I visited the New Museum of Contemporary Art on Saturday. I loved it! I am not so sure about Quique though. I loved the building, the little bar with the panoramic view on the top floor, the people ... the people! Not one boring looking person to be seen! And the art ... well, nothing earth shattering but much better than looking at classic portraits.
In the early evening I met Marc at the movie theater. We saw Hats Off! and we fell in love with Mimi. Fantastic gal. Not much of a mother, though. Her children do not seem to have blossomed at all, nor to have inherited any of her grace. Her daughter is very butchy and her son seems to be quite a loser. Another example of why some people should just not procreate. Then again, I just adore those wackos who lead their lives to the beat of their own drums!
Today I am totally hyped. Spent 1,5 hours on cardio machines in the morning and just had to go out for a short walk at 11.30 PM or I know I will never sleep. This is what an overdose of veggies does to me.
A cultural week-end
Monday, March 31, 2008
Thank you, Lil'Bush
Friday, March 28, 2008
A part of one side. A little more here. And a lot more here.
If you see something, say something
Thursday, March 27, 2008
So I did. It was the second time I had seen this anorexic girl at the gym. Painfully emaciated, with obsessive eyes and a maniacally resolute air to her. She works out forever on the cardio machines, struggling through an effort that's clearly too much for her, going from one machine to the next. She's horrifying to look at, an aura of pain all around her. I was happily pedaling away to Law & Order when I realized I did not want to have her death on my conscience. I went to the entrance desk and spoke to a manager. He knew who I was talking about and told me there's nothing they can do, unless something happens to her at the gym. Anything could be construed as discrimination. She might have another disease, she is an adult. Granted, she could have a disease I never heard of, but there were several things pointing to somebody exercising to death. If I see her again I'll try another manager.
On the topic of food (or lack of), I am back to vegetarianism. Maybe not vegan as the first time around, but definitely more vegetarian. It's been 3 days now and yesterday I took Ana to the "new" Candle restaurant. Spectacular food. And no feeling of impeding explosion afterwards. So once again, here I am stopping at Health Nuts before work to buy tofu sandwiches and green bars. I think I was born to eat this way. I already feel a hundred times lighter and well rested.
Today there's the play in the public bathrooms in Central Park (I need to send M.A. the link, those restrooms are an obligatory stopover on our way to or back from our lunches at the Boathouse). After the play I am rushing home to welcome Quique.
This is what I want
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
I have been working at home today. Pure bliss. Lounge music, big monitor, nice view, good salad for lunch. I want my telecommuting!!!!!
Back in town
Monday, March 24, 2008
Montauk was great. Extremely relaxing. Basically doing nothing, reading, talking, eating. I never even finished a glass of wine, that's how relaxed I was. On Saturday night I cooked for everybody. Then the guys went to their suite and Ana and I to our rooms. Sunday morning we learned Ricardo had landed at the hospital after hours of vomiting and writhing in pain on the floor. Police was called, they called an ambulance. Seems he has liver stones ... on top of my cooking.
The Fubar
A crane came down on 51st and 2nd and landed on top of the Fubar. Pamen is trying to find out whether anybody was inside. The owner, lives in the building upstairs from the bar. John, who plays soccer with her, also lives upstairs and he is not answering his calls. The Fubar is where Pamen celebrated her birthday and where the whole soccer gang meets on Wednesdays. I am waiting for more news.
As usual, I was oblivious to all of this. As always, I found out from a phone call. This time is was Vivian, checking to see if I was OK. I was tinkering with my computers in bed, with the windows open and I thought there was an unusual helicopter traffic but I seemed to remember Bush was in town today and did not give it a second thought. Shit.
Lots of new goodies
Friday, March 14, 2008
New monitor, new hard drive, more memory. But now I need a new adapter to connect my MacBook to the monitor. I already have two different kinds (actually 2 of the same and a third one) but not the one I need.I also have to figure out how to install the new hard drive. I bought an enclosure for the old drive so I could boot from it, but I don't want to reinstall everything, so I might make a bootable image with SuperDuper on an external drive and boot from there. I still have to decide whether I will do the installation or get some techie to do it. I have been known to install memory on my old iMac, but I am not sure about the drive. So today after work I am going to the Mac store for some worshiping.
Forthcoming guests:
Andy is coming to town tomorrow. And taking me to eat the best pizza ever, in Brooklyn. Or so he promised.
And at the end of the month, Quique will be arriving and staying with me for a few days, before moving into his own place.
Bit and pieces
Monday, March 10, 2008
From now on Ana will not get to choose the restaurant. Centovini was not a great find. So so food in small portions and a distracted service. Not cheap either. The spelling mistakes on the menu were bad enough but having to wait for the check when there's almost nobody left in the restaurant is one of those things that really get on my nerves.
From now on I will not get to choose the after dinner entertainment. I think we went into the wrong club. Blvd instead of Crash Mansion. There was no band to be seen. Just a lot of very young kids, a lot of very fat women, a lot of pimp looking dudes and a fair share of roid raged bouncers. Not going back.
Brunch today was much better. Our waitress at Brasserie 360 was just great. The food was good and very abundant. The drinks were fine. I don't particularly care for the decor, but it's not offensive either.
you As for Friday, it was rainy, it was cold and the play was in Queens. I couldn't remember why I would get tickets to see Moliere in the first place, so I just stayed at the office until 9 or 9:30 PM and skipped Don Juan.
Andy called. He's coming this week-end for spring break. He's staying with me a couple of nights, maybe more.
