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theautumnstar
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Interests: Writing, reading, good comic books, collecting comic art, my boyfriend, my kittens, useless trivia, pudding.
Occupation: Writer\Editor
Industry: Writing\Publishing
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
8/6/2005
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| I haven't updated this since the big move? Wow, my blog is suffering from my Facebook addiction. Luckily, almost everyone I know now is on Facebook (including Mom) so I guess you all pretty much know what I'm up to.
We moved on October 30th. The move here was fine, our movers in Westchester were awesome. The only snag was that I sprained my ankle. Bad. Like, thought it might be broken bad. Oh, and I had a really bad sinus infection. Yes, I am jinxed. Luckily, NYC has awesome walk-in health care. On Saturday morning, my good pal Dylan helped me get to the Beth Israel clinic, while Dave and our friend Kara went back to Westchester to pick up the cats and the last of the stuff.
All in all, it was a good move. Nothing got broken (including my ankle) and we're all settled in now. Well, okay, maybe not entirely settled in. We still have a lot of boxes, but you get the idea.
The neighborhood is fantastic. Grocery stores galore, bakeries and diners! Specialty shops and boutiques! Hardware stores with everything you could ever want! Some of the best Thai places and fish-and-chips shops, not to mention awesome bars and The Chocolate Room! Dylan is a 5 minute walk away, and Kara--who lives in equally awesome Carroll Gardens--is a 40 minute walk away.
And 40 minutes might sound like a long walk, but we do it all the time! We walk everywhere! For Thanksgiving, Dave and I walked 2.5 miles through Central Park, from midtown Manhattan to Harlem. We then stuffed our faces with delicious food from Sylvia's.
I had: Turkey, giblet gravy (best. gravy. ever.), cornbread stuffing, turnips and collard greens, and mashed potatoes.
Dave had: Turkey, giblet gravy, cornbread stuffing, and two servings of three-cheese baked macaroni and cheese.
We were stuffed. But not so stuffed that we couldn't walk from Grand Central to Rockefeller Center and pick up Red Velvet cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery. Mmmm. And then we walked to Times Square and saw Where the Wild Things Are.
For Dave's 30th birthday (I'm out sequence here, forgive me) we had a big crew of friends meet us at Fat Cat for drinks, pool, and ping pong. When the bar got too packed, Dylan to the rescue! She found a bar off the beaten path close by, and we took it over. It was awesome, and the best part was we took the subway home (no worries of catching the last Metro North train) and stumbled into bed carefree. And had super good Tom's Restaurant for breakfast. (Seriously, best pancakes in the world.)
My sisters also came into town, and so I got to pop back and forth between the city and Brooklyn to see them. They were rolling with a pretty wild crew of ladies, but I hung out for the mellower parts. It was awesome!
This past weekend (back to Thanksgiving) we hung out with Neil and his old roommate Andrew (who is awesome and who we should definitely hang out with again soon) on Friday, and then on Saturday we went to Queens to hang out with John and Danielle, and their buddy Anthony. By the end of the night I had tears rolling down my face and was begging Anthony to stop talking so I could breathe!
So yeah, so far so good on the Brooklyn Experiment. The apartment has its issues...no closets (I bought a wardrobe), and no kitchen counters (we're already working to fix that with some IKEA and clever box arranging) for example, but nothing we can't make work. We probably won't stay here for 4 years (like we did our last apartment) but we're definitely super-happy to be in Brooklyn.
So yeah, that's what I've been up to. And reading about 2-3 books a week. Seriously, I need help. I'm addicted. I'm waiting for my new license with my Brooklyn address to show up, so I can join the Brooklyn public library (walking distance from here) and feed my addiction.
Hope all of you have been well, too! XO
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| I picked up Year of the Flood, by Margaret Atwood, on Monday.
I got Peter & Max: A Fables Novel, by Bill Willingham, on Tuesday.
I finished Year of the Flood on Thursday.
I just finished Peter & Max.
2 books. 3 days a piece. Not bad.
Of course, now I have nothing to read.
