72 on 72
I’m sipping cold brew and writing from Irving Farm. For the last ten minutes I’ve been zoning out and inadvertently listening to the girl at the window talk about some drama that happened at a wedding she went to recently. She went with a date who was more of a friend and he was acting like a lil bitch is what I’ve gleaned so far.
I’ve been entertained by her tale so far but at this point too many people have entered and her story’s been drowned out by the ambient noise. Sorry for eavesdropping, window girl. You just speak so loud.
Been recovering from last night. In a larger sense recovering from my first week back in New York.
I was so amped up to do stuff now that I’m back in the city and I think I went a little too far. Trying to strike that delicate balance of alone time, loneliness, sociability, social fatigue. Balancing work, music, making new friends, tending old friends. The never ending balancing act.
All things considered not a bad slate of things to worry about.
Will I look back on this period as an easygoing, mostly carefree time? I think so.
It’s 72 on 72. Took a few minutes to get this rare shot
Back at it
Korean Meetup
Joined a Korean meetup to 1. Meet new people and 2. Get better at Korean. I joined the zoom chat (Hurricane Ida forced us to go online) for the week. A surprisingly diverse crowd of Koreans, non Koreans.
The format was to split up into small groups, spend ten minutes speaking in Korean, ten minutes speaking in English.
My first group consisted of a middle aged Korean man from Canada and a black woman in her 30s from the DMV area. The middle aged Korean man was an archetypal middle aged Korean man. Very heavy handed in steering the conversation. Kinda cheesy with a lot of dad humor. Got the idea that he probably went to Korean church. I accidentally cut him off in conversation at one point and felt simultaneously sorry and victorious.
The black woman was cool. She’d gotten into Korean through the usual route—K Dramas—and was planning on going to Korea at some point. We made small talk and taught the Korean dude some American slang (dead ass, ain’t, etc.).
My second pairing was with a Korean college student based in SoCal. We also made small talk (she’s studying nursing, her favorite gopchang restaurant in LA is Ahgassi Gopchang) until the time ran out.
I don’t know how much I’ll improve my Korean with this group but I’ll go again next week
Volleyball
Joined a volleyball meetup. This was my first time playing volleyball in years. I think I annoyed some teammates by not knowing any strategy but I had fun. I’ll watch some volleyball clips and be more prepared the next time I go.
Friends
Got soba and matcha beer with Frank at Cocoron. Got rice pudding at Rice to Riches. Cocoron had an interesting menu. Will go back again. Frank’s been working hard on some music. I want to keep up with him
Went to a picnic with Kelvin and his friends at Central Park. Met up with them again later at Kelvin’s place and drank a lil.
My dating life is picking up again
Music Update
Continuing Japanese Denim. Michelle says I need to enunciate my words more. Mom said the same thing to me before I left California…
I’ve started practicing out of Kaufman Music Center. I also bought a new mic (SM7B) and will start recording there.
Also wrapped up this demo song. Not planning on doing anything with it anytime soon but I’m glad I wrapped it up for now.