Herein lies an epic fail at punctual blogging:

Wow. It's been over a month... sorry? If I had a sword, I would fall on it. Sam has a really awkward collection of Swiss Army Knife type things, maybe one of them has a sword attachment... I'll get back to you on this. 

But all is repaired, because when a young lady promises her grandmother that she's gonna update her blog, she'd darn tootin' better do it! Now I feel compelled at this juncture to make a confession: I had, for some time, kept a word document on the desk top that I would jot things down in every now and then, so I don't forget them. It has, apparently, disappeared. So I'll be doing this from memory. At least I have plenty to talk about this posting!

First and most importantly, I FINALLY HAVE A FULL TIME JOB!

*insert showers of confetti and a complicated marching band dance routine here*

It is a nannying job, which I suppose should be disappointing, but I love it. I love it so much. This family is basically what I want for myself in ten years or so, down to the apartment, the jobs, the baby, everything. I take care of little 4 month old Eliza (her parents call her E.J., but I prefer Eliza. Sometimes Miss Doolittle.). She lives in an apartment building called "The Villa Charlotte Bronte," which is a fancy building on the banks of the Hudson river designed to look like a old stone, ivy covered farmhouse, but is in fact ingeniously designed two story apartments. I wants it. I wants it real bad. There will be pictures and more about all of this as time passes, I'm sure. And so, on to other more random things!

- This link has been amusing me for approaching two weeks now. I couldn't really tell you why... I think Rusy Grier's Needlepoint... For Men! is probably my favorite.

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/comedy-goldmine/real-books-photoshop.php

- The continuing Obama obsession in my neighborhood never fails to amuse me. It has also provided me with a New York first: I submitted something to Overheard in New York! (  http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/  )If you don't already read this page religiously, I highly recommend it. My submission, heard on my corner as I waited for the bus, went a little something like this (grown up language alert. Sorry grandmas.):

kid 1- man, I love that dog! Whatchu gonna name that dog?

kid 2- I dunno, like T-pain or something...

kid 1- What?! No! Fuck that shit! That is a cool dog.

kid 3- Dude, I know what you should name that dog! That dog's name be... OBAMA!

kid 1- Aw HELL YES!

I would like to point out that the dog in question was not with them at the time. There are no words for how much I wish it had been. Also, when I say "kid" I mean elementary school kid. They were, in fact, still in uniform. It was a such a great thing, I was happy for days, and with any luck it'll show up on the website in a week or two. I mean, how could it not??!!

- That reminds me, I was talking to my dear friend Erin via facebook the other day, and the following exchange made me so happy that I preserved it. Now all of you may enjoy it. Ahem:

Erin

let's roleplay

you be macbeth

and i'll be lady macbeth

and we can take over the internet

10:17pm

Amy

ok, here we go:

"wow, taking over the internet would be great! too bad i'm not evil. oh well!"

10:18pm

Erin

"oh, but you have great, untapped evil potential inside you my love"

"with me by your side...we can control every site on the web"

10:19pm

Amy

"funny you should say that, i ran in to these techno witches the other day..."

10:19pm

Erin

hahahahaha

i'm so glad you took my suggestion seriously

10:20pm

Amy

best. role play. ever

- Another important development that THAT conversation reminded me of: since coming to NYC, I have somehow greatly, greatly improved my skill at needlessly terrorizing myself. I have, on three separate occasions, imagined something so terrifying and just plausible enough that I'm still genuinely frightened and nervous about it. I give you my three horrible new inventions:

1- Water cockroaches. Somehow they can breath underwater and attack you while you're sitting on the toilet. Both terrifying AND gross.

2- Ceiling mice. Mice that become so ravenous they eat a whole in the ceiling in order to spy on you and then drop into your apartment at night. Like ninjas, but awful.

3- Pigeon choking. Since pigeons have no fear of humans, what if one of them decides to fly into my face so hard that I asphyxiate on it? Seriously, they do this terrifying helicopter hovering thing right at face level!

