Snow in the City

If anybody is interested in seeing what 9 inches of snow looks like in Manhattan, check out these pictures Danie took while running errands this morning.

Looking forward to seeing everyone this week!

the final stretch

I thought I'd write a quick post before I become fully reclusive. I'm entering the final stretch of the semester, so blogging will be taking a backseat for the next three weeks. Okay fine, for those of you who feel like it's already been in the backseat at best, let's say it'll be taking one of those station-wagon style rear-facing trunk seats.

Anyways, the semester is coming to a close, so the next couple weeks will be really busy. In truth, I've already been working on my final papers quite a bit. Proactivity is absolutely crucial. This weekend I finished one of my final research papers, which alleviates some of the pressure. Only two papers to go!

So before I enter hermitry, a quick update:

Last weekend my Mom came out to visit, and we had an absolute blast. I can't even express how great it was to see her and how much fun it was to have her stay with us. For photographic documentation of our shenanigans, check here. (as if she hasn't already sent everyone of you her snapfish album...)

Also last weekend, Danie took me to see one of my favorite bands in concert for my birthday. It was a really great show, and afterwords, we ended up running into and briefly talking with the lead singer in the lobby. Epic night.

Also, Danie is very excited because this Thursday, in honor of her family tradition, we will be attending the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. So if you watch it, look for us? Right...well I'll post pictures, though, depending on my progress, maybe not until schools out.

I think that's it for now. We can't wait to see everyone in, what is now, less than a month! Until then,

Cam

does anyone know where October went?

well, I hope, though I cannot expect, that some of you still occasionally check this blog for new posts. I can't blame those of you who might have been tempted to give up on it, and I beg your forgiveness for my flagrant inconsistency. I've intended to write this post for at least two weeks now, and though I'm sure it sounds ridiculous, carving out an hour to do so has been remarkably difficult. Let me explain.

October was a month of midterms. Though I'm really proud of the quality of work I produced, it did not come without a price. What price, you might ask. Surely it's a reasonable question. So, if you are curious, I encourage you to take a second look at the picture above and see if you are able to make out the purple rings encircling my eyes. I wasn't jumped, I'm just severely under slept. But who needs sleep right? Anyways, for most of October, I was completely consumed with my midterm papers. In fact, I finished them just in time for Danie's birthday on the 22nd, and the concomitant arrival of Danie's good friend Becca who was visiting to celebrate. Having just finished three papers, it was great to play co-tour guide for the weekend, though the festivities didn't help my sleep situation. Fatigue aside, it was a nice break from research and writing. It's so easy to get busy with school, work, the gym, and day to day tasks, that having visitors gives us the excuse and the opportunity to break with the quotidian. Plus, as you can probably tell from the pictures here, it was my first exposure to sunlight in weeks.

Contrary to my expectations, things have not slowed significantly since Becca's departure. Danie's back to working 5, and at times 6, days in a row. She's also getting all of the 'good' shifts now (Thursday, Friday Saturday nights, and Sunday brunches) which usually get assigned only to the veteran servers. Didn't take long... Also, she's been getting babysitting and dog watching requests from admiring customers!

Another contributing factor to my overall busyness during the past month has been my newly obtained position as a Research Assistant (RA) for one of my professors. As these positions are few in number and highly sought after, they aren't often awarded to first semester students; however, after the first few weeks of class, my professor was pleased enough with my work to select me as her assistant. Aside from my immediate happiness at having found a source of income (however small), the substance of my work has been far from menial, and in fact, very interesting. I am assisting my professor in research she is conducting for a forthcoming academic article which contrasts French and American humanitarianism and charity, specifically as it relates to refugees and displaced persons seeking residency and citizenship. My job primarily consists of reading other academic articles and books on related topics, writing summaries and outlines of them for her, and meeting with her to discuss how they might be useful to her paper. It's really an invaluable experience for an aspiring academic.

