When I examine old posts from Tennessee, I am saddened by the loss of the early entries, which contained quotes from the Broadway Baptist Church sign. The quotes, sometimes frightening, sometimes engaging, always felt so distant to me. And now, they are distant, I suppose. Too bad I'm not good at keeping paper journals.
Or journals in general for that matter. It's been a long time since last I posted. And perhaps this mostly has to do with travel. Puerto Rico. Massachusetts. New Haven (for one of Mike's gigs). It's been a whirlwind tour. I wouldn't mind heading back to Puerto Rico, though. I wouldn't mind being there right now.

For those of you tuning in and hoping for a dose of creativity, I must apologize and inform you that the purpose of this blog, apparently, is to ramble. The rambling is intended to update old buddies and perhaps new ones on some happenings. The space also serves as a cache for what might someday turn into something...

Listening: Jaydiohead (if you haven't heard this, I highly recommend it http://jaydiohead.com/)
Watching: Cooper shed all over the house I just vacuumed. As soon as I vacuum, there's more dog hair on the floor. And it's so much worse in the Spring.
More watching: I'm sick, so in the past day I've seen Grey's Anatomy, The Office, and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Prince Caspian was actually much better than the Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe. Then again, I wasn't all built up this time. I can actually recall Prince Caspian being my favorite book, both because I was in love with the Prince and I enjoyed Susan shooting so many arrows.
Reading: I've been in the middle of Pride, Prejudice & Zombies for awhile now. The problem is that my life has been taken over by student papers. Of course, I'm sick now. And this is the one weekend where I don't have student papers.
Writing: I was supposed to write a paper on Anna Nicole Smith this weekend. But my mind is all jumbled in a fever...so that's just not going to happen.

Odd, isn't it? I write more when I'm actually busier. But I guess I have more to write. Classes, meetings, workshops, student meetings...all keeping me busy, engaged, and happy. In the meantime, I marvel at traveling into Grand Central every day, taking the 6 to Astor Place, getting some Starbucks (Think! Coffee takes too long to make a cafe au lait), going to my beautiful old school building on Lafayette street, teaching in the library, meeting up with fabulous colleagues.... I mean, it's really a blessing every day...and I commute along the Hudson River! If only there were a few more hours in the day to sleep, I would feel much better.

This past weekend I chilled. I cleaned up the debris from the beginning of the semester, post ATHE, performance, lecture mess, and now I feel much more organized. The performance the previous weekend went smoothly. And so did my Yale lecture. Goodness! Now back to the day to day.

This week:
1. Second week of classes
2. Writing Center Orientation
3. Writing Center hours: 3
4. Giving a lecture at Yale
5. Performing on Friday and Saturday at Dixon place
Translation=BUSY

So I was really thankful that the casting director who teaches my class had to cancel tonight. Otherwise, I'd probably be tearing my hair out right now. But this is where I stand. And I locked my keys in my office Monday morning because I'm that big of a dildo. Thankfully, the woman who rescued me from the elevator rescued me from this as well. More soon!

