today was a good day. i got a tingly feeling as i leapt over a puddle on 49th on my way to work. do you ever think, "hey! i'm alive! i am one, but i am still one." ? I wanted to have been wearing a hat, and throw it up into the street like mary tyler moore (do NOT say you don't know what i am talking about. look it up! watch TV Land) i want to listen to "suddenly i see" by kt tunstall or "love song" by sara barielles, and have that feminine power radiate through me. i have those periodic revelations, and begin to appreciate all the little nuances God has woven into the patterned "toile" of life. pieces of the NY pattern: the gyro man whose cart billows a sliding door of smoke already at 9am, a superbly round Russian fur hat that you just want to stick your face into, couples with gloved hands interlocking, pashminas $5, plastic bag "sculptures" on the streetcorners, pigeons scrambling over bagel crumbs in a bobbling formation, a woman gracefully perched by the fountain, reading her well-worn copy of "Love in the Time of Cholera."

the girl across from me is studying "Principles of Biochemistry." no thank you. that is exactly why i am in design, because i just enjoyed drawing the electron dot diagrams, and botched every experiment while breaking the equipment along the way. i marvel at those who are good at "real school."

duane reade is on WEEK THREE of a one hour photo job. too bad it is impossible to boycott that pharmaceutical giant.

thinking about going to the Barack Rock concert on monday down in the Bowery. it's $20, but Ok Go and Michael Ian Black will be there, along with others. new yorkers vote february 5th. i still need time to decide.


"O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge." [Psalm 62:8]

the calendar says sunday, but alas, i am not ready to return to the grind.

weekend in philly was fantastic. the train ride down went smoothly...passed a jillion factories with blown out windows that would be sweet studio spaces, but of course, in the middle of nowhere. saw independence hall (where the declaration of independence was read, and the constitution developed). as the tour guide constantly reminded us, "this is not a copy. this is not a reproduction." and upstairs, there was the Long Gallery. Tour Guide: "This is the Long Gallery. It is called this because it is long."

saw the liberty bell in all its cracked glory, remnants of Ben Franklin's house and a sweet letterpress and binding shop. we buttered up the workers, and got some insider info and demos on the machinery and techniques, and freebie prints. nerdy graphic designers...

ate a real cheesesteak. did you know that the real philly cheesesteak is made with CHEESEWHIZ? I wasn't that authentic, just sprung for the provelone. also ate at city tavern, which is an authentic restaurant from the colonial times. we ate off of pewter, were served by people in full colonial costume amazing food. we ate the bread and biscuits that thomas jefferson had!

ran up the stairs of the philadelphia museum of art (prolific and fabulous collection), while a man randomly hummed the "rocky" theme song for me. it was absolutely amazing.

other highlights... foster's design store (moma on discount), small talking with the italian hoagie man at the market, while he manually shredded cheese because the shredder broke, seeing ashley's amazing honey nut cheerios countdown.

since i see no celebrities, i am doing a book count.
book count: 3

g'night.

went to alice's tea cup tonight after work with mandy, a tea room with crazy inspiration from alice in wonderland. the upstairs is painted tiffany blue (loved it). afterwards, we trekked through the cold in lace tights to see audrey hepburn's apartment building in "breakfast at tiffany's." i am telling ya, leg warmers were the best NY buy yet.

fire alarm at work today. no one said, "this is only a test," so we all went to the meeting place, which everyone "guessed" was the waterfall between 48th and 49th. apparently, no one ever does this drill.

isabella greeted me at the door by singing, "the hills are alive... with the sound of music." perfect.

p.s. today was better. sorry about the lash-out in the last post.

i am tired. i am ready to be freed from the tangled ropes of corporate. i am sick of running...to what? what if a triumphant career isn't what i am running towards? what if i want to ENJOY work, design with emotion, with a soul? I don't want to be scared of failure or disappointment anymore! what if i am content with payment in joy rather than green? i need to let go of the reins and let God work in my life.

i'm getting lazy. i don't feel like seeing anymore of this city. i would rather spend time with people that i love. saying that, the biggest event of my day: isabella showed me how she blows her nose. and i am fine with that.


philadelphia in three days.

just got off the phone with hong kong. i feel so cool saying that.

there was a chinese man on the train platform tonight that was playing the Austrian patriotic song "edelweiss" with an electric plug-in saxaphone (surely this country is a melting pot). "the sound of music" is one of my favorites. he was singing, "bless my homeland forever." where is that? America? China? Austria?

i bought some dark chocolate last week, and just found it today. it was just like when you find a five dollar bill in your pocket, all stiff from going through the wash, but has survived nonetheless and is ready to surprise you.

the bear market and heath ledger's death today in lower manhattan has had NY in a tizzy.

happy birthday manda!

