Heroes

I have many heroes. Today in the midst of 5 hours at the library I got an email from one of them, agreeing to an interview this Friday!

He's Mark Gorton, creator of LimeWire, founder of The Open Planning Project, publisher of Streetsblog, the single largest donor to Transportation Alternatives, champion of the livable streets movement...you know, coolest guy ever. Though I don't know if the fact that he attended Harvard, Stanford, and Yale impresses me or nauseates me. That'$ a $hit ton of $chool.

I'm so excited he agreed to be interviewed for our rinky-dink little magazine!

Oh yeah, I have another hero, too. I saw this guy's installation, Jeroen Offerman, at the SF MOMA last year. He sings Stairway to Heaven melodically and phoenitically BACKWARDS, (recording it in front of St. Paul's in San Francisco,) then plays it forward. Can you imagine how hard that is? He keeps asking people (quite politely) to not post the video online, but it's not like you can get it anywhere else, certainly not on his website or through the magazine who sponsors him. How can he not want everyone everyone everyone to see it? It is mind-blowing.



In other news, I had a really fun day yesterday, even though it involved about 6 hours in the computer lab after only 4 hours of sleep. It had a lot to do with the half-bottle of tequila I'd drunk the night before, and being in the company of some others who had drunk the the other half-bottle. We were just silly.

I've been so busy that I've (almost) effectively forgotten about Kid and the fact that he hasn't called me. What bullshit. I made the executive decision that I would not call him this week. Maybe next weekend. But I don't really want to be chasing around a Kid. Shouldn't he be calling me?

happiness

Howdy world! I'm feeling so much better after being so sick for so long. It is a world of difference to not have your head and eyeballs throbbing with snotty pain.

I had a farr-bulous day yesterday on my first day of feeling back like a member of society. Lemme tell you all about it!

First off, I made some stops downtown on my way to an interview for an article I'm writing. I stopped at a health food store to buy some bulgur wheat for the vegetarian chili I was making. I've never used bulgur wheat before, and it was well worth the stop. When you add it to chili, it gives it a consistency much like ground beef. Next I stopped at Knit for some cobalt blue yarn to make a requested beret for Beauty. I love this store for their amazing selection of Noro yarn, and they sell coffee and tea there as well.

Next I headed off to my interview, which I'd had to reschedule from last week due to snotty illness. I was kind of nervous because (a) it's been a few years since I did anything journalistic, (b) I want to eventually work for this organization, which is sort of why I chose this piece, because obviously I want to work for a place I admire, and (c) I was still pretty out of it.

I was early and he was late, so I bumbled around the West Village for a while in the cold, stopping for a timbale and tea at Bonsignour on Jane and 8th Avenue, and feeling happy to be living in The NY, where bumbling around can be considered a legitimate pasttime.

My interview was with Aaron Naparstek, the editor of Streetsblog, a blog that is currently transitioning from being more of a DOT watchdog to being one of the many epicenters of the livable streets movement. He was a great interview because he is just a really fucken cool guy, but also a not-so-great interview in that he's so humble and softspoken. If you're looking for any killer pocket quotes, you're going to have to listen hard. It was a great time. I rested a little easier because Neighbor lent me this kickass Belkin recorder that fits right into my iPod, and it worked like a charm. I fit our hour-long interview onto my nano easily, and it didn't kill the battery or anything.

I loved getting back in the journalistic groove. Being a writer is great in that you can just call up anyone who you think is interesting and ask to talk to them. Streetsblog is published (i.e., funded) by Mark Gorton, the developer behind LimeWire, who I can't wait to corner for a little chat someday.

The great news is that halfway through the interview, he brought up that they are looking for writers, and asked if I knew anyone in my program who would be interested in writing. Uhhh....yeah? I told him I would definitely be interested, and when we circled back to that topic in the end, he told me to pitch him some ideas and he'd pay me for the stories. It all played right into my master plan so perfectly that I felt stupid when I left...stupid happy!

Happiness is knowing what you want to do, and being able to do it.

Next up was our vegetarian dinner party, which was wicked fun. My favorite new tradition in this old tradition is our post-dinner dance, where we rock out and get stomach cramps.

Date 13:2

Earlier today I was feeling antsy about my date, and I posted on my other blog about how important love is to me, how everything else in life is just a feeble attempt to distract myself from not being/being too in love.

But neck-and-neck with being in love, is loving what I do. What a fucken concept. I ultimately just want to love life, which usually means loving your job, or loving everything else so much that your 37.5-80 hours a week of work don't really matter.

Kid loves his job. He went into work today, even though it is President's Day. God, I am so envious of people who love what they do and want to tell me about it. It's just so attractive, and I mean that in a literal way. I am so drawn to people who love love love what they do. It's like I think that their enthusiasm for something will rub off on me, and I will become shamelessly enthralled by something.

