Monday, March 31, 2008

play ball!

woohoo for baseball season starting up again!

i have a lot of chicago friends going to the cubs game today at which, it sounds like, they will get very very wet.

we had an intimate little gathering for justin's birthday: baked brie, gorgonzola mac and cheese, cheddar biscuits, meatloaf, candied carrots, banana cake for dessert. it was an evening of warmth, laughter and indulgence.

i'm paying my roommate cassandra to let me keep a clothes rack in her room. i just don't have enough space for all my stuff and she has this massive room that houses a twin bed, a bookshelf and like half a dresser full of clothes. so i asked if i couldn't 10 sq/ft in the corner and she generously accepted. so i've started to hang all the stuff that was still trapped in bags from the bedbug events last summer and you know what? i have amazing clothes. i pulled out so much stuff that i forgot i had, stuff i've never worn and kept thinking, "oh my god! i love this! i own this? i don't even know where this came from!"

that is a sure sign i should stop shopping. indefinitely.

Friday, March 28, 2008

my brief encounter with a cater waiter

"I have a girlfriend but I think you're really hot," was how it
started. "you're wearing madras shorts, a seersucker kangol, and are
bored out of your mind. That's really what this is all about," I
responded.

"no, its something carnal, I can feel it."

Rolling my eyes, "where are you from Thomas?"

"Maine."

"ah, thats why you seem so earnest...people from Maine are weird, no
offense"

"no. Seriously, we are moving towards having an open relationship"

"where do you live Thomas?"

"Chinatown. But I'm moving to Greenpoint..."

"...with your girlfriend, right? You guys are moving in with each
other?"

He said yes. We discussed the vitals regarding his rent from place to
place because anyone who lives in new york knows what is most
important - real estate!

I told him his girlfriend (of only 10 months!) will not be into an
open relationship if he is moving in with her but he demanded I call
him anyhow.

I left him a message telling him he's a fool if he thinks he'll ever
have the chance to sleep with me and left him my number anyhow.

Sometimes it's just fun to flirt for sport. I think he would agree
even though he kept up his act to the very end with the comment that,
"I've never done this. This is so not like me" as the party ended.

Boys are fun. However, my iPhone is still more fun than some hot guy
messing with me...but just barely.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

i am so lame

went to see horton hears a who and at the climax of the movie, my eyes just welled up and a couple tears dropped out of both eyes. i wasn't even FEELING emotional, i swear. i have no idea what happened. my tear ducts just spasmed or something. very strange, indeed.

though it may cause embarrassing spontaneous emotional outbursts, i would still recommend it. graphics were sooooo good.

and i also developed a pavlov effect at the site of the little striped puffball named katie. i would see her and just giggle like crazy. LOVE.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Jerome Armstrong still being a douchebag

http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2Fmydd%2F%7E3%2F258686967%2F240

When will he stop with the temper tantrums? They don't look good on
him. At least he's consistently snide and bitter and one-sided...?

Sent from my iPhone

the iphone's awesomeness

in taking a road trip to ikea last weekend, i was able to not only get directions there and back but also use the gps button and the "show traffic" features to pinpoint the exact mile at which we'd hit traffic ("there will be a backup in 5 minutes") and exactly which bridge we should use to get back into manhattan.

fucking genius.

it's settled, the iphone completes me.

also, speaking of awesome: i love dooce AND chuck.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

a good train ride

it started with two hot preppy guys getting on the train at my
washington heights station. the oddity of this will be missed on many
but suffice it to say that there are not very many hot people at all
in my neighborhood, much less preppy young white ones. i will note,
however, that my hood is definitely on the up and up. i saw a skinny
billyburg hipster-looking guy in my laundromat last week. it seems the
poor artists might have discovered the cheapness and lovliness that is
WaHi. maybe my neighborhood will become the new "it" place. that would
be cool, until people realize how many good-looking trendy things are
gravitating here and all the rents skyrocket until we're all priced
out of the market. that would suck.

