Ahhhhhhhh. I'm still basking in the brief window of sanity that lingers in the first 48-or-so hours of coming back to the City after a vacation.

I spent all weekend in New Hampshire, on the set of a cooking show from the Food network. Well, except for the cameras and being on T.V. and stuff. Morgan's mom, Abby, is an amazing cook. And she has one of those big kitchens where you can sit and watch how everything's being assembled, and she patiently provides step-by-step instrutions for us New York types who think that "serious cooking" involves adding the dressing to the pre-made salad from Zabar's. It was quite a learning experience for those of us who have an oven that is blocked by our sink (true story, kids - the genius who installed my "kitchen" put the sink directly in front of the oven door, so it can never, ever open. Not that it would work if it did).

All weekend, we pretty much did nothing. It was great. In our hectic society, doing nothing is really a lost art. But I'm a natural. Like, a Zen master of laziness.

Meanwhile, the invitations for the wedding arrived from Bombay. My parents' friends Vasant and Carol were nice enough to schelp them all the way from India. Carol and Vasant's daughter got married last year, and I loved her invitations, and so she kindly offered to get her printer in India to make them. Vasant, who's an architecht, designed the invitation. It was so nice of them to do this.

I'm only slightly starting to freak out about the whole wedding thing. Everything seems to be going according to plan. Even the cliche stress dreams - right on schedule!

I'm yet to have the one where you go down the aisle naked, but the other night I did dream that it was five minutes before the wedding, and I was wearing a particularly hideous pair of plaid wool slacks, and a dirty sweatshirt. I'd forgotten my dress. And apparently I'd also forgotten how to use deodorant, or even comb my hair. I was desperately trying to borrow a white t-shirt (to be more bride-like) from my friend April.

So it begins ...




- posted by Marguerite @ 10:10 AM

 
Okay, so I haven't posted in about a million years. Or a week and a half, depending on how you look at it.

I've been super busy this week at work, which explains my absence from the Wonderful World of Blogs (WWB). This is pretty much the busy season in nonprofit fundraising. I was at work until 10 several nights last week, writing letters that recall the teary tone of a Sally Struthers commercial. The goal is to capitalize on the guilt of extremely wealthy liberals, god love 'em.

Give because the children of East Harlem need you. And because you'll feel way less guilty about the bundles of dough you made when your Halliburton stock went through the friggin' roof after the election.

Sigh.

I'm very much looking forward to going to New Hampshire for Thanksgiving. We're going with Morgan and Sherri to visit Morgan's folks who apparently live in a big Norman Rockwell-esque farm house, where they cook lots of amazingly delicious food and copious adult beverages.
The way Paul describes it, if he is very, very good in this lifetime, he'll end up there for all eternity.

I can't wait to get out of the City. It's really not inteneded for long-term exposure.






- posted by Marguerite @ 1:02 PM

 
Oh - the "comments" function is finally fixed! All previous comments were wiped out as a result, tho.

Comment! I live for my comments. How sad is that?

Not nearly as sad as someone going to Tower Records every day for the past week to see if they finally have Season 7 of "Buffy" on DVD. Not that I would ever do anything like that ...

- posted by Marguerite @ 1:06 PM

 
I think I need some crazy pills. Or maybe it's just that I've been in New York for over one month, consecutively, without even a day-trip out of town. Any time that happens, I start to go a bit nutters. They should put some giant disclaimer on this city - Not Intended for Prolonged Use.

In a previous blog entry, I pledged to stop whining for once and for all. Which kind of defeats the purpose of a blog, but nevermind.

This morning, I missed my bus, the M106, by about 30 seconds, and had what is known, in psychiatric parlance, as a "conniption fit."

I missed the bus because I rather stupidly chose to stop into my favorite Greek diner on 96th Street and get a coffee and muffin. Just as I was coming out of the diner the bus was pulling away. It only comes once every half hour. It was raining - cold rain. I ran after the bus all the way from Broadway to the park - running in the rain, no umbrella. Like the dorky-but-loveable teenage male hero of a John Hughes movie.

I had almost caught up to the bus when the paper bag from the diner, soaking wet at this point, finally dissolved. The coffee and muffin hit the ground rolling, like convicts jumping off a train. (Pardon the profusion of similies this morning ...) I actually screamed. Louder than I intended. A rather blood-curtling scream. Fortunately, being in NYC, a blood-curtling scream will hardly ruffle one's fellow passer-bys.

Anyway, the whole thing caused me to become rather dis-proportionately upset. This is not only because the bus only comes once every half hour. But because missing the bus felt like a metaphor. And because it was cold and raining. And because of my suicidal muffin. And because I ruined my Shearling jacket which got drenched in the rain. And I lost my scarf.

But mostly because of the metaphor.

And this has been yet another episode of, Marguerite's Problems Aren't That Big! Tune in next time, when I break a fingernail, and get home too late to watch America's Next Top Model.


- posted by Marguerite @ 9:34 AM

 
This past week, I haven't had much chance to "blog" (don't you love how a neologism can morph into a transitive verb?), because I'm busy filling out my immigration papers to become a citizen of Greenland. It's -40 degrees most of the time and night for half the year, and I don't even like seal blubber, although I hear it tastes like chicken when it's deep fried.

Here in New York, everyone's been all doom and gloom about the recent election. It's getting annoying, folks. I mean, come on - it's not that bad.


I got to thinking about it, and I came up with 9.5 reasons to be glad Bush won:


9. Ken Lay, former CEO of Enron, will finally get what he deserves – a harsh $50 fine.

8. Dick Cheney will go back to his underground bunker, where he will plot the destruction of evildoers such as Kim Jong-Il, Public Television, and Green Lantern.

7. High schools that lack funding for biology classes will find it much cheaper to offer A.P. Creationisim.

6. The official spelling of “nuclear” is now “nuculur.”

5. Those howling wolves from the Bush campaign commercials will not eat your babies.

5.5. John Kerry would have eaten your babies himself.

4. We will boldly address the growing threat of nuculur proliferation in North Korea ... by invading the Bahamas.

3. The President may have lied about the reasons for invading Iraq, and the deficit might be skyrocketing, and the economy might be going down the tubes, and the administration might have failed to catch the single greatest enemy our country has ever had. But at least Bush never did anything really bad, like, getting a blow job.

2. Who doesn’t love those Bush twins?

1. The FOX Network is developing a new sitcom about the wacky antics in the Vice Presidential Bunker, tentatively called “Everybody Loves Dick.” Mary Cheney and her partner won’t be mentioned on the show.

- posted by Marguerite @ 7:18 PM

 
To the thousands of people who read this blog - why are you reading this blog? Why are you not, instead, waiting on a long, former-Soviet style line to go vote?

"Oh, well, I live in New York, so it doesn't matter anyway ... "

Shut up. Go vote. Yes, you. Now. Away from the computer. It's not too late. Harness the power of the "Internets" (it's not just for blogging any more...) to find your polling place.

I have a cautionary tale to share with you. This time four years ago, I did not get around to voting. Every day of the past four years, I've had to live with the fact that I did not vote (and in Florida, no less). Don't let this happen to you. Yes, I know you want to watch "Oprah" after work. And it's a re-run of Seinfeld that you've only seen 3 times!

I'll tape it for you. Go vote.


Believe.

- posted by Marguerite @ 1:36 PM