February

I opened a bank account at HSBC. I tried to find the two books I know I need for classes, but the 3 bookstores I tried were out of them. So I ordered them from Amazon and hope they get here soon.

I ran into Ricky on the street today. I NEVER run into people I know. Yesterday I ran into David (but that wasn't surprising since it was only a few blocks from where he works) and now Ricky. Well, that's 2 out of three people I know living in the city (basically). I didn't know what to say to him and felt very odd running into him.

That's about all the exciting news from today. I'm hoping that the reading assignments for the classes aren't too much and that not having the books right away doesn't matter.

Strange dreams last night (actually this morning). I didn't fall asleep until around 5:00 this morning and I woke up on and off remembering strange dreams each time. I only remember the last one now. Paula, Eytan, and I were in a Four Seasons room (not the auction room) and Paula was telling Eytan that he needed to iron his jacket. Then she said mine didn't look too great either. I told her that her jacket was a little wrinkled too and you just couldn't keep it perfect. Then George walked in carrying a new jacket he bought. It was a brightly coloured checkered pattern. Paula said a typical Paula comment, "Oh, wow, I love patterns like that." Eytan said a typical Eytan comment, "It's nice." Then I couldn't help myself. I said, "I'm sorry, but (and then I started singing) 'I wore my coat, with golden lining, bright colours shining, wonderful and new.'" He was a little hurt but knew he would get no other type of comment from me. Then I woke up.

Today I'm hoping that the Verizon guy will show up. I don't even know if he will come in here at all. He might only need access to the line in the building, not in the apartment. And if that does happen, do I have to keep trying the phone to see if it's working yet? Or will he come in and tell me. But he'll probably have to come in and test the jacks anyway- that's my opinion. Someone had just better show up or all you customer service people at Verizon better be on a break when I call 'cause you WON'T want to talk to me!

The English class isn't getting any better, but at least she told us what we would be reading. Mostly- yuck! "Othello" (that's okay, sort of), "Twelfth Night" (the only one I'll enjoy), "Pygmalion" (it's better than what follows), "Pride and Prejudice" (I'd drop the class because of this one, but I can't), and "Huck Finn" (huh?). She obviously likes the underdog. At least I can pick out that theme (I'm usually no good at picking out themes). And Urban Affairs, if we could just have the funny, laid back guy teaching- it would be great. The icky guy got there late last night so we just had the fun one. We were discussing zoning issues and most people in this class have A LOT to say about the zoning in their neighbourhoods. The teacher works for the department that builds new housing and the people in the class don't seem to like that. I was just laughing most of the night. Then the icky guy got there while the fun guy was explaining our first project. I REALLY don't like him. And if they split the grading (which I'm sure they will, I can't imagine both of them grading 100 papers), my luck, the icky-picky guy will grade mine. But the first project sounds like fun. We get to walk around two neighbourhoods (the one around Hunter and the one around where you live), take notes about everything (people, buildings, conditions, etc), and write a 6 page paper (and according to the icky-picky guy the paper must be 6 pages, double spaced, 10 point font, one inch margins and he DOES check the margins). Since I basically live in the neighbourhood around Hunter, I was thinking of doing the Upper West Side since I don't know that area at all and it interests me. I was also thinking of calling Chris Rupp to see if he wants to go on a walking tour with me since he knows so much about the buildings, I could learn a lot. Even before this class, I wanted to do that. I've always wanted to know more about New York buildings. Marcell might know a little about what's in her neighbourhood and how it's changed over the past 20 or so years. I know George knows a little but he's so arrogant about that kind of stuff, I don't want to ask him.

Since I don't have my books for classes yet, I started reading "Best American Travel Writing" edited by Bill Bryson. I've read 4 of the stories so far, and they're wonderful. Think I'll go read some more now since I have nothing else to do.

Eytan told me about a phone he's trying to return to Office Max. He told them UPS would have to pick up at his work since he was not home during the day. UPS came to his home three times leaving notices and each time he called Office Max to tell them the problem. The last time he called, the woman told him that UPS did pick up at his work, not his home. "No", he said, "they didn't." So he's still waiting to return the phone. It's nice to know that Mr. Good Luck also has these every day problems like I do. He does have less of them though.

Got a lot done today. Unpacked almost everything. Tomorrow I'll get some of the things I need and hopefully by tomorrow evening will almost be settled in. It really helps having Harvey here to put things on top shelves. One day I'll have chairs and will be able to pile books on them and reach the top shelves myself, but until then, it's REALLY nice to have Harvey. Sometimes I really hate being so short. Still, I have 4 inches on my mother (not that that's saying much...).

My free Panasonic DVD player came in today! Can't wait to hook that up and watch some DVDs.

Listening to Yello right now- love these guys!

Guess I don't really have much to say. Just needed to take a break and thought I'd write a journal entry.

I'm hoping the books for my classes will come in on Monday and I'll able to read before class on Tuesday. Something tells me though, that they won't come in until Tuesday afternoon and I won't have time to read anything. Oh well, I'll sit in the back of the class and just listen.

I think tonight we'll order in and maybe get a movie. A quiet, relaxing evening sounds perfect after going through boxes all day.

Last night we had great Indian food from Dawatt and watched "Bob Roberts" which I didn't care for too much but it passed a couple of hours.

Today Paula and I found dining room chairs, a coffee table, and bathmats. So now I feel almost good about the apartment. I'll feel even better later tonight when everything else is going to be unpacked. We were going to see a show tonight but we couldn't find one playing that we all would want to see. Oh well.

Tomorrow I get to wait for Verizon again and go try on my shoes (Harvey said he would be around making business calls and could wait for Verizon if they don't come by the time I have to leave). Then we're going to dinner at Mayas and maybe see "Cast Away" if they feel like staying out that late (they like to leave early the next day).

Last night Paula, Harvey, and I watched "The Apartment" which I've tried to watch twice and never seemed to be able to get through it. It was okay but could have been much shorter. It was way too slow. I did realise though that Rick Brown (from Heritage Players) reminds me of Jack Lemmon in the movie.

Today I'm doing some work, then will go wait for Verizon, then will go for my shoe appointment, then finish getting the apartment in order, and then go to dinner at Mayas with Paula and Harvey.

Whoa! The satelite music channel Kinkos right now is playing Blessed Union of Souls, "Oh Virginia". Memories, memoires, memories... This song still makes me melancholy. It was always such a strong force.

The Verizon guy WAS here when I got back. He fooled with stuff for an hour and then told me that the problem was that this building is for RCN and he can't even get in the phone closets to give me Verizon service. When I moved in, the conceirge told me that there are two companies in the building RCN AND Verizon. Well, I guess not. So now I'm back to square one- get a RCN line and look for another Internet provider. I guess I'll research companies in Manhattan that offer DSL through an RCN line. Which means I'll have to change my email address and take forever notifying people of the address change. I'M SO PISSED!!!!!!

It's snowing today. Not sticking, just slushing. Lovely. I don't know if I feel like slushing through the streets to get to Mayas. Maybe we'll do something else. I'll ask Paula and Harvey when they get back (whenever that is).

Oh, and I guess I'm not getting my books from Amazon today (unless the package is downstairs and they just forgot to tell me when I came in a little while ago. So I'll be clueless in my Urban Affairs class. Oh well, it's a big class, I can get lost. And fortunately, I already have Shakespeare's sonnets here so I read them and will be a little prepared for English.

Despite the bad news of the day and the lousy weather, I still feel good. Or sort of feel good. Right now I just feel a little out of sorts or something. I don't know.

Oh, Wednesday I'm getting the table delivered and Friday the coffee table and chairs will be delivered. Then I just need trash cans, a lamp, a bookshelf, and wall pictures and then I'll be all settled in. I've moved countless times in my life and it's NEVER taken this long to settle in before. I wonder why it's taking this long.

And if anyone has any recommendations for DSL service, please let me know.

Had a really nice dinner at Vong's last night.

I think I'm 90% sure I'm going to go with RCN cable Internet and deal with the slower speeds and the not-as-safe aspect and the changing my email horror. Not the best but it seems my only choice and the easier choice.

I'm also going to call Marcell today to see if she wants to take me on a walking tour of the Upper West Side this weekend. Then I can do the Upper East Side the other day of the weekend so I can do both neighbourhoods in the same atmosphere (a weekend afternoon). Hope the weather is okay. Then I can start writing it up the next week. Then I can go down to Baltimore the weekend of the 20th, I think it is. I have a few things I need to take care of plus I'll try to see "Rent" with Eytan.

I called RCN and someone will be out to set up the phone and cable modem on the 16th. I'm SO TIRED of waiting for a phone line. Every time I get a delivery, the delivery person tells me that the conceirge downstairs needs my phone number. I keep telling them I don't have one yet. I gave them my cell phone number, but I guess they like to call on the home phone since they have some sort of set-up or something with the phone lines in the apartments. I hope I don't get too irritated with RCN internet access. It IS a good deal though, with the phone, cable, and Internet. Of course I have to change my email address and notify everyone which will be a pain. I remember thinking, when I thought I had to change it before, that it would be refreshing to have a new address. Now, I can't remember why. Hopefully I'll figure that out later.

