Netwerk. Partay. Snow Go Away.

March 08, 2015

Netwerk. Partay. Snow Go Away.

Hello all you warm weather suckers,

Nina, reporting from a place where people get excited and whip out the shorts when we hear "and weather highs of 40 degrees today." It hasn't been quite as brick as a couple weeks before this but then Wednesday, Thursday and Friday happened. I would like to speak with the weather about why it is still snowing and we are in the month of March. This should not be the situation. Rude.

Moving on. So we've only been in March for 8 days but already a couple of things have happened. I need to backtrack a bit though and give you some information about February.

In February, I received and accepted an invitation to attend a CSU alumni mixer at the University Club on the Upper East Side. This club was one of those college clubs where you have to have a membership and your acceptance depends solely on the university you or your parents attended. Yeah, talk about exclusive. The venue itself was very nice however. So everyone in the Tri-state area ends up in this room and the president of CSUF is there and I meet her and she shakes my hand and is all excited and ever so slightly tipsy. It was very interesting. I also got to practice my networking skills and meet a couple people here and there. The only negatives were that there were only hors d'oeuvres served and they all either looked like they had meat in them or did have meat in them so I arrived starving and left even more starving. Meeting people with similar California sensibilities living on the East Coast and reminiscing about college with people who went to the same school I did was nice though. In the end I was glad I went. I also got free headphones that work excellently and a free t-shirt. You guys know I'm all about the free t-shirts. There was actually a rule, on the invitation and everything, that cited no use of cell phones so that's mostly the reason I don't have any photos for you. Also, while I was there, because you all know I'm such a little rebel if I really felt the want to use my phone I would have done it, I didn't see much of anything worth photographing, etc. All in all a pleasant way to spend a Thursday.

Now on to this week. Work has been cool. My boss doesn't drive me absolutely insane now, only mildly, so that's something I suppose. This coming week we have a big meeting taking place Thursday though so I know only madness will ensue between now and then. Thursday itself will be horror of all horrors but I will survive somehow. On Wednesday after work, I met up with an Australian therapist just to chat, network a bit and see what's up with the what's up. She was pretty cool. Honestly, the first thing I noticed about her when she walked in to the adorable little cafe we met up in was her outfit. She had on this black and white geometric print pullover sweater, black jeans, a leopard (faux?) fur coat and a neon cobalt blue beanie. So yeah, you can imagine how enamored I was. Talking to her was really good, just as a sounding board. She helped me get some ideas as far as ways to start volunteering or enrich my experience field so I can make a decision about grad school and my future career. I know I've vacillated back and forth from fashion to psych back to fashion to possibly writing. Now I'm just wavering above all of them and trying to figure out what in heavens name is going on. We chatted for about an hour or so over white wine (her) and a half decent chocolate shake (me). Networking networking networking.

And now on to the event you all may or may not have been waiting to read about. Last night, as you may or may not be aware, I attended a birthday party for a friend. Because yes, I do have friends here :) isn't it marvelous. So anyway, this party. It was actually an entire weekend affair but the party was a culmination of everything more or less. Originally the theme of the party was to be "Coming to America". Yes, as in the film. You were supposed to dress like it and everything. I spoke to the honoree of said party however and he told me he had kind of changed his mind to something more along the lines of creative black tie, whatever in heavens name that is. This was three weeks ago. So I planned my outfit according to his open description of "creative black tie". Fast forward to last night, I walk in and all I see are either people wearing church clothes or people wearing African garb. Yeah, the theme did not end up changing after all. Oh well, whatever, I still looked utterly fabulous. I wore all black everything, my Lita's which may or may not be my go-to shoes just to add some edge and because I love them so, with lots of large but not chunky gold jewelry. If you have my snapchat, you should take a look at my snaps from last night, I was told they're hilarious. If not, it's "ninaaaerynnn"

You're welcome.

It was my pleasure.

So I walked in, found some other friends I knew which was wonderful because I thought they weren't going to be there originally, and sat with them. The party was held in a ballroom, yes a ballroom, with circular tables situated around three sides of the room with a med-sized dance floor in the middle and a stage at the back. I arrived late because primping took even longer than I expected and I got on the wrong train on accident, then my directions told me to get off at a spot which required me to walk 9 short blocks to my actual destination. Funny because there's a train stop one block away from the ballroom space and once I figured that out I had to chuckle. A little after I got there, dinner was served which was good because I was hungry, and so was everyone else at my table. I will describe to you what I saw as we walked up to the table to be served: stacked white plates at the edge, a large rectangular tin with bunsen burners under it and fettuccine pasta inside, another tin, same size with chicken Alfredo sauce in it, a basket of bread rolls, pre-made bruschetta for you to pick up with tongs and salad being ladled into bowls. Before I even picked up a plate I made sure to ask the server if there was in fact chicken in the sauce. The woman looked back at me, shook her head and smiled, then offered me pasta. I declined and stood there thinking, 'Really? WHAT ABOUT THE VEGETARIANS THOUGH?' So dinner last night, of which I had been looking forward to and hadn't eaten much all day on account of, for me consisted of salad and bread. The amount of pizza places and fast food spots I'd passed on the way to the ballroom only became more poignant at that point.**

**Note to self: when attending future parties, either bring snack food with you or do yourself a solid and eat at least a little something beforehand so as not to both arrive and exit the party famished.

The rest of the night consisted of 90s music, the honoree's top 10 favorite 90s jams and dedications to some volunteer organizations. I did not stay for all of that because I live in Brooklyn, this shindig took place in Harlem and that's an hour on the train my friends. It actually ended up being an hour on the train with my phone at 9%. Good times. It seemed like the birthday boy rather enjoyed himself though and that's the only thing that really matters. I only got to talk to said birthday boy for literally 5 seconds but hey, that's what happens when you've got a ballroom full of people coming out to celebrate you. We took a photo together, I'm wondering what it looks like.

The only slight regret, in full recap, of the night was that I had to pay to go to a party I couldn't eat the food at, it took an hour to get there, and I passed offers for dates (that's dates, plural) to attend. But hey, I got to dress up on a Saturday night and who doesn't love doing that every once in a while.

One thing I did find amusing were the catcalls I received while walking to said party. As you all ought to know by now, I find catcalls, generally speaking, less than amusing, unintelligent and base. But one in particular I got last night, well I just had to laugh. SO I'm walking down this brownstone lined street and this guy is coming out of one of them. I walk past, he comes out the front door and I hear, "Mmmmmmmm! Love of my life!" I burst into spontaneous soft chuckles. Apparently everyone loves a girl in Lita's.

Below are some snaps from the night. Enjoy!

Until next time lovelies,