Strange Religion

This is the funniest thing I have EVER read!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Student Punished for Spaghetti Beliefs"

Flying Spaghetti Monster

I'm So Bored, lalalalala!

I thought it was April Fool's Day when I came in this morning at 8:45 am because no one came into the office until about 10:30 am. It was really creepy.

The only thing I have to do here is label 4 tapes. I'm actually confused about it though because the instructions weren't clear and no one knows anything about it. Great.

I didn't want to overdue the drinking last night so Liz and I just got a bit of wine while we snuggled. Seeing how this office operates I should've slammed 'em down, no one would have noticed me, let alone my hangover.

Oh! What is the song that goes "something something something, faster than the devil, something something something, straight into the ground?" I love it!!

Current Music: RHCP - I Don't Know What Song This Is

I Want My MTV

Wow, who ever though temping here could be so dull? At least I've got internet access and the chick who normally sits here has got the new Kaiser Chiefs cd which I surprisingly still haven't heard yet. And I even get to play it at my desk! So, overall very boring but I am grateful for the pay rate.

Completely Lost

I haven't seen Lost in about a year because I didn't want to skip ahead without knowing what's happened. I've given in and just started watching tonight's episode.

They have a ping pong table??????? Exsqueeze me??? There'd better be a good explanation for this or I'll be left speechless for the next 194 days at the ridiculousness of this silly program.

Ooh, Karl from Love Actually just showed up, maybe I'll keep watching!

Come Undunst

Girl with the golden touch? Random!!

When You're a Stranger People Are Strange

People here are so random! I've become a target of drunk morons and just plain weirdos.

Example #1:
I was walking down 50something street, not very drunk, minding my own business, eating my first slice of NY pizza since I'd been back (it was heaven), wearing jeans, sneakers, and a jacket (obviously nothing slutty), at about 11:30 pm. A car drives past me and this follows:
Guy: You're a whore!!!!
Me: You're an asshole!!!
Guy: You're a cunt!!!

Huh? I certainly didn't ask for that. I quickly brushed it off and went back to eating my pizza.

Example #2:
A guy outside of a bar on the Lower East Side asked what Liz and I were doing standing there.
Me: Shivering.
Guy: Are you going into the bar?
Me: Maybe, if it's warm.
Guy: Wanna come to my apartment??

Talk about putting in no effort.

Example #3:
Liz and I had gotten pizza (I'm on a roll) at Ray's on Houston after the previous incident.
Guy approaching our table: Have you ever Googled yourself?
Me: Yes.
Guy: What did you find?
Me: A flyer I made from my old company. What about you?
Guy: A few things from high school, college, etc.
Liz: Uh huh, yeah, uh huh.
Me: My phone is ringing, sorry gotta take it.

People are random when they are drunk. Speaking of which, I think I've fallen completely in love with 'Rosé' by The Feeling which took quite a while to grow on me. Aside from it being a beautiful song, it's completely dedicated to wine! I'll allow you to share my love, but it's better if you minimize the screen so you can listen to it without the video (much better that way):



I'm now going to return to my book, A Piece of Cake, which I'm obsessed with.

Current Music: Texas - Inner Smile

Vote Lulu To Win American Idol

Um hi...whoever is calling in to vote for American Idol must be deaf.

All I've been dreaming about since I returned to NY is of having a latte. Today I was in Barnes & Noble and had the perfect chance to get one at Starbucks. I happily ordered and the machine was broken!

Tonight I went to dinner with Gail. On the way home I thought, well, there is now a Dunkin Donuts near my house, I can get my latte there. The machine was broken!!!

I resorted to going to the DD on Lakeville Road and finally got what I wanted. Why is it so hard in this town to get a latte??

Here's some photos from St. Patrick's Day, as well as the one of me & Liz with the dude from The Bravery.

Triple Jeopardy?!

I can't believe it!!

