another terrible loss

i just got an email from my friend nifa and i am sad to report the passing of author Octavia Butler.
She was best known for her amazing science fiction writing that really engaged race and gender.
She won a million writing awards and really there was no one else like her.
Please light a candle or say a prayer for her family.

For more information on her, you can go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octavia_Butler

bowling in shaolin & shopping in manhattan

oy i have been a horrible blogger these last few days. part of it is my job work has picked up and i am actually doing some work on my dissertation (not writing, data gathering and analysis-but at least its working toward the end goal of being done). anywho, i am here to redeem myself with stories of hilarity and many, many pictures. let us begin with our trip to STATEN ISLAND to go bowling last saturday night.

so, kim from supper club was born and raised in staten island. in celebration of her origins, we decided to load up seafoam and take a little field trip to showcase bowling allies on the island. but before we could partake in glow in the dark carpet and stinky red white and blue shoes, we had to eat dinner at none other than: APPLEBEE's. yeah, that's right dt and jes went to applebee's. see, we orginally planned on stopping at the BRAND NEW TGIFriday's in the mall, but apparently everybody and their fucking brother had the same great idea so the wait was over 45 minutes. it was RIDICULOUSLY cold out on saturday night and the waiting area was getting packed so rather than stand by the door and freeze our balls off, we went across the street TO THE OTHER MALL and ate at applebee's. they had not one thing vegetarian on the menu so ali had to ask them to make her a grilled cheese. to accompany her sandwich, she order a "side salad" which was enough lettuce for four families. it only cost $2.79. that is b-a-n-a-n-a-s! i got a tilapia filet with mango salsa (not great), jes got fish and chips (not great), glendda got herself a divine fried chicken salad and kim got delish chicken quesadillas. apparently, chicken is the way to go at applebee's. for dessert we shared a very delicous brownie sundae. because of a servers mistake we got two instead of one which was very nice. the entire meal cost less than $60. can't get that in manhattan, yo!

here is a picture of glennda and kim rockin the applebee's (see the sign behind them):



from dinner, we headed to showcase bowl, which, for the record, was pretty posh. each lane had a flat screen television and a computer with all these crazy graphics when you got a strike or a spare. nothing like any bowling alley i have hung at. we couldn't get a lane right away (it was saturday night and all) so we proceeded to the attached arcade. our first trip to the arcade was pretty good. jes and i played this game called "house of dead" (or something like that) where you shoot these zombies. take a look at the picture, don't i look butch?



here are some photos of kim & ali playing air hockey. i think kim won. but then when jes and kim played, jes won (they had been trash talking about this for DAYS):





just as they were finishing their game, our name was called and we proceeded to bowl. overall, everyone did great bowling. jes had the highest score, with glennda a close second. here is a picture of ali and glennda waiting for their turns. can you say "hello cleveland?"



two things made the whole bowling experience EXTRA special. first, we were sharing our ball retrieval system with four or five young girls who were hasidic. they all had on long denim skirts and tshirts with hoodies. and they all had pony tails. at first i think they were THRILLED that two cute boys (jes and kim) were going to be bowling across from them, and then i think they figured out who they were lusting after were not in fact, boys. they did A LOT of staring, but eventually i think our gregarious group gave them permission to get a little kooky too. they even asked jes to take a picture of them with their disposable camera. they left half way through our game and were replace by four dudes in sweatpants and one of the dudes superfemme girlfriend. for a minute i thought glennda and her were gonna have a smack down over the purplish pink ball glennda had been using, but it all smoothed out.

