my first jury duty, 10 days later.

it finally happened.
i have successfully gotten out of reporting for jury duty twice before, and this time, there was no saying 'no'. this happened over a week ago, on the friday leading into memorial day weekend, and on a lovely day for being outside (of course).

i left my house in the morning, giving myself plenty of time to do the g train thing and was pretty sure i knew the building it was in. oh, but no. not the building i was thinking (where that building even is, i have no idea). so it took me awhile of wandering around, but eventually, and with mere moments to spare until the 9am call time, i swooped into the brooklyn supreme court building and to my surprise, what a lovely lobby! i had to admit, i was expecting a depressing and dimly lit building like where i had to go once to file something, but i was instead greeted with a newly constructed modern, bright, and sleek marble-laden lobby.

there were about 6 swift security lines and i could tell i wasn't the only one a little thrown of-- i'm only used to hurried and intense security lines at the airport and i had this inclination to take off my coat and shoes and pre-separate the contents of my bag. phew. you don't have to do that here!

ushered by signs with arrows declaring 'jury duty service', i walked through a set of double doors into a large airy room full many many rows of those airport-like chairs that connect together and look really comfortable and inviting, but disappoint once you plop down on them eagerly. after about 20 minutes, someone came up to the podium/stand/stage at the front of the room to give us a brief 'what's up' and then started an informative video on grand jury service.

the video started off with scenes of old western films, depicting the wild pre-jury times of the wild wild west and how the jury came to be. did you know that juries have been around since old moses times?! the video also featured some people who i think are on law and order, and was 'hosted' by the guy from 60 minutes. it was actually decently entertaining to watch, and it was around this point i wondered if i was actually enjoying myself.

then the weeding out process began and about half the room filed out at various times for various reasons of wanting to be exempt or postpone, etc. i suppose i, too, could have feigned an ability to speak english well, but there's something about a courthouse that makes me not want to lie. not to mention i'm not a very good liar (though i am decent at stretching the truth if i have to).

as those of us who remained sat in silence for awhile, waiting for something else to happen, and based on the number of juries they said they needed to select, i realized that most of us were sure to be chosen. my positive attitude quickly dissolved.

all i could think was that i'd just been beginning to get some steady work, am planning to go to texas in a couple of weeks. why couldn't i be picked in august when nothing's going on and work is slow? why not a couple of months ago when i had no work at all and $40/day would have been very welcomed? it was incredibly frustrating.

and misha says it's a privilege and a way to uphold the country's foundations. i wish he could do it for me-- if it's so exciting. no one can fill in for me at work, or get work for me, and there's only so much work on the weekends and after five. this just isn't a good time. but then, i guess, not many people look forward to it.

after sitting to wait another 40 or so minutes, they began to call names of selected jurors. as the juries began to fill up and i still hadn't been called, i didn't want to dare hope. i had already accepted my fate. then they were finished. i hadn't been called. then they began to select alternates. my heart beat faster. still no announcement or mispronunciation of my name. nothing. not me. i wasn't picked. it was noon and they said if you weren't called you could leave. i was stunned. i had already resolved to doing my duty as a citizen.

better luck next year.

the beginning of a new era?

So today, I did something extraordinary.
On a day where I already had to be at work at 9am, I woke up early to... go to the gym. And I liked it. I know, I know, it's madness, because I am not a morning person. I even factored in enough time to drop my compost off at the Greenmarket, and then walk to work. And I was still five minutes early!

Why subject myself to the early rise? Well, I convinced myself of several things:
1. I would miss the really bad rush hour traffic on the subway that I loathe
2. I would miss the really bad post-work congestion at the gym.
3. I would be able to go home and do laundry or just relax, without feeling guilty about the gym.
4. I would potentially be more awake and energized throughout the day, especially the first half where it takes me longer to 'wake up'.
5. I would prove to myself that waking up early and going to the gym 'wasn't all that bad'.

So, the original plan was to wake up and go to a 7am yoga class. I was all ready to go but then...where the HELL was my metrocard? I looked for it for 30 minutes before giving up and heading out so as to not miss my gym window completely.

In my recent dedication to 'stop being late', I have been frustrated by my newly acquired disorganization. Not always disorganized, but for instance, I 'lost' about $40 cash. Or maybe I spent it. Who knows. (This is why I usually try to carry a small amount of cash and get receipts for everything). And only a couple of months (or less?) ago, I lost another metrocard-- for the first time in my NYC life. So losing a 30-day unlimited one I just bought a couple of days ago is incredibly frustrating. So I get to make the fun phone call to MTA again to get them to credit me the difference, though I believe that if you have to do this more than once in a year, they charge you like $10. Ugh.

