Klosekraft

Random Wednesday

1. I saw Iron Man last night, which was just a good, fun movie. About ten minutes in, my gentleman companion leaned over and whispered that Robert Downey Jr. was doing a spot-on Vince Vaughn impression, which he totally was. I wonder how much Jon Favreau had to do with that...

2. I have so! many! paint chips! taped to my bedroom wall. I really have to make a decision soon, since I'm painting this weekend. Deciding things is hard!

3. I'm almost done with the edging on Kerry Blue. The last third of the last side seems to be taking as long as the rest of the whole freaking thing. I can't believe this project is almost done. It's been dragging on for a couple of years. Granted, I haven't been working on it actively that whole time, but still. Years. Having all of my other projects packed away for a couple of weeks has really helped me knock this thing out. That might be a good lesson to take away from the experience.

4. I loved Maggie Gyllenhaal's dress from the Costume Institute shindig.

5. I need to deal with the whole Mother's Day issue, which includes suppressing my irritation at being forced to participate in the stupid Hallmark Industrial Complex. Said irritation suppression is the part of the gift Mom never sees, which is a pity since it's the costliest part. Note to self: get over it and call a florist today.

Home again, home again

I'm all moved in and somewhat unpacked. I can't do everything since I have to paint this weekend. Obviously, painting AFTER moving in is less than ideal, but it's the only way it could happen, timing wise.

The walls are currently approximately the same color as a Japanese maple:

It's too dark and drab and kind of frumpy. I'm going for a very, very pale grey, like this:

So it'll be lighter and bright without having to resort to the normal off-white-to-beige renter's palette. White walls feel sterile and antiseptic to me, which I'm not interested in.

It'll be a little while until I can upload photos. My computer is set up, but having two tech-savvy roommates means that the internet connection is some fancy thing that my Earth computer isn't equipped for and I have to get something to make it work, which I should be able to get to sometime this week...

This morning

I am drinking my coffee out of a wine glass. Because I packed all the mugs.

That is all.

The most ghetto umbrella in the world.

This is my friend Karen opening her umbrella.

With a pen. Because the button fell off. (And you can't open it without pressing the release; we both tried.) There was a rounded, slippery little metal nubule that you had to hit exactly right. It wasn't easy, but it was hilarious.

Karen's one! night! only! appearance in New York was a very high point in a week that found me texting a friend last night with the line "I am very unfortunate!" I've been packing up my apartment and trying to figure out the logistics of the move while battling a wicked cold, insomnia and anxiety attacks.

I don't get anxiety attacks very often, pretty much exclusively when I'm preparing for a move, as evidenced by the two following IM conversations I had with coworkers:
me: would you say that I'm prone to anxiety attacks?
me: it's for the blog
coworker 1: no
coworker 1: why?

me: [same question]
coworker 2: um

coworker 2: not even close

So there you have it.

I know moving is stressful for everyone, and don't think it's any worse for me than it is for anyone else, but it affects me in a very weird and deep way that I think taps into all of the ways that moving makes me feel helpless — I need other people to drive for me and lift and carry heavy things for me  and some part of me is kind of ashamed that I can't do these pretty basic things myself. And then packing up all of this stuff brings up complicated feelings about consumption and wanting great stuff versus living lightly on the planet and really, it's kind of not surprising that I've been waking up in the middle of the night with my heart racing and, as my coworker Liz describes it, "a head full of panic and recriminations."

So you can understand why I was delighted to take a break from myself and hang out with one of my favorite people who I hardly ever get to see because she's busy being an awesome doctor in Virginia, eat some Korean food (these are the most, um, composed bibimbaps I've ever seen; still tasty, even though we were both hoping for the hot stone bowls), drink some beers and take some goofy photobooth photos.

Best. Business trip. Ever.

In addition to knowing the loving embrace of Fabio, my trip to Pittsburgh last week for my company's annual convention included:

Dressing up


(those are vampire teeth, not buck teeth. they just don't fit me.)

Local specialties

A cardboard cutout of the company president

Unlikely pairings

Photobooth photos at the Warhol Museum

And, of course, the Mr. Romance pageant (see a lot more pictures here)

What I've been...

Reading: I just finished a couple of really, really terrific literary mysteries: The Genius by Jesse Kellerman and To the Power of Three by Laura Lippman. The Kellerman I'm recommending to pretty much everyone I talk to these days — it was awesome — but the Lippman will only appeal to the ladies, I think. The main characters are high school girls and you have to have been one to really get the byzantine system of loyalties and feuds that the plot hinges on. Then I wanted a non-fic, so I picked up The United States of Arugula, but I've gotten bogged down in his chronology of French chefs working in the States; like, dude, I get it. You did your research. Now please start talking.

Eating: I've barely cooked this week, though I have some plans to be in the kitchen this weekend. I ate well this week though.
There was barbeque Monday night (and the first meal of the year outside):

Brisket, pulled pork, ribs, sausage, german potato salad and sour pickles. And no, it wasn't all for me.