So a week into November and things are moving fast. We're really excited that my mom is coming in on Friday; being so far from family is the one part of living here that Danie and I dislike, and visits are so crucial in ameliorating the difficulty of distance. Friday we are also going to see one of my favorite bands, As Tall As Lions, in concert for my birthday (Thanks again Danie!) so the weekend is promising to be a great one.

I do have one piece of regrettable news. For those of you who haven't yet heard, we won't be coming back for Thanksgiving, or as it's also known, the greatest holiday of the year. Jason, if you're reading this, my apology is especially directed to you, as together we generally demonstrate the deepest commitment to and appreciation for the great feast. Of course, its greatness comes from the collective, and accordingly I'll miss you all. In my absence, please make sure Eryn's lifetime ban on Aunt Tari's rolls is upheld.

I think that about covers it for now. With only five weeks left in the semester, I'm getting started on my final papers. My research is coming along, and it's actually very enjoyable when not overwhelming. We've entered late fall here, and the low 50s seems to be standard fare. The leaves are changing and we've been using our little space-heater in the mornings. Maybe one upshot to the cold here is that when we come back for Christmas, California cold will be mild by comparison.

Until next time, with love,

Cam

Fall is here

Given the amount of time elapsed since my last post, I suppose apologies may be in order. Please forgive me; Fall is upon us, and I assure you I've been doing plenty of writing. So, let's catch up.

Danie has been working like a maniac. Hyperbole? Not even close. Tonight she is working her 6th day in a row. Oh and I might mention scheduled hours don't matter at her restaurant; six hour shifts regularly turn into 8 1/2 hour ones. Needless to say, she has been spending considerably less time on craigslist.

As for me, school has commenced. My first two weeks have been both invigorating and exacting. I am taking three classes, one in comparative economic theory, one in international public health and development, and one in historical and contemporary globalization. Thus far, both the readings and the classes have been very stimulating, and I couldn't be more excited about the semester ahead. Though its probably a good thing Danie works so much as the sheer quantity of reading I have is, at times, staggering.

I am also going to be taking a Spanish class in the foreign language department that will start next week. The International Affairs graduate program pays for its students to take language courses should a student so desire; clearly a perk that cannot go unexploited. In a stroke of genius, Danielle decided also to take a Spanish language class at the New School this Fall--all part of her plan to become trilingual in the next few years. The lady is not deficient in ambition, eh?

So between school and work, things have been pretty busy around here. Our (rather limited) free time has been occupied with daily trips to the gym and grocery store. We are also doing our best to take advantage of the extensive cultural activities Fall in Manhattan has to offer. Lest you worry it's all work and no play, this Sunday we're going to the Brooklyn Book Festival where both Naomi Klein and Amy Goodman will be giving presentations. Next week The New School is having a special screening of the new documentary Crude, and the following week Danie and I have tickets to see one of our favorite bands, Phoenix, play a show in Central Park. Also, as you may have heard from my mom if you've spoken with her recently, an unrivaled and unprecedented Kandinsky collection is soon coming to the Guggenheim. (These simply highlights amidst countless festivals, lectures, film screenings, and museum/gallery shows.) As you can tell, the dilemma becomes how to prioritize and time manage...what a nice problem to have!

I'm going to do my best to post updates more frequently. I think it's a bit of the chicken-egg syndrome, in that the less often I do it, the more time consuming it becomes. The resultant time commitment acts as a disincentive, resulting (unfairly for you) in fewer posts. (I just had the exact same conversation with Danie about shaving my face, just with the word 'shave(s)' substituted for post updates and posts) :)

With love and affection,

Cam

food for thought

"About 75 percent of the cattle in the United States were routinely fed livestock wastes--the rendered remains of dead sheep and dead cattle--until August of 1997. They were also fed millions of dead cats and dead dogs every year, purchased from animal shelters. The FDA banned such practices after evidence from Great Britain suggested that they were responsible for a widespread outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as "mad cow disease." Nevertheless, current FDA regulations allow dead pigs and dead horses to be rendered in cattle feed, along with dead poultry. The regulations not only allow cattle to be fed dead poultry, they allow poultry to be fed dead cattle...[and] cattle blood is still put into the feed given to American cattle... The waste products from poultry plants, including the sawdust and old newspapers used as litter, are also being fed to cattle. A study published in Preventive Medicine notes that in Arkansas alone, about 3 millions pounds of chicken manure were fed to cattle in 1994."

