Q&A To Self Discovery

Today's blog is a simple survey that's been sent to me dozens of times via email. Rather than respond with a grand spam message, I'm posting it here. Feel free to skip over it if the post seems uninteresting. I would understand. I like these sorts of surveys though because they seem to possess unwritten instructions that say, "Answer these questions and you'll be well on your way to self discovery.

1. What is your occupation?
I've recently decided that my primary occupation is to add letters to the end of my name. MA, PhD, DJ, CSCS, etc, etc. In actuality though, I am an assistant softball coach at Columbia University, a publicist at a record label, a writer at various magazines, and a graduate student.


2. What color are your socks right now?
I'm a bit of a free spirit taken to traipsing around barefoot.

3. What are you listening to right now?
Nina Simone's "See Line Woman." It's going to be a part of my first live DJ performance and mixtape, played directly in front of Feist's "Sea Lion Woman." As a side note, you can expect excellent lyrical streams from my upcoming compilations.

4. What was the last thing that you ate?
A melted Slurpee and left over chile rellenos with rice and beans. Hunger seems to have crept on me again though. Perhaps I'll have some Nutella on toast or a homemade sopapilla.

5. Can you drive a stick shift?
It depends on how far you'd like me to drive you before stalling.

6. Last person you spoke to on the phone?
My dad.

7. How old are you today?
23 today, 23 tomorrow.

8. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV?
I'm not necessarily one for watching sports but I enjoy the X games quite a lot.

9. What is your favorite drink?
It depends on my mood, but it's probably Quik chocolate milk, a suicide Slurpee (all flavors), or root beer. One of my goals for 2009 is to start brewing my own root beer from scratch.

10.Have you ever dyed your hair ?
That I have.

11. What is your favorite food?
Again, it depends on my mood. Anything spicy will do the trick (e.g. Mexican, Indian, etc). Cream cheese is one of my favorite ingredients (e.g. everything from bean dip to Oreo cake and cheesecake), and of course anything sweet is an absolute delight.

12. What is the last movie you watched?

An advanced screening of Public Enemies. You can read the review I wrote at hx.com

13. What is your favorite day of the year?
I wish I could say whatever day it happens to be, but let's face it, I'm already anticipating next Thanksgiving with vigor.

14. How do you vent anger?
Vent anger, what? I don't get angry or if I do it's almost always at myself (sometimes for getting angry). If anger lingers though, I usually turn it into laughter.

15. What was your favorite toy as a child?
I cherished mi peona and a stuffed raccoon, as well as a gaggle of figurines that included everything from zoo animals and foamy grow animals and a ninja turtle I found on the ground.

16. What is your favorite season?
I like the variety of seasons but if you're going to make me pick I'll have to go with the sweet relief of layers in Fall.

17. Cherries or Blueberries?
I picked on the previous question, spare me the choice here? Let's go with both.

18. Who is the most likely to respond?
I haven't the slightest.

19. Who is least likely to respond?
Someone who doesn't read this.

20. Living arrangements?
Happiness. I have three roommates in a respectively spacious apartment in Manhattan but to say this is my only home would be cutting myself short. Something Corporate put it well when he said, "If I kept tattoos for every home I've loved I would paint my body until all my skin was gone." I don't get tattoos though.

21. When was the last time you laughed?
Just a moment ago. Those puns will keep you revved up but if we're talking belly laughs, I might have to rewind back to when I was singing "Pool Party" on the phone earlier today.

22. What is on the floor of your closet?
A tupperware container of athletic sweatshirts and sweatpants.

23. What did you do last night

Ate Mexican food over a discussion of NYC Pride, stopped for a suicide Slurpee (the Tribeca Seven 11 has the best flavors I've ever seen), went over to a friend's, and fell into a deep, satisfying sleep.

24. What are you most afraid of?
I'm terrified of the prospect of losing my ability to take care of myself. Losing my ability to think is also one of the most unsettling thoughts I fear.

25. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers?
Spicy hamburgers with pepper jack cheese.

26. What is your favorite dog breed?
The cat. As an aside, if you see someone walking their dog, saying something to the effect of, "Ohhh how cute!" (Pause) "And your dog's cute too," is apparently quite a successful line.

27. What is your favorite day of the week?
This depends on a multitude of factors.

28. How many states have you lived in?
New York, Massachusetts, California, Arizona, Washington (and you might count the UK). In other words, 5.

29. Diamonds or pearls?
Diamonds and 32 necklaces.

30. What is your favorite flower?
The Zantedeschia aethiopica and Zantedeschia elliottiana, otherwise known as the white and yellow calla lily's respectively.