Quique called. He's coming next week-end. He's staying with me two or three nights too and then he's moving into his own place.
I signed up for paintdancing.
I will be checking out Betty Spaghetti School of Art and Debauchery. It might be the solution to finding time to artsy fartsy.
An inordinate amount of work is waiting for me tomorrow, it's 3 AM and I can't sleep. I've become addicted to a game. This is what happens when you listen to some brain training ad on Channel 13. You google it, you find stimulating games, you try them, can't stop. I am on level 12. Heeeelp!
I am on my way
I am leaving for Lima, Peru, in April.
I went to Cross-Cultural Solution information session last week.
A couple of rows before me this very annoying lady. Pleated short black skirt, too long dark hair, very aggressive attitude. She was there for her 18-years-old girl. She kept asking questions about safety and rules and supervision. You could sense the control freak in here. I think we were all feeling sorry for her daughter. Eventually the presenter had to tell her that the program was geared toward adults. I am afraid her daughter's chance at freedom ended with that answer. The lady took out her eyeshadow and then her lipstick and checked herself a couple of times. Then she left. None too soon.
The class nerd was also present, the one who had throughly researched every organization, read up on every detail and had the very precise, articulate questions. I of course had done the same. Checked the web, saw the clips on YouTube, read the blogs. But I seemed to have no questions. I was there mostly for the vibe, I guess.
There was the older lady with narcolepsy with the heavy NY accent, falling asleep in her chair.
The socialite, all camel colors and golden, chunky jewelry.
The black woman who wanted to know if she could get credit for a college she was not attending, or maybe brownie points for a raise in pay.
And then, of course, the one who spoke to my heart. Black, cute, sensitive and gay, of course. He had worked with infants and toddlers with AIDS in Brazil and he was so nice and real and funny and sweet. Just the kind of person I wanted to hear from.
I could not thank him personally at the end of the session, so I googled him and sent him an e-mail the day after. Several messages later I am now on his mailing list and I bought ticket for his upcoming solo performance. He seems like a keeper.
I also found a Cross-Cultural Solutions group on Facebook and wrote to a girl who will be in Lima in March. I can hardly wait.
Cultural frenzy
Friday, March 7, 2008
Yesterday: a short stop at the Paramount's bar before going to the theater. The play "November" seemed very bland to me. I might have laughed twice. Lame, easy jokes. Nathan Lane is spectacular but the play is what it is. On the way out I overheard somebody congratulating somebody else for not leaving before the end. "You were a trouper" she said, and a man answered "At least we know which side of the issue he is at". Guess what's dull to some can be radical to others. After the play some of us headed to Delta Grill for an artery-clogging dinner I haven't fully digested yet.
Tonight: It's Don Juan!
Now, when am I supposed to go to the gym with this flurry of edifying activities?
Erasing my sins
Atonement 1: Tonight I have a meeting on volunteering abroad. I will look into going to Peru for a week, see how I like it.
Atonement 2: After landing once again on Kiva's website, I finally joined.
Now back to my shallow life: as soon as the meeting is over tonight, I'll be rushing over to Juan's to play with Ricardo's new Wii. I guess I will be skipping the gym after all. Although I am trying to get back into my exercise routine, the 75 minutes of cardio I did yesterday should cover my quota for today. That and the fact that Wii boxing probably qualifies as a workout.
E-mail to PopRally
Monday, March 3, 2008
I just sent this to the organizers of Saturday's party:
I am almost 50 years old and although it can be argued that I look sensational, I certainly don't look 20. I showed up on Saturday for the dance party with a group of friends and family. The girl at the door gleefully announced that she needed tickets and an I.D. I told her I was sorry but I did not have an I.D. I explained that all I have is my passport and I don't feel comfortable carrying it around. This girl smiled a shark smile and chirped "Do you have a copy with you then?". Needless to say I just gave my ticket to somebody else and left for a more enjoyable evening elsewhere.
Mind you, I have been carded before and I have gone home to get my I.D. without a fuss. The difference has been the person asking for the document. If you tell me you are sorry but your job is on the line it would never cross my mind to push the issue. But the person who was at the table seemed to be enjoying her little power trip. This is not just my impression but rather the comment by everybody who witnessed the incident. The I.D. could not have been required for identification reasons given that the tickets had no name printed on them. The fact that they were not being scanned tells me you were not screening terrorists either.
You know, sometimes a little kindness is all you need.
I'll make sure I carry my senior discount card next time I attend one of your events.
They did not let me in! I got to the MoMa and the bitch at the door asked me for my I.D., which I did not have. I explained that I only have a passaport and I don't walk around with it in my purse. She gave me a gleeful I-will-kill-you-in-your-sleep smile and asked whether I carried a copy. I knew immediately she was one of those people that cannot handle an ounce of power, unable to distinguish the spirit of the law from the mindless implementation of it. One of those who will abjectly and without hesitation turn their neighbour in if they got a memo instructing them to do so. She was clearly just enjoying her rather sad power trip. I.D. are required for age verification. I am clearly beyond the age requirement. I will soon get senior citizen discounts. Granted, I could have walked back home to get an I.D. but any desire I had had to be at the party had completely vanished. I gave my ticket to a friend, stopped at a deli and a liquor store and marched over to Ana's. The funny part was that I had lost my gloves on my way to the MoMa and when I retraced my steps to go to Ana's I passed by a large group of twenty-something playing soccer with one of my gloves.
Dance the night away
Me and my pink hair and multicolored socks are off to the at the MoMa.Tomorrow I'll upload all the posts for this last week.