don't worry, Nancy didn't want ice cream either

for some reason, this is posting rotated, so I'll just leave it that way.

This weekend, the Golden family descended upon DC to garbage up Ali's apartment. As you can see, she made a new friend.

Actually, we all made a new friend, as Nancy Pelosi actually said "good morning" to us, which she then amended, saying, "oh, it's afternoon already!"

celebrities are just like us! they forget when it's afternoon!

anyway, aside from that piece of awesome, seeing the house floor, going to the spy museum (which was pretty sweet), and wandering around DC, we went to Annapolis and toured the naval academy. I'm sure you don't know this, but the naval academy looks just like a cleaner, quieter, Paris. weird, huh? as an example, I give you the largest dorm building in the country (it houses 4,800 students).

the take-home highlight of the weekend was obviously our run-in with madame speaker, and getting to stand on the house floor (and sit in one of their [quite comfortable] chairs). aside from getting to spend the quality time with the family, obviously.

oh, i also broke obediah's brain with a new laser pen toy. Ali, is he still staring at the wall, waiting for the laser to come back?

Mattie doesn't really like hers as much - keeps looking at my hand and meowing for a petting. maybe some day she'll tire of human contact in insist on chasing the laser around the room. some day.

Aside from that, I'm sitting in my apartment studying for midterms. so if someone would like to come by and give me chocolate, that'd be cool too.

it's that time of year again

It's that time in New York City again - end of summer, beginning of autumn, when everyone starts to take the air conditioning units out of their windows. And as a result, we suddenly realize that we do in fact have neighbors across the airshaft.

It seems weird, but one tends to forget that those big white boxes ten feet away actually hide people. People who, like us, go to sleep, wake up, stand naked in front of their windows, etc.

There are some people, like OperaLady, who we hear all year round. Similarly, I can count on always knowing when RapperDude is laying down a sweet track at 1am. But I tend to forget about my neighbors across the way, some of whom are physically closer to me than my roomates, and the lovely noises they make that echo through the airshaft. Which, of course, makes me think about what lovely noises I make that echo through the airshaft. But that's a different blog post.

I have two things to say to my airshaft neighbor
a) If you're going to stand in the window naked, I'm going to look. I can't help it. Am I not human? If you cut me, do I not bleed?
b) If that bothers you, oh, what could you do? Oh, I don't know, maybe DRAW YOUR CURTAINS. I'm not saying I don't mind a free show every once in a while, but I saw you stare at me judgingly.

It just makes me paranoid about who can see what into my room. You know what? I guess I don't really care, but it's one more thing for me to think about when I'm trying to fall asleep.

Now I can't wait for it to get cold so I can close my window and go back to pretending we aren't packed in like sardines.

look to the bee dog, or, happy birthday josh!

Now, as you may have surmised, when the computer got stolen all the pictures I had got taken too. because, obviously, I'm dumb and didn't upload them to flickr or similar. Sooooooo, when I decided to write a birthday post for joshie, i realized i didn't have any pictures of him.
also, i don't have a picture of bee dog anymore either.

but!

i found a new and adorable bee dog!

joshie, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! will you be my bee dog?

oh god. what have i done?

so, Josh warned me about this, but I seem to have ... oh how to say this ... jinxed myself. Is that no longer a pc term? jinx?

Anyway, after declaring this the summer of claire, I obviously tempted the gods to screw me. and screw me they did.

On Friday afternoon, whilst I happily played my viola in the living room, a person (or persons) entered my apartment and proceeded to take things that belong to myself and my roomate. Things that include my computer, ipod, Deirdre's computer, ipod, and bag of recently purchased clothing. The scary part is that I heard something in the back of the apartment, and went back to stop the cat from doing whatever she was doing, because I assumed the plastic bag noises were from her getting into something. As I walked down the hallway, I looked into my room and saw that my computer was not on my desk. It took me a few moments to realize that there was also someone (or someones) in Deirdre's room. I don't remember how I got my keys or my phone, but I ran out of the apartment and was soon screaming at the poor dispatcher that someone was robbing my apartment.

