Friedenville!

West-bound.


I left the red house in Little Ferry on Monday, as planned. It was a little sad to see it, and my grandfather waving wildly from the window, go but I had five great weeks getting to know him and getting to visit the bestest city in the history of the bestest. All my life I've wanted to see what it would be like to live in New York/New Jersey, to be part of that massive flow of commuters, to actually BE a New Yorker, not just an observer. Well, it turns out I'm an observer in general. But, I do feel like I managed to blend in pretty well.


My last view of 'er. I'll be there again soon.

I headed through New Jersey (amazing fact: I tried really freaking hard to find some NJ souvenirs, postcards even. I guess, no one wants to prove they were in New Jersey. I stopped at at least six places along the way.) for my Aunt Madeline's house in Pennsylvania. She lives real close to the Jersey border, so it was really just a prep drive for the massive driving I'll be doing the next two weeks.


Smile!


Aunt Madeline is, by definition, a cat lady. She’s just got a big heart. She used to have lots and lots of feral cats that lived around her house and she started feeding them in the winters. She always had one or two actual domestic cats inside, but recently the ferals have ventured inward, in more of an attempt to keep them from breeding. So now, she’s got seven indoor cats: Paulette, Simone, Unis, Timmek, Mitch, Carly and Trevor. She still has 4 ferals hanging out, a dramatic decrease from the 17 that were here last time I visited, but she’s managed to trap two of them (and many more over the years) and get them fixed. See, big heart.


Timmek's my favorite because he's only got one eye.


I spent a few very relaxing days in Pennsylvania binging on One Tree Hill and the OC on soapnet. What the hell is it about those two shows that lends themselves so well to mindless days? I hate them when I’m busy, but on sick days or vacation days, man, am I ever down with some Adam Brody. Nope, not proud to admit that. At all.

And today, I headed through Pennsylvania.


And Ohio.


To get to Michigan.

Almost 600 miles. Thankfully, I had someone with me to help with the driving.


The bitterly cold motor city welcomed me back. Detroit is the first “double up” of my trip, one of only two places I’ll visit twice. The other is of course, Oklahoma. I can’t ignore my room, now can I? My main reason for coming back was for Ben Folds and the Ann Arbor Folk Festival tomorrow night, but I think it’ll be fantastic to spend some more time with cousin Jackie. We might head to Cleveland for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I mean, why not?

But right now, sleep. Thank you.

Tea lights and Disneyification.

WHEW. What a crazy few days I've had. Maria got on her flight back home today and by my expert calculations, she's probably hanging out over western Pennsylvania. Let's all wish her happy, safe flight.

Here's a list of places I've been in the past week or so.
1. Museum of the Moving Image: Thank you for making me a museum, Queens.


2. Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island: Crowded, freaking freezing, but I love Ellis Island. Wanna talk about haunted space?

3. The top of the Empire State Building: Maria got a phone number. P-I-M-P.
4. Macy's in Herald Square: What's up, handbags I can't afford?
5. Bodies: The Exhibition at the South Street Sea Port: Oh, how my nerd brain had a freakout.
5. New York Public Library: I love those lions.
6. 19. Ambassador Theater: To see Chicago for a mere $27. Student ID's are better than fake ID's in my book.

7. Times Square. A lot. And once, for a really long time.

SO, HOW WAS THAT? To begin with, you gotta get there before noon to even make it into the places you see on TV. And you really don't get to see the performances because they're on top of roofs. Me and Maria got there a little after 5:00. So we started out about nine blocks back. We gradually and slowly moved up to about 50th and Broadway, so we were about 4 blocks away. BUT, we got to actually see the Ball come down.


See that itty, bitty little purple light in the middle? That's the ball. I've been telling people we were all little spermies, trying to get to an egg. And the ball was the egg.


ONE HOUR TO GO.

Will I ever do it again? Hell no. Maybe get a hotel room somewhere in the Square and split the cost with 10 different people. It does have a really nice vibe. And the police were fantastic. There were SO many of them, but they really do have crowd control down to an art. The best quote of the night went to some random drunk man when we were leaving: "I'm facebookin all y'all!"

It's been terribly cold here and very somber looking. It's been somewhat reflective of my mood, given the madness surrounding a certain exboyfriend. But, I don't mind it too much. I was really sad to see Maria go today, but I managed to shift back into "alone" mood fantastically quickly. It's just so easy to do here, just to completely isolate yourself from the rest of the world. As I said, it's not a negative way to go. I fit in easy here, and I think it's thanks to my mom's DNA. It's easy for me to understand now why she's so much of a hermit. I won't be alone for much longer, boyfriend's here on Tuesday. I'm trying not to think about it, so I won't wait and wait and wait for it and so when it happens, it'll be that much more exciting.

On that note, if you're even thinking of coming to NYC, Southwest flies into MacAuther airport for cheap. It's a ways out there, but the Long Island Railroad makes it super accessible.

