my first day in brooklyn

the first time i ever came to brooklyn was junior year of college. i did not follow the directions i was given exactly and end up wandering around the edges of windsor terrace/kensignton. that was actually helpful today for me to be able to find my way as i decided to walk to the next train station but didn't know where it was. that first time in the bk we also went to the dumbo arts fest. i went there today. got there late so didn't catch too much. but some some cool art. esp these portraits that were painted and looked like topographic maps in the the different layers and colors. i thought they were awesome. i asked the guy is he could do one from a picture but he didn't quite get what i was talking about. going into the loft buildings themselves was pretty awesoem and have some cool raw spaces. why were these buildings orginally built? what were they used for? why are they mutli level with the inner core being fewer levels? yep. basically i still love dumbo as much as i did that day 9 years ago. i am joining smack mellon.

got to do some naked sunbathing on a roof today. this weather is awesome!

it is driving me insane that i can't remember the name of a band we were listening to last night, even though i was told 3 times. i knew i would forget. also there are these signs/tags not sure what to call them up in the east village. done by hand. FF and it says what they stand for but i can't remember, also driving me insane.

ps date was goo. hope i don't fuck it up/get too involved too quickly.

back from the woods

it was nice. did a decent hike.l ate some good food. was really into the hallel service. shook a lulav. glad i didn't stay all weekend. freedman was nicer than i remember, maybe b/c i wasn't staying in brown house and i wasn't going up with any bittersweet feelings or resentment towards the place. it is a very pretty setting.
someone told me something that made me feel good about my shitty interactions/fallout with the rabbinical student. she said, "you're witty" "he doesn't get sarcasm at all. he would drive you crazy, people like that who are uber genuine would make you explode" but it was phrased better and in way that was complimentary to me. its true i need sarcasm, or at least an appreciation of it.

date for with no nickname tonight. i'm pumped, but have to stop by a coworker's b'day party on the UWS which is just completely not convenient at all!

at first look of names i don't recognize any of the genius grantees

so i can't hate them off the bat. i'll need to read the bios before i decide.

i've been waiting for these, but was caught off guard that they came out todeay

surprise surprise i haven't done any work today

but for the past two nights i have woken up in the middle of the night and not been able to get back to sleep for a while, and end up doing some serious tossing and turning. last night wasn't as bad. i want to go out and see if the newly named labyrinth books (i think the new name is stupid, but business partners split) has the believer which i can't believe i haven't picked up yet. but also i'm yet to do anywork either for class on on my thesis which is due in 53 days and is how i'm supposed to spend my tuesdays...

i think i pissed off my new work friend while tipsy last night by revealing a non-secret. oops.
i also hate that the unnamed boy can never hang out during the week.
oh well, at least i got to drink outside at the yacht club last night...

10 hour 3rd date

so i'm leaving the boy's (i can't think of a good nickname for him, the israeli is ok except that applies to someone else who incidentally has the same first name as this guy) and i take a car home b/c i just miss the train and its not stopping at my stop. in the bodega is a 5 year old who clearly should have been asleep at 11 pm no? than this car service pulls up-but not mine with a 15 year old kid driving and two other younger kids in the back seat--um hello school night. besides i just wanted to be asleep.

went out to the salt marsh in marine park. was mad pretty. not so many birds, tons of phragmities, and some beautiful sun and water. the jet skiers and water skiiers were driving us up a wall. but found a beachy area to take a nap in which was sweet until the sun went a little lower and i got bitten up like crazy on my legs-reason to wear socks. it was amazing how much cooler it was in the marsh after the sun went behind the buildings than before.

must sleep

um favorite new author!

sharon creek she wrote walk two moons which is supposed to be amazing, but just read love that dog-awesome poetry book. love it!

last new orleans post

the wasp and i drove around the lower 9th ward-or what we assume was that to look at the desstruction-a horrible kind of tourism and probably not unlike all the people to made pilgramages to ground zero years ago who i never understood and talked shit about.
it was tough to imagine what the area must have looked like underwater and also to get a good before and after picture--had all those empty lots been empty two and half years ago? the area was certainly pretty desolate and lots of homes abandoned. it still isn't the kind of poverty i'm used to seeing, soo low density and now a ghost town practically-we did see people and homes that had been rebuilt or were being lived in.
what was the industry in new orleans?
also in general new orleans is flat-as makes sense for a place below sea level, but i can't deal with such flat areas.

