Lucky lucky, We're so lucky

So yes. I didn't really write much about our Franz Ferdinand experience, so here is a more complete version.

G's friend told her about the shoot the night before, and even though people who were interested were properly emailed about it, we were sure enough that it was going to be disorganized that we were prepared to get all glammed up and go anyway.

Which was how G and I came to be walking down the street to look at some shops in crazy makeup and clothes. We got Johnny Bravoed (you know, gross guys wolf whistling etc) 4 times in ten blocks. ugh.

We ended up being about half an hour late to the shoot, thanks to extremely heavy traffic on Hudson street. We actually ended up getting out of our cab and walking the rest of the way because it was faster.

And yes, as we guessed, it was pretty disorganized. We just walked straight in, signed a waiver, had our photos taken, and waited.

And waited.

We had to learn a little dance for the end of the video, which didn't take too long. It looked kinda odd but when everyone did it together it looked very cool, very Franz Ferdinand. The choreographer had apparently flown in to do the shoot at 5:30 in the morning, and she didn't even choreograph the dance - the band did it themselves. Cushy job or what? :) So when we learnt the dance I assumed that soon they would shoot our part. Of course I assumed wrongly.

In mid afternoon they did a pyrotechnics shot, and without wanting to give anything away, it was very very cool, and afterwards I had the first of many encounters with the band. We were all walking back to the holding area after the shot and I passed by Nick, the guitarist, and we had a quick chat about how cool it was. Which surprised G when she turned around to see me talking to one of the band members :)

The guys were really lovely though. We thought we would barely see them, let alone say hi to them, but in between shots they came out and took some time talking to all the fans. The fact that instead of us seeking them out, they came to talk to us, was really nice. And Alex, the singer, told G and I some very exciting news. And we're going to be all mean and smug and not tell you about it.

After getting there at 2 pm, we finally shot our scene a little after midnight. We're at the end of the song, dancing in a huge group behind the band. I was right up the back unfortunately, but since they were shooting from high above us, there's a chance I'll be able to see myself. Look for the arm with the white Make Poverty History wristband :)

After we were done, we got to chat to everyone again. We got a lot of great photos, but since we're packing we can't get them on computer. I'll put them on when we get back to Melbourne.

Yesterday we *finally* saw Spamalot, after waiting in the standing room ticket line three days in a row. We got the last three tickets but one (the friend who told us about Franz Ferdinand came with us). What a hilarious musical! I laughed so hard that at times I could barely stand up. Thankfully all the characters speak with English accents otherwise I don't know what I'd do. There were obviously some changes from the movie (Monty Python and the Holy Grail), the most obvious one being the addition of music. They still had the 'brave Sir Robin' song (the one sung by Sir Robin's minstrels as he walks through the forest), and they put in Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. David Hyde Pierce (from Frasier, forget the character's name...Niles?) played Sir Robin and was magnificent in the role. I never knew he could sing and dance but he did his big musical number so well. Still not sure whether he was really playing the piano, but it looked very convincing! I'd love to see it again...pity I'm going home...BTW if you want to see it, it's sold out till next April. Your only hope is standing room tickets (which actually weren't half bad, we had a good view of the whole stage, and they were just behind the stalls) or cancellation tickets. Standing tickets are $21.25, but you have to line up quite early. We got there at about 8 yesterday, the box office opens at 10, and if it weren't for the fact that there was a matinee we would've missed out on tickets. Cancellation tickets are the same price. oh and there's premium orchestra tickets but they're $300.

And I forgot to get the coconuts! Quite disappointed.

Anyway I have to go pack. I'm really trying to procrastinate, because packing means that I'm going home. I think I'm going to find it very hard to get back into the real world. My life has been so simple this month - our biggest challenges were to decide what to do each day and figure out how to get there. Now we're re-entering reality and we have to worry about university and work and family and everything. Oh well. There are some nice things about going home. I miss my family and my dogs and my boyfriend and my friends and my bed. I think I'm going to find it very strange to hear Australian accents all around me again. I'm so used to the American accent now, I've even adopted it in certain situations (like when I want to be understood!). One thing I am not going to miss however is the humidity here and the men who Johnny Bravo you. But I'm going to miss bagels with monstrous amounts of cream cheese, public transport after midnight, and the ability to walk around late at night being perfectly safe. I'm going to miss walking to cafés late at night and seeing all the people and lights. In fact I'm going to miss the nights here. You can do so much - it's not like Melbourne where everyone goes to bed. I'm definitely going to miss the shopping here! I'm going to miss the artiness of the East Village and seeing creative people wearing individual looks (instead of packs of adolescents all wearing Supré trash). I'm going to miss being so close to everything in the East Village. Like walking 10 blocks and being in the heart of Ludlow street with all its cool bars and cafés. But I've procrastinated long enough and now I really must go pack. See y'all later!

