no me gusta katrina

it is the last day of august yall- where did the summer go?

i have to say i have been in a bit of a funk these last few days i think part b/c of this katrina thing. have you all seen the photos? its like shit from a movie. a horror movie that is. like "the day after tomorrow" and shit. and what hurts my heart even more is a number of my atlanta friends are from this region and they have all kinds of loved ones there. its like i just sit on the couch and watch the sensationalistic news about it and it just makes me sad. what has been encouraging is that many schools in the south and north have responded in some great ways. i know emory is figuring out a way to contribute to the area as is jes's school- brooklyn law school. as far as i know, the families of my friend's kim and sarah are ok, but i know that communication has been sketchy to say the least. what makes me crazy is that while it is certainly on the news here it is not the focal point i would like it to be. that is what i get for moving up north i guess.

i don't have much else to report from brooklyn. i finished coding my dissertation interviews just now which seems almost unbelievable. i am not sure why it took me as long as it did b/c once i sat down and did it, i got it done in like a week. sometimes i can just be an idiot i guess. yesterday i spent the day with this girl rachel who is friends with my mentor ara. i also got to see higgins which was great. we basically walked around the city until they had to leave. i tried to go to the mac store to get jes another battery but they were all out of the one i needed AND there were twelve million nyu students getting their parents to buy them computers for school. i think jes is doing ok in school. she is gone from 8am until 8pm which kind of sucks and i guess she got called on for the first time in class yesterday. the teacher asked her to talk about the gotti (read: mafia guy) case they read for class. jes said she was real nervous that she was mispronouncing the italian names. hilarious. maybe she will write another update this weekend.

we leave for chicago on friday to go our last wedding of the season. i am also going to a bachelorette party for a college roommate and i will get to see one of my other college roommates, so that should be a good time. and then when we return it is diss writing city FOR REAL. i hope it doesn't suck.

happy last day of august. tomorrow is my friend laura's birthday. happy birthday laura!

a long busy week

yall i am sorry that i have been so remiss with my postings. i am certain you have been waiting on the edge of your keyboards wondering "what has donna been up to?" i am not sure i can get it all into one posting but let's see how it goes.

1. last monday i left for atlanta. it was going there for work and to see friends. it was a great trip. the weather was nice, i had this cute little silver toyota rental car i called the "silver bullet" and i got to spend some quality time with folks while also getting some work done. monday afternoon i hung out with dawn, gator and bailey. all are doing well. gator was gearing up for a work trip, dawn was working, working out and taking care of bailey and bailey is saying "da da" grabbing stuff like a maniac and doing a pre-crawl scoot. it was adorable. on monday night i met up with sarah and kim and some of their lawyer friends for burritos at el myr. it was divine. after that, we went back to sarah and kim's and watched one of my new favorite shows "weeds." i really like it. mary louise parker is hot, i think she is going to fall in love with the son of the woman she gets her drugs from. you watch and see. after a lovely night of slumber in the extra bedroom i got up and headed to emory for a long but productive day of work. my work luncheon went well, though i wish more folks showed up and i got a bunch of other things done as well. i had meetings with my co-worker and my boss and we figured out our plan for the rest of the year. good times.then i went home to dawn's where we hung with bailey and while she bathed him i went and go us a delicious dinner. once bailey was down, dawn and i chatted and ate way more food than should be allowed. i had this delicious salmon and for dessert: coconut pie. so good.

the rest of my time in atlanta was split between running around the city for my job, having breakfast with my friend angie, doing yoga with shona at emory (so good but so hard) and hanging with dawn and bailey in the morning and kim and sarah in the evening. on wednesday night i went to the good old gravity pub with k & s and got me a grilled cheese and tater tots. i had been dreaming of them for a while.



the next morning i got to spend some time with bailey b/c dawn needed a rest.



she had been up with him a number of times during the night (bless her heart). while mom slept, me and bailey packed my bag up and then i brushed my teeth and then we hung out in the living room. dawn only got to sleep like thirty minutes but she seemed like a new woman. i was hoping to teach him "ma ma" in the time she slept. i was not successful. overall, being in atlanta was great. it was very hard to leave b/c i miss my friends and i miss the land and knowing where i am going. but at the same time i was excited to see jes, hear about law school and get back to our kitties and our neighborhood. i think this is going to take some time to adjust.

