This morning, I dreamed that the lawyers, and the person selling me her apartment, and my staff person, and the real estate agent all came and got me out of the shower to tell me that something (I can't remember quite what it was) was going wrong with the house deal. And then I was in a deli, trying to order breakfast and on the subway, trying to get to work on time, running late, competing with overly verbose customers for attention.
As it happens, in real life, there is a little monkeywrench thrown into the works, relating to the vacating date versus the closing date. I'm trying to keep cool, but apparently my psyche is feeling some heat.
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Monday, June 07, 2004
Wettie
So yesterday I went out and did the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure in New York in the rain. I rode 33 miles, from Morningside Park in Harlem to somewhere beyond Englewood, NJ. I believe Demarest was the name of the town that I reached. Biking 33 miles is fun, because you get tired, especially when your socks are squelching, but you find that the knowledge that you are a little bit of a bad-ass, even for just a couple hours, carries you along. If anyone from NJ stumbles across this post, there is a really big hill on Knickerbocker Road (Route 505) in Englewood. I went up it, and it was on mile 20 or 21 too.
Eulogies
When I heard that President Reagan had died, I knew we were going to be hearing an awful lot about him this week. It does give us a lot to talk about, most of which won't be aired in the election-year eulogizing. This includes his unwillingness to mention AIDS until the epidemic had been building steam for several years, his foreign policies in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and the rest of Central America, nuclear proliferation, and his slashing of domestic progrems. There is lots to say and I'm the least well-qualified. Unfogged has a wrap-up of blogger opinions on the issue. The one I liked best is Billmon. He concludes
"So, while Reagan - like the entire decade of the '80s - has faded into history, I certainly won't mourn his passing. And I suppose I'll just have to grit my teeth and do my best to ignore the glowing tributes and bipartisan praise we'll be subjected to over the next few days - just as I did when Nixon died. The ritual deification of Ronald Reagan has become one of the essential bonds that holds the modern Republican Party together - not to mention a lucrative fundraising vehicle for some of its leading lights. The rest of us will just have to make the best of it."
"So, while Reagan - like the entire decade of the '80s - has faded into history, I certainly won't mourn his passing. And I suppose I'll just have to grit my teeth and do my best to ignore the glowing tributes and bipartisan praise we'll be subjected to over the next few days - just as I did when Nixon died. The ritual deification of Ronald Reagan has become one of the essential bonds that holds the modern Republican Party together - not to mention a lucrative fundraising vehicle for some of its leading lights. The rest of us will just have to make the best of it."
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Spiffy
Yes, Newyorquina has a new look. I am open to feedback, on the color scheme for the blog, if nothing else.
How Things Change
Hendrik Hertzberg makes an interesting point in this week's New Yorker:
"It isn’t every day that the Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party is a junior senator from Massachusetts who was educated at an élite boarding school and an Ivy League college and whose political career was founded on his war heroism as a young Naval officer in command of a small boat and who has family money and a thick shock of hair and a slightly stiff manner and beautifully tailored suits and an aristocratic mien and whose initials are J.F.K. So rare is this phenomenon that the last time it happened was fortyfour years ago, way back in 1960. That was also the last time that the nominee of the Democratic Party—or of either major party, for that matter—was a Roman Catholic.
There are plenty of other similarities between now and then, each of which comes equipped with its own corresponding difference. Here’s one: in 2004 as in 1960, a large number of evangelical Protestant ministers have been alerting their followers to the danger posed by the man from Massachusetts. The difference is that last time they were against him because they were afraid he might be subservient to the Vatican. This time they’re against him because they’re pretty sure he won’t be."
"It isn’t every day that the Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party is a junior senator from Massachusetts who was educated at an élite boarding school and an Ivy League college and whose political career was founded on his war heroism as a young Naval officer in command of a small boat and who has family money and a thick shock of hair and a slightly stiff manner and beautifully tailored suits and an aristocratic mien and whose initials are J.F.K. So rare is this phenomenon that the last time it happened was fortyfour years ago, way back in 1960. That was also the last time that the nominee of the Democratic Party—or of either major party, for that matter—was a Roman Catholic.
There are plenty of other similarities between now and then, each of which comes equipped with its own corresponding difference. Here’s one: in 2004 as in 1960, a large number of evangelical Protestant ministers have been alerting their followers to the danger posed by the man from Massachusetts. The difference is that last time they were against him because they were afraid he might be subservient to the Vatican. This time they’re against him because they’re pretty sure he won’t be."
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Been Breaking Down
My musical obsession this weekend is Freedy Johnston's song "Bad Reputation." I bought a CD by him in a record store in San Francisco's Mission District when I was there a few weeks ago.
Before I get into this, can I interject that New York doesn't have any good used-alternative record stores? There is virgin, borders, tower, yawn... This record store, I can't remember the name, but it is on Valencia, near the 16th street BART stop, had the coolest little reviews written in ink on all the cd's that the owners thought were excellent, and it was the best buying guide to music I knew I should probably know but don't.
Anyhow, the Freedy Johnson album ("This Perfect World") was in the used section, and I thought, "I don't know this guy, but I think he is kind of folky-alternative or country and I probably would like it and hell its ten dollars." Actually for the more loyal readers among you, this was the same used disc section in which I found Achtung Baby. I said, "Hell it's ten dollars" on several occasions that day.
