I saw this dress in a magazine and looked it up online. The designer is name Derercuny.
I have another interview for my audio forensics piece today. This is with a guy who analyzes cockpit voice recordings to help determine the cause of plane crashes. To prepare, I listened to a cockpit voice recording that I'm going to be asking him about. It was bad. I've listened to a bunch of these and I don't think I've ever heard the impact in any of them, but you can hear it in this one. It made it a thousand times worse to listen to.
The conversation was hard to understand except at the end, but I read the transcript first so I knew what they were saying. The co-pilot was pointing out a problem and the pilot was insisting it was fine. It wasn't. The last words are the co-pilot saying "we're going down" and the pilot answering "I know it," and I think you can hear the defensiveness and anger at the co-pilot in the pilot's voice. It was like, 'yeah, you were right, we're going to die,' like he was annoyed at the "I told you so" in the co-pilot's comment, but also mad at himself and saying sorry at the same time. Jesus, I've led a charmed life so far. The things that some people have to endure. It's so unfair. In the roll of the dice of lives, I've done pretty well so far.
I think I'm done with the line edits of my book, but I'm afraid to hand it in. (That sounded like school days, didn't it? "Hand it in." Like it's a paper or an assignment.) What if it's not really ready, and still needs work??
This is a picture of a chimp named Jaybee. I went to the Save the Chimps website and saw this picture. He'd been living in a windowless cage for years, while horrible things were done to him. "Upon taking over the Coluston Foundation in September 2002, Save the Chimps founder Carole Noon discovered Jaybee alone in a small cage making a ‘nest’ out of leftover monkey chow, arranging the small biscuits in a circle around himself before lying down. Dr. Noon’s heart broke and she immediately got Jaybee a bed sheet. Jaybee was thrilled; it seemed that he had ceased expecting both kindness from humans and the most basic physical comforts. Jaybee made a nest with the sheet and having no reason to expect he would ever receive another one, refused to give it up for three days (he kept the sheet clean and dry)."
I mean for the love of God. I think it's our job to take care of the creatures of the earth. If you can please donate to Save the Chimps.
I'm posting this to show that I am not the only one who loves my pets even when they are evil. Here is Marianne with Schlomo, who is clearly possessed and about to chew her arm off, but does she care? No. She still loves him. Losing an arm is just the price of love.
Reasons to be Happy - the TV Version
"Bones will make six fresh segments and might get a supersized order for next season." (I cut and pasted that from somewhere.)
The whole "I'm fucking Matt Damon" and "I'm fucking Ben Affleck" thing. Very funny.
Jon Stewart bringing Marketa Irglova back out at the Oscars and then her lovely speech.
American Idol is past the auditions and up to the good part.
Oh and the writer's strike is over, of course.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which was good to begin with, is getting even better. This show was out of left field for me and a nice surprise.
When it gets close to dinner time they hop up and keep me company, in case I forget. The time they start hovering gets earlier and earlier, and over the years I've broken down, to the point where "dinner" is now at 4:30. They get a snack at 7:30 because of course they can't go without food from 4:30 until the next morning. I am so trained.
From left to right, first we have the happy couple, Christopher and Ellen, then Brad and Anne, and finally Marianne. Everyone always says 'the bride looked gorgeous,' except Ellen really did and here is proof. I mean come on, look at her. (I had the best dress after Ellen. Strangers came up to me to compliment the dress. I think it's because 98% of the women wore black or some other dark color and the yellow just stood out. I was like a spring flower in winter.)
I'm going to a wedding in a half an hour and at noon I realized I hadn't given any thought to what I would wear. What is wrong with me?? So I ran out to find a dress.
Everything I tried on was too low cut. Finney recently scratched me and with these low cut dresses you can see all the scratches and I looked like "crazy cat lady." I decided I would just go with my "fall-back" dress. I came home, pulled out the fall-back dress, and saw that I must have had a really good time the last time I wore my fall-back dress because it's a mess and completely unwearable. So I had to run back out at 3pm for a 6pm wedding.
I went back to Anthrpologie for this. I saw it when I was on my way out before, but I had already decided on the fall-back dress and so I kept going. Everything about it is perfect! It's yellow, my new favorite color! And I have all the right jewelry! The universe is being so nice to me lately.
