|
There's a website where you can insert your own face into the Wedding Crashers' trailer. I did it using a picture of Melissa and me. It's so friggen funny. Have a watch. 07*31*05 Chad told me to be careful about writing about people at work on my site because someone there could possibly read it. I told him to mind his own business...and then I just went back and deleted what I wrote about a certain co-worker a few days ago. I very seldom delete things from entries I've posted, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. I am hungover at the moment. I met up with my friends from school last night. We were supposed to meet up a few weekends ago, but things didn't work out. Anyway, we had a great night, but I drank too much. When people are buying me drinks, I have no control over how much I drink. I haven't gotten drunk to the point where I've had an awful hangover the next morning in at least two months. Aside from drinking, we also went karaoking at Village Karaoke. It's the type of place where you rent a room to sing in. I've never done that before. I sang 90% of the time we were there. Boy do I think I sing good when I'm drunk. Friday night was my DJ gig at Carlos's 30th birthday party. I think I did ok. Chad finally got to meet some of my friends. Not that he hasn't wanted to before, the opportunity just hadn't really presented itself until then. After we left the bar, we went back to his place and somehow got stuck watching an episode of Full House. This isn't the first time something awful has been on TV that was just too bad for us to stop watching. We looked at each other at one point and acknowledged how ridiculous the show was and that we should probably shut it off, but the desire to see the outcome of Uncle Jesse's turmoil was too great. Saturday morning Chad's roommate JR made me do a shot. Sometimes jokes get taken a little too far in that house. Time to lay on the couch in a hangover-induced laziness and catch up on my Netflix. 07*28*05 I received a very random e-mail from some company I've never heard of the other day regarding "the ugliest dog in the world". I thought it was a hoax because how on earth could a dog look that hideous? But upon further investigation, it turns out that thing is real. Melissa said it's from the underworld. I'm inclined to agree.
07*28*05 Check out the bed and breakfast I'll be staying at in the center of Paris for 9 days for only 53 euros a night. That works out to be around $64 a night; $579 total. After I split that with Katrina I'm only paying $289 for 9 days! I love bargains. Plus that's so much cheaper than I'd have paid for a hotel that would most likely have been ugly and not centrally-located. I also got my plane tickets through my friend who's a travel agent for half as much than anywhere I could find tickets online. I can't wait to go! Only a month and a half left. Not bad considering I've been waiting to go to France since I was 13. I just had a discussion with Chad about leaving my spare hairdryer at his apartment (which I've already been doing for a few weeks). When I was dating Geoff for 7 months, I once suggested he keep a toothbrush at my place since he was here every weekend. Being the weirdo he is, he completely freaked out on me and said that would be "too much of a boyfriend thing" to do. I was merely thinking it'd be better than having grimy teeth the whole time he was here if he forgot his toothbrush. Silly me for not seeing the underlying significance of a hygienic tool. In his defense, I guess it's somewhat presumptuous in that whomever is leaving the toothbrush or hairdryer is expecting to be coming to the other person's apartment frequent enough to warrant keeping said object there. But c'mon, how hard is it to retrieve the hairdryer or part with the toothbrush if things don't work out? Not hard at all I'd say. Anyway, Chad didn't give a crap; I'm just going on this whole spiel because I'm remembering how friggen angry Geoff made me when he said that. But these are apparently the types of things that can become issues when one is in the prolonged dating phase of a relationship...7 months being the extreme, of course. 07*26*05 I cut a cornea out of a dead woman today. What did you do? 07*25*05 I'm DJ'ing part of Carlos's 30th birthday party at a bar called No Malice Palace in Manhattan on Friday night. The magic starts at 7 and ends whenever I get up to DJ...somewhere around 7:30-8. So if you're crafty enough to utilize the internet to find out the location of the bar, and want to heckle me, now's your chance! I've been wanting to DJ for a while actually. I'm pretty excited. Not to toot my own horn, but I was quite the DJ at my high school radio station. I had two loyal listeners. That may not seem like a lot to you, but tell me, how many loyal listeners have you had? Exactly. I saw You and Me and Everyone We Know with Chad Saturday night. It was pretty great, and pretty funny as well. For some reason the J train was running over the Q line when we were on our way to the theater. Nobody got on the J because it's a pretty useless train as far as getting you anywhere you'd actually want to go. But we only needed to go to the next stop, so we hopped on. We had the whole car to ourselves. Chad ran back and forth with his arms outstretched making airplane sounds, and then crashed into one of the end doors and banged on it to make the people in the next car look at him. I swung from the handles on the ceiling and screamed like a monkey, then I grabbed a pole and swung around it like a stripper. We then did our best impressions of a panhandler and whatever other random loud-speaking person we usually encounter on the subway. My impression