tuesday, 11 october 2005
oopsie
hey, i just remembered i have a blog out here! which needs feeding and watering. lucky for me, it doesnt really, cause it would have died months and months ago if it depended on me for anything other than deciding to scribble in it now and then. as you might be able to guess, i have never been that good with houseplants, either.
so it's a cold, gray day in manhattan, so much so that i almost feel like i'm back in pittsburgh, aka, that place where the sun don't shine. i'm dressed somewhat inappropriately for the chill, but i'll be back in my warm brick oven of an apartment soon, and did get to wear my awesome new boots, so that's something. fall is my favorite time of year, always has been, but this year it's not quite so fun, mainly, i think, because i dont have any cute sweaters.
things are good in madgeworld. not scream orgasmically from the rooftops good -- it's more of a meeting my recommended daily allowance of laughter and good food every day-type good -- but that's good enough for me. as the nights roll in earlier and earlier, though, i'd be lying if i didnt admit to feeling a little melancholy. i can no longer wake up on time by simply judging the amount of light in my room in the morning. pretty soon, i will be both leaving home and arriving back there in the dark which is kind of depressing. and again, no cute sweaters (must get on that).
but, on the up side, i am having a party this weekend! my glitter girls are coming out again, along with friends and acquaintances from around the city. i'm pretty stoked about it. if you are able to, and you know me, come on over. it ain't eddie vedder's birthday party (not till december!) but it's a start.
xxoo
monday, 15 august 2005
i wanna be paddy chuyevsky
watched network again over the weekend and was stunned at both the timelessness of the story and the beauty of the language in the film. in one scene, a fire-and-brimstone CEO played by ned beatty tells his wayward network news anchor "There is no America; there is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today." almost 30 years later, that statement is truer than ever before.
and when max schumacher talks about "death is suddenly a perceptible thing to me, with definable features" ... ? not a dry eye on this madge, i'll tell you that. like all good art, i guess, there's something about this movie that makes me feel like i'm not alone in seeing what's going on in the world, and inferring that we are pretty much screwed. but seeing OLD movies from this point of view sort of makes me feel optimistic. like if things were that bad 30 or 40 or 50 years ago, bad enough for howard beale to get all of america to yell "I'M MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE," and we're still here, then maybe things aren't quite as bad as they seem.
yes it was another weekend of it's-too-hot-and-i'm-too-poor-to-go-out-so-let's-sit-on-the-couch starring me and jack. part lovely, part unnerving. we went to a party at my dear friends james & nora's house and met many interesting people who sort of left me feeling like a schlump. everyone who's in new york, maintained one young man, is here to do something. otherwise they'd never put up with the rents and the garbage and the crowds of people jabbing you with their backpacks and shopping bags wherever you go. got me to thinking -- what did i come to new york to do? play nintendo with my boy? hang out with my friends? learn the joys of crockpot cooking? cause if i'm absolutely honest with myself, that's about all i've been up to.
one of these days, i'm either going to figure out that great thing i'm meant to do, or i'm gonna stop beating myself up for not having it figured out yet.
monday, 1 august 2005
swimming to new jersey
OK so i admit that my heading for this entry is a little misleading. i actually went swimming IN new jersey. but swimming to new jersey sounds more fun, and i have never pretended to be entirely 100% factual in this here blog. so there you have it. i heart false advertising!
whatever you call it, though, it was a blast. i hadnt been swimmin in ages and really missed it. a nigerian woman told me once that i was from the water, and i dont doubt her. i've always felt more at home in that world, where colors shimmer and everything sounds like music. in fact, about 5 years ago i was swimming in the ocean in hollywood, florida, on a hot and overcast day, and i was pretty far out. i'm bad at judging distances, so i cant put a number on it, but i was far enough from the rest of the crowd that no one could hear me singing "part of your world" -- you know, the i-wanna-be-a-human theme which ariel belts out in the first part of the little mermaid?
i was actually switching all the words around on the spot, to be about how i wanted to be a mermaid wearing seashells instead of a human in a delta burke plus sized bathing suit, when i saw 2 little black heads bobbing up and down in the waves, waaay further out from the shore than i was. hmmm, first i'm singing about how i want to be a mermaid, then i get a chance to actually do it -- coincidence? i dont think so!