"A nationwide study published by the USDA in 1996 found that 7.5 percent of the ground beef samples taken at processing plants were contaminated with Salmonella, 11.7 percent were contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, 30 percent were contaminated with coccus aureus, and 53.3 percent were contaminated with Clostridium perfringens. All of these pathogens can make people sick; food poisoning caused by Listeria generally requires hospitalization and proves fatal in about one out of every five cases. In the USDA study 78.6 percent of the ground beef contained microbes that are spread primarily by fecal material. The medical literature on the causes of food poisoning is full of euphemisms and dry scientific terms...behind them lies a simple explanation for why eating a hamburger can now make you seriously ill: There is shit in the meat."

That's Eric Schlosser discussing industrial cattle farming and processing practices in his book Fast Food Nation. Having just finished Schlosser's exposition, I thought I'd share a couple of thoughts on the last thematic portion of my summer reading: the contemporary industrial agriculture and food systems. After reading Jane Goodall's introductory, yet illuminating Harvest for Hope and seeing the film Food Inc, I wanted to spend some of my free time this summer investigating the subject further. So, to look deeper, I read Raj Patel's Stuffed and Starved, Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, and finally, this week, Fast Food Nation. To compliment my reading, I watched some documentaries, which I highly recommend viewing (perhaps before your next meal), including: The Future of Food, The World According to Monsanto, and Flow. (check netflix, blockbuster.com, or amazon.com) Together, these analyses broach a range of important ethical, environmental, political, and health questions that should not be neglected.

I've decided to finish this post with a couple of suggestive statistics proffered by Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser:

"A hallmark of the Western diet is food that is fast, cheap, and easy. Americans spend less than 10 percent of their income on food; they also spend less than a half hour a day preparing meals and little more than an hour enjoying them."

"About 90 percent of the money that Americans spend on food is used to buy processed food."

"Obesity is now second only to smoking as a cause of mortality in the United States. The annual health care costs in the United States stemming from obesity now approach $240 billion; on top of that Americans spend more than $33 billion on various weight-loss schemes and diet products."

"Is it just a coincidence that as the portion of our income spent on food has declined, spending on health care has soared? In 1960 Americans spent 17.5 percent of their income on food and 5.2 percent of national income on health care. Since then, those numbers have flipped: Spending on food has fallen to 9.9 percent, while spending on health care has climbed to 16 percent of national income."

With these in mind, Pollan's asseveration that "food no longer seems like the smartest place to economize" demands consideration.

(thanks for the great title suggestion Danie)

visitors, jobs, and school...catch up

Amazingly, among the (literally) hundreds of pictures taken last week, there is not a single one in which we all appear...thus Danie's noticeable absence from a cover picture persists. To see her and a handful of pictures from the family's visit last week, click here. As you will likely be able to infer, we had a blast last week. Together we braved a heat wave, worked on the apartment, walked the city, toured the Met and MOMA, played scrabble (of course), and made a concerted, yet inevitably unsuccessful attempt to work our way through the NYC Zagat restaurant guide. Between Dad, home depot drill in hand, adeptly maneuvering the subway system, Mom and Rach moving onto a first name basis with the the local thrift store staff, and the sheer frequency with which we visited the grocery & liquor stores, by the end of the week, Mom, Dad and Rach may easily have been mistaken for locals. And after that much fun, maybe some day they will be...

Now that they have departed, Danie and I are back to more quotidian activites. Danie's job search has proven successful, as she has just been hired as a server at an upscale French restaurant a couple blocks from our apartment. She starts training Monday. She also just got word that her application for Teach for America made the first cut, and will therefore be having a phone interview in September. I couldn't be more excited or proud of her. Should the phone interview go well, she can look forward to a day-long panel interview later in the Fall. Wow.