I refuse to drop any of these, and Sam has officially stopped listening to me talk about it. He did, however, just introduce me to the following clip, which gets TERRIFYINGLY RELEVANT in the last few seconds:

- My cousin Sarah, of Shepherd clan fame, visited for a couple days, which was a wonderful excuse to see Angela Lansbury on Broadway. And at 84, the old broad acted the pants off of everyone else on stage. We also visited China town for about twenty seconds, and left her on her own for nearly an entire day while we were at work. I am the best hostess ever. 

- Oh, and Joel and Steven visited. We didn't do much, but I learned how to un-choke a baby, and they got a hamburger. Did I mention I'm the best hostess ever?

- Oh, I also saw Susan Sarandon and Geoffery Rush in a play, and he shook his butt directly at my face. It was pretty glorious. 

- I'm reading the collected works of Neil Gaiman, Hans Christian Anderson, and The Brother's Grimm as research for the children's play I'm kind of sort of writing. I really need to finish something, though, cuz I've been really sucking at that particular step of the writing process so far. 

Ok, I think that's enough for this month. Next month: two posts! We'll see if I can make that happen. 

Love to all!

Overdue Update

Hey, remember me? And how I was going to update this thing more than once a month? Apparently that just doesn't happen. But in my defense it hasn't been a terribly exciting month, so you haven't missed much. But now, for the Tid Bits Of Life!

1- I had a job interview for an internship with a Broadway casting company (Binder Casting) that I should hear about today or tomorrow. I want this job sooooooooooooooooooooo badly. Not only are they a very well known company, but I really liked the people and the vibe and the fact that they all wear fun, casual clothes, and that there's an office dog! He certainly seemed to like me, maybe he'll put in a good word?

2- For said interview, I got a new haircut! Nothing too fancy, but because it was my first time in this salon (ADORABLE place in the east village called The Little Hair Shoppe, I'll be going back all the time) I got a discount on hair coloring so I thought, why not? Now I have subtle light brown/coppery highlights. Tres chic. 

3- Sam and I had a fabulous Valentine's day (which we actually celebrated on the day before, on Dad's birthday. Silly me, working every saturday). We ate at this gorgeous restaurant called Marseille, which I had been walking past for months and months on my way to work. It was still something called Restaurant Week, which is a New York event where all the best restaurants have a special 3-course menu for just $35! So I got sweet potato and fennel gnocchi, steak frites, and this delicious chocolate dessert I forget the name of. And then, as if that wasn't enough, we had tickets to see WILLIAM H. MACY! in Speed The Plow, by David Mamet. It was so glorious. And our seats were in the Orchestra (the best seats in the house, down on the main floor in the middle, close-but-not-too-close to the stage). I had never seen Mamet done by professionals, and wow, what a difference! And and I had never read Speed The Plow before, what an extraordinary play all around. It was glorious. So very glorious. Oh, and we took a taxi home, what luxury!

4- Our friend Kyle Bain has moved here! This brings the total of good friends in the city to four (six counting sam and I). For those of you who came to my graduation and saw As You Like It, Kyle was the dapper fellow in the suit who followed the two leading ladies around. AND, even more exciting, our friend Anna Dart (in As You Like It, she was melancholy and played a saw onstage) will be arriving before too long. I love these guys so much, it's like we're setting up a whole Whitman ex-pat community here!

5- While exploring with friend Kyle, I discovered the secret thrift store mecca: W. 17th street. Four or five glorious thrift shops all right next to the other on one block, and can I just say that NY knows how to do thrift?? They're all set up like little boutique stores, instead of giant caverns that smell like moth balls and cleaning fluids. And one of the places was a combo thrift furniture and thrift costume jewelry place! I resisted many temptations and all I bought was a five dollar hat, and even then only because it was cute AND had ear flaps, something I've been greatly desiring in this weather. Oh, and there's an amazing flea market on W. 77th street on weekends, but it's hard for me to enjoy that as much as I'd like with the whole working on weekends thing. sigh. 

