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I totally have strep throat. Totally. Last night I just had a sore throat. I woke up this morning and I could barely swallow. I called out of work sick and went to the doctor's. I'm starting to feel a little better already though. But seriously, who gets sick in the summer!? C'mon, Emily! I have three pages of pictures from the Mermaid Parade. One of the most refreshing things about the parade was the varying sizes and shapes of the women in it. I was a little surprised that there was nudity in the parade, especially since families were there. But no one seemed to be phased by it. In any case, I think it was good for kids to see that not everyone is a size 2. Geoff said maybe he'd ride his Vespa in the parade next year. I have a mermaidesque dress my mom gave me a few years ago, so I could ride on the back of his Vespa all dressed up. Otherwise I don't know when the hell else I'd wear that dress.
06*27*05 Well the Mermaid Parade was fun. I took a million pictures that I'll post sometime this week. Even though I doused myself with sunblock, I still got tan. I usually try to stay corpse-like pale, which is difficult at times being of Italian descent and whatnot. But the tan actually doesn't look half that bad on me. After the parade, I met up with Chad and got some daiquiris, and then we saw Land of the Dead. Not that I expected it to be great, but it was excruciatingly horrible. I thought maybe being semi-drunk would make that less obvious. But I think I could have been comatose and that movie still would have been painful to watch. Sunday I met up with my friend Jordan and christened my new badminton kit in Prospect Park. I also proceeded to get even tanner. Last night I saw Ted Leo and The Pharmacists at Irving Plaza. They were amazing. Anyway, between my busy weekend and working full-time, I feel like I'm getting sick. My throat is getting really sore. It takes next to nothing for me to get a throat infection of some sort. That'd really suck if that happened. I've taken precautions to see to it that that does not in fact happen; we'll see. I'd hate to call out of work sick my second week on the job. I finally got a new phone today. So far so good. I spoke with Carlos for an hour tonight and my new phone didn't hang up on him once. I haven't enjoyed that luxury in quite some time. 06*25*05 Ok, so I realized if I really wanted to go to the parade, why the hell don't I just go by myself? So I got all ready to go, and Geoff called me back finally to say he'll meet me there. So everything worked out and I'm not going crazy anymore. Yay. 06*25*05 All I wanted to do was go to the fucking Mermaid Parade in Coney Island today. I just don't want to go by myself. So I've called everyone I know this morning and they all have plans already. I realize I'm giving them a few hour's notice, but c'mon people! I've lived in Brooklyn for four years and I've managed to miss this parade every year. I thought today would be different. Motherfuckers. In calling everyone I know, my animosity towards my phone has grown more than I ever thought possible. I have no reception in my apartment. And not only that, the battery goes dead after five minutes! If I wasn't being so rational, I'd take my phone and throw it against the wall as hard as possible. I think seeing it shatter would make me feel better. Yes I'd lose all my phone numbers, but I still think it'd be worth it. I told this to Melissa a few days ago and she told me she did something similar to an old CD walkman of hers. She grew so enraged with it on the subway that she tore it apart. But she didn't want anyone to see how crazy she was, so she destroyed it inside her bookbag away from prying eyes. I had the funniest visual when she told me that. Melissa is funny when she gets mad. Anyway, since everyone is a lame ass and won't go to the parade with me, maybe today would be better spent switching to T-Mobile and getting a new phone. Yes, I'm sure that'll be much more fun than the parade. Arg!!!! Here's some fucking pictures from Thursday night:
06*23*05 I am drunk and I am happy. Not only did I have a good time drinking with Alex tonight, but I got home to find both my badminton kit and The Thing DVD waiting patiently on my kitchen table for consumption. God bless UPS. I will destroy any of you in badminton. It is so on. Bring it. I'll post the few pictures I have of Alex and me from tonight sometime this weekend seeing as how I am practically too drunk to type coherently at the moment. I watched a video of some guy cutting out some old woman's eye out today at work. It made my stomach do a little flip for a second, but I think I'm gonna be ok. I'm gonna go watch The Thing now. That's not gross at all, I promise. 06*22*05 Goddamn am I cranky. Tonight is the first moment I've had to myself all week...aside from Sunday. Modest Mouse was amazing on Monday night. Couldn't have asked for better weather either. I started my new job on Monday as well. I was happy to see another technician who had his arms covered with tattoos. Now I don't have to worry about wearing pants all the time to cover my cat tattoo. And I don't have to worry about what they'll say if I get my arm tattooed, which I will do eventually. Just have to figure out what I want to get a tattoo of. Minor technicality. Unfortunately, however, I am not allowed to take a vacation until I've worked there for six months. My stinken' mom was right. I hate when she's right. Oh well. I'll have to go to France next spring. Katrina was pretty disappointed. But I'm not gonna quit the job just because I can't go on vacation when I wanted to. Everyone seems really nice so far. I haven't been doing anything but reading up on eye banks, and the eye, and microscopy used in cornea suitability tests. It's mind-numbing, but I'm more than half-way done with all the readings. I think next week I'll start hands-on training. Tomorrow night I'm hanging out with Alex after work and then maybe hanging out with Marek. This full-time job business and whatever time I have for a social life makes me extremely tired. Hopefully I'll get into the groove of things a little better with time. Below are some pictures from the Modest Mouse show and one of me with the picture I made for Scott's daughter last week.
