Ad I Found on Craig's List

Hello!
We are two women, ages 24 and 28, that are interested in forming a collective house in Brooklyn with 4 or 5 people in total. The intention of the house is to have a nurturing space that fosters self-care and social/artistic/political collaborations. Some of the things we like are permaculture, living sustainably, gardening, dancing, hula-hooping, yoga, herbalism, making music, active listening, non-violent communication, bike-riding, feminisim, anarchism, potlucks, and meditation. We are looking to create a safe, queer friendly, warm space that serves as a refuge in the city. We love cooking and sharing food and hope to come together in joined activities like dinners, art-circles, conversations, and book-groups. Private space and stillness is equally valued. We are looking for a house in Ditmas Park, Kensington, Prospect Heights, South Park Slope, or Crown Heights. We would love to have an outdoor space and be close to Prospect Park.

Please contact us if you're interested in joining our collective. Our aim is to find a house by mid September.

thanks!


I want to go to there.

You know what

The past three weeks of my life have been really fucked up. But the past three days have been really alright:

Road trip with Baffles, friend dying, BFF leaving, mental meltdowns.

But wait:

Braces off, water skiing, beer with friends, outdoor concerts.

So when shit hits the fan, just give it time, people. Or if that fails, get the fuck out of New York for a while.

For Katie and Kevin on Their Departure from New Jersey and in Anticipation of Their Arrival in Pittsburgh

A Banner Morning

Having been uprooted from my room due to bed bugs, I have moved into the entire rest of the apartment. I turned the library into my bedroom and the living room into my closet. My apologies to my roomies. Over the weekend I washed almost all of my clothes, and have been keeping them in an over-size shopping bag; last night, to keep them as out of the way as possible, I wedged the bag between a chair and the wall. Very subtle.

This morning I got up at 6.30 to pack for my trip. It's 7.20 and I haven't done shit yet. There was a dead mouse in the kitchen. What's that, three in two days? Here's the real kicker though: I found a live bed bug crawling on the living room wall. When I tried to kill it, it fell. Down. Toward the ground. And landed in my open bag of newly clean, bed-bug free clothes. A brightly-lit banner flashed in my mind, as on Broadway marquees of old: "TOO PATHETIC TO BE A LIE, STARRING ALICE YORKE, EIGHT SHOWS A WEEK, NOW AND FOREVER WHEREVER ALICE GOES!" Admission is free to this never-ending story, catch it before I go crazy.

Let's Run Through My Day, Shall We?

In bullet form, with pluses and minuses illuminated for easier comprehension:

-KT gives me Chinese leftovers for lunch (+)
-Man offers me seat on subway (+)
-My favorite manager is doing the opening shift with me on this, my last day of work (+)
-The sky is threatening another summer rainstorm (+)
-Generally insignificant, work-related triumph--selling more pairs of New PINK Denim before 2 pm than anyone else this week. Thank you, Gap! (+...?)
-People being genuinely sad that I'm leaving ("But you're the only person here I can talk to without fear that she's gonna turn around and talk about me to someone else!") (-)
-Leaving!!! (+++)
-Buying lingerie because I think it's sexy (+)
-Having this beautiful moment wherein I leave the floor for the last time as an employee just as one of the few Muzak songs I like fades... cinematic (++)
-Running out of that building for the last time as an employee into the no-longer-impending summer rain storm (+)
-Watching "Roman Holiday" and "Buffy" with KT (++ [Pecks!])
-Going through old bank statements (-)
-Picking books out of KT's discards (+)
-Changing sheets before bed, mmm, clean sheets (+)
-Finding bed bugs in my pillow (-)
-FINDING BED BUGS IN MY PILLOW (--------------------------)
-And my sheets, and my bed skirt, and my mattress, and my box spring (--------------------------------------------)
-Figuring out where all these itchy bites came from (Priceless...?)
-Easing my terror/rage/WTF?Z?ZELETLU@LVPOSE09i4 with a glass of wine and some dark chocolate (+)
-Checking e-mail...ooh free Fekkai cut on Monday maybe? (+)
-Hauling that infected shit to the curb (+/-)
-Having three further glasses of wine (+)
-Testing a theory in regards to my Caramel Cone ice cream: having melted when our freezer was open for who-knows-how-many-hours, will all the cone chunks have risen to the top? (+)
-Being correct (+)
-Even better, finding the layer of caramel at the bottom (+)
-Having to sleep in the library (-)
-Wait, the air mattress is more comfortable than my bed was anyway (++)
-Listening to "Breakfast at Tiffany's" while writing this
-Finding the following video because of Songza (++):



-FINDING BED BUGS IN MY PILLOW AND MY BED SKIRT AND MY SHEETS AND MY MATTRESS AND MY BOX SPRING (-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------)


-Ugh. Fuckin... Too pathetic to be a lie.

EDIT 1:16 am: Kitchen mouse who stealthily evades trap. Bitch. (---)

Charming!

Mid-month Update:

Less rain--decidedly
More money--questionable
Parties--awaiting
Drinking on the roof--explosive
More yoga--sweat-tastic
Good food--quinoa!
Outdoor movies--pending
Lots of Harry Potter--aguamenti!
Lazy days in parks--vitamin-d-tastic!
Kayaking!--hopefully

So far, July has been rocking. Two of my good friends (and possible future roommates?) spent a lovely weekend on the shore with me, I finished one show and started another, I'm getting my braces off next month and I'm quitting my job soon (maybe tomorrow?! oh shit!). So far the only bad thing has been the reappearance of my PMLE, especially since it has decided that my hands are no longer the only desirable area of my skin. Oh well, SPF60 it is, then.

Can we rent bicycles and ride them around? I want to do that.

Hey, July? Keep it up.