hello there!

so, I'm sure you're on the edge of your seats wondering how I've been. the wait is over! I'm at my home away from home right now, and not going to work because of the snow.

I've been working with a photographer monday/wednesday/friday. after bouncing around with several potential portfolio subjects, I settled last friday on a project that I'll be sure to share once it's complete. My work days are spent getting pictures, getting cold, and eating applesauce. I also occupy some of my time compiling a list of reasons of how and why the photographer is very possibly Santa Claus.

two days a week, tuesday/thursday, I am working with the lovely illustrator Sophie Blackall. I spend most of my time engaged in an ongoing death cage match with the printer, although occasionally we form a truce and it coughs out a couple of prints suitable for shipping. I've also done some preliminary image research for an upcoming picture book, and accompanied Sophie to a meeting about the cover for her book of Missed Connections at a publishing house. When not doing any of those activities, we drink hot beverages (Sophie takes coffee, I take tea) and sit at her dining room table.

various other things about the month thus far...

I still can't distinguish between Uptown and Downtown. Most of the time I get it right. Some of the time I inadvertently travel to Brooklyn or the Bronx.

I've met Boba Fett, and he plays the accordion.

Lovely looking strangers sometimes smile at you. in response, awkward (but hopefully occasionally lovely) girls sometimes fall a little bit in love.

No social life? No problem! I've got yarn and needles and even a small library of science fiction and Shakespeare and probably don't really need human interaction anyway.

New York

in the month of january, I'm interning with two different artists in New York. but don't worry about missing me too much, I'll still be here for you to talk to.

my packing list was divided into four subcategories: don't be naked, you smell, sweet kicks bro, and stuffy stuff.

each subcategory was organized by a hierarchy of importance. more important than pants, apparently, is socks, and mo socks. because I need to stress the importance of having many socks. also, the category of stuffy stuff (which was all of the things that didn't neatly fall into the other categories) shows that I favor yarn and tea above cell phones and all of my various chargers.

my priorities are peculiar.

happy 2011!

more like advanced calculus

"We've become a nation of wusses. The Chinese are kicking our butt in everything. If this was in China, do you think the Chinese would have called off the game? People would have been marching down to the stadium, they would have walked and they would have been doing calculus on the way down."

Thanks Ed Rendell for the enlightening comment. I really appreciate how you managed to turn an interview about the delay of an American football game into Yellow Fever. It's also really considerate how you included a math related stereotype. Keep it classy, Governor Rendell.

merry christmas!

from me and the gang. I've spent my Christmas eating great food, receiving and giving gifts, and watching Love Actually with my mom. More Christmas movies to follow, currently The Muppets Christmas Carol, later the Doctor Who Christmas Special. And I can justify all of this television, because after all, Christmas is all around.

hope that your Christmas is warm and lovely. tell me all about it!

none the wiser

I went to the doctor's today and they said that I can stop using crutches. My excitement was short lived, as I had to get my wisdom teeth removed two hours later.

I was assured by the nurse that I would not be awake during the procedure- but that might have been a laughing gas induced figment. Figment or not, I was awake while my teeth were being pulled out. But I was traveling around in a state of partial consciousness, where my mind was independent from my quickly exhausting body. Sometimes I fought to keep my eyes open to show the dentist that I was capable. Of what, I'm not certain. I just thought that by staring at the dentist, he'd understand that I was a very intelligent person.

that's laughing gas logic for you.

Also going through my head during the entire ordeal was Hamlet's soliloquy- one of the most destinct memories that I have is of getting the laughing gas mask put over my nose and being told to sleep, to which I responded "to sleep perchance to dream". Some people get nervous. I go thespian.

I attempted to acknowledge the removal of my teeth once during the procedure by asking a level headed question- which would, no doubt, prove to be highly eloquent and be told to all dentists in the tristate area. My story, the story of the most eloquent wisdom teeth removal patient ever. I would be hailed as a poster child for oral surgery everywhere.

What I meant to say was "Are you done with the upper and lower wisdom teeth on the left side?" What came out was entirely different, and consisted of "Arrrrruuudun teeefffflef?" and then maybe followed by some profuse bleeding from my mouth.

And this is how I can explain and justify why my kitchen now has large amounts of pudding, jello mixes, apple sauce, and pain killers in it. If you see a tiny manila envelope at the end of the island, open with care. It contains four wisdom teeth that are likely still covered in dried blood.

don't judge,

http://highexpectationsasianfather.tumblr.com/

This is just how my life is sometimes. And when it isn't like this, I make it this way, because I don't know how to respond otherwise.

The coolest poem

was written for me in history class.

Candy,
Oodles
Of
Latkes,
Eggs,
Sushi,
Time.

acrostic poems are the way to go. the more nonsensical, the better.