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| 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 |
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Monday, June 30, 2003 Two good news: first, I managed to figure out what was wrong with the search form and it is now working beautifully, and second, I am going to the gym in a few minutes. Another good news: we are planning a rooftop party for the 4th of July. Should be great. 6:23 PM Sunday, June 29, 2003 My new neighbour is at it again. Suspicious rhythmic thumping and screeching made me sprint to the wall and glue my ears to it for some good ol' aural voyeurism. I did not catch the action from the very beginning but I did count at least a couple of rounds. The lady sounded very satisfied. One interesting fact about this guy: he keeps laughing out loud. I like that. It's a deep boy-I-am-loving-this kind of laughter. Too bad I met him (we both came in late one night and I introduced myself in the elevator - I think his name is Michael) and he's not very appealing (to me - I am sure his partner today would strongly disagree with me). I am leaving in a while. Going to Debra's for a Sex and the City-watching dinner. 6:43 PM Hubby is losing his marbles. He's in a foul mood because he had dinner at a restaurant yesterday and Graciela Alfano was there. So what, right? Well, this chance encounter reminded him that I am not Graciela Alfano. Duh. While it is true that she looks absolutely stunning and that she's certainly no spring chicken at age 55, maybe it should be noted that she also has had extensive plastic surgery and that she makes a living showing off her body. I on the other hand haven't started with the cosmetic enhancements yet and fortunately I am not required to shake my ass at the office. And while we are at it maybe I should also state that I look nothing like her. Such a lovely Sunday. Such a boost to my self-esteem ... 2:08 PM Maybe it's the weather or maybe the fact that I hadn't eaten much during the day, but I sure ended up very dizzy yesterday. I think it was about 3.30 AM when M.A. got me home in a cab. I can't remember which doorman greeted me and I can't remember opening the door or getting undressed. I woke up today at noon with a little icecream cup on the floor by the side of the bed and my iBook on the bed, turned on and with the edit blog page open. I don't remember getting the icecream nor trying to blog. Fortunately I do remember the rest of the evening and apart from walking funny, losing a shoe on a staircase, shoving M.A. down a flight of stairs and probably not having a very coherent conversation I don't think I did anything that wouldn't make my mama proud. Or so I hope. As usual we hit Opal and then had dinner at the Divine Bar. After dinner we went back to Opal and then to the Sutton Place Bar for some relatively fresher air. Maybe. Remembering the sequence of events is a little difficult. I know I came home from Opal but I can't remember at what point we went to Sutton Place. The time stamp of my pictures is screwed and won't help me much. The pictures themselves are a pretty sad reflection of my confusion. I will need to photoshop them today just to figure out what the hell I was trying to show. Lets stick to water and fine healthy food today. 1:14 PM Saturday, June 28, 2003 Got my moblog now over at textamerica! The magic of my new Nokia has already produced a miracle. I found myself in the elevator playing with my new toy when this neighbor of mine, who has never spoken a word to me, couldn't help but ask about it. We chatted all the way through the door to the building and met again at the corner, waiting for the light to turn green to cross the street. And there it was, a guy on a Segway! I've already seen 3 different Segways in the neighborhood in the last few days. I want one!!! My neighbour too, we were in awe, asking all sort of questions, most of wich I knew the answers to (like where to buy one of them) but it felt good just to talk about this little wonder. I challenged him to see who of us will get one first but he said his wife just had a baby and he has other priorities. Well, I have no baby and I am a gadget freak so ... what about getting a really nice Xmas present? Side note: they were two guys getting pedicures and manicures today, accompanied by their significant others. It felt a little weird. Like an invasion of private girlie space, yet I do like well groomed men. I just wish they had their own places to get themselves done, preferably somewhere where I could not see them. Personally, I like watching a man shave and that's about it. No gurgling, no spitting, no toenail cutting, thank you. One of the guys was getting his first manicure and the girl who had coaxed him there was his fiancee. The other guy was there with his wife getting a pedicure for their 5th anniversary. Is this a new NYC trend? 