lornagrl

GULP......

....so it's beginning to look like I'm moving back to my old Brooklyn neighborhood Kensington.  I stumbled upon a huge, beautiful one-bedroom apartment that is somewhat cheap for Kensington and is also rent stabilized.  And because it's rent stabilized, I am jumping through hoops to try to move into it. 

The problem is that I just signed a one year lease for this apartment in Brighton Beach. My landlady says that she will let me out as long as I find someone to take over my lease.  So I found a young, cute couple who are thrilled about my apartment.  They love that it's by the beach, they love that it's close to where they go to school (Kingsboro Colllege) and they also don't mind that there is not a lot of natural light in the apartment as they often work the night shift and sleep during the day. 

Here is the kicker...I am not sure if I will be moving on August 1st or September 1st. I will find out tomorrow.  A part of me is hoping that it will be September 1st as I am really not up to moving right now, especially in the hot summer.  I would just like to have a little more time to prepare.  Also the young couple are leaving for vacation on the 22nd so a Sept. 1st move in date would be better for them as well.

So tomorrow (hopefully) I will find out if my life is going to be flipped upside down for a few weeks.  As stressfull as a pending move may be, I think it's the wisest decision. I have felt very disonnected out here.  I am so far away from friends, from church, and the commute is begining to wear me down.  Not that the commute from Kensington is going to be much better.  I just feel like I'm back in civilization while I'm there.

I was also about to have another big change. But it fell through. I'm sorry I can't get into more specifics here but I can't. I found out last week that it wasn't meant to be even though it was darn close. 

So now I wait.

Some thoughts on the death of Michael Jackson..

This has affected me more than I thought it would. (not that I ever thought about the death of Michael Jackson. )

I'll admit it.  I have been rolling my eyes for years at "wacko jacko". But I was a big fan of his in the early eighties.  I purchased his Thriller album (on LP no less).  I worked in the Guiness Hall of World Records in Nashville, TN while I was in high school, and when MJ broke the world record for selling the most albums, we installed a life-size wax exhibit of Jackson in his Thriller garb, complete with a replica of the Thriller set, and a VHS of the Thriller video playing in the background. When we launched the exhibit - neighborhood kids gathered in the front of the museum to break-dance and moonwalk.  Young kids would continue to come to the museum for months to see the Michael Jackson exhibit.  Many of them, I could tell, were poor, and didn't have the money to pay the $3.50 admission ticket. ( Some lived in the projects nearby) Sometimes, I would let them in for free. 

But as the years passed, all these strange stories about him emerged. I'm sorry to say that in the quagmire of all the crazy plastic surgery stories, the child molestation charges, the baby dangling - in all the weirdness - I had completely forgotten how UNBELIEVABLY gifted and talented he was. 

I have watched this YouTube video about 20 times. It is a shining example of how brilliant he was.  He comes out onto the stage and with minimal props, special effects and costumes he does a "kick ass" performance of Billie Jean (one of my favorite songs) and brings a huge audience of all different shapes, ages, colors and sizes to their feet (and some to tears).  Do you think there are many artists who could do this today?  I don't think so. 

A list...

• Michael Jackson: ...eating dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant.  I checked the news on my blackberry.
• Heath Ledger: .. just come home from radiation treatments.  Ironically, I had been sent home with a bottle of percocet for the radiation burns, when I read it on the news.
• Anna Nicole Smith: ... at work.  Some co-workers were laughing about it.
• Princess Diana: ... at the 14th Street/Union Square subway station, coming home from a party. I heard people talking about it as they were walking past me. (We had learned about the accident at the party but did not realize how serious it was.) I should also note: at least four people at that party, who were all young and healthy, including the host, have since died.
• Tupac Shakur: ... read about it on the air, while I was reading the paper for the blind at the talking library in Orlando, Florida.
• Kurt Cobain: ...Sitting nude in front of art students. I had not turned on the television in weeks (which was my habit back then) and had heard the students talking about it. It had happened a few weeks before.
• President Nixon: ... driving home from rehearsal when I heard about it on the radio.
• John Lennon: ... while I was walking through the kitchen to go to the bathroom to take my morning shower. My mother had the radio on. I was in the 8th grade.
• Elvis Presley: ...watching the news with my father. I remember asking my father if it was really true. I was about seven years old.