A New York Minute

I would love to keep a impeccably minded diary. I don't. I keep A New York Minute. Here's this week in bullet points:

• I got a fun new Fall appropriate manicure. You know you can't wear white after labor day, but you should know you can't wear 'Tahitian Tickle Pink' either...
• I had dinner with Gentleman Psychologist at Prime Meats
• It was discovered that Gentleman Psychologist hides a secret: he's a vegetarian
• "Um...." I inquired, "If you're a vegetarian why did we come to Prime Meats??"
  to which he responded "You wanted to!," (I assure you I did) "I care a lot more about what makes you happy than what is easy for me."
• I almost dropped my fork. 
• however that would have caused me to lose a bite of my peach infused sautéed pork chop so it wasn't an option.
• Later this week, while obsessively weighing the pros and cons of New York Times Letterman Esquire to Landscape Architect  to Gentleman Psychologist to I got on the M instead of the F train on a late and very stormy night. This has not happened to me for two years which was oddly enough the last time I juggled multiple men... and then prior to that in college when it ahem... happened all the time.
• That reminds me, I read an article about a woman's physical limitations when it comes to mentally managing multiple relationships. This reaaaaaaaaaally rang true while I was soaked to the bone and waiting on the M platform above ground for fifty-three minutes
• At work I am animating a mixing table and some truly nineties magic. 
• When I picture a record scratch it's obscured in my memory by a soap machine or drugs. So I asked Google...
• AND GOOGLE GAVE WITH BOTH HANDS
  
• My new Pratt Institute intern started her servitude!
• We met thrice this week. 
• Each time we ate crap I should not eat because I am not in college. Nay cutie college intern can nosh on calzones but professional artist can not.
• I had the best ever acupuncture appointment
• I attended a silent auction. It was SO boss.
• I had a talk with the ever stylish Jenny Hamp in which she detailed a horrific nightmare she recently had
• I explained that I used to thrash to dawn as a child but that I hadn't had a nightmare that I could recall in ages...
• I had my first nightmare in a decade
• I had my second nightmare in the last two days
• I had my third nightmare this week
• I began drafting a "Thank You" note to Jenny Hamp
• I again got caught in a torrential rain without an umbrella.
• I went on amazon with the intention of buying one of the beautiful umbrellas that I covet on http://pinterest.com/amberalvarez/
• I couldn't decide which to buy 
• I bought both and decided I would return whichever I adored less
• I am not a monster. I wanted them both the same...
• I decided that this behavior needed to be addressed... and thus
• I will no longer be seeing Letterman Esquire or Landscape Architect....
• I will be keeping both bubble and yellow pumpkin umbrella
• I failed to do much in the way of art. 
• I am terrified that this is due to infatuation with Gentleman Psychologist 
• I spent a magical evening on The Highline. Where I stayed on the lower 20. It was about as great as great gets
• I made-out like a bandit teenager. 
• My face has beard rash.
• Of this I do not complain
• I adventured in babysitting and settled down to snuggle up
  with the greatest object of my affection, Julian Rex:
  
  Photo courtesy JenMo
• We read books and talked about the moon.
• I stepped back in time and spent a delicious sunny morning amongst books and castles in Princeton
   
• I tried to stay dry when it torrential rained on this year's Children's Book Festival
  You could hear paper crying....
• Incase you were wondering, I did not master long exposure on my camera....
• I taught a workshop on color. 
• I hung out with some awesome people
• I was thoroughly impressed by John Rocco, who took so much time with every kid who plopped down in front of him in awe. He looked at kid's dummies, showed him his original drawings, asked questions, gave posters, it was amazing. 
• I was reminded of an idol I had as a child who I had the chance to meet. I'm not going to name names, but he was a total douche and I sadly, no matter how I tried, I wouldn't ever feel the same about him or his books again... 
• It reminded me that I used to blog about art and being an artist. In the old days of She Sure is Sketchy I would say this: As an illustrator/animator/artist always be nice to everyone, care about your fans, especially when they are very young. 
• I lied to get off the phone so I could have a momentary moment of moments with a girl crush.
• I had the boy with blue eyes and art therapist over for their first ( but certainly not their last) forray into the GREATEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME... or one of them... Strictly Ballroom.
  