There's just SO much I want to do! I finally broke down and bought an NYC book, Not for Tourists. If you're doing any traveling in a city that they've got a book about anytime soon, I highly, highly advise you pick it up. So many maps, listings for everything, etc. WHO KNEW there's a peanut butter store in the village? Well, I do now and I'll be going there soon. Also on the list is to track down the best Pad Thai in the city and to see the Museum of Sex. OF COURSE New York has a museum for sex. Why wouldn't they?

Hey, remember how I said I was going to do luminarias for Christmas Eve? Well, I did. I'm sure we were the talk of the neighborhood.




Happy 2008, ya'll.

Let the factories rust.

Slowly but surely, the Garden State is winning me over.

I thought I'd come here and have dreams of West Village lofts, daily walks in Washington Square Park, neighborhood bakeries and thai restaurants. But I find myself fantasizing small, reinvaded condos in factories in the burbs, flower pots in my big windows, crappy-paying internships at equally crappy television stations, a bus pass for the NJ Transit.

More about all that, and pictures of luminarias later in the week.

Do you know what is totally DOWN if you haven’t listened to it in about 2 years? Bright Eyes. Do you like to hurt? I do, I do. Then, hurt meeeeeeeeeeeee. Correct. Also, the Doves “NY” is quite possibly the perfect song for the Lincoln Tunnel.

Someday, you'll accompany me.

Gata the Grump.

Oh, I’m a whiny-pants. But you know, we all are at some point.

I guess it all stems from all the communication difficulty I’ve been having lately. No phone, French, deaf grandpa… You know, I’ve always considered myself a solitary primate. But it’s funny how much I miss you all when you’re gone.

And there’s no better place to loose communication than in NYC over the holidays. Thinking about just the sheer amount of people in that little island is maddening. Then add in the holiday factor, when you’re supposed to be surrounded by gobs and gobs of friends and family. And splat, here’s Cat; all by her lonesome in the middle of Central Park, surrounded by 4 million people.

The kind of lapse of communication I’ve experienced in these past few weeks is unprecedented. I've nixed the internet before, because I crave it like a drug sometimes, it's disgusting. And I kinda enjoy it when my phone's lost/stolen/broken. A part of me likes the way I've made up up for it this time around, by post-carding and letter writing. But, a part me just cannot wait to have a face-to-face conversation with someone who cares very much about it. Or even just being able to be silly and giggly with someone.

I worry if I’m thinking too much about the “experience” of this and not making any time to have fun with it. But, I’m not unhappy, that’s for sure.


My first stop in the big city was the American Museum of Natural History.

I find myself hyper-critical of all museums now. But, the AMNH's takes its special place. I LOVED that place when I was a kid. I wanted to come to New York every summer JUST so I could go there. So, it was a sweet little reunion for me. But, I guess I'd forgotten just the sheer amount of taxidermy in that place. They should call it the American Museum of Things Teddy Roosevelt Shot Before it was Illegal. There are other things, like, you know, the largest collection of gems I've ever seen in my life, some stuff that crashed into earth a few million years ago, some casts of really old hominids, you know.


I always go straight for the monkeys.

As noted, I saw Juno at a 25 screen theater on 42nd. My theater was on the sixth floor of the building. And they had a terrace.




Little girl.

And here's a giant Christmas tree.


Now, my experience with Rockefeller Center is minimal, because I've never been to NY during the holidays. It's a lot bigger than one block and I'm pretty sure I circled a few times before I found the dang tree. I was sort of confused. But, I should have known exactly where it was. I should have followed the Texas accents straight to it.



My cousin Teresa sent my grandfather one of those edible arrangement things. He seriously just paced around it for a few minutes, muttering "Oh my God. What the..". It was really precious and totally made up for the remark he made about "the coloreds" the other night.

I bought tea lights and paper bags today. I think we all, in New Mexico, know what that means. If I blog-not before the Noel, I hope everyone back home has a fantastic few days off. I'll miss the posole, my wiggle butt and the leftover Albuquerque Turkey sandwiches. Special well wishes to my parents, Chase, Max, Rachel, and Savvy (SINCE THEY TOTALLY READ THIS!) as well as Teresa. Take good care of my momma, cousin!

I'll be with my grandfather, screaming at him, since he refuses to wear his hearing aids, my Aunt Colette, her boyfriend John, her daughter Gina, and Gina's priced Yorkshire Terrier Niko. Be it a mop dog, I'm excited about some puppy. That'll be all the Christmas present I'll need.

Northern New Jersey

Bonus Points To:
A possible Cat-Chas east coast reunion.
Seeing Juno in NYC today.
NYC in general.
The American Museum of Natural History.
It not being negative digits outside.
FINALLY purchasing Superbad today.
Merry Christmas, my boyfriend bought tickets to come see me in January.

Negative Points To:
Creative flow being stomped all over by conservatives and money grubbers.
Not being able to find free wifi in Little Ferry, NJ.
Deaf, racist grandfather who won't let you be alone.

I'm just tired.