The Day After

Riding the subway and going to work this morning felt different. And not just because the Tribeca offices have moved and I now take a different subway to work, but that the whole world feels different. If feels like a better place. Maybe it's because I live in Harlem. But I just felt different riding the subway.

I was walking down the subway steps when I overheard two girls talking, saying something about, "She's white and we're Puerto Rican, that's why." Now, I have no idea what their actual conversation was about, having just heard that little snippet. But the guy walking down the stairs next to me, who was black, was saying he was amazed people could talk like that after what happened last night. He said everything's different after last night. And I couldn't help to think that everything is different. And for the better. Isn't that amazing? It's something I don't know I could really feel the weight of if I was living in Utah. But here, being surrounding by so many people that were deeply affected, and hopefully positively impacted in the near and distant future, by last night's outcome, it feels so powerful. It really is a whole new world.

Exercisin' My Right: Part II

For this historic election I wanted to go somewhere to watch it with a crowd, like Times Square or Rockefeller Center. But none of the exciting stuff was going to happen til way later in the night, as polls in western states closed, and I was off at four and didn't want to hang around outside doing nothing (because if I did I knew I'd spend money on either food and/or something stupid, and since I don't have any money, I thought it best to just go home). And even though I wanted to just home to change, grab a light jacket and some food then head down later, that didn't happen; cuz once I get home way uptown I don't feel like going back out.


And then ABC announced, rather climactically and sort of out of the blue after stating they would not project a winner until 270 electoral votes had been awarded, that Obama had won California and they were projecting him the winner! The tv quickly went to shots of the crowds in Chicago, Times Square and 125th Street in New York--the heart of Harlem. And that's where I wanted to be. Since I also live in Harlem, I wondered if my neighborhood was celebrating. I looked out the window and couldn't see anyone celebrating. So I opened the window and was overcome by noises of shouting and hollering and people clapping and banging on pots and pans! It was more exciting than New Years, and way more jubilant! Marky Marky, Rosemary and I hung out the window and hollered and celebrated with our neighbors. Mark even got a pan and we banged it outside the window with an ice cream scoop. People on the street would run up to their friends and hug them and rejoice. And two little girls, in pink coats, ran down the street smiling and laughing, excited for what had happened. At that moment I was excited for them and what had been accomplished in their lifetime. They could now grow up in a society that had elected an African-American to the Presidency. Thrilling. And that is why I love living in New York City.

(Pictures of people celebrating in Times Square and Harlem)

Exercisin' My Right: Part I

Election Day started early for me; Maria, Marky Marky and I met at 7:30 in the lobby of our building so we could vote before I had to be to work at 9:00. Marky Mark was giddy like a school kid to vote, and to be honest I was pretty excited, too. Voting feels different here in New York than it does in either Idaho or Utah, where I have previously voted. For one, the political make-up is much different, with New York being a liberal Democratic state to the conservative Republicans of Idaho and Utah. For two, the population is much different; my neighborhood and voting place was made up largely of Hispanics and African-Americans, giving the whole thing a completely different vibe.

So we all walked to our extremely convenient polling station one block away. In fact, we can see it from out kitchen window. I was so excited that I brought my camera to mark the event. It just felt so historic that I wanted to document it visually. For all the talk of the historic-ness of it all, we were expecting a longer wait. We were in and out in about twenty minutes. But some people I work with waited in line for hours, and said they had lines out the street.

It was a little crazy inside, not completely organized, but it went smoothly and the poll workers seemed to really know what they were doing (a lot of them I recognized from voting on Super Tuesday). I entered the voting booth, pulled the lever to start the process, and took part in the election process. Maria took this picture of me in the booth.

It was exciting, and Maria snapped this picture of me as I walked out of the booth.


I just wish I had gotten a sticker to mark the occasion. That's always the best part about voting (well, maybe not the best part but at least a cool part). When I pulled the lever back to cast my votes I really think that the machine should then spurt out a sticker that says, "I Voted!", or at least something that verifies my vote!

Leaving the polling place, I felt exhilarated and thrilled to be a part of something so historic. I'm glad that I was a part of change.

The Facts are These:

Exactly one year, 62 days and twelve hours ago (give or take a couple hours) I moved to New York City. I made it here in a Penske truck with my mom and sister...and all my stuff.

I moved into an apartment with one Maria Wilson and one Rosemary Demos. Neither was known before the move, but had been found through an LDS Housing list for people moving to the big city and looking for roommates/housing. I met both of them on moving-in day and feel very lucky and blessed to have gotten two roommates that I completely love, enjoy, get along with, laugh with, understand.

Maria dates one Mark Mason, aka Marky Mark. Apart from getting me a job at the Crew, I totally love this guy. Maria and Mark are amazing people and always invite me to do things with them. I can't imagine my New York experience without them; they shared their Thanksgiving with me, celebrated my first away-from-home Christmas with a traditional outing to a movie, kissed me on New Year's Eve, experience "The Godfather" with me, introduced me to Settler's of Cataan, share their gourmet home-cooked meals with me, and talked me into staying in the city when I felt like leaving. They are kind, funny, thoughtful, loving, giving, and truly my best friends in the city.

Rosemary was gracious enough to take me to church and introduce me to people when I first got here. I honestly never would've made it without her and her genuine kindness. We can stay up late talking about anything and she's a great listener. She's owns the most book of any one I know (she's getting her Doctorate in Comparative Literature) and hosts Literary Salons. She also speaks Italian as she served her mission in Italy--one of my favorite places when I went to Europe.

