The past couple of weekends have been really busy in a good way.
Two weekends ago, I went up to Red Hook, New York, for Freedom Fest 3 (for which Eric's friend created a website). It was basically a mini-wedding. They rented this huge, awesome house with a giant in-ground pool and 12-person indoor hot tub. There was a big white tent, a Grateful Dead cover band, and of course a lot of booze and food. Eric was in charge of cooking over 50 pounds of pork. He really hit it out of the park! I was thinking people would be drunk and not care about food, but everyone was raving about it. He made three different sauces (vinegar-based, mustard-based, traditional) and it was so good. My only regret (and boy do I regret this) was not eating more. I literally had three bites of his sandwich. ARGH. Despite drinking TWO red bulls and vodka, I passed out a little earlier than I wanted, and my stomach was like, 'aaa' so I ended up bringing saltines up to my bed and eating a couple and then trying to fall back asleep. Eric, on the other hand, was up until almost 5am. How, I do not know why..
Normally, the best part of a party is the late, drunken part, but I think my experience was the opposite. Unlike most of the guests who came up in a party bus (about a 2 hour ride from NYC), we got to stay the whole weekend. The anticipation, have a chill hang out Friday night, lots of quality romantic time with the boyfriend, the hungover breakfast the next morning--that was the best. And there's something about sneaking off with your boyfriend when you're in a crowd that feels very romantic. I met a lot of his old friends and hearing everyone compliment him and really enjoy his company made me really proud and happy to be his girlfriend.
Also--we woke up in the morning to NO POWER and thus NO WATER. It was hilarious (in retrospect). I walked into the kitchen, all disheveled looking, and said--"So, there's no power and no water?" and everyone was like, 'Yup." Pretty funny. I also lost my new J. Crew bikini which pissed me off--I looked EVERYWHERE for it--I mean that house was a mess, we spent hours cleaning it even though most of the party was outside, and still no swimsuit. On the plus side, I took advantage of the J. Crew take an extra 20% off final sale to buy 8 pieces of bathing suits (only one matches, and that one I don't really like, because as Eric says (in the negative) it makes me look naked and it also doesn't have the most flattering cut, and instead of sunshine yellow it's MUSTARD yellow. I'm most excited about this suit that is white with blue polka dots on the bottom and a really pretty navy top on top. So cute! Each suit piece was just $7.99!! Even at $64 for the eight pieces, I got one great suit and a few other ones I will be happy to mix and match in PANAMA. Woo!!!
This weekend I was really proud of myself for being super-social. I really enjoy hanging out with my friends but sometimes I have to force myself to do it. I don't want to say it's like medicine, but here goes--the whole making plans part is the medecine and everything else is awesome. When I get anti-social it's so self-reinforcing. I'll start to feel blah and then not be in the mood to hang out with anyone, even though seeing a friend would be EXACTLY the thing to perk me up. With Eric around, I rarely feel lonely during the weekday evenings, but if it's a weekend with just us and nothing but errands and cooking as activities, I'm more likely to get in a blah mood. I love Eric's cooking but he has WAY more stamina than me.
So Friday:
My yoga teacher didn't show up so I decided to call Anna for a last-minute coffee, and we ended up with tea at d'Espresso. I hadn't seen her for awhile so that was good--she's on my commute home so I'm hoping I can meet up with her more after work
Friday at Midnight: My cousin hosted a Midnight Soul Brunch. It was one of the things where the only person I knew there was my cousin, so the party itself was a lot more effort, but I'm so glad I got to hang out with him in a "friend" setting and not a "family" setting. He and Eric seem to get along pretty well, which I also appreciate! We bought growlers of beer at Whole Foods and and were the toast of the party for it. It works like this: You buy a $5 jug at the store, then bring it to fill up--the beers we chose were $5.99 and $7.99--and one of them was a truly awesome pumpkin ale. I LOVE craft beer. I've always been against getting growlers when it's just me and Eric, but I may change my tune - 64 oz is 2 and 2/3 beers each. That's tipsy, but not WASTED (and I only like to have a couple beers generally--If I get drunk it usually involves wine or spirits). The next party we host I definitely think we'll fill them up, especially with the bikes we have now (though I ended up having to carry them in my front basket, which made it very difficult to streer. Eric tried to bungee cord the growlers in a soft cooler case that he attached to his back bike rack, but it TIPPED over--I screamed--but thankfully did not fall to the ground. We were racing on our bikes to get to Whole Foods before it closed at 11pm, and it made me realize how much I miss getting out and partying like I did when I was single. The city is so ALIVE at midnight--the early birds are going home, everyone else is getting ready to party until 4. I love it!! I am not through with bars, time for me to try to go out more.
