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umihosi
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Name: Marisa
Birthday: 8/24/1983
Interests: drawing, driving, beautiful cars, listening to music, being a dj and music director on my school radio station (http://ktrm.truman.edu 88.7 the edge kirksvilles true alternative), shamless promotional tactics, dancing crazy, DDR, Grand Theft Auto (all), the mafia and Frank Black.
Expertise: cars, music, ROCKING!, negotiating, washing cars, billy corgan, betta fish, peter gabriel, being crazy, experiencing MAXIMUM FUN!
Occupation: Student
Industry: Art
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  umihosi
Member Since:
7/22/2003
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| 3 months without blogging, shame shame shame. I still read these, when people post. I don't ever access the old xanga at work, for fear that my colleagues will catch wind of it, and it's hard to access at home because of my 7 year old computer. Though, now we have Richard's 5 or 4 year old computer, still old, but new!
Ok, so in 3 months, I think I've had about 3 or 4 days where I haven't done anything, TOTAL!
I'm just going to go week by week, to show you, exactly how crazy things have been and hopefully knock some of this out, so I can remember it later.
July 26-29th, I went to Hudson, NY with Jesse's parents. That was the closest we could get them to coming to the city. It's about 2 hrs outside of the city. It was great to see them. Jesse stayed a full week, I just took 3 days off of work. While I was there we saw the FDR library and Woodstock, not the place where the concert was, but the lame town full of tee shirt stores and coffee shops.
August 1, No Baby Brunch, aptly named because it's spawned a semi-montly brunch meeting with my planned parenthood friends. It was also a breakthrough, because as you'll see for my upcoming August birthday, I was depressed and thought I didn't have any friends in NY. It is also where I discovered the best brunch in town at Robin de Bois. Best Bloody Marys. Best Eggs Benedict w/ or w/o crabcakes, Best everything, and so cheap!
August 2, my parents wedding anniversary, yay. Mentioned because August 3rd, BFF GOT MARRIED!! I wasn't there. It was on a Monday, so I was on the job. She got married on her front porch with her parents and marc's parents and it was stunning. She wore an old dress that she's had for years, but still so pretty, went to fric and frac for a wedding dinner, and now she's a beautiful wife lady.
I went home Aug 6-10th for the reception. I got to have Pizza and beer with the out of towners, because I was maid of honor. The reception was in her parents' beautiful back yard on Saturday. I got to give a toast and since it was a wedding of my best friend, I knew or knew by the end of the night everyone in attendance. It was fun. Saw some people from the Sidney's days, saw Lib's old roommates, and the KC folk I used to hang out with. Wolfe a skilled fire eater indulged us by eating some fire and Lib's mom and dad had a jam session. There was a keg and after everyone left, the close friends stayed around until about 2am and watched BFF open all her gifts. I got her the kitchenaid mixer as per bff wedding agreement. Her's is canary yellow. I am requesting a cobalt blue or seafoam green, depending, whenever I get hitched.
Now we're to the 2nd weekend in August, the 15th. This is when I had to go to the Hamptons for the Coaltion to throw a party for some crappy socialites who are on our Junior committee. These people are fucking crazy. It was fun to go to the Hamptons, as it is such an institution for the rich and famous of NY. It is also ridiculous. It's hard to get to, all the houses are huge and look the same with those shingle things, just like in the movie "Grey Gardens". Look it up. All the cars on the street are mercedes, bently, ferrari, BMW, etc. Also, in the summer, I guess there is just a ton of benefit parties, and everyone just drives around and goes to all of them eating free food and drinking free drinks. I wore my kirksville goodies dress, which was so appropriate. Jesse bought some $5 khakis at the thrift store and came along. We rode with my coworker Rachel and her boyfriend Nick. It was a great bonding experience, esp since Rachel, Jesse, and I got pretty lit off of the free booze and laughed all the way back to the city later that night. I was door girl, so I could tell people they weren't on the list and ask them to pay the suggested $25 donation, which some of them refused to pay. We take checks and credit cards btw! Assholes. I met this (see link) girl. She didn't pay and was a cunt. http://aeshawaks.tripod.com/ Apparently she's famous in the Hamptons. Michael Musto was there too and wrote about our party in the village voice. He was an ass too, wearing a pink suit and acting like he didn't want anyone to recognize him. The highlight was when a BMW pulled up and this guy yelled out, is this the Arlen Specter party? I was like no, "It's Coalition for the Homeless." "What's in your party?" "Well, unlimited food and drinks." "How much?" "$25/person" "OK, I'm going to park the car." He gave me $100 for 3 people and I didn't give him change. You want in? You have to bribe the door girl, taking bribes for the homeless.
