Monday morning

Just a short post for now.

From the Superbowl commercials earlier this year, quite possibly my favorite commercial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9beQh1yH5uU

Brooklyn's On Fire

In April, a car caught fire on the Williamsburg Bridge.

I was in a car below on the BQE, and was able to lean out the window and get some shots, as the holdup caused thick traffic. In an attempt to get away from it, cars were driving all over the place, even going the wrong way on exit ramps, causing even more of a tangle. It was insane.

By the time we were heading back, maybe two or three hours later, traffic has rectified itself and vanished, completely, with no signs of the previous mess. Gridlock, to me, is such a fascinating thing. It stops as quickly as it starts, getting knotty in some areas strictly because one car slowed down, then another, and another...

Anyway, summer is approaching, which means more traffic is definitely on the way. I am currently logging 40 miles each way to work, which works out to be about 45 minutes in the morning, and 60 minutes in the evening. Unfortunately, I am going to have to compete with beach traffic soon, made all the all the more depressing when you're hot and sweaty and burning gas to keep the AC on, and the drivers around you are driving with the windows down because they're nice and cool in their swimsuits, swigging iced coffee. D'oh.

I'm hoping to get at least one week down the shore this summer, and would really like to get a rental in Beach Haven or Ship Bottom, out on LBI. I haven't had a vacation in a long time, and would just like to sit around, being lazy and BBQ'ing for a few days. Because that's what summer is all about. Smelling like salt water, sun and charcoal.

Ba dah dah daaaaah!

I'm back. Expect more frequent updates from now on.

For now, all I'd like to say is that I finally started watching Flight of the Conchords and it's fantastic. If, like me, you are late to this phenomenon, get into it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0863046/

Christmas season stats

As of November 29:

Gifts bought - 3

Christmas trees acquired - 0

Attempts at acquiring a tree - 1

Halls decked with Christmas lights - 1

Pies baked - 2

Snow flakes fallen - 0

Days of Spring like-temperatures-multiple

Gifts added to wish list - 5

Trips to the mall - 0

Attempts at psyching self up to go to the mall - 2

Outbursts of glee over the ease of Christmas shopping - 1


Stay tuned for further developments, likely to include trips to see the tree in Rockefeller Center, cookie baking, a born-again like realization that online shopping is a gift from the heavens, and drinking way too much eggnog. Christmas!!!

An open letter to Mitch Clem

Mitch,

I am writing you today to let you know that you and I are no longer besties. It's over between us. Finished. Ka-put.

It's not because I didn't try. Oh Mitch, how I tried, checking your website many times and often, looking for updates, comics, little doodles, anything. Last year, when out of NOWHERE you started updating "Nothing Nice To Say" again, I jumped for joy and thought "That Mitch. He's full of surprises. It's cool that his updates come few and far between, he's probably busy. But this makes it all better."

After that spat of creativity ended, "My Stupid Life" held me for a quite a bit, but it became apparent early in the year that that was waning too. Around the summer, I finally tossed up my hands and said "Forget it. He's not coming back."

After checking out your blog today and seeing the origins-of-your-Razorcake-column comic, along with a ne'er fulfilled promise of a forecoming five page "My Stupid Life" comic, I broke down. How can you keep doing this to me? To all of us, who take such joy out of your goofy observations and usually funny paneled rants. It's time I moved on.

When you decide to pick up where you left off with the strip, I will come back, arms akimbo, waiting to embrace the latest socially awkward punchline that you want to dish out. But I will no longer keep you on my VIP list of sites to visit often. Please know this isn't easy, my friend, but life has to go on.

Enjoy your gig with Razorcake. Hopefully we can hang again someday.

-Jenny Experience

sans pants

I find that one of the great things about having your own place is the fact that you can leave things any way you want and they will always be there when you go look for them, and nobody tells you to clean up after yourself. Like, I can leave socks on the coffee table, my purse on the kitchen floor and assorted, half read books on the dining table, the counters and between couch cushions and they won't vanish.

I can also eat two desserts or drink a whole bottle of wine all myself. I can watch "Coming To America" or "The Devil Wears Prada" every weekend without hearing a word otherwise. I can spend my Saturday night strutting around without pants. (I've done that with past roommates and they didn't seem to enjoy it.)

Every once in a while I have that satisfying sensation that I'm taking care of myself, and not living at home anymore, or with roommates, and I really have the freedom to do whatever. Were I more adventurous, I may do something more exciting than watch "Lost in Translation" and walk in front of my open windows in my underwear. But I'm not anymore. I don't know when I'll get back to being like that again. If.

Speaking of "Lost In Translation", I tried watching this movie years ago, while tripping balls on Percocet, following dental surgery. I got maybe 10 minutes into it and shut it off. I couldn't handle it. Now, four years later, I've made a second attempt and this movie is still bizarre as fuck.

I'm back

I think that it's kind of strange how pretty much all of my friends with blogs have abandoned them, even the ones who used to post often. Well, except for Andy, and Graber. They post pretty often, occasionally about the same stuff.

I think I might be motivated to post more frequently if I used Twitter. But I refuse to Twitter, because there is plenty of nonsensical, uninteresting crap floating around the net already. My contributions are not needed.

The summer is officially over, and it was never more evident than the day after Labor Day, when I spent the day in LBI. It was windy and cold and damn near abandoned. Literally. Half the restaurants were closed and shops were shuttering up. The tourists have left. I hate crowds, but I had hoped for sun and a bit more life to be had. The summer definitely passed me by this year. I think it's because I let work get to me too much.

For the fall, I hope to spend more time outside, particularly in Monmouth County, where all the farms are beautiful and filled with changing leaves and pumpkins and they give hay rides. October is my favorite month, I think, and not just because of Halloween. Well, Halloween is a big part of it - I still don't know what to dress up as this year.

Marla Singer? Joan Holloway? A giant banana?