For journal newbies, those with confusion about the basics of my life, and my own archival purposes:
1. First Name: Emily.
2. Age: 25.
3. Location: For this summer, Boston (the neighborhood of Savin Hill in Dorchester). For the past school year and the coming one, New York City (Upper West Side).
4. Occupation: Grad student. I just finished my first of 2 years at Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. Will be done in May 2009.
5. Partner: Emmanuel, who drops by occasionally as
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
wtfulikethecure. (He's the least LiveJournal-oriented of literally any partner I've ever had, though I find that the separation actually has its advantages.) He is a hippie mad scientist who's doing his doctorate in education at Harvard. He is a brilliant teacher, a talented and creative cook, possibly the best male dancer I know, generous and adventurous, skilled with anything handy or fix-it-y, and everything you could ever want in a techno-geek. He's a minor celebrity in the area; whenever we go in Boston, we run into someone he knows, either a former student or one of his many collaborators or employees in the compute science curriculum that he designs and runs all over the state. Yes, I am really into him. Our relationship had a nebulous start date, but we've been together for a little under 2 years. He's the first partner I've ever had with whom I've broken up for a significant period of time in the middle of the relationship, but it was actually one of the most mature and correct decisions I've ever made. Since getting back together, we've been more appreciative and confident about our relationship than ever. I love the person that I have become as his girlfriend, and feel more sure of myself right now than I ever have.
6. Kids: Family's important to me, and despite how uncool it apparently is for girls to say it these days, I like kids and would like to have some. I get anxious and unhappy about the idea that I might ever feel compelled to pressure a partner into having kids with me who didn't feel ready, so I have often considered being one of those social experiment single moms if a decent dad candidate isn't in my life when I decide that it's time. My desire to have a strong passionate non-dull marriage is equally strong to my desire to have kids. I also don't intend to have my children force me to artificially "settle down," and hope to make them global citizens who live with me in different parts of the world as they grow up.
7. Brothers/Sisters: 16-year-old Gregory, though I call him "Fatty" (he's actually a stringbean). When we met for the first time at the hospital in 1992 when he was born, he immediately tried to pick my nose; we've gotten along pretty famously ever since.
8. Pets: Until about two years ago, I was phobic of cats and dogs due to two traumatizing violent encounters with both species as a kid. Then, a bunch of now-close friends and my current boyfriend entered my life, and their dogs and cats somehow grew on me, and their happiness from having animal company in their lives infected me. Gus the Fancy Cat (this is an admittedly love/hate relationship), Maple the world's coolest dog, and the beloved memory of Emmanuel's dogs Toggle and Fritz have softened me on the idea of having one one day. That said, growing up, I had none and hated other people's.
9. List the 3-5 biggest things going on in your life:a. Mom's cancer. While there's no indication that she's on her way out the door or anything, there's still a tremendous amount of uncertainty in these days before the beginning of her treatment (some of which will have diagnostic ramifications), and my parents are extremely anxiety-prone people. I've been spending a lot of time at home with my parents in Concord, MA, trying to keep spirits high. The bonding has been fun.
b. Living with Emmanuel for the first time. It's only been a month, and thus far, it's been an outstanding experience, though of course it's hard to use that as a prediction of the long-term. I've been a little gun-shy about living with a partner since the last person with whom I did that left abruptly and cut me out of his life unexpectedly and rather hurtfully a few months after we parted amicably (early 2006), but fortunately that feeling of caution hasn't prevented this experience from being wonderful. We do a lot of cooking, walking and movie-watching, and almost every night feels like date night. He's also the best person I know in times of crisis, so with Mom's illness, he's been a priceless comfort.
c. Grad school (on summer break now, obviously), and the uncertainty surrounding the job search I will probably spend all of next year conducting. I love my school's incredible competitiveness and prestige, the extreme level to which it has challenged me, and the hook-ups to career prospects seem excellent by all indications. These considerations have been subservient to (a) and (b) since finals wrapped up a month ago, but they will kick back into high gear come August, possibly before if Mom goes into remission and I'm able to follow through on my summer internship plans in India. I am still not set on what I want my future career to be, and am superstitious about being too publicly specific about my ambitions -- especially since they are still so nebulous.
10. Where and for what did you go to school for?: Before starting at Columbia, I took a B.A. in political science from Sarah Lawrence College, where I was mentored by the late great Dr. Ray Seidelman. He really put my life on a course that felt great, and I miss him terribly. Sarah Lawrence was a place where I never felt entirely at home, but I deeply enjoyed my time there and feel very supportive of and grateful for the college and the people and ideas that it brought into my life. It's a very different vibe than the comparatively haughty Columbia, but the combination of these two pedagogies for my higher education has been extremely good for me as a scholar and thinker.
