tuesday.

today i decided to try 'working' from home. which i must say was more like, 'eating' from home. it occurs to me that i'd be very good at freelance eating. or full time eating, if i found the right place for my skill set. (my skill set, by the way, includes chewing, savoring, and twirling various foodstuffs on my fork).

there are many, many places for me to develop these skills in my neighborhood. there are dumplings and donuts and pizzas and potato pancakes and noodles and nachos enough to make any appetite keel over in ecstasy. that said, i also cook. i mean, sometimes you just want to be at home, eating from a plate, not a container.

but there hasn't been much time for cooking lately. work is (always) intense, and i've had a slew of visitors. funny, no one actually stayed with me for the first four months of my adventures here, and now all of a sudden they are coming at me from all sides. which is delightful, of course.i had one friend come in last weekend, and another stay on my couch sunday, and now another this thursday. it never rains, it pours, right? actually, it seems to do a lot of both here - but i've got me some knee high rubber boots and i'm ready to puddle jump.

and by that i mean, play hostess.

when errands turn random. or, errandoms.


tonight as i sat waiting for my nails to dry at the orchid garden (no orchids, not a garden), i closed my eyes briefly. not really to meditate or anything - though meditating at place called orchid garden would seem appropriate - just because i was sleepy.

when i opened my eyes, i noticed someone standing at the window. a tall, intense tattooed fellow in a black jacket, peered at me, then opened the door and came in. the conversation awkwardly plunked out, as follows:

"I just wanted to tell you, you're beautiful."

"Um...thank you."

"Here's my card. Just in case you ever want to go for coffee."

"Um..thank you."

and he was gone. i picked up the card, with my freshly painted nails (OPI cherry chick flick - worst name ever, and yet best, for this situation) and gazed in awe at the bizarre words. the job description on the card read 'shadow contractor". shadow contractor? what on earth (or other planetary entity) could it possibly mean?

when i left the salon, i realized he was, in fact, not gone at all, but was only a few steps ahead of me. and since he turned around, we were suddenly in stride, walking a few blocks together. the conversation continued on its plunking, merry way:

"So...where are you off to now?"

"Um, to pick up my laundry"

"Cool...I just moved back here from San Francisco"

"Cool...What were you doing there?"

"Oh...you know...the San Francisco art thing".

nope, i really didn't know.

but perhaps he came back because his shadow contract was up there?!

out there on the ice.

last weekend, i skated to work on a particularly nasty sunday. the sidewalks were amateur ice rinks, and my lack of grips and grace proved unfortunate. slip slip, crash! i wiped out on wooster. which sounds rather poetic, but really, was just awkward.

this weekend, it's not icy but it's triple size cold. minus a trillion, according to my internal thermometer. that might be a slightly inaccurate read, but it's really damn chilly out there in the arctic, i mean, city. last night i made the mistake of first walking home two miles in the evening in just stockings (well, not JUST stockings, i was also wearing clothes, but stockings are essentially bare legs) and then going out into the freeze to meet up with friends. we had a warming meal at joe's shanghai - these fascinating little dumplings that have soup in them, so you have to puncture them with your teeth and suck out the goodness. it was one of those bustling divey joints where they seat you at huge round tables with a bunch of strangers. we were only 3, so were joined by about 7 teenagers out on the town, and a couple trying to have a romantic dinner. how i love being constantly thrown together with randoms. i mean, even the people i was eating with, i met randomly, and have only known for a few months.

after, we (stupidly? bravely?) decided to walk over to bleecker & 6th from the heart of chinatown - normally not a bad stroll, but in the dead of winter, kind of dumb. chinatown at night is pretty amazing - the narrow streets full of exotic lights and signs are right out of a movie set. we were on our way to a show, and had to kill an hour before doors, so hit a little pub called peculier near the venue. as so often happens to me lately, i walked in and realized i'd been before, but at a time i didn't know the city, so had no context to place the place. we took a seat at the back, and sat and gawked at a group of khaki-clad bankers guffawing at their khaki-clad jokes. they all had this uniform, even beyond their clothes - flowing manes and jowls. and when i say jowls i mean JOWLS. these guys were probably 23 years old, and yet they had the easy-living jowls of 55 year olds. we could not stop staring. and giggling.

the show itself was a bit disappointing - the band - school of seven bells are hipster-critic darlings of the moment - so it was interesting to check out. but they walk a fine line between good and total crap - the good sounds like a more modern cocteau twins, the bad sounds like celtic music for the kind of people who commune with fairies. so, hit and miss. a dj set by the juan maclean before was a bit uninteresting too - but it was amusing to watch people rave out like it was 1994.

today i tried to do errands, but quickly retreated into the cocoon of my apartment. i did make a quick stop at abraco, my favorite coffee shop. i think i might have a crush on that place. i get giddy when i go in. it's just so small and cute and the people who work there are so friendly it hurts.

anyhow, this little recap of my life seems to have no point, except to say it's cold and life continues on its happy random way.

mid january already...09, how you promise to fly already.

an evening in tribeca.

as sophisticated as that may sound, it's not.

it just means i'm working late.

it is strange for me, foreign, to be up late on weeknights. i like early nights and early mornings - and this night owl business gets me a bit on the loopy side. i wonder how insomniacs can take it. there's something lonely about the middle of the night - the only sound is the buzzing and fuzzing of various machines and technological devices around me. the evening presses through the windows, as i click clack click clack away, like a sleepy, stuttering robot.

but never fear - soon i will pack up my things, and be off into the dark. the ride home is becoming an oddly comforting routine. hopping in a cab, sinking back into my seat, luxuriously, and watching the city speed by. ok, ok, it's actually more like me falling back into my seat, exhausted, and watching the city putter or zoom by me, depending on traffic, and listening to my cab driver bark into his mobile...

whatever it is, it gives me a few moments to reflect on another day in bizarro-world.

before i wake up and get ready to do it all over again.

a new year.

of note in my 09 life so far:

a sunny, windy friday, leaving the chelsea market. an old man ambles my way, and as he does, his tweed hat goes flying off his head. inspired by the extreme kindness of strangers here, i scramble for it, pick it up and hand it to him. smiling he says, 'i'm not as fast as i used to be'. it is only then that i notice he only has one arm - on his other side, an empty suit jacket sleeve waves forlornly in the breeze.

a merry saturday night. in between beers and bars, in search of a restroom, we pop into a little, unassuming pub on 7th. its walls are covered with medieval paintings, its patrons are a noisy bunch. until we walk in. someone yells "SHHHHH!!!!!" and everyone else joins in. the entire bar goes silent. we look at each other, caught somewhere between dumbfounded amazement and hysterical laughter. and just like that, everyone goes back to chatting. in line for the washroom, we decide to test these strange waters by starting a "SHHHHHHHHH" of our own. it works. everyone joins in, the entire bar goes quiet. google searches the next day uncovers a silly tradition started to communally moderate noise. ridiculous, and so very fitting in a city where every place and person feels the need to have a schtick.

finally, a bright and early sunday morning, popping out to grab coffee at my favorite little hole in the wall, and a croissant at the bakery on my block, i feel suddenly, for better or worse (but mostly better) that i am home.