06*19*05 I got back to Brooklyn around 11 this morning. I didn't want to waste the afternoon in New Jersey doing nothing. So instead I'm wasting the afternoon in Brooklyn doing nothing. I was going to go to a street fair in Park Slope, but I'm tired and feeling super lazy. That fair is almost every Sunday this summer though, so it's not like I'm missing a huge opportunity. Eventually I'm going to have to pick my ass up out of this chair to do laundry. And possibly run around the park. Dinner with my mom and her on-again-off-again boyfriend (currently on) was pretty good. I made my mom tell me a story about my dad that I must have made her tell me at least 40 times before. I always look forward to relating the story to friends, so I thought that maybe it would also make for a good story to post here. One night back in 1979 (I was born in 1981), my father was running along the boardwalk in Belmar, NJ. He had been a long distance runner for years and ran religiously. When I was little, I spent a lot of time riding my bike alongside him as he ran like a maniac in a large field near our house. On this particular night in 1979, however, his run ended with him in the hospital. After finishing his run, he headed to a public bathroom just off the boardwalk to take care of business. After sitting on the toilet for what I'm sure was a mere few minutes, a disgruntled city worker walked into the bathroom and told my father to "get the fuck out of the bathroom" because he had to lock up. My father, in just as polite a manner, informed the man, "I'm taking a fucking shit, you'll have to fucking wait." More pleasantries were exchanged and finally the city worker left to let my dad continue to tend to business. After doing just that, my dad left the bathroom only to find said city worker waiting for him outside with a 2' x 4'. Unfortunately my dad only saw the board as it was being swung at his head. He put his arm up just in time to block the blow, causing his forearm to break. The force of the blow also threw my father to the ground, at which point the city worker stepped on my father's chest and repeatedly struck him in the face with the board. He then left my father and drove to a police station to confess to having just killed a man. But my dad was not dead (how the hell else would I be typing this?). Every bone in his face was broken, as well as some ribs, but he still managed to crawl across the street to a bar for help. Upon seeing the condition he was in, some people in the bar started screaming...and of course called an ambulance. He had to have his whole face wired together. I remember him telling me the most painful thing he ever experienced was having the wire pulled out of his face after he had healed. The city worker was put in jail for 7 years and my dad sued the city for hiring a man they knew had a history of mental illness and prior disturbances. I think he got around $300,000. Today I'm sure it'd have been over a million dollars. My mom always said he was never the same after that. He became obsessed with the trial and getting the city worker put away forever...understandably so. But she said he also just became so hate-filled, which eventually led to their divorce. I wonder how different my life would have been had that not happened to my dad. I think my parents would have gotten divorced regardless. But who knows, maybe he'd still be a part of my life. 06*18*05 I'm in New Jersey at my mom's house at the moment. I got here around 3:30 and went straight to Scott's house to see his new baby and give her a present. It's absolutely incredible how small she is. I held her for about five minutes. I was terrified to move her in even the slightest way; she looked like she might break if I did. Scott and his wife Ann seem so happy. It's really nice to see something like that. It makes me remember that the world isn't all that bad. Anyway I made them a picture for the nursery of most of the animals they have in the baby's bedding motif. It came out pretty nice. Ann and Scott said it looked awesome. Not to toot my own horn, but toot toot! I'll post a picture of it as soon as Scott e-mails it to me. Marek seems to have defied the two-week limit I've determined that guys I date start acting differently. We're seeing Modest Mouse together on Monday night. And I start my job Monday! My mom got me semi-paranoid that my boss won't let me go on vacation this September because it's too soon after I start. I guess it could happen. Jeez that would suck. I've recently acquired an adult credit card with 0% APR for a year. I've been going a little nutso with it. Among my hasty shopping purchases is a badminton kit. I can't wait to get that in the mail. The rest of my impulse buys were mostly