unfortunate behaviors

new beginnings

2012-02-22T06:43:00.000-08:00

a pretty damn cool girl i work with took the above photo of her kitty. apparently, said kitten has gotten a little obsessed with the record player. i could look at this photo for hours.

i'm starting to research a new project. i love this part of the writing process. it takes the skeleton of your newbie idea and gives it flesh. furthermore, it requires picking the brain of some really interesting people.

when i researched my last book, i went to strangers for help. for my new novel, i don't have to look much further than my friends list on FB. it's awesome. and while yes, this has more to do with the topic (see how mysterious i'm being about it), it pretty fun to see how professional and mature people of my age set are. who knew i'd ever know someone that's a new media lawyer?

now if only i knew someone who worked in a psych hospital...dun dun dun...

the weekend away

2012-02-20T06:37:00.000-08:00

the funny thing about blogging, when you do it the way i do - made up of day-in-the-life vingets - is that your material is your life, and when things go horribly wrong in your life, you're forced to share something that you normally would have kept to yourself.

i get, now, why lots of writers, just blog about writing or books they read.

lately, (hello nyc lesson #340,023) i've discovered that i don't have a lot of filters in place. i share way more than other people do, never seeing what the harm is. not until later when i feel overly exposed and creeped out, i realize the harm was to myself.

i'm babbling. but i don't want to write this post. there is no good way to talk about this weekend. my writer's retreat getaway was truly awful and also marvelous. it deserves two blogs, but i don't want to put off one topic or extend the other. so as they were in life, messily overlapping, they will be here too.

the marvelous will come first, because otherwise the awful part wipes it all away.

being in someplace beautiful always makes me wonder why i've ever chosen to live in nyc. and while my answer has to do with trees grow and change slowly, seasonally, while the city is in constant movement, the truth is that i haven't found my country yet. so for now, it's nyc. but i will always question my location, location, location, when i'm encountered with views like this:

at home, my routine is to wake up, put on coffee and immediately get to writing. usually by noon, i feel squirly, needing to see sunshine. by three, i need to get out of the apartment. maybe it has something to do with seeing concrete when i look out my windows or maybe it has something to do with the solidarity of my environment, but with other writers around, keeping to the exact same schedule, i felt happy, at peace and uber-productive. i never once felt there was something else i ought to be doing (the way i constantly feel in nyc). and writing didn't feel frivolous, it felt like the most important work i could possibly be doing.

at one point, Gina looked up as we sat in silence, clacking away, and said, "I'm so happy right now!" it was a mutual feeling. maybe it looks nerdy and strange to anyone else, but to a writer? this right here is heaven:

okay, maybe it did get a little nerdy at night...

that's right, nothing spells good times like a fire, marshmallows and editing.

in between all the writing, and thinking about my book, and talking about my books with the girls, we did two of my other favorite things. (okay, i have many favorite things, but we'll say the following two are top five). first, whenever we felt fried we'd take a long exploratory walk.

fyi the Poconos are beautiful and a wee bit strange. first, the street names are written on utility poles and would win top prize in an onomatopoeia contest.

meanwhile, Pocono residents all have a weird bear fetish.

they are everywhere. hiding behind rocks...

climbing trees...

supporting the Buffalo Bills...

and in general just taking up a lot of space....

fyi next time you're curious -
who actually buys those chainsaw sculptures?
you'll know, it's this guy.

but besides the bears and super odd lenghty addresses, there is beauty everywhere. and unlike (or just like) nyc you don't have to look very hard to find it...

the funny thing about taking adventure walks with a bunch of other bloggers is that when you get to your destination, feelings of awe and triumph are quickly imposed upon by the need to take the perfect blog post picture...

and the funny thing about taking adventure walks with YA and Middlegrade writers is that when you find a tiny door on the back of your cabin you all go: OOOOOHHHH! and think of story ideas...

my second favorite thing about retreating with other writers is that when feeling squirrely or needing a break? we snacked. and what i actually mean to say is, WE SNACKED.

yes, that is the big tub o hummus. booyah!

big breakfasts were followed by bowls of chips were followed by grapes and cookies were followed by cheese were followed by dinner were followed by more chips and cookies. for me?

heaven. heaven in a small white bowl with an ever changing filling.

i couldn't ask for a more perfect weekend. since it wasn't at all expensie, we've agreed to do it more frequently. i'm leaving here with 90 newly written pages, a more passionate dedication to both of my new book ideas (why not write two books at the same time?), and a wonderment that i don't always live in a place that is sunny, beautiful and conducive to a calm, happy, productive corrie.

quite honestly, and maybe this is again too much information, but I'm not looking forward to going home.

the awful has to do with my Bruno. the very first night i was away, he bit my sister. i didn't know about it until the second day after he went after her again and she finally called me in tears. my worst fear came true. i haven't seen the pictures my sis took of her arm. she tells me she's fine, but shaken and sore.

two and a half hours away in the Poconos, after considering taking a bus back home to be the one to walk into my apartment and calm him down, i called the shelter that i adopted him from instead. an hour later, they went to my apartment and took Bruno away.

i left him too soon. and yes, he might have just done this to me or someone else down the line. yes, what's the point of having a dog that's too violent to leave comfortably with someone else. yes, this all could have ended a lot worse. but i knew, knew that it was too soon to leave him with someone else. so i essentially let everyone involved down. because i knew the disturbance in his very new, yes stable, but still very new life, was more than his very tempermental personality could take.

so while i was in the middle of a fabulous weekend retreat, my sister got hurt and my doggie was dragged out of my house and shipped back to his shelter.

i hope he's okay. tho i feel oddly guilty calling the shelter to find out. and me? no filter me? i feel foolish, guilty, and angry at the world.

jettin'

2012-02-17T09:06:00.000-08:00

what do you do when you adopt a new doggie and he's still settling in? clearly, you go out of town for a few days. or at least, that's what i'm doing.

the previously schedule writer's retreat to the Poconos that my writing friends and i organized is upon us. my sister (who's watching Bruno) is insisting that i go. it's a good thing, actually. my productivity has dropped to zero, since i've had the boy. so i'm hoping that this weekend will reinvigorate my interest in either or both of my new projects and fling me into a more regular writing schedule upon my return.

regardless of how well that goes, it will be a weekend of great company and mucho time spent outdoors.

so happy weekend everyone!

thanks for all the Bruno support of late. it means alot to me.

learning to be alpha dog

2012-02-16T07:44:00.000-08:00

this morning, as i was standing on my couch while my dog growled and bared his teeth at me because i'd come to close to his bone (?) because he was still pissed about the signs of food guarding he displayed a few minutes before (?) i had this thought: i am not a very good alpha dog.

this was further displayed as i threw treats at my dog to get him to back away so i could get off the couch.

sigh.

in my human interactions i could use a little help with being alpha as well. the other night, someone kept asking me, corrie what do you want? and my first thought was, well, whatever you do is fine with me. weird (or is it sad) as it sounds it's only occurred to me lately, that what i want holds equal importance as what anyone else wants. now, i'm not a total mush. i can be decisive. but my most common reaction when asked what i'd like to have for dinner, see at the movies, where i'd like to go on vacation is: whatever. you pick. it's fine with me.

perhaps it's good that i unknowningly adopted a very sweet dog with massive food aggression issues. maybe i've needed training in how to be more alpha for awhile.

and with that silver lining in place, i shall now email a dog trainer.

chow. i mean, ciao.

settling in

2012-02-13T06:48:00.000-08:00

i refuse to be one of those new (adopted a dog) mommies, who only talks about, and shows pictures of, her new baby.

first of all, i have many other things to talk about. like...work. which has been busy. chocolate, which i've been eating a lot of. dance class, which i don't have video for. and this funny thing Bruno did last night.

every time i turned off my light to go to sleep, my previously snoring dog:

we're looking at the doggie here.
don't you be minding those shoes under the bed.

suddenly started to wander around in the dark. i'd turn my light back on. he'd lie back down and go back to sleep. the third time this happened, he walked through the apartment - barking (it was the first time i've heard him bark -- growl no, bark yes.). when he got to the front door, he continued to bark like there was a lurking intruder on the other side. um, creepy. and did i mention it was 2 a.m.?

shushing him by throwing biscuits on the floor, i turned on the light above the kitchen sink and we went back to bed. instead of curling up in his bed as usual, he planted himself right in my bedroom doorway as if saying: hey you, spooky-nothing-that-corrie-can-hear noise out there, you're gonna have to get through me if you want to get to my girl.

oh, and i bite.

aggression issues, who me?

maybe it was my insomnia he scared away. knock on wood, since i've had Bruno, i haven't once woken up at 3 or 4 in the morning. granted, i suddenly do wake up at 8:30 or 9 a.m. for a walk, but it feels like a fair trade off.

anyway, my point was, i'm still the same interesting and productive person as ever. i absolutely don't run home from work every night to be with my boy. nor tell lots of dog stories or flash my cell phone around and make people look at every picture i've taken. nope. same corrie. only, my apartment comes with a better view now.

day 2

2012-02-10T10:43:00.000-08:00

oh dear.

oh dear. oh dear.

well. i adopted a chowchow. and he's adorable. a gentleman. who rode home in the car like a champ.

it was immediately to the groomers for him, as he smelled not quite pleasant and had some serious matted fur going on. in the reception area, he was again, quite the gentleman. on the grooming table, he endured the brushing with the same calm.

i left to buy dog food and a bed. when i returned, he was muzzled.

"he's a bit bossy," the groomer said. "he's not biting me, but he's warning me."

she said she thought the brushing wasn't going to do the trick, that we should just shave him. he'd be more comfortable and his hair could grow back un-matted, plus if we washed him as is, there'd be no way to get a brush through it. and he couldn't just stay filthy. i reluctantly agreed.

whoa.

the next hour and a half where one of the scariest things i've ever witnessed. Bruno hated it. hated it. and when it was finally all done, and the groomer took off his muzzle, she too soon went to pet him and he bit her. cue the blood. the groomer running into the back room, yelling, "ow! ow!" cue me horrified. near tears.

what. had. i. done.

yes, there's a big grey box in this pic, but today i'm too exhausted to care.

the groomer was okay. she still insisted on giving him a bath. which he didn't like anymore than the shaving. long story short, i got him home and when he was near his toy and i was five feet away showing him his bed, he growled at me. i spoke calmly to him and ignored the behavior.

my sister came over. we sat with him, loving him for a few hours. he was calm and sweet and went between both of us, soaking in the affection. then before i went to sleep last night, i was bending down petting him and he growled at me again.

Bruno's first time out front in the daylight, he ate all my plants.

i don't really know what to do. i mean, i do. i'm going to give it a few days. i called the shelter and they said, "ooh, that's not good. we could see if he was growling at other people, but he shouldn't be growling at you. maybe you should bring him back." everyone, EVERYONE, has said, welcome to owning a chow. today on our walk, he growled at a couple of kids that were (aways away) running towards us on the street.

doesn't sound good, right?

needless to say, this wasn't quite the homecoming i was expecting for my little senior Bruno. yes, he woke up this morning and begged for and soaked in lots of loving. and now he's passed out on my living room floor, tuckered out from a 30 minute walk. but the calm in his eyes that seemed so wonderful and regal when i met him the first two times, now is quite frankly, disconcerting. i don't want to be afraid of my dog. i don't want to be afraid of having my dog around other people.

i guess maybe i'm still not sure what to do.

and all i can think is: ta-dah. corrie got a doggie.

year of the dog part 2

2012-02-08T07:09:00.000-08:00

yesterday when i called the shelter, the woman at the desk told me i was mistaken about Bruno. he wasn't 7 or 8 years old. he was closer to 11.

11?! I repeated, heart sinking.

11. she confirmed it. in 2002 he had a microchip put in him. an 11-year-old dog? i had qualms about adopting a 7 or 8-year-old dog. there's no way i could do it.

"take the week to think about it, honey." the woman at the shelter said.

i went to visit him instead.

Bruno came out of the kennel smilling and wagging his tail. he does this thing where he puts himself right over your lap so that you can dig your fingers into his mane and give him a good rubbing, then he swivels, and sits down right next to you.

after sitting with me for a minute he wandered to the front door, clearly looking to go out. when i called him, he came trotting over, took some petting, then went back to the door. outside. now please. the kennel guy said i could take him around the block. i opened the door while the kennel guy proceeded to talk to me. the whole world waiting for him, Bruno patiently stood next to me.

though he's capable of taking two hour long walks, Bruno's back legs are definitely a little stiff. he'll need to eat glucosamine on his food for the rest of his life. he has a teeny cough. apparently his teeth are black (though otherwise in fine shape, they just need a cleaning) and he has a few fatty lumps on his chest.

last night i bought a hair brush and a toothbrush. neither is for me.

i did it. i adopted him. i adopted an 11 year-old-dog, because he is perfect for me. the whole time i was with him, i was smiling.

tomorrow, Bruno comes home. and heck yes, you'd better believe he's getting groomed first.

year of the dog

2012-02-07T06:40:00.000-08:00

i'm not gonna lie. i'm freaking out right now.

i might adopt a doggy today.

this guy:

my sis and i volunteered at a shelter in williamsburg on friday. when they led this boy out to be walked something in me jumped -- literally, i cut the line to get him.

his name is currently Herbert. i'd name him Brunello. Bruno for short. at one hundred pounds, he's a mellow gentleman. he's also about eight-years-old (since he was abandoned at the shelter they don't know for sure).

when it comes to change, i'm not the best. and this is a BIG furry (senior) change. i was pretty confident with the decision all this weekend. but today is go day. i need to make some phone calls. (see if he's still available). i'd need to buy a lot of things. then i'd need to come home to my cute (read: small) one bedroom with a big, smelly, doggy.

at the moment, my life in nyc has little obligation. i can go and do as i please. stay out as long as i like. i pay my rent, a few bills, and that's about it. not many extra incurred expenses. on one hand this sounds terrific. on the other, reading it back, kind of sad.

what do i have to lose, right? a little freedom? ease of travelling? a little extra saved cash? a little cleanliness. (no question mark about that one). and the luxury of rolling over again and again in the morning without having to walk anybody. erm, those all seem pretty important.

quick and to gain? a black nose at the side of my bed waking me up in the morning. someone to chill next to me while i write. a waggy tail when i come home. a front steps sitting companion.

it's happiness versus convenience and freedom. but it's also a move against stagnating. a move against not making a life changing decision because i'm afraid of changes in life. as we analyzed to death a totally different subject yesterday, my good friend at work said it best: whoa. Corrie, you think too much.

which is why, sometimes regardless of the pro's and con's list, the healthiest thing for me is to act. to go with the internal jump. and in this case, to get my Bruno.

world book night

2012-02-03T09:43:00.000-08:00

so i won free books!

erm, except they're not mine to keep. they're meant to be given to as many people as i can. or, more correctly, to twenty people. and as much as i'd like to make this a contest and give some to you, my blogging co-horts, i'm supposed to give them to people in my community who aren't big readers.

what the heck am i talking about?

WORLD BOOK NIGHT.

"The goal is to give books to new readers, to encourage reading, to share your passion for a great book. The entire publishing, bookstore, library, author, printing, and paper community is behind this effort with donated services and time."

and guess what? they need more volunteers. check out their website. some of my favorite books ever are available for distribution. A Prayer for Owen Meany. Bel Canto. The Stand. The Poisonwood Bible (alright this isn't my favorite book ever, but it was really good). it sounds like if you make an even slightly passionate plea about wanting to participate, you'll get books.

so participate! the submission date has been pushed to February 6. the whole process only takes five minutes. you sign up for three choices. i have no idea which book i'm getting (apparently, The Hunger Games sold out, so no go). but if you participate in World Book Night and i participate in World Book Night maybe there can be a little... psst...i'll trade you a The Book Thief for a Ender's Game.

wait. what? only the lowliest of the low would ask to trade books that are intended for charity. but it's fine if i read it real quick, and then give it to a non-reader. right? at least that way we know the book gets opened. (oops, was that a mean comment?) i'd send it on. i swear.

mwa-ha-ha-ha. erm. so anyway...happy friday! now go give away some books.

taking a stand

2012-02-01T12:28:00.000-08:00

knock on wood, it's not often in nyc that i feel threatened or unsafe. for the most part everyone seems pretty normal and stable. those that don't are usually easy to steer clear of.

not so, for one of my good friends last night. now, rest assured, he made it out of the situation safely. but he and his girlfriend got accosted on the train by someone clearly on something and even more clearly looking for a fight. imagine your worst nightmare of catching a cracked-out someone's eye, having them say, "what're you looking at" and then advancing and proceeding to get in your face for the next five minutes whilst punching the subway door right above where your girlfriend is sitting, and you'll be pretty close to the exact situation that my friend found himself in.

today he is left with the feeling that he didn't act enough. but there is such a fine line between being brave and being smart. and, i think, correctly, he opted for smart and a. tried to ignore the situation, then b. got up and moved subway cars as soon as the train pulled into a station.

the whole time whilst he was telling me the story, all i could say was, didn't someone on the train do something? for it was a crowded subway car. there were plenty of people around, all watching while studiously ignoring the situation. because what is worse than witnessing someone acting like that to someone else? saying something to that person and having them spin and place their creepy/scary/aggressive/dangerous focus on you.

the confrontation lasted for about five minutes, at which point my friend said, "sir, i don't want to fight you." to which the man replied, "i wouldn't want to fight me either." and then it happened. a rather large man a few seats down stood up. that's all. he just stood up. as in, maybe i can't stop the first punch. but i'm there for you seconds later.

it made the crazy back off a little. then, luckily, the train pulled into the station, my friends got off, went onto the next car (only to be followed by the stalker), quickly stepped off again and got back on their original subway car. the train then sat stalled in the station for the next few minutes. (apparently, this was because someone else in the car went to tell the conductor what was happening).

the image of the man standing up has stayed with me. it brought tears to my eyes actually. my friend and i decided there should be a signal that we as a human collective can give in those situations. a universal sign or word (his idea was saying "support") that simply means: please, everyone stand up. it's not asking you to step in. it's very simply, very publicly saying what i'm sure all of those people on the train were feeling and thinking, but were too afraid to be the only one to say:

we are here for you.

thankfully for my friend, one man had the guts to do it yesterday. i'm not sure there's much i'd be able to do in a similar situation. blondie flaka comes to a strangers aid? or honestly if i'd risk my safety to protect a strangers.

but i like to think i'd stand up, and hope i never need to.

