announcement! (etc)

okay so first the announcement: yesterday, friday 23 oct, maura moved to and then seconded a motion to add joeblog to the list of friends’ art and blogs, located conveniently to the left of this post. the motion passed. enjoy.

okay, now for the etc: este and i did awesome halloween things! check it:

BEFORE

AFTER

and lastly, our apartment’s falling apart! no, not really, but it’s kind of scary. okay long story short: they started doing renovations on the apartment above ours a couple of weeks ago. the landlord called este to tell him this, and to say that should we find any cracks in the ceiling or anything during this process, to call them immediately. well, no cracks yet, but this happened yesterday:

yes, normally that is attached to the ceiling a little better. there are also a couple of spots (in the bathroom, este’s desk…) where there are heavy sprinklings of, well, ceiling.

nothing really terrible’s happened yet, though. we called the maintenance people yesterday but because of shabbat the only thing available to us was the emergency line. i tried calling that – and i know this isn’t technically an emergency, but i KNOW that if part of the ceiling falls over the weekend and we hadn’t called to tell them what was going on, they’d flip out and not pay for damages or fix anything or whatever – and they said that this technically isn’t an emergency and that they’d call me back. still waiting on that.

so i’m not really worried because we survived the night and i’d say that’s a good sign, but i am kind of annoyed, since i was being very polite and calm in explaining that i know this isn’t like the apartment’s on fire or anything, but i wanted to get something on record as saying that we had, in fact, notice some slight changes to the apartment since the construction upstairs started, but the three different people i talked to (always fun) kept interrupting and not really listening to what i was saying. it’s times like that that provide me with absolutely no faith whatsoever that anything will get resolved, since you can’t really solve a problem if you don’t understand what’s happening, right?

okay and while we’re on the complaining track… sorry i’ve been a bad little poster recently. este is downloading eight (8) seasons of the simpsons right now and it’s making our internet wicked slow and me pretty damn cranky when i use the computer. so. there’s that. read joeblog!

HOW DARE YOU.

fyi, i do have pictures and stories from this past weekend with the visitors and birthday bash and whatnot, but i’ve been busy packing so i haven’t really had time to go through the whole shebang yet. UNTIL NOW.

so as you’ve heard, este and i found an apartment in the east village last week. hooray! they told us that the apartment was listed for july 15, much to our chagrin. we asked, “no way for august 1, huh?”, and we were DE-NIED. fine, so we pay for a couple of extra weeks… at least we found a great apartment and now people can help us move (since the rest of our friends are moving 8/1).

shortly after we get approved for the apartment, the landlord tells este that we actually can’t move in until probably the 18th or the 19th, but anywhere between then and aug 31 is fine by them. apparently the current tenants have been there for five years, and between that and the two cats living there, the management needs some extra time to clean and paint and de-gross-smellify the place. so he tells este to call him the following wednesday (today) just to confirm all that.

i’m sure you’ve figure out by now that this story does not have a happy ending (otherwise i probably wouldn’t be going into this great of detail.)… well, pat yourself on your back, friend, because you’re absolutely right. guy goes ahead and tells este that the current tenants aren’t moving out until THURSday, and they’ll need into the middle of next week to clean. read: we can’t move in until next weekend, as the middle of the week doesn’t really work well for people who have JOBS.

okay, so here are my questions:

1. what landlord in the entirety of new york city allows tenants to move out three days after their lease is up? i mean, i understand that they’ve been there for a while, and i’m sure they’ve built up some sort of relationship with the landlord, but honestly, what the f? they’ve known for at least a month that they’re moving. when the landlord told me we’d probably have the apartment on saturday, i started packing the next day to make sure i had all my ducks in a row on time, and i don’t know this guy from adam.

