Got the Jimmy Legs

I'm falling behind in the Broken Angel issue, but caught this from the Clinton Hill Blog:

On 10/10/06 Broken Angel suffered minimal damage from a fire at the top of the structure. The cause of the fire is unknown and still under investigation. Broken Angel has been an active project of construction by my family beginning in 1979. Major construction was finished in 2002, and all work done thereafter has been for the purpose of maintaining the building. The fire brought the attention of the Department of Buildings (DOB), previous interactions had occurred in 1986, and 2002 with no action taken against the building. During the course of building and maintaining the structure there have been no accidents or complaints. Compared with most modern construction projects, such as the Time Warner building in NYC, this is an excellent record. It raises questions as to why large developers are allowed to continue construction when they pose a risk to the community, whereas Broken Angel, which has no history of construction problems, has been singled out as a danger. My mother and father, the legal guardians and owners of Broken Angel were threatened with eviction for 6 days. On the 7th day they were vacated by the police without a court order or engineer's report. We question the necessity and the humanity of this action. They were told that this was done for their safety; however action was taken prior to any inspection of the interior of the building by an engineer. Furthermore, we were told that the building would be demolished in 3 weeks if an architect did not submit plans to bring it to code. We have been compliant with this request. We are thankful to the firm of Jordan Parnass Digital Architecture http://www.jpda.net/news.html for all of their help and support. On Thursday (10/26/06) an engineer from the DOB toured the structure, and the next day the DOB released a different story. A DOB spokesperson recently commented to the Daily News (10/27/06) that any demolition orders, if warranted will take approximately 3 months to begin.

[emphasis mine]

Dig it, folks. As usual the DOB is full of shit. I love how everybody is so ready to buy their line and run around fretfully murmuring, "Oh Broken Angel is soooo dangerous! Why didn't the Woods bring it up to code in 1979?? Why can't there be a coffee house with a kids room on that spot?" The Woods stick to their guns, and the DOB starts slowly backing down. By the time it's all sorted out I bet the DOB will have forgotten all about this. I know, they're not exactly free 'n clear yet, but they've got backup, they've got a history of successfully fighting these allegations before. And the DOB is a pretty lame bureaucracy that seems to give passes to the truly serious violators while hassling small fry and people who follow the rules.

In other semi-good news: regarding the Clinton Hill woman who was attacked on her own stoop, her attacker is now on Riker's Island awaiting trial. Turns out he committed his crime on his way home from meeting with his parole officer (!) He had a couple hours before he had to be in for curfew (!) and apparently decided he had enough freedom for a while. His dropped cellphone led to his capture. I'm glad he's caught, but really, what an idiotic way to get busted. A real waste of protoplasm, this guy.

posted by Jimmy Legs at 11:38 AM | 0 comments

You know how people get older, couple-up and seem to disappear except for the occasional dinner party? Well I know where they all went. You see, it happened to me.

I've missed at least 3 really great rock shows and one good party because of my house. All my free time is spent working on it, or resting up to work on it. Even here at my day job, I'm expending more thought about paint options than anything that actually fills my paycheck. There is a lot to do, and the sooner we get it done, the sooner it'll be over. Or so I think. If we somehow get through my already-epic List of Stuff to Fix, mightn't there be yet another laundry list hiding behind it? Probably, but by then the novelty of home-ownership will have worn off and I'll be less obsessive.

Things are slowly taking shape, clutter is getting managed, decisions are being finalized. We're getting a washing machine on Saturday. I picked the Consumer Reports Best Buy model, but really, what do I know from washers? Just get the clothes sudsy and then rinse. I'll take it from there. Going to laundromats was never that horrible for me, but I sure won't miss it. We're getting a dryer too, but I need to have somebody come out and run a gas line to make it work.

