My pitas page

villard bar
went here with co-workers last night as a bonding experience. it was a lot of fun, and the bar was quite calm adn quiet and we got to sit down which is always nice. i didn't pay for the drinks, but my gin & tonics were probably a bit pricey because they were really good. and i gorged myself on the sesame-encrusted cashews they give you for free snacks. nothing like a healthy dinner is what i always say.

next bad thing: racial profiling
a congressman from louisiana has called for police to question anyone wearing "a diaper" on his head. this is just so frustrating--after all the terrible things that happened last week now we have to worry about our own "leaders" going nutty and paranoid on us?

if this is true
then bin laden has pulled off something that is even more evil than originally suspected: financially profiting from the deaths of thousands.

the washington post's sunday front page
once again proving that they are the best paper out there, this feature ran in this past sunday's paper, front page, above the fold. this is the sort of long story reconstructing a chain of events that the post does really, really well. if you're not too overloaded from media coverage of last tuesday's events, give it a read.

looking to the future
the city is building a commission to re-build downtown. they're considering having giuliani lead it even after he's out of office on 12/31/01, which i think is a grand idea. a disturbing note in this piece (granted, the whole damn situation is disturbing): that the walls under the wtc that held back the hudson river are leaking, and if they give, that will "destabilize" many buildings downtown. i think the repercussions down there are not going to be fully known for weeks to come.

giuliani for president
ok, maybe i'm getting ahead of myself. but until a few days ago i was among those who thought our mayor was kind of a jerk and more than kind of thoughtless. but in the past few days i have to say that someone without his pigheadedness and decisiveness and just love for this city could not have held all this stuff together as he has. he's truly more presidential than our lame excuse for a president. i wonder if he'll run in 2004.

my apartment building
i feel like a jerk worrying about this, so i apologize right up front. but last we heard, our apartment building is standing and stable, shielded by the detusche bank building. i find it annoying that our building management company has stopped answering the phone, though. i mean, yes, they're probably busy trying to find out what happened to our building and whether anyone will ever be able to move back there, but the least they could do is pick up the phone and tell us in person that they're sorry but they still have no news. (see apology above for being shallow and self-centered. it's the only way i can deal with this right now, i think.) chris and i tried to get to the apt. yesterday to retrieve sentimental value stuff, but we got denied having made it as far as battery park. all the police and national guard folks were really nice. and i can totally see how totalitarian governments appear to be good ideas initially: i felt safer downtown than anywhere else in the city, and didn't mind one bit having to show our lease and drivers licenses to someone every few blocks to verify that we had a good reason to be where we were. curbing one's civil liberties just didn't seem like too big a deal if it bring about safety, or at least the illusion thereof.

as if you didn't know
everyone in my immediate circle is ok, thank goodness. waiting to hear about loved one's of friends, though, which is a sad, depressing, maddening ordeal. have not been home since tuesday morning, before this all happened, and while our building may be standing, i am going to guess there's no way on this earth its habitable. all we want right now is for it to be sturdy enough for us to get in, grab the stuff that's important and sentimental to us, and get out. but we shall see. may make a token appearance at work tomorrow then hit the office of the folks who own our apartment building to see what they can do to help us out. in the meantime, lots of tv-watching and just random debates between the three of us as to how best punish those responsible. sigh.

ouch
when journalists are mean to pr people for no reason, it's just plain evil. but in this case a journo had a very good reason, so hats off to him!

paddy clarke ha ha ha
my new book. the last one, "mccarthy's bar" was very good. i'd recommend it to anyone who wants to borrow it and read about the wackiness this english guys gets into while driving around ireland. i've now picked this roddy doyle novel to try out because (a) it won the booker prize so it's probably at least somewhat good, and (c) i was in an irish mood from the last book and don't feel like getting out of it quite yet. so far, it's a very fun book to read--it's written in the voice of the 12-ish protagonist paddy clarke. full of declarative sentences, stream of conscious paragraphs, and kiddie hi-jinks. (he sets his brother's mouth on fire! just to see him be dragon-like!)

sunday brunch
went here for sunday brunch with h. and a. it was good to hang out with them, though i did take off a bit early in the afternoon to keep myself from spending my last $40 in soho. i hate being fiscally responsible but whatever. at any rate: holly and i had been to first ages ago for dinner, but i of course didn't remember it until i walked in and saw the spiky silver ball hanging from the ceiling. then it all came back. brunch was good though my sandwich was huge and caused me to not eat anything again til about 8 pm. it was such a gorgeous day.

