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| so as it turns out, i'm awful at the updates now that i don't have a job where i can peruse the internet all day. & as more time passes, the less i can think of to share.
for one thing, the homesickness has mellowed out...at least i think so. home doesn't seem so far anymore. i stopped checking the weather for nyc (just for kicks), and i don't crave my shake shack doublestacks (at least not as often). the stories of my friends nights out don't seem as exciting anymore & i think the frequency of phonecalls might have even cut down.
this is not to say i don't miss ny. there's a long list of things that send me off daydreaming, but its usually by comparison & the things that i never really took notice of...
- today is september 11. i remember what i was wearing that day 6 yrs ago. i was wearing jeans & long sleeves. no jacket tho. it was such a nice day...weather-wise. down here. its still hot as hell. low 90s - which is a nice drop from the steady 100+ temps we've had all summer. but low 90s is still not what i would call nice weather. where the fuck is fall? where are my beloved 70 degree temps? not even hints of fall here. my favorite season of the year is no where in sight.
- this city is very flat. like no hills. just flatness all around. (except for the levees but those don't count.) & you know one thing you'll notice in a humid ass city as flat as this...the clouds...the most impossibly gorgeous clouds. sometimes...the clouds will form just like a bob ross painting w/ orangey-pink edges & i gotta focus my absolute hardest not to drive off into oncoming traffic while staring at them.
- i'm not white. one thing i never really appreciated in nyc was the diversity. you can walk one city block & hear a dozen different languages being spoken. here, its country, ghetto, cajun, or y'know...normal english. don't even get me started on the accents...i'm still learning here. there's just so few of me out here that there are a number of occasions where i swear i'd get odd looks like 'woah she speaks english!' its tres annoying. the other day, i went to a new church by my apt. everyone was very friendly, but i never felt so out of place in my life. in a congregation of roughly 250ish, i was the only non-white person sitting there, not even a latino or black dood....ALL white...albino. i'm not sure if i've ever been in that situation before in my entire life.
anyway.
my sister & bro-in-law came for a visit over labor day weekend. that was fun! & i dunno if any of y'all heard the news, but they're PREGNANT!!!! YAAAY!!!! i'd been asking them practically every single day when they were giving me a niece/nephew since they got back from their honeymoon. its sortuv sucky how i'm so far away now and i won't be able to see my sisters bump grow or more importantly...see the actual baby grow once its born. i'm actually pretty upset about that... but anyway, the visit was good, except my sister couldn't really eat a lot of the foods this city is famous for & she wanted to take a nap like every 10 minutes. haha...but nevertheless, it was super nice seeing them again. le sigh.
erck's apt is coming along nicely, still way underfurnished but nice. & he brought sb (the cat) over. erck tried to give him a bath but i think maybe he wasn't dried properly or something, but we came home & saw that his hair was all matted on the butt...like a giant rastafarian dookie braid. so erck tried washing it out but he only separated the big dookie braid into smaller dookie braids & it ended up looking like straight up dreadlocks. finally, erck had to take a scissor to it & cut off the dookie braids, so now sb's got bald spots on his butt. puahaha. no worries, the bald spots are not as inhumane as it probably sounds...the dookie braids were far worse.
k...i'm hungry...later. | | |
| hi, i'm still alive.in case you were wondering.
while it feels like a lot has been going on, i feel like there isn't much to update on. or maybe i'm just being lazy about it. which is entirely possible. heh.
i've had one official visitor! (other than the parental units, they don't count as visitors as they are more like...um...parental units) susan stopped by for a short visit as part of a family road trip. kudos to her for that...i know my hair would turn white & i'd start mumbling to dust particles if i had to do that. but it was tres fun. we did a speedy gonzalez n'awlins tour through the french quarter & garden district & managed to get her a lil tipsy on bourbon street. we even saw boobage! hah! anyway, i'm looking forward to having more guests. so book yer flights now.
which reminds me. aside from mardi gras & jazz fest (when airfare ain't cheap)...there's lots to do here all year round. but if any y'all willing to deal with the swampy summer down here, there's white linen night. takes place on the first saturday in august. everyone wears white (obviously) & walks around the galleries in the arts/warehouse district. there's food, drink, music, art. all sounds like my kind of fun, & i didn't get to go b/c i'm a loser & i have no friends. & erck had work. so next year someone come down for that. kthnx.
altho, if i don't have local friends by then, imma start paying people to hang out w/ me. gee, actually, that's not funny at all, its actually quite sad.