after our bowling time was up, we went back to the arcade, which had now been infested with obnoxious and violent little fuck face pre teen boys. these kids were beating the fuck out of each other in the corner of the arcade with no adult supervision in sight. they were running everywhere and bumping into us and running across our games. now i am a lover, not a fighter and it took everything in me to not lunge at a few of their throats. finally the worker told them to calm down, and they really didn't but at least they stopped their pre-teen fight club in the corner so that jes and ali could rock a little dance dance revolution. note the serious concentration:



ok so that was saturday and then on monday (because everyone had the day off from school and work) we went into the city to shop. the thing i needed the most was a new battery for the very computer i am typing on right now. i was also looking for some incredibles bubble bath. see my friends alyson and nicole are visiting soon with their babygirl and i wanted to have something special for her for bathtime. she LOVES the incredibles so i thought that would be a good place to start. glennda suggested this store called "rickys" and lo and behold here is what i found:





i was so excited to find this. the first one is the incredibles dad and the other one (the other side of the bottle) is the bad guy. i forget his name. i was also excited to pick up a few dish towels at crate and barrel. they are brightly colored and lovely. we also stopped in victoria's secret so i could look at these ipex bras everyone is telling me are so comfortable. for about the last year i have resigned to wearing sports bras b/c regular bras just hurt. so everyone i was with was sending me workers to measure me. finally i get to the dressing room, and this sweet young thing pulls out her measuring tape and starts feeling me up and shit. she was darling and complimented me on my tattoos and such. i ended up getting two: one that was lined and one that wasn't. i have worn the lined one all day and it hasn't started hurting yet. maybe this is the one to help me in the fight against gravity.

the other exciting thing that happened this weekend is that jes finished her first big paper of her second semester. it is apparently worth FIFTY PERCENT of her grade, which i think is pure craziness (i.e. "jennyness" for you l word fans). anywho, she made it through and turned it in. and here are pictures of her when she did:



and here is her happy dance:



this is very exciting for the both of us. just one more step to sexy lawyer and lots of suits and ties.
HOLLA!

an addendum to the snow pics

now i don't know if yall look at the comments on this blog
but my big sister pointed out there was a little kid glaring at jes and i in the picture of us.
this is because the hill we were at apparently was for kids only
while we were there, ali saw her boss and he was like "who are you here with?" (meaning which children belong with you) and she's like "my friends donna and jes" and points to our grown selves.
anywho at work on monday he's like "yall were at the kids hill, there was a grown folks hill further up in the park"
oops
i thought the kids were glaring b/c of our rocking speed and technique
who knew

yet another reason i love jes...

look at what she just sent me:



does it get any better than this yall?

happy valentines day.
remember, without love, there can be no revolution.

check this shit out yall

so my friend glennda was hobnobbing with all the fancy queers in l.a. and she chatted with none other than eileen chaiken, creator of the l word. glennda told her that her and some buddies watch the show every sunday and have dinner. eileen said she would love to join us one sunday. glennda laughed it off and continued to chat. then she saw e.c. the next morning and she brought it up again.

yall, what if i have to watch the show with her? my tongue will be bleeding from me biting it so hard.

yikes.

happy day of love.

vicarious star sightings

so if you read my previous post you know that my friend glennda was stranded in los angeles because of the snow here
now i would like to use "stranded" lightly in that it was 80-85 degrees and she was swimming and wearing flip flops
but she was away from her sweetie, so i guess that counts as stranded
anywho last night while out to dinner with a high school friend she saw none other than nicole richie and her ex fiancee dj am



glennda did not report on whether or not nicole actually ate, but i am going to guess, probably not.

then at LAX (the airport not the well known club) she saw the following:

1. maggie gyllenhal:



2. clea duvall (of "but i'm a cheerleader" and " all over me"):



and last and CERTAINLY not least, fabio:



how jealous are yall?

its beginning to look a lot like christmas

ok so i first heard of the impending "blizzard" from higgins when i called her from the airport in atlanta. we had plans to get drinks on saturday afternoon and she asked if we still wanted to travel into the city with the blizzard coming and all. i was like "what blizzard?" she explained that nyc was supposed to get a bunch of snow dumped on it this weekend. i didn't really believe her just b/c our winter has been so ridiculously mild thus far, but i called jes anyways to tell her the good news (she is completely stoked about snow-southerner).