  
• I had tremendous heart-to-heart with my lovely roommate who makes me smile and love my apartment even more than I would (which is saying a hell of a lot).

Lots of other stuff happened. Those are the things of note. What happened with you?

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• Watching: the Original Le Femme (effing badass) Nikita. SO GOOD SO SO SO SO GOOD
• Reading: this might be the first week of my life where I've got nothing. Nothing. I don't even know....
• Listening to: It's all Elliot Smith up in here
• Drawing: Camels
• Eating: Peach Porkchops
• Learning: Italian
• Coveting: this bike in red
• Saving for: a Cintiq and an Inkling
• Quoting:  This week's all......
  
  
  
  If you bullet point use an I <3 a New York Minute button and let me know all about it in the comments. Or for the love of all things holy, just recommend a book... sigh

A New York Minute

I would like to journal. I don't. I New York Minute and you can too.

Here's this week in bullet points:

• This week was for friendsies:
  

• I met up with a party of my favorite party/do-nothing/do-everything people to brunch in laund at Benchmark off 5th Avenue in Park Slope. 
• I brunched upon marvelous brunch with good company in pure delight
• I walked through the Ghet-to to get there
• When one walks through the ghetto a 25 minute walk can quickly become a 45 minute walk because you have to run in the wrong direction away from rats and kick cans because that's what Pippi Longstocking would do. WWPLD? Ask....
• I meandered through BK town "thrifting" with my posse as a result 
• I purchased two truly awful, clunky and colorful vintage pins which I am in love with and insanely proud of
• I had a great time watching Tess try to get out of a very awkward situation involving three sterling silver rings and four dollar bills with a card table wielding gentleman.
  
  
  
• I openly mocked Jenny and Tess, freely using a faux pas word to describe their behavior, as they sat on a minibench they found in front of a garden supply on our ambling adventure

• I had a truly embarrassing moment, doubled because it was shared with a stranger on the F train from Manhattan. I could tell you about it but then I would have to kill you.
• Said stranger and I are now spending a fair amount of time together
• I had a delicious late in to the night conversation with Brittany Warnock of grief and high delight fame
• I had a truly sad and torturous (for me) funeral for Good Golly Miss Molly, the first casualty of hurricane Irene
• I cried
• I vowed in grand fashion to never eat poultry again
  
• I had dinner after the private wake at Cafe Lulu --- where Sam ate chicken right in front of my tear-stained face
• Maybe it looked kind of delicious -- loyalty FAIL!
  
• I joined a bunch of friends from another life for my friend Mike's book signing at Bergen Street Comics
• I welcomed the Duchess (after a full month-long sabbatical in Virginia), Ashleycat, Miss Rachel and Nichole for a girl night of gab and gossip at the penthouse at 302 Court
• I had my locks bleached/dyed and chopped ala The Duchess' mad skillz 
• I had a late in to the night conversation with Seattle
• I realized I need to put a night cap on these late-in-to-the-night phone marathons...
• I bought some eye cream
• I spent Hoverboard money on a plane ticket to Hawaii by way of Seattle
• I gave in and decided to use a travel agent because my itty bitty brain was going to burst trying to figure out the damn thing online
• Prior to going to the travel agency (I could have called, but where is the fun in that??) I donned a gigantic wide brimmed hat and my polka dot dress. I assume that's what people wear to a travel agency, right??
• I was teased ruthlessly about using a travel agency. John told me frequently while deciding this decision that they are only used by "WIMPS WHO WEAR BEEHIVES" -- implying that only a woman would use said service and that that woman  would be a dame from the 1950s.
• I replied that he was obviously two dates shy of a hate crime and that given Amy Winehouse's untimely death it was just too soon to mock particular hairstyles.
• I handed my credit card to the nice lady at said travel agency. 
• I had a moment of silence for all the experiences I'm allowed because LBH this plane ticket cost about as much as it costs to raise an American child from diapers to diploma.  I have not yet elected to procreate so I go to Hawaii. That's math.
• My wonderful and loved phone started to spazz out while sitting across the room, scrolling like a mad crazed cat with a lazer light. It would then call anyone's number it landed on
• My phone's drunk dials had no discernment for race, creed, relationship status. It had no problem dialing digits with a 'Do not Pick UP!' label upon said number
• It started deleting texts
• I failed to get a 911 type text from one of my health coaching clients
• I realized that my poor phone needed to be taken out behind the barn Old Yeller style. 
• I came close to crying
• I bought a new phone. Its photos so far fail to capture the very essence of your soul as my other camera phone did. It cost hundreds of dollars. 
• My bank account died
• I used a half a gigantic bottle of Jamaican rum to make this cake:
  
