jaysaint Getting it all down on paper…

It’s been one of those weeks that I manage only tangential contact with my apartment. An occasional quick dinner. Always in for bed. But that’s about it. It’s all good, though.

Last Sunday (My memory gets fuzzy going any further back):
I went to brunch and movies with James and Charles. A big stack of chocolate chip pancakes and “Wedding Crashers” is just a great way to spend an afternoon. I won’t pretend that chocolate chip pancakes are good for you, or that “Wedding Crashers” is a great film. But both gave me enormous satisfaction. I do have one bit of the movie that I keep wrestling with. I’ll do this with no spoilers for those who haven’t seen it, but it will be clear to those who have. There’s a scene with Vince Vaughn that, had been genders been reversed, would have been horrifying. But here it’s played for laughs. I’m not trying to be all Andrea Dworkin about a simple comedy. But that bit made me uncomfortable. I had no issues at all with the pancakes.

Monday: Date night! We’ve been great about preserving that. We went off to our favorite local Italian restaurant. We’re in a pleasurable rut. We go to the same place every week, and I order the same thing (linguini in white clam sauce). Sometimes I mean to shift us, but I’ve never been able to pull the trigger.

Tuesday: My first yoga class. I’ve had one too many days of walking in to find Damon in a handstand in the hallway. I can’t touch my toes. Now AOL is offering free yoga classes, in my building. It couldn’t get any easier unless someone comes and moves my body for me. I can’t defend not going. The teacher was lovely, and very gracious about my confusion and wobbliness. And I got a gold star for hip flexibililty, which made me feel good. But we did so much hanging upside down (Hello Downward Facing Dog!) that by the end I was pretty queasy and dizzy. I staggered onto the subway and had the very good fortune to run into Damon, coming home on the same train. So I sagged against him until I could get home and drink a soda and assume the fetal position.

Wednesday: We managed to get sneak preview passes to ‘The Aristocrats.’ What can I say about this movie? It made me laugh, it made me sick to my stomach. I love a documentary, and this was no exception. It’s easier to name comedians who weren’t in it, than those who were. It was fascinating to watch them all pass around the same story, relate to one another, come from their own perspective. The filmmakers were smart in that they pretty much kick it off with George Carlin telling such a foul version that you’re instantly shocked. After that it gets more manageable. And at the end Robin Williams tells a totally clean joke that I loved.

Thursday: More yoga after work. This time I was the only one in the class, so it was a default private lesson. The best news about that is that the teacher told me that often no one comes. So I asked her if she would mind if Damon came, since there’s clearly room. She said that would be fine. He’s thrilled and I’ll be more likely to go if he’s holding me accountable by being there. After practicing with far less motion sickness, I went down to the ribbon cutting party AOL was throwing at the Rockefeller skating rink plaza. AOL has, of this month, consolidated all their offices at 75 Rock. So they threw a huge party, complete with big screens showing the Live 8 concert. The food and drink were swank and generous — wide open bar, fancy pants desserts. I was hugely disappointed that I missed all the non-dessert food while I was doing the yoga class. I skipped the pastries, but did take advantage of the free booze while I walked down high school memory lane. I managed to catch both The Eurythmics and Duran Duran’s performances. There was also some buzz generated because one of my coworkers is on a reality show called “Hooking Up” and he was wandering around the party. I’ve never seen the show, and didn’t know who he was. But there was excitement swirling around him, which was fun to watch.

Friday: Today I earned my big-city socializer wings. Immediately after work Damon came by and we met our friend Jeff for happy hour. He was just working in NY for the day, so we had margaritas before he had to cab out to LaGuardia. For the record, I don’t think he had a chance in hell of making his flight. Once we put him in a taxi, we headed down to Chelsea where Deanna was having a cookout to say goodbye to her swank apartment. But this was far from the end of Friday. We spend some time socializing/networking at Deanna’s while I fed her dog Ella under the table. Then we headed up to midtown to The Lamb’s Theater to see John perform with The Nuclear Family at 10. We praised him and then went out for drinks, along with Kari, who joined us for the show. So that put us at about 2am and heading home. I slept soundly on the train and folded into bed fully dressed and made up when we got to Inwood.

I’ve been pretty idle, comparatively, yesterday and today. Some errands, some work, some cleaning. I’ve tried to keep it as low stimulation as possible. I’ve even just thrown a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread in the oven, to keep up with the comfort theme.

Preview for next weekend: Andrew ends his two-year trip to German and returns to the US on Friday afternoon. He’ll be spending the weekend with us before heading south. I don’t know what we’ll do, but he’s already told me: I want to be very active, no sitting! So…

On an unrelated note — a new celebrity sighting.
We saw Conan O’Brien crossing the street (presumably after a taping) the other afternoon. Noting his height is sort of a cliche, but what struck me is how slender he is. He was wearing jeans and a tight-ish t-shirt and looked positively willowy. Strangely enough, the next day we say the red headed guy who does Conan’s voice over/announcer stuff.