so i swam out and saw that the heads belonged to two very tired and scared looking little girls, maybe 6 or 7, who'd gotten swept out on a current they were too tiny to fight. in true mermaid fashion, i hoisted them on my back and dragged them back to shore, deposited them with their very thankful older brother, and dove back into the surf before anyone could get a good look at me. yes, i am definitely from the water, and it was really sweet to go back home for a day, goofin around, doing handstands, and just floating. heavenly.
besides the pool there was also delicious food and an open bar and people who i love, so i dont know how the day could have gotten any better. sunday was Domestic Day in the madgeworld household -- i crockpotted beans, made homemade salsa (jack made the guacamole), did laundry, mopped, and even whipped up a batch of blueberry muffins from scratch. they turned out more like blueberry biscuits with sugar on top, but like i said, i'm from the water, not the kitchen, and they tasted great, so i was proud just the same.
now it's almost 6 and i'm headed home to my man. i havent had anyone to come home to in a long time, and, truth be told, last time i did, i wasn't all that happy about it -- roommates are for the young. but this is different. this feels like family, the best and truest kind who you can be your total self with. and it's very, very nice. so bye for now!
friday, 29 july 2005
that girl is poison
it is a perfect day in new york city -- the rivers of sky winding between the tops of skyscrapers are clear pale blue and the sunshine is bright but not brutal. last night i had my first few hours of alone time in my apartment in weeks, and promptly found myself in the throes of a wicked emotional ketchup burst, which i captured in glorious detail in my journal (if you ever see it, do yourself a favor and DO NOT READ! god! what a whinger i can be!).
after that i went to greenpoint for a few beers and a great windows-down-music-blasting car ride with my friends, then came home to a hilarious middle-of-the-night conversation with my fella. and now i feel way better than i did yesterday. feelings really are like the weather -- sometimes you just have to put your rainboots on and wait for the tumult to pass.
in other news, my best friend and housemate of more than 10 years is coming to new jersey to visit with her (very affluent) older sister, so tomorrow we're going to head over there to swim in their pool and eat some barbecque and laugh at their family's patented dark brand of yinzers-made-good humor for a few hours. there will be trees there, and animals quite likely, and much more sky than narrow blue streams glimpsable between tops of tall buildings. simple things, but i'm excited all the same.
this friend and i ... well, when we first met, i was 20 and she was 32 and we were graduating college, both of us trying on personas and deciding who we wanted to be now that we were big bad college-degree-havin grownups. she was older and crazier and had seen things i couldnt even imagine and i learned a ton from her. but as we got older, we both changed, imperceptibly at first, and of course, unavoidably. i mean, you cant possibly be the same person for 10 years in a row -- it just doesnt work that way. but we had been so close that growing apart became more and more painful. any deviation in our ideas started to feel like a threat. i got sick of her, she got sick of me, and though we never fought or got mean, we just weren't clicking. it was sad, but i never really knew what to do other than continue to live and grow and hope for the best.
now that i've moved away, though, somehow the distance has allowed us to enjoy each other again. there's not so much riding on the fact that we value some different things; it's not a smack in the face to disagree, just a disagreement. plus we've both found ourselves in brand-new-to-us situations, and neither of us has ever found a sounding board as good as each other. so the emails have been flying fast and furious and i honestly cant wait to give her a big hug and eat hamburgers and do cannonballs and compare poison ivy scars.
speaking of which -- OY!!! i have the very first poison ivy of my life and it is miserable. i know i'm not supposed to scratch, and when it occurs to me that i shouldnt, i dont. but a second ago i just caught myself typing with one hand and scratching the hell out of my arm with the other before i even realized what i was doing. it feels so good till i look down at my raw and hideous skin, all red and gleaming with whatever that crap inside the sores is, and i feel ill.
