work

life had been consumed with work for the past few weeks. even though film production in new york is basically the same as in los angeles, there are enough differences that has made my first ny production job difficult. i've never had to deal with parking in the city before, and there were new vendors to familiarize myself with. also, working with people you've never worked with previously always makes the job tough - you have to figure out each other's strengths and weaknesses and deal with them - a matter of trust in each other's abilities. it also didn't help that we were so rushed for time while i needed to figure out how to do a lot of things. but fortunately, everyone is nice and great at their job so it's been a valuable learning experience. and even though it was difficult, it'll be short job - my last day is tuesday.

now that things have calmed, let me catch up on this blog. i visited f in brooklyn for the panamanian parade. it was really long, and we didn't stay to see all of it. but the traditional dresses were gorgeous, and the food was amazing, as f had promised. and it was really nice to meet f's mom and some of her relatives that she had grown up knowing. f and i have been friends for 10 years now (amazing to think that i'm old enough to have been friends with people for a decade!), and getting to see this side of her life for the first time was precious.

this weekend, p and d, whom i've also known for 10 years now (yikes!), were in town. it was so good to see patty who has grown up so much. she's using make-up, has a sophisticated wardrobe, and wears a chic haircut - so different from the days when she was always in jeans and sweatshirts with her ponytail. i, on the other hand, am still wearing clothes from my college days. d has grown up too, but he's still a goof-ball. we hung out with a group of d's friends, his brother, and p's cousin. almost everyone is a suit. i had been so used to hanging out with hipsters in la. when i mentioned to one of d's friends that my sister is working on her mfa, he asked, "oh, what is that? master of financial arts or something?" ironically, he recently moved here from la as well. the people i know in la pretty much all work in film or the arts in one way or another. but that's the thing about new york - everyone does something different. an la friend who had lived in nyc for a while once told me that it's very special to work in film in nyc whereas it's almost the norm in la. well, i definitely felt special, loved but special.