in the sun's yellow stare.
i haven't sufficiently updated ye-old-lj for, like, all of april. i guess that's because april has been crazy fucking busy, and also surprisingly good...far better than aprils past. i mean, it started out completely depressing, on the tail-end of a suicide-inducing migraine coupled with loneliness, frustration, longing, phone breaking, wandering around in the rain, catching up on work, and even crying, one night, next to nora on jake's front steps...but then it gradually got better and better and now it's pretty fucking fantastic [knock on wood]. the weather is warm, the days are long and sunny, i'm wearing a skirt! i'm still busy as ever, but at least the semester's-end is in sight, and then it's summer all the way; hopefully california/portland and other adventures.
every week, it's this mad rush to get everything done. i stress myself to the max, don't get nearly enough sleep, but eventually, stuff manages to be done, precisely in the nick of time. i've always been good at that. magazine crunch-time coincided with having to hand in another story for workshop, on top of other writing assignments and reading(s) for class. i think i wrote almost 20 music reviews for the print mag, in addition to articles, and editing, and staying on top of tons and tons of shit. oh, i also conducted a really ridiculous phone interview with j mascis! the man is a total dud. OH, and i did my demo class at GCA on april 3rd. i dressed nicely (in nora's old waitressing shoes and a courdoroy skirt). it was a little nerve-wracking, standing in front of nineteen 16-year-olds, but i think i did ok. i designed the creative writing "intro" class for the day, and the kids responded generally well. so, hopefully that will work out for next year.
for days upon days, i've been staring at this computer screen, and my eyes have begun bleeding out of my head. it's like this: on the weekends, i've been incredibly social (more on that later) and try to cram in work, but that doesn't really get the job done. some sundays, i do teapsot writing parties with nicole and scott. mondays i'm either at the office, or in the bronx at the radio show, or home doing my work, and then monday night is class, and i usually go out after; either to spain to hang with other new-schoolers, or to meet up with any-given person. tuesday, work from 10-6, then walk to the A, hop uptown to 145th, spend 3 hours writing with scott (or "grandmama hess" who bakes us cookies and cakes!) and nicole, subway back downtown from harlem. wednesday, my amy-health day, train/drive back to the city, hurry and do the rest of my reading, go to class, sometimes go out afterwards (a few girls and myself might end up at the diner around the corner). thursday is work from 10-6 again, and then whatever else happens! this april, i spent two weekends hanging in the city, one down in philly, and this weekend i'll be driving up to boston for back-to-back friend parties. seriously, i rarely have time for actual dinner anymore. or, sleep.
the first sunshiney weekend in april, ben j sporadically showed up in the city, and everyone went out to a bar on C to hang. ben A was super-drunk and called everyone "charles" and jumped up on objects; gotta love him. the next day, ben and i got to have some awesome amy-ben time, walking/talking around manhattan, then meeting back up with dave later on, and walking up to see the tire fires play a show, after which the three of us plus kyle scored a ride with maja to the LES: a very frightening and chaotic ride indeed (listening to queen!). we were supposed to attend some secret party, but i think we didn't get in because of our attire, so we went to a bar, met up with DB and her boyfriend and others, i shared whiskey sours with maja and felt a little tipsy, and then we met up with tim and jake and whipple and everyone else at another bar on A. what a night.
the following weekend, i drove myself down to philly for some much-needed joy-amy time. we walked a long, treacherous route along a main road and a stone wall to the cemetary, where we finally plopped down and smoked a joint. lots of baby graves. of course, i had to pee in the trees. we rented 3 disturbing documentaries, thin, jonestown, and sick (which i had been meaning to see forever), and watched 2 of them the first night, smoking and gnawing at twizzlers and jelly bellies (while watching anorexic girls with tubes in their tummies, right joy?). the next day, we took a nice shopping stroll through suburban square, then walked to gomsi's house and hung with him; we took him back to joy's place and stepped outside onto the porch for a smoke, but the house key wasn't where it was supposed to be and we got locked out. luckily, gomsi had his phone and i had my car key in my pocket. goms got picked up by a friend who'd come by, and then joy and i drove to find her brother john at his girlfriend's house...i wasn't even wearing shoes! i was impressed that the two of us were able to solve the problem so swiftly, but it was really funny when it happened. oh, and then the next day, after more hanging with gomsi, i headed for home in the wrong direction and ended up driving all the way west on 76 instead of east to new jersey; definitely an hour out of the way. god, how confusing. at least i made it home in one piece, dodging trucks.