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| Dave and I are moving to Brooklyn at the end of this month! Woohoo! This has been a long time coming--we've been looking since May for a reasonably-priced, one-bedroom apartment in a neighborhood we like. But, it was worth the wait, because our new apartment is super-cute, located in a super-fun neighborhood, is a 5 min walk from the subway, a 10 min walk to one of my dearest friends in New York, and is totally reasonably priced (for New York apartments, anyway).
So in preparation...Dave and I have started packing. Well actually, we started packing a few weeks ago, maybe even a month or so ago, when we knew moving was imminent. (We were not going to do another winter here in Westchester with no car. No way).
Once we got the place, we started really packing, and purging. Our apartment is so empty right now--it's ridiculous! Everything in the living room is in a box except: the futon, the TV, the TV stand, the DVD player, and the XBOX. The dining room/computer area is completely boxed up, except Dave's desk. We got rid of the big, glass set of shelves next to Dave's desk. The kitchen is boxed, the food is almost all gone, and we have just one more box for all the "essentials" we had to leave out so we could cook and eat. Same goes for the bathroom. The cat room is all boxes, and we disassembled my vertical bookcase. Our bedroom is packed up (clothes we don't need). We're so packed, we could probably move this weekend, but we're not moving for another 2 weeks!
We've also sold a lot of stuff, which is good because the new apartment will need stuff, and money is tight (same story for everyone, yes?). We've had some luck on Craigslist, selling our old ACs for $100, and I sold my collection of Y The Last Man comic trades for $70. Dave's wheelin' and dealin' art stuff, and helps me price and describe stuff for my auctions, too.
Overall, even though moving is always stressful and we'll have a ton of new stuff to learn about the new place, we're both walking on cloud 9 right now. Our lives are going to change in so many positive ways. We'll each gain 8 hours a week just from the shorter commute! And we won't have to leave a good party at midnight because we have to catch a stupid train! We can have people over! We'll live near the park, and the Botanical Gardens, and awesome restaurants!
Let the migration to Brooklyn begin!
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| The surgery was a major bummer, so I won't go into too much detail. It hurt like hell, the gas actually made it scary and bad-trip-ish, and because they had to open the window to ventilate the room it was also cold as hell. They near split my jaw in two to get my mouth open wide enough, and leaned and pushed and prodded on my face so hard that its still sore and bruised.
Tony picked Dave and I up from the surgeon and was driving us back to Westchester. We got to the Expressway, and a minivan flipped over. Stopped. All. Traffic. Blech. We sat in the car for what felt like an hour, but was really more like 20 minutes. I wanted my Vicodin, and my bed. I cried a little bit, but once we got moving again my spirits picked up.
Home. Sleep. Yay.
Around Saturday I started to notice that I was getting itchy and having mild hot flashes. The pain medication was supposed to be Vicodin, but was a generic which means it was synthetic. You know, I told the doctor I was allergic to synthetic opiates. Oh well, it wasn't nearly as bad as the Fentanyl. I took them every 6 hours instead of every 4 so the itching didn't get too bad, and tried to ice down the pain as much as I could. I sleep a lot, and read Dan Brown when I'm awake.
Sunday. I live on Ramen broth (no noodles), pudding, and Carnation Instant breakfast whipped in a blender with bananas. I crochet a bit, finish the Dan Brown book, and sleep a lot.
Monday. Finally, semi-solid foods (Ramen with noodles). I walk around the block with Dave. It's the first time I've been out of the house since Friday morning. I crochet whenever I can, and sleep.
My face is still swollen, still in pain.
Tuesday. Resting. A little stir crazy. I finished my blanket projects. Here's one.
I'm still not great with the gauge thing, which means my blankets aren't perfect rectangles.
Watched LOTR. Didn't open my mouth unless I had to. Iced my cheek. I'm headed back to work tomorrow, and hoping my jaw will let me talk, and that the bruise is a little less dark and swollen.
I hope you all had a good weekend, and thanks to everyone who sent me well-wishes!
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| The Autumn Star is a redhead again!
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