then while on the train down, a fabulous woman came and sat next to
me. actually, she pretty much sat on top of me in an otherwise empty
car. when i looked over, she was looking at me and had apparently sat
there to get my attention as the first thing out of her mouth was, "we
have the same bag!" and sure enough, we both had different versions of
the same very expensive designer bag (which I, of course paid a
fraction of what she paid...i know this because i got a super discount
and hers was just out from the current season). so we bonded over
$1100 bags, all the while i could tell i was getting better looking to
super-preppy sitting across from us. and i felt so "new york" with my
expensive things, my knowledge of nyc chefs, discussing paris fashion
shows. in reality, i'm a poor person living in a run-down building
(often sans heat), not yet successful, and not nearly as worldy as i'd
like, but for the moment i was a star.

as we chatted i kind of wanted to take her on as a mentor/mother
figure. i taught her how to use the maps function on her new iphone.
"i want to be this woman when i'm older" was the constant thought
running through my head.

but as is frequent on the transient nature of subway riders, super-
preppy, older fabulous woman and i all went our separate ways on
separate stops without trading contact information. talk about a
series of tragic missed connections...

Monday, March 24, 2008

bloggy birthday

today is the 3rd anniversary of this wee blog o'mine.

i've never before had so many people i know and hate reading my blog. i kid, i don't really hate. okay, that's a lie. i really do hate some people, but i digress. i've done some shape-shifting here over the last year. i used to write for you folks, i used to whore myself out for links and page counts. over the past year i've found myself posting here just so that i can remember what i've done and when.

for the next year, i think i'd like to focus more on actual writing. maybe throwing some fiction into the mix. i say that, but i don't even really like reading fiction. i still regularly skip the fiction section in the new yorker. so we'll just see whether this little whim actually plays out because putting real thought into posts requires real time.

on a serious note: this past year, a good friend was diagnosed with a very serious disease. it's caused a seismic shift in my perception of life and of my feelings on death. it's added a grey, gritty dusting of reality to an otherwise blessed and sparkling life. a constant reminder that life is cruel and unfair. i'm still adjusting/reeling at the news and trying to figure out how to hide my fear of death from someone who is looking it in the eyes. how do you deal with something so profound while mustering the appearance that nothing is wrong and that we are all happy and well? i just don't know how to cope yet.

i'm doing the AIDS walk again this year and have posted details on how to donate here. if there is anything that you can afford to donate, it would mean more to me than i could quite put into words at this moment. i would be eternally grateful to those who can support me in this very important fight for a cure. 

Sunday, March 23, 2008

sponsor me!

Okay folks, here's the deal.

Donations of $25 and over can be made here.

Any other amount can be made by check: payable to AIDS Walk New York or AWNY.
and mailed to: Jazzy c/o Ted, 598 10th Ave, #6R, NYC 10036

Or by making a payment at paypal to: jazzinstrangeplaces at gmail.com
Payments to my paypal account will be transferred to my checking account and I'll hand in a check on race day with whatever cash I've collected from people in person. The drawback here is that I don't think I can get receipts to send out to you folks if you wish to deduct this (however, I'm not sure that anyone deducts donations under $25 anyhow).

Thank you thank you thank you!

Friday, March 21, 2008

on march madness

me: have bookmarked my bracket standings on my iphone
Peter: that is the 4th hottest thing you have ever said to me

also, every day should be good friday. i got a seat on my train to work, there were no lines at starbucks and times square is awesomely quiet today. rock on.





my tastebuds adapting

i've been on this detox. i'm not eating breads/pastas of any kind. no high fructose corn syrup, nothing with preservatives really.

and it's been dandy.

until i ate half a roll and my stomach started going crazy. my stomach literally wanted nothing to do with that bread. or when i picked up a single serving applesauce (which had corn syrup but i was craving something sweet and had run out of fruit) and almost spit the stuff out it was so sickly sweet.

and let's not even discuss the cupcakes, buffalo wings and nachos with cheese sauce that we ate while bowling yesterday. i've never in my life wanted to make myself throw up more than i did after all that gross food. and it wasn't even good, i just felt like i had to because everyone else was doing it! i'm such a lemming!

so things that, a month ago, i was eating, nay, inhaling...my body is now rejecting. it's a weird feeling.

and i haven't had a french fry in weeks. THAT'S RIGHT, I SAID WEEKS PEOPLE! and i feel pretty good for it even though i still consider the french fry my all-time favorite food.

this girl's getting older, it's about time she started taking better care of what she's got. boobs deserve healthy food too...

unrelated:

here are some pictures of that skunk that scared the shit out of us last weekend.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

5th anniversary of the war we shouldn't have entered to begin with



because i write most posts days (if not weeks) in advance and post them as i feel, i didn't have anything prepared on this anniversary of the war.