31. What is your favorite smell?
What a beautiful question, and one that's nearly impossible to answer. To name a select few, I love the smell of asphalt when it first starts to rain, cookies in the oven, tennis balls, new shoes, electronics fresh out of the package, clean laundry, fresh citrus like perfumes, books that have been cared for, and anything that's reminiscent of the people that I've loved.

32. Your favorite sound?
Again, this is nearly impossible to answer because we're inundated with gifts in this regard. My favorite sound in New York City might be the changing of street lights, something that can only be heard when you find yourself somewhat isolated in one of the world's largest cities. I also adore the beating of warm melodies, heartfelt laughter, birds chirping, and the way the word "peripatetic" rolls of the tongue when it's used casually in conversation.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading. Since you made it all the way to question 32, I'll reward you with a nice little music recommendation. Check out Sissy Wish, a Norwegian singer-songwriter with a penchant for sounding like a high pitched version of the old fashioned Chordettes meets the modernity of Shiny Toy Guns.

Feel free to stream her album here.

Current Goal: Monetize My Restaurant Passion

If you've ever eaten with me (or probably if you've ever spoken to me), you know.  I love food.  Mexican food, desserts, Ethiopian Food, cream cheese.  Indian food, garlic bread, Thai food, and tofu.  It's all beautiful to me, and meals in my company are more like celebrations that last hours.  I enjoy every bite, bask in every moment, and appreciate (almost) every morsel.

Being in New York City, I'm constantly tempted by the compendious food choices that surround me.  When I do decide to go out I find myself spinning in circles in an attempt to decide which place to enter.  There are thousands of restaurants in the city (I tried to devise methods for accurately estimating but fear I have yet to think of an efficient way of doing so) and I want to go to taste what every single one has to offer.  

I'm not sure if it's the overachiever in me, the romantic idea of accomplishment that comes with eating something from every restaurant, or the value I place on the social currency of truly being able to offer solid recommendations to people based on their interests, but I might be a lot obsessed with the thought of eating in every New York City restaurant.  I achieved this in Northampton, Massachusetts right before I moved away, but the issue of closures and change in the city would make such a feat nearly impossible in New York City.  

Still, I would very much like to explore the idea of trying.  Because of money restrictions such an idea is out of the question, but of course I'm not willing to give up so quickly, and here is where I need your brilliant minds.  If I were to pursue this goal I would need a lot of money.  Some sort of funding would need to be made available, either via a V.C, sponsorship(s), or a means of monetizing my restaurant attendance (perhaps Super Size Me or Fast Food Nation style?) would certainly be in order.

If I could get that, or if I were to propose such a thing, what would be required on my part?  For the unadulterated pleasure of thought exercises, I wish to explore the proposition below:

According to a Google Answers response the Census Bureau recorded 14,590 restaurants and bars in New York City at the end of 2002.  For the sake of estimation and such, let's just assume there are 15,000 restaurants in the city.  I'm not a math major here so correct me if I'm wrong, but if I went to one restaurant per day, it would take me 15,000 days or 41.1 years to conquer the city's food venues (not taking into account leap years).  At an average of $25 per meal (I pulled that number from thin air) I would need $375,000 to eat out once per day for the next 41.1 years.

The first thought that pops into my head when I think about 41 years is the way native New Yorkers talk about how New York used to feel in the 1970's.  It seems like a completely different world, and with different worlds undoubtedly comes different restaurants.  Few of the mainstays from when I began my project would still exist 41 years from now, meaning I should, in theory, give up on the idea.  

But then I think about how wonderful it would be to try every restaurant.  It wouldn't be a matter of which restaurant I wanted to experience, but for what occasion and when I wanted to experience it.  I can imagine drawing graphs and posting oversized maps illustrating my quest through the city's cuisine.  

When I was little (like two or three) I wanted to be a pirate.  Something about that desire still fascinates me, but this restaurant proposition even beats the dreamy elements of choosing "pirate" as a career path.

I may not ever get to every restaurant in New York City, but what if I could eat in every location?  What is Grotto on 100 Forsyth Street today might be a completely different restaurant in 2050, but I would still be able to say that I, at the tender age of 22, once sat in that restaurant back before they started serving whatever will be the unimaginably futuristic and trendy cuisine of 41 years from now.

The visions of the past are mostly irrelevant to most, but in my eyes that doesn't devalue the idea of chasing my goal. The restaurants I attend may not always exist but I know I'll always remember the way it felt to bask in the nautical environment of Grotto, for example, as I shared entrees of tortellini and pork with someone I hope will still be in my life in one way or another 41.1 years from now.