6:55 PM It took me, and the poor guy at the AT&T dealership, almost 3 hours to migrate from my old cell phone to my new super duper one. In the meantime we had a long and fruitful chat. He's from Buthan, married to a Nepalese, has been in NY for 8 years, has a 2 years old daughter, lives one street down from me, etc. His employees are from India, one of them is a vegetarian. We even exchanged restaurant tips. At 8.30 PM I was getting a little nervous. I was supposed to met Ming and Fabian at 9 PM at Spice in Chelsea. I really had to leave and the poor guy stayed for over an hour just to go complete my migration. He even called me on my (old) cell while I was in the cab on my way to the restaurant just to let me know everything was proceeding well. He earned my devotion and I will be sure to send any potential customers his way. Dinner was very fast, with Fabian rushing out to work (he does AIDS outreach in clubs) and me feeling guilty for being late. Ming and I ended up at Splash, where we bumped into Bob. I am starting to suspect some kind of unwritten/unspoken rule at this club. Either that or it boasts the most amicable patrons in NYC. Each and every time I go there, almost as soon as I walk in some nice fellow welcomes me in some friendly manner. Yesterday I had barely hit the dance floor when a very nice looking tall young guy started rubbing himself all over me in the usual gyrating fashion. We went at it for a few minutes then he very politely thanked me, introduced himself, told me I was beautiful and went back to his friends. Couldn't ask for a warmer welcome. I was back home by 12.30, after playing phone tag with M.A. for a while. The migration went so well my old cell was not working and I was unable to receive/make calls. But everything is back to normal now - I only have to configure the picture sending bit. I really need to get out of the house now, call Melissa and get a pedicure. 2:20 PM Friday, June 27, 2003 Today it was all about buying presents and running errands for family and friends. In the morning J.P. got the not too good news that one of his two most recent bypasses might not be working. Not the sunniest start to the day but it sure could be worse. At least he's in the hands of one of the best doctors ever and I am sure he will come up with something. After walking around in the scorching heat we came back home and J.P. slept for a little while. Eventually I too fell asleep. Amazing. Sleepiness seems to be contagious. By 7.45 PM he was packed and he had helped me move the computer table back to the bedroom (I had used it for the party on Saturday). At 8 PM his car was here to take him to the airport. Half and hour later M.A. showed up unexpectedly and we grabbed a few beers and went to the roofdeck to enjoy the magnificent view/weather. He left about an hour and 10 beers ago. Tomorrow I am picking up my new Nokia 3650 phone, with digital camera!!!!!! I will probably open an account on some photoblogging site and start sending pictures! 3:03 AM Wednesday, June 25, 2003 The doctor visit was perplexing. I know Fuster is one of the best at what he does or at least one of the most recognized in his field, but according to hubby he is not the most talkative guy. I know a lot of people don't care about chitchatting with their physician. I know technical skills are supposed to be more important than social skills in this kind of setting yet I personally stay away from people who don't communicate. I don't like them, I don't trust them. They make me nervous and the last thing one needs is a doctor who makes you nervous. Fortunately J.P. does not seem to care that much. Although he did not find Fuster's personality exactly expansive, he did not find him rude either, just quiet. J.P. had some test done and is getting more tests done this morning (he is back at the hospital right now getting a heart PET scan). In a few weeks Fuster will call him with the results and hopefully some encouraging news regarding the possibilty of stopping or slowing down the disease. Yesterday I came upon a story about growing arteries out of a few cells that is very promising for somebody like J.P. whose next chance would otherwise be a heart transplant. 