my moral standing is lying down

But hey look, this is what happened tonight (Patrick was actualfax this close. *_____* http://lockerz.com/s/156835692), and it was the best possible follow-up to fun times earlier today!

I took video of my two favorites, Everybody Wants Somebody and Run Dry (X Heart X Fingers), plus his impromptu cover of Steve Goodman's The City of New Orleans! I'm currently uploading them to my youtube and linking from my tumblr, so check back in a few hours!

After the show I actually got to ask him "...so what's next?" and he started answering like, this was the last stop on the tour, there's nothing else scheduled, etc., but I said, "no, no, I mean, what's your next style of music?" I had wanted to explain that I was referencing this interview he'd given where he implied he wanted to do all different styles -- the one where he says he did the R&B album first because doing it when you're older is kind of creepy -- but there was a long line and although Patrick would've stopped to chat with everyone, the security was rushing us all through pretty quickly. But then he went and tweeted this a little later and I can't help but think that it was in response to my question (though tbf probably other fans asked it too?). I'm going to just go on believing it was all me.

merelyn got a quick photo for me, though, and I'm really quite pleased at how it turned out! =DDD




Hey, did I ever post about the P!ATD M&G I got to go to at the Philly show? ALSKDJFALSJFLSAJFLSAJ I'll post about that next (even though it's been almost two weeks now).

Click for full view.

Transcription:
I hate it when people stand in front of doorways or escalators or basically spaces that are reserved for MOVEMENT. It usually only takes a step or two to one side to be out of the pathway of EVERYONE ELSE.



Ahaha, why yes, I am a native New Yorker, why do you ask....?

List of all days.

...we all know how much I love stars, yes? I want these earrings so much. THEY ARE CHEETAH PRINT WOODEN STARS. But they don't have them in 5mm (4ga), dammit. WHYYYYY?! Realistically, they look like they'd fall out of my earlobe if someone breathed on them. Still, they are SO PRETTY.



Aaaaaand. This lady is absolutely crazy. $700/mo for an 90-square foot "apartment" in Manhattan's CPW. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, LADY? JUST COMMUTE. I promise, you're not really missing that much by living a 40-minute train ride away. FOR THE SAME PRICE. What you gain is the ability to relax and also masturbate without bumping your knees/head/whatever into the ceiling. (Okay, so if she's Ace -- or anti-masturbation, I guess -- then maybe that's not an issue, but still-- breathing space! No panic attacks!)

Weekend recap? Saturday was cool-- a nice, lazy day at home. Haven't had that in forever! Morgan came over and we had a little sewing party. I didn't do much sewing other than making some fabric I picked up into curtains for my huge-ass window wall in my room. Sheer purple and blue. (OMG Sharon -- I just realized, PURPLE AND BLUE! I didn't even do it on purpose!) So they can still be seen-through, but I don't care since it gives my room color but the sunlight still gets through. I'll obviously have to change them to a heavier fabric for the winter, but that's still far enough away.

I still haven't posted any pics or talked much about the new place, though I absolutely love it here and was just thinking how awesome it is to have my own place. And this much fucking space! I was suddenly overcome with a feeling of *OMGSQUEE*; I promise to post pics soon.

Sunday was a cosplay event at Kinokuniya, which I did not really attend. It was way too crowded in there for me to tolerate, so I waited outside with Chris, Sean, AJ, Carrie and others. Judy and I met up with Kelly when she texted and went for dinner with a whole bunch of people. Dinner was pretty cool and Kelly, Judy and I rounded off the night with some drinking at the Tower bar. I got home way too late for a work night, but you know it was worth it. ^_~

Woke up super tired and ended up leaving my cell phone at home. I was pretty useless at work, though I did have a bit of a second wind at some point. But today Katie came down, so she, Kelly, Judy, Maryann and I went to have dinner. Liz and Juliet joined us for more drinking fun!

So Judy and I were on the train going home sometime around midnight. And the best part of that ride home was when THE BUM WHO WAS SLEEPING ON ONE OF THE 3-SEATERS UNZIPPED HIS PANTS AND PISSED ON THE FLOOR OF THE CAR. WITHOUT EVEN GETTING UP FROM HIS LAYING-DOWN POSITION. Yeah, I love New York. (I actually say that without sarcasm.) And I love New Yorkers, who took it in stride, other than a few of them moving a couple of seats away and making sure their legs were stretched out so that the stream of piss didn't hit their shoes.

Okay, sleep now. I'm tired. Boo. =(

You might have heard about the plane that crashed into an apartment building on the upper east side today? It was a 50-story building on 72nd & York. About 10 blocks and a couple of avenues away from me. I've always wondered how close you had to be to something like that to know it happened. I guess a mile is too far 'cause none of us knew about it until someone called the store asking if we were still open because of the plane that crashed into a building.

But yes, we did see lots of fire department and cop cars whizzing by.

Anyway... I had something else to say, but I can't remember it.


Note to self:
SPN/Anita Blake crossover fic

It is so surreal.

The only proof I have that it really did happen is the strangely empty skyline I see when I look outside of Angelica's 11th floor windows.

Last night I had decided not to go into class early the next morning. I was planning on going into Chinatown first (to Canal & Mercer Streets to pick up a box of blank VHS tapes) and then meeting Angelica at Hunter College. But first I'd go into Manhattan with Angelica. Her first class is at 11 am, so we'd have to leave here (Queens) at 10 am in order to get there on time. So, I was in my parent's bedroom this morning at 8:30, ironing something and I turned on the TV to catch the weather, after which I promptly turned it off.

