the move: part dos

so after az and i rolled up to the apartment, angie b. came and helped us unload. shortly thereafter, sarah s. showed up and finally we were joined by nikki c. they were all so helpful. angie even got whacked in the eye by my bike. ugh.

so after we had everything inside, sarah took us to return the truck and then we all went out to dinner at some chain-ish italian restaurant. i was so hungry and tired, it didn't really matter what i ate, but it was pretty good. then sarah dropped me and az off and seriously, we made enough room in the dining room to lay down and we fell asleep for a couple of hours. then wegot up and did some work. we both slept like babies that night.

on monday morning, we got up and took the bus to crescent moon. az ate not one, not two, but FOUR eggs. and then some pancakes and bacon. i ate a veggie heap and drank a delish glass of grapefruit juice. from there we walked to natural body to see if they had massage appointments for later that day. they did indeed. we rejoiced. then we hopped on the marta to the georgia aquarium. az was really amped to see all the fish and i was amped to see him see all the fish. its a really cool place yall. hella expensive to get in ($24) and it kind of looks like a mall, but there are some really cool parts. here are some photos of it (this is mostly to remind az and entice ali):

at the beginning there is just this wall of fish. here is az in front of it:



at the beginning you can also take a picture with the aquarium's mascot named "deepo" who looks *very* similar to nemo. i mostly took this pic for rowan. she loves nemo.



one cool attraction is the beluga whale tank. here is a pic of some baby belugas:



there is also this walkway of fish. basically it is as if they cut a tunnel through a fish tank and you get to walk through it. here is one with az in that walkway:



my favorite in this tank was the stingray. it looks like he is smiling:



the most breathtaking thing there was this huge tropical tank. it holds something like 6 million gallons of water. its bonkers. here are two pics of it:





i like this pic of a turtle b/c it looks like she is doing yoga:



and lastly, here is me and az after three hours at the aquarium:



after the aquarium we headed home, doing a little grocery shopping on the way, then chilled and headed back up to decatur to get our massages. we planned on taking the bus both ways but it never came so we walked. az was really done with walking after a day of walking in brooklyn before we moved and then lots of walking once we got to atlanta.

our massages were divine. both of us used the term "jacked up" to describe different body parts to our massage ladies (him describing his shoulder, me describing my lower back). it was a totally decadent and luxurious thing to do and we both loved it. all oiled up and glowing, we headed home, got some willy's burritos, ate and then probably went to bed.

the next day we did some shopping at the ace hardware and rainbow foods and ran into dawn at the chocolatte. i took the marta to the airport with az to see him off later that day. it was so great to have him here and i was very lonely once he left.

i had a huge day today and i am exhausted. i will try to blog and post pics tomorrow.
good night.

the move: part uno

so, i officially live in georgia again. after two long weeks of driving and planning and worrying, we are, for the most part, set up in our apartment back in atlanta. but before i speak of the present, let me tell you about the past.

while there has been much planning to get all this in place, i will begin with two thursdays ago when jes and i hopped in seafoam and drove out to maple leaf, new jersey to pick up a penske moving truck. it was a brand new yellow truck with only 191 miles on it. it cost us about a million dollars in tolls to get there and back, but whatevs, going to jersey saved us a lot of money on the actual rental. so as we are pulling up in front of our apartment (me in the van, jes in our car) i call jes and ask her where she thinks i should park it. as we begin to discuss the pros and cons of 17th street vs. 8th avenue, a lightbulb comes on over jes's head and she realizes that we probably can not park the van ANYWHERE on ANY STREET in brooklyn. so she quickly goes inside the apartment, looks it up, and lo and behold there is no commercial truck parking allowed ANYWHERE in new york city (including its buroughs. good times. jes starts to panic a bit and i start thinking of all the businesses we use around our neighborhood and which ones might let us park in their parking lot. over our years in brooklyn we developed a pretty good relationship with the dudes at pep boys, so i suggest that. she hops in little miss sunshine (what i named the yellow van) and we head out to pep boys.