was definitely better. We both agreed it was the best 4-minute subway ride we'd ever had. 07*22*05 I just got back from hanging out with Kristy in Coney Island. We went on four rides: The Zipper, Jupiter 6, Power Surge and Break Dancer. Break Dancer looked like such a shitty ride from afar. I basically only went on it to appease Kristy because I was going to make her ride the Cyclone afterwards. It turned out to be the most intense ride out of the four. I kind of felt sick to my stomach afterwards. I think it also had to do with the fact I went on four spinning rides in a row...and had two beers beforehand. I couldn't even go on the Cyclone after that. We took a moonlit walk on the beach instead. It'd have really romantic if we were lovers. But it was nice all the same. On the way home, Kristy told me she had a seizure on the subway a few weeks ago. I knew she got them about once a year, and that her last one was also on the subway. But I was not aware she had one recently. She basically blacks out for a few minutes, falls on the floor, tenses up, and empties her bladder. She then wakes up on the floor with about 50 people staring at her, at which point she starts crying. I can't imagine. Poor girl. She has such an innocent and almost childlike appearance to her even though she's older than me. It's just hard to imagine anything awful like that happening to her. My dinner for Chad came out pretty good last night. I made pear, blue cheese and walnut salad with a cider vinegar and dijon mustard dressing I made from scratch; it was very delicious. For the main course I made tempeh and potatoes in a garlic and tomato sauce with a side of steamed asparagus. For dessert I made scones. It was quite a meal. Chad felt really out of it afterwards, but I think it was due to drinking too much wine and taking Benadryl, and hopefully not from my cooking. Ugh, my stomach still feels woozy from those rides. Hopefully going to sleep will remedy this. 07*19*05
I received the postcard above in the mail two weeks ago. Aside from the parts I blacked out to discourage any would-be stalkers, everything is just the way it was when I got it in the mail. Who's it from? What should I make an appointment for? What number should I call? All very good questions. But I sure don't know the answers. Regardless, it made me laugh when I got it and I'm still getting a kick out of it. 07*18*05 After inviting Chad over for dinner later on this week, I looked around my apartment and thought, "Oh right, it's a friggen mess in here." So I've been cleaning for the past two hours. I watched Super Size Me the other night and was inspired to try and cook more of my meals. Being that I don't cook any of them now, that shouldn't be too difficult. I wish my mother had encouraged me to cook when I was growing up instead of raising me on take-out. Granted she worked 12-hour days and cooking was not a priority. Nonetheless, I wish I had more of a knack for it. As I was walking into the foyer of my apartment building earlier this evening, I said hello to my super's children who were diligently working on fixing a flat bicycle tire. I took in the scene and thought of how pleasant it was that kids knew the value of doing a task such as that themselves at such a young age. As I unlocked the main door to my building, my peaceful thoughts were shattered with, "Get the fuck away from my bike you fucking asshole!" This came from the mouth of a girl who is probably 8. And it was said to her brother who is maybe 6. I don't get it; they both look like little angels. I don't remember using words like that when I was their age. I might have used them on special occasions. But I sure never screamed them, especially when adults were present. I kept thinking of how it was their parents' fault; they must use foul language around them. But my mom cursed like a sailor around me when I was growing up and I still never used that language on a regular basis. I mean, now I do, but it took me years to get where I am now! Anyway, I think that parents don't instill enough fear in their children. They should maintain some level of dread in their children's lives to the point where they'd be scared to do things they know are wrong even when their parents aren't present. I'm not quite sure how my mom accomplished this with me, but I still find it very difficult to curse in front of her. And I still panic those rare moments she unleashes her fury upon me. This topic somewhat reminds me of something funny Morgan Spurlock, the director of Super Size Me, said. He was speaking with a professor who said that McDonalds lures children in with their playpens and the toys they give away with their meals and the clown they use as their mascot. So basically kids grow up associating all of these fun things with McDonalds. Then as adults they associate eating McDonalds with those happy memories which makes them more inclined to keep eating there. So then Spurlock said to the professor, "That's why when I have kids and we go past a McDonalds, I'm gonna punch them in the face." I got a good laugh out of that one. 07*16*05 So I finally got to do a corneal excision on Wednesday. They gave me a pair of eyes that have been in the refrigerator for six months. They were completely deflated. My co-worker injected them with saline to inflate them again. It was very funny-looking to see an eyeball go from flat to spherical. I was a little sloppy with the corneal excision, but it was my first time. I know I'll become a pro in no time. After work on Wednesday I met up with Kristy for swing dancing in Lincoln Center. I danced badly with a lot of old men. Towards the end I danced with one older gentleman quite a bit who