The police response was impressive - I think because I happened to be inside when they broke in - we had six squad cars arrive. but the "perp or perps" were long gone by that point. Also two detectives in jackets and ties (just like on tv!) canvassed the building, asking all the neighbors if they saw anything. then the cops left and told me not to touch anything and to wait for the evidence collection guy. needless to say i did not want to wait around by myself in the apartment as the gate on the window was still open. so i went down and sat on the stoop to wait.

The evidence collection guy came and took some fingerprints from the window. He then recognized a picture of Deirdre's cousin as his own cousin. Small world, eh? So cousin cop took both Deirdre and my fingerprints for comparison. He seemed pretty sure we'd never see our stuff again.

Anyway, not really the kind of excitement I had in mind for the summer.
Thanks to everyone I called in a panic for talking me through this.

And don't forget to lock the gates on your fire escape windows!

does anyone else find this creepy?

I just saw a new m&m commercial, maybe you've seen it. It features many lovely m&m's exploring the city, riding double decker tourist buses, making faces into video cameras, window shopping, all whilst EATING M&Ms.

Does this freak anyone else out that m&m's are eating other m&m's? Who decides who gets eaten? Who gets to do the eating?

Also, in the Harry Potter world, do they ever listen to music? aside from the one band they talk about in the fourth book, I've never read about them talking about music at all. Just riffing here.

summer of claire

Josh: this is for you.

So this past Monday saw the beginning of the summer of claire. By that, of course, I mean that I quit my job, and have nothing on the horizon until school starts last week of August. Now, that's not to say I don't have goals for the summer of claire. Oh no. In fact, I'm pretty close (I'd say three hours or so) to finishing my first goal of the summer: watching the first season of The Wire. Followed closely (obviously) by watching the second season of The Wire.

Also, I have visited the newly installed Dinner Party by Judy Chicago at the Brooklyn Museum - definitely worth a looksee, although I'd wait until after August 3rd, because there's a companion exhibit that looks good opening then.

Aside from those things, I've been doing a lot of walking around both Manhattan and Brooklyn and this is what I've realized - a) there are a lot of babies b) there are a lot of camp kids c) school trips from out of town are really annoying when you're trying to walk down the sidewalk and they're looking up at the buildings and stopping in the middle of the sidewalk. There are others, but those are the first ones that come to mind. All in all, a nice beginning to the summer.

Proof of Fun

Yesterday, as Josh has mentioned, Josh, Seth, and I went to the New York Aquarium and Coney Island (Coney meaning rabbit. I guess there were once rabbits on the "island"?). Here are the boys posing in front of said aquarium.

Look how cute and happy they are to see the giant walrus and the jellyfish and the adorable sea otters!!

Also, we were at the beach, so I had them pose in front of the ocean.

The photos are from my phone, and I can't seem to get them bigger, but you can see the joy and excitement in their eyes. It's almost as if they KNEW we would see a sperm whale battle a giant squid.

She's no Beedog, but she's still pretty cool.

Happy Birthday Sheena!! Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, do they even HAVE birthdays in New Hampshire? I assure you that they do, and that today is the day that belongs to our far away best friend Sheena. Unfortunately, we cannot celebrate WITH Sheena, as she is so so far away. BUT BUT we CAN drink alone in our room pretending Sheena is with us, crying and moaning, while the cat stares at us and judges. Well, that's what I'm probably going to do after work. I mean, his own decisions, right? right guys?

Anyway, I'm hoping that Sheena has a better time than that, with a nice dinner chez Mohan and/or drinking at Harlow's with her Peterborough crew. Either way, we will be together in spirit, as per usual. Just because she's in a different state doesn't mean we don't still share the one brain cell.

In conclusion, Sheena is a land of contrasts, and is also now in her late twenties. Welcome!!

Erin is the birthday boy AND girl

Today is the lovely Erin's birthday. Happy Birthday Erin!!! Let us all bask in the glow that is Erin!

travel back in time

Sheena, do you remember in freshman year when I worked at the Wicca/Occult Bookstore called, wait for it, The Dreaming Goddess? and remember how I used to buy nag champa incense and burn it all the time?

