Packing, La Vie, and Joe Cool & the Cat

Yikes!

The end of the month is looming and I still don't have an apartment! *sigh* Such is the nature of NYC. Every time I move it feels like I'm playing a game called "Musical Apartments" where the music of life stops, a bunch of people stand up and run around like crazy trying to get their butts in another spot before the music starts up again. Lets hope that I'm not the one left standing this month!

I am packing nonetheless... a little bit every day. Ahmed and I seem to be separating things out well. He keeps the microwave. I keep the steamer. He keeps the couch, (thank God). I keep the kitchen table. We have a few pieces that we both don't want, so I'll have to find out a way to dispose of those things.

I'm also having to create 2 piles: one pile for my new apartment and one for the office. I'll be moving office stuff in on Thursday, yay! We still have to buy a few things and decorate, but phone and DSL will be up soon and I'm making do with an interim table until I find a desk I like. (Office desk design is like sneaker design: most of it is awful!)

Even though I'm swamped with work, my friends are making sure I have some fun! Julie and Joe took Leese and I out to La Vie for my birthday. It was just my kind of night. A seedy tent at a shadowy pier on a misty night. Mad contortionists, precarious balancing maneuvers, and a flyer in chains. Even a bit of full frontal nudity! I felt like John Constantine might show up at any minute. (The authentic blond British JC - not the insipid Hollywood version.) Check out Joe's blog for a picture or two. I was off camera duty that night!

Friday, I joined the usual suspects to go see Julie and Joe's Trapeze School student showcase. They have gotten so good! The general theme was circus and most people thought that Joe just may cop out on a costume for the event, but he came through with flying colors! Literally. Here they are in full regalia:

They both made their catches and managed to look pretty graceful in the process. (As opposed to moi... the official flying ragdoll.) Unfortunately, it was too dark to get any good pics of them in the air, but Joe got it all on HD, so when he gets it up on his blog, I'll direct you there.

Sheesh - lots of other stuff going on at the moment. I guess I have to save a few tidbits for later, though. Keep your fingers crossed about my own place! It has to pop up sooner or later.

S

A smattering...

of interesting wobjects, (web-objects).

Some of my favorite books are collections of the oddments of existence such as Wanley's Wonders of the Little World and The Queer, The Quaint, and The Quizzical. But, this morning I found out the the web is increasingly becoming a rich resource for these kinds of collections. Luckily there are people following in Wanley's footsteps! People such as Uri Westphal.

I stumbled across a collection of "Mutatoes" during my morning blog reading. (Don't worry, they aren't a bunch of vegetarian comic book heroes...)

The pictures are wonderful:
And then I started poking around the other pages on the site and found Retrozoology: a page dedicated to ancient and odd descriptions of animals like the Octopus.

The best thing about these web-based collections is that they often come with full color pictures as seen above and you can easily access them without having to trek all the way to the rare books section of your local library.

Thank you...

My birthday was yesterday and I just want to pop in and say thank you to all of the wonderful people who called to wish me a happy one!

My favorite present so far is a talking Steve Irwin action figure who says "Crikey!" when you touch his front pocket. Hee hee...

Anyway - it is good to be 31! Thanks for all of your calls and emails... and have a wonderful Wednesday!

My apologies to the universe and everyone in it...

Sheesh.

OK - so I am just going to lay it all out right here so everyone knows what is going on with me.

I am so unbelievably out of integrity right now with practically everyone.

I have at least 12 people I owe calls to that I haven't called yet. I have forgotten my phone at home twice in the past week. Everything I have mailed in the past two months has been mailed late. I haven't packed a single box. I forgot to buy cat food for the cats last night. I haven't been following a workout regimen. I didn't check all the fonts on the drafting I sent to the printer. Because I forgot my phone, I couldn't call my step-dad on his birthday. I didn't tell Ahmed I was going to be working on Sunday. I forgot to call my prescriptions into the pharmacist. I keep forgetting to schedule all these things into my phone so I have a digital reminder.

In short, I am slightly overwhelmed with life right now.

Actually, I am so overwhelmed - I don't even have time to worry about being overwhelmed. I feel pretty empty. Like a robot has taken over my body and is just processing one command after another. The commands don't really make sense. I just do what is put in front of me to do.

I have 4 priorities at the moment:

1. sign a lease on a new apartment
2. pack to move into said apartment
3. pack to move into new studio
4. keep making money so I can afford all this moving

*sigh*

As a result of this - hopefully short-lived - hurricane of discombobulation... some people aren't very happy with me at the moment. And I just don't have the energy to make things right. So - to all of you who I dearly love, but just can't reach out to right now: I'm sorry I'm not available. I hope you'll forgive my lapse and know that it's temporary. I'll be more settled in a month or two when I have my own apartment and have settled into living by myself. I think about you even if I'm not calling/writing/emailing. And soon, as my step-dad likes to say: "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."

Oh - and by the way, I just have to point out that the best person in the world to help you though the stormy straits of life is a mother who calls to remind you to take it easy on yourself! You are only human after all...

(No matter how much you wish you could wrinkle your face like Samantha Stephens and have your house packed with the twitch of a nose!)

41 Union Square West...

Guess what that is???

That beautiful address is the address of my new work space in Manhattan! Yay! Julie and I signed the lease yesterday and we can't believe our luck!

Union Square is the ideal place for me. We have Barnes and Noble, Whole Foods, the Farmer's Market, Zen Palate, ABC Carpet and Home, Staples, Forbidden Planet, a beautiful park, and the Union Square Holiday Market within a 3 minute walking distance. Home Depot, Bed Bath and Beyond, 2 movie theaters, and a slew of sushi restaurants aren't much farther away. The L, N, Q, R, W, 4, 5,and 6 all stop there... so we are very accessible!

The studio itself is pretty small, but should fit the two of us just fine for a year. The previous tenants left a bookshelf and two cabinets that we plan on keeping. The landlord says it is ok for us to paint, so we will be picking colors soon! We have one window that faces north, so we can see the Empire State Building and a section of Broadway.

Anyway, it's not a bad birthday present for the Universe to throw my way! (It looks like my theme of Beauty and Abundance is still alive and kicking!) I'll post pictures soon so you can see for yourself. Hope to see you all there one day!