22 July 2006

green-ness in the middle west

when i left this city, it was march; cold, gray, spirit-crushing march. and oh, how i was ready to go, broken hearts notwithstanding. it was time, after a year and a half of living at home with my family, through two minnesota winters, one brutal and harsh, one less so, dampened by the soft pedal that is love. still, the long cold took its toll on me, and when life exploded in new york springtime bliss, it was a great relief.

now the sunlight is soft and reaches the ground mottled and stirred by the rich leaves. i am surrounded by my family again, although tonight there's even more family than before. my grandparents are asleep next door, in minnesota for what may prove to be their final visit. it was my birthday present to myself to come and see them here, and it was especially exciting because i decided not to tell them. seeing my grandmother's jaw drop and tears begin to flow at the airport was so wonderful. my aunt and uncle are asleep across the hall, my folks are in the basement and my sister is still up doing the i.m. thing. i don't have much left in me today after a day of badminton and wrestling my cousins on the trambopoline, so i'll be joining my family in a long, quiet night of sleep.

goddamn it's quiet here!

19 July 2006

hot hot heat

i've always wondered what it would be like to be cooked alive. after the past few days, i've got some inkling.

yesterday it closed in on triple digits with a heat index of 105. for some reason, i decided to spend the afternoon running errands for work, which damn near killed me.

DO NOT GO OUTSIDE.

that is the lesson i learned. and now i am basking in the freon glaze of my a/c and getting ready to pack.

did i forget to tell you? i am going to minnesota tomorrow!

yes to summer vacation. yes to lakes and kayaks. no to blackflies and mosquitos.

yes to family!

i have a counter now. scroll down to the very bottom of the page and you can see how many people have read my blog.

current status: zero.

yes to blogs that no one reads!

to non-existent local readers: party at my house july 29th for my birthday. potluck!

to non-existent far-off readers: sorry you're missing out.

17 July 2006

lebanon

what in the hell is going on over there? it came out of nowhere, didn't it, this all-out war? it's so sad, they've finally rebuilt beirut after decades of civil war and now it's ravaged again. i'm just keeping my fingers crossed that israel doesn't bomb any further than the syrian border. it's all so jumbled -- hezbollah isn't really lebanese, they're mostly syrian, but their weapons are iranian, probably some old soviet gear too. syria might have been pressed out of front and center political power in lebanon for the assassination of hariri, but they still control the bekaa valley in southern lebanon, a region with the second most lucrative opium yield in the world next to afghanistan. so israel isn't just bombing lebanon to attack hezbollah, they're attacking syria and forcing the lebanese people to confront hezbollah, which is hard considering they're integrated into the fragile national pact lebanese government, in which governance is based on population percentages and supposedly balanced between christians and muslims.

obviously israel has to defend herself, that's not unreasonable, but the scale of their retaliation shocked me. if they continue their assault into syria, there's a good chance that iran will get involved in more than just back-end supply and start lobbing missles.

let's hope that doesn't happen. i'm going on vacation this week and a nuclear war would be such a downer.

15 July 2006

oops i did it again

i've been so damn busy that i've forgotten all about this blog thing. and to leave it on such a dark, depressing note, that's just not right. i haven't felt like that since that day, which is good.

something exciting: i've upgraded from barback to bartender and switched bars. now i work at magnetic field, the bar below my apartment. monday nights, which, so far, have not been the best of nights. but i'm taking over from a girl who was mean and a terrible bartender, so i have some rebuilding to do. hopefully once everyone in the neighborhood finds out there's a cute boy working behind the bar, they'll come in all the time. i'm considering making one monday a month a vassar night -- there are enough of us in the hood to fill the place. barbacking was a great test of physical endurance, but i'm glad i've upgraded. and the commute is a whole lot better. now i just have to watch myself -- free drinks at the bar below my apartment is a dangerous game.


so much has happened since my last entry that i can't even keep track.

i spent all day at the met, communing with the tiffany windows. when i walked out onto the pavillion, i realized that i hadn't seen any of the banner exhibits. damn that's a big museum.

then 24 hours later i joined MoMA and saw the dada exhibit and now i can go to MoMA whenever i want. new york readers, you're welcome to join me.

july 4th i had a huge barbeque on my patio and it was SO much fun. jessie came with a load of friends and there were two things that made the party stand out -- one, there was almost noone from vassar, and two, all the folks from the bar and the tattoo parlor downstairs came to hang out. they're all excellent people and it was such a validation of this being my new home, this brooklyn, this atlantic avenue, this block between henry and hicks. no stalkers, please.

last weekend my friend elizabeth invited us up to her parents' house in the hudson valley for the best party ever. there was a whole roast pig (too bad president bush wasn't there, i hear he loves it). i made drinks for everyone. we played badminton. we played croquet. we played ping pong. we had an epic four square tournament. we swam in the pool, we got naked in the hot tub. the quakers danced. i got to see friends who i love SO MUCH. who could ask for anything more?

today i am headed back to coney island for the siren music festival after a bbq in prospect park. as long as i can beat the cold that has gripped me the past few days, it will be lots of fun!

IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR LOCAL READERS: PLEASE COME TO MAGNETIC FIELD ON MONDAY NIGHTS!

IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR LOCAL READERS: I AM HAVING A BIRTHDAY PARTY ON JULY 29TH. YOU SHOULD COME.

life at the field: