november 2001 11.28.01 november sure is flying by! here it is, almost december, and i just now springing photos from the summer on you. click here to take a look. i rediscovered my camera recently and decided to develop around 5 rolls of film, and i must have been inspired, because now i have 5 more to go off to the magical land of clarkcolor. i probably took about 5 rolls the entire time i was in san francisco. i used to go through about 50 rolls in a semester of college. i used to shoot so much that i started to roll my own film with a bulk loader! i was one crazy mo-fo. now i am just trying to figure out how to handle actual lighting for color photography. i have never been one for technique, more about content and composition. i just never had a color class, so someone really should tell me how to use a flash. 11.25.01 i saw amelie the other night, you MUST go to see it. what a great film! i totally loved it! as a matter of fact, i have been really interested in french culture lately. i think my new project is going to be to learn what i can of the french language and possibly even plan an extended stay there. you never know. learning a new language is a real challenge, and the best way to do it is to speak it all the time, which i am sure alex is learning in her new spanish speaking home of puerto rico. i miss that feeling of being foreign. but i do have a renewed appreciation of my own country. yesterday my mom and my sister and i drove up to lambertville, nj. i love it there. we always go up there either to the flea market or to the antique stores and i always leave thinking that i need to live in the country one day. the drive up there is really beautiful. i wish my sister didn't live so far away. same goes for my brother and his family. it's really sad not to be able to watch my nieces and nephew grow up. some days i wish we all lived in the same neighborhood, or at least within reasonable driving distance of each other. but those are the breaks. we like challenges. we make it work. thanksgiving was really great, thanks to joseph and federico for all the lovely food and hospitality. it was a memorable day. and my burns are still healing, ouch! 11.22.01 3 burns on my hand, 3/4 cup of sugar in the trash, and one dirty pot later, i have successfully made my first ever pumpkin flan. well, that was last night. have you ever tried to caramelize sugar? it's not too hard, once you know what you are doing. but until you get to that point, it is the weirdest thing. it's is very easy to burn and completely ruin, and sugar in a melted state is sort of equivalent to cement, especially when it dries. the pumpkin flan won't be consumed until after dinner today, so i will let you know how it tastes. the tofurky is roasting in the oven next to my mom's butterball. we are heading over to joseph's house today to celebrate thanksgiving, a dinner for carnivores, vegetarians, gays and straights. oh yeah! the party continues into the dessert hour where we will be joined by more guests. i am bringing my camera, so more pictures on the way! i hope that everyone has a nice thanksgiving today. 11.19.01 high school was so laaame for me. it got progressively more interesting, particularly in my last year, but all in all, college was where it was at for me. college was the time for friends and parties and boys and art and culture and life. it's amazing how you live your whole life under the rule of your parent(s) and the wrath of the education system, and then one day you are set free and you either figure it out or completely fumble. i certainly did a little bit of both. i actually failed classes in my life, as well as got As. i could never really make up my mind about what kind of student i wanted to be, i was never ever consistent and i heard that most of my young life. i currently carry with me a fear of commitment, but a general sense of wanting to make my life better. every day is a step in a great journey towards something. it's hard to say if you will ever reach that destination, will you spend your whole life trying or will you just figure it out and exist in that place? it's entirely possible. i foresee my life doing some major flip flops in just a few weeks. i am so excited. things are going to be so much different, and i, like the chameleon that i am, will change again. and i am going to keep on changing. i think i might even dye my hair purple. why not? i got some cds in the mail today courtesy of the gift certificate from my brother and his family. you know how there is always a few cds that you really want, but you just never get around to buying? like classic cds, the ones that might bear the sticker that says "the nice price." well, today, i got carole king, tapestry, and i must say, it was long overdue. it's a cd that i have been meaning to get for ages, which has always lost out to the latest indie or trip/hip-hop album. i am going to put her on the shelf next to george michael, faith. let's hear it for those voices that literally creep into your soul and make your body move. and let's thank carole, really thank her, for bringing us, "i feel the earth move," because when i hear that, it feel it. 11.18.01 the amount of girls in my apartment last night was quite unbelievable! i had my first ever "naked lady party" -- the 2nd one that i know of in the new york area. well, at least in 2001? a naked lady party is basically a clothing swap amongst your girlfriends. there were probably about 20 or so girls