luckily when i approach the desk, one of our friends (a guy who has helped us before) is working. i ask him how he is, he says he is hungry. i explain my dilemma about having the truck for two more nights before we load it up and he says we can park it in his lot no problem. so to thank him and his coworker that also agreed it was ok, jes and i go and get them each baked ziti and then a small cheese pizza. we also get them an orange juice and a chocolate milk (of all the drinks out there, that is what they requested). i think they were very surprised by our kindness. i was thrilled by theirs. as we walked home, i told jes that on that day, i loved new york.

we checked on the truck every day and it was absolutely fine. no break ins, and more importantly, no grafitti tagging. that is what i was most worried about. on saturday morning, at the ass crack of dawn, az and i walked over to the pep boys and picked up the truck, then we picked up ali and headed to the apartment. it was warm and sunny when we got started moving stuff at 7:30am. from the beginning, i was worried the truck was going to be too small. jes didn't start to worry until half way through, az got worried about 3/4 of the way through. basically jes stayed in the truck and organized stuff while the rest of us brought her things. when kim arrived, az joined jes in a very serious game of moving truck tetris. the cats were locked up in the back bedroom and they were pissed. around 9 or 10 i did a bagel sammie run with ali, we all took a break and ate. the entire truck was packed up by 10:30am. I took a shower, kissed the kitties and by 11:30am, az and i were on the road to atlanta.

here are some pictures of the truck packed to the gills:





and here is a pic of ali and kim, working it out:



we drove to high point, north carolina on the first day (apparently this is the home of fantasia barrino of american idol fame- who knew) and spent the night at a hotel there. it felt great to stop driving, eat a nice sammie and watch the sopranos. after that, az watched sports center (imagine that) and i fell the hell asleep. we were up and out by 8 or 9am the next morning and we rolled into atlanta around 2:30pm on sunday. the drive was lovely, weather warm and clear, and we laughed and talked a lot. i borrowed some black wrist bands with skulls on them from jes and both az and i wore one. they were our special moving bands. the skull looked a little like the skull from the posters of the movie "the punisher" so az said we were the FUNishers b/c we were having so much fun. here is a pic of him showing off his band (and his bulging bicep):



when i was getting tired in the passenger seat, az suggested i use his neck pillow. its the kind you have to blow up yourself. lets just say i had some difficulties getting it blown up and put back in its soft cozy fleece cover. az was disgusted by how inept i was. i thought i should at least get a pic of me with it inflated and on:



now the first pic i took of me with the pillow on, i had like twelve chins, so i deleted it and took this one. az looked at it and asked why i cocked my head like that, and i was like "to avoid having a double chin." he said i should put the camera up high next time instead of my chin b/c my expression makes me look "hard" (like a tough guy). i mean nothing really says "hard" like a neck pillow, don't you think?

ok tomorrow or the next day i will report on our first few days in atlanta together. i have lots of pics. good night.

miscellany

so i know it has been quite some time since i blogged. this is in a large part due to the fact that "we" have moved back to atlanta. i put the "we" in quotes because really just me and the cats have moved while jes stays in brooklyn to take her finals. i have much to report, but before i do, here are three cute pictures and short anecdotes that accompany them.

1. flowers: here is a picture of the lovely flowers that mary and dusty sent me after i turned in my dissertation. they were fragrant and divine.



i am a really a sucker for fresh cut flowers. they are such a luxury.

2. termites: the last two weeks in our apartment in brooklyn we were swarmed with termites. it was in large part b/c of all the rain we were having. they would literally pour out of the floor boards and based boards, some flying up and driving horace bonkers, then an hour later all their wings would fall off and then would take off and fuck. really that is what they were doing. one morning i found a whole lot of them floating dead in the cats water bowl. good times.