The next weekend was my Birthday weekend. First, Steve, (my favorite friend in NY, and further proof that I seem to only make friends with older men. Weird?) the guy with the boat, was in Connecticut, (in NY that means, he's like an hour away), with his boat and invited me up to go sailing and to take me out for my b-day. So I went. Because of the hurricaine that was heading up, we ended up not being able to take the boat out, but we did hang out all day with his dog, and at the local bar, and ate a ton of food. It was so great. Now he lives in California, and it's sad. I got back, as I had when we went to city island, a little tipsy. Jesse met me at the station and we laughed all the way home. The next day was my birthday brunch, where I got a slough of baked goods, Adrienne, my escort friend made me homemade truffles, Meredith and Pete came with trail mix cookies and Oren's coffee. Then My Political Action PPNYC friends came too, because brunch and all. And we went to that sweet place. It was so nice.
The next day (Monday) my real birthday, Kathleen was finally back from her 3 week vacation. She was cute and ordred me Leonard Cohen stuff on ebay. Bob made me a pie, which I thought was very sweet, but it turned out to be a bigger pain in the ass than it was worth, as it is usually with Bob. So he brought in this pie and was like "Here's the delicious pie I made you! When are you going to share it with everyone?" And I was a little let down, because it's a pie. It's my pie, what am I only going to get a tiny sliver of MY birthday pie? WTF? So I put him off all day and ended up taking it home with me. He complained and said I was selfish, then complained to Kathleen and said that was weird. Kathleen told him that I thought it was my gift. Anyway, after it was all said and done, I took it home and found out he'd eaten a hole in it anyway. The next week he went home and came back telling me how he'd made a pie and some little girl told him he should make pies professionally. This is my boss.
Anyway, the rest of my b-day was great. Jesse took me to Fraunce's Tavern. It dates back to before the Revolutionary War, and I guess it was a hotspot back in the day, George Washington would meet people there, and give speeches and such. Currently they have the Magna Carta on display. That's pretty crazy. The walls are decorated with letters from Thomas Jefferson, etc. The food was delicious and it's very reasonable, and it's in that fun secret part of town, Stone Street. Afterwards, we saw the sun set in battery park, then went home. Jesse baked me a cake, bringing the baked goods talley to Pie, Cake, Cookies, and Truffles. So, I'm 26 now, and this brings us to the 3 week period of every year where Jesse and I are the same age, and the 3 month period where BFF and I are the same age.
Saturday was a heath care rally. I marched with Planned Parenthood, as well as other women's medical and choice groups. We marched from 58th and 9th to Times Square where we met up with groups who came from all over the city. There were about 3000 people there, including NY members of congress who were pro-public option, like my Rep. Yvette Clarke. We got a huge response, every tour bus that passed, about every 30 seconds had people cheering. I only heard 2 negative comments, one guy said "If you want Health Insurance, why don't you just buy it!" And I yelled, because we can't afford it, OBVIOUSLY! Some guy booed us, but other than that 99.9999% of people cheered and yelled positive things. The only thing was IT WASN'T COVERED IN THE NEWS! You'd think, but apparently that's been the tone, it was only mentioned once on Daily Kos, a liberal blog, because 3000 people meeting in the busiest street in the world with members of congress to rally for healthcare is the liberal elite. 20 people at a teabag rally is the majority. Bias much?
