you're cute and i like your name.

gay pride is OVER.

after a week of partaking in mildly gay activities, wendy, our new friend sean, and I went out with a bang sunday night and ended up at my new favorite gritty bar, cleverly named THE COCK.

however, the weekend before also brought us a plentitude of memories. friday night, elise was in town. it was very nice to see her and she and I spent the evening bar-hopping along the city before meeting up with wendy.

elise!


apple store, nyc.


new york sunset.


saturday night we went to a birthday party at the union bar.




sunday night after we left sean at the subway station, I attempted to board the garbage train and was immediately reprimanded.



monday I visited washington square park and watched owners and their dogs gallivant around. I also sat at the fountain, ate some weird lemon-lime icre cream thing, and watched a little boy in his underwear run around and around the dirty dirty water.




today was hotter than hell outside and all day felt like I was living in the britney spears music video I'm a Slave 4 U. I've also been at my internship all week long as we prepare for some national sales meeting.

life, love, and everything in between

yesterday both corey's and mine biorhythms plummeted, resulting in the worst night of sleep in my life. between anxiety attacks, cold sweats, and nightmares involving pigeons, i woke up in no way, shape, or form ready to go to work. ironically, however, just before getting in the shower joshua called me to tell me that laura was in labor (so no work today, obviously). he also asked me to do a "big" favor involving fetching his keys from the upper west side and then going back to their apartment in williamsburg to care for their dog, frankie (who they had left in a panic fifteen hours before). so i agreed. on my way to the hospital i thought of how well i've gotten to know them over the past month and how their lives will never be the same with the birth of their new baby (viva cohen is the name, by the way). scary, but also a touch refreshing. life is so intrepid.

i made my way back to brooklyn and discovered that poor frankie had made a mess on their zebra skin rug. though it wholly transcends my intern responsibilities, i cleaned it up (note: zebra skin rugs are to be cherished, not sullied). from there, i changed her food and water and took her for a walk up to bedford. on the way back, i ran into their neighbor, rose, who is a funny old polish woman. she asked me all about the baby and played with frankie for a bit. i like dogs and friendly brooklyn neighborhoods.

by this time it was only noon, and realizing that i know had my first day off in over a week, i decided to go to barney's. yes. okay. i know that i am on a budget and seriously cannot afford to even show my face on madison avenue, but i went anyway. what the hell, i do what i want. anyway, i ended up with a pair of loomstate organic shorts and some costume national scent gloss. p.s. they took a cue from rhianna and were breakin' dishes in the window displays at barney's.



from there i headed down to the east village to meet corey for lunch at s'mac. in celebration of their first birthday, all-american noshes were only $1! during lunch we got to talking about our lives in the present, and i opened up about what's been on my mind lately, despite how stupid and selfish it may be. though there is no resolution to be reached, it's easier to come to terms with when it's voiced aloud. needless to say, we're both feeling similiar emotions as to what we experienced the summer after junior year of high school. it's funny how you come full circle...or don't.

i left lunch feeling inspired (and not really in the mood to head back to brooklyn), so i decided to head up to columbia to visit two of my favorite bookstores and morningside park. however, this probably wasn't the best idea seeing as it was the hottest fucking day of the year. my walk in the park may have been cut short due to potential heat stroke, but i did pick up the new miranda july collection of short stories. it's simple, but stimulating. i read three shorts on the train home.



now i'm home. tired, but contemplating a walk to target for some cleaning supplies. we'll see. oh, and i found this outside a brownstone in our neighborhood and thought i'd share.



reality bites. let's all keep living the dream.

when there's nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire.

pride week, in conjunction with our ongoing search for new friends and/or mindless hookups has left us dazed and confused. what we experienced last night may be too explicit for the blog, but let's just say we're "over it." also, elise was in town on friday. after the NELP re-cap died down, i went to work and corey got her off the wagon. that night we all went out for karaoke, where corey sang a kick-ass rendition of "i love rock and roll" (however, the britney spears cover...not joan jett) and i voiced the intro to "never ever" by all saints. here are some photos:

the view of hell's kitchen from stephanie's rooftop

growing up gotti!





over the weekend, corey purchased a beautiful bag that he's been pining over for a few weeks and it has quickly become the new love of his life.

I DID MARC IN THE PARK

corey also decided to walk down the escalator backwards

Don't you see the rest of the country looks upon New York like we're left-wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers?

i fell in love with the city when i was nine years old. we vacationed here over the fourth of july, and maybe it was because i was on complete sensory overload at the time, but i knew right then that no place i had experienced could top new york. every trip (or move) back cultivates a new excitement for the city...this summer has been no exception.

I

working for the rise and fall has far exceded my expectations, and i look forward to each day i spend there. in other words, it's fucking sweet. last week we launched a new line called "bricolage" that right now is only available at odin nyc, but will hopefully be picked by barneys for the fall. we've also been working on samples for the next season. a neon gradient tee just got sold to urban...see you in september when i'm folding stacks of them back at store eight.

i've also made a new friend named luke, who is one of laura's friends from london. he is a fashion designer and primarily makes stage costumes for british pop stars. the other day he came by to whip up a shirt for his boyfriend's birthday. sometimes we work in the studio together and he educates me on "chav" culture and the best british pop music over the past twenty five years.