8:26 AM Tuesday, June 24, 2003 We spent the afternoon shopping at Century 21 and then went to Josie's on 3rd Ave. for a very early dinner. J.P. still managed to squeeze in a little nap before a 2.5 hours walk. First we crossed to the West side (and walked into a movie set complete with fake snow and poor extras dressed in warm winter clothes on a humid hot NYC night - the pace of a movie set drives me nuts! all the preparation for maybe ten seconds of taping and then acting the same ten seconds over and over and over again - I could never ever be an actor, I would be a basket case before the completion of the first scene!) and then followed the walkpath on the Hudon River, past Chelsea Piers, to the new segment of the Hudson River Park. It is beautiful and the night is gorgeus. J.P. has his doctor's appointment tomorrow. I have to get to the office for a short meeting which is a good thing as it will keep my mind off the problem. In the evening we are having dinner with Debra at Nino Positano's. 1:40 AM Monday, June 23, 2003  A movie set but no known actors
10:43 PM
Can't make the search work. I excluded a broken link but the crawling keeps stopping after a couple of pages. Argh! I feel like I am living with sleeping beauty. J.P. was fast asleep before 11 PM yesterday (in all fairness, he did say he would go out with me if I wanted to go out but he was barely alive so what was the point?) and is still sleeping now. I've been on the computer since 6 AM. The apartment is a royal mess with papers, magazines, receipts, envelopes, boxes scattered all over the floor. I know it will end up looking much tidier than before but right now it makes me want to scream. I am reaching for yesterday's unread New York Times ... 8:47 AM Sunday, June 22, 2003 Just added a search form to this blog. It's crawling only two pages at the moment and I have to troubleshoot it, but eventually I will have all the site indexed for free (if I keep it under 500 pages). I also have to find a solution for my archive links. They are taking too much real estate on this page. About 18 people showed up yesterday for dinner/drinks. M.A. (who, I have to announce with utmost regret, has started smoking again, the schmuck!) was in charge of cooking the octopus. He bitched and moaned about how inedible the thing was and how he could not possibly feed anybody something that unappetizing. All bullshit of course, just one of his low self-esteem moments. He made Spanish tortilla too and it was delicious. We polished off plenty of beer and wine bottles before turning to the tequila and the ron and the vodka. Amazingly not one of us was drunk, everybody had a soft little buzz. By 2 AM J.P.'s lack of sleep was severely impairing his coordination and he had to go to bed. Pilar, Miguel, M.A., Debra and I stayed on for another hour or so toying with the idea of going to Splash for some dancing. Needless to say the idea did not take. Today I woke up around 6 as usual. J.P. was still comatose so I went right back to sleep untill noon. We have now cleaned most of the post-party mess and he is organizing my papers and magazines. This is fine with me except that sooner or later he will want me to make some awful decisions as to what to throw out. At some point today we will hit the gym but we need to be home in time for tonight's premiere of Sex and the City. I also need to go out and get some videotapes to tape it for my HBO deprived friends. 2:59 PM Saturday, June 21, 2003 He called from the airport. Now that I know he is alive I can let the fury take over. I sure felt silly in my soft porn regalia. Not in the mood anymore. A quick shower and I am back in sweats. All I need is punching gloves. 10:44 AM J.P. should have landed at JFK at 6 AM and should have been home by 7.30 AM. It's past 10 AM now. I am sick with worry. I know the plane has landed. I checked. Given that he cannot be stuck in traffic for 3 hours it's either he missed his flight but boarded the one going through Miami, in which case he will be landing in NY at 10.30 AM, or he missed the plane period (in both cases I would have appreciated a phone call). He could also be lying dead in a ditch, but this scenario is a little less likely. I am now pondering whether to punch him senseless as soon as he crosses the door or to just get the hell out of the house and let him be greeted by nobody. Problem is I have a FreshDirect delivery scheduled for the 11AM-1PM slot and the cable guy coming between 12 and 4 PM. Shit! 10:15 AM Friday, June 20, 2003 Up since 6.30 AM and busy on the computer. Found two (one and two) interesting articles on blogging and its perils. As usual, there's also an inane comment from a shrink. 