WebJournal - The blog will set you free

WebJournal - The blog will set you free
News of no interest whatsoever except to very close and patient friends and family members and maybe people with no life

Monday, November 29, 2004

The dangers of peer pressure

A group of colleagues went ice-skating on Saturday. The experience was short-lived for one of them, Silvana. She barely had time to lace up her boots and stand up before she went down. She is now in the hospital, with a couple of broken bones, awaiting surgery.

Fortunately I resisted the pressure and choose Derek's class over ice-skating. Still, I spent Saturday evening at the emergency room of the Presbyterian Hospital, keeping Silvana company with a whole bunch of friends. I kept looking around hard but George Clooney was nowhere to be seen. Plenty of blood and gore though.

Haizam too went skating on Saturday but he did not break anything. Seems he was on Jordan's national team years ago (the idea of a Jordanian ice-skating team reminds me of Jamaica's bobsleighing team).

Sunday I picked up Melissa and came back home with her to clean out my closet. She was extremely helpful but we witnessed a spatial geometry miracle: we took out 3 huge trash bags of clothes (one with dozens of trousers, one with tons of tops and sweaters and one with a dozen shoes) and my closet is still full to capacity.

More later on. I also have my post on Friday night pending but that will have to wait until tonight or tomorrow as were are going to visit Silvana straight from work.

Also pending: nice new shops in town, interesting new shows on TV, hopefully effective new anti-aging lotions on the market, fun fun fun new choreography by Derek.

4:37 PM

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Thursday, November 25, 2004

Thanksgiving is in the works

Before blogging about yesterday, a word about today:

The oven is warming up for the turkey. The cans of candied yams and cranberry sauce are waiting to be opened. The ingredients for the Haizamazo are in the fridge. Pamen is doing her arabic homework and Haizam is preparing something in the kitchen. I am at the computer. Life is good.

4:47 PM

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Interesting

I am just back from a night out with Haizam and Pamen. Life is strange indeed.

2:45 AM

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Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Early release

Best e-mail message of the day: "In consideration of the holiday tomorrow, staff may be released at 3:00 p.m. today".

To whomever came up with this grand idea: I love you, I love you, I love you!

11:27 AM

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Tuesday, November 23, 2004

In short

I am adding a links page. For now, just click on "What's new" because I have yet to categorize the URLs.

So ... seems I have gotten into the habit of waking up at 4.40 AM for a few minutes, going back to sleep, waking up an hour later and staying in bed surfing and playing with the computer until I finally decide to get a cup coffee and get up around 8.30 or even later. Bizarre.

Today Claudio, his son and Haizam, will all be arriving. Should make for a fun evening.

The weekend:

Saturday morning, after my trainer's appointment, I went to Bloomigdales to start getting a feeling of what's out there to buy presents. What's out there is basically extremely expensive. I did not find one single thing I liked for under 400 bucks, and I certainly liked several over $1000. Not good. Guess I will have to shop elsewhere. I still managed to get a pair of boots at Naturalizer. Soon I'll have to move out of my apartment to make room for my shoes. I'm considering competing for a new closet ...

Saturday evening I met Debra and Lili, a friend of hers, for a hurried lite dinner and a movie. The movie was Almodovar's latest ("La mala educacion"), which happens to be the office's movie-of-the-week. If you ain't seen it you are totally out of the loop. The movie is OK, a bit on the gay porn side, though nobody will hear me complaining. The story is farfetched but the acting is great and Gael Garcia Bernal in drag looks a lot like a prettier Julia Roberts. The theater was 99% Chelsea boys, which was great for the restroom line. First time ever I see a line coming out of the men's room while we girls were in and out in a sec.
After the movie it was still very early so I called Nicolas and we went out for a beer in our neighborhood.

Sunday I picked up Melissa and we toured a few shops in SoHo. I bought myself a black dress, of course, then we got some sushi at Dean & DeLuca and came home to clean up my room. Melissa was perfect. We managed to get rid ot two huge trash bags of paper and magazine and I organized my computer desk. If these things really give out nasty vibes I will be dead very soon or I will be glowing in the dark. I'll have to post a picture for anybody to understand the amount of peripherals and gadgets that surround me.