clothes...and John Carpenter's The Thing. Bah, I have to get ready to go out to dinner now. 06*15*05 I was just looking into student loan repayment. Scary stuff. I'll probably be paying those off for the next 25 years of my life. I saw Mr. and Mrs. Smith with Marek last night for lack of anything better to see. I hate to say it, but I actually enjoyed it. High Tension sucked, though. Dubbing is always a bad idea. I think most Americans are terrified to see a movie with subtitles, which was why I guess the powers that be decided dubbing was the way to go. It just looks horrible. On my way home last night, I passed some construction workers in the subway station. I guess one of them was trying to strike up a conversation and asked me what kind of cat my tattoo was of. I said a black cat and kept walking. He kept shouting the question, "What breed is it!?" to my back. I don't understand men and their sad attempts to "flirt". I use the term flirt loosly being that it's mostly harassment. I hate being whistled at, I hate being called sweety and baby, I hate being stared at like I'm a piece of meat, and I hate having kissy sounds made at me. I'm not a feminist per se, but after living in a neighborhood where this kind of behavior is something I have to put up with almost on a daily basis, it's kind of hard not to feel enraged about it. I just don't understand the way these guys think. Has doing any of those things to a girl actually resulted in a date? I can't imagine it has. It's not flattering. It's disgusting and insulting. One time I was walking home from school with my Physics book in hand. I passed some guys working on the road and one of them called something to me like, "Hey baby, want me to help you study?" I wanted to turn around and say something like, "Yes actually, could you please explain the law of conservation of momentum within the domain of Newtonian mechanics?" That'd shut him the fuck up. But instead I just ignored him. It's actually not unbearably hot out today. I should probably run the million errands I've been putting off all week. But I think I'll go back to bed first. 06*12*05 I'm going to see High Tension this afternoon. I'm hearing mixed things about it. Supposedly it has an M. Night Shyamalan-type ending that doesn't make much sense. I'm not expecting greatness. The last great horror movie I saw in the theater was the Dawn of the Dead remake. Speaking of which, George Romero has his fourth zombie movie in the Dead series coming out soon. I'm kind of pissed off about the title, Land of the Dead. Every other one of his films had something to do with a time of day: Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead. I heard the working title for his latest film was Twilight of the Dead. That's a good title; it fit well! Land of the Dead!? What the hell were they thinking? Um, I'm a geek. After the movie I'm hanging out with Marek (the guy I had a 10-hour date with a couple of weeks ago). We've hung out a couple of times since. Both the second and third time we hung out we were in a bar, and a humongous cockroach came dangerously close to me causing me to have a fit. Actually, the first time that happened it crawled from the seat, down my leg and onto the floor. I made us leave after the initial shock of the revolting event wore off. Blech. I fucking hate those things. They're possibly the only thing that grosses me out. I'm getting chills just writing about it. In more pleasant news, Scott had a baby girl yesterday. Her name is Sofia Rose. Since he didn't use the other name he was thinking of naming her (Ava), I plan to steal it if I ever have a girl...which I don't see happening anytime this decade. I'm going to NJ next weekend to visit the baby, and so my mom's pseudo-ex-boyfriend can take me out to dinner to celebrate my graduation/birthday. Good times. 06*09*05 Guess who is getting tickets to the sold out Modest Mouse show. That's right, me! And only for $10 more than face value. I figure after Ticketmaster surcharges and shipping it'd have come out to be around $10 more than face value if I had bought it from them anyway. I ran around Prospect Park more than I ever have before today. I'm so proud of myself. I can only run very early in the morning or just before the sun goes down or else I'll probably pass out from this heat. Thank god for my air conditioner. I've had an image from the movie Un Chien Andalou (the song the Pixies wrote Debaser about) stuck in my head ever since I found out I got the job at the Eye-Bank. In the scene I keep visualizing, a woman gets her eye cut open with a straight edge razor. In reality it's a cow's eye, but it's still a little bit sick (not to me, of course). You can watch it here. But don't say I didn't warn you!