2.i got back on thursday afternoon and just tried to get back into the swing of things. jes got home from school and we ate some dinner and watched "house of flying daggers" when she was done reading. on friday she went to school and i ran around town doing errands and also got a bunch of my dissertation coding done. on friday night we went to see the documentary "the aggressives" about butch women of color in new york. there was lots of pretty people in the crowd but we didn't really know any of them. after that we went to a party in the dorms at brooklyn law school. one of jes's friends from her section anthony threw the party. he is a real darling. sort of skinny and goofy. he reminds me a little of zach braff from garden state. the party was mostly boys and not really any cute girls to look at. very gender normative and pretty conservative looking. i chatted up a few guys that jes is friends with and accidentally stepped on some girls flip flop so it fell off her foot. great first impressions donna. like a fucking ballerina i tell you. last night we went to this party at cattyshack for transfolks, genderqueers and the like. lots of pretty kids to look at, but none that we knew. what was cool is that somehow there was videotape of IDKE 4 playing (this event i helped found in columbus in 1999). it was nice to see familar faces even if they were only on the screen. as a side note, i was a hella coder this weekend, coding five interviews. i have two more for chicago and then eight for minneapolis. i intend to code them all by august 31 so i can begin writing for real. like ginger ale.

3. this morning we were awoken but the sun. see, we took down our brown aluminum blinds that made this room a bat cave and put up white cloth blinds from ikea. now there is an ethereal glow in our room and we don't sleep until noon (unintended rhyme). we headed into the city to see our friends ara and steph and their brilliant and beautiful twin baby girls gus and jo.



these girls are almost three and a real trip. jo has this pixie hair cut and pointy fang teeth i love. she kept throwing her blue lamby doll at me and jes. gus has the most lovely blue eyes and this sort of emo/hipster boy hairdo and she loved it when i acted like a monkey. she said "do it again." they are way too smart for me and a so much fun to be around. it was also great to be around steph and ara b/c they just feel like home to me. they are both wicked smart and i just want to soak them up when i am around them. i never feel like i have enough time to really catch up with them. hopefully this fall we can go and see them and the girls and the autumn leaves in western mass. i have my fingers crossed. did i mention jo jo was wearing white shell toe adidas shoes? hand me downs, but still so hip hop.

4. we had to leave the ladies and head uptown to meet higgins and jonas to help higgs move into her new fancy apartment. they drove up like two minutes after we arrived on the LOCAL A train which took about 45 minutes. the move in wasn't bad. a bit bumpy at first but once we got a system down we became a well oiled machine. i am totally beat, and covered in bruises but check this shit out- after we did all that, sweat our balls off and they bought us lunch, you know what those two kids did? went for a run for over an hour b/c they are training for some crazy iron man race? it took everything out of me to take the fucking train home where i sat on my ass, and they went running. who gets it? not me dude.



now jes is reading like a good student and as soon as i finish this i am going to hit the hay. i *might* read a little of my boss claire sterk's book "tricking and tripping" all about prostitution and drugs. it is so fascinating. another great book i just finished is "when the finch rises" by jack riggs. he was a customer of jes's at caribou. brilliant, brilliant story. check it out, its in soft cover now.

ok now i am going to try and insert photos via nifa's instructions.
wish me luck.

jes' law school report for those of you who were wondering

so orientation is over (don’t use the first stall in the u.s. district court house in Cadman plaza cause that sh*t will stick every time (2) thinking your locked in) and the beginning of the end has officially begun. yesterday I felt stupid and I find satisfaction in knowing that I wasn’t the only one. last night I spent some time reading as well as this morning. the first session from 10 till 12:15 went well. I felt smarter and was more aware of what was going on that may have been because I had to pee super bad. we will never know… anyway then spent a little time reading during lunch with my pb&j that I made for myself this morning because while chipotle (sp?) was tasty yesterday 7$ for lunch is a bit steep. now if you were to assume that what I read during lunch was for my 2-4:15 class that we had this afternoon you would be incorrect. I guess I assumed that my earlier ability to understand would carry over into the afternoon despite the fact that I was increasingly tired. boy was I wrong. I had no idea what was going on. people sort of just droned on and while our intro to law professor started eyeing me towards the end I would just try to anticipate his next move (calling on students) and put my eyes on my paper and pretend to be taking notes. this worked wonderfully I might add. in a room full of 120 (?) students I didn’t think he would call people out by shirt color and rather by the doe-eyed on lookers. I was right. maybe ill be a successful student after all. however once the professors have a seating chart that tactic goes out the window. so what did I learn from this experience? being prepared really is the way to go. I don’t think I have ever experienced that more clearly than today. not that I have ever been able to bullshit but for those people who tried there were 18 other students anxiously ready to call your ass out by reading verbatim from the case.

