lornagrl

Happy Halloween

I debated on weather or not to get Halloween candy this year.  When I've bought candy in years past, I never get any trick-o-treaters.  So this year, even though I am now living in a new building I took a bit of a risk and didn't buy any candy.  Sure enough, I did get one visit around 6pm.

Now when I was kid, the tradition was you either got candy - or sometimes money (usually pennies).  So when the door bell rang I ran to get a mason jar I have full of change.  But for some reason this was rejected.  It felt a little weird like I had done something wrong.  Like I was giving them apples with razor blades or something.  

Back in Kensington

To the one in Flushing who visits via a google search of lornagrl... you with the mindspring account..who are you?  And haven't you heard of bookmarking? 

So it's been awhile.  Getting settled in my new apartment and trying to integrate my new kitten with Ophelia.  The irony is, I got the new kitten for Ophelia.  I went back and forth for a long time about getting a second cat but I was starting to get concerned about Ophelia being on her own throughout most of the day.  Now she's very angry.  They are able to stay in the same room together and in fact, bother are in the bedroom with me while I sleep.  Once in a while, Zelda will trot over to Ophelia wanting to play and even at one point, exposed her little belly.  Ophelia was having none of it. 

Here is a video clip of Zelda playing with one of Ophelia's toys.  This kind of shows how big my apartment is.  This is the empty half of my bedroom and for now, it's Zelda's area. I didn't want to get too close to her because she still runs away from me.  She hisses when I come into the room but when I pick her up..she melts and purrs. 

Enough about the cats..

So I'm back in the old hood and I must say that I can't believe I lived so far out of Brooklyn for three years.  And walking around the area..it's like I never left.  There are a lot more restaurants on Cortelyou.  VOX POP is a lot more crowded than I remember.  The 773 has new owners, Church Avenue has more restaurants too. I walked into the dreaded FoodTown that I hated with a passion when I lived around the corner from it has been refurbished...didn't buy anything though. 

It's good to back. 

New Living Room

IMG00073-20090907-1209.jpg
Originally uploaded by lornagrl.

A longer post is coming. I'm in - I'm installed. My brother is awesome. This is a quick photo of my new living room. As you can see there is lots of light and it's comfortable.

Also there are not one, but TWO air-conditioners.

I am so glad I did this.

Thanks to everyone who helped me.

I am not very good at being sick...

It's day three of this horrible cold.  I'm hesitant to say that I'm feeling a little better.  The body aches have stopped but I still have a scratchy throat, and I'm sneezing and sniffling which for me is a sign that the cold virus is leaving my body.  Nevertheless I don't want to push it because I don't want a relapse.  My new job only gives me five sick days a year.  I've already used two of them and it's only February. 

So what does this mean?  It means sitting holed up in my apartment with DVDs a crazy cat who keeps jumping up and down and believes she can climb the walls, and my laptop which I recently discovered has a crack at the top of it.  I do have knitting to get done and books to read...but I'm getting cabin fever. 

achoo....

Too many....

martini out of the blue
Originally uploaded by -liyen-.

Last night I went out with my friend Ruthie to see Fuerza Bruta (fabulous show.. go see it). After the show we went out for drinks. We started talking about boyfriends, lost friends, shattered acting careers, does he really love me? Should I get married?.. kind of talk...that had us both close to tears.

Neither one of us is that sentimental. Unless of course we have been fueled by the lethal martini. (s)(s)(s)....I know how many we had (I have the credit card receipt to prove it.) I'm just too ashamed to post it on the internet.

I don't drink too much anymore so when I do it really hits me hard the next day. (today) and I'm writing this post from my bed. I ditched church this morning to nurse a hangover..I can't help but think..I spent too many months feeling sick to induce sickness willingly.

..off to the store for orange juice, bagel and black coffee, the perfect hangover cure.

Bad Lorna.

Spread the Joy....but not the "Thank You"

Ah..the perks of the new job (well not exactly new.  I've been here six months now).

