Katz Deli

Headed down to Katz on Houston and Lowell for some Matzoh ball soup. I sort of crave that when I'm not feeling well. I love the chicken soup at Zabar's and their Matzoh balls are good but a little too fluffy. Katz's are perfect but their broth is too dark, more like a beef broth. But damn, those Matzohs are great. I also got a potato knish, square, and a round sweet potato one. The round ones are HUGE and personally I like the crusty bottom on the square better. Both were so big I took them home as leftovers. The also serve pickles - crisp cucumbery ones and the soggier dill ones, along with pickled tomatoes - I like the crisp ones. I sort of miss the cole slaw that is typical at other delis like Arnie's. So NYC still has all the great food. I need to remember that when I get all grumpy. I'll blame the bitchiness lately on the phlegm and such. Yeah, NYC. And Houston Street really if fabulous.

Sickie Comfort

I am feeling better but overslept. I called into work at 8:30 am, which is usually the time I start work! I just woke up so wanted them to know I was coming in late, maybe do only a half day. But my boss told me to just stay home and rest. He also got a fax with my temporary insurance card! Yeah. And they faxed it to my doctor so maybe now I can get in for an appointment and not worry about getting a crazy bill .... too much to hope for?

So the cough still persists. I did enjoy about 10 blissful hours of sleep. It was heaven. Now I have a comfy cup of hot tea, yummy yogurt from Thistle, the world's best dairy. I cut up some crisp apples from NYS to add a little sweetness. I'm all tucked in to watch P&P, one of my favorite sick day comforts. I'm watching the A&E version which should never be confused with the horrid movie version with Keira Knightly.

So it's more rest and relaxation for me. Still coughing a bit but I'm mending. What a relief. You forget how good it is to be healthy until it isn't there. I'm so lucky to have good friends and coworkers helping me out.

Health Insurance Companies SUCK!

I started working at Margert back in September. They go through the Brooklyn Diocese for their health insurance and benefits. I've been bugging them for my health insurance card for months. I decided to pay out of pocket for my flu shot since luckily that was only $25. Of course Mt. Sinai sent me an additional bill for $70 for some mythical 'vaccine' which I contested and they said they would remove from my account. We'll see if that happens. Are the hospitals and insurance companies always trying to out-fuck each other with billing and denial claims? I wonder.

So I've been calling the Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield number for weeks. Back in October they claimed I wasn't in their system; to talk to my HR person. She called the Diocese and their insurance broker said they didn't accept the fax she sent in, they only took mailed forms - ARGH! Why hadn't anyone called about this change in policy. So my co-worker mailed in in back in mid to late October. I was in training for about three weeks and didn't get sick. Then I felt sick last Thursday and called; still no record of me in their system. WTF! Monday I returned to the office and talked with my co-worker who called her person, the insurance broker, who said she had me in her system, MetLife I believe, but Empire just must be slow in putting me into their system.

I've been sick since Thursday, taking illegal amoxicillan I got in Mexico as a backup. I think the drugs help a little by stopping the fever and muscle aches I had back on Friday and Saturday but the lung congestion and phlegm are all still there and I'm suffering BADLY.

So I call Empire again and all they have me down for is dental! WTF? I need medical NOW! They tell me to contact the insurance broker. My coworker calls her person and connects me. The woman is a ball of excuses! First it was her claiming it was our fault for getting the forms to her late. WTF? I told her we faxed the forms and wasn't told that their policy had changed to not accept faxed materials; that she really should not use that as an excuse for bad processing on their part. I told her I found it unprofessional for her to be putting this back on us as if it were our fault. It was their responsibility to tell us proper procedure to apply for a new addition to the health benefits and someone, ANYONE, should have called to tell out staff that when the received the faxed application and decided to ignore the application on procedural grounds; why wait for us to figure out they weren't processing anything, have us call, and then they tell us, "Oh, we don't take faxed applications." Money! Why tell someone they aren't in the system if not telling them gives them another month or more where they don't have to cover someone. ARGH! She was not going to bend or even recognize the anomaly where she had my information, Empire had me down for dental, so what happened to the medical coverage? Two other employees had to wait three months to get their Empire health coverage cards. I find this unacceptable and rather fishy. They get away with three months of not having to pay any health coverage while taking premiums. It's all to conveniently lined up to help them and their pocketbooks while I have a chest full of congested mucus, coughing fits, and a whole host of related health problems that I should really see a doctor for!!! The US health care system is sooooooo fucked up.

So I go to work. Can't afford to take vacation. Trying not the make my coworkers sick. I want to nap under my desk. This is a great fucking system we have and I don't even have to worry about a sick kid.