from getcrafty. i spent the morning making a variety of dips including: peanut, pesto white bean, and roasted red pepper / artichoke -- yum yum! there was so much food, and a mountain of clothing. i took tons of pictures, so look for them here in about a week! today my friend from philly came up and we went to coney island. this was the first time that i had ever been there. it's the off season, so it was pretty empty. it was late afternoon and we watched the sun set along the ocean. it reminded me that i haven't been to the jersey shore in probably about six years! madness, i tell you. thanksgiving is just a few days away. last year, alex, marco and i made our own very special vegan thanksgiving dinner in berkeley, CA. we had a complete feast, drank wine from sonoma, and then brought the leftovers down to the homeless people that lurked outside the health food store downstairs. this year, my holiday plans are up in the air. i am pretty sure i am having an eccentric thanksgiving with friends.. you'll see the pictures soon enough. hope everyone had a great weekend. note to friends: book your pre-christmas holiday visits now, hotel stellargirl fills up fast! 11.14.01 i was not lucky enough to witness my roomate's vision of the evening: after a long day at work, walking into the kitchen to find... the toilet. thank god it is back in it's rightful place, attached to plumbing. just a few more days. the filth is on. i was reminiscing the other day how i used to cut first period my senior year to go out to breakfast with my friend christie. we drove to school everyday in my '84 jeep cherokee, affectionately called "Rusty" -- you can guess why. i had video production class first period with a teacher who was well known for never taking attendance and always giving you an A. yeah!! off to IHOP i went. those were the days. 11.14.01 bye bye BUST. i will miss you terribly. 11.14.01 can someone please tell me what the point of the dry cleaners is? what do they really do? are they really "cleaning" your clothes in a "dry" fashion? i took these pants to the dry cleaners last week. i hadn't worn them since the summer, and they were covered in dog hair! of whose dog? i don't know! too many times my friends and i encounter cute dogs at 3 in the morning and we talk to them and pet them. this one in particular was quite a shedder. a yellow lab, i think. annnnyway, i digress. i am wearing my freshly laundered (?) pants and they still look dirty! pressed? indeed! a nice crease right down the front. dog hair? all gone. but there is some weird stain on the front of one leg? could it have been a wet nose? i don't know. i suppose it will just go hand in hand with my "dirty chic" as i have no shower and my greasy hair is neatly hidden under my favorite doo-rag. yeah, it's not my best looking day ever. but y'all still love me, right? 11.13.01 so there was another tragedy in new york city yesterday, an airplane crashed in queens. what are the chances? i am getting the sneaking suspicion that i am going to walk out my door tomorrow and get struck by lightning, or perhaps see some flying pigs, or some other cliched coincidence. on a lighter note, i have to confess to something. i am addicted to the golden girls. i watch them every night with my roomate. i am sharing this with you because the current episode is the one where rose and dorothy decide to install a new toilet into their (palacial) bathroom. this strikes a chord with me, since my bathroom is currently being torn apart right now. they are redoing the whole thing, tub, sink, tiles... for now we get to keep the toilet (thank god) but we also get to deal with a week with no shower!! stinky! i am seeing how long i can go until it's absolutely mandatory i knock on the neighbor's door, as i was instructed by the landlord. i don't really want to shower at a stranger's , i wear flip flops into my own shower! i am a closet germophobe! lucky for me, it's been pretty cold out. ooh, a new york summer with no shower would be complete torture, both for me and for those who have to stand near me. just call me pigpen. attention ladies and gentleman! i am on a major search for shoes! as much as i love my orange sneakers, i really want a diversion. perhaps purple shoes? green? maybe plain old black? has anyone noticed that all of the shoe styles that are out there are so freaking ugly right now? what happened? maybe i am just too cheap... gotta get back to my late night freelance work. see y'all soon! 11.9.01 so this morning, as i listened for the 20th time to george michael, Faith, which came in the mail yesterday, i had quite a laugh. seems that i was making carrot juice at the time, jamming carrots into the juicer as i was listening to "I want your sex!" if that isn't cooking music, i don't know what is! thanksgiving really snuck up on me this year. i am still not sure what i am doing, since my family can't really decide what they want to do. all i know is, being the lonely vegetarian isn't always fun, especially when nobody even wants to taste your tofurkey! before halloween even occurred, the christmas decorations were up in my neighborhood. this is my first christmas in new york and i already have one person to help me enjoy it: Lovely Roz: That sounds so absolutely delicious that I think want to cry. Actually, I was watching the Today show while I was getting ready for work, and they were showing the tree in the stages of being put up, and about it being lit, and I got