(The following photos are by Jenny, Jordan Levie, & Phil, respectively)
Busy bee, Mister Mordicai! Buzz buzz, you fishmonger! Saturday was the big move;
toughlad & skycornerless had been subleasing our spare room, but they were off for the greener pastures of Thunderdome II in Windsor Terrace. Things were a bit of a slow start, waiting for the truck to arrive-- soon enough we had John & Kevin & kromelizard, & we all killed some time playing Mario Kart & a little New Super Mario Bros.-- here is a newsflash on that: Kevin is the kind of Luigi who throws Mario & Toad under the bus. Soon enough Emily's dad arrived with the pick-up, & we loaded it all up with boxes & sundry. It went away, & more games were enjoyed, before finally the truck returned & took the last load away. Sayonara! Which left just enough time to vacuum like crazy & shower; then Jenny came home, I kissed her face & abandoned her! I was off, & she was on! Her time to shine. While I was away, she set the rec room up. Couch, carpet, projector-- Jenny even took all my spare RPG stuff in there & set up a little spot for them, what she calls the "DnD Nook." Cute-- super cute. Meanwhile, I was off to Queens! That is Spider-Man's turf, though my path took me north of there, to Astoria. In fact, to Transylvania! Or close enough-- the Behemian Beer Garden. It was Jocelyn's birthday, & Adam was in town from DC, so my path was clear! It was a two-for, a double down. The Beer garden was an odd locale; the crowd was a mix of people I don't see in my day to day. Goths! There were goths! I had a bratwurst & some onion rings & grabbed a pitcher for the table & we were good to go. There were many people there; but you know what I don't care! My feelings are still hurt that my picture wasn't on the custom "Guess Who?" game. Oh sure Kat, you made a really thoughtful gift & replaced all the pictures on guess who with carefully researched photos of everyone else (Glasses? Hat? The classic questions, the riddles of the ages!) but why am I a back-up tile! I guess this is what I get for being a married fuddy-duddy, for being a shut-in. My just desserts! We had a nice time-- I hung out with Katy a lot, & with Katie & J. Matthew, who could easily be related to
kingtycoon. Then I snuck off! Well, I said probably a quarter of the goodbyes I should have, which is a quarter more than my usual stealth exit! Then I took a wrong turn, but I knew that was a danger, so my Plan B kicked in-- I just walked along 31st...street? Avenue? Road? Who can tell in Queens! I knew the train ran along it, so I'd get to an entrance sooner or later, & poof! I did.
Sunday I woke up bright & early, but heaven's knows I wasn't happy about it. Jenny & I trucked up to Hell's Kitchen to grab Phil, & then we grabbed some breakfast at Amy's Bread. I was starving & thirsty (I had drank all my water on the train ride home the night before) & I had to go to the bathroom, so I was a little cranky, but pain au chocolat & some quiche-- & a stop up to Phil's apartment-- made everything better. We grabbed the bus at Port Authority to go to...New Jersey! That is right, I went to Queens & to New Jersey in one weekend-- & NJ twice in two weekends! Crazy, am I right? Amirite? Buying tickets for the bus was pretty hilarious; I worried about buying "four"-- are you sure they don't sell round-trip? Then I looked at the ticket & realized they only cost $6.75-- so yeah, time to take a chill pill. I spent most of the ride reading comics, & before you know it were were at Aviva's parent's house. Well, we had to walk there from the bus, & Jenny kicked a kid's basketball into the gutter along the way. It was an epic kick, actually-- it went into the street & then rolled about a quarter of a mile, along both street & side walk. It was kind of crazy, now that I think about it. Back to the point at hand-- David & Aviva just had a baby, & this was the naming ceremony-- a simchat bat. You know what? I am super glad I don't have a family. Really, all the kind of awkward interactions with people who are strangers but you have to pretend to like & who you have to pretend to remember? Awful. I wanted to just skulk on the fringes, which is mostly what happened. One of Jenny & Phil & Aviva's friend from NYU, Ben, joined our clique, as did Andrew & Cecilia, eventually.
The ceremony was cute-- the baby is named Sadie, & David talked for a long while about how Anwar Sadat's policies towards Israel were a big influence on her name. & there was lots of talking about dead grandparents. Phil was very good at schmoozing with relatives, but I was pretty much a mess at it. There was a Swamp Thing game in the family's warchest, from the Nancy A. Collins run with Anton Arcane as the villain, all very Pentex. No one else thought it was as exciting as me, so I had to twist arms to get the picture taken. Then eventually it was time to go; Andrew & Cecilia offered us a ride home, which we took them up on! Phil jumped out in Manhattan & we jumped out in Brooklyn, & finally we got home & finally had a minute to relax. We watched some infoMania & then Rotten Tomatoes-- wait, was that just the last episode of Rotten Tomatoes ever? Dammit, it was, that sucks. I knew that the change from user-generated content to critics-only was a bad sign. The show will continue as an infoMania segment, which is worth something, as it will contribute to that show being awesome, but come on! Am I going to be nostalgic for the halcyon days of Current TV, "back when Sarah Haskins was still on, & 'Rotten Tomatoes' was a show, not a segment?" Then I watched two episodes of Castle; hey, I'm always glad when there is a storyline involving vodun where it is just a plot point & not a plot device, not a motive.
When I came to work today, my to-do list had one entry: □ PSYCHIC MALICE
