i keep a diary

April, 2010

The April Roundup

Here are all the pictures I took in April 2010 that didn't end up in their very own entry!

Thursday, April 1st

On Thursday Sarah invited us to attend a reading her friend Stephen was reading at. We arrived to find out that there were a few other people scheduled to read first.
reading ˆ strangers
If you're going to wear man Uggs, make sure you keep one leg rolled up, dog.
reading ˆ strangers
stephen elliot
Sarah's friend Stephen read an excerpt from his book The Adderall Diaries.
reading ˆ stephen elliot
Then this lady read from her memoir (about being an early porn star? I can't remember). What I do remember is that before she read she made a big ten minute show of insisting that one of her love slaves get onto his knees and place her candy-red high heel shoes on her feet for her.
reading ˆ strangers
We were all super-thankful.
reading ˆ strangers
matt, meredith, sarah
I can't imagine that any of us would've enjoyed her reading nearly as much had she kept her regular shoes on. (I love this photo SO MUCH!) Haha. Thanks for inviting us, Sarah!
awkward ˆ best ˆ matt ˆ meredith ˆ sarah

Saturday, April 3rd

I get spring cleaning fever every year. On Saturday I cleaned and mopped our whole apartment...
mop ˆ stuytown apt
books
...and started putting aside books to donate. We'd just found out that Stuytown wanted to increase our rent again and decided to find a new apartment instead of renew our lease! (Over the next few months, I ended up getting rid of hundreds of books! But not before dragging most of them to on to another apartment).
stuff i got rid of ˆ books

Sunday, April 4th

On Sunday afternoon we walked through the scenic center square in Stuytown...
fountain ˆ stuytown
meredith
...and had brunch on the sidewalk.
brunch ˆ sidewalk ˆ sunglasses ˆ meredith
Waffle with jam? Yes!
brunch ˆ food ˆ waffle
Spotted this black squirrel enjoying a nut on the way home.
black squirrel ˆ squirrel ˆ stuytown
sarah
Later that afternoon, Sarah came over! We ordered food...
food ˆ sarah
...and I tried my hardest to make her love Peep Show as much as I love Peep Show. But not even the closet scene where Mark accidentally jizzes in his drawers ("I'm a statue. A dirty, filthy statue") managed to bring her around!
peep show ˆ tv

Thursday, April 8th

Awesome car parked on the corner of 14th & 1st on my walk home from work on Thursday night.
car

Saturday, April 10th

I got up early Saturday morning...
bloom ˆ stuytown
maddy
...and took the dog for a nice long walk through Stuytown's spring bloom.
grass ˆ maddy
I love the pink blossoms so much. They look like Dr. Seuss trees!
bloom ˆ trees
Detail.
bloom ˆ trees
Spring blossoms and smokestacks.
stuytown
Snapped this photo of mural work at Sidewalk Cafe on our way to St. Marks...
mural ˆ sidewalk
meredith
...pick up $5 sunglasses. Meredith got these guys (I don't think I ever saw them again)....
sunglasses ˆ meredith
me
...and I got 4 more pairs of these! (My eyes are super sensitive to sunlight. The darker the lenses, the better!)
sunglasses ˆ me
ellen
Later that night, Ellen came over and we had a make-your-own pizza party!
cooking ˆ kitchen ˆ pizza ˆ ellen
maddy, piper
These two were on dropped pizza-topping patrol.
dogs ˆ maddy ˆ piper
ellen, meredith
Here, add spices!
cooking ˆ kitchen ˆ ellen ˆ meredith
The first one came out all fugly looking...
pizza
...but it was still pretty tasty.
pizza
pauly
Pauly came over!
pizza ˆ stuytown apt ˆ pauly
leigh, scott m
Then shit got tele-international.
computer ˆ leigh ˆ scott m
meredith
Meredith with some of the finer-looking pies that came out of the oven as the night progressed! Mmmmmmm, pizza party.
couch ˆ pizza ˆ meredith

Saturday, April 10th

Saturday was a beautiful spring morning! The dog had me up at 8am.
bloom
maddy
Whenever Maddy sees a squirrel, she lifts one paw in the air and points!
fountain ˆ stuytown ˆ maddy
maddy, scott m
Met up with Scott and Edie in the dog park that afternoon.
dog park ˆ dogs ˆ maddy ˆ scott m
There were two other dachshund puppies.
dog park
maddy
Maddy's blue-dappled buddy. Dog-centric day.
dog park ˆ dogs ˆ doppleganger ˆ maddy

Friday, April 16th

Passing through Time Square.
nyc ˆ times square
Fired my flash under the canopy of blossoms.
bloom

