tavie.com

A good CD for springtime is XTC's "Apple Venus Vol. 1". I seem to drag it out every Easter, now.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 9:42 PM | shower me with attention

Today was spring cleaning and shopping and preparing for Easter Feast. My family arrives at Mint Manor at one tomorrow.

My world is very small, not very interesting-- but I like it.

Gina got me yellow and blue gingham curtains for my room for my Easter present (I got her a Spongebob jelly lolly), and we made throw pillow covers of different coloured gingham for my bed. My room is very pretty: mild primary colours, mostly blues and yellows.

Very small, not very interesting, but like I said.

Do you know, if someone asked me my favourite author, I'd still have to say Madeleine L'Engle? And then if they said, "Who else?", I'd have trouble because I'd leave so many out? I'd say, "Kurt Vonnegut, John Irving, um..." and then I'd spend the rest of the day thinking of more and slapping my forehead. And there'd be a distressing number of children's authors in there? But the three that always come to mind are L'Engle, Vonnegut and Irving. And you know what that is? Boring. I guess I'm boring. And also, my sister would say, overly attached to whitey-mcwhiteson authors. (And then the old "I don't read authors, I read books and I don't choose the books according to skin colour" argument would come up again. I'm so tired of that one. Not everyone has to like Toni Morrison; The. End.) But, yeah. Children's authors.

And I'll tell you something else: Stephen King, goddammit. That's right-- I said it! Stephen Fucking King.

...

Well, that all came out of nowhere.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 9:40 PM | shower me with attention

I think I've run out of things to do on the internet.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 12:41 AM | shower me with attention

Friday, April 18, 2003

I hate ham.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 12:56 AM | shower me with attention

My entire family is coming here on Sunday and we're having Mint Manor Easter Festivities. Including ham. Also, including my aunt. Oh, and my father.

And next month I'm flying out with Gina to meet her family in Kansas City.

Are we married yet?

I told her we'd better go pick up men while we're there or they're gonna try and make us pick out china patterns...

Why are you in Tavie's head? 12:56 AM | shower me with attention

Tea at Five was magnificent! Who knew that nerdy Star Trek captain was such a great actress? She moved me. Tears and stuff.

Also, I can't claim I don't have random celebrity sightings anymore, because before the play my mom and Gina and I ate at a Greek place called Niko's (good fish) and there was an old man at the table next to us with his younger-looking wife and teenaged son. Didn't really notice them, except being briefly amused at the beginning of the meal when I overheard the man telling the teenaged son that they'd taken him to Greece as a child and it was totally wasted on the kid because he said it was just like L.A. At the end of the meal I went to the bathroom and when I got back I noticed that the old man was Richard Dreyfuss. Then I was sort of distracted but only mildly, because neither my mother nor Gina noticed. In fact, I almost forgot that Richard Dreyfuss was elbow-to-elbow with my mother and caught myself just before I began absently humming that song from Jaws ("I'm tired and I wanna go to bed...")

Luckily I caught myself, because that would have been rather obnoxious.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 12:34 AM | shower me with attention

Thursday, April 17, 2003

Jim Millan's latest production. Wish I could go. (Link fixed.)

Why are you in Tavie's head? 3:57 PM | shower me with attention

They all have their own hands but they come from different mums.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 3:55 PM | shower me with attention

Tekserve called. The news is bad. The new screen isn't working with my computer. It fits but it seems to be the wrong part. They can't get a picture. So they're reinstalling the broken one. Bye-bye, $220.

It was a fair gamble, but I'm still sorely disappointed.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 1:31 PM | shower me with attention

Patient: It's a swastika!

Bad Doctor: You know, it does looks sort of like a swastika.

Patient: It looks EXACTLY like a swastika. You carved a symbol of hate into my stomach!

Bad Doctor: Tell you what I can do... if I put a mark here... and... here... it looks like a man dancing! Yes! Sort of a happy man dancing...

Patient: You're never touching me again!