so any tips? how to make friends in a new city? this is all very new to me. erck says folks are friendly down here, & they generally are, but shit, i'm a new yorker by blood. if a stranger starts talking to me in the supermarket i'm thinking RUN. but this lack of social life has probably been the biggest adjustment for me here. it was nice at first, having time to myself, being away from drama, all that good stuff. the newness of everything was distracting me from any sense of homesickness. & now, as i settle into my routine of things, i'm finding myself pretty homesick. & bored. in fact, i don't think i've ever been this bored in my life. i actually look forward to going into work just so i can actually interact w/ humans.
in a not-entirely unrelated note, i went to church for the first time. a little late, i know. it was nice. the sermon was good, the people were friendly, & all that stuff. heard about it through a coworker & i'm glad i went. i'd been having bad dreams where random things would go wrong & i'd wake up worried sick...& i'd worry about it all day long. not 'nightmares' b/c its nothing catastrophic. just stupid stuff - like my a/c would break, or i go on vacation & it rains the whole time, or i get a cut & i'm out of bandaids, or i get a cavity, or all my laundry turns blue in the wash, or i lose my wallet, or i'm out of beer....yea, stuff like that. anyway. all that worrying made me feel like i needed to go back to church. like i'm feeling the need to control the uncontrollable & worrying about it when i can't. & i don't want that. its too much of a burden for me to handle on my own. i was losing touch w/ the comfort of knowing that everything is in god's hands...the good, the bad & the ugly.
anyway, an update on my water withdrawal issues:
- i was this ( | | ) close to driving 2 1/2 hrs to the gulf shores by myself the other day. just to be by the ocean. but i didn't....partly b/c of worrying...partly b/c of laziness.
- a coworker is throwing a pool party this weekend. i'm undecided if i'm going. on one hand, its still too early for me to tell if he's a heeb. on the other hand, its a pool! with water! yea, we'll see.
- erck is moving into an apt in a couple weeks. the civic lofts in the warehouse district. very nice. but more importantly, the building has a pool. yay!
- going to vegas in a couple weeks, & i should be able to get a proper swim fix then.
i think that should be all. perhaps i'll even try to post some pics next time....if i'm not feeling lazy about it.  | | |
| updates schmupdatesso its been awhile since my last update. considering how much has been going on since then, i feel like there isn't anything terribly pressing to post on.
the transition is going smoothly. while the apartment is still relatively under-furnished & under-decorated its starting to feel more & more like home. probably has something to do with how much time i spend there doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING b/c i still have no cable or internet or friends. wee!
i did get a plant tho. my very first plant. i'd been thinking of getting one for a while & went as far as almost buying one at a nursery...but there was a hippie grandpa dood around the corner from my place selling a bunch of plants from the back of his car. so i bought a bonsai thing he'd been taking care of for 8 years for $15. he looked sad to see it go & i assured him i'd take good care of it. altho, i dunno the first thing about taking care of plants. but so far so good. i get tons of sunlight in the apt so i just gotta remember to water it once a week. i'm thinking of setting up some sort of email reminder for that. heh.
work has been great so far, the people are tres cool & i get along w/ everyone surprisingly well. this is probably where i am picking up whatever drawl i'm unknowingly picking up. its all in the rhythm...sometimes i'd say something all twang-like & i'd be like 'DID YOU HEAR THAT?!? I JUST SAID (insert twang-like phrase or word)!! HAHA!' & they'd all look at me like 'wtf you talking about willis'
one funny incident, there's this one guy from alabama, cool guy but hands down thickest accent ever. i tell him he sounds like johnny cash & he thinks thats funny. anyway, there's another girl named heidi & he goes 'oh lemme get hottie'. i say 'hottie? who's he calling hottie?' & my boss goes, 'he said heidi'..PUAHAHAHH....he said 'heidi' but it sounded like 'HOTTIE'....rofl...ok maybe its funnier when you hear it in person. nevermind. fortunately, i haven't been accused of having a newyork accent so far...except when i say a few words like 'sauce', 'laundry', & (the best one) 'mayonnaise'. folks down here (including erck) say 'mannaise' with 2 syllables...not 'may-oh-naise' but 'mann-aise'...hahahaha...when will this stop amusing me so? i don't know.