and pissed too! i mean, i have never had poison ivy my entire life, not once, but now that i move to the most urban place in the country, it comes down on me like a plague? how is that even possible? i mean, when they say "a tree grows in brooklyn," they literally mean "a tree" -- it's not like we're crawling with wildlife over here or i'm hacking through outback to get to work in the morning. the incongruity of the situation adds immeasurably to my anger and despair, which is kind of funny if you think about it. apparently, i'm willing to accept annoying things much more readily if they make sense.
thursday, 28 july 2005
sense and sustainability
i have a great job, a hot and brilliant boyfriend, a beautiful apartment in a neighborhood i love, fantastic friends, enough money to feed and clothe myself, and even a drumset to take my aggression out on. sounds wonderful, doesnt it? what could i possibly have to complain about?
well, with a set up like that, you know there'd have to be something. and there is: lately i am feeling pathetically uninspired. of course, i appreciate and am grateful for everything i've got, and i remember quite well what it was like to not have any of it, which makes me even more grateful. but it sort of feels like i'm treading water. like i got through this level in the video game of life, but the next level hasn't appeared yet, so i'm not sure where to go or what to do. i'm the only one who can decide what that next level is going to be, though, and i just dont have any ideas. or, i have too many of them, instead of one that pops out from the gaggle and demands my attention.
moment to moment, i'm generally pretty happy making dinner, going to work, exercising, reading, taking walks, etc., especially with jack around. but the treading water feeling is starting to overpower my day to day contentedness. i'm gonna need to find another destination to swim towards pretty soon, i can tell.
it's just so simple to fall into patterns and allow those to fill up the whole day. when you're living with someone, it's even harder, cause not only do you have to break through your own inertia to do something different, but theirs as well, and that ain't easy. takes some time to figure it out, i guess -- where does my love end and where do i begin? how much should i give away and how much do i need to keep for myself? these are the questions which try my soul at present. but i do take some bizarre comfort in the fact that i don't have it figured out. if i did, i would probably be even more boring than i feel like i am right now.
monday, 18 july 2005
christmas in july
hey everyone, my boyfriend is now officially living in new york! with me! it was wild to say goodbye to him this morning and get on the train knowing that when i get home tonight he will be there -- wild and awesome. his aunt brought him down from pittsburgh on saturday, and we wandered around the saint something or other festival in my neighborhood, and i made a giant delicious pot roast in my crock pot and it was all very wholesome and lovely. once she was back on her way home, things were less wholesome (but still very lovely), and now i'm at work in sort of a happy dazey la-la-ish state.
it's like, okay, yes, here is my office and my work clothes, my coffee mug and my water glass. it's all very familiar, but very strange at the same time. everything seems different, including me. i have never lived with a boyfriend before. hell, i have never had a boyfriend i wanted to live with before. and i find myself wandering around not quite knowing what to do -- i straighten wet towels on the rack, make coffee, write out grocery lists, and all the things i normally do, but interspersed with a lot of kissing and staring and not having any words in my head except "yay" and "cute." yes, love seems to make me kinda dumb. and for the last several months, that's been ok, cause it's only been on my own time. i'm gonna have to figure out how to integrate my worlds.
i suppose i will adjust, but for right now it's all very wondrous and silly. he's out looking for work today, and tonight we're gonna eat some chili and maybe go see a show up the street. what else is there to do? i'm so used to having hours and hours of solitude pretty much every day, and i know how to fill those up -- writing, singing, watching "buffy" -- but does all that translate when there is someone else around? especially when looking at that someone else makes me want to do nothing so much as crawl into his lap and bury my face in his neck? we shall see.
friday, 10 june 2005
stop breathing my air!
so, what does it mean when you are on a train wedged in between a little woman exactly tall enough to inflict her obnoxiously perfumey shampoo precisely on your nose, an enormous man with an enormous backpack seemingly designed to do nothing more than block the free passage of air, and 500 other people, and your heart starts racing and you feel like you might pass out?
that was my experience on the L train this morning and it was disconcerting to say the least. i think i'm ok now, though, and if nothing else comes out of the experience, at least it may motivate me to get up a wee bit earlier so i can be on the train before 8:30. if you get on by 8:15 or so, you will have a place to stand without being touched ... you might even get a seat. but 8:30 is when all hell breaks loose and you start needing a tube of lube to get on the train. (ew, i even icked myself out there. sorry.)