Stop, Drop, and Roll...You're on Fire

First things first, here are the Bravery photos from Monday night's show at Bowery Ballroom:

Here's my video of 'An Honest Mistake':

The Bravery either tends to be great live (3/4 of the time) or horrible (you guessed it, the other 1/4.) The last time I saw them was at V 2005 which was unfortunately the worst performance I'd seen of theirs, but enough time had passed that I barely remembered how bad that was until I reminisced about it afterwards. Well, they were really great this time! The old songs all sounded good, they played my fav, 'Public Service Announcement,' and the new songs were really good too. I even jumped and danced and didn't care what the stiff NY audience thought because in the front group of fans everyone was having a good time and I barely even noticed how braindead everyone else appeared to be. I'm very much looking forward to the new album which should be released in May.

kjguiug

Sam Endicott was looking fine in his new schoolboy outfit. I was most relieved that he wasn't wearing his navy blue short sleeved polo shirt with white belt which he wore for half of his shows in 2005 (not that it looked bad, I just got tired of it after a while.)

kjguiug

What gig would be complete without me meeting a member of the band? Liz has got the photo of us with the bass player which I probably won't see anytime this century. I forced her to approach him (I was being lazy) but I did mention to him how I was there when he kissed the bass player from Ash during their joint show in 2005. He told me that he also kissed Tim Wheeler (I somehow missed that?!)

kjguiug

I think he liked Liz. She spoke to him some drunken babble about the beers on draught there and said to him something like "don't drink them, those are my words of wisdom," not realizing she directly pulled "words of wisdom" straight from the chorus from their song 'Tyrant." SOOOOO EMBARASSING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

kjguiug
I bumped into Michelle Feldman at the show. I hadn't seen her in about 5 years, barring MySpace of course. She looked good.

kjguiug

Now it's time for the part of the post only I will care about: Guiding Light got 17 Daytime Emmy Nominations, hooray!!!

Here are the photos from Erica and Kristine's party last week. I remembered I had my camera with me at the end of the night so it's not a big variety of people in these photos. Was really good seeing everyone though!

Three Floor Apt.

Gaggle of Girls And a Few Boys Stiffy Jen Erica Matt
Liz & Graham Faith & Heather

Also, I got a webcam!! Let me know if you have one and we can make funny faces at each other when we talk.

Quote of the Day

My dad upon discovering my brother's new tattoo:

"What did you do that for?! You can't take that off!!!"

This Is Why I'm Hot

Why oh why does the radio here have to be soooo shit?

Example #1:
This is why, this is why im hot,
I'm hot cuz im fly,
You ain't cuz u not,
This is why, this is why, this is why im hot

Example #2:
I like where we are,
When we drive, in your car
I like where we are.... Here
Cause our lips, can touch
And our cheeks, can brush
Our lips can touch here

Example #3:
New Avril Lavigne song (which is closely identical to old Avril Lavigne songs) - COMPLETE AND UTTER SHITE.

Also, the Daughtry song is extremely disappointing. Other sucky notables include Rihanna's 'Break It Off' (she always sucks though), Ludacris' horrendous 'Runaway Love', and the Diddy vs. Xtina classic 'Tell Me' which wouldn't be so awful if Z100 didn't play it 7 times/hour.

On the other hand, I love 'What Goes Around Comes Around' by Trousersnake and 'Too Little Too Late' by JoJo.

I miss XFM ;(

Oops, I Forgot To Name This Post

I'm going to Erica's party in a few minutes, yippee!

No yippee for the following though:
-My hard drive is totally fried and I can't get any of my old info off of it (I will be emailing anyone who ever sent me digital photos a message to please resend them!)
- I got a flat tire last night. Slightly traumatizing but Triple A are the best.

I met up with Prascilla yesterday, my old flatmate from London (and also the daughter of the best landlord ever) because she was in the city for the week. We went to Still, Tavaru to me though, which like always plays cheesy music.

My head hurts and 'Irreplaceable' by Beyonce is making it worse.

Current Music: Shit. Actually Journey - Don't Stop Believing. Real shit, Heather's iTunes!!!