So, now I have to quick put on the finishing touches and go!
I'll
be
back
with
pictures
of
everyone
else.
I'm
just
filling
up
space
to
get
to
the bottom of the picture.
I took a bunch of pictures when I went out for food yesterday and it turns out the first one was the best. Not that it's a great shot, but I took this the second I walked out the door. This is what I saw when I turned left and clicked.
The price of dog ownership is walking the dog in a snowstorm. It's snowing right now, as I type, (7:51am) and I was trying to get a picture of it, when this guy came by, walking his dog. He gets to have a dog, but he must PAY.
I am thoroughly exhausted and I'm going to take a holiday today, but I'm tired from a great day yesterday. I got up at 4am to go to down to Quantico to interview some guys at the FBI about audio forensics (thank you, FBI!!). It was the kind of day where I am stunned at the luck of my life. I get to go to the FBI to interview people involved with some of the coolest work. And they couldn't have been nicer. At one point I was staring and staring at an old wire recorder and they noticed me staring and they pulled it down and opened it so I could get a better look. But more about them in my piece! (I'm still working on it, I've got more interviews and editing to do. We're shooting for sometime in March, but it could be April.) I also get to hang out with Art, the producer I work with at NPR (and everyone is great at NPR, smart and nice).
So then, I'm waiting for the train to come home and Howard Dean walks by, waiting for the train just like me, and then the guy sitting next to me on the train turns out to be my agent's publisher (my agent writes books, too) and he knows my editor, and we end up gabbing the whole way home.
I should have to pay for a day like that, and I probably will, but today I'm going to relax. Actually, maybe I will work on line edits for my book. I'm at the fun part now. When I'm editing, sometimes I just can't get something right so I literally leave notes in those spots for myself in boldface that say [make better] and move on. When I'm done I go back to all those parts. All the heavy lifting is done, so it's a pleasure. That's where I'm at now.
This is Buddy cleaning himself. The impossible positions they are able to effect!
So, is anyone getting into Big Brother? I'm having trouble for the first time. The only part I've enjoyed is disliking Jen, but I don't like the people I dislike to stay around. It stops being entertaining and becomes upsetting. The enjoyment comes from knowing that justice will be served, and watching their asses get evicted right outta there. Except, it is life and I am frequently disappointed, I just remembered. (Kaysar!) The people I dislike are not necessarily evicted. Oh God. I never learn. What's probably going to happen is Jen is going to win.
Anyway, this morning we learned that someone in our choir died. He was 80, but still. It's sad. I didn't know him well, but he seemed gracious, alive and not near death. I'm so sorry Fritz. We're all right behind you, more or less. I'm glad John made a big deal of your last birthday, and we all sang to you.
I've been editing editing editing, but I think I need to step away from the manuscript for a day. It's very hard to stop though. The sooner it's perfect, the sooner I can rest the sweet rest of those who have handed in an edited book.
This is another still from Beauty and the Beast. Beauty is sitting in front of the mirror in her bedroom, angsting about I forget what. But it's a fairly accurate picture of how burned out I feel. I downloaded a horror movie called The Orphanage. I'm going to try to stop working and watch that.
I have it on good authority that everyone reading this right now is fairer than any else. It's a fact. Sorry everyone else. What can I say? Don't hate us because we're pretty.
I'm recycling a picture from an earlier post. This picture makes me happy. It brings back fond memories from growing up. Those were exciting times, except it's always exciting in some way at all times, isn't it? The way it was exciting for me then was because the world sucked in many ways, but I believed I could do something about it. I think Obama supporters are feeling that same potential, which is a good thing. Do your part to make the world better. Please do it without the hate though. I can't take the hate anymore. (And I'm talking to you people hating on us because we're pretty.) (Okay, I'm kidding.) (Except we are pretty.)
I can't make up my mind what to do with myself today. Movie? Massage? Hard choices, I know. Sometimes I have the life.
Sometimes I love looking over at Buddy, all cosy and warm on the big, fluffy, snowy-white comforter, on top of my red velvet couch, with snow falling outside, and remembering that before I got him he was living in a shuttered, abandoned beauty parlor in Harlem without heat, and doesn't he have the life now, and how nice is that?
Here is a picture of Buddy taken moments ago, except he has since jumped off the couch and is now eating. Nom, nom, nom.