I just found out that Amazon won't have the City Lights book I need for Urban Affairs in for 4-6 weeks. So then I remembered if I order from Barnes and Noble website today, I can get it tomorrow. At least I'll have it for Thursday. And the English book... oh well. At least I read the two sonnets for today. I just won't have them with me (I'm not lugging "The Complete Works of Shakespeare" up to Hunter). I'll have it on Thursday as well.

I've noticed that I have very few warm shirts (guess I got used to living in Phoenix). So there's a store on my corner closing for renovations and everything is on sale. I got two really nice shirts for $50. I'm going to go to school early and do some things online that I've been meaning to do- order the book from B&N, see if I can buy trash cans online and a few other odds and ends, read the Sunday Times, check my credit card balance, and try to find lodging in London and Amsterdam.

I talked to Marcell tonight after playing phone-tag for a while. It was good talking to her. Hopefully she'll have some time soon to get together. I really need to meet some people in this city. I'm tired of spending all my free time alone (except for seeing Paula and Harvey).

I still need to call Chris Rupp to see if he has any knowledge of the buildings around Hunter. I'd love some local information rather than just write about my own observations. If Chris isn't much help, I think I'll try to find out if there's a walking tour of that area and do that. Or at least read about the neighbourhood. It will be a very short paper if I only rely on observations. And for the other neighbourhood, I decided to do my own since the school neighbourhood that we're supposed to cover doesn't reach down to me. So I can walk around my own neighbourhood and become a well-informed resident. It may be boring, but it's home.

I finally came up with a book idea that I should actually be able to write and get it finished. It'll be a travel writing book on the continental U.S. (except I need to get to Arkansas somehow. I can't believe I haven't driven through there. How am I ever going to get there? And why?). I don't know if it'll be travel writing exactly since a lot of it is more anecdotes of things that happened to me in those places and not about the places themselves, but we'll see how it pans out. Write now I'm just in the organisation and notes stage.

I talked to Neil tonight too. He and Maxine are going to San Diego for a week to visit their friend, Bruce. They have been planning this trip for a while. A week ago, Bruce called to tell them that he's getting a divorce. Should be an interesting trip. Have fun guys!

Again, weird dreams last night. First I was in someone's living room playing a good 80's song and choreographing a dance to it. Taffy and Lu Lu (I can't believe I remember them) from the School for the Arts were watching but I didn't know until half way through the dance. I felt that it looked stupid and I wished they weren't watching. They actually said it was good (they never said that to anyone before). Then I was at Joy and Ernie's (my old neighbours). First I took a shower in their downstairs bathroom. Then I was talking to Eric about weird stuff that I can't remember now. Oh, one thing was about an opera house that had sports magazines in the seat pockets. I told Eric the reason they must have allowed it was because it had New York in the title and anything New York must be okay. Then Ernie came in. He was like a psycho Kevin Spacey. He was like a cross between Kevin Spacey's character in "The Usual Suspects" and Quintin Tarrentino's character in "4 Rooms". I think he was a part of some rebel army that hid out in the woods around his house (and my old house). He was really starting to scare me. I was trying to leave but couldn't figure out how without seeming rude. Finally Joy and Abbey came in and Ernie left. I talked to them for a few minutes and then said I had to leave. My clothes were still in the downstairs bathroom. I looked in there and they were gone. So I looked in the other downstairs bathroom (they don't really have two downstairs bathrooms). Not there either. So I went upstairs (which looked like Rebecca Gelfand's house). Not there either. Finally I found them in the hallway by the door. I finally left and started driving on Timonium Rd. towards York Rd. Suddenly I was in Montgomery County on Route 17 (but it didn't look like the real Route 17). Then, I think, I woke up. I do love my dreams.

Today the dining table gets delivered (hopefully). That will be nice. Although, it will be nicer when the chairs get delivered on Friday (hopefully). And I can't wait to have my cable modem. I'm hoping that it will be better than I think. I started making a list of all the people who will need my new email address. It's about 50 but that's just off the top of my head. I'll have to work on that this week and make sure I don't forget anyone important.

It looks like I'm definitely going down to Baltimore the weekend of the 23rd. Now I just have to figure out the travel arrangements. I think I will rent a car. Not only will I feel more free, it'll be fun driving again. I haven't driven a car since January 3rd. I've had longer periods of time without driving, but this feels different for some reason. I hope Eytan and I can get tickets for "Rent". That would MAKE the trip! But I won't get my hopes up. Eytan has good luck and I have bad. Maybe I should just let him try to get tickets. No, that's ridiculous. We need all the people we can get. Maybe some of his friends will also come and try to get tickets with us. He's lucky to have friends in the area that would be interested in doing that.

I'm thinking about going to the Pig n' Whistle tonight. I haven't been there in a little while and I really like that place. Hopefully there will be a good game on tonight. Is Maryland playing? I really haven't been keeping up with college basketball at all. This is terrible.

My table is here! It looks nice! It's a perfect, tiny size and fits perfectly. Paula is really good at this stuff. Actually, she didn't measure or anything. I think she just looked at the space and assumed this table would fit. Well, it does. And it can add leaves in case I ever have more than 2 people at the table. And they're taking the box and wrapping back with them so I don't have to deal with it! Oh but wait, it's damaged a little. Personally, I don't care (it's a tiny scratch) but I know Paula will so the deilvery guy is calling someone now. That would suck if I have to wait another 6 weeks for a table. Especially after I'll have the chairs on Friday (hopefully). I always have to say hopefully. It's so rare these days that something gets done when it's supposed to. The world has just gotten so complicated. Remember when you used to be able to call about phone service and you could pick when you wanted them to come and that day would come and they would be there and the service would be hooked up properly? Those days are long gone. I wish I could understand what this guy was saying, but of course he's speaking in Spanish. All I understand is "si". Okay, I get to keep the damaged table until the new one comes in (6-8 weeks). That's great! Now I can still use a perfectly working table (it's really just a little, tiny scratch).

Okay, Maryland isn't playing tonight, but I wouldn't mind watching the Virginia/NC State game. That'll be fun at Pig n' Whistle. I think it said it was at 7:00.

Okay, so I went to Pig n' Whistle and was pretty bored (although it was nice watching NC State leading Virginia the whole game and I just found out that they won so I'm glad an unranked team beat #9 Virginia. Now Maryland just has to beat North Carolina. I don't see it happening but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised like I was with the Duke game.) until these two guys came in- Joe and Mike. Joe was funny and cute and Mike was smart but no short term memory (he asked me three times if I'd seen "Full Metal Jacket" and asked plenty of other questions several times as well). They had me cracking up for a while. Then we went to another bar on 59th between 2nd & 3rd (didn't notice the name, I'm so bad with that) and had another drink there. Joe walked me home and of course wanted me to ask him up, but I refused. I just can't do stuff like that anymore (which is a good thing). It was a good time though. And cheap since they bought me my last 2 or 3 drinks. They were in engineering school together. Joe was really cool. I wouldn't have minded seeing him again, but I don't see how that would work. I'm just not good at stuff like this. If he had been alone and we had a serious conversation all night, I think it would be different. But the three of us were just joking around all night and didn't get to know each other at all. I really have to know who someone is before I know if I want to hang out with them again. There has to be some kind of connection (other than physical). Do most people not care about that stuff? Am I crazy? Who cares? It's the way I am. So, I had a good night and at least got to hang out with people even though I'll never see them again.

Last night's dream- I was a senior in high school about to graduate. First, about 8 of us (all girls) were sitting in the hallway putting on chicken underwear (underwear made out of chicken- disgusting). We were doing that for a reason but I don't remember what that was now. Then Kyla (from Blacksburg) was handing our final exams back for French since the teacher wasn't there. I got an 81% and was happy until I saw that Kendra (from Blacksburg) got an 89%. She always does better than me (in the dream). There was a guy in the class who was kind of sick so someone asked me to get him a coffee cake out of the vending machine. I put in the $0.60 and got about 5 different items. So I decided to try it again to see what happens and again I got about 5 different items. Then I was in the bathroom fixing my hair to look hippy-ish for some reason. Then I went back to class as everyone was leaving. I came in the middle of a conversation when this guy said, "Okay, I get the gun." And I jumped in saying, "Fine, but I get the girl." He said, "That doesn't make any sense." I just smiled at him and walked out the door... into... George's office in Towson. Everyone was sitting around reading the paper. Maxine was reading the business section, but she didn't know what she was looking at when she was trying to find out about her stock. George told her about what she was trying to find (didn't know he was a stock expert). There was a special page in green foil that listed the retail stocks; obviously for Christmas. Why? This was June (I actually kept the same month for both parts of the dream even though it was a few years apart, I think)- Christmas is 6 months away. George said they were getting ready early. Then Eytan, Maxine, and George were talking about the posters in Bill's room (something soccer related) and were all surprised he'd take down the baseball posters and put up soccer. Then Harvey announced that George had to go pick up a collection in Chesapeake, VA and that I should go with him since I was the only one not doing anything important. Then I woke up.

