mardi gras eve 2011. and I'm not in new orleans but in nyc. nyc which was particularly dirty and cold and full of rude people today. and after plowing through a stack of bad manuscripts (eek) and a couple of semi-good ones I'm watching bad crime shows. where they generally solve the crimes & catch the bad guys. unlike real life. oh & no parties or beads today (though my boss put beads on all our computers & left work early - of course we weren't allowed to leave early but then we're not the boss)...haven't posted in a while cause I've been busy with "real life" including catching up with some friends I haven't seen in decades. Went to "punk rock movie night" at Otto's & saw "Smithereens" (the movie. not the band. although there IS a band in the movie by that name). It mostly holds up as far as pop culture films go & Richard Hell looks amazing. as does nyc - all rubble and paint everywhere and fires in garbage cans. While I could get all nostalgic (like others in the audience did), one thing this movie reminded me of is that my choices weren't as bad as they could've been & it is nice to have my own safe place to live - albeit a tiny, crumbling one... Winter's still hanging on though most of the snow remnants are gone & I saw some tiny white crocuses today on my afternoon walk. which gives me a tiny sliver of hope that spring will come. eventually. reading "light boxes" right now. gave up on solar - just loathed the main character way too much. tomorrow going to the Nat'l Book Critics Circle Awards Reading (they need a shorter title). should be good though those things always last way too long. I'm sure there's more but I need to watch the end of this show to see who the bad guy is.