Portent

I arrived home yesterday to a terrible sight. Workers were replacing the shoddy front door that sometimes sticks and doesn't lock with a brand new steel-frame security door complete with new locks.

This is bad news, y'all.

Today I got a voice mail from the building manager (the daughter of the building owner) explaining that they were replacing our mailboxes next week for new ones so we'd have to pick up our mail at the post office for a few days.

Finally, and most terribly, the building super (my boyfriend Will) told me last week that his baby mama (the owner's daughter/manager -they keep it all in the family) is moving with her parents from the basement and first floor apartments (respectively) in our building to the new big house they just bought in Far Rockaway.

As any renter-slave in NYC can tell you, building improvements can only mean one thing, and that plus their new house? It's a foregone conclusion.

That's right; I'm calling it now. My rent's going up.


SHITE!!

People in This City Never Cease to Amaze Me.

This morning on a LOOOOONG return trip from a visit to a high school in Queens (so long, in fact, that hopstop.com doesn't even know how to tell you to get there by public transportation), I was finally on the F train heading in to Manhattan and watched as the woman sitting across from me leaned to her left toward the edge of the seat, SPIT ON THE FLOOR, and then nonchalantly resumed reading her paper.

FOR REAL!!!

I think I physically gagged, and then stared at her in absolute disbelief. In fact, I'm still shocked. Good god, the humanity.


And THEN, just to REALLY throw me for a loop, on the R train this evening, a married guy (I saw the wedding band) seated on the bench in front of me offered to stand so I could take his seat. HUH??? I politely declined and thanked him, and then stood there, befuddled. This city is not known for its overly chivalrous behavior, let's face it. In fact, the only person I've seen give up a seat to someone is ME! Well, and my cousin Jeramy who kept letting the nearest woman sit when he visited last year, but after a few days even HE got sick of it and stayed put.

The only possible explanation is that I must look like I'm over 70? I AM looking kind of wrinkly these days; all those sunburns as a kid, ya know. Or maybe it was the gut protruding into his personal space? because GEEZ, I AM WORKING ON THAT, PEOPLE. Hmm... old age, pregnancy, disability... none of those are particularly reassuring explanations.

OR, and let's hope this is the case, he's from somewhere in the South and has a mama who made sure he was Raised Right, capital R, capital R. Let's hope.

I'm heading back out to freaking Nassau County two more times this week, plus the usual gigs in East Harlem and Bed-Stuy. That's a lot of train-riding, unfortunately. Who knows what will shock and awe me tomorrow??

Baby-Wranglin' - Spring Edition!

Last weekend, I did back-up baby-wranglin' duty for My Former Charges while their parents were away, and it was non-stop fun!

Aww, Charge #1 is sharing his goldfish.
April, their full-time baby-wrangler (and yep, that was her in the Ireland pictures) took us to feed the fish at Greig Farm in Red Hook.

Sorry to interrupt, guys.



To be honest, the fish swarm kind of grossed me out.

On to the goats!

The next day we hit the park and accidentally witnessed a poor girl duck being chased by many boy ducks. I didn't take a picture of that.


Look at this kook.

Look familiar??
And it's hard to believe that #2 is already over a year old. Such a cutie, isn't he?

Remember when he was a redhead?
I love these boys. And I just need a SLIGHT rest before I spend another weekend with them.

Celebrity Sighting (kinda), Repeated!

Thursday after a particularly demoralizing day at the high school in Bed-Stuy, I was heading home on the A train wishing I still didn't have to finish that damn paper when I caught a glimpse of a familiar profile waiting on the 14th Street platform. As soon as I saw him, for some reason I knew immediately it was... Blane!

If you recall, I've seen him before - last year, standing in front of Columbus Circle with his son. Thursday he was with the kiddo again; they got in my subway car and I seemed to be the only one who recognized him (and might be able to name at least four of his movies, I'm just sayin'.) So in conclusion, I've been in New York long enough to repeat celebrity sighting these days! Weird.

This is the first weekend in five weeks that I've been in the city, and it's nice to be in my own place. If you'd like a recap of the four previous weekends, they were spent in: Belfast, Dublin, Austin, and baby-wrangling upstate. So yay for staying home! Yesterday was happy hour at Ginger Man (the same as the one in Austin, who knew?) with some future Montauk house-sharers, and this morning was brunch on the UWS with a friend from Texas (who I ran into in the Macy's shoe department over a year ago randomly. This city IS tiny).

