Hello, all...

I'm twenty minutes away from the end of this class and dear god it cannot come soon enough. Modules, collection policies, demographics! Satis!

I didn't get home until about 11:30 last night since everyone was supposed to do booktalks but there are forty students in the class and not nearly enough time.

This weekend, the election polls are open down at headquarters so I am going to go and get that over with, for two reasons: one, because it'll be a madhouse at my precinct polls on Nov. 4th, and two because I'm so scatterbrained that I would probably just forget to go.

Good news, Pittsburgh folk - I'll be home for six days on November 5th. Take advantage of it! I have to pick up cold weather gear, like an actual coat and some gloves. Hopefully I won't freeze to death before then. It got so cold so quickly! We had like three days of nice fall weather, and now it's gone.

When Travis came down I dealt with the horror of Trader Joe's and I'm glad that I did because now I have a lot of food in my fridge. We even got that Trader Jose Corona-like beer that tastes close enough for me.

Oh man, I have four children's genre books (poetry, science fiction, romance (?), and nonfiction) that I still have to read before Thursday night. Fantastic. I keep racking up fines at the NYPL because I am forgetful and tend to take out too many materials at a time. I won't even let myself get out DVDs anymore because they need to be returned after seven days and have an extended use fee of $1/day.

One of the other students in my class, Michele, lives up on 125th street so lately Joanna and I have been bumming rides home with her. It makes all the difference! I hate taking the Q46 to the subway station, then taking the F or E train back, then having to transfer again to go uptown and finally walking three crosstown blocks and four regular blocks to get home. Too much work.

Speaking of subway, while I was waiting for the B to get home last night I was approached by a rather smarmy yet charming dude also waiting for the train. He starting talking about random things, like how he lives in Harlem but his soul "belongs on the Lower East Side". Then he said I looked like I had a fine pedigree that went back for generations and he ended his comments by mentioning my "fine derriere". Oh good lord! Fancy! So I took the D train down to 59th to get away from Smoove B and was able to catch the 1 train after waiting only a minute or so.

Someone left an unopened bag of Lay's barbecue chips in the classroom when Michele and I got here and we split it. That was a mistake. Now I want more barbecue chips. Oh! Someone also left a nice mechanical pencil and an entire pad of tracing paper. That's coming home with me. I wonder what the janitors keep when they clean. Probably not pens, but I imagine that they would enjoy unopened food.

Late Post

So, posting! All right! I'm at work right now, and I've gone through my normal repetoire of websites designed to kill time. What's new in life?

I'm going down to DC again this weekend, which is great because Travis is still house- and cat-sitting. Oh, cats! He works on Saturday and Sunday so I'll take the opportunity to go to the thrift store, grocery store, or some museum if I have time. I still have pictures from last time I went down there (I'm embarrassed that I haven't put up the pictures yet, but they're on my other laptop). And hooray, it's Friday!

Now I'm on the bus, and the internet works, and all is right with the world.

I hate how these Eastern Travel buses, as opposed to the Bolt Buses, have so little room in between seats. It means that I have little chicken arms trying to type and it looks and feels weird. I wish I could sleep for a while but then I would be up for hours trying to badger Travis into interacting with me when he just wants to go to BED, blast it all, and then nobody's happy.

Another perk of his house-sitting, besides the cats, is this guy's very extensive music collection. I am trying to make up for not listening to Radiohead with Suzy back in 8th grade as well as a ton of other assuredly quality artists.

Oh, yesterday Suzy (not Radiohead Suzy, but new neighbor Suzy) and I went to Blockheads, which is right around the corner and has tasty Mexican food and $3 margaritas all day, every day. I got one of the frozen ones with the tasty salt and extra limes, and we split a quesadilla, and then I ordered another one because the first one was just so good. The waiter was adorable and fun and then he told us that he'd bring us yet another round of margaritas on the house because we liked the first and second ones so much, I suppose. However, at this point I was so full and margarita'd out that I had to give it away because the bouncer wouldn't let me carry it a half block back to my apartment. I really hope the waiter didn't see and get cranky that we refused his present.

I really did just want to stop him and be like, "hey waiter! I live right here, do you want to hang out some time?" But then I figured that this was his job, and I would be like one of those creepy guys at the gentleman's clubs that construct these imaginary relationships with the strippers and ask them out all the time. Now I don't know what to do, except to go back and have more of those delicious drinks.

The other day, I was washing some of the dishes in the sink and saw something skitter across the floor and I just froze for a second, because the skittering could only mean rodents or cockroaches, neither desirable. I turned around and watched for a few moments and then a mouse ran from the fridge to the bookshelf around the corner. So, great. We have mice. Daniel mentioned this to Rob when he spoke with him yesterday so hopefully this problem will be fixed in humane and tidy ways. Because, man, I would live with mice eating my food before I would live with mice on glue traps behind my fridge.

