top ten

i've been out of town for the holidays in d.c., but i head back to my beloveds (ny and the boy) tomorrow, just in time for new year's eve. in honor of the end of this year and the start of the next, i would like to present my top 10 list of things that happened this year. some are specific, and some are more general, and all are previously referenced in this here blog (which means you can go back and read more!) and everything meant something to me, whether meaningful or just fun. now we've had plenty of ado. and so . . .

10. i enjoyed all that restaurant week had to offer. i love a fancy night out to dinner and drinks, and restaurant week is a great way to experience places i might not normally be able to afford. i've marked my calendar for this year, too.

9. i heard a lot of new music. from hearing friends play downtown, to the mars volta at terminal five, to eric bibb on governor's island, to fred sherry plays zorn, we had a lot of great auditory experiences this year. i look forward to discovering more new music in 2009.

8. i watched men battle to eat the most hot dogs at coney island. i know it may sound strange that this was one of my favorite things, but the contest was hilarious, coney island was as weird and wonderful as i had expected, and the day was all-around perfect. i will always remember my view from the top of the wonder wheel.

7. there were some great celebrity sightings this year, including christian bale, tony danza and the johns (hodgeman and oliver) of comedy central fame. i promise i'm not a rubbernecker, but come one--there's something kind of cool about seeing someone famous right next to you.

6. i went to a number of museums, and saw courbet at the met, miro at moma, and the next generation at the whitney biennial. there's a lot of art in this city, and i aim to see more in 2009.

5. s and i enjoyed "spring awakening" and my mom and i were enthralled with "gypsy", among other shows. i saw some fabulous theater, and even got an autograph from miss patti lupone.

4. we got to see a game in the soon-to-be-old yankee stadium. all team loyalties aside, there was something special about going to a game in the same stadium my grandfather had visited. as new york grows and changes, the opportunity for that gets smaller and smaller (my g'pa lived here in the 20s through the 50s--this is a different city.) plus i am a huge nerd for baseball, so it was a great time for me. we'll see if i can convince s to go again this spring.

3. i've had some "only in new york" experiences, including seeing paul simon perform at "revenge of the book eaters" and crashing a vampire weekend after-party with some delightful new friends. for me, this is why i moved here, why i stay here--i don't always love the challenges, but i do enjoy the rewards.

2. i made a lot of new friends, like mk, aa, my neighbor, ls, and others, and got to reconnect with other people, including jay and zp. for me, it is the people that make the place, and i am thankful to have such wonderful people in my life here in the city.

1. we moved into our own apartment. we'd been in progressive co-habitation since college, and of course we lived with the boys in boyland when i first arrived, but this was the biggest step we've taken towards saying "you are the one i will be with for good." and it feels good; it feels great. even when things are not so perfect, there is no one in the world i would rather buy towels with, wake up to in the morning, cook dinner for on the weekends, share a tiny apartment with. in a year that often felt like growing pains, this was the easiest, best and most rewarding step towards adulthood.

thanks for following me down memory lane. what did you love about 2008? (oh, and if one thing you loved about 2008 was this business, magical new york, fear not: my new year's resolution is to blog more. yay!)

snow day

i inadvertently taunted mother nature the other day--it had snowed for maybe five minutes before giving up. "what a tease!" i thought. "i know what you're capable of, new york. i remember the blizzard on valentine's day in 2003." i woke up to a soft white world this morning, with a few inches on the ground and more coming down. it was beautiful, albeit a little cold. i had planned to meet up with s for christmas shopping and a movie in the city before heading to dinner with some friends, and so i hopped on the train. despite bloomberg's dire predictions on the news this morning, the snow didn't deter us, although the later sleet and then freezing rain and hail made the wandering a little less pleasant.

manhattan sidewalks tend to clear themselves; the heat of the subways melts anything that might want to hang out for too long. the strangest thing about snow in new york is how quiet it makes everything. the sounds of the city are muffled by the snow on the ground, so that the whole place becomes preternaturally silent. brooklyn is especially eerie this evening; i can't hear the usual neighbors and street sounds. it's like having my own private city, which is a strange feeling. i'm just hoping that there's enough on the ground tomorrow for some frolicking in prospect park. here's looking at you, white christmas.

saturday night alright

saturday night was epic. jay and i started the night with dinner on st marks in the snow with a new friend. romantic yes, but good schlepping-to-the-subway weather no. this led to a cabbie who had no idea how to get to williamsburg, which is always an adventure, and eventually we got on the right track. we had headed cross-brooklyn to the lovely kat's ugly christmas sweater party (an excellent event last year as well.) we were first to arrive and first to leave--we couldn't stay forever, as the possibility of rap stars was calling my name, but we did get in some good goofy picture-taking in ugly christmas sweaters. thankfully jay's friend l-t was driving, so we were spared further cabbie distress, although there was some real celebration when we finally navigated our way to DUMBO. we had planned to attend the book party for "digging for dirt: the life and death of ODB" (did you know about my love for the dirt? it is bottomless), but we arrived too late for the party, probably just missing the RZA (i wish.) the party had moved on to drinks at superfine, where we took more goofy pictures, this time in l-t's wonder-woman jewelry. while deciding on our next move (bar? home? chicken fingers?), the girls got a call inviting us to party at vampire weekend’s sweet apartment “the boneyard” (i think it’s hilarious when people name their homes.) it was a little like being back in college--a small space packed with hip kids mixing vodka in red plastic cups, although clearly we hadn't gone to the same school. everyone there was a columbia grad except for the girl who asked us if we were also columbia grads, and sighed with relief when we said we were not. it was a fun mix, but by that point we'd had enough of the evening, and i had to work in six hours, so we called it a night. i (luckily) got a doorstop drop-off, and a pillow-side recap with s. and then promptly passed out.

it was one of those "anything could happen!" nights that i love. saturday night was why i moved to new york, for the possibility in every evening.

*when they turn this into a movie (which hello, totally gonna happen), there will probably be a few key differences: we'll probably start the night out with some simple goal, and then each event will lead to another, escalating throughout the film, teaching us things we never knew about ourselves and each other. also (and sorry s--steady long-term relationships do not a good "wild and crazy night" movie make), there will need to be some romance. probably one guy we see everywhere we go until we end up together at the end. also, i will not have to work the next day. totally cramped my style. anyways, i digress.

in which i go on an adventure

i got a call this morning from s's mother, asking if i could do her a favor. his teenage cousins have asked for "big, knock-off dolce&gabbana purses" for christmas, and as she couldn't find any in indiana, she wondered if i knew where to find them in new york. i happened to be headed to chinatown for birthday party supplies anyways, so i said i would be happy to wander down there looking for the fakes.

i wasn't sure where to start, so i headed down canal street, the faux-purse runway, wandering into every storefront that wasn't already monopolized by diamonds and perfumes. usually when the hawkers whisper "handbag? handbag?" to me as i walk by, i ignore them, so i actually found it fun to say "yes, take me to the gucci" today. i had finally found a couple of cute purses (a "versace" and a "d&g vogue") at some unnamed place on canal and chrystie, when the woman helping me asked if i wanted to see more. she then ushered me and about 10 other women through a false wall and down some stairs into a hidden basement room filled with chanel, coach, fendi and gucci. (the whole day, i couldn't stop thinking about the episode of "sex and the city" where they go to los angeles and samantha buys the fake fendi, and she has to go to the valley and buy out of some guy's trunk.) they lock you down there until the sales people can confirm the coast is clear to emerge with some probably ill-gotten goods, which feels a little sketchy, but it was also kind of funny to me that fake purses are such serious business. the woman waiting on the stairs with me was from alabama, and i guess this is a big deal for tourists--everyone in the store had accents (eastern european, southern, scottish), and seemed really excited about buying their illicit purses. i ended up buying the two i had originally wanted, which were kept upstairs in the clear, and was even able to haggled the price down. it was a totally new experience for me, the hiding and the negotiating, and actually a lot of fun. only in new york, right? (oh, and la, i guess.)

special victims

they are filming "law and order" (i am not sure which iteration) outside my office right now. i love this show, though i had to stop watching it when i moved to new york. too many recognizable crimes in recognizable locations. anyways, i plan to spend my lunch break trying to lurk into the shot. exciting!