Sickie Blues

My frickin' lungs. I really need them and sometimes they consipre against me and create mahem, and joint pain, and night sweats, and congestion. Or maybe the congestion is causing the lung gunk. Whatever, I'm sick and metally drained and an emotional mess. Stayed home sick. As a new blue collar worker who clocks in with an electronic timecard not too different than Fred Flintstone, I need to call in and worry about if I accrued enough sick time hours for this. So stressful and demeaning. Slept almost all day. Popped in my sickie favorite, Sense and Sensibility 2008 tape. Slept through most of it. Made a Fariway run around 9pm for juice and grapefruit. Now I hate citrus; reminds me of being sick. Stupid insurance company still is fucking around and hasn't getten me my card. I need to see a doctor but can't afford going while not 'covered' even though I've been working since September. ARGH. It really sucks living like the majority of American's, worried about timecards, insurance, sick days, time clocks. Oh how I long to be back in the professional ranks where you may work 60-80 hr work weeks but you're paid better and never have to play the ask-the-priciple game about your time, your vacations, sick leave, hours, etc.. I am a responsible and dependable person and it is so demeaning to always have to ask permission for most everything. I'm just so drained. At least a day of sleep and cat cuddle therapy helped.

Neko Case

Oh, I love you Joey Burns! You are so unbelievably talented and watching you play is orgasmic. You wear those geeky shirts and pants, unlike those glam rockers with their stupid leather pants. I'm such a sucker for the MIT nerd look. I didn't even know Calexico was opening for Neko tonight. I must say I've only listened to about a half-dozen of their songs and now I'm hooked. I would have paid just to hear them play. Two

Silver Trees is one of my favorite songs and I should shout out to KEXP for introducing me to Calexico and Neko. Damn, there's a lot of great music out there. Now I need to pick on Feist of Wire. They did a great job weaving a variety of their songs together and the aucoustics were perfect. Kudos to the sound folks.

Damn, the fucking dumbest twenty-something girls arrive to sit next to me and ruin the feel. They are decked out in fall dresses and boots that show how hefty their calves are. Good stock if you needed breeders. They proceeded to talk VERY LOUDLY over Claexico's music the ENTIRE TIME!! Any break they had in the vapid conversations about guys and parties was to check their phones for text messages. ARGH! Can't anyone just enjoy being in the NOW!!!! I tried to tune them out but they were so fucking loud! Right next to me. I made sure to cough in their direction every chance I could.

Neko took the stage with her supporting band around 9 pm. The stage design was stupid and reminded my how much I hated Lilith Fair

crap even if I liked the music. Earthy tree and owl sketch image tapestries bordered the stage with a film screen center behind the band. The films would show typical strange David Lynch compositions - pigeons eating, highways, carnival lights, a model building glowing from the inside. I had no idea how they related to the songs except for the tiger and tornado ones.

She came on stage wearing a wonderful red satin silk dress. Comments abound - cougar, lynx, pre-menopause jokes. She was good with the banter. Overall I found the sets too focused on Fox Confessor and Middle Cyclone stuff. I miss the old songs from Furnace Room Lullaby and The Virginian but I guess her younger followers can't enjoy the more classic country elements of her early work :( So sadly the texture and movement between songs seemed monotonistic since she didn't pull from a full range of her work. She did do a nice job pulling in some talents like Joey Burns and Martha Wainwright. Then she had to go and play Don't Forget Me and I just lost it, crying like a stupid idiot all over a lost love. I'm so pathetic sometimes. I sucked it up, lasted for the obligatory encore few songs, none really worthy of returning to stage but overall a good evening. At least the sound was close to perfect. With live performances, ya never know. And it's only three blocks from my home so I can't really complain about lack on great entertainment here in NYC.

Stumptown Quest

My friends in Seattle were part of Matt's new grpahics for Stumptown. I've seen some preliminary work on the comic before this week but it takes several issues before the publishers are ready and willing to distribute the work. So Stumptown was finally ready for release and I went out on the streets of NYC to find the first issue.

First stop - Forbidden Planet in Union Square. This seems to be the mecca for the younger, hipper comic crowd. Sorry, I just can't call it a graphic novel yet. So I walk in, look down teh aisle in new week's releases and can't find it. I ask the 20-something asian guy who can't seem to make eye contact with me. He heads off to the bound books section and I stop him, explain it's a new single issue. He asks what type of genre. Some sort of mystery, noir, murder type I say. Finally I just go ask the central guy behind teh raised circular desk guarded by several computers on the peripheri. He looks it up and tells me they're sold out. He suggests other stores. What stores? It's not like I frequent comic stores. He recommended Time Machine on &th and 14th or St. Mark's. I headed over to Joe's coffee to meet Lisa.

Joe's on 13th has good coffee but crappy decor and ambiance. It's all shitty aluminium faking-to-be-chrome chairs and tables with bright lighting and walls that love to bounce sound in LOUD patterns. Lisa showed up and we just headed out.

Time Machine was the throwback comic shop. It was the complete opposite of Forbidden Planet. No bound books. No plastic figureines. No costumes or paraphanial. Just comics in their little plastic covers and they were everywhere. So there are about 6 people there and Lisa and I were the only customers. You have to take a flight up one set of stairs after ringing for teh buzzer at street level. The oldest guy behind the counter seemed to be in charge. He was sold out but called three shops to find a copy - at the Midtown in Times Square. This guy was so nice but so strange as he kept turing to the gal in front of the counter, asking for the bottle of Jack Daniels. Funny when I asked him what they started with, refering to the number of Stumptowns he had, he replied, "The whole bottle." Obviously they'd been drinking a lot, there was only about an eighth of the JD left.