Saturday, April 17th

On Saturday morning we took three full piggy banks of change...
piggybank
meredith
...and brought them to the bank on 1st Ave that has a coin change machine!
excited ˆ meredith
jared, jeet, jenny penny, josh adcock, karen, matt, meredith
Afterwards, we went next door to The Smith for a big brunch! Awesome.
brunch ˆ jared ˆ jeet ˆ jenny penny ˆ josh adcock ˆ karen ˆ matt ˆ meredith
So much food. I did not get to join the clean plate club.
brunch ˆ food
jeet, josh adcock, karen
Old time barber chair!
jeet ˆ josh adcock ˆ karen
josh adcock
On the way back to our apartment, we stopped to purchase FRIED OREOS! While the fried Oreos are photo-worthy on their own, the real reason I asked Josh to hold up the bag is because I wanted to capture a photo of the lady in the background because she's Leigh's nemesis!
strangers ˆ thumbs up ˆ josh adcock
jared, jeet, jenny penny, josh adcock, karen, meredith
Food coma recovery back at our apartment.
stuytown apt ˆ jared ˆ jeet ˆ jenny penny ˆ josh adcock ˆ karen ˆ meredith
jeet
Gurj got her geek on and practiced flying my tiny helicopter.
helicopter ˆ jeet
maddy
DOES NOT APPROVE OF INDOOR HELICOPTER OPERATION.
best ˆ dogs in outfits ˆ maddy
jeet
I wish I had video Gurj flying this guy around. The rotor wash was blowing her hair around like a music video.
helicopter ˆ jeet
jeet
Careful! If you fly it long enough, you get your virginity back!
helicopter ˆ jeet
jared, jenny penny, josh adcock, karen, matt
Speaking of virginity, then we all played Rockband.
rockband ˆ stuytown apt ˆ videogames ˆ jared ˆ jenny penny ˆ josh adcock ˆ karen ˆ matt
jared, karen, matt, meredith
Feeling it.
rockband ˆ stuytown apt ˆ videogames ˆ jared ˆ karen ˆ matt ˆ meredith

Sunday, April 18th

Walking to the subway on Sunday...
pigeon
...I passed this pigeon who was getting a refreshing drink of water by inserting his entire pigeon-face into a faucet. Haha.
best ˆ pigeon
meredith
Later that afternoon, we met up with Meredith's parents and drove out to Medieval Times in NJ to celebrate Jo's birthday! (There's a full entry dedicated to this coming soon).
medieval times ˆ meredith
meredith, scott m
After we got back from our medial feast, Scott came over to hang.
stuytown apt ˆ meredith ˆ scott m
maddy
Edie came too. Hallway dog-fight!
dogs ˆ edie ˆ maddy
leigh
Zinful zinfindel wine at our corner bodega.
doppleganger ˆ wine ˆ leigh

Tuesday, April 20th

I spent Monday afternoon looking at apartments. Meredith came Monday evening to see my favorite place and we signed the lease on it that night.
packing ˆ stuytown apt
meredith
On Tuesday evening, we started packing up stuff.
packing ˆ meredith
meredith
Maddy was unsettled by all the activity.
packing ˆ stuytown apt ˆ meredith
We had 80s jams on the TV radio and Bruce Hornsby came on (instantly making our packing seem 45% more melancholy).
tv
Even though I digitized all my music years and years ago, I'd been dragging around a whole bunch of my old CD jewel cases around in boxes for years.
cd ˆ packing ˆ stuff i got rid of
It's hard for me to give things away because objects often act as triggers for memories, and to give up the object is to let go of that memory. I started taking photos of things that I want to get rid of and found that it made parting with stuff easier. (I can still read through all the CD spines in the hi-rez version).
cd ˆ packing ˆ stuff i got rid of

Wednesday, April 21st

On Wednesday night we drove out a carpentry shop in Brooklyn in a rented car...
ladder
meredith, pauly
...to pick up the all the painted pieces of the awesome loft that we hired Pauly to custom-build for our new apartment!
meredith ˆ pauly

Thursday, April 22nd

Pauly installed the loft on Thursday afternoon and we headed over in the evening to check it out!
e9th apt
Front-corner of our new living room.
e9th apt
maddy, meredith
Mer getting ready to see our new bedroom for the first time!
e9th apt ˆ maddy ˆ meredith
Ta-da!
e9th apt ˆ loft
maddy, meredith
Lofted bed in a tiny room is key!
bed ˆ e9th apt ˆ loft ˆ maddy ˆ meredith

Saturday, April 24th

Saturday was an awesome spring day! We walked from the East Village...
statue ˆ tompkins
...down to a space that Red Bull has in Soho for some kind of free brunch.
ellen, meredith, piper
Ellen , Piper and Mer.
ellen ˆ meredith ˆ piper
They had a big spread of free breakfast food...
brunch ˆ food
josh adcock
..and big screen TVs playing Saturday morning cartoons from the late 80s. Ninja Turtles...
cartoons ˆ t-rex ˆ josh adcock
...followed by an episode of Thunder Cats.
cartoons ˆ tv
ellen, jenny penny, karen, piper
Oh yeah, free Bloody Marys too.
laugh ˆ ellen ˆ jenny penny ˆ karen ˆ piper
jenny penny, josh adcock
Josh and Jenny!
jenny penny ˆ josh adcock
josh adcock
After we finished eating, Josh and I reminisced with an old Atari 2600 they had running.
videogames ˆ josh adcock
Pitfall is still awesome.
videogames
meredith
Afterwards, we went back to Stuytown and spent the rest of the day packing in preparation for the movers coming the next day!
moving ˆ packing ˆ stuytown apt ˆ meredith
Living room in almost-packed chaos.
moving ˆ packing ˆ stuytown apt