What is it about my living conditions that invites insects and vermin? I didn't deal with this squalor back in State College, ever.

Now I know people would rather look at pretty things than read these bored tirades, so here are some OLD SKOOL pictures. And by old skool, I totally mean it - these are like, three years old and have never before been featured at Nacho Day.

Enjoy.


I remember this faintly. I was in some boba tea place that shut down (I think it was called Bobalicious, and it was indeed) and this one guy was playing chess and I won against him.



You know, the 'aquariums' thing bothered me for awhile but I did like having this around. I miss Schubert and Schu II.























This is one of my favorite pictures and was my desktop background for quite awhile.











































Now, this is Ted. Ted was a free pumpkin that I picked up from LateNight my freshman year and didn't really want so Bartley and I placed him on a ledge overlooking one of the main streets on a parking garage. This is him a few weeks later.

He got pretty nasty and deformed.










Then the snows set in. Eventually he blew off the ledge and landed on one of the roofs that covered an entryway. Who knows... he could still be there.




Waiting for the Blue Loop one day, I noticed an unusual frequency of Hondas. I felt that I needed to take a commemorative photo, I suppose.

On the Bus

The good news: my bus has internet access, so I brought my computer to get some work done. The bad news: the internet is not working properly. Oh, well. Technology is a fickle mistress indeed.

I’ve spent about 80% of my waking hours being shuttled from one place or another today – I don’t even want to get into the shenanigans that I faced this morning on the subway. I don’t think that all this waiting is making me more patient, either. On the contrary; I’m always in a hurry to get to the subway so I can go wait some more.

I keep refreshing my browser window with some tiny hope that the internet will magically connect. No luck so far.

We had a St. John’s Service Day today at Queens Library, and it was shorter than I was expecting. We were back in this weird art gallery space and nowhere near the children’s section, so I’m not sure that our fun times were adequately taken advantage of. Each of us had to pick a station and at first I gravitated towards one in the back that looked like it would be face-painting (there’s something inheriently funny about being a bad artist and painting on a kid’s face, because he will have no idea of how terrible the blob looks until much later). However, the librarian revealed that this craft table “was the hardest of them all”, which was enough to stop me from listening further and back away from my spot. Apparently, they were constructing some kind of kite that kind of looked like a fish and required glue.

The next table was more to my liking – snack time! We had ‘healthy snacks’ with a liberal dose of the air quotes. Nature’s Valley honey oat granola bars, pretzel stix, and Kellog’s mixed berry fruit snacks do not a healthy snack make. However, the gummy fruit snacks were pleasing and I took two of the pretzel stix containers with me for the bus ride. I had to jet out at 1:00 so I missed the breakdown pizza lunch. I was so late this morning I missed the breakfast. Lame lame lame.

Ooh, I wonder what time we will get there. This would be a truly fair guessing game, unlike Thanksgiving car rides home where the family picks arrival times and Dad adjusts his speed like some corrupt blackjack dealer.

I just saw a sign for Baltimore, so that’s good news. I wish the ride from New York to DC was prettier.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, it looks like I’ll definitely be spending it in the city this year. It’s not bad, though, because Meredith is being kind and taking in an extra bedraggled family member. In four year’s worth of Thanksgivings, I will have only been home once. Christmas, however, I think I’m going to try to take off the entire week. They say that new employees don’t get any time off until after their first year, to which I say phooey. I’m coming home. My job is entirely online, anyway.

It is nasty out! Yesterday I had to take off my shoes and socks once I got to work and put them next to the fan on the floor because they were soaked right through. It was misting/raining before and it looks like there may be some blue skies ahead, but also dark clouds.

I was browsing the Youth Services collection and I don’t know when I became such a pursed-lipped fogey but for some of the titles I was like, “this seems a bit inappropriate for young readers!” Then I stopped being so old and went back to my snack table.

The apartment has been good lately – Daniel is the ideal roommate, because he leaves an hour before I wake up and gets home before I do so he can let me in the building. It’s too bad that the demon second graders are getting him down. We’re both very concerned about our sleep schedules, too.

I need to finish 10 ‘genre novels’ for children soon, so that’s what I will do. Adios.

Did Someone Mention Food?

Since I've been so terrible at updating, I'll give it a shot now. This week has been going well; I didn't have class yesterday so I went home and had dinner with – get this - a female! in my hood! Never before has this kind of opportunity presented itself. Usually every girl I meet either a: is mocked by me, b: doesn't want to be friends with me, c: lives hundreds of miles away or d: all of the above.

Our dinner was both supremely awesome and supremely lame. I don't have a ton of food in my fridge right now, so we had turkey dogs (with toasted buns), heated bagels and cream cheese, and an entire bottle of the finest Charles Shaw shiraz. Then I was still hungry so I cooked an egg.

