For'rd 'n Back

Weeks ago, because I had access to a vehicle, I bought some furniture. It requires assembly. A week or so after I acquired it I tried to put it together and found that safety dictates more than one person be present while wielding the pressboard. I've had a hard time getting that help. It'll come but we're all busy, I get that.

In the mean time I've gone into this foolish brain spiral. I've decided that this furniture will render my entire life clean and organized. (It won't.) Since it isn't assembled then any effort to tidy, clean or organize will be useless because the furniture is the key to the solution. (It won't.) So I've been living in a place with boxes of flattened furniture propped up everywhere and everyday detritus collecting around it. Some people would be so frustrated by this they would put it all together themselves in one go. I am not some people. Most of the time I hardly see it. If it can't be helped then why look?

Alex came over last night and helped out a lot. Unfortunately time got away from us and we didn't have one tool (a drill) so we didn't manage to completely finish even one item. We came close, we worked hard, we did much but we didn't finish. We also discovered that, while my measurement was correct from the wall to the closet door I failed to take the radiator into account. (Stupid!) So I'm going to have to rethink where everything is going to go. (Maybe I'll buy yet another bookcase. Then I'll really be organized.)

I could describe the result to you in detail but it wouldn't make much sense. My bedroom looks like I just moved in. Items stacked on top of and in front of other items all willy nilly. The cats are thrilled to climb the new configurations, leering down at me from their fledgling vulture perches. It's likely to stay that way for a while since the next step will be me finding both a drill and the courage to use it. (Given how I forgot the radiator I'm petrified to drill the holes for the handles on the drawers.)

It's days like this that I say to myself, "What is wrong with your brain?" Then I comfort, "Just one thing at a time, that's all you can do." "There's too much space between your one things!" "I'm sick." "Not that sick!" "Fuck you, you fucking fuck."

And so it goes.

Crud

I'm sick.

It's time to admit it. I got off the plane on Monday and felt fine. I slept well. I woke up on Tuesday and didn't feel fine but chalked it up to creeping crud from being trapped in small airplanes with ridiculous people. (She yelled at the counter attendant, she bitched and moaned aloud to no one in particular, she shouldered her way to her seat, she complained some more as we waited and she, seated OF COURSE directly behind me, coughed on me. It's all her fault.) I would drink lots of fluids, walk in the sun and feel fine the following day.

I did not.

But OK, one day, it's a cold, what the hell. Linger it may but after a day or so I'd start feeling better and all would be well.

Yeah, no.

Now we're on day 3 and it's time to admit that not only do I not feel better I actually feel worse. It's mostly in my throat, gunky, painful and Brenda Vaccaro-sounding but now it seems to be creeping upwards. What sort of stupid cold creeps up, I ask you?

My kind.

I don't get sick very often so it stands to reason that when I do it's tenacious. It was over  90 degrees yesterday and I drank hot tea all day. Doing it again today but the temps outside are cooler at least. Other parts of my many-pronged plan for recovery are as follows:

• Canceled movie going tomorrow (don't want to give this to anyone who is vulnerable).
• More tea.
• Advil.
• Salt water gargling.
• Emergen-C.
• Sleep.
• Leaving work early (which, frankly, I would have done anyway but I maintain that it also has healing properties).
• Devising a way to lie out all weekend and somehow have the sun beat strongly down just on my throat, but without harmful UV damage.

Cover your ears, now that I've admitted I'm really sick the whining is sure to continue both long and loud!

NWW: Sum Up

I'm home. I'm back at work. People need to shut up. I think the complainer on the plane gave me a cold. The cold is only in my throat, it's weird. I returned the lens (got there at 8:29 for an 8:30 return, took my last photo 2 doors down from the store) and have not purchased one of my own because they were snapped up when I got back and because I am having nightmare-inducing money angst. I took over 450 photos over the wedding weekend and I have only just begun to process them and the experience of taking them. The happy couple purposely didn't hire a photographer because they knew they had a bunch of pro-ams attending and felt they'd like photos by friends better. I took that as the go-ahead to pretend I'd been hired and to basically do a no-pressure wedding shoot. It was fun. There's a reason that photogs wear comfy shoes. Whoops.

