Final NYC Days

I’m in my final week in NYC (for now). I haven’t truly said goodbye because NYC still feels like a part of my life. Even if I leave I’ll always have a reason to come back. This year alone I’m planning to come back for work and maybe a wedding. Even if I had no concrete plans I think I’d come back to visit and see friends. Who knows what the future holds.

Honestly even the departure itself is filled with uncertainty. Just last week the director of my org got dropped with zero warning. The woman who—supposedly—had been easy with location transfers because she also lived in SF. So… we’ll see?

Anyways, the last few weeks have been filled with farewells and final experiences.

  • Watched Maybe Happy Ending with Kelvin. I went in pretty hyped because Tim raved about it but I thought it was just decent. The staging was amazing but I’m definitely kind of over love stories involving robots. I remember watching the Orville and hating the storyline where the ship doctor falls in love with a robot.

    • Not sure why it rubs me the wrong way. I just think it’s cheesy and overdone. “Oh a robot that can feel emotions?? How novel!!”

  • Caught up with Junseo at HUPO. He seemed tired (said he only gets ~5 hours of sleep these days. He wakes up thinking of things he has to do at work…)

  • Went to Carnegie Hall with Tim to watch the New York Pops cover Cole Porter! Way exceeded my expectations. The venue itself was beautiful. We were seated in the cheapest tickets at the balcony level and I was shocked to see how low the railings were. One little shove and you’d be a goner. The music sounded so good. There was even a tap dancer (John Manzari) who performed the entire time and at one point had a tap dancing solo that lasted almost ten minutes.

    • We also went to Kaiyo Omakase before. Tim paid for me as a farewell! Super nice of him.

  • Karaoke with work friends (Jess, Matt, Evan, Patty and some others)

  • Got Indian food at Angel with Amy. She shared a story about how she made an offhand joke (about how he was charging his son rent to live at home) at her boyfriend’s dad during their ski trip and he EXPLODED at her. Calling her disrespectful and yelling in front of the 10+ people table. What a disaster…

  • Lunch with Dawi at Nubiani. Surprisingly a lot of food.

  • Lunch with Jason and Nicole at Sanpanino. Turns out they’re moving back to the bay in a couple months! Here we go, the next phase. Phase 1: everyone starts off in the bay. Phase 2: everyone moves to New York. Phase 3: everyone leaves New York. Nicole came about five years ago and Jason maybe 2-3 years ago.

  • Superbowl at Apollo and Chai’s.

  • Went to Gomo’s and ate Sushi plus some pastries I brought over. Had a great time and it was good seeing the extended fam before I left for a while.

  • Lunch with Mansoor at Manducatis. I’d wanted to check out the place for a while and it was just ok.

  • Ran a 10k! Definitely felt a jolt of runner’s high where it felt so good that I was able to run that much. Surprised myself with how I was able to make it to the end.

  • Lunar New Year’s at Alyssa and Rob’s

  • Unfortunately sprained my ankle at volleyball

  • I’ve been playing a lot of Kingdom Come Deliverance 2.

These last few weeks have been packed. Great seeing friends. Annoying to have my ankle sprained and hobbling around everywhere. My lifestyle has suffered—no longer running, kind of eating junk, a bit lazier. But it is what it is. I see it all as kind of temporary till I get to California anyways.