i'm back! and departing again swiftly tomorrow for lancaster to see BWNK!'s fam and camp with friends, so before i leave, let me tell you what i did while i was gone:

BWNK! and i got back to brooklyn about 3:15 this afternoon after an 8 hour and 45 minute drive from Acadia National Forest!
it all started last Sunday when we left Brooklyn with our sites set on Portland, ME (not MA, thanks lucy!)
highlights of portland included a cheap motel, ice cream at beal's where my coworker kate used to work, and the best beer i have ever had. it was called vacationland and it's a summer ale from a place called gritty mcduff's.
yum!

i highly recommend it to anyone who ever makes their way up to portland; the onion petals were also delicous. oh did i mention accidently biking on a highway and over an unlit bridge at night to get back to said motel from downtown portland? whoops...

( monday = BRIDGES! ROCKPORT! and OFF-TRAIL HIKES! oh my! )


( Tuesday is sponsored by the letter B! it featured bike rides, beavers, bar harbor and the bubble! )



( Wednesday featured possible food poisoning and some time on the western half of mount desert island; it had a lighthouses, a fire houses, and my favorite hike. )

my thoughts on day 3 without a shower


and i must say after all that, and not showering for three days till just moments ago, i have never felt so clean in all my life!

i had a really lovely fourth of july weekend.
i guess the upside to being an adult with an adult job is you really appreciate it when you get an extra day off!

so to recap:
thursday i got off work early and met my wonderful boyfriend for a HUGE lunch at his favorite diner followed by gelato, mmm! then met up with agatha and went to H&M. we decided to play a game where we picked out outfits for each other with the goals of making agatha look like a hipster and myself like a young professional. and we both did really good jobs! i wish i had pics. (sidenote: i keep thinking lately i really wish i had a good digital camera!) then we met up with ryan and headed back to agathas and hang out with jill and asheesh on the sun deck!
THEN we went to this wonderful place and saw phoebe kreutz which was awesome, but accidentally discovered a guy called john houx who was AMAZING!!!!!!!!

friday, woke up and went to awesome outdoor concert in gowanus and got to chill in a tree shaded lawn by a canal sipping on free PBR and SoCo to the tunes of double dagger and two other bands before heading back to the burg to prepare to ryan's rooftop BBQ


gahhhhhhhh running out of time at work, will finish in next entry, too much fun!!!

so i went for a quick trip to the bodega before re-hunkering down to my reading
and this is what i got:


yes. i think that sums up my life pretty well.

(please note the completely random but telling ascending sizes of the images and also how frighteningly intuitive it is to describe oneself by what one buys. oh boy)

i really do. for the first time in too long, i took a shower last night. did some reading. slept for a full 8 hours. woke up early and had a delicious healthy breakfast of whole wheat toast with bananas, peanut butter, honey, and cinnamon. rode to campus. went to class, had a cup of coffee. came to work. and ate a delicious lunch of sauteed zucchini, red onion, mushrooms, garlic, and fresh basil with grated parmesan on top. now my energetic happy feeling self is going to pick up a bunch cans and bottles then go to a student sentaors council meeting then ride to BAM to see joanna newsom! and then tonight is
CASH HANK HOOTENANNY JAMBOREE! @ buttermilk


man, i love when i treat my body right and it returns the favor. i didn't even realize how much of a physical funk i'd been in the past few days, -----oof!

apparently all i know how to do anymore is post links and recap, so in that order:
this is one of the few interesting and relevant article about presidential nominees i've seen all year, that said it's not exactly motivating, my favorite quote:

AMY GOODMAN: Are you saying that there’s no difference between these candidates?
ALLAN NAIRN: (blah blah blah) But there is a difference in this sense: the US is so vastly powerful, the US influences and has the potential to end so many millions of lives around the world, that if, let’s say, you have two candidates that are 99% the same—there’s only 1% difference between them—if you’re talking about decisions that affect a million lives—1% of a million is 10,000—that’s 10,000 lives. So, even though it’s a bitter choice, if you choose the one who is going to kill 10,000 fewer people, well, then you’ve saved 10,000 lives.