Last night's dream- First I was at Camp Debut and the place was really run down. Then I was in Paula and Harvey's house with some other people. Then I was getting to my Corolla in a garage and it was next to some gang members in their spruced up truck. I was sure they were going to hurt me, but I acted like nothing was wrong and they left me alone. I don't really remember those parts of the dream anymore. Then I had a new dream. I got off the subway either downtown Manhattan near Fulton St. or somewhere in Brooklyn, I couldn't decide which. I was lost. Then the area turned rural. I started walking in the snow through farmland trying to get on the other side of the fence near a road so I could get out of there. There were 5 little blond kids walking towards me. Their mothers were a few steps behind. I was wondering why they weren't worried that I was walking on their property. I asked them which train or bus was nearby so I could get home and they didn't understand and told me I was small enough to hide in a cargo plane. Then I watched them jump in a little pond near their house and watched them swim. Suddenly I was in a car and I realised I was in Christiansburg. I couldn't handle the car at all. I was driving in a circle going downhill and at each intersection in the circle there was a stop sign for us (not the oncoming traffic). It was EXTREMELY difficult to stop the car racing downhill at every intersection. And I couldn't figure out how to get off of the circle. It was not like a normal circle. Finally I got off and was driving towards Blacksburg. I noticed they had finished one area of the construction and thought it was cool that it looked so different after only a short time away (so my dream was in present day, I guess). I still couldn't handle the car. The breaks didn't seem to work and I kept switching from break to gas so many times, sometimes I forgot which was which. At a red light (where I couldn't completely come to a stop), the man who had been behind me the whole time decided to hop in my passenger seat to keep me company and help me out. We were going to the same place so I was just going to drop him off somewhere. I have no idea what he did with his truck. Then I woke up.

Yesterday I finally got an interesting fact of the day from my "Fact of the Day" calendar. It's about Issac Asimov. He wrote over 400 books (I knew he wrote a lot) and is the only author to have a book in every major category of the Dewey-decimal system.

In English we're now finished with the sonnets. We read 6 whole sonnets! Oh boy! I'm fine with not reading anymore. It seems like they basically have the same subject for all 154 of them. So on Thursday we're going to start talking about Othello. I wonder if we'll read the whole play. It seems ridiculous not to. But why did we have to get a poetry anthology if we're only reading 6 of Shakespeare's sonnets? Maybe we'll read more of it later. I still don't see how we'll read everything on the list unless we only read exerpts of everything. And when will we have papers or tests? Not that I want them, but how else is she going to grade us? It can't be all class participation (oh, how I wish it was). And if it was, we all should get the same grade since she just asks us questions by going down the roster in alphabetical order and asks each of us one question (the end of the alphabet is never going to get a question? Maybe she'll go backwards next time.).

Urban Affais we had out co-teachers yesterday. Nazi basically talked the whole time and Joel just stood there behind him. He must feel useless and wonder why he's there. He did sort of take over for a minute when talking about the reading in the book, but during the current events discussion (which was most of the class), he didn't say a word. Poor guy.

I tried to find information on walking tours of neighbourhoods yesterday but had no luck. Most of them are in the Spring and Summer. So I'll just read a little more of some guide books and walk on my own and hope I can observe enough information for a 6 page paper. I hope the weather's nice this weekend. I really don't want to walk around in the cold. I understand why this has to be the first project (sort of), but it sucks that we have to do this in the winter. It works out much better for the people taking this in the Fall.

My chairs and coffee table are supposed to be delivered today between 1-4. I hope they're closer to 1:00 so I can do something with the rest of my day.

And I wish next Friday would hurry up and get here so I can get online from home. Kinkos and the Internet Cafe cost money. Libraries, you can't do any other applications. The school's server is slow and unpredictable (it just stops working from time to time). This is getting so frustrating. I'm doing some web consulting for this one company and it's REALLY hard downloading the jpgs when the server is that slow. At least I should be finished with that today and I'll do it at Kinkos which is the most reliable (although their servers were down for a little while the other day).

People make a bigger deal of Valentine's day every year. Actually, it's more the media and advertising. It is a good excuse to get people to spend lots of money, I guess. But I hate this holiday. Even when I'm in a relationship I hate this holiday. It's just always seemed pointless to me. And when I'm not in a relationship, I don't appreciate being reminded of that everywhere I go for weeks before the holiday. At least it's almost here.

Just watched the local forcast and it looks like tomorrow is a good day to walk around the Upper East Side. It might be raining in the morning, so I'll go in the afternoon. Then Sunday is supposed to be okay so I'll do my neighbourhood then. It's kind of stupid to do a predominently business neighbourhood on Sunday, but maybe I can make that point. Plus, I'll see who IS around here on Sundays. Most Sundays are pretty quiet.

Okay, the cool guy at Crate and Barrel customer service just called and told me that the delivery service people will be contacting me today to let me know if they can deliver today or if they'll have to reschedule. He just wanted to let me know. I wanted to tell him I didn't want to wait for them to maybe call, I wanted him to be my contact person. He's so reliable. I know the delivery people won't be. If they call at all, it'll be at 5:00, telling me that they'll have to reschedule.

I think I'm going to go to the Internet Cafe and leave my phone on just in case they call. If by some odd chance they can deliver today, I can get home quickly. But they won't come today and at least I can get some work done in the meantime.

Just watched Sports Night for the first time. Not a bad show. And I love Josh Charles. I have to though, we went to the same high school. But I like him anyway. I'll have to remember to watch this again.

Rented "Love's Labour's Lost tonight. I don't have high hopes, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. There are a few movies out now that I want to see- like "Hannibal". Maybe I'll see some next week. Or maybe I'll go tomorrow after the walking tour.

I'm definitely on a late night pattern. I really get wired around 9:00 or 10:00 and am wired until about 3:00. What can I do with myself that late? Recently all I've been doing is reading or working on my new "book". I'd go out but I don't like to go out by myself on weekends. I REALLY need to meet some people I can hang out with. Maybe there will be some interesting people in this chorus that I'm supposedly going to join.

Once I have a phone line, the rest of my furniture, and get my email and work straightened out, I'll work on the social life thing. That should be by the beginning of March. Okay, when I get back from Baltimore and finish the project for Urban Affairs, I'll join a chorus. "Join the chorus if you can. It'll make of you an honest man." -Ian Anderson ("Songs from the Wood")

I just thought of a problem with my "book". I have 2 tapes from my '99 road trip where I mostly talked about nothing but they might have some interesting stuff about the trip that I should include in my book. The problem? I don't know where those tapes are. They could be in my box of tapes which I sent home with Harvey and Paula since I don't have a tape player so why should I keep all those tapes here which would just take up space? Or they could be in the miscellaneous box which Harvey stuck on the top shelf which I can't reach. Well, when I'm in Baltimore in a few weeks, I'll go through the box. If it's not there, the next time someone tall is here, I'll ask them to get down the box for me. There, problem solved.

I have so many thoughts in my head. Like how I like The Levellers. Especially "Men-an-Tol". And Jethro Tull's, "Flying Dutchman". And Tori Amos', "Flying Dutchman". And that Tori Amos is so beautiful. And so is Sandra Bullock. And that I really need to stop sitting comfortably since I'm KILLING my knee. And how I'm not remembering to do the monthly things that I want to be working on. I don't even remember what February was supposed to be. Hmm. Let me think about that a minute... Nope, can't remember. Maybe I mentioned it in my journal somewhere. I remember writing about it at the end of last year or the beginning of this year. And I like the Cocteau Twins, and Marvin Gaye, and Dead Can Dance, and Sarah McLachlan, and Lacuna Coil (thank you, Chandra), and a lot of other music that I consider to be good "Winter" music. I guess I'll change my CD Player in March or April- whenever it starts warming up. I DO love my music. How often do I mention that? Once a week? More? Now I'm looking forward to seeing "Music Man". I'm interested to see Craig Bierko (or however you spell it). I've only heard him for a few minutes when he was on NPR. And I really like disc 1 of The Beatles' "White Album" much more than disc 2. Although I do like that they sing about a monkey on disc 2. And why is Brendan Fraser in a more ridiculous movie than "Bedazzled"? As much as I love monkeys, I don't know if I can force myself to see this new movie. It would be fine if I was going with a bunch of people that was just looking for something silly to laugh at for a few hours. But I can't go myself. Maybe I'll wait for video. Now my CD Player is playing Meat Loaf, "Midnight at the Lost and Found". I haven't heard Meat Loaf in a while. I think my CD Player really does have its favourites and Meat Loaf is not one of them. It seems to like Cocteau Twins, Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Yaz, and New Order. It's not that I have more of these artists, in fact, I only have one each of the first two artists. And why, when I'm typing a Word document or in Notepad, does my cursor decide to move up in the text at random? It's so irritating to be on a roll typing and suddenly see that you're typing in a previous paragraph! Oh wow, now it's playing one of my two favourite Portishead songs- "Morning Air" (the other being "Only You").

Now I'm hungry but would rather try to fall asleep than eat something. I hate eating at midnight. Okay, time to go pretend I'm asleep and maybe before too long I'll convince myself that I am.

Today seems like a good day for a walking tour. It's pretty windy but not too cold and no rain. I hope I can find enough to write about. There aren't too many people out and this is not a great area for architecture, but I'll try.

Not much to say today. Oh, "Love's Labour's Lost" was pretty goofy. I liked the time period that they put it in (1939) but not the musical idea- that was too much.

Hope Neil and Maxine are having a good time in San Diego. Wish I was there or somewhere else where it's warm. It was fairly warm today but too windy!

I was trying to decide what movie to rent tonight but fortunately "What Planet are You From?" is on cable tonight, so I'll watch that. I'm only watching it since I'll know an extra or two and it's always fun seeing people you know in movies. I know it'll be a stupid movie though. But that's fine. I need a mindless activity after all the time I spent researching neighbourhoods today.

