jet plane

i'm leavin'.

tomorrow at this time i'll...well, i'll probably be exactly where i am right now -- in front of my computer. but tomorrow this time plus six hours, i'll be at the airport... headed to Spain!

i'm not the kind of person that gets really really excited about travelling (or doing much of anything) until it's right in front of me. so while by tomorrow plus six hours, i'll be squealing and ecstatic, right now, i'm mainly thinking about packing.

i'm only taking a small carry on with me, plus one personal item (ie a decent size tote bag).

packing clothes for two weeks into something the size of a large lunch box leads to all kinds of fun what-to-save-from-the-fire dilemmas. so far i've ditched:

• the second pair of pajama bottoms. if mine get grubby, i'll be showering in the morning anyway.
• the little towel i was going to bring in case the hostels didn't provide them. um, that's not likely. and if i have to pay for towels. so be it.
• the butterfly dress. garh! no. not the butterfly dress! but it's bulky and has cap sleeves, which lends itself to only being worn, like, once. 

what this leaves me with are:
2 dresses (one for day. one for evening. booyah!)
1 pajama bottom
2 sleep t-shirts
1 long pair of pants
a few shirts long and short sleeved
a bathing suit

the biggest dilemma (still ongoing at the time of this writing) is footwear.

do i, A. wear the fabulous new cowboy boots i just found at my local thrift store that kinda press down in odd places -- who knew the top of your foot could hurt -- but would look fabulous with both dresses and my one pair of pants?

why hello, you sexy little things.

or do i B. wear the kick around boots that don't have a describable color anymore (hmm...why they're kind of an ehh) and couldn't even stand up right for the picture?

wah-wah.

i know. i know. go with comfort. plus i imagine having to ask the guard at the security check point for help pulling off the cowboy boots (something i've had to do everytime i've worn them so far, not the guard, but you know, a friend) and that about ruins the illusion of me ho-downing it around Spain.

now after printing out itineraries, buying tickets to Alhambra and cleaning my entire apartment, i'll be ready to go. a friend warned me to be careful in Barcelona. that it's not such a safe city. but i figure if anyone tries to mug me, i'll throw a guide book at them. i have plenty to spare.

yes, for the record, books out number shirts i'm bringing.
i <3 books.

though i wish i could take you all with me -- especially my mama, sisters and well, all you ladies -- you know what sometimes happens when you travel with friends, and i don't want to risk losing you. i'll be gone from the blog for these next two weeks.

until my return (and always and forever thereafter) stay safe everyone. have some fun. and enjoy.

and really, what do you think, should i just take the butterfly dress anyway?

tech

i'm a bit of a techno-phobe. it's not that i'm afraid of technology (so she says), i just think it's replacing too many important things.

therefore, i still write checks. buy stamps. take out library books. shop in stores instead of online. recently at work they laughed at me when i said this. in my defense? maybe i'm not moving with the times, but these are jobs i'm supporting, American institutions.

"you buy stamps," my boss scoffed. "talk about a failing institution." and i thought, "yes, because you don't buy stamps."

grumble grumble grumble. ANYWAY mix these thoughts in with an impatience for being dependent on small gadgets and there you have it: techno-phobe.

so when i dumped a bottle of water on my phone a month ago and had to get another, it took a lot of self-talking for me to upgrade to a smart phone.  i even took a friend with me for back up, because otherwise i wouldn't have gone through with it. see i have this other weird belief that as long as technology exists, it seems kind of stupid to buy technology that you know is outdated. so goodbye my simple old telephone. hello Droid.

all other droid owners i talk to love their phone. i don't use mine to it's fullest capabilities so i think it's alright. there is one thing i hate about it, tho -- the texting. since the "keys" are so close together misspellings are common. which perhaps is why they created auto-correct? otherwise, it's sol purpose is to drive me insane.

if you're one word off in what you write, or you spell a name that the phone isn't familiar with, or heavens forbid you type in Spanish, the freakin' "smart" phone picks a different word for you. a word that ALWAYS MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE.

or worse, a word that makes huge inappropriate sense. example: yesterday, as i was running into the city for my writing crit group, i texted my mom this:

Heading into the city for drug group in a few. Just wanted to say hi and I love you.

ahh drug group. where would i be without you. my mom was with my dad, auntie and uncle at the time. she said they tried to puzzle out what i meant for at least five minutes. drug group? maybe it's something for the restaurant?

