I never feel like posting anymore, but not for lack of things happening.

+ I went to Mexico with JAC for New Years, we hung around the Yucatan Peninsula for a little over a week. It was a lot of fun, lots of beach time and lots of driving time (in a bright yellow tin can) and lots of exploring time and lots of just chilling time. This was our second vacation together, and we're planning our next trip - a 2-3 week drive across the country and back.
Here's a picture of me on top of a 100ft tall pyramid, showcasing my bad posture:


And here's a picture of me swimming in an underground cave, showcasing my ghostly white pallor:


And here's a picture of me and JAC in an elevator, showcasing how photogenic we are not:


We also went to the inauguration - took a train down in the morning, walked 8 miles, got to the jumbrotrons by the Monument just in time, met up with friends and got a bit tipsy, and bussed it back. The best thing about it was being with soooo many people who were soooo happy and excited.

+ I'm continuing to love my job, every day I wake up and I'm happy to go to work. Especially when a lot of people have lost their jobs, or are currently stuck in a job they don't particularly like because there are no other options, I feel really lucky.

+ I started the second course in shoe design and construction, and this term I'm going to make a pair of oxfords and a pair of boots! I'm applying for a master's program, but now that the application deadline is so near (2/15!), I'm getting nervous that I won't get accepted, so I'm going to not say much more for fear of jinxing myself.

+ We're fostering a dog! Her name is Ashley, that's her shelter name, but I'm none too keen on it (no offense to the Ashleys I know, I just don't like it as a dog name). However, she knows her name, so we're trying to figure out a name that is similar yet more acceptable. So far, we've landed on Pashi, short for (Genuine) Pashmina. She's an older dog, a pit bull mix, and she's got some issues - she's really anxious around strangers and when she's alone. She loses all sense of house-training when she's alone, and she does not react well to strangers, and can lunge at them. However, she is the sweetest dog when she gets to know people, and loves nothing more than sprawling out on the couch, snuggling up to someone she likes, and she's getting better on her walks, and I'm hopeful I can re-socialize her to the point where she can be a normal, happy dog. Here's a photo of my sweet girl:


and here's a photo of her with Ham - they like each other:


+ Sometimes I feel like I'm the luckiest duck.

There are 5 people in the office today, including me, so I've turned it into a Kano dance party, with some krautrock (Neu and Amon Duul) and indie rock (Republic Tigers) and Brian Eno thrown in.

In 6 days, I'm going to be in Mexico, driving a 4spd beetle with no AC or radio and sleeping on the beach and crawling around on some ruins. I always get jazzed about packing, and thinking about the stuff I'm going to bring, but really, I'm bringing bathing suits and sandals and summer dresses and sunglasses and lots and lots of sunscreen and that is about it.

Given the chance
I'd die like a baby
On some faraway beach
When the season's over

http://nymag.com/realestate/vu/2008/09/50481/

The only time I get inspired to actually buy...

My new job is aces, I really love it. It's such a change from a big agency, and I didn't realize how much I needed a change until I got here. It's refreshing to talk to the owners of the company you work for every day and not be/feel like just a cog in a big, corporate, bureaucratic machine.

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JAC opens the coffee/wine/chocolate shop about 3 days a week, so I go there before work in the mornings and have coffee with him and N., and then sometimes walk to work. If he's closing/bartending, I stop by on my way home from work for a glass of wine, often again with N. It's pretty amazing how that sort of thing improves the quality of life, spending little slices of the day with your two favorite dudes.


me and N., photo taken by JAC

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I joined a gym - it's 2 blocks away, open until midnight, small/nice, and cheap. I have no excuse.

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Current vacation ideas for late 08/early 09:
- Eastern Europe by train
- Pacific coast by car
- Vietnam by motorbike (most daunting/least practical/most potential fun!)

Vacation ideas that will require more time/more money/more planning/more political stability:
- Central Asia (all the 'stans!)
- Eastern Africa
- Trans-Siberian RR

3 years ago today I moved to new york.

happy anniversary to me!

faildogs = best site.

From jezebel :

But what a TV show will not tell you, no matter how many episodes you watch in a row, is that the people you meet here will only like you or want to help you as long as they can believe themselves to be better — more talented or more successful or richer or smarter — than you. The people you meet here will pretend to be your friends as long as it’s convenient for them or as long as it’s consistent with the versions of themselves they’re performing every day. The people you meet here will never hesitate to say things about you in print that they’d never say to your face. They have made a bargain. They will do whatever it takes to stay here. You came here because you thought you had a lot in common with them, and the thing is, you do. But those things aren’t the things about yourself that you like.

They're yapping about SATC here, but really? Do people really think about nyc, or more appropriately, the people who live here, in that way? Really??

For my part, I've met some of the best people here. I think I've become a better person in my time here, and that is at least partly because of the people I've met here. And it has nothing to do with the superficial shit that people ALWAYS weigh in on when nyc is brought up. When I dated a dude in Ohio, I would be introduced to his friends and invariably, without fail, the first question out of their mouths when they found out I lived in nyc was one of the following:
1. How much do you pay in rent?
2. How much money do you make?
And to that I always managed to respond in a polite yet evasive way, but really I wanted to punch them in their faces with a big FUCK YOU because really? You think these are acceptable questions to ask a virtual stranger? And I'm the one, by virtue of the place I'm currently calling home, that is obsessed with money? I know a lot of people who moved to nyc for a lot of reasons other than making money and achieving fame. And I know a lot of people who moved and here and found money and possibly a certain amount of fame, but that doesn't make them bad people, false people, or treacherous people. Being driven and being nice aren't mutually exclusive, you can be both.

