the fam

i'm supposed to be doing homework right now, but i never do that till the last minute, no matter how well the class is structured to prevent cramming, so i will take a moment to introduce the two newest members of our family, clyde and serena

clyde is orange and the boy and is named after walt clyde frazier, 'cause he's the greatest, in a lot of ways. serena is the one who looks a whole lot like charles' other cat, lex diamonds, who currently rocks it out in richmond, va, at the compound with my sister and sarah and their animal collective. serena is also the girl, named for serena williams(she shares her first and last name now) and i voted to call her popsicle, but that didn't go over, so i will just have to call her that when her other parent isn't around.

anyhow, we rescued these two cuties from fates which ranged from being seperated and sent to god knows where to possibly even having to go to a no-kill shelter. no-way! they are very happy with us, as far as i can tell, and we are thrilled with them. clyde eats my hair and serena is mostly aloof, and they are cute as hell, and last night got all wacked out on catnip and then ate themselves into a coma. it was great.

my time in rva.

back in nyc after what was really a very lovely weekend in rva... i got to see a lot of people that i really did want to see, and although i bricked on meeting cwiii's extended family, i did meet about four hundred people that he used to work with so i feel like i did ok. at least for now. i know that the big family meeting is coming, and i want it to, but i am rather nervous. i have become quite a bit more of a social recluse in my recent years, which is a pretty serious departure from how i used to be. but things change, i suppose.

anyhow, i got to see casey and david get married, got plenty of jt time, a good amount of meagan time, laughed my ass off with catherine and micah, who really need to take that show of theirs on the road, 'cause it's fucking hilarious. cuddled with curby, watched plenty of football with ab and sarah, got to witness the rock and roll waiter at o'toole's, spent the requisite amount of time at the hill 'till all hours of the night. i got a lot done.

now, back home in nyc i must concentrate on being a graduate student, and not letting the early fall pass me by, as it is one of my most favorite seasons.

discoveries of today: new kanye is awesome...he's got kid charlemagne by steely dan in there, go kanye! and also, charles williams found the elusive dark chocolate snickers on staten island(could there really be an advantage to staten island???) i really hope he is bringing that shit home...

oh, and one last thing, i would like to congratulate myself on a really stellar second week in fantasy football... i rock.

inbound.

we are off to rva for the weekend, which i am pretty thrilled about... i think i may have mentioned on here a few times how much i miss my friends from that neck of the woods. it will be great to see them.

we will be in town for the wedding of two friends, who are having a very laid-back, yet undoubtably kick-ass party to celebrate their union. i have been looking forward to it for months.

aside from falling behind in school(already! although i probably just feel like i've fallen behind. i'm a bit neurotic like that), i've just been watching the yankees, playing(and losing) fantasy football... althought this is my week. i really think more things on my fantasy roster will start clicking this week. LT didn't even have a regular running back outing last week, let alone a LT outing. it's all good. however, i have realized that all this fantasy stuff is turning me into a bit of a monster...

case in point, last monday as the bengals took on the ravens, the monday night football guys launched into one of their stories, this one about how someone(his dad? the coach? can't remember.) gave carson palmer a book about leadership called "it's my ship" or something like that... "who moved my cheese?" type self-help nonsense, no doubt. anyhow, during the telling of said anecdote, i was so moved to rage by the fact that CP had once again mounted an unsuccessful touchdown drive and wound up settling for the kick(charles williams has the bengal's kicker, by the way) that i screamed "I HAVE A BOOK FOR YOU ASSHOLE! IT'S CALLED YOU'RE MY FANTASY QUARTERBACK!" the subtitle of which is naturally, "so throw a goddamn touchdown". fantasy football obviously changes the way you watch, and how excited you can get about the bengals beating baltimore when your fantasy QB had precious little in the way of touchdown passes.

i watched a really great documentary on IFC last night called indie sex: extremes, in which the history of sex and all its incarnations on film were chronicled and discussed by experts in the field such as dita von teese, who i love and even more now that she ditched marilyn manson(is that wrong of me?) and peter sarsgaard, who not only has that crazy circle thing over a letter in his last name, but who's character in garden state is responsible for the tagline of this very blog. either way, it was really a wonderful program. there was so much that i didn't know about the history of sex on film, obviously, but one of the things that really struck me was how early some filmmakers pushed the envelope. some of the stuff from pre-1970 wouldn't even see the light of day in 2007. have we become more puritanical? it would seem... check it out on the IFC website. i love IFC. where else can you watch, among other things, all the episodes of R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet, vol. 1-100? i said myrna...there's a package...

good morning, jackhammer!

good thing i am battling a end-of-summer cold and could really use some extra rest because that is SIMPLY NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! not when there are things being built on every side of my apartment, from 7am on. right now i can't even hear the television, even though i shouldn't even be watching television because i should be sleeping BECAUSE I AM SICK but that is, as i mentioned, not going to happen. and not because i am being a baby or am a light sleeper or anything like that, but because, as you can see from the photographic evidence provided above, there is jackhammering and backhoe-ing and beep-beep-beeping going on within feet of my non-slumbering self. just in case you were wondering, no, it has not gotten any better.

and on top of this, to add insult to injury as it were, the people of the neighborhood, who are none too happy about all this building nonsense either, are pointing the finger directly at, you guessed it, whitey. and not that i don't think thats a finger well pointed, but when it comes to me, i'm not exactly the establishment. and i have to walk past a spray painted battle cry every day that reads "honkey go home" and "death to intruders" as well as weather verbal backlash, such as the old woman who yelled "cracker" at me on sunday while i was crossing third avenue.

now, i have a healthy sense of humor about all this, but again, i feel that all this malice is wasted on yours truly, as i am not the big bad honkey that my neighbors wish to rally against. those people will be here shortly, as all this jackhammering is being done in their honor. by that time, i may have spray painted some things myself.