Day Three: Work, Hang Out With Alyssa, And A Postponed Date With A Mysterious Person

March Madness: Giant Snowstorm After A Hot Week

Going Public Again. Happy Day One of Photo Blog Week!

When I Walk, I Feel Adventurous

The most beautiful weather has hit New York. I know I'm two days early but I was just out walking and wanted to post some pictures. (Have you ever noticed how often people take pictures of fire escapes? What's that about? My diner shot is not intended to be a fire escape picture.)


Good Hair Day.


A Huggable Tree For Aimee


Gili Gets Artsy At The Playground


Geminis Scare Me. Is This Where They Gather To Learn How To Be Scary?


My Favorite Park Full of More Huggable Trees For The Biggest Hippy I Know


If only any of you were here to escort me into Black Hound, so I could eat free samples instead of standing outside, taking pictures.

My Parents Are Gaining Momentum

I'm staying strong, still holding out about my romantic exploits, but my parents seem to be strengthening. They'll be in town on Thursday, so we'll see if I can hold my own.

On gawker.com, someone reported seeing Tobias Wolff right near my work. I wouldn't have known what to say to him. But I still would have chased him down. Too bad I had the day off:
594 Broadway
Mar 12th, 2007 @ 1pm
I just saw Tobias Wolff, of This Boy's Life fame, picking up a sandwich at Miro on Broadway. He looked distinguished with his signature bald head, gray mustache, glasses, and leather jacket. He was alone and no one paid him any mind.

In other news, I've abandoned McEwan and I'm reading Andre Dubus' Adultery and Other Choices. So far, it's fine.

I watched Half Nelson finally. Everyone's already seen it (except Alyssa), so I don't think I need to go into detail about it here. It was pretty good.

Song of the second: "How Can I Love You If You Won't Lie Down" by the Silver Jews

Since Last We Spoke

Not a lot to report.

I saw Zodiac with Maggie last night. She was riveted. I thought it was pretty good. Completely worth seeing for the hotness of Jake, Mark, and Robert.

Then we went to my favorite bar on 1st avenue. Best thing about it was that drinks were half off. Worst thing was everything else. So after a while, we headed for the quietest bar in town, which happens to be on my street. (It's also next to one of my parents' favorite theaters.)

I finally wrote a draft of my Coetzee annotation. Really unimpressive, but it's because the subject I originally chose was too large and difficult. I wanted to write about how there seemed to be no surprises for Coetzee as he told the story and therefore everything felt formulaic. But I couldn't find a way to make that sound like anything but a book review. I'm saving it for my cover letter.

I'm pretty sure I'm giving up on Ian McEwan. I'm going to ask my mentor if I can skip him.

At lunch, I talked to Alyssa and she told me that I don't have ADD, but I might have dating ADD. She hit the nail on the head.

In other boring news, I've called 311 on my building (tenant rights' number) and the work on my heating unit is back in progress. Maybe by next winter, I'll have heat.

I haven't taken any pictures lately. (The above photo is courtesy of one of my favorite artists, Felix Gonzales-Torres.) I'm gearing up for Aimee, Paulette, polarchip, and my week in pictures which begins March 15, the day my parents and Alyssa get back to town. I can't wait for picture week!

Happy Blog Birthday To Me!

One year ago, today, I began this blog. My entire life has changed in a year. Unsurprisingly, my first blog entry has only one comment, and whom else could it be from, but my internet obsessed partner in crime, Aimee?

I was going to buy a cupcake to celebrate my blog birthday but I’ve been eating junk all week, so here’s a picture of a (healthy) mango I had on hand with a candle in it. (Oh no! I just realized I forgot to make a wish when I blew out the candle.) Big thanks to polarchip for encouraging me to start blogging and to keep going.

Now, let’s back it up two days:
I was sitting at home, staring at my bathroom ceiling, when it occurred to me that everything in my life is going really well. Frighteningly well. There was only one option: something very bad was going to happen. (Is this a Jewish thing or do all people think like this?)

I frantically started emailing/calling people to let them know things were about to be bad.

Alyssa came over (night of Manhattan, which I thought was good, but certainly no Annie Hall) and she thought this theory was ridiculous. (By the way, we met three neighbors during the great microwave search. This is the best way to meet people ever. We found two cute men and one disgusting middle-aged man in a green bathrobe. He couldn’t get rid of us fast enough and we couldn’t leave fast enough. This activity is highly recommended to anyone moving into a new building.)

When I went to work the next morning, I discovered that I had been sent an email from the Director of Communications informing my boss that my blog had classified information on it. Yup, apparently I’m not the only one in the world with information anxiety. Pretty scary.