Anywho, of the shots processed thus far these are the two that sum up the weekend for me. Above, the bride and friends during a perfectly-timed and heartily enjoyed rain shower. Below the groom eating an ice cream sammy while the officiant/groomsmen and friend leers on.

Reading Ahead

I remain truly happy with my membership to Good Reads. Here are the next 10 (of 150) things on my To Read virtual shelf. No particular order.

1. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

2. 365: A Daily Creativity Journal: Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life! Noah Scalin (who I went to college with). A friend and I plan to work on it together.

3. Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

4. The Witchcraft of Salem Village by Shirley Jackson, Remember that short story from high school, the lottery, yeah, same Shirley Jackson.

5. Going in Circles by Pamela Ribon aka Pamie.

6. Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis

7. Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller

8. Ruled Brittania by Harry Turtledove

9. Jude The Obscure by Thomas Hardy, Bit ambitious this one.

10. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, I've tried this one before and not finished it, every unusual for me, but I'm willing to try again.

Plated

Well, I've worked this weekend. Not too hard. Just enough to feel like I've really participated in the event. And a truly exotic and glorious event it was, too. I couldn't be happier that I made the trek.

But more on that later when I have a full sized keyboard and some images (over 500) to work with. I just hope you've had as interesting a weekend as I have.

Now who's going to zip over here and pack my suitcase, please? I've got a commemorative plate I need to get back to Brooklyn in one piece.

Filly

Writing this at the gate in the airport. You know, the one for tiny planes. On my little crackberry thingee, of course. Feeling one part fancy and at least two parts silly.

I'm headed to Cleveland then a scenic drive an hour South and who knows really what happens between then and the wedding tomorrow afternoon. Pretty sure fun will be had.

Hope you're kicking your weekend off a little later than I am but with the promise of just as much fun.

Maybe

Maybe today I'll figure out how to post here from my Blackberry.

On the other hand maybe I'd better leave you with something else to look at. It's a TMI, G-spot day at the Colony. I'm talking same gender attraction today.

And there's always my Flickr account, right?

What are you up to?

Community Caring

Two things today on the animal front. First, read Kath's story about squirrels. It's sort of heartbreaking in a tragically hopeful sort of way. Second, this morning in Massachusetts a dog very much like the one above died.

The drill, she is familiar to all of you. I've been tossing minty dried chicken breast treats at my cats for a while now. Let's give all our fuzzy freaks a little extra something tonight to cover the gap that's been left.

Produce

I've taken a bunch of photos with THE LENS. I am so in love with it I'm trying to figure out how to buy the used one I found yesterday without feeling too guilty. Since I got a Blackberry last night I'm not entirely sure that's going to work out. In the mean time I pulled out just a few shots, edited them slightly with the fancier version of iPhoto in my office and put them in a set on Flickr which I'll add to as I take more. Go look at the ones of the dogs in motion. Addictively cool for the photographer, hope they're the same for the viewer.

NWW: My People

This is from last month so not with the fancy lens but it's one I love. For more in this vein, if you're into that kind of thing, go here.

NWW: New Lease

As I'm sure I've told you, I rented a fancy lens to play with for this wedding I'm headed to in OH. Since my trip spills over the weekend a little it was more economical to rent the thing for a whole week rather than just for the time I was going to be away. Plus, I get to make some mistakes before I leave rather than make them while I'm trying to get priceless one-of-a-kind shots at the wedding festivities.

I am already having so much fun with it that I wish it were rent to own (incidentally the first question my mother asked about the rental). I feel like asking anyone who offers to, I don't know, buy me a cup of coffee for the next year, "Would you mind putting that money in the lens fund instead? Please?" There's one used right now at B&H (didn't know that before I rented) and it's $529 + tax. New they're between $700 and $800. But so much fun! Have I mentioned the fun?