one drawback to being prepared is the fact that when different people speak up (the super annoying ones in particular) I then know when their answers are stupid. I need to stop with the eye rolling. also, im amazed how people, specifically attention-seeking or “gunners” as they call them in ls, will do more than just answer the question but rather go through why all of the other choices are wrong first. oooohh. that makes me so irritated. JUST SHUT UP, ANSWER THE QUESTION AND STOP A$$ KISSING. GAWD!

anyway yesterday I took the train today I rode my bike. its just as fast. riding to school is fun, training home is better. the ride home was exhausting there was one point on the gradual hill that is “park slope” where I secretly wished that the car behind me would just hit me. im glad they didn’t.

while we were released early today and our last class cancelled it was probably the most useful class we will have in this whole orientation business. I don’t mind checkin’ email but I do worry about falling behind cause I don’t know how to “brief” a case Brooklyn style. hmmm. im clearly not super worried about it. I plan on going and rereading the material to be discussed tomorrow tonight up at the coffee shop and to start looking over the other cases we have Thursday and Friday. tomorrow we have to get our ID’s and our locker (woo-hoo). I cant wait. I will train tomorrow with a bag full of books so I can put in a few hours studying after my morning class is over.

alright. this has turned into a donna-length entry and its time to wrap it up. however today was the anniversary of me quitting smoking. yippee!! not bad. its been a year. however I was not successful in my attempt to avoid any type of caffeine for as long as possible. I failed. yesterday I had a diet coke. but now I need a beer. anybody?

a relaxing sunday for me; first day of law school for jes

good morning all. no sleeping until noon today. luckily my lovely grey kitty larry woke me up this morning with non stop meowing from 7am-7:45am, which is when i got up out the bed to warm up my decaf coffee. did he need food? nope. water? nope. he just likes to wake us up i think. jes was furious, but now that i am up he has stopped and she can sleep a few more winks.

so the highlights of my week were:

1. i got a call from one my ohio state to new york transplant friend monique. she had many exciting things to talk to me about. first, she is interested in doing yoga with me, so we made a yoga date for the end of the month b/c i am out of town most of this week. then she told me about this meditation thing on sunday i might try. it is like five dollars a class and you do seated and walking meditation. i feel like it may be a good way to end/start a new week and jes might try it too. of course i am scared i will do it wrong. maybe i need to meditate on that psychosis. then monique asked me to join her walking in prospect park. i think she goes three or four times a week for about an hour to an hour and a half. i think i will be able to make it maybe two times, but it sounds real nice to have a some time in the park and chat with her. she is real smart. and lastly, and most exciting, is she invited jes and i to join a queer/lesbo supper club. it consists of her and her partner nancy (who we like to call ali b/c she doesn't look like a nancy to me)-both went to osu for a masters in women's studies, and then glennda (also a feminist buckeye) and her partner kim. and then jes and i. there may be a few more couples, but i am not sure. i told them jes and i only have six plates, but that should not restrict the number of couples.

so overall it was delightful. first of all, we got to see another apartment in park slope. glennda has this fine ass duplex that is closer to north slope. you walk in and go up a million stairs and there are the two really nice bedrooms that share a bathroom. both have mantles which is very pretty. then you go up a million more stairs and there is the kitchen, another half bath with washer and dryer and then the dining area and living area. it is all very fancy and nicely done, but she also pays a whole lot more than we do. kim made the delcious dinner. three of us are veggie and three are unapologetic meat eaters. so we had some chicken wrapped in bacon and then also mac and cheese with black beans and tomatoes (try it, the shit was good). there was also a salad and some ravioli and some sort of pita pockets and a nice red wine. everyone is really fun and chatty and i was sad to go, but we had to head up to nowhere (the gay bar) on 14th to meet our friend drew. the next supper club is at monique and nancy's and then at our house. i am already stressing out about what to serve.