Last night all I could smell in my room was nag champa.

Really took me back, is all.

but if it wakes you up, it's probably a little too strong.

I was awoken from my traditional subway nap this morning by our local friendly leprochaun. Actually, I think it was the lady sitting next to me chomping on bubble gum. I have no problem with bubble gum. I like it. But at 8am, maybe it's not the thing you want to smell. Also, I really almost sat the young man sitting next to me down and had a talk about how you COULD cut off the label on the coat sleeve that says "100% wool". I didn't. But I really wanted to.

The Great Move, and the Mighty Return. But not in that order.

Hello Friends!

I'm sorry for the delay in photopicturing from the Istanbul trip, but it took us some time to get the pictures together, and then I went to DC this weekend to drop Obediah off at my sister's house. Yes, it's true. Obie has made the move to the capital. Mostly because he feels it will be easier to pursue his political dreams (Obediah/Obama '08) and partly because I think he'll be happy there. The direct result of this move is that Mattie now realizes that she likes people. Also knocking shit over. sweeeet.
So, farewell, Obie. Ali will give me daily reports, so behave yourself.

In Istanbul news, I'm working on getting web-album together, but until that happens, here are a few choice photos.
This is the vew directly outside our hotel. I'm not joking. I stepped out of the hotel, picked up the camera, zoomed all the way OUT, and took this photo. (It's the Hagia Sophia, built as a church by Justinian, turned into a Mosque, turned into a museum)
This was the view from the top floor of the first restaurant in which we ate, Dubb, an Indian place with great food. That's Hagia Sophia in the back, with the remains of a Basilica in the foreground (the Basilica Cisterns, which were awesome, are located underneath those remains).
Here's me on top of the ancient walls of Istanbul in the Western District. I believe it was on the top of this wall that I got the world's record long distance cat call. Until Seth stepped into view, and then the guys apologized to him profusely.
Here's Seppo in front of the Blue Mosque. It has six minarets, which freaked people out when it was built in the fifteenth century, because only Mecca had six minarets up until then. It is still used as a Mosque, and we heard many a call to prayer blasted from one of those minarets.
Here's Seppo with his finger in The Weeping Column in the Hagia Sophia. It's supposed to heal you if, when you take your finger out, it is damp. Needless to say, Seppo's finger was not damp upon removal.
He WAS able, however, to climb the ruins of Anadalu Kavagi, which were totally awesome.

I think that's about all I can handle right now. I'll work on the web-album so that you can peruse at your leisure, if you want. Sorry for the lack of postcards. I blame Seppo's influence, but in reality I've never been so good with them either.

...

Tomorrow, Seppo and I head to the great land of Turkey. There we will eat a lot of street kabobs, probably contract the double dragon, and have to be airlifted out of our hotel room. In the event that does not happen, you might see blog posts for the next week and a half about our travels. You might not. I'm just saying, it's a possibility. There will definitely be pictures of it afterwards. So, be prepared. Also, if you want a postcard, email me your address and I'll see what I can do.

Istanbul Ho!!!

bumper stickers

On my walk to the post office this morning I saw a car with the following bumper sticker:

"Frodo failed, Bush got the Ring"

I may be late on this, but that is an hilarious bumper sticker.

I'm already starting to look more like Toby

Yes. I've probably told everyone I know already, but I've decided on a graduate program.

Starting in September, I will be in the CUNY Ph.d. program for School Psychology. Oh, and they're paying for it. niiiiiiice. It makes me feel like this:


and in five to six years, you can call me Dr. Claire. I mean, you could call me that now, but it would be wrong. And I realize I should have been calling Toby Dr. Toby the whole time. Forgive me, Dr. Toby??

i desparately want to take a nap

Sadly, I cannot nap because I am at work. And I'm a little sad that my traditional commute-nap is not going to happen today. But my sadness is vastly overshadowed by my excitement at spending the early evening with this fine young fellow.

Isn't he cute? Yes, I know I have obsessed about Hudson before, but this time I actually get to babysit him. And hang out (read: knit in the living room whilst Hudson sleeps) with him all night long.