  Yes it  has gold stars on it.
• It was well received.
• I ate six different kinds of meat as made by Tim grill-master-of-anything-that-has-a-flank Hanna
• I gifted a beer bottle opener ring - the gift that no guy ever has to have explained to him
• I had a very enjoyable conversation about marine biology, growing up in Hawaii and sex education with frisbee playing strangers in the backyard
• I hosted a 3am listening party - just. like. the. good. old. days. We lounged to Sigur Rós
  
• I learned how to make an accented ó on my keyboard or should I say ón my keybóard - a skill that I now hóld dear
• I created a new and colorful thing called 'Refrigerator Salad'
• I got in an On-like-Donkey-Kong  fight with a cab driver. 
  "I'm confused. You just took me ten minutes in the wrong direction up to Brooklyn Heights off Tillary to bring me back to State Street? I walk to State Street from my house." I said it in my 'calm reporter Amber' voice.
  He turned and barked
  --"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU TALKING 'BOUT!" I DRIVE THE CAB YOU SIT IN THE CAB!"
  "um... I think if you drive for ten minutes left and then drive for ten minutes right, bringing me to a street I walk to from my home where I have lived for five years..... ," I mumbled in small Amber-child in the dark voice.
  --"WHY YOU COMPLAIN?!!?? YOU KNOW SO MUCH - YOU DRIVE CAB?? NO!" I was cut off verbally while Amir, the meanest man in a yellow car in Brooklyn simultaneously cut off an unmarked car with five policemen in it. 'KARMA!' - I thought.
  They smiled and waved at him, sharing cheese cake from a red striped box in a rather unsightly fashion.
  I decided only I could protect the innocent - me.
  "YOU JUST TAKE ME WHERE YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO TAKE ME AND I WILL PAY YOU. THAT IS HOW THIS WORKS!!" I hollered in my bitchtastic teenage Amber angst voice
  --"YOU THINK YOU KNOW SO MUCH BUT YOU DO NOT!" Amir wailed (I raised an eyebrow - realizing this man in white might be the reincarnation of my tenth grade English teacher, Mrs. Graham)
  "YOU SHUT UP AND TAKE ME TO FORTE GREEN!" growing up in the nursery with my brother and sister we would recite 'The Parent Trap' word for word in its entirety as an alternative for going to sleep. This was done in the same voice you might say "YOU SHUT UP AND GET MY MY BOOTS!" while hurling camp supplies at a man's head.
• I arrived at Forte Green Place
• I tipped Amir a dollar fifty
• Amir said "Thank you, Miss - You are very pretty" to which I responded
• "Bye. Have a nice day"
• --"Oh you too, Miss. You too." -- no hint of sarcasm. Umhum... 
• Gawd, I love Brooklyn
• I watched a stuffed kitchen full of people create a delicious dinner of linguini and such to dress it up fancy dinner party style
• I experienced a home without air conditioning piping through the rafters for more than five hours...
• I am a fighter.
• I laughed and laughed and had fun with people I don't normally hang out with at said dinner party
• Someone asked,  "Should 'throw out this container of melted ice?" to which I said, "you mean water?" Haahahahahaha Haahahahah
• I was adored despite my annoying need to have exorbitant amount of laughter while eating
• I had a heart to heart with a boy with blue eyes
• I was read all of this awesome book aloud with VOICES:
  