VMA's
a snide but kinda funny piece about last night's mtv video music awards from the washington post, bastion of hipness that that paper is. i too feel that fatboy slim was robbed. and though there is no mention of britney spears in this story, she was all over the wb11 morning show today--at least, clips of her performance last night was. tell that girl to put some clothes on--flaunting your goods is SO last season.

food food and more food...ugh
last night was a really good night for so many reasons. first, found the perfect pair of cords for fall at h&m. second, got a buzz on at under the volcano with boy and two margaritas. and third, had such a fun dinner with boy's family because it was mom's birthday (happy birthday!). danzon, described in the above link, is regional mexican, and the food was quite good, though the service was a tad slow. highly recommended (from me anyway) are the seafood taco appetizer and the seafood paella entree. lots of seafood for one girl in one night, but i'm a trooper. didn't get home til midnight, and didn't feel so well during the night given all the seafood and margaritas and wine, but i'm fine this morning and even managed a two-mile run before feeling a little less than healthy. and i am now at work for our first post-summer friday, meaning i am here for the duration...or at least 5:30 when i'm meeting a. to shop til we drop or run out of money. whichever happens first.

my friend stacy...
...has got me all nostalgic for au, what with her 9/5 entry about our alma mater. miss you, chicago-dwelling g.c.!

tonight's dinner destination
i could swoon just from reading the seafood descriptions. full report tomorrow, if i don't eat myself to death.

employed killer
to be fair, most "how to" guides for writing one's resume do not include how to tell a potential employer that you've been convicted of trying to murder your wife. and the fact that his employer didn't do a basic background check, well, that's just depressing. because why have i been telling the truth on my resume for all these years, then?

mccarthy's bar
i thought after working at broadway i'd had enough of the books where someone goes looking for themselves, or whatever, in a foreign country. turns out i was wrong. this was brought back from ireland for me and it's so funny there are parts that actually have me snickering out loud. out loud! i'd highly recommend it, but i don't think you can buy it in this country (hence the link to amazon.com uk). perhaps some enterprising publisher will pick it up for this side of the pond.

dinner last night
we're getting a good groove on in terms of having at least one epicurious meal per week. this was last night's. i would say that in order to use up the ton of sauce this makes, one should indeed cook up the recommended four pork chops/loins (heh) instead of just 2, which was our situation. but it was good, and since even i could make it it must not be that difficult.

gay , straight, what's the diff?
very interesting article from the voice about the "gay-ing" of straight men. which, quite frankly, i can only encourage. the boys in my life i'm closest to probably fit into this category to some extent: they like books and movies more than sports, they know how to dress themselves, they obsess about body image.

northern ireland violence
this makes me so angry: protestant adults rioting around catholic schoolgirls and their parents as the latter walk down the former's street to get to the first day of school. it's all well and good if the adults over there want to kill and hurt each other over something as ridiculous as who worships which type of imaginary deity, but terrorizing children is just disgusting.

gooooooaaaaaallllllllll!!!!!!!!!!
so many things happened this weekend that it's hard to pick just a couple of links to encompass it all. but by far the most unique thing i experienced was being in an irish pub at 9am on saturday waiting for the start of the republic of ireland v. holland soccer (sorry, football) match being televised via satellite. i am not a sports person, i know, but it was such fun. i was screaming along with all the others when ireland scored and then managed to keep the dutch at bay for the rest of the game. way exciting. it's even at the point where i'm marking on my calendar the next ireland game so we can go do it again!