I had definitely heard this song before on the radio or some such. (I can't remember where, I think when I heard it I thought it was Weezer. That's probably sacrilige to someone.) It's a nice song, a little folky, a little poppy, but it has a little hook that gets under your skin. It's one of those songs that lends itself to being on the soundtrack to the movie of my life. The lyric that got to me was "Suddenly I'm down in Herald Square/ looking in the crowd your face is everywhere."
I think I am a sucker for New York City-based love songs. It relates to the soundtrack of your life thing.
Before I get into this, can I interject that New York doesn't have any good used-alternative record stores? There is virgin, borders, tower, yawn... This record store, I can't remember the name, but it is on Valencia, near the 16th street BART stop, had the coolest little reviews written in ink on all the cd's that the owners thought were excellent, and it was the best buying guide to music I knew I should probably know but don't.
Anyhow, the Freedy Johnson album ("This Perfect World") was in the used section, and I thought, "I don't know this guy, but I think he is kind of folky-alternative or country and I probably would like it and hell its ten dollars." Actually for the more loyal readers among you, this was the same used disc section in which I found Achtung Baby. I said, "Hell it's ten dollars" on several occasions that day.
I had definitely heard this song before on the radio or some such. (I can't remember where, I think when I heard it I thought it was Weezer. That's probably sacrilige to someone.) It's a nice song, a little folky, a little poppy, but it has a little hook that gets under your skin. It's one of those songs that lends itself to being on the soundtrack to the movie of my life. The lyric that got to me was "Suddenly I'm down in Herald Square/ looking in the crowd your face is everywhere."
I think I am a sucker for New York City-based love songs. It relates to the soundtrack of your life thing.
Friday, May 28, 2004
Sunday School
There is no new news on the housing front. The closing date, and the move-in date are being negotiated. What a hassle.
On the subject of moving into an apartment in which the foundation is being monitored because some of the fill on which it was built has washed away, I am reminded of the song about the bible that we sang at Lutheran Church of the Resurrection in Greensboro, North Carolina. Flash back to 1985 and imagine 13 or 14 little children singing along with the piano at the top of their lungs and batting at the air with their little hands.
Oh the wise man built his house upon the sand
Oh the wise man built his house upon the sand
Oh the wise man built his house upon the sand
And the rains came a tumbling down.
Oh the rains came down and the floods came up (hand motions pushing air up and then down as appropriate)
Oh the rains came down and the floods came up (hand motions pushing air up and then down as appropriate)
Oh the rains came down and the floods came up (hand motions pushing air up and then down as appropriate)
And the house on the rock stood firm.
Well some of you know what happened in the next verse...
Oh the silly man built his house upon the sand
Oh the silly man built his house upon the sand
Oh the silly man built his house upon the sand
And the rains came a tumbling down.
Oh the rains came down and the floods came up (hand motions pushing air up and then down as appropriate)
...
And the house on the rock went whshwhshwhs (hand motions making a complete mess of everything)
So is this going to be me? Am I the silly girl buying the co-op?
This is Matthew 7:24, in case anyone was wondering
On the subject of moving into an apartment in which the foundation is being monitored because some of the fill on which it was built has washed away, I am reminded of the song about the bible that we sang at Lutheran Church of the Resurrection in Greensboro, North Carolina. Flash back to 1985 and imagine 13 or 14 little children singing along with the piano at the top of their lungs and batting at the air with their little hands.
Oh the wise man built his house upon the sand
Oh the wise man built his house upon the sand
Oh the wise man built his house upon the sand
And the rains came a tumbling down.
Oh the rains came down and the floods came up (hand motions pushing air up and then down as appropriate)
Oh the rains came down and the floods came up (hand motions pushing air up and then down as appropriate)
Oh the rains came down and the floods came up (hand motions pushing air up and then down as appropriate)
And the house on the rock stood firm.
Well some of you know what happened in the next verse...
Oh the silly man built his house upon the sand
Oh the silly man built his house upon the sand
Oh the silly man built his house upon the sand
And the rains came a tumbling down.
Oh the rains came down and the floods came up (hand motions pushing air up and then down as appropriate)
...
And the house on the rock went whshwhshwhs (hand motions making a complete mess of everything)
So is this going to be me? Am I the silly girl buying the co-op?
This is Matthew 7:24, in case anyone was wondering
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Approval
So, I had the famed co-op board interview Monday night. It was just with two people and I had to smother a laugh because the chief interviewer reminded me so much of a John Goodman character. He sort of drew out his words and pontificated on the renovation guidelines and the restrictions on using the garden for parties. Also, there is an issue with the foundation. The building is built on a cliff and the end of the building that sits over the lower elevated land was built of fill. Like landfill, except not like trash, as he explained to me, but large rocks and boulders and sand. And perhaps some of the sand has been washed away. But they have been monitoring it. An engineer that will be working on one of the stadiums they are building down on the West Side has been looking into it and they feel confident that it hasn't moved any in the past year.
Other than the foundation, everything seemed like a go and they pretty much told me that they were going to approve me, so that was exciting. Now it's the nerve wracking business of waiting for a closing date.
Other than the foundation, everything seemed like a go and they pretty much told me that they were going to approve me, so that was exciting. Now it's the nerve wracking business of waiting for a closing date.