i heart new york

last weekend, in the dog run, warren and i got to talking to an older gentleman who had lived in the east village his whole life. he was complaining about all of the suburban people who had moved into the neighborhood and brought their values with them. we told him how we had actually had to wait in line for our bagels that morning. and they weren't even good bagels! anyway, it's really gross. but we can't leave.

he felt so sorry for us! our living conditions are terrible. and there isn't even really that much art left in the neighborhood anyway. galleries have made way for handbag and doggie boutiques. we could have a huge house if we lived anywhere else. he kept asking, "why don't you leave," which actually kind of hurt my feelings; i wasn't quite sure if he thought we were examples of the "suburban people" he had been complaining about. because we kind of are. except we don't have those values. well, maybe some of them. "you don't have to live like this."

of course, most non-native new yorkers ask themselves why they live in new york probably every day, and i, having lived here for thirteen years, have been wondering the entire time. i don't think i meant to stay when i moved here, precipitously, after a breakup.

the reason we won't leave the east village, for brooklyn, say, is because we like not having to take the subway ever. it is worth it to us to pay a ridiculous premium in rent for very little space for this luxury. we both hate, to a pathological degree, being jostled in a crowd. more than being jostled by each other constantly.

but mostly, even if we didn't find what we moved to new york city for exactly, at least not yet, or maybe we found it, and it promptly disappeared, we have found so many people here who moved here for the same reasons we did. these are people whom we probably wouldn't have met if we and they had stayed wherever we came from. and i like being with them a lot. they are enough of a reason to stay here.

overheard

i overheard someone, as i was passing the sidewalk tables of the three of cups, which is on the corner of my block, say, "i just need to get a new lifestyle." like the way you live is something you can just go out and pick up like milk from the bodega. this is the way people think nowadays. she'll probably hire a personal trainer and/or nutritionist, or at the very least go to one of those weekend "spiritual retreats" up in the catskills at a "conference center". i wonder what her problem is, why she needs to change her, maybe, furniture arrangement. bad skin? malaise? what is the alternative? surgery? leaving manhattan? maybe her old lifestyle expired and she has been walking around without one. maybe she currently has a lifestyle of the rich and famous and has just decided that it's passé. maybe she's just your average idiot. nevertheless, all of that having been said, it did occur to me anew as i was walking up the steps to my apartment that i really, really need to start getting to bed earlier.

work and play

i am finding it impossible to work this week. all of my bosses are out of town, and the show i'm working on is stupid as all get out. i have spent the last two days researching vacations. i just got back from vacation. i'm like a vacation expert. vacation research has now replaced craft blogs as my favorite thing to look at online. i now know how much a quarter share in the hamptons is, what site to go to for a last-minute package deal to the carribean, many, many adorable little farmhouses to rent in the catskills, what many, many hotel rooms look like in colorado springs, and their pools, too, etc.

the last few trips i've taken, i felt like i'd already been to the place, so maybe it's not such a good thing to be so well informed. maybe that's why i liked amsterdam so much. we hadn't even planned on going there, so i had no idea what it would be like. it seemed really, really foreign. i had always assumed it would be like sweden or denmark, which i've been to. but it wasn't. it wasn't as clean. and the people seemed more, it's probably dumb to say, authentic somehow. less formal, maybe?



this is a picture of some strangers in the courtyard of the hotel we stayed in in paris posted on tripadvisor. that site is awesome, mostly because users upload photos of the places they review.

anyway, i think the crap i'm editing is actually starting to bother me; it's not just pure laziness. and also i know i can pull it out at the last minute like i always do, and everyone will be impressed as hell. it's a really easy life. and that really suits me. but maybe i should try to work on something that doesn't turn my stomach.

disgusting

way to take back the fucking congress, dems! who're you, the mets?



if there werent so many pictures out there of me doing god knows what all, i'd run.

as there are, i'd love some advice about the most vulnerable GOP seats, cuz i'm gonna work on a campaign this summer and help get one! i got mad envelope-stuffing skillz!

blog cheese

i am guilty of a lot of blog cheese, as defined by lindsay of lindsayism.com in the link below.

you have to scroll down almost to the bottom, march 11 2005, to read the list, but it's totally worth it; she's a hoot.

blog cheese

anyway, one of the blog cheese crimes is blogging about google searches that lead to your blog, which i've resisted till now, but i can't resist mentioning that someone came here from a search for "how to kill the mish mosh". i feel strangely proud. i will follow, however, the proscription against saying hello to the googler.

trip pictures

i can't figure out how to wrap the text properly, and i'm not going to do the whole irritating trial and error thing i always do. so here are the captions:

1. obligatory. the one of warren came out better than the one of me.
2. an ancient city wall near our hotel
3. me enjoying my map in the palais royal
4. montmartre subway. metro. whatever. after this picture we had to climb like a thousand steps.
5. warren and i were thrilled by the french's enthusiasm for mary magdalene, our favorite disciple.










6. those are little vineyards in the distance.












9. this is the only picture from amsterdam in which i don't look, well, high.
10. the following sunday was to be queen's day, which is like the dutch mardi gras, so there was a carnival and much excitement around town. i'm pretty sure i'm glad i missed it.
11. this was the most beautiful merry-go-round i've ever seen.









12. warren in what i insisted was "vermeer's light", even though delft, i was informed, is a whole nother town.
13. from inside a coffee shop

may day 2006 continuing

they're *still* cheering!
i have never heard so many voices singing in unison before in my life!
i don't know the song.

may day 2006 continues

that's a lotta lotta people. who are very psyched. the transit workers won their battle this past winter, the french just shot down some capitalist reform, commies are getting elected all over latin america, bush is going down; there's something happening here. and now.

may day 2006 continued

i've been to a lot of protests, folks; i went to a women's college in the early 90s. i have *never* heard enthusiasm like this before. it's actually a little unsettling. does that mean i'm a fucking yuppie? i didn't even participate in the general strike today. at the very least, i broke a fucking picket line. i could have been a part of history, but i would just have had to make up the work over the weekend, and we're going to connecticut, of all places, to visit some friends.

may day 2006

my office is on university and 12th. i hear right at this moment extremely jubilant cheering coming from what i assume is union square. it has been going on without diminishing for about 3 minutes now. has the revolution finally come to pass? there is a helicopter too. perhaps soon there will be machine gun fire?

ass drag

i swear to christ it's gonna be worth the wait for those pictures. but i slept all day and night saturday, after weird problems trying to upload and couldnt face trying it again on sunday. plus, i am dragging serious ass. i did manage to wash the dog, though. she prefers to be dirty, but, "tough poop," i tell her. notwithstanding, if i don't sneak a nap, cheek-to-keyboard-style, before the day is over it will be a miracle.