speaking of all hell breaking loose, we are hosting a big event for a bunch of people from around the country, so my work days are a blur of name tag organization, power point editing, phone calls and RSVPs and hotel recommendations. it's good, though, cause it makes the time go faster. although i must say that this week does seem to have been dragging its ass a little bit. for me anyway, wednesday and thursday nights both felt like friday night. consequently i've been staying up too late and hitting the snooze too freely, but i can rest this weekend i guess.
god, i was such a whiner in my previous entry! but i guess into every month a few days of insanity must fall. i ended up going to pittsburgh a few days after i wrote that, and it was like the best 48 hours ever, so what the bleep do i know? and, momentarily, my fella will be on his way to see me again, so right now i'm feeling way more swoony than whiny. lucky me.
monday, 23 may 2005
how to tell if you are crazy or not
oh sorry, i guess i should have phrased that as a question, not as a title, cause i sure as hell don't know. my boy was here over the weekend, and to anyone who spends time with us, it appears that he is the sweetest boyfriend ever. he's quite affectionate -- kisses my neck when i wash the dishes, holds me tight on the couch when we watch "buffy," all that good stuff. so when i find myself in tears from feeling underappreciated, i have to wonder -- what is going on? am i crazy? do i expect too much? do i have the right to want more?
i mean, of course i have the right to want more, but what is reasonable and doable and live-with-a-ble? i don't think he should be showering me with attention every second, of course not ... but i want to feel appreciated, and lately, i havent been. everyone says that the initial passion of love dies out over time and that companionship takes its place, but i'm not okay with that. i still swoon thinking about how much i love him and how cute he is and how smart and everything, 100 times a day. and if he's not still feeling that way about me, or getting complacent with expressing it, well, i dunno what to do about it. it's not enough to "know" that he realizes how awesome i am. i need him to show me.
the bizarre thing is how hard it is for me to say all this. why does it hurt so much to admit our needs? is it because of the helplessness of it? i mean, am i scared he's gonna say hey, screw it, this chick is too high maintenance for me? that could be it, i spose, but i think it's something deeper. i think it boils down to the pain of holding two completely opposed and yet totally accurate truths in my head at the same time: (1) i need him so much, and (2) human beings are inherently and unavoidably alone. there's no reconciling the two, but they are both statements of fact. so ... god invented chocolate to drown sorrows in, and blogs to whine in.
and it's also funny that when 85% of a given time period, say, a weekend with your boyfriend, is totally wonderful, you still dwell more on the 15% that made you feel like crap. i feel like i've cracked it now though, so at least i'm no longer in the exquisite position of having wigged out without knowing exactly why. talk about feeling crazy. dang.
so michelle is gone this week, which doesnt help with the crazy thing, but i'm taking care of pig while she's gone, and that does help. he's the best alarm clock ever -- it's like at some point he just springs up and is like HEY! let's go for a walk! so that's what you do. and you get a coffee and watch the pink sky turning blue as the sun rises, and you decide to worry about the mysterious disappearance of your sanity later. somehow, that makes it slowly come back.
friday, 20 may 2005
so ... does it suck?
so who has seen the new star wars? does it suck like the last 2 did? i was extremely saddened by episodes 1 and 2, cause george lucas has a view of his own talents and abilities as overinflated as the bureaucracy of the galactic council. seriously. someone sit that guy down and force him to hire (a) a writer and (b) a director. please?
i'll totally still go see it though. geek habits die hard.
so how was your week? mine has been very nice and stable. i've gone to the gym every day and my soreness is almost all gone, slowly being replaced by big giant strong muscles. at least this is what i tell myself. it is fun going to the gym though -- i expected a bunch of 100% beautiful people all in clingy catsuits. i expected a conspiracy designed to make me hate myself.
but it's not like that at all. there are folks of every shape and size -- from chubby beginners to people who look like beef jerky from spending too much time on the treadmill. and no one has looked askance at my ramones t-shirt and red sneakers, though they are not quite the norm. it feels absolutely fine.