The neighborhood may not win any beauty prizes, but it's right up my alley . The supermarket actually stocks some of the fake meat stuff on which the lazy vegetarian thrives, plus it turns out that Key Food markets its own brand of V8. It's close enough and it's really cheap. There's also a small market right on our corner that has good exotic stuff (well, exotic to me anyway). I'll have to get used to not having a liquor store on the corner, but I'm coping. I'm sure there are probably some other liquor stores in the immediate area. The neighbors have either been friendly or indifferent; who could ask for anything more? Somehow nobody has managed to get over to the Dunkin Donuts across the street but I'm sure we'll rectify that shortly.

The cats seem to like the house, the birds seem happy, though they are resisting my efforts to teach them the riff to a SCTV's "Great White North." We thought we could rename Freddie the cat "Betty" since it sounds kind of similar but now Buzz thinks she should be called Mildred. She doesn't respond to anything except Friskies, so it's sort of moot anyway.

posted by Jimmy Legs at 3:52 PM | 2 comments

Some good news for Broken Angel! Some DUMBO architects are getting some engineers to figure out how to save the building from the Dept of Buildings:

Plemel said he has called on structural engineers to help inspect every nook and cranny of the building and draft a plan to bring it up to code while retaining Wood's vision.

Of course, the Woods will still need to find a way to pay for whatever work will need to be done. It sounds promising, the guy says projects like this have gone through before and been landmarked when they come out at the end. I hope that's how Broken Angel's story ends as well. I guess it's too bad things have to come to such a head just to keep something unique in New York City these days, but whatever it takes is worth it. If Christopher Wood ever gets around to posting a Paypal donation link, I'll put it up here too.

posted by Jimmy Legs at 11:34 AM | 0 comments

Old Bedroom, originally uploaded by Jimmy Legs.

Buzz and I went back to the old house to clean it out. Actually, Buzz did most of the work. I never noticed how dirty the walls in my old room are! The place is pretty well cleaned out now, we'll see if I get the deposit back. Then I can add that dough to the growing bottomless pit of stuff that needs to be fixed at the new house.

I'm not sure how we'll draw the line on repairs/improvements. I keep thinking of small things to fix that lead me to other, bigger renovations. For instance, in the bathroom there's a pair of towel rack ends with no towel rack. To remove these they'd have to be broken off the tile-covered wall, which would necessarily mess up some of the tiles. The tiles are kind of ugly anyway, so I'd want to remove all the tiles in the bathroom, which makes me want to replace the tiles on the floor as well. If I'm doing that, then I might as well replace the old medicine cabinet. And hey, that sink is no prize either, and the toilet has been installed at a weird angle, that needs to go too! And the shower has those same ugly tiles! They gotta go! Next thing you know, I've replaced everything except the showerhead I bought two days ago. And all because I wanted a new towel rack.

This is why my only hope is to win the lottery to generate the necessary revneue to replace everything inside the house.

posted by Jimmy Legs at 10:30 AM | 5 comments

We made it through the move fairly unscathed. What and ordeal though! There's something very psychologically damaging about rounding up all your worldly possessions into some boxes and then being forced to sift through them all in a totally new environment. Now we've already gone through all our stuff once as we packed it, throwing out the unnecessary items wherever possible. Now we're in the new house and I'm surrounded by crap. Why the hell did I keep this ugly Halloween-themed mug full of matchbooks? Did I really need these milk crates? Where is all my good stuff? I don't have any good stuff, it's all crap.

Meanwhile, the house seems like a dump. I can't look anywhere without seeing major flaws that must be corrected immediately. Of course I won't fix it all, but I don't even know where to begin. I mean, after I get rid of the asbestos. It's times like these I understand the strange looks I got from my friends when I told them I was buying a house. What the hell was I thinking? In what alternate universe did this seem like a good idea?

I'm pretty sure the feelings of remorse and panic will subside as I start working on the place. But for now, I'm exhausted. What state would I be in if we had moved ourselves, without the help of burly Russians? I hesitate even to imagine.

