_________________
Tuesday
14 September 99
12 26 am edt
I simply want to describe my ordeal of trying to apply for a passport...
I was told the passport office was at Rockefeller Center, so I
walked there (2 miles) a few days ago. The security guard there
said that the office had moved years ago, and he gave me a slip of paper
with the address on Houston Street and a phone number. I planned
last [Sunday] night how I was going to get there, but then I decided just
to be sure, I would call the number this morning. It was an
automated message that said that one could only get a passport at Houston
Street with an appointment, which you could only get with proof that you
were travelling in the next 14 days. I'm travelling in less than a
month, but in more than 14 days. The message said you could apply
at the post office, which is where I got the application. So I set
out for the local post office. There I was informed that you could
only apply at certain post offices, and the clerk gave me a list. I
stared at it for a minute before asking him where the closest one was:
55th and 3rd Ave. So I jumped on the subway and made my way to the
address. I went into the building with that address on the door,
but was informed that the post office was in the building next door, up
the escalator. So I went inthe next building, and up the escalator,
only to see a sign that passport applicants had to go around the corner to
the Annex building. So I went there, and waited in a long line, and
paid over $100, and will hopefully get my passport in time.
9 30 am edt
I am in a mood to make some collabs....
Writing in the Sand collaboration
current topic: Favorite Cow Story
I was once on a drive through some desolate part of California when I saw a group of cows grazing beneath a McDonald's billboard. I think I was younger than high school at the time, but I was laready a vegetarian, and I felt this would have made a wonderful and ironic photograph. I was very unhappy that I didn't have my camera on me, and as a result of this experience I ended up carrying my camera around with me for all of high school. I have since had many fits of photography, and have always been happy to have my camera in hand, thanks to the lesson of the grazing cows.
Groove Collective
collaboration
current topic: Summer Vacation
I don't want to get a job, not because I don't working, but rather because I love working, and I know that when I start a new job I am going to throw myself into it, and I will have no life. Despite my love of occupation, the one thing I will miss when I am working is summer vacation. I'm worried that my last one was the last one of my life. And I so want to go abroad with Matthew next summer to celebrate his graduation. Summer vacation has always meant going home for me, though there was one summer I stayed in Berkeley. There are certain songs that mean summer vacation to me [such as Here Comes The Hotstepper - Ini Kamoze from the Prêt-à-Porter (aka Ready to Wear, 1994) soundtrack]. That was the summer I spent mostly in my brother's room on his computer listening to the radio. I still recall that summer when I sit at my desk. Summer vacation means relocating, having to readjust to my parents' rules, being lazy and reading a lot. Summer vacation means fruit, and swimming, and seen friends who I only see then. Summer vacation means change, and it is always welcom. My mother says that she has the best job [college professor], because she still gets summer vacation.
4 42 pm edt
I just found myself on The Universal
Thump. It has been a long day, and I have visited the library,
the municipal archives, and my grandfather's office. My feet are
sore, but I am happy. I was thinking about how boring my diary gets
when life is going well (which it always is, isn't it?). I went to
DKNY on 60th and Madison today, and was blown away by the design work put
into the architechture and the diplays in the store. I am used to
the old ladies DKNY stuff that Nordstom's carried, but have seen what I
did today, I could certainly add DKNY to my
list of places I could spend $1000 easily.
5 04 pm edt
As today's sign of the times, I will point out that we have found the
first Earth-sized planet outside our solar system In totally
unrelated news, while I was walking home today a man passed by me and said
hi. Although I prayed that he wouldn't (this is what I get for not
believing in god and then calling on it), he turned around and stood right
by my. I did my best to pretend not to notice him, since he was
most decidedly older than my dad (for
reference, my dad is 55). Then he crossed to the other side of the
street. When I finally hazarded a glance at him he was staring at
me and he waved. I couldn't help but laugh out loud. In
hindsight, this might have hurt his feeling, but I highly doubt it.
I'm sure he was as amused as I was...
7 20 pm edt
Today (or was it yesterday?) I got spam from the Jewniverse. That is a
freigtening concept. I remember reading in my World Religions book
that 2% of the world's population is Jewish. Living in LA or NY one
would certainly think it is much higher. It is surprising to me
here to see so many sterotypically Jewish looking people and so many
Hasidic Jews (the ones who wear the suits and hats) as well as just
businessmen walking about in their yarmulkes (the little round hats
Jewish men wear, pronounced yamakas). Being Jewish has always meant
being part of a seperate community. In olden times, Jews were
isolated (or perhaps I should say they isolated themselves) by virtue of
their cleanliness laws, especially the Kosher rules for eating.
Today, all I tend to see of it is that Jews only date Jews. For
men, there is a reason, because Judaism is passed down through the mother,
and so you'd have to convert your wife or marry a Jew in order to have
jewish children. Of course, my mother is Catholic and I was raised
Jewish, but I can only be a member of the very lax Reform temples (as if I
would ever opt for anything more strict [conservative is more strict and
orthodox is the most]). My appologies to those readers who know all
this stuff, but I figuered I might as well explain it for those who don't.
Anyway, I am happy to be included in whatever Jewish nonsense I
find, but I certainly wouldn't want to limit myself to that. Matthew is Lutheren, and I would never
knowledge let that interfere with my decision to spend my life with him.
I couldn't care less what he believes in (within reason), but I am
a bit saddened that religion is such a big part of his life and yet he
never makes me a part of that aspect of him. For all of the myriad
things we discuss, religion only comes up if I bring it.
7 36 pm edt
Since I was in such a collaby mood today, I made a list of all of the collabs I have
written. I do so manage to waste time sometimes.
8 28 pm edt
I just spent much too long searching for Me and Mrs.
Jones by Billy Paul so that I could listen to. I have only been
able to find fragments of the song, which I suppose is as it should be. I
find that to be a wonderfully romantic song, propably only because I grew
up hearing that it was such from my
mom.