Also, for any of you in the city this weekend, Bowling, 10ish, Melody Lanes Saturday night.

There will be a Sheena present. I promise.

Are you my bathroom keeper?

OK, so at my office we have to walk past the security desk to get to the dirty dirty leprochaun-infested bathrooms. This is fine. Not a long walk, nice to get out of the room, look out windows, etc. Also, the security guards are nice people. The problem is one security guard in particular, let's call him ... hmmmmmmmm Gio (with a soft G sound).

So, Gio is a really nice guy. He's probably around my age, always says hello and makes conversation. He's just a leeeetle overly friendly. Like the time he asked to see my hands and then said, "what's wrong with your hands? how does a cute girl like you not have a ring on your finger?" or the time he said, "no disrespect, claire, but you looking really hot today." I WAS wearing a suit that day, and took it as a compliment. He says this to all of the girls I work with. Fine, he's bored, he's a guy, I understand. What I DON'T like is that I walk by him to get to the bathroom.

And he makes conversation every time. And I don't like having someone keep tabs on when I go to the loo, how long I spend there, etc. It makes me really uncomfortable. We have started avoiding going to the loo. Which, let me tell you, isn't fun. I drink a lot of water, Gio. Stop judging my bathroom trips.

i am an internet celebrity

now do i get to do lots of drugs and shave my head?

today i was buying a sandwich for lunch and a girl i don't know walked up to me and said, "you look really familiar, i know i know you from somewhere."

I said, "ok, but i have lookalikes all over the city. it could be someone else." (because i do. i have had people who know me really well walk up to complete strangers because they look just like me. i think it's the jew-ness and the glasses).

Anyway, she stood and stared at me for a second and then she said, do you know cc? i said i had knew of her and read her blog and that she was friends of my friends but we had never met. turns out, this random girl is the sister of the boyfriend of cc. she must have seen pictures of me on toby's or will's or josh's blogs?

anyway, now that i'm a celebrity, i expect to be able to do crazy shit whenever i want. and then blame the pressure and the paparazzi for it. be prepared.

also, that's really weird. right?

It's a poo sock.

Don't worry about it.

Here are some photos from the latest new hampshire! We began the drive with an obligatory trip to McDonalds, where Josh made friends with Ronald. They're like totally gay for each other.


We gathered with the Mohan clan for dinner on Saturday night - a delicious meal of Venison Pie was enjoyed by most (Erin had a nice veggie version). Sheena outdid herself. It was great. Here we are enjoying a chew with the fam. I think this is cocktail hour.


Sunday morning we enjoyed Donna-made crepes - delish! Here's Hayley, pontificating on the joys of a Sunday morning sled and a breakfast of crepes. Behind her is Zach Morris. For serious. That's his name. Every few minutes he would stop, turn to the side, and explain what we were doing to his imaginary friend. It was a little weird and awkward, but Hayley said not to say anything because he's a little sensitive about it.


On our adventure to Walmart, Josh bought a magical inflating shark. As you can see, it didn't really inflate as much as we had hoped, so we took it out of the gross thick water (that you can see dripping slowly off of the shark's snout. it was gross), so we took it outside and buried it in a snowbank (sorry, Tom). Come April, the Mohans will have a giant shark in their driveway! Super awesome!!


We spent Sunday morning sledding down the hill across the street. It was pretty fantastic. Here you can see our four-person toboggan team. We totally beat the Swiss and represented Jamaica in the Olympics.

It was a great weekend - the perfect break between interviews. Now we have Sheena's visit to New York to look forward to!!

hold please

hello yes. I realize that I haven't posted anything remotely entertaining in at least a month and I apologize. I have been going through the horror of horrors that is applying to graduate school and this past week and next week I have a bunch of what we in the biz call "interviews". This means that I've been obsessing about dress shirts, stockings, looking "intelligent", not talking to people about the three steps of "dick in a box", and generally selling myself to the highest (or only, we shall see) bidder.

In conclusion, I am a land of contrasts.

I will also be returning to the real world after my final interview on Tuesday.