I hope the weather's nice tomorrow for my walking tour of the Upper East Side. I think I'll see a movie after I finish walking (it'll be good to sit for a little while). I'll have to figure out what's playing before I leave. Maybe another mindless movie like "Saving Silverman" will be playing. Then I thought about going to Pig n' Whistle to see if they got any more port since I was last there (I finished off the bottle the other day). I'm sure it's not something they normally order but I thought if I became a regular, they'll keep port on hand. If not, I'll have a cider or something.

A song I never tire of- "Crash" by Dave Matthews.

Oh, my travel plans for April are working out nicely! I had this fantasy that I could fly to Savannah and drive to Little Rock, stopping a few places along the way, and then fly home from Little Rock. But I figured the air fare would be way too expensive. Not so. US Air has a flight from LaGuardia to Savannah and then from Little Rock to LaGuardia for $220. And I can rent a car from Alamo in Savannah and return it in Little Rock 9 days later for only $200. What's with the cheap prices? Is it that people aren't traveling like they were in '99 and last year that they thought they would try lowering prices to see if that would get more people traveling? Whatever the reason, I'm thrilled! Now I can finally go to Savannah and get to Arkansas so I can write my book (or whatever it turns out to be).

Actually, about this writing... I thought it would be a neat idea to see if a magazine would publish it as monthly stories. There would be a theme, but each one would be different. If anyone reading this knows how to get something published in a travel magazine, PLEASE let me know. Or if you know someone who knows someone...

So much for the walking tour today. I woke up sick this morning. I'm assuming it was the food I ate yesterday. I had too much iron and I already have too much iron in my blood, so that was a bad thing. No more iron for a little while.

I had to go out anyway so I could read the Sunday Times for class. But other than that, I'm not going to do much today. Guess I'll read some more and probably rent a movie or two.

I was going to book a flight and reserve a car for April, but I wanted to double check on the school's break before I did that. And my catalogue was at home. So I went to their web site and every link I clicked on that would have that information was broken. Whoever does Hunter's web site isn't very good. Most of the links are useless and you can only view most of the site using Netscape. I hate seeing poorly designed web sites. It's not very complicated to make it nice, so why not do that? It doesn't take any longer and it will keep people coming back. I doubt I'll use the school's web site for anything except checking on class schedules and the status of open classes.

Watched "Swimming with Sharks" tonight. I can't believe I've been avoiding that movie for so long. It's REALLY good. Kevin Spacey is just terrific in every role I've seen him in. He's definitely one of my favourite actors, if not my top favourite. In about an hour, I'm going to watch "Kicking and Screaming". It's just okay and I don't know why I want to watch a bunch of 20-somethings hanging out and enjoying each other's friendships. It'll just remind me how few close friends I have and they're all (or actually I should probably say, "both") in different cities. Maybe I won't watch it and instead go to Kinkos where I can now book the flight since I've checked the dates of the break. Okay, that's what I'll do. I am feeling a little better. Then when I get back, I can work a little more on my Urban Affairs project (which I feel will be EXTREMELY difficult making it the required length), read a little, and try to fall asleep.

I got back in time to watch "Kicking and Screaming" last night. I still love watching it and love the relationships of everyone in that movie. It really makes me wish I did the normal 4 year college thing when I was 18. Too late now. I also wish I had friends like the characters in the movie. The first time I saw it, I saw it with Eytan and Terry. That was perfect since we were close like the characters in the movie. It's harder watching it by myself.

Today I spent the morning running errands. Later, I hope to work more on the Urban Affairs project and I'll also rent "Othello" to give me a head start for English.

Yesterday was productive. I finished writing almost everything about my neighbourhood which will make it easier to know what to look for when walking around Hunter. Then I watched "Othello" which I liked but realised it's the most simple, basic plot of any Shakespeare play that I know. Usually there are sub-plots or more characters, but this just had one main plot. And it took just as long as most plays to get to the resolution. In other words, it drags.

I'm having trouble falling asleep at night and trouble waking up in the morning. I really wish I could get back to my old ways. Perhaps once I'm all settled in and on my typical schedule, I'll get my energy back.

Weird dream last night which of course I only remember a little of now. I was drinking with Matt & Brie. I was already drunk and Brie pointed out another drink that I hadn't had yet. It was a HUGE shot of tequilla with a lollipop in it. I ate the lollipop and gave the shot to Matt. Then there were other weird things going on- like telling people I had a dream about Sudbrook Park the other night when someone showed me a picture of it. And seeing Shannon Stone (I can't believe I remember her name) from Camp Debut. She looked the same. And last night I had a dream about driving, and Paula & Harvey's house, and Jennifer Dale, and trying to get away from the Dales...

Did some research at the PF and the library today. The PF was useful, the library was a bit of a waste of time. It took too long to get what I was interested in and I only could get a small amount at a time and they didn't give me the year I wanted and it just wasn't a good use of time. At least now I know what the library won't be useful for.

Tonight I'm going to see "Music Man". Looking forward to it. If these servers stay working, I'll probably stay here until I go to the show and do all the things I want/need to look for online but never feel like spening the money at Kinkos or dealing with the slow servers at school.

"Music Man"... WAS GREAT!!!!!!!!! It brought back memories, it entertained, and Craig Bierko was FANTASTIC!!!!! And YUM!!!! The footbridge waltz wasn't a big deal like it was in our production. In fact, if it was there at all, I missed it. I think the music was just filler for a scene change and Tommy and Zaneeta did a little dance. Tommy was quite good! In fact, the boys were incredible dancers. I was so impressed! And Miss Hannigan, oops, I mean, Mrs. Shinn was terrific! The only person I didn't care for (and please no one shoot me) was Rebecca Lurker. I found her voice annoying and her performance flat. Perhaps she was having an off night? Well, the only way to figure that out is to go again. And if she has another off night, I'll go again? Excuse the interruption... WHY IS THE LITTLE SCREAMER ON MY FLOOR UP AT THIS HOUR? There's a whole field trip taking out the trash. At 11:45 PM!!! I hate that family. I don't even understand who lives there. Paula thought it was a daycare since she heard so many kids one morning. I don't know but that one kid is LOUD!!! Sunday she woke me up TWICE screaming. I guess once getting in the elevator on her way out and once getting out of the elevator on her way back home. And she's always SCREAMING! Why does she have to be so loud ALL THE TIME!!! And why don't her parents care that she's waking up the building? Anyway, back to "Music Man"... I think I'm a bit infactuated with Craig Bierko right now. I think I'll have to watch "The 13th Floor" again if it comes back on HBO. That really is a good movie. I don't know why it didn't do that well. So I'm not too depressed after seeing that show. I mean, I DO miss performing, but I'm not miserable about it. But oh how I would love to be in that production. Of course, in reality, even if there was a way to audition, I would never get in. Even when I was a good dancer, I don't think I could do half of the stuff they were doing. Especially those lifts and all the gymnastics. Although, I liked our Shipoopi better. That was one number where they hardly danced. Anyway, so now I'm hyper and have no idea what to do with myself until I can think about falling asleep. Too hyper for reading or a movie, can't get online, refuse to do any work, don't think I can sit here typing this for much longer since I really don't have anything to say... Oh, I COULD write an Epinion on "Music Man"... Yeah, maybe I'll try to do that. No, actually I think I'm too hyper to write coherent paragraphs about the show. Maybe I can find a way to calm down a little bit and then write it. I could have a drink, but I hate drinking by myself. And what would I do while I'm drinking? I wish I could call someone. But the three people I know that I could call are all asleep. I wish I had Jeff's phone number, it's only 11:00 in Minneapolis. But it's in an email which of course I CAN'T GET TO!!!! I can't wait till I can get online from the comfort of my own home! Are Neil and Maxine still on West Coast time? No, I can't call them at midnight. They get up at some ridiculous hour to go to work. Okay, looks like I'm stuck with myself. I guess I could go to Pig n' Whistle but I'm already undressed and everything. No, that's too much effort. Maybe I could sit here rambling for a little while longer. About sitting in the front row. I thought it would be a problem but it was far from that. It was wonderful. I could actually see their faces, something I never get to do with my terrible eyesight. It was fun watching Mr. Bierko's (I do hope I'm spelling his last name right) expressions. They were terrific! Of course I could see all the sweat too. I bet he has a towel right offstage. Oh yes, and Catherine was conducting the overture since she bought the offer at the Broadway Cares auction. That was neat. And I thought it was funny that the girl who plays Amarillis, who makes fun of Winthrop for having a lisp, has a big lisp herself. Oh, and I also didn't really care for the guy who played Marcellis. The quartet was wonderful and funny!!!!! And I caught things about the show that I missed when I was a teen. Mainly stuff the Mayor said (all the mispronouncing of words). During the scene when we're all sitting around listening to the Mayor's speech, I just sat there not paying attention. It's funny stuff that I never would have understood anyway. And why, with all the memorable songs from the show, do I have "Iowa Stubborn" in my head?

Okay, I think I'm less hyper now, but I still don't feel like writing an Epinion. I'll try again tomorrow. In fact, once I'm connected, that's what I can do if I keep up this not-being-able-to-fall-asleep thing. I can write some Epinions until I get tired.

Ah, I know what I can do now. I can go through my mail. Good thing I have a lot of it.

