Seriously...

After a lifetime of Thursday Thanksgivings,
Can't we go ahead and put Halloween on a Saturday?

Obama gets Aniston's vote?

Or at least he got mine when he turned down Brad Pitt's offer to campaign for him.

Is This It?

There is a song by Colin Hay called ""Waiting for My Real Life to Begin". I've been using it as my anthem for about two years now, ever since I heard it on Scrubs. It's got a quiet, melodic angst that fits (that part of?) my personality pretty well. But it's also hopeful in the fact that there's bound to be something else about to happen...right?
But lately, I have begun to realize that it is happening. Or, at least, life is happening and that I am left to absorb it and make it my 'real life'. College is this weird, womb-like incubator that gives the illusion of responsibility but all the security of your D-1-emblazoned fleece blanket to curl up in when necessary. Grad School probably isn't that much different, but it is different when it's happening in New York City, when most of the people I left behind in Alabama aren't there anymore, when the ones that are there are also beginning something of their own that is equally new and big and real.
In every circle that I travel in, and there are a few, there seems to be one common theme this Fall...upheaval. Normally, I cannot compare any of these groups in any way except to say that I am friends with the people who comprise them and they each offer me something that is significantly different than the rest-- generally intangible but not always indescribable-- and, certainly, greatly appreciated. (When I say they are different, I mean I can't even complain to someone from one about someone from the other because the two people share so little in common that the story leaves me defending the person I was complaining about to begin with because the other person can't really even begin to understand how said situation arose and, sometimes, how I even allowed myself to become so enmeshed in that relationship/circumstance to begin with. But those are different stories for different times...)
Right now, though, it seems that we all share things in common with the most unlikely of our counterparts/contemporaries. While we can recognize the shift in dynamics, it is sometimes hard to recognize the signs of common struggle, especially through the distance that has suddenly become non-metaphorical.
It's going to be interesting to see how everything unfolds. While it's sometimes scary to imagine gaping drifts between me and the family I've chosen, there's some comfort in the fact that I am not the only one figuring things out right now. I get to watch the people I admire most face the same dificulties that I am facing, rather than envying them an easier lot than the self-imposed burdens I'm prone to allotting for myself. It's also comforting to know that, although it would seem that I am alone on the tight rope in a city of 8 million other people, I have a net that is expanding across the nation. And the knots are all much more secure than my own: 2 lawyers with 3 more in-training, a med student, a social worker, a brain child/entrepreneur, urban planners, a tax specialists, MBAs, workers at NGOs, an IT specialist, a banker, a journalist, and a few people brave enough to join the Marines, Air Force and Army.
So, if this is it, I think it's going to be OK. And if it's not, then I guess I've got to get ready for the next big thing. But first, I've got to get some coffee and work on my midterms before I go to class tonight. As much as I want to put myself on the same track as my friends, I'm usually pretty glad that I'm not an adult yet and that I can spend the morning at Brooklyn Bridge Park talking to strangers about my dog and drinking coffee while i think about how everyone else is doing.

I'm Not Going Out on a Limb Here

...but I think this is going to be the best album of the year. I can't wait to hear it from beginning to end.



"As I Am" by Alicia Keys

Insert your own witty quip about how it seems to be working just fine for her.

CSIs, Law and Orders, Cold Case, and Bones

Good...but not the best:

That's How the Cookie Crumbles

This week was my first as a host in New York. I had a lot of things that seemed fun and 'local' planned, and we wound up only doing one of them...a black and white cookie from Cranberry's Bakery in Brooklyn Heights. (and at Cranberry's, the cookie base is chocolate, so even that wasn't very authentic...) But I think (hope) that Mary had a good trip despite the rain and cold and crazy dog. I definitely enjoyed having someone here with me-- the trips on the subway without my iPod and the chance to show someone from home that I actually do live here and this isn't like when I was 'living inside my head' and that I'm not just posting photos from Google every once in a while from the public library in Hazel Green. Does she believe me? Yes. Is she impressed? That is still unclear.
We did some stuff, like the Museum of Moving Pictures and sundaes at Serendipity, but I feel like there's still a lot I can do to become a better tour guide...



Yesterday, after Mary took the train to JFK, I took it to meet Kana and Richard for an afternoon/evening on the Boardwalk at Coney Island. I'd never been but read a book last year called Amusing the Millions and was very excited to see the famous Cyclone and eat a corn dog. Although it was a little chilly and the famous roller coaster was not running (weather related? closed for the season? it's 80 years old and shouldn't still be working?), we had a really nice time walking on the beach and eating carnival food, even if there wasn't an actual carnival going on.
I'm not sure when destruction construction is set to begin on the New Coney Island, but I am glad that we managed to get out there while it's still a far ride from the City and a glimpse into America's past. There's plenty of seedy historical places to snap a picture of in New York (We saw the Chelsea Hotel Friday night, by the way...), but Coney Island is something that can be different than what you expect, even when you think you know what to expect. There are dive-y bars on the beach that serve Coors Lite and play Garth Brooks, a paintball course advertising the chance to 'shoot a carnie', a lady at the bar in a windbreaker with matching pants and a headband, and a photoshoot for a Huskaroos-type catalogue, complete with three girls in leotards and pigtails running and screaming and holding hands. All-in-all it was a great way to say goodbye to summer and snap a few pictures of the beach before it's no longer an oasis from the City but, instead, just another reason Brooklyn is no longer a cheaper alternative to Manhattan.

I Don't Really Know What to Say

But I will think of something and come back to this.

Kind of Like "Fancy" by Reba McEntire,

another song that I didn't really need to know what the lyrics actually mean:

"Crank That" by Soulja Boy

Ugg(s)

It's been a long two weeks with my first two grad school presentations, Alabama's first two losses coming back to back, and what I can only wish were my first two will-power failures in recent memory.
The odd thing is that I'm not even talking about buying Uggs. I'm happy with that purchase-- much more so than with my bar tab from last weekend or the fact that I ate an entire plate of french fries last night at a diner where, I convinced myself, would be the perfect place for coffee and proofreading...only. Ahh, but I digress. I did in fact buy some Upside boots in Espresso. In what I am sure will not be the last of my political waffling, I have changed my tune from angsty-Fiona Apple-ish "I hate Uggs and girls who wear them" to a less abrasive-Golden Delicious Apple-ish "at least everything on my body won't be cold" sort of song. It's way less of a Blood on the Tracks break-up record than it is a Continuum coming to fruition type of deal. (Just because it's pop doesn't mean it's not rock solid.)
I've also bought some rain boots recently...and a chicken pita from Rafiqi on 5th Avenue. Living here is definitely not the same as visiting and going home with an entirely new wardrobe. The only good thing I've come up with to combat that feeling of "Have not" is that no one really cares what I'm wearing. No one really cares what's going on in my closet so long as it's not interfering with his walk up the subway steps or his trying to turn onto the upper level of the Manhattan Bridge. It's nice in a way to not have to dress for any particular trend or social dress code. It's also overwhelming sometimes to realize that I've got complete fashion say so and no idea what to say. But I really think this is going to be a fun process...revolutionizing my closet one piece of clothing (per month? hopefully...) at a time.
Who knows who I'll be in a few months?

Isiah Thomas

loses on other courts too!

(How New York of me...pretending like I care about the Knicks!)