The "New Year" in Review

I can't quite get myself in the mood to blog lately. Perhaps it's because I have my giant "year in review" post still looming over my head. In any case, here's a quick update as to what's been going on:

On the afternoon of New Year's eve, I had lunch with B and Drippy and B's little brother. Then we all went to see Pan's Labyrinth. I feel like Drippy is finally warming up around me and relaxing a little, which is nice. She and B asked me to do a reading at their wedding in August, which I feel a little strange about, but I agreed. I hadn't seen B's brother since he was 12. (He's now a sophomore at Harvard!). His brother was shy and cerebral and really sweet. He reminded me of a "little B," and it warmed my heart.

I went to my parents house for New Year's Eve. My cousins came by with their baby and LilSis, my parents and I watched Little Miss Sunshine. My stepfather left the room after a few minutes, though, because he said it was too "spooky" for him. Ha ha! Oh-- also a sign of how crazy my family is: My mom wanted to make baked apples. My stepfather had picked out a particular apple from the supermarket with a pink flush on it "because it was blushing." LilSis and I thought that was so cute that we refused to eat the apple. My mom suggested that we photograph the apple for posterity's sake and then eat it. We did. At midnight we watched the ball drop at Times Square on TV. My mom suggested we toast with Airborn. I insisted on soda instead. I was anxious.

On New Year's day, my mom and I listened to a radio program about Leonard Cohen and then she took me to the supermarket and drove me back into the city. That night I went back over to Narc's place where I watched him play Call of Duty III while laying on his floor reading a book. The next day, Narc and I met Hammer and the Alaskan for lunch at Manatus.

That was an interesting meal. Narc and the Alaskan were able to bond over things like Star Wars, while the Alaskan engaged the table in a hearty debate about Sartre. Shortly after lunch, Narc jumped into a cab and Hammer, the Alaskan and I headed over to the Tea Spot to chat some more about life (the "meta-" New Year's party they had attended, my ontological crisis of being when I'm with Narc, the merits of HBO's Rome, LilHammer's upcoming wedding, etc).

After that, we strolled in pursuit of some specialty food marts to buy tapioca to make our own "bubble tea" and then I had to load up on milk and head to AA. My new commitment for the giant Tuesday night meeting is to buy milk. I call myself "the milk maid."

("What do you need milk for at those meetings?" Narc asked. "For a special cult ritual," I told him. He laughed awkwardly. I'm glad he can see how stupid his criticisms of AA are...)

The meeting that night was fine. Later that night, we had an anniversary "watch" for my friend Leseco. So, I was up at the diner until past midnight, watching her bring in the celebration. It was nice.

On Wednesday, I met Dan for lunch in the afternoon. We ate at Ariyoshi and upon leaving, discovered the New York Theosophical Society nestled in on a street in my neighborhood. That afternoon, I hung out with another AA friend-- Cherubino. I went up to her apartment and we talked for a while and watched part of The Illusionist. I really like her. From there, I took a really long walk all the way down the East Side until I reached the place where I was to meet NDN for dinner. That's right folks-- NDN is BACK from Asia! I was excited to see him.

NDN looked delightful with a fully bearded visage. He gave me a scruffy hug and kiss hello and we ate sushi and talked about his trip with RDN. Back at his apartment, he gave me some trinkets from the trip-- items that truly need to be seen to be believed. Perhaps I'll photograph them and show them at some point in the future.

Yesterday I spoke at a meeting in the afternoon. I'll write more about that in a future post. That evening, B and I went to the movies. We saw Rocky Balboa and I absolutely LOVED it. Everything about it was just awesome. We had a little drama before the movie-- a classic old-school Hyde & B fight, but it all dissipated due to the delightfully sheer emotionalism of the movie. Afterwards, we ate Chinese and then I bid good night to B and met Bezoukhoff at Border's and he walked me home.

At my place, Bezoukhoff and I entertained ourselves by listening to Elvis gospel, watching parts of the 1932 film, Freaks, and perusing my high school year book. Oh-- and I also cleaned my kitchen a little. I'm throwing a dinner party tonight! So far, who's coming? Hammer and the Alaskan, Narc, Jake and his girlfriend, my college friend- KBH and Meema. It should be fun. But that reminds me, I have to go grocery shopping and finish cleaning my house right now. I promised BigSis I'd meet her to look at bridesmaid dresses for LilSis' wedding this afternoon. With that cutting into my day, I won't have too much time to get ready for the dinner.

So... more later.

love,
h