-R

PS the title of this entry is a lyric from the Franz Ferdinand song the clip was shot for. The actual line is 'lucky lucky, you're so lucky' but I changed it. And we are. We are the luckiest people on the planet. This has been the best month of my life.

Quickie

I'm buggered and I have to be up in less han four hours, but I thought I'd give you a quick update anyway. Been trying to get Spamalot tickets but have been unsuccessful so far. Will try again tomorrow at 6:30 am *sob*. Have only just got back from filming the new Franz Ferdinand video. Will be released on Sep 19. Had heaps of fun, the guys in the band are lovely and chatted to us all for a bit. Were there for 9 hours and our scene was shot in about 15 minutes. Lots of waiting. Will put up photos when I can be bothered and have time. Apologies for the short sounding language. Am stuffed. Going to bed. Goodnight.

-R

Everyone's a little bit racist...

Ahhhhh! so so so happy.

I FINALLY got to see Avenue Q today! After seeing it on the Tonys last year and thinking I would never have the opportunity to see it. At first we entered the lottery to get $21 front row tickets, but as there are only 12 tickets, there was pretty much no chance of that. We ended up in the exact opposite - right in the back row, high high up in the nosebleed section. Luckily it was the type of theatre where every seat had a good view of the stage. Well we did have a good view, but there was a couple in front of me in the first act who couldn't stop making out, which was a little distracting. Thankfully they weren't there in the second act. I think they may have taken my hissed advice to 'get a f**king room'.

Anyway. Yes, if you possibly can, definitely see Avenue Q. It's a very clever and funny musical. I was nearly in tears most of the time. Most of the main characters are puppets, although since they're basically oversized handhelds so you can see the actors manipulating them and voicing them. They're a talented bunch I have to say - all the principal pupeteers have at least two characters! It gets to the stage where you almost forget that the human is there. Ann Harada, who plays Christmas Eve, deserves a special mention for being hilarious and having a truly magnificent voice. Barrett Foa, who played both Princeton, the recent college graduate and main character, and Rod, was also fantastic, considering how demanding his role was playing two major plot threads and two very different characters.

The puppets are jim-henson muppetish looking, but this is definitely not a children's show! Let me just say - PUPPET SEX. My goodness! lol. Also with song titles like 'Everyone's a Litlle Bit Racist', 'The Internet is for Porn' and 'If You Were Gay'....the only similarities to Sesame Street are purely visual. There are some similarities to the Sesame Street Characters...intentional or not! Trekkie Monster's voice bears a striking resemblance to the Cookie Monster and Rod the closeted Republican homosexual and his flatmate Nicky kinda sound like Ernie and Bert :D My favourite character was Rod ("I am NOT a closeted HOMOWHATEVER!").

Anyway. I could go on forever about how awesome this show was. Instantly my favourite musical, even including We Will Rock You and the Witches of Eastwick. But I think I'll just keep on listening to the soundtrack again and again and again...

Oh yeah. We spent like 6 hours in Macy's Herald Square. What an evil place. G managed to get a gorgeous dress for her 21st and some hot shoes.

Anyway I gotta go to bed now. Tomorrow we have to be at Broadway again at 8 am to try to get STANDING ROOM tickets for Spamalot. That's how popular it is - we have to queue for 2 HOURS for STANDING tickets. We can't even get seats until sometime near the end of the year.

-R

'- The internet is really really great.
- FOR PORN.' - Kate and Trekkie Monster

American Airlines = really quite shit

OK OK I'm sorry for the swearing, as I think my parents read this. But seriously, unless you are completely desperate, do NOT fly AA, because they will seriously fuck you around. Example: our farcical flight back to New York today. Or yesterday, now that it's nearly 2 in the morning.