6- Joel and Steven are coming to visit next week!!!!!!!!!! And that's actually about all I know. Steven is arranging everything, and apparently likes to keep details to himself. But I don't mind, little brother visits are worth it! Of course, that does mean I'll have to clean... oh dear.

7- If you haven't yet, I demand that each and every one of you go see Coraline. I loved it. It's like candy for the eyes, but sophisticated candy that boggles your brain. It's a stop-motion film, which means that everything you see on the screen is a tiny puppet being manipulated one frame at a time. It's so complicated they could only shoot two minutes of movie a week. And looking at it, you'd think it was all done with computers, but practically none of it was! Plus the story is by one of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman. Plus it's set in Ashland, OR, and if you've ever been there it's really funny to see the little nods they put in about how Ashland is a town of crazy hippies. Love love love it. (oh, a warning for Kate Drake: A little scary, but I think you can handle it!)

8- Speaking of scary, I haven't written about my Terrible Ordeal on this blog yet! So back in January, I'm just sitting in the bathroom, doing my thing, when all of a sudden the window (which is RIGHT BEHIND MY HEAD) starts opening, and a man starts to climb in! I, of course, freak out. The man shouts something very crude that I won't repeat here, and starts climbing down the fire escape from whence he came. You have to understand... the window was Right. Behind. My Head. And it was a locked bathroom in the middle of the day, what is SUPPOSED to be a safe place. I have never been so terrified. Eventually I calm down a little, and figure since it's not really an emergency (I'm not hurt, he didn't get in, nothing was taken, etc.) I won't call 911, so I call 311, the information line, just to find out what I should do. The girl there thinks I'm an idiot and transfers me to 911, who instead of listening just sends the cops over. The cops, when they arrive an hour later, proceed to make fun of me for seeing pretend people on my fire escape. Between this and the whole ambulance for an ear infection thing, I am not greatly amused by New York's emergency response systems. 

9- I had a very funny conversation with the father of the girl I nanny every weekend. He, in case you don't remember, is very French. He's also an artiste (intentional European spelling alert!) and takes many things coughcough HIMSELF coughcough very seriously. So we were chatting yesterday, and he started giving me a lecture on the importance of pretending to care about the Oscars. It went something like this:

Me: Well I care who wins the awards, but I don't really watch the ceremony...

Him: What?! Zis is no good! 

Me: But you know, it goes for hours and it's kind of boring and...

Him: NON! To succeed in zis bizzness, you must LOVE ze Ozcars! How can you bee in show bizzness and not watch ze Ozcars?! 

Me: But...

Him: I am telling you zis! You must at least pretend, non? In zis town, you LOVE ze Ozcars! What do you do?

Me: Um... watch the Oscars?

Him: And........?

Me: Um?

Him: AND............?

Me: Um... I care... very much? About? Them?

Him: Bon, tres bien! And don't you forget eet!

Well, it looks like I had more adventures this month than I thought I had! Now I'm off to watch Law and Order on Netflix and enjoy my Monday off! 

Love to all!

I feel shut up, and alone, and cold. Like a raindrop.

.... Ok, no I don't. But that, ladies and gents, is a line from my play which I am now HALF DONE WITH! (insert here: explosions of confetti and mad cheering) I'm really liking this writing, it's wonderful to have something to do with all these unemployed mornings. Which I am still working on correcting, but this economy has hit New York really hard. I found out that the husband of one of my employers had been laid off... luckily, I'd only babysat for them a couple times, and they had the courtesy to email and tell me why they were cutting back on their childcare. But still, times are hard. 

