Brooklyn Begins

I'm sitting crosslegged on my new bed (!) in my new apartment in a new city, surfing the interweb by candlelight. There are big, tall buildings outside, and a train that I can see from my window. The air is cool and clean after some recent rain, so I have the blind pulled up and the window thrown open wide. So, here I am.

Please send letters that I can put up on my walls. You know the kind I mean. These walls are just begging to be filled with new, exciting things.

Can I just mention how poorly I navigated the city today? What should have taken me 2 hours took 5, and I spent enough time lost on foot that my feet are still on fire. However, I did eventually make it to my two job interviews today, and there are no sure things, that's not bad for my first full day as a New Yorker.

Tomorrow I plan to call everyone I know that lives in the city and ask them if their jobs are hiring. Theresa is going to help me get copies of my resume, so Friday will be dedicated to tossing my credentials at every passing stranger. Once that is taken care of, I plan to actually start living a New York life. That is not to say that I haven't already had a great time (my plan is to see just how many match books I can steal from Barcade), and I've already gotten to see several of my lovely friends that are braving this city life. I just know that I'll get out my brush and start painting this town once I have an actual income with which to purchase paint.

Ah, the sound of sirens in the night.

Chicago, Part I

1. I am alone in Dawn's house, preparing dinner. I hope that someone comes home to eat it.

2. Dawn's cat is grooming my armhair with her mouth, and there's nothing I can do about it, as it's vastly preferable to what she was doing moments ago (trying to sit on the keyboard of my open computer, since that is clearly the focus of my attention currently).

I made it, so, so far so good. It's pretty damn swell here.

Wednesday Night at The Ghost Parlor

Mt. Gigantic was adorable. I hope they make it to Iowa City in good shape.

I missed most of Hunter Dragon, thinking I would be able to tell when he was starting from the back porch, but being sorely mistaken.

Olympics:

1. DAMN Matt Fields can play the saxaphone.
2. I am really glad that I can call these guys my friends.
3. Record, already.

And: I drank too much Skinny Dip, and spouted what was quite possibly total nonsense in the backyard for over half an hour. Only Mr. F knows the truth.

The evening, in its entirety, was exactly what I needed in my current workaholic state. Thanks.



P.S. There's a surprise torrential downpour outside, just when I thought I might burst. There's thunder and everything.

The Good News

I want the Excitement to live separately from the Trauma.

This apartment is clearly going to be full of magic for us.

*It will be full of fabulous roommates.
*It is only a 15-minute commute from the Ontological Hysteric Theater.
*It actually has 3 bedrooms for 3 roommates (not a sure thing ever in NY).
*One bedroom is smaller, so I can pay a little bit less rent.
*We have a fire escape.
*We can paint it. Fabulous roommates-to-be are painting this weekend.
*Nearby, there is a cute bar, a Walgreens, and a gas station.
*Mike found us a TV/VCR. Though I will never have time to watch it, it is still good to know it will be there.

That's what I know without having even seen it. Think of the possibilities.

Plane tickets have been purchased. The countdown has begun.

Labor

A few days ago, the universe exploded. At least that's how I described it to my father. While I was at work, I received 4 voicemails from Theresa:

Message 1: We found an apartment.
Message 2: Camron is looking at the apartment.
Message 3: We want the apartment.
Message 4: We need 2000 dollars from you, preferably today.

As exciting as the first three messages were, all excitement was demolished by the prospect of the fourth. I spent the rest of work feeling like I was going to vomit. So did my mother.

After work I went home and took a three hour nap to avoid dealing with the world.

Then, somehow, we managed to scrape together 1500, which is what had to happen right away. That money was officially wired this morning. Thank God.

To increase the chances of having enough money for my September rent in the bank when I leave Kansas in 17 days, I am now doing what I should have been doing all summer: supplementing my income with odd jobs. I am extremely lucky that various opportunities have been made for me over the last few days, opportunities that, I hope, will keep me extremely busy until the moment I leave. In addition to working regularly scheduled hours at the Market:

Job #1: Various feats of manual labor at Jane's house.
Duties include: scrubbing mold, scraping metal, painting walls, cleaning cabinets, vacuuming cobwebs, etc.
Job benefits include: food and beverage, Jeremy's iPod
Lessons learned: Mouthwash helps with mold stains. Metal primer doesn't come off your hands, even with a Brillo pad. Brillo pads will, however, take off skin and irritate seasonal finger bumps. I missed the TV on the Radio memo, but thank God I found out.

Job #2: Yard work/ MXTW organization for Jim.
Duties include: laying mulch and insecticide, readying MXTW info (reader lists, company lists, scripts, author blurbs, etc.) for MXTW.org, and filing
Job benefits include: caffeination, Megan Clark, learning about my history
Lessons learned: MegaClar is good at scrapbooking against her will. Jim will always accidentally call me Gwethalyn.

Job #3: Possible yard work for Jim's neighbors. All has yet to be determined.

I will make it through all of this. I don't have any other choice.

i blame blogspot.com

So, the content of my blog disappeared after I attempted to add some new links.

Just as suddenly, all is well, except my links disappeared and I had to figure out where in the source code to write them back in.

Thanks to Joey for offering to help me figure things out. Apparently they just needed to figure themselves out, and I was only getting in the way. Oh, you boys with your fancy .coms and aesthetically pleasing headers. I might be a little bit jealous.

Today's tasks, now that work is done:

1. Take a nap.
2. Start deep cleaning Jane's house.
3. Jump in the lake.

Showers

It's finally raining, and it makes me want to slow dance in the living room to something sweet and vaguely melancholic.

Sometimes I am a walking, laughing, smoking cliche. You don't mind, do you?