Look at me

What with Kate & Mike in Africa and Nicole Kidman (?) back in Australia, as of this week I've finally been hit by all five continents.

(Disclaimer: that's a six weeks' worth of hits in that chart, not one. I had to do that because I didn't receive a hit from every continent in a single one-week span. So I had to expand the date range. So basically, my blog's not as popular as it looks here. I didn't mean to imply that I got all these hits in a week. If you look closely, it's not actually implied by what I said. But still, not bad, right? That's kind of a lot of hits. Although I think a lot of that is random one-time visits from the blogger homepage, when I update my blog. It's still exciting, though. Of course, if I really wanted lots of people to read my blog I would give the url to people in New York. Like, besides Suz. Or I could put my webpage on my commenter profile on Gawker. But you know, it's hard enough to find a voice you're willing to exercise to the broad spectrum of people you know back home, including your mother; adding people here to the mix - people who are with me when I have the experiences I blog about - just seems like it would make me feel hemmed in. I mean, those people could call me out on all the subtle massaging of the truth that one does in order to turn out good copy. Mind you, it's not any more than most people do in a casual retelling of a story to a friend, but still - I've become more and more of a Kantian with regards to lying.)

Spring Breakistan

Today was a day of two Mexican restaurants. Dos Caminos is on Park Avenue, semi-upscale - this is the place with the guacamole truck - packed for lunch at 2, with mood lighting and $12 margaritas and "plantain empanadas with chipotle aioli" and well-dressed business people sitting on parsons chairs pulled up to marble tables.

Other place (I'm not sure the name, if it has one, neither is Google) plays Mexican soap operas on the lofted tv - until the guy with a dozen heavy gold chains throws a dollar in the all-Spanish jukebox - sells $3 beer, serves the local Central American immigrant population $4.50 burritos and tostadas at formica tables.

[insert witty observation here]

And then I was reminded of how fulllll I would get when the family and I would eat like this three times a day last summer in the 110 degree heat in Mexico. Except there was more alcohol involved.

The family that is now eating and drinking their way across the south of France in an Alfa Romeo without me.

Holy shit, I can hardly hit "post", that picture is so funny...

Your thoughts, too, can be an open book

"How many guys with peckers and egos have died like that?"

--Mom

Happy Birthday, Mom

5-4

Okay, but other than the snowmobiling and the beer and the freezing weather and the hockey game, those stereotypes are totally not accurate. Eh.

Can't do this in New York

Post 3: I like the hyphen

Yes, it’s a scandal. I haven’t posted in ages. Most of that has to do with Mom being here, and spending a lot of time haggling for my cargo shipment, which I have finally got a hold of. Apparently it was at Laguardia all along. Hmm.

So last weekend I went to the “Bodies” exhibition at the South Street Seaport (http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/intro.html). Even more interesting than the genuine human bits was peoples’ reactions to them. Teenaged boys were fascinated by how small a two-month-old fetus is. Women crowded in silent reverence around the cross-section of the female pelvis. Kids started out wide-eyed and grossed out and ended up as bored after half an hour as they are with anything else.

Sunday the gals on our floor of the dorm all went for Dim Sum. We had invited the boys too, but they had assumed that “meet in the lobby at 9:50” meant 9:50 pm – since who in their right mind gets up before noon on a Sunday?

Mom’s visit was great – I got to eat in real restaurants and shop at Bed Bath & Beyond! (And, in a real Manhattan first, got my stuff delivered!) She may or may not be back, since she had to do the entire trip sans luggage (toiletries, change of clothes, pills) – the entire time she was here, her bag was in L.A., presumably having a GREAT time – and I think that may have soured her a bit on the experience.

I finally have a cell phone. I shopped all over town – way more providers here than up North, of course – and couldn’t seem to get around paying an enormous security deposit, seeing as I don’t have a US social security number. I eventually avoided all that by buying a phone and doing the pay-as-you-go thing, which everybody thinks is really weird, seeing as, like, I’m totally going to run out of minutes – NOBODY uses a land line anymore, that is so 90s. Sometimes, especially around quitting time, you find yourself walking through a forest of people talking loudly into the air while wandering down the avenue, each figuring out exactly where their interlocutor is, and what restaurant or watering hole they will be meeting at post-work.

I also now have all of my philosophy books – prices are pretty reasonable when you’re paying the publisher’s set price and not some exhorbitant Canadian markup. It feels good to read grown-up philosophy after a year of teaching 100-level material.

Tomorrow is the big day – the five-year anniversary of 9/11, which happened very nearby to where I now live. Bush was even rumoured to be there at noon today, so I went down to see. Besides the usual crowd of tourists/gawkers/rememberers, there was one lone protester – a guy with a huge banner, screaming about how Bush *planned* the WTC attacks. With a dozen news cameras trained on him, of course. (No sign of Bush - he was inside somewhere.)

The rest of the past week has been filled with bureaucratic misadventures, attending my first classes, visiting Brooklyn (on purpose) and Queens (not) for the first time and getting very, very drunk in the East Village once again – this time with a bunch of lawyers willing to compensate for mine and Grace’s inability to afford drinks. And the drinks – they’re a little pricey, but I tell you, you get your money’s worth. Every one is made with a very long free-pour of premium (and decidedly not watered down) spirits. I had to change my drink from gin & soda because I can’t stomach the taste of several ounces of gin with a thin slice of lime.

And on that note, I will talk to you all later.