The cats are in the house somewhere, but I'm only seeing Hubcap on a regular basis. We're trying to keep Mr Bones sequested on his floor until at least we get a handle on all the pets. Decatur has reportedly been up on the top floor for the past day. And then there's the cat formerly known as Freddie.

You may remember Freddie as the stray cat who lived in our previous back yard. She was there ever since I moved into that place, and in the intervening years she has become more and more a fixture on our back porch. I feel sort of responsible for her now, so we kidnapped her to the new house, too. She was pretty freaked out at first, but she may be slowly coming around to the idea. It's pretty clear she once was a house cat, as she's pretty nice to humans, and she's been fixed. Now all she has to do is remember how to use a litter box.

I want to change her name to something more appropriate than Freddie (as in, 'the Freeloader') but nothing has been decided yet. Currently we believe she is in the basement, but who knows. The upside of all this is that the cats are all getting along very well. So far they're not paying any attention to the birds with whom they now share a domicile. I'm sure that will change. The birds took about 5 minutes to get settled.

posted by Jimmy Legs at 1:06 PM | 2 comments

Man, I turn my back for five minutes and all hell breaks loose.

Well, not really, but still, much has happened in the past 24 hours. First and foremost we closed on the house. I would have put an exclamation point on that sentence, but I'm too exhausted. The stress surrounding this whole process has left me weak and ineffectual (more than usual, even). And we still have to actually move in, which happens Monday. I did hire movers, but we're packing everything, throwing stuff out, and of course spackling everything that isn't moving under its own power.

The closing was actually pretty interesting, watching three lawyers and a title closer throwing papers at each other, babbling into cell phones, running to fax machines and copiers, checking each others' math, making small barbed statements about each others' work, and finally, regaling us with an anecdote about the family dog's inflamed anal gland. If I was already tired before the closing started, I was totally comatose by the time we left. Yay, we own a house. Yay. I'm sure I'll be more excited once we're moved in and I have some time to rest.

So while we're dealing with the house yesterday, Arthur Wood was getting hauled away in handcuffs. Apparently Broken Angel received and Order to Vacate, and of course they did not vacate. So the cops showed up and put handcuffs on a 75 year old man. You know, in case he got violent. Reportedly, the Woods are staying with their son somewhere in Park Slope until the issues get resolved. That sucks for many reasons, among them the notion that we won't get to see Arthur before we move. Jeannie has always been friendly with him, living around the corner since 2000. If the worst happens and they're never allowed back inside Broken Angel, we might never see him again.

One brighter note: the woman who was attacked the other night seems to have found the perpetrator. As noted before, he dropped his cell phone, from which a fingerprint was taken. She went down to look at some mugshots and ID'd the guy, and the fingerprint matched the man she picked out. Now apparently the way it works is they're keeping an eye on the guy for the time being while they swear out a warrant to arrest him. Who knows what will happen now, but at least the system seems to be working so far.

Speaking of which, here's a couple of sites that allow you to map sexual offenders. Their locations are all a matter of public record, so I guess there's nothing really wrong with this, but it does skeeve me out a bit for a couple of reasons. One is the Big-Brotherness of it, but the other is damn, there are a lot of sexual offenders out there! There are many in the Clinton Hill area, and many more in Bushwick, where we'll be moving in a few days. Part of me is glad to have the info, but another part of me would like to have remained just a little bit more ignorant in this regard.

posted by Jimmy Legs at 11:53 AM | 4 comments

In lighter news, ever-hip Village Voice decides that Beat the Devil's lead singer is Mishka Shubaly. If you don't know the band, or know Mishka HIMself, lines like the following may not provide humor:

You wanna get there right as a Beat-the-Devil set begins, because half the fun in seeing this volatile NYC jazz-folk-blues-punk outfit lies in watching the unfamiliar react the first time lead singer Mishka Shubaly opens her mouth. Typical reaction: shock and awe. She looks tiny and jovial (especially surrounded by her menacing, dudely bandmates), but goddamn can she ever shriek, alternating jazzy, evocative moans (she's inspired Billie Holiday comparisons, and for once they don't sound totally ridiculous) with a nuclear-grade, paint-evaporating, continent-shifting howl loaded with more volume, rage, and pathos than the entire Ozzfest lineup combined.

