One by one the seasons change and peanut butter begins

I woke up yesterday morning to Fall. It seems like Mother Nature woke up Saturday morning and realized it was October and needed to cool things off a bit. Walking to the grocery store and back home brought back so many memories of France. In many ways I am living a parallel life to my time in France. However I don't have the luxury of having Laine here as a piece of home to hang out with and comfort each other. 

This week went by SO fast! I can't believe it. I'm excited for the next 2 weeks to pass as quickly so I can be home for a few days soaking up the SLO life. Until then I must really dig in and get a lot of work done. 

Yesterday while looking at kittens up for adoption at the local shelter I happened to look up the band The Acorn to see if they've done anything lately. It seems they have put out a new album and allowed me to fall in love all over again!

Images from the week...

Monday I woke up to fire trucks on my street

I made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

Click on Read More to see my recipe for Peanut Butter muffins with jam centers for an easy to go version of a PB&J.

A much needed change of scenery

This morning was a big day for me, my first trip to the city. Holy shit did I need this trip. Turns out my good friend Spank from SLO was i town this weekend for a family wedding in NY and luckily had free time sunday morning to meet with me before I had to be back in Yonkers for rehearsal.

And so my adventure began...

I took the Metro North Harlem line into grand Central station where I waited at the info booth for the much needed dose of home. 

I acted like a tourist while I waited

After we met we started walking down 42nd street and ran into a big market on 5th Ave, so we walked down it. (side note on the way some random lady asked us where the subway was! haha) 

It was so nice to be with Spank and have a little piece of home here, I also like talking to Spank and being silly. He couldn't have come at a more necessary time. 

more after the break

Back to the grind

This last week has been NUTS, three 11 hr days in a row capped by 8 hr days and my "free time" spent studying and working on my research paper.

Tuesday was the real shit show of a day, I had grad sem II then composition which I left early for a training conference with Liz Rogers which was so amazing and beyond valuable. From there I went straight to dance meeting for the whole department and met the tech staff. After dance meeting I had rehearsal time that I spent working on my homework and reading for grad sem I, then at 5:30 I had my first showing... which was terrifying.

How it works is, every other week we show during a class called dance making. We are each alloted 15 minutes to show everything we have created and or rehearsed with our dancers so far. Then we ask a question of the other students (ie. what images did you see?). The same week we go to a conference with Dan Hurlin and Sara Rudner to watch the video from the showing and discuss the work, how rehearsals are going, etc.

Wednesday I started rehearsals with Dawn, where we talked a lot about translation and what that means. I'm really excited about her piece!

Thursday and friday I had my own rehearsals along with class which was good, I'm really liking the direction I'm going and simply experimenting. During the week it has been working out that most of the dance grads have been eating lunch together which is my favorite part of the day. I love hearing what they have to say and just talking about things. It has been VERY helpful. 

Saturday I was in SUPER productive mode. In the morning it wasn't raining so I ran to the grocery store, when I returned I went to the Laundromat with Heather and much needed laudnry. Then I cam home and began work a curry recipe I had found here. This was crazy easy to make and for $11 total it'll give me 5 big meals (=$2.20/meal). 

After I made the curry I went to Heather's house to make cupcakes and hang out. They ended up being marshmallow cupcakes with vanilla frosting. However we started to run out of frosting half way through so we out just a little on top and the looked kind of like nipples so we added the extra marshmallow as a joke. 

I went home early that night to gear up and get ready for my big NYC adventure the next morning... to meet with a man named Spank. 

a river of tears... and a lot of cookies

So this weekend I was pretty sure it was going to be a solitary weekend and quite lonely. Saturday I watched ridiculous sad movies and while I hate to admit it, cried most of the day (let's not bring it up again shall we). Mainly I was sad because I feel very out of place here, I've mentioned this before but it's worse. I am in a totally new, unfamiliar place where people are less than friendly. In our program most of the grad students are either married and/or live in the city. So hanging out is a little tough. Then the few that do live near by and aren't married I see all day every day, 5-6 days a week. Its not that I don't like them. Its quite the opposite! I really like them, so I don't wan them to end up disliking me because I'm usually not in the mood to hangout or be around people after such long days. I also fear that if we do spend too much time together they may end up realizing they don't think I'm cool or interesting or whatever. 

Girls are hard for me, I have a hard time spending massive amounts of time with just girls. I'm much more used to being around boys. Here I don't really have any contact with boys.

I miss hanging out with my nerdy engineer boys talking about helicopters, video games, and the best way to build a projector tv theater at home. I grew up in a neighborhood of all boys, Most of my friends are boys, except the exceptional few females who are the most amazing women ever. 

I also miss Ross and I try really hard not to annoy him or complain or pester him on a daily basis. But I realized he is my only male contact that I have and I miss it. I worry sometimes that I get overly emotional about things and end up annoying him with my texts. But I can't help the way I feel and sometimes I just have to cry myself to sleep if I'm going to sleep at all. (yes saying that makes me feel stupid... oh well).

The other night there were a few songs that seemed to match my mood:

new wheels, old pillow, future wings and some spacewalks

Last Saturday night I bought a bicycle!!!! It's a diamondback luster 1 hybrid bicycle. Riding around here is terrifying though. The NY drivers are psycho and there are no bike lanes and the sidewalks are super uneven and tiny. However it is nice biking to and from school, though I have to carry my bicycle up and down from the 3rd floor. Let's just say I'm going to be super uber fit by the end of the month.

Saturday afternoon we also had our internet hooked up in the apartment which is FANTASTIC! I get to utilize netflix again.  While the man was hooking it up I started on my newest baking project.

Every weekend I plan to bake a batch of something to take to school everyday for my mid morning break.

Last week I made sweet potato scones, this weekend I made a version of Black Horse's savory scone (my favorite) cheddar, leek and tomato scones. I have to admit though... they may not make it through the week. I just had one and I kind of want to eat them all right now.

Next week... either peanut butter muffins filled with strawberry jam in the middle or lemon yogurt cupcakes... haven't decided yet