Unwavering I stand.  I'm not saying there won't be nights when I want to stay in, but I foresee unmatched good times.  I could become the Beatle Bob of New York City's restaurants, the foodie version of Dale Webster (the man who has surfed every day for more than 32 years), or the aficionado of food history in New York.  Whatever the case, it sounds like a beautiful mission.  

Anybody care to share how I could monetize this or find some sort of funding?  I'll show you lots of appreciation, and if you're lucky, take you out to dinner.

***

Today's music recommendations honor two wonderful artists who, in my opinion, have provided beautiful work on New York.

LCD Soundsystem - "New York I Love You" (The scenes are from a Carson film about NYC in the 1950's)

Kelly McRae - "BQE" (I couldn't find the actual song in video form, but check it out.  It has some of the most beautiful lyrics I've ever heard when it comes to appreciating the city.)

Today, I Live in a Slurpee

I woke up this morning to Monty the radio DJ listing off a series of cancellations. "Just about everything is canceled today due to this terrible storm," he said cheerfully over the airwaves. Then he mentioned UMass, which was only delayed until 11 am.

It had been snowing the previous evening and then the snow turned to heavy rain. I've never seen it pour so steadily in my life, but UMass was determined, despite all the adverse weather, to trudge through the slush. Determined to go to campus with the few brave and worthy students, I cleared off my car and drove to campus in what most closely matches the consistency of a Slurpee. Wet, icy, and uncontrolled, puddles of water with floating ice covered the ground unevenly. Snow is blocking the rain gutters and as a result Weather.com has been flashing with a series of flood warnings.

When I got out of the car the weather was initially a little treacherous. After repeatedly and inadvertently dousing my pant leg in a high puddles though, I realized avoiding total submersion in the water was probably impossible. So rather than complain, as most New Englanders like to do when it feels like they're living in a brown Slurpee, I decided to embrace the weather. You only live once, right?

I put my belongings in a safe, dry place, and allowed myself the type of pleasure kids only dream about. At first the water was unbearably cold, but after awhile my skin reddened with numbness and my clothes began to function as a wet suit. I slid, splashed, sped, and tumbled through the puddles with careless vigor. At one point my friends and I were half swimming through a particularly large Slurpee-like puddle and chortling uncontrollably. For the first time in a long time, I didn't have a care in the world. All my self imposed pressure to succeed was gone and every ounce of my body was filled with joy. Nothing mattered but the moment I was living at that instant, and it felt amazing.

As insignificant as it sounds to frolic through the rain, I think today reminded me of something important. Lately I've been tied to tangible results, success, and working toward achieving a series of specific goals. In all of that, I think part of me lost a sense of pure joy. It had been far too long since I had completely freed myself from what I expect out of myself. Nothing will ever prevent me from losing sight of my goals, but today I realized that no accomplishment really matters if it makes you lose sight of your identity and happiness. It's important to have goals, but it's even more crucial to make sure your goals don't replace who you are as an individual. So here's to living in a Slurpee, if even for a day. I think it was enough to remind me of the importance of letting yourself go with uninhibited pleasure.

I began applying my new perspective by wading through knee high water to help a stranger who was floating in a puddle in her minivan. I pushed her about 100 feet to a parking spot and although she was in a tough situation, we had a great time. Today has me on top of the world, so here's to living in a Slurpee.

***

In honor of a sophisticated and feel good band, I'll recommend The Bird and the Bee today. They have an EP called "Too Many Hearts" coming out tomorrow for Valentines Day, so enjoy. This video is a little bizarre, but the song is brilliant, so check them out.

Sincerely, Me

Where do you see yourself in 2018? It's a difficult question. Everything can change in a second, but assuming ten years from now you still have the same values, sentiments, and work ethic, where do you want to be in life?

It's a question I've thought about a lot. And it's tough because life can pull you anywhere. But in an effort to stay focused and on track I developed a ten year plan. Then I found a wonderful tool that ten years from now will allow me to review what I wanted out of life back when I was 21 and 22 years old.

It's called FutureMe.org and using this program you can schedule emails to be sent to you in the future. Assuming we'll be using email up until 2037, you can send yourself an email anytime between tomorrow and December 31, 2037.

I assume that when I open my future hopes email ten years from today I'll get a few laughs. "Oh my goodness," I'll think. "Why did I ever want that out of life?" or "Oh dear, I'm such a nerd." I might pick up the email to myself ten years from now and laugh, but if I can achieve most of what's on that list I imagine a bright 2018. And here's to wishing a bright future for each of you as well.

Sincerely,

Me

P.S. I'm currently listening to Hellogoodbye - "Is it Love?" It's poppy, and maybe a little cutesy, but ten years from now I hope I'll still enjoy this song as much as I do today as well.