I'll try to upload you a shot with this lens later today. Trust me, though, big fun.

Stuff I'm Thinking About

1. I don't ever want to move. Despite that every so often I spend a few hours poring over these little houses. They calm me.

2. According to this (admittedly liberal) political web site Glenn Beck's viewership has dropped by 50%, putting him in very dangerous ratings territory. My favorite part is how he explains that he used to say things in an entertaining way and now he doesn't do that.

3. When blogs collide! I was first introduced to Alaya Johnson's writing through her magically delicious Veronica Mars fanfiction. The other day she was on of the Big Idea features on John Scalzi's blog. Cool.

4. Support for women in the form of support for reproductive choice may be declining. I'm looking forward to this documentary about two of the last late-term abortion providers in the US. Somehow the coverage of Dr. Tiller's death last year made me feel as though there was only one late-term provider left in the US. I'm cautiously optimistic after finding out that's not the case.

5. I linked to this list of immigration myths last week over at the Colony. The discussion there was of WWF proportions, as it always is where political discussions are concerned but I felt as though this was a worthwhile thing to share without fanning the flames.

6. Speaking of the Colony, I was given the late night call last night for a Question of the Day. I asked people to share their most embarrassing injury. I wound up contributing two embarrassing injuries and an embarrassing photo of a totally legitimate injury. The comments are glorious.

7. Schmutzie is slowly but surely posting recollections about her lifetime of gender identity...questions? issues? exploration? I'm honestly not sure how best to describe them so you should just read the posts instead. Here's the first one. Here's the second. Stay tuned for more, it's a brilliant and bold blogging series.

8. So maybe you would have recognized Lena Horne if you saw her. Maybe you wouldn't but Stormy Weather would start playing in your head anyway. Maybe you didn't know her at all. I knew her face, I knew she was important and talented and beautiful. I didn't know how highly principled and fierce she was in the Civil Rights movement. Start you exploration of her here or, better yet, here but go out and find anything you can about her because, truly, she was spectacular both on and off stage. Also, she was Brooklyn born. Everybody knows how cool Brooklyn is.

9. Speaking of the Civil Rights movement, you know there was a bus boycott, of course, but do you know how long it lasted? I didn't. As people threaten not to visit Arizona or buy its products I hope they are also working on our nations short attention span. Arizona is a whole lot bigger than one city's bus system, it'll take longer for any pinch to be felt, much less responded to (though I sure would like to see the MLB All-Star game moved while we continue to discuss the immigration issue).

10. OK, and one more little pro-choice factoid to round the day out. There's a study showing that most women pay for their own abortions. So...you know...you can take that out of your anti-choice argument right now.

Goofs

Look, over there, at the hilarious children! Pay no attention to the woman behind the blog.

Woke up at 4:30am to find that the mildly annoying headache I'd medicated before bedtime had swallowed that medication whole and shat it out without using it in any meaningful way. I tossed, I turned, I mewed in pain, I got up, I took medication, I slept sitting up, I fended off cats who thought they should be allowed to eat since I was up and all, I didn't kill them. Just got back to sleep about 6:15. In time for a power nap before the alarm.

So, don't look here, I don't have anything meaningful for here. Look over here and see what I did before my own brain tried to kill me.

Gladiators Of DeKalb

I am trying to make a habit of taking a turn around the perimeter of the park before I do my greenmarket shopping on Saturdays. This week I wanted to drop off my heavy (watermelon rind!) composting before I walked so I changed my route. Half a block or so from the compost station I could see about five people with their reusable shopping bags and strollers and bikes standing around looking at something on the ground. I slowed down to see and there were two birds...wrestling in the dust. Now, honestly, I did wonder at first if one of those birds was dead. The other one was really throwing it around. The whole thing looked very uncomfortable and, frankly, not very kind. One of the watchers spent some time debating her belongings and finally selected an implement to...well, to break up the fight. She then proceeded to circle the arena looking for her opportunity. I kept on walking by, slowly of course, but I didn't see what her success rate was.