2. who sets a move-in day for the third week of the month? i’ve been moving in and out of apartments for the last six years of my life, and i have NEVER seen a listing for anything other than the first or the 15th of the month. is this guy really so greedy that he needs to prorate the six days we’ll be there before august 1? especially since he already knew that he’d need extra time to clean the apartment? i can’t imagine that two weeks unpaid for will really break the bank for this guy.

moral of the story? i’m annoyed. i’m 75% packed already to appease the g-d landlord, which means i now have to UN- and then RE-pack a bunch of my shit (clothes, namely) over the course of the next week and a half. LAME.

adventures in grunge.

we had david’s “costume” (it’s in quotes because only david and helen dressed up) going away party this past weekend. it was a bittersweet event, really, because the party was obviously really fun, but at the end we had to say goodbye. probably forever. but it seems like seattle has welcomed them with open arms, so that’s nice.

maura, este, steve and i took the bus into boston friday afternoon. i have to say, i generally hate the bus with the fiery passion of a thousand suns, but when it’s practically empty, and hardly smells at all… it’s not terrible. calm down, i said not terrible, not that it was the best thing ever. geez. anyway, we got in at a reasonable hour, and then we actually all sort of split up. it was weird. maura went to meet some kids we went to high school with, steve went immediately to dan and david’s house, and este and i stopped for coffee, and then stopped for burritos, and then finally made it to katie and erin’s house; aka, three houses down from the boys. i know, weird, right?

but the party really was super fun. naturally, my camera died partway through it, but i did get a couple of gems:

but anyway, it was a great time.

so then este and i decided to come back to new york on saturday because he had to work on sunday, and i started my week of babies-sitting on monday. or so i thought. that’s right, i was supposed to start babysitting twins yesterday! a friend of a friend lives in clinton hill with her two babies and was looking for some temporary help, which i agreed to do for a week before i start at my new design position. unfortunately, the babies’ daddy is being kind of a jerk and not bringing them back to nyc in a timely manner, so we had to push it all back to tomorrow. oh well. but believe me, there will be a fantastic post about it, including pictures. it’s supposed to rain all week, so i think we might have to have some fashion shoots and whatnot. get into it.

sad mac. again.

that’s right, folks… i’m computer-less, yet again.

it all started on saturday, when i brought my laptop into the kitchen to show lucy this video:

(adorable, right? my sister found yet another gem.)

so i show her the cuteness, look away, and when i look back, my screen is dark. weird, i think… maybe it fell asleep really quickly. so i touch the mousepad, nothing. hit the spacebar! nothing. so i’m like okay, maybe it’s the brightness. did i hit the key by accident? nope. sure did not. okay so long story short, it keeps flickering black, so i brought it to the apple store later that day, and the genius guy i talked to took it into the back room, reconnected something, and it was fine! miraculous! except the miracle lasted LITERALLY 27 hours.

so cut to yesterday around 7 pm. i’m videochatting with my mom (yes, we’re that awesome), but i only have the lamp on in the living room, so it’s dark. so i set the laptop down on the trunk in front of me, get up to turn the light on, sit back down, and the screen’s black. wtf!? this time it wasn’t even flickering. it’s just straight up black, and not budging.

so the abridged second part of the story: i took it back to 14th street, where i talked to charles, who told me to talk to bernie at the 5th ave store, who had me talk to janel, who told me they’re replacing my display AGAIN, and i can have it back in 5 to 7 days.

so, i’m now officially in the market for a desktop computer, because i can’t take this anymore.

UPDATE! i just remembered that i wasn’t showing lucy that youtube video, i was showing her pot psychology, a sex advice (kind of) videocast that ross told me about. my bad.

on a scale of 1 to 10 (part one)

note: i plan on making this a mini-series, hence the “part one”.

how awful was today?

you tell me! i’ll show you chronologically.