  Which for some reason unbeknownst to me, was never read to me as a child, even though my parents made sure I could quote The Leatherstocking tales before I turned nine....
• Most importantly thanks to Incredimombo and Brittany Warnock I discovered Pinterest:
  http://pinterest.com/amberalvarez/
  
• Maybe I hummed "For Good" from Wicked to the my pinterest site all. week. long.
• Also I made this button:
  
  
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• Watching: Scrubs from season 1, Wacom's Inkling Video on loop until I can buy one when they go live
• Reading: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
• Listening to: LCD Soundsystem
• Drawing: Not.
• Eating: Brisket from Tim's BBQ
• Learning: Italian
• Coveting: this bike in red
• Saving for: a Cintiq and an Inkling
• Quoting:  "All real works of art look as though they were done in joy." --Robert Henri

A New York Minute

I would like to journal, but it's something that never seems to get done. Instead I now bullet point my New York life, one minute at a time (well, kind of)

This week was all about Before and After.

This week I....
At the beginning...

• Took my bookshelf from this:
• To This: 

• Saw my most lovely-of-all people-in-the-history-of-the-world-Acupuncturist who makes me happier than any person with the exception of Santa Claus, The Duchess, Beth Logan and Mary Blair. You can see her too: http://www.yelp.com/biz/tomomi-tanaka-new-york <--This is me giving you a hug wrapped in life balance, wrapped in therapy, wrapped in a rainbow and tigerbalm.
• Survived an Earth Quake. Well, kind of... All this stuff fell on the floor! MY SUNGLASSES! MY MEGAFAT SHARPIE I USE TO WRITE ON CARDBOARD! Let me tell you -- It was an ordeal. I was at work. If you have not seen my work, this is a picture of my work:That's the view from my desk. In essence I work in a NYC box. This winter it will be clear that I work in a snowglobe. Everywhere you look you see NYC. You can sit at your robot animation and see from the Bowery to the Cloisters. You can walk to get a drink of water and see the Statue of Liberty. On your way to lunch you see Macys. That is how we roll at job-job. So it's where we were all sitting when the earthquake happened. I felt the desks shake. I felt the windows shake. I saw the lamps swing. A few things fell. Small kine things. All my coworkers, aka. 'East coasters', having never been debriefed in an earthquake before, rose from their desks and ran to the larger than people windows without a hitch. They craned against them to see WHAT WAS HAPPENING!! It was amazing and... 
• I loved it.
• I read the Outsiders. 
• I watched the Outsiders.
• I openly awwed at several cimematic details. I have my BFA in film so I can say things like 'Oh woah. Patrick Swayze looks SO good' on repeat. It's critique and so I can say it again. In case you were wondering... Patrick Swayze looks SO good in this movie. Matt Dillon's got some pretty sweet acting chops -- who saw that coming?  You were of course destined to love Ralph Maccio forever. Tom Cruise sucks and is a complete over-actor. 
• I formed an odd little club with Miss. Rachel in which we read a book and watch a movie and then blast on the movie. Next up...??
• I shared an amazingly perfect middle eastern dinner at Zaytoons. It is the best. That is not debatable.
• I lost a half a pound.
• I had a crafty skill to the wall night with a bunch of girls. We shellacked plates with this weird epoxy concoction. I have no idea how this is going to turn out. It will probably be a monstrosity. Next week there will be pictures.
• I had a deep and late-into-the-night discussion with my gal Ashley. We just 'get it' because we both understand the pressure of being overly talented strong female leads and future millionaires bajizillionares. Also we are totes humble.
• Then this hurricane came and it was this is this and that is that... 2 points if you know I am using Flounder's voice to relay this story.(Ok that link is not to Flounder's voice but it is to the best voice in the whole perfect thing)
• I tried to buy batteries, but New York went crazy and ran on batteries and water. I realized that I could just take them out of my stereo if I needed them.
• I laughed at NYC's preparation for a natural disaster. Everyone freaked their faces off for something that was as common for me as a snow day was for them growing up. (Incidently snow days still really spazz me out) Awww look the boutique downstairs taped their windows. Presh.
• I was promised that when I woke up on Sunday morning everything would look like this:
• It did not.
• It looked like this:That's another before and after and the thing we're microscoping would be my anticipation.
