Merry New Year!

Very satisfying weekend. Going back to Westchester always centers me. It's like I get to retreat back to high school or something. Go to simpler times. Well, actually, much more complicated times. More fulfilling times. I completed the regression by inviting V over for Rosh Hashanah, which was great because I a) got to hang out with V and b) had an excuse to avoid potentially awkward coversations with relatives. I love the relatives, but sometimes it's nice to laugh about stupid stuff. Like, when I was telling him about the movie "Shortbus," where all the sex scenes are filmed with people actually having sex. I got as far as the title and "all the sex scenes are filmed with..." when his eyes went wide and he covered his mouth in disbelief. I shouldn't even say where he thought that was going, but the title of the movie should give you a clue. Before he came, I told V to BHOB if he wanted potable wine, but apparently my Dad just stored it away without serving it, sticking V with the Jews' Booze. He was perhaps less than pleased.

Natalie brought half of Barnard, which was nice. It's good to introduce some new life into family dynamics, and a bunch of 20 year olds certainly accomplish that. They also asked to see my Mom's pictures, which she was more than happy to provide. Natalie and I were very proud of Mom for not spending the whole night snapping photos. It must have taken a lot of restraint.

I slept for about 11 hours that night, which was excellent, and I skipped temple on Saturday morning. I had better places to be, namely in bed and then at Slave. V was there (so I crashed his one free weekend between the beginning of school and thanksgiving, sue me...) and I sat with him as I read Howard's End. For about 15 minutes. He whipped out the Friday puzzle, and we tore through it, getting through all but one quarter of Saturday before splitting up. With my Mom at home, we managed to conquer the remainder. Put me with any of the brilliant peeps in my life, and we are unstoppable! Woot!

Dinner #2 was lovely as well...Mom made kickass glazed corned beef. Crazy delicious. I got to see my cousin Elliot's apartment building when we drove back into the city. It was a somewhat bizarre experience: He lives two blocks from where he works, in what can only be described as a corporate apartment building on the Hudson. It's, like, the Merril dorms. The neighborhood's fairly sterile, too. But the building does look really nice, and the convenience to work has to seriously pay off, considering the obscene hours he puts in. So obscene. They shouldn't show that to kids.

Today I did some work for GreGAMES! sitting in the Coffee Pot. Because I was on the comp, I sat by the window, where there's a long shelf for computers and such. The whole world went by. First, I saw Katherine (from work) with her roommate and friend. She lives nowhere near me, but they apparently wanted to take a bus from the Port Authority, missed it, and decided to wander around Manhattan instead. Excellent decision. Then I thought I saw this kid Jonathan Meier pass by. He was in Candide with me back in the day, but I haven't seen him since. I tried to catch his eye, but to no avail. Then Hannah passed by on her way home (no surprise). The whole world...by the coffee shop.

Tonight I saw Science of Sleep with Brad. The movie definitely hit me the right way. First of all, I love any movie that has a unique aesthetic. I appreciate being drawn into someone's world. Also, it was reasonably funny, and a bunch of it resonated with me, partially in universal ways, partially in very specific ways. Hm, there was more I wanted to write about my evening, but I'm doing too many things at once now. Perhaps more later.