This video exemplifies why I both love and hate New York City.
High five! C'mon! What? No? Screw you!
Wait, yes? You rock!
September 28, 2009
September 21, 2009
Heard It Through the Grapevine
If you were hiding under a rock this past weekend, or perhaps you didn't check your Facebook accout, you may not have seen my husband's tweet.
Did you get that? Yes, I said my "husband." Because as of Thursday, I do legally have one. It's a new development. I'm still getting used to it.
In case you don't already know the story, or were confounded by cryptic Facebook status messages, here it is:
RM and I were married by Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman of the New York State Court of Appeals, in the beautiful and historic COA building in downtown Albany on a sunny Thursday afternoon. The ceremony was private, with only our immediate family in attendence. It was short yet very meaningful. The bride wore royal blue and the groom wore his favorite $10 sport coat.
Now, I had intended for this information to stay relatively private--I was afraid that widespread knowledge of this fact would subconsciously cheapen the ceremony and exchange of vows we hope to conduct in front of our larger circle of family and friends next year. (I was also half-afraid people would think "shotgun," and shake their heads with a series of tsks.)
I was a little naive to believe that this could be contained. I am, after all, a member of the press.
The day after the ceremony, RM and I were driving out to Cooperstown, where we were to enjoy a lovely mini-honeymoon, when he casually revealed that he'd tweeted the news of our nuptials. Only when I was able to regain control of the car after swerving off a country road in the Central Leatherstocking region, was I able to comprehend the magnitude of what just happened.
Between the two of us, we have thousands of Facebook friends and Twitter followers, most of whom instantly read the status message, and many of whom started to issue confused public congratulations. Next came the barrage of voicemails and text messages. And one slightly agitated call from my parents (aka my publicists) asking what the heck they should say to the people calling the house wondering about the news. Once it has leaked to the press, there is no covering it up...
But like most leaks, a statement is made in the aftermath to clear up any misinformation. So here is my statement:
We decided to get the legal stuff out of the way for one of two reasons: (neither of which is that I am pregnant, so cross that off your list) First, we needed to get Rick on my health insurance plan, because his job will not afford him such a luxury (sad, right?). We also wanted to begin our financial lives together, and get a head start on all matters tax-related. Secondly, we wanted the freedom to do as we please at the wedding we are planning for next year.
Because by gum, there will still be a WEDDING. Replete with walking down the aisle, vows, ring exchanges, champagne and cake. Oh yes, CAKE. Details are TK and close at hand, so please stand by to mark your calendars!
So there you go.
Did you get that? Yes, I said my "husband." Because as of Thursday, I do legally have one. It's a new development. I'm still getting used to it.
In case you don't already know the story, or were confounded by cryptic Facebook status messages, here it is:
RM and I were married by Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman of the New York State Court of Appeals, in the beautiful and historic COA building in downtown Albany on a sunny Thursday afternoon. The ceremony was private, with only our immediate family in attendence. It was short yet very meaningful. The bride wore royal blue and the groom wore his favorite $10 sport coat.
Now, I had intended for this information to stay relatively private--I was afraid that widespread knowledge of this fact would subconsciously cheapen the ceremony and exchange of vows we hope to conduct in front of our larger circle of family and friends next year. (I was also half-afraid people would think "shotgun," and shake their heads with a series of tsks.)
I was a little naive to believe that this could be contained. I am, after all, a member of the press.
The day after the ceremony, RM and I were driving out to Cooperstown, where we were to enjoy a lovely mini-honeymoon, when he casually revealed that he'd tweeted the news of our nuptials. Only when I was able to regain control of the car after swerving off a country road in the Central Leatherstocking region, was I able to comprehend the magnitude of what just happened.
Between the two of us, we have thousands of Facebook friends and Twitter followers, most of whom instantly read the status message, and many of whom started to issue confused public congratulations. Next came the barrage of voicemails and text messages. And one slightly agitated call from my parents (aka my publicists) asking what the heck they should say to the people calling the house wondering about the news. Once it has leaked to the press, there is no covering it up...
But like most leaks, a statement is made in the aftermath to clear up any misinformation. So here is my statement:
We decided to get the legal stuff out of the way for one of two reasons: (neither of which is that I am pregnant, so cross that off your list) First, we needed to get Rick on my health insurance plan, because his job will not afford him such a luxury (sad, right?). We also wanted to begin our financial lives together, and get a head start on all matters tax-related. Secondly, we wanted the freedom to do as we please at the wedding we are planning for next year.