I do have good news! Remember the french family? I mentioned them a few posts back. As of this week I work for them full time on the weekends, but they're adopting an infant who's due in late april or early may, and when the bundle of joy arrives they want to hire me weekdays too! So all I need to do is scrape by on the kinds of jobs I have now and I'll be all set for years (fingers crossed). I'm really growing to like this family, now that they're getting used to me the snooty factor has gone waaaay down, and their daughter is really smart for her age. She just needs to be treated like a kid twice her age, and she's great!

On a side note, Manhattan parents fascinate me. This mother, for example, had never done home-science experiments. Ever. No vinegar and baking soda, no home-made playdough, not even paper mache! I mean, I keep this stuff for emergencies since kids in the suburbs have done it half a dozen times, but not here. She finds it endlessly fascinating that I don't need a "weekend budget" in order to entertain her kid for a few hours. Not that I don't appreciate extra money, but I figure the thrifty nanny is the one who's gonna keep her job nowadays!

I really have to find another job for the interim though, I just have too much free time and I don't do anything with it. It's like the vacation breaks in college, you think at first "a whole month for Christmas, and no homework! Awesome!" And then two weeks in you can't stop thinking "I have never been so bored... maybe I'll watch food network for three hours...or re-read that book..." And in times like that, your first instinct is never to do something actually productive. I have this problem much much worse than a normal person, and it's come back to bite me several times. As long as I have a routine of work that I don't hate, I'm fine! But give me too much free time and I sluuuuuuuuuuump. Like a luuuuuuuuuump. 

I am proud of myself on one account, though. For Christmas my brother Joel got me an Amazon gift certificate (awesome!) and instead of indulging on books, I used it to get myself some home exercise DVDs, one by the New York Ballet, and the other that's a combo Yoga/Dance thing. They look like fun, and hopefully they'll work. I also got a really beautiful faux-antique map of the world to hang on our still too bare walls.

I think I might have to take the plunge and buy a new winter coat. I already bought proper boots, but the broken zipper on my old coat is just getting to be too much. Plus I really hate the way I look in it. Plus I've had it since 2004, it's run its course, right? So soon I shall begin the hunt for a pretty girly trench coat, since I've been coveting one for years now, and I clearly really want it. 

I guess that's about it, nothing too mind-blowing this week. There'll be new pictures of the apartment soon, because I'm thinking of joining one of those home-exchange websites to try and find free housing for the Edinburgh festival, and the more pictures on those things the better. It could work, right?

Love to all!

Two posts in one week?! Can that happen?

Yes, it can happen. It can especially happen when you nanny for a living and no one needs a nanny during the holidays. It can especially especially happen when you're snug inside watching a beautiful snowstorm sipping hot chocolate that you got from Santa. I'm noticing that being close to the Hudson and having a great diversity of building height in our neighborhood has led to a curious phenomenon of snowflakes falling up past our window. I think it's being caused by the heavy wind off the river and the fact that there's a big dip in building height right outside our window, so the wind bounces off those buildings and up vertically, taking the snow with it. Either way, it's really odd and lovely to look at, and I've clearly been thinking about it for the last twenty minutes. I realize that other than my christmas horror story (an ear update in a minute) I haven't posted much. I think I've figured out the problem: you see, I have a great many friends who are abroad at the moment doing various things. Two of my best friends, in fact, are in Korea and Guatemala, respectively. Their blogs are filled with international mystery, big adventures, and introspection on an epic scale. I, however, am not really experiencing any of that, because New York has quickly become my home. I don't really feel out of place anymore, I know my way around (for the most part), and I settled in almost instantly. While that's great for life in general, it doesn't make for edge-of-your-seat reading. But I've been collecting little tid-bits of life, and I'll post them for you here whilly-nilly. That's just how it's gonna be. And now for The Tid Bits of Life:

- ear update: much better, thank god. I'll still be using ear drops well into January, but I'm off the Vicodin for pain. There will be embarrassing orange ear plugs in the bath and shower from now on. 

- The snow storm stopped rather abruptly, but the wind continues, so now there are strange mystical white snow clouds being blown off the buildings. I love our view. 

