state of the cha cha.

to elaborate on the previous post, i am now:

:: highly educated ::

...or so they say. in may, i graduated from columbia university, where i spent four years researching the optimal ratio of sleep to caffeine. concurrently, i earned an enormously practical degree in art history--i now know how the muslim principle of tawhid relates to decorative islamic mosaic, why you can flip a urinal on its side and call it art, and that classic greek columns are either male or female, among other useful tidbits. i also devoted some time to attending themed frat parties, stalking fellow columbia student and ridiculously good looking celeb james franco in the library, and gallivanting around manhattan--but only after i had finished studying, mom and dad!

in all seriousness, though--i'm tremendously grateful for my college experience. i had the opportunity to attend a world class institution, learn from professors who literally wrote the books on their subjects, and be surrounded by brilliant, diverse, and enchanting individuals. everyone "finds" themselves in college--i did, but only after first losing myself a little too. manhattan has a way of making one feel simultaneously isolated and smothered, and i found that i had to fight (sometimes even against myself) to find peace and just be me. the beauty of the struggle, though, was that after working so hard to pull myself out of the little ditches i sometimes dug myself into, i came out of it all happier than ever before, knowing what i believed, what i wanted, and what i didn't want. that's learning, folks!

:: a bureaucrat ::

i now work for a living, which is simultaneously exhilarating, terrifying, humbling, and gratifying. something tells me that it's sort of inappropriate to discuss work on a personal blog, so i won't say much about it, other than that i do development and fundraising for an amazing museum that rhymes with shmishmonian.

:: new DC resident ::

okay, saying i live in DC is sort of like when people say they live in LA, but they actually live in the valley...which infuriates me, so i'll be more precise: i live in arlington, va, but my commute into the city is exactly seven minutes...so it almost counts. in spite of what my earlier post might have suggested, DC is a really lovely, beautiful city, and i've enjoyed getting to know the area.

arlington amuses me...coming from LA and NYC, i feel like i now live in the sticks, but people have informed me that this is a pretty standard suburb. i remain unconvinced. i live across the street from a neighborhood park, everyone i know lives within a mile radius of me, and the most happening part of town is a one block-long stretch of restaurants. cute.

:: single, kind of bilingual, and not-so-ready to mingle ::

i know you all loved him. i did too. but we needed to move on, possibly for forever, but definitely for now. five years was a long time, especially for someone as young as i was, and i'll carry those years with me always.

since then, i've gone on some dates, spent time with some guys...but i think i need to master the art of being on my own for the first time before entertaining the thought of anything...anyone...significant. but who knows? i always need someone to play 3D monopoly with... :)

___

i've now lived here almost three months,

and i've had a pretty fabulous time so far.

stay tuned for more of my life and times!

greetings, earthlings.

Let me just get this out there—this is not a blog about dance. I am not, nor will I ever be, interested in the cha-cha-cha, though if you happen to be, go here. I am, however, immensely interested in me—as most twenty-somethings are (interested in themselves, that is, not me).

When I was a kid, I went almost exclusively by “Cha Cha”—so much so that, when Grandma Katie would ask me my name, my two year old self would respond, “Cha Cha Diguez!” As most nicknames do, “Cha Cha” ultimately faded into relative obscurity, I assume around the time I began kindergarten (something tells me Mrs. Plowman wouldn’t have let the whole “Cha Cha Diguez” misnomer fly). Luckily, Grandma Katie, ever the classic, has not only miraculously preserved her jet-black hair, but has also kept the “Cha Cha” nickname alive and well.

To those of you who have known me since the Cha Cha days—the fam (hi Mom!), the nannies (look how I’ve grown! Or not, if you were my nanny post-4th grade…), and the oldies-but-goodies best friends (scarred witnesses of the disastrous glasses/braces/bushy hair combo)—this is for you.

To more recently acquired friends, acquaintances, and random strangers—it’s for you too, though I doubt you have built up the years of tolerance to me that the above have...

The past few months have been exciting and jarring—I graduated from school and began my first job, leaving behind the relatively carefree lifestyle of a student and reluctantly adopting the early-to-bed, early-to-rise schedule of a worker bee. I moved from beautiful, frenzied, alive Manhattan to the sleepy, not-so-exciting D.C. suburbs. And I’m attempting to move on from the boy I loved since I was seventeen to other pastures...not greener, perhaps just a different shade.

So since I can’t seem to muster up the self-discipline to keep up my journal, this feeble, embarrassing, probably TMI effort at documenting these changes will have to suffice. I hope you enjoy it, and feel free to comment!


Welcome to my life.