i know this is selfish of me, but when i think about this war and think of the lives lost and the ones we've yet to lose...all i think about is how fucking grateful i am that my brother is done serving this country. i don't even care that the government did nothing for him on his return and that he has regular nightmares about killing people he never knew. i don't care about how terrible they were all treated in iraq, how unprepared the military was to undertake this mission or even how disrespected he's been since he's returned. i'm just happy to have him alive. he was shipped of the day after new years 2003 and i hope to never know the feeling again of having to say goodbye to my baby brother with the distinct knowledge that it may be the last time i would ever see him again.

we have to bring everybody else home too. their mommies and sisters and brothers and fathers and grandparents miss them.

unrelated:

could barack obama get any cooler? dude is working on his bracket. love him.

here are some pictures of that skunk that scared the shit out of us last weekend.

update: and on a very sad note, my mom is putting my other dog to sleep today. she has a fatal liver disease. bailey (boo) was my girl. the princess. and i was her favorite (we princesses need to stick together). otherwise, she was neurotic as hell and hid from all other people that weren't immediate family. kate, my best friend who came over to the house 5 times a week, can only recall seeing boo once. bitch definitely had issues. but she had attitude as well and was assertive (she soooo took after me). she'd sit and stare at you when she wanted petting. if she thought you maybe weren't getting it, she take her paw and tap at you over and over and over as to say, "HOW STUPID ARE YOU HUMAN? I'M TELLING YOU WHAT I WANT, WHY AM I NOT GETTING IT." she'd always been healthy and active and was only 12 so i feel like it's too early to be saying goodbye but according to my mom, she's been pretty sad and on an IV and in a lot of pain. so sad...

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

jerome armstrong at mydd

it started with an observation, "whoa, pretty critical assessment of obama, definitely written by a clintonite." and i check to see the author: jerome armstrong.

in the last couple months, it's been predictable as clockwork. every time there's a post trashing obama (or his support or supporters) while simultaneously masquerading as a "neutral third party observer" post, it's by armstrong. it's a game i play by myself now. "hm, weak reasoning - check, baseless attacks - check, using "myth" to describe obama's post-partisan goals - check, bitterness and condescension at obama's supporters calling them cultists - check! and last but not least, talking about how obama is totally headed down the drain - check. my money is on armstrong! lemme check...it is!!! ding ding ding!!! i win!!!"

i'm over it. i wish he'd just endorse and act like a full-on supporter instead of playing this secret-stealth hand. it's transparent. he's losing whatever credibility that my respect for his site bestowed upon him.

and after this, i'm about to pull mydd from my subscription list. what a way to take an excellent speech and create something negative from it and focus on that. thanks for being petty mr. armstrong!

updated to link this. could he be any angrier and close-minded? "i want to win this election but i won't stop trashing obama. oh, and why don't i also hate on all other progressives for not hating on obama with me." hey jerome, maybe YOU are the one with the problem, buddy. you're such a goddamn concern troll. go back to your fox news, that's just about where you belong these days.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

more chang!

my boy dave chang is taking the country by storm.

i was actually out to dinner with katie and some family friends of hers from bumblefuck. somewhere out in that empty spot between central and upstate new york. katie was making fun of my Ko debacle and the kid says, "oh, david chang! of the noodle place!" and to answer my look of confusion he followed up with, "i read Gourmet."

and now there's a whole profile of the darling in my cherished new yorker.

as if reservations at Ko weren't hard enough to get, now they'll obviously be even worse.

but i came, i saw, it conquered me. when it did that to me, i knew somehow, it had to be...

so i'll keep trucking. i'd like to try back in another month and maybe i'll get lucky. both with the reservation AND with the cute skinny blond chef with wire-rimmed glasses...

Monday, March 17, 2008

kiss me! i'm 1/8th irish!

1/8th has to count for something, right?

i know it's sacrilegious, but i'm probably not even going to drink tonight. have big plans to go to the gym! exciting! wooooo!!

i had enough drinking this weekend for 3 saint patty's day.

notable quotes from the weekend from a random spattering of friends:

"i won't tell people my age. or my sex."

"this bag is worth more than your life!"

