Category Archives: Personal

Death by Stomach

Saturday night I was stricken with some of the worst digestive problems I think I’ve ever had, barring perhaps a horrific stomach bug that laid siege to me while traveling in Asia three years ago. I’ll spare the specifics for squeamish readers, and just say that I spent the twenty-four hours after dinner on Saturday and before “The Simpsons” on Sunday more or less in a doubled-over position. It was nasty and uncomfortable and it reaffirmed my suspicion that everything is slowly trying to kill me.

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Cavalcade of Canines

Mister PresidentIf you were at Union Square Park in Manhattan today, you would’ve seen a lot of dogs, like mine, and a lot of crazy dog people, like me and my girlfriend. We were all there for The Great American Mutt Show, a non-profit event designed to encourage the adoption of mixed-breed canines from animal shelters and rescues. There were several booths for dog adoption as well as cat adoption, and booths for dog training companies and local animal activists, too. I even got handed a flyer from a group promising “political action for animals,” who are dedicated to advocating animal issues and animal-friendly advocates in the state legislature and the city council.

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Taking the New Yorker Out of New York

030821_about_town.gifTomorrow morning, my girlfriend, my dog and I are taking a rental car up into New England to go stay with a friend at Martha’s Vineyard. This will be another one of my attempts to relax, unwind etc., and to shake myself free of this semi-confused haze that I feel like I’ve been carrying around for months. Wouldn’t it be great if I could return completely refreshed and with a renewed zest for life?

Curiously, I’m hoping to use this little getaway from the city to catch up on my backlog of New Yorker issues. It’s mildly ironic that the city’s most prominent periodical namesake is often best read when far away from its five boroughs. Actually, it’s going to be a “New Yorker”-themed weekend, as I will also be trying to make it through a big chunk of Ben Yagoda’s “About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made.” I’ve been stuck at the hundred page mark in this excellent chronicle of the development of that magazine for a few weeks now, and I’m actually quite anxious to get back to it. So now you know.

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Relocated

This morning my girlfriend and I moved all of our boxes and furniture into our new apartment — finally! It was back-breaking work, but we managed to do it without having to hire movers again (because the apartment wasn’t ready on 01 Aug, we had to move the bulk of our belongings into the basement of the new building for a week). And, against all odds, the cable guy just finished running new coaxial through the apartment, and we’ve got digital television and cable modem connectivity. Hurray! I haven’t always got nice things to say about AOL-Time Warner, but I will say unreservedly that their Time Warner Cable NYC operation is top-notch.

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Abstract Expression

After a decade of working as a designer, I’m not sure that I’ve done much more than refine my ability to make things presentable in anticipation of a sale — I’m the rag full of spit and polish that buffs a showroom car. I’m not putting that down as a way for making a living, as lots of the smartest people I know have dedicated themselves to much the same thing… but in my darker moments, when I’m indulging my inner Holden Caufield, I wonder if 21st Century American society amounts to nothing more than a roomful of salesmen all trying to sell things to one another.

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Office Water Cooler

Things we were talking about at Behavior today: My move, the relative merits of the moving company I used, and how I won’t be able to get into my new apartment for another week yet. The horrific reviews of the Ben Affleck and Jenifer Lopez vanity project “Gigli.” Al Pacino’s miserable performance in the far over-rated “Scarface.” The new backpack I just bought from BOOQ. The good taste and bad calories of Ranch 1, where we went for lunch. Mister President’s upcoming appearance in The Great American Mutt Show. Oh yeah, we talked about design a little bit, too.

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Location, Location, Location

Now that I am more or less recovered from my unexpectedly debilitating, week-long bout with the common cold, I’m able to focus my energy on the daunting task of moving into a new apartment later this week. The bad news is that, against my better judgment, I’ve spent the past two and a half years loading up my current apartment with a ridiculous overabundance of books, magazines and computer equipment. Packing up all of this stuff is going to be a laborious process of purging items I can’t justify owning and sorting through items I’m not sure why I want to hold on to.

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Fever to Tell

After a few days of running a fever of 100° F, I’m finally back at good ol’ 98.6° again. But I’m still hardly back at full strength — this cold has been tougher than I thought. I missed a full week of work, which in some ways is probably something my body needed, but I’m sure I’ll pay for it dearly next week. And now I have to turn my attention to packing up my overcrowded pad for my move to a new apartment next Thursday. Posts may be thin in the meantime.

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Ill Communication: It’s Hot

Summer colds are just about the worst way I can think of to plod through a hot, muggy, New York July, though that may be because I started coming down with one on Saturday afternoon. At first I thought I was just completely wiped out by the previous work week, but then my sinuses started drying up and a soreness took hold of my throat, and now I’m sitting here in bed, blogging under the covers.

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I Knew Him When

Curb Your EnthusiasmAmong the nominees announced yesterday for the 55th Annual Emmy Awards was Jonathan Corn for “Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series.“ Specifically, the nomination singles out his work on the semi-infamous “Krazee Eyez Killa” episode of Larry David’s painfully hilarious HBO show “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” It was a brilliant episode, but the real reason I’m posting this here is that I’ve known Jonathan since the 8th grade, when we attended, first, junior high and, later on, high school together. I also saw him off with a books-on-tape copy of O.J. Simpson’s “I Want to Tell You” when he packed up his bags, left behind the East Coast and headed off to Hollywood in search of fame and fortune. Congratulations, Mr. Corn!

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