So far that's only worked with smoking.

I got up early and baked scones with fresh blueberries and dried cranberries. I ate about a dozen of them throughout the day while I waited to hear back from Kid to see what was going to transpire today. We met up and ate falafel and played pool. I don't know how that lasted four hours, but it did. I kept thinking I had snot on my face and it made me nervous, but that is the danger of going out when you are recovering from snotty head syndrome.

He is kind of quiet, very gentle-seeming, and I like him. I hate wondering if someone likes me too. At this point in my life it is always jarring to suddenly realize you wonder/care what someone else thinks about you. Luckily this doesn't happen very often. I think it would drive me fucken crazy.

i'm in love

I'd like you to meet Alessandro Nivola. I saw him in the movie Junebug last week. I have no idea how it got into my Netflix queue, but it was surprisingly good.

Well, in the very opening scene, these two main characters fall in love. It is such a cute scene that after the movie was over, I went back and watched it like four more times. He has this incredible little smile. Just look at it!

This movie is hard to describe. It's kind of sad, kind of romantic, kind of funny...it's a little bit of everything. It's like life, I guess. You should see it sometime. The soundtrack is done by Yo La Tengo.

*

I am on every anti-congestion drug known to man. I went and bought a bunch of everything, including the real Sudafed, not that crappy Sudafed PE that I have. In Illinois, if you want to buy real Sudafed (pseudophedrine), you have to sign a methamphetamine register. They're not fucking around there.

Kid called me today. It made me happy. He asked if I wanted to come over and watch a movie and I just said, flat out, "No." It was kind of weird. But I was feeling so shitty. We are going to hang out tomorrow instead. So, our second date, will likely be me going to his house and hanging out. Like high school! I love it!

sick sick sick in the head head head

I'm so sick of being sick. I've spent the week wondering (a) if I'm sick enough to stay home and do nothing, (b) if my headache is due to extreme sinus congestion or not enough nicotine, and (c) why the hell Kid hasn't called me. Wondering...was all that in my head? I pretty much considered it a done deal that he'd have called me by Wednesday. Then Wednesday came and went...and Thursday...and Friday... I gave him until 3:30 today to call. And I don't believe in text-messaging.

Being sick sucks. Wondering why someone hasn't called sucks even more. So finally I bit the bullet and called him when the deadline came and went. Turns out he's been sick all week too. (This is what I was secretly hoping.)

Yaaay, he said he'd call me back tomorrow to firm up some plans, and see if we're feeling better.

uh...yeah...that's not a joke.

A few days ago, in the midst of that drunken night where I ended up running away from two guys I didn't know, I picked up an issue of The Onion. I was with this guy from Afghanistan, and I had to explain to him the value of fake news.

Today I saw him and he was asking me if I've ever heard of this other fake paper, some journal or whatnot, and I said I hadn't. "Well, it was really funny!" He told me. "There was this story about Bush giving everyone $1,000."

"Um..." I said. "Yeah...that's not a joke."

He thought I was fucking with him. Again.

"But..the fake news..."

"No, that was real news."

"But it was so funny! I thought..."

"No. That's really happening. Bush and Company really think that the way to boost our economy is to give everyone $1,000."

"So...no...you're kidding, right? You're joking."

This went on for about ten minutes. But, I mean, check out that photo! It really does look like something The Onion would run.

Read about this stupid-ass shit here. Who knows, maybe they're onto something. Well, at least the $100 billion will be spent on crappy clothes, processed foods, and booze rather than the war.

And while we're talking about The Onion...even they're behind Obama!


Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

whoa my god

So, I feel like an asshole...

I left Kid last night with some not-so-great feelings toward him, and then I agreed to meet up with him today anyhow, not remembering anything about him except that feeling that I was going to throw up in the end, but not due to anything that I had put in my body. Maybe it was me rejecting the thought of casual sex. I wasn't going to go, but then I was talking to my little brother and I was like, "I don't think I'm going to meet up with this guy. I think he's only 22." And Little Brother said, "I'm going out with a 22-year-old today! What's wrong with that?"

But whoa my god, Kid is really sweet! And he looked older today. He must be at least 23. Or 24. That's not so bad... But I had a really good time with him! We have a lot of common interests, and he's really down to earth. And we both think our little brothers are the coolest people in the world. The only big "red flag" for me is that he seems like someone I could push around. Like he's a vegetarian and he told me a story about a guy who he didn't like but lived with him and pretended to be his friend anyway. He also has the same name as my first boyfriend, which is funny because last week I was saying I wanted my next relationship to be more like my first relationship. Which would mean I would end up with kind of a pushover guy who made me feel like a crackwhore--not because he was demeaning in any way, but just because next to his pure white ass, I felt like one...and then I started to act like one...I'm not sure how related these two developments were though.

Troubletown...But hey, what a surprise! I hope he calls me this week.