I want every day to be like yesterday; the perfect New York day.

Parents are in town. Had omelets-and-mimosas brunch at Nolita House, then spent all afternoon at the mammoth Russia! exhibit at the Guggenheim. A whole roomful of Kandinskys, the ones with bubbles and pastel colors. Cool, crisp autumn weather. I wore a sweater and blazer. After ( Read more... )

You are not supposed to write on the Sabbath or on other holy days, this one being the holiest of all. Like energy, nothing should be created or destroyed, which is why we should not light fires, rip paper, or play musical instruments. But I came home from shul last night (a nice hippie one, where there were instruments and candles) and curled up ( Read more... )

I swear I feel older.  The night was flawless: white wine straight from the bottle, singing on the roof, "No Sleep Til Brooklyn" on the stereo.  There was no one to kiss at midnight, but I slept warm and solitary.   Brunch, the Met, Cafe Gitane, mustard-colored leather, friends in from out of town, Romanian Poems by Paul Celan.  The first day of ( Read more... )

I am taking a Hebrew class.  Actors talk about having to learn to speak and walk all over again in their training, and I am learning to read all over again.  It isn't like learning French or Spanish, where the letters are familiar and their order doesn't mean anything.  I'm learning new letters, new shapes, what it means when there are dots or ( Read more... )

September 24, 2004 (my 22nd birthday): "I found Greensboro in Brooklyn yesterday. I was wandering Williamsburg, the closest B'klyn neighborhood to Manhattan, after my yoga class there. It is very much like downtown Greensboro, with dirty industrial buildings slowly being renovated into hole-in-the-wall diners and indier-than-thou record shops. I ( Read more... )

I am such a fucking sap, I really am.  For all my personal fear of marriage and inability to have a functional relationship, I thought that Kimba and Mike's wedding was the loveliest thing I'd ever seen.  She almost didn't ask me to be a bridesmaid because she thought it went against my beliefs.  "I don't oppose marriage," I told her, "for other ( Read more... )

I spent a long time today at work reading the galley proofs of a book we're putting out called A Day in the Life of the American Woman. It's a photography collection of women from all over the country partaking in their daily activities: taking care of a sick relative, working on their farm, lighting Shabbes candles, and the like. There are a lot ( Read more... )

I promised myself that the day New York City stopped being revelatory and beautiful to me, I would leave. That day hasn't come yet, and I'm still here ( Read more... )

There are signs of home everywhere. I think I see Jade on the subway and John Michael drumming for the French Kicks. Everyone is so familiar. Perhaps I am seeing the faces of people I love as a way of keeping them around; as a method of always remembering. I wish I had a photographic memory, but instead I remember in phrases and shadows. ( Read more... )

Dear Greensboro,

It was a year ago today that I left you.  One year ago today, Melanie, Kevin, Ernie, Jay, and Preston helped me throw my life into bags and boxes and I left Magnolia Street forever.  I was only able to close that door because I knew Rick would be the next one to open it.  I left there with the "H" from the bathroom sink hot water ( Read more... )