was very patient with me and taught me some moves. Actually, they were moves I've already learned a while ago but just forgot. I felt somewhat competent when I was dancing with him. All in all it was a good time. Thursday I observed my co-worker do another corneal excision/enucleation. This particular case was pretty sad. The deceased was just a toddler. It was a little more difficult for me to see that. Thankfully they don't get cases like that too often. It just got me thinking a lot about the child's family. In some ways I'm glad it affected me; I don't want to become completely desensitized to death. Thursday night I went over Chad's and made him watch one of my movies. I don't know if the fact that we're dating again is easily inferable from previous entries, but, well, we are. If I didn't have another journal in which I write all my innermost secrets and thoughts, I'd feel more inclined to write more about the situation here. But the fact that the people I date read this pretty much prevents me from truly writing freely. Hence the creation of journal number two. In any case, I'm very happy with the way things are going, and I usually only have a plethora to write about my dating situations when that's not the case. Eventually I'm going into Manhattan to run some errands. When I say "errands" I mean I'm going to spend my money on things I don't need like more clothes and a pedicure. Tonight I'm meeting up with Alex and Lynn for dinner. This will possibly lead to me getting drunk, something I haven't done since June 23rd! It really has nothing to do with willpower and everything to do with having strep throat for three weeks. But now I'm feeling better, and what better way to celebrate my health than by making myself sick with alcohol? 07*12*05 So I relapsed and got strep throat again. I was in denial for about 4 days, but I finally went to the doctor's today and got precious Zithromax. Hopefully this works better than the penicillin. Having strep throat is one of the worst feelings. I forgot to mention that after some prodding from my fellow co-workers, I asked my boss if I could go to France in September. Their policy states that new employees are on probation for 6 months and cannot use their vacation days until then, so I wasn't even going to ask. But I figured since I had planned it before I started working there, I might have a chance. To my delight he said I could go. I'm really happy about that. Supposedly tomorrow I get to do a corneal excision using one of the spare research eyes. They've been telling me that since last week, but I think maybe tomorrow will be the real deal. I'm excited. I was being trained to do the simplest task today and I felt like my brain was going to explode due to my strep throat-induced headache. I felt so useless. I want my tonsils out! 07*11*05 I had jury duty today for the first time. I was interviewed to be a juror for a really uninteresting case. Apparently I wasn't a suitable juror because they sent me back to the main room to wait and be called for another case. Around 3:30 an announcement was made that they'd call out names of the people who were dismissed and did not have to come back; thankfully mine was one of them. I was especially happy to leave because they keep it about 20 degrees in that court. It's ridiculous. So I had a very good weekend. Saturday I went over Chad's and we made dinner together. Sometime afterward we headed over to Sunshine Theater to watch their midnight showing of Psycho. They had one trailer prior to the movie. It was for a 1970s 3-D porno with a title pertaining to lollipop girls. This trailer left NOTHING to the imagination. It showed every single money shot and it lasted for about 3-5 minutes. I have never felt so uncomfortable in a room full of people. I kept thinking, "What the hell?! Am I in the wrong theater?" I think everyone there shared my sentiments. There was a lot of nervous laughter. Then, just as rapidly as it came on, the porn trailer ended and immediately cut to Psycho. But it took a good five minutes for me to fully recover. In any case, it set an interesting mood for the movie. Yesterday Chad and I went to Bastille Day in Carroll Gardens. We didn't stay too long and ended up walking all over the neighborhood. Later that night we made mint chocolate chip ice cream from scratch using real mint leaves. It was pretty good. Chad then made me and his friends watch Every Which Way But Loose. He has been going on about this movie for weeks. All I knew about it was that Clint Eastwood was in it and he drove a truck around and had an orangutan. And after I watched it I realized that was really all there was to it. It was hilariously bad. It's curious to me that Chad never buys DVDs and when he finally did, he bought that one. I often wonder what goes on in that big hair of his. I may never know. 07*07*05 Growing up on the Jersey shore, I think it's safe to say I spent the majority of my summers as a kid at the beach. I always thought that having spent a big chunk of my youth at the beach had an adverse effect on me in that I eventually started hating going there. Of course there's also the fact that I gained a considerable amount of weight around 5th grade and the thought of wearing a bathing suit in front of hordes of people was less than appealing to me. My mom would hound me to come to the beach with her when I was a teenager to no avail. It became more than a body image issue to me at that point, it just didn't make sense to me: why do people sit out in the sun when it's hot out? I didn't want to get tan and I developed a fear of swimming in the ocean where I couldn't see the bottom. So I didn't swim and I didn't want to get tan