Monday, March 25, 2013

multiple locations

I'll log onto Facebook, scroll down the page, and come across a picture my friend Phoebe posted of her and her boyfriend beaming in front of a sunset on a Puerto Rico beach. "Aww," I'll think, and instinctively "like" the picture.  

An hour later, while waiting in line at a deli, I'll scroll through my Instagram feed and see the same picture there, too. I'll hesitate for a moment. Do I "like" it here, too?? (I think I'm just gonna drop these cumbersome quotes around "like" from now on! Reckless as ever!) On the one hand, I'll consider, it seems a little excessive to like the same shot again. I liked it already on Facebook; she'll know I've seen it and offered my virtual thumbs up (because Phoebe is clearly spending all of her time worrying about whether or not I'm liking her pictures). But then it will strike me that I've spent a good 25 seconds deliberating whether or not to like an Instagram picture and it seems so absurd to be "holding myself back" and life is short why not just like things that you like as many times as you like. So I'll double-tap the picture and keep scrolling. 

A few minutes later, I'll see she's posted a link to the very same picture on her Twitter and, even though I have now dwelled on it on two different social networks, I'll click the link anyway to see it a third time, as if I don't have a choice in the matter.

Friday, March 8, 2013

a day at the museum

I went to a museum last weekend, and it was really fun. (That's the first sentence I wrote when I started writing this, and normally I'd rewrite it since that is a sentence right out of a 4th grade language textbook, but I've decided to... keep it! It really sums up everything you need to know right up top here!)

The first exhibit we went to consisted of all of these giant, hanging works done by this really cool drapery artist (that is definitely the official name for what he is). I enjoyed all of the pieces, but also found myself distracted the entire time by these two high school girls who both were wearing striped shirts and who were clutching each other as they roamed through the exhibit (one of their mothers was a few yards ahead of them; they of course had to keep their distance). I heard them whispering about a boy named Sebastian, and then at one point they sat down on this bench and I took this picture of them (all of this is ALMOST TOO NORMAL and not creepy at all, I know). Anyway, after I took this picture, the girl in the red stripes lamented, "He's just... weird, you know?" and blue stripes sighed, "Yeah, totally," and then they jumped up and glided out of the room, arms linked. (Also pretty pathetic/reprehensible on my part that I didn't even notice the extremely adorable child on an iPad in this picture until I uploaded it into this post just now.) 

Later we visited an Ancient Egypt exhibit, which was filled with mummies and ankhs, and it reminded me of 3rd grade and not in a good way (as opposed to all the ways that remind you of 3rd grade which are GREAT, of course). But one aspect of this exhibit did please me - I was reading this plaque about Osiris and read that whoever this Osiris was had a "jealous brother, Seth." Maybe everyone knows all about Seth and this is just going to expose my ignorance about Egyptian myths or whatever, but Seth sounds awesome. I admittedly didn't read the rest of the description super carefully (though I did catch that Seth threw his brother in a "special human-shaped box" (!!!)) and sorry this picture is horrendously lit/framed, but I just can't get over this psychotic Seth dude and am seriously unclear as to why he isn't the only Egyptian god anyone ever talks about.  
 
And on the way out we passed this sculpture/costume/masterpiece and I love it so much! What I love about it is I feel like you could put Karlie Kloss in it and put the shot in Harper's Bazaar and I don't think anyone would flinch (OK, that's maybe a stretch, but you know what I mean). And at the same time, it ALSO looks like a hideous scary Pixar monster come to life! Both at once!

Friday, March 1, 2013

trips to the drawer

When he's at home, my dad always sits in the same seat at the end of the couch in the living room. He uses the end table next to the couch as a desk, his laptop on top of a mélange of papers and folders and pens. In the drawer of the end table, he keeps business cards, newspaper clippings, binder clips (mixed in with the take out menus, ticket stubs, holiday cards, and other ephemera that has accumulated over the years). About a year ago, I opened the drawer looking for a menu and noticed a pack of Dentyne Fire gum. I took it out and held it in front of my dad's face (the only way you can get his attention when he's working).  

"What is this?"
"What does it look like?"
"Why do you have it?"
"It's the greatest."


I tried a piece and was surprised to find that I was immediately obsessed. I returned to the drawer five or six more times that day, trekking from the "work station" I had set up in my childhood bedroom. Every time I'd open the drawer, my dad would look up at me and smirk before returning his gaze to his laptop. It made me feel like I was eight years old. 

I had no desire to start buying the Fire gum when I got back to NYC; but, ever since, whenever I'm home I make a few trips a day to the drawer. I've noticed that, lately, the drawer is always fully stocked when I get home. When I was home a few weeks ago, there were three full packs. "Wow, what fortune!" I exclaimed when I opened the drawer and found the bounty. "What's that?" my mom asked, looking up from her magazine. "Nothing," I said. My dad didn't look up from his laptop.