The Dromomaniac

Perdue

J'ai perdu ma tête
dans la rue Saint Honoré,
je cherche ça et là
je ne l'ai pas trouvé,
dis-moi... où est ma tête?

J'ai perdu mes bras
sur la Place de l'Opéra
je ne les ai pas trouvé
je cherche ça et là,
dis-moi... où sont mes bras?

Depuis que je t'ai perdu,
je suis en pièces sur l'avenue
et je ne peux pas récoler les morceaux,
par moi-même.

Répare-moi, mon très cher,
parce que je ne suis pas entière
j'ai besoin de toi, seulement toi,
et en plus je t'aime.

So sorry I haven't posted because I know you all hang on my every word. There's been a lot of crap going on that I don't feel like dealing with, so I apparently avoid all sorts of social contact at times like this.

Anyway, we did indeed go out for Halloween on Saturday night. Totally a last-minute decision. Paul was a priest and I was a pregnant nun. Jules was Waldo, and she managed to squeeze herself in the background of every picture taken. Well done. We went to a big party at the Town Ballroom, but Jules and I both were tapped out by midnight so we called it a night. 

In totally other news, I'm starting Arabic lessons this week. We'll see how that goes.

We're going down to LI on Friday to deal with the aforementioned crap. Yay.

It's a Helluva Town

WOW.

It was damn good to be back in NYC for the weekend. For all my bitching about it, I do miss it a lot.

I landed on Friday evening and took a taxi to Cho Dang Gol, my fave Korean place on 35th Street. Kristin & Phil met me there and we gorged on kimchi and tofu, which was far better than that sounds. (Oh, and on shoju, too.) We rolled back up to their place and polished off some Burgundies (red and white, y'all) before calling it a night.

I snuck out early the next day because I wanted as much time as possible tooling around. It was humid as hell and I quickly regretted not showering. I got some hard-core shopping in and met Kelsey at Grand Central around noon. We then gorged on lunch at French Roast and prepped ourselves for the night: shopping at Victoria's Secret, pedicures, and drinks in Chelsea. There, we met our friends Virginia, John, Brian, Renee, Joseph, and Jeff. SUCH fun! We yapped and moved on to a tapas restaurant where we gorged some more. Sangria and garlic, y'all. The night ended with me and Kels at Cleopatra's Needle and a hotel on the UWS.

We managed not to be hungover in the morning, so we walked to Le Pain Quotidien on 65th St and gorged on bread and latte. Kels caught a train home around 11 and I spent the day roaming all over: I ordered a case of wine from Chambers, strolled around Soho, and meandered all through midtown and the UWS. It was perfect NYC autumn weather: sunny, cool, dry. I *almost* fell back in love with NYC. Actually, I did.

But, home is where the heart is. I was ready to be home by the evening. I made my way back to LaGuardia and could think of nothing better than squeezing myself in between Paul and Franklin. And that, happily, is where I'll be tonight.

And I'm Off!

I'm headed to NYC tomorrow for a weekend with friends. I can't WAIT!! Tomorrow evening, I will be dining with one of my favorite people in this whole wide world of ours. AND, will hopefully make an appearance at 55 Bar as well. Yay!

I have so many things I'd like to do while I'm there. In no particular order, I want to visit Chambers Street Wines, Mercer Street Books, the Quad and/or the Angelika, a museum with Kelsey, Murray's Cheese, meet up with friends for dinner, the main branch of the post office (well, I don't want to, but I need to...), and any/everything else in between!

Wait... what?

Is the weekend over already?

I'm going French and demanding a 30 hour work week. Fer real.

We went for a hike on Saturday to the Eternal Flame in Chestnut Ridge. It remains one of my favorite spots in the world. We actually took photos this time and I will hopefully get around to posting them next spring. Yesterday, Paul went mountain biking and I went to church. It was a beautiful but chilly day, so I walked down from home, which is a good 3.5 miles away. I don't know why, but I was restless and edgy yesterday. I began to watch a film after I got back home and it SUCKED so I read and played with Franklin before going back for an evening youth group meeting. That was (semi)productive.

I'm not ready for work this week. I feel unprepared. I think this whole application/waiting process is getting to me and I just want to know already.

Over the Hump

It's Thursday! Which means that I can play games all day tomorrow. And since I give a test every Thursday to my morning students, I feel like I'm halfway home already!