(i have more things to talk about, but this is breaking news and therefore takes precedence.)

equus

you may not know this, but one of the only reasons anyone reads my blog is because once someone i work with saw daniel radcliffe at starbucks. (i kid you not: that got linked somehow on imdb, and legions of ladies who love hp came running.) so i may be about to quadruple my readership. we shall see.

my cousin was in town last weekend, and as a fellow theater-lover, he wanted to take me to a show. (and no one turns down free broadway!) he let me pick between "equus" and "spamalot", and as i am more into the order of the phoenix than [insert clay aiken reference here], i chose the depressing play about a horse. (also, clearly i am not a claymate, as i could not come up with an aiken reference. i consider this a personal victory.)

"equus" is an interesting show, as it takes a horrific actual event (the blinding of horses), and tries to suppose a reason behind it. daniel radcliffe plays the stable boy who is locked up after maiming the horses he seems utterly enamored of, a wounded boy who has a religious-ecstatic relationship with the animals. as an actor, he did quite well, i thought, at moving between the sullen bits in the hospital and the scenes that show his life pre-crime: at the beach (when he first sees a horse), dealing with tough parents, going on his first date. the play and production itself left something to be desired. as dictated by the script, it's a spare production with very few set pieces and a lot of blocks that get moved around by the actors an almost distracting amount. it's extremely talky, and richard griffiths, who plays the psychiatrist, was saddled (ha! horse pun!) with much of the monologizing, which he seemed somewhat fatigued by. the most evocative element was the horses, played by men in delicate metal horse head-pieces and hooves, who truly moved like the animals, stomping and strutting and reacting to the slightest irritant. (horses are actually an excellent metaphor for the mental state of this play, i think, in that they are so on-edge, so uneasy, and also so controllable by their man and master.)

overall, i am glad i got to see it, but it wasn't the experience i was expecting. i am an emotional person, easily moved, and even i left the audience dry-eyed. the play didn't produce any new emotions in me, i felt no sympathy for the characters or their situations--in a way, it felt very clinical. which i suppose is alright for a play that rejects religion and experience and is essentially about psychiatry.

art attack

i've had family in town off and on for the last two weeks, which is both fun and exhausting. it has meant some home-town-touristing, which i always enjoy.

this past weekend my cousin was visiting, and was very interested in visiting MOMA. i am always game for some modern art, so saturday morning we got up early (crack of 9 am!) and headed up there. we started from the top to try to beat the crowds, and s and i spent a good hour enjoying the fantastic show joan miro: painting and anti-painting i have long enjoyed miro's work for his whimsical reinterpretation of familiar subjects, a kind of soft picasso i think (all of the creative placement without the sharp edges of cubism.) my favorite part of the show was a series that placed collages side-by-side with the paintings they inspired. miro had given himself the exercise of painting from combinations of cut outs from machine catalogs, and it was incredible to recognize the curve of a handle of the plummet of a lever in the painting. it is the kind of display of process that you don't usually get to see, and that i think is so interesting. i think my love of art history stems from a kind of nosiness--i don't just want to look at the piece, i want to understand it in a larger context; who made it, and why, in what time and place, in response to what or whom. it also gave me an idea for a show i would like to curate (either in life or my head.) s was looking forward to looking at music, but i felt it was poorly arranged. there were some interesting pieces, but with little access (only one pair of headphones, MOMA? in a media exhibition? seriously?) we only had a couple of hours in the museum, so we moved much faster than i would've liked through their permanent collection and some new photography, thought it was wonderful to see what we could. and now i know i need to go back sooner rather than later.

(we skipped their big show, van gogh and the colors of the night, in part because it required timed tickets and in part because i didn't feel the need to stand ten-deep in front of the night cafe. i would like to try to see it some other time, however, perhaps on a weekday.)

a couple of weekends ago, i took myself to the guggenheim to see my beloved building uncovered post-renovation. i admit to being somewhat divided on the current exhibitions. catherine opie: american photographer is a well-curated look at her career, from early portraits of friends and self to later series' on families and nature ("icehouses" and "surfers".) her portraits are gorgeous, often close-cropped faces or bodies on display with vivid saturated backgrounds. her early portraiture focused on members of her los angeles community, with a lot of tattoos, piercings and indeterminate (or undiscovered) gender. (it was pretty interesting to watch the faces of my fellow gallery-goers.) i was especially taken with her later series, "domestic", in which she photographed lesbian families at work and at play, in really intimate, touching photographs. her outdoor work was really lovely as well, especially the "freeways" series, which looked like something out of an apocalyptic italian art film, all swooping curves and abandoned stretches.

i was less taken with theanyspacewhatever, the major exhibition that has taken over the rotunda. i enjoyed pieces, but felt the whole was lacking a unified theory. there were some interesting interactive bits--i took my shoes off to sit on the pillows and view "chew the fat", i enjoyed a beverage as i watched a film in "cinema liberte", and i would've killed to spend a night in the revolving hotel room. i particularly liked the hanging signs, though embarrassingly i now cannot remember who created them. i think that there were also pieces missing when i attended (this space left intentionally blank for performance, perhaps), which made it oddly empty at times, which felt strange for the exhibition supposedly welcoming back the museum after their big renovation. i don't mean to sound cranky--i love the guggenheim, i've just seen better shows there. i will go back, however, to see the jenny holzer illumination one friday. i love me some jenny holzer.

the change we need

i know no one comes here for the politics, but i have two things i would like to talk about.

1. the amazingness that was the 2008 election. i woke up at 6:30 am to vote, and walked around the corner to my polling place and stood in line with tears of pride in my eyes at the other people waiting with me to vote for a new future. there were families and my peers and old ladies with walkers, and i felt like this was something to remember. i sat on pins and needles the rest of the day at work, and watched the election returns in the apartment, where i could hear the cheers and fireworks go up in my neighborhood when they called the election for president-elect barack obama. (i wish i could've shared it with someone, but alas, s had to work and when i went to meet a friend, i went to the wrong place. oops.) it felt like an important night to be alive.

2. when i went to nyu, every week an anti-war protest marched down broadway, until their yelling and clanging became sort of routine. i haven't seen a protest in person in awhile (had we all given up?) until tonight when i got out of work, and gay-rights activists were marching down broadway for civil unions. (it was also fairly anti-mormon, i guess in response to the recent sickening passage of prop 8 in california.) i teared up once again, this time not with pride but sadness. i was incredulous that such a hateful thing could pass in this country. for a people who claim to support freedom, we do an awful lot of oppressing of our own fellow citizens. the cruelty we are capable of continues to astound me. what i don't understand about the gay marriage issue is how anyone else's union, gay or straight, could detract from your own. if someone doesn't want to get married in your church or temple, why should it matter to you that they now have more rights in caring for each other and their family? it doesn't. love is love, no matter whom it is between. in an age of anger and fear, we should be celebrating every opportunity we have to join two people in love.

i will be back to regular programming soon. tomorrow, perhaps.

boo.

i love halloween in this city. truthfully, i can see people in costumes more regularly throughout the year here than other places i have lived, but on oct 31, people really come out of their shells. there were costumes on the streets, costumes on the subway, costumes at work. i spent the week in a tizzy, trying desperately to find my dress (s and i went as ned and chuck from pushing daisies--apparently we are the only ones who watch that show, but whatevs), and finally found something at the atlantic center last night (thank the gods for target, am i right?), where children were trick-or-treating through the mall.

