Saturday, April 22, 2006

I am obsessed with Bjork's music video, "Triumph of the Heart." I have to watch it every day. It has it all -- general weirdness, dancing cats, paper hearts, lots of people making noises with their mouths.
Bjork, by the way, is nothing at all like Cher.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Iams.

That's right. This post is all about cat food. The wet, chunky kind.

Iams pouch wet food is the only food on the market that Rue likes. The other brands she'll snub 50% of the time. So I'm basically buying Iams food in bulk.

And then the other day, I went on Peta's website. There's a whole section dedicated to boycotting Iams, because they allegedly torture and kill cats and dogs in their health/pet food research ventures. There's an especially grisly piece about experimenting at University of Kentucky, my (gulp) alma mater.

I read the articles, and decided to stop buying Iams. I couldn't in good conscience buy pet products from a company that murdered pets. So I went to the grocery store and bought all the other brands of wet, chunky food in the hopes there's one or two Rue won't mind so much. I signed some petitions online, and even emailed Iams to voice my dissent.

Tonight Iams emails me back, with an url to their website. There are articles discounting Peta, and some pretty solid animal foundations (The Humane Society, for one) to back them up.

So what do I do? Who do I believe? How do I know what I'm doing is right?

Monday, April 17, 2006

Crazy weekend.

After our excursion to Flushing, we decided to take the van to the ever-exotic Target for dog food in bulk and chocolate drizzled pretzels. Melissa took the subway back for a family dinner, and J and I headed back to the car.

Which was dead.

And by dead, I mean it wouldn't even turn over. Not even a whine.

Jason tried to flag people down for a jump, unsuccessfully. We got ahold of the parking lot security, who said he wouldn't be available to jumpstart us until one of the cars on either side of us left.

We sat in the car for an hour, bitter and hungry and tired, before I realized we could just put the van in neutral.

Security man gave us a jump, and I drove straight to Sears Automotive for a new battery. Hopefully (fingers crossed), that's the only problem with the van.

Saturday we met Jonathan in the City for fish and chips, a quick jaunt to the automotive store for a steering wheel lock and gas cap lock, and then onward to bars, bars, bars.

Sunday was Nina's lovely Easter shindig, with the best vegetarian food ever.

Friday, April 14, 2006

Flushing is amazingly close to Astoria by car. What a revelation! When Jason and I take the 7 to Flushing, it takes an hour. This morning we went to the DMV, which was an experience akin to elementary school and church. We were yelled at, told to sit on pew-like benches, etc.

"That's not proof of insurance!"

"But it says it is on the top of the paper."

"I don't care what it says. You need to get me an insurance card!"

After two hours and several hundred dollars later, we were free to go. Melissa and I bought unnutritious breakfasts from the hot dog stand right outside the DMV, and Jason screwed on our new license plates. It's official -- we can now drive our van.

Last night I bought a pair of conservative yet vaguely hip brown leather Mary Janes for work, and hysterical pink furry boots reminiscent of Big Bird. They were both 70% off. It was the best shoe store in the world.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Sufficiently grumpy from little sleep and the prospect of having dinner with someone I've never met before, one of J's friends from undergrad. It would be okay if it was just dinner, but then she's to sleep over as well. I have to be consistently receptive and chatty for God knows how many hours.

I wanna be indulged in my hermit inclinations every once in a while. But Jason is too much of a social butterfly. The "mayor."

Queasiness from the lack of sleep. My stomach always riots when I get less than six hours. Constant trips to the bathroom, which was fine, since I didn't have any work to do anyway.

It's a scorcher outside, summer come too soon. I don't want summer. I want fifty degrees and a light jacket.

I wouldn't mind a Japanese-speaking watch either.

Does being repulsed by someone having an affair with a married older (much older) man mean that I'm old-fashioned? Am I not hip with the times, or whatever?

Today is my Friday, but I'm without sufficient work. Time passes slowly when you're only pretending to be busy.

Matisyahu is great. Jason and I listened to him last night, and then I imported his CDs on my ipod and listened to a mix of his music and Neko Case's on the way to work. Hassidic Jewish reggae and alt country is a fine combination.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

In the end I was the mean girl
Or somebody's in-between girl
Now it's the devil I love
And that's as funny as real love

-from Neko Case's "Hold On, Hold On," the song that is playing and playing in my head.

Everyone's blog lives are more exciting than mine.

Dan Jackson just became an uncle.

Other people are going on sexy first dates, and making important life decisions.

Last night, Jason and I made sure our van was still parked where we left it. We ate dinner at the Bel Aire diner, and ran into Dania as she was jogging.

We made the usual complaints about not having time to do anything. We pet the animals, and checked our email, wrote a bit in our paper journals, and went to bed.
Is this what married life is?
And is it wrong to confess that I still want a little dancing and glitter and madness in my life?

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Another day at work.

Blah.

Well, at least I brought an almond poppy seed muffin.

And hopefully our car is still where we left it yesterday.

