Sunday, November 27, 2011

Thanksgiving 2011

Frank Sinatra by Cake is stuck in my head courtesy of the drive back (Eames driving, Marty, Page and Kalena, same as on the way there. too many people for a two door car with two people who are claustrophobic but it was okay)

because Yulka and I were in the same place and it was definitely not Bard either.

I came home and soon after Pasha and Sanya arrived then dinner and hugging and all that. It was good to see everyone. Pasha and I were permitted to go to Eloosha's house, under the condition that we return by 2am.
For thanksgiving we went to dinner at a friends house (yet another professor, yet again math, and yes at MIT.) It was good to see a friend that I haven't really seen in a while, though it was too chaotic to talk fully.
and then the next day I went with Mama and Sanya and my brothers to Walden pond. Then to Eloosha's house. Well, first a concert, and then the house and then a sleepover in the basement and going to bed at 5 am.

Eloosha's friend from Yale came too (Daniel), because he lives far far away and after Eloosha said that for thanksgiving about 80 Russian Jews descend on his house, Daniel decided he has to see it. But apparently despite the fact that the teens think they spend most of the time speaking in English, we don't. I didn't even realize it until Daniel responded to "Я скоро вернусь" with a "and was I supposed to understand that?" Also we play way more music than normal thanksgiving (and probably eat way less turkey.)
In the evening people split-a few went to a party, more went to a play at Central, I stayed and babysat Sima. We played pingpong. We played foozball. Kostya Vanya Pasha and I played set while Sima watched (though Sima did find a set himself too.) 

And I spent the last night (last night) at home again.and now I'm back. 

and that is a summery of this weekend. I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Waverly

 I wrote this for June 22nd of this summer, for a writing project a few friends and I had (it died pretty quickly-we stopped responding to the prompts) This was the first prompt "Describe a place. Tell us how it smells, looks, feels, is, how does time work there, what was the first or last time you where there, how did you discover it ect. Associations you have with it, emotions, memories. You can go in all or none of these veins. You can go on a tangent, but in the end, I want to know the place." I will discuss my weekend in my next post-after I have taken my Adult Psychopathology Exam (tomorrow)

 

Waverly

I’d like to say "I’d never given it much thought before," because I like the way it sounds. It implies a sort of philosophical view and discovery: “I have not thought about it before, but now am willing to examine the full depth and beauty of this wonderful idea or thing and discover something that is ultimately life-changing.” But the truth is, I have. I’ve given it a lot more thought than would seem necessary to give a train station.
There are stagnant puddles that never seem to evaporate on the landings that break up the stairs to the rest of the town above. I am suspicious of these and avoid stepping in them, because the station smells slightly of urine, though I’ve never seen anyone pissing there and can’t imagine why anyone would.  To my knowledge, there are no homeless fellows that live down there; Belmont isn’t that kind of town. And since I have stood, on the platform, waiting, at 12:27 am, if there were any homeless people living there, I probably would have seen them. However, there is usually no one but me, or me and a friend who walked me there, and once or twice, me and a couple of teenagers makingout.
The conductors, of course, have a tendency to think that I was up to something, because there’s no good reason to be going home that late from Waverly to Kendal Green. And maybe rightly so, for it did gave me the independence a teenager from boring white suburbia wanted-a way to hang out with friends that lived a couple towns over, and a venue to photograph them, on the rooftop above the bench and stairs, at night. Fun, and maybe even possibly illegal (oh the thrill of barely doing anything wrong, ever!)
The walls are salmon pink, which is a much more interesting color than any of the other stations I get off at. Sometimes, if I stay the night and am waiting in the morning, I study the wall on my side of the tracks in greater detail: I can see the crackles, the orange sparks and red veins, and where the paint has been chipped away, the blue gray of the cement underneath.  On the opposite side, there are streaks of lighter pink (or…more accurately, they exist on both sides but I can see them more clearly from a distance,) formed from the greater flow of water due to the way the hand rail above is structured. The water collects on the metal rectangles, runs down to the corners, and washed down the wall. In two places this pattern is broken, where fresh paint has been applied to cover up graffiti. For a very long time it said “yoonder” on the left hand side of the station, underneath the road-bridge. More recently, in big letters, left to right, bottom down, above the roof that covers the stairs that go up, it said:
from     save
heaven me
                -which is one of those flexible things that can be interpreted by me for myself. I can think….here, this town, is my heaven. My haven from home, an accessible taste of independence for a person without a car, and here I am waiting for the train to save me from it and bring me to a good nights’ rest. Though somehow I seriously doubt that the writer meant anything like that.
                I don’t mind the drunk sports fans on some nights, but I do mind the throw up that is caused by them. I like eavesdropping on conversations, but I hate looking for a set of seats that’s empty and finding none. I don’t enjoy shelling out money to the conductor, but I like it when they don’t bother to come to collect the fare. The worst is though, when fresh snow is lying all around and still coming down, seeing the tracks are clean, and trying to convince myself that, maybe, perhaps, possibly, I have not missed the train, have not lost a sliver of independence, and don’t have to irritate my parents by asking them to disrupt their plans and pick me up after the last train has gone.That there is still a 'next train' coming to this pink, stinking platform.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Halloween 2011

Anna and I went trick or treating. 
In Redhook. Some of the people did not appreciate that. Some were nice. A little kid on his way to bed (in his pjs) thought Anna was a dragon. One of the houses had a nice family and a firepit. 

I didn't know until recently that Margaret has a tumbler. its me: here and here and i took this photo
and I was watching this and the guy with the banjo is studying to be a choral conductor so he conducts chamber singers sometimes.

I feel so special.
Also Mama: I appreciate the care package you sent me.

This is team Zissou. Minus Margaret. She was MIA :(