attention, people! major news in the story of my apt!
in addition to my recently-acquired television and DVD player, i am now the proud owner of... wait for it... waaaaait for it....
TWO NEW PIECES OF FURNITURE!! (and the crowd goes wild!) that's right, folks, it's true! today i purchased a beauteous coffee table and dining set. the coffee table was a craig's list find, purchased by a seller named darral (actual spelling). he was interesting to say the least. he lives up in round rock, which is where dell is headquartered. tall, kinda lanky black guy with a hint of a southern accent. firm handshake, friendly smile - i later found out that he works in sales for dell and was completely unsurprised. interesting house, too - brand new, beautifully decorated, no detail overlooked. yet how do i describe this house? a series of contradictions, perhaps. his dining room had a beautiful mahogany dining table and chairs - yet the wall featured a framed houston jersey and a mounted baseball bat. the kitchen had a nice table and intricate tiling and matching canisters for dry goods - and a big jar of protein powder in the corner. the living room had matching leather sofas and a coffee table/end table set - and some prominently-displayed nascar flags. the garage held a shiny white corvette and a million different tools - and a huge honkin' truck. clearly he's a young-ish dude who makes decent money and has nice taste but can't quite let go of the texas man in him.
but i digress. so yes, said coffee table is a deep espresso color and is rectangular in shape with a shelf underneath for sundry items. i lub it. as for the table - i have been hunting for a table for weeks and was resigned to either buying an ugly cheap one on craig's list or forking over the cash for a decent table - but then i randomly found this website where it looked like they bought furniture wholesale and then sold it at discounted prices. the website was clearly like circa 1997 and had horrible graphics and poor navigation, but the furniture looked decent and reasonable.
once i had gotten directions from google maps (boo for mapquest, plus, have you all ever tried google text? holy crap i am so converted), i hopped back on the highway to head towards the strip malls. when i walked into the store, it was clear they didn't waste any money on stupid things like store decor or furnishings. furniture was scattered about willy-nilly, a group of couches here, a bedroom set there. the walls were dirty, the ground scuffed. the woman who sold me my table was named "toni." she had this brightly-dyed red hair and super heavy eyeliner. her professional outfit? was white gaucho pants, white sandals, and a pink knit top through which you could clearly see her bra and part of the tattoo on her left breast. all i could see was part of tigger from winnie the pooh and the words "these tiggers were made..." (for bouncing, i guess? i couldn't see the ending and could only surmise as much). what a place, dude. i mean really. signs everywhere saying "ALL SALES FINAL" and "INSPECT BEFORE BUY," all printed on neon 8.5x11 paper. i was honestly a bit concerned but got a great deal on a really decent table - also espresso, also rectangular, with matching chairs. i'm not going to lie, though - i am going to be sweating bullets a bit until that thing actually arrives at my apt - part of me wonders if they're just going to take my money and buy toni another tattoo that somehow manages to combine a sexual reference with a disney character... (maybe a big one on her ass that says these poohs were made for pinching?)
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Thursday, May 11, 2006
an ode to cab drivers
now that i live in austin, i didn't think i'd be cabbing it up with nearly as much regularity as i did back in the DC days, which, in all honesty, were mainly for nights when i had gone out drinking and needed to get my drunken ass back home or when it had taken me forever to get back into the city from tysons f'ing corner and i was therefore running late for dinner or drinks and would rush down to connecticut ave to desperately hail a cab to whisk me down to dupont or u street or wherever (and yes, i am fully aware that could possibly win the prize for Longest Sentence Ever). it's funny, mentioning my old commute makes it seem odd that something that was so central to my daily routine -- the daily cleveland park to tysons round-trip schlep -- now seems like such a foreign activity. weird how your daily reality can change so quickly, huh?
