Start spreading the news...

I'm packing once again. I'm moving to New York City tomorrow. It feels strange to finally be moving for me and not for anything else. In the past five years I've lived in 13 different homes, I don't know why I bother unpacking.

No more late nights on the PATH, no more Jersey girl jokes, no more B&T stigma...from now on its cabs home, subway to work and aerobics in the morning.

Sigh...I hate moving.

Can three pubs really be called a 'crawl'

I don't remember taking this picture. I think it was sometime before they line danced to Copa Cabana. Good times.

I would just like to say fuck you to the stupid idiots who keep leaving messages on my tag board. IP addresses are between 195.0.0.0 - 195.255.255.255 and are registered with RIPE in AMS. Its the lamest way of spamming I've ever seen and really just pisses me off. I'm tired of blocking them one by one.

Do you know what today is...

Saturday marked my 13 month plus one day anniversary in the US. All those in AIESEC can probably appreciate the 13 month time frame (one year term plus one month transition). I've now lived in the New York area for longer than I have anywhere else for a very long time, years, especially if you add in my temporary movements for co-op.

When I first moved here this is not where I'd thought I'd be in January 06, not in my wildest dreams. And I mean that in a good way. I've had three places of residence and am planning on a few more moves before I stay still. I'm finally working and soon living in the city. I found a new job. One that I really like, how weird is that. I feel settled, most of my phone calls are local, I vote via mail in ballot and I've seen two Canucks games in the past month (but should've caught them vs the Islanders, 8-1!). I drink too much and don't exercise enough, need to work on that. I'm an active member of the community and can finally commit to long term things, knowing I'll be in town. I still don't own a pair of Manolos and will have to wait until next year's sample sale to change that (found myself unemployed this year). I have a 'guy' in Chinatown. Still looking for quality all you can eat sushi, am getting close though. I need to get better at budgetting and gain some shoe buying willpower. I miss my parents more than I ever have before. I know things about the city that other people don't (why broadway cuts across town) but haven't seen a show since I was a tourist. I get frustrated when people walk slowly on the sidewalk.

There is no where else in the world I would rather be right now.

Let freedom ring...

I've been cursing this holiday weekend all week. Its too close to New Years. Its January, its cold, there's another holiday next month. I'm just not in need of a holiday yet and kept saying how I'd rather trade it for a long weekend in April or August.

This morning I woke up and turned on the TV and caught a replay of Dr Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech, from August 28, 1963 in Washington DC. It hit me. I've read and heard it before but today the words all meant something. Maybe its because I live here now, maybe its because I'm feeling vulnerable..who knows. But regardless, I never appreciated the eloquence of these words until today.

A quick reminder -

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.

One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.

So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.
....
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.
....
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

I have become obsessed with playing Freecell. On my cell phone. ALL THE TIME. On the subway, waiting for the subway, on the bus, waiting for the bus. People must think I'm crazy because you can't really tell I'm playing a game - no sounds or fast movements.

Thank you Edi for developing the game for my phone.

What I'm looking forward to in 2006...

Moving to Manhattan. Getting a touchdown. The wedding season. Getting a real sister in law. January 20th. Olympic Hockey. Learning who'll be up for the wedding season 2007. 4 trips to Vancouver. Making a difference. Knowing that she'll find her way just fine. Netflix. Growing my hair out. Finding out who wins Project Runway. Finishing 'the book'. Having more visitors. Going to DC. Breathing.

What's making me happy right now...

Masala chai in the morning. Firefighters asking me for my number. Trying to imagine what a cow looks like eating a Domino's box. Girls nights. Clean laundry. Finishing the Tipping Point (a year later). Good hair days. My voip phone. Texts stating that this will be a good year. Being frightened that the cops are going to take away our stash of wine and cups. The return of the crazy PATH ride home. Ironing my 'work clothes'. Law and Order marathons. Having a microwave. Snow (not enough, but I'll take it).

Party like its 1999...

I needed last night. New year, new job, new everything. Please, please, please let the carefreeness of the evening be a hint of what is on the horizon. I don't think I can take any more chaos.