11 am: get home from este’s after realizing i hadn’t designed the tshirt i was supposed to screenprint this afternoon
1145 am: finish designing
1150 am: screen goes black. won’t act normally
1240 pm: leave for domestic construction to screenprint
215 pm: leave early from domestic construction to go to apple appointment
225 pm: wait for a car to pick up lucy because she’s seconds from puking on the street (that’s right, lucy, i said it)
227 pm: have este move back my appointment to 320
245 pm: arrive at L station, only to discover that the train is running in two sections, and the one i have to take does not go to my stop, but ends at union square (aka, 6 avenue blocks from where i need to be)
326 pm: arrive at apple store (after power-walking in flip-flips and 75-degree weather)
345 pm: meet with apple guy, who promptly figures out that my screen cable is unhooked or something AGAIN, but instead of stealing it away from me, takes it in the back and fixes that mother right up
414 pm: realize i haven’t eaten anything besides a tofutti cuti and half a pickle all day
430: eat gross tuna salad at one of the cafeteria things on 34th and broadway
445 pm: leave said “cafeteria” and realize that i’m basically in times square.

SO! i’d give today probably a two? what do you think? i only give today points because my computer is still alive and well and in my lap, and my loved ones and i are still alive and well. but those are the ONLY reasons. ugh.

II

^ that’s supposed to represent day two of my being without a computer, like they do it in jail, you know? since they’re comparable? but i don’t think it’s as effective as i’d hoped.

anyway, yes, it’s officially been over 48 hours that i’ve been without a computer. and it’s seriously killing me. i even tried calling the apple store to see if they could give me some sort of eta on when this is all going to be over, but alas… no. but lucy’s been letting me use her internet, which is really nice, and i got some work done on este’s computer last night. luckily i’m in what i’ll call a “work drought” (somebody hire me!) right now, but i’d really like to be able to at least work on the one project i have going on. oh! and one major symptom of my withdrawal? sinus awfulness. and the eight dollar claritin i bought (for five pills! five! they left one little square BLANK, for christ’s sake!) gives me chest pains.

but regardless, i have some things to share:

the first is design-related. scroll down to “no more swooshes”. i’m not sure why it won’t let me link directly to the post… but anyway, there isn’t a whole lot actually written on this particular post, but i thought the content/image was pretty interesting. there are a lot of websites out there right now that allow people and business to make their own logo online. you basically input some keywords and small details (color, font size, etc), and the website gives you a selection of logos that it feels fits within the categories that you have specified. for a price, obviously. and the price, i have to say, is super low. or, at least, way lower than it would be to pay a real designer. so it’s easy to see the appeal, BUT, the logos are all crap. they’re not as personalized as they should be (for obvious reasons), and things like what you see in that website’s image happen much more frequently. so hire designers. please.

additionally, kati mennett’s website is up. designed by richard quay, it’s quite lovely.

i also, of course, have to re-mention the aids walk. lucy and i put in our order so we can screenprint team t-shirts (because we’re awesome), but there’s still time to sign up and add to that order. or, you can just be nice and give us money. :) it doesn’t even have to be a lot. the link is in the post entitled “for shame”.

and last, but certainly not least, NEED to put this in. my sister is at college so naturally is a remarkable source for awesome youtube videos. check it out:

things to look forward to when i get my baby back (ribs)
-pictures of nene, my little friend from mali
-pictures from boston and providence
-videos from the roadtrip

i’m so cold and miserable.

that’s right, boys and girls, i am a sad mac. i didn’t actually get that image up on my screen, but only because it couldn’t because it was too busy fading in and out with crazy stripes lines! what the f?! i haven’t been computer-commando in something like… 14 years? i mean, not as hardcore as the past few years, but we definitely got a family computer when i was pretty young. and i’ve been a laptopper for the last five years straight, without a hitch, and now i’m here, sans computer, without a clue of what to do with my day.

‘but alyson,’ you may be thinking to yourself, ‘how are you bringing us this news and/or rockin’ blog post if you are without a computer?’ well, faithful readers, thank you for your relevant and – might i add – very important question.

i’m using lucy’s computer.

oh, but it’s just not the same. i was all excited to get home and upload pictures of boston and a providence baby, but now i have to WAIT. WAIT, people! this is really a whole new set of emotions for me. so, while i WAIT patiently for my computer to come home (“patiently” = rocking back and forth in the corner with my phone in hand), help me out and leave some encouraging comments that my life is not basically over for the next 3 to 5 business days. that there are things to do besides reading/writing awesome blogs and watching online tv shows and, oh… work.