Why are you in Tavie's head? 1:29 PM | shower me with attention

When out with sister yesterday, we both realized that we don't have anything to do in the city. Almost everything I'm interested in involves shopping, which involves money, which I can't really spend so much. Lately, I'm obsessed with the idea of visiting yarn and button shops. Yarn and buttons. And L'Occitane. I want to go to L'Occitane and buy that incredibly sweet-smelling milk shampoo. I also want to go to the Enchanted Forest, a toy shop of which I have fond childhood memories.

Either shopping or eating. How many cute little Indian places do you have to go to before you get bored?

And then, when we try to think of something else to do, it always boils down to movies or the Met. Good lord, how boring can we be? Oh, for variety, sometimes we'll go to a bar or that weird karaoke place. We are the most boring, bored people in the city. Why can't we think of anything to do?

Surely there's more to the city than this. My problem is, we usually start out late in the afternoon, when things are closing, or early in the evening. So what's left is nightlife. And what nightlife is is clubs. And I don't dance, I hate to dance, Just Say No to dancing. So that leaves me with the option of sitting in a dark bar spending my money on overpriced Cosmpolitans.

What is there to do? I'm open to suggestions.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 12:28 PM | shower me with attention

The Mitzvah Tank question has been answered by Gawker! Just last weekend I was describing this phenomenon to Roomie. I had witnessed it idling on the corner of 68th and Lexington. A small, pale face, topped with a yarmulke, was pressed to one of the upper windows of the Winnebago. Very tiny, skinny little boy, toolin' along in the Mitzvah Tank.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 12:11 PM | shower me with attention

As of yesterday, I'm on Spring Break until April... something. Still have to work though. There are no real breaks anymore.

Yesterday was the first ceramics-free Wednesday in a long time. Kirsten and I went out walking because it was very, very nice outside. We ate at that Japanese place I can't remember the name of. I had a Lemon Hai. It's lemon juice, club soda and Japanese vodka. No sugar. It was delicious. First drink out I've had in a long time. Also, yesterday Kirsten spilled hot coffee on my back by accident while I was in bed. I'm just mentioning it here because it pisses her off every time I mention it. I'm not very nice. It didn't burn me or anything, just scalded me for a few minutes. But I like to milk these things for everything they're worth.

Tonight, my mom and Gina and I are going to see Tea at Five, a play about the life of the glorious Katharine Hepburn. I just found out that it stars Captain Janeway from one of the Star Trek shows that I don't watch. I don't really care because the only good Star Trek show is The Next Generation.

I lost five pounds, yay.

I wonder if Crissy has had her daughter yet. Her due date was yesterday so it could be/could've been at any time. I might have to start tugging at the grapevine soon.

So, them's the news.

Oh, one more thing: everyone should be a lot more impressed by the fact that the voice of Mickey, Wayne Alwine, and the voice of Minnie, Russi Taylor, are married in real life. It's really cool, dammit.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 11:12 AM | shower me with attention

Wednesday, April 16, 2003

The voice of Mickey Mouse and the voice of Minnie Mouse are married in real life.

That is awesome.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 3:11 PM | shower me with attention

Tuesday, April 15, 2003

Himelfarb comes through once again!

I have put the dogtag around my neck and I am never taking it off again!

Why are you in Tavie's head? 7:17 PM | shower me with attention

I've been unusually social today. Ran into D. at lunch and since we were there together, we somewhat awkwardly made the transition from being in the same deli to actually eating lunch together. We talked about Easter baskets, mostly. Also, I told her that I'm usually Tavie rather than Octavia, and the story about how on my last day at the previous job, I finally said to everyone, "Oh, by the way, call me Tavie-- bye!"

And then I had to photocopy this massive tome and I was standing in the copy alcove for literally over an hour, and E. kept walking by and finally offered to install a mailbox for me. Wherein I asked him to also set me up with some cable and a bed.