Impeccable Accuracy

Dell sent me a new hard drive which was supposed to arrive either today or tomorrow. They gave me specific instructions not to call them when I received the delivery, but said they could track the package and a supervisor would call me after it is delivered and would instruct me on how to install it.

The package arrived today at say 1:00 pm. I'm not kidding - the phone rang at 1:00 pm and 5 seconds! Although Dell computers suck, their customer service kicks ass.

Oh, and I forgot that portions in American restaurants are HUGE (I know a sarcastic Brit is going to throw in a 'that's why everyone's fat' comment so now it's taken care of!) Although I must mention that I ordered a salad just for the record.

Not OK Computer

AAAARGH!!! My stupid hard drive broke! I don't know what happened, my computer was working fine this morning, I left it for a little while, came back to it and the screensaver was frozen on a photo. Dell are shipping me a new hard drive because I'm still under warranty (I'm overlooking the stupid customer service woman who didn't even want to hear my problem and immediately tried to sell me the $200+ software coverage) but I'm just frustrated because I've got to pay someone to extract my data from the old hard drive. I'm annoyed at myself because I'd been meaning to at least back up my photos and papers (I've got my dissertation thank God) but I just never did it. Plus I really don't feel like losing almost 40 GB of music. Honestly I should stop freaking out; I think would have really lost my shit if it was my iPod that was broken.

I didn't leave the house again today. That's mainly because it was 15 degrees and the wind was out of control. I'm starting slowly but surely to kind of sort of look for jobs. Tomorrow I'm driving into the city which will break up my day a little.

Did anyone watch American Idol tonight? Not to spoil it for the Brits who'll watch it later on this week, but the boys really suck ass.

And on a final note, my brother got a ginormous tattoo of a bass clef on his left arm. It's big, black, and very bold. Although it's definitely not as huge and scary as the dragon on his back, if my mom didn't have a heart attack from that one, she almost certainly will from this one.

Too Much Food

Now that I've gotten the cheeseburger deluxe out of my system (not as amazing as I had anticipated), tonight it was time to move onto what I've really been craving...creamed spinach! It was yum.

I finally updated my resume today. It took less than 10 minutes, I don't know why I was worried about it. I have yet to apply for jobs though.

I saw Gail last night. Is there going to be a lot of pressure being a bridesmaid? I've only been to about 5 weddings, and never in a bridal party. I'm not really sure what to do!

Prison Break in T-20 minutes.

Commuting is a Bitch

I am seriously excited because...I AM ABOUT TO GO TO THE DINER!!! I haven't been at all and I've been home for almost a week. And it's the daytime so it's okay!!!

Last night's dream was borderline ridiculous. You all know how much I love Prison Break right? Well, I dreamt that I was Sarah Tancready's replacement and I was running from Mahone with Michael and Linc. Seriously running all over to hide from him, and he was close to us so many times, it was really scary! I even dreamt that I couldn't blog or go on MySpace or anything because the authorities were going to trace the url and find me. I did mention the show right before bed so I'm hoping that's the reason for the dream.

My first weekend out in the city was alright. On Friday night I went to Jon's birthday at Bamboo 52. That was fun cause I got to talk to Jon and Haley (good transition being with London friends in NY), and the hors d'eovres were yummy. I headed over to Calico's (I really felt like it was my life circa 2001 - just got home from college, living with my parents, commuting to the city, and going to Calico Jack's.) It was Sherri's birthday so I saw her, Robyn & Russ, Vicki & Thom, Lauren & Eric, and Julie and her cousin Rachel. Heather, Erica, and Meghan also came. Nice reunions but not enough time to talk.

I was also wondering who the first person I'd recognize out in the world of NYC would be (inevitable) and it was randomly one of the brothers that we used to play beer pong against at Off the Wagon during Thursday night happy hour. He even remembered I was in London and everything. And he bought me a drink too which was really nice.

Last night I pre-drank a bit at Erica's with Heather, Meghan, Kristine, Liz, and Graham (he's visiting and that's a good transition for me too.) I had to buy Coors Light (I know it's crap and tastes like piss/water) but I had to simply because it's light beer. Anyways they've got these new cans that keep the beer cold even if you buy them off the shelf. So cool!!!