The past few weeks I've been able to see (free of charge)

August Osage County
Hedda Gabler

..and in the next week or so I'll be seeing:

Fuerza Bruta
Wicked
Mourning Becomes Electra
33 Variations

Fortunately I'm often able to score an extra ticket, which means I can take a friend..you know spread the joy.

...so much joy in fact that I brought dounuts in the office for my co-workers this morning.  One of my co-workers wrote a post about it.

The moral of the story..be careful of the "reply all" button.

New Job...life is getting better.

Where have I been?

So sorry I haven't posted for a while. I have been very busy these last two weeks.

I started a new job on last Monday. After seven years at a non-profit organziation I decided it was time to move on. I interviewed for the position in early June and was offered the position in early August. I am so excited about it, I can hardly breathe. The money is better, the work is more challenging and the commute is easier. There is a lot to absorb but I think I'm going to be very happy there.

It was indeed time for a change.

A disturbing scene on a Sunday afternoon....

I went to a discount store on Neptune avenue yesterday and as I was walking out, I noticed the security guard was hot on my heels.  I stepped to the side so he could pass me.  I saw him running ahead of me and I thought "He's going after a shoplifter".  I noticed him running toward a woman with a walker and at first I thought she was the suspect, but then he was walking towards an SUV.  At first he stood behind the vehicle as if to block it, but then he approached the driver's side of the window, tapped on it, and opened the car door.  At this point, the driver slammed on the gas, nearly knocked the security guard over and peeled out of the parking lot. 

This all happened in a matter of seconds.  The security guard just stood there watching the SUV pull away and I was sure he noted the license plate number.  It was then that I noticed that the woman with the walker was sprawled on the ground, her walker tipped, and groceries spilled on the pavement.  The security guard was trying to pull her up but I ran towards them shouting "don't move her".  The woman looked up and spoke to me in Russian, and was trying to get up.  "You get the license plate number?"  the security guard just shrugged and said, "no", then walked back towards the discount store. 

At this point another passerby started to help the woman get up on her feet while I collected the groceries and righted the walker.  There was a cut on her elbow but other than that she seemed fine.  She kept telling us "thank you, thank you".  I asked her where she lived and if she could get home okay and she assured me she could. 

I was seething with anger.  I could not understand why the security guard took the trouble to chase a shoplifter out to the vehicle, tap on the window but didn't get the license plate number. As for the shoplifter,  I know times are tough but there is no excuse for stealing and they could have killed someone pulling out of the parking lot like that.   

$600!! Wow!!!

Dear President Bush,

Thank you very much for the $600 stimulus check.  I will be using it to pay for one month of medical insurance (COBRA).  I even have $7 left over.

Love,

Lorna

ps.  I want my waffle iron back.

Soppy, wet, disgusting summer.

I just want to report that weather-wise this has been a miserable summer.  I haven't posted much or taken pictures because I'm too busy melting.  It's not that it's been hot.  The weather has been fairly cool for summer.  It's the blasted humidity.  I cannot stress enough, how much I hate the humidity!  I feel like a wet dish-rag all of the time.  There is nothing more disgusting than standing on a subway platform waiting for a train while a river runs down your back.  Gross.

And to make matters worse, I can't get air conditioning. There is only one available window in my living/bedroom and that's the window to the fire escape.  I can't get a non-window unit air-conditioner because this would require leaving the window partially open while I cool the room, and I am not sleeping with a window partially open.  I could put a window unit in the kitchen, but the way my apartment is laid out, I would have to run up a $400 electric bill before I would cool the apartment.

And speaking of electricity.  I am pretty sure that someone has been tapping into my meter, because my usage has gone WAY up compared to the same month last year.  This is really strange because my brother and I were both here most of the time last July and this year, I've barely been home.  When I called Con-Edison to check it out they claimed they couldn't do anything about it because evidently there are fleas in the basement of my building, so they can't send someone to read my meter.  Even if there were no fleas, apparently I would have to investigate this myself, but the customer service (if you can call her that) rep warned me "don't go in the basement there be fleas!". 

There is one good thing that's happened this summer however....

I accepted a project manager position at a direct marketing company. 

I rock...