Whoa.

New York suddenly got really busy! All good things but now I have to choose what good things I want to do and not to do. Tough!

First off, I'm applying to the Draper program at NYU for sure. I went to an open house and learned that students choose their own curriculum with an adviser, based on what they want post-Masters. The staff and faculty were really cool and open, and it seems great. So, big thing #1 is rewriting the statement of purpose.

Big thing #2: I'm working on a website! In August, a site called "Knocks from the Underground" will be launching in four cities, LA, San Fran, Boston and NYC, and will focus entirely on reviewing local musicians. We'll do live reviews and some album reviews, updated weekly. We're trying to get eight reviews per person by the August launch, so I've been working a lot on that. And I'm the New York editor! Woo! So that means I get to read other people's stuff and edit it too, which is fun.

Next up is my own writing. I've been working on this book and I like the premise but it needs some serious work. I showed part of it to my fiction writer's group and they didn't quite get it. I think I made too many assumptions about other peoples' knowledge of southern culture because they were confused. I was disappointed, but now I know that most people actually don't know Bill Monroe invented bluegrass, or that eating chicken meant chasing it around the farm yard and wringing its neck, boiling it and plucking it, then frying it and eating.

Also, The Deli, a local magazine that focuses on NY bands, is having me write for them, too! I just wrote my first blog entry about an upcoming show, and have some assigned reviews by June 5th. That's pretty cool, though it doesn't pay and my main focus is the website.

I also got in my head that I could regularly play ultimate, so I tried out for a team last week. It was loads of fun, but with all this other stuff going on in my life, I can't commit to every weekend, which is what they do. Good luck to them though, parts of me wish I could play that often because it's a blast and the people are great. I'm just not able to make it to all the practices/scrimmages/tournaments, so I need a team with less commitment.

What else? Work is going quite well. I did two overnights last week but was given a month notice, so that's nice. The girls are great, and Linda, too. The other night, Linda, Angela and I went to the spring concert of Marie's class, where they sang '70s songs and danced. It was super cute. I also saw Marie perform in her school musical! When they were doing their bows, she gave me a little wave and I ballooned with pride. Angela's exploring boys and dating more, which is interesting because what I would encourage her to do is probably different than what her mother would, so I'm working on finding that middle ground. It's great though, I really enjoy them.

Yoga is really helping me remain balanced and figure out what I can and can't focus on. I've been reading The Yoga Sutras, a brilliant but very dense book. I only read a bit at a time and then have to do yoga and meditate on what I read so that I can fully understand it. But I'm glad for it because I'm learning all these different ways to look at my mind, at other people, at my actions, at life in general. It makes me a happier and nicer person!

And summer is inching in. We're having warmish days, with lots of sun. Free concerts and events are being announced for the summer, along with expensive ones too, and I'm very excited for them. Life is happy right now.

I promise next time I'll post about the survey I mentioned ages ago. The topic is: GAS. I'm going to post some questions related to the topic of gas and hope you guys will post your response for some good laughs. Then I'll tally it up and give the statistics. 'Til then, see you space cowboy.