Because by gum, there will still be a WEDDING. Replete with walking down the aisle, vows, ring exchanges, champagne and cake. Oh yes, CAKE. Details are TK and close at hand, so please stand by to mark your calendars!
So there you go.
September 14, 2009
Cooking the Books
I thought that attempting to read on the subway was not as fulfilling as reading on a longer Metro North train ride. Turns out, most of New York City disagrees with me, as per this interesting article in the Times a week or so ago.
Since I've been cramming power-reads in between bumps, starts and "we're experiencing delays due to train traffic ahead of us (SCOFF SCOFF)," I've wracked up what I think is an impressive reading list, thank you very much. And I'm sharing it...because I care. (And I want people to stop misspelling things left and right. You are not getting away with using appalling grammar, either! Read, for crissake...or at least pick up a copy of Strunk & White!!!)
(If you take issue with the former parenthetical statement, please read about the 5 Grammar Mistakes that Make You Sound Like a Chimp. Then talk to me.)
Je voudrais mon livre....I'm a one-woman book club!
1. The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova. A chilling work of historical fiction (or is it fiction?), detailing the "real-life" exploits of one mysterious and bloodthirsty European Count Dracula. It's an adventure story, a romance, a mystery and a psychological thriller with a little bit of gore worked in. I'm getting the spine tinglies just thinking about it, and I have a feeling if I pick up the book to reread it, I'll enjoy it more than I did the first time. The only downside...if you don't like dense writers, you might not make it far enough into the story to get to the good stuff. But I promise you, it's GOOD stuff, worth the effort.
I saw a dude on the subway reading this the other day, and interrupted him to gush over the book. I couldn't help myself.
2. The Lost, by Daniel Mendelssohn. If memory serves, I've written about this book in a previous posting. (But who even reads this blog enough to remember? I certainly don't. ) For the sake of refreshment, this book is amazing. It's a memoir of sorts, about a writer so fascinated with his family's history that he travels the world in search of the truth of what happened to his relatives during the Holocaust. As he searches, he ends up finding out a lot more about modern Judaism and the power of family than he thought possible. Amazing, amazing read. Also dense, but I didn't care.
3. Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Saffron Foer. I was on a Holocaust kick, can you tell? A young, dweeby, obsessive-compulsive Jewish American goes on a quest to find the mysterious Ukrainian hometown his grandfather was always babbling about. What he find is both nothing and everything. The quirky narrative, which involves a lot of fragmented, butchered English by the young man's Ukrainian guides, is interwoven with a peculiar stories of the town since it's inception hundreds of years ago. I like it. Can't say I totally understood it, but I liked it. I rented the movie later on and it cleared a few things up for me, but it also confused me more...
4. The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan. Pure, unadulterated fantasy. It would take a novel to explain this book, which is part of a 15-book series. The author died before he finished it, and I'm hoping I get through reading all the books before I kick it too. If you liked the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but got sick of Tolkien's endless babbling, (as I did...snore!) you'll LOVE this.
5. My Sister's Keeper, by Jodi Picoult. The subject matter was interesting--a young girl sues her parents for the rights to medically emancipate herself, having been born a genetic match for her cancer-ravaged older sister to serve as a bag of harvested organs--but the writing lacked finesse, the touchy-feely-ness felt forced and the end of the story was just plain unrealistic. With other books I normally wouldn't be so concerned about the latter fact, but that this book sold itself as something that was grounded in reality makes it a harder sell for me. I'm sorry, but in this case, I liked the storyline in the film adaptation BETTER because it was MORE realistic. That's a rare thing, folks. Rare indeed for Miss Green Eyes here.
6. First Blood, by David Morrell. When I read the author's introduction to this book, I guessed that I might not finish it. Not because the story wasn't well-written or intriguing--I'd gotten a sense of that from Sylvester Stallone's 1982 hit--but because David Morrell wanted to write a story that was as realistic as possible. And post-traumatic stress syndrome and gory senseless killing aren't really my bag. I made it through about half of the book. It was depressing. It was dark. It was interesting. I was not in the mood. I'm aiming to pick it up again sometime in the future.
7. The Twilight Series, by Stephanie Meyer. I haven't done enough reading of cheesy teen vampire literature to know if Steph Meyer is pulling a George Lucas. Despite her pitiful Dick-and-Jane writing style, I found the stories to be entertaining reads. It's easy to get sucked into the saga, as it caters to every teen fantasy I ever had. Although in retrospect, I was an idiot back then and no longer yearn with angst for skinny, dark troubled young men. Now I'm totally Team Jacob.