We break now for a word from our sponsors - Erin, Josh and I are driving up to see Sheena in the NH this weekend. What better way to celebrate Presidents' Day than spending ten hours in a car to eat venison with the Mohans, only to drive back on Sunday night in time for yet another interview on Monday? There is no better way. Except, of course, if Man Pomerangay were coming with.

time to go through the spanking machine!!!

Today is Mr. Tobias M. Toby's birthday. Huzzah!!! One more year towards decrepitude! Here we are, happy with the lord of jerkville being in New York.

it's all coming back to me now

So, last Friday night we had Tera and Marty over for dinner. Much wine was drunk, also vermouth, absinthe, and beer. Maybe not the best decision making. Here are some illustrative photo-pictures The top one is Erin and myself trying to make my bed because I had had my laundry done that day and hadn't made it before the festivities began. Below you can see our new side project - the jugs with jugs band. There were, I promise, other people in the apartment. Sarah, Marty, Tera, and Josh also partook and did silly things. Some day we'll have evidence of that.

this is, ummmm, awesome

So this is incredible - the Norwegian government is funding the construction of a huge underground vault to hold a seed bank. First of all, this is a fantastic idea, as we are on the brink of destroying the planet. The next time a tsunami comes through and wipes out a seed bank in a single country, this vault can be used to replenish. Also, it's deep enough in the arctic mountains that nuclear war, radiation, ice sheets melting, shouldn't have an adverse effect on the structure or the viability of the seeds.

I feel like I'm in some kind of weird futuristic movie. Like Deep Impact, where we march by twos to the underground vault to wait out the meteor crash. Except it's just seeds. Sucks to the people.

The picture above is an artist's rendition of what the vault will look like. The design looks a little like the underground part of the pyramids. Again, awesome.

picture courtesy of NYTimes.com


Also, is anyone really surprised that the Pentagon made things up? I'm surprised it took this long for it to come out.

oh good. it's not just the side of the road anymore

So, our littering culture is now threatening to set off a chain reaction of explosions in space. Each collision of space trash will create more space trash, which will lead to more explosions.

China's latest anti-satelite test has apparently pushed us over the critical mass and has accelerated the danger. Sweet.

blatant self-promotion

I don't usually post these things, but we are playing a Dorkestra concert on Friday night (that's February 9th) with the french horn section of the New York Philharmonic. It's an all Schumann program, his Symphony number 4 (I think) and his Concerstuk for horns.

Now, I know what you're going to say: horns are for fanfares. you are wrong, sir. We rehearsed with the horns last night and they are so unbelievably awesome I kind of stopped playing at one point and was just grinning like an idiot.

So, in conclusion: when are you ever going to see the NY Philharmonic play for free with a pizza party afterwards?

Friday, February 9th at 8pm
Trinity School - 101 Columbus (corner of 91st and)
Tickets from me beforehand or pay $15 at the door.

super awesome fun time

the deed is done. the tickets have been purchased. we really ARE going to Istanbul in March. Sooooooo, Josh, I'm expecting a day-by-day itinerary.

flash back to the back flash

yeah. I don't know what that means either.

As I was uploading pictures from pottstown, I stumbled across this photo from California. It was taken at the new (now I guess not so new) Getty Center in LA. The lovely young lady on the right is Jackie (Hi Jackie!!). The Getty Center was designed by Richard Meier, and is a really amazing piece of architecture.


The modern photo exhibit was fantastic, although the German paintings one was slightly disappointing, as far as I can remember. There are also some great pictures of the sunset over the hills, but I didn't actually take any of them.

Pomer-Awesome*

This weekend was spent with mr. and mrs. Pomerantz in Pottstown, Pennsylvania (how do you like THEM alliterations? eh??). As you can imagine, much fun was had by all. We ate several amazing meals, saw Pan's Labyrinth, and slept, which is never a bad thing.

Here is Seth with his dad who was cold on our walk to the mall so he borrowed my scarf and seth's face mask.

This is Bear. You can't tell from this picture, but Bear happens to be the biggest dog I've ever seen. He's like the size of a small horse. His head comes up to my belly button. He's also awesome, although not the brightest bulb in the hallway. Sorry, Bear.