but i digress. contrary to my expectation, it feels like i have been quite the frequent rider of cabs lately, largely owing to the fact that i've been on the road so much for work. and when i stop to think about it, that cab driver really does make a world of difference in determining what your life is going to be like for however many more minutes you are in his or her care. if you think about it, the act of piling into someone's cab is an incredible exchange of trust btwn both parties. i am trusting them to safely transport me from point A to point B, trusting that they will neither kill me nor get me lost, and trusting that they will avoid car accidents to their best of their ability. they are trusting that i will have the money to pay the fare and not pull a gun on them or engage in illicit activities in the back of their cab, the cab that represents the very entity which enables them to make a living.
yet the driver. ah yes, the driver. given that all those basic exchanges that i outlined in the previous paragraph go off without a hitch, the driver can then make an incredibly important difference. and it's just so damn interesting to conjecture about the person to whom i have entrusted my precious, precious life for those few minutes. in my humble opinion, the best cab drivers are the ones who give a basic and friendly greeting when i get in and out of the cab, drive quickly and efficiently but not extremely recklessly, and then pretty much leave me alone so they can focus on driving. it really doesn't bother me if they have music or news playing quietly (unless i have a headache or something) or if they're quietly chatting on their hands-free cell phone.
yet that is not always the case, now is it? i recently found myself in a situation where i had take a cab in dallas. finished w/my business, i had driven my rental car back to dallas love field airport (where i had flown in several days before), returned said rental car, and headed to the terminal with plenty of time to kill. yet when i approached the american airlines counter to check in at the kiosk, the agent at the counter gave me a weird look and asked where i was heading. long story short and much to my frustration, it turns out that i was actually booked to fly out of dallas ft. worth, despite the fact that i had flown into dallas love field and had rented a car from dallas love field. a cab was therefore necessary to get me from love field over to DFW so i could try and catch my plane. needless to say, this was a bit of a sticky situation to be in, but i went to the front of the taxi line, made sure he accepted visa b/c i was low on cash and it would be a long ride, and hoped for the best.
so, then. this particular cab gave off an interesting odor that combined cheap car freshener and natural b.o. not necessarily vomit-inducing, but not exactly fresh and breezy either. he was a short and stocky man with pale, freckled skin, pale red hair and weird blue eyes. he had a weird shifty look about him, a rodent-y type dude who can pass in mainstream society without causing serious alarm but probably indulges in some crazy-ass shit when no one's looking. the main issue? HE WOULDN'T FUCKING SHUT UP. he had this weird, overly polite/formal way of speaking that made him sound like he was a closet lunatic (i was reminded of the robin williams character in that one-hour photo movie). he kept saying things like, "i sure do appreciate your business, ma'am. it's because of nice people like you taking cabs once in a while that we can stay in business. so please sit back and enjoy the ride." over and over. then there was the "so, did you have a nice flight? everyone treat you all right on the plane?" which he asked me ON THREE SEPARATE OCCASIONS, even though i told him i had only been at love-field b/c of an error and i was actually boarding a plane at DFW. it was as if he was on auto-pilot or something. all said, of course, in this odd southern accent - the kind that bothers my ears instead of having a pleasing lilt. he kept hunched over his wheel the entire time, but i kept on noticing him looking at me in the rearview mirror as he kept up his steady stream of overly formal bullshit. at first i answered his questions to be polite but eventually started staring out the window at the passing highways, breathing out of my mouth and trying not to think of what crazy things could happen to me. when we finally got to the airport, he had to take my credit card the old-fashioned way where you take an imprint of it. it took FOUR TRIES to get this right, and i was literally yelling at him b/c i had a flight to catch. THEN he told me he had to call the base office to approve my credit card and i nearly had a conniption. i gave him my office number, told him to call that number of the card didn't go through and i'd wire him the fucking money. the entire time he kept fumbling with his machine and saying "i apologize for the inconvenience, ma'am" and i was tempted to tell him to STOP FUCKING APOLOGIZING AND JUST GIVE ME MY CARD ALREADY.
my mom told me when she visited that i seemed nicer now that i live in texas - that i'm more friendly with sales people and strangers instead of just being business-only. good old loyal parents. always thinking the best of their kids, you know?