As for me, this week has been a bit hectic but very exciting. Tuesday night I had orientation and Wednesday I met for the first time with my advisor. Since then, I've been working on my class schedule quite a bit, which is both exciting and exhausting. The course offerings are remarkably extensive, and the faculty's CVs humbling, to say the absolute least. This makes choosing classes difficult, as I want to take far more classes than I will be allowed. Oh well, there's always next semester.

finishing touches

Since the last posts, Danie and I have put some finishing touches on the apartment. Though they've been relatively small, they contribute greatly to the atmosphere and all-around-homeyness. My favorite: the "Mediterranean Green" bookcase. We picked up a white bookcase on craigslist super cheap (visible in the previous post's picture) and painted it. We also painted a craigslist bookcase "Watermelon Red." Other touches include: hanging shelves, hanging lights, potting plants, getting a rug, getting a floor lamp, and organizational bins. Check out pictures here.

The family flies in tonight and I couldn't be more excited. It'll be nice to do some of the touristy activities that Danie and I have so far neglected, and more than anything else, just spend some time hanging out. For all those interested in visiting, let me discourage you from choosing August. It's hot and it's humid. We're very sweaty.

it's here!

A piece of home has arrived today and already made an indelible mark on our apartment! Thank you chum.

what a week!

well, a week in and I'm forced to disclose a troubling reality... a week of living in New York is all it has taken for Danie to develop an addiction. It's true, and it's serious, though hers is not one of the quotidian vices to which the young and vulnerable often flock. No, Danie is addicted to craigslist. Each morning, as she reaches for my computer, I can only imagine what the day may entail. As I reflect on the past week's exploits, and more consciously recognize their relentlessness, I begin to understand why I feel so lethargic this morning. When I last posted, we were waiting for our Ikea furniture to be delivered so that we could get off the ground (so to speak). Since that post, we've devoted each day to getting settled into our apartment and making it feel like home. The best way to convey our whirlwind of travails then, I think, will be in outline format, focusing on the highlights. So, the day by day is as follows:

Last Wednesday: arrived at our apartment with 3 boxes, 4 suitcases, a backpack and a purse just before midnight local time. Spent the next 45 minutes or so hauling our luggage up five flights of (humid) stairs, where we finally laid to rest on the infamous air mattress.

Thursday: afore mentioned, state line-crossing Ikea trip.

Friday: apartment-bound from 10am-5pm for our various deliveries. Spent the day cleaning our apartment, and the evening assembling our Ikea bedframe and our Ikea kitchen island-table hybrid.

Saturday: had an extremely successful Goodwill trip where we found a (brand new) Target-home coffee table for a fraction of the original price...we don't mind a minor ding on one corner, but we do appreciate $150 tables for $24.99. As it turns out, coffee tables are really heavy, and so are more fun to buy than to carry home. That evening we assembled our coffee table and our Ikea dresser-nightstand hybrids--with limited space, multipurpose furniture is appreciated.

Sunday: visited somewhere between 4 and 6 grocery stores, each of which had some valued special. Among the culprits were staples and heavyweights Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, as well as our new local favorites Key Foods and From Farm to Market. We also saw an, at times, awkwardly small stand up comedy show that evening. The comedian had the ability to transition remarkably quickly from hysterically funny to unimaginably creepy. Overall, worth it.

Monday: Danie found a great deal on a huge Ikea dresser, listed on craigslist, only 6 blocks from our apartment. After negotiating a bit, we rendezvoused with the seller where we were again faced with the now perennial dillemma: "okay, now how on earth do we get this enormous piece of furniture home?" After being turned down by a couple of his cohorts, one (perhaps a bit green) mini-SUV taxi let us hang our dresser out of his trunk while Danie rode shotgun and I ran home to meet them, where, as if I wasn't sweaty enough, Danie was waiting for me to help carry our new dresser upstairs.

