Monday, June 08, 2009

I <3 NYC

At 3:15, I was told, my new office would adjourn to a nearby bowling alley, where we would commemorate the imminent departure of a coworker. At 3:45, the first wave of us actually made it out and walked fifteen blocks in the sunshine to the posh lanes hidden on the second floor of Port Authority.

By 6:15, we had played five games, drunk a tower of beer, chomped through several suprisingly-good pizzas, completed the Times crossword puzzle, dropped two balls, broken several nails, and had a rollicking good bonding experience. I was particularly satisfied, having improved: I went from losing the first game, to coming in second, to, finally, the third time around, coming in first.

THAT'S RIGHT BABY. I went from zero to hero, from Sarah Palin to Stephen Colbert, in the course of one short afternoon. And for my perserverance I now have "bowler's wrist." This is an affliction that may be specific to Jews. It's unclear.

This weekend, after some agonizing, I decided to ditch my five year reunion. Instead I did Only In New York things: lounged on Governor's Island with the Jazz Age partiers; followed brunch at Dizzy's with a long stroll through Park Slope; poked about in a little, overpriced boutique staffed by an extravagantly fey man in a Dolce and Gabana bandanna, etc.

Unfortunately skipping out on Swat did mean that I went the entire weekend without asking any of the questions I had prepared, like:

  • "So, what's your thesis about?"
  • "How many blind Zambian orphan girls would you say your organization has saved?"
  • "What's it like to study with Judith Butler?"
  • "Will you please tell me more about making tofu by hand?"
  • "Your halo is so great -- where did you get it?"

4 comments:

Britta said...

oh ha. Probably more like...so, how's being a legal assistant? Though on a related note, a girl in my program did have an affair with Zizek. They broke it off because he's "narcissistic and has commitment issues." Uh, duh.

ester said...

britta, you are amazing! but i need more details than that.

Rebecca said...

you completely misread the reunion situation. there was a ton more of, like, "grad school is annoying" and "i have had a lot more sex since college than in college."

ester said...

Ben's reunion really was like that, at least in parts, at least for me. But if 04's was different I'm glad to hear it.