it's very interesting actually -- last time i lived in new york (8 years ago i think?), so many things made me feel inferior. i would actually walk down the street feeling as though i was not cute enough to be there. i felt out of place with all the totally perfect and bizarre looking people walking around in their perfectly bizarre outfits. i felt very very unlovely.
but one of two things seems to have happened since then: either the population of new york has gotten much more ordinary looking, or it's become harder to make me hate myself. i'm guessing it's the lattter. see, empirically, i'm probably not any cuter than i was last time i lived here, but something has changed. regardless of the way i look, i feel like i belong in the cageless human zoo that breaks out in times square every day when folks with fanny packs walk slowly by, gawking at us natives walking like pros in our tall shoes and wacky outfits.
it's funny, you can actually feel them observing and noting the differences between them and homo newyorkus. "so ... this is what a democrat looks like, eh? interesting! do they all wear black and have ipods?"
the answer is yes, we pretty much do.
friday, 13 may 2005
not the typical week
so i spent the better part of the last week in pittsburgh, and it was lovely. i got to have brunch with my grandma for mother's day. on that day i also met my fella's aunt, a 76 year old nun named sis who has several degrees and didnt even become a nun till she was so old that i wonder if it should even count any more. (hell, maybe i'll spend the next 50 years in debauchery and sign up for a convent when i get tired of it. if i time it just right, i should only have to be pious for a few weeks before i die ...) no, i kid because i love. aunt sis is clearly a fascinating and lovely woman and i hope i get to talk to her again soon.
so a long weekend of hearts and love and flowers and puppy dogs, and here i am back in the big city. i missed it, but it was nice being car-less in pittsburgh again. there's something about leaving the house with nothing but a purse and an ipod that makes you feel extremely cosmopolitan. it made me remember when i first came to pittsburgh, how awed i was at the beautiful buildings around the museum, how dazzling the skyline seemed. whenever i'd come back from ohio and see the cathedral of learning, i'd feel like i was home.
now i feel that way when stepping off the train at penn station. ahhh, the warm smell of unfamiliar urine! how i missed you! (no matter how much i love nueva york, though, it's still hard leaving my boy. doesnt seem to ever get any easier. but we won't go into that now.)
tonight i'm having a bunch of girls from my favorite internet group over to get naked and have pillowfights. ha ha, really we are going to drink and eat and giggle, but my boss likes the whole pillowfight scenario so i humor him. am i wrong that i specifically asked someone to bring chips and salsa so i can show off my chip and dip bowl? oh well.
this entry, much like my week, is turning out to be somewhat random. sorry about that. i'm going to a party tomorrow night so maybe i will have a fun, cohesive story to tell you then. or maybe it'll just be another random collection of experiences and moods. but that's cool, too. randomness got us from amoebas to puppies, so it can't be all bad.
thursday, 5 may 2005
sweet cereal day
did you have sweet cereal day when you were little? one day on which your mom didnt make you choke down unsweetened puffed rice, but let you indulge in sugar pops or cocoa pebbles or frosted flakes? that's today! all my do-gooding for the week will be done tonight. then tomorrow i ride the train to pittsburgh and to my baby's arms. yay!
and i must say, this week, i earned my sweet cereal. i have been so good -- i've not spent unnecessary money, i've gone to the gym every day, and i even bathed somewhat regularly. all that's left to do is wash my dishes and pack and i'm golden! i'm real excited. it's fun to be in the city but it's fun to see my friends and family and fella, too -- it's even worth 18 hours on the train. i have plenty of buffys to watch, so it should go pretty fast.
i must say, i am quite the happy camper these days. everything in my life is in a good place right now. from my new job which i love, to my apartment which is beautiful, to my relationship with my gentleman caller (6 whole months and going strong), things are muy bien all around. plus i'm so lucky to again get to live in the same building as a dear friend, just like i did in pittsburgh. it's so wonderful to get up every morning knowing that i get to go get coffee with michelle and pig (well, pig doesnt actually get coffee, but he comes along for the exercise). i feel extremely blessed at present.
