[32] What is that noise?

That noise is my toilet running every time I flush. Therefore, I have to wait until the tank fills and then pull on the filler float to make the noise stop.

I'm sure there's a way to fix this somehow, but I don't plan on learning it.

NOT PICTURED: The toilet's ballcock, because--hey, this is a situation when I can use that word in earnest.

We'll really start at 33

Because I booked my flight, and that's how many days I officially have left.

NOT PICTURED: The Realness of doing it...because I don't think that has arrived yet.

Memorial Day in NYC

NOT PICTURED: All 4.95 miles walked. Though, if you'd like, you can picture it here and here.

Bumbleine & Diamond Louise

Two hearts, two dancers, two singers, two drinkers,
two sets of memories of what happened, what didn't happen, what we said, what we did, and what we didn't do.
Two desks, One Boss.
Two years, One Plant.
Two souls, One Dinosaur.

NOT PICTURED: That guy whose memory keeps haunting me around even though, I swear, she said he was a stranger and it was a safe bet to go ahead with my idea...

Love Letters

Real mail.

NOT PICTURED: mass email update sent.

Paalam @ The Park

A great send-off to the best Irish Pirate/Belgium Filipino/Dean of Students/Sobol-Fanatic that I know...

NOT PICTURED: the dance lesson and all other body-friendly antics...

Sheer Bliss

It must be the shirt.

NOT PICTURED: The offer.

Variations on a Cane

The Cane Doubles as A Flute.

Conversation #1:
Cousin: Should we bring this? 'This' alludes to bag with large cane/flute and smaller flute and papers
Uncle: Yes, it's for Lola (grandmother) for Mother's Day
C: Okay.
U: Oh! But only the big one. I want the small flute around here. Because sometimes it gets boring here, and I'd like to have it around.

Conversation #2:
Auntie Jane: What is that?
Joycelyn: What do you think it is?
AJ: Is it a flute? Or a cane?
J: YES!!

Conversation #3:
Cousin: Look at all the music you can play!
Joycelyn: ooooh. Hey Jude! You can play Hey Jude! Who doesn't want that?
(At one point, Cousin plays a song and Joycelyn sings. The songs they are respectively performing are not the same, but no one notices or says anything.)

Conversation #4:
Cousin: You can bring that on the plane and when you get bored, you have something to do!
Lola: What will I do?--play it?
C: Yes, or poke someone with it and then say, "Play this for me."

Conversation #4 (As a cousin plays the cane/flute.)
Uncle: Wow. That's nice.
Lola: Yes. You must practice. That's nice.
U: You've got it! Wow. You're really good.
L: You know, she used to play the saxophone.
U: Ay, yeah. That's why.
(This is funny because it's in another language, and we're looking at her intently and very, very honestly impressed as she continues to play.)

Conversation #5
Cousin: It's a flute AND a cane.
Joycelyn: It's a flane!
C: It's a clute!

Conversation #6
Uncle: You know, it's made in Massachusetts! Can you believe it!?
Joycelyn: Wow.
U: I know. The couple selling it, they were really good at playing it. They were really good. They make it themselves. I wish you could have seen them.

NOT PICTURED: Its usage as an actual cane.

Back Seat

Back of a minivan where a seat should be:

J: "Can I sit on this?"

Cousin: "No, it's fresh meat."

NOT PICTURED: The piggery where it came from.

People Watching

One of the best games in NYC, a prime activity at Union Square...

NOT PICTURED: The two dinners my cousin, Jariel (who is pictured) ate that night.

Brooklyn Bars

The couch says "Cheese foot."

NOT PICTURED: Disclosures with cousins.

Absolute Freedom

When you have no homework, the world is so much bigger.
Namely, I see all the places where I should drink.

NOT PICTURED: homework. Because I don't have any!! ['suck it' gesture here]

Last Day of Semester

The room has slowly fallen apart...

But the pages have also come together.

You win some, you lose some.



NOT PICTURED: 8,885 words in my soul.

Express Trains

If you're going past 86th, you should take the Express 2/3 from 116th. It just makes sense.

It's luck of the draw. You never know when the Express will meet you.

But if you're with friends, it doesn't matter.

NOT PICTURED: Nithin's Goodbye Party shinanigans & toast.

Cocinando

The irony of the common kitchen is that it is the place where she is most aware of being alone. She gets so engrossed in her cooking. She obsesses about it, revisiting that Jane article(or was it Lucky? a forwarded email?)--something that said that every girl has a recipe perfected. Every good woman has the ‘meal that reels in a good man'. Suddenly, the veggie burger or the mushroom spaghetti or premade wantons (she doesn't buy meet) become not only the present meal but also the future security.

She used to believe that cooking a meal and eating alone signaled maturity, self-security and content. She still believes those things. However, she also eats a whole meal in fifteen minutes flat.

NOT PICTURED: Final group meeting of Community Connections

Not 'What?', But 'Where?'

The question isn't really about the activity of the day...

...just where we'll engage in it.

Today's studying/writing/researching:

• 1100-1300: New Residence, Room 404N
  
• 1400-1745: Social Work Library
• 2045-??: Russell Hall Library, Room 203

NOT PICTURED: Horchata y heart-to-hearts with Jin

Beauty from Pain

First the Pain: editing drafts

Then the Beauty: fine-tuned definition and form

First the Pain: threading


Then the Beauty: fine-tuned definition and form

NOT PICTURED: Cinco de Mayo pseudo-frat party on East Side with a Rockstar...

Thursday Happy Hours

Last one of the semester: Boat Basin Cafe

While we'd like to think it's a time to unwind and forget the hell we've been through in terms of papers, analyses, synthesis and never-ending research... we still end up talking about them.

NOT PICTURED: When Nick sang 'Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' theme song with Miya doing back-up.

Piles Everywhere

NOT PICTURED: the pile of laundry that forces me to curl up at the end of my bed; the pile of research I have to weave into my analysis; the pile of hole-punched-holes near the trash that I so carefully step around instead of sweeping them up... et cetera...

Opportunity Costs

"Opportunity cost: the value of what is given up or sacrificed represents the cost of an alternative. ...By using resources in one way, we are giving up the ability to use them in another way, so a cost has been incurred... In some cases we may even find that the pursuit of an activity 'cost us a friendship'. "

from: Levin & McEwan, Cost Effective Analysis, 2nd Edition

NOT PICTURED: the stack of resumes, mission statement copies and other materials that I have collected in pursuit of a Real Job in this Real World

Selling the Self

There was a time when it was difficult to talk about myself. I would agonize. I would make a list. I would role-play the entire interview.

Seven. I've had seven interview for four different organizations over the past three months. This was me going to my last one.

Like the other seven, I'm not scared to say I aced this particular one. They all fall in love with me sooner or later, I suppose. Maybe it's the well-written resume (mad props to my image consultant/personal cheerleader/bf4l). Maybe it's the way I laugh and make cheeky jokes. Maybe it's that I'm qualified with 3 years of supervisory experience, one soon-to-be graduate degree from a top-tier institution, and have a working knowledge of great icebreakers....

Or maybe it's because I'm willing to role-play.

NOT PICTURED: the fact that I'm wearing flipflops from my dormroom all the way to 22nd and Broadway before changing into heels.