I currently work at the Crew and intern two days a week with the Tribeca Film Institute. I've also worked at Wal-mart in New Jersey (transferred there from Utah but quit after a week), as a temp receptionist at a financial company in the heart of the Financial District (I could see the Statue of Liberty from the main window), as an Office Manager for Guardian Entertainment (which sounds cool, but it was really just me sitting in a windowless office with people who had no real intentions of making movies...and had huge legal problems as a result of some shady bank deal they made), and as a Projection Booth Liaison for the Tribeca Film Festival (which was the best work experience I've ever had in the movie business). Who knows what the future holds...

I attend one of four Single's Wards in Manhattan. My first calling was as a Ward Institute Representative but am now the head of the Compassionate Service Committee. My ward is amazing and full of super talented people; you should hear our congregation when we sing the hymns in sacrament.

So that's my life so far for those new to the blog (my mom and dad were both supposed to give this to aunts, uncles and cousins). If any family members have a blog as well let me know and we can all stay connected!

In Pam's Shoes

I am not a huge fan of Halloween. I'm a fan of candy and such, just not all the dressing up that goes along with it. I dressed up two years ago for my sorority after having a huge desire to wear fairy wings. But before then it had been a really long time since I had donned any sort of outfit for the holiday.


The stake had a Halloween Trick-or-Treat Dance Party at the East Side Chapel this year. I originally wasn't going to go, as I'm not a fan of big crowds of people I don't know, but was talked into it by a few people. I knew I'd be coming straight from the Crew and wouldn't have time for an elaborate costume (not that I would've anyway). My first thought was to get some fairy wings (I had borrowed them from my friend Mary when I wore them two years ago) and reuse my wand and the hair glitter I still had from my previous fairy incarnation. So I went to KMart and Target the day before and looked for fairy wings....to no avail. After working at Wal-mart you think I'd have learned that you never find what you need the day before a big holiday except the lame things nobody wants. This is why I wasn't that surprised to not find anything.

So I decided to go with my backup, something that would be completely simple and require practically no effort: I would go as Pam from "The Office." I had the skirt, the cardigan and the button up shirt. It was almost too perfect. After work all I had to do was change into my striped, pink button-up shirt from my plain white one and don my favorite pink cardigan I even put curlers in my hair to make it look like Pam's (although mine is much shorter than hers and so I looked more like a poodle than Pam). This is the final result:

Since it's no fun to go to a dance by yourself, I met up with Stefanie and Elin at their apartment and went with them. They had much more elaborate costumes; Stefanie was a Toy Solider, complete with a gun fashioned from an umbrella, and Elin was Self-Absorbed, in a dress dotted with sponges and a wicked wig, and subsequently got the most smiles and "How clever," responses when asked what her costume was.



We were the only people in the Subway car and proceeded to have some fun...

I swung around the pole, just for fun.

People didn't really ask me what my costume was, probably assuming I was just coming from work and was not in costume. I feel it could've been elevated with flesh-colored nylons, which Pam wears, but in my rush to be on time to work I left them sitting on my bed. So I made due with my blue tights and pink converse, as I don't have white keds. But what I really needed was a Jim to make my ensemble complete.


Sadly, there were no Jim's there; only a Dwight in a Cornell sweatshirt. The dance was fun though, despite some bad deejaying, and I danced the night away in that hot gym.

Great Salt Lake

When you work at a retail establishment like I do (does anyone reading this not know that I work at J Crew? Well, I do), you tend to hear the same songs over and over, day after day. And after so long the songs just sort of run together and you forget that they're even being played. I must admit, though, that the Crew has a fairly decent playlist, unlike Wal-mart. So we get Jason Mraz, Feist, old-school Madonna, some classic 80's songs like The Promise and Huey Lewis and the News with Private Eyes (clap,clap), and other cool songs that I neither know who sings or what their title is. We're also subjected to some awful songs, too, though, and those are always the ones you seem to hear the most.

A couple weeks ago somebody asked me if I heard the song that says "Great Salt Lake". She tried singing it for me but I was still giving her a look that said, "I have no idea what song you're talking about." Then I happened to randomly be up on the men's floor working one day not long after this conversation, where it's much quieter because, well, men are just better shoppers that women and don't feel the need to just browse around and touch everything; they shop only when they need something, and so the Men's floor is much less busy. Anyway, in the quietness the music became less of background noise and more of listening noise that I heard someone singing "Great Salt Lake" in this great chorus. Was I hearing it right? Was there really a song whose chorus was the words Great Salt Lake?

Yes.

I kept listening for the song every day I worked, and would feel happy when I'd hear it. I found out that it's from a band called Band of Horses. I haven't actually researched them or anything, but I bet they're from Salt Lake. I also found this video they made for the song. It's kind of a dumb video, and I actually prefer the lyric and song to the visual images they put with it, but what are you gonna do. If you want, just click on the video and then browse around on another tab so all you hear is the music and not the video.



And today, not longer after getting off the phone with a person from Utah, this song was played. Kismet.

Happy Birthday Cat!

From thousands of miles away I send Cat Birthday wishes!! We met at the U in our Sign Language class and both agree that the only thing we got out of it was our friendship with each other and Pam. Cat introduced me to Theta and helped me get through some hard times. She's pretty much fabulous, sewing costumes, nursing at the hospital and going to school. She even came out to visit me (and the city) in June, and might possibly be back in May....
Love you!

This is Cat and me at Rockefeller Center, and Pam and Cat at my Going Away Party. Because it's because of Pam that I know Cat.