Then at 5 minutes to 9 am, I left my house with bag and some CDs in hand and walked down the block to Angelica's house. Got there 9:03 and booted up her computer while waiting for her to get out of the shower. Finished using the computer at just about 9:40 and went into her bedroom to discuss a math problem with her. Looked at the problem for a few minutes and decided that she'd probably have an easier time figuring it out than I would so I went back into the living room.

While I was there, apparently my mom called (this was around 9:45/9:50, I think), panicked because she couldn't get me on my beeper (apparently wireless lines were down/busy/etc.), trying to find out where I was/if Angelica could get in touch with me, you know, that kind of thing.

So Angelica answered yes, with trepidation that I was in some sort of trouble (aka "Deep shit"). Anyway, she came out into the living room and handed the phone over to me. I said hello with that same trepidation (aka "Oh god, what did I do this time?"), but my mom's voice was a bit panicked as she informed me of the terrorist attack on the WTC. She told me -- several times, quite firmly -- NOT to go into Manhattan. She said she was going to leave her office (she works at the United Nations) and try to get in touch with/pick up my sister who goes to school at Hunter College High School on the upper East side. I said okay, still stunned and sort of in a state of disbelief.

I turned on the TV to channel one and sure enough, there was the live footage of the twin towers on fire. Smoke billowing out in huge gray-black clouds. It was amazing. Not in a good way, of course, but amazing nonetheless. At 9:58 or thereabouts I looked away from the TV for one second, looked back and saw tower #2 collapsing. It was very odd. Especially since, not being there, there was no sound to accompany its demise. It just sort of... fell in on itself. Those first few seconds I didn't really register exactly what had happened, but then instead of a solid building of glass and metal, there were these white clouds with sunlight shining through them just where the tower had been not 2 seconds earlier.

Talk about fucking eerie.

My heart clenched in hurt for the utter wrongness of the fall of that particular national monument. It hadn't collapsed because of a faulty design structure, or some sort of ill-fated accident on the part of the people who work there, or built it, etc., but because some stupid, closed-minded people who can't seem to "Live and let live," it fell. Collapsed. Just like that. A part of the history of the United States, and New York especially. And it was gone in less than a minute. It had never meant all that much to me, but now that it's gone... I guess I realize that it meant something.

Angelica and I went to her window to look at the Manhattan skyline. It was covered with gray smoke still, but where there had been two towers, now there was only one.

There was still some hope (no matter how deluded it may have been) that the other tower would survive. But half-an-hour later -- just about 10:25 am -- tower #1 succumbed and collapsed also.

We took a look at the skyline again. Now there was nothing. No twin towers. I still can't quite believe they're gone. And I still can't quite figure out why this is affecting me the way it is. I mean, no one I know works in the area (except for Angelica's mother, but Angelica found out pretty early that she was last seen heading away from the area, so we thought she'd be okay).

Maybe I'm focusing on that as opposed to the loss of thousands of innocent lives?

I guess it's a distinct possibility.

Somehow, I think the only way I'd be more affected is if someone I know personally had died. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I wonder if the people who are all up-in-arms on the MLs and stuff (who aren't in the areas that were attacked, who don't have family or friends that were in danger, who say all the "light a candle," "say a prayer," "keep them in our hearts" bullshit) are more affected than I am? And if they are, why is it that I'm not? And if they aren't, why do they act as if it's touched them somewhere deep inside and made them cry?

You know what else I'd like to know? Would you jump out the window from the 70+ floor of a building that was collapsing around you? I've thought about it off and on all day long and I still think I'd be too afraid to jump out at that height. I'm not scared of heights, but to look down from that far up and jump... I don't think I could do it. I wonder what was going through the minds of the people who did jump? Did they just not want to burn/suffocate/get crushed to death? I'd decided earlier that I'd probably by a crying mess, huddling somewhere under a desk, wishing somehow that I'd be able to see my sister one last time before I died. This, of course, alternating with what I realize would be the completely delusional hope that I wasn't going to die after all. o.O*

Whoa. I think I'm getting too deep. Some thoughts should not be contemplated at 3:15 am.

But to lay any uneasy minds to rest, my mother got to Hunter College High School, picked up my sister and 3 of her friends, took a cab down to the 59th Street bridge, and walked over it into Queens. A little while earlier, my father walked from his office (Associated Press at Rockefeller Plaza) down to the 59th Street bridge, got a ride over it on some sort of military truck (he's still recovering from that pulmonary surgery he had in July) and then walked over the Queens Plaza bridge to where the car was parked in Long Island City.

By the the time my mom, sister & her friends got to Long Island City (just over the Queens Plaza bridge), my father was already home. I was go-between over two phone lines, and my father ended up picking them up and driving my sister's friends home. Everyone got home safe & sound.

Angelica's mother got out of there. Physically, she's fine. Mentally... well, that's another story. She's in shock from the whole attack, seeing the collapse, having to evacuate because of the smoke and debris, and also from apparently seeing some of the jumpers plunge to their deaths. Her job was right across the street from the WTC and is no doubt in a state of complete destruction.

And to anyone who's lost a friend or relative in today's atrocity -- not only the attack on the WTC, but also the attack on the Pentagon, and the hijacked planes -- my deepest condolences.