wry post

A few entertaining episodes:

• Dad telling people at a party that he lived in Denver for three years (???)
  
• Mom compulsively re-arranging the centerpiece every time we sit down to eat in the dining room of their "retirement community"
  
• a conversation about the Chinese zodiac (prompted by placemats in a restaurant) concluding with the statement, "ok, ok, Mom's right, Dad's a rabbit."
  
• Dad asking some people outside a restaurant if they wanted some spare children
  

Who says obsessively conrolling behavior and advancing senility can't be fun?

sad post

why is it so sad to be here? why does it make me feel so completely desperatey depressed just to stand in front of my mother and exchange logistical information about plans for the day?

and how can I think about this without falling into the maudlin self-pity that, I'm learning, is completely self-defeating?

"think about this," that isn't exactly what I want, but I want it to be better. how can I change this or heal it?

*sigh* unanswerable questions, maybe.

i don' wannaaaah!!!!

We had such a great time in New York. Now we hafta go to Tucson and I am being a big fat crybaby about it.

Well, I haven't actually cried yet, but I probably will before we actually get all the shit in the suitcases.

I feel exactly like the creature at right: scrunched-up, kicking and screaming, just miserable.

It's only two weeks. Plus one day. I know, I know, what am I whining about?

Pain, that's what. Mom will ignore us while talking to us continuously, Dad is completely out of it, it's going to suck.

But c'mon, this is ridiculous. It's not like I'm going to be subjected to the Dickhead Cheney catalogue of "enhanced interrogation techniques."

I don't know whether to berate myself for being such a baby, or just wallow in self-pity. I'm sure there's some sage advice to be found in psychological or Buddhist books that are scattered around the house, but I don't feel like getting it together enough to try to feel better. Obviously, I want to be miserable or I would be packing now instead of blogging.

What do you recommend at this time, gentle reader?

mouse about town

Loopy already described much of our happy day, including the Museum of Natural History and dinner at Souen.

A couple additions:

While Loopy was doing her thing at the god box*, I had lunch with college friend Carol K (formerly Carol M) who is pregnant, due in January. She looks really fantastic and seems very happy. She described her job (in an office at Columbia) as "mostly programming," specifically, "the database hokey-pokey: I put the data in, I take the data out, sometimes I shake it all about..." It's always nice to find that you still enjoy someone you haven't seen in forever.

The special dinosaur exhibit at the Museum of Natural History (which just for the record I find totally horrifying and offensive—in this room, African mammals; in this room, African people) was very cool. It was about new technologies being used to study dinosaur fossils, and the discoveries made thereby. If you go to the web page about it, you can actually read all the text that we saw in the museum, for free.

If you are even a little bit of a science geek, I really recommend checking out the section on theropod biomechanics, where you can learn exactly how they figured out how fast T. Rex could possibly have gone. In the museum, they had a little simulation on a computer, where you could manipulate the muscle mass, leg stance, and center of gravity to see what combination would have been most efficient for the T. Rex. Needless to say, I ate that up with a big ol' spoon.

Loopy wasn't feeling well for much of the day (that stupid flu bug has still not completely gone away), but she was a real trooper, knitting her way through the museum and managing to stay upbeat even when she looked rather green around the gills.

She did join me on the computer simulation of the apatosaurus, where she enjoyed poking him to make him wiggle and squirm until it seemed like he was doing a little dance. It was a little sadistic but quite hilarious.

Anyway, before dinner, we went to the Union Square holiday market thing, which was delightful and charming in spite of the sleet. Loopy started to feel better around that time, fortunately.

At the market, we picked up a sparkly piece of cloth from India, all embroidered with beads and sequins, which we hope to turn into a curtain for the Chicago apartment, even though it is totally the wrong size and shape. But it is so stunningly beautiful, and so exactly what I had imagined & wanted to get, that we will make it work somehow. Loopy also got a pair of shearling earmuffs which made her (and her cold ears) very happy. I took some pix of the market, which I'll post when we get home.

After dinner we went to the Strand, which is like three times as big as it was when we lived here and now boasts "18 miles of books" (useta be just 8 measly miles). It's more brightly lit and cleaner now too—less creepy. I could just move in. Especially as the sleet had turned to driving rain.

That's one thing I actually like a lot about Madison: the weather. I honestly don't mind cold as long as I'm not getting wet. But, god, rain in near-freezing temperatures... I hate that shit! But tonight, we were still in a good mood. Weird, eh? Kissing on street corners and all kinds of silliness.

Did I mention it feels like home here?

*sigh*

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*Ad on google where I tried in vain to find out what that place is really called: "Huge selection, great deals on Box God. ebay.com"
(shouldn't that be Box Goddess?)(sorry)

airport mouse

So we arrived in NYC around 1 pm, but our hosts aren't going to be home until 5pm. What to do with all this extra time?

We were originally gonna leave our stuff by Joel and wander round the Upper West Side for a coupla hours. Then just before we landed, Loopy pointed out that this was a dumb plan. LaGuardia is already in Brooklyn--why would we want to schlepp our luggage all the way to Manhattan just to schlepp back to Brooklyn again during rush hour?

We discussed several possibilities and in the end decided to look around the airport and see if there is any pleasant place to sit for a couple hours. Indeed there is--a restaurant called "Fig's."