8:15 AM Worked late today. Very late. Mario helped me out with some difficult passages in a text. As usual, I am in awe of how much he knows and how easily he can communicate his knowledge. He should have a job as the official sage man and we should all go to him for assistance. The man is a pleasure to talk to and learn from. From the office we hit a neighbour's pub. Till now. As usual there was a lot of letting our guards down. Personally, I believe you either let you guard down or you are not worth knowing. Standing naked in front of people can be a very scary proposition. It's like handing them the weapon to finish you off. On the other hand, knowing people superficially and never ever getting to the nitty gritty is a major waste of time in my book and life is too short to waste any of it. J.P. should be here in a little over 24 hours. I am planning a dinner party on Satuday night and taking a few days off while he is here. By the way, I love this city. Time to turn on a meditation tape. Good nite. 1:03 AM Wednesday, June 18, 2003 I am not pissed anymore. Went out to Opal with M.A. Great music, great drinks, great conversation. Moved on to The Divine Bar. Great food, great drinks, great conversation. I went from totally wired up to totally mellow. Life is good again. Lets surf a while, then read a while, then sleep a while. 11:48 PM I am beyond pissed. Just work-related pissed but pissed nonetheless. Nothing more boring than shop talk or whining, so I won't go into details, but I would gladly smack somebody right now. 5:32 PM Tuesday, June 17, 2003 Debra just popped in with a bottle of wine. She is now going for her physical therapy around the corner and coming back to finish the wine and eat some salad. Quiet evening at home. Might catch a movie. 9:37 PM Plans were to meet a couple of colleagues at Bryant Park at about 6.30 PM for the Broadway Under the Stars evening but I never made it. I went to Pilar's first to fine tune her cable reception and ended up staying until 1.30 AM. We just talked, and ordered in some Japanese food, and talked some more. I just hope I can be of any help. I am practically done reading A Million Little Pieces and today I bought The Language Police. I can't wait to start reading it. I also bought Jumpstart your metabolism and flipping through it I saw the author mentions Tony Robbins several times and recommends the breathing exercise he endorses. It sure can't hurt. 2:30 AM Monday, June 16, 2003 Back from Pascale and Johanny's party. Had a blast. Danced until breathless, as usual (check out the guys doing their thing). I met her parents. Loved her dad, who kept filling my glass with red wine. They even took me apart and gave me a little present, a beautiful Lapis Lazuli pillbox, for taking care of their daughter. I tried to explain it was really a very easy thing to do, given that they have a wonderful daughter, but I still enjoyed the present, a lot. 1:17 AM Sunday, June 15, 2003 There! I stayed home today. And I am bored out of my mind. I went our for maybe a couple of hours to get to the hairdresser (new hairdresser - hated the place, loved the haircut) and get my umbrella stolen by a trio of silly sixteen years old in the process. That's all the action I had today. I am ready to jump out of the window. The less you do the less you want to do, so I did not even bother doing the stuff I should be doing, like writing a couple of papers for work and a short essay for Julie. Also, the house feels so empty now that Virginia and Sergio are gone. Generally, I like to have guests over, but some guests are more enjoyable than others. They were very enjoyable. Friendly, fun, good mannered, and useful too. He did a lot of little repair jobs around the house AND he installed my wireless network. Thankfully I am taking Melissa out tomorrow afternoon and I am going to Pascale and Johanny's party in the evening. I just added HBO to my digital cable service and HBO on demand. I shall now proceed to have a Sex and the City all-night fest! 12:38 AM Saturday, June 14, 2003 It was Virginia's birthday yesterday and the plan was meeting a bunch of friends at Splash. We did not make it. As usual once we hit Opal we, the best intellects NYC has to offer, stayed there . The place is too close, too handy, the music is too good, so why bother going anywhere else? After about 6 hours on high heels sandals I was begging for a double amputation and had to take a cab for 4 blocks. My feet looked like a first stage case of elephantiasis. Yuk. Once home I vaguely remember getting the laptop ready to watch Sex and the City while Sergio and Virginia were going out again. Within two seconds I was asleep. V. and S. are now gone. Their shuttle van to the airport got here a couple of minutes ago. I have an appointment at the hair salon this afternoon and I will probably stay home tonight or venture out for a quick bite. The dinner party at home has been postponed for next Saturday. I am considering broadcasting it on a private channel on iVisit. 2:56 PM Friday, June 13, 2003 Jameson's on 2nd. Ave. between 51st and 52nd St.
