wedding afghan, completed!

invitations gone awry

Yours truly made a bit of a fool of herself the other morning.

I've decided, after surviving a rather emotionally tumultuous year and a half, to throw myself a big ol' birthday bash this year. I think I might even bake myself a cake. With icing. And possibly even candles. (Though probably not thirty-two of them.)

So I collected all of my NY friends' email addresses bright and early the other morning and sent out an invitation. I remembered to include all the requisite information. Date. Time. Location. Occasion. You know. All the basics.

It wasn't until I started getting responses that I realized my mistake. Apparently I'd invited everyone over at an ungodly hour of the morning, at least for most people after a Friday night.

Now for those of you who know me well, you'll also know that 8am might actually be preferable to 8pm for me, given my propensity for waking at the crack of dawn (this morning, for example, I was lugging a certain ex-boyfriend's extremely dusty and now-dysfunctional stereo down to the basement of my building well before seven o'clock). But for some reason I imagine an 8am party just wouldn't fly for most of my nearest and dearest.

Luckily for me, despite my embarrassment at this ever so itsy bitsy typo and the necessity for a correctional follow-up email, people either didn't seem to notice it, were too polite to mention it, or sent teasingly loving replies a la Michael's *returning the huge slab of bacon I just bought* or Chiung-Yin's suggestion that everyone come over early, spend the day, and cook me breakfast.

Thank god for good friends.

midweek round-up

All sorts of happenings this week, from the sublime to the ridiculous and all the way on to the heartbreaking.

First, our own dear Governor Patterson recently climbed up a notch on my politicians-who-don't-always-suck totem pole with his recent directive to all New York State agencies to prepare for fully recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions. Of course there's the ever present anxiety and fear that the Republicans might challenge said directive, but I'm not sure what the challenge would be. Back in February a State Appellate Court ruled that NY has to recognize gay marriages from other states or countries, so Patterson's move is merely upholding a judicial ruling. Though I'm sure State Senator Bruno & his senate followers will find something to complain about.

Next up, Naomi Campbell just can't seem to stop getting into physical altercations with people. Now, as you can probably imagine, I'm not generally one to follow the fashion industry, or fashion at all, for that matter. But when a high-end celebrity supermodel can't seem to stop acting like a spoiled brat, I can't seem to stop being fascinated. Get it together, Naomi, or go back to kindergarten.

Also in the realm of the ridiculous, the Chinese premier debuted on Facebook earlier this week! How hip and youthful of him!

It seems the good people at the Times have a preoccupation with Portland, Oregon these days. They're not the only ones.

And here, one of the best headlines ever: Nude Man Accused in 10th-Floor Balcony Break-In

And here, an argument for stepdad Paul about the environmental benefits of urban living. My carbon footprint's smaller than yours! So there!

Robert Darnton, renowned historian and director of the Harvard University Library, and author of the fascinating Great Cat Massacre: and other episodes in French cultural history (the title story available, and well worth reading, online here) has an interesting piece in the current New York Review of Books called (and here my geekdom shows through yet again) The Library in the New Age.

Finally, and on a more serious note, U.S Withdraws Fulbright Grants to Gaza, meaning we are canceling scholarships to Palestinian students to come study in the United States because the Israeli government might not permit them to leave the Gaza Strip. Which seems like an incredibly bad PR move, not to mention a just plain unfair situation. The Fulbright Program is an amazing thing, offering not only the opportunity for American students to study abroad (my father in 1978, for example, thus our year in Germany), but also the opportunity for foreign students to come study here in America (Abdulrahman Abdullah, Hamas opponent, 30 years old, wants to earn an MBA, for example). Or, in its own words, the Fulbright program "was established in 1946 by the U.S. Congress to enable the government of the United States to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries." Doesn't this seem like something that would be to everyone's benefit to encourage in the ongoing powder keg that is the Middle East? I understand the U.S. government's problem --- money, being the bottom line, wasted on students who might not be able to partake in the program. I'm not sure what the Israeli government's problem is.

bridge, 5.27.08

'alice coombs and i soon learned... '

"Alice Coombs and I soon learned to do so many things together, including talk. We could even banter. Argue, if necessary. But we maintained a little cult of leaving things unsaid. Somehow we were wiser with our mouths shut, knew each other better."
-Jonathan Lethem, As She Climbed Across the Table

bridge, 5.25.08

down by the river, sunday evening

self-portrait w/ camera

first intarsia

(and no, that's not a disease, it just sounds like one)

it's all relative

Bill McAllister came by the library yesterday afternoon to say hello. Somehow we ended up talking about weddings and he mentioned that had my father lived, he and my mother would have been married 40 years this June, the longest of anyone he's known.

I forget, sometimes, how very young my father was when he died so suddenly, there in the lobby of the Boys' & Girls' Club in Mount Kisco, New York.

I had a physical this morning, with a doctor I had not seen before. I haven't had a physical in years and years. Too many years, probably, given my family's occasional propensity for rather serious health problems. I have somewhat high blood pressure, slightly flat feet, and fifteen extra pounds to shed, but nothing too serious or life-threatening.

But the hardest part, the part that, embarrassingly enough, brought me to tears, was answering questions about my family medical history. I of course had to explain that my father had died of a heart attack, and the doctor's response, her shocked echo, the black mark in my file, took me by surprise. He was 46 years old, just shy of 47.

This April marked fifteen years since he died, and there are days, sometimes even consecutive days, when I don't think of him much. But this also took me by surprise, and the realization that I am a mere fifteen years younger than my father was at the time of his death.

He always seemed so old, so fatherly, even in his vibrancy and youthfulness. And here I am, catching up, ever narrowing the generation gap, wondering when I will achieve that solidity, that stability, that seemed to come so naturally to him, at least in his adolescent daughter's eyes.

'there are roughly three new yorks...'

"There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter - the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. Of these three trembling cities the greatest is the last - the city of final destination, the city that is a goal... Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion."
(E.B. White)

out of the mouth of

a billionaire oilman

behind the times

Nick and I were indulging in burgers and beers the other evening and I happened to mention that I'd been listening recently to Tegan & Sara. He laughed. Apparently they've been around awhile.

I know I know I know
Nineteen
The Con
Walking with a Ghost (also interestingly covered by the White Stripes)

sloganeering

Thanks to the Huffington Post for bringing our attention to this little gem.

Apparently the GOP rolled out a new slogan recently, "the change you deserve." Unfortunately for them, not only does it just not make sense (given that they've been ruling the roost for these past eight years or so), but it's also already been used (and copyrighted) for Effexor's advertising campaign. You know, Effexor, one of the most prescribed medications for depression, panic attacks, and generalized anxiety disorder in the country.

It's just too delicious.