oh and interesting things going on in the coming few days:
1) care bears on fire at union hall, 2pm, saturday, $5
2) ravens and chimes at mercury lounge, 7-or-8-ish, monday, $8
3) j hoberman lecture/daynightdaynight screening at museum of the moving image, saturday, 7pm, $10
4) seeing there will be blood will daniele and andrew because it is looks so good (and yes maybe daniele does have a small crush on paul dano but that it completely inconsequential!), sunday, ~$10
5) dr.mario tournament/cupcake eating contest, tuesday, 1/15, my place, evening, FREE!
6) daniele gets her record player in the mail!, 1/7, monday.

so i've now completed 4 of my 10 days in denver; the trip so far has been mellow and slightly below expectation.
all my denver friends are out of town, but at least my two best friends come in town tomorrow, praise jesus!
i love my parents but today has made me realize why our adult relationship works so well. i almost never see them for more than 2 or 3 days at a time, if that. going on day four with no friends to break up the parents/child time, it's been a little rough. 
also rough is being home so much with little to do and a lot of food-gifts so i've been eating a little too much, oof, the holidays.

but! onto the hot spicy commodity fetishism i know you've all been waiting for; special notables are:
free tickets to sweeney todd!                                                                                         and new moccasins
                       
sweeney todd was great but bien sure the second we left the theater both my parents were all like "did it really have to be so gorey?"
yes for fuck's sake YES! i tried to explain why to be true to sondhiem the disgusting spectacle had to be juxtaposed by his gorgeous melodic score. i also mentioned how freakin poetic the last scene with todd/barker and lucy dead in the pieta pose with all the religous/salvation associations was cause it really really was. they listened but didn't really believe me until! my mom read this article in the denver post, and was all, "oh look honey the lady in the paper said the same thing as you" uh yeah.
vindication was mine! oh and then my dad got really into the history of sweeney todd and actually taught me some new things!

also i finished the sirens of titan which i borrowed from mr very very nice guy via BWNK! i'm moving onto visions of cody once i finish this post and maybe watch a movie. i also have visited two thrift stores so far. i picked up two pair of cool wool socks, FIVE skirts, one boys button up shirt, one flannel, a pair of boots, some VWthing-ugly* snow boots/hi-tops, two necklaces, one broken watch, and a big ring. at the arc but my trip got cut off by a snow storm so another stop by is necessary. also stopped by an old high school haunt, American Vogue (the other thrift store) which is going out of business *tear* and was only able to find one dress, but it's so lovely! 40s wiggle cut, woven silk, aquamarine and black cocktail dress! for only $11. also picked up two other pairs of thick wool socks at REI with my dad.

only things left to do are find a charity online i can donate to on my parents behalf as their christmas gifts and then onto party times with my friends, more thrifting, pool, bowling, another book after visions of cody, and finding a date deserving of my awesome new dress!\

also anyone who missed matchless last tuesday missed seeing the infamous bike messenger! 


also those who did show up: i'm really sorry if i didn't spend enough time with you! having my face glued tp some dude's when friends are about is not cool. but! some notes about the infamous bike messenger: 1) i don't know how old he is 2) he looks young and i would say fairly attractive 3) that said, he's already made an indie film and toured europe with it, lived in stolckholm and some other european city for year each 4) he's a bike messenger with lots of tattoos, mrow! 5) acted really into me, but! could just be a dude trying to get laid 6) he talked a lot about fixing/building me a new bike!
okay enough talk of men and other things, i love and miss you all babies!

looking forward to new years eve parties with the cultural impresario!
speaking of which, there is a besties' party at 79 lorimer that the whole gang should stop by or end up at!

so after hell week, i think i made up for lost time by having a rather lovely weekend if i do say so myself,
so let's recap shall we?

