An akika, Hannah, and a sunset.

So, it's Sept. 3rd and guess what?

I didn't find an apartment! Sad!!! I was the one left standing when the music stopped. Needless to say, I do have a rather high bar set in terms of what I need. Wood floors. Sunlight. My cats. Easy N/W train access. A stove for cryin' out loud. Can you believe that people these days can live in an apartment without a stove? I may not cook that often, but I'd like the option to break out the Dutch Oven once in a while. (At least until NASA invents some version of the replicator.)

I took Labor Day weekend off to lackadaisically lament my circumstances, escaping into several movies and a Sci-Fi miniseries called The Lost Room. I loved the first 4 episodes of this bizarre little piece of television. The bus-ticket segment made every molecule in my body happy. I think I would have been happier with the rest of it if, rather than a miniseries, they had completed an entire season. The writers certainly left enough of an open ending to suggest they may turn it into one. If so, I may have to break down and get cable. (At the moment I make do with basic television and Netflix for the must-sees.)

Fortunately, all I need is a little mind-expanding sci-fi to help get my bark-chewing perspective zoomed out to standard cosmic focus. With that one vision-blocking Redwood back to normal toothpick height, I released all the expectations I had around moving and decided to have a labor-free Labor Day.

Lucky for me, Ahmed's friend Hani invited us to an akika for his newborn son, Adam, in Astoria Park. An akika is a celebratory gathering of friends and family of a newborn. I have been to several and they are truly festive occasions: tables laden with Egyptian cuisine, mounds of presents and cards packed with money, scores of beaming adults and five times as many kids barreling around the park. Here is Hani, his wife, and their son:
And here's a better view of Adam.

He's only 9 days old! Oh, I could hardly stand the cuteness. I cooched and cooed and took scads of pictures, packing in the cute fix, and then, just as I was coming off the high, look who popped up!
That's Jen and her daughter Hannah, who, coincidentally, were also attending a little gathering in the park less than 2 yards away! Weirdly enough, I had run into her husband, Hiro, on the train a few days before and had been meaning to call and touch base. How do you like that for universal synchronicity?

I ended up having a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon and took this picture of Ahmed as we were leaving the park:
and found this quote to accompany it, being so fitting for who he works to be:

"We must get back into relation, vivid and nourishing relation to the cosmos and the universe. The way is through daily ritual, and is an affair of the individual and the household, a ritual of dawn and noon and sunset, the ritual of the kindling fire and pouring water, the ritual of the first breath, and the last." -D.H. Lawrence

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

Back in the saddle.

Time for an update... no?

Or a few, for that matter. I have been out in the real world for so long I have totally shirked my virtual responsibilities. I have also realized how family-centric my posts have been of late, so I thought I'd get back to all the other facets of life.

What have I been up to???

I have been working my tail off. That's what. I will be moving into my own apartment this fall. All by myself! Which is slightly intimidating because I've never lived by myself before. I have a sneaking suspicion I am going to love it, but you never know... I am an extrovert after all. But, I have my two lovely cats. And, hopefully, lots of company! Right, girls? (Leese, Julie, Tara, Kristin, Mary, Cassandra... and your handsome cohorts, of course.)

I have to say that I'm lucky, because, for the most part, I love the career path I've chosen for myself. Being a freelance designer in NYC is always an adventure. I get to work with tons of creative, and sometimes notable, people. Every job is different... some are purely graphics related where I get to flex my Adobe muscles. Some require set design for puppets. (They don't teach you how to design puppet scenery in school. They should, considering the vast puppet population of the world.) Some are installation heavy, which means lots of standing on ladders, juggling tools, managing deliveries, and working with great shop or house crews.

During my professional career, I have gotten paid to:

1. Cover Dave Grohl, (Foo Fighters), in tin foil.
2. Create pop-art images of William Shatner, (which he may actually have in his house!)
3. Get very close and personal with a slew of Henson puppets in the windows of Macy's, (and yes, Mrs. Piggy can be pretty high maintenance.)
4. Build a replica of the Nimbus 2000.
5. Paint every nook and cranny of Studio 54 when Cabaret moved in. And let me tell you, Leese and I did some mighty precarious maneuvering to get the dome ceiling touched up!
6. Serve burnt eggs to an actor take after take after take... (sorry Andrew, but the script did call for it!)
7. Watch LL Cool J rehearse without a shirt on... (Ok, not really paid to do that. We were on a break. Really. Come on... do you blame us? Who can get work done when LL's in the building? Um, no really... we were on a break.)
8. Glitterize everything within a 50 ft. radius. (I used to come home with glitter in places you wouldn't believe.)
9. Smuggle plastic shotguns though the Lincoln Tunnel. I was actually stopped by a cop who asked me point blank, "Ma'am, are you carrying any weapons of mass destruction?" What do you say to that when you have a pile of toy guns in the back? "Well, officer, not really weapons of MASS destruction..."

And my number 10. comes from a job that I worked on this summer: installing artifacts into the Ripley's Believe it or Not! Odditorium in Times Square. Yes, folks, I got to personally handle real Jivaro shrunken heads. About 20 of them. I have to admit, they are pretty cool. For me, the term "shrunken head" used to be just a catch phrase for freaky crap. Not anymore. The Jivaro tribes are fascinating! (I'm not going to go into detail here. You'll have to go to Ripley's and see for yourself.) I do have a few pictures, though...And here is me and Catman who was invited for the opening night party along with other interesting Ripley-esque characters.
In any case, the job was a little nuts, because of time constraints and lots of contractors all trying to get everything done at the same time. I know from the pictures it look like I did all that work by myself, but that's only because I haven't found out if I can post pictures of the great people with whom I worked. (Feel free to write in and request an appearance, guys.) The artifact crew was fantastic, pretty much my dream crew, and very good at rolling with the late-night-tight-space sort of punches. If anyone ever needs a good props person, I have several great people to recommend. Hopefully I'll be working with them all again soon.

So, there you go... that's what I was up to for most of May and June. Lots of other things happened during that time, but I'll post a follow up tomorrow. Sleep tight!