i always wondered where children trick or treat here in the city. we were encouraged to sit outside our building with candy if we wanted to, but i got home a little too late for that. seventh ave in park slope hosts a huge halloween parade, and i saw some darn cute kid costumes. little critters, a lot of tiny superheros, even a miniature buckingham palace guard. though what i particularly loved were the parents. to see a joker pushing a stroller . . . well, it's a pretty funny anachronistic visual. (side note: s was wearing a tie and cardigan with dress pants and converse as his costume, and said to me "i could've just gone as a park slope stay-at-home-dad" and i laughed so so hard.)

we went to a really fun halloween party thrown by my neighbor, and had a great time, despite having to explain our costumes to all of the tv-less attendees. there was candy aplenty, and some pretty potent punch, as well as a great dance party. i think i'm kind of an elaine when it comes to dancing. my moves aren't too smooth, but they're pretty entertaining. for me, at least. the best part was the homemade pinata, a "punkin" (pumpkin with a mohawk) filled with adult treats like scratch-off lottery tickets and mini bottles of dewar's. i was the only one who wanted to take a whack, so to speak, and so i kicked off my shoes and went in swinging. i haven't laughed so hard in awhile. it was a great night.

happy halloween to all. i hope you had a sweet night.

penelope

i just saw kristen schaal at the Y. (i've had all of the jewish holidays off in october, which means that on wednesdays i've been house-wifing it; cleaning, baking and going to the gym at mid-day.) i happen to think she is pretty funny, and while i love her on "flight of the conchords" (such a great show!) i particularly love penelope, princess of pets.



ruby the bird is my fave (i have an odd fondness for foul-mouthed animal puppets.)

blog baby

i totally missed the one-year anniversary of my blog! what a bad mama! well, happy birthday blog, i owe you a cupcake. in honor of such, i would like to return to the snapshot post, and take a break from the long recaps.

tonight mk and i came home on an a train full of entertainment. first a man got on and sang this beautiful song. (i have no idea what it was.) he had one of those voices that sounds full of anguish and love, a voice that has lived a real life. i gave him all the change i had in my purse. then we witnessed a dance-off between a teenage boy and an adorable dancing toddler. seriously, this baby breaker had to be no more than four or five, and he was popping and locking across the car, despite falling down a few times due to the motion of the train and his own under-developed center of gravity. the entire car loved him. one of the cutest things i have seen in a long time. i love it when the commute can surprise me in a good way.

thank you, mood

my mother visited this week, in town for some work meetings and some nyc-touristing fun. we packed a lot into tuesday (i know, this is a much-belated post), so bear with me!

we started by heading down to brooklyn heights and walking along the promenade. i think brooklyn heights is one of the city's prettiest neighborhoods, and the view of lower manhattan is an unusual one (and something you of course cannot see when you are in the city.) we meandered down to brooklyn bridge and fulton ferry state parks, and through DUMBO, window-shopping and coveting (well, for me at least) bridge-view properties.

s met us at the morgan library to explore "drawing babar", an exhibition of the paintings and processes that created babar, the be-suited elephant my sister and i grew up with. the morgan is a beautiful space, especially now that they've completed a beautiful renzo piano-led renovation. the exhibition was really wonderful. jean du brunhoff created the story, and his son laurent continued the tradition. they both had very different processes. jean would sketch and re-sketch, in pencil, moving the text and pictures around the page up until the final draft. laurent, on the other hand, would paint huge swathes of color across the page leaving space for his text. it was a great exhibit, and if you grew up with babar, i highly recommend it.


fabrics galore!

we walked west and headed to mood, the fabric store of project runway fame (well, for us, at least. i'm sure FIT design students know it for their own reasons.) my mother used to sew us halloween costumes and christmas dresses, so it made her happy to peruse the organzas and satins.

my mother is a long-time fan of patti lupone, and gave me the recording of "evita" at an impressionable age, so i have long time as well. so i knew that it would be special for us to see patti in "gypsy" on broadway. we had a wonderful dinner at nizza, a new restaurant on 9th ave. it was delicious, and it is always nice to discover a new place to dine in the theater district. we had center-mezzanine seats at the st. james theater (thanks again to tdf), so we had a great view of the stage. unfortunately, laura benanti wasn't performing that evening, but the understudy to louise did very well. patti lupone, of course, was the highlight of the performance, putting her heart into every word. she has an incredible voice, not even always a beautiful voice, but so full of character and experience. i had chills during her final number, and we lept to our feet with everyone else for the standing ovation at the end of the show. she is a real treasure. when we were leaving, my mother noticed that people were waiting for the actors, so we decided to wait and see patti. we thanked her for her wonderful performance, and while usually i am too embarrassed to do this, we got her autograph, which was very exciting.

wednesday my mother had meetings all day, but we were able to meet up for coffee and shoe-shopping before i put her in a cab to the train station. ccome back soon mama! we've got so much more to do! i love having visitors. who else wants to come see new york?

revenge of the book eaters

s and i felt very privileged to attend "revenge of the book eaters" last tuesday, the fundraiser for 826 NYC, the wonderful writing-tutor secret lair behind brooklyn superhero supply (which i have written about here.) i am on their mailing list, and got an email a few weeks ago about the fundraising event, and bought tickets immediately. (poor s, i emailed him afterwards and was like "i'm going! you can come too! give me $50!" i'm lucky he loves me and books.)

it was described on gothamist as a music-saturated nerdfest, and boy was it. ira glass opened the evening with two stories. i have to say, seeing ira glass while listening to ira glass is a wholly different experience, especially sharing it with so many other people. usually listening to ira glass is fairly intimate for me, as i mostly listen to podcasts on myPod, so it's just me on the train with ira in my ears. john oliver, of daily show fame, mc'ed the event, and was totally fantastic. we loved his comedy, and were laughing to tears at some points. two new musical acts followed, very good in their own right but not necessarily my taste. kyp malone (of tv on the radio) read a really sweet story by 826 students about monkey love. then my heart almost stopped because paul simon, my life-long musical love, came out and played "mrs. robinson" and "the boxer" and a brand-new song he had recently written and never. before. played. (be still, my heart!) it just felt so special. he played with a very talented man whose name i cannot remember (so sorry!) who played guitar, cello, and a haunting woodwind (maybe a pennywhistle? not usually described as haunting, i know.) it was wonderful. equally wonderful was the next performance, a surprise from angelique kidjo. she has an incredible voice that sent chills down my spine, and sang two songs, the second an african blessing that she had everyone join in on. it was so powerful, hearing hundreds of voices soar through town hall.

dave eggers and sarah vowell (president of the board of 826 NYC) came out to do some thanking of the attendees, performers and volunteers, and to make some palin jokes (oh sarah, you're everywhere!) then the piece de resistance, a new play by jonathan franzen, read by the author with bobby cannavale, patricia clarkson, parker posey, and tunde adebimpe. it was adapted from the new book state by state, about the fifty states, and it was a love letter to new york state. it was a really wonderful end to a truly magical new york evening.

the play's the . . . oh, you know

september was my no-fun month, so i made the decision (consciously or unconsciously) that october would be full of fun, and it has kicked off with a bang.

seeing a broadway show is on the us map, so thursday night s and i went to see "spring awakening" the 2007 tony award winning coming-of-age musical about love and rebellion. it was really fantastic, so full of energy and emotion. it reminded me of "rent" before it reached mythical status, when it was still new and invigorating. the songs and music have wonderful range as well; loud and exciting at times, soft and touching at others. (i'll admit it; i cried at the end.) the cast was really great as well, though it would have been something special to see the original broadway cast. almost every young actor was making their broadway debut, and their energy and joy in the opportunity were infectious. s got the soundtrack last night, and i can't stop listening to the songs.