so in preparation we went to get sleds and made plans with ali to meet at 10am on sunday. it was chilly on saturday but there was no sign of snow. folks at the hardware store asked me if i really thought it was going to snow, i told them "it better if i am spending the money on the sleds." they laughed and looked at me like i am crazy but boy oh boy i bet they wish they were getting them a sled.

so the snow started last night. and it hasn't stopped yet now at 5:24pm. here is the pic jes took early this morning when mr. meowgi (aka larry) woke her up:



and here is another window in our room later in the morning, starring mr. larry:



here is the view out our kitchen window. perhaps you can make out the green plastic lawn chairs underneath all that snow:



so ali met us at our house at 10am dressed and ready to sled. the wind was blowing the snow right at our faces and it really hurt, but once we got walking, we warmed up and we were ready to go. here is a pic of ali and jes at our front door, ready to rumble:



so we headed toward prospect park in search of good hill. it took us about an hour to find one. we came upon a mom, dad and two girls who were sledding down a mini hill, but it just wasn't all that. so we continued on toward grand army plaza where both jes and ali were sure we would find the hill of our dreams to sled down. here is a pic of me and ali *slowly* walking through the knee high snow:



we trudged on, being passed by some crazy ass fuck nuts who were running some sort of race around the park IN THE SNOW. we could barely walk without falling and these dudes were jogging. go figure. anywho, we trudged on and there it was, off across the meadow- THE HILL. the light shown down on it, the squeals of children rang in our ears- we had found our sledding nirvana. we got there early enough that it wasn't too crowded. when we left before noon there was about twelve million children all with their yuppie parents forcing them down the hill. we did not kill any small children, so i guess it was good. anywho, here are the action shots. first up, ali rocking the blue disc:



here is jes and me after a run down the hill on the red sled:



and here is ali and jes, post sledding. ali is on the phone with nyc kim who is stranded in staten island. her sweetie glennda is stranded in los angeles. oh bother.



here is a picture of a street off of prospect park west that we passed coming home:



and here is our street:



the sledding was so much fun. by the end we were really catching some speed. what was most fun, was this was jes's first experience with a real snowstorm and i got to share that with her. ok i gotta go change the laundry an then do the second shift of shoveling the front of our building.

happy sunday yall.

last week

yall the snow is ridiculous. don't worry, i have plenty of pics, but let me first catch you up on the last week.

i spent the better part of last week in atlanta for work. i had two meetings on wednesday. the first one was exhiliarating and incredibly productive and the second one was exhausting. i also got a bunch of work done meeting on the website, and my co worker susanna was able to upload some of it, so i am very happy about that. as always, whenever i go to atlanta to work, i get lots done, but then i also create a great deal of work for myself for when i return to brooklyn. it will keep me busy all this week.

i arrived into a very rainy atlanta in the afternoon and helped my co worker stacia with an event she coordinated. it was raining so hard when it ended that we offered the presdent of the university and the head of legal a ride back to the administration building in my little red rental car. luckily, we made it back safe. i spent monday and tuesday night with sarah and kim and it was great. on monday night we got grilled cheese sandwiches at this new restaurant in east atlanta called the graveyard. the sandwiches were delicious and the place is so beautiful. it was the perfect end to a cold and rainy night. on tuesday night we ate frozen pizza and struggled through another round of american idol. when it gets real bad, i plug my ears and hum and sarah told me that was cheating and i had to listen to it all. i just couldn't.

i spent wednesday and thursday night with dawn, gator, and bailey. on wednesday night dawn and i ate burritos from el myr and watched the grammy's until gator got home. overall i found the grammy's to be a bit boring and i am seriously over madonna and her purple leotards. on thursday morning i got to spend some quality time with bailey and gator while dawn slept. bailey is walking like a maniac (actually more like frankenstein) and is as cute as a button. he still has that real scratchy cry like he smoked a pack of cigarettes and his hair is getting longer and longer (and so are the curls around his ears- adorable). on friday morning we all went to ria's for breakfast before i headed to the airport. bailey was fascinated by the kitchen and spent the entire time turned around in his high chair watching the goings on in the kitchen. we also found that he is uninterested in real bacon and fake sausage.

