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

Saturday, November 30, 2002

I am looking into installing a Mambo portal on my mac and probably linking it to my webpages on mac.com, earthlink, telocity, etc.
Melissa is busy today so I will not see her. I have work to do at home and then I might go out and get some shopping done. As of tonight, I have a couple of possibilities but no firm plans yet.

9:05 AM

Human beings. Such wonderful complex creatures. Nothing beats good ol' conversation.

3:04 AM

Friday, November 29, 2002

I am in NJ! I missed my stop to get here. The bus was overcrowded and I had to stand all the way. Most people were clutching little Yahoo maps or handwritten directions. Some were frantically speaking on their cell phones. Most, me included, had no clue were they were going. It did not help that the driver was in a foul mood. I thought I had it figured out but then the bus made a right and screwed everything up, so I hopped out and called Beatriz to ask her to pick me up.
The day went great. I met this girl from Uruguay, Macarena, who is divorcing her husband and is struggling with all the issues that come with a divorce. Unfortunately she had to leave immediately after lunch to get to work. Then Cristina came with her mother, an 80ish powerhouse of a woman. Absolutely amazing. Then it was a former doctor from Argentina who does not want to be a doctor anymore and is working as a fitness instructor at the local YMCA and her husband, a computer guy who works on Wall Street. Both were very pleasant, and so were their kids.
Now the house is silent and everybody is asleep, Everybody but yours truly, that is. As enjoyable as the day was I do know one thing for sure: I could never ever live in suburbia. I don't care how beautiful the house might be, how much space I might have, how near from the city I might be: I need to be right were the action is. I can't take this peace, quiet and silence. I am dying for some chaos.
I will stay here overnight and leave tomorrow for NY. If it's not too late I will probably end at Macy's one-day sale.
I also want to call Lucia to tell her I had a wonderful time at her party (she seemed to be having a wonderful time too) and I want to call Quique to see if he wants to come over to snap pictures from my roofdeck in daylight. I also need to know if they have plans for the evening: I am already craving some noisy spot.

2:09 AM

Thursday, November 28, 2002

I did not get to NJ yet. The party yesterday was too much fun to leave. The crowd was very young, mostly college students from Europe, but very friendly and interesting. As usual M.A., his brother and I we were the very last to leave, after a lot of dancing and monkeying around. I now have to figure a way around Macy's parade to get crosstown to Port Authority.

9:45 AM

Wednesday, November 27, 2002

He made me an offer I could not refuse. Haizam's friend Luc�a is having a party tonight. I can't say no to a party. So it's going to be a little hectic. I want to squeeze in some shopping after work, then run home to pack for tomorrow, then get to the party and then make sure to be at Port Authority in time to catch the last bus to NJ. Susan, I know you are reading this: I will answer your mail on Friday. Happy Thanksgiving!

4:28 PM

What a letdown! No snow here! They lied to me!
As usual it was about 3 am when I fell asleep. I woke up at 5 am, turned the TV on - well, actually I had never turned it off - saw something about snowing in NJ and went back to sleep hoping to wake up to a white city. My hopes have been crushed, but nothing will keep me from wearing my new coat.

9:42 AM

Tuesday, November 26, 2002

The shopping season is officially open - and it's not even Thanksgiving yet! I went to Lord & Taylor with Francia to buy a pair of gloves and ended up with the gloves, plus a scarf, plus a coat. I would have gone on except for the fact that the shop was closing. Never mind, this is just a warm up! On my way home I also stopped at the drugstore to get a million hair products I don't need.
The evening is quiet. I had to get my fix of the Real World (I've been a faithful fan from the very first season) and I certainly could not miss the new season premiere of The Osbournes.
For some reason work is still very slow so I spent a lot of time working on the website instead than on a text, which means I will probably have to work from home this weekend. I also have to decide what to do now that I cannot use Gotomypc anymore thanks to the IT people paranoia. I will give Tightvnc another try.
Tomorrow night I am off to NJ to Daniel's for Thanksgiving, unless I either go volunteer at some Thanksgiving dinner for the homeless of the firefighters on Thursday. I tried to find Jimmy's number to see if I could volunteer again at his Church this year but I can't find it!

They say it will snow tonight. I might stay up all night to catch the first snow of the winter.