After spending 22 hours on the Greyhound travelling from New York to Chicago, we thought it would be nice to treat ourselves to a quick and painless flight home (Or, rather, we could only afford the airfare one way and decided we'd rather fly back after being exhausted from Lollapalooza). So this morning we got up late, skipped breakfast, did a little shopping, then got to the airport nice and early to check in and farewell our lovely hosts. As it turns out before we even checked in, we found out that our flight had been delayed from 2 pm to 3. This wasn't so bad as it gave us a bit of time once we were in there to find some lunch. So we used the clever little self check in computer (thank god we only had carry on baggage), farewelled our hosts, and made our way to the gate.

Well, things kinda went pear shaped from the beginning. For starters, we were 'chosen' (lucky us!) for extra security screening. G's TSA lady was quite nice and courteous, while mine proceeded to scare the living bejeezus out of me. I made the grave mistake of reaching for my passport before I had permission and she practically threatened to shoot me. Luckily one of the guys going through our luggage (thank god I put all my dirty undies in a sealed plastic bag!) was nice and commented on G's Andy Warhol badge, which helped to calm us down.

So we finally got to our gate, and kinda sat around for a bit, then were told that our flight had been moved to a different gate, which was cool. At our final gate, there were some rather desperate looking people in the standby line hoping to get on our flight. We regarded them with a smile and what can only be called a bit of smugness, as we had our nice little reserved seats and all was well. Or so we thought.

When we were actually sitting on the plane, by about 3:30, nothing really happened for quite a while, then we were 'regretfully informed' that there was a problem with retracting the jetbridge from the plane, and that furthermore if they couldn't fix it in 5 minutes the captain and first officer, the two people you need most to get a plane in the air, would be forced to step down as part of legal regulations regarding working hours or some shit like that. So of course, 2 feet of jetbridge stood between us and New York. Honestly, you'd think that they'd have a manual override for the damn thing. So typically, the jetbridge remained firmly screwed, our flight was cancelled and we were all shoved back into the lounge.

Which is where the fun begins. G immediately jumped on the phone to rebook our flights, and was given a choice between 6 o'clock the following morning to LaGuardia, or 9:50 pm to Newark. We chose the latter, depsite the fact that we hadn't the faintest clue where Newark was. However, luckily for us, we also went and stood in line for standby tickets on an earlier flight to LaGuardia. I felt like bailing and just waiting for the Newark flight, but all props to G for convincing us to stay, as we ended up getting standby tickets. so we went from being one of the smug people smiling at the desperate standby ticket holders, to being one of the desperate standby ticket holders. And being embarrassingly desperate I might add. I crossed everything I could conceivably cross and promised God I would go to church on sundays for the rest of the year if he got us on the flight. Well he got us on the flight alright, but no sooner had I sat down thankfully and fastened my seatbelt when the most freakin big thunderstorm started rocking the plane. I mean literally, the plane was rocking from side to side. So instead of a 7:55pm takeoff, it was more like 9pm. But by then I was beyond caring, and only looking forward to getting 'home' to the flat in New York. And here I am at nearly 2 in the morning. We were only delayed 6 and a half hours after all, and we got to see the Chrysler building in all its lit up night time glory.

So you can blame American Airlines for the lack of Lollapalooza news. I just really can't be bothered right now. I'm sure you understand. And the whole church thing worked out because apparently next sunday my sister is getting confirmed or something.

-R

Wheee! Philly is pretty.

I'm telling you, this is a gorgeous city. I'm just sorry that we are only spending a day here. This morning we took the bus from New York to Philadelphia. It was a chinese run bus company so of course it was ridiculously cheap, which was great. I was hoping to see some of the countryside, but as soon as we left New York I passed out for an hour. It is so much easier to sleep on the bus than on the plane! For one thing it's so much quieter - no noisy engines right outside your window.

Anyway when we got to Philly we had a lovely lunch at a Malaysian restaurant with our hosts. Mmmmmmm Nasi Lemak... :) I'm happy now. After lunch we went to KMart - we just had to go to an American one! G and I ended up getting matching Spongebob Squarepants pyjama bottoms. We're thinking about wearing them to the Spongebob movie on the Hudson River next week :)

This afternoon we went to the Franklin Institute of Science, which was sooo much fun! It totally kicks Sciencework's ass. We basically spent the afternoon playing with stuff. We also went to the planetarium but instead of watching a space show we saw this thing called Sonic Vision. It was just a whole bunch of pretty decent music (Audioslave, U2, Moby, Radiohead etc) put to some awesome 3d animation. Of course putting it on the domed screen made it totally immersive. Very very cool.