And finally, I'm tired of the people who claim that living in nyc holds them back from their true selves - that they have to dress a certain way, act a certain way, be a certain way in order to be happy and/or accepted here. I think that if you feel that way here, you'll feel that way anywhere. The problem isn't with nyc, dudes.

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My poor boy has shingles.

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Still, Mr Boshingles and I are going to try our very hardest to see Wire for free tomorrow.

Here I am, being a nerd, nearly two years ago.

Well, I do.





They shot an episode in our offices today, and I became Stupid Gawking Fan #589430584930.

I wish I had worn a more flattering shirt.

This is where I grew up:



my dad took this photo - it's of our driveway. The building you see is my dad's workshop. I really love this.

This shit just keeps on coming:

http://nymag.com/news/features/43892/

Most horrifyingly embarrassing thing just happened to me!!

My ex-bf Vill is Bulgarian. Nikola once claimed that the word "buggery" derives from the word "Bulgarian." I, of course, told Vill about it, because I like to stir up Balkan tensions. Vill vehemently denies it, until he looks it up on wikipedia and finds this:

Etymology

The word bugger and buggery are still commonly used in modern English as a profanity, and "buggery" is also synonymous with anal sex.

The word "bugger" was derived, via the French "bougre", from "Bulgar", that is, "Bulgarian", meaning the medieval Bulgarian heretical sect of the Bogomils, which spread into Western Europe and was claimed by the established church to be devoted to the practice of sodomy. "Buggery" first appears in English in 1330, though "bugger" in a sexual sense is not recorded until 1555.

Hilarity ensures, at least for me, as Vill is fairly mortified that one, it's true, and two, a Serb called it.

So today I'm at work, and I call the IT guys to get new printers installed. They take over my computer to install the printers remotely, and Vill pipes up on IM - I use adium, and I have the notification bubbles turned on so even when a chat window is minimized, the other person's text shows up in a bubble on the upper right of my screen. And IT guy is fiddling away with my printer setup, and there is NOTHING I can do to get the DAMN bubbles OFF MY SCREEN. Anyway, one by one, this appears on my screen:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
When we're in bed
I'll stick it where you poo.

IT guy actually asks me, "do you want me to pretend I'm not seeing certain things?" And I mumble something like "uh, yes please?"

And now I sort of want to die of embarrassment.

[Granted, I have done nothing but make fun of Vill constantly about this for the past month or so. BUT STILL. ]

You guys, I'm really really bummed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7236106.stm

Fuji still makes instant film, but still. It's really bumming me out.

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In other news, I was playing online scrabble last night with jackallen, and my first word was "quid." AND THEN, about ten plays in, I got the following letters:
a e l o t s z
So I made ZEALOTS SQUID.

Zealots squid!! It was like, 100,00 points!

I bought this and it just arrived and it's beautiful and awesome and I can't wait to take artsy-fartsy b&w polaroids.

Also, that nasdaq photo was on Rock the Vote's site yesterday. I'm like, internet famous!

Chee!

My dad is really pumped that I was on cable business channels this morning!

Poll #1133014
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Should I get an iPhone?

I totally shouldn't have been nervous at all about my class, because someone was wearing uggs. Uggs. To a shoes design class.

EDIT: haha on the the unintentional "shoes design class" - it's evident how frazzled I was by the very thought!!

Today is my first day of class and I'm woefully under-prepared. I just realized that I need to trek over even earlier than I thought to get a student ID so I can even get into the building where my class is. Also, I don't have a notebook. Do I need a notebook? I'm assuming so. But I"m looking forward to the student discounts afforded to me with my ID. As well as, obviously, learning how to make shoes.

So I'm nervous! And there is a tiny part of me that worries that 19 year old hipster art school students are going to see me for the 32 year old, state school grad, Ohio born&bred hick that I am and snicker. But Nikola just re-assured me that I'll certainly be wearing the best shoes, so that makes me feel a bit more secure.

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Meanwhile, work is very busy, but I've started to become really good at not letting it consume my life, which is one of the main reasons I signed up for classes. I've renewed and continued my obsession with Polaroids, I've been scouting Propacks on ebay and found Fuji film that fits my Mio! I sneakily configured the color printer at work to scan and email stuff to me on a private channel sort of thing, so I'm going to start scanning my growing pile of photos soon. Most of them are of me and jackallen looking incredibly yet typically unphotogenic but whatever, <3.

A friend sent this to me from eTrade!

Pfizer (PFE) is updating the warning on its Chantix anti-smoking treatment to say that patients attempting to quit smoking with Chantix should be observed for serious neuropsychiatric symptoms, including changes in behavior, agitation, depressed mood, suicidal ideation and suicidal behavior. The company said the new warning is based on a safety review of post-marketing reports by Pfizer and the Food and Drug Administration. "A causal relationship between Chantix and these reported symptoms has not been established. In some reports, however, an association could not be excluded," the company said.