"sorry i didn't return your call earlier, i have been emotionally unavailable all day."

i also discovered the best bar ever in midtown. it's a speakeasy and home to every broadway star ever. on saturday we saw nathan lane and matthew broderick and a bunch of other people that, i assure you, are stars but who 99% of you wouldn't have heard of unless you were a theatre junky. they don't allow standing. like anywhere. i know that sounds weird but it means that you can't get in unless there's an open chair. it means that the place stays quiet and swanky, sounds of billie holiday wafting through the air. it means that nobody is standing behind you at the bar to try to get a drink. it's awesome and if it weren't for the fact that martinis are $14, i'd be there every night. hell, i might be there every night regardless.

not sure what it is about the end of june but a lot of people fornicate at that time of the year because i literally have 200 birthdays to celebrate in the next 10 days. plans include karaoke (and something about costumes?), bowling and beer towers, martinis at another of my favorite bars (one at which i always miss the point the point of no return and have nauseous moments in cabs on my way home) and a huge easter sunday dinner.

i got a text from emily's fiancee: "call me, i think i have a job for you." turns out his friend is single-handedly starting a hedge fund and needs help. crossing fingers!

after brunch with katie and the gays on saturday we meandered over to marc jacobs. there was a life-sized skunk sitting on a chair in the store window, the background covered from floor to ceiling with silk flower blossoms. "hey, that skunk moved!" colin said. we all stop and start looking at said skunk which was perfectly still. we started telling colin he was losing his mind. we all had our noses to the glass to check it out when said skunk jumped out at us. i thought i was going to have a heart attack. i'd forgotten that marc jacobs hires people, puts them in costumes, and pays a photog to take pictures with people who visit the store. it's actually pretty cute and they give you prints as you walk out the door, gratis. last christmas they had a toy soldier and this year for easter, apparently, a skunk. so of course we had to go in and get pictures taken. if i find time to scan it in i'll post it.

an e-mail popped into my inbox: "american airlines fare sales to europe!" and 4 minutes later i had a pair of tickets to paris for justin and i. a friend of his lives there and for months we've been trying to find a good weekend/fare and the stars aligned and i couldn't be more excited. le bon marche here i come!! justin hasn't ever been so i'm afraid there will be a fair amount of touristy stuff but it's been almost a decade since i've seen notre dame and the sacre coeur so i suppose i'm due for a return. and to be fair, i don't need to spend $1000 on clothes like i did last time so the more you keep me out of the boutiques, the better.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

momofuku ko

so that little eensy restaurant i was giving myself anxiety attacks about?

the clusterfuck that was obtaining a reservation is detailed here, summary here. that i got a reservation is a miracle. a bloggy miracle! and i brought poor poor peter on the ride with me. frantic e-mails, begging him to reload the site while i was out if he was going to be home and e-mailing him my credit card info to use to make my resy if i wasn't home for the site debut. not only did he NOT use my card to buy $4,300 worth of escort services, but after the panic of getting the resy he said, "i'm a little spent now. i need a cigarette" (he doesn't smoke) and i knew how he felt. i could have used a massage after the whole ordeal.

justy, not only one of my favoritest friends but also one of the only people who enjoys food as much as i do and doesn't mind spending some money on it, was my date.

food porn can be found here, thanks kathryn for the beautiful photos.

the place was serene and cozy except for the intermittent passersby who stopped in to ask, "how long is the wait for a party of six?" or "can i get a takeout menu?" justin and i smugly chuckled at the ignorance of those foolish people. then we let out a wee evil laugh.

justin and i hadn't had alone time in months so we had a lot of catching up to do. the couples on each side of us barely exchanged words all night which resulted in justin and i being a full 3 courses behind those who sat down AFTER us (we were in the second seating, nobody was waiting for our chairs otherwise, i promise, we would have kept pace), but the chefs took it all in stride. food was every bit as good as i expected it to be. the oysters and pork belly in kimchee consommé was my favorite dish...i think. but then there was the foie that was fluffy as new snow but savory and buttery and melty right when it hit your tongue. i kind of wanted to swim in it, like, all the time. and the amuse of teeny english muffins with pork fat and butter that, later, the chefs topped with slices of boiled egg and caviar as a snack. and just when i thought i might explode, the fried apple pie came and was so much lighter than it looked that i thought i might actually want a second helping.