And tonight? Well, tonight I'm TOTALLY FINISHING THAT PAPER!!!

Self-Loathing, Boys, and Other Stuff

I've crossed a new threshold in self-loathing this week. I asked my professor for an extension to finish my final, since I spent all weekend as Assistant Baby-Wrangler for my Former Charges (their parents were in Napa), and didn't get any school work done. So he gave me a couple extra days, which I have TOTALLY WASTED and now it's the day I was supposed to turn it in and not only have I not written the paper, I HAVEN'T EVEN READ THE ARTICLE. For serious.

Why, you might be wondering? Aren't doctoral students in the field of education supposed to care about...education??

Yes, in theory. But in reality, the problems are several:

1) I have a lifelong problem with the dreaded affliction of prostitution. Wait. I meant procrastination. As I've continued in my educational career, this has only gotten worse, not better. Go figure.

2) This particular class is not required for my program, but for an administrative certification that I foolishly decided to "pick up on the side" while I worked on my dissertation proposal. Ha.

3) After three years in a bureaucratic, self-aggrandizing, impersonal top-rated institution, I have reached a heretofore unreached level of disdain for all things school-related.
Translation: I HATE SCHOOL!

4) Lastly, and worst of all, my professor announced on the first day of class that we could not fail his class, because he does not give failing grades. Any grade lower than a B would receive an Incomplete, and a plan to make up the work after the semester concluded.

Y'ALL. Do you understand the severity of what he said that day? What it meant to my procrastinatin', pigeon-sized brain? As my jaded cynicism for all things grad-school related has grown, my commitment to producing quality school work has dropped along an inverse trajectory. And when the ONLY REASON to ever do work, EVER (ie. not fail) has been taken away (ie. you can't fail, you just get an Incomplete and make it up later), WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO???

So here I sit in the TC library after two hours on the internet and nary a word of this article read. I hate school, and I hate myself.

On a lighter note, last week I received not one but TWO visits (figuratively, anyway) from Ghosts of Flings Past: a 3am phone call with no message from Montauk Boy, AND..

an invite to catch up and meet for drinks from Pinball Champ!

Ah, Pinball Champ. My roommate said it was his seasonal check-in to see if I was in love with him yet. I'm not. BUT if you know a nice girl in NYC with a liking for all things pinball, by all means, let's set them up!

Unrelated:
I watched P.S. I Love You last weekend and I'd like to steal a line from my friend Holly and just say that punching myself in the face for two hours would have been less painful. Sadness! Tears! Angst!
I mean, really - there's a line where she says, "but what's the point of finding someone if you're just going to end up alone anyway?" and my fellow baby-wrangler and Ireland travel companion April and I dissolved into respective piles of left-over heartache and tears on the couch. It wasn't pretty.

But you know what WAS pretty? HeLLO, Gerard Butler. Yum. I might actually have to watch 300. Have you seen Dear Frankie? You should totally put it on your Netflix because it's adorable and I might move to Scotland because of it.

Okay, I'm going to read the article now. I know I should. You're right, you're right; I know you're right.

Nerdfighting

My sister is responsible for my recent infatuation with the Nerdfighters. After her post last week, I checked out a couple of videos and within minutes was completely sucked in to the other-world of Brotherhood 2.0.

In case you are wondering, it takes several days of avoiding real life at all available times to watch a year's worth of Brotherhood 2.0 videos. Not that I would know this.

Anyway, Nerdfighters are nerds who fight for issues, and... stuff. It's complicated. But the first step to Nerdfighterdom is to decide what kind of nerd you are. And after I saw my B.I.L.'s new blog (on his old website), I realized that he is totally a GARDENING NERD!

Just wait 'til his tomatoes are ripe. That's all he's going to talk about and it's going to be a gloat-fest over there. Sheesh.

Photogin'*

Ms.Lutty, who is in Italy somewhere on the Amalfi coast, just sent a link to some of the gorgeous pics their photographer, in Austin, took at the wedding, to me in Harlem USA. Isn't the internet like, totally amazing?
Anyway, their photographer took some great pictures! (He also was ridiculously cute, but that was just a bonus.) Feel free to check them out. The one of me, mi prima and Fay is particularly goofy, but pretty much captures the essence of our relationship. And I like that the Father of Texas, S.F. Austin, is looking on in the background.