sitting at 14th and 6th, mingling with israeli web designers. they were impressed with my apple, which led into a good half hour discussion, filled with designer jargon and blog thoughts. they are designing a friendly blog interface that is able to import flash. i was more interested in our discussions of israel, though; religious tensions, safe areas for girls like me to vagabond (he claims it is safer on the streets there than in new york because everyone is allowed to carry a weapon, and there is no crime or holdups. hmm...). i made the faux pas of inquiring about egypt, which apparently is very against israel, but he was cool about it, and gave me a pretty unbiased overview. oh, what people new york city can bring into your life...

saw "legally blonde" this weekend (on broadway). trust me. i know. the first five minutes, i was thinking, why did i go to this? but just like with "enchanted," i was pleasantly surprised with the end. it was hilarious. and we (katie and i) were fourth row!

other activities of the weekend:
trampled in century 21 (women fighting like animals for discount michael kors and kenneth cole),
ate world-famous cupcakes at magnolia bakery,
verbally assaulted/death threat in the subway by a ridiculously scary man,
wtc (looks the same as it did this summer, and three years ago. the only big empty place on the island,
belvedere castle (in central park, the castle from "stepmom"),
cheesecake at roxy's in times square,
insulted by snobby boutique owners in the west village (quote: "do you even know what that is?"),
the apartment building from "friends" in greenwich,
"shhh"-ed on the mysterious sidewalk movie set (no celebrity spottings),
dylan's candy bar (ralph lauren's daughter's dream venue),
serendipity 3 café,
the mandarin oriental hotel (for the beautiful FREE view of central park and to use the best bathrooms in columbus circle), dreaming at tiffany's,
visiting monk's restaurant from "seinfeld."

ate at sal + carmine's, a pizza place on my street, last night. it's wood-fired goodness, made by disgruntled 70-year-old brothers. their cash register must've been the one they got when they opened the place.

no work today. thank you martin.

I watched a few episodes of "seinfeld" this morning, and pulled myself out of bed to go down to the west village. it is hard to get out of a warm bed when you are cold, and will be walking alone. made some returns, and pulled myself from the chokehold of surrounding retail.

joni mitchell and i will be leaving now. off to the 1 train...

life has been crazy. more than a blog can tell.

today i was sandwiched in with the other 150 people in my car on the train this morning. All the fools who stand in front of the door just get their coats and bags stuck, and the doors have to keep opening and holding us all up, and I get to work late. I see the bagel man on 49th, and think everyday, hey, i want to get a bagel from this man, but i am late, and it is because of that lady with the giant coat; bagels, big coats, my life...

went to a design panel discussion at the cooper-hewitt design museum tonight, with anna sui (fashion), diamond + baratta (interiors), and jessica____________(textiles). super interesting, about how history can serve as inspiration in design, and if there is a limit, with copying and copyrighting. diamond + baratta designed meryl streep's townhouse in "the devil wears prada," mixing the classical architecture of a ny townhouse with her modern edge. d + b also claimed they invented the trend of the enlarged houndstooth pattern. i don't know about that one...

it has been raining "slash" snowing all night. i had the brilliant idea of wearing polka dot flats with no socks. my toes have slowly changed back from red to flesh color, and defrosting slowly but surely. don't think i will lose any of them tonight. and why do i not just always carry an umbrella! ah!

tonight, another subway story... i got on the train at 51st and lex, and sat in a D train for 45 minutes, at a stand still. the "engineer," as he always says, "we have a red light from the dispatch. sorry for the delay. we should be moving along shortly." most of the time i believe them, but 45 minutes is a long red light, and i was beginning to feel duped. sure enough, he came back on, and told us that the rail had broken in front of the train ahead of us, and we were going to have to walk through the cars to the next station (which is still many many stops from home). i was thinking... my toes are so frozen that they are going to be nibbled off by rats and i won't even know, but luckily we didn't have to walk on the tracks at all, because we were pretty close to the station.

new word: "jeal," as in jealous. courtesy of brooke bockelman. (it made you think of jack black in the holiday too! yes, i am not alone in the world and/or obsessed with that movie.)

tired am i. g'night.

sign i saw today by columbus circle:
after many years, we have closed. thank you for your patronage!
please visit us at our new location DIRECTLY ACROSS THE STREET.
(duane reade)

there has been an increasing amount of graffiti about anderson cooper. in favor of him! positive graffiti about newscasters is a turn in the right direction for America.

fell down the escalator today. i scraped my hand and bruised my reputation, but it isn't as painful when the chances of seeing those people again are next to none.

current obsession: vitamin water
flavors i like: xxx pomegranate blueberry, power-c dragonfruit, essential orange

you wouldn't believe it, but i haven't watched TV since I have been here. Oh wait, I take that back. I watched 10 minutes of DragonTales with Isabella.

cincinnati has officially tainted my vocabulary. For example:
"Have you ever been to New York?"
Napoleon reply: Yes, I've been there.
Cincinnati reply: Yes, I've been.
I swore I would never cave. Never say never.

it's raining. i got to the stoop, gave nelson my regards, and saw the droplets. decided to go back for the boots. good decision. even after i had to explain it all to nelson.