Stevie, my cousin's b-day is on the 31st of August, exactly one week after mine, and that we share a date square on the calendar, because they always put the 31 with the 24. He turned 30. I called him and left him a nice message. I need to see how he is doing.
The week after that was September 5th and 6th, Labor Day, which in my neighborhood means J'Ouvert and the West Indian Day Parade. It also meant the month where I had someone come to visit me EVERY WEEKEND OF THE MONTH! On the 6th, a girl from Columbia who knew my cousin Evelyn from a study abroad program in France 10 years ago was coming to NY for 3 weeks. She got in touch with me to find out what to do and where to go, then she needed a place to stay for cheap, so we offered our place to her for $20 a night.
She arrived in town on the 5th and stayed with her Colombian friend and now our Colombian friend Ruben, then they met us late Sunday night to drop off her stuff and enjoy the J'Ouvert festival with us.
I'm taking a break, maybe I'll update you about September in a few hours. It's a big month.
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| So you might have noticed a small entry with no large entry. I accidentally made that one private, but it's public now. So if you're interested in what I've been doing the past month, look there. I just got back from Hudson, NY from a trip with Jesse's family. That was nice and relaxing, though apparently there was drama at work. We'll find out tomorrow. I'm bacheloring it up for the next two days until Jesse comes home. I even made toaster waffles for dinner because I'm so inept. I talked to my BFF, who is getting married in 4 DAYS!!!!! She also saw Frank Black last night, a goal of ours for quite some time. It was at the old Hurricaine, a tiny tiny venue. Oh well. I'll get you someday FB!
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| Oh yeah, and James had his baby. It's very cute. Still weird.
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| Holy shit, it's been another crazy and wonderful month. I stayed home from work today, so did Jesse, we were both a little hung over. To catch you up, we attended the annual Planned Parenthood benefit, Summer Sex and Spirits. Just like last year it was held at the Museum of Sex. Last year I paid to go as a guest, was going with Richard, however, he didn't buy his tickets in time, so I went alone and volunteered to work hawking raffle tickets in the porn room. I had a good time, but I remember being so nervous around all the awesome PPNYC ladies and wanting them to think I was cool, and I was horrible at selling raffle tickets. I ended up just walking in circles holding raffle tickets in the air, trying to watch some of the videos, while wating in the alcohol line.
This year, Jesse and I went together as paying customers. I saw Dennis, who I last saw at the Interfaith Assembly's homeless vigil, which I don't even know if I wrote about attending. I was a representative of my Coalition. Dennis is the Secretary and they had an awesome convocation at the St. Paul's chapel (where George Washington went to church back in the day), and then led a march to Foley Square (in front of where Law and Order opening sequence was filmed) where they spent the night and raised money through pledges. I gave Dennis $50.
Anyway, Jesse and I had a grand time and made the mistake of mixing beer with wine, which is the only thing I can see as to why we were so dead on our feet today, because we didn't drink that much. I got a chance to look at the displays, the same from last year. Downstairs features the sex lives of animals, which is pretty fascinating. Upstairs is the porn room and the room with all the apparatuses people have built to pleasure themselves. There's some crazy stuff in that room. Today we lied low, ended up watching the documentary Grey Gardens, and then the new HBO movie of the same title and subject back to back. That was probably the best way to do it because the resemblance Jessica Lang and Drew Barrymore bore to Big Edie and Little Edie was uncanny. They reenacted interviews from the movie and they were pretty right on. It was also a good day to watch it, being grey and rainy outside, and lying around in our own filth. I really empathized.
Yesterday, I got to go into work late, and early at the same time. I had to get up early to meet Bob so he could take his driving test. I was either going to take him to the test, or watch his girlfriend's kids while she took him to the test. It ended up being the latter. We went to the park where I heard from the little one about how Bob spends the night at their house sometimes. She strings his first and last name together like it's one word and that's his name. At the park there was this little black kid, who was about the same age. He was really funny and followed my kids around trying to make conversation. While I was pusing the girls on the tire swing he came up and started talking to me. Then he said "Look at you trying to act all strong, you think you're so tough, trying to look tough pushing those girls on the swing." I was like "Geez kid you don't even know me. Whatever." It was hilarious. Then we got off the swing and he was like "Hey why are you leaving?" The older girl picked a nickle up off the ground and he was like "HEY you don't know where that came from, it's probably some dirty cop's nickel." Then the older girl said "Huh, my dad's a cop." Kids.
