"Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone"

Monday

I wish I had a camera to document all of the things that I am seeing, hearing, doing.

Just today - a regular Monday, so many things happened.

I saw the restaurant from Seinfeld. It is 3 blocks away from my apartment. 

Ran through Riverside Park, past the benches where Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan meet in You've got Mail.

Created a cover letter and press kit for my internship, and doing a whole lot of proofreading (apparently I'm pretty decent at this... while I can't find documents hiding in the computer files, or create a dual-layer DVD, or do picture things in photoshop and indesign, I am damn good at describing the work of Shen Wei and recreating really bad previous press kits in favor of edited and revised, may potentially accurately describe the company and earn us money documents.) Yay for doing real work.

Stopped to listen to a cellist playing for Music Under New York - he was lovely.
http://www.mta.info/mta/aft/muny/
They audition to be in this program, to showcase their talents and abilities for the crowds that do not stop to hear them play. I was a little self-conscious standing there by myself in the busy bottom section of the Grand Central station, one of the places in NYC that fully exceeds all expectations of my NYC romanticism, but I couldn't pass up the moment to hear this wonderful man play one of my favorite instruments in one of the places that I could stand in all day and gaze around me in wonder at the history behind this city and the people that built it. Blows my mind. Everyday.

Also, because it reminded of videos and stories of famous musicians who play in public spaces and nobody bothers to stop and listen because they 1.) don't care 2.) don't have decent taste in music 3.) I'm not sure there is a 3rd and I refused to be that person. That said, I've given money to a cellist, a mariachi band, a violinist, an accordian player(!!) a man playing very loud steel drums from Trinidad (he yelled to me, "I'm from Trinidad!"), a Chinese man playing some very bizarre looking Chinese instrument and it was beautiful, and an opera singer in the park.
I'm gonna have to quit soon, or I really will be poor.
And even though I'm apparently a walking target for charity street team people, I have yet to give money to the Homeless Issue, Amnesty International, or Children International. I also once refused a girl selling chocolate to raise money for school but then the lady setting next to me on the subway and I exchanged looks and both ended up buying chocolate bars. The lady said she couldn't in conscience let her walk away, since she had 2 kids in school. I... am just a sucker for that kinda thing. And for chocolate. I also do not give money to people preaching to me in the subway. That is when I stick my nose in my book and stop looking around.
Seriously, that's why nobody looks at anybody else around here - otherwise begging individuals beeline for you. While not new, as I experienced a lot of this in India, it is on a very different scale.

On that note, I had Indian tonight with 2 acquaintances that I met during my study abroad time in India. Although we were all in different groups, etc. it was nice to see them, share what's been going on since we were all in India, and just see familiar faces. Of course, I promptly filled Riane in on everything, down to the haircuts.

And last but not least, (and this was the highlight of my day. Literally, I smiled all during my shower.)
I filled my roommates in on the value of an oven.
We have one, but no pans to use because they don't have ovens in India or China.
They just don't use them. So my roommates don't know what to do with one.

But now that they know lots of new things about the kitchen (like tomatoes and onions don't have to go in the fridge, bread stays fresher longer in freezer, you can put left over veggies/sauce/soup/fruit/meat in the freezer and use them again later, but the big freezers are not only for bodies, green potatoes are poisonous and you can make pizzas and cookies and cakes at home in the oven) I think they may just open a kitchen/bakery.
It was fun to see them so excited about being able to use an oven - they just never had anybody show them how to use it and now they want to have family dinners where they make things in the oven!

I hope tomorrow is just as interesting!