The things is. I don't think she should have tried to separate them because, well, you know?

I don't think those two birds were wrestling.

Whew!

I successfully scanned all the photos that I want to scan from the huge rubber maid container. I have not properly filed the photos. I have not put them back in the container. But I've scanned them. That's something, right? Now I can start working on the photos I need to process. Feel free to track my progress here.

Oh, and have a darthy sort of Friday. I'll be off supporting a different cinematic franchise.

Bad At This

I am bad at many things. I am also good at many things. However the bad things are annoying.

Last night I tried to put furniture together. Did OK, only sheared the head off of one screw (dirty!) but also only got one tiny piece of furniture together before the cartoony instruction booklet people pointed out that I need at least 4 hands to put anything else together. So, no, actually I don't have a new bookshelf yet.

Today I tried to upgrade my cell phone. Today is my day! I've waited 2 years and not a moment longer (usually I wait until the phone disintegrates in my hand see also: computers, iPods & alarm clocks) and I want a QWERTY keyboard dammit! I have long drooled over Queen Bee's sleek ENV3 phone. It flips open, which I love, and it has the full keyboard. She can text at the speed of sound! Well, I went to a nearby Verizon store and the extremely pushy man (I knew he would be pushy, I tried very hard not to have him be the person who helped me, I failed) informed me that with the ENV3 I would be required to purchase a data package for $9.99. He showed me a phone that had the keyboard and that didn't require an upgrade to the plan, it was a Samsung Intensity (do they know that's the name of a KY product, too?). It was...fine. It slides open and the keyboard is fine. He put a battery in it and I tried to play with it but, honestly, I couldn't figure out how to navigate and it was frustrating and it wasn't the phone I was all psyched to have so.....I sort of half-heartedly asked about pricing if I went super high end (Blackberry like the ever-hip Misti Kae, but which one?) and then said I'd think about it.

Then I bought myself light bulbs and an ice cream.

Things to know about me:

1. I am rarely more than 10 feet away from a regular computer hooked up to the internet and if I am I'm somewhere that internet usage is rude at best.
2. I really want an iPhone with a full crazy data package and apps and a pretty case and THAT CAMERA!
3. I currently have a calling plan that is so cheap it's no longer listed on the Verizon web site ($39.99/month for 450 anytime minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, $5/month for 250 texts, about $10 in mandatory taxes and fees), I never go over my minutes or texts and I never have to limit the amount that I want to talk or text in order to do that. 

I suspect that I will cave, get the ENV3 off the internet (because then I'll get an extra $50 discount), and upgrade to the data package and see what it's like to be able to check my Twitter by phone.

I suspect that if iPhone comes to Verizon (next month? this fall? 2011? when AT&T freezes over?) I'll fret and fuss and wait and see and finally just get myself a fucking iPhone.

I suspect that I will dream of getting a Blackberry and a fancy, expensive, iPhone-priced data plan because I've always wanted to be one of the cool(er) kids.

I worry that I will lose my job/my house/my foot/my sanity and feel guilty that I wasted money on a fancy cell phone.

I know that until I do something I will burn a little coal of resentment in my heart every time I text on my plain old phone keyboard.

What about you? What do you suspect?

NWW: Leftover

I forgot to include this one in Carmencita's birthday post yesterday. She has been known to enjoy the older men.

John Slattery: Making women nearly wordless since 1962.

Hottie Birthday!

It's Carmencita's birthday today! After the kerfuffle with my missing Auntie's birthday last week due to a crisis of confidence Carmencita sent her request in for a birthday Hot People post well in advance so I wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

Happy Birthday, honey, from me and the sweetest guy, inside and out, Richard Simmons!

Oh. Was that not what you had in mind? Good thing you included a specific request in your e-mail for perennial favorite, Robert Downey, Jr.