II

some days i feel there is no need to leave the comfort of brooklyn and, in turn, i've discovered happy hour in williamsburg (after my days at the rise and fall). the other day after work we sat on the patio of a bar off n. 7th and split a pitcher of stella. from there we walked back to bedford and spent some time at an old polish bar. surprise, i was drunk at 8:30. from there, i decided it was best to eat another bagel with cream cheese and venture into the east village. we met up with some friends and eventually got caught in the rain. i do remember walking back to the train with a baklava in hand.

III

last night corey and i attended the verizon tex-a-thon party (also sponsered by out) at arena. what a fun, posh time! corey took photos for out magazine, while we sipped down some free drinks. for the second night in a row, i was drunk by 8:30. unfortunately, neither of us won the raffle for a blackberry phone. i did, however, steal some blow pops from the bathroom.









will someone please take me to the richard serra exhibit at MoMa? thank you.

straight men, gay parties.

yesterday I attended my first event with the magazine. what could have been an absolute bore handing out free copies of out and the advocate from a table was more fun than i could have even imagined. my coworkers sat with me at times, brought me drinks at times, and kept me entertained the entire time.

needless to say, the open bar combined with only eating one meal left me a bit of a drunken mess and I rolled into brooklyn at 7am again.

tomorrow should be fantastic as well as wendy will be accompanying me to our very first soiree for the magazine. I just have to.. exchange the shirt I bought for monday for something else to wear tomorrow because I'm a poor s.o.b. [and yes, I left the damn tag on just so that I could return it].


I'm hoping that wendy and I will go grocery shopping friday morning as our food supply has dwindled down to soy milk and bread heels.

my urban coworkers seemingly appreciate me more than those from ann arbor as I was beckoned to work this sunday because they need someone who knows what they're doing. IT REALLY IS A GIFT AND A CURSE as sundays are my personal days. however, I think I've had enough personal time this week already.

things that begin with X

OUR INTERNET IS FINALLY HERE.

yesterday was a wild day. the internet man showed up at around 10am and I brought him up our four flights of stairs while wearing the most revealing shorts in my wardrobe. oops!

I then laid out a bit on the roof while wendy went to work. as she was working I did about half of my laundry and then made my way to the city to meet up with a friend from the magazine for a snack. following his departure, I picked through the tv-on-dvd box sets at the borders in penn plaza. without finding anything worth buying [and because we are ON BUDGETS], I headed home empty handed.

I tidied up our apartment and set up our wireless internet while trying to wake myself up for the night's events. for the first time since we've been here, I stopped into the local liquor store and purchased a bottle of svedka. after a few drinks, I met wendy outside of urban with a water bottle of vodka and a fruit punch snapple. we headed to a party in brooklyn where we sat in a warehouse backlot and polished off the rest of the alcohol with a VERY ATTRACTIVE MAN. from there we made our way back into the city where wendy and I went our separate ways as she was itchin' to dance topless and I was just looking to make a new friend.


at around 7am I headed home via the F-A-G trains and rolled into bed at around 8am... and I worked at 11. i would venture to say we are in for a wet and wild summer.

money in the bank, shorty whatchu drank?

last night, for the first time in a long time, i was out until the sun came up. granted, i left the bar around 4:00, but it took forever to get home on the train. at one point the g train stopped, made everybody get off, and became a shuttle. i didn't like that.

corey rendezvoused, while i danced on the lower east side. sometimes i stop and have an "i love new york" moment.

in other news, i bought these yesterday (and i love them more than life):


corey was making fun of me for it, when i was still toying with the idea. see you soon when we're all wearing birkenstocks again!

free range checkin'

wendy and I have been busy! our lives have taken on a sense of the mundane but for good reason as we spend all of our time interning and/or standing around at urban.

the other night after work we stopped into magnolia to try their banana pudding as it seems more customers are now buying the pudding rather than the cupcakes. we were thoroughly impressed.

on our way back to the subway we came across my favorite gay margarita joint, maracas, and bellied on up to $3 margs [or 'ritas!]. they were delicious but very sweet and after our third free round we were both feeling a touch ill. el restaurante played lindsay lohan music and wendy and I couldn't help but sing along as they also played britney's stronger.

we also saw the saddest man of our lives sitting outside alone with his dog and we kind of saw our futures if we don't turn the jets on our quest for love.

the subway ride home brought us a lovely girl named kim who has a lesbian sister and an uncanny knowledge base on the workings of the subway.


today at four I get to go with my boss to check out an event venue. yay!




I found the photo taken of me at my internship displayed in the kitchen on an 8.5x11!



our big empty subway stop. ilu g-line.