this past weekend was another tirefires show, at don hill's. first, that friday, i spent a few hours with nora; we got sorbet at australia on st marks and sat in tompkins square and then walked up to union square, since park-hopping is one of my favorite nyc activities. dave ended up meeting us there, and then nora left, and dave and i went back to my place to watch cartoons. a few hours later, i walked to don hill's for the show: it was a good crowd. ariana came in to stay with me that night, so she arrived, missy just moved back to town, nora was there, as was maja and 2 friends, zack, dave, and of course the band. they weren't very good, but the night was fun all the same. ariana hit it off with zack, and i hit it off with maja's friend matt ;)
saturday, i drove my car up to westchester, wrote all day, and then drove myself to the bronx for naomi's 420 party at her place. i met a czech astronomer who searches for planets! and also this guy, foley, who happens to be friends with a bunch of people i know. melissa's (including those who don't go by that name) serve an interesting "linking" purpose in my life; linking people i am friends with, or linking me to other friends, etc. anyway, drove myself back to westchester, slept, came into the city the next day for my writing party, and then met matt at union square, where i finally ran into the bobs; i hadn't seen skater-bob since february. and normal-bob showed us his new BDSM jesus dress-up magnets. matt and i walked to yaffe cafe and sat in the back, then rented cloverfield from kim's video.
i was supposed to hand in my story for workshop this past monday, but i thought i had to hand it in next week, and that threw me completely off-guard. i mean, i can only remember so much! so, monday and tuesday and wednesday (when i got to have therapy outside!) was filled with finishing this short(ish) story called "buzz," which is 32 pages and a little crazed, but has been sent to my classmates, so i'm going to stop looking at it. i finished housekeeping (so beautiful) just in time to present the first 1/3 of the book in class last night, and now i need to read the emmigrants, write a 15-page memoir piece as the final project for the seminar, and do the usual reading/critiquing workshop stuff, and then i am done with my first year of grad school! how crazy is that?
i feel like i've been running into people left and right these days, like i finally saw jon vomit on eighth street, where he lives. ahh, there's so much more to say. i'm at work, in a skirt. totally bored. nothing more to do until liz sends the proofs mag my way. just found this bag of fresh-baked cookies in the fridge because one of our writer/editors works full-time at a bakery now and, when he stops in on wednesdays, he leaves us goodies. mmm. since i am like the substitute teacher (while dave is still away), i decided that i'm going to take the interns on a field trip to union square for lunch, and ditch the office for an hour on this beautiful day. ok jonathan and kyle, here we go!!
ooh, we saw Ric Ocasek from the cars! he's really tall.
every week, it's this mad rush to get everything done. i stress myself to the max, don't get nearly enough sleep, but eventually, stuff manages to be done, precisely in the nick of time. i've always been good at that. magazine crunch-time coincided with having to hand in another story for workshop, on top of other writing assignments and reading(s) for class. i think i wrote almost 20 music reviews for the print mag, in addition to articles, and editing, and staying on top of tons and tons of shit. oh, i also conducted a really ridiculous phone interview with j mascis! the man is a total dud. OH, and i did my demo class at GCA on april 3rd. i dressed nicely (in nora's old waitressing shoes and a courdoroy skirt). it was a little nerve-wracking, standing in front of nineteen 16-year-olds, but i think i did ok. i designed the creative writing "intro" class for the day, and the kids responded generally well. so, hopefully that will work out for next year.
for days upon days, i've been staring at this computer screen, and my eyes have begun bleeding out of my head. it's like this: on the weekends, i've been incredibly social (more on that later) and try to cram in work, but that doesn't really get the job done. some sundays, i do teapsot writing parties with nicole and scott. mondays i'm either at the office, or in the bronx at the radio show, or home doing my work, and then monday night is class, and i usually go out after; either to spain to hang with other new-schoolers, or to meet up with any-given person. tuesday, work from 10-6, then walk to the A, hop uptown to 145th, spend 3 hours writing with scott (or "grandmama hess" who bakes us cookies and cakes!) and nicole, subway back downtown from harlem. wednesday, my amy-health day, train/drive back to the city, hurry and do the rest of my reading, go to class, sometimes go out afterwards (a few girls and myself might end up at the diner around the corner). thursday is work from 10-6 again, and then whatever else happens! this april, i spent two weekends hanging in the city, one down in philly, and this weekend i'll be driving up to boston for back-to-back friend parties. seriously, i rarely have time for actual dinner anymore. or, sleep.
