Rain or rats with sharp nails scurrying across the floor?

Our apartment is shaped funny--like an octagon or something similar. I've yet to really think about how many sides it has, but it is more than four. Our apartment spans two of the sides of the apartment. Though we face south west, there is a south east view too if you're ambitious. So the rain doesn't just fall against the window as it should. When the wind blows, you can hear that it is raining. However, it does sound like rats are scurrying along the wall under the window. At least two through four little rats that can't decide what to do with themselves.

This morning was horrible. The asshole(s) next door were listening to Howard Stern or some morning talk show at 6:45, if not earlier. I plan to wake up 7. Not a big deal, so what if I had to wake up a bit early right? No way. These same assholes (there was definitely two) were playing their crappy bass based music until 1:40am on Friday night. I was sick Friday night, and I pay a lot of fucking money to live in this place. The indecency of these people. Fucking turds. I want to throw something hard at them, but the wall blocks my efforts. One more time I say, but still, that's what I've been saying since the beginning of college. Perhaps if I weren't so prone to seethe with hate and act passively and forgive immediately, then I wouldn't be so angry about annoyingly inconsiderate and noisy neighbors. Perhaps if I learned how to stand up for myself before feeling dizzy with adrenaline, I'd get things done. Fucking asshole neighbors. I hope something bad happens to them. Like they gain supersonic hearing and the little sounds make them sick.

What's strange is that while I can hear through walls fine, I can hardly hear the person on the other side of the cellphone.

Well, anyway, because of the asshole neighbor(s) I had to take the public transportations to work. I took the shuttle back though and walked from Grand Central. I also excercised today. I'm feeling really fat. Like permanently really fat. Now I understand how my fat sims feel and how hard it's going to be to actually look decent again.

Today I ate lots of craisins, I had a sushi lunch special--two rolls, one spicy yellowtail and one spicy tuna--that came with miso soup and a salad. $8, which wasn't bad at all. It had nice flavors and textures too, and the people were really nice. It's at this place called Maru (I think) in Hoboken. It's right on Washington. And for dessert, I had craisins with plain yogurt and Uncle Milton's cranberry preserves. Why do I still feel so fat?

I've not finished On The History Of Love like I hoped. I'm a bit more than halfway through though.

This is my dinner tonight. It's rice with D'artagnian duck bacon. It's like duck and rice, but without the soy sauce. It's quite tasty. Get some duck bacon and cook it up with something.

You can still see the treads!

This is Jon's $700 some odd bike. He rode it no more than fingers on my hand. We'll take $500 for it. Anyone?

This is Jon's input for a pumpkin face that I carved. Pumpkin face #4. This is all carved from one pumpking. Pam helped me one Thursday afternoon before Halloween. We ordered Margahrita pizza from Adiletto's and Ginger Ale (hence the grapes and Ginger Ale fun as you have seen). Pam helped me carve and scrap out the guts. She's a good scraper/carver. She also helped me make toasted pumpkin seeds and eat them.

This is my cat/dog pumpkin face #3. Isn't it cute? It's really hard wielding a knife on a gourd.

Pumpkin face #2. The little cowlick uptop was a happy mistake. Doesn't he look happy?

Pumpkin face #1. It's actually supposed to have a pointy tooth hanging down, but it shrunk.

Jon and I discovered this neat trick when I was telling him about my science project in 5th grade--the dancing raisins. With this inspired notion, I threw a grape in his ginger ale. And the grape started dancing. Who knew it didn't have to be raisins in seltzer water only? Try it. Get a grape or few and toss it into a glass of carbonated liquid. I dare you not to be happily amused for at least a few minutes. DARE YOU.

This was my view. People entered Cassidy's quite early sometimes. Tang Pavilion had good Chinese food. There was sometimes a man who wore bright color shirts that paced back and forth along one of the balconies across the way. He reminded me of a fish. I love my little cut out boy. Harmony lived along my view for awhile. There are Lenox Hill doctors' offices across the way.

This was my office at HarperCollins, while I was a temp in publicity there in October. This was the best thing that has ever happened in my career so far. Yes, that's a window. Yes, that's a cut out a of a little clown boy in the corner. This office was hot. Literally, I thought that I was going to die when I had food poisoning because of the heat. I couldn't tell whether it was me or the office. Many good memories were had in this office.

Yes, it was a cookie.

What's that in our FreshDirect order?

The first time Jon's family came over, Jon was running really late. He got me these flowers. Aren't they nice? I found the "vase" in the dishwasher when we first moved in. It's actually just a tall chipped cup. While not safe for drinking, it's good enough to hold these pretty flowers I think. It was nice to have fresh flowers in the apartment. This sits on our nice new table set. This was probably taken in August.

This is from the Jacques Pepin Fast Food My Way cookbook. It's a good dessert. It's fresh strawberries, blended with Uncle Milton's raspberry jam, and the jam, creme frache, strawberry slices, and crushed short bread bits are layered. It's quick and good.

I thought the FedEx building looked kind of nice with Jon's building. Shiny buildings.

I don't remember this, but it doesn't look good. It's my laptop in this picture. It's fine now.

This is what I did during my unemployment. I knit or crocheted scarves on the sofa in my hoodie. The air conditioner hit the sofa just so, so that in order to keep the apartment cool, yet have a place to sit, I had to sit on the sofa while wearing a sweater.

Jon works in that building under the Conde Nast building (the one with the Lion King advertisement). The big red, though short, building is the headquarters of FedEx. Oh! And you can see Dani's Croatian church on the left--the green and redish building with the steeples

Jon works in that building under the Conde Nast building (the one with the Lion King advertisement). The big red, though short, buidling is the headquarters of FedEx. Oh! And you can see Dani's Croatian church on the left--the green and redish building with the steeples.