a monday bundle of joy

2012-01-30T09:07:00.000-08:00

what the perfect picture to post on one's blog when they've had (yet a freakin' 'nother) rough night of sleep?

clearly, it's this one.

happy monday!

a massive attack friday

2012-01-27T11:34:00.000-08:00

it's been a head exploding week.

oh, but don't worry. it's a good thing.

over the thanksgiving break, my regular dance teacher had one of my classmates sub for the hip hop class. everyone was gone for the holiday though, and none of us made the class. last week, we asked the girl to show us the dance.

jaws dropped.

i haven't felt like i needed something, like i needed to dance that choreography, since...um...geez, that's a hard metaphor to make. i'm not big on needing things, since i needed to watch the last Harry Potter movie? lame. since i needed to own all the Carebear figurines when i was younger. pfft. lamer.

anyway... we begged her to teach it to us after our next wednesday night class. all week long, my thought process went like this:

hmmm, my W2 came in. wow, i made waaaayyyy less than i did last year. double dance class on wednesday. this train is freakin' taking forever. it's 1 a.m. i just want to be home. double dance class on wednesday. that drink was way pricey and it tasted like smoke. double dance class on wednesday.

and then? wednesday night. it was sometime right between this:

and this:

that from all the endorphins and happiness of getting twice the length of my favorite part of the week, i feared for head explosion. even when the double part of class was over i didn't want to leave. i went home, bought the nicki minaj song, and that's where the real head exploding problem began.

i haven't stopped listening to that song. no, seriously.

on the subway yesterday, i kept it on repeat for the whole 45 minute ride into the city. i listened to it as i walked to meet up with my friend. i played it for her back at her house. then, subway ride home? on repeat. once in the door. on repeat. every third time i hear the song, i bust out the dance.

i have no great love of nicki minaj. i skip half her songs on pandora. her style is just so...grating. but this song? be warned before you give it a full listen. it will massively attack and conquer your weekend soundtrack.

mwahahah. see ya'll on monday.

gut trust

2012-01-25T08:40:00.000-08:00

is it a bird? a plane? what the hell is corrie taking a picture of?

geese migrating!...in january. the sight stopped me on the street. oh right, i thought, birds do that. it feels like years since i've seen a line of birds in flight. maybe it has been.

speaking of things happening a little later than they were intended...

my red-haired sis and i did our new years resolutions yesterday. at the top of my list (thought still beneath publish book and either increase my spanish vocabulary or nail down verb tenses) was the the resolution to trust my instincts more.

case in point. what does this look like:

two overpriced brooklyn cocktails? you might say. and while, yes, that is a correct answer, for me, the drink on the left represents what happens when i don't trust my instincts.

instead of ordering what had sounded good, i went with what the bartender's suggestion believing that his experience behind that bar overruled my experience of a lifetime owning my taste buds. i know what sounds good to me. and a mouthful of smoke (no seriously, that's what the drink tasted like) ain't it.

now this is a SUPER silly example. but i've been mistrusting my instincts lately on other bigger issues. i don't know why this is. i have perfectly acceptable instincts. some might say they are as steely as a blade and sharp as a dart. erm. okay, no one would ever say that. but they've gotten me this far. they said: move to new york! take that job in the literary agency! quit that job in the literary agency! definitely buy those jeans! (yes my instincts are peppy and only speak in exclamations) all of which worked out pretty well for me.

so when that little sense that just knows nah, you're not into that, why am i letting my brain bust in and go, but what if you are?! what if that's not the right decision?! give it another chance?!

gosh, it's exhausting.

so this new year, i am going to trust that inner twinkling (a little) more and then move on my merry way. no more second guessing, no more nitpicking the finality of my choices when i know that they feel right, no more doing what someone else thinks is right for me when it goes against what i know is right for me.

because otherwise, i end up with a mouthful of smoke knowing that the blood orange liqueur would have tasted far superior.

hear us roar

2012-01-23T08:51:00.000-08:00

it's the new year. the Chinese new year. and it's a special one. we've entered the year of the Dragon.

the news said that births in China will be up 10% this year as dragon babies are the most respected. while some signs, like the rat and the snake, get snickered at by Chinese friends and family members - i have a chinese friend, who planned the birth of her child to not fall into those astrological signs - a dragon baby is roundly met with "oohs!" dragons are leaders. dragons are lucky.

so quick everyone, reproduce!

ironically, the consequence of a ten percent birth rate increase, is that medical institutions, and eventually educational institutions are all completely unprepared and overwhelmed. the dragon baby thus gets less attention and care than the undesirable astrological signed children that come in years before and after it.

so, wait, everyone, maybe don't reproduce!

or forget about reproducing and just have a fiery, lucky, magical new year.

friday flicks

2012-01-20T09:49:00.000-08:00

lots of videos floating around this week.

on monday, i had a conversation with someone about how living in NYC changes you. and there's no doubt that it does change you. part of you can't help becoming immune to the world. there's so much stimuli here all the time, if you don't learn to look at some of it with a dull eye, your brain would explode. no really, it's a fact.

on the other hand. as much as you learn to ignore it, you begin to crave and expect that stimuli. so if 19 new experiences aren't crammed into every single day, you feel a little put out. if you spend an evening quietly at home, you have to (repeatedly) tell yourself: it's okay to have a quiet evening at home.

world weary/activity-addicted. sounds like a great place to live, no? which is maybe why so many of us dream of moving somewhere else almost constantly, even as we wonder if that's even possible anymore.

but if i moved to NC where would i get a great slice at 1 a.m.?

i'm not anywhere near being the NYer depicted in this video. but i've seen plenty of them and have said more than a few of these things more than once.

shortly after the above video cropped up on facebook, a friend sent me a text with other, very different videos attached. they feel like directly opposite NYC correlations.

the back to back receipt of these videos made it all click.

no wonder i've taken to dancing so much while i've been here. and no wonder i've taken to dancing in grimy, latin clubs. there's not a drop of that other kind of New York (or New Yorker) in them. it's the best kind of escape -- unpretentious fun that gets your heart racing without all that NYC pomp. (now if only i can get my feet moving as fast as the girl in the above clip. these were supposed to be practice videos. yeah right.)

wherever you live, there must be elements in your life that offset other facets to keep you real. (what are yours?) for me, this week, it was just funny to see them presented in such blatant video format.

var = "Coding Rules"

2012-01-18T07:58:00.000-08:00

i have a new of-the-moment, probably won't last past February, interest. ready for it?

CODING!

on the subway i read this article in New York Magazine. it talked about this website called Codecademy that is doing yearlong tutorials in coding... for free!

i spend a lot of time on the computer writing. in down moments, when my brain needs to power up for the next go at a plot point or i'm stuck on a particular sentence's wording, when other writers are checking up on other writer's blogs or doing other...interesting things, i'm usually at a loss. i click on facebook, stare at the screen. honestly, i don't even have that many FB friends, so from twenty minutes to twenty minutes nothing really changes.

suffice it to say, the internet is pretty much wasted on me.

thus my decision to start taking these coding tutorials. maybe it'll help me fix some of the things i hate about blogger. maybe it will give me greater confidence to finally attach my blog to my website name, because while i do own www.corriewachob.com, i can't frickin' figure out how to mesh the two things.

while the tutorials are fun and easy, so far, there's not a whole lot of context around them. ex: great, if i type .length after my "var" it will tell me how many letters are in such and such word. but why do i care? maybe the website is assuming a little bit of prior web savy-ness.

and then there's me. who isn't sure she spell sauvy correctly. (no seriously, how? spell check you are not helping!)

do i know what the term coding even means? no! do i remember what i learn in one tutorial after i've moved onto the next one? hell no! but am i having fun forgetting lots of coding information? yes!

and that's all that matters, right?

remembering

2012-01-16T09:58:00.000-08:00

a shred of inspiration

2012-01-13T10:17:00.000-08:00

why internet? why?!

all i wanted to do was write a mini blog post on this totally cute vlogger i saw on youtube. i was going to applaud the internet for it's amazing ability to connect us. except now internet is thumbing it's nose at me.

let me back up.

wednesday night. two hours until dance class. i decided to cut the neck off one of my tees. a few youtube seconds later, i'm watching this adorable girl, Cara, demonstrating the best how-to t-shirt reconstruction ever. she looked about twelve years old (though i think she's closer to 21) and there was something about her ease, confidence and quirky spirit that was super inspiring.

it was one of those: why are we worried about the youth of today? we're/they're/everyone is amazing. watching her video made me think about all the times i felt shy or unsure or didn't do something because i was afraid/nervous/whatever. meanwhile, there were people out there like this girl, with her cute tips - money saving and fashion - who was embracing her world while bettering ours.

sure, sure, corrie. blah blah blah. (but seriously, all these thoughts really did go through my head).

fast forward to today. i was going to post the video. show a pic of myself in my newly deconstructed t-shirt. then a video of me dancing in my new t-shirt. and get the heck on with my afternoon. and now? blogger won't let me find her video.

WTF!

the bonus of this is that in my frustration, as i kept going back to her youtube page. i started clicking on other videos that Cara made. remember my recent post about normal/inspiring people achieving success? Cara joins the ranks. spend some time scrolling around cutewitch772 and you can watch Cara talk about converting to paganism. watch Cara attend the Gay Pride parade in NYC. watch Cara support a national suicide awareness cause by writing love on her arm.

girlfriend is awesome!

so i never could get that first video to upload (though I did hyperlink it up above), but you can see what i mean by watching number four in her series on t-shirt reconstruction basics.

the video is besides the point now. so is my picture of me in my t-shirt, though you know, i did take the picture so i might as well post it...

but more than anything, i gotta say for my Friday long weekend message: Do it, people! Attack this life! put yourself out there. even if you're not making the world a better place for all of us (and our t-shirts, thanks Cara!) you're at the very very least, making it a hell of a lot more interesting.

naturally, blogger also won't let me find the dance video where i'm wearing my new t-shirt. but here's the dance from the week before.

now i need to go break something.

here and back again

2012-01-11T11:32:00.000-08:00

the cool thing about my dad is that he's up for anything.

on monday night when i said i wanted to go to a freestyle rap 10th anniversary open mic thing after work, he didn't bat an eye and just said, maybe i'll take a nap while you're gone. instead he walked me to work. fresh out the door, he leaped over a pile of pizza boxes. i mean, it was a big leap. it didn't surprise me. my dad just does stuff like this so i'm used to it. still, in the way of bratty kids around the world everywhere, i said, dad. that's the kind of thing you can't do tonight. you need to be cool.

self-loathing set in seconds later. my dad took my comment in stride.

so we went to the rap thing.

dad didn't leap. or dance. or pretend to rap. we bought each other beers. we hung out. we had fun.

at one point a guy came up to me and said: you look like you know where the party's at. i shouted: excuse me? he shouted: I SAID: you look like you know where the party's at! and i shouted back: I'm here with my dad, so i very much doubt that!

in truth, i do know where the party's at (what does that even mean?!). it's anywhere that new experiences take place. it's with anyone who's willing to embark on those experiences with you.

last night for dinner, my red-haired sis, dad and i went to Queens. ever since i moved to nyc i've been hearing that Sripraphai has the best Thai food around. thai food has great vegan options and i imagined a feast of deliciousness that my dad could partake in.

but then sis and i got swayed by the non-vegan fair on the menu -- hello whole fried red snapper, and spicy crunchy pork belly -- but we still all shared dessert. which was this thing:

dad ordered it. my sis and i took one bite, made comments about nutty mucus, giggled our heads off and let dad have all the rest. he ate them. all six. happily.

while he was here, my dad installed a huge flat screen in my house. fixed the light above my sink. put a new water filter on my tap. i watched him take a joke. make good small talk with my friend. walk for miles. i watched him not only eat at a thai food restaurant, but order the strangest thing on the menu and enjoy it.

i want to amend my opening statements. one of the cool things about my dad is that he's up for anything. in my eyes, you don't get much cooler than that.

papa is'a rollin' in

2012-01-09T09:10:00.000-08:00

my dad is coming to visit today!

i'm a little behind on the getting ready for visitor set-up. this resulted in some massive cleaning at 6 a.m. but with just a few hours until arrival (and me in pjs -- because yes, i am apparently the only adult in the world who wears pajamas) i still have a few more chores. hellooo clean sheets, clean shower, food in the fridge. can you just make yourselves happen please?

it'll be good to have a visitor again. my brain needs to be occupied with something other than daily life concerns right now. plus, i suddenly have all these things in my apartment that are in need of dad attention. hello light above the sink not working. hello silverware basket that's a mess (i know, that one's ridiculous, but he organized it like nobody's bizness last time). hello used giant flat screen HD tv that my work manager gave me for being a good employee that needs to be mounted to my bedroom wall.

whereas i asked my mom to bring things like bread and corn chips. i asked my dad to bring a cordless drill. on a train. employee of the month? fo' sure. daughter of the month? eh.

somewhere in between putting my dad to work the entire time he's here, i'm really looking forward to this visit.

when my my mom and stepdad came we had ourselves some hijinx. i should mention that we all hate having our photos taken....

the "after" picture when we all went for massages

right before we went down the slide at that New Museum exhibit

photo-ed from afar at the same new museum exhibit.

fun times, no?

my dad is pretty fun too...

so, i can't wait to see what my sis and i (miss you other sis) get up to with him. good conversation abounds when he's here, and it's always fun to wrestle up some yummy vegan food (yes, grocery store, i hear you calling).

so i'd better be off. i've got about forty things to do in the next half hour. maybe just one more sip of coffee first....

successes

2012-01-06T11:17:00.000-08:00

today, trolling Facebook while i had my first sips of coffee (Facebook is the only thing my brain can handle when i wake up) i saw that something good happened to my friend Carla's friend, Colin Hagendorf.

sorry, this link is the best i could do to getting the video on my blog:
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/good_day_ny/slice-harvester-20120105#.TwXAZyPrOQc.facebook

it's easier if you just watch the clip (Colin, you should post it on youtube so it can start accumulating views. and other people can more easily link to it. i'm just saying) - and the boy's cute, so it's not like it's painful - but basically Colin ate at every pizza joint in Manhattan, blogged about it since 2009, and is now getting a little (or a lot of) press coverage for it. i love watching the newscast. Colin handles himself so well, while also seeming completely shocked to be there.

in other (Facebook) news, i've been having a great time watching Ms. Lauren Morrill go through the stages of getting her first novel published. one week it's whoo-hoo, i just saw the cover art! next week, it's hey friends, help me chose an author photo... because yes people, let me repeat myself, she's a YA author who's actually getting published.

and the awesomest thing about Lauren's story? she hit it out of the park on the first go! but i'll let her tell you about it....

in other publishing news, my dear friend and former community activist collaborator Amy Cappelli is racking up a list of accomplishments ranging from articles in the Buffalo News to published short stories. she's doing this all whilst raising four children and regularly posting an illustrated blog.

accomplishment. pay-off. success.

a few weeks back a young woman and her friend were celebrating at the wine bar i work at. after ordering a second bottle of prosecco, my interest was peeked enough to ask, what's the deal? both women were infectiously giddy with happiness. they were people you'd easily become friends with at the gym or waiting in line at the grocery store.

"You're looking at," the one woman said, gesturing to her friend, "the new Editor-and-Chief of Vogue Latina."

it felt like a success for all of us because the woman was so...normal. wasn't success something that happened to other people? people i knew didn't appear in Broadway productions i wished i had a ticket for. they didn't write the books i read. or edit the magazines i saw in the stores.

or so i thought.

happily, i'm starting to get proven wrong. years of hard work, great ideas, and first attempts get rewarded in this real life. success happens. it does. so work hard, be patient, and celebrate other people's achievements when you see them because great things can and will happen to you, too.

post-holiday crashing

2012-01-04T10:31:00.000-08:00

i took my christmas tree down today. it took thirty seconds, spraying thirty thousand needles in the process.

okay, okay, so maybe this wasn't my tree. but all the same, that makes it pretty official over here. the holidays are over. (yes, my dad is still coming to visit and yes, i still have presents from my lil sis on the way, but just to make a more final sounding blog statement...)

the holidays are over.

and what's left in its place is a giant space where my tree and my pre-holiday life used to be. what did i do with all my time before i was shopping and planning and getting groceries and cleaning? if you know, please remind me, because at the moment it feels like a whole lot of nothing.

i'm pretty sure i can't be the only one feeling this way. so i've come up with a small list of ways to integrate more cheer into your non-holiday, post-holiday life.

1. find creative uses for the gifts you can't use, don't want, didn't ask for

pre-holiday's i decided to paint my living room. when the initial yellow wasn't the color i expected it to be, i returned to the local paint store and asked the uber-friendly and helpful *she says with dripping sarcasm* salesman if he could make my color a little closer to the next one up on the paint chip.

apparently, to his eye, this meant dark grey.

now i have exactly the color i want in my living room - thank you Lowes - and a beautiful grey wall in my bedroom. perhaps this doesn't seem totally related to my topic heading, but hey, i had a picture.

2. have an adventure in dining

when red-haired sis and i asked for an order of what the staff were eating at a chinese food restaurant recently, our waiter said "just a minute," ran over to the staff meal table and scooped a portion of greens from their dish onto a plate for us. it was the sweetest, luke-warm gesture ever. we giggled while we ate it.

3. travel somewhere unusual and bring back a memento

i'd been ottoman browsing on craigslist for a few weeks when i came upon this cute grey/green/blue guy (which matches nothing in my house). he was being sold out of a rehabbed furniture store on the fifth floor of a high rise in nyc. when i wasn't sure if this ottoman was the right color (it isn't), the man who owned the store asked if i'd like to see his other rooms. apparently, he kept expanding his business until it took up every other available office on the fifth floor. every door he opened was like looking into a secret bedroom. in one of them, a couple was practicing their wedding dance. strange. fun. and only $42.

toting my new purchase home on the subway was a little less thrilling.

4. rely on your friends

best thing to remember about the post-holiday blues? you can still see all the same family, friends and loved ones, it just doesn't have to be such a production. post-holiday recaps over tea and a gummy japanese pastry are the best thing ever for lifting the spirits.

and if none of that works?

5. leave out one holiday decoration and pretend it's art

remember, life pre-holidays was filled with cheer, too. only, it didn't come with gift anxieties and you had to be a little more creative making it.

a brand new 2012

2012-01-02T07:46:00.000-08:00

a new years message from my mama. it was meant for me and my sister originally, but i thought it was a good benediction for all of us.