3. one of the cutest pictures ever: az flew into new york from chicago to help us load up the truck and drive it down to atlanta with me. he got in on thursday night, and on friday it was warm and sunny and lovely. we met jes over at the brooklyn botanic gardens. i am a tool, and forgot my camera, so he is going to send me pics and when he does, i will post them. the gardens were amazing. so serene and lovely. we got to bonsai and a japanese garden and lots of turtles sunning their buns. my favorite "house" of plants was the tropical. they were so fragrant and vibrant. they inspired me to have more plants in our apartment in atlanta. it will be a slow process, but i am excited nonetheless. anywho that night larry was loving on az. first he just had his paw on az's shoulder, but by the end he was full out snuggling with az. too bad he makes az sneeze. here is a pic of the cross species boylove:



now, without further ado, let me move on to stories of the move down south.

some people i love

this rain has got me down yall
so i thought i would post some pics that have been hanging out on my desktop of folks i love
and then they will be archived in the blog.

first up is mary, dusty and their wonder dog, davis:



next is eden, the very adorable daughter of sile and erin:



and last, but certainly not least, is ru ru the wonder dog in her easter bunny drag:



now if that doesn't make a dreary monday better, what will?

some funny shit yall

yall HAVE to watch this
it was posted on this blog i read and i almost wet my pants watching it

here is the link:

http://funnyordie.com/v1/view_video.php?viewkey=3efbc24c7d2583be6925

i mean i love me some will ferrell but this puts it over the edge

enjoy!

for the record

that last picture is PINK
not avril lavinge (or however you spell it)
i mean please people
give me more credit than that
is avril even 21 yet?

thank you sweet jesus

for this:




i mean really if she worked at the pep boys on 4th avenue, i might not mind taking in the saturn to get an oil change every 3,000 miles. okay????

these last few weeks...

i have really just been relishing time with my new york friends, applying for jobs, watching a lot of TLC and doing a little shopping here and there. for the most part the weather has been really cold and i hate it, but jes says that it is supposed to start warming up this week. we'll see if that happens.

so last weekend jes and ali and i went out to the target by jfk. it was supposed to be a quick trip to just get a few things and b/c we are the three most spontaneous people in the world (not really we are all serious PLANNERS), it ending up taking us hours as we hopped from target to staples to old navy. i got a new pair of jeans at target and i am thrilled with them. they are a dark wash, the right size in the body and legs, but way too long, so for now i fold them over and let the sidewalk wear away at them. eventually they will start to tear and i can just rip off the part of the bottom i don't need. or maybe i will get crazy and have them altered. i just think its cheaper to let the sidewalk do it.

at old navy we all tried on a lots of clothes. ali bought three things and only one was black (for those of you who don't know she pretty much only wears black). jes and i got a bunch of stuff we can share like two pair of boy shorts, two polos, a button down linen shirt that would be good for work or play and then jes got this real nice brown leather belt. i wasn't feeling great that day so when we got back, i took an amazing three hour nap and jes and ali went to barcade and played video games. ali had never been and she loved it.

some time last week we also went with supper club folks to this new restaurant in north slope called chiles & chocolate. it is authentic oaxacan mexican food and i thought it was really good. the guacamole was good, but the portion was small, and i got some sopa de tortilla y pollo (chicken tortilla soup) and it was DIVINE. jes loved it too. she got something called enchiladas xoxo. they were chicken with mole sauce and they were pretty good the night she got them but they were DIVINE the next afternoon for lunch as left overs. i was seriously floored at how much better they were the next day. glennda got chicken with mole, kim got chicken quesadillas and ali got some veggie plate something. they all thought their food was ok, but they were not overwhelmed with joy over it. after dinner we went back to ali's and played a mean game of apples to apples. i think that all three of them are sufficiently hooked on the game which is great. i look forward to playing it again with them some time soon. i can't remember who won, i think it was kim or glennda.

last monday kim and ali joined jes, me, christian and steph at nowhere (a bar in the city) to play wii, that video game system where you hold a wand and actually play the sport. we had played with christian the week before and i was immediately hooked. ali had played before but kim hadn't, nor had steph. everyone was hooked by the end. i still like tennis the best. jes and christian still played tennis with a beer in their hand (nice) and i tried a new drink called a kamikaze. its buy one get one free and i wanted something fruity, but not too sweet and sort of fizzy and refreshing. it really hit the spizzot. i think we might meet up again tomorrow night to start a sort of wii playing league.