2. this week jes and i also took a delightful bike ride to the brooklyn heights promenade. we had both worked all day and then when it cooled off we did a test run bike ride to near her school. i was worried that it was going to be all uphill or we would get hit by cars or get lost, when in fact, it was a fairly easy ride, and while some streets were a bit scary between traffic, bad roads and the fear someone was going to open a car door and you would get whacked, overall i had a really nice time and felt entirely refreshed afterward. and the view from the promenade- really really pretty. and it just so happened that moveon.org was having a anti-war rally there, so that was nice to see as well. afterwards, we showered and met kristi mckim (aka botacelli) up at this bar loki in north slope. nice place when it isn't busy, a bit bougie and straight when it is. the ladies are pretty and the dudes are dudes, but i had a nice glass of wine and got to chat with botacelli. then we walked her back to her cute ass apartment where she offered us a file cabinet she no longer needs (because she is a for real fancy dr. now and will be teaching film at hofstra i think). we discovered that her favorite meal of the day is brunch (must like jes) so in one short hour we will be meeting her at dizzy's to have brunch. i hope it is divine.

3. now its a good thing she offered us the file cabinet b/c jes and her mom beat the fuck out of the one we could not get into (see previous post and photos), so it is done for. finally they were able to salvage the files inside, which, for the record, were mostly empty and junk. good times. glad they spent an hour beating the crap out of it. so the third exciting thing this past few days is jes's folks drove up from atlanta to visit. they stayed in a hotel down in sheepshead bay which is sort of near coney island and therefore on the water. it was so great to see them and show them our neighborhood. they were not interested in hitting the city and seeing a show or anything. we never left brooklyn. they were more interested in just seeing us, seeing where we live and sharing meals with us, which was actually really nice. they too are in love with joe's pizza and hot diggity dog and we also went to this new italian restaurant seriously on the corner (diagonal from joe's) called de vincenzo. yall, they have some good stuff there. jes and her mom got this great kind of creamier pesto, i got a farfalle with veggies and white wine sauce and jes's dad got some hella good (not his words) lamp chops. jes was sad to realize that lamb chops really come from baby lambs. we had a moment of silence for that. and seriously, i am not even sure i can write about the dessert. there was all kinds of chocolate and caramel and i was so satisfied afterwards. *and* they have amstel light and guinness on draft. hello, can you say regulars?

her folks were super generous the whole weekend long paying for all our meals and they also took us to ikea so we could get that wardrobe thing for our shoes that would not fit in jes's car. they have an suv, so it fit just fine. they insisted they pay for the stuff we got and i tried to protest but jes buckled pretty quick. i mean she is there only kid and they are nuts about her, but i still feel like we are grown and so we should be paying for this stuff. jes says they wouldn't do it if they didn't want to, so i am trying to find a way to just accept it. i made her mom pinky promise me that we could buy hot diggity dog (nice trade off).

her mom also fell in love with ikea. seriously, i think she found the kitchen she wants. it was hilarious, she would be like "don, come here" and he would dutifully go and look at the narrow pantry with pull out shelves. i think she will be spending quite a bit of time at the brand new ikea in the atl. i am glad she likes it, because we do too. and the kitchen she wants is NICE, so i support that purchase as well.

most of the rest of the time they were here we spent walking around the neighborhood or putting together the stuff we got at ikea or breaking into the file cabinet. it was really easy going which was nice. i thought we would have to jet into the city a bunch which can be exhausting, but they were completely content here and i think they believe us now when we say we have this great neighborhood. so that is great too.

jes starts law school today with the beginning of orientation. she got this cute new penguin button down shirt so that she is not too casual (in our uniform of jeans and tshirts). there is a reception tonight that is just for the students (we thought maybe i could meet her up there, but alas they said no guests) and so she will be gone for most of the afternoon and evening. i am thrilled for her and i just hope she meets like two or three nice and normal people. i am not asking for a posse, just a few to share in the pain of the first year with her. we may go out tonight for drinks with another ohio state friend who is visiting named thelma, but the number she gave me is wrong, so i am not sure how to contact her. tomorrow i leave for atlanta until thursday. i have an event on tuesday and quite a bit of work to do, but i also will make lots of time to spend with folks i love. i am also beside myself with joy because i get to go to yoga on wednesday with my favorite teacher shona. i have not done yoga in a month. that is truly a crime.

happy birthday (yesterday) to julie applegate in columbus, ohio. i hope she got to celebrate in her new fancy house in clintonville. hopefully jes the attorney will post about her orientation tonight or tomorrow.