In any case, and on the sunnier side, I purchased a $20 metrocard, and made it to the gym and I really only had about 25 minutes, but I made it count on the treadmill and showered and dressed in record time. Did a loop through the farmer's market and walked the additional 15 blocks to work (nice way to keep the blood pumping after a workout too!).

And if this isn't crazy enough, last night I also put together a rather elaborate snack and lunch bag to take with me to work today (I have a perhaps irrational fear of growing hungry, so packing an enticing lunch with plenty of other snacks made me more at ease).

So, even though I didn't get too much sleep last night, I feel rested, comfortable, and proud of myself. Could do it again tomorrow! Maybe I'm turning over a new leaf. Or maybe I'm just getting old. Only time will tell...

i went to the opera

i wouldn't consider myself an opera 'afficionado' or even and opera 'buff,' but, tuesday marked the third time i've been to the opera in the past couple of years. and really, the second time i've been to the opera in the past 6 months. maybe it's growing on me. i guess i am unsure how much i even like opera, but i don't not like it. and i'm figuring out how it works. and i like the music. i think i just keep expected (quietly and mostly subconsciously to be moved to tears like julia roberts in 'pretty woman' or something).

but really, i was intrigued a little over a month ago by neon posters i'd been seeing around town saying 'can an opera make us warriors for peace' and such things. looking closer, i saw it was for satyagraha an opera about gandhi's time in south africa written by philip glass in 1980 and put on by the met.
i've never been to a show at the met, and this was the perfect excuse to go! i like philip glass, gandhi, music, theatre, getting dressed up all fancy, and peace, so i plopped out $211 for 2 tickets on the 'grand tier.' a bit of a crazy splurge on a cultural activity for me (i tend to go to the cheap, donation only, or free things), but i didn't mind one bit!

so yes, the night finally came, and many outfits were tried on, 4-inch silver heels* were worn, cabs were taken, and with the company of my very handsome and bow-tied escort, the 3-act, 4-hour event beautifully took place. i loved it! the music was very p.glass of course, and it had the feeling less of theatre and more of performance art, but the singers were oh so talented and the production design. oh! the production design was drooooool worthy.
oh and if that wasn't fun enough, i discovered that during the 2 intermissions, there is a little restaurant that you can go to on the grand tier, where during the first intermission you get your main course, and during the second, you get your dessert. hilarious and amazing and so logical and early 1900s-fancy feeling. maybe next time i'll hit it up. instead my companion and i indulged in a $5 brownie (pretty tasty, good density and had chocolate chips), and he, a $3 tea. (i was thirsty but they wanted $5 for one of those 4 oz bottles of evian. i'd rather swallow my spit, thank you!). going to the opera is expensive!

and there is also a cute little gallery adjacent to the main lobby that had portraits of philip glass ('phil') by chuck close. fun! apparently this gallery is always free and open to the public and i suppose exhibits art relating to one of their current shows.

while canoodling and hobnobbing with new york's elite on the grand tier, i spotted none other but john lithgow down one level on the staircase. this is a photograph i took of him in the lobby. i wonder if he liked the show.

and while we took a lot of photographs while we were there without a problem, apparently we were not supposed to. the uppity ushers will get snippity snappy with you (as we were walking out, we overheard one of them telling a family trying to take a group photo to get beyond a certain line-- going towards the doors-- before snapping their shutter). so, my advice? be discreet yet nonchalant and do not use a flash.


*in a funny sidenote, as i was walking by the staircase, an old man nearly tripped on the last step going up, as the young woman who was escorting and assiting him stopped suddenly on the stairs. she said to him 'oh! i'm so sorry!' and he says orneryily 'yeah! you just stopped dead!' and she says 'i know! i was looking at those shoes!' and 'those shoes' were mine. [no old men or young women were injured in the making of this comment or the event that inspired it].

oh, johannes

okay, so whatever, it's been like a thousand and one years since my last post.
i'm working on being witty. my witty ran away and it's nowhere to be found and i'm afraid i won't be liked without it. that being said...

Do you like Johannes Brahms? After another recent excursion to my friendly neighborhood Brooklyn Public Library, I picked up a CD of his Ein Deutsches Requiem. It’s not quite the awesome creepy chamber-y Catholic choral stuff I love from those period films about kings and their problems, but it’s something and I like it.

Hmm. He wasn't bad looking as a young German composer dude was he? You don't see them making movies about him though do you?.

