Fire!

It seems like they test the fire alarm in my building at least once every two weeks. It's gotten to a point where we just completely ignore it. There haven't been any intercom announcements thus far to explain all the flashing lights and yet here we sit at our computers as if those strobes are just part of our usual everyday. One day it's going to be a real fire and we're just going to keep sitting here and go up in a fiery nest of construction drawings.

Jeebus!

Not for the faint of heart - really! REALLY!!

Visit at your own risk.

I haven't a clue why anyone would ever do that to themselves. No wonder it's vegetarian.

What a Fiasco!

So, this morning, Merton and I were supposed to go pick up some models at Lincoln Center. There was an SUV that was supposed to meet us there at 10. Knowing that we had a million little models and they were all disassembled, I decided to go there first thing in the morning so that I can pack everything up all nice for the transport. I show up a little past 9, go to the main door. There's a janitor cleaning right by the door. I go to open said door. Locked. I knock. The janitor waves his hands and points at the sign that says that box office does not open until 10. Great.
So, I go down into the tunnel, and try the other door. Locked. Crap.
I go to the stage door where I knew there would be a receptionist. The receptionist tries calling lots of people to see if I could be let in. Meanwhile, I'm telling the guy of course no one's going to be around to let me in because they're all in a meeting right now with my bosses. At 9:45, the stage manager finally comes by to let me in, and all the while is yelling at me that we can't just show up unannounced and all.
Finally I'm in, and I see Merton up above also trying to get in. I run to the front door to try and open it and call out to him. Nope. Locked in. I make a million phone calls, finally get his cellphone number and then I call him. I tell him to go to the stage door and try and enter from there. The receptionist, yet again, won't let him in. And this time, apparently, there's no one available to take him up there. I try to go back down only to find that the stairwell I took in the first place is locked. Essentially, I'm locked in! Finally, the other guy in the receptionist office took pity and let Merton up. He's horrified to see that we have a million little boxes that I'm trying to assemble.
Finally, everything's all packed up. Thankfully, the front doors were open this time, as it was past 10.
What a fiasco!

Indecency!

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's dishonesty. If you say that the lease is for January 1st, then it's for January 1st. Nowhere in that phrase is it implied that the current tenant is trying to get out of her lease early so there's a possibility that she may stay till the end of her term - in this case, January 31st.
Well, not they're waving the possibility of January 15th in our faces. Seeing as I have my place till January 15th, that's not too bad. However, anything past that and I'm not going to have a room anymore. Then Marlen and I have nowhere to keep our stuff for 16 days. I'd have to drag everything to Gramma's and crash at her place (perish the thought). My third roomie, poor fellow, is already doing the 4 hour daily commute from Wilton.
In desperation, we went to go see a few places today. The first two weren't bad, but weren't good either. The last? Let's just say I'm having nightmares tonight. The moment we were on the subway, I shook out my coat, and checked everything on me at least three times to make sure I didn't have any accidental passengers. ARGH!
Can't do it! I don't want to apartment hunt anymore!!!!!!!

Things I'm going to miss about my current apartment:

1) The apartment itself - I love lofts!
2) My roommates - they're all so wonderful and interesting.
3) The taco shop - delicious!
4) Music!

I'm going to have to visit them all the time. Seriously the best living situation I have ever been in.
I hope living with Marlen and Michael will be as good if not better.

Small World Incident Alert!

Holy crap. Some things you just never expect. You expect that someone steps into your life, and then when they're gone, they're just that. Gone.
But then...
So, if you knew me in high school, then you knew who my world practically revolved around in ninth grade. He pretty much ruined me for all other men. Nothing compares. It's also kind of scary when I look through the slew of men I've been interested in, and they all remind me of him. Tall, dark-haired drummers make me melt for a reason.
And I just found out today that my roommate's boyfriend is best friends with him.
And he just broke up with his girlfriend.
What.
The.
Hell.

...well, I don't think the "just broke up" thing works at all in my favor, but still, it's like God threw me a bone just when I was feeling down...