For the record, Shilpa Ray is BTD's lead singer (and she can wail, that much is true). But Mishka is one of the 'dudely' musicians to her side, and has been a manly man for most (if not all) of his life. Here's the band. Can you tell which one is which?

UPDATE: Okay, they fixed it, but I thought it was funny while it lasted.

posted by Jimmy Legs at 11:54 AM | 0 comments

My girlfriend's upstairs neighbor got attacked last night. The woman, an old friend of Jeannie's, was coming home (from the C train at Washington & Fulton, I believe) around 7PM last night, to her house on Gates at Downing. She walked up the stoop steps and was getting the keys out when some guy grabbed her from behind in a bear-hug.

It was dark and raining pretty heavily, so I guess there weren't any people on the street. He put his hand over her mouth and told her not to make any noise. She could barely breathe with his hand over her face. Then he groped at her genitals. She fought back, trying to push him off. His hand must have slipped because she was able to scream, the effect of which eventually got him to let her go. He ran off after that.

She's obviously shaken up after the incident. She wants to move, but my question is where? Is any place safe? I know the neighborhood has been seeing an upswing in bizarre crimes, not the least of which was the shooting that happened on the very same corner a few months ago. But 7 o'clock on a Tuesday is not a time when you're usually on your guard. But experience seems to show that most assaults around here happen during prime time. Two of my friends were mugged around 9PM on Greene and Washington Ave, I myself was pounded on near my house by dickhead kids around 8:30.

I guess the lesson is we can't ever let our guard down. I'm thinking of getting Jeannie one of those combination brass knuckle/hunting knife things (they're hard for somebody to get away from you), but no amount of weaponry would make me feel any safer in the end. The one punchline from this whole thing is that it appears that the asshole dropped his cellphone during the attack. God I hope it's really his and not just stolen from someone else. That would be so sweet if he gets caught for being such a total dipshit, wouldn't it? Almost a happy ending to this story.

So it goes without saying, please be careful, even of the picturesque streets of Clinton Hill. There are a lot more cops on the streets these days, but if they're even one block away, they're not gonna be able to help when some weirdo goes off his meds and grabs you.

posted by Jimmy Legs at 10:42 AM | 0 comments

Everything is confirmed for our closing on Thursday afternoon. I have scheduled almost all the utilities (everything but the water, the grumpy old lady I talked to wasn't havin' it). Plus I'm happy to report that Optimum Online is indeed available at our new address, despite what the website says. We're moving on Monday and we're also renting a U-haul van to take some precious cargo (cats, birds) across the great divide. I'm a little leery about driving a cargo van, but then it's not mine so who cares? The last time I moved we rented a truck and while trying to make a left-hand turn, my roommate managed to rip the bumper off a passing Lexus. We were white as sheets, the driver was understandably miffed, the cops thought it was hilarious. I waited for a call from truck company, demanding thousands of dollars to repair the car. The call never came. I actually called them at some point to ask about it and they said, "Well, there was no damage to the truck right? So you don't owe anything." It was true, there was only a slight white mark (car paint) on the side of the tire that had rolled over the car's bumper like Bigfoot. It's a wonder people don't rent trucks and damage cars all the time. You'd think the Black Label Bike Club would get on this and start clearing the way for Critical Mass every month.