A Thai Curry Soup Train Tragic Saga

This is a thing that happens to me sometimes.
I am in some public space, say an airport, or in this case, a train station. I know hunger is impending and it will be several hours before I will be home and can make myself something decent to eat (and my version of decent is often a lot more difficult to satisfy). And from the available vendors, I have to choose something that both satisfies some sort of craving I may be having flavor-wise, AND fits into the profile of things I feel okay putting into my body. This really narrows it down.

While there is a part of me that wants to just go for that donut or cookie, I realize that I won't feel good about my decision later on. So, I usually find some mediocre and overpriced salad or sandwich.

In Boston's South Station I considered myself lucky to have so many choices, but also a few that were beyond the expected fast-burger stand, wok-n-roll, or coffee and a danish spot. Here we had Rajun' Cajun, Cosi, Rosie's Bakery, and Au Bon Pain. Mind you, by the time I got off my bus from New Hampshire, walked to the train terminal, printed my ticket, I only had 10 minutes before my train left. I scanned the menu, almost opting for nothing, but there were several vegetarian soups and one sandwich that seemed good. Knowing that these kinds of places are usually, somehow tragically slow in every town, I thought soup would be a better option. I had my choice between Thai Curry, Hearty Vegetable, and something else generic and uninteresting to me (probably Mushroom Barley). I thought 'mmm, Thai Curry' and while there was a loud voice that said 'Thai Curry? From the train station Au Bon Pain?' that caused me to strongly reconsider the Mediterranean Veggie Wrap, I must have somehow convinced myself that the more economical, lighter, and faster potential of the soup over the wrap made up for it because when the counter-person took my order, I blurted out 'small Thai Curry soup', almost fully surprising myself. And while the order was filled pretty quickly, I walked away with the paper bag in my hand, frowning. WHY did I order this?

Of course now, the train was 5 minutes from departure, except, oh no, it's running a few minutes late, but people have queued up outside anyway. I parked my bag on a table just inside from the platform, and decided to give my soup a chance. When I opened it, I looked at it, disappointed. It was a pleasant creamy curry-yellow color, but the existing vegetables were not very chunky, and they were limp. I had a few spoonfuls. The taste was 'o-kay'. Kind of what I expected from this place, but not what I wanted. I considered throwing the whole thing away-- why subject the whole train car to the curry aromas? Why eat soup on a train? Why did I order this soup? A wrap would have been much more practical. I didn't throw it away, my conscience of 'You just spent $4 on this' wouldn't let me. So now, it is sitting on the seat next to me, with a faint scent wafting up to me, taunting, teasing, and mocking me. I certainly won't eat it now.

my curly hair

so this is basically what my hair is looking like these days. i am no longer relaxing it (haven't for possibly over a year), so it is growing out and different parts of my head are in different states of curliness and grown-out-ed-ness. i've mostly been wearing it straight (via flat-iron) for the most part, with intermittent curly hair days.

being that i haven't had my hair curly since i was probably about 10 or 11, and i'm beginning to understand how my hair works, and also have found a general idea of a cut that i like for it (i also cut my own hair). the more recent challenge, was now that i have decided to wear it curly 50% or more of the time, i wanted to find a cut that worked for wearing it straight and curly. I guess the good thing about it's multiple curlied state at this point is that it really looks good in various cuts. the top/front bits are generally looser curls or straight, while the back and bottom are tight, springy curls. it's kind of weird.

i've been experimenting with different shampooing and conditioning rituals, finding that the best curls and mosturization occurs when i wash once or twice (i use m.o.p. mixed greens shampoo), condition and rinse with whatever is handy, gently towel blot, immediately douse (via scrunching in sections) with leave-in conditioner (i use m.o.p.'s), and a good amount of organic jojoba oil (this helps with to keep it moisturized and shiny, and once the hair is dry, isn't greasy or oily at all). i let the hair air dry.

i've been eying the devacurl products, and just recently got the no-poo, conditioner, and leave-in as a gift, and i'm curious to try it, as i haven't used any curl-specific products up to this point.

i've also found that sleeping with a scarf on is helpful for keeping the curls in tact and keeping moisture in, but it is kind of not practical for me. i could try harder i suppose.

so yeah, that's my hair. people seem to really like the look, and i'm finally really growing into it. i thought it was fun at first and i liked that it made me feel a little different, hip, and all of that, but the ease of not having to 'fix' my hair in the morning, and letting my hair just 'be' is really nice. i also like not putting chemicals into my hair and skin just for the sake of fakely-straight hair. i'm looking forward to see how the curly journey progresses.