Is it just me or has it been forever since someone has designed a new template for blogger. I mean, give us a little variety...please. So things on the one hand are absolutely spectacular. Right now NYU is fantastic. I love it. I love working in New York City. I love my colleagues, everything. So all things being said, that kin of thing couldn't be better. But sometimes the little things....oh, how the little things can get you. For instance, on my first day of work, I accidentally disposed of my August monthly pass. Yes, I threw it out in one of those Metrocard boxes as I was going through my Metrocards and well, the those passes are on the back of Metrocards so..... The best thing about this (and read into my sarcasm here) is that I did not discover this until the train ride home. When I realized my error, I said "shit" loudly. Actually, I think it was "shit" "shit" "shit" and some people on the crowded train looked at me. Then, I called up the Metro North people on the phone who directed me to the MTA people who directed me to the Metro North people who told me I had to travel back out to Grand Central to see if I could find someone to open that little box for me. So, after going all the way out of the city, I trekked all the way back in (at $10 a ride in addition to the amount I already paid for the monthly pass). And then, I found a Metro North person who pointed me toward terminal 27. The person at terminal 27 pointed me to the Station Agent's Office. The Station Agent pointed me to the Transit Museum. The Transit Museum was closed and the Station Agent then pointed me to the MTA booth at the Shuttle station. The booth was closed. A Metro North worker on his way home pointed me to a man working at the Shuttle (and got me through the gate for free). The next man told me to try the MTA worker in the 456 booth. She told me to go back to Metro North because "we don't have keys to that box." The next Metro North guy knew for certain that it was the Shuttle MTA worker that empties the box. "I've had this happen before," he said. He walked with me over to the shuttle booth, and he found a "Hot & Crusty" worker to get the story from. In the future, keep in mind that the "Hot & Crusty" workers apparently know more about the comings and goings of people than anyone else. He told us that the next MTA worker would arrive in a half hour. Are you bored in my story yet? Or just confused? I was lucky enough to meet up with Andrew in the time being; we drank and ate fish and fried clams, speaking mostly of our nostalgia for Massachusetts and his concerns about his closing date for his condo (all went well, incidentally). Afterward, Andrew and I found the MTA worker at the shuttle booth, who walked us over to a group of Metro North workers, who walked us over to the station agent. Then, the Metro North worker who originally walked me over to the shuttle guy, only to find the "Hot & Crusty" gentleman, showed up and told me that he tried every key on his ring until he found one that fit the box....only to find that my ID wasn't in there. Now, yes, this is awful. I was out countless dollars, even though it was close to the end of the month. But, when you think about it, all these people genuinely tried to help me, walking around Grand Central with me, looking for others' that might know what's up. I mean, most people were really nice and they cared even though I made a dumb mistake. So in a way, I didn't mind. I mean, in a way I was happy about all that. Then, later in the week I got stuck in the elevator at work with a new colleague and I fell on my ass in aerobics class and sprained my ankle. You know, it was just one of those weeks. Just a vortex of bad karma. On the plus side, I went to a studio over the weekend and got retro style pinup shots taken with a bunch of feminist artists. It was sooooooooooo much fun! I got to see Andrew, I got to see two of my wonderful roommates from college on Monday. I got a great deal on a hotel room in Puerto Rico for my conference. I mean, really, the big stuff seems to be going well...and that feels good after such a long, shitty job search. Well, to be honest, I'm exhausted from my commutes. Have a delightful evening.

Alas, I have not posted in FOREVER! I did not have swine flu. I did, however, get a job at NYU teaching writing after a llllllooooonnnnnnnnnggggggggg search. I feel good about the job, and I have been taking it somewhat easy actually. I think I was just sort of burnt out of everything. But soon I will spend some time getting back into the game, so to speak.

In the meantime, I've been working on an extra on the new HBO series Boardwalk Empire. I'm actually really excited about the series. I only hope that the quality of the pilot can match my excitement for the show. It takes place during the 1920s, and I got to ride in a model T during one of the shoots. While I wasn't driving, I did discover that those things drive nothing like cars now. Yes, of course there is no power steering. But there are al sorts of crazy things that go on--like the reverse is a completely separate pedal.

Speaking of cars, we're considering getting a new one. While I'd like to have the cash to get a Highlander Hybrid, I think we're going to settle for a RAV4 possibly with a third row seat. Our 99 Subaru has 140000 miles on it and now seems to be one of the best times ever to purchase a car. Of course, if I can't get the deal I want, I think we'll just sit and wait.

More soon. I'll try not to be as lax in the future.

Swine flu?

I'm feeling ill this morning, and I desperately hope it is not swine flu. I am probably overreacting, but I'm heading up to Ithaca tomorrow, and the fact that I have a stomach ache makes me particularly nervous. I went into NYC briefly for an audition on Tuesday. And today I had to leave Starbucks (which is often my workplace) to come home because I wasn't sure upon which end of me my blueberry muffin might surface. So far it's neither. So perhaps I just have a stomach ache; yes, I know what you're thinking, but I'm definitely not pregnant. So here's to hoping it's a momentary scourge. But if you thought there might be a possibility that you might have swine flu, wouldn't you sit down to blog about it? If you don't start from the beginning, then you can never publish the bestseller called Swine Flu Diaries.

Good morning. Here I am at my favorite coffee shop home, less than a week away from when I receive my Ph.D. It's an exciting time. I'm most happy that I'll have the chance to celebrate with two other ladies with whom I've enjoyed 5-6 years of academic torment. It will also be nice to have my family meet my professors. Mostly, I'm looking forward to the robes. I know you are too. I'll be sure to post pictures.

In the meantime, I've been writing a lot. I need to begin reading a lot again too. But before I really start heading back into academic books, I'd like to read one more novel. Donna Tartt's The Secret History is first on the list. I look forward to it.

