I don't even know where to begin....to start boring you to tears. I have to say the last 5 months or so have been pretty good to me with only a few hiccups, which have since been resolved - well...all except one. That being the job situation - yes ladies and germs I'm still flopping like a fish out of water who's gills have then dried up. To top it all off no one's found me lying motionless on the carpet to rescue me and put me where I belong. My creativity's all dried up and I'm suffocating in a world I was not made to live in.
With all that being said, things actually be on the upswing as there may be a chance I'm scraped off the carpet next Wednesday. Keep all of your extremities crossed. Please and thank you.
The end of July and August brought me nothing that I should write home about - although it could just be the glorious 4 weeks in September/October spent with 2 of my favorite people in the world that fogs up those end-of-summer memories. My cousin Nina and her husband Achim arrived on September 15th and stayed with me until October 10th. While the massive chunk of time off put a huge mack-truck-sized dent in my bank account, it was definitely well worth it. We visited my almost permanently intoxicated, shotgun wielding family in da U.P eh for my cousin Erin's wedding. Nina was thrilled to experience an 'American' wedding and I was thrilled there was something other than Miller Lite on tap for the reception.
We flew to New York at the very beginning of October and quickly realized I was far more excited than they. We covered a lot in 3 days and by the end I had felt like I walked to the ends of the earth. Our hotel was marvelous and in the center of everything which allowed us to experience a lot with little effort. I finally got to see a bit of the 'Today' show - as corny as it sounds it was a little surreal seeing Al Roker and Matt Lauer within feet of myself. Then as luck would have it I caught a glimpse of LL Cool J reading 'Corduroy' to some unruly children. We took a bus tour with various odd tour guides and learned where Mariah Carey and Leonardo DiCaprio live, where Paul Simon and Joan Baez first got their start, that people like to stick their heads up the bull's ass on Wall street and finally that you shouldn't be surprised when an older, military-esque black man in fact speaks German. Though had you been there you would have known it seemed EVERYONE in NYC speaks German. I had to frequently look up at the Empire State Building to make sure I was in fact in NYC and not looking at the tv tower in Alexanderplatz, Berlin. We used the tour bus as our personal taxi and visited the sobering ground zero site (which looks a lot different than 2 years ago), walked the south street seaport to get a better view of the Brooklyn Bridge and took a jaunt on the Staten Island Ferry to get a good look at ol' Lady Liberty. We held on for dear life atop the very chilly and very windy Empire State Building at night where I took at least 100 pictures. We dined at Justin Timberlake's restaurant where I inhaled the most glorious mac 'n cheese with bacon. But the one thing at the top of my list was to visit The Dakota, the apartment building where John Lennon's life was taken by a coward, and Strawberry Fields. It was a little bizarre, standing in the place he last stood.
I had been there before - but I can't begin to express to you how much I love New York City. While I'm not sure I could live there without feeling like I was living in some sort of modern day, whirlwind fairytale - I am absolutely sure I'd like to be in the city at least another 93485673498576 times before I kick the bucket. Maybe it's because I always feel like I'm apart of something when I'm there, even as I'm walking briskly down 5th Ave, alone in a sea of strangers. It's invigorating and I always feel a sense of sorrow when I have to leave.
I was once again filled with a sense of sadness, that's sometimes overwhelming, when my family had to leave. No matter how elated I am at the first sight of them, there's always this tiny speck of pessimism in knowing that it will be short-lived. It's a difficult thing, having people that close to you live so far away. But I suppose I should think of the glass half-full (of some sort of dark german lager) - I have something wonderful to look forward to for the next year when I hop aboard a plane once again - and get to meet my new little cousin. I wonder if deutsch baby googoos and gagas are different?
I'm not going to indulge in a certain other aspect of my life as it seems whenever I do, it's the kiss of death. I'll just say the universe opened up and dropped in my lap something pretty promising.
I'm going to TRY and keep this thing updated more frequently than once every score - but no promises, because as Dru Hill says "I never make a promise, I can't keep."
Til next time friends - I'm off to brave weather the eskimos, or Sarah Palin, should be jealous of.
