general boasting

[wavyarms]

I now have a Masters of Music in Choral Conducting. GPA: 4.0. *bows*

My family (well, most of them *peers at a517dogg*) came up for graduation, which was excellent. It is always very nice and comforting to have conversation with my family - I feel suddenly affirmed in my world-view (why, yes, naturally it is ridiculous to sing all religious music at the graduation ceremony of a secular institution! We don't even need to discuss it, it's just a given!) It sort of reminds me of who I am in a way that interacting with other people doesn't. Reminds me I was brought up right, if you will.

Tomorrow is 4 hours of rehearsal. (Aha! You think just because graduation happened, there are no more rehearsals? Fool.) Also, I need to clean my room, do massive amounts of laundry, pack, and find anything in the fridge that is likely to develop a complex nervous system in the next month and throw it out. Also, clean my inbox. (Ha!) Also, take care of certain job-hunting-related issues, certain bills, and certain timesheets. Sunday I leave for the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC with the Westminster Choir for a month.

It would be nice if the world stopped for a moment, but I suppose one oughtn't be picky.

Comments

[wavyarms.livejournal.com]

Yeah, rub it in, the fact that I don't have a job yet. Thanks.

And nothing's wrong with Boston. I'd really like to move back there. My 3 primary areas of searching are here (NJ); Washington, DC (to be with my brother); and Boston (to be with parents and friends.)

I must confess, however, that I hate New York. I find it one of the ugliest, dirtiest, most depressing cities I've ever interacted with. I can't imagine living there and being happy. So it's pretty unlikely that I'll look for jobs there on purpose. Since it's such a musical mecca, however, it's hard to rule it out.

[samtheeagle.livejournal.com]

Lemme see if I get this straight: New Jersey is fine, but New York is not. And I speak with you because why?

To be sure, I'm not one of those New Yorkers who believes that NYC is flawless, much less the center of the universe. But the ugliest? the dirtiest? the most depressing? Nah. Any other city in New England, New York State and the Midwest trumps NYC in all of those departments. What bothers me most about NYC is the physical and thus temporal distance between the center of town and affordable housing. Boston (and most other cities in the U.S. save LA) beat NY in that department. But that's the price (literally) of glory.

[wavyarms.livejournal.com]

But the ugliest? the dirtiest? the most depressing? Nah.

Well, we all have our own opinions. But the prospect of going into NYC always makes me depressed and cranky. It's a city with some world-class resources indoors (Met, museums, etc.) and it houses some world-class people (hi, pisicutsa!) but having to spend any time outdoors is just not fun.

Also, it's more than even money that if I go into NYC, I will come out with a sore throat or cold from the dirt and pollution. I can't imagine living in that environment.

[samtheeagle.livejournal.com]

if I go into NYC, I will come out with a sore throat or cold from the dirt and pollution. I can't imagine living in that environment.

Really? I thought I have The Worst Allergies on the Planet, and somehow I'm not allergic to NYC. To be sure, there's nothing quite so blechy to me as Manhattan's mid-summer perfume of simmering subway smoke, pedestrian sweat and curbside bags of garbage awaiting pickup... and for that alone I couldn't ever live in NYC, unless I had a CPW penthouse, driver and whatnot... which you have to admit wouldn't be so terrible. (Time to up my medication.)

[scottahill.livejournal.com]

I'm with wavy. Just having to walk the eight blocks from Penn Station to Grand Central Station is a nightmare for me, with the incessant flow of people on all sides.

And people who think New Jersey is a hellhole have only spent time in northeast New Jersey, which is just a nasty suburb of NYC anyway. My hometown is just across the Delaware from New Jersey, and while we all made fun of Jersey drivers, I like the state just fine.

[samtheeagle.livejournal.com]

If it's crowds that ail you, then avoid NY. As for NJ, um... anywhere there's a concentration of people (all of NE NJ, Camden, Atlantic City), the place objectively both sucks and blows. Need I say more?

[scottahill.livejournal.com]

Well, as any place with a very high concentration of people pretty much sucks to me, I can't really make the distinction. :)