"Not just happy new year, but wishes for happiness all the time. I read your blog, Corrie, and the start of a year is a time for reflection, but why just one time of the year? Shouldn't we strive every day to live our best? So let's resolve to appreciate every day--its colors, its sounds, the kindnesses, the humor. Let's forget about fear. Let's treat ourselves to small pleasures. Let's try to relish every moment, and appreciate how very lucky we are to find ourselves in the places we are right now.

I wish the both of you great joy, contentment in your daily life, and the confidence to know that no matter what happens, you are deeply loved and supported. May the new year bring you all that your heart desires, with some added bonuses and surprises along the way. Oh, and wishes for good health, too.
2012 will be a great year for all of us cause we have the power within us to make it happen!"

past/future

2011-12-30T11:40:00.000-08:00

ach. it's no use. my brain is fried. my writing is flat. my inspiration is nil. i almost blew off this blog post, but it's the last one i'll do before the new year. and i can't end the year talking about slacking.

new years -- the equivalent of living simultaneously in the past and future.

does everyone feel the same way right now? a little sad to see the old year passing mixed with a little excited about everything new and fresh that's in store? the weather is even participating. the sky's that exact shade of wintry, crisp nostalgic blue that makes me crave a warm drink and a good hug. (too far, corrie. you've taken the sentimentality too far).

anyway, the other night, fresh off my families visit, i had the urge to clean house. this primarily consisted of dusting and deciding that the box of papers under my bed absolutely needed to be meshed with the box of papers in my closet.

other than proving that sometimes two boxes of papers (especially when you're a writer) are needed, it was an appropriate pre-new years exercise in reflection.

talk about nostalgia? try sorting through a bunch of papers that chronicle the biggest transitional period of your life.

i made this my first year in nyc.
pasted on the inside pages are ticket stubs, letters, photos.
all of them were meant as reminders of the new experiences
i wouldn't have otherwise had if i hadn't chosen to move to nyc.

among the old cards, ticket stubs, folder of rejection letters, i found two separate new years resolution lists. both of them were made when i lived in Buffalo. one from five years back, another about three years ago.

some might as well have been written by a different corrie. present corrie has no strong urge to study at a prestigious school or learn to ski. but a lot more were surprisingly right on.

dance twice a week? check. become a good, confident writer? the fact that i don't even think this is a to-do means, check. it gets deeper. learn to differentiate a well-earned relaxation from procrastination or laziness. check check. (erm, did i mention that it's a tradition on my dad's side to make some pretty hard core resolutions?)

there's one main thing i haven't tackled. but maybe this is my year to get published and go on a book tour for my novel. then i'll be all caught up. which leaves me wondering, who do i want to be five years from now? since it appears i'm pretty good with follow through, and since i've already travelled to someplace i've never been (tho there's always more), currently eat vegetables (nearly) every day, and volunteer at a charitable organization, what's next?

but i guess that's the fun of new years and life in general? you can kinda do whatever you want. i'm happy i found these old resolutions. i often feel like nothing changes in my life, meanwhile the corrie of the past has been progressing into someone she's wanted to be this whole time. the possibilities that await are exciting, yet it still makes me sad to see all the things that were and aren't anymore.

which leads me full blog circle to ask, does everyone feel this way this time of year? and can it please just get to January 1 already so all this damn reflection can end? in the meantime....

Happy New Years everyone! wishing you a fulfilling, awe-inspiring, healthy, successful, and super-frickin' happy 2012.

what better way to kick it off than with a little Zooey (are you watching New Girl yet? it's awesome) and an insanely cute Gordon (guy)...

slacking

2011-12-28T07:17:00.000-08:00

i've been out of school for years, but i still think of this week between christmas and new years as vacation. it's hard waking up. easy to stay up late watching tv and snacking. SUPER difficult to blog like normal. yesterday i left the house to get myself some bangs, came back, changed back into my pjs and proceeded to spend the day floating from my couch to my bed, reading. the whole time, i kept thinking, whatever. i'm on vacation. it was awesome.

i need one more day off. will post for reals on friday:)

dare yourself

2011-12-19T08:27:00.000-08:00

the holidays are almost here people. possibly they already are if you're jewish. but i'm not, so i'm talking christmas. (not like i'm not catholic or christian either, but hey, it's what i grew up celebrating.)

this is the week of pre-holiday drinks with friends. my crit partner (do i need to hyper link her anymore?) and i went to our favorite wine bar and made lists of january "dares" for each other. these are her dares for me.

i'm already 1 out of 3 for her top dare. after months away from it, i went to a new latin club the other night. it's fun trying a new place, because i'm always the only gringa in there. my first time somewhere people are like, "who the heck is that?" by the second time, it's like, "oh sigh. there's that tall blonde chick again." but the first time, booyah! don't ask me why i think this is fun. i must not get enough attention in my day to day.

until i get some health insurance, that skiing dare is a no way (crit partner's trying to organize a ski trip. maybe i'll go and sit in the lodge). but the others? sure, why not. it's fun to not make your own resolutions, but be in the hands of someone that knows you, and see what they'd put you up to. if i were daring myself, it'd be to have only forward looking thoughts for the next few weeks. no more, looking back.

regardless, the rest of the list might need to go on a short hiatus.

my parents are coming in two days. it's my mom's first christmas away from home. ever. mine was last year, and despite missing all my fam and some of my favorite holiday traditions, i loved the experience. this year it will be even better because i get to share it.

so as i head out to do a little grocery shopping i'll leave you with some dance!

my hiphop class was a dare to myself almost two years ago. initially, i was terrible, constantly behind. forgetting choreography every step. this past class my teacher told me that her boyfriend suggested "the blonde with the ponytail teach the class while she's away." dares are good things. regardless of improvement. i'm glad i stuck with it. i wish i could carry my dance class around with me in my pocket. whip nicole and tammy and reggie out when i feel stressed or sad. it fixes everything. and even though i felt cooler dancing this than what the result show -- and oy those roots -- i loved this song (Rihanna), loved this dance.

blogging might be spotty over the next week, but merry holidays everyone! stay warm, be safe and joyous. and maybe dare yourself to _____.

a delightful day followed by...

2011-12-14T07:49:00.000-08:00

what is the worst thing about vomiting? when you blow your nose afterwards and then smell vomit for the rest of the night. second worst part about vomiting? vomiting.

let me backtrack....

so yesterday my fabulous crit partner and i decided to get together for a little holiday cheer. we were going to treat ourselves to a fancy lunch at Jean Georges, but cheaped out and decided to eat at Shake Shack instead.

Shake Shack has been on my list of places to eat in NYC ever since i moved here. it's a creation of Danny Meyers who owns a slew of NYC restaurants. the original SS was near the literary agents office i worked at. even in the height of winter there was a line twisting out front. the meat blend of the burgers is top secret. they don't look like much, but they're supposed to be sublime.

and...?

they are. the grease that drips from the burgers is almost the best part.

thus fortified (though ellen with a slightly upset stomach) we continued on our holiday way. this included corrie being indecisive in a few stores and stopping by the Macy's windows.

then it was onward to a great, inexpensive cheese shop in the East Village where i stocked up for my parent's visit next week. Trader Joe's for cheap wine (see previous sentence) and then happy hour!

all sounds good and fun, right? and it was. possibly the only mistake we made was after all this, going out for a second round of burgers. crit partner voted for fondue, but i wasn't sure i could hack it. so we went to an organic burger joint instead on the lower east side.

neither of us could finish. we took the left overs to go and cheerily went on our ways.

the trouble started an hour later.

huh. my stomach feels a little queasy. ten minutes later. huh. now it feels a lot queasy. five minutes later. wow. i've got a pretty bad headache. five minutes later. uh oh.

yesterday was a super day. i went to B&H for the first time ever. it's gotta be the biggest photo and video store in the world. they send products around on wheelie track systems (no that is not the proper wording) that run over your head through the store like Santa's workshop. i had a blast hanging with my crit partner and i even got a little shopping done.

later last night though? um, it frickin' sucked. i dunno if it was the double dose of burgers. or if i managed to catch a bit of the flu from that girl at work who had flu a few days back who i came withing a few yards of, but oy. autumn marches on across my immune system. i can't wait to see what winter has in store.

t'is the season

2011-12-12T08:55:00.000-08:00

red-haired sis and i made christmas cookies the other night. whilst i regularly make chocolate chippers, i haven't made christmas cookies in years. a quick online search later, we were recipe ready. and that was about it.

since we were in her neighborhood, we baked at my sister's apartment. while i've never really considered myself a baker, i've come to realize, after baking at sis's, that i am in possession of a quite a few necessary baking items.

like spatulas. baking sheets. hand mixers. baking powder. vanilla. and oh, say, flour.

two loaded shopping bags and twenty dollars later-- minus colored sugar sprinkles which we couldn't find -- we were set to go. have you ever creamed sugar and butter together by hand? it's not the most delightful event. but baking with sis was. it was a truly hand made/rolled/iced/taken off the hot cookie sheet with bare fingers evening. and if you can't tell from this picture

this is the ugly plate of cookies, btw. they got better.

it was frickin' SWEET! we split two cookies and couldn't eat anymore. when i got home that night, even though it was almost midnight, i sauteed and ate some kale. i guess that's what a total of 3 cups of sugar will do to you.

i think we'd probably try a different recipe next time (helllllooooo comments section of this blog) :) but i hope next year when we take on holiday baking the merriment stays the same.

also, meet chia. she's my friend's french bulldog. she's going to be in a patron's dogs calendar for his neighborhood bar.

star-crossed numbers

2011-12-09T08:49:00.000-08:00

i found this at Barnes and Noble ....

the back cover should be R and J dead
with lots of people sobbing around them. right?

it led to many questions, like isn't there a better Shakespeare play to use as a counting primer? like i dunno, Twelfth Night, maybe? do we need to prime kids to Shakespeare this early? and by choosing this particular play, aren't we setting them up for a major disappointment when they're older? along the lines of...

awww, Romeo and Juliet, I used to have an old counting book about them...wait, you mean they both die! wtf?!

because, sadly, whilst i was hoping for 9 droughts of swallowed poison. 10 drops of spilled blood. this book kept it clean. it counted musicians, masks, friends (friends?), late night trysts.

erm okay, not late night trysts.

all i'm saying, is if you're going to go for something like this. make it awesome. unless they're saving the subversive one for the second primer in the series. warn the kiddies now, 11 through 20 is wicked fun.

erasing stuck-iness

2011-12-07T08:28:00.000-08:00

last week, i helped 826NYC mail holiday cards to their donors.

i began volunteering at 826 almost as soon as i moved to NYC. Dave Eggers, of this fame (please read immediately if you haven't yet), founded the whole venture in one of the most inspiring examples of what a writer can do with his (or her) fame and (mini) fortune. (second most inspiring? Anne Patchett. you go, girl.)

though i was a pretty dedicated 826 volunteer for a few years running, i fell off after a while, only going in now and then to help with special events. i hadn't realized how long i'd been away until i asked the volunteer coordinator how her wedding planning was going and she said, "i'm about to have my one year anniversary."

oops.

then she asked how i was. what was new with me?

and i said...uh...nothing? feeling very much like this little guy:

okay. i'm ready. let's go. when's something going to happen? hey guys. what about me? i'm waiting!

i wasn't upset about it or anything (so no pep talks needed), but Painted Living Room ain't nearly as exciting as Got Married. though it might be more satisfying. omg, i'm kidding.

then two days ago, a dream possibility presented itself.

remember how much i love Radiolab, that sciency-life-changing show on NPR? well, they put out a call for interns! i applied instantly.

now even on the days that customers at work insist the wine is off (it ain't) because they've stayed on that vineyard so they know, i still can't imagine holding down a full-time job while also being a writer. unless it was for Radiolab the tiny voice in my head always parenthesised for me.

i put together a fresh cover letter and found the most updated version of my resume. and it was whilst doing these two things, that i had this thought: hey, not bad, corrie.

i thought i'd pass the experience along. whether i get the internship or not (fingers crossed) the experience of applying for it was ridiculously gratifying. in fact, it's the point of this whole, meandering post.

feeling like that doggy staring at the door?

update your resume. apply for a job, or an internship, or a volunteer position. not interested in doing any of those things, but still feeling like the only thing that's changed in your life recently was the length of your hair? make a life resume. do the last three years and list all the important or not (hello new carpet!) changes in your life. then revel in the satisfaction of how great you are. because though the day to day can start to seem pretty standard. i bet you anything the big picture's been changing the whole time.

oh tannenbaum, indeed

2011-12-05T08:33:00.000-08:00

you might have noticed i took two days off from blogging last week. i didn't even do my usual short "busy writing. see you friday." instead, i threw blogging to the wind, drank so much coffee i actually smelled a little funny (or was it funky? only i'll ever know) and FINISHED MY EDITS.

whoop whoop!

completing drafts reminds me why i love writing. the high is ridonkulous. for 48 hours i floated through brooklyn beaming at everyone. oh you woman, taking up the entire sidewalk with a stroller the size of a Hummer not even acknowledging that other people need to pass, isn't life grand?!

yes it is.

now i have a little time before my first reader's reactions, responses and -- der, you forgot all the comma's in this sentence -- edits roll in. time i will use to prep for the holidays.

now if you know me, as um 98% of you do (hi mom!), you know that christmas is not my most favoritist of holidays. HOWEVER, it's starting to grow on me. (it could be some of that left over, draft-completed beaming). this past week, i even bought a christmas tree.

christmas tree shopping in NYC is a little like renting an apartment in NYC. you pay an exorbitant amount for a size that anywhere else in the country would be laughable. for instance, below is pictured the biggest Park Slope tree seller. a Charlie Brown style Christmas tree costs $60 or $70.

this year, they began bundling branches for sale. i didn't ask how much, but i'm thinking they're between $10 and $20. (i hope i'm not offending anyone by naming actual prices. in nyc it's not gauche to ask "how much do you pay..." for just about anything. um, right guys? sez the girl who loves asking how much do you pay for...)

that being said....when my red haired sis and i wandered past a local hardware store and the guy said trees were $25 we jumped on it.

it so happened that the previous day my bro-in-law in Buffalo posted pictures of the tree that he and my sister had picked out. the comparisons made me laugh. ready? here goes....

$25 brooklyn tree:

$45 buffalo tree:

so cute!

brooklyn:

buffalo:

now granted, my lil' sis cuts down her tree, which greatly reduces price, and she has those mega-vaulted ceilings in her great room to play with. but what i love best about these comparisons between buffalo and brooklyn, is the one similarity in them.

notice the smiles that finding the tree resulted in. (granted, we are sisters, thus have similar smiles. and i'm not quite sure mine is the tree as it's kinda just the one that the guy at the hardware store grabbed from the pile)*clears throat and presses on with her point*

conclusion? size does not, in fact, matter when it comes to enjoyment of the, erm, holidays.

and that, my friends, is how you end a post about christmas with some penis humor.

november wanes

2011-11-28T08:21:00.000-08:00

very soon, i will need some fresh eyes.

there's only three more days in November. for anyone (still) partaking in the National Novel Writing Month, that means you have three more days to slap some words on paper.

i almost participated, but then my edits went into overdrive. in spirit, i was hoping to have them done by December 1. which means, i also only have three more days! because if i don't finish? dun, dun, dun... well, there's still december and january and every month after that to get them right. but for the sake of kick butt, three more days.

which means, in (more realistic) theory, in a week or two, i will have a solid final draft of my novel done again, finally. everyone i normally send it to has already read it about three times in the last 5 months. so here's where i wonder aloud if any writers (other than the couple of fabulous commenters i have) read this blog. because i could use even one set of fresh eyes.

anyone want to Beta read for me? anyone also think that during this chaotic time of shopping, holiday parties, and general merriment, they could have it read in a few weeks?

just thought i'd put it out there.

and now for my holiday vacation pictures. all two of them.

it's a bird! in the airport! now is that lazy or what?

giant dogs in cars are funny.

that's right. family pictures? nope. two weird animal pictures? o si!

honking along

2011-11-21T08:19:00.000-08:00

my healthy lasted for a whole day.

i have caught another cold. only after having two colds back to back can you truly appreciate the differences in the strains. it's like tasting wine side by side.

"why goodness the first one comes on much stronger. it really gets you in the throat. while the second one starts with a full body feel."

oy. i'm not surprised to have caught another. i truly think 98% of people in nyc are sick. so whether it was a co-worker, friend, or maybe just the lady who coughed in my face on the street, no, i kid you not, i was kind of waiting for this.

the trick is to get healthy before i go home for the holidays tomorrow. which means, lots of tea, kale, and rest before my busy work shift and 6 a.m. flight. oomph.

so i'm off to do laundry, pack a bag and blow my nose. safe travels to all of you and yours this week!

wampug friday

2011-11-18T06:33:00.000-08:00

still highly in edit mode. i'm going home for thanksgiving and have this dream that i can have the manuscript finished by then. in the way of dreams, there's probably little reality in this one, but that means no dawdling.

this video is courtesy of my red-haired sis. see how many times you watch it. five for me so far.

a healthy outlook

2011-11-16T06:15:00.000-08:00

it's always nice when my apartment stops looking like this:

yes, i am healthy again. also yes, i do throw dirty tissues on the floor when i don't feel well. the above photo was taken after i began to mend. the day before there were at least 40 more. i think it has something to do with embracing the disgustingness of being sick. or more likely, it has to do with the fact that my writing desk is in the corner and my garbage can is under the sink.

anyway...where was i. oh yes, i am (for the time being) healthy again! which makes everything brighter. and which, apparently, makes me feel like taking pictures of things that look brighter on my out and abouts.

so even though it's raining today, here are a few things that made me smile in the last few days.

if ever you think you're having a bad day, tell yourself,
at least i'm not sitting on a step decomposing

hard to tell, i know. but it's a hoola hooping contest.
the lil midget in the pink top won. no, no, on the left.
did you just squint and look?

the trees were this gorgeously yellow
all the way down the street. creepy man in
the park asked me which was my favorite season
and was suprised when i said spring and fall.
this is why i love fall, creepy man.

oh dear, christmas decorations going up.

a love note

2011-11-14T06:53:00.000-08:00

i'm about to change your life with one word. ready? here it is:

radiolab.

no, not radiohead (though at a certain point in my life, they felt pretty life changing too.)

radioLAB.

this is old news for some of you. i've talked about it before. radiolab is a product of WNYC, my local NPR station. the idea of the show is that they pick a topic in the sciences and then thoroughly explore it. but this description SO does not do the show justice.

i discovered radiolab a year or two ago. i listened whenever i could. loved it every time. then i kind of forgot about it. recently, i've fallen in love all over again.

usually, when i get ready for work, i listen to NPR or my favorite latin pop station. now i listen to radiolab.

there aren't many things i've encountered that leave me feeling this enriched, this full of possibilities, this happy/amazed/appreciative of the human experience. their website breaks the show down into four categories. gut-wrenching, heart-swelling, knee-slapping, mind-bending. i once cried on the subway -- huge roll down my face tears -- listening to radiolab (i think it was their show LOVE or else it was FALLING fyi). they must save their heart-wrenching stories for last, because those are the ones that always get me. (the last story on LOST AND FOUND, omg omg omg).

seriously, give it a try while you're cleaning, driving, waking up in the morning. it's perfect if you have an ipod dock or any other listening device. you can download their podcasts for free from their website or itunes.

listen and let me know what you think.
you can thank me later:)

on down the road...