And as a special feature, here are the ones I took, along with more from Ireland. Knock yourself out, k? And while you do that, I'm going to my LAST CLASS OF THE SEMESTER, THANK YOU ANN RICHARDS.
And then I'm going to come home and write the paper I was supposed to turn in last week, I promise!

*I know this is not a real word.

Sidetracked

Why did I stop posting about the trip to Ireland, you're wondering? Sidetracked already?
Well, yes, but I had a good reason. I was only back from Dublin for three days and then left for Austin on Thursday, because...

Ms.Lutty got married this weekend!!
(My B.I.L. took this one, which I must point out because it's BLURRY.)

First dance: Now or Never, Elvis version. Awesome.

My sis and B.I.L.

I think the groom was having fun; we couldn't tell for sure, though.

Check out how great mi prima is looking! She's like, totally hot.

This guy is this guy.

Laredo in the house!

Look, the kids are cutting a rug!

We were in charge of relocating the bridal portrait after the shin-dig, which made for an interesting ride home.

Bridal Portrait Ms.Lutty spent the night at our place.



I didn't know when I met Ms.Lutty in grad school (the first go-round, 7 years ago) that she would become such a significant person in my life, but we became close friends just in time to see me through the implosion of an important relationship, one that took me a long time to get over. Ms.Lutty was my friend that year and all the years since, and I'll always be grateful.

And even though we initially bonded over our common disdain for any sort of relationship with worthless members of the opposite sex, we've both changed our tune since then. Well, one of us has, anyway. I guess that happens when you find someone who is, in fact, totally worthWHILE, as her lucky new esposo is. Actually, how lucky for them both, I think. One day if I ever grow up and learn to play well with others, I'll be looking to them (and a few other good examples I know) to show me how it's done.

Mucho amor, Shashita. I'm so glad we're friends.


Felicidades! Don't forget to come back from Italy in a couple of weeks, okay?

Day 2 - Giant's Causeway

The Giant's Causeway is one of those places that doesn't sound particularly exciting, but in person is kind of incredible to behold. It's a rock formation on the Antrim coast on the northern coast of Ireland, and the six-sided rocks seem like they were created with a mold.

We did the walk along the cliff first, and got these gorgeous views from the top.




These guys didn't understand the sign depicting a climber with a big black slash through it:

After we made the haul back down, we headed to the water:









It was a gorgeous day, and an amazing place. Highly recommended.

10 Days, a Few Pounds, and A Couple Thousand Dollars Later...

We arrived in Belfast last Friday morning - actually, Friday before last, I guess, and after a wee nap (okay, we crashed for four hours), we headed out for lunch and...

a Guinness, of course! Here's April enjoying the first one.

The obligatory food picture: shepherd's pie and chips


We walked around downtown Belfast for awhile, and as you'll see with most of my pictures from the trip, I got Bree and April to pose in front of various sites. Here's the country's government building. You can see the upper half of the gigantic ferris wheel next door to it. Apparently some people in Belfast are unhappy about the ferris wheel because it sits in the Titanic Memorial Garden.


The next day we took a bus tour to the northern coast, and stopped for several photo ops. You can't tell, but there's a rope bridge down there connecting the little island to the bigger land. It was closed, unfortunately, so we didn't get to cross.


The little dots in the field are sheep grazing!


It was a gorgeous day. We got really lucky with good weather for most of the trip. By the time we took this picture Saturday morning, we were ALMOST recovered from the hangovers from the night before; somehow, on our first night we ended up at a club dancing to random 80's hits with some locals. Ah, Ireland.


Here is a tiny car. Don't you want to put it in your pocket?


The name of this town (on the far shore) in Gaelic (Irish) means "Little White Village Carved Into the Side of a Cliff." Or something like that.


One stop on our bus tour was to Bushmill's Distillery, which was kind of lame since we didn't have time to actually take the tour and go inside to see the inner workings.


So I just took pictures of other people taking pictures to entertain myself.



We got back yesterday and I was asleep by 9pm, which was fine, except I woke up at 5:30am this morning. Let's hope I don't pass out on the F train coming back from a school in Jamaica, Queens this afternoon.
But barring possible unconsciousness, there will be more to come later. I'm not even through the first weekend in Belfast!