Urban fairies
All over the world, there are various fairies of various sorts. Here in the city we have urban fairies; these are a different sort of breed from the more common fairies we might hear about in childhood lore.
Many of my laptop using readers may have been visited by the Internet fairy. This is a fairy who brings good boys and girls Internet acess without charging a fee. This fairy is most commonly found in highly populated buildings, but can occationally be found in a parked car outside of a public library.
The paper product fairy is not unique to a city, but can be found throughout the world, anywhere two adults living together share a comode. Roughly only half of this population has seen acts of this particular fairy, the other half being stanch disbelievers.*
Some fairies, like the tooth fairy both take something from us, and leave us a treat in return. So goes this friendly fairy. . . you might leave a rusted muffin tin, or one shoe out on the sidewalk, and in the blink of the eye these unwanted items have disappeared. But wait a few days and a treat for you, a new book perhaps, will be just around the corner, all thanks to the Stoop fairy.
While TS is still trying to determine the existance of the late night Soho bar fairy, and disappearing pants, Out in Bay Ridge, we have encountered another urban fairy, the pooh fairy. This sprite leaves little parcels along the landing of the north exit of the train. He has occationally has left gifts in such exotic lands as the stairs from the Q to the LIRR, but most regularly at our subway stop. TS doesnt believe these treats are courtesy of the pooh fairy, he lays the blame on someone more notorioius . . . the shit bandit.
*I have an intermittent paper product fairy known as GK.
ethnicity
Once while at work in Sunset Park* I was repremanded by a woman in her 50s for not speaking Spanish better. I appologized and told her I had never actually taken a class. She responded with something along the lines, of "but you should know it! You are a Latina!" Arching my eyebrows, I disagreed, reporting my Irish heritage. She seemed bewildered, to her I looked Latin.
About a month later I was walking to work (this was in east Chinatown) and was stopped for directions, where I only understood "East Broadway" and then the gentleman repeated himself in halting English. I pointed the way, only to have him respond with "Chinese? you are Chinese, yes?" Smiling, I said no, and he came back with "you look Chinese."
all I have to say to these reports are
1. seriously? is it the blue eyes, or freckles that lead you to these "diagnosis" of race? and
2. which lens is better, one, or two?
*a Latino neighborhood
What to do when sick?
I recently was under the weather* and was home from work unexpectedly. I dont know if you have a chance to watch daytime TV, but it is pretty much completely awful. Since my current book was at work, I turned to the internet. I let my fingers direct me to w
ebsites I dont usually dare visit . . . no, Not porn! travel sites!
After doing some casual searches, and calendar checking**, I clicked my way to our next vacation. The plan was for this to be a suprise for TS, as our anniversairy is coming up soon. But apparently my secret holding capabilities were maxed out for a recent party for TS himself; I caved to the excitement later that night and spilled the beans. In 10 weeks we will be
here!
*flu vs mexican food hangover
**ok, and some bank checking too
Ghost Riding the Whip
Recently, I was in a conversation that litterally could have been titled, "What those crazy kids are doing today". First of all, apparently the cool new thing for high schoolers to do is
Ghost Riding the Whip. For those of you too lazy to click the link, let me explain. "the whip" is slang for car. "ghost riding" (as I understand it) is when a person puts the car (a standard) in neutral and driver and passengers get out of the car, run around it, or even on top of it, and then get back in.* At first I didnt really get what the big deal was . . . I mean, I was not a daring kid in highschool, but my group of friends, the quegs**, hyped up on Ellicott City coffee would do Chinese fire drills on our way back to AM's houses. But then it was explained to me . . . while we got out of the car, the emergency break was on . . . with ghost riding the car is moving, but no one is driving, and more often then not, people are on top of the car, while its moving. This of course, reminded me of when Teen Wolf car surfed through the neighborhood before the big basketball game, but then, Stiles is driving in that sceen.
But besides the ridiculousness of the current past time, I was struck by how out of the loop I was in terms of slang. It reminded me of when I tried to explain "to jock" to my parents . . . as in "are you jocking me?" and "dont jock!" All and all, it made me feel a wee bit elder.
i couldnt get you tube to load up for some reason, but check out a clip here:
ghost ride clip*ie, no one is driving the car
**yes, our clique has a name, didn't yours?
dance off
Last night was the second annual LA's 80's dance party! This year, instead of shaking at 4R, we headed out, to
Union Hall. This is a venue in the slope that has it all, indie mini-concerts, late night djs, strong drinks (and PBR), encyclopedias, brunch, and oh yeah, bacci ball lanes!