check this shit out yo

so i was looking at nifa's blog and if you hit "next blog" it just takes you to random blog's i guess. i went two from nifa's and found this:

http://markglesne.blogspot.com/

from the mouth of the "political honesty doctor" (his definition of a phd)
i only read the first post and the first few lines of the second post and i HAD to tell some one about it.

you, kind reader, are the winner.

good times

oh my goodness yall

seriously, i can not believe it, but we slept until noon today. now i know most of you are like "bite me troka" but seriously that is a big deal. i heard larry meowing this morning but i was able to sleep through it (because jes got up and fed him- which i don't remember) and then i finally woke up and jes asked what time it was and i looked at the kitchen clock and thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. i checked my cell phone and lo and behold: 12:03. For whatever reason, I started to panic, like I had to be somewhere or like I missed an appointment. I didn't. Then I went and got a glass of juice, started heating up my day old decaf coffee and checked my phone messages (i had two- one from a nyc friend monique who may start yoga with me and one from my friend in chicago alyson that made my heart melt). so that is that. i am officially a late sleeper. for the record, we did not get to sleep until 2am, but still i usually get up at 8a even when i stay up late. it's the bat cave man, it makes you sleep. jes said "the first thing we MUST get at ikea when we go with my parents is those light colored blinds" I agreed wholeheartedly.

my trip to chicago was great. the airtrain flights were a bit trying, but i made it there eventually and azad and his new girlfriend katie picked me up. we dropped katie off at her house in the city and then went back to azad's house in skokie. I had a little something to eat and drink and then went to bed. Az had to work in the morning so I got up, checked email, watched "the girls next door" on the E channel (about hugh hefner's three girlfriends who live at the playboy mansion) and then i got ready and packed up. i then went to old orchard (the mall across from my high school) to get a blazer to dress up my outfit and to keep me warm in the freezing cold a/c of the wedding hall (ps it was an outside wedding-the jacket stayed in the car). then i got on the road to get to south bend indiana for the wedding. well it took me about 1.5 hours to get through the city on the highway (should have taken MAYBE twenty minutes) and then as soon as i hit highway 90 east (the skyway) i hit monsoon rains and had to drive about 40mph the whole way. this of course, made me late for the wedding. i missed the ceremony and got there at the pictures. my friend maria (the bride) and dave (the groom) both looked lovely. maria was so chill even though it was about to downpour on her wedding. luckily there was a tent up for the dinner and reception so it was all good. her dress was so lovely. sort of an ivory silk with lots of silver bead work on it and it was almost like a sleeveless/strapless shirt and a skirt. and her maids/matrons of honor had on these simple and elegant black dresses that tied at the waists with ribbon. very elegant wedding altogether. i sat at the "friend" table and chatted with folks about pop culture and new york and such. they had this band "whammo" or "blammo" that was really good. they did all these covers like "jesse's girl" and "brown eyed girl" and "hey ya" (by outkast). it was fun, when andre 3000 sings "shake it like a polaroid picture" both of maria's ladies kind of shook out her dress and it looked cool and aired her out a bit (it was real humid). az and katie came after dinner and danced like maniacs. i also got to chat quite a bit with maria's mom terri and that was great. she is this amazingly liberal nurse who was always cool to talk to when we were kids and she still is. maria is lucky to have her.

the next day i went to this brunch where they open all the gifts and such at david's parents house in the country in south bend. it was nice to have a chance to chat with them for a minute. they are in cabo san lucas (sp?) right now for their honeymoon (lucky). i left there and then went back to alyson and nicole's to return alyson's car and to wait for them to get back from the michigan women's music festival. they got home all dirty and beautiful and rowan, there three year old daughter had this huge grin and laughed while i tickled and kissed her. she is so tall and skinny (just like her mom) and her use of language has increased 9000% since i saw her last. while they showered she and i played and chatted and did some yoga. i got her these dvd's to do and she is so good at them. so strong and smart about it. it almost made me cry.

the rest of the night i hung with them and az and katie came over for stuffed pizza from giordano's (so good) and then they left b/c katie was itchy from the FOUR cats. me, aly and nicole chatted until about 1am about life and such. it was so good to have some down time with them. i miss them like crazy. then the next day nicole went to work in the morning (i hate it). yall she looks so sexy in her work clothes. all long and lean and elegant. then aly, ro and i went to breakfast with az and katie and then to run errands and play at the park. we also saw az's new fancy apartment. i love it and it even has a room for me! az took me to the airport and i began my journey back home. my favorite thing rowan said the whole weekend was "no way dude" apparently gramma pam taught it to her.