i've been getting over a cold (well, i've had a cold for over a week now, so i hope i am getting over it), so we laid pretty low this weekend, working, running errands, attending a bake sale for obama. sunday night, however, i went to see "the seagull" with aa. i feel chekov is better appreciated with age. now that i am older and have experienced the slings and arrows of outrageous life, i can better understand the emotions simmering under the surfaces of petty interactions. it was a truly beautiful production, both the acting and the artistic direction. kristin scott thomas is wonderful as arkadina, pulsing with pent-up energy and anger and jealousy. her aging actress is almost pitiable in her need for affection and adoration, but too cruel in her treatment of her son and nina to inspire true sympathy. i was very impressed by carey mulligan's nina as well (even though my actor-brain was giving my own line readings and admiring her physicality), and liked some of the men. mackenzie crook, or gareth from the british office, was pathetic enough as konstantin, and i liked art malik as dr. dorn very much. in fact, only peter sarsgaard as trigorin seemed out of place, but i think that was more his spotty english accent than his acting. (although i recently read that chiwetel ejiofor did trigorin in the original english staging, and i wish wish wish i had seen that--i think he's a really fantastic actor.) the production values were also really wonderful, mostly spare with hints of elegance. aa and i were particularly jealous of arkadina's costumes, simple yet gorgeous, and i really liked the delicate, keening score. (oh, and lest you think i suddenly found a pile of money on the ground, i scored both tickets through the theater development fund, which provides discounted tickets to members who work for arts non-profits.) it won't be here for long, and i recommend it very highly.

seeing theater always makes me miss the stage. i spent my whole life identifying as an actress, and yet here i am in new york city, sitting behind a desk. and today the director of our theater program and i were talking about something and he said "oh, you like theater, don't you?" and it made me realize that i know and work with people who have no knowledge of whole parts of me. i have always been a performer, from the plays of emily dickinson's life i staged at age five, to improv and theater productions in college, and it is only now that i no longer have that creative outlet. it was theater that brought me to new york in the first place, when i came out here to attend nyu's tisch school of the arts, and i hate to think i could give up on it so easily. i can ignore the longing when i haven't seen any shows, or spoken recently with my "theater friends", but seeing these two very, very different and yet equally impressive shows has made me miss the theater more than i have in a long time. i need to find a way to express myself again.

tomorrow night s and i are headed out once more, so check back soon. i promise more posts this month, as things are looking up.

the mannequin district

one of my favorite things about new york is how specialized vendors gather together and certain areas become the "something district." florists gather and we get a flower district, designers flock and suddenly there's a fashion district, and somewhere south on broadway is what i have termed the lightbulb district (literally store after store of lightbulbs, strings of lights, and goofy lamps.)

we recently discovered a new, and creepy, one: the mannequin district.



(i know that looks like a cool storefront club, with hip kids lounging in awkward poses, but it is a store full of mannequins in repose, with more mannequins, including pieces, in the back.)

we were walking in the west twenties the other day (i think wandering after i met up with s after work), just peeking into shops, and suddenly every store on the street sold mannequins and their parts. windows full of heads, hands and feet, bodies standing at attention or lying in uncomfortable ways. it was amazing. and amazingly creepy. it was after closing time, so it was strange to see so many "people" in dark stores. only in new york, i think, is there a block devoted to the sale of mannequins.

new york i love you, but you're bringing me down

thursday night i felt like an adult. as we sat in the restaurant drinking and eating, aa and her boyfriend, s and i and mk, talking about the new york financial situation and what our friends were going through, i had a sudden feeling of being very, very grown up. these were things that adults talked about when i was small--politics, economics, real estate and families. and these are the things that i now talk about.

sometimes it hits me in a wave: this is my life, this is what i do, this is where i live, these are the choices i make that affect everything else on the list. sometimes i am a little in awe of the fact that i chose to move here, knowing it would be hard, welcoming that challenge, and am still here. i've had a hard september; i got sick and i felt very overwhelmed by this place. my neighbor and i (who coincidentally is still my neighbor, even though we moved. he moved as well, and is now still just a few blocks away) were talking the other night about how difficult a city this can be to live in, and he said that's why people usually prefer to visit. there's so much constant action and stimulation that it's great in short bursts, but can be exhausting in perpetuity. i feel like i've hit a plateau, and i know that i need to work through this to get to better times, but i have to say, i'm a little tired. and i know this blog is my exercise in optimism, and this may seem like i'm complaining more than usual, but i want to say this: i am still optimistic. i'm not giving up. i know things will get better. i am working to find a way to make them better.

and that's why i haven't been posting. there'll be more in the future. stick with me.

fish-licious

when we saw these neon fish at the new york aquarium, s said "ooh, fish-licious! blaine would like these fish." um, ok sweetie.

(i know i've been absent for awhile, but we went on vacation--hi mom and dad!, and then i was sick for two long weeks, which was a total bummer. oh, also, i'm kinda broke right now, so we haven't been going out and about much. but that all changed this weekend!)

the new york aquarium is on the us map, and originally i had wanted to head out there for the big baby birthday bash, back in june, but we missed that so we decided to go out this saturday. it was one of our quicker tourist trips, what with coney island being a short 30 minute ride from our neighborhood. i am a HUGE fan of zoos and aquariums (i used to work at a zoo, too, and i really kind of miss it), so i was very excited. we started at the otters, watching them eat on their backs and roll around, and headed to another tank to watch the shark feeding. the sharks share their home with one large ray and four super cool sea turtles. they also didn't eat anything. we watched the keepers drop fish after fish in and taunt the sharks with squid on a skewer, and the only ones eating were the very greedy turtles. ("it's more of a turtle feeding frenzy," said the woman next to us. i couldn't have agreed more, ma'am.) where was the dramatic gnashing of teeth and blood in the water?! (well, not blood for the kids' sake, but seriously, i wanted to see some shark teeth.) but i really liked the turtles, and took way too many pictures of them.



they had a couple of interesting exhibits, like "alien stingers" (jellies, coral and anemones) and something about the water's edge, which included a touch pool, but i've honestly been spoiled by west coast aquariums, and i missed interactive exhibitions. on a whim we decided to stay to watch the california sea lions perform, and i am so glad we did. they were so smart and really funny, giving flipper high-fives to their trainer and doing dances and racing around in the water. we hadn't sat in the front row in fear of getting splashed, but i wish we had because the front row all got kisses on the cheek from osborn, the older (and more talented) or the two performers! i highly recommend the show if you head out there. i have a funny video of osborn dancing, so if i can remember my vimeo log-in, i'll try to post it later.

the rest of our weekend was spent in co-habitational bliss, doing laundry and baking cookies and completely re-arranging the living room. s is off nights this week, which happily means that i get to see him every night when i get home (whee!) and i think we may try to do something else fun this week, so i promise more posting now that i am back in top form.

whee!

this is my 100th post, and to celebrate, i'm on overheard in new york!

some so-so shoe jokes

chromomaniacs

i know, i know, a post is owed.

s and i are members are of the met, a true new york treasure, and i've been itching to see the superheroes: fashion and fantasy exhibit before it disappears. (it's still there through september 1, and they'll be open labor day. go! quickly!) we went saturday, and while the galleries were a little busy, it was a very worthwhile experience. they've divided the collection into categories, such as "the mutant body" or "the patriotic body," which made for unusual curatorial notes. they combined costumes (from movies like "iron man" and "the dark knight") with pieces by designers like john galliano, alexander mcqueen and john paul gaultier. some of the designs were really incredible (and some felt like their inclusion was more of a stretch), but it was really interesting seeing fashion in a new artistic context.

having seen ads everywhere in the city for jeff koons on the roof, we were excited to check that out as well, but unfortunately it wasn't as impressive as i expected. there were three pieces, of which i thought "balloon dog", the star of said ads, was least evocative. i really enjoyed "coloring book", a large, bright, graphic representation of a children's art project. it was really beautiful and unusual, and i liked it very much.