On Saturday I went with Rita to Greenpoint Open Studios, which was another really fun experience. We've gone to Bushwick Open Studios the past three years (is that possible, or was it two??), which involves getting a map and then checking out where artists work. They display their work, maybe have some wine and pretzels or whatever for you to munch on. The best part is you actually get to talk to the artists, find out what makes their work tick. Some of this work is SO good--like I would buy it if I were more wealthy and had some cash to spare--and each person's work is that much more interesting when you hear what inspired them or how they created it. LOVE. Rita got way drunk, we biked home (perhaps dangerously), and Eric made some awesome chicken parmesan. To die for. He also took a cheesecake out of the oven which we ate the next day. This cheesecake is perfect. No cracks. Firm on the outside and fluffy in the middle. Huge (It used FIVE blocks of cream cheese). A little sour cream-y and lemon-y. It's perfect. So perfect.
On Sunday, we were planning on biking up to my friend Johanna's place in Morningside Heights in the West 120's (9 miles) then going to a Medieval festival in Fort Tryon Park. I didn't realize that the park is actually in the west 190's--another few miles. I think I biked 17, 18 miles that day?? (We ended up biking back to Johanna's, then taking the subway the rest of the way home since it was getting cold and dark). The Medieval festival was fun, something I wouldn't normally do. I was shocked at the scope of the thing--over 40,000 people were there, apparently, and there were tons of enthusiastic but often amateurish performers, people were in cosume, and of course Eric and I had a turkey leg and fried dough. I saw lots of cool instruments, including a player of a hurdy gurdy (thought you would like to hear that, Laura!). Back at Johanna's apartment, she had just moved in but it looked fantastic. She had painted one wall in each room, and it was such a good look. I went to the Benjamin Moore store at lunch so I plan on doing the painting that I have been putting off forever at my apartment, simply because it's been ambiguous about our lease and we'll have to paint it back when we leave.
That's all folks!
Showing posts with label weekend blahs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weekend blahs. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Friday, October 10, 2008
Another Solitary Friday
Right now my internet connection is being lame (interrupting my Netflix WatchNow of Across the Universe, damn you!) so I decided to, gasp, type in Word and post later.
Random Thing #1:
As a follow-up to my bipolar post two items ago, Jezebel had an post about bipolar people being more creative than normal people, often because they have obsessive thought patterns.
I have obsessive thought patterns too! (I'm not bipolar) Who would have thought this would ever be an asset? Can’t say I have been in a mood like that lately, but I remember lap swimming both relieving and exacerbating my condition. Like, I would be thinking about something and break out the syllables in time to my swimming, mulling over thoughts in a very non-content way, only focusing on their structure.("To-o-day I kissed a bo-y-y" times 200, with different stresses and emphases) Or I would randomly count up on times table and multiples.
The whole week after my first kiss, I would think about it constantly while lap swimming, being alternately embarrassed and so pleased. I would relive the moment again, and again, and again, it was crazy. And then all of a sudden I would have a fresh sense of giddiness and sprint through a flip turn or something crazy like that. Over the past few years I have gotten better at not obsessing over things; you can really train your brain by positively and negatively reinforcing it. I don't know that I would recommend obsessing over every little thing, I used to hate that I overthought events while the other person involved could just casually brush the thought aside. As with everything, though, and in line with the article's message, pulling apart events by looking at them over and over again can have a couple of effects. One, you notice things that you missed before, and can come up with a fuller sense of motivation and implication. Two, this "finding more out" can run wild, as you start to come up with more and more remote possibilities for people's actions, or what else could happen.