oh yeah, and i found something to fill the hole in my soul left by no longer having a built-in gig every week -- a williamsburg open mike! i went last sunday to matchless bar, on the edge of mccarren park, and a bunch of friends came out too, and we had a great time. the best part might have been the adorable fresh-from-japan kid who sang (errr, screamed?) nirvana's "in bloom" with so much gusto that we all spontaneously burst into applause mid-song. we'll definitely be checking that out again.
in the meantime, here is the cutest thing ever for you to enjoy on this lovely day. later gator.
monday, 25 april 2005
weekends are too short
this and other obvious pronouncements are the #1 reason why people think i'm easy to get along with (assuming anyone still does). who's gonna disagree with "oh yeah my weekend was great but why cant it be longer?" or "sure is nice to see the sun for a change"? if you're looking for a way to make friends and influence people, joyfully stating the obvious is a good place to start.
but the obviousness of the statement doesnt make it any less accurate -- things that once seemed obvious sometimes suddenly pop out all neon-colored and bright against the neutrality of everyday experience and reveal themselves as great Truths instead of tired Cliches. weekends ARE too short, especially when the boy you love is visiting you and has to get on a train on sunday so he can go back to work on monday. the 2 days we spent together both flew by and seemed longer than 2 days. i was talking to my friend michelle about it this morning, as we walked to get our morning coffee with her pug puppy pig, and she said "it's like you're existing in two worlds."
and it is. in one world, i get up early and put on a skirt and pointy toed shoes and take the subway and sit at a computer and talk a lot. in the other, i stay up all night and put on a dress with jeans and giant earrings and walk the city with my hand in my man's back pocket, incapable of thinking of a damn thing to say other than stuff like "yeah baby i'd love some water, thanks" or "ouch, can you scooch over, my arm's going to sleep."
the two worlds thing is fine, even really wonderful in some ways, but the transition kills me. yesterday i put jack on the train at 1 pm and spent the next few hours being one of those girls who walks down the street weeping and makes you wonder what's wrong with her. i found a flea market to drown my sorrows in, bought some shoes for me and for my giant-sized sweetie, then went home to watch buffy and mope. it was too pretty of a day to be moping much, though, so i eventually got over it.
and today i'm back at work in my pointy shoes, sitting at the computer, getting my documents in order and preparing for meetings and making my co-workers laugh with crazy suggestions like a 2-day work week followed by a 5-day weekend. except it doesnt sound that crazy to me. it actually sounds fantastic. but maybe 5 days of bliss would be too much. maybe i'd start hankering for cute boring outfits and weeping when it's time to go home to my fella. not likely, but then again, how likely is it that i'd end up where i am in the first place? really ... you never know.
tuesday, 19 april 2005
lame no more
OK, this is some kind of record, i think. six whole weeks and no posts. understandable, i guess, cause i, like, moved and started a new job and set up a new apartment and learned a new neighborhood and bought a bunch of new cute boring clothes for work and all kinds of stuff. but the lame time of not writing has come to an end. i'm back, and you, dear reader, are going to get to hear all about my fun new life.
not that my old life wasnt fun -- it was. i mean, you arent visiting my blog because you have a burning desire to read really boring stuff. i always have fun. fun follows me around like a devoted puppy. but it's different here. people *want* to be here. people walk around outside after dark here. people ride trains, talk to strangers, cross the street willy nilly. it's crazy and i love it! i'm not saying it's better than pittsburgh, but right now, it's better for me.
for instance, right now i'm sitting in my 37th floor office looking out the window and the late afternoon sunshine is making all the skyscrapers gold and orange against the pale blue sky. i cant see the street below me, but i can hear horns honking, and once i go down there, the subway will whizz me home to my beautiful apartment in brooklyn in 20 minutes. and then my friend mike will pick me up and we'll go to park slope to buy me a drumset from a nice man i met on craigslist and then we'll go back to my place and rock out. in between, i'll probably get some takeout and maybe walk michelle's dog with her with a coffee in my hand. i'm a NYC cliche and i love it.
so, yeah, it's all good. this is a very dense time in my life -- things keep happening one on top of the other. interesting career developments, good writing, good love. it's a lucky time to be a madge. stay tuned and i'll keep you posted.