Tuesday, there was homemade sushi(!) at Elyssa and Eyal's. I didn't help at all, just got in the way and gossiped and stole pieces of cucumber off the cutting board, but I managed to figure out the basic steps.

1. Chop stuff up.

2. Spread rice on seaweed.

3. Pile on fish and vegetables and roll it up.

4. Slice rolls into, um, rolls.

And, no pictures, but the night after that, Erin and I went to a great French place in Chelsea. The food was excellent, prices were good and the atmosphere was lovely. We ended up sitting there talking for three and a half hours without anyone trying to get us to leave. In fact, after we finished our bottle, the waiter gave us a couple of glasses (each) on the house. Totally worth the headache in the morning.

Knitting: The little knitting time I had this week was spent finally getting through the ribbing on the back of Bridie. I managed to start the main pattern last night and it's going much more quickly, especially since I went up from size 1 needles to 3s.

Doing to bring myself up to 2003: I finally got around to setting up a Facebook account [edited to add link], mainly because it's easier to send to potential roommates to show that I am who I say I am. I don't necessarily want everyone whose ad I answer to read the blog. Feel free to add me as a friend or pass me notes or whatever one does on there. (What is poking? I don't understand. Get off my lawn, you rotten kids!)

Ah, sweet, sweet internet

People, I was without internet access here at the office for MORE THAN THREE HOURS today.

It was AWFUL.

I had so much to say. Like this:

I was waiting for the subway sort of late one night last week. I had just missed a train so I was alone on the platform except for one guy who had asked me for the time, then whether I'm Russian and then whether I'm Italian (or possibly whether I was tired; he wasn't so big on enunciation), at which point I smiled politely and went back to my book and he wandered off.

Eventually, I looked up to see two uniformed NYC police officers ambling down the platform, one in his late 40s, I'd guess and the other in his 20s, both pretty heavy guys and unfortunately porcine in aspect. They stopped in front of this ad:

and stood there looking at it without speaking for a good solid 30 seconds, I'd say. Then the older cop said, completely deadpan, "You think you could hang with them?" and the younger cop replied, equally deadpan, "Oh yeah, I had all those years of training at Juilliard." And then they turned and kept walking down the platform.

Movie meme

I've been busy, but not the kind of busy that leads to much blog fodder (helping a friend pack, going to see a Brazilian dance troupe at BAM, looking at apartments — no luck yet; the roommate at the only place I've really liked so far ended up having one of her friends move in, so I've been playing Sour Grapes a bit (small kitchen! kind of ugly block!) and setting up more appointments over the next week or so.

So in lieu of anything else to write about, I'm doing the movie meme that's floating around these days.

The rules:

• Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
• Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
• Post them on your blog for everyone to guess.
• Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
• Looking them up is cheating. Please don’t.

1. I've just decided to switch our Friday schedule to Monday, which means that the test we take each Friday on what we learned during the week will now take place on Monday before we've learned it. But since today is Tuesday, it doesn't matter in the slightest. Pencils ready! Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, original flavor. Spotted by NerdGirl.

2. That's the kind of greeting a girl likes! Not this "Hello-you-look-wonderful" stuff, just a good straight "Who do you know that's an authority on San Francisco his—" Liz got this one right away: Vertigo.

3. She batted them pretty little eyes at you, and you fell for it like an egg from a tall chicken! Charade — Sonja got it.

4. He was a great agent. I loved him like a brother, I loved my wife like a mother and a hooker, and look where it's got me — alone, afraid, and I just wanna die!

5. Velcro. Next to the Walkman and Tab it is the coolest invention of the 20th century!

6. Yeah, I can remember a few things. Apparently you don't. The end? Katharine Ross has just married this really cool guy — tall, blond, incredibly popular, the make-out king of his fraternity in Berkeley — when this obnoxious Dustin Hoffman character shows up at the back of the church, acting like a total asshole. "Elaine! Elaine!" Does Katharine Ross tell Dustin Hoffman, "Get lost, creep. I'm a married woman"? No. She runs off with him. On a bus. That is the reality.

7. Would you excuse me? I cut my foot before and my shoe is filling up with blood. Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion; Debi got it.

8. "He's three years old, gentle as a kitten, and likes dogs." I wonder whether Mark means that he eats dogs or is fond of them? Jenny knew this one: Bringing Up Baby.

9. This is pure snow! Do you have any idea what the street value of this mountain is? Better Off Dead. Rebecca and Suzanne both got it.

10. As Mr. Sloan always says, there is no "I" in team, but there is an "I" in pie. And there's an "I" in meat pie. Anagram of meat is team... I don't know what he was talking about. Ali knew this one — Shaun of the Dead.

But wait — I never write about politics!