I got out of the shower just in time. My phone was ringing and it was Crate and Barrel calling to confirm delivery for Friday. She said they would be here between 11-2. If that's really true, than I should be all done with the deliveries by 2:00. A woman from Ethan Allen is coming around 11:00, RCN is coming between 8:30-12:30, and then Crate and Barrel between 11-2. If that all works out, that's really not bad! And I called RCN today to see if they had a phone number for me. I was hoping to get a 917 aread code since I hate 646. Well... they gave me a 212!!!!! I can't believe it. Everyone I talked to told me there hasn't been any 212 for a long time. Well, I guess I got lucky! I hope that all works out. And half of the Bloomingdales order came yesterday. If the other half doesn't get here by Friday, Paula should call them.

Oh yes, it's Valentine's Day. I never really think of it as a holiday even though retail is desparate for people to mark the occasion. One commercial in particular cracked me up. It was a little boy talking to his father, "Look at all the great stuff we got Mom for Valentine's Day at K-MART." Sorry, but I just don't think of K-MART as the place to get a romantic present. Anyway, even when I have a significant other on February 14th, I never really think about it. The people I'm involved with are always more romantic than I am. I'm about as non-romantic as you can get.

I'm not looking forward to the walking tour tomorrow. I don't know why. I guess I just don't think I'll observe very much or not observe things correctly. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. And if I have time afterwards, I think I'll go see "Hannibal" if it's playing at a convenient time.

I'm still slightly hyper about "Music Man". I talked to Paula about it and since they'll be up here this weekend, she asked if I wanted to see it again with them. YES!!! I do hope that works. Even if we don't get front row seats (which I know we won't), it'll still be worth it. Although, with most things, once I see something from a really good seat, it's never quite as good in a crappier seat. I really wish I had better vision.

Paula sent me a picture of her father taken of him on a horse in Panama at the end of WWII. It's a great picture. He really was a good-looking man.

Kate & Anna McGarrigle are playing at the Bottom Line Saturday and Sunday. I told Paula and of course she wants to go see that now too. I hope I have time for all this fun over the weekend. I really need to finish my Urban Affairs project, or at least almost finish it. And I'm going to be kicked out for most of Saturday since Harvey's brining a client here. I guess I could stay in my room, but it's rather uncomfortable to type on a bed. It's much easier on a flat surface. I guess I could find a quite cafe and work on it there. But all my notes are on tape, and I don't feel like playing a tape of me talking in a public place. Maybe I can do the majority on Friday after all the chaos in the apartment is gone. Then Sunday I can finish it up. It's not due till March 1st, but I want to finish it before I go to Baltimore so I don't have to worry about it while I'm there.

I just realised that Paula won't want to go see Kate & Anna since it's standing room only and will be smoke-y. Guess I'll either go myself or not go at all. I don't know if I feel like paying $25 to see them. $10 would be fine, but $25 sounds like too much.

I was just thinking that I hadn't heard my favourite Matchbox 20 song in a while and it's playing right now. Of course, the employees are so loud that I can't even hear it. I'm sitting right by some room the employees keep going into and coming out of. This one woman screamed right in my ear that she found something. Then she bumped my chair as she danced to the counter. This place is obnoxious. I hope the other location isn't busy anymore. Oh wait, after Friday this shouldn't be a problem anymore. But I'll believe that when I see it.

Busy day! I went on my walking tour of the Upper East Side this morning and that wasn't too eventful. I walked for 30 minutes and doubt I observed enough stuff for a 6 page paper. I'll have to make up stuff. After, I stopped at Starbucks and the satellite music station was playing awesome Motown stuff- "Son of a Preacher Man" and "Let's Get it On"!

Then I went to school to check my email and stuff and remembered I was supposed to sign up for the Math Workshop today. So I went to the office and had a little orientation by this woman who told us what we'd be doing. It's A LOT more complicated than I thought it would be. It'll take about 4-5 hours a week and includes tutorials on the computer, worksheets on each topic (7 have to be turned in), and test on each topic plus the exit exam that we have to pass so we can take Math 101. The whole thing is 53 topics and goes from addition of integers to quadratic equations to linear inequalities. Basically all the stuff in the math class I took last summer. So starting next Thursday (since it takes that long for this woman to get our information entered into the computer), I'll be going to school 2 hours early both days. I hope that's enough. If not, I'll make it 3 hours early each day. Ugh.

So after all that crap, I went to see "Head Over Heels" since I wanted something mindless. It was actually not bad. The plot was more complicated that I thought it would be and it was the perfect movie to see after all the academic stuff.

Classes tnight- the English teacher is now asking us questions by going through the roster in random order. I don't know why she bothers asking us questions when, first of all, she can't hear any of us, and secondly, no matter what we answer, she never comments on it, she just gives her own answer as if we never said anything. And I thought we were done with the sonnets. Last week she said, no assignment for Thursday, we'll start discussing Othello so bring your books. So I brought Othello.

A side note... I couldn't wait for Amazon to maybe ship my books (when did they start taking so long with the shipping? Have they closed everything down except one warehouse?), I bought the book at Barnes and Noble. I'll return in when Amazon ships mine (I couldn't cancel the order since it was already in the shipping process). I feel bad giving the money to Amazon and taking it away from Barnes and Noble but it's easier to return it to a store down the street than to ship it somewhere. And besides, it's only $5.00. Yes, but it's the principle. Anyway, when I went to Barnes and Noble, the line at the register was LONG! So I went to the cafe, which was empty, and asked if I could pay there. I could. Now I know the secret!

Anyway, back to English... she said, "Now, I asked you to read 3 sonnets for today..." And everyone started talking at once telling her that she did not. So she said we would read them now. Well, I didn't have my book with the sonnets, so I shared with the girl next to me. I can't believe her- is she just forgetful or senile? And she's so repetitive. She'll discuss something about the sonnets and then ask us the same question, we give the answer (since she just said it) and then she'll repeat our answers in her own words. We really only need to come to class every other day since she discusses the same thing 2 days in a row. And so she's repetitive and the sonnets are too. They all say the same thing, basically. God, this class is boring.

Urban Affairs- Obviously Joel felt stupid last week standing there while Nazi-guy (John) taught the class. So they brought this bean bag thing and when one person was talking, the guy with the bean bag shut up. Then the guy with the bean bag wanted to say something so he threw the bean bag to the guy talking and they shut up. They kept doing this. I figured out what they were doing right away, since it's a common theatre exercise, and thought it was hilarious. I wonder where they got the idea? A co-teaching seminar? Anyway, it was cute at first and then got annoying. They forgot who was supposed to be doing what and who was supposed to have the bean bag and when. They stopped it half way through the class. Joel's getting bolder though! He led most of the current events discussion and even interrupted John sometimes. John tries too hard to be funny. Actually, if he wasn't teaching, I wouldn't mind talking to him. He does seem to have the sense of humour of someone I get along with. And he told some girl, since she answered a question correctly, that she got 500 points and then asked if anyone watched "Who's Line is it Anyway?". Well, he got 500 points from me for mentioning that!

Got the rest of the Bloomingdale's package. And, I doubt I will any time in the near future, but if I ever shop at Bloomies, I will carry the stuff home with me no matter how heavy the package is.

Tomorrow is stay-home-and-wait-to-see-who-shows-up day. If all three show up, I will be a happy woman! If just RCN shows up, I will be a somewhat happy woman. If no one shows up (I can't imagine that happening), the person that answers the phone when I call to find out what happened is going to wish they didn't!!!!!

And now for the most exciting news of the day... NEIL AND MAXINE GOT A BABY!!! She was born January 2nd, will have a name beginning with "A" (I guess they haven't quite decided yet), they take her home Tuesday, the birth mother will not be involved in the child's life at all, and Neil's a nervous wreck. They'll do fine! I know it.

And for some crappy news of the day... Jay called Paula and Paula finally spoke up to find out why Jay & Sherry haven't been including us in their lives. They seem to think it's the other way around. They think that Paula and Harvey are too busy for them, Neil never calls him (YES HE DOES, it's Jay that breaks their plans all the time), and he emailed me all the time when I was living in Phoenix and I never replied (Oh, so NOT true. He emailed me once, I wrote back and then I never heard from him again. I knew he wasn't into email and stuff so I figured it was a one-time thing). Oh, and when they do all get together, Paula, Harvey, Neil, and Maxine talk about work the whole time. I doubt that's true. And why can't they bring up topics? Jay said that Sherry isn't too bright (which is very true), but she could talk about stuff she knows about. In fact, she does. I've been a listener in many uninteresting conversations with her. So all this got brought up since Paula asked him the other day about getting together for his and my birthday and he told her Sherry was taking care of it and it was going to be on the 17th of March. Why weren't any of us told? Well, the other day Neil got an email from Aunt Anne asking if he was looking forward to Jay's surprise party. He had no idea what she was talking about and called Paula. Paula asked Jay about it and asked why wasn't she told and Jay said that Sherry didn't have her phone number. Uh, last time I checked, they DO have information in Baltimore. Or she could have called Neil for their phone number. But she didn't call Neil about it either. Wow, I sound like I have a real family here. Look how much I can write about all of them. Anyway, they changed the party to the 10th so we can all go, so I guess I have to go down to Maryland (where I don't exactly know) that weekend. I was hoping not to, but something tells me I'd better go. It would just be easier not to since I'll be there at the end of February, the auction is the weekend after the 10th, and I'm going to be extremely busy keeping up with work and school with just those two things. Now I'll be away the weekend of the 10th which will just make it that much harder to get back on track. Maybe I'll leave Saturday afternoon, stay at Neil and Maxine's for the night (if that's okay with them) and then leave Sunday morning. That way I can at least get back here and be able to get some things done on Sunday (like read the Times for class and stuff).