we stumbled upon j.m.w. turner: painter of light (habitually chic wrote a post with some wonderful images from the exhibit.) i'm not normally big on landscapes, so i didn't originally want to go in, but i am so glad we did. turner was a bit of a maverick landscape and history painter, who experimented with color and form, and was a devotee of the concept of The Sublime, which seemed to be characterized by menacing clouds and snowpiles. his colors were the most sublime part, i felt, in part because he was so willing to use saturated colors that (while possibly not found in nature) looked quite natural in his compositions. i am a huge watercolor fan as well, and his watercolors were especially beautiful and colorful and experimental. (some of his studies were just huge swaths of color with little details to ground them.) plus i really enjoyed the biographical notes. every explanatory panel would discuss his influences and work, and then mention the constant critical pans the work received. some of them were very funny (we particularly liked that he was accused of "chromomania"), and it was a nice change from the usual accolades most individual exhibits are filled with.

you've got a little more time to see j.m.w. turner (september 21) and jeff koons (october 26), and i recommend it all.

crazy old men

i don't ever need to post again: the most blog hits i will everget were because i wrote about a co-worker seeing daniel radcliffe. sigh. but about the old men . . .

last week aa and i were headed to the farmer's market outside our office when we spotted regis. i saw him walking towards us--shorter than i expected (though i really never thought about his height), uncannily tan, wearing a gorgeous purple tie--and hissed "a! it's regisss!" (emphasis mine, to express hissing) and she said "i know, i saw him!" he was like a small, sweet, orange grampa.

s and i were talking this weekend about the new york city runway of crazy hobo couture, and my favorite local catwalker is a man i call "old elvis." he looks sort of like an elvis impersonator on an off day, with a slightly deflated pompadour, seventies glasses, high-ish collars--nothing that would look too off on their own, but combined they create a deliciously kooky look. i saw him at the grocery store a month or so ago, but recently i've been seeing him as i come home from work in the evenings, which means we are neighbors. he looks the same, in stores and on the street. who is he? i want to know, 'cause in the words of my fave, tim gunn: "that's a whole lotta look."

the 'klyn

s and i went to terrace bagels--per usual--on saturday and saw a man wearing a t-shirt that said "the 'klyn", which i found hilarious. i assumed it referred to brooklyn, but if it is something inappropriate, please let me know.

my sister was in town this weekend, hanging out before her red-eye flight to uganda for a photojournalist assignment. (she's the exciting one.) usually when people come to visit, i run us ragged walking the island of manhattan, but i realized this weekend: i live in brooklyn. there's plenty of great stuff here. let's spend the day in my neighborhood.

we started out slow (i am a notorious over-sleeper), and then wandered park slope, checking out the greenmarkets and stopping by brooklyn superhero supply. we walked down to root hill cafe (on carroll st and fourth avenue), a newer coffee spot opened by a woman i used to work with. they have one of the last clover espresso machines made pre-starbucks, and they brew an excellent cup of coffee. even my sister, the snobby barista, liked her beverage. (if you go hungry, i recommend the amazing grilled cheese, although splitting it is better, if not for your stomach than at least for your heart.) we hopped on the R and headed down to court street, to wander through cutey-cute-cute brooklyn heights and walk along the promenade. my sister was very impressed with the view of manhattan, as she had never seen it that way before. we wandered along the water to brooklyn bridge park, which seems to be under-construction and headed towards a better, brighter future. (it looks like it is going to be wonderful... someday.) we walked around in dumbo, stopping into adorable, over-priced stores. it started to rain, so we trained back home to grocery shop and stop into a few stores on seventh ave. i made falafel for dinner, and we played rummikub (the fast moving rummy tile game!) and then i tried to get some sleep. (i've been having super-weird dreams lately; i wish i had a dream-decoder book, cause i want to know what vampires mean.)

we'll have dinner out tonight, someplace fun in the neighborhood, and then i will pack her and her backpack into a car bound for jfk and uganda. it was fun having someone to explore with.

flourish and botts

one of the women in my office saw daniel radcliffe (harry potter) at the starbucks down the block from us. he's in town to work on equus, i believe. every other woman starting screeching, wondering if they might be able to run back and see him. i found this hilarious, in part because i think of him as the little boy wizard. he might actually be rather close to my age (under-21 though, i think), so i would never think of him as an object of desire. but those celebrity sightings, they're always turning us all to mush.

also spotted (same starbucks): allison janney (who i think is really cool.) very tall, pretty in person, wearing a cool headband, drinking a triple-soy latte. (that's a latta soy!) and: mark summers, dining at cafe fiorello. aa gets the credit for spotting him--she watches a lot of food network.

also, also: i know i have been a bad blogger recently. i have been broke and super-busy, and my leisure activities have been confined to throwing a lovely apartment-warming party, and watching project runway with my gals (go daniel!) this weekend should prove magical, however. stay with me, lone readers!

underground reads

s has magical moments that he refuses to guest-post which leaves me to do the honors. this past week, he was reading "the heart is a lonely hunter" on the train (which i had pulled out of the bookshelf to read, and he scooped me!) a man asked to interview him for his blog about what people read on the train, and s agreed.

my boy is internet famous!

i think it's actually a really interesting idea for a blog, and i plan to keep up with it. in fact, you'll find a link to the left. and it inspires me to do more reading on the train. recently i've been listening to myPod a lot, which while great, means i am not reading as much. an august resolution? perhaps.

the governor's island

on friday afternoon s got a text from a friend from work, j-dubs, asking if we wanted to go to governor's island. i had been noticing the posters on the subway, and it felt like synchronicity, so we decided to go.

the ferry is free from battery park, and only a few minutes' ride (which i was appreciative of.) admission to the island is also free--it's a national park now. the island used to belong to the armed services (i think first the army and then the navy), and they left in 1996 and donated it to the city of new york. they've slowly been rehabbing the island, returning it to greenspace for recreation. they have concerts on saturdays, and we made it there in time to listen to the roots music of eric bibb, a really incredible guitarist. it hardly felt like we were in the city; we wandered down bricked side streets (no cars are allowed on the island) and sat on a wide grass lawn under an avenue of tall trees. even the air was cleaner and fresher.


eric bibb and friends

after we listened to the music, we wandered around the island. because the island was first fortified in the late 1700s and was still inhabited until the late 1990s, there are many generations of buildings and fortifications all over the island, so it was fun to explore those. (although i think next time i want to take a tour.) ALSO, and pretty cool, i think they recently filmed an episode of top chef on the island, because i found this spike tape on the ground.


(it says tom and padma, in case you can't read it.)

one of the old houses on the island was hosting an international exhibition by members of the sculptors guild called in-site, with some really incredible sculpture and installation pieces. it was really great to stumble on the surprise of impressive art in the middle of nowhere (in the middle of new york.) it felt like a treat to stumble on governor's island in general; it's like a well-kept secret. the island wasn't crowded at all, and it is full of rolling green hills and tall shade trees. i plan to go back again and again. who's with me?

real fandom

overheard last night at the laundromat.

major mets fan (in jersey and hat, attached to transistor radio): mets, baby, mets! (this was said repeatedly, to no one in particular.) i just want 'em to beat those yankees. i always say, if the yankees got in a plane crash and died, i wouldn't cry. i don't wish 'em dead, but i wouldn't be sad if something bad happened to them.

i don't think i have ever been that invested in any thing (people certainly, but not a sports team.) it's a devotion i don't totally understand.

tonight: governor's island updation--with pictures!

rock stars

as i have mentioned before, my friend my neighbor is in a band that plays around the city, and as friends, we all try to support him by going to concerts. (easier said than done--many nights i am more into pjs than djs. ha ha ha ha. just kidding.) last night, his band was playing a festival he had organized at fontana's on the lower east side. (fontana's was actually pretty nice inside, and much larger than anticipated. i did not enjoy wading through the garbage of eldridge street, however. but i do want to go back for the dance parties.)

mk and i dragged s along to have a drink before we paid the cover and went to hear the bands. (he had a late-night session, so he couldn't stay.) the band that played before them, king charles, was actually a lot of fun, very high energy, falling all over the stage. sad red is, as the name might imply, a little quieter than a band of old rock and roll covers, but they played an excellent show. i think they played new material, or at least it was new to me, and it was louder and faster, with more words, than i had remembered. (the last show we went to, though it is a little hazy in my memory, felt a lot sleepier.) i had a really good time. i also got to meet his dad, who you may remember i heard speak about his work at the national gallery back in june. i told him my dad was a long-time admirer of his work, and he thanked us for supporting his son. i love having friends in bands; i really like going to live music, and it's always more fun when i know someone on the stage.