• After the storm was over the electricity went out
• 'The apartment' had an influx of boys this weekend. 
• Nothing like a storm and some chinese checkers to keep things interesting
• I sat in the dark with the boy and listened to Johnny Cash because NO way in HELL was I butchering my stereo's juice just to have a little bit of flash light
• I made everyone take a minute to appreciate Irene. Was she a hurricane? No. She was a tropical storm with purpose. Did she still accomplish a lot of what she set out to accomplish? Were people scared into shutting down mass transit, evacuating thousands, and crying in the streets? Did my roommate still make enough rattatouli to feed an army? Did I skip a shower and instead bathe in a bath full of freezing cold water on Sunday night that I'd drawn just incase?? Yes. She did it her way. On her terms. That's kind of cool.
• I LOST MY SH*T when the tinsy leak that I thought was fixed (perhaps because I was promised it was fixed after it plagued me for eight months while fighting my landlord to fix it) split open in Irene's wrath (which let's face it, after collecting four inches of rain water INSIDE the theater my house was really minor in comparison to mine).
• In that moment of complete crazy and weakness with water pouring down in my house and Irene shaking the windows I may have been talked in to performing Britney's "I'm a Slave for You". sigh. Here's where you get the benefits of this being my version of a journal... because I'd never admit this otherwise.
• I documented said rainwater. Here we meet yet another before and after:ewww... gross. OK I know what's happening here. I went to Pratt. This is a bowl of clear water from the roof sitting on a yellow chair. So the water looks yellow. It's an illusion. I'll fix this...
   um. yeah.
• I still have this bowl of branch water. I got rid of the others, but I want my landlord to see this with his own macho eyes. I know that a) he will not care and that b) the amount of anguish I have keeping this bowl around is just stupid and I should toss it out but I also know c) that is not how I roll.
• The minute the storm was over I ran to Wyckoff  Street to visit my eighth favorite thing about my neighborhood:
• This mosaic house was one of my chief concerns when the wind was winding. In nicey-nice news the artist's husband was out cleaning branches and such from the tile and we had an 'everything is fine' chat. Irene made off with a few loose tiles and some sprinkled sequins and glitter but that is all. Celebrate.
• I went to brunch with my favorite girl to write-letters-to/consume-calories-with/fantasize-about-kidnapping-a-child-from... JenPal 
• Brunch happened at my favorite place to brunch so double plus. Seriously. Be jealous.
• I went on a looooooooooooong walk with the boy. We saw this: 
• Maybe we added something..
• Ok , OK we added the bike... It left me wondering. Earthquake? or Hurricane?
• I got some pretty bitchin' fabric samples back from spoonflower.
• I finally saw 'The Help'. I pronounced it good. Sometimes this BFA in film plagues me. I wonder if you have similar problems. Is there something you love LOVE love (in my case movies) that you persued higher learning in (be that college or other) that you now enjoy a little less for not being able to enjoy it without intense focus on details or things you would change??
• I watched 'Walk the Line' with my Brooklyn version of Johnny Cash.
• My roommate and I are becoming extremely well versed at using obscure music and movie quotes as a sole means of communicating. 
• I realized that I cannot let these New York Minutes go longer than a week. It's been a week and two days and it took way too long to pull this together. Those extra two days make this post craaazy. So expect something Monday from now on. 

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• Watching: suggest something. I'm out.
• Reading: Excuses be Gone by Wayne Dyer and Grief and High Delight by Brittany Warnock
• Listening to: Britney's Femme Fatal on loop
• Drawing: Penguins
• Eating: In love with pickles at present
• Learning: Italian
• Coveting: this bike in red
• Saving for: a Cintiq and a plane ticket
• Quoting:
  

In the meantime, I'm dying to know, what do you have to say?? How was your week. Spill like a two foot slit in a ceiling.

Things I Throw Myself in to...

When I came home from work, the earthquake from this morning had thrown two innocent books, that I had known were perching on the edge of my shelf onto the floor. They sat there on the carpet, mocking me. I took one look at my messy bookshelf that's been plaguing me for weeks and literally rolled up my sleeves.