last night i had dinner with my friends dusty and joe (mary's sweetie and little brother respectively) so it was a celebration of people that love mary! we went to this cute little italian place maybe in soho (not sure) and it was good. we sat on these church steps and ate it and then walked around until joe had to go to some show and dusty, jes and i stopped in at this place called tenement for a drink in the garden. it was nice to see dusty too. i haven't seen her in a long while and i miss her. we left dusty at broadway and houston and headed down to the subway for a long and hot ride home. clearly, it exhausted me.

today i work and jes reads for school. this evening once it cools off, we may train/walk or ride our bikes to the promenade on the water (i think its like the "west coast" of brooklyn). i am certain many of you have seen this area in films and television shows. i will take pics to post. soon i will post pics from maria's wedding too.

congratulations to my friends rachel and josh liss (high school). they had their second son henry on july 22nd. he is perfect, just like his big brudda joseph, who i must say, looks EXACTLY like rachel. much love to you all.

its jes again

so i dropped donna off at the airport yesterday and im starting to get bored. this morning i drove pony and thomas to newark (remember friends who come and visit, Newark is not the IDEAL airport and should be used only in the event of VERY good airline deals-which was the case today) that said, i drove from the airport along some back roads to eventually find the target that i prefer to the crazy ass one in the city. the pilgrimage that we make to this target in linden nj has been restricted to multi-stop runs to the suburbs cause it costs about $16 dollars round trip, bummer!! gas was only 2.45 which was the cheapest i found but going rate was closer to 2.60. thats just crazy!! anywho i have been distracted from this post by a phone call from my best friend in high school who i havent spoken with in 4 years so ill return later...

off to chicago

i leave for chicago this afternoon. my friend azad will pick me up at midway airport, on the way home i will pick up my friend alyson's car and then in the morning i will drive to south bend indiana for maria's wedding. i am excited to see all my chicago friends and to see maria all dolled up pretty like a princess. i still am not sure what i am going to wear.

jes is still asleep but when she wakes we will head to target to try and find me an affordable black blazer to wear to the wedding. see i have plenty of trousers, and a lot of sweaters and long sleeve shirts that are appropriate for work or weddings, but i have very few summery things for such events. now you may be thinking, "but donna haven't you lived in the atl for the last six years?" yes, i have but my office is usually arctic, so i would wear some long sleeve stuff. also, i don't just want to wear short sleeves to the wedding b/c i imagine the reception hall place will also be cold and i need something to cover my sweat stains (that's hot). i looked at a few places in soho yesterday (in general that place makes me feel so old, so fat and so out of fashion) but i found nothing. our friend pony found some new shiny shoes and thomas got a book from strands. thomas does this HILARIOUS imitation of a tyrannasaurus rex. hopefully jes will get a picture and we can post it. he and i both like to sing, make faces, and make funny noises, so all in all we are getting along fabulously. EXCEPT he does not like the movie amelie (he is french and says it is very stereotypical) nor did he care that much for the movie rabbitproof fence which we watched (again) last night. so maybe we can't be friends.

i want to encourage you to check out another friends blog, its my friend nifa, like higgins, she is an overachiever which will become quite clear when you check out her blog at:

www.nifamatic.blogspot.com

she is also a brilliant and hilarious writer. honestly, i am figuring out through this whole blogging phenomenon that i am *surrounded* by great writers. really. why aren't these people writing books? i would read them if they did. and then they could make some money for this too, you know?

ok i am going to get back to work. i am excited because the programming i am working on is actually working out. i mean i think it might be really good and i am starting to get excited about it. is that dorky? i don't care. it's nice to plan something and have it work out. i am still hocking loogies too. i have been taking less expectorant because it makes me feel a bit loopy, so i am happy that my body is just expelling this stuff on its own. and i slept through the night last night with no coughing and i didn't take any generic nyquil either. yippiee.

holy guacamole yall: its my friend molly's 30th birthday today. if you know her, give her a spanking for me.