There's still a lot of packing to do, a lot of throwing out of stuff too. There's a clothes drop box on the corner of Grand Ave and Putnam, just a couple blocks from my house. I dumped a bunch of old clothes the other night. I wish there was a similar box nearby for all the books I need to dump. I'd like to take them to Housing Works or something, but I'll probably put them out on the stoop for a couple days and toss what doesn't get picked up. Hurry now and pick up such exotics selections as the abridged Moby Dick or my collection of Calvin and Hobbes, which I am regretfully parting with at this late date. I am, however, keeping all the Bloom County.

posted by Jimmy Legs at 2:58 PM | 0 comments

As you may have heard, Broken Angel caught on fire a few days ago. In the photos I've seen, it looked like only a small part of the structure on top actually burned, the FDNY had it all put out fairly quickly. Unfortunately, the DOB got wind of it, and now wants to kick the Woods out of the building unless they get an architect and bring the place up to code. Something tells me there is no specific code that covers buildings that have constantly-changing roof sculpture. So they'll shoehorn the building into some standard code and probably have to shut the whole operation down.

If Broken Angel goes down, that's really it for Clinton Hill. The kind of limited imagination that forces like Broken Angel have helped to disrupt have been threatening this area for years. Now it looks like they just might usurp one of the last symbols of what used to be good about this neighborhood. Already there are comments on Brownstoner that typify the kind of lame, save-the-children rhetoric that just really gets under my skin. "It's beautiful art ... but people could have been killed." Yeah, I wish it had been you. I say that only because this is the kind of knee-jerk reaction that seem to be ruling the day: lame, reactionary thought. I, for one, would be very disappointed if Broken Angel gets the axe. Here's the message from Christopher Wood asking for assistance. Does anybody know Dave Chappelle's email address?

I am Christopher Wood, son of Arthur (age 75)and Cindy Wood (age 65) the owners and creators of Broken Angel, . The New York City Building department is attempting to remove my parents from their home of 30 years, unless we immediately get an architect or engineer to bring the building to NYC codes. We do not have the money to do this. If there is anyone out there who is qualified and willing to work Pro Bono we desperately need the help, contributions are also welcome. You can contact my father. Arthur Wood, 4 Downing St, Brooklyn, NY 11238. Also we appeal to David Chappelle and Michel Gondry. Our home became the backdrop for your wonderful concert film, please help us to save it now.

posted by Jimmy Legs at 10:05 AM | 2 comments

Just one pile of crap to add to the rest

Time is running out! Did I tell you people that some guy came over to my home the other day and inventoried all our stuff? I've often wondered how much crap I've accrued over the past 6 years in this house, well, now I know. We've got something like 1600 cubic feet of stuff. A portion of that is my girlfriend's apartment but she doesn't really have much stuff at all. I mean, it pales in comparison to the huge pile that is my apartment. I forgot about things like the two pianos (one real, one electric) the combo organ (with amp), the many heavy guitar amps, the many books, the several tables, the countless chairs. 1600 cubic feet! Of course, half of that is just Mr Bones.

Actually, they didn't count Mr Bones in the inventory, but you get the idea. Every mover I've talked to explains what a huge move this will be, how a squadron of former Russian sailors will be dispatched in a cargo plane to carry my stuff the two miles to the new place. I finally found a place that seems to offer the best deal (I'll reserve the commercials until after the move happens), but it's still more than the human mind can bear.

We're slowly getting the deal together, changing addresses, getting insurance, raising credit card limits. But we still don't have a closing date. Until we secure this, it's all theory. The title company is dicking around on a couple of issues, I am trying not to obsess about it every second. But it's hard not to, considering so much depends on everything happening in a very short period of time. Awk!

Okay, let's focus on the positive: MOTICO is on stage this evening at 8PM, nicely coinciding with the Open Bar. We have some new songs which have been coming together quite nicely. The Lyric sin one song are still a little up in the air but so far they seem to concern the validity of the hypoallergenic cat, the obsolescence of the card catalog, and whether theater people are really as fun as they want us to think they are. Topicality is our middle name, folks! Please come out to the gig if you can. I might have a coronary before we get to play out again.

posted by Jimmy Legs at 1:10 PM | 0 comments

I've been so consumed with housing-related matters, I keep forgetting to mention this: my band is playing this week at Trash. Yes, the same place the last 2 shows have been at. What can I say, DJ Mojo has been kind to us, the sound system is good, and they have an open bar for an hour. As usual, we're going on really early so you can see us and still get to bed before Conan. You can have it all!