8:40 PM
I am not good at promises. 12:17 AM Thursday, June 12, 2003 Tonight I am staying home, it's a promise. And I will drink only water. And I will not stay on the Internet till 3 AM. And I will not watch late late night reruns. I will relax. I will sleep. I will rest. I will relax. I will sleep. I will rest. I will relax. I will sleep. I will rest. 4:14 PM I wonder why I woke up at 6.30 AM when I fell asleep at 3 AM ... Yesterday M.A. and I went to �, a little bar on Crosby St. where they play and dance flamenco on Wednesdays. From � we went to the Zinc bar. I was not interested in paying to listen to jazz music since I don't like jazz music but the guy at the door told us we could go to the back room at no charge. The back room is gorgeus, cavernous and candlelit, complete with a big fat cat napping on a seat. Unfortunately there was just the two of us there, joined once by a waitress sneaking a puff away from her boss. Maybe I should rephrase this last sentence: it was not unfortunate that we were alone in the room as this does not really seem to have any impact on our ongoing conversation - crowded places, empty places, we gab non stop just about everywhere - but I do prefer to have people around, even if just as background noise and peripheral vision movement. We stayed for a while and eventually emerged on Houston again, went next door and peaked in at Madame X but the place was empty. By then Virginia and Sergio were finished with their Broadway show (they went to see La Boheme) and met us at the Morgans'. I liked the music and got to chat a bit with the DJ and to exchange e-mail addresses and URLs. She wanted me on her mailing list, I wanted her to check out my blog. We got back home at about 2 AM, after a stop at a deli to get food. So what can a true addict do at 2 AM after a round of bars? Pop in a Sex and the City dvd and fall asleep listening to Miranda complaining about her pregnancy. Today there's a gallery opening downtown but I might not go. I might stay home and veg out. The next few days are going to be busy: tomorrow it's dancing at Splash, Saturday I might have a dinner party at home and Sunday I am going to a party at Pascale's. 7:49 AM Wednesday, June 11, 2003 Live from �, first stop tonight
8:26 PM
They got there too late. The set was being dismantled. This night at about 11 PM we went to Beige with Bob. We almost did not get in. The bouncer took a look at me (OK, OK, I had overdone it - I forgot this was the Lower East Side and I was sporting my Charles Jourdan heels and my pashmina) and said it was a gay night and they were trying to get mostly men in (as opposed to matrons, I guess). I told him I might be a lesbian and Virginia might be my partner but he said his gaymeter was not picking up any signals. It took some pleading but eventually Bob got us in. First we had a couple of drinks (I sent back a strawberry martini because of lack of alcohol in it - the waitress tried to trick me into thinking it did in fact have alcohol but in the end she had to apologize profusely and bring me another batch) and dinner and then we moved over to the patio and the humongous crowd. Gay men packed everywhere. So packed you could not move. Inside music was playing but nobody was dancing. The place is OK, a little on the boring side for my taste. If this is "the" place to be on Tuesdays, I am really glad it's Wednesday now. 3:14 AM Tuesday, June 10, 2003 Sarah J. Parker is filming an episode of Sex and the City down at Leroy St. (according to a text message I've just received). The kids are hurrying downtown to check it out. 7:23 PM This is very cool. So far I have quite a few activity options open for tonight : Broadway show, film opening, drinks with a friend, happy hour with another bunch of friends, after theater bar or dancing ... Sergio bought a dsl router this morning and installed a wireless network at home. Now we can both surf at the same time, not to mention that I could start my own hotspot. 4:11 PM Took Bea and Sergio and Virginia for dinner at Ruby Foo's on Broadway (Times Square, not UWS). Bea looked and is amazing. She is now almost 79, has had several cancers, several mini strokes, was going blind, you name it, she had it and yet here she is, after a trip to Europe (she has a time share in Tuscany), she went back home to California and almost immediately shlepped over to NYC to attend some ceremony at her alma mater, Columbia University (she was a nurse in the pre-penicillin era). Three years ago she took a 10 days trip to China. Every year, she goes to London. She stays at nunneries, monasteries and dorms in colleges (the London School of Economics, among others). She says is cheaper and you meet interesting people. She exercises three times a week and takes current events classes twice a week. She trades stocks on line and she is