another friend's blog

check out my friend beckygirl's blog too!
she is a sexy librarian

http://deweydew.blogspot.com

why i hate technology

me and the internet have been a fight these last few days. As I said earlier, our modem is out so that means no phone and no internet (and no fax). So I use my cell phone and come to the tea lounge to steal wireless. The hard part is that everything goes much slower if it goes at all. I don’t get it because the dude next to me was surfing the web like a motherfucker and it took me no lie two hours to send off my annual report to my colleagues at emory. I tried learnlink, I tried hotmail, I tried explorer and netscape and then finally on safari (for macs) it went through. It felt like one of those dreams where you are running but going nowhere or trying to dial a phone and it won’t work. I hate that shit. Anywho, right now I am composing this in word because I can’t connect to netscape to post it. I swear I have the patience of Job with kids and most people but when it comes to technology I become the most impatient ADHD pecker you ever met. Ok, enough of that.

oh my god the song "i just died in your arms tonight" just came on. i LOVED this song in seventh grade (I think). It reminds me of this guy Mike Molda who i was *nuts* about. He was a great dresser and dancer. I wonder if he is gay now. Is anyone else sad that Peter Jennings died? I mean I didn't even know the guy, right, but for some reason I am taking his death kind of hard. I guess it's just because he was so much a part of American culture (even though he was Canadian- how hilarious is that) and then I just read that Christopher Reeves wife has lung cancer. I mean can we give their kid a *little* break please? Ugh.

So my friend Higgins is staying with us tonight too (there was a chance she would head home today). Tomorrow we will go and sign on her new apartment all the way up on the island. I am excited to see her neighborhood b/c I have never been that far north on Manhattan. It sounds lovely, right near the Cloisters. She is out exploring the big apple while Jes reads her law book and I email, and then we will all meet at home for some hot diggity dog and the movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's." I have never seen it. Last night Jes was finishing up her book while I was hacking up my lung. She brought me some generic nyquil pills and they hooked me up. I slept through the night for the first time in days. And then today I picked up some expectorant at the pharmacy. Hopefully it will loosen my phlegm (that's hot) and let me breathe again, cuz i am done with this shit in my chest already.

Not much else going on here really. We met up with Higgins at Nowhere last night and introduced her to Erotic Photo Hunt. She excelled at it (big surprise). To be fair we played both "hunks" (guys) and "babes" (girls) to show her that really the naked ladies are more hilarious (because of their outfits and very fake boobs). It was two for one drinks there and higgs got this delish margarita that had grapefruit juice in it. When I am feeling better, I intend to go and get me one or two.

Ok that is it for now. Happy Birthday to my old roomie Cheryl Cooky. Today is her birthday.

tales from the tea lounge

ok yall i am coming at you from the tea lounge on 7th ave & 10 st. because our stupid internet has not worked all weekend long. i hate it. now anyone that knows jes and i well knows that a whole weekend without email is like...well... torture. so we got up this morning (almost afternoon) and went and got jes a new phone (her other one is broko) and then hit the tea lounge where they don't have wireless, but some how we are all on line here. go figure.

part of why we have not lost our shiznit without the internet is that we have had visitors all weekend long. our friends lydia, jay and amanda have been here so we have been playing playing playing all weekend long. we have done a lot of walking around and shopping, tried a few new restaurants (elora's a spanish american joint in our neighborhood; i enjoyed their avocado tostada and then this place called 7A in the east village- it was new to me, not to jes; i enjoyed my salmon sandwich with basil, tomato and olives).

we also have got our groove on at a few places. on thursday night the kids went to the metropolitan (i stayed home with cramps). then on friday night we went to cattyshack and shook our asses on the dance floor. oh, and did i mention we saw joan jett there? yeah, we did. for reals. first of all, she is hot. hands down delicious. second of all, she is shorter and much more butch than i thought. i mean i pictured her real tall and thin and sort of femme with a rough edge. she had on make up and all but really looked like she could (and would) kick yer ass- which i would welcome. she was watching us make fools of ourselves on the dance floor, but i don't care. and i think she smiled at jes when we were leaving. i hope i won't have to take it to the street with ms. crimson and clover over my sexy lawyer girlfriend. i *may* be willing to share. wink wink.

then last night we went to a local bar called bar four. a nice local place but the music was too loud for me. and i guess they have great drink specials during the week and the woman bartender was hot and was rocking a mullet that worked on her. it was weird because at one point all these women came in and then like thirty minutes later all these men came in and like the men stood over by the bar and the women over by the chairs and like they didn't mix. it felt very fifth grade party at st. isaac jogues. weird.

