i always knew it!

aidan shaw and i were meant to be together! yes, i was watching old eps of 'sex and the city' and an ad came on BEGGING me to take this quiz. i crossed my fingers while they tallyed the results and hoped for the best. sure enough there he was - the man i still get weepy for, even after having watched all of his epidodes at least 20 times - old reliable aidan shaw. i dare you to take the quiz too (and report back).

look familiar?

so, i'm reading annie's blog and she has posted a youtube video of a sketch from flight of the conchords (i don't have hbo anymore) called inner city pressure where the boys are cracking on being so poor that they have to eat 'found' food. as i'm watching it, i notice that the neighborhood they chose to depict being poor in is none other than my poor, old, south williamsburg neighborhood, the marcy street jmz stop!! home of jay-z (he re-named himself after the j,m,z trains) and his his old stomping (aka subway robbing) grounds, the marcy projects. the neighborhood that made me realize i needed to get the cluck out of new york! inner city pressure, INDEED!

here is the subway entrance. every morning before i climbed these stairs, i would stop at the deli on the left (yellow awning) and buy some caffeine or energy water. if i looked particularly tired (or pathetic or hung over) the store man would cut me a deal or buy it for me. sweet! the rainbow (red awning) to the right is where i bought my favorite pair of brown flats for $15 (i'm still wearing them constantly and will until they are worn down to pleather, hole-y shreads). but don't let this quick omission of sweetness fool you...


i lived a block away from the subway and i would only venture to use the elevator, where this platform is, if 1. i thought i could tolerate the smell of bird and human excrement 2. the line of hasidic women with their baby strollers was sparse (yes there was an odd mix of ghetto, wealthy hadics and transient hipsters in this area) 3. i felt like i didn't need the stair master effect of the other entrance.
below where these guys are standing is where i 1. had to step over the homeless, drunk men (who had pissed themselves the night before) sleeping across the sidewalk every morning to get to work. 2. watched one man get shoved onto the street (not sidewalk), handcuffed and arrested by no less than 6 police cars (i wonder what he did?). 3. heard gunshots coming from the mexican dance hall more than once. 4. bought delicious, cheap chinese food that i always told myself i should reconsider before ordering again 5. learned that two blocks away a friend of mine, while housesitting and taking care of the beasts for me, was mugged.

this is an actual 'glamour shot' of my cheddar cheese colored kitchen on south 5th and marcy (i bought the nice cupboard in the background, plus, we see the beautiful angie, gillian, jin and marc - helping me celebrate my 37th birthday - in the foreground. bonus plus, the only amazing apartment feature: glass bricks between the bath and kitchen). i wish i still had pictures of the reality of the space. i took some before i moved in 2006, in case the landlord didn't return my deposit, so people could see that the ceiling was caving in, paint was peeling and the stairs were being held together by L shaped brackets and steel wool (i'm not exaggerating).

why did i live there? because it was one stop (on the bus and subway) away from the lower east side, it was becoming 'gentrified' (is that a dirty word?) and i got a 'two' bedroom, 800 square ft apartment for a low, low $1,500/ month! my how things have changed! but honestly, i probably would have toughed it out a little longer if those cute new zealand boys really lived there. preferably in my building. shoot, preferably in my apartment!

i don't think i'll ever revisit that one neighbohood during my quarterly visits back to new york city, so it's great to see it again in such a light hearted way over and over (seriously, i've already watched it 20+ times). thanks boys!

how did they do that?

THIS is the greatest thing i have ever seen on tv...EVER (and i didn't even like the movie)!

they're back!!!

once upon a time, years ago, before i ever, ever thought i would have a blog of my own, i checked christine's blog la vida lila every week to read about her shenanigans with josh and lila. a few months ago, she put it aside and we couldn't figure out why, especially since she was so good at it! turns out she was in her first trimester of pregnancy and feeling like crap. well, she's over that hump (but gaining another one - har har!) and back to posting! this must be my first official birthday present. yes, i'm sure she had that in mind when she started posting again. thanks christine! it's just what i wanted!

in these pictures little lila is modeling a cape i bought for another friend's daughter. doesn't she look like the tiny superhero who could care less ('what? fire? UGH!')? the look on her face is priceless. the mess in my former apartment, showing up in the picture, is priceless.

p.s. back to writing for the site: the most recent post was about an event sponsored by 'seventeen' magazine, because some girls from america's next top model were going to be there. well, the event was what it was, but i did make two new friends there, kelly and mel (who actually lives in my old stomping ground in williamsburg brooklyn). bringing independent, strong minded girls together - isn't that just the 'seventeen' way!?

p.s.s. i missed the details of the great lorelai/luke kiss on the gilmore girls series finale tonight because i was so distracted by the mighty lemon drops playing in the background. resurgence of the song 'inside out' YAY! end of 'gilmore girls' BOO!!

p.s.s.s. since i am what is known as blogger nouveau, blogger verte, etc. i have some questions for you who have been doing this much longer than i.
#1 is it common to contstantly re-edit and update past posts? i do it all of the time. does this make me blogger obsessed?
#2 why doesn't my 'older posts' link work? you have to click on the months to see anything else i posted that isn't on the first page. RUDE!

i wish and i wish and i wish

every year leading up to my birthday when i imagine what the perfect birthday would be like, it would look something like this. and it would include me wandering around a spa, wearing nothing but a soft white robe, getting every treatment on the menu, drinking lots of champagne, eating amazing food and maybe a little marc jacobs something in a box. oh and i'd be enjoying all of that with someone who vaguely resembles this guy:
at this point, my approaching birthday is offering up nothing close to that fancy pants, dreamy scenario. but it's important to dream, right? realistically, i'm simply hoping for some gift cards from home depot and itunes, a decent bottle of wine and at least one good friend to 'celebrate' with.

TRUE CONFESSION TIME: recently the weekends have found me sucked into bad cable tv marathons and today is no exception. there are about a million things i should be doing, but instead i'm couched, blogging and watching episode after episode of this:
i would not consider 'ab fab' bad television (after all those two combined remind me of my dearly missed mother and it is mother's day), it's just bad that i'm allowing myself to do nothing again. last weekend was the most embarrassing of them all. i spent a day watching 'tori and dean: inn love'. and i LIKED it!

p.s. isn't this the best jim moment ever? sigh...