On Wednesday, I was writing a post about henning Larsen and Schmidt hammer and lassen (which I’ll still post), and I was interrupted, because I got an email from cornell university, with the subject line only of “Graduate Architecture Application.” I was like, OH SHIT. This is bad. So I open it up, and it turns out they accepted me and gave me a scholarship. So I dunno. Maybe I’ll end up there.
It was just such a relief to hear from somewhere, and most importantly, get in. I never expected that. I stoop up and went “oh my god?” to no one in the lab, and ran upstairs to tell forte. Then I ran outside to call my mom, who was excited, but I felt bad cuz she’s having a really hard time getting this book she wrote ready for publishing, cuz apparently her editor is kind of not totally with it. But then forte came outside and showed me the rankings, which was nice of him.
This profound weight was lifted so quickly, I’ve felt nauseous for the last 10 hours or so. It’s like going into shock, really – to panic and completely freak out about something for literally almost a year...and then suddenly it’s okay. It’s the weirdest feeling. I went to dinner with Katie and hunter, amy julian, emma and chris too, and they were so cool about it – so nice. Everyone was so nice. I felt like I had just had a child or something.
So anyways here I am at LGA, ready to go home. Damn I can’t wait to see my parents and dallas. I just saw ivanka trump – at first I forgot who she was, and was trying to figure out how I knew her. Then I realized no, she’s just a celebrity.
So anyways, that day I flew home to dallas and I had a window seat, and manhattan was on my side – right at twilight. It was literally hard to believe I was looking at a city and not looking at a model of the city. Everything was gold, red and orange and yellow, and I could see where I worked in dumbo, I could see the atlantic ocean as well as the west side highway and jersey city and everything.
I got home, dad was waiting for me at dallas ft.worth airport. We walked outside and it was 75 degrees – what a relief. What a beautiful place to live. We drove home and talked about everything – dad and I have very good talks about the future and about ‘business’ stuff. Then mom and dad had waited to eat, and we drove to hunky’s but it was closed, and so was uncle julio’s, mia’s, and toy’s. so we came home and at some vegetables and stuff and talked. Mom and dad put one of my old paintings from highschool in a big frame and hung it in our living room, cuz they need more art for the house. theyre getting ready to put up more of our stuff i guess.
Then on Friday they went to work and I slept in and just watched tv and ate stuff, and then we went to toy’s for dinner, which is two blocks away from our house. I hadn’t been there yet, but it reminded me a lot of the thai place on my street in berlin that annicka and I loved so much. We had steamed mussels in coconut milk curry and then I had spicy flat noodles with chicken, and tsingtao beer. Then we drove to la duni, where we had dessert – la duni had the best desserts in the city, in my opinion. I had a limonata which in my personal opinion is the best drink EVER created (like 5 limes, 10 mint leaves, and crushed ice with fizzy water), and my parents had coffee, and we ordered a piece of venezuelan cake and the nutella cake (I forget their fancy names), which of course was my low-brow choice. But wow. Delish.
Then yesterday dad and I took a road trip to AUSTIN!!! (by
SOM) I’d never been, and dad said that in the case that I get accepted, I won’t have chance to visit before I make a decision – so better safe than sorry. He really wanted to visit the LBJ library too, one of the main reasons we went is because mom needed to go sit in the callier center and just work on her book for the WHOLE DAY and do nothing else. So we got up at 8, hit the starbucks, dropped mom off, and hit the road. It’s a three hour drive to Austin, a straight shot south on 35E. dad drove, and I djed the music, and took pictures of the weird churches and houses on the side of the road:
We got there, parked, and man was it hot! Like 90 on march 11. we walked underneath the art museum’s awning, which I thought had great detailing:
And then down a beautiful street with huge old trees, and something called “water chilling station #2” whose windows were open – I could see water pouring down inside!