This is part of an epic undertaking as inspired long ago by Baker at Man Vs. Debt.

It started off as an innocent ploy to get my bookshelf back to his former magazine photo-shoot ready glory, but now everything is more gory than glory....ish

Here's where I started the evening. UGH! What a MESS!

What my workdesk currently looks like at 12:52 am...

Now I think I'm going to figure out some place to sleep....

I am sure that Julia and the Crew are doing much better. Run along and cheer them on!

xo and heavy dreams of books, Amber

A New York Minute

Because I don't keep a journal but would like to, if I had that skill, I now bullet point my life weekly, one New York Minute at a time. Try and keep up this week ;)

• I installed a ton of Spanish Rosetta Stone learning CDs for my dad
• I reconfirmed my position as Goddess of Pancakes -- Don't worry, I'm designing myself a badge
• I sat next to a hacker on my flight SLC --> JFK 
• I didn't think he was the kind who killed people, just the coughing kind who didn't have a momma who taught him how to cover his mouth when he coughs. I ask you dear friend, when you are elbow to elbow with a man for five hours on a crowded plane, which is worse??
• REALLY hurt my thumb on the unbearably hard to turn knobby-knob (technical term) attaching my tray table in the upright position on the dude in front-of-me's seat back
• Perhaps felt a tinsy bit too sorry for myself in the previous two situations
• I blissfully tricked my coworker into thinking I had snagged this bag she wanted on Etsy.

• Here's how it went down:

--So that was fun.

• I lost a tinsy smidgen over two pounds!

--So that was fun.

• I signed a new licensing contract!
• I got my 90s on and headed to a Saved by the Bell party. There was no Zac Morris, but it was fun anyway
• I spent a terrifically fun evening cooped up in my little apartment listening to the rain beat down screaming people in the street while I watched copious amounts of Ugly Betty and...
• Got back to my coconut oil routine
• Went through old files and started prepping to have an out of house scanner scan about six pounds of sketches I have been meaning to scan myself
• **reaffirmed my affirmation that sometimes it's better to pay someone to do something that you are not going to learn to do, or do yourself this is the opposite of 'if you want something done right...' Know yourself, people
• I learned a very nice way to make a chicken dinner, curtsey of Moosewood cookbooks
• I spent a lovely evening with Miss Rachel in her brand. new. apartment
• I came home to my lovely apartment a little jealous
• I started looking up deep clean maids (WHAT??) See earlier affirmation**
• I made some gingerbread ice cream with cardamom and homemade snickerdoodles for a friend who is knocked up and inventing things in her head that don't really exist
• On a totally unrelated note I got some more health coaching stuff done
• Researched multiple versions of Alice and Wonderland for job-job
• Coveted this white rabbit tattoo that I found while doing said research: 
• OK maybe I coveted the shoes too. So sue me.
• Designed some new soon to be unveiled at Amber Ink. iPaper that's all kinds of diamond pattern-y as inspired by aforementioned research.
• Stayed up til three re-reading S.E. Hinton's 'The Outsiders", as borrowed from Miss Rachel

That's my week in a New York minute.

Things I Throw Myself in to Thursday

This week, fresh from my Las Vegas/Utah whirlwind
I take heart, throwing myself headlong in to the epic planning of a trip to Hawaii this October. I'm reconnecting with old friends from high school and 'other life'. In that process I get things like this sent to me:

I cannot even wait.

A New York Minute

I would like to journal, but I don't. Instead I now bullet point my life on tiny dot at a time. This week in a New York Minute I...

