Hi there

Wow, I haven't blogged in more than 6 months. I wonder if random livejournalesque blogging (ie this) has been reduced by twittering and facebook status messaging. I should research. I kind of want to resurrect this. I just am at the point where not much is happening. 

Oh, that's not true. Things have happened. I met more celebrities. 

I was also featured as a socialite in Manhattan Magazine. 

My roommate moved out and I got another roommate. And then he left like a week  later and then I got another roommate. 

I dated a girl for like a month, but it wasn't working, but I also don't think I really gave it a chance to work because I'm crazy.

I went to Ireland by myself and had an excellent adventure and saw lots of green things and met lots of Australians. And also Irish people. Who are pretty similar, actually. And I kissed a married man. But I didn't know he was married. And a married woman hit on me. I knew she was married because her husband was just standing there sadly. I also lost my camera that night. Oh, I was going to write a story about that. I still can.

I got a Mac.

I started Spanish socialism classes!

And I've worked. And I'm over it, but I'm also not quite but mostly because it's safe and all I've known in my post-college life. and don't really know what comes next. 

As John Mayer sang, before we all realized what a douche he was, "It might be a quarter-life crisis."

But John perservered and became famous and dated Jennifer Aniston. So I will be fine too.

The inauguration

I will map my inauguration journey for posterity's sake. (most times are estimates)

Some time in November: Applied for tickets through Sen. Schumer and my Congresswoman but have no aspirations of actually getting a ticket.

January 7, 10:47am: Received an e-mail from Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez's office that began like this:

Dear Friend,

Thank you for expressing interest in attending the Swearing-In of the 44^th President of the United States. An unprecedented number of people are expected to travel to Washington, DC for this historic event. It’s an honor to help provide New Yorkers with the opportunity to attend.

Isn't that a totally misleading way to start an e-mail with buzzwords like "expressing interest" and "unprecedented number of people"? But yes I got a ticket. I screamed at my desk for a few minutes. Updated my facebook status. Called my boss who caused me to freak out for a few minutes saying I might not be able to go since I'd have to go down w/HW. But that was resolved shortly.

3:48pm: Pay $350 for an overpriced Amtrak ticket.

Jan 10: My dad tells me how stupid I am for paying $350 for transport without checking out "other options." I check out other options and buy Greyhound tickets for $60. I save $240.

Rest of week: Make plans to stay with Marcy; tell everyone I know I won a ticket to inauguration so everyone can be jealous of me.

Sunday, January 18: Go home for my grandmother's 90th birthday and borrow a fancy dress from my mother to wear in case NYMag sends me to an inaugural ball like Iwant.
Monday, January 19, 5am: My dad drives me from Ossining to Port Authority to catch the bus. Not sure why he offers to drive me, but much appreciated since I am way overpacked.

6am: Arrive at Port Authority. Woman behind me has a dog. Chat with line mates about the historic nature of our trip. One dude refers to this as "our generation's Woodstock" and it totally is. Also unlike my bus trip to Boston, this is a diverse group of folks (though on the young side).

7am: We board the bus. The bus is packed, but I somehow get my own seat. Life is beautiful. Or I smell. I go to sleep.

12:30pm: Arrive in D.C. Read a text from NYMag editor asking if I can go to the Hip Hop Inaugural Ball. Ummm, yes.

1:00pm: After nice city worker helps me buy a Metrocard, which I should be totally capable of doing since I'm from NY, I schlep to the Rayburn Building. I even get a seat on the Metro. This doesn't even happen in NY. So far Obamaland is nothing but happiness.

1:30pm:First roadblock in Oz. I thought I'd just walk into my Congresswoman's office, chat a little, use the bathroom and move on. WRONG. The line wraps around the building in a sort of an amateur Disneyland hell. I then get a text from my editor at NYMag asking me to interview people on line. This sort of passes the time as I ask adorable children why they like Obama and grown-ups if they'd sell their tickets for a million dollars (most won't) while the nice man in front of me directs my suitcase.

3:00pm: Some brilliant people jump over a barrier to a shorter line, and my line friend and I follow, with suitcase.

3:30pm: Finally get in the Rayburn building. Get ticket from Velazquez's office. Disappointed I'm in the silver section, which is basically the front of the Mall, and there's no way it would have qualified as a ticket in a pre-Obama world. "So I'm in the mall...with all the other people?" I ask the woman at the front desk.

3:45pm: Decide not to be a spoiled brat and be thankful for what I got. Also meet the deputy mayor of Buffalo while waiting to get in the Metro. On the Metro meet an adorable oldish couple who met girls who took ballet with Sasha and Malia.

4:45pm: Meet Marcy at her stop in Columbia Heights. Eat Popeye's then go to her HOUSE. Seriously, she has a house! That she shares with one person. A little D.C. envy.