But to end on a good note, I'm so excited I finally have a cousin. Sure there might be a huge age difference, but I'm still thrilled. I can't wait to meet her. I'm hoping I'll have time when I'm there on Saturday. I'll probably have to drive a round trip of 2 hours just to be there for an hour, but it's worth it! Oh, here's an idea. I won't leave Monday morning from Baltimore, I'll leave Monday evening from DC (if I can return the car to a differnt location). Oh, the car thing might be a problem since I'm renting from Towson and not an airport... Oh, this is ridiculous to figure out details at midnight. I'll worry about it next week. It's not like the decision has to be made by tomorrow...

Couldn't fall asleep last night (it's amazing how many bizarre thoughts enter my mind while I'm trying to fall asleep) so I read the Almanac for a while. Night classes really don't seem to be working for me this semester. I'm tired during them (my usual tired time) and I get wired when I get home and treat the night like it's 4 hours earlier or something. As long as I don't have to get up early the next day, I'm fine. But it seems like I always have to get up early. Like this morning, RCN got here at 9:00 to install the phone (he's working on it now).

For the first time ever (I think), I had a dream about Niraga- yuck. She was moving back in with me although I think it was in New York. She completely caugh me off guard. I didn't know if Matt & Brie had moved out yet or if they were moving at all. But I acted like everything was fine since I didn't want to start off on a bad note since she seemed to be her friendly self rather than the bitch she was like towards the end. Then I was walking on Old Court Rd. right where it does that twisty thing in Pikesville around Park Heights. Since there was a lot of traffic, I had to run to keep from getting hit by the cars. Even after the traffic was gone, I continued jogging as if I jogged every day. Then I stopped at Fields (although it didn't look like Fields) for breakfast. Then I ran into Matt and his friend, Jeff, outside. For some reason we were talking about something and Jeff got a fact wrong. I corrected him and told him that I knew for sure since I had just read it in the almanac last night. Then I alarm went off. I continued being comfortable in my warm bed since I was tired (I had just fallen asleep a few hours before) but then the RCN guy got here and I had to get out of bed :(

So, at least I know I'm getting a phone line. OH! I HAVE to remember to ask him about a phone book. I'm really sick of calling information every time I need a number; especially since it costs money AND they don't always answer. The other alternative has been to go to the conceirge desk to use their phone book. Some of them are fine with that and some insist in looking up the numbers for me (which is annoying since I don't always know what I'm looking for and sometimes looking for several numbers). And it's also annoying to have to get dressed and put on shoes just to look up a phone number. Don't know about the cable modem yet since he just told me that there would be a separate person coming to do that. Great, more people to maybe or maybe not show up. Actually though, I have a good feeling about today. I think everything will go as planned. Am I still half asleep or just crazy? Well, at least I can make clear phone calls that won't be dropped every few minutes while I'm waiting for others to show up. I can call to get AT&T long distance so I can get airline miles. I can call to see if my shoes are ready. I can call a few work related people. Figures that a new month starts for my cell phone plan just as I get my land line installed. I used at least twice the amount of minutes than I have on my plan. It won't always be that bad of course. Harvey used my phone for a while when he was here and I had a particularly large amount of phone calls this month which were the kind where you're on hold for large chunks of time. So this won't happen again but it certainly will be expensive.

I was just looking through the movie catalogue of Flik's Video to Go, and I knew their categorising was terrible, but just saw the funniest one yet. "Swimming to Cambodia" in the Foreign section. I mean, I guess they got that idea from the title, but maybe it's just cause he's so neurotic, all those words and all the rambling, maybe someone watched it and decided it was a foreign movie ;)

Okay, it's a little after 10:00 and I have a working phone line and phone number! And I made him check all the jacks cause who needs someone out here if I decide to use another jack later on and the jack doesn't work? Step one complete. I asked him if he knew when the cable modem guy would get here and he called to confirm (that was nice of him). He found out that he would hopefully (my word, not his) be here between 11:30-4:30. That's a little irritating, especially if he gets here after 2:00 since everything else is supposed to be done by then. Oh, but everyone else could be running late too, or not show up at all, or get here on time but the cable modem guy will get here at 4:30 and that would piss me off. Anyway, I really don't care at this point. It's early. After I've been sitting around for a while with nothing to do, then I'll get irritated. Until then, I HAVE A WORKING PHONE LINE!

Wow, as I was setting up the chairs, the conceirge called again and said RCN is here! Let's see how this goes...

Then I'll use Sunday for writing my paper and not Saturday at all. Maybe I'll hang out with Paula on Saturday and do whatever she does when she goes out since Harvey will be here with his client so I can't really do much here unless it's in my bedroom. I'd also like to get a baby gift for Neil & Maxine's baby. I hope she has a name soon, I hate refering to her as "the baby". I could also look for trash cans since I haven't done that in a while and I still really need them. And maybe I'll go see a movie or something.

Last night I watched "Grand Canyon". I didn't remember how heavy the subject was. That's not really what I was in the mood for, but oh well. It's still a good movie.

Paula and Harvey got here a little while ago. Now I'm basically kicked out of the apartment until 6:00 so I'm going down to the Village to get tickets for tomorrow night's Kata & Anna show at the Bottom Line for the three of us. Now I'm trying to figure out what else I need to do in the Village since I hate having to go down there for only one thing. There has to be something else I need to do or something that would be fun. It's too cold to just wander around. Maybe there will be a good movie playing somewhere down there.

Tonight Paula, Harvey & I ordered Chinese and watched "Swimming to Cambodia". It really is amazing how much he talks about that I can relate to. The threes, the perfect moment, the paranoia, the phobias... And I love the way he tells a story. He has perfect timing.

Tomorrow I get to wait around for RCN, write my paper, and read the Times. Maybe the RCN guy will show up early and then I can have part of the day to go do something (but I don't think I really have anywhere I need to go).

Busy day. First I tried to work on my paper but just as I started to do that, the RCN guy showed up to install the cable modem. SO NOW I ACTUALLY HAVE INTERNET ACCESS IN MY HOME!! I feel so much better. It's amazing how we start to depend on technology. So rather than write my paper, I updated my email address with most people (not personal people in case any of you reading this wonder why you don't have my new email address yet). Then I went to the Bottom Line for Kate & Anna McGarrigle with Paula & Harvey. It was good, although I felt strange throughout the whole thing. Their music is a little odd, they had their kids singing with them which was neat (and one of the kids is performing tomorrow night at Mercury Lounge), and the audience was all over 50. Still, I'm glad I went. It's something I never would have done if Paula didn't want to go. Then I went to Pig n' Whistle for some port. I bought one and this nice guy, Calvin, bought me a few more. He's a retired man living near Kennedy airport, originally from the West Indies. Now I'm downloading some songs from Napster- it's so amazing how fast you can download songs even with a cable modem! Of course, it will seem slow in a few years, but right now, I'm thrilled!

Tomorrow I will write my paper.

Good night.

It's so nice having Internet access in the comfort of my own home. And it's fast too! But I'll have to pretend it's not available so I can write my paper today. Tomorrow and Wednesday I'll try to finish getting my new email address situated. It's nice that today's a holiday so at least I won't get that much email today.

I've also been downloading songs from Napster. It's amazing how fast it is with a cable modem. I'm still not over that yet.

And I'm still working on giving my new email address to everyone who needs it. I wish I had more time for that. I'll probably stay up late tonight (I do anyway) doing that and get it all done. I know there will still be people I forgot about but maybe I'll remember them later in the week.

I did most of the work on my paper yesterday. Today I walked around my neighbourhood one more time and I'm glad I did since I found a few more observations I can include in my still-too-short paper.

I also chatted with Chandra last night. She seems to be doing well for herself, with designing CD cover art and all. Her site is off to a good start too!

I called Neil a few minutes ago to see how the baby is and if she has a name. She does- Abigail Tova. Welcome home Abby!! Can't wait to meet her Saturday!

Been having busy, crazy dreams the past few nights. Don't remember much now other than driving in the snow up where Josh lives and having difficulty parking at the library (it was either North Dakota, Minnesota, or North Carolina, I kept changing my mind in the dream), something about Brie, and something about Rebecca. Wish I remembered more.

And it's amazing the thoughts that go through my head while I'm trying to fall asleep. Maybe I should try playing music or something. Maybe complete quiet isn't good for me. All I do is lay in bed thinking about the past, reasons for my personality, and other philosophical thoughts that never enter my head at any other time during the day.

And now I should get ready to head up to school.

As a leisure activity tonight, I posted the rest of the movies I saw in 2000. That was fun- there weren't too many left to add so it didn't take long. Now I have to start a file of this year's movies. I've already seen about 30 or so. I probably won't do that until I get back next week. I have important things I need to do the rest of the week and then I'll be in Maryland over the weekend.