the f wasn't running downtown from delancey (thanks, mta) so we had to take a cab. our driver had no idea how to get to park slope, so we tried to direct him. (i have little sense of direction, but after two gin and tonics, i was even more confused.) i finally got home around 1 am, which made this morning a little rough, but i only had to work a half-day, so it could've been worse. i had originally planned on visiting my sister in boston this weekend, but i had a long week and she has to work on sunday, so we decided we would plan for a future weekend when we would both be less tired and more available to do fun stuff. (plus she's coming to visit in a few weeks before she flies to uganda.) this means that instead, i get to sleep in tomorrow before s and i meet up with some friends to go to governor's island. more to tomorrow, then.

stay-cation

i've said it before, and i'll say it again: one of the best things about living in new york is that everyone comes here to visit, which means i keep getting to see people i would not get to see otherwise.

sunday i had brunch with a friend of mine from college (she is still finishing up, spending the summer interning in nyc) at the marvelous sette in park slope (i say go for brunch; it's fixed price, including unlimited cocktails, whee!), and we spent a few hours catching up on each others' lives and college gossip. afterwards i headed uptown to spend the afternoon on the backyard patio of a garden apartment on the upper west side, sweating and cracking jokes with s's studiomates at their summer party. (it has been a very long time since i sat in someone's backyard. i want a garden apartment.)

today i had dinner with my high school boyfriend, now someone i can consider a friend. (it took some work.) his great-grandmother, a fantastic old new yorker who i had the pleasure of getting to know when i was at nyu, just passed away at 99 years old, and he was in town for her memorial. i got to see his parents, too, whom i had not seen in a few years (apparently the family were all asking about me.) we went to curly's lunch (he's a big vegetarian too), and caught up about our lives and the lives of our high school friends. it was really fun to see him again--now that we've gotten beyond the tears (me) and weirdness (him) of our high-school-sweetheart-break-up, i really enjoy his company as a friend. he also lives a totally different life from me or anyone else i know (river raft guide/snowboarding instructor/nature teacher--aka, most like to go "into the wild"), which makes for very entertaining stories.

it's always fun to see old friends. thank you, new york.

holy hotness, batman

i just saw christian bale.

not in a cool way, not in a bumped-into-you, you're-kind-of-pretty, come-be-in-my-next-movie way. in a usual way. "the dark knight" is premiering at the theatre down the block from my office, and i am currently holed up here until 7 pm, and i watched them set up the tents earlier today, and could hear the screaming as i typed, so when ls and the new girl went running down the hallway to go see the celebrities, i abandoned my post and went running with them. we got there in time to see christian bale walking the red carpet, smiling and signing autographs. good gracious, that man is gorgeous. it was worth it just to see him.

though it would be more worth it to bump into him. and then get to be in his next movie. just saying.

also? this never happened in bloomington.

back in the bk

i know it's been a whole week since i blogged, but for good reason. i got home yesterday from a family vacation in maine. (my grandparents owned a cabin there for many years, and my mother often waxes poetic about summers spent canoe-ing across the pond, walking into town to the pine tree frosty, and playing softball on their lawns.) we stayed in a beautiful lodge right on the waters edge, and spent our days reading, hiking, canoe-ing, and walking into town to the pine tree frosty. (seriously, so good.)

being in maine brought up a lot of feelings i have about where i have chosen to live. i grew up in oregon, and i loved it while i lived there, and there are things i miss. i miss the cool smell of pine forests, the blue of the sky on a clear day, the sound of the windchime on our front porch. it was a grand and beautiful place to grow up; as a child i felt safe, loved and encouraged by my parents and my community, and i feel that it helped make me open-hearted and excited about the world. but it is not a place i could ever return to. my heart truly belongs to this city we live in, and despite its dirt and grime, i love it in an often irrational way. being out of new york made me realize what a new yorker i have become. (s laughed at me when i was trying to explain this and said "and the bagels weren't bagels!") i feel tied to this city, i feel connected to it in a way i never felt about oregon (or it wouldn't have been so easy to leave.) i am the only person i know who left without hesitation, who moved on to such a tremendously different life. most of the people i went to school with are still in our little hometown, married with children and working local jobs. (a lot of the people i went to college with are still in the midwest, married or engaged and pursuing their dreams out there.) my choices have always felt different, and often difficult, in part because i have always chosen another path. not necessarily in a rebellious way, or in a particularly alternative way, but i guess i have felt that i could see the traditional option, or an option that felt safe, and i have chosen instead something that excited me (even as it scared me a little.) i am living a life i have fought for, a life that requires effort, and thus brings me a lot of happiness and satisfaction.

the other day, we were on the train and i looked up and saw the following quotation, which i have meant to share for awhile, and that i think sums up what i am trying to say (i am quite sick, so my powers of explanation are not at their best.)

there are roughly three new yorks. there is, first, the new york of the man or woman who was born there, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size, its turbulence as natural and inevitable. second, there is the new york of the commuter--the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. third, there is the new york of the person who was born somewhere else and came to new york in quest of something...commuters give the city its tidal restlessness, natives give it solidity and continuity, but the settlers give it passion.

--e.b. white, here is new york

urban parenting

little girl, maybe four years old, looking at broken glass spilling out of a brown paper bag: what's that?
father: broken glass.
little girl: what happened?
father: someone dropped their beer.

i'm not sure my parents would have been so honest.

history in the making

hey, america. happy birthday!

in honor of your special day, we spent the day yesterday at the international nathan's famous hot-dog eating contest.



s had done his research, and we knew we needed to get there somewhat early in order to get a good view of the contest. we showed up around 11:30 am (it is supposed to start around noon) and were able to squeeze in close enough to get a view of the left side of the stage. there's quite a bit of pre-show (got to give those espn talking heads time to speculate about kobayashi's odds), and we immensely enjoyed the dancing hot dogs. after a half hour of bad emcee jokes and ineffectual cheerleaders, the eaters took the stage to pumped-up music and bios like "the mayonnaise-eating champion of the woooooorld!" while something like 10 people competed, including an old man and a couple of women, as well as a possibly-retired rapper who had entertained the crowd during the pre-show, the real contest was between "america's son" joey chestnut and the injured-yet-still-fearsome takeru kobayashi. the two have squared off on multiple prior occasions, and seem to trade titles back and forth. (i highly recommend reading their bios, if only for the hilarity. they discuss their training regimens, previous world records, and other ridiculousness typically reserved for actual sports.) after the introductions, there was a big count down, and then they started the shoveling. (at that point i turned to s and said "so now we just watch them eat for ten minutes?" he just laughed at me.) it ended up being remarkably entertaining, as i felt a kind of disgusted awe and began cheering along with everyone else. seriously. the emcee would yell "and joey chestnut has just eaten TEN hot dogs in ONE minute!" and the crowd would go wild. this year, they both managed to get down 59 hot dogs in the regulation ten minutes, for a history-making tie. the overtime round required one to eat five hot dogs faster than the other, and joey just barely eked out a win. (an OT that favored his start-strong, finish-weak style; had it been to eat more in a certain amount of time, i think kobayashi, even injured, could have pulled out a win. but that's just my amateur opinion.) it was over quickly, and the crowd didn't stick around to watch the closing ceremony.

we wandered along the boardwalk, avoiding the fried clams and freak-shooting, and eventually ended up near the wonder wheel, which at 150 feet is the tallest ferris wheel in the world. i wasn't about to jump on the cyclone (the scary rattling wooden coaster), so i convinced s to go on the wheel with me.