it was great to re-connect with everyone in atlanta and it made me really miss folks once i got back to brooklyn. oh, yes and on thursday, i visited demian at liberty tattoo and go the rest of my magnolias finished. it took another three hours, but it finally done. here is a picture of it. the bottom blossoms will turn white like the top one once they heal. i really love it. its hella dry and itchy right now, and i can't wait until it is all healed up. i will post more pics then too.



now while i was hard at work in atlanta, jes was hard at work here in the big apple. last week was her summer internship interview week. she had four interviews and hopefully she will post about them herself. in general, they went well and i am thinking she will hear about a job over the next few weeks. but the real important part is how fucking sexy she looks in her professional gear. check it out yall:



i *seriously* can not wait until she gets to dress like this everyday for work. its gonna be a good thing.

ok last thing before i get into reports on the snow. on friday night ali, jes and i went to this place in the city called "FNB" and had delicious fake hotdogs. ali got just like ketchup and onions and mustard but jes and i got the "prairie dog" which has guac, tomatoes and cheddar cheese. then we all shared onion rings, regular fries and sweet potato fries. it was hella good. then the three of us walked on over to nowhere (the bar) and did kamakaze shots (i shit you not-in celebration of jes finishing her hell week) and then played erotic photo hunt. ali was a bit timid about touching the screen, but by the end she was touching ladies thongs and other naughty bits. together, ali and jes got the high score. GO TEAM!

then yesterday jes and i drove to the hardware store to get some sleds (i am so glad we did) and then to get some of her books at school. we also moved our car off our street b/c there is street cleaning tomorrow. later ali came over for a dinner of fake chicken fingers and annie's mac and cheese with steamed broccoli in it. eventually higgs joined us and we played a riveting game of cluedo (the british version of clue). it just so happens this game is both ali and higgs' favorite game so it was very exciting. i felt it was a bit hard to follow and i made an incorrect accusation and got kicked out the game, but it was hilarious to watch jes and ali talk trash about cluedo. here is a picture of us:



ok i am going to post in a minute about the snow. hang tight.

early mornings

for the fourth or fifth day in a row, i have woken up at or near 6am and i can not get back to sleep. if time permits, i will usually go back to sleep around 8 or so and sleep until 10 or 11am. its great that i can get a little more sleep in but it kind of fucks with me for the rest of the day. i imagine today will be no different.

i think i am waking up for a number of reasons:

1. larry is meowing like a maniac and i don't want him to wake up jes and/or our upstairs neighbors

2. i am subconsciously really stressed out about making this last set of revisions on diss chapter #2 b/c it means starting a new chapter and being one step closer to finishing the degree-which i long for but also fear.

3. i think larry waking me up has re set my internal clock that my body just wakes up now whether he is meowing or not really. this happened when jes was opening like four days a week at caribou and i would go in with her real early. she would have to be up by like 5am or maybe 5:30 (i can't remember) and it got to where i didn't need an alarm, my body just woke up.

i don't really mind waking up early, i actually love the quiet of the morning while jes and the kitties continue to slumber. i love opening the blinds in the kitchen and watching the sun come up over the garden. it looks like this morning we will have clear blue skies and sun. i am already in a good mood. the hard part is that we stay up later here for whatever reason. maybe b/c the city just does that too you. folks eat later, stay at clubs later, whatever. so most nights i am not in the bed before midnight (which for those of you who know me is nothing short of a miracle) so six hours is really not doing me so good. and i have a superbowl/lword party to cook for and partake in today. that means rallying until AT LEAST 11pm while eating junk food.

perhaps i can take a little disco nap before we head to jes's school. she has her first interview for a summer fellowship. its from the public interest group on campus.