• I searched high and I searched low and I searched again for an out-of-print book a friend let me borrow last Spring that I let see the worst part of a NYC commute.
• I let panic set in when I couldn't even find the book on Amazon
• I finally found said book nestled among 8 miles of books on Broadway and 12th, just as it should be
• I bought one of my rocking'ist friends these totally banging chopsticks for her birthday
• I rang in her new year at Two Boots, where Italy meets Louisiana, over good conversation and a phenomenal plate of Dixie chicken
• I started keeping intricate track of my sleep habits 
• I had to let that fly out the window when
• I packed for a who-knows? trip via standby and well laid plans
• I took a cab ride driven by the most hygienically annoying man I have been in a car with since the tenth grade when an ill-fated lottery draw put me next to Eric Kokkonenon the world's longest field  trip in recorded history
• I spent part of  my day considering the facebook de-friending of a boy who once interested me romantically and is now engaged
• I laughed with the Duchess over the fun of delivering such messages via social media
• Later that night at the airport Karma caught up with me when I not only ran into said boy but...
• Had to pretend not to know he was engaged (damn you, facebook!)
• Got the standby shaft from Delta while he did not
• I grabbed my suitcase when I did not make the flight to Atlanta and trained it home
• I had my fortune told in some weird kind of way by a very mystical Delta desk employee at Lagurardia  which led me to change my ticket to fly out of JFK instead
• I got a mere 3 hours of sleep and trained it back to the airport, thrilled that this time I'd be able to ride the air train and thus wouldn't need a cab...
• Tried to cope with the reality of the Air Train being broken
• Rode the sad excuse for the Air Train express bus instead
• Hated on every single employee of NYC's transportation machine, with an extra dose of Haterade saved for TSA and their monster employees
• Took the first available flight out of NYC and landed myself in Las Vegas, Nevada

Photo by Jason Ludlow

• Walked and Walked and Walked down the strip until I...
• Figured out the over passes to the best of my ability
• Decided to waste my life's savings on a hotel room at the Bellagio 
• Arrived at the Bellagio to find that every. single. room. was. sold. out. 
• Thrilled to know that at least somewhere our US economy was doing its job
• Ended up checking in at the MGM where I happily 
• jumped on one of the most luscious beds I have ever known
• Met up with a good good friend
• Met up with another good good friend (this one refused to take pictures that didn't make our heads look siamese-twinned)
• Was flattered at the number of comparisons that were made between my ultra posh hotel room and my apartment at 302 Court, 'it feels the same', I like the way you painted your walls better, etc. etc.
• Partied into the night
• Swam at the pool
• Met some awesome new people
• Walked and Walked and Walked
• Laughed at everyone who complained about walking so far
• Pathetically missed NYC 
• Got dragged to the NYC hotel to try to make me feel better
• Laughed until I cried
• Pocketed $20 given to me by a guy who had a wife who was anti-gambling
• Screened a new game show for CBS
• Brunched
• Water sported
• Won $40 in a hand of poker
• Lost $40 at the slots
• Watched True Lies on my not movie theater television
• Didn't order steak for room service
• Fielded text after text after text reporting the torrential rain I am missing East Coast side
• Revisited the spot I first fell in love with Las Vegas when I was ten years old, The Excalibur
• Got in a car and drove hours and hours with my BFF, Brittany, of Grief and High Delight
• Had the best time and didn't even get car sick
  
• Marveled at the still open space of the mid west
• Arrived in Utah to realize that
• My cell phone charger just couldn't say no to the 'what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas' slogan and had decided to stay at the MGM
• I realized I couldn't blame him, I'd have happily lived in that hotel until my dying day
• Surprised my Gramma at my timely arrival in her living room
• Went 'shopping' in my mom's vegetable garden 
• Got the grand tour of the now brand new backyard. A+ mom, A+
• Enjoyed a delicious meal as made with the team effort of my parents while overlooking the garden
• Rebooked my return flight because, I don't know if you've had anyone text you but planes aren't getting in to JFK because it's kind of raining or something...

So that's this week's New York Minute. How did you life go topsy-turvy this week? What did you do that you love? Who did you see you'd been dying to? Fill me in.

Things I Throw Myself In To Thursday: High Station(ary)

When I first came to Brooklyn, I was already coveting high-ball glasses, Japanese tea sets and square collared dresses, but I had no idea of the wealth of yesteryear that awaited me across that two tiered bridge I'd so readily call home. My blatant pursuit to keep things modern with a 'tinge of vintage' has been well served here on this side of the river. 

My first year here, that first boy-of-my-dreams did me one good. He gave me a handmade card, something I've long discarded for the sentimental karma it was vibing on me, and he gave me this, blank and pure as the mind that designed it:

"I wanted to give you two, because I bought that one and then I thought maybe you'd want to keep it fresh for your card box*.... so I made you another one."