*post title came directly from deirdre.

heeeeeeeeere's johnny!

So I saw the weird facial hair dude again this morning. Sadly, it seems that his facial hair was not a temporary joke, but a way of life instead.

productive morning

As promised, here are the winners in a leprochaun picture. Instead of having them pose WITH the leprochaun, I've had them pose AS the leprochaun. Can you spot the secret special guest??

ps. sorry, will, I didn't have a picture of you on my computer. We'll just have to use our imagination. You are the leprochaun of my heart anyway. Do they have leprochauns in New Zealand?

fancy is as fancy does.

This past weekend Seth and I went to see the New York Philharmonic perform. We saw a fantastic version of the Elgar Cello Concerto (performed by an amazing 24-year-old Alisa Weilerstein who got a bunch of ovations when she was finished). It was lovely, and was followed by a less wonderful Bruckner Symphony (I'm just not a fan of the Wagnerian pounding orchestral pieces, although the third movement was very nice).

Here is a picture of us: after dinner, after the concert, after watching the Eagles lose in a bar downtown.
You can see the pain in our faces. In my case, the pain was coming from my feet, which were trapped in stilleto heels (prompting a few guys at the bar downtown to ask me if I was a schoolteacher. Actually, i'm pretty sure it was the glasses (not pictured) as opposed to the fancy dress and heels). In Seth's case, it was the close loss. Sorry, Eagles. Next year in Jerusalem, eh?

starting to feel at all like christmas?

So it finally snowed (and stuck) and this is the sight that greeted me this morning as I walked to the subway. Not a bad way to start the day. Not bad at all.

how to separate the wheat from the chaff

If you laugh: wheat.
If you say, "I don't get it" and I have to explain it to you (and you don't have an excuse, like English being a second language or you can't read or you're blind), chaff. Definitely chaff.

These are a few of my favorite things...

So, I like living in New York. Most of the time. Not this morning, when it took me an hour and a half to get to work, again. But most of the time. And I'm reminded of how much I like to live here when I read the ridiculous headlines that pop up every few months.

Regard:

A Rotten Smell Raises Alarms and Questions -- yesterday, about a rotten egg/gas smell permeating most of Manhattan and parts of Jersey

Good Smell Perplexes New Yorkers -- late October of 2005, a sugary smell wafted over lower Manhattan

Sweet Smell Overtakes Manhattan, "Maple Syrup. Same As Last Time." -- last December (2005), same sugary maple syrup smell.

I love that the smell is news - I understand the gas smell being news because that's just scary. As "the nose", I am able to pick out the odor of gas pretty much everywhere - I've saved a few buildings by noticing pilot lights were out - but the maple syrup smell? That's just classic Manhattan craziness.


postscript - apparently the gas smell is now thought to be caused by a leak of the chemical mercaptan from a New Jersey power plant. Mercaptan, for all of your curious folk, is the rotten egg smell they add to natural gas to make it easily detected. Because gas doesn't actually smell. Awesome, huh?

UPDATE: I was misinformed. Turns out the smell was caused by a "temperature inversion" yesterday... ummmmm what? Here's the full text from the NYTimes:

"Yesterday’s lingering odor was attributed in part to a temperature inversion settling over the New York region. Of course, that wasn’t the first time this has happened. Before the Clean Air Act, such inversions were linked to hundreds of deaths, as they trapped the deadly toxins from the city’s factories and other agents of pollution.

Time Magazine’s archive has an interesting story about a 1966 inversion here.

It leads to a question some have raised following yesterday’s incident: have we become more senstitive to such odors in our atmosphere?"

subtract balm. plus stable.

So I returned to work today after a vacation of about a week and a half (which was fantastic and I want to go back right now), and I guess the sewage backed up in the bathroom? So our leprochaun friend is apparently living in a stable with horses (I haven't named him yet, but you can name the horse. Winner has a new leprochaun picture drawn with them in it.) in a stable filled with horse shit.

he still smells bad, but now he has bad smelling company.