Sunday, April 25th

maddy
Moving day! Last picture of the bed before taking it apart and donating it. (Now that we have a loft, we don't need it!)
bed ˆ stuff i got rid of ˆ maddy
One last photo of the great view of the East River and Brooklyn from our 11th story window.
east river ˆ stuytown apt
Looking down on Ave C & 14th Street from our other window.
stuytown apt
One last photo of the Con Ed power plant from our living room!
con edison ˆ stuytown apt
By 3pm, our Stuytown living room was empty.
moving ˆ stuytown apt
meredith
I walked down to our new apartment (just a few blocks away) to wait for the moving guys in the truck. At first, I couldn't find Meredith - then I climbed the ladder to our new loft and found her out cold on the plywood. Haha.
asleep ˆ meredith
meredith
By 5:30 our new living room was starting to fill up.
e9th apt ˆ moving ˆ meredith
meredith
Done for the night!
e9th apt ˆ meredith

Tuesday, April 27th

There were a bunch of boxes that didn't fit into the truck we'd hired, but since we had a few weeks before we had to have our old place cleared out, we figured we could just make a few trips and bring the rest over by hand. No big deal, right?
e9th apt ˆ moving
WE WERE SO WRONG. Haha. It was a HUGE pain in the ass.
e9th apt ˆ moving
Our new apartment is way smaller than Stuytown so I earmarked stuff to give away as I unpacked. Dreamcast, time to go!
stuff i got rid of ˆ videogames
The Dreamcast controller was so rad. It had a little LCD screen in the middle that was part of a removable storage card that also was a teeny tiny game player itself!
stuff i got rid of ˆ videogames
My very first job at Nerve (in May 2001) was selling advertising space in their short-lived print magazine! After holding on to a bunch of copies of all four issues of the magazine, I decided it was time to let them go.
magazine ˆ nerve ˆ stuff i got rid of
If your band needs a shitty guitar player, I'm still available! I will, however, need to borrow a guitar now. I wasn't playing it enough to justify keeping it and an amplifier so I gave it away (to Catrinel, I think?)
guitar ˆ stuff i got rid of

Thursday, April 29th

After about twenty trips back and forth over week, by Thursday night we finally had our old apartment empty! Meredith resting up before the final trip!
bike ˆ moving ˆ stuytown apt
me, meredith
Goodbye, Stuytown apartment! Thanks for a wonderful two and a half years! (11/2007 - 4/2010)
stuytown apt ˆ us ˆ me ˆ meredith
We dropped off our old apartment's keys and headed to our new place for our first full night. Meredith celebrated unpacking with a nap.
maddy
Maddy is a nap-assistance professional.
best ˆ maddy

Friday, April 30th

On Friday night we went to a house party in Gideon's empty 3rd Street apartment to celebrate his move to Los Angeles!
house party
It was a perfect early spring night and his building has an awesome roof deck.
nyc ˆ roof ˆ skyline
ellen, josh newman, katie h, pauly
Josh was in town and came and met us. Pauly, Kaitie, Mer, Ellen and two other party peoples.
roof ˆ ellen ˆ josh newman ˆ katie h ˆ pauly
lizzy, meredith, niki, sarah
Indoor party scene!
lizzy ˆ meredith ˆ niki ˆ sarah
ellen, lizzy, matt, sarah
All of Gideon's stuff had already been sent ahead to LA already so he'd been camping in the bedroom. Haha.
house party ˆ ellen ˆ lizzy ˆ matt ˆ sarah
gideon, matt
So much love for this. Hahah.
best ˆ lifted ˆ gideon ˆ matt
ellen, josh newman, lizzy, sarah
It was a pretty great house party. I mixed way too much booze with way too much weed and ended up puking on the roof at 2am.
ellen ˆ josh newman ˆ lizzy ˆ sarah
josh newman
This guy came up to the roof and held my hair back for me and everything. Hahaha. On the way out we practiced tearing phone books in half.
best ˆ phone book ˆ josh newman
ellen, josh newman, matt, me
Ellen, Josh, pale-faced post-puke me and Matt on our way out of the party. Congrants on LA, Gideon! Sorry I barfed on your roof! Happy April 2010!
drunk ˆ sick ˆ ellen ˆ josh newman ˆ matt ˆ me

3 comments

  • ellen hartmay 1, 2012

    Pic #5 from this set is the greatest thing I've ever seen in my entire life.  Hahahah. Those three.

  • babsmay 4, 2012

    Thunder, Thunder, Thunder, Thunder CATS!

  • blai9735june 14, 2012

    That Meredith is one special lady. She's absolutly beautiful. Too bad about the cigarettes. Hopefully she doesn't smoke anymore.