The past couple of days have found me sighing deeply and saying things like, "Eliot Spitzer, I'm not angry with you, but I'm very, very disappointed," and "Eliot Spitzer, didn't I warn you that pride comes before a fall?" and, months before, "Eliot Spitzer, Joe Bruno is a fucking street fighter and he will take you down one way or another so, for the love of God,  stop taunting him. Prep school did not prepare you for this. We're talking M-O-B here, and not the kind that Michael Kors disparages."

Anyway. I thought that Spitzer would "fall" and "break his knees" while running one day, but I suppose resigning in disgrace after being implicated in a high-class prostitution scandal is close enough. Not that he didn't get himself into it through his own obviously illegal and tacky actions, but the whole thing smacks of ... something. (David Byrne agrees.)

Honestly, I'm more than a little heartbroken. Spitzer kicked ass as Attorney General. I was thrilled when I learned he was running for governor, I voted for him with enthusiasm and I was really rooting for him once he took office. But I have to say — he was a lousy governor. I was disappointed in him long before this all happened. I think it was about the time the second-to-most-recent MTA fare hike went through and he didn't do anything about it even though the agency had two sets of books, one of which showed a huge surplus, that I started to get suspicious that he wasn't going to do anything particularly helpful. And then when he got bogged down with all the infighting, I just wanted to shake him. And cry. Like it or not,  Bruno is an immovable object in New York State politics and, while Spitzer was a force to be reckoned with, he was not an unstoppable force by any stretch of the imagination.

When the story first broke the other day about him being involved with a prostitution ring, I looked around the office and asked if anyone even knew who the lt. governor was. None of us knew — and we're all reasonably aware (quasi-)journalists. I was ashamed; I used to know this kind of thing without thinking about it. I had to look up her last name, but I remember Betsy who used to fight with Pataki all the time because, well, she brooked no guff and was always in the news. Then Mary Donohue took over, and she was easy to remember even though she didn't do anything particularly memorable while in office because when I was in high school, she was the district attorney of the county I lived in and she would sometimes act as judge of the mock trial competitions I was in. The current lt. gov., David Paterson, who has not yet been sworn in as governor as of this writing as far as I know, has a good track record for issues that I think are important (pro alternative energy and stem cell research) and apparently is well respected by both parties. It's going to be very interesting to see how this plays out, though, however it goes, I'm proud of my state for (soon) having the first legally blind governor in the U.S. and a little shocked that he's New York's first African-American governor — and only the fourth in the country ever.

Sort of a disclaimer: For what it's worth, I grew up near Albany, and lived and worked downtown at a law-related nonprofit for several years after college. My last two years there, my office windows had a beautiful view of the Capitol building across the street. I used to see — and eavesdrop on — the bigwig politicians out and about at restaurants and bars. Not that it should lend any weight to any of my opinions, but I am speaking from my experience observing the Albany political machine at close range. (Also, I miss having my own office. It had a door I could close and more than one window.)

Random Monday

1. I took this picture last week. I'd love to see behind that wall. Where there are giant fake, artsy trees, there is other good stuff. It's, like, the law.

2. I finished sewing up Flicca this weekend, buttons and all. I need to at least steam the seams aggressively and possibly wash it before I can wear it though. It's hanging a little stiffly. But it fits perfectly — Anna can draft a sleeve cap like no one's business!

3. I've had this song in my head all day. Love.

4. I realized this weekend that now that Flicca is done, I don't have a simple knitting project in the works. I went over to Zoe's on Saturday to watch Anne of Green Gables and eat her delicious lasagne and I had no knitting. Everything I have going requires charts and directions and looking. I mean, whatever, it's not that big of a deal. I can (and did!) certainly watch and enjoy a movie without it, but it's nice. So yesterday I started a top-down raglan pullover in some handspun mohair/wool. I really love this yarn. I thought I had posted when I finished spinning it all, but I can't find it. I mention it at the bottom of the post here though.

I wanted something simple that would show off the yarn and saw an angora pullover in one of the Rowan books (A Season's Tale, I think) that had eyelets along the raglan lines. It was just enough detail to keep it from being completely plain and still showed up with the fuzzy yarn, so I'm confident that even if the nap raises considerably as it's worn, I won't lose the eyelets. This yarn is more or less sportweight and I'm knitting it on the loose side to maximize drape.

5. We determined that guys — even the most sensitive of all the guys we know — wouldn't really appreciate Anne of Green Gables. It requires a certain kind of feminine sensibility, to either be or have been the sort of little girl who would have renamed a flowering tree-lined road White Way of Delight.

6. I had a dream last night that contained the following line of dialogue: "She's got a sad story, but she hasn't gone sad."

7. I went to the opening of the Rococo show at the Cooper-Hewitt last week. I was glad that I got to see it for free because it's an aesthetic that I have a hard time appreciating, but there are some stand-out pieces to be sure and it's well worth seeing if dec arts are your thing. I went out with some people after and ate my weight in potato skins, which was definitely the highlight of the evening for me, but I'm a philistine — don't take my word for it.