Some More Marshmallow

alliehasthoughts:

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Yes.

(via anarkali)

iheartclassics:

Did my laundry in a laundromat for the first time today, and chatted with the two very nice and very beautiful Bulgarian ladies who work there. If given the option would I go back to childhood? In a heartbeat. On the other hand, growing up isn’t so bad either, though it is not easy. Today I feel a great sense of optimism for the life before me. 

(Source: lively-death-tonight, via iheartclassics)

I am watching an artist putting up a piece of her work at Deutches Haus, where I am working seven hours today and where I worked for seven hours last night.

She printed a photography piece onto wall paper and have been putting everything up on the wall in 12” x 8”  pieces since yesterday morning. She is just finished now and people have been marveling at it and telling her how great it looks. She keeps saying, “not yet, not yet, many mistakes,” even though it looks perfect and quite impressive. The photography is black and white, and she has been drawing in small things with a black marker. She drew a line that does not seem to belong and since I saw her drawing it I know exactly where it is. The line is now all that I see and I definitely do not want to tell her that. If it’s perfect in her eyes, it is perfect. Or the word is “satisfactory”; is there a thing such as perfect art?

JD Salinger wrote “An artist’s only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else’s.” in Franny and Zooey, and he is very wise.  

I am so sleepy. I got sleep for the first time in almost two weeks last night and of course I was woken up by my alarm right in the middle of REM sleep. I was at school, maybe college. Something happened because an alarm went off. Everyone gathered in an auditorium of sorts but instead of nicely cushioned seats there were only concrete stairs. Also, I cut my hair short in my dream and I remember that I looked amazing. For inexplicable reasons, a mentor/teacher/professor type started holding up these beautiful coats of arms that had to do with Harry Potter and told us that they were recently recovered and wanted to know why they were confiscated by the church right before the Renaissance. My subconsciousness must believe that Hogwarts and the magical world are real because my hand shot up immediately like Hermione’s and started explaining with authority why the church was afraid of wizards and took away everything whilst attempting to destroy the magical community. Evidently, afterwards the wizards and witches disguised themselves as Muggle intellectuals/philosophers/artists, and that’s how the Renaissance started. While I was speaking, some very attractive guy two rows below me was talking to his friend, who was trying to convince him to tell me who he was. You should just go and tell her, the friend said. And I thought yeah, you should just tell me. Then my phone started croaking because I use it as an alarm clock and my alarm is a chorus of croaking frogs.

Waking up in the middle of a dream sucks, especially because I never found out who the guy is and I wanted to know. Also, I tried to see myself with short hair after my shower by holding my hair up and decided that I would look awful, so that illusion is gone. I have been trying to nap in my chair but it’s not very comfortable and there is some parade down on University Pl. I imagine that I am a cat. I imagine that I have a lot of white and brown and black fur and what it would feel like right now to pace to Washington Square Park, have a big stretch, and nap, belly down, on one of those marble benches in the sun.

Alas I am not a cat and have human obligations to stay awake at this desk for three more hours, and stay awake for the two hours after that so I can do a good job tutoring, and stay awake for the half hour after that so I can carry a bookshelf up to my apartment because my parents brought my  books from home and they deserve better than being scattered on the floor.

How do you remember?

I realize that I don’t take enough photos. One day, when I am old and shrinking, I will look back and think of certain people in my life and will not know what they look like, or what I look like when I am with them. I think this merits the word “regret”. 

People come and people go in life, but how do you remember them? 

It’s a choice. I had a conversation with someone just a few minutes ago about the misconstruction of memories. It took root and now my neurons are firing and I am likely to be kept awake all night again. 

What if you start remembering the wrong things, and reality exists only as how you have perceived it? Suddenly, everything is blurred by subjectivity, and just like that, you will not have truth. 

Or maybe you do and will. Starting now I am only going to speak for myself. 

Dear People of My Life, the Past, Present, and Future Ones,

I want to remember you. Your whole beings. Everything. All those levels of complexities. The good, the bad. I do not want to near present to override the past, nor do I want to past to overshadow what have happened in recent days. I want to remember myself with you - every moment of self discovery through the looking glass of your eyes. It is incredible and true that small interactions could have larger impacts than life-changing events. But everything matters. You matter and I will try not to forget. 

Thank you for having been, being, and about to be in my life.

Linjia

Anonymous asked: What do you look for in a man?

Someone who helps me become better. 

Anonymous asked: Do you like Tommy Cooper ?

He’s the love of my life. 

He likes marshmallows too. And eats them. In his sleep.

Someday I will write a poem about this. 

Maybe this could be a poem. 

Anonymous asked: hi! i am looking for an apartment in nyc for the summer but everything is so expensive where i am looking. how much did yours cost? and where is it? i might need to check out the area

Hello! If you are looking for a place in Manhattan everything will be very expensive unless you are looking in neighborhoods like Harlem or Morningside Heights. The only justification I had for moving off campus is that it is still cheaper than a NYU  single dorm room. I save about $6000 a year which is not a lot, but the benefit comes from not having to move for two years instead of moving at the end of every year and every summer. Another key thing about finding a place in Manhattan is that everything goes super fast - you see a place you like and put deposit on it that very same day. We did it in about a week and we were definitely more meticulous/picky than other people that we know (my roommate and I also have multiple jobs each so it was hard to coordinate). Also, costs typically are brought down by the number of people. We got a 2-bedroom apartment and it’s $1375 each but if you have 4 or 5 people the cost is brought down significantly even if every person has his/her own room.  Further, utilities would also be divided among more people and then the overall costs would have been lowered that way too. The apartment we found is in the East Village/Union Square area, which is incredibly convenient but definitely more expensive. Bottom line is, if you are looking for an apartment in Manhattan, you have to get used to the price. If not you could look into Brooklyn and maybe other boroughs. Lastly, if you are looking for a place just for the summer, I recommend searching for a sublet simply because usually the utilities and furniture are already included and sometimes the rent is cheaper. Good luck!