Pennies in Glass Jars: D & E

Habits.

2009-09-27T08:55:00.000-04:00

...and so it begins.

Two?

2009-09-25T20:00:00.005-04:00

Today i sat through five hours of info sessions about the courtauld. It seems as though i only have two classes. Mondays at 2pm and wednesdays at 10 30am. It also seems as though i'll be living in the library. But only until 5pm cause that's when they all seem to close. I think two classes will take up a deceivingly large amount of time. Correct me if i'm wrong?

P.S. d, all the walls except the spiral staircase ones pictured above are

light seafoam green. It followed me across the ocean.

Werewolf Cupcakes

2009-09-25T11:56:00.002-04:00

Now this, I need. ASAP.

Echo, if you were here, you'd make these for me, right? With this recipe...

2009-09-24T10:06:00.002-04:00

Get home after work.

Drop bag.

Kick off shoes.

Change. Tie up hair. Take off bracelets.

Walk to kitchen. Open fridge. Find nothing. Close fridge.

Check email.

Check blogs.

Close eyes and sit in front of fan for ten seconds without thinking.

Return to kitchen. 'Make' a bowl of cereal.

Read Times, piece previewing this Fall's movie releases. Plan the next three months.

Take a moment.

Continue writing what you've been working on.

Get frustrated.

Watch an episode of the West Wing.

Continue writing.

Bed.

2009-09-23T15:14:00.002-04:00

Echo was in charge of the Pandora at the office. She's no longer at the office. Didn't realize we were listening to so much sad indie music. Imagine a bunch of brokenhearted dudes standing behind me with their guitars singing about girls with names like emma and josephine, singing about the Great Lakes or the color yellow, or the coffee stains on their coffee tables. I feel like country music is the new street cred. Imagine a bunch of indie dudes singing at the office, closing their eyes and really getting into it, you know, like maybe a couple of knee slaps along the way...and then....lil wayne jumps in, and shakes his dreads and shows us a big giant smile and throws his hands up in the air and high fives johnny cash and asks beirut to collaborate.

...different countries really.

2009-09-21T19:42:00.005-04:00

Dear D-

This is going to be a letter that debunks all of your theories of what i was doing. Instead of setting up my room i actually just stacked two big duffles full of my life in a little hotel room in Maida Vale, unpacking nothing, getting confused by the uk outlets. I move into my apartment on saturday. I have yet to take the tube, which means i have yet to get an oyster card, because everywhere we went today we walked to in the perfect 60 degree breezy weather. Also, i have to enroll at school before i can get the oyster anyway. There has been no cadbury, actually, there has been no sweets at all. Not even wine gums. Instead upon arrival at j's i was served tea and toast, followed by a massive spread of lebanese food j and i got on a whim because it was across from where we were picking up two packs of diapers. I am starving and too zombie like to move out of bed because i didn't sleep on the plane (oops), but perhaps there will be a pub in my future tomorrow, maybe not though, i do have a year to go to them.

All of this said, you were right about the phone, it's tiny and it's pink, and it is about as low tech as you get, and i love it. Hip hip hooray.

-E

...and now we are on different coasts.

2009-09-21T10:30:00.003-04:00

dear e,

oh HEY! across the atlantic!
this is what i imagine you already doing: setting up your room, your phone, your oyster card, maybe you've already indulged in something cadbury.
my first day in england happened and ended in a pub. and i think you should do the same. a pint'll put you nicely to bed, lade.
tait might have gotten into a bar fight last night.
rach and i had a 48 hour hangover.
and our neighbors planted flowers outside our apartment for the fall.
everyone's doing their thang. can't wait to hear about the place you buy some strange spread for toast in the mornings.

i only started liking marmalade when i started drinking wine,
my mama used to read peter rabbit to my brother and i,
maybe you'll start saying vitamin the way i do: vi-TA-minnnnnnn.

and remember, they put red dye in pgtips. and remember, subways don't run all night.

lovingly,

d

London Calling.

2009-09-18T11:03:00.004-04:00

There are many many things i can't wait to do in London, but pretty high up there is going to Liberty. Something about browsing in a store with big old wooden staircases really does it for me, not to mention i'm in love with all of their prints.

Onward!

2009-09-13T23:13:00.004-04:00

The brief "post-college" life is about to end for me in seven days. Seven days and i'll be embarking on the journey across the atlantic, starting school all over again. Although, instead of four years to learn from professors, this time i'll only have nine hectic months. Once again i'll have to learn the ins and outs of where class rooms are, and exactly how long it will take me to get from my apartment to class, and what kinds of notebooks will suit my fiendish note-taking needs. This time instead of under grad it's for a masters, and that is still completely hard for me to get a hold of. I have a stack of books that need reading before my class starts, a suitcase that needs packing, and over seas cell phone and oyster cards that need buying. Onward onto the next adventure!