went to "broadway restaurant" tonight. you cannot find a more authentic diner in this city. it is a step into time, a mish mash of a lot of decades, pre-1980. the same group of people who were there when I came, were there after i ate and read a couple chapters, flinching only to ask for a coffee refill.

a guy my age was doing sudoku on the train today, and we had a sudden brake, and his pen flew across the paper, with a giant blue slash left across the puzzle. he quit. but he wasnt doing very well anyways. so its understandable.

waited in line at duane reade for a good 20 minutes, to pick up my 1 hour photo pictures (that i brought LAST SUNDAY). they still aren't developed. so i settled for a vitamin water.

made a friend in the laundry room.

i may be getting sick. don't tell my mom. i refused a flu shot when i was last in town, kicking myself now.



who would've thought i'd be a blogger. i can't believe you read this.

free kt tunstall concert today in the soho apple store. i had such a good spot, it was great. classics like "black horse and a cherry tree" and "suddenly i see" were crowd-thrillers, and she previewed her new album.

found a store called "evolution," which consists of a lot of taxidermy, skulls, pinned insects, and even a stuffed two-headed cow. it was wild.

tried to go to pinkberry, but the line was literally out the door, so i opted out.

reading "the broker" by john grisham, from my dad's recommendations. i can't believe that i am reading by choice, steadily, again. i feel like i haven't been passionate about reading since fourth grade, ms. duetemeyer.

dinner: thai
go figure.

went to a movie preview on thursday of "27 Dresses." it was pretty good, but james marsden was the best part. there were two men in the theater, in their 60s, who were telling the girl next to me, that when they go to movies, they keep their eyes peeled for the people that buy the extra big bags of popcorn. after the movie, after the credits, these guys go around and scrounge the floors for these bags, so that they can redeem the free refill (bring back the bag to their next movie and have it refilled).

saw an 8 year old give a homeless woman money from his own pocket today. she paused, and folded the dollar back into his hand.

saw "charlie wilson's war" tonight. it didn't help my political addiction. and i think i am going to a reading by carl bernstein this week, too (journalist that helped to expose the watergate scandal).

saw a pair of chinese women on the train tonight that were singing from sheet music in chinese. i have never seen chinese sheet music.

walked, in total, 80 or so blocks today, in going to museums, and vagabonding in my usual manner. That's about 5 miles of wandering.

so very ready for church tomorrow. man i neeed it right now.

it rained this morning. the window in my bedroom faces a courtyard, and it never looks like it is raining in there. when i walked out the door, said my "good day" to gazmir, and saw it was steadily dripping out, i made the decision to go back for the umbrella, but was running too late to fuss with putting on my galoshes. please rain tomorrow in my courtyard at 9:00am so i can wear them...

i have been getting into politics lately. i need to pull myself away from CNN, and remember that there will be NINE more months of election news, and I cannot get addicted yet. and the funny thing is, i don't even enjoy the dirty political mudslinging, the living soap operas of our country.

you may get a kick out of this: i went to barnes and noble on sunday after church, and perused through the graphics section. actually, i ran into susan, which was crazy. anyways, after all that browsing and determination to become informed and inspired, i pulled my own book out of my bag, and read that, right there on the floor in the store.

i was thinking today of this new game concept: conglamerate, nyc edition! you would be able to play this game anywhere in the city, beginning at a chase, duane reade, or starbucks. you would stand outside the entrance to one of these businesses, and then, from sight, need to "connect" yourself to another one of these stores, and so on. there would be a point scale system, with more difficult areas like the boroughs, being worth more points, and the use of chase atms as lower point worth. the winner is the person who can go the furthest amount of blocks with the most amount of points.

fun things of the day...

it was 65 today. let me remind you it is january 8th. i walked 30 or so blocks from work with no coat. i like to walk.

so i dropped my purse in the intersection of broadway and 70th, and almost got hit by a taxi. have you ever seen "an affair to remember?" it felt nothing like that, because i didn't get hit, and i was not meeting anyone at the top of the empire state building at the time.

went to my favorite lunchtime spot today on 48th street...city market. they remembered me and my order [from this summer], and called me, "my lady."

got my ticket for a movie screening this thursday of "27 dresses" at the big theater by lincoln center.
also bought a plane ticket to pittsburgh to go see the groundhog. i cannot explain how excited i am...

buy "the illusionist" soundtrack. it's worth it.

other things in my life at this time:
i have two doormen, Nelson and Gazmir
i live with a three year old girl named isabella, and i am enjoying every moment of it. i learn about dora and her cousin diego, lazytown, and i play barbies, after working at "the world's leading art business." we color. they look alot like "de koonings" we would sell, but they are worth more to me.

i live with a black lab named harry. he doesn't bark anymore when i come home, and he likes to sit in my lap and compete for attention.

as you can see, these postings are sure to be sporadic, sarcastic, neurotic, and full of ridiculous stories and puns. it is like i am sitting right there with you, nagging for your attention. if you can stand it, check back for further hilarium.