I flipped out and promptly put my blog on “private” mode. I left my desk to call my parents and cry to them for an hour. This was not a small potatoes cry. I walked around the freezing city, trying to find a good warm store/restaurant/café to linger in while I bawled on the phone. And of course the parents put things into perspective with love, patience, care, attention, logic, and a few pep talks sprinkled in.

Now that a day has gone by, I’ve calmed down a lot. I’m pretty sure I’ll want to publicize my blog again, but I’m not rushing it.

It’s creepy that this whole thing happened almost exactly one year after the birth of my blog.

Thanks to everyone for being so ridiculously supportive. I’m embarrassed by how shocking/traumatic this was, but nobody laughed at me. All of your emails, calls, and hugs were perfect. Thanks.

Here are my celebratory picks for the year (nobody who has been reading along will be surprised):
Book of the year: Old School by Tobias Wolff
Music of the year: The Be Good Tanyas (This was such a hard one, but it was kind of their year on my itunes.)
Movie: Too hard to remember all of them. Maybe I should just honor the Christmas Movie Marathon of 2006, which started as a list of six and ended up being three: History Boys, Dream Girls, and Volver.
Move/City: New York
Exercise: Swimming and walking
Most Random Comment: Remember that relative that found my blog? That was bizarr-o!
Solidified friendships: Aimee and Paulette
Tech help: Polarchip
Most frequently plugged: Trader Joes with Aveda at a close second.
Sexiest pet: Cornelius
Obsession with feelings toward another animal: Horses
Drink: Honeybush tea
Food: Garlic
Biggest scandal: privacy vs. public blogging (ongoing)

I hope this coming year will be another great one. Not much could top this. I’m still convinced I started Saturn Return a year early, which is why I am the way I am right now.

Thanks for reading.

Love you.

going underground

I've been banished. I live in a basement, I work in a basement, now my blog is underground too. More on this later. Sorry to abruptly go private on all of you.

Why Did It Take Me So Long To Move Here?

I promised myself I wouldn’t write on my blog until tonight because I need to be working on school stuff, but it’s 4:40 pm and by the time I finish this post, it will be nighttime, right?

To give you an idea of the world I live in, at this moment, Cornelius is licking the wall.

Yesterday I walked to the southern tip of Manhattan, Whitehall, and met Kim at the subway. We walked from the east side to the west side and then all the way back to the East Village, stopping along the way to take pictures and enjoy being tourists, even though she’s lived here for six years. The new goal is for us to have a long walking date once a week. We’re going to traipse all over the boroughs, seeking/creating adventures. Here are some pictures from our trip. I’m still not a good photographer, please, patience, people.

We stopped at Kiehl's and I used the bathroom, which I think is the nicest public bathroom in Manhattan. The Edward Albee plaque is from their bathroom. See? I learned something in the bathroom. Amazing. And Kim and I had to read Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf in high school, so it was really perfect.


Then we went to (oh my gosh, are there only three restaurants in New York or am I trapped in a cycle??) Angelica’s for lunch/dinner. I had just been there two nights before with Alyssa, so I was a little embarrassed but our food was super yummy (it’s always a risk: either yummy or bland). Kim got the wee dragon bowl bargain: her first time!

After dinner, we went to my apartment where Kim admired my new furniture that Aimee apparently hates, and laughed about the Raw Food book that polarchip suggested I read. Sorry, p, but it’s kind of hilarious. Do you know what Carol Alt’s relationship is to hockey? Kim wants to know. She mentions it like a million times in the book. Also, does she own stock in Whole Foods?

I watched Robocop last night. I wish I hadn’t watched it alone since I really don’t know what to think of it. Anyone seen it?

Blog 2.0: Today I did my usual Monday rounds, but there was a crime scene right outside of Trader Joes. The area had been roped off and all that was left was a bloody backpack and a bloody leather jacket. I couldn’t decide if someone had jumped off the Palladium building or if someone had been killed. I was glad I didn’t have my digi-cam, but also kind of wished I did. I just found out what happened.

I spent the day WRITING!!!! It’s true. I’m kind of proud of my Amy Bloom annotation. Now I just need to write the Coetzee one. I can’t believe how fast the submission deadline is approaching.

Then Alyssa called since she’s applying to a job in my neighborhood and I walked her there. We decided to walk around and chew gum and when our gum lost its flavor, we’d walk into whatever café/restaurant/store we were standing in front of and ask if they served coffee. But then we got distracted and ended up sitting at Mud Coffee for three hours. I worked on my writing and Alyssa worked on hers. Such good students!!! I got some seriously yummy butternut squash soup while we were there, which was appropriate because when we left the café, it had begun to snow big time. Yea! Snowstorm alert. Time to snuggle.

I’ve decided I have a unique diagnosis, thanks to polarchip and Aimee called L.E. or Life Exuberance. I’m really into this condition, which is like a symptom in and of itself: to be into actually having it.