Oh, I wish I could think like that...sometimes...this makes me want to crack out my old diaries (currently in Seattle) and re-read my adolescent angst
Commenters: does this happen to you? Normal, or not normal?
Random Thing #2:
If I were a writer for SNL, I would make a skit about the pun on Microsoft Word and its slang cousin “Woooord” (that would be in a deep voice, often with a knuckle slap accompanied). People using the term in humorous ways would be the theme, and the variation[1] would involve the thugs being like “power point!” or “excel” after shooting someone down on Xbox or something like that. Or, they could be nerdy white gangsters with one black friend using all that slang, who brings it to his homies where they either roll their eyes or adopt it themselves. Obvs I am not explaining this well.
Random Thing #3:
Arianna Huffington is writing a guide to blogging. It’s pretty damn silly. You heard it from me first, it is still in bound form. I love sitting by Kirkus Reviews. I have also seen all of January’s diet books. They are not any good either.
[1] Notice I am using “theme” and “variation.” Musical terms! I have been metaphorically inspired by This is Your Brain on Music
Random Thing #1:
As a follow-up to my bipolar post two items ago, Jezebel had an post about bipolar people being more creative than normal people, often because they have obsessive thought patterns.
I have obsessive thought patterns too! (I'm not bipolar) Who would have thought this would ever be an asset? Can’t say I have been in a mood like that lately, but I remember lap swimming both relieving and exacerbating my condition. Like, I would be thinking about something and break out the syllables in time to my swimming, mulling over thoughts in a very non-content way, only focusing on their structure.("To-o-day I kissed a bo-y-y" times 200, with different stresses and emphases) Or I would randomly count up on times table and multiples.
The whole week after my first kiss, I would think about it constantly while lap swimming, being alternately embarrassed and so pleased. I would relive the moment again, and again, and again, it was crazy. And then all of a sudden I would have a fresh sense of giddiness and sprint through a flip turn or something crazy like that. Over the past few years I have gotten better at not obsessing over things; you can really train your brain by positively and negatively reinforcing it. I don't know that I would recommend obsessing over every little thing, I used to hate that I overthought events while the other person involved could just casually brush the thought aside. As with everything, though, and in line with the article's message, pulling apart events by looking at them over and over again can have a couple of effects. One, you notice things that you missed before, and can come up with a fuller sense of motivation and implication. Two, this "finding more out" can run wild, as you start to come up with more and more remote possibilities for people's actions, or what else could happen.
Oh, I wish I could think like that...sometimes...this makes me want to crack out my old diaries (currently in Seattle) and re-read my adolescent angst
Commenters: does this happen to you? Normal, or not normal?
Random Thing #2:
If I were a writer for SNL, I would make a skit about the pun on Microsoft Word and its slang cousin “Woooord” (that would be in a deep voice, often with a knuckle slap accompanied). People using the term in humorous ways would be the theme, and the variation[1] would involve the thugs being like “power point!” or “excel” after shooting someone down on Xbox or something like that. Or, they could be nerdy white gangsters with one black friend using all that slang, who brings it to his homies where they either roll their eyes or adopt it themselves. Obvs I am not explaining this well.
Random Thing #3:
Arianna Huffington is writing a guide to blogging. It’s pretty damn silly. You heard it from me first, it is still in bound form. I love sitting by Kirkus Reviews. I have also seen all of January’s diet books. They are not any good either.
[1] Notice I am using “theme” and “variation.” Musical terms! I have been metaphorically inspired by This is Your Brain on Music
Saturday, March 1, 2008
WesCeleb...