Tuesday: more craigslist wheeling and dealing pays off. we found two different bookcases for sale, both at about a fifth of the original price, and both ready for immediate pickup. However, because of the sellers' distant locations, we had to hire movers (also advertised in the furniture section of craigslist). Though so far our frugality had trumped our interest in hired help, I will admit it was nice not to have to shlep the bookcases upstairs. Plus, even with the movers our bookcases were extremely reasonable.

And so a week into the move we're a bit tired, calloused, and sore, but our spirits are high. Though we haven't seen many of the tourist attractions or local hang outs, we are on a near first name basis with most local grocers, hardware store owners, and Danie has a very active craigslist account. Jokes aside, our prioritization of getting settled in is paying off as our apartment is now very homey and we feel really comfortable in our neighborhood. Plus, now that we've got our base assembled, we can more confidently venture out into the entropy that is Manhattan.

As promised, pics of the assembled apartment can be seen here.

Cam

elated to be inflated

So, we've arrived! And we're living on the floor!

Okay, while the second bit is admittedly less exciting, Danie and I have discussed it and we're certain there are some valuable lessons to be gleaned from sitting, sleeping, eating, drinking, emailing, reading, and now, blogging, on an air mattress. Lessons like: be glad you aren't doing the same activities directly on your hard wood? In any case, we should be off the floor soon. Yesterday (our first day here), we successfully maneuvered interstate public transportation to get to the New Jersey Ikea (the Garden State's alluring 3.5% sales tax easily vindicated the hour-long bus ride), where we found some great furniture that, thanks to next day delivery, we will be assembling this evening.

So here we sit--yes, on the air mattress--alan wrench in hand, waiting for the Ikea truck. Check back soon for pictures of the assembled apartment!

Cam

a successful trip

As promised, photos abound...

Last week, Danie and I got our first taste of the NYC real estate experience when we traveled to Manhattan in search of an apartment. The Sunday night red-eye got us into JFK around 8am EST, at which point we had just enough time to maneuver the subway system so as to make our 10 am appointment with our real estate agent in the city. Upon our arrival, we promptly set out, on foot of course, to see the available inventory. After touring somewhere between 10 and 12 closets, or, as they're called in Manhattan, "apartments," we stumbled upon a gem. On the fifth floor of a great pre-war building (seen to the left) located in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, we found a terrific one bedroom apartment. Though it is undoubtedly an exceptionally moderate space by some standards, when compared with its studio and one bedroom counterparts situated in our price range, it feels quite lavish indeed.

(Note: Those paying attention to detail will notice a very nice, and extremely reasonably priced, mattress outside of our front door, which, for some reason, Danielle did not seem to fully appreciate.)

Here are more pictures of the apartment, and our trip. Hopefully the explanatory captions are successful in elucidating the apartment layout. Please believe me when I emphasize how remarkable it is to have two square rooms seperated from the bathroom with a hallway. Evidently, hallways are a rare commodity, and for good reason; surely a more prodigal way to utilize limited square footage is not easy to come by. Needless to say, Danie and I are living the high life.

Towards the end of the web album, you'll come across pictures of The New School. As you will see, there isn't a traditional campus, but rather a collection of buildings dispersed throughout Greenwich Village. I've included a picture of me in front of the International Affairs department, which is located between 5th and 6th Ave on 12th street, right in the heart of the Village. Please click on the links embedded above to visit the University's and Department's websites. This will confirm that which I have had a great time explaining again and again... that the University is not, in fact, new.

Cam

the inaugural post

Stemming from a casual, yet admittedly effective, suggestion made by Kellie, I have created this blog with the intent of keeping family and friends updated on the move to Manhattan. My hope is that in posting updates and photos, those of you whose support has been critical to my and Danielle's arrival at this adventure may continue to feel involved in our endeavors.

As acknowledged above, this blog would not have come to fruition had it not been for Kelly Frawley's original suggestion, and subsequent nudge. Also, as a matter of clarification, any grandiloquence conveyed in the name is unintended, and is simply an unfortunate byproduct of a feeble attempt at literary cleverness.

Check soon for the first substance oriented post (photos promised).

Cam