But the 80s dancing was rather stellar. I'm not trying to sound proud, but I do believe, LA, C, B, M and I started if off. Of course, we didnt finish it, well, maybe B did, but the highlight of the evening was the dance off between two young men. One was wearing a sweatband and the other a wool sweater . . . who would you place your bets on? While we "molly ringwalded" and attempted to popandlock* these fellows swirled and moved, but neither commited to "the worm"
The next morning we reconveined at UnionHall for a fireside brunch. While the menu was varied and surroundings cozy, service was crap, so we left without trying a round of the bacci.
*did you know there is a website for
80s dance moves
Will I love the netflix prize?
Last night MJ was describing the
Netflix prize. The rental megacompany is hosting a contest for the mathematical and computer whiz kidz to come up with a more accurate algorithim to predict which movies its patrons will enjoy. We were discussing all the possible things that go into a person picking one movie or another, and how if an equation could improve the computer's output on this one descision, the effect of this could have overall, of a computer prediction human action.
Intregued I checked out my "movies you'll heart" tab. Actually I had to fill out the few questions, rating various genres, then specific movies. When it came out, I must admit, I was pretty impressed with how 3 of the first 4 movies on the list, not only had I seen and enjoyed, but the diversity of them (Monsoon Wedding, Steel Magnolias and Best in Show). The one movie I hadnt seen, but was the number 1 recommendation was: Breaking Away, a movie about high school kids . . . vintage '79. I added it to my queue, I'll let you know how many stars i'd give . . .
a blue theory
In the past few weeks several friends and family have sent TS and I congratulations and happy engagement cards*. What I find interesting is that they almost all prominently display the same shade of light blue. I have several theories to explain this phenomenon.
1. I am a tar-heel alum, card buyers remember this (however subconciously) and their hand goes out to these cards exclusively.
2. Faced with a trend of increasing baby girl birth rates, the card companies needed an outlet for the stockpile of baby blue ink.
3. The cards are exlusively made in this color scheme. This is for the benefit of the groom-to-be, as after popping the question, there is a rush of wedding detail questions that overload all male senses. This glazed eyes and slack jawed syndrome can only be appeased by a rush of male-ness in any form . . . sports, heavy metal, and all correspondance in manly colors.
*You know who you are and Thank you, that is very thoughtful
Mulchfest 2007!
For those of you not near a NYC park this weekend, you may have missed the outdoor event of the year . . . Mulchfest 2007!
This is a 2 day event where one brings their dying Christmas tree out to the park to be mulched for nutrients for the lucky trees that didnt get the hack for holiday trimmings.
While TS and I had no tree to give, I was looking forward to some juniper scent as we walked along Owl's Head Park toward the water yesturday. Sadly, we must not have been the only ones to light a plastic tree this year . . . there was no mulch to be found.
a scrolling ad from my gmail account
Jello Wrestling Party - www.jellowrestling.com - Have A Jello Wrestling Event. No Chill Formula Sets Up In Seconds!
Christmas surprise
This Christmas holiday I got a chance to spend time with the fam in Maryland and down in not-so-hot Atlanta. One of the holiday traditions continued in MD . . . we had a lovely dinner after Mass at the Skaggs homestead, where we got to meet newbie people HH and MS. Sadly, I did miss the other K tradition, Christmas brunch at my G-ma's with family; I didnt get to see my cutie goddaughter, LB or her mom SB, who had sent me a very Soho worthy painting for the new pad.
But TS and I flew down down to ATL to meet a lot of his fam and friends. We also dinned Georgia style with visits to Chick-fil-a, and the Varsity. . . AND the world of Coke! yep, lots of syrup-rific concoctions from all around the world. Word to the wise, stay away from Italian soda, Beverly.
While TS and I did "cheers" with British Lilt, we did also toast quite a few times over the holidays, to family, to friends, and well, to our future. The first of these came 10 days ago, after TS got down on one knee in Grand Central Terminal . . . and I said yes.