Today, I will work a bit on my article and more importantly, I will look at refrigerators. I don't know if you know or remember the state of my fridge. But let's just say it has its own ecosystem. And it's been that way for the past three years. So on the third anniversary of the fridge, I'm getting a new one. And it's going to be really fucking nice, biyatch. I will also post pictures of the old fridge clothed, without clothing, and the new fridge, which will need no clothing whatsoever. Look forward to it. No one gets to see my old fridge without its clothing. It's that embarrassing.

For now, party on.

After much work, Mike and I have finally managed to get some of the grass growing in the yard. The trick, we discovered, is to use the expensive "blue" stuff from Scotts. I'm going to take pictures today so I'll be sure to post them. In the meantime, it's just nice to look outside and see a lawn. We're working on distributing the twenty yards of mulch in the different gardens in the yard. Yup, that's right. 20 yards. If you're not familiar with mulch, that's a fuckload of it. It's like two dumpsters worth. So there. We're also making progress on the bathroom, though the threshold is causing some questions. What to do? What to do? We never realized that the threshold would be such a pain in the bum for little tiles.

Otherwise not much is happening here. I have rehearsal this Sunday. Hoorah!

Yesterday I took Cooper to the park where the dogs can run free on beautiful trails. I traveled with my friend Josei who had a baby a couple of months ago. Here's a pic of me holding her baby, Kasey. Cooper met up with his English Pointer friend, Amos. They played and played. Cooper got hot and went into the stream with Amos. All that was fine. Then Cooper discovered another wet spot. Only this wasn't a stream. It was mud. I believe that the proper term is mudpit. I ran over to get him out of the mudpit and plop, instead of listening to me, he decided it would be a great idea to lay down in this mud pit. It covered him up to his neck, and I'm sure it was delightfully cooling. But alas, he was completely covered in mud when he got out. It was one of those moments one can only laugh about when it happens. He's already in the mud. What else is there to do? When we returned home, I hosed him off. If only he could associate getting muddy with being hosed off, he might stop. But that's unlikely.


This weekend Mike and I got pizza on Thursday, had a night in on Friday, and then went to X-Men Origins on Saturday night. I highly recommend the film to everyone, not because it's fantastic. It's pretty good. But throughout most of the film, Hugh Jackman is either naked or shirtless. And they enhance his muscles through make-up, CGI, whatever possible. Now I'm not overwhelmed with Jackman as a star. He is not one of my star crushes. But he does have a beautiful body, and it was quite enjoyable to spend a few hours watching him....especially as Wolverine.

I also tiled the bathroom floor Saturday, and I remind you all to heed my warning. If you're using small tiles on a sheet, do not, I repeat do not decide to get sheets of different color tiles. It was a pain matching the patter in the first place, but if that were not bad enough, one of the sheets had a white tile where there was supposed to be a black tile. I looked at this and immediately thought I had fucked up the whole floor. Thankfully, it was just a one tile issue...easily replaceable. If you don't understand my confusion, consider yourself lucky.

En finale, I finished Stephen King's book On Writing this weekend. And I have to say I'm highly impressed with his insights. He has a similar philosophy to the book I teach by John Trimble. And he adds inspiration to mix. I think I might try teaching this if I end up teaching writing in the future...

I have just returned from a very short trip to Massachusetts. Originally, I intended to drive up on Monday and return today. But because my accountant did not mail my taxes via overnight service as I asked and rather sent them priority mail, I was not able to leave until Tuesday. Granted, he sent them last Tuesday, the 7th, but they did not arrive until the 14th. For some reason, a strange mail void persists between New York and Washington, D.C. At any rate, I went up on Tuesday, dropped Cooper with B & D, then drove to Providence to see a play while I had a migraine. I returned from Providence, found that my car needed new breaks, drove to Norwood the next day, then with my Mom to Abington to see my cousin and her babies, then back to Norwood to get my car, then to Quincy, then to Punjab Restaurant to meet up with Jessica and Chris, then back home. Sleep. Then breakfast with Becky and Newcomb Farms. After a brief jaunt with Cooper in Pageant field, I returned to New York. Oh, how I wish I had more time. On the plus side, I feel a little better having gone and talked to a former professor of mine who is now at Brown. We had a talk about the circuitous paths that lifes takes us on. Someday sometime I'll end up where I want. But I may not know how to get there right now, and that's o.k.