I thought the clouds and sun and Empire State Building looked cool. This is still sometime in July. Perhaps August even.

I made this in July. It's short rigatoni, steamed spinach, ricotta, and shredded salami. We ate a lot the first few days, and then it just sat in the fridge. It was so gross cleaning it out of the bowl.

See? That's our view. The big thing taking up most of the picture to the right is the MTA bus depot. The tall building to the far right is 1 Penn Plaza.

Wee and I are so happy to be done assembling the furniture. Sammy helped me screw in the bed and make up the mattress. It's great to have good help. This was all completed in July, a few days after we moved in. Now, November, the space you see is cluttered with magazines, book reviews, and lots of other papers, yarn, and doo-dads. The book shelf is full. The room faces southwest, and it has a nice view of the Empire State Building.

So it took a couple of days to assemble the couch and armchair you see here. We kept putting the pieces on backwards, and then we didn't have a screwdriver that worked. We used our fingers to screw in the screws that wouldn't screw. Finally, we just kept trying different options, and things fell into place. We finished this a day after the table and shelf. Really, who knew an armchair would take two days though?

A communal toilet...actually, it took me and Wee quite a lot of hours to assemble this Ikea shelf. We couldn't even stand it up when we finished. See the coffee table in the back? That took a few less hours. It was Wee's determination that got those stupid dowels in their place. See the pile of stuff next to the table in the back? That our sofa and armchair. This was assembled when Jon and I first moved in, sometime in July. Wee and I ate lots of frozen hot wings that week.

Oh, it's been that long?

The other day Jon mentioned how I haven't written in a while, when I actually did, but not under this blog. Still three months is awhile, and many things have happened. I finally got a job for one.

Today, I added a bunch of stuff to my amazon.com wishlist. I'm not sure what to do with the children's literary studies books on my wishlist, nor am I sure what to do with the picture books, but I don't want to delete them just yet. I also really want earmuffs, slippers, and a wok. I think I'll have a good Christmas with those items in particular. I've so many books on my shelf to read already. It's funny that the majority of books we have on the shelf aren't the Norton/Penguin classics that I've bought for so many of my English classes. No, they're collecting dust at home.

I've debated with myself the pros and cons of an ipod nano. It'd be nice to have, and I'd love to be for a few days at least one of those people who nonchalantly ignore the rest of the world by hiding behind their earphones. It's just so expensive. Money may be saved toward a ehem shinier smaller rounder object...rhymes with amond.

Also today, I hope to finish Nicole Krauss's On The History Of Love. I love the book so far. Her writing is refreshing and clever. The characters are mostly likeable, and I have no clue what the climax if there is one will be. It's good text.

I finished On Beauty a few weeks ago, and the experience of reading that book was similar to White Teeth. There were a lot of familiar characteristics and a lot of uncomfortable moments for the characters. I think it's interesting how she uses the characters' physical weights in her plots in her books. That what stands out for me the most. It makes it almost more tactile for the reader.

Yesterday, I saw Pride & Prejudice with Wee. I got sick after Thanksgiving--awful sore throat, stuffy nose, aches--but yesterday I felt a bit better except for some hacking coughs for whenever I felt that dust particles were running down my throat. What also made it difficult to concentrate was that the awful neighbors next door had their music blasting until 1:37 AM. I threw so many items at the wall and pounded a few times while cursing loudly, but nothing made them stop. I guess we could have knocked on their door and asked them to stop. I figure since I didn't do that in college, why start now? It's like living in a very expensive dorm afterall. And, so feel crappy, while watching this movie was not a good idea. There are a lot of scenes with spinning camera action, or if it's not the camera then it's the dancing people. I felt like I was going to have a panic attack trying to stifle my coughing (so not breathing) and all the spinning. Once the spinning stopped, and Mr. Bingley and Jane did really seem like a handsome couple--though a bit silly, the movie was actually very good. I'd see it again probably, but not in theaters. Mr. Darcy is ultimately a hotty. I wonder if even a scary truly charmless man could play Mr. Darcy and fail. Keira Knightley wasn't as horrible as I thought she would be, though really she should think about fixing her teeth. When there are close up shots, all you can see are her funky teeth. There's one scene where she stares at herself for hours (the sun sets) in a mirror. Also, her hair is cut strangely. She has little spikes of brown growing out at the corner left of her neck nape. Hmm...this seems like I'm fixated with her looks, but really, there are many scenes where it's hard to ignore. Or yes, it's just me.

Oh Mr. Darcy. I wish Elizabeth in the BBC version were a bit prettier too. I recall the first time watching it, that her features were a bit appalling and obnoxious. Oh, wet Mr. Darcy.

Anyway, the cold weather draws me to read more ancient books, so I want to finish On The History Of Love today. Perhaps I'll read Little Women again, or start Middlemarch or Persuasion.

Other notes:

I'm still working on Jon's scarf that I started when I waited for Shakespeare in the Park tickets. I started working on a scarf to give to Lauren since she gave all her winter clothing away to Katrina victims. I'm still working on my crocheted blanket.

The apt. is fairly a mess. I can't find a spot on the coffee table.

I've brought home some homework. How many more days until Christmas vacation? I am not sure I ever felt this way before at an internship--perhaps it's because school always seemed a lot worse than doing irresponsible work for free.

The dining table is slowly being occupied by nonsense as well.

Jon's bike has not been sold yet.

Laundry sits in our foyer.

Our rice/rice cooker makes really good rice. Unfortunately, though I crave it, there's nothing to actually eat with the rice I would make.

Shh...