the first sunshiney weekend in april, ben j sporadically showed up in the city, and everyone went out to a bar on C to hang. ben A was super-drunk and called everyone "charles" and jumped up on objects; gotta love him. the next day, ben and i got to have some awesome amy-ben time, walking/talking around manhattan, then meeting back up with dave later on, and walking up to see the tire fires play a show, after which the three of us plus kyle scored a ride with maja to the LES: a very frightening and chaotic ride indeed (listening to queen!). we were supposed to attend some secret party, but i think we didn't get in because of our attire, so we went to a bar, met up with DB and her boyfriend and others, i shared whiskey sours with maja and felt a little tipsy, and then we met up with tim and jake and whipple and everyone else at another bar on A. what a night.
the following weekend, i drove myself down to philly for some much-needed joy-amy time. we walked a long, treacherous route along a main road and a stone wall to the cemetary, where we finally plopped down and smoked a joint. lots of baby graves. of course, i had to pee in the trees. we rented 3 disturbing documentaries, thin, jonestown, and sick (which i had been meaning to see forever), and watched 2 of them the first night, smoking and gnawing at twizzlers and jelly bellies (while watching anorexic girls with tubes in their tummies, right joy?). the next day, we took a nice shopping stroll through suburban square, then walked to gomsi's house and hung with him; we took him back to joy's place and stepped outside onto the porch for a smoke, but the house key wasn't where it was supposed to be and we got locked out. luckily, gomsi had his phone and i had my car key in my pocket. goms got picked up by a friend who'd come by, and then joy and i drove to find her brother john at his girlfriend's house...i wasn't even wearing shoes! i was impressed that the two of us were able to solve the problem so swiftly, but it was really funny when it happened. oh, and then the next day, after more hanging with gomsi, i headed for home in the wrong direction and ended up driving all the way west on 76 instead of east to new jersey; definitely an hour out of the way. god, how confusing. at least i made it home in one piece, dodging trucks.
this past weekend was another tirefires show, at don hill's. first, that friday, i spent a few hours with nora; we got sorbet at australia on st marks and sat in tompkins square and then walked up to union square, since park-hopping is one of my favorite nyc activities. dave ended up meeting us there, and then nora left, and dave and i went back to my place to watch cartoons. a few hours later, i walked to don hill's for the show: it was a good crowd. ariana came in to stay with me that night, so she arrived, missy just moved back to town, nora was there, as was maja and 2 friends, zack, dave, and of course the band. they weren't very good, but the night was fun all the same. ariana hit it off with zack, and i hit it off with maja's friend matt ;)
saturday, i drove my car up to westchester, wrote all day, and then drove myself to the bronx for naomi's 420 party at her place. i met a czech astronomer who searches for planets! and also this guy, foley, who happens to be friends with a bunch of people i know. melissa's (including those who don't go by that name) serve an interesting "linking" purpose in my life; linking people i am friends with, or linking me to other friends, etc. anyway, drove myself back to westchester, slept, came into the city the next day for my writing party, and then met matt at union square, where i finally ran into the bobs; i hadn't seen skater-bob since february. and normal-bob showed us his new BDSM jesus dress-up magnets. matt and i walked to yaffe cafe and sat in the back, then rented cloverfield from kim's video.
i was supposed to hand in my story for workshop this past monday, but i thought i had to hand it in next week, and that threw me completely off-guard. i mean, i can only remember so much! so, monday and tuesday and wednesday (when i got to have therapy outside!) was filled with finishing this short(ish) story called "buzz," which is 32 pages and a little crazed, but has been sent to my classmates, so i'm going to stop looking at it. i finished housekeeping (so beautiful) just in time to present the first 1/3 of the book in class last night, and now i need to read the emmigrants, write a 15-page memoir piece as the final project for the seminar, and do the usual reading/critiquing workshop stuff, and then i am done with my first year of grad school! how crazy is that?
i feel like i've been running into people left and right these days, like i finally saw jon vomit on eighth street, where he lives. ahh, there's so much more to say. i'm at work, in a skirt. totally bored. nothing more to do until liz sends the proofs mag my way. just found this bag of fresh-baked cookies in the fridge because one of our writer/editors works full-time at a bakery now and, when he stops in on wednesdays, he leaves us goodies. mmm. since i am like the substitute teacher (while dave is still away), i decided that i'm going to take the interns on a field trip to union square for lunch, and ditch the office for an hour on this beautiful day. ok jonathan and kyle, here we go!!
ooh, we saw Ric Ocasek from the cars! he's really tall.