It makes me happy that today Buddy is living in what constitutes the lap of luxury for a cat.
Update. Finney in the lap of kitty luxury.
It's one of my favorite movies of all time. A while ago I uploaded a picture I took that reminded me of the statues from the movie. I had tried to find a picture from the movie so you could see the resemblance, but I couldn't find one. But thanks to http://www.silverscreenings.net/, I have one now. So here is the statue, followed by the shot I took, I think on 10th Street.
This is another still from the movie. I was so mesmorized by this particular scene I wrote a poem inspired by it when I was in college. I was going to try to find the poem, but I'm sure it's really bad. I was a college student! Didn't we all write bad poetry then? But look at this. Gorgeous. Beauty is floating down a corridor in the castle of the Beast. The curtains float up before and after her as she glides by. It was just stunning. I'm going to upload some more stills tomorrow, I think. I could have written a poem about every scene. In fact, ever since I've wished I could have a bedroom like Beauty's bedroom at the castle. It was an enchanted jungle, like a room that was both outside and inside.
I'm going through the line edits for my book and every once in a while I'll read an instruction from them that goes something along the lines of, "Please tell us, in one sentence only" something something something. What they're battling is my love of going into a lot of detail when something is interesting to me.
My poor editors. But I have to laugh whenever they say it. I know exactly what they're talking about. I fight it, but it's an ongoing battle. Forgive me. I'm doing my best.
My Last Ten Days of Accomplishments aka The Reasons Why I Can Stop Working Now and Watch The Host:
1/31
Emailed FBI with specifics.
Set up Richard Sanders interview.
Emailed everyone about name server change.
2/1
Paid rent.
Made decision about the zoo.
Worked on choir piece.
2/2
Did a New York Cares volunteer gig.
Worked on choir piece.
2/3
Went to the gym.
Emailed Sally.
Worked on choir pieces.
2/4
Finished this month's billing (Echo people).
Followed up on domain name server change.
Called landlord.
2/5
Updated Restless blog.
Decent walk.
Voted.
2/6
Worked on epilogue.
Got caught up in email.
Worked on taxes.
2/7
Went to the gym.
Emailed Art about interviews.
Started working on the line edits.
2/8
Worked more on line edits.
Did my heavy lifting errands, litter and catfood.
More tax work.
2/9
Got Sanders interview questions ready.
Went to make-up choir rehearsal.
Dealt more with mail problem.
2/10
Finished line edits for chapter two!!
(The picture is of another great dress in the window of Bergdorf's.)
This is the alley where I watched the parade. I love this about the Wall Street area, lots of nooks and crannies, doesn't feel particularly well planned, it's crumbly and old in spots, and 19th century feeling in a lot of places. I should walk around and take shots some afternoon.
What's up for me today ... thinking ... choir practice, make sure I'm ready for an interview on Monday, (for my audio forensics piece) work on the line edits for the parapsychology book. It has a tentative title. Unbelievable: The Search for the Supernatural at The Parapsychology Laboratory of Duke University.
Then, at some point, lay on the couch and read People Magazine and watch TV.
I've been thinking about my next book. I would really like to do another Waiting for My Cats to Die. Basically a series of essays about whatever is obsessing me. I don't know if a publisher would go for that though, because Waiting for My Cats to Die wasn't exactly a best seller. Hmmm. I have an idea though. I'm going to talk to my agent first.
Is there anything good on TV tonight? I enjoyed Lipstick Jungle, I have to say. Not great, but it roped me in. I must have some recorded things left to watch. Oh, I've got a movie called The Lookout that people are saying is very good. There I go. Day set.
If I have the time, I like to read the plaques on the benches around the city, or wherever I see them, on buildings, church pews, at the base of trees. I think I've posted pictures of them from time to time. I love reading these small dedications. I couldn't find out much of anything about Cyrus Porter. I wonder who "C" is? But All About Us is a children's book by Eva Knox Evans about why people are different, and have different skin color. According to the New York Public Library listing she's still alive, but she'd be 102 if that's correct. There's a copy at the library way way uptown, but I'm curious to read what Einstein said, and there's something else I needed to check up there. Maybe I will make it up there sooner rather than later.
