27 weddings

i received a new wedding invitation yesterday, which i am reallly excited about attending in january. it will be added to my pre-existing wedding itinerary, which was the bachelorette in LA in july and the wedding in TX that just happened this past weekend, cathy's bachelorette party in SC in three weeks, my housemate's wedding in december in FL, then this new wedding in january, and then cathy's wedding in LA in april. i have an invite to another in LA in early november that i think i will have to decline because it's so far geographically but so close chronistically to thanksgiving. naturally, i spent this evening watching '27 dresses' because i hear that's relevant. there was a part of the movie when i was mentally screaming to myself, THAT'S ME THAT'S ME, and just at that moment was when the movie music cued VALERIE by amy winehouse.

moving weeks

I think I've lived a million lives in the past two+ weeks. After a year of having one foot in and one foot out of New York, I finally moved out of my apartment in Bushwick. I had conversations in the street with my Puerto Rican neighbors, who lent me their grocery cart so I could take packages to the post office and told me, I'm gonna miss you, girl. I discovered that the person who dumped me two months ago can always find new ways to be cruel, but that I have an entire orbit of friends who will drop everything to offer counsel, corroboration, indignation, home-cooked meals, irresponsible amounts of alcohol, their sofas, and the keys to their apartments. I left my belongings in piles around the neighborhood and they were whisked away to new homes, so evidence of my existence there lives on in the paleontology of my cups and bowls and clothes. On my last day in the city I bawled into the arms of my yoga teacher. Two weeks spent mired in the meditative state of subway travel, practicing yoga every day, feeling emotionally raw but receiving kindness from all around, I feel like I came out at the end of the tunnel wiser and also kinder.

Harman

Here I am, a refugee on Rothy's couch yet again, a little over 2 months since the last time. I was thinking today about how there's nothing better in the world than your friends' indignant rage on your behalf. And, if anything, this year has proven that in New York I have the best damn friends.

mew

Tia kept me up all night crying outside my door. I wouldn't let her in because as soon as she comes in she wants to go back out. She came by at least 4 times and was back in the morning, crying and trying all the different vocalizations in her vocabulary to see if any of them would magically open the door. She pawed at the door and stood up and pounded with her hands and small body weight. I couldn't feel mad with her because she's lonely because no one in this apartment loves her anymore and I can commiserate because it's the worst feeling. 

I am a sentimental man

Moving day 8:
I find myself having trouble throwing away used and half-empty red hair dying supplies

wah

i need to chilltf out

boa

i need to stop losing everything

SD&P

The shop lead of my new team told me today that everyone loves me. This is a refreshing change. I like this team too.

wendies

wendy appears to be a common name in the south. my mentor's wife. my roommate's mom. my friend's coworker. also, there are a lot of red cars here.

charleston

just bought my flight to cathy's bachelorette party. why are flights so $$$? i can feel myself just entering the phase of life where i'll be endlessly jetsetting to weddings and wedding-related events for the next 8 years or so

eloise

this is how i generally feel these days. how many times can i listen to it on repeat?


the last thing i expected one year ago has happened and it looks like i'm staying in florida for the foreseeable future. i've been transitioning into my new group, doing 50/50 with my old job, all week. working two jobs at once has been rough but i like my new job a lot. i'm sitting in a fabrication shop with a bunch of men and at the end of my first day we sat in a circle and ate ice pops and listened to techno music. now i'm hard at work piecing together the logistics of how i'm going to get out of new york and shape chapter 9482992 of my life.

also, i lived in a hotel for for a few nights of this week, dropping off and picking up my car from the valet, and i felt like eloise.

bah revit

2 tired for 2torials

houses

Encounters with Houses

Wednesday night Sinay and I helped finish the food and alcohol belonging to three Norwegian boys on their last night in Orlando. They were staying in a sprawling vacation home rental, with so many bedrooms that countless beds were left undisturbed. The decor was decidedly 'model home,' with a fully set dining table with accompanying wine glasses for a formal dinner that would never happen. The living room was very interiorly decorated and the wall-mounted TV was playing TV Land playing Gilligan's Island when we walked in. It was comical that what looked like the perfectly crafted nest of the species 'suburban housewife' was actually inhabited by a trio of rowdy drunken vikings. They blended pitcher after pitcher of raspberry and strawberry daquiris and poured ersatz Moscow Mules made with Canada Dry instead of ginger beer and we sat on the kitchen bar stools and talked about American tourists, theme parks, the way Disney calls everything 'magic,' Florida, Norway, and the funny way Danes talk. We swam in the pool outside as the sun gloriously set and we attempted to climb on the pool floaties, one of which was a big yellow duck which would inevitably flip over as soon as you claimed your throne. We put on diving masks and swam to the bottom of the deep end - a cavernous 5-foot descent. I asked about one boy's tattoo of an anchor and he said it's because anchors are stable and they keep the boat safe. There was something magical about the way that strangers from the internet could so easily be friends for a day.

Vana is currently catsitting a 21-year-old cat named Sneetches in a house on Lake Jessamine. Last night we went out on the town, running around a bunch of bars and eating late-night barbecue, and then we came back and I stayed in the guest room of this most beautiful little house which belongs to an interior designer from our work. Everything, from each piece of furniture to every piece of art or shelf object was a quirky, precious thing, like the mid-century-meets-The Jetsons armchairs and the dining table's big bowl of blown-glass ornaments and the paintings with the same cardinal printed out in different sizes and pasted all over them. The back of the house opens to the lake, with a small dock leading out to a tethered kayak. On Saturday we spent all day watching cooking shows, eating popsicles, and watching Sneetches tip over a glass of water.       

honey bee

i had a fantastic time at my cousin's bachelorette party in los angeles this past weekend staying at the w hollywood and participating in an unprecedented level of debauchery. on the first day we lied in an expensive cabana by the rooftop pool, dined in a four-dollar-sign japanese/peruvian restaurant, karaoked in a bar hidden inside of a parking garage, and danced all night in unreasonable shoes. 

the next day our plans to go shopping were rained out by an unexpected thunderstorm and we relinquished any plans to do anything productive or classy. the day was spent boozing unreasonably in the hotel lobby bar, schmoozing with the bachelor party bachelors, dragging drunks back to their rooms and feeding them, watching people start fights, and looking for love in all the wrong places. i think we did everything right because the amount of scandal successfully achieved was enough to convince a bride why she might want to settle down for the peaceful, committed life. 

Traveling again

I'm in a new and sad position where I have no one to tell that I just boarded my plane and that I'll be taking off soon. And this teenaged girl on my left does not appear to be uncomfortable about the fact that her arm keeps touching mine.