really, really sad that I am not there. But since I have such lovely friends to share and revisit the gorgeous sites and sounds of New York at Christmas with, the pain of not being in New York is lessened. There is nothing like New York at Christmas (especially when I was working for Martha, oy, the smell from the kitchens made me gain weight I swear!) So, in a shortened answer to your invitation, I would love to come up to your home in Brooklyn, travel the city wide soaking in the holiday cheer, and taking fantastic pictures along the way, singing some yule-tide songs of good will and merriment, and maybe drinking a little bit 'o spiced eggnog while we make cookies! Oh, can we please make Christmas cookies when I come up? And see the Rockettes (I've never done that) AND skate at Rockefeller (I've never been on ice skates. EVER. And it's about time at the ripe old age of 25 (God, we're 25. Has that sunk in yet?) that my plump keister hit the ice with the best of 'em. I'll plan on coming up the weekend after Thanksgiving or the weekend after that, the weekend of December 7. You just made my day, Miss Roz. Deck the Halls! Chris. A VERY SPECIAL HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO YOU DEAR CHRIS!!!! XOXOX!! 11.8.01 it's all about high school. that has been my recent topic of interest as well as my movie viewing subject. those were the days. or were they? what was high school like for you? i was a tiny fish in a big pond, attending school with thousands of others. school felt like prison to me in a lot of ways. it wasn't until college, and not even right away, that i truly began to understand the power and privelege of education. but in high school, don't you think that it's mostly a social thing? i went through the same district from kindergarten to senior year. i watched hundreds of kids grow up from childhood through adolescence. i loved and hated people. i blended in and stood out. i tried to figure out who i was... i let myself be defined by who i was with. or maybe i didn't. i think the cliques were the funniest part. it was like a caste system that was decided in 4th grade. the only way to really "cross over" was to transfer from another school, or i suppose to get your braces off and emerge from puberty a star. i don't really know what i was. i always just say that i was a dork, even though there were people who were dorkier than me. i mean, i had friends and i made out with boys occasionally. i couldn't have been all that bad. i think i am still a dork. i mean, i am a total computer nerd. why don't you tell us what high school was like for you? what do you remember -- fondly, not so fondly? we all want to hear a good story. after all, this is the stuff that movies are made of! 11.7.01 wow, mike bloomberg is the new mayor. that's pretty wild. a billionaire with no political experience. the next 4 years here should be very interesting to say the least. i didn't vote yesterday because i haven't registered up here yet. as a matter of fact, my driver's license still bears the address of my parent's house. i guess i feel like i still live there! of course, who does any driving in nyc anyway? i'll tell you who! my stellar roomate. her next career choice is going to be a bus driver, since she drives trucks around for her job all the time. you should have seen her when we moved these past few weekends. i really think that she wanted us to rent the big-rig UHaul. i've never been much a truck driver myself. i like not needing a car at all, but one day i would love to drive down some country roads in a sassy little VW. that sounds like a lot of fun. i broke out the old juicer today and treated myself to a delightful carrot/apple juice. i keep putting off walking over to the neighborhood grocery co-op. last night, i bought some groceries at the closest little store and it was super expensivo. i am not so good at shopping. i have always been one for convenience. that's what happens when you don't have a car! you can't stock up. you just have to get what you need. this is coming from the girl whose mom shops at sam's club. there is a running joke that the reason i like to stay with my parents for sometimes long amounts of time is because of the unlimited poppers. you know, the little jalapeno pepper things? so yummy! and BAD for you! they always seem to have something to that effect in their freezer. you can find them next to the stacks of vacuum sealed meats and other items purchased in bulk and sealed with the informercial-ready vacuum sealer. i also love when we have salsa and chips, and you have to pour the salsa out of a gallon container. and if the soap in the bathroom runs out, there is always like 12 bars waiting in line behind it. and if you need to do laundry, you better get some help pouring the detergent out because the bottle is larger than the washing machine. but go figure, you need some toilet paper? there is only ever like one roll it seems! somebody better run over to sam's club and buy the 240-pack! in my fridge today, you will find: a 6-pack of brooklyn brown, 2 bottles of tonic water, a wedge of pecorino romano cheese, one lime, 2 plum tomatoes, and leftover pasta. in my freezer, you will find one gallon each of vodka and gin. you know you are in your 20s when you have more alcohol in your fridge than food. the truth is, when you are in your 20s, you actually can't even keep alcohol in the fridge, it never lasts! so i guess that means that i am doing ok. so you don't need to worry! i need more submissions. got fluff? 