Cooper had quite a week this week. On Thursday, he went to Canine Kindergarten (doggy day care) in the morning to play with the other pups. He was terribly sad that he had to leave after only a half day. He wouldn't even come to see me at the door. I had to go in and get him. But the reason why he went for a half day was to tire him out for his second visitors. Drui and Maeve, my cousin's kids. He loved them, chased them around the yard, licked them. It reminded me of why I liked dogs so much when I was younger, and I was happy he was so well-behaved, even though he ran around like a crazy dog. He really enjoyed himself. Then on Friday, I took him on a walk with my friend Josei, who just had a baby named Kasey. She had the baby wrapped to her in a Moby. But Kasey's feet stuck out enough and Cooper got a few licks in. Saturday was a boring rainy day for super Cooper. But on Easter Sunday, I took him to Gedney park, which appears to the be the only park around where it is safe to walk dogs off-leash on the trails (no giardia-ridden deer poop and no leash requirement). We walked for a mile with a couple and their three other dogs. One of their dogs was an eight month old English pointer, and served as the perfect match for Cooper's energy. After that, we took Cooper to Easter at Mike's grandmother's house. There were six dogs there, and Cooper made SEVEN. I had no idea Mike's aunt was going to be there with her five dogs, but she was, and I spent a lot of time acclimating Cooper to the environment. Thankfully, all went well. And now Cooper is pooped.

I don't often blog about the doggy, and you may find it boring or fun. But know I won't be blogging altogether too much about him, even though he is adorable and enjoyable. As for me, this weekend I laid out the tiles for the floor in the bathroom downstairs. It can be really maddening to lay out 12"x12" sheets of tiny tiles when there are two kinds of sheets, and if you use the wrong one you get two black tiles together when you don't mean to. I now feel I understand why some of the most frightening scenes in The Shining occurred in the bathroom. It's the TILE. Oh, I thought I was mad. I started naming the different sheets of tiles and sorting them by name. And this is only the beginning... I have not actually mortared the tile down. That's the scary part.

I realized that I am actually no longer in dissertation hell, and I had to update the description of the blog. Now I am in job market hell, but I'm not going to be redundant.

This picture is of Tarra from the Herculoids. Do you remember the Herculoids? It was my favorite cartoon when I was little. I really admire Tarra, and I'm glad I grew up to look like her. I would really like a jewel to hang in the middle of my forehead. Hint. Hint.

I hurt my back today. I connected my computer to my stereo, which is in the tv armoire, and I put the computer next to the armoire. I was typing an e-mail or something and decided to move away quickly, hitting the point of the armoire door on the back of my pelvic bone. Now, you may think that this isn't all that painful. But it is. I guess all those squats have made my legs more powerful, so getting up fast and slamming into something is actually a BAD idea. Ouch. I spent the rest of the day cleaning, and I have to tell you that the spot on my back is killin manillin. I think this means I have to go to yoga.

Part of the reason why I haven't been writing much has to do with the terrible job market right now and my stinky lack of job prospects. No one wants to hear that kind of stuff. Nor do you want to hear about my back. But damnit. I'm telling you. And I'm telling future me as well. I think that to cheer me up, I should go back in the LOST repertoire of episodes and watch an excellent off-island Sayid episode. Or maybe I'll just watch more Gone Baby Gone -- a film which is available to stream on Netflix. I like that movie because I think it is the most accurate portray of Southie available.

On the upside, I got a fabulous pair of black adidas sneakers perfect for step class in the mail today. Lady Foot Locker was having a crrrrrrazzzzzzzzyyyy sale. So I got $100 sneakers for $60. And they are so worth it. They are equipped with "microbounce." When I read this in the ad, I thought "yeah, right." But wearing them, they are totally microbounce sneakers. I love them.


Also, I ate several Cadbury Cream Eggs today. They don't work well with a low calorie diet, but they just help... ah.......

Hello.

I just returned a from a weekend conference in lovely Ithaca. It's nice to be back up there. Here is a list of 50 questions I'm going to answer. I could do it on Facebook, where I actually think it's intended to be done, but I'm not going to. This is for whoever still reads my blog, and that's that.