"i really enjoyed your performance in bubble boy."

yesterday did not leave us with dates or new shoes, but we did feed the less fortunate. that is, we gave a bird the wrapper of a red velvet cupcake from magnolia.

we also bought a $10 tv antenna from cvs, so now we get a few channels (with a mediocre reception). it's something, at least.






we also decided to reinact this week's cover story of US weekly, featuring lindsay lohan and vanessa mannillo playing with knives.

cuttin' bitches

wendy and i are sitting in connecticut muffin again as our internet hoed us out until next friday. we also still do not have a light in our bathroom and i think this is just how we are going to be living from here on out.

urban outfitters store six is surprisingly easy. for being retail in nyc, the managers come down on the employees a lot less than the store eight "managers." we only get about an hour of actual work and the rest is runs and maintain. gross!

speaking of urban, on my second day i got to aide amy poehler and dax shepard as they shopped. celebrities, kind of!


last night wendy met me after work and we checked out a 555soul sample sale and then headed to borders in search for a book about .. reincarnation! on the way we checked out steve and barry's to see SJP's new line, Bitten. we were underwhelmed as most of the items looked like a hybrid of GAP and Old Navy. nevertheless, it was also very very picked over and therefore next thursday we will return with our first paycheck and a desire for fashion on a budget.

after not finding the book at borders, we dined in a tick-tock diner and enjoyed some breakfast foods well past the breakfast timeframe.

in my hunt for the amy winehouse cd at a reasonable price, wendy and I bellied on up to the virgin megastore in times square and revelled in what the city would look like if we were here during the blackout of 2003. spoOoOoooKY!

we also visitied m&m's world, the hershey's store, and the mtv store and from the window watched a woman almost strangle a fourteen year old girl. YIKES! and she was dressed head-to-toe in urban outfitters. hello clientelle!



today our beach trip has been halted on account of the cloudy weather so instead we will go clothes shopping, grocery shopping, and then do laundry if i have my way!

i hate kelly clarkson.

friday night we went out with our "friend" who took us to "full frontal night" at a bar called splash. there was a fifteen dollar cover charge and brothel in the basement. we hated it. after an hour of really regretting the decision to go there, we made our way back to bushwick, brooklyn to go to a bar (whose name i cannot remember at the moment). we met up with some friends there, and partied with moby (yes, moby), who corey managed to graze shoulders with all night. drinks were cheap and i didn't mind it. also, that night corey and i broke from our fashion comfort zones, as he wore an extreme deep-v/bandana combo and i had on a pair of sexy hotpants.

i didn't have to work yesterday, so i spent most of the day dicking around downtown. i need some new shoes, but have yet to find some good flats. truth be told, i'm also thinking of buying some birkenstocks, but corey won't let me on account of me not being a lesbian. stop ruining my life, corey...i do what i want.

some photos from soho:

all things ordinary

today is a good day because WE FINALLY GET OUR OWN INTERNET! GOODBYE TILLIE'S...GOODBYE CONNECTICUT MUFFIN!

yesterday i went to the west village in the afternoon. i avoided the barney's summer sale like the plague because i do not want to go broke this summer, but i did end up at marc by marc jacob. there i bought a $12 hat and saw SOFIA COPPOLA. she's real tiny and plain looking, and was telling the clerk about how she had been living in france for the past year. this is not surprising as i'm sure she fled the country after the lackluster reception of marie antoinette.

then i came home, read harper's bazaar cover to cover, and passed out at midnight.

july 11th, 2007

the other night I forced wendy to do laundry down the street at the spookiest laundromat to ever exist. not to mention, it was pouring rain. nevertheless, we were both able to wash and dry our clothes for a mere $3.50 combined. if that's not a deal, I don't know what is.

however, things got kind of strange when we got back to the apartment. due to high winds, a tree branch began menacing our window and made us believe it was a human and/or dinosaur. at one point the branch reached all of the way into the window [think little shop of horrors] and grazed wendy's back.

on top of that, the torrential rainfall caused our poorly installed air conditioning to leak all over the wood floors and cause a spider to go fleeing up the wall and on top of the ceiling. after about 15 minutes of passing the spider killing responsibility between one another, wendy finally got the balls to kill the spider as it scurried across the floor amid my girlish screams.

after all was said and done, we sat to calm down a minute and realized the the door was wide open.. and a paperback novel was left on our dining table.


today I start working at urban and to that I say:

before i begin, let me state that the photo of pantyliners was not our cart. it was someone in line in front of us, but still nevertheless funny.

it's cold and rainy and icky today and i have to work at urban in two hours and i woke up feeling achy and my throat hurts.

yesterday i spent all day alone at the rise and fall. here are some photos of the showroom. during the week i work in the studio in the basement, but i brought the sewing machine upstairs to work on some things.





here are some more photos of our neighborhood and the mosaic that i like at the metropolitan avenue stop.







after work tonight i want to go to paris and see paris, je t'aime. corey might go, but is spooked by the fact that it's comprised of eighteen short vignettes.