Other than that, though, you gave me carte blanche so I went a little hog wild. Below is Anthony Mackie. He's on Broadway right now with Christopher Walken (not pictured) in A Behanding in Spokane. The guy has great range and a lovely voice and abs you could grate cheese on (also, sadly, not pictured).

I was inspired to include Mackie because he plays one of the lead roles in The Hurt Locker, which I watched over the weekend. THL also stars, Jeremy Renner (below), my new not-so-secret boyfriend. Perhaps we can double date.

But it isn't about me, it's about you, it's your birthday! Let's bring it back to the basics of hotness. Good?

I know you love Buster Keaton, too, and while I am not as familiar with him as you are I can see the appeal. Easily.

Did we go see John Leguizamo's stage show together many years ago? I went with someone and I feel like it might have been you. It was funny. I loved the story about his gay uncle sneaking him and his brother into Broadway plays.

OK, ok, I'm reeling it back in, sorry, but I get out there in Google Images and I get pulled every which way toward the hot folk. There are a lot of choices. But, I know, only one serious choice.

You like dogs so I thought, hey, Cesar Milan is a looker and he likes dogs too! Couldn't find any photos of him with newfoundlands but I figure you're open to other breeds.

This is a guy you should know. He's John Barrowman, best known for playing Captain Jack Harkness on a series called Torchwood which is a recent Dr. Who spinoff. Rent it and you will not be disappointed.

Our old friend Spike, I mean James Marsters even guests for a few episodes. It's delightful in a number of naughty ways. Just look at that...sword!

I wasn't sure I'd like Dr. Who or Torchwood but I'd rank it up near our old standby, the X-Files. The Lone Gunmen were more properly, intensely nerdy, though.

To sum up, Robert Downey, Jr. and I say, "Have a good birthday...or else."

A Day That Will...Oh Forget It

Today was a day that began with a heaping spoonful of ambition. I was up at 6:30. I warmed up my body and my voice. I selected the perfect outfit to get me from home to work to lunch with an old friend to Shakespeare class and then home again in what promises to be frigid weather (for the season). I strode purposely out the door, my hand clawed around the rather fragile carrying mechanism for my grandmother's old pie carrier. It's filled with cookies for my class mates.

All was going well until around 10:45 when, as happens to me, my nose began to bleed. And it wound up being another one of those ones where I had to sit quietly in the foyer of the ladies' room telling myself to chill the fuck out. I had to get ice and ice my face and people looked in periodically to check on me. Just when I thought I had it licked I had a nice giggle with a co-worker and the gusher resume. I got it under control and went back to work for a bit before my lunch.

The lunch was, as expected, a perfect joy. My friend got into Kings College in London and will be moving there in September to pursue her PhD. She's doing very well and it was a treat to catch up. It was hard to get myself going to the restaurant, though, in my post-bleed blahs. Now I'm back and the feeling is well nigh overwhelming. Perhaps I'm a drama queen, perhaps I lost more blood than I thought, perhaps I am just lazy but I always feel after these nose bleeds like I just want to take the rest of the day off from exertion. And yet...I have class tonight and class waits for no one.

Tonight's format is that we'll all come in, we'll do a little work together then we students will wait outside the rehearsal room and go in one by one to simulate a proper audition. Then we'll all come back in together and talk about it, maybe do a little more work then we'll go out again and audition again. If we're very good at time management we'll have one more cycle before it's time to go.

The thing about auditions is that, very often, the more you want something the less well your audition will go. Is it a tempting fate thing? Is it a too firm a grip squelching natural instincts thing? Is it a self-sabotage thing? Who knows? It's the auditions that you walk into with an air of nonchalance, the ones where, sure, you'd like the job but you could take it or leave it where you wind up giving the performance of a lifetime while charming the pants off the auditors.

I would very much like to do tonight's audition well. I would like to rock that shit. I don't want April to be disappointed in me and I want to have wrung every drop of learning out of this short time we've had together. I got up early yesterday to rehearse and early this morning to warm up so I could have a shot at being the most prepared, engaged, present actor in a room full of people who are clearly, despite our brief acquaintance, very good at what they do.