- Sam just came home and showed me a picture on his phone of a sparrow who lives in the 59th street subway station, who he sees all the time. It was drinking from a subway puddle. 

- Sam also just showed me that his crazy boss got him a New York Yankee cap for Christmas. I have explained how he is not allowed to wear it in my presence, but he does not understand my loathing. Yankee caps in my house are NOT ok. 

- I have made a potentially life-changing discovery. Well, dining life changing, anyway. There is a generic chinese food place near our house called "China Sea." We had not previously tried it because there is an almost identical place even closer to us called "Eastern Garden." However, the beef and broccoli from Eastern Garden gave me the worst case of food poisoning in my life, so we're never eating there again. I also can never touch beef and broccoli, and would stay away from all such chinese food places, if they weren't so delicious and convenient. Anyways, back to China Sea. We've never actually seen China Sea, we just found it on the internet and were confused as to how we'd never seen it, so we decided to try it. My friends, here is the important thing about China Sea: dumplings. Glorious, glorious dumplings. Steamed to perfection, filled with tasty pork and fresh herbs, in amazingly generous proportions (10 for 4 bucks!!). I'm talking dumpling heaven. I have become seriously addicted to these things, I haven't even tried anything else from the restaurant. I could go on and on and on about these perfect specimens of dumpling-dom, but I won't, for your sakes. Oh, and here's the weird part: I'm not sure this place actually exists. I've been out to actively look for it, and it is not there. When we have food delivered, they never give us an actual paper menu. I think I may have discovered the secret phone number to dumpling heaven. I feel very privileged. 

- I love our apartment. It's so cozy. People have begun to compliment us on our apartment. I love that, I know it's vain of me, but I do. It even managed to host a twenty person goodbye party for my friend Matt (who, I'd like to point out, was the only person at that party I'd met more than once). Not something I plan on doing again, but I was proud to know it was possible. 

- I love our neighborhood. I always feel safe here, it's pretty, interesting things going on, and as my family found out for christmas, I can find some really strange things in the shops here. I wonder how Steven's "male treasure" tea is working out for him...

- Instant Netflix is the best invention in the history of mankind. Period. 

- I love my friends. Having Berta and Sarah here is really wonderful. And, unlike college, it's not like we're living together in a small compound, it's real life. We don't see each other every day, and when we do see each other, it's genuinely a special pleasure to hang out with them. I can also call in a panic when I have no idea where the heck I am, and they can usually help. 

- My play is coming along very nicely, the first act is mostly done. It's going slower than I thought, but that's a good thing because it means I'm putting lots of changes in. I won't bore you with lots of details, but right now there's a plan to maybe go to Scotland this summer? And do this play at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival? How freaking awesome would that be?!!!

- I'd forgotten how wonderful a working fridge is. Our drinks are cold. WE HAVE ACTUAL ICE. Life is amazing with a working fridge. 

That's all the bits I can think of just now, I was sure I had more than that.... oh well, for another day. Sam and I might try to venture out for a New Years adventure tonight, since our Christmas kind of got ruined by my stupid ear. But the weather, while lovely to look at, doesn't look like it'd be much fun to wander in, so we'll see. There will be thank you cards with pictures in them for all our lovely gifts. It might take till the end of the month, but it WILL happen, I promise you!! 

Love to all

A Christmas Story

Friends, I am writing this under the influence of Vicoden. A great deal of Vicoden. So if it's less than coherent, please forgive me. Why, you may ask, am I on oh-so-much lovely Vicoden? Well, I'll tell you: Santa was not so kind to me this year. 