6:00pm: Marcy and I prep for Hip Hop Inaugural Ball while discussing how un-Hip Hop we are

8:00pm: Arrive at Hip Hop Inaugural Ball. D.C. does not know how to run a red carpet, but I guess they don't have much experience. Interview Don King, Russell Simmons, Tatyana Ali and lots of hip hop people I've never heard of. (See some of the Q&As here)

8:45pm: Go into the party. Drink some Obama drinks, eat some bad appetizers, and feel pretty white. Sneak our way up into the VIP lounge and have to be all paparazzi-stealth like when they ask all press to leave. Talk to LL Cool J. He is nice but says a lot of nothing. The best part is I say "This is my friend Marcy" and he kind of checks her out and goes "Mar-ceeee!"

10:30pm: Watch Hip Hop Award Show. Busta Rhymes has good performance. Best part was TI, rapper formerly on house arrest, says of his volunteering to get out the vote for Obama, "It didn't even count as part of my 1,000 hours!"

midnight: Have to leave just as the party's starting since I am not actually a partier but a reporter and need to type up all my notes from the party. The party was fun though!!

January 20

4am: Go to bed after typing up notes from Ball.

6:45am: Wake up.

8:00am: Leave with Marcy's super-sweet roommate and her coworkers at a senator's office to go to Inauguration.

9:00am:After walking miles throughout the city and through tunnels arrive at the line for silver ticket holders. No end in sight.

9:30am: Walk two miles to the end of the line. Assume there is no way we'll see inauguration. Prep myself to miss the most historic happy event of my life.

10:45am: The line breaks up! We're in the mall!!!

Despite being all-ticketed, there's no way to see the stage. Strain to see the jumbotron, since lots of trees (that smart people sit in) and tall people in front of me. One man has a hat on that blocks jumbotron so people start cheering "Take the hat off!" He does only to reveal hair that sticks up.

A fiercely partisan crowd, we cheer the Democrats (and Colin Powell) when they turn up on screen and boo Lieberman, Clarence Thomas, Dick Cheney (who looks more evil in wheelchair for some reason) and Bush, which seemed a little innappropriate since he is (or was) our president despite being a crappy one. People also cheered "Na na, na na na na, hey hey hey--goodbye."

12:00pm: Obama becomes President! We totally miss the flubbing by Roberts, since can't really focus on details. Ditto the speech. But still, excitement, crowd, joy!!! hope!!! change!!!

The rest of the day consisted of walking, crowds, more walking, Ethiopian food, napping, hanging out at Marcy's, seeing Ruby and sleeping.

But twas a joyous inauguration. And now Barack Obama's President. the end.

Reasons to know who your congressperson is

Mine just got me a ticket to inauguration! I applied for a ticket, then promptly forgot I did, then found out I will be one of 240,000 who will be able to sit in the cold and see our most historic president sworn in. If you know anyone going, let me know, since I want a friend to sit with/wait on line with.

I feel like I must have good karma right now, since my luck has improved dramatically in recent years (in every way but one, of course).

I'll write a real post later that isn't all 'omg, my life's so fun.'

Is Zach Braff dying of AIDS?

Someone searched that and ended up on my blog, according to Google analytics.
That pretty much sums it up.


and in case you haven't seen it yet here's the article I wrote about Fran


Thanks to this coup, my life has become suddenly glamorous. I'm going to the premiere of Shrek: The Musical Sunday. This is so fun!

My life right now

I always comment on the fact that barely a day goes by when I don't run into some random person I know somewhere in New York. Yet I rarely pass by famous people. Apparently I just need to know famous people, and then I'll run into them.

So last night, I'm out to dinner with at Chinatown Brassere, a really nice swanky restaurant, since the head of our department took us all out to dinner. It was a really nice time But icing on the cake: Guess who tapped ME on the shoulder to say hi (not vica versa)? Fran Drescher. Otherwise known as my new bff.

Backtracking: I started doing "party reporting" for New York Magazine, which basically means going to swanky parties and getting celebs to answer silly questions. And, not gonna lie, I'm kind of awesome at it, and I may have found my calling. Well, I also might want to be a guidance counselor which I decided on Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend but that's another post. But seriously, it's so nice to see that all my journalism education and writing about AIDS policy and such has translated into good party-reporting skills.