wine/sake pairings were better than decent. a rioja that i hadn't had before (i didn't know such a thing existed) rocked my world. the sancerre cut just the right way during its course. some house made sparkling malbec? was amazing (though a bit tough on the nose, in the mouth it somehow worked).

justin and i lingered (we were actually the last table to leave) and shot the shit with the chefs. david chang was behind the counter for all of 4.5 minutes of our 3.5 hour dining experience. though the legend wasn't there to entertain (and he's SOOOO not the smiley pillsbury dough boy that he appeared to be on the cover of the dining section this morning, but rather more of a distant slightly cocky thing), the chefs he had in his stead (notice the cute lanky guy with the glasses in the background of aforementioned photo and another delightful shy guy who wasn't in the photo, probably because i bet he'd rather be speared than be featured in a photo in a major newspaper) were collected and graceful. also, ridiculously friendly.

afterwards, we sat around with chang (who seemed infinitely looser and happier sans patrons) and the other chefs for a bit. JW black on the rocks in hand, we chatted about the ease with which their first night was executed. snacks were made, things tidied, budweisers consumed. one chef was a bit disappointed that i knew what every course was going to be before it came but, seriously, anyone who had the ambition/luck/unbridled obsession to get a resy at this place HAD to have known a million intimate details about the spot first. in fact, at one point, i reminded them all what their day off was. "it's tuesday, not monday! and i'm a freak that i actually know that, sorry."  when all is said and done, i enjoyed that we were normal people, not critics or people with "ins", and were still able to dine there on their very first night. huzzah to democracy in action! i'd also like to take some time to thank my right hand index finger. without its rapid taps on that F5 button, i wouldn't be here telling this story today.

in all, an incredible night that i wish i could do over and over again. and would, if it weren't for the cost and the fact i'd look like a beached whale in a matter of weeks on that diet. i'll certainly be going back but i'll give them a few weeks to rotate the menu a bit. no sense in duplicating courses...(that is assuming i'll ever be able to get a reservation ever again).

you can't see me but i have a very content grin on my face at the moment and doubt it's going anywhere any time soon. and luckily for me, neither is Ko.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

ferraro + clinton = racists!

okay.

let me get this straight. the clinton camp makes it a favorite hobby to play the race card at every turn.

now they've got geraldine running her mouth, saying some horrendous shit: "obama is racist against white people!" (i mean, seriously, if he's racist...what is she?)

obama says, apprpriately: what the fuck?!

how does clinton respond? "mommy! obama is playing the race card! he started it!"

i realize spin is a natural excrement of these political campaigns (you know, according to mark penn, the only states that count are the ones she has won)...but this is just getting out of control.

and after all that, "well, obama says he's not muslim so i guess we should take him at his word" bullshit: clinton, you are a monster.

obama, hire samantha power back. i'd like to see what words she has for ferraro.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

um, stuff and spitzer

i have to say, i've had the all-time best titles lately. like, it would be SO EASY to pull out a title and for me to tell you what the post was about specifically. "updates," "weekend," "random tidbits!"

haircut went beautifully though i think he went a bit overboard with the highlights. what can ya do?

spitzer? man. i've met him a couple times and as a lawyer, you can't help but love that he made the AG's office something to respect again. i'm not even against prostitution, per se. but don't do that shit if you're married with children and have so much power that you can't do anything under cover. when are famous people going to learn that they can't get away with the same stuff we lay people can? also, there was a huge part of me that believed that, for his gruffness, he was a good guy. not sure i'm feeling that so much anymore. also, dude, you're an attorney! you had her cross a state border, don't you know interstate shit is ALWAYS going to get you in trouble? pick up a damn conlaw book and skim it for a few minutes!

for all my name dropping and begging of dave chang for a heads up on his new restaurants reservation website, i got nada. which means i'm stuck with all the other fools, endlessly refreshing the page, praying that something resembling a peach will appear before our eyes. i can't tell you how many times i've refreshed that page this weekend, suffice it to say that it's enough times that a normal person might think i need to be heavily medicated or put in a safe home somewhere. also, why the hell don't iphones have flash?! get on that shit people! also, i even had a dream that the site went up but all that were left were 11pm slots which were too late for me. i had a dream about not getting a reservation at momofuku ko, and now i get to experience my dreams coming true. whee.