We found the student union, and then found out the school of architecture was next door, on gaudalupe street, which is sort of like state street in Madison (food, urbanoutfitters, etc). The architecture building was locked (spring break) but SO beautiful!!!
then we ate a pita at 'pita pit,' across the street, and dad and i bought matching longhorns shirts (hahaha). dad was gonna buy one of the ones where it's all the orange then just a white longhorn symbol, but he said it was "too much for him" as a nebraskan, to take. so he bought one with the opposite color scheme, like i did. dad wanted to see the state capitol, which is claimed to be the most beautiful state capitol in the country, which i actually could definitely understand. i saw this guy asleep in the back of a truck, it was like huck finn or something.
so we saw the house of reps. and senate meeting rooms, and everything was decorated in the texas star - star chandeliers, star door hingers, everything. did you know that the texas senate and house of reps. only meets every other year? it's the only state government that does that.
then dad wanted to go to the LBJ library and museum, so we went. it was in a building by SOM which from the outside looks so boring but the inside is awesome. lbj's papers are all archived in these red binders with gold seals on the spines, and the 7-story atrium has one wall of windows where you can see them.
there was also a replica of his oval office which was really cool. he had a special marble-topped coffe table built which had a built-in phone. so then it was almost five, time to drive home and get mom, but i asked dad to drive me back to guadalupe street so i could run in and buy these boots i saw. then a few hours later we were home, in dallas.
we went to the bread factory and i had a chicken and raspberry sandwhich, it was great. we sat outside. that night i finished "extremely loud and incredibly close," jonathan safran foer's newest book, which is about this 9 year-old kid, oskar, whose dad dies in 9/11. i expected to be kind of rolling my eyes at the whole thing, but i finished the entire book in 24 hours and cried an embarassing number of times. people say that he's given too much credit, but i think he deserves it. i thought a lot of the psychological symptoms i attribute to being just nuts generally started after 9/11, but i didn't think they were related. all that stuff - the night terrors, the intense fear of flying, the constant thinking about protecting people from harm, the obsession with death, with the media - they're shared by this character. and i never thought they would be verbalized in connection with people my age having this major psychologically transformative experience that year. i don't mean the whole "i knew someone near there, i'm a nyer" thing. i mean, everywhere people changed because of that event, no matter if they were in kansas or the financial district. obviously, it was unfathomably more tragic for the people directly involved - but what i'm saying is i think a culture of 'disclusion' has developed. where people who are from ny scorn those who claim to have been changed by it. i understand this impulse, but i also think they're forgetting to acknowledge that there is a shared national conciousness - across the whole country - that has nothing to do with immediate experience. it has more to do with the media than anything, it has to do with thinking about the country as a history, a story, and a kind of 'whole.' and with realizing that that narrative could be changed very quickly, and in a horrible way - people my age hadn't realized that yet. anyways, i have always been embarassed to say that i think it kind of really had a strong effect on me, for that reason, but this story made me feel a little more.. well i guess i simply comprehended my feelings to a greater extent. and this kid is brilliant - so smart, sweet, sort of insane - the book is very incredible. i haven't liked a book this much in a while.
so i woke up this morning and mom was taking a break from her book to take me shopping and get a pedicure, but then dad said, let's go to brunch. so we tried to go to the dream cafe, and mamitos, and parigis, but they were all suuuuch long waits. so we went to la madeline and sat outside. i had a chicken friand and a ceasar salad, and a raspberry lemonade. we talked about private school, new york, and my mom's cousins.
then mom and i headedy out to northpark mall, which. is. great. fashion week for dallas (wtf??) had just ended yesterday, so the tents were still up.
anyways, we had a very good time. i sensed mom was worrying about her book, though.
so we came home and ate dinner on the balcony:
where it was interesting to hear about pragmatic speech disorders and this center for brain health that just got built at utd. i also got their input on my marshall field project.
then i really started into "undaunted courage," about meriwether lewis, jefferson, and the lewis and clarke expedition. its very good, but i fall asleep every 5 pages, which is nice in a way. relaxing.
so now i'm sitting here and annicka is sending me great songs. but i am worried because she is worried about her finals and stuff..but she'll be home in a few days and will have forgotten all about it!!!
AND on the way down to austin dad played some johnny clegg - OH MY GOD! i knew all the words incredibly, from when i was a little kid! i hadn't heard it since i was probably seven. OH GOD i'm so into it now.
