nancylicious

How To Be Brave

Every day I wake up and think who the fuck am I? 

This thought runs through my head as I make my bed before class.  I repeat it as I board the L train from Williamsburg.  I ask this of myself as I show security guards my student badge. 

I can’t believe I am back living in New York again. 

And, more surprisingly, while I have no clue who I am right now, what I am doing, or where I am going, I like me so much better.

I interrupt my impromptu blogging hiatus…

To assure you that I am alive and insanely, incredibly busy on great things. 

This hiatus was not intended but as it is becoming abundantly clear I likely won’t have a lengthier update until perhaps? next week, I wanted to let you know I have not forgotten.

I’d love to elaborate further on the goings-on but I simply have not had a lot of - if any - ‘me’ time lately.  My apologies if any of your emails, messages, etc. have gone unanswered this past week (or longer) in the snowball lead up to this hectic time.

Thanks for everything. I couldn’t do what I am doing now without your support and can’t wait to share it all.

MY SMARTPHONE

The tumblrs hath spoken. But I didn’t listen.  Although the overwhelming response was iPhone - particularly with version 4 debuting Thursday - I cho-cho-chose the HTC EVO 4G from Sprint.  MR sealed the deal when he let me play with his EVO on Saturday.  (That said, the last time I played with an iphone was over 2 years ago.)

Reasons why I went with Sprint’s Android OS 4G:

• The 4G smartphone is the same price as the iPhone 4 ($199) for new customers.  If I stay a loyal Sprint customer, I will qualify for a new phone in a year and pay only $100 for an upgrade contingent upon signing a new two-year contract.  This is cheaper than any iPhone upgrade to existing customers, which will start at the currently set price point of $199.
• The phone service, unlimited text messaging, and data plan is $30 less than the same plan at AT&T.  Over two years, I will be saving $360.
• Sprint prides itself on having the best 4G data network in the US market.  I recently spoke to a friend who works in the telecommunications industry and asked for her opinion on the various mobile phone providers.  Her general conclusion was “they are all pretty much the same - give or take - it just depends on location and what you’re using the phone for.”  She did mention, however that Sprint has the best data network.  This trivia fact stuck in my head because we all immediately lamented why isn’t Apple and the iPhone tapping into that.
• Hipstamatic aside, I have faith that applications will - after a short period of ramp up -  continue to be developed for the open-source Android at a comparable pace to the iPhone.
• Flash.
• While I will wait in line oh say, five hours for a staring contest, I will not wait that long - or longer! - to buy expensive electronic goods that I urgently need, as my parents’ cell phone next month will attest. (Sorry mom and dad!)

My buying experience (good) so far has reaffirmed my decision to go with Sprint and the EVO.  That said, right now I am suffering from information overload - too many buttons! what do they all mean? -  and it will be a full-on project for me to understand all the phone’s functionality.  I imagine I would be saying the same thing for my understanding of any smartphone.

Of course, the day after my purchase, Marco posts about the psychology of mobile customers choosing their next phone and how it’s hard to convert iPhone neophytes to an iPhone lovin’ world.  ‘Cause he’s all prescient like that. Back to being semi-torn but at least I have 30 days to renege.

Getting the easiest phone number to remember ever (EVER!) put an extra skip in my step last night.

ON DREAMS AND DREAMING

I found my new New York home on Saturday. I took the L, got off in Brooklyn, walked up five blocks and two flights of stairs. I can’t remember the last time I was in Williamsburg - definitely more than a year ago, maybe almost two.

When I arrived, I was met by
MR,
my future roommate,
2 moving men,
and one visitor giving MR a last-minute goodbye.

MR greeted me and gave me a tour, first navigating past the three tiers of cardboard boxes in the living room.

The place is recently renovated. There is a narrow slip of a balcony great for people watching.  (What direction does it face? I wonder now. Is it good for sunsets too?)  It is close to everything: Bedford, Union, and Manhattan Avenues; McCarren Park; the subway. After looking at the potential room, we headed to the roof deck and talked out the finer details.  Contingent on the landlord agreeing (which he would the following day), everything was settled. I am moving in.  I took out the tape measure so I could think about furniture purchases and a requisite trip to IKEA.

I spent the night mapping out different floor plans, wondering specifically about bed placement.  I visualize anchoring it on three different walls – both lengthwise and widthwise.

I know my room can fit a queen-size bed - which is what MR had - but that doesn’t mean it should.  That of course also means it can fit a smaller, full-size bed.  And yet, this too doesn’t feel right.  My drawings indicate all the other furniture may still feel dwarfed by comparison. (Yes the room is that small.)