For dinner tonight we had Philly Cheese Steaks, which were...filling to say the least! They were huge! Big buns filled with shaved steak, cheese and mushrooms. And very tasty.

So anyway we're kind of repacking our backpacks right now. We're living light for a few days, and we've just had our last shower before Chicago on friday. eew. In a few hours we're taking an overnight bus to Pittsburgh. See ya round.

-R

away for a bit

Tomorrow we're taking a bit of a road trip to Chicago. We won't be there till Friday and we don't get back to NY till Monday, so expect me to be a bit light on the updates (If I can write at all).

Today we went to Herald Square and the empire state building. Really too busy trying to condense a week's worth of luggage into a small backpack, so I will tell y'all about it when I next write hopefully.

-R

International Territory, Wizards and Ferries

Today - man, today's weather sucked. It was soooo friggin hot and humid! We wisely chose an indoor activity today and took a tour of the UN, and only had to endure the trek to and from Grand Central. The UN is really interesting. It's situated on the East side of Manhattan, and although it's in New York, it's actually international territory, so we can say we left the United States today. We got to see places like the General Assembly Hall, the Security Council and the Social Economic Council. We also found out some startling facts about things like military expenditure - such as the fact that every 10 minutes, about US$9 million is spent on arms, and something like 70% of that is spent on the development of nuclear weapons. And in a year, that's more than $700 billion. In comparison, a range of programs to implement democracy, give everyone in the entire world clean drinking water and enough food, education etc, doesn't even come close to costing that much. And we also found out that 80% of landmine injuries happen to civilians AFTER cessation of conflict. Man, we are so not getting our bond back on this planet.

After UN, we went back to Grand Central, which I have to say is a pretty damn impressive building (although most things here are like that!). Oh, and I bought the Harry Potter book :) I know I was meant to wait until I got home to read it, and I seriously resolved to stick to that, but it was much easier to resist the call when I hadn't even seen it in shops yet. But I saw it at Grand Central today and that was it. I'm not meant to read it until the bus to Chicago, and G agreed to let me read the first chapter, so I think I will ask her to lock it in her suitcase until then to help me resist the temptation. Needless to say, this bus trip has suddenly become so much more exciting.

This afternoon we were totally buggered by the heat, so we headed home early for some lunch and some sleep. We ended up going to this fast food joint called Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits about a block from our flat. Here in America, what we call biscuits in Australia are called cookies, so we were interested to see what they called a biscuit. It turns out the texture and taste is like a scone, only these ones are flatter, saltier and more buttery. So that was interesting, if not necessarily worth the calories.

We spent a nice lazy afternoon at home, and I apparently 'passed out' on the couch for half an hour with a book halfway through The Golden Girls. Oh yeah, that's another interesting thing - television shows actually start on time here! when they say a show will start at 5 pm, it will start at 5 pm, and not a second later. In fact I was reading a TV guide magazine and I read a complaint letter - apparently one show started a whole 27 seconds late and screwed up the guy's recording! bizzare. They would die if they found out how late stuff goes in Australia. Channel Ten, you could learn a lot from this *coughbigbrothercough*.

This evening we were meant to be going to Kristeen Young's gig, but a) we're kinda underage and b) we couldn't really be bothered anyway, so after going there to pick up some stuff for our lovely hosts in Chicago, we headed over to the Staten Island Ferry. One thing I love about New York - if you're bored at night, you don't just have to go to a bar, and you're not restricted by public transport hours! We took the ferry at like 10:30 pm. It's about an hour's round trip and it's free. We really enjoyed the breathtaking views of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline.

Tomorrow is another early rise as we follow our host's mum to Chinatown to get a gist of where the bus to Philadelphia stops. Then it's off to The Empire State Building and Herald Square, where I will have to excercise every ounce of my self will to not waste more of my money. I have to keep reminding myself that I actually am on holiday for two more weeks and I still have to eat every day :)

Whoa, this entry is heavy on the words and very light on the pictures - not because there's any trouble with the blessed thing, just that I can't be bothered going downstairs to get the cable, then transferring ther pictures to the computer, then uploading them to the net...I'll do it soon. Promise.

-R

Kayaking and chocolate

Yesterday was yet another warm and humid new york day. The morning was pleasantly cool however, for a nice little brunch in the East Village. I had a pasta with - and I never thought this would work - Pureed dandelions, grana padano (cheese) and cream. It really does work! weird.