after group, one of my awesome crit partners and i texted back and forth. at one point i wrote:

And when bosom asked etc.

um. no, smart phone. Bosom is not the name of anyone i know.

crit partner wrote back: Bosom? I'm confused!

or later on: i hope everyone piles the book the way Ghenet does.

or, you know, likes it as much as Ghenet does. piles. likes. same diff. (hi Ghenet! i hope everyone likes my book as much as you do!)

in a way, it's kind of awesome. there are websites dedicated to the funny things that auto correct does to you. if you have any leave them in my comments! in another way it underscore my techno-phobica because it's a huge time waster. constantly having to click back and correct words, that you didn't put there to begin with.

either way it makes me miss the good old days, when we actually used phones for talking.

a night out

i went to a cd release party last night. do you remember my good friend Kevin's best friend (got that?) Notar from other blog posts? well, his album drops today.

 

the release party wasn't at a club. it was at a HUGE loft apartment in the west village.

i love brushing up against NYC lives and lifestyles that are different than mine. it's the equivalent of peeking in through windows and then actually being invited inside and staying for a plate of lasagna. this loft was insane. the chandelier hanging from the ceiling was about the size of my bed (and as all my friends assured me, not from ikea). the owners installed a full bar, and i'm not talking liquor cabinet, a whole deal BAR with mirror, shelves, bar, stools right in the middle of the apartment.

the apartment wasn't overwhelming in it's luxuriousness. it was tasteful, homey and warm.

here, i took a picture:

erm. wait. what's that? oh right. it's part of the bathroom. because who in their right mind would actually take a picture of a beautiful loft apartment when she's in it? not this girl. she takes a picture of the bathroom. and not even a particularly good picture.

sigh.

but anyway, congratulations to Notar and my friend Kevin Augsburg who produced four of the songs on the album. i can't wait to give it a full listen.

it's all do-able

are you a do-er?

a co-worker the other night was telling me about this couple she knows that are do-ers. they work for a non-profit, yet somehow are fabulously wealthy. they have kids and an intensive travelling schedule. (and apparently an au-paire). they want something, they get it done. consequently, the story went, they are suc-cess-full.

it got me thinking. am i a do-er?

i used to think so. i once started a huge community collaborative from scratch. but now that's turning into a years ago kind of thing. what have i done recently?

i live in nyc. when i first moved here i volunteered a lot, but every organization seemed like they ran perfectly well without my efforts, so i stopped.

i blog three times a week, but i don't do enough to promote said blog and as my fellow blogging/writing/reading friend's blog numbers escalate. i seem to have topped out at 30 (fabulous) followers.

i've written three novels while i've lived here, the first is a bit messy and will hopefully one day see life as a middle grade. the second is a fabulous dystopian that apparently will only ever see the inside of a drawer. the third, i've been editing for five months now and will hopefully one day see a Barnes and Noble shelf if i can infuse it with perfect amounts of description/voice/life/plot. sounds pretty good, right? except i have another three novel ideas, that i'm letting stew when i could just as easily be, i dunno, writing them.

so am i doing enough?

i started that community collaborative to improve my neighborhood, have i done all i can to improve my career? on days i'm not at home writing it amazes me how much i can accomplish in an afternoon that is normally spend drinking cups of coffee and worrying away word choice. but that's my process. i can't exactly speed that up. can i?

which leads me to ask, how much doing is enough in life? lately, i've been wanting to do it all...practice/improve my Spanish, read The Scorpio Races (again) not to mention every other YA that's been recommended, crank on my new book ideas, perfect my manuscript, maintain a healthy social life, clean my apartment... ARGH... i end up zoning out and playing TowerMadness on my Ipod.

i've written it before, but my favorite Tom Robbin's line is: People of zee world relax.

but can you be good at relaxing and still be a do-er? i don't know. this is something i will try and figure out while i'm away on vacation. hopefully, when i return, it won't feel like i'm doing or not, i'll just be. you know, whilst being really productive, maintaining a healthy social life, not spending months on the same damn edits and and and....

the lesson in all this? all 30 of you?

no more blogging before 6 a.m.! or stop talking to co-workers.

i have figured out which yet. i'll add it to my to-do list.