so on friday afternoon jes and i walked to atlantic station to get some stuff from target and ties for her from burlington coat factory (she needs them for the job fair). then we walked back to park slope, got a slice of pizza and met ali up at gingers, this chill lesbo bar i really like. as we were leaving the bar (around 10:30pm) ali said she was hungry for a grilled cheese. so on our walk home we stopped at Daisy's Diner on 5ave and 9th st. Both Jes and Ali got grilled cheese and shared fries. I got this crazy platter with tuna fish INSIDE a half of an avocado. it was DELISH. then we all walked home.

yesterday jes and i really slept in (i of course got up with larry, then watched terms of endearment on cinemax until 8am then fell back to sleep until 11am). we just putzed around until like 2pm when we headed to her school to do work. i fucked around a bunch on line and then did about an hours worth of work on the diss. ali had emailed us and tempted us to join her for a fake philly cheesesteak sammie in the city. the super researchers, ali and jes located the restaurant "curly's" (next to the gay bar nowhere) and we decided to meet up on the platform of the F train at 6pm.

curlys was delish. i got a philly cheese steak hold the onions and peppers. jes got a buffalo chicken sandwich with ranch dressing and ali got a burger with avocado and cheddar cheese. we all shared a bowl of curly fries. i think i liked mine the best. and the best part? neither jes nor i got sick. speaking of sick, i feel hella queasy right now. let me get a mint. yikes. i wonder if it was the mixture of grapefruit juice and green tea on an empty stomach. ugh. anywho after eating and training back to brooklyn ali went home and jes and i went to the YMCA and did a little ellipticalling (she watched the first harry potter-they were all just babies, and i watched an episode of the gasteneau girls-ugh). from there we walked home and watched "wedding crashers" while i did laundry. not the best movie ever, but funny in places and that rachel mcadams is a hottie.

ok i am going to crawl back into the bed with jes and hope this queasy goes away.

tomorrow is my friend yasmin's bday AND glennda and kim's three year anniversary. love to all!

any suggestions?

yall during yoga on wednesday i had some time to look at my toes and i think my pinky toe has a fungus.
here is a pic, tell me what you think and if you have any suggestions for treatment:



its kind of hard to see, my camera was acting up

edit by jes: hey sarah, that would be the PERFECT frito for kim's port-a-potty chili...

ok, i am just fucking with you. that is a picture jes found on line when we searched "toenail fungus"
i do really think there is something funky about the pinky toe of my left foot, but its not as bad as the person in the picture.
i have started putting lamisil on it. has anyone dealt with this? if so, what do you suggest?

more later about my spotaneously wonderful afternoon and evening with jes and ali

i've been tagged

so this friend of mine, joy sapinoso "tagged" me
so i have to answer all these questions:

LISTS OF 3


Three books I can read over and over:

1) Sula by Toni Morrison
2) The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
3) The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit From Identity Politics by George Lipsitz


Three places I've lived:

1) Illinois (Morton Grove & Champaign)
2) Ohio (Columbus)
3) Georgia (Decatur- a small city near Atlanta)

Three TV shows I love:

1) Alias
2) Starting Over (not proud of that)
3) Everybody Hates Chris


Three highly regarded and recommended TV shows that I've never watched a single minute of:

1) Desperate Housewives
2) The West Wing
3) Commander in Chief


Three places I've vacationed:

1) St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
2) Brisbane, Australia (for a conference)
3) Elba Island, Italy (for a conference in Rome)


Three of my favorite dishes:

1) Some type of pasta with olives, or maybe penne with vodka sauce
2) Fish tacos
3) I love me a good California style black bean burrito


Three sites I visit daily:

1) www.perezhilton.com
2) www.bonnehomme.blogspot.com
3) www.emory.edu


Three places I would rather be right now:
*(all three b/c of friends)
1) Atlanta, GA
2) San Francisco, CA
3) Chicago, IL


Three bloggers I am tagging:

1) nifamatic
2) deweydew
3) flanimal