In the afternoon, G and I went to the Hudson River for a spot of free kayaking. I happened to stumble upon this on the net. One of the boathouses has volunteers that run this on weekends. That was fun, although I forgot my sunscreen - hello t-shirt tan!

Last night we went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. What a great film. Even though I am a Ioan Gruffudd fan, I reckon it kicks FF's arse.

Anyway, today we're doing the Brooklyn Bridge walk. Hopefully I'll put up some photos soon.

-R

The Met and pretty pictures

Today we were meant to do our whole Central Park walking tour because apparently it was going to be *gasp* cool, but it was actually raining, so we decided to go to the Met. Yes, that's right, the Metropolitan Museum of Art! Finally! After yesterday's disappointment with the Museum of Modern Art being closed, we made sure that the Met would be open today. Seriously, if you're going, one day isn't even enough to scratch the surface! I doubt that we saw much more than 30-40% of the collection. We also saw two special exhibitions today, the Chanel and Matisse shows. There were some seriously fabulous dresses in the Chanel collection, and even the designs from the thirties look great today, they're so classic. I really enjoyed the Matisse show as well - I wasn't aware of the important role that textiles played in making his paintings so bright and vibrant. The Met also showed some of the robes and clothing worn by Matisse's models in the paintings, and it made the paintings seem that much more 'real', to see the materials and inspiration. It kind of brings you closer to the painter - you become aware of the process itself, rather than just observing the finished product without thinking about how it was made.

Enough of my crapping on. We made quite a nice dinner tonight, thankyou very much. Thank god for premixed marinades and bottled salad dressing! We had teriyaki chicken and a salad of spinach, tomato, mushroom, onion and avocado with a blue cheese dressing. And apple and cinnamon waffles for dessert. And we wonder why we haven't lost any weight on this trip yet!

Anyway, apparently the whole photo upload thing is working properly now. G has some up on her blog, so I'll post the ones that she didn't. I don't think I'll bother with more LA ones for now. I might do it at the end of the trip so I don't break the continuity. Or whatever.

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See, we CAN cook!

Mmm...cheesecake...

Only in New York...

the TRUMP.

KAWAIIIIIIIIIIII-DESU!!!! ...The dog's kinda cute too. :P

That's what I'm talkin BOUT!!!

Let me stress, there have been NO dodgy dirty water dogs bought from street vendors on this trip. That will be in the last week, when we're REALLY broke.

Times Square!!! Nearly midnight! Way to freak out our parents.

All you need is...

seriously, walk a bit further and you'd never know it was there.

In Trump Tower - yes, I think I'll take two, thanks.

Whassup!? ...oh, you.

If that head were George Bush's, the world would be a better place.

so, I was looking for an interesting piece to hang in my bedroom...

We cook...

Again!

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So, that brings y'all up to speed with our photos from New York. We're having a blast. Tomorrow is Fifth and Madison Avenues, where I'm pretty much guaranteed to do no shopping because one top would probably blow out my budget for the rest of my trip.

-R

...Oh yeah, we saw the movie Fantastic Four yesterday. G mainly wanted to see it because it is set in New York City, and we saw it just off Times Square, where one of the scenes is (which I have to admit was kinda cool). My main reason: three words. Ioan. Gruffudd. Spandex. *faints* OK so it wasn't an awesome movie. It had its funny moments but the plot was kinda slow, with the characters developing their powers and all that. But the visuals were stunning :)

Soho and Times Square

Man, it really is way too humid in NY at the moment. Today I wore probably more suitable clothing, but not the best shoes. I have an impressive blister on top of my big toe. We went down Broadway to Soho again today, and had a look in all the shops. I'm seriously considering an A|X top if I have enough money next week :) we also booked our transprt to and from Chicago. We're flying back, thank god, because we were able to get cheap flights through STA. This evening after dinner we went out to Times Square. In LA we wouldn't have dreamed of going out after dark, but we felt and were perfectly safe leaving at 10:30 and getting back 2 hours later. The subway was still quite busy, even at midnight on a weeknight. Times Square was very cool, and bright! There are heaps and heaps of billboards that are actual colour screens. There were a couple that covered whole buildings. It was mad. Unfortunately the Toys 'R' Us store was closed, but we went to the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co and Hard Rock Cafe. They have a cool T shirt that has faux tattoo sleeves - it looks like you're arms are covered in gnarly tatts!