I've had an earache for about a week now. It wasn't serious until Sunday night, which also happened to be my birthday. We had a couple friends over for dinner, and then Sam took me to see In The Heights (a fab new musical I've been dying to see. It was SO GOOD). However, the combination of the subway ride and the loud music way amped up the pain in my ear, so I started using home remedies on it- hot compresses, tylenols of various sorts, even slightly warmed olive oil (don't judge, the internet said it would work). But the pain just kept increasing, and increasing until Wednesday I couldn't take it anymore. Now a little fact about New York: there are lots of walk-in clinics, which is great, except they're ALL on Saturdays and Sundays. All of them. So I went to the emergency room; I had no other choice, and I really needed the antibiotics. After waiting for four hours, a doctor spent less than five minutes looking at my ear, prescribed some drops, and sent me on my merry way. 

Fast forward to the middle of Christmas Day. I've used the drops three times now, and they haven't been helping. In fact the pain is getting worse. In even more fact, I woke up from a nap crying and shrieking in pain. Sam and I can't figure out if the increased pain is just part of my disease, or if I'm having an allergic reaction. It being Christmas day, none of the phone numbers or websites or any contact stuff I got from the hospital is being put through. I'm still sobbing and Sam panics and calls 911 for advice. They promptly send EMT's (since that is, after all, their main job). Now Sam and I just want to know if this is an allergic reaction or if the pain is supposed to happen. That's all. But the neither the EMT's or the 911 folks will give us an opinion. Not even a carefully hedged one. And thus I took my first Ambulance ride... for an ear infection. No one has ever felt such extreme humiliation. Yes, I was in a lot of pain, but come on, an ear infection??!! I still feel ridiculous. 

And of course, as soon as we get to the hospital, I'm sent right back to the very waiting room I spent four hours in the day before. Unlike last time, I'm shuffled into the ER very promptly and given a bed/waiting area all to myself... which I then spend 6 hours in. Around the 4th hour I see the doctor, a very sweet old asian woman who promptly wanted to switch my drops (no one thought I'd actually had an allergic reaction, but clearly something was going on) and give me pain medication. Great. However, because of some hospital policy I didn't understand, she had to check with another doctor before she was allowed to do this. This man, a stately older fellow with perfectly white hair, thought the lady was insane and insisted that despite my throbbing ear I did not, in fact, have an ear infection: I had a toothache. They proceeded to argue loudly right there in my little bed area, taking turns shoving scopes into my ears, which hurt so badly I started crying again. Finally the small asian woman stood on her tiptoes and shook a finger in the man's face, yelling "This girl clearly in pain! EAR PAIN! You crazy and I will not send her to dentist for no reason! She need new medicine RIGHT NOW!" The man doctor huffed loudly and stalked away, followed by the lady doctor muttering loudly to herself in what I assume was her native language. About an hour later she called me over to the nurse's desk, handed me a prescription for Vicoden, a different brand of ear drops, and the name of a doctor who might accept my insurance who could check me out in about ten days. She patted me on the arm, told me to completely dismiss what the man doctor had told me, and said "Next time you come emergency room in pain, you make sure they give you pain medicine, ok? Make sure this don't happen again." 

And so I left once more (rescuing poor Sam from the waiting room, where he'd been the last 6 hours), travelled over 50 blocks into the bronx to find the one pharmacy open that late on Christmas day, and at long long last took some Vicoden. I've been on it ever since, and my ear is still not very happy. It feels all plugged and swollen and throbby, but I can't feel the pain, and so I'm content. Hopefully these new drops will start working soon, and I can take a shower (you're not allowed to get water in the ear while the infection is still bad), but I believe the worst is over. 

So that's my first New York Christmas. Not really what I had hoped for... but I really did feel cared for by my doctor, and the pharmacist rushed my order, and the taxi driver was willing to wait for us at the pharmacy, and so I still love this city. In the end, the people came through for me. Oh, and about five minutes ago our new super here at 75 Thayer St. delivered a new fridge!! Ours has been broken since Thanksgiving, so this is truly a Christmas miracle. Hopefully I'll talk to most of you soon once I can hear out of this ear again. 