After taking Melissa back home I dropped at Cecilia's for a beer and was home early.

Yesterday after work Pamen and I went to Century 21, I bought a couple of presents I can't blog about and I also bought myself a pair of bright orange rainboots. After shopping we went to Pipa. I had been there once before with Vivienne. I really like the place. The tapas were great, the sangria was light but tasty. Francia joined us a while later and I really enjoyed myself with some good girlie talk.

Wish I had more time to write a decent post. Soon. Hopefully.

8:00 AM

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Saturday, November 20, 2004

The bizarre unconscious

Second time ever I have this dream. The first time was just before I got married.

I am in a car, with my mother, my father and my sister, who seems to be a little girl. Somebody else, a stranger, is driving and talking, not paying attention to the winding road. We are on a hill. Sunddenly my fathers yells "Watch out!". Our driver has missed a curve and we find ourselves flying in the air, sort of suspended but slowly falling, inevitably, towards our death.
I woke up startled, just before we hit the ground.

I am off to the gym.

9:51 AM

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The weekend is here. Where am I?

Luckily I did not work too late and by 10 PM I met Francia at the Divine for a drink. This girl must be the best listener in the Western hemisphere. Poor thing.
Now I am home, hoping not to spend half the night on the Net. My Victoria Secret's order has arrived, I'll try everything on tomorrow. As for my plans, I'll jump from the trainer to the dance class and then maybe I'll do a little movie in the evening. Sunday on thp other hand I'll go get Melissa so she can help me start cleaning up the apartment. In the meantime I should start net shooping for presents - Xmas is just around the corner.

1:06 AM

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Friday, November 19, 2004

Absolutely fed up

Haizam is gone. Not so my headache. I am off to get a massage before I end up in the news for having killed somebody who slighty bumped into me or maybe used anything but the most reverential of tones to address me.

9:53 AM

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Tuesday, November 16, 2004

The bigger the sorrow the bigger the phone bill

Yesterday I fell asleep blogging and lost all my post. It's the second time I have this happening to me in a week and it's very distressing, especially when I've researched and inserted all kinds of links. Damn.

It was a particularly depressing day. I finally mentioned the D(ivorce) word to JP. Given the state of communication we enjoy at present, I resorted to an e-mail and followed up with a brief IM conversation. Did not get much of a response. Plus ça change plus c'est la même chose. I just wanted to avoid having to broach the subject over X-mas dinner and I really really want to avert drama. But drama at this point seems almost like wishful thinking. I am barely getting a yawn, or a smart-ass retort when I am lucky.

There are moments when the situation wears me down. I have to remind myself that this is the kind of stuff that send people spiraling into nasty depressions. The kind of stuff some people kill themselves over. I on the other hand am left with the feeling I should just sail through it like it's nothing. This is the ending of a relationship that has pretty much defined all of my adult life and I am expected to close the door on it without batting an eye. As much as I absolutely despise drama for the sake of it, I should be entitled to some good ol' abject despair. Of course, nobody is asking me not curl up in a ball and wail. It's me demanding it from myself.

Janis called, I called back, then she called back. Finally we connected and spent about an hour on the phone. I then called Pam, who was having a dark day of her own, and we spent well over an hour on the phone. By the time I was done with this cathartic exercise it was 2.30 AM. That explains why I fell asleep blogging.

Pam and I were talking about eventually getting a big place, adopting kids, adopting dogs. We would always have food cooking in the kitchen. Friends coming and going. An open door policy. Lots of music and lots of books. We'll eat ice-cream and watch sappy movies. By eventually we mean when we eventually give up. Hurray.

Haizam called today. He'll be home tomorrow by mid-afternoon. It's been almost two years since last time and I am really excited about seeing him again. Time to open a bottle of wine. Too bad he'll be jetlagged.

Also today I got my Victoria's Secret fix. At some deep level, there's a comforting satisfaction in buying totally implausible thongs and V-strings that would make me the laughingstock of the emergency room should I ever survive a car wreck.

