| vacation so far |
[Dec. 22nd, 2009|01:25 am] |
THURSDAY
Thursday was my last day of work. Somehow I wound up with all these extra vacation days, so I had no choice but to take them all at the end of the year. Twist my arm, okay.
Thursday afternoon Viking had its annual holiday party at Regina’s apartment, which is an awesome place to hang out if you like a) original artwork by illustrators like Shaun Tan or Lane Smith, or b) holding Emmys and saying that you “would like to thank the Academy.” Plus there was a lot of cheese.
In the evening I went to the Double Windsor with Laura and Emily. We drank eggnog and hot cider with rum, and I want to hang out there like every day for the rest of the winter. And we ran into Britt, which made me feel sociable and not alone in the world. I think like half the times I have ever seen Britt, it’s because I have run into her somewhere (on a streetcorner, at a bar, on the subway…)
I took a taxi home because I picked up my first advance check last week, and Laura was all, “You’re rich now! Act like it!”
FRIDAY
I celebrated my first day of vacation by sleeping until I woke up, roughly 11 hours after I went to bed. It was amazing.
I spent most of the day cleaning my apartment, which is the absolute best way to NOT get any writing done. And then I ran some errands, like picking up drycleaning and DEPOSTING MY FIRST ADVANCE CHECK! Running errands is also a great way to not write.
In the evening I went up to the UWS for Allison’s birthday party. Then I went down to Don Hill’s for Mondo. But that was another LJ entry entirely. That ground = covered.
SATURDAY
What the hell did I do on Saturday? I am wracking my brain here. I think I slept late, ran errands, did not do anything substantial in the way of revisinhg my novel, and then went to Laura’s around 5pm. So that’s like five hours of time where I cannot point to anything specific that I did. There was a “winter storm warning” in effect, so I know my errands involved “stocking up” for the impending storm. My “stocking up” list included milk, band-aids, and rum. I’m not sure exactly what sort of storm I was anticipating.
I trekked through the snow to Laura’s, where there was a FEAST awaiting me. Laura entertains way better than me. I don’t know how she does it and I am jealous. Pam was in town from San Francisco, and she is as hilarious as ever. There were a total of like eight girls there, and Emily said it was too bad that we were still a couple girls short of the official definition of a brothel. Pam said, “Ugh, I know, I would totally S some Ds.”
Can’t NO ONE abbreviate like the Razorbill girls can abbreviate.
Jess said, “For how much?”
And Pam said, “A hundo.”
And Sarah said, “Each?” sounding dubious that S-ing one D would be worth $100.
“No, no,” Pam said. “For a whole night of S-ing.”
These girls are hilarious.
But I couldn’t stay forever, because Brian was coming down from Queens and I had to get home to meet him.
I made him come sledding with me—well, to be fair, I said he didn’t HAVE to come. I told him he could stay at my apartment alone and play with my computer. But he said he would come, and NEVER have I seen an individual less excited to be sledding. I kind of thought once we were out there and he saw how beautiful and magical it was, he would get over it. But no. He was in a bad mood about it the whole time we were outside, and his bad mood even kind of ruined MY joy at sledding through the uncharted snow in Prospect Park.
I just wish I could, for once, date a boy who likes to DO things. Someone who I don’t have to wheedle and beg and bargain just to get them to go on a wintertime adventure. This was my constant problem with Tony, too, and it just FRUSTRATES me. I’m not saying I need to date someone who wants to do exactly what I want to do at all times. But it would be nice if they wanted to do things SOMETIMES. And Brian is better than Tony, I think. One time we went on a date that included both a movie AND a concert. So that shows that he has energy reserves. But it would be nice if he could draw on them a little more.
Anyway, this is just my plight. And it doesn’t really matter, since I can tell that Brian’s already starting to be over me. He has become disenchanted with me, which probably woud have happened regardless of whether or not I made him go sledding. When we first got together I told him that I never have relationships that last longer than three months, and he seemed surprised by this. Maybe when we break up in January I can ask him what makes me seem so initially appealing and so ultimately leaveable. He seems like an honest guy. Maybe he would explain it to me.
