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September 20, 2005
Answers for You, Part II
"The Last Thing This Corner Needs is a Bank";
The future site of Commerce Bank: Fifth Avenue & 1st Street, Brooklyn
After spending eight hours at a Microsoft Access advanced querying course in a windowless, dark room, I high-tailed it up to campus for my first discussion group. In my years at Smith, I think I only had one class like this- most of my courses were seminars or very small lectures and I never had a class taught by a TA. I don't really understand the point of the group, as we seemed to discuss what had already been covered by our professor at the lecture, but it gives me time to stare at the people around me and make up stories about their lives, so I guess it's not that bad.
But none of that really mattered yesterday, as all I could think about was the fact that I was (literally) eight to ten years older than the other seventeen students in the room...and a close match for the TA, who at most could have been thirty. Yipes!
We spent a good amount of time talking about changing New York and how the grid system of streets affected how the city works. I was struck by the fact that most of these students, unless they grew up here, had no idea what Manhattan was like twenty years ago- or even six years ago. Then it struck me that I was thinking like every other annoying older person, mulling over the words "New York was such a different animal when I was young, you have no idea..."
Click below for answers to your last five questions...and tomorrow, back to our regular scheduled posting.
What do you find so completely engrossing and fascinating in this world?
That each day, no matter how monotonous, is new. That bones from over 160,000 years ago still exisit in this world.
Do you think it's true that if you make it there (NYC), you can make it anywhere?
It depends on what the definition of "making it" is. Show biz? Not sure. Life? Certainly not. I think that happiness in life depends more on the person than their physical environment. Maybe.
Is there one person for everyone?
Perhaps that is a right person for everyone at certain points in time...and some of those times might be longer than others, such as a life partner. But that does not degate the quality, importance, and heart swelling happiness that another partner might bring, just for a short period of time.
Is photography just something you play with, or have you taken classes? How much effort do you put into those pictures - a lot or do they just happen?
I've taken two black and white darkroom courses-- when I was 8 and 19. I don't plan the majority of my photographs...aside from briefly composing a shot, I just snap and see what happens.
What smells/scents (food, perfume, weather etc..) have the strongest memory connections for you and why?
- The air after a snowfall: my childhood home (Long Island), college (Massachusetts), and home (Brooklyn)...the scent is clean yet heavy, like a blanket of pureness and it connects different eras of my life;
- Meatballs and spaghetti: arriving home from grade school on cold, gray November days and smelling that dinner as I walked in the door, windows fogged from the stovetop and steam;
- Hospital food: from my own and other's stays...the smell makes me gag to this day;
- Cabotine: a perfume that a woman dear to me once wore, which I in turn wore in her absence, then another friend wore in mine.
Posted by callalillie at September 20, 2005 7:15 AM | Education
I have the same spaghetti and meatballs memory...except it was coming home after hebrew school on Wednesdays!
Posted by: Nancy at September 20, 2005 11:17 PM
sometimes i make lex cook meatballs just so that i can have the smell in the house...
Posted by: corie at September 21, 2005 1:07 PM