11:34 PM

Today after work M.A. and bro came home to play around with the computer and download some stuff so as to be able to dial up and get on the net from their house. After that we had a quick stop at a nearby bar and then dinner at Divine's. It was an early but enjoyable night.
At home I had two great surprises awaiting me: my order from Victoria's Secret (I just love those frilly half cup bras!) and an e-mail message from Don with photos of his daughter's baptism. His baby is just the most beautiful little girl ever! His wife is beautiful too, and she looks like a real nice friendly girl. Given the pictures I've seen of the girls he dated before and after me, I have to assume he was totally drunk or very lonesone when he met me. I guess I am having a low self-esteem moment ...

12:11 AM

Monday, November 25, 2002

We'll get snow on Wednesday!

8:33 AM

I hate Sundays. Today was one of those perfectly useless Sundays. I never left the house. I just rebounded for a while and then finished the letter (5 pages long) to the shrink. I read it to JP who told me it was a master piece but then again the man loves me so his opinion is biased. Not that I am dissatisfied with it. I think I was able to convey exactly how I feel, albeit in a quite aggressive tone. It's just that I need to wait and see if it produces a result. In any case, I tried to fax it a couple of times through jfax but somebody always seemed to pick up the phone on the other side. I will try again tomorrow morning. They'd better let the fax machine answer the call. I am still in less than a shiny happy mood. There are a couple of situations I need to take care of.
Re. X-mas, I finally decided to go to Madrid. My brother will be there too. I will get to Montevideo on home leave later on, but not now. JP will be in Switzerland by mid-December, so it will be easy for him to get to Spain.
Back to checking xml sites now.

12:08 AM

Sunday, November 24, 2002

Past 4:30 AM and I am still up, writing a letter to my mother�s shrink ...

4:31 AM

Tonight it was a low key Mexican dinner at Chevy�s on 42nd St. and 8th Av. followed by the Django Reinhardt festival at the Birdland. I went there totally unaware that most performers were French. Well, as anybody who has spent more than five minutes with me knows, France, anything French (except people from Toulouse), cucumbers and internal organs as food are way up there on the list of things I strongly dislike. I hate French food (way too heavy), French men (no lips, greasy hair and strong B.O.), French movies (ugly people, no action, endless senseless dialogue), French music (non existent), French intellectuals (pretentious wanna bes), French culture (sooooo last year or, more like it, last century). So it was to my utter dismay that I found out tonight, after waiting half an hour freezing in line in the cold NY weather, that most musicians had being flown directly from that snotty land. I somehow managed not to gag and enjoy the show. Jazz is not my thing but this Django style is lively and happy. The musicians had the most horrible fashion sense ever (white suits, red suits, silly hats, impossible shirts, black leather outfits) and the famous Paquito D�Rivera seemed like the kind of person I would gladly strangle given half a chance, but they sure could play. Guess I�ve been in better moods.

2:26 AM

Saturday, November 23, 2002

I am home, ready to channel surf and then get some undeserved sleep. Details tomorrow.

3:29 AM

Friday, November 22, 2002

Crazy hectic day with little work done. Conventional work, that is. For some reason the workload has been pretty light this past week and I am taking advantage of it and using my time to design the webpage for my service, using a free full XML portal. I really really like it and it will look great eventually, though it will take some time.
It is absolutely miserable out there: dark, rainy, windy and cold. But nothing will keep this woman indoors! Tonight I am out with Annnie and Jeremy (on little more than a couple of hours sleep) and we will probably be joined by Miguel Angel and one of his brothers. I heard so much about this guy I can"t wait to meet him in person!

5:10 PM

Yesterday's short nap ruined it for me. I did not fall asleep until like 4 am and the alarm was on for 4.30. Needless to say I did not get up at 4.30, but I did not sleep blissfully either. It's 7.42 now and I got to be at the dentist by 8.30. Gotta rush.

7:39 AM

Thursday, November 21, 2002

Quiet night. Came home from home, had an early dinner and immediately dozed off only to be awaken by Johanny's call. I am wide awake now but hopefully not for long because I have a very early dentist's appointment tomorrow morning. In the meantime I have been doing such productive things as watching the Anna Nicole Show, a very interesting segment on the Howard Stern show about the one touch orgasm and now a rerun of a Laura en Am�rica show, while shopping from Victoria's Secret catalogue. My mind is also busy trying to find a solution to my hair situation. I am trying to grow it out a bit but I have been going through a whole week of bad hair days now and I am afraid I will soon get into one of my chop-it-all-of phases. I specially hate my bangs. No amounts of gels, muds, waxes or sprays is doing the trick. I still look like an overblown Prince Valiant.
Tomorrow I will meet Annie and Jeremy for dinner but I haven�t decided where yet.. I'll look into dark restaurants with no mirrors.