-----
I'm currently reading the second book in Jordan's Wheel of Time series. It's just as rockin' as the first so far. Next, I might pick up that World War Z book everyone's raving about...but I'll have to fit it in between 34th St./Herald Square and Broadway, as I zoom under the East River...
Since I've been cramming power-reads in between bumps, starts and "we're experiencing delays due to train traffic ahead of us (SCOFF SCOFF)," I've wracked up what I think is an impressive reading list, thank you very much. And I'm sharing it...because I care. (And I want people to stop misspelling things left and right. You are not getting away with using appalling grammar, either! Read, for crissake...or at least pick up a copy of Strunk & White!!!)
(If you take issue with the former parenthetical statement, please read about the 5 Grammar Mistakes that Make You Sound Like a Chimp. Then talk to me.)
Je voudrais mon livre....I'm a one-woman book club!
1. The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova. A chilling work of historical fiction (or is it fiction?), detailing the "real-life" exploits of one mysterious and bloodthirsty European Count Dracula. It's an adventure story, a romance, a mystery and a psychological thriller with a little bit of gore worked in. I'm getting the spine tinglies just thinking about it, and I have a feeling if I pick up the book to reread it, I'll enjoy it more than I did the first time. The only downside...if you don't like dense writers, you might not make it far enough into the story to get to the good stuff. But I promise you, it's GOOD stuff, worth the effort.
I saw a dude on the subway reading this the other day, and interrupted him to gush over the book. I couldn't help myself.
2. The Lost, by Daniel Mendelssohn. If memory serves, I've written about this book in a previous posting. (But who even reads this blog enough to remember? I certainly don't. ) For the sake of refreshment, this book is amazing. It's a memoir of sorts, about a writer so fascinated with his family's history that he travels the world in search of the truth of what happened to his relatives during the Holocaust. As he searches, he ends up finding out a lot more about modern Judaism and the power of family than he thought possible. Amazing, amazing read. Also dense, but I didn't care.
3. Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Saffron Foer. I was on a Holocaust kick, can you tell? A young, dweeby, obsessive-compulsive Jewish American goes on a quest to find the mysterious Ukrainian hometown his grandfather was always babbling about. What he find is both nothing and everything. The quirky narrative, which involves a lot of fragmented, butchered English by the young man's Ukrainian guides, is interwoven with a peculiar stories of the town since it's inception hundreds of years ago. I like it. Can't say I totally understood it, but I liked it. I rented the movie later on and it cleared a few things up for me, but it also confused me more...
4. The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan. Pure, unadulterated fantasy. It would take a novel to explain this book, which is part of a 15-book series. The author died before he finished it, and I'm hoping I get through reading all the books before I kick it too. If you liked the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but got sick of Tolkien's endless babbling, (as I did...snore!) you'll LOVE this.
5. My Sister's Keeper, by Jodi Picoult. The subject matter was interesting--a young girl sues her parents for the rights to medically emancipate herself, having been born a genetic match for her cancer-ravaged older sister to serve as a bag of harvested organs--but the writing lacked finesse, the touchy-feely-ness felt forced and the end of the story was just plain unrealistic. With other books I normally wouldn't be so concerned about the latter fact, but that this book sold itself as something that was grounded in reality makes it a harder sell for me. I'm sorry, but in this case, I liked the storyline in the film adaptation BETTER because it was MORE realistic. That's a rare thing, folks. Rare indeed for Miss Green Eyes here.
6. First Blood, by David Morrell. When I read the author's introduction to this book, I guessed that I might not finish it. Not because the story wasn't well-written or intriguing--I'd gotten a sense of that from Sylvester Stallone's 1982 hit--but because David Morrell wanted to write a story that was as realistic as possible. And post-traumatic stress syndrome and gory senseless killing aren't really my bag. I made it through about half of the book. It was depressing. It was dark. It was interesting. I was not in the mood. I'm aiming to pick it up again sometime in the future.
7. The Twilight Series, by Stephanie Meyer. I haven't done enough reading of cheesy teen vampire literature to know if Steph Meyer is pulling a George Lucas. Despite her pitiful Dick-and-Jane writing style, I found the stories to be entertaining reads. It's easy to get sucked into the saga, as it caters to every teen fantasy I ever had. Although in retrospect, I was an idiot back then and no longer yearn with angst for skinny, dark troubled young men. Now I'm totally Team Jacob.
-----
I'm currently reading the second book in Jordan's Wheel of Time series. It's just as rockin' as the first so far. Next, I might pick up that World War Z book everyone's raving about...but I'll have to fit it in between 34th St./Herald Square and Broadway, as I zoom under the East River...
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