2011-11-11T07:21:00.000-08:00

Harlem.
i've been in nyc for 3.5 years and i've never gone. commute wise, it's further than Buffalo is from Rochester. but more than that, i've never had a reason to go. sure i'd read about great restaurants. but there are lots of terrific new restaurants an hour and half closer to my house.

on Wednesday, all that changed.

a month ago, i sighed up for NYCares a volunteer collective in the city that's pretty cool. every week they post tons of events that need volunteers. usually it's a one time deal, so the commitment level is minimal plus you get to participate in lots of diverse projects.

i chose to "over winter" a rose garden in Harlem, which means cutting back perennials, planting bulbs, and in this instance going wayyyy uptown.

stepping off the train, i ran into (no, not literally) a man selling sweet tea, lemonade, and fruit punch from three giant plastic vats that were sitting on top of a busted looking shopping cart. nice. even better? a woman was buying it.

that was it. signed sealed delivered. i was in love.

Harlem might be the best place on earth. first of all, every street i saw looked like this:

so basically, it looks like Park Slope but with a Manhattan vibe.

the day was sunny and warm. my volunteer site wasn't far from the train, but i saw a little of Harlem's restaurant row on Lenox Avenue (which further down in the city is known as 6th Avenue). in Harlem, the sidewalks are wide, the Avenues are tree-lined, the rents are supposedly still affordable.

volunteering was terrific. it reminded me of my Buffalo days. the woman who revived the Harlem Rose Garden, Caroline, did so for the same reasons i started community organizing -- self-interest. the building she owns is right across the street from the plot of land where the city planned to build a high rise.

but a little self-interest in your property and neighborhood leads to good things for everyone because what in 1992 was a vacant lot filled with building debris, is now this:

three hours later, the garden was winter ready. i'd spent time talking with a VERY chatty Korean chica who was visiting the states before finishing her degree and, you know, decided to volunteer while she was here. pretty awesome. i watched enviously as Caroline chatted with a revolving door of neighbors who came through to say hello. i remember having that connection with my old neighborhood. sometimes it was exhausting. more often, it felt great.

mostly though, i found ways to garden near Felix.

Mom, be prepared for Corrie's hard sell on why you should immediately adopt a pug. they might be the best dogs ever.

main thoughts? i could live in Harlem. sure, i'd need to take more trips up there first, and yes, it's really far from everyone i know and love here, but it felt good, right, being there.

but all good things... and a quick train trip, i was back to Union Square for a friend's birthday dinner at ABC Kitchen.

i arrived at the restaurant only to find that the entire place was closed. not strange, because my restaurant doesn't open until immediately before serving either. the burly men standing outside with ear pieces? also not strange. i figured they were doormen.

so yes, i was the first person in the restaurant when the doors opened because i am always unforgivably horrifically early. and yes, i said i'd take the table instead of waiting at the bar because i wanted to sit down.

which meant that for about ten minutes, i was alone in the restaurant, sitting immediately next to......

Jay Z.

i shite you not.

"oh dear," i laughed, picking up my menu, wishing i hadn't just come from gardening and worn something more spectacular than A FRICKIN' T-SHIRT. not like i wanted to pick up Jay Z, i know, hello Beyonce, life of jets, yachts, supermodels. meanwhile, i can't even spell yatch. but why the hell didn't i bring my cool Spain skirt to change into?Jay Z would be all: i'm gonna buy that nice girl in the nice skirt dinner. or a fancy cocktail. um. no. didn't happen. whatever.

so there i sat. casting tiny glances at Sir Z and the two enormous gold chains that hung from neck to belly that would probably sustain my current lifestyle for at least 5 years or so, until it finally occurred to me to wonder who he was dining with.

i laughed again.

hello Kanye West.

nice jacket. did you wear it while volunteering today? oh no, right. just to your fancy music awards thingy.

so yes. it was quite a day. throughout dinner, whenever i tried to look at my birthday celebrating friend, Jay Z's head was sitting on her shoulder. at one point our eyes met, and mine did the horrible crikey!-i-just-made-eye-contact-with-jay-z flick away thing. sigh. and she's wearing a t-shirt, he probably thought.

i left ABC Kitchen loving this city, top to bottom, wanting very much to expand my depth of what i was doing here, work in the city, or at the very least, be a baller. which is entirely possible for a YA author, right?

hells yes.

shite. shoulda busted this out:

(hey sistas)

out and about

2011-11-09T07:10:00.001-08:00

heading up to Harlem to do a little gardening this afternoon. stay tuned for a new places blog.

going the distance

2011-11-07T06:38:00.000-08:00

the nyc marathon was yesterday. it's one of my favorite parts of living here.

every year it passes right at the bottom of my street. every year i think, oh, it's early, it's cold, i don't want to go out and see it this time. every year i do (i mean, geez, corrie, it's neither that early nor that cold).

it is awe inspiring.

it brings tears to my eyes each time i see it. it is humanity at it's best. wave after wave of people surge past. from almost every country imaginable. while some are focused and just running, most look so elated to be there, you can't help sharing in their high. all the spectators are shouting, cheering, ringing cowbells. some runners put their names on their shirts so you can holler, Go Paula!

watching it impresses on you what amazing creatures we are. when we're not squabbling about politics, war, religion. on occassions we can all come together to try our hardest, test our limits, and put this incredible, temporary machine we were given at birth to work.

it's a beautiful sight.

and sometimes an absurd one, but hey, he's from france.

all you participating in NaNoWriMo, keep it up!

screwed

2011-11-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

will someone please create a service that i can instantly benefit from? call it: Man For Hire.

for five bucks, you call Man, he comes to your house and screws in the thing you need screwed in or moves something particularly heavy. for the really girlie among us, Man could take care of bugs, too. the whole interaction lasts no more than a few minutes. Man leaves and Girl (fine Wo-man) does not need to deal with inadequate tools, arm strength or patience.

back up a little? okay.

my fabulous landlord bought me a fabulous new fridge! i had a teeny tiny one before with a permanently iced over freezer. it's literally been a few years since i've had ice cream in my house. how much do i like ice cream? enough that my whole apartment is now a little out of whack to accommodate said fabulous fridge. (yes, yes, it will now accommodate more vegetables as well).

a little space opened, a little more was lost. Ikea cabinet was purchased and built. feelings of conquering the world were had. but then this happened. i bought a door to go on a pre-existing cabinet and am left with this conundrum:

these drywall looking screw things

need to go in this un-pilot holed cabinet.

please ignore the black marks.
i don't know what they are either.

i'm at a loss.

since there's no pilot holes i had the door (which is also the wrong size)balanced on a soup container yesterday trying to make it level so i could mark and hand screw in some holes. honestly? i have better things to do. what i need is a Man For Hire.

someone steal this idea! please do. just locate said Man near me. and while you're at it, can you create Mom for Hire. i have a head cold coming on and could use some juice and soup served alongside sympathetic cooing.

NaNoWriMo

2011-11-02T06:18:00.000-07:00

yesterday was the kick off of National Novel Writing Month. the goal is a completed first draft of a book/to write 50,000 words. (one of) my fabulous crit partner and i are joining.

or, well, she is. because as she's posting blurbs from her new NaNo WIP on her blog and loving Google Earth because it lets her explore cities she'd like to use for setting, i was hanging with these girls last night.

da-da-da-dirty. dirty.

now granted, i'd spent the whole day from waking until about 8 o'clock working on my manuscript, so i think i'm allowed a little downtime. however, if November is NaNoWriMo month, then October was Pretty Little Liars month. i was totally addicted.

it's all because of damn Twitter. i barely log in anymore, but when i do there's always someone dissecting PLL. enter my stoppage of Netflix, scanning of internet for all forms of free anything watching and an, oh, why the hell not attitude one evening.

load addiction and press play.

have you seen this show? do you like teen mysteries in which everyone wears impractical high heels and lots of preposterous stuff happens? still no? then okay, never mind. you may recoup lots of hours otherwise spent in front of your tellie, rent The Wire, and try writing a novel in a month.

but did i hear a shy 'yes' out there? then never mind being productive and spending hours writing! watch this show. it's so unbelievably guilty pleasure fun, and great to have on while you clean, do dishes or eat dinner. and when it starts back up (in January?) we can be PLL buddies together.

luckily, i caught up on all the previous episodes last night. so now i really can try to both write a new novel in a month and finish the edits on my other.

i wasn't actually worried about my productivity. my big question is...what should i watch next?

boo hoo who

2011-10-31T06:53:00.000-07:00

it's halloween. wanna hear something scary?

my manuscript is in pieces.

gasp! eeeek! noooooo!

t'is true. my agent and i discussed a few small changes, and instead i went in with a hacksaw. it's necessary. only, i'm cutting as if i were pruning a plant for the first time. snipping, lobbing off here and there, without knowing what i'm doing or how it will affect it later.

this is a natural step. it all comes back together eventually. it's happened during every other novel i've written. part of it is waiting for that moment of inspiration, the mental glue, to find me. that one sentence while i'm on the bus or taking a walk or even staring at my computer, that leads to that one paragraph, that fills in the plot hole, that fixes everything.

so no worries (she tells herself). it's in there.

in the meantime, share one of your day-in-the-life scary stories with me. because until that inspiration strikes, i need all the distraction i can get my hands on.

2011-10-26T08:27:00.000-07:00

it's begun. i'm on the last edit of my manuscript.

after an hour and a half talk with my agent yesterday, i moved to the stage in the process of my writing, where i diagram the entire novel and sloppily tape it to my wall. it's only towards the end of working on a manuscript that i feel like i need to see the whole thing laid out. over the course of the next few weeks other slips of paper will accumulate on my grungy white wall as well. character notes. bits of dialogue that came to me at work and are written on receipts and napkins. transcribed text messages i sent myself so i wouldn't forget brilliant such-and-such idea on the bus.

i love this stage.

when i think about it, i love every stage of writing. i could just as easily say: what's better than starting a new work? the wide open palate, when your characters are full of possibility and even you don't know what's going to happen.

but truly, there's nothing like being so close to the end (okay, maybe actually being finished and on submission is best). right now, the balance of my book, how amazing it is or not, is all up to me. it's the last edit that lets you knock socks off or lets you barely make a splash and get roundly rejected. the last edit is all about finesse. it's about how much you want this. how much you can extend yourself creatively to unlock that "it" factor that makes a book memorably great and hopefully publishable. everything rides on the last edit.

intense, right?

so this is where i'll be for the foreseeable future. riding the emotional THIS WILL BE THE BEST BOOK EVER / I *sob* CAN'T *sob* DO THIS wave of final edits. blog posts will be shorter. some days they might not come at all (am i the only person who regularly blogs three times a week? why, corrie, why do you do these things to yourself?)

so wish me luck. or better yet, wish me getting it just right.

row row row in circles

2011-10-24T08:15:00.000-07:00

i got back to nature this weekend by taking a canoe trip... on the Gowanus Canal.

no, this was not the canoe we took.
i think this boats only here for decorative purposes.
it draws your eye away from the sludge it sits in.

now if you live in Brooklyn, you know about the Gowanus. it's a twisting waterway that separates some of the most desirable neighborhoods in Brooklyn. it's also the most polluted canal in the world.

back in the 1800's the canal was built on the cheap with no locks to flush it. there's only one entrance that fresh water can flow in through. engineers thought this would be enough to appropriately flush out the canal.

they were wrong.

basically, for hundreds of years, the water in the Gowanus has just sat there. here's a copypasted quote from Wikipedia (great research, huh?) that drives home how gross the water is.

"Water quality studies have found the concentration of oxygen in the canal to be just 1.5 parts per million, well below the minimum 4 parts per million needed to sustain life.^[6] With the high level of development in the Gowanus watershed area, excessive nitrates and pathogens are constantly flowing into the canal, further depleting the oxygen and creating breeding grounds for the pathogens responsible for the canal's odor.
The opaqueness of the Gowanus water obstructs sunlight to one third of the six feet needed for aquatic plant growth. Rising gas bubbles betray the decomposition of sewage sludge that on a warm, sultry day produces the canal's notable ripe stench. The murky depths of the canal conceal the remnants of its industrial past: cement, oil, mercury, lead, PCBs, coal tar, and other contaminants. In 1951, with the opening of the elevated Gowanus Expressway over the waterway, easy access for trucks and cars catalyzed industry slightly, but with 150,000 vehicles passing overhead each day the expressway also deposits tons of toxic emissions into the air and water beneath.^[6]

There is an urban legend that the canal served as a dumping ground for the Mafia. In Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn, a character refers to it as "the only body of water in the world that is 90 percent guns."

cut to 2011. one of my best girl's is doing an art piece about the Gowanus. would i like to be her paddling partner? definitely!

i thought we'd be there on some special Parson's pass, but it turns out that on Saturdays, the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club lets anyone take out a canoe -- for free -- no previous paddling experience required.

have you ever paddled in circles on some of the most polluted water in the world? have you ever felt the frustration of going nowhere as disintegrating black things float past in water that you do your best to make sure doesn't come into the boat, let alone touch your skin? no? why then you haven't lived! (i am definitely kidding).

the only living creature i saw in the water was a lady bug. i pulled it out on my paddle. are lady bug legs supposed to be the same color as the rest of their body? i swear it's eyes were triple normal size (you could say it was bugged eyed, bah dum bump) as if it was going, you would not believe what i just landed in.

at one point a tiny fleck of water splashed my cheek. one of those woken up by a nightmare noises escaped my lips. i couldn't have been more horrified than if acid had touched my skin. maybe it had.

and yet? it was beautiful. or maybe beautiful isn't quite the right word. it was fascinating? nice? cool?

maybe lets say: it was an experience. an only in Brooklyn would i ever consider time spent on toxic water a relaxing, back to nature, escape from it all, Saturday appropriate event. but it was. and i couldn't recommend it more highly.

fyi the Dredgers Club provides anti-bacterial gel when you're done. still, washing up someplace else really well afterwards comes highly recommended.

ducks in a row?

2011-10-21T07:04:00.000-07:00

it's the weekend! or it's practically the weekend (still worthy of celebrating).

i'm slacking off already. which means today is the perfect day for a dancing dog video. except i couldn't find any that lived up to the other two i already posted. here are some decent runner ups.

phew. that was a tough hour of research.

no, for the record, you're not a bad person if you laugh at this one. only if you laugh repeatedly, like i did.

this video gets a little iffy/scary, but it's still good for the huh-huh chuckle.

and buda bump da bum bump. that's all folks. tell me if i missed one.

happy weekend!

my one sis sent these:

and

and this (one of my old favorites) from fabulous crit partner

keep 'em coming people!

snoozed

2011-10-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

i needed a crowbar this morning. it was that difficult to get out of bed. it didn't help that it's rainy. or actually it did help.

i love the morning roll over. the "five more minutes" refrain.

six months ago i bought a new mattress and opted for one that feels like a giant pillow. (mattress salesman said people mistake firm mattresses for supportive mattresses. "support doesn't have to feel uncomfortable," he said.) three months ago, my mom visited and brought me more pillows for my bed. now i have five total. some mornings i wake up like princess and the pea. except i'm sleeping underneath everything next to the pea.

i know i won't be able to have a lazy morning routine forever. maybe that's why i like treating myself to it now. it doesn't work on beautiful sunny days though. the guilt seeps in. it's so lovely out, i ought to be up. i when i hear rain hit my window and see only grey in the sky, i cheer. and then roll over. today, the clouds were so thick outside, coffee couldn't even pry me loose. i put some on, then re-woke to find it had gone cold.

basically, it was a cookies in the house kind of a.m. only those would have gotten me up earlier. unfortunately, now i'm a little late for my day of events. but i don't care.

for notoriously punctual, bad sleeping me, 5 more minutes, is the perfect way to greet a day.

an inspired monday

2011-10-17T08:47:00.000-07:00

somewhere in the deep gears of the universe, things are slowly grinding forward. i can feel it. change is afoot. good things are about to happen.

now, i've said this before, after which not much happened. but in the last few days, i've hung with an extremely cool (even though she technically isn't) person. i've watched talent from the sidelines, but been no less awed. and i've witnessed an event that i'm still not sure how to describe, but me being me, i'll try.

first up, if you've followed my blog you know i have a fabulous crit partner named ellen.

what you don't know is that she's a nerd.

no, it's true. i didn't believe it before yesterday, but she proved me wrong. without giving too much away, ellen heard about a tv show that's looking for nerds. she emailed them. a short while later, a casting director called her and asked her to send in a video.

yesterday we made said video.

not only can the girl recite Pi to 50 some numbers (at motormouth speed), but she owns a Lord of the Rings cloak, evenstar necklace, elf pin thingy, and a one ring. i don't want to give too much away (when she's allowed to blog about it, i'll post the video), but after all the filming, after she pulled crazy outfit after crazy outfit from a giant suitcase "this is my ren fair outfit.." "this is my steampunk outfit..." "harry potter..." "vampire goth..." i realized: nerdiness is AWESOME.

not that i hadn't previously know this, but watching ellen perform an entire scene from Princess Bride drove it home. "nerdiness" is a uniquely pursued, thoroughly enjoyed, totally geeky, passion for life. it made me regret all the times i've felt shiftless or bored. why wasn't i watching Red vs Blue, the online video series that's set in Halo? or getting lost in online vampire roll playing games? why wasn't i wearing costumes and going to weird gatherings with other costume clad people?

well, because that's what made Ellen's inner nerd shine. it felt like time to unearth mine.

speaking about passion for life, how better to observe it than by watching someone practice their craft and be really freakin' excellent at it? remember my friend kevin?

kevin's best friend, Sam, is in this acapella competition on NBC called The Sing Off. Sam's group is comprised of solo artists from Nashville. in real life, he's half of the group Sam and Ruby. i saw them live in NYC. the performance floored me.

now, behind the scenes alert, sam didn't want to be on The Sing Off. maybe the world breaks down into two kinds of people, those that would like to be on reality television (go get 'em, crit partner. whoop whoop) and those that wouldn't like to be on reality television (hi sam). but last night after work, i watched sam's group's performances. they're called The Collective on the show. and squeamishness about reality tv or not, their voices need to be heard.

here's Ruby killing it:

here's Sam soloing in the middle. i forgot how much i love his voice:

if only we all had platforms where what we do best is seen and heard. watching sam and ruby bring it on tv made me long for that publication date. for sending out a draft that doesn't come back requiring massive edits. for finally having people read my words and inhabit my stories.

but you know what? it's not all about me. GASP! that's right. i saw it first hand when i wandered down to Zuccotti Park to take a look at the Occupy Wall Street protesters.

i was away when the protest began. my friend read a little bit about it to me from a facebook post. she said, "it looks like a bunch of rich kids who can't get jobs are protesting on wall street." we both scoffed and then went off to have more drinks and tapas. gotta love self-indulgent scoffing.

when i came home, another friend told me she marched with the protesters. she said it was mind blowing, the most important movement and protest to date of our lives so far. huh. i needed to see for myself.

i came away with mixed feelings. on one hand, it is rich kids that can't find jobs:

lobbying to end lobbying.

on the other it is a massive, messy, broadly missioned, energetic collective that isn't happy with the way things work. instead of just privately bellyaching, they're trying to change things. will it work? who knows. but it's grass roots, it's persistent and it's, i hope, for the good of all of us. (yes, i fell pray to that 99% sloganism.)

all three of these events have left me with that butterflies in the stomach feeling. i'm interpreting it as change is a comin'. though maybe the correct read is: corrie, you can make change a come.

either way. it felt terrific to be around these all very different, very inspiring worlds and people.

she's crafty

2011-10-14T14:27:00.000-07:00

it's fall. and if you've read last weeks post, you'll know i have a little extra time on my hands. what to do? FALL CRAFTS, of course. here are my results from a very DIY past few days.