I also finally bought a new digital camera. Mine has been shot for a while and I can't never find time to cross the street and get a few disposable cameras developed, so I got myself a
Dave's pick: "There's nothing anywhere near its combination of resolution, features, and image quality for anywhere near its price". I bought it online and managed to dodge the pushy salesguy on the phone after I was asked to call to confirm my order. I am oh, so proud of myself. I should get it shortly.

Hearty hatred

I can't stand Martha Stewart. It's a fact. I heard her daughter on Larry King Live a couple of days ago and the genes have passed on: she is just as despicable. But nobody, nobody comes near the absolute comptempt I feel towards whatshername, that bottle-blonde broad with the sharky smile. Last time I mistakenly wasted three seconds on her show she was telling one poor lady about her foolproof method for determining whether you have a spending problem. She asked how many shoes she owned. The lady sheepishly answered "15" and whatshername attacked with a viciously patronizing "And how many do you really need? Two?". Now, that is one stupid test. Does it mean that anybody who own more than two pairs of shoes is financially dysfunctional? What about all the rest? What do we really need? Shelter,maybe, if it's too cold. Food now and now. Water on a more regular basis.

Get a grip, you stupid bitch!

7:54 PM

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Sunday, November 14, 2004

Decent weekend so far

I don't seem to be in the mood for parties. I sure hope it will pass.

The one at Nero's was OK. Friday I spent the whole day indoors and most of it in bed given the lousy weather outside but eventually I snapped out of it and braved the trip to Queens with Nicolas and Mario. The party was in full swing, lots of the usual people, plenty of those who never get invited and never invite us. The mojitos were good but I was even better and only had one before switching to a couple of glasses of red wine. Food was excellent. I mingled a little, did not have much of a conversation with anybody and just danced and danced, and then changed my high-heeled boots back to the lousy-weather footwear I had come in with, and went on dancing. By 11.30 PM I was ready to go, and so were Nicolas and Mario. I am now acting on a promise to myself of not staying anywhere any longer than necessary. I stay inasmuch as I am having fun. As soon as I start wondering what else I could be doing, I am out of there. I also had an appointment with the trainer in the morning and I knew I couldn't possibly "explode through the wall" or whatever I am supposed to do if I had a hangover. In a way I was sorry for Nero because he truly was disappointed by my leaving so early, but it was nothing personal. I am learning from Elena, a master of the disappearing act, and Nicolas, a master of the Plan B strategy.

So I was home early enough and I was awake at 5 AM on Saturday. Went to the gym and after lunch I picked up Melissa to take her to the movies. We saw Saw and we both enjoyed it tremendously. Not really that scary, completely senseless and some of the acting was appallingly bad, but it was gory enough. We then hanged around SoHo for a while, I got to check out some stuff at Dean & DeLuca, making mental notes for X-mas presents. I had half a plan with Debra in the evening but it was too cold to consider it, although I did walk home from downtown, chatting on the phone with Pilar most of the way.

Melissa is doing just great. For a while I was worried. Her brother's 13-years-old girlfriend has just had a baby and she is not sure who the father is. Not the best of environments. But Melissa herself is refusing to date boys she has crushes on because she want to focus on school, not boys. I am not sure how long she will keep this attitude. Hormones are hormones after all, but so far all her friends have boyfriends and she plays mommy, telling them not to make out at the movies.

Today, Sunday, I woke up very early again, spent a lot of time researching presents on the Net, then some time on the SipPhone with my brother and sister-in-law (I installed Asterisk buy have yet to configure it) and I am now ready to start some polymer X-mas projects, before meeting Debra for some Zydeco music and dance.

1:30 PM

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Friday, November 12, 2004

Guilty

They are reading Scott Peterson's verdict. Guilty of murder in the 1st degree.
I cannot undertand those people outside the courthouse cheering. What are they so happy about? I think he's guilty too, but I am trying to imagine myself in his family's shoes. From expecting a grandchild to this.
The circus on TV reminds me of those sorry folks partying while Ted Bundy was electrocuted. Makes me wonder what kind of shallow sad lives they must have to be able to waste their precious time rejoicing in other people's tragedies.

