when i was a teenager, sophie and i started venturing out on our own into the city to hang out.  mostly with javie…  but we used to roam the streets of the village for hours.

this was always my favorite street<3

i decided to go shopping tonight.  i found a pair of pants i was dying for on karmaloop, but the brand sizing always runs different.  i usually wear a 7, and i actually own them in a 5, 7, even a 10…  and they all fit the same, so i have to try them on.  and these were in european sizes so i felt all sorts of fucked… i had to flag down the owner for help…

the store didn’t carry the size i need for the particular style i was looking for.  in fact, i was only one size over :(  woe is me, not meant to be.  (i couldn’t get them over my fat thighs/ass) but the shop owner then handed me another pair…  (mainly just to try them on so that i could go home and order the pants i had wanted from karmaloop) BUT!  the ones that he had handed me ended up being the same large, leopard print in another colour.  and i fell in love with them…. AND they were half off! so i said fuck it, and snagged them.

i decided to go try to buy some more TOMS from some place near W4th called rugged sole and as soon as i asked for a 7.5, homedude worker shot me right down.  says that they don’t get them from size 7 and larger. ??? WTF?

i was like dude, i have an average size foot why wouldn’t they carry that for people? and he didn’t have an answer for me.  so with my head drooping in sadness, i walked out and decided to go for a walk.  i decided scenery, humidity and some starbucks would suffice…  i got them good shots of gay st above, and some other side streets and stuff.  my hands were full from shopping bags so i only snapped what i specifically wanted. it was kind of a mini-goal.

i couldn’t help thinking about how i’m not one of those people that likes to do things like that on their own…  i know i’m not codependent either, but it’s just nicer having someone to share it with.  i would have definitely been out there for an extra two hours, just strolling and wandering, if i hadn’t been alone…  :\

i got a little lost, found a starbucks and was back en route via waverly and found my way home.

i would never want to live in the city other than in the east village, especially right around there.  all of the buildings are filled with personality and they’re so cozy.  the streets are quiet, lined with trees, fancy gates, pretty flower boxes and stoops…  i love it.

since my coming of age around 12/13 i absorbed and turned into:

an r&b and hip-hop head, an alternative/grunge and punk lover, a beavis & butthead (and daria) addict, a tommy hil and nautica consumer, a huge advocate of handball and public nyc parks, a rocker of a black bugaboo columbia jacket, a drinker of the finest st. ides special brew and liquors around all by 14, a super nintendo gamer nerd, a misfits addict, a graphic designer, a web designer, a super-sneaker-out-of-the-houser, a great kisser, a roamer of queens in general, a bay terrace mallrat, a thief kleptomaniac, a greenwich village dweller, a make-out slut, a smoker of pot, an adopted latina, a stoop dweller, a total hard ass, a pin cushion (i’ve had like, 11 piercings), a mosher, a friend of vampires, an MTV offices regular, a raver, a lover of anything with synth in it, a mild drug user (e), a cam girl, a blogger, a saucony’s/vans girl, an awesome girlfriend to few, a frequent MTA rider, a south-bronx dweller, a ska-loving skanker, a chick magnet, a  bouncing souls show regular, a high school graduate, a video store clerk/manager, a jackass addict, an ikea addict, a tony hawk pro skater pro, an aimless whitestone stroller, a myspace fan, a graffiti lover, a sparks drinker, a roommate, a loner, a restaurant manager, a toughlover<3, a pet owner, a traveler, a glassjaw addict, a camper, a wifey, a guest list dweller, a mistress, a canvas for a few tattoo artists, a full-time website developer, someone with multi-colour hair, a brooklyn resident, a ranger fan (again<3), a tweeter, and most importantly a (self-destructively/overly loyal) good friend… etc.

which leaves me feeling like i love how all over the place i’ve been, good and bad.
i’ve also been realizing as i get older that NYC is really fucking tiny. and the older i get, the closer the social circles are linked.
(this has been proven many times in the last year…)

the bouncing souls are (or were?) touring new zealand and australia… they tweeted something about pictures earlier today, and it got me thinking about how appreciative i am that i get to see them as many times as i do in a year. and it’s just because i live here in NYC… man, i can’t imagine only seeing them once a year or especially every few years…  i’d go nuts! i go almost every show that they play in NYC for a bunch of reasons…

a) it never gets boring, they’re super fun
b) they’re getting older
c) i’m getting older
d) sweating it up and dancing in their crowd is one of my favorite things in life

glad i grew up here<3

i just emptied out my camera and found pictures i took in my ‘hood where i live the day after nyc was hit via tornado…  i only took two pictures of damage… a huge tree (to the left) fell over the handball court, bent the fence over and took up the entire thing… and the second picture is a block lined with branches… the night of the storms, all the branches that you see in the picture were on the sidewalk… all blocked up – i couldn’t go down the block at all… i guess the moved them in the morning… click the thumbnails for full size pictures…

what’s up vintage mta?

this was life before metrocards…  still the days of the tokens, and long paper transfers.

this is some real new yorker shit rt here<3

the two lights are up in nyc…  i saw them from dumbo tonight – and then again at marcy ave… i can’t even describe how it feels (i mean aside from horribly sad).  i wish i could see the twin towers from my views now…  i saw the skyline from jersey > port authority on 09/10 – the day before it all happened (literally – the night before…  like, 9 hours before…).  just visiting becca and frank on a whim in montclair, NJ…  i remember looking at it and just feeling something strange that i couldn’t describe…  just took it all in.  (one last time.)

i dated a boy named harold that lived (literally) next to the twin towers – downtown.  and we used to sit on his roof and sit right next to them.  not only will i always associate him with that, but also – i keep the view fresh in the mind.  i can still see it.