love/love

whoops. i didn't post a blog this Wednesday. i have a good excuse though. i'll blame it on who we all blame things from the age of 11 until 99 -- my parents! (or well, you know, not specifically my parents. parents in general. sigh. that was a failed joke. that i think i tried making once before. one trick pony.)

anyway. that's right. my parents are visiting! *corrie cheers* a September visit has become a family tradition because it means: US OPEN!

my secret: i've never really liked tennis. but my mom's followed it ever since i can remember, so i peripherally know more about it than my actual interest in it belies. growing up, there was always a French Open or Breakfast at Wimbledon on the telly. why taking my mom to the US Open (erm, technically she took me 'cause she and my dad paid) the very first year i moved to NYC didn't occur to me sooner, i dunno.

but last year it did. it almost felt like we were doing something illegal, like, are we really allowed to be here?

my mom smiled and giggled the whole first day. we had such a blast, we went back the second day, too. a tradition was born.

this year it rained. poured, really. matches were cancelled. we weren't sure we would make it. but yesterday after a few train connections, there we were at the ticket office. the attendant assured us there was still tennis to be watched (we got there kinda late). the sky opened up. it got hot. sunburn hot.

my mom giggled, this is so fun!

two Serbians were playing against each other, which i guess is rare. one of them is the number one player in the world. jojovitch. which is pretty cool to think about. i like that about sports, knowing who's the best. you can't say that so correctly about a lot of things: that man is the best shoe maker in the world. nope. she's the best librarian. uh-uh. but jovovitch, there, the tiny man at the bottom? right now, no one plays tennis better than him.

yawn. oh geez. sorry. though i don't love watching sports on tv (hockey is the exception). i love sports in person. maybe it has something to do with this:

but watching tennis in person feels even more special.

growing up tennis meant crashing in my parent's bed on a Saturday morning watching Breakfast at Wimbledon. it's meant late nights watching tense tie-breakers. and conversations about who's topping who and all the latest drama (like, did you know that Venus Williams isn't playing anymore because she's caught some kind of debilitating virus?). in other words, it's meant lots of time spent with my mom.

and it still means that. but even better than those growing up, tv memories, are the ones i have now. of us being there, shivering at night under the lights or baking in the sun. of my mom giggling and saying every few minutes, this is so fun! of drinking beers. buying snacks. taking stupid pictures (and sometimes videos). of her saying good night to the security guards. of the three of us being on the jumbo-tron in the very upper corner.

i only wish this tradition came more than once a year.

maybe we need to become Mets fans.

tripping

i'm in a bit of a count down. after three years of complaining that i needed a vacation, in two weeks, i'm headed to... SPAIN!

as all my adventures begin, the trip came out of nowhere. a friend and i had been throwing around the idea of travelling together for at least a year. she decided to quit her job. about 2 days later, we'd (nervously) booked our tickets.

we're going for two weeks. we're starting in Barcelona and from there we're going to...

um. i have no idea.

seriously. although my friend will be arriving at my apartment shortly to do a little planning, we're kind of playing it by ear. leaving it up to who we meet, where the wind carries us. all we know for certain is that we'll be eating. a lot. whichever direction we choose. (it's kind of a north vs. south debate.)

that's mainly why we chose Spain. the food. but also partly because my friend and i both (partly) speak Spanish. which is funny, because the more research i do, the more i discover that in parts of Spain they don't actually speak Spanish. hola Catalan.

when i get back, i'm going on a mini family-vaca to Tampa to visit my grandpa and Dot. (yay!)

all told, i'll be gone from work for over three weeks! (over) three blissful weeks of not having to bring anyone anything. of not having to repeat my list of ten thousand word specials. (over) three weeks of not having to point out the restroom that has RESTROOM boldly printed on it.

accordingly, for part of this time, i'll be on a blogging vacation, too. i'm not sure what kind of suitcase to bring (seriously, i'm open to suggestions on this one. except, no i don't own a backpackers pack), but whatever it ends up being, my little laptop will not be taking this trip with me.

i will be looking for YA events to attend while i'm there. helloooo travel tax write-offs? are you out there? oops, i mean, because that's how dedicated i am. and as in my everyday life, i'd love to hear any suggestions of great restaurants, cities, hostels -- you name it -- that any of you might have experienced in your travels there. or in your travels period. because even though my eyes have been craving new sights for a long time, my ears are always open for a great story.

on the go

working a lunch. then having a dinner with my sis. i'll see you on monday, loves.

have great weekends!