but i digress. contrary to my expectation, it feels like i have been quite the frequent rider of cabs lately, largely owing to the fact that i've been on the road so much for work. and when i stop to think about it, that cab driver really does make a world of difference in determining what your life is going to be like for however many more minutes you are in his or her care. if you think about it, the act of piling into someone's cab is an incredible exchange of trust btwn both parties. i am trusting them to safely transport me from point A to point B, trusting that they will neither kill me nor get me lost, and trusting that they will avoid car accidents to their best of their ability. they are trusting that i will have the money to pay the fare and not pull a gun on them or engage in illicit activities in the back of their cab, the cab that represents the very entity which enables them to make a living.
yet the driver. ah yes, the driver. given that all those basic exchanges that i outlined in the previous paragraph go off without a hitch, the driver can then make an incredibly important difference. and it's just so damn interesting to conjecture about the person to whom i have entrusted my precious, precious life for those few minutes. in my humble opinion, the best cab drivers are the ones who give a basic and friendly greeting when i get in and out of the cab, drive quickly and efficiently but not extremely recklessly, and then pretty much leave me alone so they can focus on driving. it really doesn't bother me if they have music or news playing quietly (unless i have a headache or something) or if they're quietly chatting on their hands-free cell phone.
yet that is not always the case, now is it? i recently found myself in a situation where i had take a cab in dallas. finished w/my business, i had driven my rental car back to dallas love field airport (where i had flown in several days before), returned said rental car, and headed to the terminal with plenty of time to kill. yet when i approached the american airlines counter to check in at the kiosk, the agent at the counter gave me a weird look and asked where i was heading. long story short and much to my frustration, it turns out that i was actually booked to fly out of dallas ft. worth, despite the fact that i had flown into dallas love field and had rented a car from dallas love field. a cab was therefore necessary to get me from love field over to DFW so i could try and catch my plane. needless to say, this was a bit of a sticky situation to be in, but i went to the front of the taxi line, made sure he accepted visa b/c i was low on cash and it would be a long ride, and hoped for the best.
so, then. this particular cab gave off an interesting odor that combined cheap car freshener and natural b.o. not necessarily vomit-inducing, but not exactly fresh and breezy either. he was a short and stocky man with pale, freckled skin, pale red hair and weird blue eyes. he had a weird shifty look about him, a rodent-y type dude who can pass in mainstream society without causing serious alarm but probably indulges in some crazy-ass shit when no one's looking. the main issue? HE WOULDN'T FUCKING SHUT UP. he had this weird, overly polite/formal way of speaking that made him sound like he was a closet lunatic (i was reminded of the robin williams character in that one-hour photo movie). he kept saying things like, "i sure do appreciate your business, ma'am. it's because of nice people like you taking cabs once in a while that we can stay in business. so please sit back and enjoy the ride." over and over. then there was the "so, did you have a nice flight? everyone treat you all right on the plane?" which he asked me ON THREE SEPARATE OCCASIONS, even though i told him i had only been at love-field b/c of an error and i was actually boarding a plane at DFW. it was as if he was on auto-pilot or something. all said, of course, in this odd southern accent - the kind that bothers my ears instead of having a pleasing lilt. he kept hunched over his wheel the entire time, but i kept on noticing him looking at me in the rearview mirror as he kept up his steady stream of overly formal bullshit. at first i answered his questions to be polite but eventually started staring out the window at the passing highways, breathing out of my mouth and trying not to think of what crazy things could happen to me. when we finally got to the airport, he had to take my credit card the old-fashioned way where you take an imprint of it. it took FOUR TRIES to get this right, and i was literally yelling at him b/c i had a flight to catch. THEN he told me he had to call the base office to approve my credit card and i nearly had a conniption. i gave him my office number, told him to call that number of the card didn't go through and i'd wire him the fucking money. the entire time he kept fumbling with his machine and saying "i apologize for the inconvenience, ma'am" and i was tempted to tell him to STOP FUCKING APOLOGIZING AND JUST GIVE ME MY CARD ALREADY.
my mom told me when she visited that i seemed nicer now that i live in texas - that i'm more friendly with sales people and strangers instead of just being business-only. good old loyal parents. always thinking the best of their kids, you know?