the weather is...well...pretty fuckin awful. hot, humid, sticky, & whatever other adjective that equals not good times. don't think its dipped below the 90s since i've moved here & its like 80% humidity. every freaking day. its so humid that it rains for a few minutes at least once a day. & y'know how up north, when its all humid & then it rains, it feels all nice & refreshing like the air just took a nice cool shower & everyone can breathe again? well down here, after it rains, just when you think the air can't feel any thicker, it gets even MORE humid...& sometimes yer walking around (for like 1.5 minutes - it doesn't take long) & you have to double check to make sure you didn't maybe pee your pants b/c they feel soaked. but no, its not pee, its the air that soaked your pants. the AIR made me think i peed my pants. holy crap. on the flip side, i keep telling myself, at least it doesn't smell like hot piss like in nyc. my weak gag reflex & i definitely don't miss the hot piss smell.
another weather related story: this happened just today. there was a pretty scary lightning/thunder storm earlier this afternoon. talking about strobelight party in my house w/ window rattling bass effects. anyway, the power goes out & my first immediate thought that popped into my head: 'HOLY SHIT I HAVE TO EAT EVERYTHING IN MY FRIDGE BEFORE IT GOES BAD' & then i hunkered down & pigged out. frozen shrimp & fish sticks, organic mixed greens, goat brie, 2 or 3 popsicles, odwalla superfood. stuffing myself in silence & near darkness. & just as i'm about to cook up the frozen kalbi...the power goes back on. hehe. i felt like such a taej. LOL.
another thing i've noticed down here: the bugs. holy shit there are so many fucking bugs down here. erck explains its b/c we're below sea level but dang. the variety of species too! either there are species of bugs that i've never seen or they are bigger more monstrous versions of normal bugs. & the roaches. holy crap there are some big fucking roaches down here. & i've seen some big ass roaches at sunnykim's apt in brooklyn. i'd see the occasional roach on the sidewalk or in my apt & scream my fucking head off like, i'm ready to call the coppers on them & erck says 'get used to them, they're everywhere in this city.' but they seem generally scared of loud noises & light so i usually knock on the door when i'm about to go into the bathroom, as if to say 'excuse me radioactive sized roaches, i'm about to come in & use the bathroom...kindly go into your hiding space. thank you' & it seems to be working cuz i haven't seen too many of them since i've started knocking on everything.
today i saw a big ass furry moth on my car window. took a picture:
it gave me the chills so freaking bad. reminded me of silence of the lambs, like there's some crazy mothman psycho living next door collecting limbs or whatever. anyway, i started to drive & the little guy was holding on for dear life & after it fell off, i sortuv felt bad for it. oh wells.
so yea, i'm adapting just fine. | | |
| le sighi took this ny age quiz at timeoutnewyork from kingman's xanga...and decided depending on the score, i'd post...it says my age is 44. wtf. forty fucking four?? s'pose its some sortuv sign for me to get over new york, eh?
so i'm here. the drive didn't feel as long as it actually was, prolly cuz we stopped in charlotte & atl. the weather is hot as hell, but not unlike some nasty nyc summers. the adjustment, i dunno, suppose it hasn't sunk in yet, i've only been away for a week & in nola for a few days. there are moments when the homesickness is rough. it hits at pretty random times. like...all will be well & then i'll turn one minute & be like HOLY SHIT WHERE THE FUCK AM I?! but generally speaking i've been busying myself w/ unpacking & settling in. erck got me a garmin so i can navigate through new orleans w/o having to call him every 5 minutes, which is good...i'm getting my bearings so i don't get lost on my way to work on monday. heh.
the apt is cool. i'd post some camera phone pics but i'm too lazy right now. maybe some other time i guess. but the amt of storage space i have in this joint is awesome. storage space is my friend. yay for storage space. hopefully i'll be able to keep it relatively clutter free...but we'll see. i'm the worst clutterbug ever. all in all, i'm doing well, the city is cool, the apt is awesome, strangers are friendly, spurts of free wifi, tons of coffee shops w/ delicious coffee (yum!), so far so good. i even found a potential church to check out on my 2nd day here through a random encounter w/ the dood working at the bank. long-ish story, call me if you wanna hear. or ask linder, i told her the story. but yea, i'm liking my neighborhood, very williamsburg/greenwich village/west hamptons-ish. lots of artsy hippie types, mixed w/ wholefoods & a billion lil restaurants, pretty houses & a bunch of lil trendy boutiques. y'all should visit. seriously. not b/c i miss any of you too terribly *winks*, but b/c this city is definitely worth a looksee beyond the whole mardigras-bourbon st-hoopla.
anyway. i've got a shit load of unpacking to do. i'll try to post those pics, but otherwise...i'll prolly update after i've started my new job. woot! | | |
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