addicted to Law and Order. Her sister in Florida is 82 and works full-time as a bookkeeper. You have to admire that kind of guts. After dinner we hanged out on Broadway and Virginia and I spent quite some time at Sephora. Now it's time for Sex and the City. 12:13 AM Monday, June 09, 2003 I stayed home all day, and so did Sergio and Virginia, but by 10.30 PM we were anxious to go out. I wanted to take them to the view bar at the Marriot Marquis but on our way there we found ourselves overtaken over by hundreds of people coming out of the Tony Awards ceremony and heading toward the same hotel. The bar was closed of course. We did see a few celebs (mainly the cast from "3rd rock from the Sun") and then decided to walk over to the Lincoln Center and then back again to Broadway. As it always seems to be the case with me it is now almost 3 AM and I am up and totally awake. I uploaded some pictures from Saturday's party. 2:54 AM Sunday, June 08, 2003 Bob's party was an enjoyable affair, as usual. At any given moment we were probably 25+ there, with an altogether attendance of 30 to 40 guests. Bob was vintage Bob. At a certain point he did not see Virginia was just behind him and started making comments to Sergio about how hot he is. Virginia laughed it off and from there on Bob was just all over Sergio. He was telling me today that he got cornered in the kitchen by Bob asking him is he's gay. When he said no Bob turned to Melanie and shouted "I told you so" to her. But then he asked Sergio if he was with the dark haired bombshell. He said yes and Bob turned to Melanie again and told her to forget it, that she could not possibly compete against Virginia. Melanie should be kept on a suicidal watch today. Eddie cooked up a storm, delicious gourmet asian dishes. When he was not cooking he was cleaning the kitchen. Poor man, and it was his birthday party too! Not only can he cook, he also has the biceps to look good stirring a casserole. And he is the sweetest. But gay, of course. Michele Maher, the writer/producer/director of the movie Garmento was there too, showing the padded men's underwear from the movie. I did not get to talk to her but I did admire her magnificently cut chin lenght, chunky hairlighted hair. I wanna! I wanna! I got to talk to Jennifer, a girl I think I have met previously. She told me she has just moved into my neighbourhood from the East Village and that she was looking for people to go out and explore 2nd Ave. Everything went smoothly until I ruined it when we where talking with her and Sergio about formal education and the subject of MBAs came up. I just had to say MBAs are useless. It so happens that she has an MBA, of course. Not happy with my first jab, I went on to remark that she is an employee, which proved my point that MBAs are good to produce employees, not entrepreneurs. I am afraid my stance could have been constructed as me telling her she's a loser, which was not my intention at all. I actually like the girl. I also got to talk a bit to Caroline, but I was not in a patient mood yesterday so I dropped her fast. I spent time with Randy and Vivienne, and keep confirming my idea that marriage changed Vivienne in the best of ways. She seems so genuily happy and content. She should be, he is a great guy. I told Randy I really like his art (he is a painter), which happens to be true. Vivienne is now creating earrings. I met Sandra's son, and his boyfriend. The son is eerily femenine and the boyfriend is full of crap. Good looking crap but crap nonetheless. He's very young and into politics. Very full of himself. Somebody told him where I worked and he said that I should pray for him not to be elected President because we would cut all the funds and get the U.N. to shut down. I reminded him we have been doing fine without much U.S. dollars for a while now. Then he said something about getting to be councilman in five or six years and Debra and just went "big fucking deal" in our minds. He's also the kind of ass that will make remarks like "It's hard to not get bumped by people here when you are very broadshouldered". Why do politics attract this kind of jerks? There was this guy from Boston, originally from Luxembourg. He is an artist. I know a scrapbook of his was circulating and I know he has received great critiques but for the life of me I can't remember what exactly does he do. There were lots of other people too, some I know, some I do not and had not a chance to talk to. There was this Asian doctor with his generic blond fiancee (well, he admitted she's not a real blond, like we did not know) and the other birthday girl (she seemed nice enough in her very artsy-Paris-existentialist way but not my kind of person at all). There were also several weird looking gay boys and a few fundamental Christians. Go figure the mix. At the end of the meeting