Jay called tonight. I got home and there was this beeping sound. I had no idea what was going on. First I thought I left something in the microwave until I realised I hadn't eaten anything today. Then I thought it was coming from another apartment- the walls are pretty thin. Then I thought, "Okay, there's a bomb in my apartment and I have 30 seconds to defuse it or get out." No, I don't watch too many movies. Anyway, it was my answering machine. I didn't even know it was set up. It's one of the ones that come with the phone. Anyway, it was a message from Jay. I asked him what the machine said and he said that he thought he had the wrong number cause it was some message from Bell Atlantic. I'd better change that tomorrow. Not that anyone will call. I think only 3 people have this number and they all know where I'll be over the weekend. Anyway, we talked for a few minutes and then he had to go. I haven't really talked to him since the summer, I think (unless you count the 2 minutes at Neil & Maxine's Christmas dinner), so I thought we would talk longer. Guess not. I couldn't figure out a way to mention the email thing, so we just talked about the fact that he can add my name to the list of people coming to his (our?) birthday dinner thing, Maryland basketball, the Super Bowl, his retirement dream, and the weather. Typical conversation for us. We never talk about anything else, except for the year that he was going through the divorce when all we talked about was his divorce. So if he doesn't want to see much of me, that's fine- it's not a great relationship anyway.

Tomorrow I'll work on my paper (have to finish it tomorrow), do some work, and maybe do something fun like rent a movie or something. Then Thursday I start the Math workshop (hopefully- I'd better not get there and it not be set up for me yet), go to class, come home, pack, and try to get to bed at a decent hour since I have to get up early and go to the train station. Maybe I'll go to Pig n' Whistle for a few drinks after class and hope that alcohol helps me sleep. I know that's not good, but I hardly ever do that.

I'm looking forward to the weekend. Hopefully, Eytan and I can get tickets for "Rent" for one of the performances. And of course, I'm looking forward to meeting Abigail.

Just remembered a little of my dream from last night. I was in a cafeteria with Heritage Players people. Then I was flying in a plane from the 60's to Vegas with various people (Paula, Neil, and maybe some others). Then I was with Eytan and his brother at their parents' house. His father was teaching us Jewish history stuff, I think. He was very strict and demanding (mostly of Eytan).

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that I got my permenant driver's licence last week. It's okay, but like my school ID, I look mean. An interesting thing about New York licences- they don't have your weight on them. That seems more like a California thing rather than New York, but I guess California has so many illegal alien problems, that their licences have to have as much information as possible.

Just read that USA Today thinks that the Yankees are the most powerful Major League Baseball team. They rank the Red Sox 4th and the Orioles 29th!

I got caught up with work most of the day and really need to finish my paper now. I didn't fall asleep last night until after 5:00 AM but managed to wake up at 10:00. Now if only I could fall asleep by 3:00 and wake up at 8:00...

Eytan called tonight and we talked for a while. He's sounding much better these days. I guess since he's made his decision to stay in Baltimore, he's had an active social life with lots of fun activities (Dave Matthews thing tomorrow night, Rent this weekend...), and he's starting to take action to start his tutoring business. I can't wait to help him. It'll be nice using my skills to help a friend's business rather than just strangers' businesses. He was watching the Grammys so I turned it on as well (didn't realise it was on tonight). What glitz! And who are all these crappy people? I missed Moby and Madonna and got stuck watching Macy Gray (who told her she could sing?) and Christine Agullera (I know I spelled it wrong and I don't care). But Jon Stewart's hosting and I LOVE HIM!!! And it's interesting that Elton John is going to sing a duet with Eminem (did I spell that one wrong too? Hope so.). So I watched for 5 minutes and turned it off. I have more important things to do like work, work on my paper, and watch a movie. But about the paper- I'm not as concerned with finishing tonight since I realised that I can print it out and work on it while I'm on the train. I usually use that time to read magazines to keep up with things, but this will be a better use of time. I can keep up with things later when I have time.

Decided to check Napster to see if anyone had anything from the Grammys (I figured that would be something people would consider cool to do). Sure enough, there's TONS of stuff already! I wish I had some of the free time these other people have. Speaking of free time, that's obviously the kind of people who will get "Rent" tickets. People who can wait in line all day. Maybe there are some really devoted fans (Eytan) who actually have to work or other important activities and can't wait in line all day and will miss out because of these people with loads of free time. Oh well, that's the way it works. So maybe we'll get to see it this weekend, and maybe we won't. I'm glad they do the lottery now in New York. When Manley Pope leaves the show (I should find out when that is), I'll go see it.

Okay, this sleeping pattern has GOT to stop! I fell asleep around 6:00 this morning and woke up because the conceirge called at 9:00 because he had a package for me (my lamp finally- finally I'll be able to see in my bedroom!!). So now I'm being lazy and doing stuff online rather than clean up the apartment, take a shower, read the Times for class... I might not even read the paper and just sit in the back of class and listen to everyone else. I'm entitled to a lazy day, right? Sure, but this is a good day for that. I should start the Math workshop today which means leaving here around 2:30 so that only gives me a little more than 3 hours to get my act together. Maybe I'll start the workshop on Tuesday instead, but I'll only do that if I use more of today for important things.

Just learned about Napigator (I've been out of the Internet news and activity thing since I didn't have access very often for a few months). For those of you reading who are also not in the know, it's a program you can download that will connect you to Napster servers so once they shut Napster, you can still find music to download. That's what I understand anyway. Haven't read up on it completely.

I just took a shower since I thought I'd feel more human, but that didn't work. I still feel like I never went to sleep. I noticed that I have slight wrinkles under my eyes. A sign of age or just lack of sleep?

Just learned that "Mike Mardesich takes the Terps into his 127th game on Tuesday, setting a record for the most consecutive games played in Terrapin history". That "kid" needs to graduate already.

Anyway, English class- yuck as usual. There's a girl next to me, Tara, who I talked to this evening before class started about all the things we had about this teacher. It was fun. She reminds me a lot of myself when I was first in college. One thing the teacher did to piss me off today was that she kept asking me questions. Three in a row. She was asking questions by looking through the roster and I guess she got stuck on my name. I had already volunteered two other answers so it really bothered me that she kept asking me, looked at me like I hadn't said anything all night, and then marked stuff down next to my name when I told her I didn't know the answer. Oh, and when she called roll, she asked if I was there on Tuesday since she has me as absent. How could she have had me as absent but still asked me questions that day? Guess she didn't mark those down. So, I have no idea what she's doing and neither do the rest of us. I just had bad luck today. She needs to get past the first few cards of A's and B's and ask other people stuff. And I'm not volunterring any more information since she doesn't know who I am and doesn't right the stuff I do answer on her little card.

Urban Affairs- AWESOME!! First, we talked about 3 Times articles and one of the ones they wanted to talk about was renovations in downtown Baltimore (in a New York newspaper?). I wish I had read that one, I would have had a lot to say, I bet. At least I knew what Mayor O'Mally thought of that and I tried to say something but didn't get heard. It's so hard to have a lecture class as a discussion class. It's too big of a room with way too many people. I can never hear anyone's comments. Then we were talking about old cities versus new cities, so I brought up Phoenix as a new city and was able to say LOTS about it. No one else can talk about anywhere else besides New York. None of them travel. One guy said Phoenix was just one long road in a bunch of sand. The Nazi teacher said, "Have you ever been to Phoenix?" Anyway, the Nazi guy, John, was rather okay tonight. I do like his sense of humour, just not his strict teaching method. Maybe he'll get more relaxed when he sees we don't need to be treated like babies. So I won't call him Nazi guy anymore, I'll call him John. And Joel... I think I've developed a little crush on him. He's just so funny, and so laid back, and so cute, and so smart, and so adorable, and... so funny, and... so cute... Anyway, I remembered to give him the Man's Life Not Raising Hogs thing. I didn't wait around for him to read it since I wanted to get home. The subway was taking forever to show up. It took so long, Joel & John came down to wait for the subway before it came (they usually linger around after class answering questions). Anyway, Joel recognised me standing there and thanked me for the thing. I wanted to find something else to say but couldn't think of anything.

It's a mess on the streets tonight. It's still snowing a little but not much is sticking. It's sure causing traffic issues though. Since I've been home, the honking has been constant. It's a free-for-all out there. I almost fell 10 times on the ice on my two block walk. Well, it's better than the 120 car pile-up on I-95 in Virginia. First I thought it was impossible that it could involve that many cars. Then I realised that there a lot of trucks on the Interstate and you can't see what's in front of them until it's too late. So, yeah, I guess 120 cars can be in one accident. WHAT A MESS!

I really want to get to bed early but I'M WIRED!!!!! I packed so I don't have to worry about that at least. I'm drinking some wine and hopefully that will help. But I just can't drink that much at home alone. I was going to go to Pig N' Whistle but didn't want to walk back through the ice and slush. So, I've had about 2 glasses, haven't eaten all day, and don't feel the effects at all. Still my normal, wired self. I'm going to force myself to lie down by midnight and hopefully fall asleep by 2:00 or 3:00. Then I have to get up at 7:30. Yuck!! I wish I didn't have so much to do tomorrow in Baltimore. Then I could leave later. Oh well, somehow I'll make it. And it's certainly not going to be a relaxing weekend with all the errands on Friday, then get in line to see "Rent", then wake up early to go to College Park to meet Abigail, then get back in line to see "Rent" (if we can't go Friday), then possibly get back in line Sunday morning (if we haven't see the show yet)... Hopefully we'll see it before Sunday so we can sleep in Sunday morning. Or I could be obnoxious and make Eytan get up and wait in line himself... Nah, I couldn't do that. Although, when I'm laying in bed and really tired, I'm the most irrational person ever!