Thanks, God.

My Poor Tummy

With the little bit of food poisoning that happened while Morten was visiting, my tummy is already not in a happy place.

Today really sucked so far. Mini-boss and I went up to Lincoln Center to measure the sprinkler heads in the basement of the library. The stacks are in this tiny little 7.5' high space where the lights are the cheapest fluorescents possible. The first time I was there with Vanessa and we spent five hours there. The high heat made me get a migraine that lasted three days. This time, the temperature was very acceptable. However, the lighting or something about the air really got to me. We had half the place measured when my stomach started feeling worse and worse. I rested for a minute while Mercedes ran around and measured some things. Then we measured some more and I had to sit down again and put my head down on the table to keep myself from upchucking. My hands were shaking pretty badly. We got the last things done and I sat down some more while she photographed.

It's funny, just leaving the room made me feel amazingly better. Mini-boss theorizes that it's because the fluorescents are hard on the eyes. Apparently the vibrations you hear from those lights are actually the sound of the light rapidly turning on and off. The louder the hum, the slower the rate and the harder it is on your eyes. And it was a loud hum. Well, I guess cheap fluorescents make me sick to my stomach.

Apartment Life

I'm going to be very sad to leave the Troutman apartment. There's always so much going on! Tonight there was a photoshoot for some sort of fanboy site that Erica works for. In between shoots, she played some of her songs, Emma sang backup and I improvised on violin (sans G, Rachel's string broke and she hasn't fixed it...). Erica really likes my improvising - she invited me to guest play at a few of her shows. I gotta say, it's a lot of fun...
I wasn't home for the first shoot, but the second shoot was sort of odd. The girl models showed up and then decided to back out for whatever reason. Then, the guy stayed and did some sort of separate shoot. He was cute enough...seemed really empty headed though. Empty heads are not my thing.
O yes, and Rowena just emailed me. I might be having a couple of house guests for New Years! Nifty!

I have really big issues about being told what to do. This is a reason why I don't particularly like to go home. It's also a reason why I couldn't stay at Gramma's anymore. I don't like being told when to go to bed, when to pack. I don't like being told to put away the milk. I know damn well to put away the milk. When the fuck did I ever NOT put away the milk.
I survived five freaking years on my own at college. In all my years, have I ever once missed a flight? Have I ever once had to call home and ask for something like more money? I managed myself just fine. My time. My money. Do you really think that all of a sudden I graduated college and FORGOT how to be a responsible adult? Jesus fucking christ.

Merry Cheeriness!

Merry post-Christmas to all! I'm suffering from way too much food and a strong urge to go to the gym and work out. But what's the point if I can't go to my favorite dance class? So sad...
Morten came to visit. The first couple of days I had to work so he basically would just meet up with me after work and we'd go out to eat or stay in and I'd cook. I took him to go see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular (on the company dime, we were each allowed to invite 10, but I decided to keep it at one). The Rockettes were fun to watch for the first few minutes of each performance, but after minute five, you tend to get a little bored of watching them do formation after formation after formation. Frankly, they may get all the publicity, but the other dancers are the ones that get all the fun. Maybe I'll try out one day, it looks like it could be fun. I wonder if they have height requirements for all the other people, too...But I will admit now, I fell asleep during a few times while watching the Rockettes. O, and they had real camels for the nativity scene. I turned to Morten and asked him only to realize he was about to ask me the exact same thing, and we confirmed the realness of said camels when one turned to look at the audience and chew his...cud...
We also went to the MOMA (for free! thanks, awesome roomie Emma!), the Museum of Natural History (this time, being not 3 years old, I didn't cry my little eyes out at the sight of all the scary stuffed cavemen), Little Italy, Flushing, Chinatown...uhh...hm, felt like we did a lot more. I nearly got struck with a panic attack when we decided to push our way through Macy's. Bad idea...I blame myself. O yes, and we also went to Christina's birthday party. We had dinner at a place called Nyonya where I had tripe noodle soup and Morten sampled the stingray (tastes just like fish...nothing special...). Lots of fun, and it was nice to see Christina again. We always talk about hanging out, but never actually manage to...
So yes, now I'm alone again. Saw family for Christmas. We experimented with oatmeal cookies and made some with white raisins, dates and ginger instead of cinnamon. I think they came out really well, though a tad on the sweet side. Now I know what I can make for the big office bakeoff. Whoo! O and Eric and Sylvia made a crazy eggnog which was more like a very light and frothy pudding with lots of alcohol. I wish I could have finished it, but dad was poking at us that it was time to leave. He had to work the next day unfortunately. He says its my fault because I had to stay in the city on Christmas Eve to see Morten off. Well, even if I hadn't, I wouldn't have gotten out of work until 3 anyways, and with that plus the train plus the extra one hour drive to Hartford, we wouldn't have arrived till 7 or so anyway. So there!
But yes, Happy Holidays to all!