ROSE MAKING

look! i made roses using autumn leaves. you just fold in the points and keep wrapping the leaves around one another. i'm not sure they look terrific (naturally they came out better on the blog i saw this craft, but they look good enough)

prepare to be underwhelmed. it gets a lot less crafty from here on out.

FLOWER ARRANGING

i hacked back my outdoor planters and put together this bouquet. it's eucalyptus (cool right? i actually grew eucalyptus in my garden this year), the cattails from ornamental grasses, and some kind of dried something that we cut back at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens a few weeks back.

see how much i learn from my volunteering experiences? some kind of dried something. Laura, the head gardener where i volunteer, would be so proud.

FLOWER ARRANGING FOR DUMMIES

this is rosemary. that's it. i hacked it all back, brought it inside, and inhaled with a big ahhhh all night long. also, notice the use of my hurricane candles for mood lighting. woo-woo.

SLACKER CRAFT

indian corn (3 for $2.50 at the farmer's market).
wall hook.
twine

ta-dah! that bare wall by my sink is suddenly a little harder to wash dishes next to, but a lot more interesting to look at.

and lastly, what crafting day would be complete without...

BAKING

i halved my recipe of oatmeal cookies unable to imagine even eating 24 cookies all by myself.

yeah. um. two days later? the entire batch is gone. i'm glad i didn't make all 48 for a different reason.

tah-dah. so there's my craftiness. now tell me about a craft you've made this fall.

time is on my side

2011-10-12T07:28:00.000-07:00

the weird thing about returning from lots of time spent doing nothing, is remembering what you used to do with your time spent doing nothing before you left on vacation. it's the epitome of the start of a new season and thinking, what the heck did i wear last year?

luckily, when i returned from Spain (please elongate the 'A' and let your voice dip in a snotty New England accent at the end, otherwise you aren't pronouncing it correctly), i almost immediately went on a mini-family vaca to Tampa to visit my grandpa.

but now i'm back. no more vacations in sight.

in Spain right now, i'd be drinking cafe con leche and eating something delicious. in nyc right now, i'm in pajamas, staring at my computer, drinking coffee and mindlessly eating cookies.

in Spain, i was special. i was a blonde celestial being who's every flick of hair and oh so coy-ness *stumble on the cobblestones* caught los hombre's attention. no, seriously, Spanish men don't see blondes. it's a fact. so me walking down the street was as if they were seeing a big, fat, golden goose for the first time ever. meanwhile, here in nyc, i can barely get the eye scanner on my apartment building to meet my eye. (huh? what? i know, nothing in that last sentence is true, but what a metaphor!).

so yesterday, i decided to: Get Some Work Done.

i wrote down ideas and dialogue for my new book...for twenty minutes. then i did these things:

baked oatmeal cookies
ate cookies
gardened
ate cookies
fixed dinner
watched Pretty Little Liars for the first time (but only as market research)
watched another episode of Pretty Little Liars ('cause, erm, one just wasn't enough)
played TowerMadness
ate cookies
read a few blogs
got blog envy (i mean seriously, Lauren Morrill, your posts are funny, filled with great pics, and relevant to YA. they don't all babble about what the heck you're doing with this life. ahem, corrie.)

if i learned anything from yesterday, it was that i have TOO MUCH TIME on my hands. a normal adult doesn't need four days off in a row. even if she thinks she'll whip out five novels at a time, mostly, she'll write the same amount as she always does and then feel restless.

it was while i was hyper-linking to Lauren's blog this morning that i read her post about making the switch to full-time workage. i'm starting to ponder the same move. or a move. because if i learned one thing from Spain (did you say it right this time?) it's that life is fun, surprising, active and inspiring...when you make it that way.

so, um, anyone know of a fun job for me? or maybe do you just want to go to lunch today?

saw this the first day i was back. seemed about right.

casa dolce casa

2011-10-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

want to see what three years without any serious time off from work looks like?

this:

a few weeks after this picture was taken, a friend quit her job and asked me if i wanted to travel with her to Spain. the economy is in the crapper, i thought. what right do i have to the self-indulgence of a long vacation? then i remembered the above face (who needed to remember it, i wore it half the time), and said Vamonos.

a month later, it was holllllla Espana.

this is my highlight reel:

our neighborhood in Barcelona had butterflies strung up everywhere for a local festival. the supermarkets sold wine for as little as 65 cents. they even had wine juice boxes.

in Barcelona there's a huge outdoor market. it's called la Bocheria. it's unlike any farmer's market that the States has. it's filled with every imaginable fresh vegetable, egg, meat, and fruit.

emu eggs

they even sold those fish that have both eyeballs on one side of their face.

in every city we went, there was a festival happening.

each city has their own giant people and animals that they carried through the streets on parade day.

no, they don't carry a giant corrie head. that's me!

if live music is played, all the old people in the crowd link hands and commence a twenty minute dance that involves lots of hopping and swaying. they even have special shoes for it.

in Barcelona horses hang out on balconies.

maybe because they're drunk.

people drink all the time in Spain. at la Bocheria, we sat next to a man that was having a beer with his breakfast pastry. at 8:30 in the morning. me? i waited...wait for it...until at least 11:30 to have a beer. before then drinking was reserved for cafe con leche.

i've never had so much espresso. scratch that. i've never had so much mind-numbingly, pick me up, served in a tall class or a short cup, freakin-delicious espresso.

in Barcelona, i learned that Spain Spanish is very different than Latin American Spanish in one primary way. never mind the whole "c" as "th" pronunciation thing. in Spain, tortilla doesn't mean something-to-eat taco-fixin's-out-of. it means gooey egg and potato dish that's served in the morning and then pretty much for the rest of the day.

Spanish lesson learned and heartily partaken in, next up, it was the resort town of San Sebastian.

fabulous San Sebastian. where the tapas are laid out on the bars starting around 10 am. it was the most vacationy of our vacation days. i spent a lot of time on the beach.

for the first time in my life, my bosoms saw the sun. (i'll spare you the picture.) i also got in my first scuffle.

coming out of the ocean, feeling good, and channelling my best bo derek impersonation (look her up, kids), i noticed the tide quickly pulling away from me. i wonder what happens next? was my last thought before i found out that this happens: the water comes back in the form of a GIANT FREAKIN' WAVE.

tumbling underwater washing machine style, i was dragged and thrown back ashore, sputtering, with my swim suit bottoms around my ankles.

i quickly crawled back into the surf, pulled my trunks up (only to realize when i was back on land that they contained 5 pounds of sand) and tried to wash the smeared make-up off my face. when i returned to our beach towels, my friend took one look at me and said, "what happened to you? and how come you were lying on the sand over there?"

i was still washing sand out of my hair five days later. lesson learned? don't fight with the ocean. it will win.

anyhoo, in San Sebastian there's more Michelin three-star restaurants than anywhere else in the world. since i was travelling with a chef, not trying one wasn't an option. the restaurant we chose was called Akilera. it was a short cab ride outside the city. since we'd be spending the equivalent of a night's worth of work to eat there, big time spenders that we are, we took the bus.

my friend's google map said the restaurant was a short hike up a mountain from the bus stop. we ascended. walked higher, saw some cows.

we walked higher. then higher uphill, no, up mountain. forty minutes in and ten minutes until our reservation time, my friend asked: what if the restaurants not there?

it will be, i panted.

she checked a different map. the restaurant was back by the bus stop. we ran. i tried to hitch hike. everyone kept shaking there heads and wagging their fingers at us. when we got the restaurant -- sweaty, flustered -- we sat right across from the same people who wouldn't give us a lift.

the meal lasted 4.5 hours. the waiter took us on a tour of the kitchen. it was sublime.

peaches served three ways.

we decided we needed to see wine country.

the capital of wine country in Rioja is Haro. we expected greenery, vineyards, quaint architecture, cobbled streets. instead we landed in the armpit of Spain. lesson? if you're going to buy a guide book, read it before you plan a day trip. Haro: This unattractive capital of Rioja... mine read.

we also met The Snobbiest Toronto Man Alive. when he asked us about accommodations in San Sebastian and i started to tell him about our awesome hostel, he cut me off with a I'm past the point in my life where i need to stay in hostels.

um okay. you asked. dick. then he made me taste his wine.

it wasn't all bad though. i mean, there was wine. (not previously drunk by a fuddy-duddy). and pretty cute bodegas serving it.

maybe there was too much wine.

we left northern Spain for southern.

i never knew Spain had been through so much upheaval. right from the start, one civilization wiped out another from the Phoenicians, to the Romans, to the Muslims. mosques were turned into churches. entire Jewish neighborhoods were slaughtered and repaved. in the 1930's there was a civil war. Franco took over. up until the 1970's women didn't have their own passports, they had to be on their husbands. and while the architecture was incredibly beautiful...

i swear, that chaotic, bloody history is still in the air because southern Spain is WEIRD.

paparazzi-style, a man took photos of me with his giant-lensed camera while i was sitting in a cafe. i got into an argument with a gypsy, and a few hours later a mysterious scratch appeared on my cheek. and the gelato is made with black magic. it must be, because it's so evilly good.

but as much as southern Spain gave me the creeps, it was stunning. you turn a corner and BAM! giant cathedral. or stuff like this guy. erm. cover your eyes kids.

we went dancing until 5 a.m. ate lots of tapas (they come free with purchase of a beverage) and went to the Alhambra. it's Spain's answer to the Taj Mahal.

then it was back to Barcelona (actually, first we stayed with a friend of a friend and slept in his bar) and then it was back to Barcelona for a last meal of scorching hot peppers and patatas bravas, a few more beers and yet another night of absolutely no sleep in a hostel --it's so hot in here, it's like dying, said the male bunk mate across from me. next an 8 hour flight with the gaping mouth guy snoring on my shoulder the whole way and i'm home.

it's weird being back. i'm changed, yet i've returned to a place where my life is the same.

but i found my happy. somewhere between the nude sunbathing and Spanish word confusions -- fyi Quisiera una bolsa de crema, does not mean, I'd like a cream bomba (local pastry) it means I'd like a cream bag -- i found this girl:

the one who's inside the one who used to make that other face. because i realized *ahem* that i'm past the point in my life when i make that unhappy face and don't try to do something about changing it. so maybe next time don't wait three years to do a little travelling when it makes you feel this good. and you, too, out there, don't put off being good to yourself. 'cause i'm here to tell you, doing nice, soul-expanding, completely self-indulgent things for yourself? it makes you feel happy. who would have thunk it?

yes, all together now, no duh, corrie! everyone thunk it. happiness and rejuvenation are the whole point of a va-ca-tion.

it's also the point of espresso.

hola everyone! it's good to see you again.

jet plane

2011-09-19T08:09:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-16T10:38:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-12T03:53:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-09T11:55:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-05T06:38:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-02T07:12:00.000-07:00

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

have great weekends!

recharging

2011-08-31T09:15:00.000-07:00

sleep hasn't been coming so well lately, and when that happens, i go a little batty. night time worries creep into my daytime. everything feels so much more pressing, serious, unpleasant, and dramatic.

so imagine how i felt this morning when i woke up to this error message on my computer: Your battery is able to charge normally, however it is reaching the end of it's usable life.

oh. dear. goodness.

i remained calm and googled my problem.

google is my favorite fix for any kind of computer glitch. the google result usually takes you to a forum that a billion other people with the exact same problem have already posted about. this one told me to get in touch with dell support. that if my computer was under a year old, they might just send me a new battery.

i ran to last years tax receipts. computer purchased....9/16/10.

bingo!

instead of calling in for help. i went against my grain and engaged in online tech chat. (i have this fear of being hacked).

it was actually terrific. "Monica" answered immediately. i explained my problem fully in three different messages, and after only a tiny glitch where she wrote: I understand the problem is with your battery. I am able to help you with that. and i wrote, did you understand my question? and she wrote yes i understood your question. and i wanted to write but didn't: then why are you writing that you understand the problem is with my battery. I JUST SAID THAT. she asked if she could take control of my computer.

she wanted permission to hack me basically.

um. sure?
after one little downloaded (they say it's NOT downloaded software that they're access ends as soon as you close the windows) approval thingy, i watched as she poked around and found the place on my computer that said, yes indeed my battery is f'd.

I will send you a replacement battery, she wrote. That's terrific! I wrote.

Monica then asked if i had a second to talk to her manager. i wrote: um, okay, but i only have a minute. ('cause i'm generous and friendly like that. i did mention the no sleep thing tho, right?)

sed Manager asked what i thought of Dell support. i said it was great. Manager wrote: That's all, I wanted to know if he helped you.

so i'm getting a new batttery. Monica is now a boy's name. and tech support jobs are still being shipped overseas. or at least that's how i understand it.

scared? who me?

2011-08-29T08:47:00.000-07:00

i win the Worst Blogger Ever award.

a hurricane (ok, tropical storm. erm, hard rain) passed over my city this weekend and i didn't take one picture. not one!

this means i didn't capture the "BRING IT! - NYC" that someone tagged on a boarded up coffee shop. or the sign at the bar that said "We'll be open NO MATTER WHAT! Come in for a hurricane shot." nor did i capture a picture of the storm swell that i saw in Queens, which would have shown a perfectly calm river, only an hour before the rains, with not a ripple in it.

what did i do? i fled my apartment in the early afternoon. i put plastic soup containers around the legs of my couch and moved all the electrical things into my bedroom. if it flooded, there wasn't much else i could do. out on the street, i immediately saw how skewed my vision was by my subterranean living. from my windows all i saw were ominous grey skies and rain, but out on the street? life!

every neighborhood i road through was full of people -- laughing, eating, drinking. all the restaurants i passed were slammin'. maybe in a few hours there would be total devastation, but in the meantime, New Yorkers were gonna enjoy their last bit of peacefulness.

it was a good lesson in "you experience life based on how you choose to experience life." one person's hurricane is another person's fiesta.

so after that initial bout of "do i stay and protect my apartment or leave and protect my sanity" it turned into a great day. i went to a bbq. met some great people. ate and drank my butt off. then watched a hitchcock movie and slept over at my friends. at night, their house got rocked by rain. in the morning, brooklyn was leaf strewn and beautiful. riding my bike home, i watched the first tentative people emerging from their apartments looking like i felt. awed.

we'd lived through something. something that turned out to be nothing. and now we have yet another "remember when?" nyc story and a lot more canned goods in the house because of it.

* thanks to all the sweeties out there who left me great hurricane advice and wishes of safety and concern in my comments. you guys are amazing! i felt so much better prepared and cared for because of it.

what would you do?

2011-08-26T07:44:00.000-07:00

so um, a hurricane is headed my way.

now would be a good time for anyone who has past experience to throw me some tips in the comments below. do i leave two windows open so i can get some decent cross ventilation in here? no wait. that's tornadoes. are they serious about purchasing canned food? what about all the extra sodium and plain, bad taste?

okay, so i'm worried, but not.

since i've lived in brooklyn, there's been a tornado. it flew past my restaurant seconds after i got to work. moments before the entire sky had been a weird green color. there's also been a bus-stranding blizzard. which didn't seem all that special to me since i'm from buffalo. but it was special to all my friends who had to walk 3 hours to get home that night, because all public transportation failed. i think that one was more the city's fault.

my biggest concern about this hurricane is the flash flooding. have i mentioned i live in a garden apartment? yes? be quiet about it already? right.

the hours leading up to a catastrophic event are the weirdest, aren't they? what would you do if you had 24 hours until a hurricane hit? no, really, what would you do?

my answer, apparently?
oh, you know, i'd blog. work on my edits. go to work.

granted, this weekend's weather is not life-ending. hopefully, it's only another weird, intense weather day in brooklyn. but maybe i'll treat myself to some nice chocolates on the way into work, just for the heck of it. and maybe tonight after work, i'll go dancing. not that it'll be my last time doing it or anything, but it's not bad to have a reminder to make every minute count.

and not to keep boring you with my dance class videos, but they've been such great dances lately (always), i can't not bore you with my dance class videos.

happy dealing with a hurricane east coast. hope to see you safely on the other side.

fin

2011-08-24T07:29:00.000-07:00

i completed my spanish class!

in my head the graduation music is playing right now (though, really, i think it's the Olympic's music).
my professor even gave me a certificate.

did it help? am i more fluent? i dunno.

yesterday i sat in class, and i swear, i didn't understand a word. i couldn't have written an akward, classroom scene as good as this: the teacher smiling and looking at me as she spoke. me thinking, please don't call on me. please don't call on me. the next word out of her mouth: Corrie?