11.6.01 so i have been very inspired of late to actually work on my website, and wouldn't you know, amidst all of this creative glory, my laptop breaks. i think something happened in the move because the DVD drawer wouldn't shut right. i had it sent off to Texas for repairs (damn, my computer gets around), and guess what? now i can't get the DVD drawer open. stellargirl reader opinion: (addressed to my tech-geek friends) is AppleCare worth it? i am still debating it, and i might have to back out, especially if they can't even actually fix my computer. so in these days that i have not had the internet and not been able to write new entries on my site, i have had many monents where i have thought, i should write about this on my site, i should share this, and i think that i probably forgot each one of those moments. this weekend, i went home for a few days to collect the rest of my moving goods, household items and furniture. it's all in the apartment now -- hard to believe. sunday afternoon, in a hungover state, after the lovely joseph/fed visit, i built 4 chairs and a kitchen table. and all night i just kept saying, it's so nice to have a kitchen table!! a big one! where people can sit and laugh and talk, and where i can cook and chop and prepare food and just hang out. then i would move onto my new dishrack, i would sing its praises, its ability to be functional and attractive. then onto the new 50 cent butter yellow mugs that look like flower pots, aren't these lovely? i must sound like such a dork, but the kitchen is my favorite room in the home, and i finally have a kitchen to be sort of proud of. you simply must come over for dinner! so i sit here, with my freshly returned and seemingly unrepaired ibook, killing time, avoiding the news, awaiting "Faith" to arrive in the mail. patsy cline is keeping me company, but spoon just ended and wow, i really like that band. my hair is RED today, had a little incident with a box of hair dye. it's pretty flashy. i am nearing pigtail length, and this gives me great joy. want to know what else bring me great joy? AUTUMN. beautiful blue skies and brisk breezes. it's a dream. one last thing, i must share with you my really bad food day that i had yesterday. i ate some chicken. it was a mistake, i spit most of it out, but i knew it was chicken. i was pretty upset. there was only one other time that i accidentally had something meat related in the last 6 years and that was when i had mushroom barley soup and it had obvious chicken broth. sometimes i forget how careful you have to be. so my chicken story from yesterday goes like this: i was all excited to check out this "healthy" chinese restaurant. stupid me thought it was all vegetarian, so i went whole hog and ordered the general tso's chicken! first couple of bites seemed like your standard meat-free fare, but the third piece had the tell-tale stringly flesh and the chicken-y taste. i had already been chewing and i spit as much of it out as i could. i called the waiter over to my table and he was like, you are supposed to ask for it to be vegetarian! and i told him that i thought it was, and BUSTED, they mix their fake meat with their real meat.. how do you carnivores feel about that? you are only getting half real meat! he brought me another plate of all veggie chicken, which was so-so, and i was really hoping that it was cooked separately, but at that point, i was just like, whatever. the whole thing was a bust. but the day was not over... so last night me and my roomate made some tempeh burgers, and they were each this really strange color on the side where they were touching. not like your average fermented food brown, but a scary bluish gray almost. at first, i just said -- hey, tempeh is weird like that. then i called my friend who eats them all the time. "they are fine," he said. not good enough, i called my old manager at essene, he was doubtful. "i would hold off," he said. and that was that, in the trash they went as i stormed off to my room and wondered why i had such a bad food day. i am really looking forward to learn how to make more things from scratch. **update, i think my dvd player is ok... but damn if that power supply isn't still all screwed up. hello apple, do you want me to elecrocute myself! 11.1.01 Just checked the latest update on the site. Glad to hear you're in to and "in to" your new digs. Nice digs are a great thing to come home to. I was reading your musings on George Michael. I had a similar experience with Gary Neuman. "Cars" always brings back a memory of driving home late at night in the late summer from my job at the ice cream store to my parents' house. Cruising down Sir Francis Drake Boulevard after midnight with the sodium orange street lamps gleaming off othe hood of "Bob" (my 1972 Dodge Coronet station wagon on permanent loan from the folks -- it had a V8 engine that was so powerful that when you gunned the engine, the front of the car visibly twisted to the right) It was like a scene out of Miami Vice (it was the 80s after all) only without the nice suit and Lamborghini. Ah memories... Kinda wacky that music can be like aromas, powerful memory stimulators. Anyway, just figured I'd pass that along. Oh, ps...you're not really a fossil until you hit your 30s and stop understanding the music that "these kids" are listening to nowadays. You've got some time yet. :) cheers! 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