11:58 PM

Wednesday, November 20, 2002

Dinner was at Al Bustan. We shared hummus, a falafel appetizer and vegetable couscous. No dessert, no coffee, no wine. An admirable show of restraint.
As with the funk class, I did not make it after all. I was on the phone with JP and my mother and then it was too late. But I did get on the rebounder. I jumped around for 50 solid minutes. I plan to do the same tomorrow morning before work. It gets you totally juiced and ready to go.
Now it's time to apply my fake tan and start channel surfing.

11:03 PM

This evening I will most definitely take a funk class at Crunch. Then it will be dinner with Francia at some Arab restaurant that she wants to scout.
Spoke to Annie today: we are meeting on Friday for dinner. Her new boyfriend will be joining us from North Carolina . We might go out or we might have dinner at home and then go out. Plans are still sketchy.

5:21 PM

Pub. Divine Bar. Opal. What a tough life I have. And I enjoy every minute of it.

2:15 AM

Monday, November 18, 2002

Honey, I am home! Early evening. Met Bob and Lisa (the FBI agent) at Esperanto, on 9th Street and Av. C. Unfortunately the band that was supposed to play never arrived. But the food was good and so were the mojitos and the caipirinhas. One of the waiters was from Argentina and he has been a vegetarian for a whole week, the poor guy! He needed some encouragement and I tried to provide it. We were joined for dinner by Michael, another friend of Bob's. This guy used to be over 300 pounds, he slimmed down to 168 and is now a rock solid 220 who only works out in hard core gyms (with "no boys in shorts carrying around Evian bottles", in his own words) and is studying to specialize in exercise for the morbidly obese.
On the home front, it now seems there was no stroke, no mini strokes either. Talked to JP, who was at home with my mom, and to my sister too. Doctors have already discarded their first idea, which was a metastatic brain tumor (they are always so optimistic!) and their second too (brain damage from strokes). The CAT scan shows some damage in the back of her brain, but not consistent with her symptoms. That dead tissue is probably from a prolonged infection, such as the one in her amputated leg. Now they tend towards some kind of drug intoxication complicated by her recent lung problem.
Needless to say, I am far from convinced.

10:47 PM

My mother's condition has worsened this morning. I already had a talk with my boss to let her know I might have to travel suddendly.

1:51 PM

Sunday, November 17, 2002

That was a long movie! Almost 3 hours! I liked it but I did fall asleep at a certain point. It was just so dark and convoluted that I could not help it. When we left it was late and freezing and raining but we were lucky to get a cab almost immediately.
On my way back in the cab I chitchatted non stop on my cell. I am already wondering how did I survive without one before. Well, I did have one, but a pre-paid wireless that had no minutes most of the them.
Today Seymour, a trainer with Tony, sent me a message about a very interesting device: the pzizz. The price is a bit steep, but I just might get it for X-mas.
Bob called. I am joining him tomorrow for a drink after work with this friend of his that works with the FBI. I am very interested in meeting some of her handsome colleagues.

10:33 PM

I have to go pick up Melissa to take her to the movies but I can't peel myself off this debate on TV about "Has the sexual revolution backfired on women?". It is extremely interesting and I just enjoy debates immensely.
I have just entered forward calling on my home phone to my cell phone for the afternoon. Lets see how it works.
Raoul and Monica called me today from Rome. They were thinking of coming to NY for X-mas but now they are considering Madrid and wanted to know wether I am going. I told them what the situation is and that I will get back to them as soon as I have firmer plans.
Gotta go now.

2:40 PM

They have all left now. It was fun. So much food, so much to drink. Vivienne came with Randy, her new boyfriend. He seems great, he is very handsome, and fun and friendly. And she looks very happy with him. I also enjoyed seeing Johanny and Pascale, which I had not seen in a while. Pascale was very sweet as usual and Johanny, aka the shy one, talked non stop and danced too. I loved Francia's friend Preety. She had to leave early but we will meet again soon for a girly kind of thing in the afternoon so we can get to know each other better. Haizam came with a friend, a girl called Teresa. She's new to NY and she seems very nice. Miguel Angel was here also but Javier called in sick.
We had more food than we could possible eat and God knows how many bottles of wine plus a lot of sangria. Haizam arrived late and because he was the cook I was ready to kill him but he did make up for it. Not only did he cook a wonderful meal but he also insisted on cleaning up before leaving. You can't but love a man like this. And he was thoughful enough to ask me how was I feeling. There must be a girl I can introduce him to!