*card-box was something my mother had kept from me my entire life, withholding but also indoctrinating me with this phrase, 'When you are a grown up you can have your own card box. This is mine'. My first order of business upon arriving at Pratt was to pierce my lip but then I immediately grabbed a shoe box and carefully placed the six 99 cent cards I'd selected at the Bodega on Hall Street in its tissue lined void.

I chided the boy at the time, reassuring him that I would have loved him to scrawl upon its blank space, time will always tell. I now appreciate that I didn't have to burn it in a Pantas Hall dorm room trash can on Myrtle Ave. along with an oversized sweatshirt, a matchbook full of concert passes, and volumes of sketches he'd made for a tattoo I luckily never got. OK but that's neither here nor there, let's return to the thing. Afterall, the play's the thing. This single card incited a riot of emotion in me, and thus began my vintage collection of paper love.

Over the last decade I have gleefully thumbed through boxes at estate sales, in  friend's basements, vintage shops on the Bowery and dusty tombs of warehouses to expand this collection of paper. Here are the first few I grabbed off the top. I was going to show you my entire collection. I have roughly 50 cards that I have deemed worthy to enter my stores, but we'll save them for later, and in the meantime,
GADZOOKS!

When it comes to this collection I prefer for things to be whackjob weird. I love this bit copyright 1970 1950 featuring a magical mixer man and his bong water stew. Haha, seriously though, WTF? I love that this is a nod to the acid parties 27 Nadine surely huffed blow at two decades later.

Initially I only collected cards that had been preserved and never actually bestowed upon anyone. Now I relish cards that were given on special days. I thrill at cards that simply ready 'to: mother' or 'your favorite brother, Paul' I think they bring good-good karma into my little Court Street Penthouse.

One such card, totally enjoyable to me is this, which reads,

'Dear LuAnna, I hope you like the dress if you you dont and it dont fit you can give it to Bettie that is if it is to small or some thing love Gramma'

I love the stories that you can imagine coming with them sixty years ago. I have always wanted to see that dress. Was it awful? Beautifully handmade? Did Bettie get it or would LuAnna rather die than see her younger raven-haired half sister don its folds? sigh.

I own my own stamp company and I am lucky to have clients with infinite amounts of talent that they use to design their own brilliant cards. The intricate things they manage to make floor me and my childlike sensibilities. Oddly the thing that impresses me about my vintage collection is how simple it is. Like most in the box, this entire card is just one cotton mesh piece of paper. Somehow and some how it's managed in fairly great condition since 1952.

This card is of course my favorite. It's this style that best inspires me as it's totally Mary Blair and what more could you want in an object you own?

I sometimes marvel at the production budgets for these babies. As a licensing artist I'm hard pressed to find clients that actually want to die-cut a simple paper card. This one is so much better for it! However that talk could just be the face in the center of this flower luring me in. If faced with this little flower girl at your local Woolworths how could you resist?

Sweet.

Sitting smack on top of my vintage *card box were a sampling of the collection of 'Cards to be Given at the Coming of Age 12' Apparently there is no greater thing that can happen to you in 1955. Turning twelve is a catalyst.

There are even more of these 'Now you are 12' cards to come. They almost universally picture a cute blonde boy in some way administering to a lovely little girl at the threshold of womanhood. They make me think maybe we're not all growing up so fast after all. ;)

This one really hurt my heart and I thought it would be nice to end today's
show and tell with a somber nod to sympathy.

NOT. <-- I know that the decade of Wayne and Garth is over but I refuse to let it go...
This draw-a-tear painting is a BIRTHDAY card!

Having been working to find a foot hold with American Greetings for the last four years and being told on one occasion that they love my work but that it's just 'too cheery' I have to thank goodness that the person in charge of their Occasions department in 1962 isn't running it today.

So that's the first dip into the *cardbox. What did your mother have that you coveted. What do you have now because of it? Or, can you remember the reason why the year you turned 12 was so HUGE?! Or any other wisdom you wish to impart on me. xoxo
Happy Thursday.