accomplished over the past snotty, achey, knife-throaty two days: two plane tickets to milwaukee booked (a wedding!), two wedding gifts purchased and shipped (yay, march!) and one wedding date saved (yay, july!), at least twenty work emails answered, an embarrassing number of hours of svu watched (also some kourtney & kim, if we’re being honest), one trip out of the house (for a green juice and a library errand), one pair of yoga pants worn, one shower taken (sorry, s), and many, many, many refreshes of the tumblr dashboard.

but! finally on the up-and-up, and very much looking forward to a return to work tomorrow.

(also, by popular demand, the jump shot. love you, meg.)

miss sarahspelledwithanh, here’s wishing you (yes, you!) the happiest of birthdays. miss you, sister friend.

stephen sent this to me with the caption “this sounds like a song i would make up” (which is true. his songs tend towards the descriptive.) it’s worth it mainly for the scenes of james bond in a jetpack.

zorba express mediterranean café / category: greek / four stars

it was a cold night and the rain was coming down hard and i did not want to move from my couch. i called zorba express and a man came with a gyro in a greasy paper bag. i paid him and he left. the gyro was good and it felt good to eat in front of the television and out of the rain. i fell asleep between the couch cushions and when i woke up the next day the paper bag was still there on the floor.

(from mcsweeney’s; they are all amazing.)

yesterday walking from the train down henry street (from a bus just in from philly, where i spent a wonderful 24 hours with an old friend), i felt happy to be home. i felt similarly happy as our train from d.c. pulled in over christmas, and i stopped to notice these feelings only because it had been awhile since coming home to new york felt like more of a joy than a disappointment, since i had caught myself walking down the street marveling at my good luck to live here.

we were talking to a friend’s date at a party on wednesday. she had just come here a few months ago from alabama—just picked up and moved and now she cuts hair in my neighborhood salon, small world. i told her that when we were getting ready to graduate, we did precisely the same thing. i had fallen in love with the city while testing things out at nyu (not for me) and had always planned to return, and lucky for me by that time i had found a partner in adventure willing to eat spaghetti for days on end and sleep on a converted porch through the dead of winter and spend hours on the train to and from our various low-paying jobs. (as stephen says, every year our lot in life has improved.)

i don’t think that it’s the practical ones among us who move to new york. (perhaps it is just that it needs a naive trust in life, that whatever happens is meant to, or could, or does and you’ll get through it.) there is something about this place that requires a leap of faith, that asks you to hold tight and see what happens, that never actually promises that you’ll come out the other side not worse for wear. but you do, usually. i have, mostly.

i’m waging my own internal battle right now. there are some truly wonderful things happening for me (that include family and friends) and then there are some major changes i would like to make (that include career, home and lifestyle), but everything comes back to new york for me. what it means to stay. (and what it would mean to go.) and that while i’m ready for some things to change, i’m just not ready to make that decision yet.

all this to say that tonight, i wish i had not looked at what we could be renting in chicago right now.

noraleah:

‘Greetings from New Hampshire’ from the Drawing on Postcards series by joncarling.

(i took that test, too.)

“popular and sensitive, with outstanding people skills. externally focused, with real concern for how others think and feel. usually dislike being alone. they see everything from the human angle and dislike impersonal analysis. very effective at managing people issues and leading group discussions. interested in serving others and probably place the needs of others over their own needs.

careers that could fit you include: teachers, consultants, psychiatrists, social workers, counselors, clergy, sales representatives, human resources, managers, events coordinators, politicians, diplomats, writers, actors, designers, homemakers, musicians, religious workers.” (note: i would love to be an actor and a homemaker. how do i make that happen?)

apparently renowned persons with similar personality types include barack obama and martin luther king, jr., so basically i need to step up my game.

i saw this earlier:

Best Adapted Sceenplay

• Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, The Descendants

and thought that the second writer’s name was “fat nixon.” (which i actually think is a pretty great name…)