a quick review of the past week:

awesome things daniele has done:
-saw beirut and the animal collective within in the same week for a grand total of $15!!! (and that's including three drinks!)
-made some freakin' delicious eggplant parmesan for....
-the office season 4 debut party rachel and i hosted (featuring jello shots)
-talked with friends about commodity fetishism
-solidified a new awesome friend whom i rode bikes with and visited the grand army plaza green market and lazed around prospect park talking with for hours
-made the very cute girl worker at our adorable neighborhood cafe have a crush on me with my knowledge of critical theory (and philos in general) while being only an undergrad
-rode my bike EVERYWHERE
-didn't have a single drink at matchless tuesday night
-successfully planned and executed my first glass tile with ease (yay for not being hung over!)

less awesome things daniele did:
-made an only medicore wild mushroom sauce with rigatonni and steamed spinach for jill, scott, sara, rob and andrew friday night
-got charged a $10 overdraft fee for forgetting about ConEd
-didn't eat as well as planned (but still steadily improving)
-drank more than two nights this week
-watched the first two episodes of gossip girl (imagine trapped in closet but anorexic and waspy) and the first episode of ugly betty (both such bad addictions)
-made apartment dirty!

oh and i mention i did all this while being a full-time student (17 credits) AND working part time at the recycling center AND planning the fucking world for GSC?
boo-ya-kasha

**warning: serious, boring, long post to follow**

but i will also have learned my lesson and am ready to start making some changes.


i know a lot of these are cliche, but they're cliches because they're easy ruts to fall into.
and now i'm climbing out. i'm scared that i'll fail but, i have to do this and i will.
i mean i always do, why would these be any different?
and i've got some awesome people behind me to support me! that means you guys! i love you all and ask kindly that you help by being understanding if i don't wan to go to a bar or spend money, but more importantly by doing other fun/cheap things with me!

i spent a summer wastin'
so yesterday my phone died, and not the out-of-battery kind of died, but the switched-off-and-won't-turn-back-on kind of died.
so if you're trying to get a hold of me, the interwebs are your best bet.

i met up with jill. saw the beginning of the history boys (hoping to finish it today) and really liked it. then again what's not to love about genius, working-class boys in england in the 80s? plus lots of good music.

look, they even know how to be kawaii!!

then we headed off to meet rachel at subway bar. with rachel, were her coworkers the infamous ryan, theresa, and dan (cute and recently single). dan and i started making eyes pretty early in the night. rachel very surreptitiously offered me the seat next to him and i acutally played footsie and acted coy (i didn't even know that was still allowed in the world of dating). it was cute and fun, and at the end of the night, we had a nice, long goodbye kiss.
it isn't exactly making out with some dude i met at a bar, but it sorta is too.
i feel this much closer to being a true coed

oh, and i closed down a bar for the first time.
all and all. a simple, fun, cheap night. this is what the summer of autonomy 07' was meant for.

and I'M GOING CAMPING TOMORROW!!!

diving into table corners!
wait...
what's that you say? you've never heard of such a sport?!

well that's probably because it results in this:

and trust me this pic is not nearly doing it justice.
small stump opportunely positioned just three feet in front of coffee table with sharp corners + large, roudy crowd = missing chunk of ear and what will be a massive bruise/scratch
kiddos that right there is carnage for your viewing pleasure

man why do i keep amassing all the injuries when i have no one to tend to them?
murphy's law i suppose

SO what do we think peoples: is it worth braving the tedium and frustration that is the nyu medical center?
i already got through the night without any noticable problem, so even if there is a concussion it couldn't be that bad. plus what are they actually going to able to do to make me feel better?

IS ON FIRE!!!!

well actually it was just a contained electrical fire, but it did shut down my whole office building and we had to evacuate.
that's exciting right?

well, moving on to the cash hank hootenanny jamboree at buttermilk tonight
then 8 hours of work again tomorrow morning at 7:30
hopefully i won't find my way to bad decision alley again