what's been going on

everyone seems to think i have this easy, fabulous life, and while i love being fabulous, things aren't super easy. like this summer: i got a solid night of sleep maybe three times all summer. i was constantly waking due to noisy roommates, hearing strange noises from other rooms, waking up early for early departures, sleeping on trains (or attempting to sleep on trains). thank goddess for melatonin. i would walk so much some days that my legs would literally ache.

now i'm home. i just finished putting all my stuff away, but have some papers (writings) that i still need to go through. i've been going over some stories, reading this excellent book, baghdad burning (check out the blog where it all happened, riverbend). i've also been looking for a job. the best one so far is this one as a travel writer in cape town..but i would have to break up with t to take that (i'm fed up with a three hour gap, a massive plane ride--20 hours, 18 hours, i'm guessing, would destroy us...or the very ambivalent way t is, he might be like, sure, now i don't have to marry her...) and i don't necessarily want to do that, plus, as much as i want to travel, i kinda wanna be in nyc for a while (as much as the winters here suck...the job in cape town doesn't start till jan so i'd be in time for summer there!). i applied to jobs as a travel writer for bridal magazines, academic librarians, special librarians....while sweating in my hot apartment.

i ran a race this morning--only 1.7 miles. to run the new york city marathon, you have to be accepted. you can get accepted by:

1. if you are international, you have to join a tour operator or something, and you automatically get in.
2. enter the lottery. if you are rejected three years a row by the lottery, you automatically get in the next year.
3. become a member of the new york road runners, and run 9 races in the preceding year.
   

so i'm doing my 9 races so i qualify for the 2006 marathon. this year i didn't even bother because with me being away all summer, it would just be bonkers with me...like, "oh yes, there's the vatican as i'm doing a 20 mile training run past it..."

i've been spending lots of time with luna. i really missed my little baby. awwww.

i went to the brooklyn public library and got out heaps of books. i read war and peace and caramelo and madame bovary and the beach this summer--now i'm reading several books a week. i spent my subway rides engrossed. living alone means i can stay up until four am reading, or read during my meals, or sprawl out at any point reading, uninterrupted...until my cell phone rings (and if i answer rudely, or don't at all, it just means what i'm reading is so brilliant!).

there's a "rave" next weekend....there will probably be 14 year olds and me and ed and trish...j and t want to go, though t probably can't go. i don't know if i will go. i am unemployed and spending money like that might be stupid. plus, i went clubbing in europe...and that would seem inferior...so....

i've also been cooking heaps. i LOVE cooking. soups are a favorite, although the weather needs to cool down a tad to enjoy them. i LOVE coming in from a cold winter's day with soup supplies, and preparing a soup that will warm my apartment with its heat and its amazing scent, and then my belly...i love soup with some nice crusty french bread and a salad. i made my gram's famous lentil soup the other day, and am hoping to make a tomato orzo soup. i also made carrot apple loaf (adapted from a bread, with some of my creative additions) and white beans with sage...plus everyday things too. i wish i could freeze beans but they always get scary. lentils are okay...and if a soup has beans, it's cool, but without, eeek. i want to try to make broth one day soon. v, do you have a good recipe for me?

so it's a huge rant, babble, but that's what i'm doing. love to you all throughout the world!