When we got home we watched the Disney channel. Suddenly, their dad, the ex-husband just popped in. He lives in the upstairs apartment. He was very jovial, but it was still awkward. He ended the meeting by bringing three garbage bags that were in the hall in the kitchen and yelling to the girls, "Tell your mother not to put her garbage in the hallway! She knows better than that!"
20 min later, Bob returned with his liscence and muffins. I told them that the girls' father had stopped by which prompted the mother to call him an ass. I told her about the garbage now in the kitchen, so she would know I didn't do it. After discussing her assy husband, she started talking with me about the museum of sex and my upcoming benefit. Then she started talking about porn and it's implications. We had a nice/awkward conversation about that. She finished by saying what really creeps me out is that they have to bleach their butts! Then Bob came in and asked what we were talking about. She told him we were talking about porn. After I turned 80 shades of red Bob plopped down at the table and told us he decided to make a raspberry rubarb pie.
Then we went to work, 2 hours late.
I'm just going to keep working backwards until I update about all of the things that happened this month. Things at the job are pretty sweet, I'm pretty busy helping the events lady stuff envelopes and get donors for our back to school drive. Monday, nearly 2 weeks ago, we were on the CBS Early Show. They invited us to bring a crowd and get on TV and have the weather man interview us, just like what they do on the Today show, only no one watches it and they have to beg people to get up early and stand in front of their building. So we got 20 adorable homeless children, and I begged and bribed my coworkers, and guilted Bob into coming. We were among 2 other groups, one group from the NY Ren fest, the other, some ladies from texas. Bob made some audible sarcastic remarks and I had to tell him to shut up multiple times. They ended up not talking to us because the subject of homelessness was too much of a downer. They basically talked to everyone there but us. The little 20 year old intern felt bad and gave the kids a tour of the control room. Bob got in a fight with that guy too, during the commercial break.
I've been trying to lose a little weight. I don't know if it's working or not, but I feel zippier and healthier. I've been trying to work out at least several times a week, lifting weights too. I want a plan that I can stick to for life, and not have to go too crazy giving up things. Embaressingly enough, it started because two homeless people called me fat, two days in a row. One was a regular from the route, a Russian man who always hits on me. He tried telling me that I was so pretty and would be the most beautiful woman in the world if I lost a little weight. Then he said "I know what the women's like." I introduced him to Jesse the next week and said this guy doesn't call me fat. He thought that was great. Then, on the way home, I think it was the next night, I sat down next to this guy who was being rude and taking up two seats, he had to move his leg in and, well it turns out he was nuts! He started yelling and saying I was rude, and fat, and how did I think I was going to fit my fat ass into that seat. I just pretended to read my book. Then he went on to say how gays were ruining the world. I think he thought I was a lesbian. He quoted the bible and then got off at the next stop. It was an express, so the next stop was like after 5 minutes of him being crazy. Then a homeless person got on and begged for money, no one obliged and he left after saying "THIS IS A DAMN BAD LUCK TRAIN!" After crazy guy left I started crying. It was really embarressing and I just hid my head on Jesse, who didn't even know that the guy was yelling directly at me. That's New York for you.
Last weekend we took a special oppurtunity to catch some summer parade action. It was the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel feast and we caught the last day Dancing of the Giglio. It's in Williamsburg, an old Italian festival and one of my new favorite parades. There's a 50 foot platform/stage with a statue at the top. At the base is a 10 piece band, an emcee and a priest all playing, yelling, clapping and singing. Below them are about 40 guys who lift the whole platform and carry it around making it dance. They do it several times during the week. We were there for about 30 minutes where we saw the band play Rocky and New York, New York. Apparently Danny Aiello was there too, because the Emcee in between songs would yell things and he yelled "Hello, hey everyone Danny Aiello!". I can't really describe it any better than to say it was the coolest.
