A New Year, A New Resolution

Since I did not stick to my original New Year's Resolution (which was to stop chain chewing gum, but I don't really want to, I think they call this "addiction"), I decided that I would switch it to updating this blog, because, well, I am working here right now and I am falling asleep and so I figured that if I perhaps had to move my fingers constantly I would stay awake and do my job. I am 21 minutes into my second hour at the door, 21 minutes into my fourth hour here, and have been ADDing between the crossword, the Weekend Arts, Haiti coverage, and every single slide show on nytimes.com Dining & Wine section. (Did you know what the traditional Roman way of cutting a pizza is with a pair of regular scissors? Fascinating!)

There is no one here except for old people who can't seem to get in the habit of talking softly, and people that want a warm place to sleep. There are a couple of the regular dissertation students, like the girl with braces and the guy that looks like a younger Antonio Banderas. It depresses me to see them so focused and dedicated to their work. I had perhaps the best winter break of my college career and it was all because I had zero obligations or responsibilities; I went to the beach and biked around and drove around (it is LA, after all, the original driving culture) and did incriminating things and stayed out all night and it was like living all those high school moments I was supposed to have but never did, not until the week before my 22nd birthday. My boss at Aves said to me yesterday that fun stops after 21. However, mentally I think I am closer to 14 or 15, and, let's face it, physically as well, so perhaps it will be more of a bunny slope downhill instead of a fatal plunge.

In any case, none of this has to do with Avery. What is relevant is that I figured out my schedule for next semester, so that I will be working Monday through Wednesday, all afternoon shifts. So the lineup will be the usual suspects, just more giddy having returned from lunch at Brownie's. (Brownie's is the café in the basement of Avery, in a strange vortex between this building and Fayerweather. It serves the best food - gourmet panini and sandwiches and pasta dishes and salads and omelets and homemade trail mix and brownies [lolz] and even distinctly fresh bagels - on campus, as well as the cheapest coffee on campus [$1 for a small, $1.35 for a large]. Additionally, they have flavored coffees - french vanilla and hazelnut - and a shit ton of teas if you're into that, and you even get a punch card for both coffee and sandwiches and when you get ten star-shaped cut-outs you get a free coffee or sandwich. And you get to listen to all the conversations in various languages and watch Professor B hit on nine blonde girls at once and woo them with coffee, it's great.)

Meh all the Avery staff is breaking for lunch now and I still have another hour and twenty minutes of stomach audibly growling. Will definitely need to take a faux-bathroom trip to Uris and get some cancer coffee (French Vanilla coffee that is really like some hot chocolate thing that costs $0.90 and is dispensed in a machine with a paper cup) and yet more gum. One of these days I will try to yawn but not be able to open my mouth. Then maybe I will stop.

All right, back to the foodie slide shows. I did run into BHB yesterday - the "stranger" from last semester - when I was walking with a friend; we did the double-cheek kiss and talked a lot about our breaks and our families, as if we were very close. When I told my friend that I knew BHB from Avery, not as a fellow GA but just as a patron, he laughed; of course people only get that close when they meet at Avery.

What this semester will entail, I don't want to think about. I have an internship at a photography museum, eleven hours a week at Avery, four senior classes, and a thesis to finish. These activities will be peppered with a myriad of Bad Life Choices and several thousand identity crises and property shopping/convincing myself I can legitimately get away with squatting somewhere for the summer. I hope everyone's breaks are winding down nicely and that you are enjoying your last days of debauchery.

Oh no, it is one of the employees last day here! She is going to school full time now so is leaving! She just wished me good luck in school and says that she has been here as long as I have (dear God) and so it was great working with me! I'm touched. There is so much love at Avery, not just lust.

As they said in the crossword puzzle this morning, 24-down, "ciao."