GARH!

how is it possible to de-improve at something? (i'm sure there is an actual word that describes de-improving, but apparently my english is failing me, too). i began the class with such happy promise. yesterday the teacher said, you are somewhere else right now? to be fair. i only ended up making it to little over half the classes. but still.... i wasn't supposed to get worse!

ok. this isn't entirely fair. damn my tongue (actually, please don't. it's useful to me. poor tongue.), but my ear has improved.

the other night at the restaurant a (cute) boy/guy/man came in with his spanish speaking father. the, lets call him a guy, had to translate everything i said for his father and each time he did, i snorted (mentally, otherwise that's weird and rude) and thought, geez, i could have said that.

it was my perfect opportunity to bust out what i've learned. the only spanish i spoke was lo siento (i'm sorry). when he gave me $100 and asked for change on his $75 check, i gave him back $15. (i know it's like 4 quarters in a dollar, still that one always gets me.) the man didn't say de nada. a ten percent tip was his reply.

oh well. onward.

first the ear improves, then the vocabulary, then one day...at some point... i will be fluent. 'cause while maybe some people would improve over three years of trying to speak spanish. or gasp they'd actually be able to speak spanish by now. i've only gotten kind of crappy at it. but whatever. a less quickly melting ice cap is still a slightly improved environment. a lessened number of murders each year is still less people dead. so i'll take my barely improved spanish and run with it.

i've got a lot of life left to live. (you know, hopefully.) and since my ear for french and italian has oddly improved, too, who knows how many languages i'll one day be able to understand and speak crappily.

a lil' help from my friends

2011-08-22T08:09:00.000-07:00

i don't like asking for help.

in fact, i do everything in my power to avoid it. this means i work when i'm sick. i cook and do the dishes. and i've never learned to graciously accept help when others offer it. the only exception to this rule? carrying heavy stuff. like the cast iron mussels pot at work.

no. please. you take it.

i don't mind this trait. it doesn't even register on my list of "things to be worked on in this life."
(for the record, i don't have a list like that. fine. maybe i do. but it's a mental one... that i update constantly)

this week i discovered the one thing that being self-sufficient deprives me of. i can't think of a non-cheesy way to say it. but sometimes when you ask for help, the perk (other than being helped) is feeling the love from the people that step up to do the helping.

i have to do a project on a Spanish speaking country for my conversational Spanish class. shocker, i chose Mexico. (it's no secret i have a thing for the Mexican culture.)

i had no idea what this project would be about. possibly because i didn't understand the teacher when she explained it. it was my turn to go last week. i said i needed more time. beside the fact that i can't take ungraded homework seriously, i was a little intimidated by the project. other student's presentations were in PowerPoint. they had embedded YouTube clips. themes. notes.

inspiration struck. but i needed help.

none of the guys in the following film relished being in the following film. but they're my friends. so when i asked them to do it, they came through, which felt....indescribably great.

apologies to most people reading my blog. i haven't put subtitles on the film. i figured, what better way for my conversational Spanish class to improve than listening to conversational Spanish. the CliffNotes are that i ask the guys to tell me something about Mexico that most American's don't know (it's clean there! also in small towns there's no heat or air conditioning.) i ask about their favorite foods (which inspired Jose to talk about turkey eggs). and i totally flustered Cesar who couldn't really think of anything to say.

i love how many times all of them broke into English. in actuality, this films a bit of a farce. my Mexican friends are more American than anything else.

still, i'm proud of this film. i'm proud of my friends. and as i usually am when i break down to do it, i'm glad i asked for help.

changing it up

2011-08-19T09:59:00.000-07:00

something good is in the air.

change and exciting things are happening. my crit buddy got approached by an agent. my old community collaborative buddy from buffalo got published in the Buffalo News. my good work buddy got engaged. my sister buddy got a great new apartment. and another family buddy is buying a house.

and me? well, things are a bubbling, but i'll keep them under my hat until i know more details.

change. it's one of those things i contemplate forever. worry over needlessly. crave but never embark on. and then it happens. out of the blue and all at once and it feels...really freakin' damn good.

i know our lives can't always be filled with change. i know that we need stability, too. but when it does happen. when it's pervasive in the air like this, you can bet'cher bottom i'm gonna celebrate it.

so congratulations everyone! thank you Change! hopefully, i'll be seeing more of you soon.

in the meantime, let's dance!

shorty

2011-08-17T08:01:00.000-07:00

i've picked up crazy shifts at work the next two weeks, so today is one of my few days off. which means OUTSIDE HERE I COME.

hope this provides a few giggles until i return:

http://www.animalsbeingdicks.com/

super productive monday

2011-08-15T07:54:00.000-07:00

good morning everyone! today i am having a super productive day.
in a city where even police officers are multi-tasking:

and business women use their break to get the tai-chi in:

i know, she's hard to see, but you get the picture, si?

in the next six hours i'm gonna put all these fools to shame. laundry will be done. fellowships will be applied for. spanish homework will (finally) be looked at, erm, i mean completed. clothes will be folded. stuff will be tidied. blogs will be half-assed.

the last few weeks i've taken a bit of a break from productivity. i'm waiting for responses to my WIP and i also couldn't look at the damn thing anymore to make my own edits. i've noticed my spirits flagging ever since i set the project aside.

today i make up for that! i'll do an amount of chores and whatnots in a few hours that would normally be spread out over a week. but first, coffee.

oh dear goodness, i need some coffee first.

please tell me kids still pass notes

2011-08-12T07:27:00.000-07:00

my spanish teacher was writing on the blackboard (okay, dry erase board) the other day when she stopped and sighed: sometimes i forget how satisfying that is.

she meant writing.

it's such a simple statement. it took me totally by suprise. i've been thinking about it ever since.

when was the last time you saw your handwriting? i still make shopping lists on paper. i still sign and mail checks. when i remember (oops) i write birthday cards. i jot down notes for novel ideas. during the really grumpy years, i kept a journal. but that's about it. and for most people that's probably a lot. there's an app or online easier way to do everything i just described.

someone in my spanish class pointed out that kids (it's always those kids) aren't as good at reading handwritten words anymore and their own writing is suffering from everything going digitial. a hugely broad statement, i know.

but i still can't stop thinking about it. i never expected one of our most basic ways of communicating to fall by the wayside. will we teach handwriting in the future? or typing.

color me...

2011-08-10T09:29:00.000-07:00

annoyed.

yesterday, if i was a little kid, i'd have stomped my foot.

what follows is my pictorial review of an annoying day. (be prepared. these are not: my car broke down then got hit by a bus type of annoyances. but this was my yesterday and i've got to blog about something.)

it began at lunch. in an effort to get out into the world more, i've decided to treat myself once a week-ish to a working lunch in a restaurant. i headed to a new french coffee shop in the 'hood. it's common for a nyc lunch to run the lunchee $15 to $20, but i shopped the outside menu. everything was well in my range of cheapness. between $4.50 and $7.95.

anticipation grew when i stepped inside and saw a sandwich that looked like this:

yes, folks. as you guessed, that's a sandwich covered in melted cheese with a giant delicious salad next to it.

in an effort to be, i dunno, adventurous? i went for the special. a tartine with avocado, fresh ricotta, pears and a black pepper honey. possibly yum-yum, right?

yeah. this was my plate.

for the record. those are two cucumbers at the bottom of the cutting board.

i'd never realized tartine translated as: toast with bits of stuff. lo and behold, check comes and it's the most expensive thing on the menu. had i known, i would have ordered the smoked duck over green beans. i would have ordered the cheese drenched sandwich. i would have ordered three things and not gotten to the price of my three triangles of bread. i wanted to cry, how can you charge $11 for produce from the bodega?!

instead i ordered a coffee and tried to ignore that i was as hungry as when i walked in.

cut to spanish class:

why do the people with the most inane thoughts always have the most to say?

we've begun class presentations about spanish speaking countries. same guy as above does the music of Uruguay and the first youtube clip he shows is of a japanese band with japanese subtitles. sigh.

cut to the other guy who simply needs to speak in english. when asked if he thinks all movies end happily (as one classmate had said), he answers (in english): "you're asking what kind of movies i like? oh, i like, kung-fu. actione. fantastica."

a. no that's not what we were asking. b. i'm pretty sure not one of those responses was spanish. at all.

sigh.

worse than any of this is the fact that the more effort i make at learning spanish, the worse i get. granted, when i speak spanish i say spanish words that keep up with the english ones in my head, so sure, the translation is bound to be off. the other night at work i was prattling on in my corrie spanish. when i finished speaking there was a stunned silence, into which my one friend said: "dude, that was terrible."

granted, said friend is the guy who when i commented that i'd gained a little weight and felt it in my belly, replied, "yeah, and you can also see it in your face." (i love having boys as friends.) but still...

last tonight i couldn't make it through one spanish sentence without realizing in advance that the entire thing made no sense. i left class feeling annoyed, dense, and popsicle like from the air conditioning.

what greets me out front of the building? the wall street bull. or, rather, tourists taking these kinds of pictures:

it's been the same since i began my spanish class. yes, occasionally tourists take pictures in front of the bull, but 9 out of 10 take pictures of themselves coming out of the bull's rear. or fondling his, uh, stuff. this tendency transcends all cultures. maybe that should make me feel better. last night, it just made me wonder what the freak is up with mankind?

maybe this is why writers write. without the mandated solitude, we'd be forced to be out in the world like normal humans and it would turn us into petulant, little tyrants.

back at home, i imagined the tyrant safely put away for the night. corrie would be annoyed by no one else that evening.

around 3 a.m. a beetle made it's way into my apartment. it careened around my ceiling then threw itself into a dusty corner. i found it with a flash light, rolled up paper in hand to squash it. but the little guy was too cute. he kept walking into the baseboard trying to find a way out. i got a glass and trapped him.

"i'll help you lil' buddy," i said, as i slid paper beneath the glass. "no worries." (yes, when i save bugs lives i speak like an australian cowboy).

or not.

lil' buddy's head made a terrible crunching sound when i accidentally decapitated it. his legs kept wiggling. i felt awful.

at least yesterday is behind me. i woke this morning to a text inviting me to a soulgasm dance party. whether that pans out or not, i'm making a point of today being the kind of day that you can color me: peaceful.

blah monday

2011-08-08T09:36:00.000-07:00

there's a heat advisory shaping up this afternoon in NYC. soon we'll all be wallowing in 93 degrees + temps. bringing my coffee cup to my mouth feels like overexertion. and i live in a garden apartment. i can't imagine how the abovers (that's what i call anyone who doesn't walk down steps to get to their front door. actually, no it isn't. that's the first time i ever called them that.) are dealing with this.

oh right. air conditioning.

naturally, my agenda today involves running errands before work. i'll probably leave the house right when the heat advisory goes into effect.

my friend at work last night said i was muy intellegente because i managed to get about 25 pieces of silverware to slide off a dirty plate into the dirty silverware bucket all at once. (glamorous job, ain't it?) i replied a veces. which means: sometimes.

muy intellegente, a veces describes me pretty well, i think.

who'd want to be smart all the time ,anyway? some of the best things can come about from being muy estupido.

* sorry. this was a lame blog post, i know. and i have new followers to try and impress too. but did i mention it's sweltering here? and the most exciting thing on my plate today is going to the post office. oh! and buying garbage bags -- kitchen and recycling. whoot!

so apologies. hopefully i'll be in better form for wednesday. but at least now that bloggings over, i can resume sluggishly eating blue cheese dip straight out of the container -- with my finger.

new traditions

2011-08-05T12:42:00.000-07:00

my lil sis' and her hubby came to visit this week. in NYC or back in buffalo we always have fun together. but i especially love when they come here (this goes for all visiting family) because we have entirely new experiences and interactions than the ones we've had our whole lives.

that being said, this was my lil sis' and bro-law's third time visiting. and as much as it's fresh and fun every time, i'm picking up on some new NYC-style family traditions.

New Tradition 1: Corrie picks the hottest day of the year and plans for her and her family to spend it outdoors with half a million other people.

this tradition started the last time sis visited NYC. we went to the Bronx Zoo. not only was it 100 degrees outside, but it was also Pay What You Like Day.

ever spend a humid, sweltering day standing in the sun shoulder to sweaty shoulder with half of NYC? no? yeah, i wouldn't recommend it.

in keeping with tradition, this year we went to Six Flags. granted, it wasn't a special day, because i think all days at Six Flags are Either Pay Your Rent or Buy a Ticket to Six Flag days, but it was at least 90 degrees and cloudless-sky sunny. tiny bottles of water cost $3.50. lines for rides topped out at an hour and a half.

we decided to forgo next month's rent and bought skip-the-line passes.

all this to go on roller coasters that were literally terrifying. remember how you used to get a little nervous riding roller coasters? your stomach would get a little oooohhhh we're almost at the top tinge. now it's a Hail Mary, i hope i survive this, thank goodness it's almost over kind of effect. you can't even scream on rollercoasters anymore. your lungs are too busy working at staying in your body.

luckily, there were a few rides that were more our speed:

New Tradition 2: Gorge. Gorge on food. Then gorge on more food.
(i know this one doesn't need explaining, but it's a good reason to put in food pictures.)

it turns out, in Greenpoint, they named a restaurant after my bro-in-law.

naturally, we stopped by to say hello. none of us expected the monstrous deliciousness we were met with.

now, i grew up with polish food -- kielbasa at Easter and my uncles duck's blood soup during the winter -- but we never had white borscht or pickle soup. why? why did we never have these things when they are the tastiest foods known to man?

i realize there are fabulous restaurants in NYC that serve mind-blowing, gourmet deliciousness, but sometimes you can't beat the polish plate on the $9 pre-fix lunch menu at your neighborhood Krowleskie's.

New Tradition 2 Part 2: The very full face picture.

what's better than gorging on ridiculous amounts of food? photographing the aftereffects! last time this took place at the barbecue joint, Fette Sau. this year, it was at Tribeca Grill.

bro-law's full face picture:

lil sis's full face picture:

corrie's full face picture:

* my red-haired sis opted out of full face pictures this time around. she simply looked lovely (though full).

New Tradition 3: Dancing!

last year, my sisters and i donned silly outfits and danced in my living room. this year, we did the same thing. in public.

my red-haired sis' bought us all matching shorts that said Brooklyn on the butt. we all wore them to my hip-hop class. check out my little sis' rockin' it out in the back row.

and now my little sis' and her hubby are gone.

and i can't lie, the apartment is roomier and neater without them here - remember the trunks Tom Hanks bought in Joe Versus the Volcano? those trunks had nothing on my visitor's suitcases. no lie, combined they were probably larger than my bathroom. but my apartment's also a lot emptier in a not good way.

i hate leaving day. it feels so lonely when it goes back to just me. knowing i won't see my fam again for monthsdoesn't help. and even though it's practically 90 degrees outside, there's a tinge of fall in the breeze. which makes everything feel that much more bluesy.

luckily, there's a Fourth New Tradition: Bro-law's catch phrase.

last time he was here, i think my bro-law might have said Malfatti (a pasta my restaurant makes) one million times. no, really, one million. this time, he (okay, we) got a little addicted to the below video.

so even though they're gone and i miss them mucho already, i'm comforted by knowing that our new family traditions will endure and grow with every visit. in the meantime, i have captain jack to wipe all other thoughts from my brain:

excitement and fear of dying all rolled into one

2011-08-03T10:38:00.000-07:00

what is this odd shape? it's only the tallest rollercoaster in the world! and for only about $200 in admissions and other ticket add-ons, i was able to be scared to death and close my eyes on it.

whoo-hoo six flags!

full report on friday. now it's off to Greenpoint with the visiting lil' sis and bro to eat borscht!

lil lessons learned on the road

2011-08-01T07:30:00.000-07:00

my weekend was tre chichi. i went to the Hamptons.

since i don't travel anywhere new (nope the sentence doesn't end there) without trying to learn some valuable life lessons to post on my blog, here's what i took away from the trip.

Lesson 1: When you tell people you are going to the Hamptons, you must affect bored indifference.

"My weekend plans?" big sigh, "Oh, I'm going to the Hamptons."

no really. you have to say it that way or otherwise they won't let you in. "Sorry girl, you sound positively too excited to be admitted today." it's tricky enough getting there as is. you have to travel at light speed.

Lesson 2. There's all kind of (the) Hamptons.

a friend told me that when she went to the Hamptons -- she'd been hired by a family to teach pool-ates to an eleven-year-old -- the house she went to had a fountain in the frontyard the size of a swimming pool, white marble coated the entire interior of the house like a museum, and the owner's dog had it's own room.

my (the) Hamptons wasn't like that. it was more awesome.

first of all the people at my (the) Hamptons were interesting and super friendly. (i'm not saying that people who choose to decorate their house solely with white marble aren't friendly. i'll let you know when i meet one. i am possibly saying that they aren't interesting). at the party i went to, most people were tattoo artists.

i love being my red-haired sis's guest to tattoo functions. a. because my sis and i have fun together, but also b. i get a kick out of being with a group of people who are usually in the minority suddenly being the overwhelming majority. most everyone at the party looked like this guy:

except less frightened. you figure it must be nice being around people who aren't once going to ask you, "Did that hurt?"

there weren't any giant fountains at my party, but there was a car show:

and a horse:

huh? where? oh sorry, i mean, a horse:

Lesson 3: Steamers are the grossest and also most delicious food ever.

did i ever tell you my friend Jared and i tried out to be hosts on the food network. no? we did. it was for a show called Cheap Eats. we got called in to audition and never got called in again. i hope whomever they did pick to host Cheap Eats does a segment on steamers.

what is a steamer? it's this thing:

delicious looking, right? no. exactly.

steamers are related to clams and they require some work to eat.

first, you must take the steamer out of the shell. next, see that...what's a nice way to say it?... wiener hanging off the right side of the steamer, you have to pull the black thing that's covering it off it. then you dunk the steamer in a cup of murky water to wash off the sand. then you dunk it in a cup of butter. then you ingest it.

