though i was in the shade in the midst of a quasi-cool summer breeze. a few short minutes later, the driver pulled the door shut and the squeaky voiced ladies of new century travel informed us that "no more seats! bus full!". i managed to get on the next bus... at 7:30, but not without experiencing some more livestock shoving. and it was totally a good thing that i caught that bus because the next one wasn't leaving dc until 11:30.
while on the bus, i was seated next to and in front of a few girls from south africa, two of which suffered from quite severe motion sickness and one whose wallet had been stolen by someone in the near riotous crowd awaiting to board the 5pm bus. the girl who sat next to me was extra super chatty with a very tan, dark-haired australian guy in a holey t-shirt; they talked for the entire duration of the trip, pausing only once to allow the girl to discreetly high-tail it to the bathroom so she could barf. they spoke of traveling america, getting stranded in major cities overnight with nowhere to stay, american accents, british/australian/new zealand/south african accents, afrikaans, cricket, cricket players, left-handedness, pointer toes that are longer than the big toes, playing piano, how people on the british tube don't talk to one another, egg whites and dreadlocks.
so basically, they talked a lot and i eavesdropped a lot. listening to them talking about such a variety of topics (and upon realizing that they didn't actually know each other and had just met while waiting for the bus), i came to a conclusion about myself; i've become uptight. i don't know exactly when it happened, perhaps sometime during last summer. regardless of when it happened, it saddened me to realize it and i've decided to make a change. not sure what that change is going to be, but i think this resolution couldn't come at a better time. i've just moved to a new city and everything is fresh and interesting. i still have my dc friends and a select few people from my academic past who now live in new york, but i'm genuinely excited to start meeting new faces and learning more about myself.
perhaps this surge of idealism is directly related to the late hour and my lack of sleep, but i hope it lasts till the morning.
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