or be hot; going to the beach seemed like complete foolishness. This has been my feeling regarding the beach up until quite recently. My stint of Coney Island excursions this summer have made me rethink my stance on the beach. Perhaps I judged it too harshly. Maybe I just needed to get away from it all to really appreciate it the way I have been lately. It makes me feel calm and at peace. Two things I normally don't feel on a daily basis in NYC. Maybe the city has just made the need for a peaceful haven more important in my life. Whatever the reason, I've been thoroughly enjoying the little time I've been spending on the beach. And you know what? I don't look that terrible with a little tan. Back when I loved the beach as a little girl, I would spend the whole day swimming in the ocean. My mom would practically have to drag me away at the end of the day. I use to scan the beach when I arrived for another little girl my age. When I found a good candidate, I would approach her and ask, "Do you wanna be my friend?" Said girl would say yes and we'd be best friends for the day. My mom said I was turned down only once. Afterwards I went over to my mom and started crying. She said she wanted to smack the other little girl. Maybe it's that girl's fault I grew to loathe the beach. In any case, I'm happy I've rediscovered my youthful exuberance for the shore. 07*05*05 I just got off the phone with my friend Kristy from the police lab. We're trying to make plans to go swing dancing at Lincoln Center's Midsummer Night Swing sometime next week. I've taken swing dancing lessons numerous times, but it's true what they say: if you don't use it, you lose it. And I've definitely lost it...in more ways than one. Anyway, it's still a silly dream of mine to learn how to swing dance. A dream I'm sure I'll fulfill by going to swing events once a year like I've been doing. I've also been trying to make plans for a date but keep running into obstacles. First I got strep throat and the other two times we got rained out of our outdoor plans. But I think we've finally decided on a date we're going ahead with rain or shine. I went to Coney Island with Carlos yesterday to watch the hot dog eating contest. i could barely see a thing since it was so crowded. We walked on the beach afterwards and then headed to the aquarium. I've decided I either want a sea lion or a sea otter--I'm not too particular. I was kind of disappointed I didn't head to the river to watch the fireworks last night, but I did get to see the two-inch version from my roof. This song by Ted Leo and The Pharmacists never fails to raise my sprits. Give it a listen, won't you?
07*03*05 I had a great day yesterday. I got my haircut and then met up with Chad in Little Italy for some sort of festival I read about in Time Out NY. Unfortunately I didn't know that by "festival" they meant the streets were blocked off but everything was the same as it always is. I think it was just a ploy to get people to eat in Little Italy. We didn't fall into their trap though, and walked to the East Village for iced coffee. While sipping our drinks at an outside cafe, Chad's friend Scott called him and invited us to go for a drive to Coney Island. Since I vowed in my last entry to spend more time there, I eagerly agreed to the idea. We got there around 5 as the sun had begun to set. It was so gorgeous. We all got junky boardwalk food and walked on the beach. We finished the day off with a ride on the Cyclone. Well, we finished our day in Coney Island off with the ride; we finished the day off making peanut butter ice cream from scratch with Chad's ice cream machine. Mmmmm. I could write about the fact that I've been hanging out with Chad again. But I'm not going to. There's not really much more to it than that. Maybe sometimes it's better not to question a good thing anyway. I think I'm hanging out with Melissa tonight. I'd like to, anyway. At the moment I feel like going back to bed. I can't believe it's almost 5. Time flies when you're having fun. Cursed time. 07*01*05 June flew by. It was a good month, though: had a birthday, graduated college and I got my first real job. I saw a dead body for the first time Wednesday. Well, if you don't count a girl I didn't know very well in high school whose wake I attended. Anyway, the woman whose body I saw had died of cancer. I watched another lab technician remove the deceased's corneas. I have to say that all the gory movies I've watched have really paid off. I wasn't bothered by a single thing I saw. After I got back to the office, everyone seemed eager to ask me how it went. Apparently they've had some potential lab technicians quit after witnessing their first corneal excision. But I was surprisingly ok. I thought I'd be just a little grossed out, but nope. Yesterday I saw the whole eyes be removed from a deceased man. The first morgue I went to smelled fine, quite pleasant actually. But the morgue I went to yesterday smelled pretty awful. Apparently a body that had been in there since February had burst open that morning. It smelled like rotten fish (i.e. Chinatown). I hate to say it, but I got somewhat used to it after about 5 minutes...the surgical mask helped too. I told Melissa I was worried I smelled like the exploded corpse after I left the morgue. She made up a new perfume based on my experience: Body Burst by Calvin Klein. "For the necrophiliac in us all." Hahaha. Anyway, I'm looking forward to my three-day weekend. I don't really know what I'm doing yet except watching a hot dog eating contest in Coney Island on Monday. I vow to spend more time in Coney Island this summer. Now I have to find a movie to spend the night with. Come here lova.
|