Lesson 3a. It's okay to make a face of disgust whilst preparing your steamer.

i did for at least the first 6 i ate. but here's the thing, if you get a really tasty steamer, they're sweet like lobster. see that bucket of empty shells? me. i did that. by the end. i was a little addicted. i still can't stop thinking about them, creepy wienery thing and all.

moving on.

Lesson 4: Beaches exist near NYC with water you'd actually like to swim in.

have you heard about the NYC sewage treatment plant that just dumped a few days worth of waste into the Hudson river? no? well, they closed a few beaches around here because of it. but in the Hamptons (pronounced HAAAAAMMMM-ptons, when spoken in this context) that's not a concern.

the beaches are beeeaaautiful. the water is frigid at first, but you instantly get used to it. mainly because you have no choice. the waves and current pummel you regardless of your "how wet shall i get" preference.

Lesson 5: It's never as fun going home from places as it is getting there.

Lesson 6: If you and your sister decide to take different connecting LIRR trains back into the city, make sure you give your sister her ticket so she isn't charged $12 by the conductor for not having one. oops. still feeling bad about that one.

and finally:

Lesson 7: Life is like a bucket of steamers. You enjoy it more and get better at it, the more you eat of it.

boo-yah, yes, i went there. 'cause when you visit the Hamptons for a whole seven hours, that's how you do.

re-doing yesterday today

2011-07-29T09:33:00.000-07:00

so i do this suuuuuper annoying thing where i sometimes force myself to repeat days. this has to do with a. my indecisiveness and b. my cheapness.

yesterday is the perfect example.

my lil sis and her hubby are coming for a visit, so i trekked to Trader Joes to buy fun snacks. whilst in Brooklyn Heights, possibly the most beautiful neighborhood on earth:

i treated myself to lunch:

and was also going to buy a new dress.

*pause for backstory*

i don't shop, because remember previously mentioned b? i'm cheap. also, more importantly, i've never caught the "things" bug. i don't need 'em. my home's not filled with homey knick-nacky things. i'm perfectly content to wear my clothes until they exhibit holes. in fact, i like holes. they make things look cooler. but since i'm about ready to set my entire wardrobe on fire because i wore it all last summer too, i decided that yesterday, i would look for a new dress.

*current story resumes*

and i found one. it wasn't terrific. it wasn't cheap, though it wasn't terribly expensive either. it was just a dress that i could envision myself wearing for the rest of summer. everyday. which would ultimately make the cost of it about 30 cents per day. and i have a few things coming up that make such an outfit a bonus.

unnecessary blog story short? i put the dress back. have been thinking about it all night. and now need to recreate yesterday, in order to go back and purchase said dress so that i may stop kicking myself over it.

this wouldn't be a big deal. if i didn't do this ALL THE TIME. seriously, there should be a support group for this. actually, i think there is. it's called psychotherapy.

the clincher? yesterday involved a train and a bus ride. a delicious lunch. a feeling of bliss. today involves a hot bike ride and none of that other fun stuff. because your not supposed to relive days. you're supposed to do them once and then do something else the next day. like go to the pool.

lesson learned, Corrie?

nah, i'll probably do something identical next week. but i'm working on it.

now on a completely other note which should have been the whole point of this blog post. i've picked a winner for the giveaway of Daughter of Smoke and Bone. did i use a computer program that makes sure the result is completely random? hells no! i used the old school, throw names in a hat method that still makes pretty random results. or kinda random results, because, complete disclosure, i picked Lauren's name again and i made a noise that sounded like GARHH ('cause even though i <3 Lauren, you can't win twice in a row. you just can't) and picked another name and that winner is...

can you read that? no, me neither. but the winner is MARIE!! yay! congratulations! i'll get in touch with you this weekend to get your mailing address. i'd do it now, but i need to go do some dress shopping before work :)

the book giveaway continues!

2011-07-27T07:08:00.000-07:00

oh dear.

only one person commenting? this was supposed to be my fun event that would allow me to not blog heavily this week so i could finish up my WIP.

did everyone else get Daughter of Smoke and Bone from BEA as well? all it takes is one "i want it" comment to get your name thrown in the hat. so far Katy, it's yours! we'll see what the rest of the week brings. (comment in the post below this one to enter).

and now back to my WIP :)

givin' it away

2011-07-25T06:41:00.000-07:00

happy monday everyone!

as i promised, when i won that thing i won, it's time for my second ever book giveaway!

this time, it's Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

if you check out Laini's blog, you can see the crazy pre-pub tour that her publisher sent her on (yes please! i'll take one of those). it seems people are expecting big things from. it comes out in september. but you, you friends, can read it next week.

this one's easy. all you have to do is leave a comment under the post and i'll enter you to win the book. the contest ends Friday. the Gods of chance and the grey hat of picking a name also smile happily on those who decide to follow the blog.

good luck!

a step

2011-07-21T07:25:00.000-07:00

on Monday i received an email telling me that Google was taking the ads off my blogs. apparently, there had been too much unlawful clicking.

what can i say? people who love me in Buffalo are really interested in online degrees.

the day i received the email i was bummed. i'd dropped a shift at work so i could write more and this ad money would have been a nice, breath-easier supplement. but as i told a co-worker that night, i wasn't all that surprised.

i never buy lotto tickets. my birthday scratch-offs are always duds. i can never play along with the question "what would you do if you won a million dollars?" because i've always been certain i'd never secure my future through luck. (and apparently not through unlawful clicks either). i've always known the only way i'd get anywhere is through lots of hard work.

or at least hopefully i'd get somewhere. because so far, i was still just here.

later that same evening, something exciting happened. after work, i had a voicemail! (seriously, nothing like working eight hours to glance at your phone and see that nobody thought of you the whole time.) even better than that, the voicemail was from Chelsea at SCBWI. she had some good news.

guess who won the SCBWI 2011 WIP Grant for Contemporary YA Fiction sponsored by Amazon?

MEEEEEEE! i did. this un-photogenic but genuinely happy girl:

does this mean my book is certain to be published? no. does this mean my future is secure? heck no. but it does mean that for the very first time in my writing life, hard work has paid off. and that feels better than a lotto win (okay, lets say better than a small lotto win).

it feels indescribably, take a deep breath, laughing for no reason on the street, smiling like a lunatic at strangers, i've taken a tiny step towards somewhere, GREAT!

so thank you SCBWI. thank you Amazon. thank you unlawful clicker in Buffalo who's been lighting all those candles for months hoping that something nice like this would happen -- ie thank you mama. thank you my amazing crit partner for the fierce thoughtful reads. thank you my sisters for squealing with me. thank you my new awesome writer friend who's gotten me more twitter followers than i've gotten myself. thank you cafe bustello for all the jittery morning fuel you've provided. thank you agent who's been telling me i had a future this whole time. and thank you all my fabulous blog readers and commenters.

hopefully see you all on the publication side.

oh and well, i'll also see you Monday for my regular blog post. and for months and months and months before anything happens with The Secret Keepers.

but until then, since i'm a big believer in giving something back when you get something, come see me on Monday for a book giveaway! a good one. can you say Laini Taylor?

On Foot Diaries

2011-07-20T11:14:00.000-07:00

yesterday was a good day. it was a happy news day. a new crit partner day. an everything is bright and sunny kind of day.

and it was spanish class day. going in, i felt like i could chatter on for hours, but then remembered we were watching a movie. for the entire class.

now there's only like 8 or 10 of these classes anyway, so i have to admit, one class spent entirely on a movie seems a little like a cop out. not to mention, we watched Motorcyle Diaries.

yeah, yeah, yeah, you can't have too much Gael Garcia Bernal, but me and 89% of the class had already scene this film. not to mention, they speak with Argentinian accents, which sounds a little like someone whispering spanish. you think it's related to the language you're used to, but your just not quite sure, because you can only make out one in a hundred words.

so basically, yesterday in my spanish class i read me some english subtitles.

but i was in such a good mood, it didn't matter. plus by the end of the class, Che's trip had taken him to Peru, where the accents are closer to what i'm used to and i was shocked to find, that suddenly i didn't need the subtitles at all.

Motorcyle Diaries is a pretty okay movie. i didn't love it the first time i saw it and i liked it marginally better the second. BUT when i left class -- after watching all that travelling -- i definitely didn't feel like going home.

is this happening to you? all your friends are posting status updates that say things like: Paris here i come! or: I'm off to explore ALL of Southern Europe! if you're anything like me, you've hidden a few feeds this summer. but suffice to say, when i left class and saw all the international tourists exploring my city i decided to join them.

care to join me?

one of the things i love about New York are the hidden gems that only come out at night. i'm sure this is a nice spot to eat lunch, but at night this courtyard with tables and chairs turns magical.

since my class is in the financial district it was only a few blocks to the 9/11 site. i'd heard they'd made good progress on the new buildings, but still, i was amazed.

after that i really had no destination, but felt like walking a long more. which is when i saw the below sign.

ever since i've moved here, i've wanted to cross the Brooklyn bridge on foot, but never have. so when i saw the signs pointing in that direction, i knew it was just the thing for my wanderlust.
i thought it might be creepy, walking the Brooklyn bridge alone at night (says the girl who camped out at Coney Island). but i immediately hit a wall of tourists that flowed around me for just about the whole time. below is not the best picture of it.

honestly, if it was that crowded at 10 on a Tuesday, i don't know how people walk across the Brooklyn bridge during the day. no, seriously, how is it physically possible?

as with most tourist attractions -- excepting the grand canyon, i'm sorry, i just never really liked it there -- it's easy to understand why so many people go once you get to the heart of it.

think what you like about the city, it puts on a good show at night.

i smiled and giggled to myself the whole time i walked the bridge.

i was on an adventure (minus Gael Garcia, boo) in my own backyard! which yes, granted, is NYC.

soon enough, it was back to Brooklyn. where, word of advice, take the first exit off the bridge that you come to. otherwise you walk forever, end up in the heart of downtown, get lost and then find your way home.

sighs with contentment. yesterday was great.

today, meanwhile, i was woken up at 8:15 by a text message. (bedtime for me is 2 or 2:30). perhaps in retribution, a half hour later, i accidentally emptied my water bottle all over my cellphone. and believe you me (isn't it weird that the prime minister of Britain said that during his big conciliatory moment. doesn't 'believe you me' seem so un-prime ministry?) sorry, anyway, and believe you me, cellphones don't like water dumped all over them. in fact, it renders them useless.

unless you can think of something to do with a constantly vibrating, otherwise unfunctioning, small device.

erm, shush, ladies.
going somewhere great this summer? pfft. good for you. not? then i highly recommend taking a day to be a tourist in your own town. to make it even more fun, do your adventure at night! unlike those travelling through all the exotic ports of the world this summer, the sense of freedom, laughter, and fresh appreciation for where you call home when you explore your home, don't cost a thing.

michael and me

2011-07-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

i waited on michael stipe last night. you know, REM.

i usually don't mention anything like this on the blog. everyone should be allowed their privacy. plus once you wait on someone who's become well known, you realize how unexciting it is. they ordered food like everyone else?! no way! they were polite? they weren't? big deal. you deal with all versions of that every evening.

mostly you're left with the feeling that the most memorable part of so and so's day wasn't that you waited on them, so it's a little sad that the reverse is true.

but since mr. stipe was featured on apartment therapy where he showed the inside of his house, what's a little name dropping here? besides, the reason i mention him, isn't to mention him, it's because his visit left me thinking about fame, wealth, luck of the draw, and circumstances.

i think about those things anyway when i'm stuck. i mean, this was the line i waited in to see Harry Potter.

this was ticketed people, mind you, arriving early for a good seat. (i'm happy to say i was far ahead in the line, haHa!) so as i'm amidst this giant line, i can't help thinking: man, JK hit it out of the park. and when i go home, i'll still be struggling with my dramatic such and such scene at the end of my novel. which might or might not be the one that gets out there.

yesterday, i couldn't help thinking about all the other food michael stipe has eaten in his life. the delicious, the foreign, the french, the sublime, the street food. and i felt a little jealous, because i want to eat that food, but more than that, i want to have a reason to be in those other places eating that food.

yes. it does all come down to food for me.

you can't have thoughts like this living in NYC or you'll go nuts. last night i should have joined in the off-key singing of Losing My Religion with the other servers and left it at that.

but thanks to such thoughts, this week i'm forcing myself to apply for fellowships. even though the effort it takes to apply for one (where your chances of rejection are 99%) is about equal to the time it takes to write a book, because i don't think you need to be michael stipe to lead an interesting life. you need to be curious. you need to pry into the world. you need to live like you are michael stipe.

but maybe a little neater.

geeking out

2011-07-15T06:21:00.000-07:00

it's here! the final Harry Potter film is out.

a week ago i waxed poetic about Harry Potter coming to an end. how there would never be a new film to get all excited about. i mourned traditions ending. i expressed fears that i'd never feel that anticipation about a film series again. then i clicked on the news and realized it was the day that the United States space shuttle program was ending. um, oops.

to my knowledge, the auto industry is not closing up shop, nor is the National Endowments for the Arts calling it quits today, so i don't have to question my blogging and life's values and priorities. i can just talk Harry Potter.

now where was i? some people i know have already seen the film.

in Buffalo, my little sister went with her husband, Dan. lil' sis dressed up as Hermoine Granger.

Dan dressed up as Dan.

in Hoboken, New Jersey, my crit partner wore her Ravenclaw gear and did the whole back to back thing:

look how their shirts match the color of the wand glow behind them. coincidence? or carefully plotted move that shows their true natures and alliances?

yeah, coincidence.

me? i'm going in just 3 hours with my sister. since i don't wear costumes on Halloween, the extent of my dressing up might be to draw an owl on my hand. (notice the use of the word 'might'?)

at work last night, i was told about a movie theatre that exists in the Financial District that no one ever goes to, because no one knows it exists. my sis and i aren't going to that theatre. we're going to the huge one in Union Square.

"people talk to the screen at that one," said the informant who knows about the quiet movie theatre.

"exactly!" i said.

most times i like my movie watching to be quiet. who doesn't love the escapism that comes with getting entirely absorbed in the big screen? normally if people rustle their popcorn bag too loudly behind me i get annoyed. but for big blockbuster releases? there's nothing better than having hundreds of other people gasping and laughing along with you.

i saw the Heath Ledger Batman movie in a Times Square theatre. every time someone yelled at the Joker, the whole theatre cheered. it was awesome. seeing a film with a big boisterous crowd transforms the experience of movie watching -- which we've all done plenty of -- into a cultural event. and considering that i watch almost all my movies off Netflix now, engaging in a little shared screen talking feels good for my soul.

haven't seen any of the Harry Potter films? don't remember the last one?

don't let that stop you! here's a video that crunches the last 7 films into a six minute catch-up:

really not interested in Harry Potter? haven't seen any and ain't gonna start now? here's something to bring a little joy and magic into your day, too. because while there's nothing i want to watch more than that Harry Potter film today, dancing dog videos come pretty close.

school'd o escuela'd

2011-07-13T08:40:00.000-07:00

i had my first spanish class yesterday.

it. was. AMAZING.

school as an adult rocks! you're not nervous or afraid to look foolish. the class is only once a week. and if you're a bit of a cut up, you can crack jokes and the teacher laughs with - not yells at - you.

it doesn't hurt that my class is in the financial district - a part of NYC that i rarely have a purpose to be in because, well, i'm a writer. money's not really our thing. so i felt important and learned simply stepping out of the subway.

the financial bull is right outside my building.

i immediately felt less learned when i saw all the tourists taking pictures of themselves holding the bull by the, um, lets say, not horns - think opposite end of the animal and rhymes with balls.

but then i took this picture, which i guess makes me not much better than the tourists.

ha ha... see how it looks like the bull's poo...

erhm sorry. school.

i expected the class to be in some crummy, mid-town looking building, but instead it was held here:

it's as pretty on the inside as it is on the out. on my elevator ride up, a woman complimented me on my hat (yay lost and found) and then told me you can tell we're from new york because we wear black in the summer. i was wearing a colorful sundress and white blouse (o-kay-yay).

anyhoo my classmates are friendly and at roughly the same level of spanish comprehension as me.

the teacher is phenomal and is also an artist who's originally from argentina. she conducts the entire class in spanish. sure, i nodded my way through some of it, not getting a word, but shockingly, i understood a lot more.

maybe that's what happens when you take all the pinches out of spanish. (i just wrote a really bad mexican curse word, but since it's in another language and looks like our english word "pinches," it doesn't count).

the class is three hours and it flew by. i happily babbled on in espanol on a multitude of topics like facebook and why Juan Garcia was applying for that photographer's position. the teacher only once commented, "corrie, i have no idea what you're trying to say." which for me is a score! since the boys say that to me at least five times a night at work.

when i left, i felt like the world had shrunk by 80 percent and i could easily conquer whatever part i wanted. i practically skipped home. well first i had a really heavy dinner with my crit partner (who's doing a book giveaway on her blog), so i ended up walking home kinda hunched over. but prior to that, i hadn't felt so free, vibrant, and capable of anything for quite some time.

i've decided that after high school it should be mandatory for everyone to wait tables. and i do mean everyone. there'd be wayyy less terrible customers out there if everyone had tried on those shoes. whilst waiting tables, you get your college like boozing on with shift drinks and drinks after work. not when you have to wake up for exams and 9 am classes. then when you're burnt out serving people, plus trying to recover from being a lush, you're allowed to enroll in an institution of higher ed.

honestly, Mr. Obama, this is a terrific idea.

but until that legislation passes, i think i've found my new calling. continuing ed floozy. 'cause from here on out. i'm going to take EVERYTHING.

re-educating self

2011-07-11T08:26:00.000-07:00

i'm going back to school.

that's right. manana, mi clase de espanol empezar!
(anyone know the key command to make that little n-yay over the 'n'. i have a feeling i'll be needing it.)

i haven't been in school, well, since i was in school. nor have i wanted to go back until now. for me, school was never about learning. it was about getting good grades. which i did very well. i walked away from all my schooling with a stellar transcript and a head full of rapidly fading, memorized solely for exams, information.