Monday, April 10, 2006

It took us two hours to find parking tonight.

Jason was ready to have a nervous breakdown.

At work. It's fifteen minutes before lunch, thank God. Mondays always drag on and on.

But it's a short work week because of Good Friday.

Me: I love Good Friday! Every Friday should be Good Friday!

Jason: Why? Because you like crucifixions?

Witty Jason. I wish I had brought money for Subway, but instead I'm doomed to an hour in our pit of a lunchroom (flickering fluorescent lights, stagnant air, an ancient TV that produces more static than picture and is always on, broadcasting soap operas).

Jason told me he wanted to get me an actual bunny for Easter -- only he didn't know where to purchase one. I convinced him to wait on the bunny until after our trip to Dunkirk. Rabbits + cars are not a good mix. Rue + car is already a complicated equation.

Sunday, April 09, 2006


As of this morning, Jason and I are the proud owners of a used dark green Ford Windstar minivan. Yes, a minivan. We can't drive it yet, because we need to get new plates and registration, etc. etc. But we paid for it. It's parked half a block from our apartment, green and formidable. Ours.

It's strange to own a car in New York City. I guess this is concrete proof that we're really planning on leaving. In the meantime, I plan on using the car to go to Brooklyn and Target and the grocery store when we've bought too many paper towels or whatnot.

The weekend was good but whirlwind. We saw Neko Case (see pic of Neko Case shaking her hands above) on Friday at Webster Hall. She was incredible, as was the venue (aquarium bars and ornate decoration everywhere). I wasn't so impressed with the guy in front of me though -- he kept on stretching his ass out like an oversized ballerina, and hitting me with it. Halfway through the concert, Jason and I switched places, and Jason whacked him every time he protruded. Twice.

I finally found a dress I like on Saturday -- at Century 21, a place I never want to visit again. But I guess the half an hour wait for the fitting rooms was worth it. Everyone else waiting in line with me had shopping carts filled with clothes. It was madness. Next step in the wedding preparations: finding a soft faux-fur jacket to wear with the dress, and a pair of stunning shoes. Oh, and probably some decent pantyhose -- not the kind I usually buy at Target for 99 cents.

Afterwards Jason and I wandered around the East Village. We looked at a small boutique selling overpriced clothes and Hello Kitty stationary, but they also had ugly box watches that say the time in Japanese. We went into M to M and thought about buying a pound of kimchee and mango ice cream mochi, but decided they were both impractical. We had a beer with Suzanne and Ero at the Continental, which has the most intimidating bathrooms in NYC. And then dinner with Jonathan at Veselka. It was vegetarian borscht night, yay! Jason and I were both slightly drunk from the Continental. I kept on mentioning the Japanese watch and giggling, and asking everyone what a lime rickey was. Lime juice and cherry syrup with soda water -- not nearly as exciting as I thought it might be.

And today, the buying of minivans. But afterwards Jason and I mellowed out. We saw Thumbsucker, which didn't resound with me as deeply as it would've, had I watched it when I was nineteen. We braved the grocery store for Iams wet cat food and clam juice. I made a pot of fish stew, a new recipe, before realizing that I don't like fish stew. So now I'm making Shepherd's pie.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Wrote a poem today at work, the first since my I-love-Jason poem (six months ago? More?). Poems are so pleasurable and manageable. They're good salve to my ten+ maniacal novel/novella/longish short story projects that I can never finish.

Jason says the poem's a good one. I'll revise it a little and then mail it on to his friend in Fredonia, whom Jason sends all his stuff to. Then, with J and Gerry's advice, I'll revise it again and try to send it out for publication!

Work was so stupid. I retyped an inane safety pamphlet that said things like "This procedure will save your life, but more importantly, save our company money!" Shameless.

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Saw V for Vendetta last night. I came out of the theatre with mixed feelings, and apparently I wasn't the only one.

The people behind us on the escalator had this conversation:
"I couldn't believe there were only two fight scenes."
"I know. And they weren't even that good."
"Not like the Matrix. The last one was kinda --"
"Bloody. But not like, wow or anything."
"There was too much talking."
"All the characters did were talk."
I didn't have quite the same reaction. I did love the first Matrix when it came out. My brother and I rented it at Blockbuster, and then ended up re-renting it every Saturday for a month, before deciding that we both needed to buy our own copies. But I don't expect (or want) every Wachowski Brothers movie to be another Matrix.
I liked aspects of V for Vendetta very much. I love tales of dystopia, and the echoes of 1984. I liked the Inspector.
But the movie as a whole made me feel uncomfortable. I didn't understand certain key characters' motivations. Things that should have been made clear were "artistically" murky. I don't want to get any more specific than that, just in case there's someone reading my blog who hasn't seen the movie yet, and wants to.
I'm irrationally pleased that Silent Hill has been made into a movie. I always thought those video games would make great movies.
Tonight Jason and I finished printing out the last of our invites. Now we might actually have time to watch Thumbsucker with a bowl of popcorn.