Bob gave us his standard rendition of some Phantom of the Opera tunes, Jane played the piano and then another guy, whose name I can't remember but who seemed very nice, sang too. I audioblogged the singings and the Happy Birthday chorus, but it all got lost in cyberspace. Blogger.com is down. This post will have to wait. 3:41 PM Lost my audioblogs and the dirt on the party will have to wait until tomorrow. Right now we are positioning ourselves on my bed, with Sergio's PC and my speakers, ready for a a long session of watching Sex and the City on DVD. 2:03 AM Where are my audioblogs?????? Damn!!!!! 1:27 AM Saturday, June 07, 2003 There is one little piece of information I just have to share with the world: I WAS CARDED yesterday going into a bar! Not that it does not happy often. It does. Really. Lots of blind bouncers in this town. What made it special yesterday was that I got in and was actually called out to get my ID checked. A glorious moment that I just had to record for posterity. And the smile on the bouncer's face when he read my date of birth was one of those sights I will cherish forever. 6:12 PM Here we are after yet another night on the town. In a few minutes Debra will be here and the troops will start reassembling for our Saturday night plan: the world renowed party at Bob's. I somehow managed to look half human again. No praise is ever too much for make-up and spray-on highlights. Yesterday was fun. There was a bunch of us, all very different people, so the group kept getting smaller and smaller as the evening progressed. Something like 10 of us started with a drink at the Delegate's Lounge at the office. About seven of us moved on to the Sutton Bar. The terrace was full and we had to wait until our number was called. Differences in style and tastes were becoming evident by then: most people wanted to stay in the quite back room, M.A. and Virginia and I wanted to go for the "bain de foule" in the main upstairs room , where the music was blasting and the crowd was compact. We sort of split until we could go another flight up to the terrace. It was great up there, with some air for the nature inclined and lots of noise and people for the rest of us. From the Sutton Bar we went to the Divine bar (and lost Nicolas and Francia on the way) for some tapas and wine flights and from the Divine bar we headed to Opal's for some dancing (having lost Pilar in the meantime). Our plan included a late stop at Don't Tell Mama but we never made it there. On our way we lost Montse and the remaining of us walked a few blocks and then stopped and sat (well, some of us preferred to lay down) around this fountain on forthysomething and Park Ave. and just stayed and stayed and stayed, chatting and taking upside down pictures of our sourroundings. It was clear by then that the night was over. We hopped on a cab and came home, dropping M.A. along the way. Once at home Sergio went out again pizza hunting but came back empty handed. It was already past 3 AM and obviously no pizza place was open. Bea called this morning. She's in town for a week. We might go to see a Broadway show on Monday or Tuesday evening. Thought: a lot of people are aware of my blogging now and am I not sure I am comfortable with the idea. It's one thing to have perfect strangers take a peek at your life and it's an altogether different one to know that the people you interact with on a daily basis are reading all about you. As soon as you know you are going to be read, you start censoring yourself, both out of self-preservation and of not wanting to hurt anybody's feelings. In a way, you are covering your ass. You are also defeating the whole purpose of blogging. I do not want to limit my blog to a glorified calendar and in order to do so I have to first stop giving my blog address to whoever asks. This is not easy. To be perfectly honest, here again the motives are not clear cut: I can't say no because I like and want to be read and I can't say no because I do not want to be rude. Actually, I did say no once, to an older man at the office, I told him it was a private blog and he let it go at that. Maybe I should start a parallel blog, anonymous this time, and post it somewhere else. Around 3 AM on Park Ave.: Virginia and Sergio smile for the camera, I'd rather die than have a picture taken, so I swiftly pulled my coat over my head. M.A. ducked in. The picture was taken by Debra in a particularly sadistic moment.  5:48 PM Friday, June 06, 2003 A whole lotta noise from the Divine Bar10:53 PM Testing the audioblog
10:52 PM