Wednesday, October 11th, 2006
MOTICO: 8PM
Bad Girlfriend: 9PM
We Are Americana: 10PM
Fire Flies: 11PM
Frankie and His Fingers: Midnight
The Sterns: 1AM

The Trash Bar
256 Grand St Williamsburg

$6

Open Bar from 8-9PM (free PBR and well liquors)

posted by Jimmy Legs at 5:15 PM | 0 comments

I am fully ensconced in my new surroundings. I have a hand-me-down cubicle under extremely bright fluorescent lights. I'm catty-corner to the Citibank building, which will mean I won't have to fork over all those fees at bodega ATMs all over the city. Also there appears to be a Dunkin Donuts next door, which means when I move I will have a DD at both ends of my commute. Who could ask for more?

This is an older-style office than my last place, no Flavia machines or sprawling open-plan layouts. On the plus side, for some reason my boss has to share an office with two other people. They get a window, but I won't be distracted by other people in my personal space. In fact, my cubicle is constructed so that somebody would have to come well into it before they see me (picture a very small laybrinth). And the cubicle walls are 6 feet tall, so I no longer have to suffer the "Kilroy" phenomenon in which passersby can peek into my space and catch me nodding off or brushing dandruff off my shoulder. Now if I can just get a locking door and a roof I'll be happy.

P.S. I also have one of those Aeron chairs, long the status symbol of fleeting Dotcom-era success. I don't know if this is a knockoff or what, but this thing isn't very comfortable at all.

posted by Jimmy Legs at 11:48 AM | 0 comments

At 4PM today, some guys are supposed to come over and take all my office supplies and relocated them uptown. I don't know why they're doing this before the day is officially over, or why they're doing this on a Thursday. I suppose this will give me the excuse to leave work early. That will be nice, one last little perk before I have to fall in lock-step with the rest of my coworkers.

So ends my 6-year love affair with the Financial District. I began in August 2000 in WTC building 7, and now I'm next door at 3 world Financial Center. Of course there was that brief respite where I was working from home (January 2002-February 2006) but my base of operations was still here officially.

I'll miss this part of town, somehow I don't think Lexington and 52nd Street is gonna be as colorful a location. My coworkers assure me there is 'great shopping' around there, but there won't be a Century 21, which has pretty much been my only benchmark for shopping all this time. Is there a Conway up there? I hope so, you gotta admit stuff is cheap there. I've bought so much underwear there I'm beginning to think "Irregular" is a designer brand.

Maybe it won't be so bad, a few of my friends (not to mention my girlfriend) work around there, so I won't feel as isolated as it can west of West St. Plus, when my dad is in town he usually stays in midtown, so it'll be easier to see him. I'm sure there's a lot of other wonderful things about working in midtown. Offhand I can't think of what they are but I'm sure there must be something.

posted by Jimmy Legs at 12:50 PM | 2 comments

I keep meaning to register my disgust on this subject to the Internet: They're making it hard for me to buy Sudafed. Its active ingredient, pseudoephedrine, is one of the few substances that can decongest my head without making me feel like I just took a tranq dart to the aorta. Unfortunately, because they've already outlawed real ephedredrine (see my bitching about that) because of its 'dangers,' they are now pointing their anti-drug propaganda at the pseudo stuff.

Why? Cuz people use this stuff to make methamphetamine. Well, woopee-whoop. I had been under the impression that one of the upsides of pseduoephedrine was that you couldn't use it to make meth, but apparently they figured out how to do this. In fact, if you look for info on the internet now, it's difficult to find any mention of regular ephedrine in the meth-making process, you will see mostly references to the pseudo stuff. It's almost as if somebody has gone through an done a universal find-and-replace across the web.

