Volume 11: April 07

To my dearest friends and family,

Hello everyone! 11 months into New York living and things are going swell! I have basically moved into my new position as Research/Staff Assistant for the VISN3 MIRECC (I say basically because I am still training my replacement for my old position who happens to be a very nice girl from Buffalo, NY). I have registered for summer classes and am taking Physiology and Anatomy I and either Anthropological Perspectives of Men and Women or Physiology and Anatomy II. The first session begins no June 4th so wish me luck! Scott is rounding out his school year with style…stylized performances that is. I saw a night of Absurdism (Ionesco and Pinter) and a night of Commedia dell'arte (Moliere and Goldoni). Lots of hard work went into those performances and just about everyone was brilliant (especially my little Arlecchino [a character created for Scott, I swear!]).

Quite frankly my friends, I have been so busy the past month or so, I haven’t had anytime to worry about not enjoying New York, which in turn has made me like it! I made a trip home to see my family from April 18th-22nd and wish I got to see them more. While my mom says it’s all part of growing up, I sometimes feel a bit guilty living so far away from them. Though I suppose she’s right. And this is where my sweet heart is going to make it big (and we will get very very rich ;) ). So I know they understand. My dad is doing well considering the consequences, keeping his spirits up while struggling with fatigue which he is very unused to. He’s almost halfway done with chemo so keep him in your thoughts and prayers until the end of August. After that, no thoughts and prayers are needed. Jk. But you know what I’m saying.

As usual, I’ve experienced a couple interesting things this month including the following:

For those of you who have never ridden on or seen a subway train, you’ll need to know that in between cars there is a space, where people can walk from one car to another. They’re not supposed to do this while the train is moving, but like most inconvenient rules in NY, that rule is broken quite often. So I was sitting in a subway car one day (why do so many strange things happen to me on the subway??) and saw a guy walk through my car and set down a few bags on the seat at the end. He proceeded to walk in between the cars and stop, turn to the side and from what I could tell, he urinated off the side of the train. The awkward thing is that the train stopped part-way through his business so he was sitting there peeing while people were staring straight at him from the platform. He didn’t seem to notice. He came back into the car where his bags were and rode the train as if nothing strange had happened. The most disturbing part of this story: there was no hand washing involved! EWW!! (I’ve become big on hand washing since moving to NY and using public transportation.) If you ever wonder why NY always smells like urine, there you have it.

Also, on Monday of this week, I went to a taping of The Late Show with David Letterman with my friend Ben (who kindly invited me along with him). Apparently because of our “dazzling smiles” and “charming personalities”, we received “audience upgrades” and got to sit in the 2nd row with a straight on shot of Dave at the desk. Crazy! (This is especially crazy because when we went up to get our tickets, the lady asked us if we watched the show often and I bluntly told her I rarely could stay up late enough to watch. *Shrug*. The guests were Ray Romano, an impressionist named Reggie Reg (who was pretty frickin funny) and Dennis Haysberg (the All State Insurance guy!). Man did I feel safe when he was there. The sad thing was that when the guests were on, I just kind of felt like I was watching TV, not like these famous people were right in front of me. Oh desensitization. How you plague us. The show airs THIS Friday night (that’s tomorrow night people), 5/4 (also my parents 34th wedding anniversary so you better call them before the show), so watch it if you want to see my national debut!

On a sadder note, I'd like to express my condolences to the family (and friends) of a high school classmate of mine at Hopkins, Josiah Danielson (and also a U of Mn student), who shockingly passed away earlier this week. The cause of death is unknown and quite tragic as Josiah was a super sweet kid with a big heart and who had a loving family from what I understand. Please send your thoughts and prayers to Joel and Lori Danielson and their family.

Finally, what I think you’ve ALL been waiting for, I will be sending a link to a gallery of mine from kodakgallery.com which includes photos of areas of my daily activity. I hope you enjoy the pictures (and the captions). By the way, you DO NOT need to register for an account in order to see these photos so feel free to look! (This website has been Alex-Bachnick-approved for copyright content ;) )

Love to everyone,

Lobo