Speaking of parades, I was totally in one. I marched with PPNYC in the Pride Parade last month. I wore my shirt, and upon arival was sprayed down with glitter. I waved a rainbow flag and handed out condoms and lube. It was a long parade too, we started at 54th and marched all the way down through the village. It was what I expected, mostly in the village, thousands of happy, prideful New Yorkers yelling and waving rainbow flags. The best was when we'd see people hanging out of windows and balconies cheering us on. The beginning was mostly confused tourists. We didn't waste too many condoms on them. At 28th street while getting announced, Cecile Richards joined our parade. She's the president of PP nationwide. They just announced "And now here's Planned Parenthood joined by Cecile Richards, and I looked behind me and there she was! The woman who sends me all those e-mails, in our parade! My friend and I were so dazzled we even took a picture with her.
This was also the day that Zhi came to town. Jesse waited for him at home and then when he arrived, they rushed into town to see me. They almost missed me, then got ahead of me and saw me as we finished up in the village. It was the 40th anniversary and we passed right by the Stonewall Inn. It was magical.
Zhi took us to dinner at a diner next to the Strand where we proceeded to catch up on his life and our much needed Zhi dose for the next 5 days. We showed him everything, ate tons of food, and Harry even came to town on that Tuesday to see Zhi in his NY musical debut. He played at this place in Bushwick called Goodbye Blue Monday. A place situated on a desolate road under the elevated M train. The place seems to make its money having an endless open mic night where they let everyone play and make money off the beer the friends of the bands buy. It was the shittiest concert ever, a parade of different kinds of sad shitty music, from anti folk to bad metal, to bad avant garde jazz. We were the only ones in the room for that act and they got mad at us for having a conversation. Zhi was the last act. He was the best, but he's also gone in a very experimental noise direction. We had to hold our ears at points, but we love our Zhi. We called a cab and it only cost us $10 to get home alllll the way from Bushwick. Not bad.
I got off work early that week, due to 4th of July weekend. Zhi and I tried to go to Central Park until the torrential rain started. We ended up walking around midtown barefoot under an umbrella trying to kill time until we could go visit Louie. Louie was at the vet picking up his new kitten Bergamot. It's like a miniature baby Itty, his last cat of 21 years, who we knew. Louie is in love with it. When we met Bergamot, he was wearing one of those head cone things, which only added to his hyper activity and adorable rating. Louie didn't know what to do and kept trying to calm him down by speaking to him. Zhi got to meet Louie, thus solidifying all the stories we'd been telling him. Since it was Thursday, Zhi came and did the route with me.
Since Steve is gone it's sad. The residents near the Port Authority stop are mad that we stop there and came out and said rude things to us in front of the clients. They've been harassing Juan to move the stop to a desolate area in a right turn only lane. Out of sight out of mind. Bastards. It's not like they don't already live in homelessville USA. I guess the part that made me mad is that they came out in front of the clients and acted like they weren't there. We've been stopping there for a year and I don't understand why they started complaining now, and serioulsy, have they walked around their neighborhood, the highest concentraition of homeless for multiple reasons, Port Authority, 99 cent pizza, drop in centers in the neighborhood, and Penn Station 6 blocks away, hence the reason we stop there.
The week before Zhi came, was Steve's last week. It was also the day MJ died. Everyone was talking about it. I was serenaded by my favorite opera singing client, and serenated by another client singing Thriller. We drove past the Apollo with their Marquee tribute and news vans everywhere. Afterwards we stopped by the Landmark Tavern for a final post route beer. Except he's coming back next week and if he stays with this New York girlfriend he's going to come back every few months.
