tonight will be my final night in LAPRN, my current neighborhood. it's been quite a run, but i won't be sad to leave. Tomorrow is the big move... almost 12 blocks away, but what a change those 12 blocks mean. the noise, the litter, the shadiness (if that's a word) will not be missed.

we have high hopes for the new apartment. Everything is new, and we really don't want to live with the same college furniture that we have been accustomed to. we'll have to see what we can afford to buy. and we'll have to agree on what to do with the place. I was living in our current place for a while before my room mates moved in, so i think it always felt like it was MY place, and not really theirs. But this time we're all on the lease, so it should be equally ours. Let's see if three architects can choose a color together... or a piece of furniture.

if we make it through the move (we have a LOT of stuff), i'll let you know how it goes.

finally, it's friday. i think i can make it through. besides, i have only four more nights in my current apartment. that's been getting my excited recently. which reminds me--I need to see if i can set up my electricity yet. (pause) nope, still not ready. But I'm doing pretty good with packing. I've done a lot already, and most of the rest can wait until the very end.

I got a little side gig measuring this giant apartment and drawing up the existing conditions. So maybe i can buy myself a new bed for my new apartment. It's an hourly wage, and the apartment is huge! Through the streetside door, there's a foyer, a large dining room, kitchen, pantry/rear entry, and maids quarters (two bedrooms and a bath). then upstairs, there's another foyer, living room parlor, library, three large bedrooms with walk-in closets and two more bathrooms. Put it this way, the apartment was formerly a small school. that means it ain't small, and that a lot of the rooms have been carved up into many smaller rooms. but i'll get it done.

and... happy birthday keith.

oh yeah, I saw Alien Vs. Predator this Weekend. ha, ha! too funny. some of it was pretty enjoyable, but there was too much lead up and background on the humans, and not enough A. vs. P. But it was a good time, I guess. I just thought you might get a kick out of that.

After the movie I saw an exhibit on skyscrapers at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The neat thing was that the projects had huge models to look at. Most were at least 6 feet tall. They were amazing! most were lazercut plexiglass, metal, or wood models, and the projects were from all over the world. and my room mate made a big chunck of one of them.

After MoMA, we headed to a Beer Garden in Astoria, Queens. It was like a normal bar and restaurant inside, but throught the back door was a huge park with towering trees, a band shell and dance floor, and row upon row of tables. it was surrounded by a ring of roofed tables, which is where we sat because of a slight drizzle. But it was all authentic Check food. I had some great beef Goulash.

okay, i really need to do some work now.

Mondays are so.... Well, you know.

something I was going to post a while ago: My walk home from the subway brings me past a school. On a few occasions in July, usually Sunday nights after church, I found a bunch of twenty-something in the schoolyard (blacktop) playing dodgeball. They had a bunch of red playground balls and everything. It's pretty dang funny. They invited me to play once when they were about to start a new match, but I just counted down to start them off instead. I love my neighborhood.

well, actually I love my neighborhood-to-be. And it appears that I will actually be moving in just over a week. Not that we've started packing yet. Oops. Better get on that.

I might get a little side job doing some as-builts for an apartment. Maybe that'll pay for a new bed!

I'm all paid up for my choir trip to Zambia. I can't wait. I also started my shots, so I'm well on my way. If you want a souvenir you'd better speak up or you get nothin'.

I guess I'll sign off. I really thought I had something to say here, but I can't think of anything right now.

wow, i'm eating a red plum, but it tastes like a pear. I hope it doesn't kill me.

moving on. i visited my car this weekend, but the autumn weather precluded any beach bumming. on the other hand, i got a lot of errands done, and went home early... and cleaned my kitchen. Thankfully no one noticed that my car reqistration was expired.

oh, i also saw "I-Robot" with my cousin Yuko [YOO-koh]. it was pretty good. i wanted to just do a movie marathon; there are so many that i want to see. speaking of which, Kill Bill v.2 came out on DVD this week. hmmm.

i received bad news yesterday. my apartment move-in date got pushed back AGAIN! Supposedly it's only one additional week. But we're still trying to find out if we can stay in our apartment that extra week, or if the landlord has already rented the place out. [TIME PASSES] okay, i found out that we must vacate the apartment before our next place is ready. so i guess i'll be homeless for a while.

there's nothing quite like a subway system to get around... unless it's not working. construction isn't so bad since they plan for it and put up signs in advance. and i religiously check their website to see what's not running that weekend.

but it's those unexpected shutdowns that really mess you up. case and point: running to church last night, i was already on the late side, but not really. after a ten minute walk to the subway that i had used that same morning, i found it closed. no reason given, no time frame.... so i had to trek over to the next stop where i could catch another subway. (note: it was 100% humidity and in the upper 80's.) so another ten minutes to get there, and then a long wait for the train. four stops later i saw that my connection wasn't running, which is fine because there was another, but that wasn't working either. luckily there was a thrid train i could take, but it meant that i had to switch again once i got to manhattan.

so, i did manage to make it to church in the nick of time but probably only because i prayed a lot in transit. i got into my robe and on stage before the curtain went up. (a little sweaty.)sometimes i love the subway, but sometimes i'd give anything to drive (and have somewhere to park).

oh, and i went sailing this weekend. we won our first race, messed up the second race, and then i purged my lunch as we were about to start the third race! i felt better and ready to sail again, but we headed in for the day. the moral of the story: don't wolf down a greasy cheeseburger just before you sail, and for goodness sake, don't get onions on it. that's really why we had to come in... that smell! sorry, i guess i should have kept that to myself.

random info: my ups guy just brought in my business cards. yeah.