merry christmas

so i can't decide about taking jewelry to israel (i should be doing report cards instead of worrying about packing, that could take me 5 minutes if needed). after the costa rica watch incident i don't want to risk it, but also i feel totally naked without it. and i successfully navigated ireland without losing any and that was moving locations a lot, and our hotel room was a disaster area the morning we packed after the wedding, why am i blanking on the name of that town, i feel like it started with a 'w'

saw volver last night it was good but i thought sad, there were some great cinematography shots. who gets credit for those, almodovar for their idea or the cinematographer for the execution? do all of his movies involve acoustic singing outside (i've only seen two)

if there is anyone out there who cares, i probably won't post til i'm back. from painting and planting trees with jnf. i feel sketchy about the second part. jnf has in the past had some environmental and political practices i've not felt ok with. i have to assume that they have gotten their environmental asses in tact, we'll see what the propaganda about their politics is, and truth be told i've done no research into the politics of the organizations involved in this trip or its mission.

there was also a brige involved in the name of the wedding town

i can't reserve my veggie meal

the stupid el al number doesn't work and i forgot that i need to be the one to reserve a veggie meal it won't be standard. meh, kosher meat airplane food.

at powerhouse arena (home of powerhouse books an art/photo book publisher) i was flipping through a book that mentioned andy warhol died 20 years ago. that made me feel old and shocked. i remember where i was when warhol died, sort of. he was from the burgh, it was a big deal. my art teacher put up a huge picture replica of the black and white photo of warhol with his hair all out and then we did a bit of a study of him. i don't totally remember what the reaction was yesterday, it just struck me.

peter cole is too common for me to google the artist who's peice i just bought

the one i can find is mainly living in israel and a poet, although he is also called an artist. but since the peice i bought is cut from siding from brooklyn buildings i feel like the guy is closer to home. i am quite pleased with my purchase. its going up in the living room, b/c my room needs no more decoration. and the living room is bare. i cleaned my room finally today, and it makes me feel so much better to see my floor its crazy.
today was a gorgeous day. i seriously think its warmer here today than it probably will be in israel. so much for using this trip as a way to escape from winter.
walked around dumbo, checked out a couple galleries. thAT place has changed soo much over the years its crazy. but its still a nieghborhood that i really like and has some good haunts and of course my love for fancy grocery stores. there is a newish, used book store where guate gill bought a bunch of stuff for her school. but i still need to get a book for the plane...i found a mosaics workshop, but i think its only making mandalas, which while cool aren't quite what i'm looking for.
finally walked around carroll gardens to look at the xmas lights, but they don't seem to be as elaborate this year. and not having any cold weather makes them feel a bit different.

new gift idea

buy offsets to my carbon footprint. the idea was floated past me the other night, and you can do it. but i can't figure out how. they all seem to be uk based places and i'm unclear where its like buying a camel from oxfam (which we did for the kids for channukah) where money is going to a cause to find carbon dioxide or its like someone was trying to tell me that its buying carbon credits off the market that companies then wouldn't have access to (this is the more preferable option in my mind, although i should work on reducing my carbon footprint as is. some of the site i found let you calculate your footprint for specific flights like the long haul ass ones i am taking next week)

wish i had ear plugs

there is currently a kid at cocoa bar, my new home, (where i am struggling with this assignment), who's voice is in the process of changing and is cracking like crazy and driving me insane. i feel sorry for him and his parents. seriously it makes me cringe to overhear his loud voice.

right i work for a zionist school

apparently we end all school functions with hatikva.
then there was bar mitzvahesque dj isreali dancing. the first few songs of which were much hipper than when i was in middle school. shoot me now i just used the phrase 'hipper' oy i need a stiff drink. but then it returned to the circle dancing i know from. and i cut out as i had mad work to do tonight. but in 24 hours my grad school semester could be over. the chances of one of my papers being written by then is however slim.
but i did get cash as a present from the parents association. sweet.

oh and um, yeah since i don't like change

i'm not a fan of the new version of itunes color scheme or 3dish icons. i liked the green better. so unsurprising. i still hate my new cell phone.

i want my cultural life back

due to a job i only kinda need but don't want if it means working sunday and grad school obligations (and not getting out of the house early enough on friday) i did not get to go inside 11 spring street this weekend. all that work and only open for a weekend before they start the demolition and painting over it. i missed out on pina bausch and i couldn't be bothered to drag my ass to bread and puppet even though i've never seen them. and i miss my union square wandering around manhattan life. oh grad school when will you end?

after working on a paper for 5 hours at grad school friend's house (and actually working for most of that time when i wasn't rejected book suggestions from her) i took a car service home, b/c i should do some more work before going to bed. i think it was the most ghetto car service i have even been in, far more ghetto then the sketchy greenpoint car service who would make you sit up front when you were going to the airport and pay while you were on the grand central b/c they are totally unlicensed is less ghetto. this was an old cab that had been repainted and the window taken out but the divider still there.

i think i pissed off the israeli by insultingly commenting on the prevalent misogyny among the ultra-religious in his country, i didn't even mention anything about the fucked up machismo of all the rest of them.

chill made some fucking awesome holiday cookies last night. rock on.

those of you who know my father will smile knowingly

here is a email exchange with my dad:
subject: the last line of this reminds me of soemthing you would say
text:
from today's metropolitan diary in the times:
Dear Diary:

I was waiting for the Second Avenue bus when a well-dressed woman,
probably in her 70s, joined me in the shelter. When the bus arrived
and opened its doors, she asked the driver if he stopped at 19th
Street, just four blocks away.