2:48 AM

Saturday, November 16, 2002

I am still somewhat behind a peak state. My eyes are aching and so is my head. Hope I will feel better when everybody's here. I have started broiling peppers and I think I'll make some buckwheat pasta. I'll also try my hand at rice cake sticks with seaweed sheets (Pam's idea). Haizam is cooking rabbit (conejo al ajillo) and I am not sure about the rest of the gang, though I am confident nobody will go hungry.

7:16 PM

The day started lousily with the Saturday phone call to my mother. The situation is not good. We are waiting for a diagnostic but it looks like she had either a stroke or several mini strokes. Fact is it's very hard to understand what she says and she might make sense one minute and absolutely none a minute later. Today she asked me how many kids she had had. It's not funny. It's so not funny that I ended up sobbing and then calling my hubby to sob some more and my sister to find out more. I am now purposely focusing on happier thoughts, given that there's nothing I can do and that we will not even know what's wrong with her until we get the results of the brain CAT scan at the beginning of next week.
I might have to reconsider my X-mas plans too.
As for today, I have to get my act together, go out and buy food and stuff for tonight and start making preparations.

1:32 PM

Nice dinner. Pub. Great conversation, great time, as usual. Came back home now, early, so I can rest and take care of my dinner party tomorrow.

1:53 AM

Friday, November 15, 2002

Pascale and Johanny are coming tomorrow too. So far we are 8, with more to come, probably. Melissa and I will probably spend Saturday at home for an afternoon of cooking and baking.

4:00 PM

Lovely. I just woke up (after all I only fell asleep at about 4 am) to read CNN news: "Amid increased concern about renewed al Qaeda activity, the FBI is warning of a "spectacular" new attack designed to cause "mass casualties, severe damage to the U.S. economy and maximum psychological trauma." ". I just bought new mascara and new sunless tanning spray. Does it mean I won't have time to use them?

8:36 AM

Nothing much to report. I fell asleep after work today and napped for half an hour or so while waiting for Pam to come home. We had dinner (deliciously prepared by her) at home and then just stayed in and watch tv and discussed politics.
I couldn't upload the photos on my Mac OS X systems, although it should be plug-and-play. I will have to do it with Mac 9. As for the photoshop, I will do that from the office tomorrow if I have a minute.
Tomorrow morning I have a meeting at the office and some stuff to prepare before the meeting so I'll have to be there earlier than usual, but that's OK because I'll be out earlier too.
I will surf the web for a while now and then read a little more of this book with the silly name ( How to Talk to Anybody About Anything ) that's actually very, very good.
Pam is leaving tomorrow afternoon to be in D.C. for her birthday on Saturday. She will be going to a play matinee on Saturday afternoon and to a hip hop concert in the evening. Unfortunately I can't go, but I am working on my guest list for Saturday (so far I know Vivienne and Randy will be coming, as well as Francia, I am waiting to hear from Pascale and Johanny and I am now sending Debra an invite too).

1:20 AM

Thursday, November 14, 2002

Something is off. I"ve updated to Blog Plus but nothing seems to have changed. I want to be able to display images on my blog, I don't want ads and I want password protection. I'd have to look into it tonight.
I also have pictures to upload from my camera, more pictures to photoshop, the webcam to tweak, plenty of stuff to do on my Mac tonight. I also have plenty to do on my computer at the office tomorrow.
Hopefully I will be able to get to the funk class after work tonight.
On the social scene, I am planning a dinner at home on Saturday and I have a friend arriving from Montevideo on Monday for a few days.

