Within ten steps during my walk to the subway, I noticed the two distinctive smells of summer: First was the chlorine in the pool by the park near my office. Then, 15 feet away, I caught the smell of the stank sewer stench that clings to the humid air of summer time. It was a very "Ahh... ewww..." moment. Winter is definitely over, I can now confidently say. Although yesterday I was beginning to fear that, like last year, spring would be skipped entirely. We're almost on the verge of two-showers-a-day weather, and it's only a matter of time before I start looking for a second air conditioner.Miss CM and I have been camping out in the living room the last few days. I'm not really sure why. We moved the futon by the windows for the party on Saturday, and it was so pleasant there the next day, with the breeze and whatnot, that we just decided to keep it there for a while. I suppose the biggest motivation for sleeping out there was the fact that our bedroom looks like a hurricane passed through. It's a wreck. Plus, the windows won't close. I finally got around to taking the air conditioner out of the window, after leaving it in there all winter, on the eve of the hottest day of the year so far. Typical me. The whole window-not-closing fiasco came about when I lowered the top portion of the window because I didn't want to removed the AC unit. So of course the only way to get it to stay closed was to remove the AC and lock the windows together. So now we're in the living room. It's kind of fun, actually, like we're in a constant state of slumber partying. But it's so goddam bright in the mornings, with the sunlight just flooding through the three huge windows. Nice scene outside though, with the trees blossoming right outside the window. Still I've slept like crap, and I think we go "home" tonight.
The party on Saturday was fairly standard. Not as many people as I'd hoped for, but fun nonetheless. As usual, Miss CM put out a lot of food. Baked goods, chips and guac, artichoke dip, cheeses, etc. Matt's ladyfriend ended up bring the most people to the party, as both Jed and I had a large number of no-shows. The Dream Machine ended up more like the Headache machine, as few hallucinations, if any, were experienced. I spent a while talking with Jed's friend Sarah, a friend from back in West Virginia whom he at one point dated, oh so many years ago. She's currently at Columbia J-school, so I was sort of interested to talk to her about that, since I went to NYU's J-school and everyone there has a sort of inferiority complex I think when it comes to Columbia. She seemed nice enough, and was a pleasant conversationalist. For some reason I gave her one of the t-shirts Miss CM and I made. I've given away a lot of these shirts, and only sold one so far. Gotta spend money to make money. Right? Shit.
On Sunday, Miss CM and I drove down to Coney Island with her friend and co-worker Claire, but it was a madhouse down there, so we turned around and came back up to Prospect Park. Claire was getting car sick, and I'm not sure if it was because she was hung over or because of my driving. Probably both. Anyhow, I dropped her and Miss CM off by the Park, then parked the car and wandered around Park Slope for a while. I miss the old neighborhood something awful. I love my apartment, but it's just tough to beat Park Slope as far as neighborhoods to live in. From 8th Ave down to 5th, it's just solid through and through, from the 20 or so blocks from Flatbush to the Prospect Expressway. So I went over to the lousy comic book store, used the bathroom at the Barnes and Nobles, checked out the flea market on 7th ave, and bought some sushi from the fish market, then walked up to the Park. Basically, the 5 activities I did the most while living in Park Slope. When I met up with the two ladies, they'd run into Matt and his lady, and were sitting on a bench on Prospect Park West. Meeting people unexpectedly when you're out and about always lends a little more excitement to the outing. And it creates a nice little sense of community, without having to go through the trouble of meeting any new people.
My self-imposed coffee embargo has now reached its 17th day. With the exception, actually, of a sip at Miss CM's grandparent's house just to be polite, I haven't had any coffee since April 3rd. I'm pretty please by this, as it's one of the healthier moves I've made lately. This is mostly due to the amount of sugar and cream I usually put in my coffee. Just obscene amounts. Also, i haven't really excercised since about that time either. As usual, things regress to the mean. I only really exercise to counteract the terrible things I eat and drink. But now that I've curtailed those things, I'm exercising less. Plus, I was terribly sick for about ten days in there.
I started another writing class yesterday. The one major criticism that my instructor had on my essay was that it wasn't self deprecating enough. First time I ever heard that one. That's usually the skeleton all the other scraps of meat hang off of. Anyway, it's another personal essay class, but this one has more of a focus on how to pitch essays and where one might pitch them. So one more shot at this writing thing. Or, more accurately, one more shot at trying to sell the writing.Also of note, on Friday night the Ft. Greene gang went down to BAM and saw Kill Bill, Vol 2. The overall consensus, I think, was "awesome." I can honestly say that there wasn't one moment of the movie where I wasn't entertained. Maybe "entertained" isn't the right word. "Engrossed" maybe at some points. But I enjoyed it greatly. It was wholly satisfying in many ways. I'm anticipating seeing both parts at once, to see how it works as a whole movie as it was intended. This portion was less on the action, more on the plot, motivations, and emotions. The first was non-stop chop 'em up action. One thing that did annoy me was that the trailer featured scenes that weren't in the movie. This happens a lot these days, and I find it particularly annoying. It makes me feel like I haven't seen the whole movie. Still, I wouldn't have minded if there was a Vol. 3.
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