I think tomorrow we're going to MoMA. Yet another one of G's friends has a corporate membership, so he's getting us in for free during his lunch hour. Isn't that nice? We're hopefully meeting up with A from the hostel in LA, and then we'll see Fantastic Four tomorrow evening or something. Se y'all later.

-R

I (heart) New York

Wow. New York is so easy to get around. So different to LA, where you have to take an hour and two buses just to get to a local mall! We took the subway everywhere today (so much for avoiding it after the London terrorist attacks).

This morning we met up with some friends of G's for brunch somewhere in Chelsea. I think the place was called the Viceroy. They're here studying history, the search for the American Dream or some such thing. I had waffles :)
Then we walked down to Soho and the Village for cheesecake! Now I know why I'm not losing any weight on this trip. We went to a little shop called Eileen's Special Cheesecake. It has a good reputation and rightly so. The cheesecake was unusually light and fluffy and delicious, with sweet juicy strawberries on top. It was also pretty inexpensive.

After cheesecake, we made our way to Wall st, where we got to take photos outside the Trump Building (he owns like half of New York). We also went to the Cloisters after going in the wrong direction and ending up in Brooklyn!

Today was extremely hot and humid. The park around the Cloisters is beautiful and it really doesn't feel like you're in New York, but the walk was absolutely melting. G and I were very glad to get back downtown and go to...Macy's!!!!

Macy's, I have to say, rules. Especially around sale time. g had a hard time finding anything because she's quite small and all the discounted clothes were sold out in small, but I found a Ben Sherman miniskirt for USD13 (down from $69!) and a Calvin Klein tank for $14. Ridiculously inexpensive clothes. Unfortunately they didn't have the one shade of Juicy Tubes that I wanted, but there's always Sephora across the road :)

I got another pair of chucks too :)

Tomorrow - Soho again in the afternoon. Definitely no more major shopping on my part - although the quest for the perfect pair of jeans continues!

-R

some more...

say Fuji!

OK, so I'm trying to post some photos. Maybe you can only put so many on a post. I'll try some in another post. But here are the first few, from before we got on the train to La to our first day there. Enjoy!

Mmmmmm...Cheesecake...

Oh my God.

I am halfway through the most heavenly cheesecake I have ever had. And I only had to walk two blocks to get it. But I don't think I can finish it - a cheesecake breakfast is looking good at the moment! We got them at a patisserie called Veniero's. Apparently they are extremely extremely popular - we had to get a numbered ticket to get served! The cheesecake is only the diameter of a coffee cup lid but I can't even finish it it's that rich. It may also be because of the dinner we had. Yes that's right, tonight we cooked dinner! We made a kind of penne bolognese with onions and lots of mushrooms. However our pasta was very oily, and we think it may be because we didn't use lean mince so all the fat leached out...eurgh. Anyway it was a pretty damn fine effort if I do say so myself, for two girls who have never really made dinner before. The rest of the groceries we bought for dinner were tinned soups and noodles, which will probably involve slightly less effort.

Tomorrow we're meeting another friend of G's for brunch and then on monday we're going to a florist's on ninth to meet yet another friend of G's, then on Tuesday we're meeting A, a lovely aussie girl we met at the hostel in LA. And we're going to see Fantastic Four. Ioan Gruffudd in spandex...:)

-R

It's a new day...and I'm feeling good

I'm feeling more human today. Our bed is a tatami bed and is really really hard - kind of akin to sleeping on a hard floor. But surprisingly I woke up this morning and was not sore anywhere - in fact I slept pretty darn well last night, thankyou very much. They're meant to be good for your back and apart from the initial difficulty in finding a comfy position, It's quite easy to get a good night's sleep. I didn't feel sore at all when I got up this morning.

We are literally living in a shoebox on E 12th street in a tiny little flat. But it's pretty new and nice and modern, and much nicer than the hostel in LA. And we have a kitchen, and unlimited net time :)

Anyway today we're going to do boring houekeeping things, like grocery shopping and some laundry. We're living in the East Village so after all that's out of the way it's off to do some serious vintage clothes shopping! Yippee!

-R

OK, slightly longer post

So, I was seriously running out of net time in LA. but now I'm in New York on a normal non time limited computer, and I can take as long as I want. Yes, that's right, NEW YORK. Pretty cool huh?

I might post later. I have a headache and I'm tired and starving and can barely concentrate on this.

-R

'm alive