That weekend he invited me to go out on the sailboat with his sister, girlfriend, her friend, Sam and his dog Reilly. We sailed down the Hudson, around Manhattan, up the East River to City Island in the Bronx. We drank Malibu and Pineapple juice and were pretty lit by the time we got to City Island, where we had dinner, then as they spent the night on the boat, Sam, Bonnie and I had to figure out how to get off the Island. We couldn't get a cab, and the bus only ran every 30 minutes. The owner of the restaurant drove us over the bridge to Pelham where we took another cab to the Upper West Side. I got on a train and met Jesse at 72nd Street, where we took the 3 whcih stopped at 42nd Street to the 2 all the way home. That was the day before Pride.
Oh yeah, and 4th of July was in there somewhere too. This year it was on the Hudson, to commemorate Henry Hudson's voyage, 400 years ago, whatever. As a Brooklyner it made me mad, because it gave New Jersey free fireworks. I was worried that we weren't going to have a good place to view, but true to form, we found a place last minute, and for the second year in a row we ended up on a roof, with a great view, rented by some hipster with a huge apartment that always leaves you wondering how they afford such a huge place in an expensive area. This place was an entire 4th floor with roof access in Hell's Kitchen. It was one of Jesse's friends from the Strand. Anyway, those fireworks were great. I also stole a beer out of the fridge and felt like I was in college again.
And I think that brings this update to a close. This weekend Jesse's parents come to town and I'm in Hudson New York until Wednesday. Then there's another weekend, then I go home for BFFmarrige.
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| I'm home sick today, so I have some time to update. I've been running around like crazy. Work has been so busy, but in a good fun way. I haven't been sleeping well for multiple reasons, one was being so busy at work I'd lay awake and think of all the shit I needed to do. Two, was doing something almost every night of the week. Three was waking up at 4 am regularly, partly because I got so used to just popping awake, another reason is our fucking doorbell that people sometimes ring at 4 am to get in the building. It's like a boat horn, it's so loud. Two days in a row they rang it waking me up.
R. called us on Tuesday. He had just gotten out of jail, which by the way is better than the Kings County mental institution. Not surprising. He sounded really good, relieved, but also under a tremendous amount of pressure. He's on a probation period that could last anywhere from 8 months to 2 years. His offender sentance includes crazy bullshit that includes not watching Television, using the internet, picking up children, being friends with anyone who has children, watching porn, having sex, being in a relationship (apparently that could change if he gets it approved by his group first), drinking, no rated R movies, and I'm sure there's more, that's just off the top of my head. Oh yeah, and any paranoid person can look up where you live and assume that you're going to rape their children. I guess how they enforce this is through random lie detector tests that if you fail, you're hauled back to jail. I just don't see any basis to this exept for fear being run by people who operate based on guilty and not guilty, breaking these rediculous rules means your guilty and you aren't allowed to break them forever, as long as you live. The only semi-positive thing to come is that he has to attend a group session, which is more of a therapy session for "how do we live under these conditions without going crazy and actually committing crimes?" Anyway, it's going to be like this for 10 years. His lawyer actually told him that none of this would have even happened, the case would've been thrown out for lack of evidence, if it hadn't been an election year.
I want to give a disclaimer that I don't condone people who actually commit heinous acts against children, or anyone for that matter. I just don't understand how if you're such a threat, you can't live, work, go anywhere near children, do anything that normal people might do, if you're in such danger, why aren't you A. back in jail, or B. in some sort of real treatment program that would get you back towards leading a normal life. Or chemically castrated, I guess they do that. I don't understand how a murderer can get out of jail with less restrictions on their lives. The registration program doesn't work, it has been proven, most cases come sadly within the family anyway. I now personally know two people who were not guilty, but due to legal fees and years of court cases, as well as fear of worse punishment took plea bargains and are now offenders and have ruined lives. I know of another person who is an offender for being 21 and dating a 17 year old who when he didn't marry her was turned in. He's an offender. I was having a conversation with one of my coworkers who also knew an offender who did something like have sex with his 17 year old girlfriend or something equally mild. When knowing people keeps coming up in conversation, this is too much. I'm not about protecting the gulty. While we were talking about this, Kathleen mentioned someone who raped an 18 month old baby and it died and how they should be locked up for life. Yeah that's disgusting and horrible, but I think that person will probably be in prison and not out on the streets as an offender. I don't like the idea that people want to know where every offender within a 5 mile radius lives. And also, offenders aren't the only danger in the world. There are other horrible and scary things to protect your children from that aren't neatly listed on the net.