4:08 PM

I need to set the record straight. I know I made jokes about the Betty Ford Center but that's all they were, jokes. No, I don't go out every night and get drunk. No, none of us gets drunk. Last time I was drunk was probably 15 years ago and I am now way too old not to know when to stop. Also, Miguel Angel was not sick on Monday because he drank too much, he was sick because we had been to a restaurant on Sunday night where he ate an octopus that looked more like the monster from the Alien flicks . I barely tasted it and had some pasta instead, hence the fact that I did not get sick. So yes we go out and yes we drink, but we all stay perfectly sober. What we mostly do is dance and chat, which is the fun thing about going out anyways. All my life I have danced until the very last song was played, until the lights go on and I was asked to leave. Staying at bars until last call is not unusual for me. At parties I almost have to be physically removed or I will never leave. And about going out, yes, I do go out a lot, but how much is too much is really a matter of personal opinion. As a matter of fact I am married to a man who thinks I spend too much time at home!
In any case after our night out, Pam and I are back home with a bag full of goodies from the all-nite deli.

2:04 AM

Wednesday, November 13, 2002

It's going to be Nell's tonight. I wanted to squeeze in a funk class between work and going out, but what's the point if I will be dancing the night away. I might jump for a while on my rebounder to get the juices going.

5:22 PM

Pam is home now. We just spent the best part of an hour looking for Ricky Martin's video clips on the Internet. She just discovered him (yes, I know, it is hard to believe) but has never seen him shake his bon bon - a cultural gap I feel compelled to fill. Unfortunately the only clips I was able to find were too short and you can't really appreciate his pulsating hips in all their glory. We now will have to find another reason to live, at least for a few hours until I have time to do more research.
Today was my first night at home in quite a while and I am getting a little claustrophobic. We will be out and boogying tomorrow for sure.

12:25 AM

Tuesday, November 12, 2002

Damn! I just lost the whole entry! Now I really have to be brief if I am to ever get some sleep. You would think that, being Monday, I would have stayed at home. Well no. After the party at the office and some frantic last time food shopping and sangria preparing, Haizam, Javier, a friend of Javier's visiting from Spain and I went to Marriot Marquis revolving bar. At about 11 pm Francia joined us for dinner at a diner on 9th avenue. And still we did not call it a night. We had to go to Don't Tell Mama for a last drink and some great singers. So now it's past 3 am, I am wide awake and Johanny will be calling me in less than three hours to join him at the gym.
I am also feeling somewhat guilty because Miguel Angel had to go home today and stay there sick as a dog, and I am partly to blame. I can eat anything and everything and never get sick and I should know better than to push people past their own sickly stomach limits. I really hope he is OK tomorrow.
Tomorrow will be yet another busy day. Not only will I be training in the morning and having quite a lot to do at work during the day, but there's also Pam arriving in the evening, which means I will not get to sleep early again. Oh well, let me drink tons of water now.

3:18 AM

Monday, November 11, 2002

Oh boy, I really need the Betty Ford! Haizam could not make it so Miguel Angel and I closed one bar and then another and had a grand time in the process. Now if I could only get up tomorrow morning ..

3:48 AM

Sunday, November 10, 2002

We did the cultural thing with Melissa this afternoon: I took her to the Metropolitan Museum to see some arms and armors and Egyptian art. Very interesting but extremely crowded. I am thinking of taking her to the Hello, Met! family program next time.
Once again it was hell trying to get a cab. When we finally hailed one I asked the driver why it's been so difficult to find a cab in NYC for the last 3 days. He said it's the Ramadan and a lot of cab drivers are muslims. I am not sure I buy it but there has to be an explanation.
Twenty seconds after I got home and maybe three seconds after I had finished doing my thing in the bathroom (rushing like a madwoman to the bathroom everytime I get home is a old tradition of mine) Miguel Angel had the doorman ringing me from downstairs. He had just left the gym next door and wanted to coordinate the ingredients for tomorrow's sangria, which he is in charge of preparing.
As expected, I will meet with him and Haizam in about half an hour at a bar a few blocks from home. I truly enjoy this guy's company and I am torn between wanting him to stay in town forever so we can keep up the bar hopping and wanting him to leave before I need to be sent to the Betty Ford center for detox.

7:33 PM

Dinner at Gradisca was very good. I am making a mental note on those tagliatelle alla veneziana. Mmm ...

1:19 AM

Saturday, November 09, 2002

There is one thing I really really hate about going out at night: all my clothes reek of cigarette smoke. My purse too.Yuk.

5:37 PM

Spent the day at home quietely doing nothing other that trying to call Melissa on her perpetually busy line. I even napped in the afternoon. So far the plan for tonight is as follows: meeting at Debra's at 7pm, then dinner with her and Sandra to a yet to be decided place and a play (Debbie does Dallas).