06*08*05 Bah I almost forgot to mention I got the job largely due to my friend Scott's "glowing review" of the work I did five years ago at the engineering firm he works at. THANK YOU SCOTT!! 06*08*05 Wooooooooooooo! I got the job at the Eye-Bank! They just called and offered me the position. I am a future eyeball remover! Yippee! I start June 20th. Three weeks paid vacation! I wanna go out and celebrate tonight. I think I will. I had an interview for the assistant medical editor position yesterday as well. They seemed to love me and were all very nice, but the pay was shit. Anyway, it doesn't matter now. Got me a jobby slicing up eyeballs (Pixies reference). 06*07*05 A little background before I begin: there is a site called Last Night's Party where this guy goes to pretty popular club nights in New York City and takes pictures. Not a big deal, right? I guess, except he has this talent for getting people to do some pretty raunchy things while he photographs them at these events. If you go to the site and look at the party pictures, you will notice they're from events such as MisShapes and Rated X: The Panty Party. Now I've been to these events and I assure you, aside from the strip contest at the Panty Party, I usually never see the naughty stuff go on that is portrayed in some of those pictures. Anyway, they had pictures from Sunday night at the Beauty Bar. You can see my roommate on the left in the second row. So I was there when they started taking pictures. If you scroll down you'll see all sorts of crazy antics that must have ensued upon my departure. I miss everything! Not that I really wanted to see that anyway. So then I was wandering around the site and lo and behold I see my friend Courtney...naked. She's the "urban pinup" of the month. I was just a little bit shocked to say the least. See what happens when you lose touch with someone? 06*06*05 I had a good birthday yesterday. About ten people showed up to a little party I had at the Beauty Bar. Carlos bought me a birthday cake because he's the best. Three of my friends from the police lab showed up. I was really happy to see them; I miss them. I didn't get too smashed. I even got to bed at a decent time. But I don't think my interview with the Eye-Bank went too great today. I was telling people that after all the dates I've had with people off the internet, it's gotten to the point where I'm practically not nervous at all anymore when I go on a first date. And pretty much the same applies for job interviews...except when the person interviewing me is a woman. Which was the case today. Ahh, and just like dating, I left my interview feeling inadequate. Oh well, there's always the medical editor job I have an interview for tomorrow. In the meantime, I have plenty of pictures from this weekend. The first set is from my graduation and Lynn's graduation barbeque, the second set is from my birthday.
06*04*05 Hot dog, I'm a college graduate! I did the deed yesterday. Most boring, unorganized ceremony in history, but I survived. My friends Lynn, Maria, Luis and I were so sick of waiting to go up and get our diploma that I finally said, "Just go! Go!!!" and we snuck on the line. Everyone else was doing it. Security yelled at us, but we kept walking. They had the nerve to try and call forensic science majors last. You'd think after having probably the most difficult major in the college, they'd give us one break...but no. Anyway, something had to be done. My mom and I went out to dinner afterwards and she gave me my money to go to France, a few books on France, a book on how to grow rich and a bouquet of flowers. All in all it was a pretty good day. Today I'm going to Lynn's graduation barbeque in Poughkeepsie with Alex and her boyfriend so I can watch everyone eat meat. Lynn told me they stocked up on vodka and orange juice just for me, so I should be all set. I promised Chris I'd try to check out his band at Otto's Shrunken Head tonight, but that doesn't look to be in the cards. Then tomorrow is my birthday. I'm thinking of buying some of the world-famous Magnolia cupcakes to bring to my birthday get-together that night. It's the least I can do since I'm not providing any free liquor. Besides, cupcakes are intoxicating in their own way. I woke up this morning and my eye was crusted shut. That's never happened to me before. I think it's a sign I'm gonna get the job at the Eye-Bank! Or a sign I should be more careful about getting cat hair in my eye. 06*02*05 I just tried to go for a run twice and was deterred both times. This can only mean I shouldn't run today. The first deterrent occurred as I was walking out the door; a woman called me back for a job I had applied for last week as a medical editor. She put me on hold forever and then had to call me back. But it resulted in an interview for Tuesday. So then I was finally on my way to Prospect Park. I walked all the way to the subway and realized I left my friggen wallet with my metrocard inside back at home. At that point I said screw it. I'll go tomorrow before graduation. I also got a call back from the Eye-Bank today for a second interview! I'm really excited. But I'm also apprehensive because I still don't know what the salary is. I am not taking a 25-30k job. I can't live off that. Plus the job is too involved to accept anything that low. Also, the interview is set for the day after my birthday binge. So this means I probably can't drink as much as I had originally planned. And that really sucks. But if I get the job and it's a good salary, it'll all be worth it. I had a date that lasted 10 hours yesterday. We went to the zoo which was crawling with thousands of kids on a field trip. They were more wild than the animals. One little boy stole the food I was going to feed the goats with from me. He was really crafty about it though, so I have to give him credit. It didn't take very long to see all the animals, so we walked to a nearby bar and downed pints at 2 in the afternoon. Then we went to his place to sit on the rooftop and enjoy the view...and more beer. Anyway, it was a lovely day. I have to go clothes shopping now. It's time to buy business attire now that I'm entering into the adult job world. :(
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