So, on the one hand, I'm against meth. I guess. I don't really care, people are gonna get crazy on one thing or another. But it annoys me that I'm suffering because other people are stupid.

Nowadays at most drugstores, they keep it pseudoephedrine behind the counter, and you have to show ID and fill out some governmental watchlist to get it. I'm surprised I wasn't fingerprinted. You may not have noticed this, even if you're as familiar with sudafed (or its many generic substitutes). I sure didn't. A few months ago I bought some generic sudafed and proceeded to take the tablets during a cold. Even though the new laws were effect, I bought it right off the shelf and didn't have to sign or anything. I figured my cold must have been particularly severe because the pills didn't clear out my head much. That's about the time I realized the stuff I bought wasn't pseudoephedrine. It was fake.

This stuff had the same name but had a "PE" at the end of it. "PE" stands for phenylephrine, the active ingredient.

The Good News: You Can't Make this Stuff into Meth

The Bad News: It Doesn't Work

Studies are showing the PE is about as effective as huffing fondue for decongesting nasal passages. How this thing got through the FDA astounds me. Okay, it's not dangerous, it's near-impossible to OD on it, no side effects ... Approved! But it don't work, dagnabbit!

The final indignity came when I looked in the package of Fake Sudafed and saw that they couldn't even be bothered to fill up all the little bubbles with pills. So you get 36 tabs instead of 48. I guess it doesn't really matter since it doesn't work anyway! But I'm sure it'll stop meth production in the US cold. Oh happy day.

posted by Jimmy Legs at 1:00 PM | 2 comments

Wow.

posted by Jimmy Legs at 4:38 PM | 0 comments

Boo Radley at the Old Folks' Home Reflecting Pool.

I really like spackling stuff. What a great concept: you just slop this stuff all over the holes in the wall, smooth it out a little, let it dry and sand it even. Ah, would that all of life's problems were so easily smoothed over. I've been spackling everything in the house; next up, spackling Mr Bones' food dish. Of course then Mr Bones would be forced to again supplement his diet with outside food.

posted by Jimmy Legs at 2:01 PM | 0 comments

It's gonna be a big month, much moving and change-of-life kind of stuff going on for Monsieur Jimmy Legs. At least I hope so. We're supposed to close on the house this month, but the title agency is dicking around. I'm still sure we'll close this month, but I was kind of hoping that by the time the calendar moved into October that we'd have a firm date set.

Regardless, I'm going ahead and making arrangements for movers. I swore when I moved into my current house (over 5 years ago!) that I'd never move myself again. So I'm hiring movers no matter the cost! Well, a little matter. I'm just getting the 'pickers' not the 'packers' so we still have to put everything in boxes and get it ready to go. This is tiresome but it gives me a chance to go through all my belongings and throw some crap out finally. Why did I keep all those birthday cards? Why have I held on so long to my collection of VHS tapes containing movies taped off HBO when I was 15? Why do I have a copy of Phantom of the Mall? Everywhere I look I see piles of stuff I've saved for no good reason. Sadly, I feel my current attempt at an austerity program still won't yield the minimalist lifestyle I profess to crave. Sometimes it's just more work to throw stuff out.

As if the house wasn't enough, my office moves to its uptown location on Thursday night, so I guess my first day there will be on Friday. The new office is on Lexington around 53rd Street. I'm not super optimistic about that area, but at least it's a block from a subway. Currently I have to hike clear across the island to get to my office in the World Financial Center (built upon land that didn't even exist before the building of the (First) World Trade Center Towers.

So not only am I becoming a homeowner, moving to a new neighborhood on a new subway line, I'm commuting to a foreign land, wherein I will actually have to sit with my coworkers instead of sequestered on the far side of the building. This means I have to show up on time and actually stay there for the full length of the day. In other words, I have to act like an adult. But only during the weekdays.

posted by Jimmy Legs at 2:45 PM | 2 comments