RIP everyone<3 and another year goes by in nyc…

peter feigenbaum recreated a 1980′s ‘hood in small structure form and it’s on display here through the month.
RAD!

(where i found this – more pics can be found here, too.)

i don’t know how the rest of the worlds public transportation works, but here in nyc – the mta pretty much works against you. (my friend jess and i were tweeting back and forth about this very issue this morning…)

a flimsy, plastic mta metrocard allows you to get on the trains/buses… i get a monthly unlimited through work every month via transitchek. at any rate, i’ve run into situations where the damn thing has suddenly stopped working. whether it was a bent card, scratched or whatever… you bring it to the person in the booth for help and the first thing they do is swipe it on their end to make sure you have money or rides on it… the last time this situation happened it was on one of my monthly unlimited and the booth fool could see that there was still however many days left on it… instead of hooking me up with a new card so that i could transport myself around, i get a form to fill out (and mail out) so that i can send the non-functioning metrocard back to the mta and then get a check for reimbursement… (i forget how long that takes…) none the less, i have to buy a NEW ONE in the mean time.

now – i make okay money… but with paying rent on my own, general living costs, my own bills and on top of all my shit – still contributing at my mom’s house… i don’t have an extra $100 to just throw down for a new metrocard… why the hell doesn’t the mta give me a new card and do whatever the fuck they want with the one that doesn’t work?

…greedy, greedy, ass-backwards assholes.

so i’m thinking of trying to start some type of a manhunt league. don’t know what manhunt is? (you must not have grown up in nyc… click here.)

i was thinking of trying to make it a nyc thing, but i caught myself thinking too big – i guess starting off in queens/maybe bk is a better idea… anyways, i was thinking out details and it could get a little crazy so i’ve gotta sort them out. i want to have teams with uniforms/names (well i mean i was thinking uniformed groups like in the warriors, not like baseball uniforms?) and play til there’s one big game for a prize or something… gotta have incentive to light a fire under people asses i suppose…

i’m going to build a website with voting polls for different things and a contact form to start gathering information for games in the fall… if i can’t get enough info, maybe it’ll be for the spring…

you in?

i keep forgetting to post about this guy john conn i met/got a t-shirt from at the austin st. fair a few weeks ago…

this guys booth was full of prints and t-shirts of the nyc subways from the 1980′s – people, stations, platforms, etc. – they’re awesome shots. i would suggest buying a photo print if you can find him – they’re gorgeous! (on flickr i found that he sold at least once at the union sq market – not sure if he’s a repeat vendor, though…) my shirt got mangled within one washing… if he would silkscreen the images on, make the images bigger and on better sized/quality t-shirts, i think he’d make a killing. it saddened me greatly when i removed mine from the wash and it was all pruney.

this was the one that i bought, it was on a dark gray t-shirt…

unless i’m totally blind, i couldn’t find a way to purchase things off of his website or online anywhere. maybe i should send him over an email… anyways, go check out the galleries.

click here to see john’s official gallery. and click here to see a full gallery of shots that i had seen… (not sure why this is on another domain, but whatever – want you to see them all…)

i totally forgot to post this picture from when jen and i went up to brooklyn heights last week!!!

it’s an old school NYC park sprinkler! (top/right – i thinkkkk maybe in the bottom left of the picture too, but i don’t remember them being so small from when i was a kid) anyways, it sorta looks like an in-ground pool… those things used to kill my feet when i was a kid… hard, pebbly concrete owwie! – then weird things used to be in them sometimes… i think that’s why NYC got rid of them altogether… i think i remember my mother warning me when i was a kid that i may step on a needle or something…

when i was a kid in daycare and they used to take us on day trips, we’d usually go to doobie’s park, or some other park i don’t really remember that had one of these all the time during the summers i went there. crazy.

i couldn’t believe my eyes! i haven’t laid my eyes on one of those since the 80′s. (i think!… or super early 90′s…)

this is a small, collection of images that inspires me…
this is just what i want my surroundings to someday be.

how calm and relaxing<3

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well alrighty! so i’m sure i’m going to get yelled at for putting up this picture, because it’s so not flattering, but it’s adorable. i’m glad it was captured… that was a fun ilya, jess and jen moment in time…

i haven’t really openly spoken about anyone i’ve dated on this website for various reasons… (dramarama!) but this one seems to be different… easier…

i don’t know where this is headed, this whole dating thing has been quite confusing over the last six months. the two idiots i dated/hooked up with earlier in the year fucked me up… one was (what i thought was) a good friend and the other one i can’t even begin to form a label for… :\

“trust is something that comes easy, when you’ve never been a victim” – face to face

haha, deep. but honestly, truth.

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