(nice, huh? i can feel my mom cringing as she reads this. so glad i saved for your education, darling.)

one day shortly after graduation i knew i had to be a writer. ever since i've worked random jobs that allowed for lots of writing time. jobs, none of which, asked to see those transcipts. i don't think about this much, but i do kick myself a little now.

i wish i could nudge my younger self and say, take the hard classes. the ones with great professors that make you think, and rarely award anything higher than a 'C.'

take a language. nevermind, that the classes are four days a week and ultra hard to get A's in. language is freedom. plus some day you'll meet a cute boy who you'd love to understand more than 50% of the time. oops, sorry, i mean. language is freedom. period.

triple major! studio art, english and marine biology because i could be writing novels and swimming with dolphins right now.

jointly, i wish i had said: study something useful. sorry, english and studio art, you were fabulous, but man, why didn't i consider environmental/agricultural/marine sciences? i still probably would have been a writer, but i'd also have had a day job to grow in, be intrigued by (do jobs like that exist?), and, shock of shocks, even get benefits in.

ooh one more. i wish i had said, study abroad. never again will you have the opportunity to travel with such mindless ease.

now i'm here. on the cusp of truly, mediocrely understanding and speaking spanish. i'm going back to school and i'm going to be the annoying person in the class who can't keep their mouth shut. who questions everything. who is actually enjoying the whole learning enrichment thing.

basically, i'm going to be exactly the person i hated in undergrad. y no puedo esperar!

let the count down begin

2011-07-08T07:47:00.000-07:00

one week and it all ends.

no, this isn't another end of the world hoax. i'm talking about Harry Potter. naturally.

now, i'm not the biggest HP freak you'll ever meet. i've read all the books... once. i've seen all the movies... more than once. i'm watched the pottermore trailer...twice. if anyone asks, i say that HP and the Deathly Hallows is a stunning, masterpiece of fiction. and i mean it. but my fandom ends there.

fine, fine, i dream of going to Potterland, but my friends scoffed so hard when i told them, i no longer say it aloud.

HP movies are the only ones i see in theatres anymore. (pathetic, i know. but you see one film in new york and it's the equivalent of having netflix for a year). i wait to see them with my red haired sis -- it's our tradition. and we only get to do this one more time.

the last film. it's pretty momentous. in just one week.

i've heard the last film is short. only a little over 2 hours. i'm imagining it already. sitting in the theatre. the 20 previews end then that music starts up -- you know, that music. even on dvd, it sends shivers up my spine. and then you're off.

do you have your tickets? are you dressing up? will you be seeing the midnight show. my little sister is doing all of the above. so a week from now (plus 24 hours) -- look for pictures here. in fact, take pictures of yourself, send them to me (in a non-spammy way) and i'll post them here too.

it's almost here everyone! and then it's over. forever.

gee. now i'm not sure how i feel about this. is this gonna be one of those wedding blues kind of things? has anyone made a HP support group? is it too late to turn back time? can't we go back to the day of the first book being published?

no? then i guess i'll enjoy savoring the suspense one last time and urge all you other writer's out there, to put on those creativity caps. we need something else to get geeky over.

gone fishin'

2011-07-06T06:53:00.001-07:00

neighborhood fireworks

2011-07-04T03:16:00.000-07:00

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

danger island? i think not.

2011-07-01T03:55:00.000-07:00

it's 6:40 a.m. and i just got in from a little walk on the wild side. okay, not really. well, actually, yes really. sorry. here's what i did.

i stayed on the beach all night at coney island!

the goal was to see the sunrise. a friend convinced me to do it and as soon as i agreed, i knew it was a bad idea. i mean, coney island is sketchy during the day. but to be there at 3 a.m.? was the equivalent of not only shaking danger's hand but inviting her for cocktails.

let me be the first to tell you coney island at 3 a.m. is less creepy than during the day! there were enough people to make it feel safe. everyone kept their distance and you can't beat the sounds of a surf and a semi-starry sky. it was terrific. and then, when i was beginning to feel i couldn't take lying on chilly sand anymore, this happened:

when the sun poked up we dipped our feet in the warm ocean. (which, my friend said, just showed how cold our feet were). old fogie beach comers came out to walk and swim. the world looked fresh and sparkling. and i reflected anew on all the times i haven't done things because i thought they'd be scary, unsafe, or a bad idea. i wonder what my fear made me miss out on.

at least i can scratch "seeing people have sex on a beach" off my list. because, hey, it's coney island. and as during the daytime, at dawn too, beach blankets don't begin to cover the sketchy that exists there.

workin' the net

2011-06-29T07:46:00.000-07:00

i've discovered a word that makes shivers run down my back. ready for it?

Networking.

blech.

my crit partner and i went to a meet/greet, social, party favors, in a bar, writers get together kind of thing last night. obviously a lot of hard work went into it. so i'm not going to say it was awful.

what? i said i wasn't going to say it.

sorry. i don't want to sound unkind. there wasn't anything wrong with the event. it was lovely.

but why do the networking things i've been to leave me feeling like the last kid picked on the dance floor? it's not like people aren't friendly. everyone is chatting and talking. outside of the event, i'm sure everyone is extra lovely.

maybe it's knowing that you're in a room full of people who wouldn't be there if they were where they'd like to be in their careers. hmm. yeah that could be it.

granted, every time i do a "social" function like this, i meet a few people who were worth the creepy yikes feeling of it all. which, i hear my agent patiently saying, is the whole point of it. so i did meet a few nice gals. one of whom is considering becoming a crit partner for me to constantly hyper-link.

all in all, it was a fine evening. i'm glad my writers org sponsored it and i'm glad i went. the weird feeling in my belly for the rest of the night was probably from the korean food and plum wine crit parter and i consumed afterwords. not the social event.

you're smiling now, corrie. give it a few hours.

i just can't wait for the day when my life more resembles this:

laughing teenagers who squeal when they see me because they've ~~followed my musical career since they were babies~~ read my book. then we all dance together. that day will come. right?

mebbe not?

how 'bout just the a teenager reads my book part?

okay and the dancing part, too. please? gracias.

gimme a break

2011-06-27T08:34:00.000-07:00

oomph. monday. blogging. is the Folgers ready?
ahhh. okay, better.

today i'm going to blog about an issue that might Ensure your discomfort. certainly, some will think it's tacky to mention. today at corriewachob.blogspot.com we'll be discussing...money.

or you know, i'll be discussing money, 'cause it's my blog.

whilst re-designing my blog i monetized it. which means there are two eyesores now running somewhere along the right side of your screen.

if you blog you know how much times it takes up. also, chances are if you blog, you have a friend who has a friend who "doesn't need to work anymore because she now lives off her blog." how the hell do they do it? (no. really. how?) i think it's called Adsense.

i've gone back and forth on the idea for months. i don't buy into advertising. my shelves are filled with generic brands (mainly because i'm cheap). but there's something hugely skeevy about putting ads on a blog that you're supposed to be doing out of love (not because every writer has one and your agent highly recommends it). you just don't see a lot of ads on writer's blogs.

when poor nathan bransford (and by poor, i mean successful, former agent, published writer, bastion and beacon of writerly advice) floated the idea of monetizing his blog, the Tide of the comment section swirled into a Whirlpool of hate. "whenever i see ads on a blog i stop reading and stop visiting that site." as with all the blogs i visit, i mentally but didn't actually comment: that's just dumb.

heaven forbid that Nathan, who is a Wikipedia of info and YMCA of community for countless people, actually make a living off of being so.

screw it, i thought. i spend half of my time worrying about making the wrong decisions. better to do something than nothing.

my sister sent me links to blogs that she thought were Tops at including ads (a Buffalo grocery store chain is the reference on that one, folks). with my crit partner offering a Nike slogan of moral support, i just did it.

a day later, as with most of my agonized, over-thought purchases, i was disappointed.

my ads looked so...addy. i wanted Cathy Erway's blog's ads. hers are Tiffany's. mine are.. ahh screw this trying to come up with dumb ad references... my ads are ghetto.

why don't writers advertise on their blogs? (though Nathan Brandsford, you totally should, dude.) to see any profit you need thousands of hits a day.

corriewachob.blogspot.com hits a day: 50. err 40. and never you mind that 20 of those clicks are from my mom checking to see if i've posted.

more than that? of those thousands of hits, i'd need viewers who actually click on ads. ain't gonna happen. nevermind that i don't know anyone who clicks on any website ads, but writers and readers are a bunch of smarties.

ain't nobody sayin': "Man, if only i knew where to look to find info about online creative writing classes. What? OMG! There's a very ugly column ad. Thank you corriewachob.blogspot.com!"

perhaps monetizing the blog is a bad idea. but it's fun to watch my ads change.

yesterday, i read a NY Times article having to do with healthcare. i'd get more specific, but for the life of me, i can't remember a thing about the article. so much for bettering myself. when i looked at my blog minutes later, the ugly column now displayed an ad for online nursing degrees.

online nursing degrees? is that what accounts for the health care awfulness i've met with?

i wonder if the ads will be like Twitter? you tweet about making sure you wear nice undies with your skirts 'cause you never know when said skirt might fly over your head as you cross the BQE overpass (true story), and suddenly you have lingerie companies following you.

if that's the case, then William Sonoma, Disney, Gap. can my ads please not follow my own online browsing? i see a future in which this advertising gets embarrassing.

"looks like corrie's shopping for zit cream again. today the ugly column ad's offering online dermatology classes."

* that was a joke people. i don't buy zit cream...online. i buy it at the store. also i don't like to say zit. but have not found a more appropriate word for pimple. which is equally gross and probably also tacky to talk about. ** that zit cream bought at store comment was also a joke. i don't buy zit cream seeing as i have flawless skin. *** fine. i don't have flawless skin, but i really don't buy zit cream.

also, for the record, my coffee of cheap choice is Cafe Bustello, not Folgers. i wouldn't want anyone thinking i was into false advertising.

cheap thrills. no, for real.

2011-06-24T07:54:00.000-07:00

yesterday, for the first time in too long, i travelled outside the city to someplace that wasn't Buffalo. where to?

fabulous, faraway... Hoboken, New Jersey.

wha-waah.

no seriously, though? Hoboken might be the cutestest place around (here). it's quaint, cobbled, and it sits right on the water with lots of adorable parks, bike paths, and greenery. i fell a little in love the second i stepped off the train and realized i'd just emerged from here:

immediately the ipod came out and i went into tourist mode. everyone now...

oooohhhhh!

aaaahhhhhh!

for the record, i didn't just wake up and decide i needed to be in Jersey. i visited my fabulous, often hyper-linked crit partner who'd told me in advance that on Thursdays everything in Hoboken is HALF OFF.

see these drinks? one of which is equal parts sugar and alcohol in a fancy glass?

half off.

and see this appetizer? from a mediterranean/asian fusion restaurant? (yes, that means sushi and hummus on the same menu. please try to suppress your gag reflex.)

half off.

see this hummus, which somehow landed on the floor on its way to my mouth?

oops, nevermind.

considering the whole half-off-ness thing, thursdays are an extremely popular night for Hobokens to go out. now blah blah blah insert your jersey shore/bridge and tunnel comments. i'm telling you that for 80% of the people i saw the stereotypes TOTALLY FIT! sorry, but talk about feeling like a tourist in a foreign land.

shush. i shall say no more on that fake-boobied, too made-up ladies, obscenely loud males subject because all told, Hoboken is a terrific place to visit. for only a $2 train ride i took lots of deep breaths and realized i gotta do this whole get-out-of-the-city thing more often.

because see this travel-induced smiling?

it ain't half-off folks, it's free.

* i'd have included crit partner's smiling face, too. but we both agreed it might be the worst picture of her ever taken. so here's a better one. and yes, that is another very inexpensive (usually-expensive) glass of sugared alcohol she is sipping. what can i say? the sweety's got herself a sweet-tooth.

abreast of my week in review

2011-06-22T07:45:00.000-07:00

why does everything happens all at once? then when you'd like something to happen, nothing does?

i am coming down off the enormous high of being thoroughly over-booked these past two weeks. my dad and his (lovely) girlfriend visited, i had dinners with friends, crit group, extra work shifts, weird dance events, library read-ins and very little sleep in between. it was marvelous and exhausting.

now it's over. here i am. corrie in her apartment. writing. as a dear friend constantly reminds me, it's okay to have down time. you're allowed to be in your apartment some nights doing nothing.

right. but that doesn't make for very interesting blogging. so since i missed monday's post (hair appointment) i'll jog back in time to something that makes for very interesting blogging -- the mermaid parade.

what is the mermaid parade? imagine if the tackiest, strangest, creepiest, fairly awesomest place on earth (hint hint: coney island) threw a party. the mermaid parade is what gets spewed out.

example? this guy:

he wasn't even the half of it. just the most confusing. since this post is four days after the event, chances are you've already seen pictures of the mermaid parade. especially since there were equal parts photographers and participants.

i was there as part of my hip hop teacher's dance troop. i wanted to be the free-spirited kind of person who loved the whole crazy thing. i really really did. but on only a few hours of sleep, with no coffee, waiting around in the hot sun in the early morning, with lets face it, some flat out creepy people milling about, i kind of really really hated it instead. you'll notice all my pictures are taken from a sitting down angle. i found some shade and stayed there.

still, it makes you marvel at people's creativity. anyone can march in the mermaid parade and witnessing it makes you proud that you're part of a culture that lets it's wacky out with such abandon (even if you're the wilting, pouting girl on the curb).

some participants have already started their costumes for next years parade.

but all of this is a huge preamble to what the mermaid parade is really about.

boobies.
at the mermaid parade they're everywhere! i mean, i guess they're everywhere all the time, but at the mermaid parade they're exposed! now, i'm no prude. okay, maybe i'm a little prudey, but where exactly do you cast your eyes when everyone's boobies are hanging out?

maybe if we were in france, you could wear an insane getup and go topless and people wouldn't only be looking at your chest. but here? no matter what else you put on there's only one reason the photographs want pictures of you. only one reason the men are whooping at you from balconies. probably only one reason half the people go to the mermaid parade to begin with -- participants and spectators -- boobies.

there's no getting away from them. por exemplo. see the above shark picture? i have about five on my ipod because every time i tried to shoot it, this happened:

whoops. boobies. let's try another shot:

gar! more boobies.

tiny boobies. pregnant boobies. man boobies. blue boobies. i loved the confidence all these women exhibited. but there wasn't much socializing going on, partly because topless women were mobbed by photographers (creepy) and partly because no one wanted to say this: it's very nice to meet you and your boobies.

will i be back at the mermaid parade next year? probably not. was it an interesting experience? most definitely. if nothing else, the mermaid parade underscored what i like best about parades...

the marching bands.

rollin' with the bloggers

2011-06-17T08:35:00.000-07:00

even though i normally post about anything but writing (though i'm getting better about that lately), i am a writer. and since i've moved to NYC i've been doing lots of things to emerge myself in the writing world. some of those things i like to do -- helloooo this blog. others i'm still getting the hang of -- helloooo absolute write forum!

but i have this amazing crit parner, who not only taught me how to make exciting hyperlinks but told me i really should be on the absolutewrite forums. i signed up the way i do anything new online -- hesitantly and suspicious that my identity will be stolen momentarily.

it's been a few weeks now. i sometimes forget to check back in when i post things, but all in all it's going along swimmingly. to the point that, i also signed up to be on a blog roll which is where everyone visits everyone else's blog.

number of blogs i've visited from it? erm, remember how i said i kinda forget to check back in on things i post? so none yet, but by monday i'll have viewed them all! (wait, did everyone new just stop ready? poop.)

anyhoo... today is my turn to post something for the blog roll! the theme is Setting the Scene.

so welcome anyone new. i've devised a game called here's my setting guess the scene.

setting: random decorative object in my house?

scene: ho ho no! i mean yes, but let's call the scene: Girl's Only Birthday Wish.

when asked what i'd like for my birthday this year, these lights were the only thing that came to mind because i like gifts that are both useful and easy to find a place for. who says i ain't got me some class?

setting: solitary confinement?

scene: yes! welcome to the view of my bathroom. (what? solitary confinement's not a dig. i live alone. it's a play on words).

why did i think new viewers to my blog would like to see what i see when i look out my bathroom window?well 'cause it's kinda funny but more because i'm still in pajamas, needed to shoot photos and this seemed the most interesting.

can you imagine the rest of my apartment? if my tiny bathroom window and silly lightup flower lights are the best things in it?

one more. this game is super fun, right?

setting: bedside table?

scene: haha, no! this is a picture of how to spend a perfect morning. cup of coffee, kinda early so you don't feel guilty about still being in bed, and an AMAZING book. The Scorpio Races is one of the ARCs i had signed from BEA. it is PHENOMENAL. luckily when ms. stiefvater signed it for me i hadn't read it yet, otherwise i might have been fawny and overly gushy about how much i love this freakin' book.

i can't wait until you read it. if i didn't want to keep it, i'd send it around so you could all read it right after me. but i do want to keep it, so you'll have to wait for it to actually come out. sorry. but seriously. get this book

i hope you enjoyed this little game. i'm sure i've butchered both the meanings of setting and scene, bored you to tears, and offended you by saying that i haven't yet fully participated in the blogroll.

which means that you've had a true to form unfortunate behaviors blog experience. *pats self on back*

happy friday and see you all soon on yours!

orion_mk3
juniper
LadyMage
dolores haze
jkellerford
Ralph Pines
TheMindKiller
AuburnAssassin
pezie
WildScribe
Inkstrokes
Irissel
Guardian
Lyra Jean
egoodlett (phenom of a crit-partner!)
corrie wachob (t'is me!)
xcomplex
Della Odell
Aheïla

2011-06-15T07:53:00.000-07:00

that's right. two butterflies. they were just, um, hanging out on the lamp post, but took to the sky as soon as i snapped a picture. i rather prefer them like this. perhaps because i feel a little out of focus myself.

my WIP, that i adore, is looking like a wet shirt that sat balled up in a corner for a month. i've been here before and i know it will iron itself out, but that doesn't mean it's much fun. or that my general mindset hasn't been: ARGH!

(you've been here before, corrie. it will be fine).

on a happy note: my pops is in town and the next few days will involve much visiting, train taking, sight seeing, eating, and fun.

but first i'm off to do a little more grunt (literally) work on this WIP. because just like those butterflies, as delicate as they look, they're not stopping until they get the job done. and yes, booyah, that is how you link a writing analogy to a picture of butterflies having sex.

happy wednesday, everyone!

** when i meant, get to work, i really meant: check my twitter and facebook for a while. which is where i found this terrific video that PAPER LANTERN LIT posted on their blog. i can't help it. i need to post it as well. thanks guys, for the inspiration!