Wow, I had a lot to say.
On a lighter note,
I still had a crazy week. Wednesday I was supposed to go to Elvis Costello at the Beacon. The show that I told Bob I was going to and then he had to have me buy tickets too, and take the executive director. I went home early, I woke up with a sore throat, went on to work, by lunch I had a slight fever, felt a little dizzy and all I could think about was getting to sleep. So I went home and did just that. It was nice not to have to go to a concert with my boss too, but I'm still sad I missed Elvis Costello.
Thursday I did the route, even though I wasn't feeling totally 100%. I wanted to go since I missed last week. Steve was there and we had an exceptionally good time. Every week there's this bar we pass on 41st. It's your standard dive looking place with an awning advertising beer, free hot dogs, pool and bikini. Every week we wonder about the bikini part and swear that one day we're going to find out. The closest we got was as we were craining our necks to see in the door at the stoplight, some regulars were like "Hey, you're just trying to see the bikinis!". We agreed, and then the light turned green. This week at that same light Steve puts the van in park and jumps out, like a strange Chinese fire drill he runs into the bar. I jumped in the van to pull it over to the side when Steve comes running out saying "It's true! There's a woman in a bikini!" So we all jump out of the van and run in. As we scan around we finally see the bartender, a woman who is only wearing a bikini. We yell "It's true!" And run back out the door.
Later on after stopping at the church on park avenue with the regulars who live on the steps, we were pulling out and saw a guy waiting to cross. He was in full jogging gear and was jogging and punching the air in place. We started chanting the rocky theme song and as he was crossing in front of our van he played along by throwing his fists up in the air. We cheered. It was an awesome moment.
Friday I got to go to the camp we run for homeless children. It's up in Bear Mountain. It was volunteer day, so I helped paint docks and plant flowers. The camp is so beautiful and looks like it's straight out of the parent trap, with little log buildings. My favorite people that I work with went. Kathleen had her crazy chain smoking friend with a car drive us up. He's kind of a risk taker, but that isn't too different from every other NY car experience I've had so far.
Friday night Jesse and I had wine and watched more Sex and the City, were on Season 3. Saturday morning I slept in and made an attmpt to clean. I talked with my mom for a while on facebook and she told me she needed to call and tell me something. That's when she called and told me that Nate from the shop had passed away on Friday. He'd died in a motorcycle crash. I guess he'd been drinking, and was going home. He was my age, only a couple of months older than me. He was one of the younger people at the shop. He was from Brookfield. In fact, his funeral is tonight in Marceilline. It's pretty sad. He has two really small children, even though he had just been estranged from his girlfriend. Anyway, two deaths in one week, I think it's pretty hard on my dad. I miss my folks and the good old shop too.
I should preface saturday by saying I woke up at 11 am to find two messages and a frantic text from Bob. I guess he tried to reach me at 9 am. Dumb. I had agreed to babysit, so he left one message cancelling that, then another frantic messages that the ex-husband had cancelled while he was leaving me the original message, and a text to make sure I checked my messages. I went over there about 5:30 and made $84 hanging out with two cute kids and watching Hannah Montana. Now I've actually seen the show. This show had an appearance by the Jonas Brothers. Afterwards Jesse and I found a nice bar in Park Slope.
Sunday we went sailing with Steve. We sadly missed the Puerto Rican day parade, which I missed last year too. It's the only NY institution parade I've missed. The sailing was good though, this time we went downtown and were out for about 4 hours. Then we had burgers, came home and my cold went from bad to worse, which led to taking today off.
I think Travis is coming to town next weekend, which means I might have to miss the mermaid parade and Planned Parenthood activist picnic, but that's ok because I'm excited to see my cousin.
Zhi comes to town the week after that.
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