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
up, down, all around
this saturday will mark the two-month anniversay of my move to austin. when i take a step back and try to look at the situation holistically, it's kinda hard to say "how it's been," b/c it's just been so all over the place. what with the struggles of trying to adjust to a new job, learning to work with new bosses, a crazy travel schedule, an empty apt in need of furnishing, stupid austin drivers that crash into my car, some unexpected personal shit, being away from family and friends, and my increasing addiction to breakfast tacos... it's easy to channel your inner drama queen and start wallowing in your own self-pity (i started a blog post earlier today called "teetering on the edge of sanity" but didn't have the time to finish it. yowza).
when your overall situation is so all over the place, the little things seem to take on tantamount importance. the fact that they only have a smoking room available when you've specifically requested a non-smoking room sucks that much more. the fact that you have to take a 7 pm flight out of miami that doesn't put you back in austin until 11:53 pm when your meetings are over at 12 pm seems really irritating.
but then again, the little victories are that much more worthy of enjoyment and celebration. for example, the oh-so-delicious and refreshing iced skim chai that i got on my way into work today. was i running behind schedule? yes. was it disgustingly hot and sticky outside, the kind of hot and sticky wherein you start perspiring in the 24 seconds it takes you to walk to your car in the morning? oh yes. but man, that iced skim chai was tasty. for example #2, i changed my seat to a bulkhead seat when i checked for my miami flight today. (i was also excited to notice that i was actually flying on a big plane! one with two aisles, and TV screens, where you don't feel every single bump and the engine doesn't roar in your ear!) once i got on the plane, i found out that i had somehow lucked out with a BUSINESS CLASS seat! holy moly. i haven't flown biz class in a long time, and i don't remember the last time i was so comfortable. ahh, leather seats that recline and have foot rests... still had to pay $4 for my stupid snack box though.
sigh.
it's late... i have an early breakfast with my colleague tomorrow... back to the rat race!
when your overall situation is so all over the place, the little things seem to take on tantamount importance. the fact that they only have a smoking room available when you've specifically requested a non-smoking room sucks that much more. the fact that you have to take a 7 pm flight out of miami that doesn't put you back in austin until 11:53 pm when your meetings are over at 12 pm seems really irritating.
but then again, the little victories are that much more worthy of enjoyment and celebration. for example, the oh-so-delicious and refreshing iced skim chai that i got on my way into work today. was i running behind schedule? yes. was it disgustingly hot and sticky outside, the kind of hot and sticky wherein you start perspiring in the 24 seconds it takes you to walk to your car in the morning? oh yes. but man, that iced skim chai was tasty. for example #2, i changed my seat to a bulkhead seat when i checked for my miami flight today. (i was also excited to notice that i was actually flying on a big plane! one with two aisles, and TV screens, where you don't feel every single bump and the engine doesn't roar in your ear!) once i got on the plane, i found out that i had somehow lucked out with a BUSINESS CLASS seat! holy moly. i haven't flown biz class in a long time, and i don't remember the last time i was so comfortable. ahh, leather seats that recline and have foot rests... still had to pay $4 for my stupid snack box though.
sigh.
it's late... i have an early breakfast with my colleague tomorrow... back to the rat race!
Monday, May 8, 2006
and to think how much i loved him as maverick
words cannot describe just how low tom cruise has sunk in my esteem...
it really is that hilarious/awful/train-wreck-ish.
(link should take you to my friend chris's blog, b/c i am too lazy to find the video and link to it myself)
i mean... really. who told him this was a good idea? lordy lordy.
it really is that hilarious/awful/train-wreck-ish.