ANYWAY: The sledding was wonderful, even if Brian didn’t see it. It was still snowing so everything looked blurry, and no children had been out yet so we had to make our own tracks.
I remembered, being out there, that there’s actually a scene in my book that I based on last year’s sledding expedition. I had forgotten this, but yes, I went sledding last year and then I added in a scene inspired by it.
This happens to me a lot when I write. For example, there’s another scene which is based on the time in high school when my friends and I wound up at some random dudes’ apartment after they attracted us there with the offer, “Do you want to kick some shoes?” Who could say no to kicking shoes? But I changed enough, and incorporated this event into my book enough, that I didn’t remember it was based on something REAL until Em reminded me a few weeks ago.
Similarly, the New Year’s Eve scene in my book is based on sledding in Prospect Park. And I remembered this when we were there, and I remembered how hard it is to describe something so beautiful, and how shoddy a job I did of it. My book says things like “it was cold” and “the snow muffled the sound of our footsteps.” Which evokes roughly 1% of the actual experience of sledding in a blizzard. Now I want to totally rewrite this scene, only I don’t know how; I still am not a good enough writer to do what I want to do.
SUNDAY
Brian left early in the morning (because, as I mentioned, he is already disenchanted with me), but it was okay because I had stuff to do. Specifically, I had to decorate cookies. My roommate and her best friend were all, “We woke up early! Like bakers!” And I was like, “I don’t think bakers wake up at 10:30 AM… but, you know, good effort.” So we decorated sugar cookies and listened to Mariah Carey’s Christmas album. The world outside was covered in snow and it felt very Christmassy.
Then I met up with Katrina, who’s a designer at my work. I have recently decided I want to make her be my friend. She has good energy. We went to the craft fair at the Brooklyn Lyceum, where I got a shirt that shows a Venn diagram of Beach Boys songs (hilarious), and then we went to Union Hall for winter cocktails. This is pretty much all I want to do on a Sunday in the winter, is sit in cozy bars with fireplaces and drink seasonally appropriate beverages with new friends. (Or old friends, obvs.)
In the evening I went out to Bushwick, where Alix and Colin were having a holiday party. Colin has a whole music studio in his apartment—like with a dozen guitars and a drum kit and recording equipment and the whole deal. It was really awesome and I think every boy I know would kill fo that setup. Actually, I would kill for that setup if I knew how to use a single piece of equipment in that room (other than iTunes).
Then I came home and went to bed EARLIER than I would have done if I’d had work the next morning. Ironic?
MONDAY
I slept for ten hours last night (I love vacation), then spent a long time packing and trying to ready my apartment for my departure. I clearly did a bad job, since I left a quart of milk in the fridge, and I nearly forgot to pack any shoes whatsoever. I should not be allowed to be an adult.
I went into the city and met Jillian and her sister for lunch at Cowgirl. I hadn’t seen Jillian since she moved to Ireland, and it was kind of hard to know where to begin. I just wanted to be like, “Tell me every interesting anecdote from your life over the past six months!” since Jillian always has the best anecdotes. But that’s not a sufficiently leading question. If someone asked me to tell them interesting anecdotes, I would draw a blank.
We went to Milk and Cookies after lunch, where I got a peppermint brownie and Jillian got nothing because, as much as she likes to TALK about food, all she actually ever wants to eat is salad, and she goes to the gym every day. She talks a big game, but she doesn’t really have it in her.
Then I met up with Laura in the East Village, where we bought our agent a Christmas gift. It’s very beautiful and classy, largely because Laura paid for 75% of it. I am not rich or generous enough to buy presents that beautiful or classy.
I am realizing as I write this that I have seen Laura three times since my vacation began, which is more than I usually see her over the course of a YEAR.
And now I am on a train to Boston. Thus bringing us up to the present moment, and concluding my essay: What I Did On My Winter Vacation, Part One. |
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