Sitting on the train back to New York now. I decided to take an earlier train but when I got on and gave the guy my ticket, he told me this was a reserved train and I would have to get off in Wilmington and get on the next train. Then he changed his mind and let me stay! Sometimes I can have good luck.

This weekend was incredible! That's why I haven't written anything until now. It started with a delayed train to Baltimore which also got even more delayed when they had to have the train checked out in Phili. But I finally got to Baltimore. Bought some books for Abby, rented the car, and then headed down to the Lyric to stand in line for "Rent" tickets. We got them!!! Then we had dinner at Silk Road Cafe and then went back to the theatre for the show. It was good, although Act II was much better than Act I. I'm glad the Roger was an understudy since I had already seen the regular Roger (Cary Shields) in Phoenix and didn't care too much for him. I liked the understudy! I still don't like the Mimi in this cast. But it was good. After the show, we went to Central Station for a few drinks.

Saturday I drove down to College Park to meet Abby. She's adorable and TALL! She'll be a basketball player and help out her vertically challenged parents reach things on the top shelves. I asked Maxine if I could borrow her for that too. Then I went back to Baltimore that afternoon to get in line for "Rent" tickets again. Eytan and I decided it was worth seeing again. Well, we got centre seats (we were on stage right Friday night) and it was MUCH BETTER!! The original Roger was back and he was better than when I saw him in Phoenix but still not my favourite. Although, the chemistry between him and the girl who plays Mimi was still as amazing as it was when I saw them in Phoenix. Maureen was just fantastic both nights. She's just mesmorising, gorgeous, funny, and talented! Act I was better Saturday which made the whole experience better. After the show, we went to Central Station and then to the Allegro. Then we went back to Eytan's and put on his "Rent" CD and sang along to Act I.

Sunday we went to the Baltimore Museum of Art for brunch with his friends, Kurt & Dana, and two of their friends, Charles and Gabe. What a great time that was! Kurt and Gabe sing opera and Charles was an opera lover so the conversation was interesting and not something I come across too often. Dana was really great to talk to. He's not an opera person which was nice since when Kurt, Charles, and Gabe got off on all the gossip and drama, I could talk to Dana about other interesting topics. After brunch, we went to see "Before Night Falls". Not a movie I would normally see, but they all wanted to see it so I went along. The cinematography was gorgeous! After the movie Kurt & Dana went home and Eytan and I went back to his apartment.

I think the weekend was so great since it felt like a real vacation (I only looked at work stuff twice for about 15 minutes each time) and I had social activities. It made Baltimore seem like a great city. The city itself isn't bad, it's more the people and their mentality that bothers me. I was supposed to help Eytan with his web site, but his he didn't have an editor on his computer and his CD ROM drive was broken. He didn't want to deal with fixing it and he didn't want to work on the website without working on it in the editor. So I guess he'll have to do it on his own or with my help over the phone or chatting or something.

Today I did some stuff around Towson and now I'm on the train. Tonight I need to go through email and maybe talk to Marcell since she called when I was in Baltimore. I'm surprised she called so soon after just talking to me last month. At the end of that conversation, she made it clear that she was busy doing a hundred things and didn't have time to hang out but I could call if I had an emergency. Maybe she needs help with her computer. That's not very nice of me, I know. Maybe she's just really calling to see how I'm doing. We'll see...

I finished fixing my paper on the train on the way down, but I still need to look through it one more time before I turn it in. I know I at least have one more point to add and I need to clean up some little details since I'm not sure I did that already. It still feels unfinished. I guess I could do that now, but I think I'm too tired. It was a busy weekend with very little rest. I did read the Times on Sunday but I really only read a few articles. Hopefully we'll be talking about one of them in class so maybe I can participate in the discussion. If not, I'll just keep quiet and sit in the back.

I guess Marcell isn't calling me back tonight.

I had exciting news except that it's not going to happen. Jeff called and left a message on my cell phone that he would be in New York for work on Monday and could he come visit and stay with me for the weekend before. I was looking forward to that but then I checked my email and he wrote that he doesn't have to be in New York after all. Oh well, that would have been fun.

I went through half of my email but my brain isn't functioning well enough to look at anything else important so I'm just going to stop the work thing now and relax. Maybe I'll find some cool music to download. I'm also still looking for artwork for my walls as I'm getting really sick looking at all these white walls. I found one that I like, now I just have to get the OK from Paula (she'll probably hate it). I also want to go by that art school on 57th to see if they have any interesting, reasonably priced stuff. If the weather's nice on Wednesday, maybe I'll go do that before I go see "Aida".

Tomorrow I'm going to start the Math workshop. I think I had a dream about it last night, but don't remember too much. I think I walked in there, looked at the topics, freaked out, and walked out. Hopefully it won't be that bad. I can't believe how much work it actually is though. It seems like more work than an actual class and you don't even get credit for it. But you also don't have to pay for it, so that's good. I hope I can finish it before the semester's over. I wonder if you can continue working on it after the semester's over and before the summer session starts. I don't want to have to wait until the fall to get back into it since I'll probably forget everything I already did. I'll have to remember to ask them tomorrow.

Well, I went to school early to do the Math workshop thing and there were no computers available! I wish there was a way to find this out before I get up there. So, I'll try again on Thursday. And if it happens again, I'll call or email the woman in charge and tell her how pissed off I am! So instead of having to do the Math thing, I went to Starbucks (the only place I've found in walking distance to hang out in) and read an East Side paper. It was okay. It passed some time. Then I went to the computer lab and checked out some of my frequent flier things. I really have A LOT of American miles. I seem to like short sentences today.

Classes were okay. English sucked and the one girl there that was fun to talk to wasn't there today. I hope she didn't drop the class. That would really suck! Urban Affairs was good even though it was John teaching and not Joel. He's REALLY picky about grading and stuff but at least the subject matter is interesting. He's really big on how cities get formed and why and population density. I know it's important, but can't we move on? I guess it's better to go slowly than go quickly and lose everyone.

Tomorrow looks like it's gonna be cold and windy, so I don't know about walking to the theatre to stop by the art school on the way. I think I'll save that for a nicer day. I am looking forward to seeing "Aida" though. I think this one might get to me though. "Music Man" didn't bother me since I knew it well. Same thing with "Rent". All I know about "Aida" is some of the music. If the story and acting is really good and moves me, I might get a little depressed. But that's fine. I don't mind.

I have to remember to put my paper on a disk so I can print it out at school. I was thinking about getting a printer but I hardly ever need one and why take up space when I can just go print everything at school (or other places too)? I think I'll head up to school early and put the finishing touches on my paper there. It'll get me out of the apartment early which is good since I never feel like leaving and I have the Math workshop too.

I feel like I never write anything meaningful anymore. I just write about my activities and errands and stuff. Who cares? It's just like an extended calendar or day planner or something. I guess I just don't have much on my mind these days.

Oh, here's something fun... I FOUND HONEYTHINGS! The cool honey candy from Italy that I haven't found since they stopped selling them at the Fells Point Broadway Market around 10 years ago. I never knew the name of them so I didn't know where to look or how to ask for them. They were at the deli on Lexington between 57th & 58th. Now I know they're called Honees- Honey Filled Drops (nice original name). Flashbacks of walking around Baltimore with Steffani and getting Honeythings in Fells Point. I got them there with Rebecca once too. I should tell her I found them; she'll appreciate it.

Fell asleep at 6:30 AM and woke up at 11:00. Lovely.

Rebecca called last night. She's getting her wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow and will be out of it for a few days and wanted movie suggestions. I spent a good 30 minutes listing movies and writing brief descriptions about themin an email. That was fun!

MARYLAND BEAT DUKE!!!! I really wish I could have seen it. Figures ESPN gets to broadcast their last game (when they played a great game and then lost in overtime and everyone will only remember that they lost) and not this one. Oh well, at least there's the ACC playoffs soon. I can't believe it's that time of year already. February always ends so fast and the NCAA tournement and my birthday always sneak up on me.

In fact, Rebecca asked me what I was doing the middle of next week and I couldn't figure out why she was asking. I was trying to think if there was a holiday or if something important was going on and I couldn't guess what she was getting at. She had to remind me that my birthday is next week (a week from today, actually). Scary! And of course I have nothing to do that day and no one to celebrate with. That's okay though. I'll at least get to see Paula, Harvey, Neil and Maxine on the 10th for Jay's birthday dinner. And Jay should at least acknowledge that it's my birthday. My birthday never seems to be anything special. Last year I had to give a speech for class and then went to dinner with Brie at some crappy Italian restaurant where she made them sing happy birthday to me (I HATE that). I really only had one fun birthday, in 1996. First I had a rehearsal for "House of Frankenstein" and somehow someone found out that it was my birthday. The cast sang happy birthday at the end of rehearsal and then made me go out with them to Macado's. I couldn't stay long sthoughince my favourite Blacksburg band, GSO, was playing that night. Terry and his friend Josh and I went to see them. They were awesome! I got pretty drunk that night. That was really a great time! Anyway, I think Flik's Video lets you get free movies on your birthday. Maybe I'll just rent a few movies and relax next week. That certainly sounds better than going out by myself.

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