(link should take you to my friend chris's blog, b/c i am too lazy to find the video and link to it myself)
i mean... really. who told him this was a good idea? lordy lordy.
awash in electrical goodies
ahem! your attention please! after a relatively productive weekend with my mom, i'd like you all to know that i am now the proud owner of:
the wknd also consisted of an inaugural trip to a korean grocery store, a tantalizingly delicious home-cooked meal (served on my exclusive white-linen dining table, i mean, the philips box with a free white beach towel bearing the logo of one of my old clients), my mom's first taste of breakfast tacos (she was a big fan - she did think it was weird at first to start brunch with chips and queso but eventually gave in to the lure of the hot melted goodness), and multiple trips to target and wal-mart (naturally). plus motherly love and affection, ice cream, and a conversation in which i had to explain the meaning of the word "phallic" (which i had invoked to accurately describe a famous austin landmark).
but alas, the wknd is over and i am now in dallas for a biz trip. i just got out of a meeting with a travel agent who actually used the phrase "all gussied up" without the slightest trace of irony. she was also missing a considerable amount of teeth, and the remaining ones were quite yellow and sad-looking. i am also a horrible person. oh well, at least i'll have a nice comfy handbasket for my trip to hell (where did that phrase come from anyway?)...
- a beautiful 27" flat screen silver philips television
- an equally beautiful silver slimline philips DVD player
- an even more beautiful b/c it was free silver mini ipod (my mom loves me and gave me hers b/c she she said she doesn't use it that much. and yes, my mom has better gadgets than i do, including wireless internet, a color blackberry, and multiple computers. shuddup)
the wknd also consisted of an inaugural trip to a korean grocery store, a tantalizingly delicious home-cooked meal (served on my exclusive white-linen dining table, i mean, the philips box with a free white beach towel bearing the logo of one of my old clients), my mom's first taste of breakfast tacos (she was a big fan - she did think it was weird at first to start brunch with chips and queso but eventually gave in to the lure of the hot melted goodness), and multiple trips to target and wal-mart (naturally). plus motherly love and affection, ice cream, and a conversation in which i had to explain the meaning of the word "phallic" (which i had invoked to accurately describe a famous austin landmark).
but alas, the wknd is over and i am now in dallas for a biz trip. i just got out of a meeting with a travel agent who actually used the phrase "all gussied up" without the slightest trace of irony. she was also missing a considerable amount of teeth, and the remaining ones were quite yellow and sad-looking. i am also a horrible person. oh well, at least i'll have a nice comfy handbasket for my trip to hell (where did that phrase come from anyway?)...
Friday, May 5, 2006
happy cinco de mayo! and happy crazy weather day!
so last night i experienced my first for real central texas late-spring hard-core thunderstorm. and it was no joke. i felt like i was in monsoon season in some tropical asian country or something, that's how crazy it was. i got home from work late-ish and took a leisurely stroll down the street to pick up some dinner (along with hundreds of my closest friends... apparently my neighborhood celebrates "first thursdays" with late hours for all the boutiques, lots of bands, and lots of drinking - pretty cool eh?). the weather was pretty muggy and warm but otherwise nothing out of the ordinary. i get home with my piping hot burrito and enjoy a few episodes of sex and the city on my laptop (b/c i still have no TV, let alone a coffee table on which to rest said laptop - i propped it on a chair, sat on my sofa with my burrito, and was happy as a clam).
next thing i know, though, the floodgates had opened and the sky was doing something fierce (even fiercer than tyra banks). thunder, lightning, crazy winds, TONS of rain, the whole deal. it seemed different from the t'storms back east somehow (for some reason the phrase "back east" sounds very 19th century, circa laura ingalls wilder or something) - apparently austin has occasional tornado issues, and i can now say that i'm not surprised.