And so it is that we have not even left the airport and I have already eaten one of the more startling and delightful meals of my life--a flatbread pizza with feta, figs, balsamico, and crispy prosciutto. oh. my. god. Was that ever delicious! Loopy had spaghettini with a rich tomato sauce "full of delicious olive oil and garlic," she says now as she wanders off in search of something to amuse her. Plus a pepsi, an enormous beer and the freshest salad I've had in years, and it all added up to only $35 which seems like an amazing deal. Especially at an airport.

Y'know, I always kind of mystify New York before I visit, but then once I get here, it's so comfortable. It's somehow extremely ordinary.

This is such a cliche' but, it's like being home. It's like settling into your comfy beanbag chair in front of the TV...in comparison to being in Madison, which is... I don't know... like giving a lecture in front of a bunch of people, only they don't speak my language, so there's a little earphone in their ear with a translation, only the translator sucks and nothing comes out right, so they all just look at me with a slightly puzzled expression.

Of course I'm all out of practice at being here--I'm stumbling around with the wrong habits--like saying "excuse me" before accosting a stranger with a question, or talking & moving more slowly than is the norm--but everything here feels very homey, somehow, even though I'm out of step.

*sigh*

put that in your tray and freeze it

While poking around in search of good political hip hop (I love The Coup but haven't yet found other artists whose lyrics and music I find equally enjoyable), I came across this amusing item on Amazon.com:

---

The Predator [Explicit Lyrics]

~ Ice Cube

Price: $8.97

Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours.

. . .

Customers interested in Ice Cube may also be interested in

* Oxo Ice Cube Trays

Oxo Good Grips Tools ~ Chef's Resource....www.chefsresource.com

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Maybe.

city mouse, country mouse

Been LOL for the last half hour over this blog: Overheard in New York.

A few delicious samples:

Guy #1: Hey man, do you want these chips?
Urchin boy: No.
Guy #2: I guess beggars can be choosers.

--23rd & 6th


Guy #1: You know if you went back in time and saw yourself the world would explode and collapse.
Guy #2: No way, man. Didn't you ever see Back to the Future?
Guy #1: What? That's not real!

--27th & 7th


Girl: I am dating two different guys with kids and no one will take me to see Harry Potter. Now that's fucked up.

--Eatery, 9th Avenue

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Although I will always love New York—and will be there in four days to love it up some more, yippee!—I am also really enjoying getting to know Chicago a little.

Earlier this week we were there for three days and it was really pleasant. It's like New York in some good ways, but mellower.

The new apartment is just a couple blocks south from primo shopping on Armitage. I went a little nuts on Monday, spending like two hours in Art Effect (got Loopy a crazy sparkly pink wreath - see right - since I haven't yet found the perfect aluminum tabletop tree - yes, that's right, we're moving away from the mess & fuss of an all-natural tree, toward the delicious hideousness of the white trash christmas).

I also hit , which for those unfamiliar, is one of those trendy new chocolate places with weird flavors—like truffles flavored with red stripe beer or wasabi or curry or whatever. What can I say, I love that shit. And of course
I went by and picked up some bath ballistics for the apartment.

But it's not just the shopping. It's not even the eating—tho we did have some good food, at a great sushi place and a pub-ish sort of place, and this awesome place called Chicago Bagel Authority, where they steam your bagel sandwich and it is so good (check out the incredibly extensive menu here).



All those things are great, but more than that, it's just nice to be back in a city.

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I was talking with some friends the other day, trying to pin down what excatly is it that is so annoying/frustrating/infuriating about Madison (not a city).

We decided that it's not just that it is so overwhelmingly white...it's that among the white people in Madison there is this incredible cultural homogeneity. It's like, not only are they all the same, but they don't really get that there are actually other ways of looking at the world.

City people can be intolerant, but they at least know that there are other perspectives that they are refusing to tolerate.

In Madison it's like, people's heads explode if they discover that you don't see everything exactly the way they do. They can't even conceive of a different worldview.

I mean, they can imagine that you might be pro-Bush or anti-Bush, pro-war or anti-war, but they assume you basically see the world the same way, you just have different opinions about it.

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I also love being able to walk everywhere (even though Loopy accidentally sent me on a route right through Cabrini-Green on my way to State St.)(It was totally fine—as I learned a long time ago, just because a place has a reputation for being "dangerous" doesn't mean there are guns blazing continuously, and anyway it was too friggin' cold (8°F) for anybody to be out looking for trouble—but it still makes a good story). It seems really liberating to be able to walk to things, which is funny considering that cars are generally thought of as liberating.

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On the other hand...

It is also really nice to be here, surrounded by quiet, snowy woods, with sweet-smelling air and a little flock of dark-eyed juncos in the bare lilac branches, fluffed up adorably against the cold. It's snowing again today, all day—dull skies and white world. I think briefly of Sylvia singing "Stopping by woods on a snowy evening" to the tune of Greensleeves as I watch the white flakes swirling amid the dark tree branches.

I have a feeling I'm going to love the ridiculously extravagant lifestyle of actually having a place in the city but still living in the country. This goes against everything I believe in—I'll be using up petroleum & producing greenhouse gasses traveling back & forth, not to mention using more than my fair share of housing when so many people are homeless. What the hell kind of socialist am I?

*sigh*

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In other news, today I rewrote the Wikipedia article about Cabrini-Green, removing the ridiculously breathless sensationalism with its undertones of racism, deleting the ridiculously outdated pseudo-sociological assertions ("poverty passes from one generation to the next"), distinguishing between reputation and reality, and inserting paragraphs about residents' activism and demands during the demolition process. So that's what kind of socialist I am today... a deleter, distinguisher, and inserter.

And enjoyer of little flocks of dark-eyed juncos in the bare lilac branches.