11. Parents: Father = Francis, whose joking and friendly side is one of the nicest in the world, and whose hot-headed temperamental side is terrifying (I inherited both). Management consultant, world traveler, trilingual but prone to jumbling his native French and English in the most mystifying ways, potty-mouth, former roadie for Led Zeppelin and The Who. Raised in eastern France by my French grandparents, who were German schoolteachers. Mother = Laura, a former art dealer who was a homemaker for much of my life and has recently resurrected her art historian career, working as a docent and tour guide at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Girly in that she is very sensitive and hates swearing and scary movies, and goes wild for babies and decorating shows. Bad-ass in that she absolutely wears the fix-it pants in my parents' marriage, and she can assemble furniture, paint rooms flawlessly and construct practicallyanything -- clothing or otherwise -- out of fabric with enviable aptitude. (I, instead, inherited my fathers' inability to operate plastic packaging or tie my own shoes.) Though she is neurotic, she has an impressive imperviousness to most of kinds of insecurity or having her feelings hurt by other people, and I admire her realistic attitude. Beat cancer on the first try when she was 24, and now gearing up to do it again. Amazing singer, and has been acting and performing my whole life; many of my formative memories are hanging out backstage while she performed almost every contralto role in Gilbert and Sullivan's canon, or of watching her voice lessons.
Both Mom and Dad are middle children in four-kid families. They met doing Master's degrees at the University of Chicago, married, moved to Paris, had me, moved back to the States, had my brother, etc. They are still married and happy together in Concord, in the same house that I lived in from age 12 until college. It's surreal to go back to that town, and that house, and find it to be relatively unchanged since the mid-90s.
12. Who are some of your closest friends: I have so many close friends, and few that I would feel comfortable placing above others. I'm not the best at keeping in touch, so I find that some of the people I would list as being among my closest are people whom I don't see particularly regularly, and every time I come up with one person who I value deeply, I remember two others. I have been through so many phases in my life and have held close so many people in different phases, all of whom I have continued to cherish, even though they play different roles and regularities at times. For this exact moment in time, my primary friendship base remains the pool of mutual Boston-based friends I have with Emmanuel in town, which include Asha and Berri,
pensivewombat,
m00n, and even though I still have to catch up with her,
camieal. Childhood best friend Claudine is still very much in the picture.
13. Passions and hobbies: Books, playing the piano, world travel (need more money so many countries to visit), entertaining and cooking for others, Gilbert and Sullivan, collecting large earrings, consumption and creation of good food, staying close with my beloved extended family whom I value more every year, making regular visits to Cape Cod, and more recently, gambling.
14. Appearance 5'2", low average weight for my size, chin-length brown hair with (recently added) blonde highlights. Vacillate wildly between extremely under-dressed and over-dressed. Very into big earrings. Sans the highlights, a recent picture:
I'm on the left. The other girl is my New York roommate Judy, who's currently blogging from her internship in Sudan if you're so inclined to check it out.15. Summary of the last few years of my life: During undergraduate, did semester abroad in Australia and an internship for John Kerry's campaign, and I am fortunate enough to still be in favor with his political operation. Graduated SLC in 2005. Moved back to Boston and worked for a member of the MA House of Representatives for 2 years. Performed in local plays and sang with a swing big band for a little over one of those years. In that time, have traveled to native France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Iceland, Turkey, and Brazil.
16. What I pride myself on Competitive and respect-commanding intellect, being reasonable, self-aware but not too self-centered, adaptability, retaining optimism in most situations without compromising a realistic perspective, being good at taking charge (sometimes to a fault), almost never being ordinary in any situation, keeping strong doses of both discipline and personal indulgence in my life, cool and compassionate in tense situations with others, seldom being jealous or even insecure because of the actions or circumstances of others.
17. My flaws A hyperbolic and icy cruel streak when I feel angry or threatened (my near and dear call it "Emily lawyer mode"), a reluctance to talk about my feelings that has probably stunted friendship development, excessive secrecy and protectiveness, extreme difficulty with math and visuals, clumsy with money management, impulsive and fixation-driven attitude, bossiness. I also speak absurdly quickly, which fuels my hyperactivity and neurosis in mildly awkward social situations.
You should all do this survey. It's extremely useful.
Emily
8 (38.1%)