this meant, of course, that my electricity went out and i was left with no wireless internet and no power whatsoever. i went to bed with a candle and started writing in my journal... it's interesting how self-absorbed one can get btwn a blog and a journal, and it's also interesting to see what different purposes they serve. the blog is more of a way to keep y'all (hey there texas) posted on what silly things i'm up to... it's also a way for me to tell funny stories and wax poetic about whatever topic happens to be on my brain (like the rumor that britney spears is pregnant again, good lord, someone needs to stop kevin federline from fathering any more children). journals, however, are so much more personal and introspective, the type of shit that you may not tell people you consider to be pretty good friends. or maybe it's just me, and i hold my cards close. i don't know.
i found myself quickly tiring of the introspection, though, and decided to end the night with a refreshing dose of p.g. wodehouse and bertie wooster and jeeves... what ho, jeeves!
oh, last note - today is cinco de mayo and they definitely do it up for real up in hurr. apparently a lot of the facilities/operations folks who work in our building are mexican, and every year they make a big deal out of cinco de mayo... they bring in tons of homemade mexican food (and when i say tons, i mean tons... we have like 600-700 people that work here) and interesting drinks and have a live mariachi band that goes around the building serenading us. good times all around. an excellent way to start the wknd, methinks... should be a good one too. i am hopefully having drinks with the lovely (and soon to be ex-austinite) mary lorraine at the oh-so-cool hotel san jose and then going to pick my mums up at the airport (assuming the weather doesn't start up again).
i'll leave you with a sampling of tunes recently heard on the oh so awesome jammin' 105.9:
destiny's child, say my name
ice ice baby (stop! collaborate and listen)
allure/112, all cried out
warren g, regulate (seriously - that was the icing on the cake)
next thing i know, though, the floodgates had opened and the sky was doing something fierce (even fiercer than tyra banks). thunder, lightning, crazy winds, TONS of rain, the whole deal. it seemed different from the t'storms back east somehow (for some reason the phrase "back east" sounds very 19th century, circa laura ingalls wilder or something) - apparently austin has occasional tornado issues, and i can now say that i'm not surprised.
this meant, of course, that my electricity went out and i was left with no wireless internet and no power whatsoever. i went to bed with a candle and started writing in my journal... it's interesting how self-absorbed one can get btwn a blog and a journal, and it's also interesting to see what different purposes they serve. the blog is more of a way to keep y'all (hey there texas) posted on what silly things i'm up to... it's also a way for me to tell funny stories and wax poetic about whatever topic happens to be on my brain (like the rumor that britney spears is pregnant again, good lord, someone needs to stop kevin federline from fathering any more children). journals, however, are so much more personal and introspective, the type of shit that you may not tell people you consider to be pretty good friends. or maybe it's just me, and i hold my cards close. i don't know.
i found myself quickly tiring of the introspection, though, and decided to end the night with a refreshing dose of p.g. wodehouse and bertie wooster and jeeves... what ho, jeeves!
oh, last note - today is cinco de mayo and they definitely do it up for real up in hurr. apparently a lot of the facilities/operations folks who work in our building are mexican, and every year they make a big deal out of cinco de mayo... they bring in tons of homemade mexican food (and when i say tons, i mean tons... we have like 600-700 people that work here) and interesting drinks and have a live mariachi band that goes around the building serenading us. good times all around. an excellent way to start the wknd, methinks... should be a good one too. i am hopefully having drinks with the lovely (and soon to be ex-austinite) mary lorraine at the oh-so-cool hotel san jose and then going to pick my mums up at the airport (assuming the weather doesn't start up again).
i'll leave you with a sampling of tunes recently heard on the oh so awesome jammin' 105.9:
destiny's child, say my name
ice ice baby (stop! collaborate and listen)
allure/112, all cried out
warren g, regulate (seriously - that was the icing on the cake)
Thursday, May 4, 2006
remember me?