Then my nose bled and my face hurts and I kind of just want to eat cookies and lounge around and not think about stupid Bill Shakes any more today. I'm just finding it hard to care.

I am going to knock this audition out of the park!

Walk

I watched The Hurt Locker tonight. I don't think it's a stretch to say that this movie is my generation's Apocalypse Now. More on the entire movie later, though, I'm still a little close to it.

Early on Jeremy Renner (pictured) is kitted out in a bomb suit with helmet and he's striding purposefully across the sand when he reaches up and, quite matter-of-factly, flips the visor down. Having done some work on my Shakespeare before I put the DVD in I found myself for a moment wondering if he'd practiced that. Was he clumsy with the visor for a while and just wore the suit long enough that he figured it out? Maybe just being fully present in the character gave him the surety to do it? I mean, that's what actors do, really, we simply walk the walk until other people believe we are who we are.

Then I had a terribly melodramatic moment when I thought, "Crap, that's how I'm living my whole freaking life."

Look! Behind the Curtain!

The tired and the unwashed caught up with me. I simply didn't have enough time to write between going to the laundromat and angrily reciting verse in the shower. If you simply cannot live without a little bit of me I'm over at the Colony twice. I curated a photo challenge and there are cool dogs in it. I also did a Mothers Day G-spot post.

You know, if you're interested.

Don't Be Late(d)

I didn't mean to skim over Auntie's birthday. We communicated privately and all on my own I gave a little shout out to the Powers That Be for having her around. (Thanks again, y'all, I appreciate it.) I did not, however, assemble a Hot People post for her. I didn't think she'd care. I haven't done a lot of Hot People posts lately and no one has peeped about it so I thought maybe no one gave a flying celebrity.

Ladies and germs, she cares!

So I am happy to oblige with a special, if belated, Hot People post in honor of my hot friend.

Tina Fey

Cheryl Bernard (left, grinning)

Christina Hendricks

Ginnifer Goodwin

Mary McCormack

Jada Pinkett Smith

Julia Mancuso

Lauren Graham

Lisa Edelstein

Sandra Oh

How was that? Do you feel celebrated properly or did I leave someone out?

I'll Give You Hardball

I was discouraged yesterday as I headed out to work. News of a bomber's nationality, tales of historical sites flooding, and the hopelessness of oil and water that do not mix were ringing in my ears. I was tired and I had a long day ahead. In my head I composed long, second person essays about fake patriotism and uncontrollable climate change and people who cite Glenn Beck as a reliable source of information while decrying the failures of "mainstream media." I flipped to Toccata & Fugue in D Minor on my iPod because apparently I wasn't interested in turning my mood around.

Halfway across the park, which is halfway to the train, a park worker approached. He looked the couple in front of me right in the eye and called, "Good morning people! Good morning! Welcome to the park!" No matter how it sounds it wasn't creepy at all. It lifted me about half an inch up off the ground. I smiled and I felt better and I went to work and I found out that the bomber was American. My thought essays became more cheerful. And more self-righteous.

At the end of the work day I strode purposefully across Manhattan engrossed in the sounds of Huey Lewis and the challenge of keeping my skirt from riding all the way up over my head. From behind something thumped me gently on the shoulder blade. Incensed, I whipped around to the grinning faces of my people. And lo we found sushi and all was well.

A little boy told stories and held my hand and stole half of his father's cucumber roll while snuggled against his mother's side. A much older boy recalled Arizona's Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Super Bowl debacle in his Mario Puzo-approved attire. The boys waved goodbye and we girls ascended leopard print staircases to our seats and shared and mused and unearthed common ground we hadn't buried as deep as we feared.

Two hours later the lights on stage dimmed, a spotlight focused, the incomparable Barbara Cook began to sing Send in the Clowns and I burst into tears.