Pretty Pretty.

2009-09-11T13:45:00.000-04:00

2009-09-02T11:12:00.002-04:00

summer gone. autumn near.

popped balloons and falling leaves.

BYE BYE, E.

2009-08-27T15:46:00.002-04:00

She's leaving. Balloons on the roof tomorrow for the farewell! Getternice&sauced, yeah?

New Kids on the Block.

2009-08-23T21:58:00.003-04:00

This saturday durga's street had a block party with all the trappings one would think you'd have. Beers were poured into pink cups, while barbeque wafted down the street, double dutch was played and moon bounces were hopped on, puppies ran around and the whole block was out.

Friends & Dinner. Dinner & Friends.

2009-08-23T21:51:00.004-04:00

In the past two weeks i've been lucky enough to go to three dinner parties. Each distinct and each charming in its own way. One in PA, one in NJ, one in NY. Backyards, boathouses, canals, and park views. Curries, cous cous, roast chickens, corn on the cob, salads, coconut cakes, ice cream, pastries and wine all around.

Remember When?

2009-08-19T12:15:00.003-04:00

This brings back memories of living in Paris. Most of the time French people look devastatingly composed and beautiful, but sometimes they just look downright silly.

On Going Home Maybe

2009-08-18T15:09:00.003-04:00

Back to basics.

Summer Eats.

2009-08-10T23:36:00.003-04:00

In the summer, food and drink are good, but the company is better.

Papa Was A Rolling Stone

2009-08-10T11:46:00.003-04:00

Waiting for the Pops at Penn.

Going for a walk in my hood.

He remembers his PBR days. And other similar things that make his entire face wink.

We eat breakfast at midnight. And order on the rocks at noon.

These days with my Pops, every day feels like playing hooky.

A bevie, please?

2009-08-06T13:30:00.000-04:00

In the summer, we drink green.

Inevitably It Would Happen...

2009-08-05T14:28:00.005-04:00

A block away from work this morning i realized that it was probably a good idea to grab some milk because i'd discovered yesterday that we were running low (and this isn't acceptable in an office where all we drink is coffee with milk). So, i stopped at the corner bodega and purchased milk, but then also decided that maybe some kashi cereal was a good idea too, and then in a moment of weakness raspberry pop-tarts caught my eye, and i don't know if you know, but pop-tarts are something that i can't resist. I bet you're bored by now reading all of these seemingly trivial details of what i bought this morning. But wait!

I walked into the office and put the pop-tarts and kashi on the counter, the milk in the fridge. A second later i get a text from D asking if i need anything from gourmet garage and i send a response saying to surprise me. Five minutes later in she walks and all i hear is an 'oh. my. god'. I walk into the kitchen as she unpacks what she's gotten at the grocery. Kashi. Pop-tarts (the 'surprise'). Milk.

We both bought three items this morning. Those three items were exactly the same. I guess it was bound to happen.

Dear Annie,

2009-08-04T14:04:00.002-04:00

My dad sends me an email that I read out loud at the office, (in reference to a recent Annie Lebowitz's financial woes piece in the Times,): "If she can't make it in New York, how do you expect to?"

He's funny/not funny, like that.

Sometimes I just wanna show the world, other times, I wanna concede and order Chinese and call it a night with Meg Ryan.

Just Because.

2009-08-04T13:11:00.000-04:00

A Barbeque To Kick Off August.

2009-08-02T02:50:00.006-04:00

The Great Debate.

2009-07-30T16:34:00.004-04:00

Amongst all the paper clips, and cups of sharpies, and the stapler, and the tape dispenser, and the folders, and the iced coffee, and the post it notes, there are two items of food on my desk: a green apple and my little pony fruit snacks. I think this, more than anything else, represents my struggle between being five and being an adult. All of me knows exactly which one i want and all of me knows exactly what i should have. So there they sit, side by side, both uneaten. I'm pretty certain my little pony will win the battle though, the inner five year old always wins.

Balloons & Soft Focus.

2009-07-28T11:16:00.004-04:00

Can life look like this starting...... now?

On Sunday, call it a Rainday and go see Two Movies.

2009-07-27T11:58:00.002-04:00

sunday backwards.

RAIN! rain! rain...one, two, three, MONSOOOOON! duck for cover!

sweeeeet early dinner. half veggie/half meat. love it when friends take me to their spots.

BUT FIRST: after movie n.1 (yes we went to 2 movies in one day...what?)...we found his bike, broken. SAD BIKE. must fix.

And SO, we roll it sorta to the fix it people.

going to get broken things fixed is a pretty accomplished and satisfying way to spend SUNDAY.