Saaad

Pushing Daisies has been cancelled...mid-season! I don't understand why all the shows I like to watch get cancelled so quickly. They are getting rid of Lipstick Jungle, too. In the spring, they also got rid of a nice quirky show called Miss Guided. O and all those years ago, there was that awesome show, Freaks and Geeks? Cancelled!
I just realized that the guy who created Pushing Daisies also created Dead Like Me. Loved it. Cancelled! He also worked on Heroes (I think in the first season, when it was still good...I can't even watch it anymore...). I think the only reason they haven't canned Heroes is because it did so well in the first season. Well, maybe now that they've canned Pushing Daisies, Fuller will go back to Heroes and make it awesome again.
He made another show called Wonderfalls. I think I have to watch it so I can lament another brilliant but cancelled show...

Happy

When a special someone is back in town, I remember why I want him around. He makes me happy. :)

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return."

-Lautrec in Moulin Rouge!

Maybe

I am not a cat person. I hate to admit it. I wish I was a better person and loved the little beasties, but they are needy, needy animals. Granted, my roommate's cat has been sorely neglected by his owner, but why does it have to cling to me? He wakes me up any time between 4, 6 or 7am meowing and trying to break down my door. Then, he winds around my legs everytime I try to take a step and I end up kicking him/stepping on him/tripping. I don't get it, don't people say cats are independent creatures? I remember my own cat sitting outside my window at 8 am on Saturday mornings meowing her little head off so I'd let her back in and then she'd do the leg winding thing too. Don't they realize that when we're walking, that's a bad place to be?

I'll also take the time to admit now that I'm not too fond of dogs either. Those things have way too much pent up energy. The only dogs I've ever particularly cared for were the bassett hound my neighbor owned when I was three (because back then, slobber didn't occur to me as gross) and the bulldog my ex's friend owned (because she was the laziest dog in the world and just couldn't be bothered).

And the hair. Cat and dog hair EVERYWHERE!

Gah! I want my sleep!

I realized today that recently I've been going through life feeling completely numb. I'm in search of something that will make me really feel something. I could use a really good cry, or a really good rant, a good bout of laughter.
I'm hoping that this week will change things around. I need some euphoria.

Busy!

I feel like for a few weeks, I have nothing going on and then all of a sudden there's so much that there's not even time to sleep. Maybe it's just the holiday season. I'm most excited.