Usually I will go for literally weeks without saying a word to anyone (and only the minimum required to my boss), not doing more than smiling and nodding.

So this is pro-gress.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 4:51 PM | shower me with attention

Yes!

Why are you in Tavie's head? 1:12 PM | shower me with attention

Yesterday for the last half hour of Research Design, we had to break into groups and discuss potential sampling issues for our various research proposals with others. So I listened politely and offered suggestions to the girl sitting next to me, whose proposal-- seemed straight out of a textbook-- had to do with funeral practices of some or another American Indian tribe. Then she asked what my research project was on. So I told her I was studying internet communities and the effect participation in them has on the offline life of their more active participants. She said she thought it was interesting, then started telling me all of the sampling problems I'll have if I don't focus on a particular type of group. I tried explaining to her that with ethnography of computer-mediated-communication, we have to approach these things a little differently. She was one of those people who don't really hear what you're saying, and give you token time to respond but cut you off before you can finish a sentence.

Soon she was saying how she thought it was a "really interesting topic to do, like, a paper on" but that it would be "really sad and pathetic to have this as your expertise. I mean, do people actually get degrees in this stuff? That's so sad."

Meanwhile, I had been thinking, "How cool would it be to go on and really get into this field, study systems theories and social psychology and help lay the foundations for future studies of this kind, blah blah blah?" And this girl was saying she thought it was pathetic.

So, we see the popular conception of internet-users rages on.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 10:09 AM | shower me with attention

{trumpeting sound with my mouth like Face on Nick Jr used to make}

Erin is blogging again!

Why are you in Tavie's head? 10:00 AM | shower me with attention

Depressing article from CNN. And yesterday I was surfing online, looking at graduate programs in applied anthropology. Ha ha ha.

I'm so lucky to be employed right now at all. So lucky. What the hell'm I gonna do after I graduate?

Why are you in Tavie's head? 9:53 AM | shower me with attention

Monday, April 14, 2003

This is a dumb anniversary, but I'm recording it anyway.

Three years ago yesterday, April 13th, Dave kissed me for the first time. It was at the afterparty for one of the New York Same Guys, New Dresses shows. I had that big wooden sheep (the link won't work, it's on Tripod) with me. That was a strange night. I also had my sister with me, and I was eager to introduce her to Dave, for some reason. Much more eager than she was to actually meet Dave. Dave was standing by the bar talking to some people, but I marched brazenly over to him, smiled dazzlingly, said, "Excuse me," and he said, "Hey, Tavie!" that's when he kissed me-- a perfectly natural hello-kiss, on the cheek. He was stubbly. Then I introduced him to my sister. He said, "I didn't know you had a sister." I believe I told him we were twins and I believe he gave me the "Okay, I don't believe you but I'll be polite and not say so" look. Or else I made that last part up. But he definitely kissed me, and his face was definitely scratchy with stubble.

That was a good night.

Somehow, between then and now, I lost the ability to march brazenly up to Dave. I think it's the kind of skill that atrophies without practice.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 1:03 PM | shower me with attention

Finally, finally finished The Neverending Story last night. In fact, left Mint Manor later than usual because I could not stop until I had reached the end. The end is so, so worth it.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 11:12 AM | shower me with attention

Craig Northey's True Story of Easter. It makes me wish that I was a small child and he was tucking me in at night and telling me bedtime tales.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 11:05 AM | shower me with attention

Sunday, April 13, 2003

This creepy little man is quite brilliant. Quite. His writing section completely washes the aftertaste of the commercials for Stealing Harvard out of my mouth.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 7:01 PM | shower me with attention

Forgot about the Newsradio Quote of the Week page.

TABOO!

(Train of thought: Today I got bedding for my new room. That made me think, "You're a regular Marcia Stewart" -Jimmy James. That made me think, Hey, what happened to that Newsradio Quote of the Week page?)

Screw the small judo man!

Why are you in Tavie's head? 1:03 AM | shower me with attention