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All is humidity and beer and work and play and change over here in Brooklyn this summer. I'm living a life of total fiscal irresponsibility and so far have not been forced to come to terms with the fact that it's unsustainable. We have lots of fans all throughout our apartment and sometimes they're effective and mostly they're not.

There's something really sweet about summer in New York, even though it is so absolutely, determinedly hot, and the kids on my street set off fireworks outside my window, and the restaurant where I work is like an armpit but with more huevos rancheros. People look kind of beautiful with their perpetual sheen, and the sun wakes you up early and keeps you up late. The fire hydrants that constantly spout water make you feel like you're walking through New York the way it always has been and the way it always will be.

I'm working on happiness, and am concurrently wondering what that means. Right now I guess it means signing up for a ceramics class and not worrying about the future. The future is the fall. When I put on a sweater I'll think about what comes next. For now it's all loose cotton and the feeling of the soft tar of the roof under my legs while I sit,  alone or with friends, and watch the Manhattan skyline simmer.

Sometimes very tiny things seem very large. Like the tapping of a cane on the floor at the Bowery stop. And three oranges rolling from a fruit cart into the street. And a cigarette butt with lipstick on it in the middle of the sidewalk. And hair falling to reveal a neck in a certain way. And steam rising up out of the sink when you pour hot water down the drain. And chamomile flowers in a glass jar.

And also two lists.

lapidary
geas
factotum
ostler
desultory
thereon
diurnal

are a few of about 100 words I didn't know in Lolita.


intelligent
hardworking
warm
determined
practical
careful

were the words on my fortune cookie a few days ago.

Lately:

Moving through space in Brooklyn and Manhattan as per usual! Dreaming about big vacations to places with hiking and warmer weather. But in the meantime, enjoying things like:

A dinner date at Pies n' Thighs in Williamsburg on the first truly snowy evening of the winter. chomp chomp.

Tights and shorts at work!?!? This is such a fashion blog! I did it and it was fun. And Mirror Puzzle:

A pit stop at THE New York City post office to buy stamps and look at the memorials to postal workers who served in wars Revolutionary- WWII. Dignity of the monuments juxtaposed with the total disarray and general animosity present in all city post offices. But they have such cool stamps this year. I like these ones.

Shakespeare and Co. and The Strand and the subsequent purchase of a coffee table book  (New York Drawings,) for no real reason. I try not too make too too many impulse purchases, but I do just love this artist, and also books are a good thing to buy.


...And rumination and frustration and running in place and false starts and real starts and thinking about these ideas per John Cage at the Merce Cunningham Studio:

I'm going to write a book called How to Be a Waitress and An Artist and a Daughter and a Friend and a Girlfriend and a Person who Likes Fine Fabrics, but first I have to figure out how to be all of those things with a little more grace and efficacy.