Merry Christmas, and Love to all!!!

good-ish news

So as many of you know I'm currently surviving on babysitting jobs. I have sat for five different families to date, three of them on a regular basis. The last two weekends has been for the first family I interviewed with here (who waited a month to call me back, btw) and I just found out today that they're in the process of adopting a second child, and when they do they might hire me full time. Considering the length of the adoption process (and I have no idea where in that process they are), this could mean either a full time job fairly soon or waaaay down the line. 

By the way, every job I've worked for this family, the parents have stuck around in the apartment. They don't actually need a babysitter, as far as I can tell, they just don't want to deal with their daughter all day (she is a bit of a brat, but she's from a rich nyc family, they're ALL like that). It's really uncomfortable for me, but they haven't commented on it, so I guess it's normal for them. 

I also had an interview with a temp agency that went pretty well, but I'm not holding my breath as it's a huge agency with lots of applicants with way more office experience than me. But apparently not many people are good with Powerpoint nowadays, and I'm pretty comfortable there, so that was a plus for me. See mom and dad, I have one whole marketable skill! yay!

Oh, and Sam and I went and saw Avenue Q for a big discount, and literally every single person sitting by us, all 360 degrees, had run the new york marathon the day before. It was really creepy... I felt like an unfit island in a sea of muscles. But the show was fun, and none of them had seen it or knew anything about it, so it was even more fun re-discovering the show through their eyes. 

ok, time to crash and fight the cold I feel coming. Love to all! 

ACK!

I'm the worst blogger ever! If I hadn't received multiple messages about it this week, who knows how long I would have gone before updating?! 

Ok, I'm actually about to go have an adventure of some kind (that's what we tend to do, just decide to have an adventure and ride the subway until we find one) so here's a list of completely unorganized thought to quench your collective thirst:

- We may go see Avenue Q tonight, if it's at the half-price tickets booth

- Both small child and I have discovered that Sports Night (an excellent pre- West Wing,  Aaron Sorkin show) being on youtube is a dangerous, dangerous time-sucker. You are warned!

- I MET MANDY PATINKIN! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAL!!!

- The afore-mentioned legend was starring in the excellent production of the Tempest we saw for Sam's birthday. I miss doing theatre. A lot. Gotta fix that...

- I am currently subsisting on babysitting gigs, and furiously applying  for ANY OTHER JOB IN THE UNIVERSE

- I have a library card now, and I really really enjoy riding the subway with a good novel. It's the best commute ever. 

- Speaking of subways, the other day the driver of the subway I was riding treated us to a 3-stop monologue about the glories of the Metro Transit Authority and how "it's gonna change your life from the ground up! Watch the rainbows!" and everyone on the train gave him a huge round of applause when he finished. love it. 

- I had the incredibly surreal experience of walking through an incredibly impoverished ghetto in Brooklyn, where I was looking for a cheap bowling alley with my friend matt, and seeing gangs of people blocking the street up ahead. It was 11 at night, I'm thinking I'm about to get mugged. We get close, and we see that it is a ghetto... a ghetto of Orthodox Jews. There was loud music coming from the houses, and for three blocks the streets were full of Orthodox Jews just wandering about. It was magical. And really, really weird. 

- I miss Whitman. Not all of it, but college life is pretty sweet.

- Our freezer is completely broken, and our fridge is slowly following the path of demise. Our super, Zef, who was so great when we were moving in, has apparently forgotten how to answer the telephone. This is worrisome. 

- As it gets colder, we're discovering that the main way our apartment is heated is through a single pipe located in our bathroom, which has some kind of steam pressure valve thing that loudly hisses out what we're assuming is heated air of some kind every now and then. It smells like a yeasty, honey bread dough, and really creeps me out.

- I think we have all the furniture we're going to buy! Now all we need are some plants and a few decorations for the wall, and it'll really feel like home. Pictures soon. 

Ok, that's all the thoughts I can muster right now, hopefully I'll never let the updating slip this long again. If I do, however, just badger me! It's the best way to get things done.

Love to all!