I stop.

Am I talking myself into a twin-size bed?  A size bed I have not slept in regularly since…4^th grade?

I think.

Why, yes, yes I am.

I think about the social implications of this.  Namely boys.  Twin beds – even ones with plushy duvets and high thread count Egyptian cotton sheets – are not the beds come-hither stares are made for.

But then again, I never really liked boys in my personal space.  I rarely invite a romantic interest over – particularly in relationship early stages – much less to stay.  Moreover, because the space is small, would two people even want to be in there even though two can fit?

In other words, should I buy a bigger bed for my imaginary boyfriend?

Sigh.

In truth, this whole deliberation is about sacrificing my ego for my ambition.  My recent endeavors into writing made me realize the important of having a desk I want to sit in front of, write on, and type at. The fact that I lived the past year absolutely tableless but with two beds – a full-size and a twin* - has made me realize the importance of these surfaces.  Would I have written more in Costa Rica if I had a desk?  Who knows.  But now, housesitting my friend’s apartment there are two.  And the words?  They do flow.

So I draw more configurations on my notepad with prospective desks.  I care more about which wall or window they face, if this piece of furniture is big enough or too small.  I want a surface area to be enough for papers, notes, moleskins, and laptops. My thoughts include: Nancy, This May Be the Desk You Write Your First Published Work On (Fingers Crossed).

If the things you own end up owning you, I’d rather be on this leash than any other. 

Hi, I’m Nancy and I’m a future twin bed owner. 

I hope we can still be friends.

* I’m starting to think this is furniture karma.

The rumors are true! Met the eponymous Nora last Thursday at Prune.  For our tumblr first date, we split the Bronzino, Steamed Mussels, and White Asparagus with Fava Beans in Tarragon Butter (not pictured). 

I also totally broke the three day rule yesterday when I went to her and M’s Afternoon in Mansfield Park Evoe event.

Nom nom nom.  Sip sip.

What Smartphone Do You Have / Would You Recommend?

…. at about the end of my tether with my outdated Motorola Rzr.  Seriously am biting the bullet, upgrading the phone, and committing to a carrier contract.

I know this seems like such a small thing but in many ways it isn’t.  The smartphone purchase means I plan to spend the majority of the next two years stateside.

Do you hear that? That’s the sound of my inner vagabond screaming.

Followed, of course, by the world’s smallest violin.

(Given this question, yeah, I can’t believe I used a company-owned blackberry until about a year ago either.)

HOW TO MARRY A SAWYER

When I first started watching Lost, I didn’t know much about Josh Holloway besides damn, he’s good lookin’.  Of course, my next boy-crazy thought was: is he single?  And to google I went.

Nope: proposed to girlfriend Yessica Kumala after the shooting of the Lost pilot.  Sigh.

But I can’t hate.  She pops up in the periphery of Holloway’s interviews as a super cool chick: in one, she was downloading Brokeback Island, a Jack-and-Sawyer version of Brokeback Mountain and emailing it to J.J. Abrams.  When asked at an awards show how she deals with all the Sawyer hungry female fans, Yessica brushed it off, adopting the macho-phrase “I make the deposits.” 

My favorite part of their story, however, is how the couple met:

[Josh] met Kumala, 28, a native of Jakarta, Indonesia, seven years ago at L.A.’s Sunset Room (now the Cabana Club). “I tried to run, but when it’s undeniable, it’s undeniable,” he says with a laugh. “She gave me a slap on the shoulder, looked me up and down and said, ‘Give me your number before you leave.’ “

Yessie, as he calls her, came back a half-hour later and demanded his phone number but refused to give hers. “She had game,” he says.

The morning after their first date, they were building sandcastles on the beach and planning their future.

And again, early in their relationship, when Josh got cold feet:

“I’ve done all the dumping, which is not a good thing. It’s funny, because I married someone who has always done it as well. I believe I met my match.”

The 37-year-old says he did try to break things off early in the relationship adding, “At the very beginning, yes; when I felt it getting pretty serious I went, uh-oh, and wrote the goodbye letter. But [Yessica] promptly wrote another letter that trumped it. So I stayed!”

Ahem.  What rules?

I think single ladies - including myself - can learn something from Yessica.

TEXT MESSAGE: Oh oh…Spain just brought on he with the hobbit tattoo :)

My friends keep me apprised of the most important World Cup news.

I want to start following North Korea, too.  Paid Chinese actor fans, rumored Japanese players, and crazy defense schemes against #1 Brazil? Hi-lare.

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