ANYWAY I went to this party Wednesday for the premiere of a movie about Le Cirque Restaurant that is premiering on HBO. All I knew about this restaurant I knew from Top Chef, and now even after eating there, the thing I most took away is that like me, the owner is a bit obsessed with being in the presence of celebrity. The food (served via buffet) was actually just okay, but the desserts were great. And maybe I'll take the owner up on his offer to come for lunch. Seriously, it's so fun saying I'm from a publication with name recognition

But of all the transcribing I did, I got 3 items published w/NYMag, 2 on the web and one in print. The one in print, which I won't ruin for you, is about Fran Drescher. I got quite the scoop from her and I can link to once it's up. But anyway, she was nice and talked to me for a while, and I actually stupidly gave my coat to the staffer who took hers and then at the end of the night couldn't find my coat and had to go be like 'Fran, do you know where they put our coats?' I found it.

But anyway, now apparently Fran and I are buddies, and I (and obviously all my coworkers) just get a kick out of the fact that a celeb tapped ME on the shoulder, not vica versa. By the way, she was sitting by herself for a while, so I invited her over just in case she was awkwardly alone. She wasn't. Candace Bushnell was on her way.

Obama post

There's nothing really to say, and it's four days late, but I can't have a blog and not note how awesome it is that Obama is president.

Since I've been old enough to remember, there's only been one "Where were you moment?" that the gradkids will know about. I remember were I was on 9/11. And I'll remember where I was when Barack Obama became president. I was at a coworker's backyard party in Bed-Stuy where CNN was streaming on a projection screen. It was a diverse group of people--race, gender, sexuality, etc.-- just like Obama would have wanted it (but no Republicans so not bipartisan). And when Obama reached 270 we all screamed and hugged. It was a bit magical.

Not to get all Michelle Obama, but this truly is the first time in my adult life I've been proud of my country. Literally. I was 16 on September 11, 2001, and while my own life has only gotten better since then, this country has gotten progressively worse. Bush, 9/11, Iraq, civil liberties, Katrina, the economy...Billy Joel really needs a sequel to "We didn't start the fire."

I've been following the election obsessively, but more from a political wonky-I should be a political reporter-perspective. But this is a more emotional reaction. Like, there are enough people in this country who think like me.

Though I guess it should be noted that obv the country's not so different than it was Monday.
California still voted against gay marriage, partially because of black Obama supporters which always annoys me when anyone who's disenfranchised doesn't automatically support enfranchising others. And I guess also because of Mormons, who shouldn't be judgemental of marriage.

And of course Obama will now be president and he'll make mistakes and stop being cool, and Palin will just be a punchline on VH1's "I love the '00s."

But for now, this is amazing.

Ba-rocking the Vote

for some reason, I just love saying that.

Anyway, yesterday I did just that in Germantown, Pennsylvania and it was great. So a couple weeks ago I was at the Metropolitan, this gay bar in my hood, and this woman came up to my table saying she was organizing a free bus of queer women (AND allies and friends) to go volunteer for the Obama campaign in Pennsylvania yesterday.

And since I always want to do political things, but don't often actualize my goal beyond talk, and because my vote in NY doesn't matter, despite the fact that I had to wake up at the super-early hour of 6 a.m., me and a few queer lady friends went to Ba-rock the vote (ugh, I said it again. I can't help myself).

So after free bagels and coffee at Henrietta Hudson, we had a bus ride where we watched But I'm a Cheerleader (duh), and arrived in Germantown, Pennsylvania, an area right outside Philly.
It's a predominately black, working-class area where 95% of people support Obama, but with "historically low voter turnout." We went to one of the 79(!) bustling campaign offices in Pennsylvania, then split up into teams of two. Me and my friend were dropped off and picked up at locales by another Obama volunteer, who was also volunteering for the first time.

Let me say, after knocking on doors (in the rain, fyi, just to demonstrate my hardcoreness), I am SO impressed by the Obama campaign operation. All the doors we went to were voters identified by the Obama campaign, and we were just following up.

We gave them these handy sheets with polling information and telling them they had the right to vote, and clearing up wrong information, since you know the Republicans will try to engage in voter suppression. This all strikes me as brilliant get-out-the-vote activities, and it's amazing that the campaign has the manpower to do all this.

While one (white) woman said it was "too soon to tell" who she was voting for--really? too soon? what the hell is she expecting to change her mind at this point?--almost everyone we talked to was voting for Obama and knew where there polling place was, and seemed excited about the election.

Granted this was not a representative sample, but I just get the feeling that everyone is so excited about this election, and that we are going to win. Like, it was so close the last two elections, and Obama just needsso a little extra to get the edge, and I feel like he has it. And it was just so amazing. Everyone who worked at the campaign office was just SO nice and happy we came. If you have a day to do this form now until election day, I recommend it.

Spending the day knocking on doors in Germantown, Pennsylvania kind of made me wish I had just worked for the campaign and given my whole life and soul to the campaign. BUT making a tiny difference is better than making zero difference.

I seriously am so excited about this election and just want it to happen.

Here's this cute video one of the organizers of the bus made.