Highs

Surfing at Waikiki Beach

I am a sucker for highs. Thrills, where you're suddenly overwhelmed by a sharp sensation, and you're so caught up in the moment that there's no time for your body to even consider what's going on. It's all in your gut, there's no lag time between thought and action. Like synapses firing away while your mind remains blissfully blank. The high is so fleeting that, before you know it, the clouds break and you're falling back down like Icarus, and you hit the ground hard and come to again. That's how surfing for the first time felt. I can't even remember what happened between the getting-up-on-the-board part and the crashing-into-the-waves part, but it was absolutely amazing. And now I can't wait until my next high.

Modern

The Private Dining Room at The Modern

Just taking a break from the typical melissamusings post to show you some of my sister's handiwork! As some of you may know, my younger sister Kimberly's been working (read: slaving away) at The Modern this summer. She took some pictures of her work to bring home and show us, in case we (actually uhh...mostly me) didn't really believe she was working eleven-hour workdays, six days a week. No lie. The fun part about having this hook-up into the culinary world is reaping the benefits whenever I stop by for an impossibly decadent meal. Glasses of wine, pork belly galore, a la carte dishes prepared by the sous chef for us, and countless plate upon plate of pastries and ice cream. Free food and booze? Yeah, I'm down with that.

Trampoline

Jennifer Sanchez
After I finished regaling my best friend with my colorful adventures of the week, she took a sip of her beer and shook her head, smiling. "It's like you live your life on a trampoline...sometimes you jump really high, and sometimes the trampoline breaks and you crash." 
I was struck pretty hard by this analogy, even though it wasn't the first time someone's said something like it before. If I had had my Moleskine notebook on me as I usually do, I would've whipped it out immediately and jotted it down to remember the next day. But as it stood I was sitting in a bar, so I thoughtfully took a sip of my own beer instead.
I spend a lot of time wondering how other twenty-somethings cope with the balancing act of work and play, especially in a city like ours where temptation (read: pregraming) is just a corner bodega and six dollars away. When I'm feeling motivated, I can throw my weight into my job without needing to see any immediate rewards/gratification; my paychecks alone keep me chugging along.  But as a result I'll often find myself neglecting my friends, family, body, etc., choosing instead to bury myself in my work. And vice versa. When I say the proverbial "fuck you" to responsibility and spend almost every night of the week out, I'll end up struggling to stay awake in the office, or spacing at my desk for hours on end. It seems like a real lose-lose situation to me.
I suppose that if I continue chipping away at this whole post-grad thing -- where the cozy bubble has long burst and nobody is there to tell you to "buck up" and just do it -- the balancing act will get easier and I'll be able to stand in the middle of the see-saw without tipping over to either side. The thing is, I'm kind've enjoying my trampoline right now...and I'm not looking to get off it just yet.