Assured that it was the next stop, she began to board the bus. She had
such tremendous difficulty climbing the steps that I instantly
understood why she took the bus to travel such a short distance.

She got off at 19th and from my seat I watched her hobble slowly down
the street in obvious pain. Then I noticed something I had missed
before. She was wearing black, calf-high leather boots precariously
balanced on 4-inch spike heels.

Fashion is a cruel and apparently unrelenting master.

his reply:
Dearest,

I'm flattered. The phrase is apt, but beyond my writing skills.

Have a great day.

Love,

Dad

fyi: paul rudolph

i would feel so sketchy breathing in that building

what's the name of the architect who's ashes were scattered in the hvac system in the yale building

maybe the architecture school. but the one down the road from the indian place in the streetcar?

i'm disappointed that i won't be able to make it to boston for slipandslide buddy's b'day. i don't know if she cares or not, but i like it when i get to be up there that weekend. i don't think i've been to boston since hoya and springy's wedding, that's a while ago now.

ropes, covers, $500 bottle service

this is a facet of new york nightlife i rarely if ever take part in. and of late my saturday nights are usually wrapped up by 12. but ern was in town and i went out to meet her and her friends at some club/lounge on 27th st. i got there and texted inside 'i don't do lines' but i went in anyway and they had two bottles and i was happy to drink their tequila if they were stupid enough to pay what we guessed to be $600 for the drinks. left there and ended up closing down the bar at the W in murray hill with mr kinasecaster. when he texted that he was in town and wanted to hang out it was definitely the highlight of my weekend. so good to see him. even if it meant getting into a cab at 10 to 4 when i had to work at 10:30. he was kinda shocked at the price of our drinks (thanks for picking those up btw). yep non-dive/neighborhood bars in manhattan. hoep you guys had a safe trip back. sorry that i didn't get to see mrs kinasecaster

grad school friend invited me to a monthly book swap. the peeps seem to have similar reading styles than me. i only left with a couple children's books and a memoir (my fav) [you have to return the book or put them back out for circulation when you are done] because i am aware of my possibility for reading in a month. some people took crazy amounts of books. i need to write report cards-no reading for me til i'm back from israel, or at least that's how it should be.

clarification i am in support of gay rabbis-i just don't think they went far enough

so i'm reading never let me go by kazuo ishiguro. its ok, not as good as the hype it got. he has a very distinctive style in this book of end each chapter with not exactly cliff hangers but maybe more previews for the next episode. its fine, but i don't love it and think it would keep me away from reading any of his other books, of which remains of the day is most famous, but i've not read it. in any case i don't know the nationality of the author but since it was nominated for the [man] booker prize i assume he speaks british english and the book is set in england, but i can tell that words have been americanized and i'm annoyed by that. aren't we smart enough to follow along what is written in british english and it sometimes makes the narrator say things that aren't quite in character.

wers children's hour: yah!

missing the times when mickey lived here.

maybe this is why i'm not officially (money invested in) the conservative movement

there were several very publicized votes on interpretations of jewish law concerning the right of homosexuals to marry and be ordained as rabbis. i don't know all the details, and it seems to me that the 3 things pass contradict each other-when has that ever happened in judiasm before-but while one did allow for recognized celebrations of gay couplehood (not marriage though) one passed saying that gays should have reparative therapy, and another saying that it is ok to ordain gay rabbis tries to legislate people's very safe sexual behavior-no sodomy. (ps its not just gay men that have anal sex, and blow jobs are technically sodomy as well). don't take my word for fact, i know little about the situation, but i don't see how its not better if there weren't more positive votes and the ban wasn't overturned.

this exists, huh. i would never be on it (old list): The American Heritage® Dictionary Usage Panel

my eyes

had an encounter/ran into/walked past a friend of a friend who i met once 2 years ago, but some signs pointed to it definately being this person. i wasn't sure if i should acknowledge or not, so i didn't at least not intentionally. my friend got this email from the person in question wondering if she knew who it was
"...the only reason I am paranoid is that

a) it is my normal demeanor
b) I recognized her from somewhere
c) she gave me a look that I can't really describe. But it wasn't casual (and it wasn't flirtatious either)."

african american lit. how do you define it?

so i only had about 25 minutes to read in borders, i would have had more but i had to go to the computer to look up where the book was. in the AA lit section. what determines if a book goes there? the author is black? the protagonist is black? the subject matter is somehow of black-interest?

fyi until further notice my text messages don't work/apex hides the hurt

i read half of it today, but then my roommate had to give it back and i had borrowed it without permission. i've done more reading in the last 3 weeks than the last 4 months. i have some awkward time to kill in the middle of the day tomorrow, i might try to hit a barnes and noble and finish it. i know i know, i wasn't going to pick up his stuff anymore, but i heard it was an easy read and i needed something for my multiple subway rides today. interestingly to me, i know that colson whitehead is black, the protagonists of his last two novels were black. as is the protagonist of this one, but until it actually got referenced, i was totally picturing a white guy in my head. i still have no idea how old the guy should be.