This is my mood right now: that feeling when you look at an old picture and remember the time fondly, but also notice you're wearing a painfully awkward outfit, or were really secretly unhappy at that moment, or kind of fat-looking. I believe wistful/regretful/nostalgic sums up my brooding. A second metaphor, which makes more sense as I get into my wesceleb section of the post: here.
What led to this evening in by myself brooding all started with staying up until 6am yesterday. I went out to a familiar bar (Fat Black..) and had some oddly normal conversations with people with whom awkwardness is more the norm. I had some Mamoun's falafel, a bad idea, with too much hot sauce, and ended up kind of awake and hyper and watching random Food Network shows and eating Ben and Jerry's way past when the content had transitioned into paid programming. I woke up at 2pm, had some caffeine and chocolate soy milk, and went for a swim at the NYSC in Times Square.
Turns out it's in a decently nice hotel, and you have to walk through the lobby and up an escalator, past a restaurant, bar, and conference room before you can even get to the right elevator bank. Or at least that's what I did since I was kind of lost.
Since I was hungover and unshowered, I had worked it by throwing on some hipster casj (head scarf, dollar sunglasses, buffalo plaid) and felt a bit out of place. I told my Mom this and she said people would think I was a star. This made me think of my Steve-O sighting at the Dream Hotel. He walked into the elevator, shirtless save the flannel shirt tied around his neck like a prep, flanked by his linebacker of a bodyguard. I need me one of those.
After a swim, steam room detox, and a trip to TJ's, Anna texted me back to say she was feeling depressed and not leaving her apartment. I kind of took on that mood myself, and spent some internet time trolling personals websites. Actually I am thinking of joining-joining Match.com. This cute boy who is a medical resident (anesthesiology !) emailed me after I winked at him, but I can't read the email unless I pay. BOO!
Then I decided to catch up on Wesleying, which had a post about a MGMT article in Nylon. I remembed listening to their song "Kids" a lot a couple years ago, but I've stumbled across quite a few times in the past few months. First their song "Time to Pretend" was the free download of the week on iTunes, then I noticed that song was in the Top 100 Songs of 2007 on Pitchfork, then this. I checked out their site, whoismgmt.com, their myspace (added them as one of my friends), and then finally got around to watching the insanely-long-to-download music video. Directed by Ray Tintori. It's absolutely fabulous: the visual effects, the costuming, and, importantly for a music video, the relation between the diegeis of the lyrics and its visual and narative mimesis in the video. While the lyrics ironically call to the singers' desire to live rock star lives (even weirder since now they kind of are rock stars), the music video follows another fantasy, with people wearing hipster-shaman going on a cross of a 60's psychedelic/Native American mescaline spirit quest. I liked that it culminated in a hunt; the archery shots were well-composed, and reminded me of Ray's Sight and Sound film, which had quite possibly the best low-angle shot of cardboard sword fighting I have ever seen. I think this might be a directorial motif :). Also, a lot of the extras are people I recognize - I'm like, isn't that one guy the quiet person from my epidemiology class?
Seeing this tremendous talent, much of it still raw, only exacerbated this wistful feeling I've been having. Then, of course, the following lyrics made it worse:
"Yeah it's overwhelming, but what else can we do?
Get jobs in offices and wake up for the morning commute?"
I have a job in an office. I wake up for the morning commute.
This makes me feel sad.
I also stumbled across this article, In AdAge (back into my current profession!). Turns out this music video was so good, now Ray's being repped by the same people who represent Michel Gondry. Ridiculous. Also, two other Wesleyan senior thesis films were on NYMag, including Egg, which I saw my Freshman year and have been dying to see again ever since. (note: youtube-sized screen does not do the 16mm justice)
So all this, and other random stuff, like seeing the Stone twins in a Dell computer commercial during the Oscars (kind of a big deal, people know us..) and finding out some other Wes guy won Beauty and the Geek, and seeing ANTM alum Kim Stolz doing random stuff for the election on MTV - hey, I want to be famous too! Seriously, though, I will never be as cool as those peeps. I'll have to think about this one...maybe it's Time to Pretend?