Something funny happens with sleep. It can suddenly disappear. After work I met M.A. for a drink at Mika Bar, then Sergio and Virginia joined, then M.A. left and we headed to Opal's. As usual, I stopped drinking and started dancing. Mmm ... I have a meeting relatively early tomorrow ... and I am not sleepy now ... 12:50 AM Thursday, June 05, 2003 I might not have been the one cooking yesterday, but I am certainly the one falling asleep today. 3:56 PM Wednesday, June 04, 2003 Seems a lot of people have been invited over for dinner at my place. Luckily, I am not the one cooking. 8:27 PM The whole gang is here now. Sergio and Virginia arrived a little after 6 PM. They both look great, especially Virginia, who has lost the round baby look and has blossomed into a very pretty young woman. It's good to see them. We were reminiscing about how we met and all, years ago. He was in Uruguay at the time and had a webpage with the same Internet provider I was using. I found the page, liked what I saw and sent him an e-mail. We started e-mailing and then I invited him to my birthday party over at my parents' . We saw quite a lot of each other after that. There was the time when Virginia and him and my sister and I went to Buenos Aires together. And the time Sergio and I prepared a mean chili con carne for a food competition at the house of the Embassy's Marines. A couple of years later I met Sergio's family in Seal Beach, CA. and spent a 4th of July on his boat off Catalina Island. So you see you do met regular people on the Net. They are not all necessarily ax murderers. Debra joined us for dinner tonight, and Pam joined us after dinner. Three bottles of wine later, it's time to call it a night. 12:31 AM Tuesday, June 03, 2003 I was up at 6.30 AM. Correct that. I was somewhat conscious at 6.30 AM. I kept looking at the watch and hoping they will not call so I could sleep more. Instead of sleeping I read. Some. And then I slept a little more. Now I am finally fully awake and ready to start the day. Somebody from Speakeasy or sent by them should come this morning to check my phone lines. My DSL connection sucks and I am ready to take them to small claims court if they don't get it right this time. 8:50 AM It was the UES, not the UWS. After a quick drink with M.A. after work, Pam and I headed uptown. We had a wonderful vegetarian dinner in this small funky apartment. The hosts were a true New Yorker and an Iranian guy who looks like an Indian guru and has lived - or was he raised? - in Switzerland. She is an attorney, he is an architect. There was also Neils, a German architect, and another guy, another a true New Yorker, who does technical work for television and the theater. I thought it was going to end in a bloodbath because the host and I had extremely different views on just about anything. Still, I liked the way he did not back down and I liked his sense of humor and the fact that he understood my confrontational ways. Also, the guy owns 18 Macs. He can't be all bad. He ended up telling me I was like an open book and when I said I was not sure that was a compliment, he assured me it was, and told me the world needs more people like me. So now I am bragging, and I blogging the compliment for the world to read. We hit it off, and they are calling me tomorrow at 6.30 AM so I can join them for a yoga class at 8 AM. It's almost 2 AM so I'd better try to sleep some. 1:45 AM Monday, June 02, 2003 Pam has just come back from the supermarket and from meeting a neighbour a mine, a young mother from Iran. She speak little English and know no one in town, which prompted Pam to tell how friendly I am and that she should call me. By the way, we are having dinner at some Iranian couple's place tonight, with Pam's German friend. They are all vegetarian and we are supposed to cook together up at their place in the UWS. 6:53 PM Things are speeding up. Pilar arrived yesterday and I spent the afternoon wih her and Mario. Picked her up at the airport, got lost in the process, had lunch at a Chilean restaurant in New Jersey, went shopping at Whole Foods and finally got back home around 9 PM. Today I waited for Pam to arrive from D.C. and then we went to pick-up Melissa , had lunch with her, went to the movies (Bruce Almighty, mildly funny, if you can stand James Carrey but then again, we had no choice: Finding Nemo was sold out) and then shopped a little bit downtown, before coming home. On our way home Pam and I stopped at the Gramercy Hotel bar for a Cosmoplitan but no fishies - Pam was crushed - the place has a new owner and the fishies are gone . We had almost organized a Pictionary game for tonight but it was not meant to be. We might do it tomorrow evening or Tuesday night. M.A. changed his plans and flew in today instead of yesterday. I spoke with him on the phone but I will not see him until tomorrow. Neils, Pam's friend, is in town too. Sergio and Virginia are coming on Tuesday. I am going to be busy. I need time to finish the book! Sometimes I wished I had to commute, just so I could have time to read ... 12:30 AM |
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