I still have a lot of eggs. But oh god, ewwww I didn't realize that potatoes went bad so quickly (I was thinking that you could store those for a month at least) and reached my hand into the bag yesterday. Has anyone ever smelled wet, gooey, rotting potato? Does anyone know how long one can keep potatoes before they mutate into that mess?

Oh, I shouldn't have kept them on top of the microwave. Would it have helped to keep them in a slightly cooler environment? Forget it. From now on I am going back to my normal, highly preserved foodstuffs.

I have a bone to pick with Trader Joe's. Three of the four times I have gone there I ended up being so frustrated with their checkout line that runs around the perimeter of the store and totally blocks the shoppers from anything they want to look at. I put down things I intended to buy rather than wait in that congested mire. And it's not just a space issue, which I could understand. From their website FAQs:

6. Can I order your products online?
No. We're just old-fashioned. We set up our stores with care, finding just the right crew and adding a flavor of paradise. After considering the options, we're still just big 'ole fans of the neighborhood grocery store where we can say hello when you're looking around wondering - what's for dinner?

Correction: you are not old fashioned, you're lame. I'm a big ole fan of the neighborhood grocery store too, but I have never, ever interacted with anyone else in a Trader Joes except to wish death upon them. You cannot just wander around aimlessly there and wonder what is for dinner. You need a plan, and a spear, and infinite patience. Why can I not shop online? Leave me that option and my sanity, please! I'll pay delivery charges! Just keep me out of that store!

Moving on to less stressful topics, my job is okay. The tech guy (oh god, don't call him the tech guy!) never responds to my emails so I spend a lot of the day just whistling and twiddling my thumbs. I should start reading eBooks or something.

I have found a tasty lunch that does not produce an offensive odor – hummus on a sandwich pita, and unflavored yogurt with a handful of grapes stirred in. Tonight, since I have my class, I brought a meal replacement shake and put it in the fridge. I asked Travis to bring me up two six-packs of the delicious Safeway off-brand shakes, and I found that they were even more delicious than I had remembered. I looked at the label and found out why: they are intended for weight gain or maintenance. Let's hope for maintenance here, folks.

Oh good lord, I just spent this entire post talking about food. Holy crap. I'm not even hungry. So, what else is going on…..?

Our across-the-hall cute neighbor is having a party that I may or may not attend. He's really attractive but has fallen into the habit of speaking with this incredibly fake Eastern European accent, which is only funny when Travis and I do it and no one else. He started this at our party last week with one of the girls (not my new friend, luckily) from across the street. He continued this when I stopped by on Saturday night. I fear it shall not end.

Saturday I am totally crashing this Columbia international student group mixer, which allows one to 'invite friends' and 'get free food'. Ack, the food again!

In more boring news, on Saturday afternoon I am required to attend a student-mentor mixer at St. John's so I can be paired up with someone who is deeply invested in my life and career path for about two hours.

Furniture Revamp

Happy Birthday, Daniel! He turned the big 2-7 on Wednesday and instead of just sitting around and complaining about our day, we actually had people over and enjoyed ourselves. Different!

He was solemnly reflective at first.








Then he started dancing! This girl is, like, the friend of the cousin of some girl that Daniel met on the subway. Whatever.





And yours truly upped the ante by paying the rest of the rent that I had owed him. I go above and beyond the call of duty.





We are in the final throes of rearranging the furniture. Here's the kitchen. We didn't change anything here.









But now the organization in the living room is a ton better.







The drastic changes necessitated getting rid of this coffee table that I kind of liked but which Daniel found repulsive.









It's got sort of an old timey charm, right? Oh well. It's trash already.










Non sequitur: the view from the plane leaving NYC.










So we took the bus over to the Upper East Side today to check out pet adoption sites, and this market intrigued me. There seems to be a dissonance between selling fresh fish and flowers.




You know, quotes on signs should just be banned. What the heck were they even trying to say?






Cats!










Daniel got permission to take one of the dogs out into the small play area.









Old Yeller had no comment.








Let's make believe that we have a real pet!











By the way, the ASPCA center near 92nd is the nicest, cleanest animal shelter in the world. And they give tours!

Well, I have a mystery shop to attend tonight. Later!

Too Brief a Treat

With this tiny spell of internet (thanks casa107!) I will update that things are going really well - it was Daniel's birthday yesterday and we took this huge risk on untested pizza from Mama's that was so, so good. Daniel finally had to kick people out at 11:30 because he gets up way too early, but that's better than trying to entice people to stay, I suppose.

Work is still going well. I kind of want to blog at work sometimes but really I spend a lot of time on other sites and I feel like blogging would tip me over the edge in terms of them not wanting me to stick around.

We rearranged the furniture in here the other day and it looks much better. Pictures to come!

God, Where's the Internet???

The one pitfall about Daniel's apartment is the lack of usable internet. Oh, and the color scheme. I've been working a ton lately and my classes are going to run me ragged. Yaaaay.

A little something to make your Labor Day bright...