Cynically Optimistic

It's beautiful fall days like this I wish I was a professional photographer. New York is fantastic right now. The trees are starting to change colors, there a bite in the air, and I'm hitting my stride here at school again. I'm so immersed I'm completely losing my mind sometimes. I got home from the gym and grocery store and didn't have my keys yesterday, so I walked all the way back to the grocery store, thinking I left them there. No luck - but the cashier insisted I check in EVERY pocket. My keys were in my back pocket with my wallet the entire time. I'm losing my shit people, seriously. I think this is the real reason behind grad school - to turn me into a crazy professor.

Posted by Jeff at 08:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Yeah, we were just going to eat brunch, I swear. Tom and I ate at the Great Jones Cafe, on Great Jones Street (which is only 2 blocks long, incidentally). Cajun food in a tiny restaurant was never better. Plus they have Bloody Marys with a bit of kick! Following that, we strolled through NoLita and window shopped, balking at $30 t-shirts. The neighborhood is cool and trendy. Much cooler and trendier than me. To wash away my lameness, we stopped into a seemingly random bar for another Bloody Mary. Hey, it's Sunday! The bar is pretty empty, but we get our drinks and grab a seat in the corner window. Five minutes later, this huge dog walks into the bar. Ten minutes later, we're people watching and notice 2 trendy kids wander by. Hey, I know one of those kids!

Of course they joined us for one drink. There may or may not have been some popycock talk of "sharing" a beer because they were 23 ounces. ....4 drinks later we were shopping for old vintage flannel and boots. You don't want to know. We hit another bar. And another. I was home by 9:30 pm, but must I learn this lesson again every few years: EAT FOOD, or you'll pay for it later.

I woke up at 6:30 to prepare for class at 9:00. It was totally worth it.

Posted by Jeff at 09:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm never really getting around to writing up any thoughts on homecoming this year, but it was tons of fun. Wendy, Diane, and Tom have great recaps up already, so I'll just let my photos speak for themselves. Back to studying for me. And oh shit, there's the annoying fire alarm message saying disregard... This building sometimes annoys me to no end.

Posted by Jeff at 08:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A small plane has crashed into an apartment high rise on 72nd and York Ave. I was there about 15 minutes after it happened, before the cops closed off the street. Gossip on the street says a small 4 person Cessna crashed into it. There's no gaping hole, so the plane must have bounced off. The firefighters have the flames under control as of the moment I got kicked off the street.

I'm fine. I'm glad I'm not in traffic right now on 1st Ave. It's a disaster!

UPDATE: Here's a short video clip of the flames which should work soon.

Another Upper East Side blogger has photos too. Daily Blague.

Posted by Jeff at 03:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Homecoming: we ate, drank, paraded, beer-band'ed, marched, footballed, tailgated, and generally made merry for the whole weekend. Suffice it to say, I had a blast as always. I got to introduce Tom to a lot of my friends from home, and I think he fit in great. I'm sure he'll eventually have a recap of his thoughts on beer band, tailgating, and Iowa football.

Posted by Jeff at 08:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Back in Iowa City, and The Vine has treated us well. $2.75 for a Stein of beer (32 oz.), and $5 for a dozen wings. Then chicken fried steak. Then pork tenderloin. Then more "light" beer. Then, remarkably, Boone's Farm! I'm ready for some Football!!!

Posted by Jeff at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Another shot from the cathedral this past weekend.

Walking to the gym most days I head down York Avenue, and depending on the sequence of lights and traffic eventually bang a right and weave my way to 2nd Ave. About half the time, for whatever reason, I get to the Queensboro Bridge and am forced to turn right and stroll past Scores. Today was one of those days. Just at the corner, an attractive young couple stops me:

Tourist Guy: Excuse me. Do you know the vay into zis gym?

Me: What gym are you looking for?

TG: This one, here. *points up at Scores Awning*

Me: Well, the door is just down the block, but that's not a gym. It's a strip club.

TG: Strip Club? What is?

Me: Girls. Boobies. Dancing. You know?

Tourist Girl: *gasps*

Me: But I'm on my way to a real gym, if that's what you want you can follow me.

And then we all went to the gym. En route I learned that they are Dutch and are here in NY for only a few days before heading to Miami and then Los Angeles. I hope Uli designed their wardrobes.

Fast Forward to this afternoon. I'm walking from one meeting to another - all of 2 blocks. The intersection I need to cross is completely jammed with cars, vans, busses, and an ambulance (luckly the sirens were not going). Some blond bitch in a BMW 7 Series (and with a handsfree cellphone microphone in her ear) inches her way into the pedestrian crosswalk completely blocking my path, but getting exactly nowhere due to the traffic situation. No one can move, yet she leans on her horn for a solid 5 seconds.

I notice that her windows are down, and I snap. I leaned INTO her window and yelled out, "HOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNKKKKKK!!!!!" inches from her face. She recoils, dropping her pen and releasing the horn. Then I calmly say, "pretty obnoxious huh?" and walk around the jam up the sidewalk.

I think I heard someone start clapping as I walked away.

Posted by Jeff at 06:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

This past Sunday Tom and I went to eat delicious Bagels with Glenn and George. Afterwards, we plalyed tourist and snapped photos of the Seinfeld Diner. In our search for a donut on the UWS we walked by the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine where it was the Feast of St. Francis (of Asisi maybe?). There was a large sign outside saying something to the effect of "Animals will be blessed around back".

Hrm... Guess that explains why we saw a lady walk by with 2 llamas. And the guy with the gecko in an aquarium. And the creepy cat with no eyeballs. Yeah, you better get blessed quick! I wanted to go inside and see the stained glass, but the place has been undergoing renovations since 2001 and essentially the whole place is boarded up. Didn't stop them from accepting my "donation" upon entry, however.

Today during class we had a photographer annoy the hell out of us for 3 hours. Then they wanted more shots of us in the study area to pimp the grad school. It felt like America's Next Top Grad Student, and I half-expected to hear Tyra telling me to elongate my neck. Of course, I forgot that was happening today, and haven't shaved in a week so I'm totally rockin' the grungy grad-student in a hoody look. The photographers assistant assured me they'd use Photoshop's Gillette filter to freshen me up. If I get the proofs perhaps I'll share.

Posted by Jeff at 03:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)