hi, i'm jen, the author of this blog. you may be wondering whether or not i still exist, and the answer is: yes and no. i am back in austin but feel like my head is wandering in la-la land. shit's been going down, and it's hard to feel like i am living a life of purpose and meaning when i can barely see through a haze of crap. as for this specific day, it's one where i wish i could just hide at my desk and slack off, but: a) no cube to hide in (damn open layout), b) still feel too new to be a slacker, and c) feel like i should be doing the right thing. basically my super-lazy side is duking it out with my goody-goody side in the ultimate battle for supreme power and control. who will win? i have a feeling this one won't be resolved for a while, so remember to tune in for the next episode of Forces of Good and Evil: The Life of Jennifer Kim (so just chillllll.... 'til the next episode).
my trip to NYC was good, i guess - a lot of the usual suspects of a NYC biz trip (inexplicably expensive boutique hotel with tiny-ass room and fun bath products, running around the city for meetings, racking up huge expense reports) and a personal NYC trip (good food - korean bbq, lox bagels, good people, and, of course, a lil' bit of karaoke). but now that i live in austin, it seems like the things that make new york new york stand out in even sharper relief. the smells (the good, the bad, and the ugly). the people (again - the good, the bad, and the ugly). the feeling that oh my god if i don't rush i'm going to miss something supremely important. the feeling that this city is damned efficient and if you are of the laid-back and/or slow variety you better get the fuck outta my way.
amusing NYC side note: one of my interviewees (i was in NYC doing some research) told me that david blaine had set up his latest stunt at the lincoln center, which was just around the corner from our meeting, and that she had seen those "simpson sisters" there. for some odd reason, my brain immediately went to marge's smoking sisters with the raspy voices on the simpsons... before i realized she was talking about jessica and ashlee simpson. and i am not going to lie, as soon as the interview was over i totally dashed over to lincoln center to try and see jessica simpson up close and personal... who cares about that david blaine guy and his random stunts... but they were nowhere to be seen and i was completely bummed (but made up for it by getting a lox bagel and lentil soup - odd combination i know - and eating it in central park. right next to an odd-looking man doing some strange form of calisthenics that involved boxing the air around him and making sudden, jerky movements. and then staring at me as i ate my lunch. good times).
anyway, this blog entry is all over the place. bottom line: i'm overwhelmed to the point of aimlessness, and am extremely glad that my mom is coming this wknd to save me. hurray!
back to my halfhearted attempts to try and catch up on all the work i missed.
my trip to NYC was good, i guess - a lot of the usual suspects of a NYC biz trip (inexplicably expensive boutique hotel with tiny-ass room and fun bath products, running around the city for meetings, racking up huge expense reports) and a personal NYC trip (good food - korean bbq, lox bagels, good people, and, of course, a lil' bit of karaoke). but now that i live in austin, it seems like the things that make new york new york stand out in even sharper relief. the smells (the good, the bad, and the ugly). the people (again - the good, the bad, and the ugly). the feeling that oh my god if i don't rush i'm going to miss something supremely important. the feeling that this city is damned efficient and if you are of the laid-back and/or slow variety you better get the fuck outta my way.
amusing NYC side note: one of my interviewees (i was in NYC doing some research) told me that david blaine had set up his latest stunt at the lincoln center, which was just around the corner from our meeting, and that she had seen those "simpson sisters" there. for some odd reason, my brain immediately went to marge's smoking sisters with the raspy voices on the simpsons... before i realized she was talking about jessica and ashlee simpson. and i am not going to lie, as soon as the interview was over i totally dashed over to lincoln center to try and see jessica simpson up close and personal... who cares about that david blaine guy and his random stunts... but they were nowhere to be seen and i was completely bummed (but made up for it by getting a lox bagel and lentil soup - odd combination i know - and eating it in central park. right next to an odd-looking man doing some strange form of calisthenics that involved boxing the air around him and making sudden, jerky movements. and then staring at me as i ate my lunch. good times).
anyway, this blog entry is all over the place. bottom line: i'm overwhelmed to the point of aimlessness, and am extremely glad that my mom is coming this wknd to save me. hurray!
back to my halfhearted attempts to try and catch up on all the work i missed.
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