Alyssa’s coming back over tonight after class so we can be nerds and watch Woody Allen’s Manhattan, which I got at the library today.

Tomorrow night there’s a panel discussion at Housing Works about AIDS and cinema and guess who’s hosting it???? One of my heroes: Sarah Schulman!!!!!!! I’m definitely bringing my digi-cam and I might print out an article that was published in Minneapolis about how Rent (the musical and movie) was stolen from Schulman’s book, People In Trouble and give it to her. I can’t wait. Let the life exuberance continue!

P.S. Alyssa is coming over and she's bringing microwaveable popcorn. I don't have a microwave, so we're going to knock on all my neighbors doors and see if we can pop it at someone else's home. Then we can meet more people in my building.

I’m So Behind

I know I wrote two days ago but every day feels like a lifetime and there’s so much to report. I made a list. Here goes:

On Friday night, Alyssa and I went to (you guessed it) Angelica’s Kitchen for dinner. I had the strangest meal, even for Angelica's standards. After a full day, I still can't decide if I liked it. We stopped by Black Hound for free samples. (There's only about eight activities that I do in my neighborhood and so far Alyssa and I have done five of them.) Then we stayed up late watching a marathon of television shows on DVD. We went through all the faves: Gilmore Girls, The Office, and Wonderfalls.

Today at work, Mike Figgis purchased a rare art book about some era of German art that I could not understand, but he was excited about it and we were excited about him. One of the volunteers thanks him for making such great movies. We knew it was him because he paid by credit card, not because we automatically identified him.

At lunch, I purchased a rug from Kate’s Paperie that was 75% off since everything is on sale for their big remodeling project. Please see pictures. I’m pretty excited about the rug. I was worried it was kind of cheesy but Alyssa fully approved.

Then in a matter of minutes, Alyssa stopped by, quickly followed by a random appearance by Rachel Steiner, a girl I used to go to Jewish sleep-away camp with when I was about twelve years old and Tara’s older sister, Jessie. Jessie, Tara, and Rachel all grew up in the same town. Rachel seemed the same and I’ve seen Jessie since I’ve lived here, but the whole thing was just super weird and exciting.

On my walk home from work, there were all these ambulances and fire trucks outside the Houston subway station and I heard people talking about an explosion, but as of tonight, I’ve seen nothing on the Internet related to this, so I’m unclear about what happened.

Then, I got to see the lunar eclipse. I had forgotten about it, but there it was! I don’t think I’ve ever seen an eclipse before. I think they’re kind of magical and people do weird things under the influence of an eclipse.

For the millionth time this week, Alyssa and I hung out. We went to Viva for some Zen vegan pizza. Then we decided to enjoy the summery weather and get a pint of Ben and Jerry’s to share while watching some more Gilmore Girls. I remembered the free pint coupon that Riva sent me months ago and we ran home to pick it up. Then we took a half an hour deciding what flavors to get and ended up with Banana on the Rum and Cherry Garcia. (Notice how I'm hiding my enormous chin in this picture.)

Whew. That brings us up to now. It’s one am and tomorrow I’m supposed to have adventures with Kim. Then maybe, just maybe, I’ll start to get some work going. Skeptical? You should be.

I'm back to drinking coffee. I was in such a celebratory mood because of the fifty degree autumn weather we're having that I went a little overboard today and had 2.5 cups. Not really a smooth transition back to coffee, but man did I miss the stuff!

Sadly, in the middle of next week, Alyssa is heading back to Colorado for the week, so I will be without Aimee and Alyssa. On the upside, I really may get back to my writing. I could really use a residency like Ragdale to keep me from getting sidetracked. I never thought I had A.D.D., but I have found eight thousand ways to distract myself. It's getting a little out of hand.

All My Troubles Have Gone Away

This haircut is different from the last one she gave me. Still adorable and fabulous, but something about it is different. Neither of us could figure out what the change was, so maybe some of you who have seen the two versions can. Veronica is so fabulous and amazing for giving me free/perfect haircuts. I keep telling her that she can charge me, but she does it out of the kindness of her Romanian heart.


Alyssa and I had lunch together again today and then we walked around SOHO and people-watched. The weather has been so ridiculously good that it seems unjust to have to go to work.
Drinking hot water with lemon all day makes me feel like I'm at a spa (except for the fact that my coworkers blast the most annoying radio station, I'm sitting in front of a computer, I work in a basement, and I'm covered in dirt from old books).

*movie of the week: My coworker burnt me a copy of the criterion edition of Robocop because he flipped out when I told him I'd never seen it.
*song of the evening: Heavenly Day by Patty Griffin
*my new ringtone (which corresponds to a certain person's myspace page that Riva might know about): Sugar, Sugar by The Archies