FULL LYRICS
I'm feeling rough, I'm feeling raw, I'm in the prime of my life...
What led to this evening in by myself brooding all started with staying up until 6am yesterday. I went out to a familiar bar (Fat Black..) and had some oddly normal conversations with people with whom awkwardness is more the norm. I had some Mamoun's falafel, a bad idea, with too much hot sauce, and ended up kind of awake and hyper and watching random Food Network shows and eating Ben and Jerry's way past when the content had transitioned into paid programming. I woke up at 2pm, had some caffeine and chocolate soy milk, and went for a swim at the NYSC in Times Square.
Turns out it's in a decently nice hotel, and you have to walk through the lobby and up an escalator, past a restaurant, bar, and conference room before you can even get to the right elevator bank. Or at least that's what I did since I was kind of lost.
Since I was hungover and unshowered, I had worked it by throwing on some hipster casj (head scarf, dollar sunglasses, buffalo plaid) and felt a bit out of place. I told my Mom this and she said people would think I was a star. This made me think of my Steve-O sighting at the Dream Hotel. He walked into the elevator, shirtless save the flannel shirt tied around his neck like a prep, flanked by his linebacker of a bodyguard. I need me one of those.
After a swim, steam room detox, and a trip to TJ's, Anna texted me back to say she was feeling depressed and not leaving her apartment. I kind of took on that mood myself, and spent some internet time trolling personals websites. Actually I am thinking of joining-joining Match.com. This cute boy who is a medical resident (anesthesiology !) emailed me after I winked at him, but I can't read the email unless I pay. BOO!
Then I decided to catch up on Wesleying, which had a post about a MGMT article in Nylon. I remembed listening to their song "Kids" a lot a couple years ago, but I've stumbled across quite a few times in the past few months. First their song "Time to Pretend" was the free download of the week on iTunes, then I noticed that song was in the Top 100 Songs of 2007 on Pitchfork, then this. I checked out their site, whoismgmt.com, their myspace (added them as one of my friends), and then finally got around to watching the insanely-long-to-download music video. Directed by Ray Tintori. It's absolutely fabulous: the visual effects, the costuming, and, importantly for a music video, the relation between the diegeis of the lyrics and its visual and narative mimesis in the video. While the lyrics ironically call to the singers' desire to live rock star lives (even weirder since now they kind of are rock stars), the music video follows another fantasy, with people wearing hipster-shaman going on a cross of a 60's psychedelic/Native American mescaline spirit quest. I liked that it culminated in a hunt; the archery shots were well-composed, and reminded me of Ray's Sight and Sound film, which had quite possibly the best low-angle shot of cardboard sword fighting I have ever seen. I think this might be a directorial motif :). Also, a lot of the extras are people I recognize - I'm like, isn't that one guy the quiet person from my epidemiology class?
Seeing this tremendous talent, much of it still raw, only exacerbated this wistful feeling I've been having. Then, of course, the following lyrics made it worse:
"Yeah it's overwhelming, but what else can we do?
Get jobs in offices and wake up for the morning commute?"
I have a job in an office. I wake up for the morning commute.
This makes me feel sad.
I also stumbled across this article, In AdAge (back into my current profession!). Turns out this music video was so good, now Ray's being repped by the same people who represent Michel Gondry. Ridiculous. Also, two other Wesleyan senior thesis films were on NYMag, including Egg, which I saw my Freshman year and have been dying to see again ever since. (note: youtube-sized screen does not do the 16mm justice)
So all this, and other random stuff, like seeing the Stone twins in a Dell computer commercial during the Oscars (kind of a big deal, people know us..) and finding out some other Wes guy won Beauty and the Geek, and seeing ANTM alum Kim Stolz doing random stuff for the election on MTV - hey, I want to be famous too! Seriously, though, I will never be as cool as those peeps. I'll have to think about this one...maybe it's Time to Pretend?
FULL LYRICS
I'm feeling rough, I'm feeling raw, I'm in the prime of my life...
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