I cried because I live where it's possible to be bombed, to be scorned, to share sushi with a small boy, to walk through parks and by landmarks on your way to dinner, to hear someone ask "Why would anyone live there?" and to sit in the dark with 1,000 theatre lovers and quietly weep while basking in the glow of a genius sharing her craft.

My whole day yesterday was but one example of the uncountable reasons I always ask, "Why would I live anywhere else?"

Focii

Ten folks that I may (or may not) have used to focus myself while working on some Shakespeare monologues lately.

Patrick Dempsey

Jason Ritter

Mark Allen Berube

Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Alan Rickman

Allison Janney

Dax Shepard

Eddie Izzard

Enrico Colantoni

Kevin McKidd

I'm Not Diabetic Yet, Though

I look like a clean-shaven young Wilford Brimley. Let's hope I look a little less fraternityFAIL when I sleep these days.

I found that memorizing my monologue worked best. Want to hear it?

Not all these lords do vex me half so much
As that proud dame the Lord Protector's Wife.
She sweeps it through the court with troops of ladies
More like an Empress than Duke Humphrey's wife.
Strangers in court do take her for the Queen.
She bears a Duke's revenues upon her back
And in her heart she scorns our poverty.
Shall I not live to be avenged on her?
Contemptuous base-born Callot that she is
She vaunted 'mongst her minions t'other day
The very train of her worst-wearing gown
Was better worth than all my father's lands,
'Til Suffolk gave two dukedoms for his daughter.

All line breaks are approximate, ditto spelling and punctuation, but I did type that all from memory. Scout's honor. I like it. It's by far more fun to me than the others I was considering. Just the right length for auditioning. More straightforward than a lot of the monologues I've worked on before, too.

That being said, the whiny child in me is tired. I'll have class until 10:30 tonight so it'll be 11:30 at least before I get home. Tomorrow I won't go home after work but will wait until it's time to meet a friend to see a fabulous Broadway play. There's an art opening on Thursday I want to go to. I haven't done laundry in a month you all! (It's OK, still have plenty of undies.) I'm supposed to be planning a trip to darkest Ohio for a wedding this month, too. Waiting to hear from the bride which of the lower rent motels I can get away with patronizing for the event. I have no idea how I'm getting there, where I'll stay or what I'm giving as a gift but I do know exactly which fancy lens I'll be renting to play with while I'm there!

What great things are you doing these days that are still, somehow making you a little tense?

Yeeeeeeah....I guess

The Year of Yes keeps bringing me things. Good things but man, it's still no easier to say yes. The year may teach me that it will simply never be my go-to response.

I told you that, thanks to some foolish developers, Freddy's was closing on Friday. Apparently there was a party on Saturday with performances by old standby acts from the bar playing every 8 minutes from 8:00pm on. Alex texted and told me he was headed out there if I felt like joining him and a couple of other friends. I had to think about it. I did not want to get up off the couch and yet this really was the end of Freddy's as we know it. Blah. I reminded myself that I didn't have to stay forever and I said yes.

Well, boy oh boy am I glad I did. First, I fell in love with the bartender. What was special about him? Nothing. He was, though, having a great time despite being busier than a one armed paper hanger. Also funny. Sweating balls, too. I just...wanted to mop his brow with my...undergarments. I'll be faithfully following Freddy's to Park Slope for many reasons but he's certainly one of them.

Not too long after that Alex saw a friend. That friend is an operatic tenor who sings with Opera on Tap. We moved swiftly to the back room where the performances were going on to hear that and I am telling you if you have never heard live opera in the seedy back room of a bar you need to get on that right. this. minute! Brilliant! A little Mozart, a little drinking song from La Traviata and they were happily done and I want to go see them wherever they go. One more act and I headed home. It was all of 9:30.

You know what doesn't close until 10? The new bookstore in the neighborhood. You know what my new favorite thing to do is? Drunk-buying books! Got the 4th Outlander book because it was a good price and got my first moleskine notebook at a high price because I've really been wanting one.

Walked home, had some cereal and toddled off to bed with "Yes!" ringing in my ears.