The Beach.

2009-07-21T20:32:00.003-04:00

The beach does wonders. As someone who hates being hot it doesn't make a whole lot of sense as to why i love the beach so much, but i do. It's like a reset button for my brain. Loveladies is one of my favorite places in the world. Beach 161. A well kept secret. Shhhhhhhh.

Home

2009-07-18T13:28:00.000-04:00

Small, but it's got what i need. This is what I come home to.

Life's A Ball.

2009-07-11T17:23:00.004-04:00

Yes.

2009-07-06T13:05:00.003-04:00

They're back.

July 4th.

2009-07-05T21:07:00.005-04:00

It Never Hurts To Be Festive.

2009-07-04T00:36:00.005-04:00

Instead of going out this is how we spent our night. A friday night meant for being debaucherous turns into a night spent with scissors, and a pack of construction paper, and double sided tape, and ribbon in place of $5 beer and shots. The west wing replaces the bar music. Ice cream replaces the $1 pizza inevitably bought late night on the street. Parties need decorations, and we're here to serve.

Friday Workday.

2009-07-03T14:02:00.002-04:00

Intervals of clouds and sun make the lighting in the office change outside every two minutes, it's blustery enough to wear a cardigan as you pick up vegetables and bread and friday beer that will become a lunch eaten in the garden or maybe in front of a large computer screen, pulp plays because you are feeling very british today after spending the morning watching a live feed of wimbledon. It's too much to think about the evening and nighttime hours because all you can think of is exactly what's in front of you right now. The possibility of the future isn't even there, only the now. Today is just today and tomorrow isn't here.

Video Killed The Fashion Show

2009-07-02T18:37:00.002-04:00

Technology:

Friend spends day shopping and then returns home and live feeds fashion show to us at work.

Five minute HELLO, HOLD UP DRESS/SKIRTS/SHIRTS, GOODBYE.

Back to work.

Girls & Food & Wine & Sweets.

2009-06-30T00:11:00.002-04:00

Once in a while you just need those kinds of nights that are parodied in movies and books. The kind where it's all girls and you cook ornate food and sip on wine out of jars and make everything look pretty. And your friends bring the hostess flowers, because that's what is right, and others supply the alcohol, and before you know it everyone is rosy cheeked and laughing over desserts eaten straight from the plastic containers with forks gone in seconds. At the end of the night you do the dishes and you straighten the chairs and all that remains are those empty cake boxes and the empty bottles and a feeling of calm and quiet because you've talked more than you have in a long time.

Long Weekend in Prospect Park.

2009-06-28T21:36:00.009-04:00

The sun came out, and so did the picnic blanket and children with painted faces and watermelon and cupcakes, happy birthday! The sun came out and so did red noses and water fountains and the smell of barbecue and the smell of sunscreen. The sun came out and so did front row seats because the summer is about front row seats. Two full days in Prospect Park is entirely satisfying, under our tree, half sun, half shade. Pass the oreos?

Summertime Friday Afternoons.

2009-06-26T17:54:00.003-04:00

Friday afternoons at the office have gone from working alone and not being able to focus, waiting, waiting, waiting, counting the seconds until i could leave and get out into the world again. Now five o'clock rolls around and Durga and I find ourselves still sitting here at six, seven, seven thirty. Today we went out for a late afternoon snack and sat under an umbrella in the sunshine. We went to the same place as yesterday, and now we know that our waiter's name is george, and we know that birds in the city have no fear, coming onto the table right between us, amongst the forks and knives and iced tea and iced coffee, taking tiny bird bites out of our pastries as we sat completely in awe unable to shoo them away. Then in the spirit of it being a little bit sunny, and the end of the week, we got limes and sol and sit at work enjoying time in the office. This place is starting to feel like home.

We Miss This

2009-06-26T12:49:00.003-04:00

This was us, earlier this year.

Find us a sweatbox to dance in with all of our friends?

Please?

The Way You Make Me Feel

2009-06-26T12:25:00.003-04:00

lunch!

2009-06-25T14:43:00.001-04:00

time for lunch. for debriefing. for venting. for avocado. for half sun/half shade table. for ice tea and gazpacho. this picture makes it look like everything is about to slide off the table. eat fast!

Five Things We Get Excited About At Work.

2009-06-24T14:45:00.005-04:00

1. Trying to find where to get the new Ben & Jerrys "Flipped" ice cream cups. Seriously Ben & Jerry's, don't plaster your ads for this dessert ALL OVER THE CITY and then be impossible to find. You are torturing us every time we can't find you in a bodega or the grocery store.

2. Lunch breaks at Gourmet Garage. I don't know why we keep going thinking we're going to get anything different from what we normally do. Green apple, red apple, trail mix, yogurt, salad, quinoa, yogurt covered raisins.

