December 31st, 2001. Monday
It's the last day of the year. Let's take a look back, before you move forward.Well, let's just look back a little bit, then think about moving a little forward. So we'll just review the last three days. Mostly because I can't really remember what happened.
On Friday at work, it finally happened. One of the biggest casual fears I've had since I began working was realized: I was walking back into my office building, carrying take-out sushi, when the guy working the front desk tried to stop me and asked "What floor are you delivering to?" Without breaking stride, i said, "i'm not delivering anything." Everytime I walk around with a plastic bag of take-out food I fear that people are going to mistake me for a delivery boy. Cause I'm asian. And I dress rather shabbily. But I was dressed about as nice as I can dress on Friday. What a fucker.
I didn't do much on Friday night. Brother Geoff and his friend showed up unexpectedly, and we went down to Great Lakes with Jed and met Matt there. We got in a heated argument, right after talking about many stupid arguments Matt gets into with our roommate Dylan. So we talked about cyclist Lance Armstrong for about an hour and a half. Then I came home and ate a hot sandwich while Jed and Matt did a little sociological experiment with two black urban youths they encountered outside Great Lakes.
On Saturday morning, I was awoken abruptly at 9:30 AM when I my cell phone rang. Rodzilla. She said she thought I might've had a wild night out or something and needed to be woken up. huh. Anyway, she felt like she needed to have a nice New York day, so we planned a little outing for the early afternoon. I was hoping for the later afternoon, but she thought we should start the day early so we'd have the whole day. Fine then. So I met her outside the Union Square movie theatre at noon. We finally saw the Royal Tenenbaums. I'd been wanting to see it for quite some time. On the whole, I like it very much. It took a little while to find its focus, but after that, it was grand. My biggest gripe was with some of the characters, particularly Ben Stiller's. Though his role was really funny, he seemed really flat. Not much there. I'd say the movie was as good as it could be without being as good as Rushmore. But I love Wes Anderson's sensibilities as a writer and director. Rodzilla loved the movie. I find her criticisms and remarks much more refined and focused than mine.
So after that, we walked down Broadway, stopping in various stores to look for things to buy, mostly clothes. After not buying anything, we walked over to Cafe Orlin on St. Marks and had coffee. For some reason rodzilla really wanted to drink cosmopolitans, but I wouldn't have it. This perplexed her. But we were fine with coffee. In general, it was a fine afternoon spent in the cold city, chatting pleasantly about this and that. I'm very easily amused lately. Walking down the street is endlessly entertaining for some reason. I find that my face is always on the cusp of laughter. I'm not sure where this is coming from.
So after an hour or so, Jed called and said his friend Todd from home and his sister were both coming to town and they were going out to dinner, so Rodzilla and I decided to join them. It took us forever to find a cab for some reason. Anyway, we sat around for a while talking to Jed's sister Anne. I hadn't seen her in quite some time. Rodzilla and I were camp counselors with her back in the summer of 1998. Anyway, after a little while, Rodzilla and I entertained ourselves with some props from a show my roommate Dylan wrote for the Upright Citizen's Brigade theatre. It was a pair of fairy wings, which Rodzilla donned and stood atop the stoop out front and tried to look angelic. This was fairly amusing for a few seconds, until the cold cold weather made it not so funny. Dinner was had at the 12th Street Bar. I had a pressed chicken and brie. Then we caught a car up to Williamsburg to see James play a show at Pete's Candy Store. Rodzilla continued on to her home in Queens. At first the car driver wouldn't take the five of us, saying it was too risky and there were a lot of police checkpoints and he would surely get a ticket. But after Rodzilla volunteered to get out and take the subway, the guy suddenly changed his mind. As soon as she said something I knew the guy was going to take everybody. See "limited mind control ablitites" in her entry on the Nouns page. The show was pretty good. Quiet. James needs to work on the way he ends songs. Very abrupt and odd endings. The nicest part of the evening was the discovery that Pete's Candy Store sells a variety of hot sandwiches. So I had my second pressed sandwich of the night, a prosciutto with mozzarella and sun dried tomato I shared with Anne.I called Jen K on Sunday morning, because I was supposed to call her on Saturday but had neglected to. She was pretty sick, and somehow through a weird conversational twist I "volunteered" to go over to her new house on 18th St and 8th ave in southern Park Slope. I stopped by with some mac and cheese, a movie, some ginger ale, and some Vicks Vapor Rub. That shit stinks. Usually when I'm stuffed up, what works best for me is to eat sushi with a bunch of wasabi. It hurts, but it's a good hurt. Anyway, we watched Moulin Rouge, which she had seen several times before but i had never seen. I was more impressed with the concept than the actual movie I think. though i did enjoy the film. It's nice to see a movie that takes a lot of risks. the whole thing could've been a big messy flop. But it was pulled off amazingly well. So after that i came home, watched the Eagles/Giants game, boiled some turkey legs to make broth, and drank some incredibly sweet wine that Todd had brought. Then we decided to go out and drink again. So back to Great Lakes. Dylan joined us eventually. I also got a call from Kathy, whom I had not talked to in the longest time. A fun, uneventful night was had. During the night, I had several dreams that featured me drinking large quantities of water. I had the space heater on, and when I woke up I was all cracked up and dry. So this was reflected in the dream.
This has been a laundry list of the last three days, and i know it's been terribly boring. But I have to get in the shower now, in part because my feet are so cold. Then time to go out to start the New Year's celebration. Pensive reviews of the last year to commence after the year is officially over.
Mail to G-Rock