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Hi Erica.

Question

Can one learn a language only by hearing it? If so, my officemate's
extended phone conversations will soon be responsible for my fluency
in Russian.

Think Twice: 2

I eventually watched the "Think Twice: The Inside Story on Insider Trading" as well as its sequel "Think Twice:2" in a conference room on the 40th floor alone. As one would expect, even in industry-specifics videos from the 1990s about Insider Trading, the original was a lot better than the sequel. The room had a plasma screen TV and a rechargeable console that you could take around the room which controlled the vcr, TV, computers, etc. There were big leather chairs and engraved pens (of which I took 4) and before I got the videos I made a joke to my supervisor about not having or knowing anyone who has anything to trade. She didn't think this was funny.
In other news, yesterday was Easter and Kristina invited me to ponder whether ham has developed as a traditional Easter dish only to further differentiate Christians from Jews. In this vein, I celebrated Easter with Rob's family in an a-religious meal near the ocean in Jersey. I had my first Surf n' Turf, remembered how very good lobster is and meditated on how to redeem my soul. This was to differentiate myself from kosher Jews and Hindus.

When Did I Get Old?

Ok, I'm not really old. I'm 23. Sometimes I get scared, thinking of all the things physically wrong with me now and how they'll only get exascerbated with age. Aches and pains and dark world views. Last night was a night of culture and meditations on age. I first attended an event that was a fundraiser for the youth orchestra Erica works for. It was held at the Upper East Side brownstone of a woman who by virtue of birth and marriage had a lot of money, art and antique instruments. The house was amazing. Last night it was filled a lot of 75+ year old wealthy New Yorkers who speculated on whether a silver sculpture of a woman's torso was actually a bird and said "brilliant" in the British sense. There, obviously, I felt quite conspicuously young, like my presence was confusing to the high society roller-ladies and gentlemen. From there I went to an opening of the Buren exhibit at the Guggenheim with Rob. Firstly, the exhibit is terrible and a waste of money, if one were to pay. Secondly we encountered a girl who works for the education department at the Guggenheim who both of us automatically assumed was older than us. I felt intimidated by her, she seemed very put together and lots of things I aspire to be but feel I fail at. In the course of conversation (unfortunately she was very nice) we learned that not only is she also from Minnesota, but that she graduated from high school a year later than I did! Armed with the new knowledge, all of the sudden I had the upper hand. Since I am a full year older than her, I know that she cannot possibly have it all as figured out as she appears because for-christ's-sake I am nearly 24 whole years old and I have no idea what is going on. Strange that things like that still make as big a difference to me as they do. Maybe 24 isn't enough.

Oh No.

The good news is that I am back with perpetual internet access. The bad news is that now I work at a humongous (500 lawyers in NYC) law firm. Today is my third day. The actual process of getting a job was much simpler than last time, the five month lag was replaced with a five day one between when I got my act together to go to an agency and when I accepted the position. It is in the World Financial Center. People tourist the building, trying to get a good shot of their kids in front of the World Trade Center site. There are 4 buildings and it feels like a mall. The GAP, Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, Starbucks and Cosi help. The firm has its own cafeteria and gym and so there is never any need to go outside. In the cafeteria, you eat food deducted from money on a magnetic card (the money goes on it through the exact same machines that gave us the laundry cards at Wesleyan), but I have so far avoided it because I don't know anyone yet and have weird elementary school fears. So today I ate a salad at Cosi alone and ran into a kid from my LSAT class. The past fews days have been intensely boring and somehow also intensely exhausting and periodically I scare myself, thinking that I'll become complacent and ok with doing work with no connection to actual people. Only corporations, bad ones, too. But first I have to be given some work. Tomorrow I watch a video about Insider Trading. Holy Fuck.