bored? thirsty? need friends?

Join us for the second yodeng meetup on Oct. 8th at Spitzer's Corner on 101 Rivington. We'll be there from 7-9pm.

life not explained.

"I want to do it, so I know how... the last time I was just kind of hoping gravity would do its thing and held the tube straight up in the air. I got it in there, but it was messy."

"Oh, shoot. She's leaking. That was my fault. You didn't squirt it in the top hole did you?"

"Gross. No. The side one"

"OK, good. Now screw it in and unclip the tube."

"Ohhh. That's the part I missed. I kept thinking that it didn't seem nearly so difficult when you did it."

"Ahh. Yeah. You forget sometimes that there are a hundred little steps that you don't even think about until you have to explain it all to someone else."

a night of broken dreams and fractured hips

*sigh* these both fall into the category of things I want, but cannot afford. Prints by Yee-Haw Industries.

ridiculously proud.

She turns two in a few weeks. By this age, most children are walking alone, talking, becoming mini-versions of their adult selves. But this week just shy of her second birthday, Jackie sat up. She amazes me still.

do YOU want to be anything other than what you've tried to be lately?

An email to Susan, who shares my love for snacks, bad acting, and shows that have completely predicable plot lines (i.e. everything on the CW network.):

"The episode was so brilliantly entitled "Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly." And fly I did, Susan. My emotions flew from the highest heights to the lowest lows. They were like a drunken sparrow that didn't know up from down.

Q's funeral was the primary focus of this weeks episode. Turns out that even though you might have maybe assumed that Q came from the ghetto, what with his slightly ghetto nickname and all [EDIT: oooh and his ability to dance. You don't learn to dance like that in the 'burbs], he ACTUALLY came from a lovely middle class home with a mom who had an unwavering faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Her faith was, to quote Hailey, inspiring. But it does beg questions as to why Q was such an a-hole in earlier episodes. I mean, his mother was lovely so wtf with the bad attitude, Q? Anyway since it's not nice to speak ill of the T.V. dead, we'll move on.

Brooke, just spent the whole episode being angry at the world for her beat up face. But she and Peyton made up by the time it was all done and over with. So at least there was that. Also, Nate swung by Brookes apartment and talked really poignantly about how he could relate to having totally awful parents (which, seriously he ended up with Dan as a dad and whatsherface as his hoochie mom. Dude definitely got the short end of the stick.) The conversation ended with Brooke saying something like "they never gave us a chance, did they?" At which point I cried, again.

Jamie became friends with Q's little brother who was ADORABLE and made me want to eat his cheeks. Then at the funeral, Jamie put the cape he'd made for Q across the coffin and Brooke got over her bad-attitude and stood by Jamie's side looking pretty weepy and torn up. Honestly though, I think she was grieving that her face was still a hot mess. I grieved the fact that though this show is ridiculous, I still get all emotionally bent out of shape over it.

So that's basically it. Get your butt to a couch next week. Because all this typing makes my fingers cramp and even though I love you enough to type through the pain, I don't want to spend every week woefully aware of the fact that I may be arthritic at the ripe old age of 24."

NOTE: In case anyone takes issue with the ghetto bit, keep in mind that I lived in the ghetto (gun shootouts and all). But that my friends, is another story for another time. Also note that even in spite of having lived in a neighborhood where our friends would have dance offs in the street, I still cannot comfortably shake that junk residing in my trunk. At the time when I should have been learning skills that would be, you know, useful I was way too busy singing the theme song to The Little Mermaid and skating around in circles. True story.

U.S. of A.

Seven years and one day ago, I was standing slack jawed in my freshman dorm room as I watched the two towers, towers that I'd grown up seeing outside our third floor window, collapse. Then as my brain tried to register what I was seeing, there was the realization that all those people I grew up with may be impacted by two buildings inexplicably ceasing to exist. I use the word may because it didn't feel real. They were too big not to exist. They were a part of a skyline that I grew up taking for granted.

One of my uncle's accounts was located in the WTC towers. So, I along with everyone else, spent the day trying to get through to the East Coast. Finally, at 5:30pm there was a call from my grandma to say that he was fine, our family at least, was fine. We were left unscathed.

I wasn't in New York then. So I cannot and will not attempt to speak to what that experience must have been for those who lived here or commuted daily from the surrounding cities and boroughs. I just know that today, I feel incredibly grateful to live in a city that has managed to overcome what was an incomprehensible tragedy. I am also proud, that the inhabitants of this city have not (for the most part), let that day serve as justification for the war that we are now still engaged in or as an excuse for an administration that used the emotions surrounding the towers' collapse as leverage for four more years in office. My fear, in facing November 4 is that people will cling to what is familiar and comfortable and ignore the fact that what has gone on for the last eight years has not worked. I realize that personal beliefs often dictate political leanings. Abortion and marriage remain two hot-button issues that seem to separate in some peoples minds the "right" leader vs. the "wrong" one. That said, the conversation shouldn't end there. What happens to the environment, our government's national debt, health care options beyond the flawed system we tolerate today, our ability to mediate between foreign nations rather than dictate what their political system ought to be... these, at least to me, are also worth paying attention to. I do not assume that Obama will be the magical wand to fix every problem our society faces. But for damn sure, I think we ought to at least give him the opportunity to try. And, if our country confirms my worst fears that we're collectively capable of ignoring the facts in front of us, then come November 5th I'll be the one drinking more than is wise and hiding beneath the sheets.

EDIT - Read this and try not to whack your head against the key board. I mean really, this is the woman we're going to comfortably elect as second-in-command to a dude who could kick the bucket at any moment? Come on.

Oh and this. Which makes me all sorts of happy on the inside. I heart you John Stewart. Call me.

putting my college education to use

Consider this proof that I am doing my part to make my parents really, really proud:











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