Friday, March 07, 2008

not afraid to be servicey

if you're looking for world renown hair stylist zeki dogulu (cute, turkish, utter genius) who used to be at the roy teeluck salon...

please e-mail me at jazzinstrangeplaces at gmail dot com with your name and phone number and i'll let you know what salon he has moved to.

also, don't stay with roy, he's an utter mess. i know they're offering free cuts, but don't do it!




equal opportunity?

gridskipper has a list of places where guys can go to get happy endings.

what about me? where can i go to get a happy ending? i'm not sure i'd want one but i don't like that i don't feel i have a choice in the matter.



Thursday, March 06, 2008

on humor

you know, i think the surest sign that i'm not a funny person:

that i still get really proud of myself when i happen to make what i
consider to be a particularly witty comment without having to think
about it first.

anyone can be funny if they have long enough to plan it. it's speed
that counts and every once in a while i'm quick enough to impress
myself.

My friend jesse on my not having cable: "i'm like a crack ho watching
this shit every night, 'oh c'mon baby. i'll suck your dick for some
superdelegate pledge news!'"

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

mishmosh of updates

frustrated about how hard it is booking a resy at babbo? it takes everything in me not to loudly gloat about my unfettered access to last minute resys there...yes, i have friends in good places ;)

remember this guy? the one who kept saying he was straight? i get at text from justin around 2am, "pi is at the ritz with a guy!" the ritz is a gay bar, obv. they all start talking and the guy calls himself pi's boyfriend but also says that pi still tells people he's straight/bi. apparently a bit of denial on his part.

my slumlord management company? they've started to care, all of a sudden. we now have security cameras installed in all the common areas. i was shocked to see their concern for our well-being until i got a letter in the mail. "anyone caught selling or harboring drugs on the property shall be found to have materially breached the terms of their lease and will be evicted." so they only care about catching the drug dealers so that they can evict the family's whose sons are doing the drug dealing. they want to evict those families because almost the entire building has lived there for over a decade and their rent is probably like $3.00 a month. but you know what? who gives the fuck what their motivating factors are as long as they get the dealers out of the lobby!

david chang, why dost though forsake me? not only am i not eating there for friends and family, i can't even get tipped off to the online reservation website. and i think i had an orgasm while reading this.

i get a voicemail: "hello jasmine! it's your stylist and your asshole friend. i will be answering my phone all day, i promise! we will get your hair cut this weekend. love you, call me" so zeki is back to the land of the living and camping out at the UES salon he rented a chair at ages ago.

i don't lose things. i've never once lost a wallet or my license. or even my keys. i might misplace them but they're always somewhere safe, usually under a pile of clothes somewhere in my room. i'd run to the grocery store with only my keys and my license and credit card. the next day, said cards were not in my purse. "oh, they're prob still in my pocket of my jeans." i get home, no cards. i start to flip out thinking about how, if i really lost my card, that they'd had 24 hours to use it. i start scrambling for the phone number for citibank and then remember that i don't lose things. i start pulling at the pile of sweaters that the jeans had been thrown on top of and found them! phew. nyc DMVs are a pain in the ass.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

new arrival!

i got my bag last week and my shoes came on thursday.

my friend stopped by and said, "i thought your shoes were going to
take at least a week since i just ordered them, but then victoria came
in and ordered some stuff and so they overnighted your stuff from
paris together."

yes, my shoes have hung out in the same box as shoes that will be on
victoria beckham's feet. how's that for a meaningless brush with
celebrity?

Monday, March 03, 2008

wee weekend

saw definitely, maybe this weekend and definitely loved it. the campaign scenes were fairly true to life and his love stories were touching and also fairly convincing. it wasn't cheesy and that little abigail is the cutest thing ever. the casting of his love interests was perfect. they were all fantastic.

got a free tanning session (score!), had one of the best massages i've had in ages (thought she'd given me an extra half hour), had my favorite soup (cream of tomato at blue ribbon bakery), some board games with the gays, saw a great movie AND did some cooking for myself so that i can try to save money on buying lunch every day. doing a bit of a detox (not a cleanse, don't worry) that requires me to cut out meats, sugars (from anything other than fruit), wheat and cheeses. it's going to be harder than it looks but i've stocked up on fruit and yogurt, lots of different beans and brown rices and i was pretty creative with spices (old bay on chickpeas?) but everything turned out well i think. weather was great today and was able to sit with a latte in the park at union square reading. totally lovely.

and my darling brian williams was on the daily show last week. love!