tuesday, 1 march 2005
start spreading the news...
so, yeah, i haven't written in AGES. i do have a good reason, though -- i was busy changing my life around. in the last month or so since i posted here, i got myself a killer job in new york city, working for a large and reportedly wonderful to work for company. i'll be moving there in 2 weeks. so the last month has been filled with interviews, negotiations, apartment viewings, and lots of premature nostalgia. i haven't left pittsburgh yet, but i miss it already.
the new york thing came at me really fast. one day i was just getting back from a visit, and the next day i was getting a job offer. ma's new apartment came through that same day, as did a place for me to live in my dear friend michelle's building in brooklyn. everything clicked into place so cleanly that it almost feels pre-ordained. not that i believe in that -- but i do think that if a rabbithole appears in front of a person, that person should go down it. so that's what i'm doin.
thankfully, my fella wants to live there, too. not just yet, cause he has some things to take care of around here first. but he'll be coming to the city within a few months, and i can't tell you how happy it makes me to think of him making me bacon and eggs in my new all-white kitchen. the rest of the place is all glossy wooden floors and exposed brick walls and giant windows with sills wide enough to sit on. i've never lived anywhere so nice but i figure i may as well try it once and see how it goes.
so i'll have to get a few more cute boring outfits to wear to my midtown job, and i'll miss my friends and family in pittsburgh like crazy, i'm sure. but it's gonna be fun to get to know a new world. and new york is only like 7 hours drive away.
anyway ... if you want to come and say bye to me, our last open mike at the rex is next monday, march 7th. it's gonna be a big party in my honor dammit so i intend to get roaringly drunk. please come and say hi and bye and pencil your name in on my NYC visitors' schedule, OK?
thursday, 13 january 2005
if travel is searching, and home what's been found, i'm not stopping
after a whirlwind week in new york, my mind felt thoroughly blown and the circles under my eyes were so dark i looked like a negative of myself, but it was the best possible type of exhaustion, the kind where you have worked and played and walked and explored and emoted so much that all there is left to do is curl up on the couch with your cat and sleep until you can't sleep no more. so that's what i've been doing the last few days. and i feel just about caught up now.
new york was great. the meetings for work went extremely well, especially since the blowhard at the table (there's always at least one) had very obvious tells that let me know when he was about to start blowing particularly hard. after working for 3 days, i got to see my NYC posse and have some fun. james and nora very kindly let me crash with them and even took me to cono's, a pizzeria we used to frequent back when i lived in brooklyn. i was extremely pleased that the slices were still crisp and the rice balls were every bit as cheesy and greasy as i remembered.
then friday i tagged along with my friend michelle who is a personal assistant to an obscenely rich and very sweet man. we spent the day going to dior, chanel, manolo blahnik, and lots of other chichi places buying gift certificates for his girlfriend's birthday. with the prices of these places, you'd think the service would be excellent, but we found the more expensive the store, the bigger tools the salespeople were. the chick at valentino did give me a shopping bag when my own decidedly not-designer sequined panda purse broke, though, so i guess they're not all bad.
saturday morning at 3 am, after a 7 hour delay which i tracked moment by moment on the internet, my boy arrived into penn station, immediately doubling both my pleasure and my fun. more friends came in later in the day, and we had a good time wandering around chinatown, chowing at wo hop, and drinking the most expensive drinks i've ever had at winnie's, a very cute divey place on bayard street where we were the only patrons on that rainy afternoon. that is, at least until michael imperioli (christopher on the sopranos) came in and ordered the same drink as me. we didn't bug him, just smiled and went back out into the streets full of prada knockoffs and whole roasted ducks hanging in windows.
the rest of the weekend involved more drinking, more wandering, and more making out in cabs, followed by a 10 hour long train ride back to pittsburgh which filled up with so much excellent conversation and laughter and inappropriate public displays of affection that it seemed to only take about 10 minutes. i don't know if anyone is aware of this, but i'll put it out there -- this whole falling in love thing rocks! i highly recommend it.
blog archive for 2004
blog archive for 2003
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