I don't see too many of these lately, so I'll do this even though it's a little long...
50 questions:
1. What time did you get up this morning? 6:47
2. How do you like your steak? I don't eat it anymore, but if I did, medium.
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Slumdog Millionaire. I need to get to the movies more often.
4. What is your favorite TV show? LOST. I'm so deeply in love with off-island Sayid.
5. What did you have for breakfast? A banana and two eggs. OJ
6. What is your middle name? Leonard
7. What is your favorite cuisine? Thai or really good Italian
8. What foods do you dislike? Fish. And I really wish I liked fish. But I don't.
9. What is your favorite chip? sour cream & onion.
10. Favorite dressing? hmm. Italian if I'm bored. Goddess if it's Annie's.
11. What kind of vehicle do you drive? Black 2007 Honda Civic with way too many miles already on it.
12. What are your favorite clothes? I have a deep affection for sweaters from Anthropologie. And I love winter coats.
13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation? If money were not a problem, I'd take a 7 wonders trip: Egypt, Jordan, China, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, India (and I've already seen the colosseum, which in my opinion does not compare to the parthenon in Greece)
14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? yes
15. Where would you want to retire? I'd actually like to retire in Ithaca.
16. Favorite time of day? one in the morning, when all else is quiet including the dog
17. Where were you born? Boston, Beth Israel
18. What is your favorite sport to watch? BASEBALL. Tis the season.
19. Who do you think will not tag you back? Everyone, because I'm not posting this on Facebook.
20. Person you expect to tag you back first? Ditto.
21. Pepsi or Coke? Coke, but I stopped drinking that shit long ago. Now I drink fancy shit, like good root beer.
22. Bird watcher? Cooper and I like to watch hawks swoop down when we walk.
23. Are you a morning person or a night person? I'm more of a night person, but since I've given up caffeine, I'm kind of a morning person too. When on caffeine, I was a horrible bitch in the morning.
24. Do you have any pets? Cooper Super Pooper!
25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? Unfortunately, no. Please cross your fingers for me on my job search. I spent an extraordinary amount of money applying for jobs last year (had to calculate this for my taxes) and it's disheartening not to have any leads.
26.What did you want to be when you were little? an actress. i've managed that and more.
27. What is your best childhood memory? so many, but riding on the front of a boat with dolphins swimming with the boat was pretty awesome.
28. Are you a cat person or a dog person? dogs.
29. Beer or Margarita? Wine. I don't like beer or tequila. But I do like wine and vodka.
30. Always wear your seat belt? Yes!!!!!!!! Especially after working for car industry lawyers.
31. Been in a car accident? Yes.
32. Favorite Restaurant? Blue Hill at Stone Barns was really amazing. But also the most expensive restaurant I've been to. I really miss Zaza's and Thai Cuisine in Ithaca.
33. Favorite Pizza Toppings? Cheese, spinach, garlic, broccoli rabe, eggplant, tomato but not al on the same pie
34. Favorite Flower? Roses! It doesn't matter what color. If I had a smaller yard, I would fill it with roses and spend all my free time killing Japanese Beetles.
35. Favorite ice cream? COFFEE with jimmies (or chocolate sprinkles for those non-Bostonians)
36. Favorite fast food restaurant? I don't often go to fast food, unless Panera Bread counts. But I love McD's fries. For shame.
37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? I passed the first time. Admittedly, it was really easy, and I probably shouldn't have passed because the state trooper hit the air brakes when I made a left turn in front of an oncoming van.
38. From whom did you get your last email? the dept of theatre arts at Cornell
39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Yikes. I can't even gamble more than twenty bucks at a Casino, so I certainly wouldn't do this. But if you're asking where I would spend the most money unnecessarily, that would be on clothing at Anthropologie.
40. Bedtime? 12-2a.m.
41. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? I'm curious about everyone. But I don't think anyone else will do this.
42. Broccoli? Steamed. Love it.
43. What was your favorite vacation? Probably Greece, though Italy was pretty amazing too.
44. Last person you went out to dinner with? Hmmm...kind of Harvey, Peter, and Anne if after dinner dinner counts as dinner.
45. What are you listening to right now? Nothing, but I can't get enough of Lady Gaga even though she's overplayed.
46 What is your favorite color? It depends. My favorite colors to wear are dark green, dark purple, and black.
47. How many tattoos do you have? I don't have any. I'm not against tattoos, but I can't get them because they could hide moles that appear on my body and give me skin cancer.
48. How many are you tagging for this quiz? Tag this.
49. What time did you finish this quiz? 12:06p.m.
50. Coffee drinker? decafe. I like Cafe au laits the best.

I guess I have been spending too much time on Facebook. Well, it's that, and its tough to write now because it seems like so much is up in the air -- hanging up there, when it should be grounded. I was sort of waiting to write until I found that grounding. But then, now rather, I wanted to write to help with the feeling of waiting waiting waiting. I've been really busy lately, traveling, working on papers, etc. Next week Mike and I will be going to Italy and I'm really excited about it. But unfortunately, I don't have much time to plan for it. Actually, maybe things are better that way.

Anyway, because I don't have much to write, I'm not going to write more.