Fashion Week in the Fashion District

The other night I had one of my sad, short stops in New York. Only sad because they’re short, but still, being in New York for a few hours is better than not being in New York at all. I was terrified at the thought of my hotel for the night, since last time I stayed in the absolutely awful New Yorker. But, the fates did not fail me this time!

With perfect timing and a clear sign that I did something right in a past life, I found my cab riding up to the Hilton Fashion District.  Firstly, I was totally excited to be staying here during Fashion Week, and secondly, I was just happy not to be at the same sad Hyatt Regency in Cleveland.

The Hilton FD looks like the place Archer would go if the W was out of penthouses. My room was gorgeous and the toiletries were by Peter Thomas Roth! It was like the Sephora fairy had personally swooped in and left a bathroom full of goodies just for me.

The Hilton FD wasn’t the only great place I went to that night. I met up with my co-worker and we went to Bukhara Grill on E. 49th. Delicious Indian food, seriously. Check it out. Then we had dessert at etc etc (try the chocolate molten lava brownie thingie. Amaaazing). Both were delicious.

Now I’m in my last day in Cleveland before MARDI GRAS!! I am so excited to go back to Louisiana, I don’t even have words. =) Woohoo!!

AGinDC

People who are People

I’m sitting here in the world’s longest flight from Philly to LaGuardia (*UPDATE: At least, for the first half of writing this post). Not because the flight is actually all that long, but because we keep getting put in f*ing holding patterns. I feel like I’m in Jet Blue’s worst nightmare. But, since I’m on hold and I’ve teed up all of the emails I can think of, I thought I’d take a quick blog break. =)

One of the awesome things about this job is that I get to meet pretty cool people. From our founder and hero Wendy Kopp to leaders of charter schools that are working their asses off to provide kids with excellent educations, every day I meet people who rock my world. I also, of course, meet some people who… well… don’t… but not nearly as often. One of the great things about being the alum of an amazing organization is that 99.9% of our alums completely kick ass. I get to meet them all over the country and it’s crazy how incredible TFA people are. It’s weird that I am one of them and is further confirmation that they actually meant to accept that other AG so many years ago and that I have been posing ever since. There are, however, also non-TFA alums who rock (although not nearly as many), and many of them are related to us in one way or another.

On Friday, when I got stuck in San Diego (did I tell you about that?) and stayed in the gorgeous US Grant Hotel, I was there to speak at a Young/World President’s Organization event (awesome) and to sit on a panel with John Legend! It was pretty cool. John is on the TFA board and is insanely passionate (and surprisingly knowledgeable) about education reform. He’s also way too charming and polite to be a pop star. He acts more like visiting minor European royalty than a guy who is friends with Kanye. Although, I guess being friends with Kanye would make anyone uber polite and humble. I mean, what else could you be? Anyways, it was a blast getting to talk ed reform with him and a roomful of 100 or so of San Diego’s top business leaders, all of whom were nodding and groaning and clapping as they, too, are passionate about education. Other awesome people I met at the event? Try the Director of the San Diego Zoo. Yep. He rocks. Of course. I mean, zoos are awesome and clearly the people who run them are awesome and since the San Diego Zoo is the second most awesome (after the National Zoo of course) zoo ever, this dude is clearly the second most awesome zoo-person ever. And he was. He had AMAZING ideas and is incredibly smart and just so so cool.

Yesterday I was in Cleveland, where, make no mistake, awesome people reside. For instance, the Mayor of East Cleveland and his assistant are incredimazing. So are a lot of the school leaders. And yesterday I met both the President and Owner of the Cleveland Indians. Totally cool guys and it was soooo amazing being in the office of the President of the Indians. Especially because he was sporting a Michigan hockey stick from when we kicked Ohio State’s ass a few months ago! Woohoo! More awesomeness? Today I went to New York to meet the Alaskan Arianna Huffington*!

It’s amazing how many diverse and incredible people all come together for the cause of education. It’s exciting, and it’s heartening, because with everyone actually pulling together, maybe we really can solve the problem of education in our country. And until then, I’m going to keep looking for opportunities to visit awesome baseball stadiums. =)

AGinDC

*not her actual name