The most amazing of weird things
Uh, I found a video of Alison Goldfrapp making a cake. Thanks, YouTube!
Love,
Nick
Uh, I found a video of Alison Goldfrapp making a cake. Thanks, YouTube!
Love,
Nick
The most important thing I’d say if I went to Germany:
Kellnerin! Ich brauche Brot und Bier schnellstmoglich! Ich musste einkaufen gehen!
Today, Shannon asked me to help her brainstorm an adjective to describe the Chester River. My instructions were that it had to be a real adjective and not negative. Our conversation went something like this:
Nick: Mind-blowing.
Shannon: ummm
maybe i just won’t use an adjective
Nick: The most incredible river you’ve ever seen! The fish walk on land and drive little French cars! The birds have tiny top hats and make you dinner when you are feeling unwell! The boats are covered in platinum and run only on the sound of children playing!
Shannon: are you on drugs?
Nick: It’s possible, but unlikely.
So, Clyde and I were made refugees from our apartment last night by a gas leak. It seemed like a good idea to pack up and head to Kate’s when I started getting nauseous and developed a roaring headache. For his part, Clyde mostly just kept eating in the face of impending doom. In any case, after lots of running, odd noises, kitty death noises and countless hours of his unreturned singing, Clyde and Bella seem to have come to an understanding. Of note about this photo: by putting Clyde three feet from Bella, one can create the illusion that they are the same size. They are not.
I just wanted to share with you something that’s been brightening my days every single time I see it:
As you can see, it’s my dining table. However, I feel that I finally got it right with this latest iteration. I snagged a tulip on my latest outing and have created my own shrine to spring…maybe it will come faster? Anyway, it seems that right before I move from a place, I finally figure out how to make it looks its best. At least that’s my thinking…
For this past week, I’ve been having very unusual dreams. Starting with last weekend, actually. I’ve decided to post a dream log and will continue to do so until these unusual night time visions come to a rest. Warning: at least one dream is not for the faint of heart. Seriously.
This evening Kate and I spent quite a bit of time taking new photos of her for the Lit House website and just to have as headshots. Just wanted to report, by photo, that I’m one of the luckiest guys in the world:
Yesterday afternoon and into the evening, I helped Shannon move back into her building of 3000 flags. We cleaned the ceiling fans, unpacked boxes of kitchenwares, scrubbed down a totally grotesque toilet – the usual new apartment stuff. After a few hours of such activities, our attention turned to pizza and Riesling and sitting down at a table. So we rustled up quarters and singles, called Dominoes and rejoiced at the arrival of our delicious pie (the Riesling having already been opened an hour in advance.)
What started as a food break quickly turned into an actual sobremesa of chatter. The topic was, of course, life in the city versus life in the country. This is a common thread in most conversations I’ve had of late and was most definitely brought on by my return from Philadelphia. As I was explaining the sheer joy I feel at knowing there are so many people living and dying at every moment in such a densely populated place as a city, Shannon was simultaneously describing the crushing weight of sensing millions of thoughts all at once. It seems odd that we would both come to the same conclusion as to what makes the city good/bad on the first try.
I guess I wonder what this psychic cacophony means to other people. Does anyone else sense inherently the presence or absence of a population? Good or bad? Could this be the basic difference between people that prefer to live in a rural setting or an urban setting?
If you’d have told me just a few years ago I’d actually enjoy coming to this city so close to New Jersey, you would have received nothing but a hearty belly laugh. But, driving in today on I-95 (the speed limit there, too, no?) I experienced, again, a chill up my spine when the Philadelphia skyline peaked over the horizon. Though it’s dangerously near to the Garden State, apparently full of unattractive people (read) and full of god awful attitudes, this place has become a new second home over the last few months. I will say that Chestertown gets bonus points in my book for having the good sense to be only an hour and ten minutes or so away!
So, you may ask, why am I here again? Well, today began the twice-canceled final two days of my InDesign training. Since I’m the only person in my class, it was a really great one on one session with the instructor. We mostly went over things that she finds really useful in the print preparation process and ways in which Acrobat can be used to aid in the tasks related to sending your jobs to press. It was very informative and, if nothing else, gave me a good vocabulary for talking with printers in the future. We even took lunch together today and probably will again tomorrow.
This trip very nicely coincides with my birthday, which is tomorrow. Kate’s coming up in the evening to go out to dinner. We have a reservation at Susanna Foo, which comes highly recommended by Lindsie. Afterwards, if it’s not too late, we may check out art supplies or save the shopping for the morning. Hopefully, Saturday afternoon will be spent at the residence of Ms. Weaver and maybe out and about for a little East Falls exploring.
And, I must say, I’m really stoked about the great deal I found on my room for this entire affair. For the same price as the somewhat disappointing and less convenient (for walking) hotel of last time, I’m staying at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel. I didn’t actually read the history of the building, but there is a grand marble corridor leading you to the lobby, completed with a large bank vault door at the end. The hallways and rooms are totally Art Deco and the entire effect is something out of a film noir meets The Matrix. And the views! I lucked into a corner room and, uh, wow:
And, of course, I had to spend at least a good portion of my first evening here shopping. I made it to H&M, Zara, Diesel, Urban, and Puma without even getting lost. Granted, they are all on the same side of one street, but still!
Departing this afternoon was very nearly the stupidest idea I’ve ever embarked upon. When I parked my car six hours later, it looked as if I had driven Klaus into the murkiest part of a secluded swamp. I wonder what the Eastern Shore drivers thought had happened to this speeding silver VW? Why was this the case? Well, the first two hours of my trip looked something like this:
That’s right, a fucking blizzard. It cleared by Altoona, but spending an extra half hour trying to get to I-80 because I couldn’t make it up the last hill before the main road really set the tone for this entire journey.