jaysaint Getting it all down on paper…

I’m on a roll! I haven’t started cooking yet, but I’ve got scented candles warming up the atmosphere and the place is starting to sparkle. The kitchen looks better than it ever has, I think. Part of my joy is certainly the packed pantry. I just wish I had the day off tomorrow. But I can’t do that every time Damon comes home any more than he can stop doing his shows when I come to see him. Still, I may take the 14th off, I’ll decide that later. Maybe if I do work that day it will give him a chance to fill the apartment with presents for me!

This is the most practical impact that LJ has had on my life. Jathomas wrote about getting a Roomba for Christmas, and I was compelled. And now I have my own Roomba puttering around my apartment, picking up after me. I don’t know if it’s $250 worth of cool, but it’s pretty cool. I’ve started calling her Rosie, at the suggestion of my friend Lesley who names things for me.

I get a great big kick out of sitting on the couch watching old X-Files episodes while I listen to the little machine clean my kitchen floor. As I told Damon, it didn’t pick up every speck, but it picked up more specks than I was going to.

Damon has an audition in NY tomorrow, so he’s coming up after his show tonight. He’ll get to town around 2am, but that means I’ll have him all tomorrow night. I think I’ll make a nice big pot of soup so he has something warm and comforting to eat when he gets home. I like to make soup. Fresh Direct just left me three huge boxes of groceries, so I feel like getting busy in the kitchen.

You may have heard, it snowed here yesterday. I’m all for it, as since it’s going to be frigid we might as well have heaps of snow. So I watched it rush down for a while yesterday. We’ve got two huge windows in our living room, so I stretched out on the couch and contemplated snowflakes until I slipped off to sleep.

Waking up after an hour or two I decided to join some friends in Soho for dinner and drinks. So I rolled my jeans up to my knees and put on some high black books and headed out. The snow was slowing down, but no one had bothered to break out the snow blowers yet as it was supposed to continue until Sunday morning. I made my way to the subway. It was a little wobbly and slow going, but I never worried that I shouldn’t have gone. The worst part was actually the stairs down, as they were buried and there was some guesswork about where to put my feet.

But I arrived safely in Soho. When I came up amidst the art galleries and fancy shops it was astonishing to note the total absence of cars. The roads were buried, there was no telling the sidewalk from the street. So certainly no one was trying to drive. There was a small amount of foot traffic as the brave and foolish had come out to gawk. So I gawked with them for a while and then headed to Cafe el Portal to meet my friends. The restaurant has fantastic food, is shockingly cheap and only has about seven tables. So normally it’s impossible to sit down. But this time we were able to even steal some extra chairs for coats and bags. The staff was in the back watching a soccer match, we could hear them cheering. I had a goat cheese quesadilla-type thing, blended with avocado and topped with sharply fresh tomato, onion, jalapenos and spices. It was a winner. It was there that I met up with my friends Kari and Jeff, and Kari’s friends, the sisters Amy and Ashley.

After a few margaritas we wandered around the corner to a bar called Sweet and Vicious. My days of enjoying bars like these are pretty much over, but the company was good. I don’t like a loud bar where I’ve got to scream for my friends to hear me. It defeats the point of meeting them. I’m much more for quiet and cozy. But I did enjoy that we joined a few more folks there, including a guy that Amy was being set up with. Amy, as I learned, has a hard time knowing when to say when. So there were some serious covert operations going on meant to part her discretely from her drink whenever possible. It wasn’t meeting with much success. So that was funny.

In some ways the best part of the night was coming home. I had to take three trains and it was well over an hour of late-night traveling. So after many blocks of snowy walking I grabbed a Post for the ride and spent some quality time on the train. When I got back to Inwood I was a little disheartened at the thought of the walk to the apartment. But when I got to the courtyard the snow cover was pristine and it was really nice to walk through that sparkly perfect white. I was pretty soaked by the time I got in my door.

This was the good part. My feet were numb (the boots are really tight) so it took some hopping around to get them off without stepping into my apartment. But I wanted to confine the snow. I took off my wet hat and coat. All of this was in the dark, with my leftover bag in my hand. The apartment was full of that lovely steam heat. So I crept into our bedroom without turning on a light, stripped off all my clothes and put on flannel pajamas. Then I hit play on the casette button and crawled into bed. So I listened to Harry Potter books on tape while I set under my heavy down comforter and flannel sheets and ate my leftovers, all in the dark. It was sensory perfection, it felt so warm and peaceful and comforting.

Today I took it easy, as I realize that I was tempting fate running around in the snow. My cough is better every day, but it isn’t gone yet. So I lit candles, cleaned, read books, etc, etc. Oh, and ate a lot of spaghetti over the course of the day.

How can I convey how cold it is? Did anyone see ‘Day After Tomorrow’? I keep waiting to see the frost creep across my walls. This is where I learn a lesson for not getting curtains for the living room. And for not getting our one radiator fixed. I think I will just turn it on and let it leak. I’ve got my laptop on my lap, in attempt to huddle with its electronic heat. We’re expecting 6-10 inches of snow today! In just a little bit I’m going to bundle up and walk down to the library and pick up the first season of ‘All in the Family’ which is waiting for me there. Later tonight I have plans to meet Kari for margaritas and my desire to dodge the cold will be at war with my desire to finally socialize after having been sick for so long. I suspect the margaritas will win. I feel much better this morning after having slept all the way through the night for the first time. I had been waking up with coughing. So I’m better!

Tomorrow I return to work, if only from the comfort of my couch. Thank heavens for the digital age. I love a planned work break, but being out sick leaves me worrying about what’s getting dropped. Which must mean I’m getting better because a few days ago I wouldn’t have cared if someone had told me the Warner Bros. building was burning down.

Here’s another thing I’m grateful for: books on tape. The greatest comfort I’ve had over the past few days is being able to lay in the dark and listen to Harry Potter books on tape while the flu medicine carried me away. The effort level required (zero) was perfect, I didn’t even have to open my eyes or point my face in any particular direction. I have always found being read to intensely soothing. My parents both read to me all the time when I was little — frequently grown up books. And I think that experience will always create an “everything is okay” sensation.

But right now I have the tv on, because I’m using this opportunity to plow through old videos and throw most of them out. Right now I’m watching ‘Wall Street’ which is pretty funny all these years later. Michael Douglas — the Donald Trump of his fictional day — is talking on a mobile phone that looks like an enormous walkie talkie. Is that how you spell that?