Yesterday after work, I went to my friend Jan's house for a wine tasting/shoe shopping extravaganza. Since I was wearing the most lesbo shoes in the world, I decided I needed a new pair and Jan lives near some outlets. We'd originally planned to have a cocktail at her place but, well, these things have a tendency of taking their own directions. We instead found ourselves in my car singing showtunes and learning French. Rather, she asked me to teach her some French, so I taught her 'arc-en-ciel' because it means 'rainbow' and I just love the way it sounds. She asked how it was used. I said "Uhm well, it means rainbow." She said "No, I mean, can I use it to say something's pretty?" "No," I said, "It pretty much just means rainbow." A seemingly useless word, I agree, BUT as we left a winery... there was a rainbow in the sky! Jan pointed heavenwards and screamed ARC-EN-CIEL repeatedly like a retarded 5 year old. NEEDless to say, it was a successful day.

Well, THAT Sucked

Bah. The GRE was awful. After all of that studying, I felt like I was staring at Chinese when it was time to do the math portion. It's impossible for me to remember formulas and functions. I have no idea what my glitch is, but I had no clue what I was even supposed to be doing half the time. The writing portion was a breeze, though, and I sailed through that. Here's to hope.

In other cases of unnecessary annoyances, let's file one for "State Department." After my passport problem in Greece, I figured I'd get right on it and mail in the temporary one for a permanent one as soon as I got home. Out that went in August, along with the paperwork needed as described to me by the embassy in Athens. Embassy, schmembassy - what do they know! It was all sent back with a note that I'd filled out the wrong paperwork (even though I'd sent in exactly what I'd been given in Athens). In the returned package, there was a new form I had to fill out instead. So I filled that out, mailed it in, and... you guessed it - it was all returned, with a note that I'd filled out the wrong form. And? Oh, right, apparently I had to fill out a different one, which was the SAME as the original one I'd mailed in. Now, time is ticking because I need it in December so I'm going to fill out every form possible and send them all in. But now I have to pay for expedited service. Grrrr. Try to convince me that that wasn't part of the plan. It won't work.

Oh, and I have to work today.

Sunday Sunday

I love Sundays. And I love them even more when I have off on Mondays.

Tomorrow, we have off from school/work and to be honest, I don't know why. I don't pay attention to holidays other than their ability to affect my work schedule. And tomorrows did. So, thank you, holiday!

Since I had somewhat of a voice back and since I'd slept 12 hours straight, I figured I could drag my ass out of the house to enjoy the sunshine. It was quite chilly out there today (Buffalo, y'all) but since the man was at a football game, I had the day to myself to meander about and enjoy. I walked around the neighborhood for quite a while, only returning when I was so hungry that I thought I'd eat my own fist. But I pushed back out in time to catch "Amreeka" at the North Park cinema. Yes, I enjoyed the film but I got weirdly emotional about a coming attraction for "Paris". What the fuck is that about? Why does Juliette Binoche make me teary? For whatever reason, it happened, and it's probably something I ought not think too hard on.

Anyway, the man is now home watching more football (envy me) and hogging Franklin, who is also a football fan it seems. I miss having a girl cat.

Speechless

I'm officially speechless. I done lost my voice. I ought to reconsider disipline as screaming at chitlin all day yields adverse health effects.

Babel began last night with A.S.Byatt. "Possession" is the book that really put her on the literary map and although I understand why, I'm not a huge fan of her style. Still, I'm always fascinated by the writing process and she is an incredibly detailed novelist. For that reason, it was an interesting talk. She made a good point; she said that if her readers need to do research to be able to understand her work, then she hasn't done a good job.

Anyway, I went with my friend Karen and my colleague Bruce. Since it was at Kleinhans, Bruce and I went to Sample after to meet up with Paul. Paul and I ended up going to some Irish place in south Buffalo after for a band. I should add that this was not the brightest of ideas.

Paul's at some Big Official Luncheon right now, and I know it's Important because it's a Luncheon and not a Lunch. I think we're staying in tonight and I'll cook. I love cooking in the autumn because I can make spicy soups that leave a delicious scent lingering in the air. Other than that, I'm sort of studying and really reading but mainly harrassing Franklin.

HOLY COW!

TWO couples have now gotten engaged, claiming to be inspired by our wedding. I knew about the first couple, but the second was a total surprise and I just found out yesterday. WOW! Their wedding will be next fall and I can't wait! 

The other hugely amazing news of the day is that BARACK OBAMA WON A NOBEL PEACE PRIZE!!!