the kids leave tonight and then tomorrow my friend higgins, who ran across the state of new hampshire (for real yall) is coming to spend a night or two while she looks for a place to live up near columbia university where she has a new fancy job. then our friends pony and thomas come for a few days before they move to paris (uh, yeah, paris france-thomas is from there). and *then* i jaunt off to chicago for my high school friend maria's wedding (it's actually in south bend indiana). so be patient if i don't post as much, august is a busy busy month for me. okay it is 2pm and my belly is getting hungry.

happy birthday to my friend kim swensen. i miss her and her boys bunches

from jes...

today we went to officially sign up at the coop, donna can fill everyone in on that experience, then we went to my school to get my orientation packet. luckily we saw that it was only 100 degrees today just seconds before entering the building. you are all so jealous. fortunately we ran into the admissions lady that i abhor and of course she told us that they werent ready and to come back at 1. being the scorpio i am i couldnt resist replying snarkily with "so we should come back in twenty minutes?" as if we couldnt just wait around or get it early. im convinced that she assigned me to a section (im in 1a) with the hard and unpleasant bunch of professors. anywho... after putsing (sp?) around we were able to find my schedule and go and purchase my books. i was certain that we were not able to carry them in one trip but we did.
wow i guess ive got alot of reading to do. ick. but there was only one on back order but i also forgot to buy my "pocket-size" law dictionary and my very own copy of the constitution. good times!
unfortunately we have yet to be successful in breaking into the filing cabinet that was accidently locked on its way to brooklyn. oh bother! so the piles of filable papers are continuing to pile around the "office" alright i will return blog control to dj.
jes

our first real meal at the kitchen table

so tonight we ate our first meal at the kitchen table here in our apartment. we made a dillyocious pasta sauce with tomatoes, garlic, onion, basil, salt, pepper, hot pepper flakes and some green olives. put that over a little penne pasta, accompanied by some garlic bread and a nice arugula salad and its dinna! we also had a nice glass of firefly shiraz. i am happy and full and jes did the dishes-yippee!

i have been laying low the past few days because i have felt a bit under the weather. i can't tell if it is allergies or a cold or some reaction to the air pollution here or what but my throat is scratchy and when i lay down i have a hard time breathing. i tried to take a nap today with jes in the bat cave and all i could do is cough and clear my throat, so i got up and made a little "breathe well" tea. i felt a bit better after that. I have also been working some on my job-both with programming and the never-ending annual report. jes has finished the fourth harry potter, and after she finishes the summer reading book from brooklyn law school, she will move on to harry potter 5. it's 800 pages. good googley moogley that is long. how do kids these days read this shit?

we did put up the bamboo blinds in the guest suite and jes fixed the right side of the desk today. i put our bikes in the backyard in preparation for our friends amanda, jay and lydia and was accosted by twelve million flies. i mean seriously, it was hitchcock-esque. jes and i think it is b/c our upstairs neighbors (who own the house) have a worm farm compost thing on their back deck (which is right above the damp dark patio i put our bikes on). i think all them worms are turning into flies or something. it's nasty yall. we are having drinks with the owners tomorrow night just to catch up, connect, and hopefully create a "to do" list of things around the house. i think i am going to ask if i can make like a mosiac or stained glass window thing for the entry way. right now it is just an empty space where a window used to be. i am not sure what kind of image to go for, or if i should just make something abstract. if yall have any ideas, let me know. its a house full of lesbos and cats, just so you know. speaking of cats, we got this new fountain-like water thing for the cats and mr. horace loves it. most of the time he drinks his water by dipping his paw into the water and bringing it to his face. i think he is going to go to town with this new fountain thing. yes, we do spoil these cats.

so i am going to get back to work on this annual report. tomorrow we go to the co-op, to jes's school to get her information packet and books and maybe to target here in the city to get a fan for the back bedroom so amanda and jay don't cook. i am trying to keep my entries a little shorter. i think my long stories are bad blog etiquette.

happy early six month bday to bailey james (he will be six months tomorrow!)

calf update: DT- 13 inches left, 13 inches right; JH- 13.5 inches left, 13.5 inches right.

stay tuned for sarah's pop culture update. i think it will be chock full o' jennifer aniston talking smack about brad pitt.