3. Happy hour shopping.

4. People watching out of the office windows, especially when there's puppies, the models and photoshoots bore us to hell.

5. Whenever the strokes come onto pandora unexpectedly.

On Rotation/Shuffle

2009-06-22T18:51:00.003-04:00

patterns post-college/life in the city:

1. always prepared to perhaps not sleep at home: phone charger, toothbrush, change of underwear, check check.

2. west wing marathons and subsequent return of high school crush: josh lyman.

3. losing umbrella, buying umbrella, breaking umbrella,

4. realizing based on friend's apartment, work, favorite cvs, favorite bodega, that in one day, i might walk the same block, three, four, sometimes five times

5. only listening to the "recently played" option on my ipod which results in a constant rotation of T.I., van morrison, (only astral weeks,) lauren hill, and a mash ups with dead prez.

dance like it's...

2009-06-19T11:30:00.003-04:00

From now on, we only dance like Molly Ringwald, and the Brat Pack...

Office Ramblings.

2009-06-18T12:47:00.003-04:00

"It's smells like toast... isn't that the sign of a heart attack!?" -D

Rain & Sunshine.

2009-06-18T11:21:00.002-04:00

One of us likes rainy days and grey skies and one of us likes hot sweaty sunshine. Looks like i won the battle with the weather gods this week. This New York summer is a strange one.

Hi, I'm a twenty-something girl in transformation

2009-06-18T10:55:00.002-04:00

Found this in the Huff while at work this morning. Rain makes me wonder about what I'm doing with my life. There's a lot of rain outside.
Is part of graduating seeking self-help from an expert on generation Y? I'm okay with that for now. Because for now, I'm open to anything.

Thursday

2009-06-18T00:10:00.002-04:00

Remember when thursdays were all about Friends, and Seinfeld, and ER?
And then, thursdays got messy, and got thirsty, and we drank a lot on thursdays.
Well now I want my thursdays to be cozy and restful and to warm me up for the weeeeekend. And tomorrow is thursday and tomorrow it will rain a lot and all i'll want to do at work is listen to NPR and sit in my swively chair with my knees pushed against my chest as i type at my desk and watch the rain drip down the window like those cheap waterfalls you can buy at hardware stores.

Twinkle.

2009-06-17T17:18:00.001-04:00

This is how i want to see the world. It's going on the list of goals.

(Photo credit)

All In A Days Work.

2009-06-16T17:33:00.004-04:00

We sit after all the work is done eating hummus on crackers thinking about to do lists and what we will do after we leave and making coffee for the next day so it can be put in the fridge to make it iced and looking at the cutest puppy out of the office window barking it's head off at all of the dogs that walk by and we can go into the garden where it's become shady and kind of cold and listen to the birds chirp. This is the post-work post-college summer lifestyle. Run on sentences? I'm not in college anymore so who cares.

Oh Hey.

2009-06-16T16:11:00.003-04:00

oh hey. from one friend's apartment to the other and their view has the skyline and theirs has a fire escape i wanna drink wine with you on and then we hop in a cab 'cause the rain falls hard and our umbrellas break all the time but you're no longer a kid so you can't cry about it.
oh hey. we gotta build furniture to put our college books in and everyone has a copy of that one book because that one book had that one line about falling in love. so we build bookshelves while we drink beer and drink beer while we sit on floors, because we'll never grow out of sitting on floors.
oh hey. we look for jobs and scroll for jobs and find a job that we tell our parents about because we need to make sure they know we're real life graduates, but our diploma is in the bathroom and we still eat after school snacks for dinner and breakfast at midnight because why not.
oh hey. we graduated and now we're here doing everything we thought we would and when we catch our reflections in store windows, we are kittens who've never seen a mirror before, who catch their reflection and want to say hi, instead of me?
oh hey. we buy cheap coffee because we've learned it's better and make eye contact with strangers because those are the stories we want to share with our friends when we drink wine on the fire escape.
oh hey. and sometimes it's really lonely.

Some Things Never Change, Pt. 2.

2009-06-13T21:15:00.000-04:00

We wander through aisles of toys, looking for the perfect things to place in a silver holographic gift bag. A birthday comes and goes and could be that of a five year old, instead he's 23.

Some Things Never Change, Pt. 1.

2009-06-12T20:59:00.003-04:00

After four years of college, I still find myself doing and appreciating all kinds of things that are childish. One day we walked out of my apartment and towards the subway and found ourselves amidst red balloons tied all up and down the street. Childhood is back with a vengeance.

Beginnings.

2009-06-09T01:27:00.003-04:00

Peonies about to bloom, vases full of straws, match books & bowls full of butterscotch. Welcome to summer after college.