Meetings! / What Happens In DC…

All I can think about right now is how many meetings I’ve been stuck in this past week.

Literally just finished a three hour zoom for my songwriting class.

Three hours! How does anything useful happen over the span of three hours?

Not to mention all these project meetings and interviews and coffee chats.

Must be this new wave of people graduating during COVID but I’ve been getting a lot requests to talk about my job. I loved the attention at first but it’s getting kind of exhausting.

Some people are so blatantly trying to get a referral out of me (which is fine in itself) but why ask me these aimless questions about my job in the first place? Do you really care? Can we cut this convo short? Or am I just too jaded?

I guess it would be a lot more pleasant if they actually bought coffee for me 😂. Of the people I’ve talked to so far not a single one has offered.

If only one of you would offer. How I’d go above and beyond for you.

If I ever want something from someone I will absolutely at least buy a cup of coffee for them.

In fact next time someone asks me for a coffee chat I will ask them where the coffee is.

What happens in DC comes back to NY

Beyond the grind of meetings I’ve been out in DC for the week.

After

At least ten mosquito bites
- Killed two of them with my bare hands 😎
A long week of no exercise and a ton of junk food
A number of fights with Harry

All I can really say is that DC is a beautiful city.

So many pretty buildings. A good amount of investment into arts/culture. Diversity. Interesting restaurants. Walkability. Love it all.

Walking through the streets of DC in the muggy humidity amidst the new shiny buildings and the street noises felt so strongly of Korea. That brief striking moment where you can look up a bit from the streets and people and pretend you’re back in the motherland.

There’s something to be said about the city feeling. How different cities and neighborhoods evoke certain emotions/moods. Back in Prospect Heights amidst those beautiful brownstones and stroller families and coffee shops it felt like I was living in a dream. A beautiful dream where nothing bad could ever happen but nothing real happened either.

DC evokes a different feeling. A feeling that people have their skin in the game. That they’re trying to build something bold here. Not nearly as much excitement as Manhattan but anything could happen.

Hard to pinpoint why I feel this way. Maybe it’s all the street art or the arts scene they seem to have at Busboys and Poets. Or all the history that’s so apparent and available on the streets. The idea that this history is being built upon continuously.

Am I reading too much into this? I’ve only been here for a week. We’ll see how I feel on subsequent trips back.

Some highlights from the trip:

Went to the spy museum

Had some amazing Ethiopian food at Chercher (had not known DC had so many Ethiopian restaurants). The Doro Wot (chicken stew) tasted like a vibrant curry. Bright, in your face flavors. Mix that with the sour injera (fermented flatbread) and the beef tibs and the sour cream(?) sauce and you got yourself a meal. Whooooooooo man that was good. Good enough that I want to seek out some Ethiopian restaurants in NY too.

Went to my first in person church service (at The District Church) since the start of COVID! The pastor gave some historical context around the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman which was pretty fascinating.
- Recapping to the best of my memory: Samaritans are Jews in the northern half of Israel who intermarried with the invading Assyrians. Southern Jews hated Samaritans so much they’d try everything to avoid them, even taking a detour of multiple days across desert to avoid interacting with Samaritans. It’s in this context that Jesus (a Jew from Southern Israel) interacts with a Samaritan (an adulterer and woman on top of that—super scandalous for that time) at the well. The disciples were triiiiiipping because of this.
Ate one of the best Italian subs of my life at Union Kitchen. I am no authority on Italian subs but damn this hit the spot. Absolutely will return on subsequent trips.
Best chilaquiles of my life at El Sol Restaurant. I am a better authority on chilaquiles and these were great. Thank you Sherry for the rec.

Zoned out while people watching and drinking coffee. I think I was more stressed this week than usual because I spent a record amount of time zoning out and doing nothing. Very enjoyable time turning my brain off.

I also met someone interesting at a party Harry threw. Older black woman in her 40s(?). Worked as a lawyer for a long time. She’s currently taking a break from law and working as a yoga instructor(!!!) and taking theater/singing lessons/acting gigs on the side.

I’ve been thinking about stagnancy a lot these days. I’ve turned around on software engineering and enjoy what I do these days but I also wonder what’s on the other side of my current gig. It was cool meeting someone older who’s had such a varied career and pursued arts throughout all the “serious” work stuff.

You can do anything you want in this life! I’m gonna have it all!

The view from Meridian Hill Park. Doesn’t this kind of look like unit 1?

Music Update

Michelle said I’ve improved on my high notes for Love Never Felt So Good!

I am steadily making progress here. Practicing the high notes has helped me with other songs too.

Had my first songwriting class today. As mentioned three hours seems a bit excessive.

The class is over zoom with the following format

Lecture (anywhere from 1-1.5 hours)
- This week we went over different song structures and listened to examples of each type
Break
Perform/critique other performances
Resume lecture

I think it’ll be a good form of accountability in finishing my songs.

DC was a mixed bag but the change of scenery was overall good.

I’m returning to NY with a list of things I want to do:

Explore NY
- Doña Fela in Jackson Heights
- Museum of City of NY
Go on a Fall Foliage road trip
Open Mics
- QED in Astoria
- Another one in prospect heights that I forget the name of
Audition for Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater
- Hope it’s not a cop out but I’m doing the online audition. Not sure I want to wait out the line

I’ve also watched way too much TV over the past month so I’m taking a break on that.

Deleted some dating apps as well because it’s getting to be kind of a drag.

I’m pretty sure there’s some correlation between dating apps and relationship satisfaction. How can you be satisfied with one person when there’s a whole digital ocean of potential alternatives at your fingertips? Even if you can’t match with them the illusion that you can still exists.

It would be cool to meet someone offline.