it's a fairly calm, slow ride, but you do get a great view of the beach and surrounding area, and we enjoyed sitting on top of the world for awhile. once we got back down, we strolled around a bit more, looking at the rides and snack shacks and old posters. i had wanted to come to coney island before it's changed by gentrification, and we got to see a little bit of everything it's known for; dirt and grime, games, rides, an old-fashioned freak show. i don't know how to feel about "the future of coney island"; on the one hand, it's kind of a gross place. on the other, it's always been that way, it's sort-of famous for being proud of being that way, and i don't agree with the need to clean everything up. i'd like to go back, if only to take more pictures and maybe to work up the bravery to ride the cyclone. s considered a hot dog (in honor of the day), but the wait was at least a half hour (everyone else was feeling honorific), so we headed home to eat.

the former co-inhabitants of boyland moved out to a former furniture factory in greenpoint and they've carved out a recording studio and some bedrooms on one of the floors. (it's really an amazing space, although the entrance leaves a little something to be desired. let's just say i'd rather visit.) their building has an incredible roof, with amazing views of manhattan, so last night we camped out up there to ooh and ahh over the fireworks. last year i spent the fourth in d.c., but i honestly felt the display here was more beautiful and inspiring. i'm not particularly patriotic, but i do love fireworks. (as ls and i agreed, i like to feel the boom.) we were a little far away to feel anything, but we had an excellent vantage point, and watched the fireworks explode over the river with the skyline in the background. it rained a little, but, intrepid city-folk that we are, we stood around under umbrellas watching the fireworks light up the sky. there were people i knew, and people i didn't, but i felt no shame in clapping my hands with glee over it all. i felt proud to be a new yorker, at the very least.

mom genes

i've got babies on the brain, not because i want one right now (no worries, dear s) but because there have been cute babies galore popping into my life: my cousin just gave birth to a precious child, one of my ex-coworkers brought her adorably fat infant in to visit, and many of the blogs i follow keep posting pictures of their (super cute) pregnant mama bellies or too-sweet toddlers (i'm looking at you, clark kent.) plus there was this really funny little baby on the train this morning in a front-carrier who looked like a little man trapped in a parachute. he was gripping the straps around his shoulders and had a very worried look on his face. the girl sitting opposite me couldn't stop smiling at him. i love observing people's secret baby smiles, half at the baby and half to themselves. it's one of the cutest things you can catch a person doing (especially a boy--swoon), and everyone near me couldn't stop grinning at the nervous little guy.

we've been watching a lot of episodes of the wire recently, and it has made me desperately want to adopt everyone last one of those corner boys and take them home and bake them cookies and give them back some innocence. (call them my angelina jolie mom-to-the-world genes.) it also reminded me that i really miss volunteering with kids, and i want to volunteer. i am going to re-apply at 826nyc and look into becoming a big sister. i love this city, but i just move through it, and i want to have an impact while i am here, even if it's just on one or two people.

swamp city

new york has been hot and rainy and full of things like thunderstorms and lightning bugs flying down my shirt. (for seriously. not as bad as the time i found a bee in my mouth, though. i am fairly bee-a-phobic*.) which just makes coming home and turning on the ac and sitting in our gloriously unpacked apartment so. much. better.

this weekend was all about the unpacking. we bought a delightful desk-shelf-thingamabob at ikea and spent friday putting it together. (there is comedy monolog gold in the "putting together a piece of veneered-furniture from ikea is like your relationship put to the test"--thankfully we passed with flying colors.) i unpacked everything while s was at work friday night (which is how i like it--then i can put everything where i want it to go) and then saturday we did errands and sat around feeling smugly self-congratulatory about now living in the best apartment in brooklyn.

"really?" you say (you are fairly doubtful.) "see for yourself!" we say.



our pineapple-glazed living room.



the cubbies in all their glory.



the kitchen (i think i managed to crop out the dishes that need doing.)

once we've put away the laundry, i will post pictures of the bedroom (where the magic happens, says mtv cribs), and once we've got a cuter, less-moldy shower curtain, you might get to see our w.c.

saturday we took the path train to new jersey to meet up with the entire extended family of s, gathering to relax for a week in the hamptons (that's me, green with jealousy over there.) s had never been to new jersey, so we pretended we were on a grand adventure. mostly we talked about our jobs and new york city commutes and ate chinese food, but it was fun to see everyone.

all of this domesticity aside, what i really wanted to post about is this: i keep seeing hilarious t-shirts, and i want to share. last week, headed to the grocery store in the slope, i saw a guy waring a shirt that said (in multi-colored, bedazzled letters) "i'm stanky rich." not stinking, or filthy, or anything else i have ever heard before, but stanky. i am stanky rich. (i happen to find the word "stanky" hilarious, so maybe that's just me.) then today a girl got off the train in front of me with, pardon the indecency, the biggest chest i have ever seen. her shirt, stretched taut, said "don't hate me because i'm beautiful ..." and then something else i couldn't see. i thought to myself "wouldn't it be funny if it then said 'hate me because i have ginormous boobs'?" i turned around to look, thinking surely no legitimate clothing company could be as gauche as i, and there i read, in stretched ribbed-cotton letters, "don't hate me because i'm beautiful, hate me because i have huge boobs." then i almost walked into a pole, like the rubber-necker i am.


*apiaphobic, maybe? i should look that up.**

**apiphobia! (do i know my latin or do i know my latin!)***

***i do not in fact really know any latin.

walking on water

i know i am acting like i've just discovered the camera recently, and in part i have rediscovered the camera (thanks due to the wonderful cams i got for christmas), but it's also partially because i have been doing things, you know, like having fun, recently. and then documenting said things in pictures.

yesterday s had to work in the morning, so we had saturday night date night. we've been itching to do more things off the "us map" (not u.s. as in united states, or even as in us weekly, of trashy mag glory, but us as in we) i made back in february, so we met yesterday afternoon at the base of the brooklyn bridge. (actually, tragically, we met in city hall park, and then mistakenly walked south down broadway to the staten island ferry and along the water back up to city hall park and to the base of the bridge.) the brooklyn bridge has a wooden walkway suspended above the traffic, with state-park-style placards along the way, mapping out old new york and the physics of bridges. i walked across the brooklyn bridge when i still attended nyu on the instructions of my father, and it was a pleasant, educational stroll. it's apparently much more popular on hot saturdays in june, and we had to hustle to keep up with the flow of walking traffic, but we still managed to stop in the middle, tourist-style, to take pictures and admire the view. (i took the above photo looking up at one of the piers, or whatever that's called. i obviously don't remember the info i read.)

once off the bridge and back safely in the bk, we headed to brooklyn bridge-fulton ferry state park to look for some dinner. we forewent the block-long line at grimaldis (some other time, i suppose) and had dessert first at the brooklyn ice cream factory, some of the best 'cream i've ever tasted. (super rich though; i couldn't finish my one scoop, and s, usually a champ, was bested by his two-scoop cone.) we ate overlooking the water with a view back at manhattan and the bridge we'd just crossed.

for dinner we trekked to smith street for pacifico and drank margaritas under the lights strung up on the porch. we were both pretty tired from the day (s had worked, i had run errands, we both had gotten lost and found our way back to brooklyn again), but we had a lovely dinner. we got home in time to watch the wire (we're total addicts) and fall asleep before work today. a miraculous date night indeed.

feelin' blue

when s and i decided to live together, i was a little nervous that i would get lonely. not when he was here (duh), but in the evenings when he is at work and i am hanging around the house. (you: then blog more.) to be honest, i love being in the apartment by myself, but i miss having someone one to talk to. i'm a fairly chatty girl, and without a roommate or a boy, i have to let a lot go unsaid. which is why i particularly miss having a pet. i know it makes me sound like a crazy cat lady, but i used to talk to our cat when i was living at home. and now i wish i had a cat (or dog, especially a dog) to talk to. or maybe i just wish i had this little guy:


cute attack!