4:12 PM

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Thursday, November 11, 2004

Enough is enough

The headache is as strong as ever. This afternoon I gulped down 4 painkillers in one take. Nothing happened. A little wine later on helped a bit, but only a bit. After the Argentinean party a group of us went to Chema's. They started singing, I fell asleep on the couch. I was awaken by my own snores. Had a sip of champagne in honor of Pamen's birthday. Within seconds the headache was back. It's throbbing now and I am really not liking it. Of course, it's nothing compared to what a colleague is going through. She found out today that her cancer has spread to her liver. Maybe I should just shut the fuck up. Tomorrow will be better.

1:26 AM

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Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Finally rested

I must have slept 10 hours! And now I am late for work, but I am getting blogging-guilt. So, in a nutshell:

I think I got my ticket to Madrid, via Zurich. So that's taken care of. I now need to see where I will be staying. I got different offers but I stay undecided. I think I'd rather go to a hotel. More about this later.

I am going to an Argentinean get-together today after work. Meet new people, mingle a bit. Can't go wrong with that.

Thursday is till open. Friday it's party time at Nero's. He has invited absolutely everybody from work, inlcuding the boss. It will be interesting to see who turns out.

Week-end activities are piling up too.

And now I'd better get my ass out of here.

8:55 AM

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Monday, November 08, 2004

Ready to scream

On and off for several days now. A persistent headache and your typical neck pain. The neck cracks. I make it worse assuming the unhealthiest positions both at work and at home (I have now been typing away on my laptop for a good 5 hours resting on an elbow on the bed). It better be gone tomorrow morning or I'll be one raging bitch.

11:39 PM

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Sunday, November 07, 2004

Jumping on the bandwagon

OK, so last month, between regular international calls, international calls via a calling card, regular call from cell phone and the appalling roaming fees while I was away enjoying the summer my phone bills climbed to a scary $700. I started looking into options. I first installed Skype and have been using it almost daily with my soon-to-be-ex-in-laws in Madrid, then I kept on researching. I probably agree that Skype might not be the way to go. So I got my myself a free SIPphone number, to try it out with network to network calls to see if I would splurge for a virtual number and a paying service. More researching and yesterday I added a land number in Rome, Italy where I can receive calls for free, courtesy of an Italian provider. So now friends of mine who live there can call a local number and I get the call through my computer. We've just tried it with Monica, she was calling from her cell and I was using the regular mike on my iBook and the sound quality was still great. I am now looking or a provider that would give me a free land number in Madrid and maybe one in Montevideo and life is going to rock. I will also save a lot of money that will probably go into a new and better gadgets.

Should I go to the office or shouldn't I? I have work to do but it could wait until Monday. And it's such a gorgeous day ...

9:54 AM

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Wednesday, November 03, 2004

No comment

I knew it was going to be tight. I never never thought he was going to win the way he did. I need time to recover.

Stripteasing

Tuesday, after the regular funk class (and a wonderful new choreography), I took a cardio striptease class with Derek. There was nothing cardio about it. But there certainly were a lot of sexy movements. I actually got embarrassed, a novelty for me when it comes to booty shaking. A couple of girls with bodies like Vietnamese teenage boys and similar non-existent hot factor really surprised me and put me to shame with their contortions. And an older, bigger blonde lady made me want to crawl into a corner and die. She worked that pole like her life depended on it. There was a lot of grinding, a lot of shaking, a lot of intensity. It was fun, it was liberating and I hope the skills we practiced will come in handy soon.

Haizam, a friend and former colleague is coming in a couple of weeks and then again near the end of the month . He will be staying with me. I am really looking forward to catching up with plenty of wine.

Joe called today, he wants me to go visit him. I'd love to but I don't seem to have any free weekend until next year, unless Liliana does not come in December.

Friday I am going out for a drink with Debra. It has been over a year since our fall-out.

Matias

Born on November 2. At least something decent to remember the day by.

11:46 PM

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Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Four more years? No way Jose

It's going to be one long night.

5:41 PM

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Monday, November 01, 2004

Been very lazy

Aside note: in the last few days I've received three different compliments from perfect strangers regarding my green and pink Converse sneakers, but Thursday at the dentist the compliment came from a most unusual source: a perfectly coiffed lady wearing a Chanel-like suit. I walk into the waiting room, plop on a chair across from her and see her eyes immediately darting down to my feet and then coming back up to my face. She just flashed the widest grin with a hearfelt "Great sneakers!".

