It's occured to me that the URL of this blog - "Notes from the Underemployed," is no longer accurate, now that I'm back to working full-time. As a matter of fact, that's what I'm doing right now. It's also come to my attention that being a professional grant writer is taking a seriously unfortunate toll on my ability to string words together without inserting a footnote. I'm starting to put all my emails in proper MLA style.

Furthermore, longitudinal studies have demonstrated a significant need for an increase in the amount of time spent outside the boundaries of the "professional employment environment," or PEE (Kennedy, 2004). For this reason, I will be traveling outside the PEE from 10/1 to 10/4, to participate in recreational and cultural activities which will enhance my food and beverage consumtion skills, in addition to promoting a sense of social unity within the extended family unit.

Yep, I'm going to the west coast for a wedding. Paul's step-cousin is getting married in Northern California. We're flying into San Francisco and then drivign up to Arcata. It's a nice drive, because you get to see all the redwoods, and the David Lynch-type diners with midgets who talk backwards and such. I think very clearly while in cars and planes, so I'm looking forwad. Something about velocity that helps one focus. The best are trains - in Europe, I used to sometimes just go on a train ride somewhere a few hours away, and then come back.

My birthday is in a week. I can't believe I'll be 29! Again. It gets easier every time.


- posted by Marguerite @ 7:52 AM

 
A bit of a plug ...

Tonight, one of my favorite bands, "Live Girls!!!" is playing at Rothko tonight. Live Girls!!! is an all-girl band, except that half of them are guys, one of whom I'm engaged to.

For those of you who are in New York, or close enough to catch a flight, you should come out! It's at 116 Suffolk (near Rivington) on the Lower East Side. www.rothkonyc.com

If you really want to fit in on the L.E.S., you might want to:

a) spend at least $500 on a t-shirt that looks like you stole it from a crack whore in 1983;
b) spend at least two hours in a salon to get that "mid-80s crack addict" glow;
c) remember that heavy eye liner is out this season. This applies to men as well as women.




- posted by Marguerite @ 1:47 PM

 
It's getting cold. Native New Yorkers might not think so, but I do. It's that day - there's one each year - when you need a sweater for the first time. Still, Autumn in New York is so unbelievably lovely. Like late spring, it's the other Amnesia Season (see post of the same name, from about 3 months ago). It's the Woody Allen season, when everything seems to be filmed in in black & white, but simeltaneously in color, with a Frank Sinatra song playing in the background.

Spring and summer always seem slightly out of context in New York; the sun and the heat seem as out of place as the Empire State Building on a deserted tropical island. During the hot months, New Yorkers act confused, wearing ill-fitting shorts and sitting nervously in the sun, like awkward tourists from the country of Winter.

But every fall, the city comes back into its own, slowly retreating indoors. People seem relieved to no longer be saddled with the burden of having to go out and enjoy the warm weather. New York is the homeland of people who live in their own heads - specifically, intellectuals and psychotics (usually, these are one and the same). I have a theory that such individuals find temperate weather deeply unfulfilling, because it's too easy; it's harder to cultivate the kind of misery or paranoia that gives substance to our most abstract longings.

- posted by Marguerite @ 11:17 AM

 
I haven't updated the ol' blog in a while. To be honest, I've been in a foul mood. I hate politics. There is a certain smell given off by people who are utterly and immovably convinced they're right, and it's a pretty foul stench. Of course, this is equally true if you're a Democrat, Republican or a member of the Whig party. I generally don't support the Democratic party, because they're almost as full of crap as the Republicans. But the RNC was just too much, especially here in New York. I wanted to barf. And not just because of the matching red white & blue track suits (with "9/11!" encrusted in rhinestones) worn by the Midwestern Republican couples.

I think we should just skip the whole election annoyance and just declare Dubya King George the Second, already. They can make it illegal for a female to inherit the throne, so it will skip the twins and go straight to Jeb, which would probably happen anyway.

I did a lot of voyeuristic walking around the city a good bit last week - Times Square and Union Square, in particular. Although the protesters were remarkably peaceful, there were about five police officers in full riot gear for each protester. You didn't see it in the papers, or on the news. And when you did see protesters in the media, it was just the 18-year-old kids with pierced eyelids and such, whereas the majority of the protesters were rather normal-looking people, at least a quarter of whom seemed to be well over 40. I wasn't even protesting, but only barely escaped the indiscriminate round-ups on a few occasions. At one point they were actually throwing drag nets over crowds of people and arresting them all. Up until now, I thought "drag nets" were just a kind of stockings worn by transvestites ...

I suppose I'm feeling guilty because I didn't vote in the last election. And - worse yet - because I vote in Florida (where I maintain a legitimate second residence, Katherine Harris, in case you're listening in). This was because I thought Gore was, like Kerry, nothing more than Bush Lite. Which is true, but hey - less filling, tastes great.





- posted by Marguerite @ 9:01 AM