5:31 PM

A wonderful evening. I barely made it to the movies because there were not cabs in sight. I waited for more than half an hour and chatted up a storm with fellow taxi longers. Finally, after calling Francia and telling her that was not going to make it in time and that I would just meet her after the movie, I hailed a cab and rushed to the theater to see Bowling in Columbine (I had to sit on the very first row though). I loved the first hour or so of the movie, thought it was very interesting and made a few good points, but then it turned into pure propaganda. Moore has an agenda and he shoves it down your throat with no finesse. Though some and maybe a lot of what he says is true or pretty close to the truth (his arguments are not exactly bulletproof) he chooses the easy way out, making his point in a rather bullying manner. I particularly disliked the final scenes with Charleton Heston and the picture of the dead little girl. It was such a cheap shot and a particularly ineffective one too: by the end of it I was siding with Heston (which I am usually not a fan of) who comes across as a old confused man being ambushed by a very unlikeable sleazo exploiting the death of a little girl to look good.

Back to the social scene.
After the movie Francia and I were joined by Miguel �ngel. We went to a place just around the corner for dinner and drinks and then to Morgan's where we met a couple of guys from London (actually, one of them lives in NY and the other, the gorgeous one who can't dance, had arrived three hours earlier for the weekend. We drank a little and danced a little. I grinded a couple of times with a black girl at the bar. Her friend had braces, just like me, and we bonded.
After Morgan's Francia was falling apart (the girl is not a night person) but Miguel �ngel and I were doing just fine so we cabbied over to Bar None , a favorite dive of his. Nothing much was going on, the music was lousy, there were a lot of white awkward college kids and we left. Well, to be honest we left when they asked us to leave because it was 4 am and they were closing.
All the while the three of us first and then Miguel �ngel and I had a non stop conversation going, which truly amazes me.
Now it's good ol' Saturday and I have to figure out if I will be taking Melissa to see the Lyon King tomorrow or if we are going to go out today. I also have to make my Saturday's phone calls. Later.

10:10 AM

Thursday, November 07, 2002

After work I walked with Francia and Miguel to CompUsa to get a digital camera for Blanca. I now have to buy paper to wrap it and a nice card. After CompUsa Francia and I had dinner at a pretty cozy Italian restaurant near her house. I trekked back home, stopping at Grand Central to get some trashy magazines for a perfect night at home. I also called Katja to hear the great news: she and Santi are now engaged. They've been together 5 years and from the little I know, they will stay together a long long time.
I am thinking of having another dinner party at home in a week, still figuring out who to invite. Too many people, too little space.
Now it's time for my magazines. I am meeting with Johanny again tomorrow morning at 7.30.

10:50 PM

Such a gorgeous morning ...

9:13 AM

Up at 6 am and off to the gym now!

6:57 AM

I am back from � on this very bittersweet day. Today I learned that a friend, and husband of a very good friend, died yesterday from lung cancer. I am not going to go into the details. I am not even going to go into what it means to me. It's just a bittersweet day.
I'm back from �. I went there after work with Miguel Angel.
Javier and Blanca and Julian joined us a couple of hours later. It was very crowded and loud. There was flamenco dancing with this half Asian girl with great arms and a magnificent butt.
We sipped about 3 bottles of wine in several hours, had some tapas and a lively conversation. Blanca and Julian were back from seeing Michael Moore's movie, the Columbine something, and Javier was back from seeing some French movie I don't really care about ( I hate French movies, as well as most things French).
Now I have to try and get as much sleep as possible: Johanny will be calling me very early in the morning to wake me up so I can meet him at 7 am for training.
Just a bittersweet day.

12:14 AM

Tuesday, November 05, 2002

Had a glass of wine at the Delegate's Bar after work (Haizam's idea and a fine one with that) and then a second one at the Top of the Tower bar at the Beekman Tower Hotel. It was raining when we left. It was also early, with plenty of time to get to supermarket, come home, make some pasta, eat and read People Magazine. Amazingly, I have not turned on the TV, nor will I.
Tomorrow we might go to � for flamenco night. And Thursday at 7.30 am I am getting back into the swing of things with a training appointment with Johanny.
By the way, the enquiry panel went great, or so I think though I realize now how difficult it is to remember details if you haven�t been taking mental notes all along, which of course I wasn�t because I wasn�t expecting to be called in front of an enquiry panel. I can�t wait to see their findings.