We went to The Social for a friend's friend's brother's birthday. Matt and Justin came too. I was pretty bored though because the bar stunk. The music was off for an hour too because the bar had blown a fuse. And not that this is relevant but the whole entire first floor (I don't have to say ground anymore) was full of hearing impaired people speaking sign language. I just thought I'd menton it because I'd never seen that before.

I bumped into Lauren which was funny because I saw her on Friday, with Debbie and Kristen and their boyfriends. Also Melanie's family friend Jonathan who I always see at her house for Xmas was there too. Erica was weirding him out though because she works for his mom and kept talking about her to him.

I forgot to mention what happened on the way to Erica's!! This woman was walking her dog and Heather and I had two bags of beer cans, and you couldn't really even tell what was in the bag, not that that matters anyway. Dialogue as follows:

Crazy Lady: Substances aren't allowed!!!
Me: Yes they are!
Crazy Lady: No they aren't!!! (really condescending nasty voice)
Me: You should curb your dog.
Crazy Lady: Fuck off, get out of New York!!
Me: I'm from New York, thanks!

Ahh, so good to be back home.

Typical my luck, going home the E train uptown wasn't stopping at 50th St. We had to wait 20 mins for the downtown one and then another ten for the uptown one at 42nd. I also saw a humongous rat near me on the platform (rarely ever happens to me on the actual platform!)

Thus far I've (re-)realized that NYC nightlife is not all it's cracked up to be or at least what I remember it to be. Maybe it's because I don't live in the city anymore and it's an overall pain in the ass to commute. I adore my friends but I'm not sure if the bar atmosphere is doing it for me at the moment. Obviously I'll keep trying, but I'll definitely drive next time.

I'm Having Trouble Just Finding Some Soul in this Town

Just to let all three of you who read this blog know that I am not giving it up now that I am in NY! I started this thing as a way to update my home friends on my life in London, but why stop now? It's simply reversed as I'm too lazy to e-mail all the Londoners. Although I will not change the url from idleinlondon to idleinny, the title of the blog is still "The Importance of Being Idle", and as long as everyone knows that I will continue to be lazy then I think that is all that matters.

I've been home for five days now and I'm somewhat adjusted. The day I flew back was definitely a low point. From transporting all of my luggage to Heathrow, to facing the longest security queue of my life, to saying goodbye to Dave, to the two hour delay taking off, I was pretty miserable. I was delighted to see my parents who greeted me at JFK, although it immediately started snowing which just didn't seem as romantic as it did in London.

I haven't done much since I've been back. I've been working everyday arranging things in my old room. It's filled with bags and boxes of everything from my NYC apartment. I've not gotten through half of that stuff yet, and I haven't touched anything from London. I refuse to start looking for a job until next week, just giving myself time to adjust and relax. I haven't even spoken to most of my friends yet. Socially, all I've done so far is go to dinner with Erica and Heather and to Vicki and Thom's apt/flat for dinner, which was the only time I went to the city. Tomorrow night Jon's family is throwing him a 25th birthday party and afterwards I'm going out to celebrate Sherri's birthday so I'll see most of my Binghamton friends there.

The most shocking thing for me so far was actually my trip to the supermarket. I was so amazed at the amount and variety of foods that Pathmark held, you'd think I'd been in prison for the last year and a half. It was so overwhelming but oh how I love food shopping here!

Good things about being home are my dad's home cooking, not paying for rent or food, and seeing my friends and family again. Oh yeah, and the Long Island Railroad upgraded their schedule boards to electronic and even gave the Port Washington branch the new trains! I have enjoyed driving once again as well. I already had to refer to the subway map because I forgot some of it and I keep forgetting which direction to look when I cross the street though.

Overall it still feels pretty weird and I haven't had a proper breakdown yet (although I did have a minor one when I realized how much in debt I'm now in with my student loans.) I fear that Saturday night will be my moment for crying in the bar. I'll be sure to let you know what happens!