What An A$$

Marlen and I plus extra-random-roomie-guy from-Wilton-that-seems-really-cool went to see a place today. The ad on craigslist is most beautiful. In fact, all of the ads by this guy are. However, the broker - Seth of Sunrise Realty - is A DICK. I don't use that phrase lightly. In fact, I never call people that. He, however, is in all senses of the phrase, a DICK.
When I called, he was very brisk and pushy. Marlen said the way he talked to her was downright rude. I stated our budget, but he kept trying to push us higher despite me constantly telling him what our absolute limit was. Then, I asked about the advertised place. Is it close to the L train? Yes. How is it a 3 bedroom? How much does it cost to split a master bedroom into two rooms?
Instead of stating clearly what he requires from people, he said, "You do realize you have to bring money." To which I replied, "Huh?" The way he phrased it made me feel like it was a drug deal of some sort. And it had to be cash, or a cashiers check or something along those lines. He wouldn't even show us a place unless we had the money to put down an immediate down payment.
So we decide, it can't hurt to see the place. I find out that this place is not on the L line. In fact, it is 6 crosstown blocks from the L line! It is however, right near the G. Then, after he told us to meet him somewhere, I call and he tells us to go to the building. Well, why didn't you just give us the address to begin with? We get to the building and he thinks my name is "Anthony" for some reason. We go up and he shows us around. He seems nice enough about it, but then he said that to put up an extra room would first require someone to be acrobatic - because there's be a ladder involved - or require some serious money. On the phone he said that to put in an extra room, it'd be $800. Then, once we were there, he said it was $800 per person! Well, why didn't you say that earlier, jerk...Michael was late, so I went down to get him. While waiting, a guy in the next building was just getting home and I asked him how he liked the place and he said that even after being there a month, their place was still unfinished. And then, when I went back upstairs, Marlen was in the process of discovering that one of the tiles in the model bathrooms was loose. I pick it off and we see some really shoddy craftsmenship. Aargh! So it's all a house of cards! We tell Seth we're not interested and he pretty much just bolts out the door without turning off all the lights and without even closing the door. Marlen yelled down the stairwell, "What should we do with the door?" and he said, "Just close it behind you!" Eegads! That's a fricken furnished model apartment you're just leaving. I could have gone back in and helped myself to that refrigerator. We had 3 people and a car. Hell, who wants a washer? But no, we were honest people, so we just closed the door and left.
God...what a dick.

The Things They Carried

Carrying a dog in your tote bag is an acceptable New York tradition. Little yorkies or chihuahuas with their tongues lolling at passers-by is a common sight. I was, however, unprepared when on the L-train today, I heard the mewling of a kitten from a purse. No, not a tote or an open bag. It was a zipped up leather purse and the kitten inside was crying. I suppose the purse is far more attractive than a kitty-crate, but in terms of humane, one should seriously consider a type of situation where the kitty could, I don't know, breathe?

Happy Post-Thanksgiving

Noodle pudding! Mashed potatoes! Peking duck! Yams!

Must...go...to...gym.

Happy Birthday, Marlen!

Today was Marlen's birthday. To make up for the past five years of absence, I decided I'd go all out. I got her a nice new Calphalon stainless steel stir-fry pan and a chocolate ganache cake from Whole Foods. We cooked a tasty dominican meal of moro and beef and invited over Marlen's boyfriend, Mark, as well as a girl that we could potentially live with. Large topic of conversation was how much Marlen hated the cat. Poor kitty. Though..the potential future roomie has a cat, which may not jive so well for her. After dinner, Mark showed me some tango music and then we practiced for a bit. He does far more complicated things than my tango teachers have done. Fun fun fun. Too bad Erica wasn't here, she would have really enjoyed this evening.

Sleep

I decided to go to bed early last night because for whatever reason, I was sleepy at around 10:30, and I figured I might as well get a good start to the week. So, I went to sleep. And then, starting at 4 am, the cat starts trying to get into my room. He pounds on the door, and then goes around to the kitty door on the side that I locked, and starts scratching, and then goes back and forth again. Then, he started meowing, over and over and over again. This morning when I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth, I let him stay with me. But when it comes to peeing, I can't have an audience. So I kicked kitty out. And he MEOWED the whole minute. O dear. Neediness. Blech. So...I didn't get a good night's sleep.

And on the L train this morning, there was a medical emergency. We stopped for 15 minutes at Lorimer and then another 10 minutes or so at First Avenue. People around me were most agitated. I saw it as an opportunity to get some "quiet" quality sleep time. Still, the medical emergencies - if you feel like you're going to pass out, could you at least do it on a platform instead of on the train so everyone can get to work on time? Alice was on the same train as me, so we comiserated on the elevator. Delightful.