11:52 PM

Got my Nokia! After work we went with Mario to get my new phone. I would really like to play around with all the features but it will have to wait until tomorrow.
After getting my phone we went to Morgan's for a drink or rather a couple of Castaways.
It's midnight and I have a few things to do before trying to get some sleep. I have a rather busy day ahead of me tomorrow, ending with the panel of enquiry interview at 5 pm.

12:07 AM

Sunday, November 03, 2002

Oh! The Trustees dining room! The view, the crab cakes, the people. Loved it. Loved it so much I am seriously considering becoming a patron of the arts and paying a small fortune for the privilege of using that space!
And we did not limit ourselves to food for the body. We did visit the photo exhibit too. Only problem with the Metropolitan on a weekend is the hordes of visitors. You always have somebody breathing down your neck.
As for the Godfather III, I enjoyed most of it, except for Diane Keaton's ridiculous Annie's Hall getups. Every single movie she is dressed as herself and I have trouble believing a mob don would be married and/or attracted to a pseudo hip crossdresser.
Today we also walked all the day from the Museum to 42nd and Fifth to find an AT&T store so I could get a decent wireless phone plan. I still have to fax them some info tomorrow but hopefully I will have my new Nokia waiting for me after work and I can forget the pre-paid that's driving me nuts now.

11:51 PM

Yesterday I wore a pair of high heel boots, otherwise known as fuck-me-shoes. I managed to keep my feet in them through 99% of the night, with dancing and everything. Today I woke up with numb toes. In my book it's a case of numb toes from lousy shoes. But suddenly this has been upgraded to nerve damage thanks to a casual conversation to a physician friend. Next thing I'll hear is I need immediate amputation.

1:54 PM

I am ready for some rebounding before going to the Metropolitan Museum's Trustees dining room for brunch and then going to Francia's to watch the The Godfather III on video.

11:02 AM

Back from the party. Had a good time but for some reason everybody seems to be ready to pack and go way before I am. I do take pride in my energy but sometimes I wonder ... so it's 15 minutes off 4 am now and I could easily go somewhere else or have a meaningful conversation with somebody or just go swimming. Given that I have nobody around to keep me company, I shall spend some time on line and then try to sleep. Sometimes it feels like parties or other gatherings stop seconds short of getting really interesting, like everybody is avoiding that moment when people take off their masks and the fun really starts. Sometime I am really fed up of trying to keep it together, trying to make it work. Most people don't care and it's really obnoxious on my part to try and force them to have fun. Oh, shit, I miss my husband.

3:57 AM

Saturday, November 02, 2002

Well, after several people cancelled our Williamsburg outing, I finally headed to Brooklyn with Elena, Helen and Amy. Firts stop: dinner at Carmaya Restaurant. Good gnocchis, great wine, friendly service, obnoxious but harmeless drunk kid coming to our table. From there we went for an apple martini at Sea. Great decor, good martinis, good music, not so good service and plenty of beautiful conceited people. Second stop: Galapagos. We went straight to the backroom where a band named Country Club & the Porn Horn was playing. I don't recallng ever hearing such an inconsistent band. They started with strictly-for-white-kids-not-one-black-in-the-audience-bob-your-head kind of music and then played just about anything, except that they always sounded so so white. Good enough for a night out but not my kind of music, definitely. In any case at about 2 am we decided to leave. I tried to get to the ladies' just to discover, to my horror, that the stalls are not real stall but are only divided by a courtain. Needless to say, I did not pee and I hold it in, barely, till I got home. It was a struggle, More on this tomorrow. Now I plan to channel surf for a while and then sleep until I am done sleeping. Melissa is going out with her mom tomorrow, so I will probably spend the afternoon shopping before going to Blanca's party. Goodnight.

3:47 AM

Friday, November 01, 2002

Still at work but organizing an evening at the bars in Williamsburg.

5:28 PM

Tonight I had a taste of celebrity. After dinner I put on my melting-droopy-face mask and went to watch the parade. Amazingly a lot of people wowed and ohmygoded my costume and lots of people took pictures of me. I felt like never taking the mask off! Anyway, after the parade Lynn, Kate and another girl split. Bob was deninetely going to Splash but I was not in the mood to be among a sea of drag queens having their moment of glory, which is probably what would have happened at Splash's. Francia and yours truly split too. We walked uptown (me in my mask) and finally made it to Morgans Bar ...
I am fallin asleep here. Gotta get some sleep.

1:00 AM