on a more new york note, i was completely intrigued by a little old man on the train yesterday. he was wearing an electric blue fedora and two hands full of rings, and then some faded t-shirt and white pants. he seemed lost, because he was poring over a subway map, but then he shuffled off at bergen street (which isn't necessarily a tourist attraction.) he was a real character. i liked him.

back for more

so you know what's silly of me? i get upset when the blogs i read don't update. and then i go more than a week without a post? boo, me. boo. and so: again with the pictures.

two weekends ago, i went down to washington d.c. to see my parents.



sup, d.c. still inspiring after all these years.



also inspiring: attending hillary clinton's concession speech with my mother. while i didn't necessarily want to get attached to either candidate this early, i admit to feeling sad. it was hard to listen to a strong, intelligent, brave woman capitulate. it felt important, being there.



then we went to a nationals game. they lost, miserably, to the giants. but it was made much better by the presidents race (big foam-headed presidents teetering along the diamond.)

we also spent an afternoon at the national gallery listening to my neighbor's father give a lecture on his amazing photography (randomly: my father has admired his work for years, we went to the speech, i suddenly had an uncanny sense that he might be his dad, and then he put up a picture i saw in my neighbor's apartment), seeing "sex and the city: the movie" (i will wait until everyone's had a legit chance to see it before i say how i really feel), and packing up a rental car with my boxes of books. monday my mother and i drove back to brooklyn and unpacked and ate at two boots (omg, smoked mozzarella) and went to bed.

early last week was abominably hot, so i forced s to buy and install a bedroom ac (best. purchase. ever.) and we existed primarily on ice and watermelon. last week was also all about work, so i didn't do all that much (although mk and i had a delicious dinner at barrio and then a delicious bottle of wine and some delicious work gossip on thursday night.) this past weekend was all about the apartment, so we spent friday organizing and saturday painting. pineapple grove is a bit bright, but i still love how its warmed up the living room. we also scooped up an excellent find at a stoop sale (who else thinks stoop sales are the best?): 12 fishs eddy dinner plates and 12 side plates in the pantone collection for only $30. they're probably the prettiest thing we own.

we've got a big jar of change that needs some counting. i think this weekend will be all about fun.

playing catch-up

i'm a no-good, terrible, very bad blogger, but i have been too busy to update. a lack of internet makes updation a little trickier as well. but i promised an update about our apartment and the bowl-a-thon, so i'm going to resort to that old lazybones standby and do a picture post.

apartment


living room.


kitchen.


bedroom.

i know it looks a bit like a bomb went off (primarily a book and shoe bomb, i discovered in my unpacking) but can't you see its potential? think of these as before pics; i bet you can't wait until our apartment is posing in its formerly size 0XL pants.

bowling


my fellow charity bowlers (they feature in previous tales of happy hours, lost-watching parties and band concerts.)


we're an expressive bunch.

i didn't get many action shots, but we weren't all that active anyways. my teammates bowled well, i bowled terribly (but i did avoid any further injury), and we all had fun.

too tired to type

on friday, s and i spent 16 hours moving, just us and a cargo van and the sustaining promise of greek food. i know my posts have been all "wah, so tired" but it's true! i don't think i have ever felt every muscle in my body ache at the same time. and after spending the day moving from a third-floor walk-up to a third-floor walk-up (which is insane, btw) i was so tired that i laid down on the ground (not the sidewalk, but almost) just so my ribcage would stop throbbing.

but, BUT, it was all for good! because now we are living in our lovely and wonderful new apartment in park slope, slowly unpacking and putting our lives in order and enjoying living alone. i know we've basically cohabitated for the past three years, camping out in each others dorm rooms and college apartments (and then the glory of boyland), but this is the first time we have really officially lived together. and it is wonderful. i love coming home to s, to our apartment, to our dishes and futon and movie nights. it might be the honeymoon period still, but so far this is pretty much bliss.

i am updating from work (oh, the scandal! but i have been so productive today) only because we don't have internet at home yet. but i promise to update again soon because tonight we bowl! i'll post pictures and a great recap of the night's hilarity. i predict rediculousness indeed.

i want to make a pun on "gala"

but i can't i am too tired.

the venue: the mandarin oriental hotel, 36th floor, looking out over the tree tops of central park and the building beyond, lit up like a string of christmas lights after the sky darkened.

the performers: the adorable children of the special music school and philip glass. philip glass, playing his own composition, captivating the audience for a few moments. it was so beautiful, listening to philip glass, looking out the windows at blue blue sky.

the food and drink: begged for (maybe even flirted for?) but worth it.

the celebrities: usher passing through the lobby (short, cute, unobtrusive), bob kerrey (who said to me at check in "bob kerrey", tiny and dapper in his tuxedo, and i said "kerrey?" like i didn't know who he was), philip. glass.

the train ride home: never have i been so glad to see an f train.

this is one of those "only in new york" nights, when you feel so privileged to be a part of this city and its communities of artists, intellectuals and philanthropists. but next time, i want to be seated at the table.

OH, and it's not too late! i am still begging for my charity bowling team to help raise money for HIV/AIDS research through broadway cares. you don't have to sponsor my every pin bowled; if you go to the link below, you can donate online. (you can also mail cash and checks to me in brooklyn. email me for my real live mailing address.) every $5 helps (although every $25 helps even more!) if you donate, i promise i will bowl my best in your name, and in the name of raising money for a very important cause. you can click here to donate $5, $10, $25 and $100,000,000 to the cause. i know it can feel like a lot, $5, but it would make a real difference to those working to find a cure. if you have ever read something i wrote and liked it, or laughed at it, or thought about it again, please consider donating. i promise even a little bit makes a big difference. the bowl-a-thon is next monday, june 2, so please donate soon!

downunder

i know we put it to a vote, but we didn't get to go into the city this weekend for fun galore, because we are now important grown-ups who have to do things like shop for housewares and pack and watch episodes of "the wire." but we did have a lovely weekend.

we spent saturday afternoon walking around dumbo, exploring the many new and beautiful furniture shops and clothing boutiques that have taken over the former industrial neighborhood. while i had heard all sorts of things about dumbo, i had never actually been, and i totally fell in love. it is like a pretend new york, all old buildings turned into beautiful lofts, with cobbled streets and beautiful people, full of resturants and chic stores, with a view of the manhattan skyline to boot. we saw multiple weddings and a fashion photo shoot, so you know i'm sold. (another neighborhood to add to our "when we make it big, we'll live there" list--here's looking at you, west village.) we started with shopping along front street (pictured above), including a stop at the dreamy design store prague kolektiv and then wandered through brooklyn bridge park. the park was holding 125th birthday celebrations for the beloved bridge (you don't look a day over 124!) and while we were late for the music and too early for the movie, we did enjoy a stroll through the park. lovely, right?

sunday s had to work so i packed and did crosswords (a real lady of leisure, no?) today we had brunch with our couple friends, my owf and her boy (this is a goal of mine, couple friends. we sort-of had them in college, but i love couple friends and we've never gotten any great ones off the ground, but aa and p seem to make a great match) at cafe luluc, a super cute spot in carroll gardens. (can we just talk about how much i love the french tradition of eggs served with fries? it surprised me the first time, but then i was like "hello, genius." there are few things i like more than french fries. those french, they really get me, you know?) aa and p have lived in boerum hill for five years now, so they are like our sage old friends, full of "have you seen this?" and "oh, you have to go there!" i feel like a little kid when they get started, but it really is wonderful to have friends who are so happy to play tour guide.

the rest of the afternoon pre-s-on-a-train-to-work was spent packing (dear goodness, how did we fit so much into so little space?) and then napping. for me, that is. it is very suddenly summer here in our fair city, and my best defense, beyond ac (which we will not install until we move into the new apartment), is a nap. seriously, i am a southern belle, aren't i, napping away the afternoon. now i am sitting here, sweating in front of the fan, getting ready to do a crossword or two. it's back to work tomorrow, and then a busy week (we are having our gala on wednesday, which should make for exciting posting) capped off by our big move. i promise words and pictures later.