the french quarter is all about drinking in a pathetic sort of way. no matter the hour there always seemed to be someone getting on or off the elevator with a beer or hurricane in their hands.
i think i already mentioned the public drinking is totally fine laws.

the wedding was nice, simple the ceremony totally nice. they had a ketubahesque wedding contract that they asked every guest to sign-it was nice. didn't get to spend much time with the bride, not so surprised, and she and i aren't so close these days. but as always it was good to hang with the wasp--who had rental car troubles that had nothing to do with me.
the brunch was all philipino food-i wasn't aware there was a phillipino population in new orelans. overall the food involved a lot of seafood or pork over the weekend. i was surpriused there weren't more vegetarian options given the grooms vegetarian ways. but so it goes.
also didn't hear and dixieland or zydeco which was a little sad. bourbon street probably not the place for that.

quick hello from the big easy

the weather has been nice down here.
i am definitely too old for mardi gras. bourbon street has not surprisingly but unexpectedly to me a lot of strip clubs. open containers are beyond legal as long as they are plastic, but even that is not enforced. a huge beer = a 12 oz beer sorry that's not huge.
this trip has not given me a good lay of the land. we wandered the frech quarter and went to see a cemetery but we haven't seen any destruction/debris don't have a good idea of which levees broke or what the before after situation is. good trip, but i feel a little bougie not totally seeing all of new orleans. also didn't get a feel for cajun culture and i'm sad that i heard neither dixieland nor zydeco.
ok thew wasp wants us to go leave for the pig roast.

listen to what the dermatologist said-in a very off handed way to me today

"if its cancer it'll grow back"

i laughed and wasn't put off but still. also while i'm waiting in the hallway i look over and there is a friend from college who i haven't seen in a few years, we lost touch in a not good way. but she's an internist there now. we have plans for next week. crazy and small world. she was wondering who i was seeing that she could switch it and i could see her, but i kinda dont think friends should go to friends as their doctor.

i wish mickey still had a work answering machine that i could leave crazy drunk messages on instead of inappropriately texting coworkers

why do i get myself in these situations

i totally need to find a new special friend to deal with this shit.
need to find a way to be friendly with but not flirt with male coworkers.
went on a 9 hour second date yesterday, yet i wasn't even sure it was a date. went to moma (saw the richard serra exhibit again, one fo the small pieces had fallen) got some food and hung out at the fountain at columbus circle-which has totally grown on me but is actually surprisingly loud and hard on the ears. but he works crazy hours and i'm not around next weekend, then yom kippur then i want to go away for sukkot. we'll see. he got off the train just to say goodbye to me, and then wait on the platform. i thought that a little unnecessary but that's just me.

kickball playoffs are tonight. here's hoping for a win.

scariest thing i've read in a while

via the nytimes:
Another feature of the iPod software will be the ability to alert a user entering a Starbucks coffee shop to the music being played there. If a person likes the song and wants to buy it on iTunes, tapping an icon on the screen will download the song.

sorry we out of frog legs toda

or so proclaims some typed signs at nathan's this evening./ did i know nathan's served frog legs? i think the people who eat their clams are crazy enough.
saw some migrating monarchs flying in over the ocean tonight. its pretty awesome to see a butterfly just fly in over the water to find a place to sleep for the night. their migration is awesome.
the commisioner's team gets first round bye at the kickball play offs. that's so lamer.
had other stuff to write but i dont remember
i eat too much pizza these days. but the place across from work is damn yummy. may win out for best slice in brooklyn over the place on bedford.

big week but also non evenetful

random list of things that happened/i saw:
goldfish in a boulder in inwood hill park
the moon rise over the ocean and shimmer down
date with the kickball commisioner
being dumped by the kickball commisioner by being told his "heart belongs to another"
going to the floating pool barge for the firs time
going to long beach for the first time this summer
not having shabbat dinner, but going out for indian with a friend
going to catty shack for the first time
wrote another boy a beyond crazy email--need to keep my honesty in check