I usually try to edit down to the best shot, but I can't decide which shot really conveys what it was like for me yesterday, watching people watch the parade, because as I said, I couldn't see a thing. Sometimes I tried to watch the parade from the tiny screens of the cameras they were holding up.
Loved the confetti, especially when it was pink or red.
Is this a better shot of the confetti? I don't know.
Here's confetti that almost looks like snow on the window ledges.
Here's Jon Oliver again, because he's so cute and funny.
And here's the aftermath, on a side street, not even Broadway, the actual parade route. I love New York.
... along with thousands of others. I was looking for the least popular spot to watch the ticker tape for the Giants, and I decided to go with a small alley called Exchange Alley. It was still packed, but nothing like other blocks which were freaking mind-blowingly insane. I can't see a thing, I can only hear when someone goes by, but I turned around and spotted Jon Oliver from The Daily Show! I took pictures of him instead. More pictures later, and also my traumatic experience voting.
The world exploded outside my window last night. Apparently there was some sort of sporting event, maybe a competition of some sort and New York won? I think? Or lost and decided to lose graciously? Yay other guys! We're just happy to be alive!
It was fun hearing all that noise. I was tempted to go out and join them. I had a mostly quiet weekend. On Echo we have something called "yo's." They're like Instant Messages. People can say something to you and it pops up on your screen. When I can't (or don't want to respond) I have a list of reasons I YO back, like:
On phone!
Cat on me!
On deadline!
Bones is on!
This weekend I added:
Meditating!
Because I do that now. I'm loving reading Eat, Pray, Love because she writes a lot about meditating (in the middle, India section anyway) and she's both funny and moving at the same time. Although her descriptions about having a connection to God terrify me. It reminded me of when I was researching ghosts and people who record voices which they believe are the voices of the dead. I got so scared listening to these recordings that I looked around my apartment and said out loud, "If you're here, please don't talk to me." That said, I wouldn't mind having my prayers answered occasionally. Except maybe they are. I am still alive.
I was uptown yesterday for a New York Cares volunteer thing. All I had to do was sit and talk to people learning English, but it felt awkward because they don't give you any training and I couldn't tell how much was being understood. Maybe it helped.
I was extremely curious about the lives of the two women from Nicaragua I was with, but the other volunteer seemed impatient with my questions, and he was actually very prepared. He bought stories and vocabularies, and I didn't want to get in the way of him actually helping them.
Anyway, I loved being in Washington Heights. It feels like the Manhattan of my youth up there. Not as pretty, but more alive and exciting, and more normal people on the streets (by normal, I mean not wealthy). And I'm sure there's pretty areas. Washington Heights is way northern Manhattan, where I never go. Inwood is above that, almost in imaginary territory, and Marble Hill is the most northern spot in Manhattan, although I think it's not really attached. I have to google it. I'm dying to explore these places now, except I know through researching my last book that there are a lot of unsolved murders in Inwood, so, there's that. Not good.
(The picture is of the George Washington Bridge, which was near where I was volunteering. I started to walk over it, but I'm afraid of heights and I got a little nervous and there were other places to explore so ... I bolted!)
But being at Lincoln Center brought up a nice memory from my twenties. My friend Shelley had told me that from time to time she put dish washing liquid in public fountains. A simple, tried and true prank that I couldn't wait to do myself. The first time I did it was at the fountain at Lincoln Center. I was SO scared. I used the Shelley method, which was to buy a bunch of liquid detergent, empty it into a plastic bag, then while sitting at the fountain, poke a hole in the bag and let it slowly drain into the fountain.
I did this one afternoon, trembling the whole time. After a few minutes the bubbles started growing and growing, mountains of bubbles. Guards from Lincoln Center came out, discussing what to do about it, and I'm still sitting there with the bag, empty now, still shaking and trying not to look guilty, but loving the bubbles which were growing up and over the fountain. It was the middle of the afternoon and there were a ton of people around, who started reaching into the fountain, playing with the bubbles, throwing handfuls at each other, and I just got happier and happier, the whole thing was just so much fun, and everyone was enjoying it, even the guards who were still discussing what to do.
For the next few years, whenever I needed a lift, I'd pour some sort of bubble making substance into a fountain.
(The picture below is the fountain at Lincoln Center. A perfectly designed bubble-churning device is how I see it now. After doing this for a while you learn which fountains will work better.)