Haven't been blogging much lately. Fact is I am tired. Physically drained. Must be the new workout. A week ago Saturday was my second official workout with Kissy. I told her I wanted to work harder. She obliged. The bitch. Then I went to Derek's class and then off to Claudia's for Pascale's baby shower. I am glad to report I won one of the games. The last girl to arrive was so funny we all want her to forget med school and start touring as stand-up comedian. She had us all in stitches. From the shower off to another party, at Miriam's (Fabian's friend). She lives in a beautiful Upper Eat Side basement apartment, funkily decorated and with a great patio with a heater, a bbq and white sofas. The guests were very colorful, very different, different styles, different ages. There was also a sort of talent show. Some people danced tango, some played the guitar. Then a poor lost soul did veil dancing. She was wearing very little and she was a pretty enough girl, but her dancing sucked. And it went on and on and o, one song after another. She was on a ego trip at our expenses. When she was finally done the rest of us got to dance and jump around a bit but by 1 AM I was exhausted. A real pity because the party included breakfast and if dinner was any indication it was going to be yummy.

Sunday, I stayed at home the whole day until I met Annie and a few interesting characters for dinner. One of them was a 70-something Italian baroness who writes novels. A riot of a woman. After dinner Annie, her boyfriend Jeremy and I went over to the café by Mediterraneo to say hi to the waitresses and have a delicious and free cocktail.

Monday dinner at Cecilia's. Tuesday class with Derek. Wednesday babysitting Cecilia's kids. Thursday falling asleep drooling in front of the TV, walking up a couple of hours later and spending the rest of the night in trance-like awake.

This past Friday happy hour with a bunch of firiends/colleagues. Had fun up until a certain point, the point when the conversation gets totally stuck and wherever we are gets transformed into the equivalent of the proverbial water cooler. Personally, when I am not at work the least I talk about work the better. And I have grown compeltely bored with talking about colleagues. Unless it's a really juicy piece of information, it involves hot sex on the Xerox machine or forgotten children, I really couldn't care less. Almost everybody I work with I like, but it's a kind of bland appreciation . They are good people and I do not wish them ill but they are absolutely and totally uninteresting to me. Lots of them I find painfully boring. With quite a few we could come from different planets for all we have in common and although it's good to be exposed to different ways of life, I'd rather confine this growing experience to the hours I am at the office. So frankly, no shop talk on my free time.

Saturday I worked out with da man, Adam, skipped Derek' s class and went to Cecilia's for Anastasia's Halloween party. From there off to Oscar's for Nidia's sister's painting exhibition. There again, I had a good time until theystarted singing sappy songs. Then I was gone whitin seconds.

Today, Sunday, I went to the office but I had such a bad headache that I came back home and worked from the comfort of my bed.

So that's that.

In the meantime I am planning the holiday season. I almost made up my mind. Spoke to M.A. a week ago and I might join him in Zermatt in December. This of course if he does not change plans, which will surely happen a half-dozen times. Then I'll go to Madrid for X-mas and New Year's Eve. Till then, a friend of my sister's and his son are spending a week with me at the end of November. At the beginning of December my friend Liliana and her boyfriend might come over for a couple of weeks. And Katja might too. Then in January I might have to take care of an Argentinean male model now living in Paris. He might have to come to NYC for work and he has no place to go. I am such a nice person that I volunteered to take him in. I hope he makes lots of friends and he brings them home to meet momma.

From the mouth of men

At the gym Saturday morning: "I am sure you play as hard as you workout". That was definitely a compliment.

At the exhibition on Saturday, an old man, a former priest or pastor, a widower, completely plastered, after proposing to two cuter, younger girls, came to me to inform me I have the 5th power which, to him, means I can do with men whatever I please. I've got "it". The good thing about the "it" it's it's not related to youth or beauty, you can actually be damn old and ugly and still have the power. God knows why he had to point that detail out.

The cabdriver that drove me home after the showing took a look at me and pronounced me "not the partying type". Once again, I am not sure it was meant as a compliment.

1:24 AM

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