yesterday jes and i went into the city to turn in some of her old cell phones to the body shop. they donate them to the national coalition against domestic violence. i think they give them to women who are in abusive relationships so they have a safe way to call 911 if their partners are threatening them. i am sure i got that wrong, ali can comment and correct me. anywho, we turned those in and then went shopping for nicole's birthday which is in a week or two. it was kind of fun. we also looked at shoes. both jes and i have been looking for this certain type of adidas and i think she was looking for a nice affordable pair of slip ons too for the summer. we didn't buy any shoes, but again, it was kind of fun to look. i can handle the city on the weekends in small doses, and luckily i was dressed warm enough b/c it was cold again.

then last night jes and i took the bus up to the brooklyn museum of art where ali and glennda met us (kim was in staten island with her familia) for first saturday. this is a free event every first saturday of the month sponsored by target. the theme for this time was feminist art (YEAH FOR FEMINISTS). we got to see all this amazing art by feminists (my favorite was the photograph by cass bird that i think is titled "i look like my daddy"). what we did not get to see b/c it was booked solid was the dinner table by judy chicago. jes and i are going to try and see it this week or next. after we looked at the art, we went to the dance party that was deejayed by jd who used to be in le tigre. she was spinning all kinds of old school stuff from aretha to salt n pepa and there was all kinds of people cutting a rug. i mean all kinds. old folks and young toddlers, straight families, queers, people of all races and abilities. it was seriously the most diverse environment i think i have been in maybe ever. sort of like if the subway just got dumped in a room. anywho it was so great b/c everyone was having such a great time and all these little kids were running around and just going bonkers b/c they felt so free. it made me really, really happy. after that, g & a went and got some food and me and jes went to carroll gardens to say happy birthday to her classmate max (wolverine max not bike max) who just turned thirty. bless his heart.

along with miami ink, i have fallen in love with this other tv show called "little people, big world" about this family in oregon called the roloffs. the mom and dad are both little people (formerly known as "dwarfs") and they own this farm (and the mom is a teacher too i think) and then they have four kids. the oldest are twin boys who are 16, one is average size and the other is a little person. then they have a girl who is like 11, who is average size, and a boy who is maybe 8 and is also average size. ali told me about it and i watched it and now i am hooked. i tivoed six episodes and she came over today and we watched them. it is by far my new favorite show.

we have also watched a few movies over the last few weeks. they are:

1. the namesake. saw this at BAM with the bambucks higgins got us. it stars kal penn (of harold and kumar fame) and i loved it. about a south asian (indian) family that moves to new york and what is it like to navigate indian and american identity at the same time. really great film. jes thought it was a tad too long. go see it or at least rent it. i love kal and the guy who plays the dad, and the woman who plays the mom is hot.

2. volver. watched it at glennda's on friday night. had no idea what it was about. was very surprised by the storyline and i loved it. first of all, penelope cruz is one of the most beautiful women in the world. she did an outstanding job in this (as did most of the actors) and she is also one of the prettiest cryers i have ever seen. it has subtitles, so if you don't like to read your movies, this ain't for you. but really you should rent it. pretty powerful stuff and very very funny in places.

3. the holiday. with cameron d. kate winslet, jack black and jude law. lots of pretty people in this movie. pretty predictable mainstream romance, but i still liked it a lot. pretty scenery, pretty people, good soundtrack, jack black is fucking hilarious, and so on. a good mindless movie to pick you up if you are blue.

4. babel. yeah so i have wanted to see this since it was in the theaters, but just never got to it. it came on netflix and i was so excited. dude that movie is INTENSE. it really focuses on several different stories that are interrelated (not just on brad pitt and cate blanchett like the commericals lead you to believe). there is some amazing acting and i was seriously stressed out and involved in each story. i would forget the other ones were happening b/c i was so engrossed on the one i was focusing on. i liked that it told the story of a young japanese woman who was deaf (how often is that a focus of a mainstream movie) but i wish she would have stopped flashing her parts to everyone. yeah you are intrigued and now you want to see it. do rent it, it's intense and fairly thoughtful.

as soon as jes finishes studying we are going to watch the good shepard. i love me some matt damon and angelina jolie. hope your easter and passover went well (if you celebrate them) and if not, hope your weekend was restful and divine.

peace.