I left Lisa in Union Square territory and headed to 40th via the 2/3 subway. Again, Midtown was a second floor space but much larger and much cleaner to catter to the mainstream comic fan in his teens. A little less flashy, high-priced, and cool at Forbidden but definitley cleaner and less nostalgic that Time Machine. Who knew there was such diversity in the comic buying world?

So I read teh first issue on the ride home. Interesting story. I like how the main female, who does look like my friend S in Seattle, isn't a bimbette. Only one bikini clad gal is portrayed in this issue and even she looks 'normal', not like some freaked version of a woman - the comic stylized HUGE breasts, big lips, and impossibly placed clothing clinging places despite gravity physics. I thought the palate was monochrome which maybe was the intent give the underworld crime tones. While I may not care too much for the scratchier inked lines, I do like the use of locals and architecture which pulled me immediately to the Portland and Seattle Northwest areas I know so well. The story is engaging but not really grabbing me just yet. We'll see what happens next issue.

Fallen

I'm such a sucker for a gorgeous guy. I start dating, I'm all excited, which hasn't happened to me in years, and then he falls off the face of the earth. I decided after no returned email or phone calls to stop doing busy work around my place - laundry, unpacking, much-needed cleaning - and rollerbladed for the first time in YEARS.

Central Park was lovely today. Above is a great photo from a friend and while there is less green and more bare branches, there is still a lot of color. The wet leaves led to some tricky rollerblading. I only fell once on the steep downhill part of the loop up on the North section near Harlem. I tried to stop as I rolled over a $20. Two cyclist got it :( Used lots of muscles I thought were in good shape; I was wrong. Realized I need to gain some more muscle. I also realized there are too many damn people in Central Park! We need a bigger park.

I also realized that rollerblading still didn't make me forget about him. Lots of little broken hearted moments, but I know I've caused a few of those myself so none of us are blameless. Why do I get on this crazy thing called dating? Oh yeah, solo stuff sometimes sucks after awhile :p

In The Next Room

or ... The Vibrator Play

What a stupid piece of shit. I have no idea what Sarah Ruhl was thinking beyond, "Wouldn't it be funny to have a Victorian play about a vibrator?" This play clocks in at around 2 hrs and 45 min. but only has about 30 minutes of worthy material. One could have taken at least two threads in the dialogue and made them into a more substantive theme. One line longed for the missing human warmth, connection and touch in an electronic world. Another character, the black nursemaid, went on an emotional purge about losing love to find it in nurturing another. But these moments, nor any others, came to fruition in this silly and trivial treatment of repressed sexuality and ignorance of feminine power.

A silly wife wonders what her husband does for his lady clients In The Next Room of their Victorian home. She hears such noises, pleasurable she thinks. It seems her husband has turned to Mr. Edison and electricity to develop a vibrator to help woman with their hysteria and to unblock the fluid in their womb. Through this gimmick, the audience endures repetitive scenes of how to get one female character off and in the second act, a male patient. Throw in the most insane and juvenile of masturbatory humor and it all turns frightfully stupid and one-noted. Ruhl threw in race relations and classism via a black wet nurse. Then she added lesbian longing, wifely roles, love triangles, artistic temperaments, and forbidden objects. It was all too much, way too much, for one play to manage. Even the ending, which I suppose the author saw as some sort of reclaiming of the doctor's wife's sexual and personal power sadly turned into male exploitation and female domination through whining and demanding. Bleck.

Obviously I was in an audience of middle-school minded morons. Snickers abound during the discussions and dialogue mentioning sex. Two groups of folks behind us talked chattily for 5 minutes after the start of the Second Act even after two SHHHHes and final one stern "SHUT UP ALREADY." from my companion. One woman even gasped like a shocked Catholic nun at the disrobing onstage of one character, as if nudity was verboten! Ugh! I expect more from a NYC crowd. Go watch some porn and get over it.

Prime Meats

Ah, a Sunday trip out to hipsterland, otherwise known as Brooklyn. This specific foodie adventure was lead by Gwen and inspired by an article in NY Mag. After dodging the cute white couples with tick-like spawn either strapped to their bodies or being pushed in strollers, we made out way down Court St. to Prime Meats. We were there breakfast sandwich. There was about a 30 minute wait so I settled in with a wonderfully poured Greyhound - yum! Thanks bartender, you helped me handle the screaming child right behind us. On one particular unnerving high note, my handle instinctively shook my tumble resulting in my companion later wondering if I had M.S. - no, just nerve rattles set off by the shrill of unhappy children forced to suffer confinement in a nice restaurant when sunshine and the outdoor beckon.

We got our seats and ordered the sandwich and a red cabbage salad. The sandwich does not come like shown above, like most food. The biscuit was the best I've had in the city - wonderfully firm yet mildly light with the perfect moisture and light crunch outer crust. DEVINE! But scrambled eggs don't work as well with this particularly when slightly overcooked. The bacon was thick-cut but barely enough on there to even be considered a whole slice. They even skimped on the cheddar cheese which almost was indiscernible in the mix. The salad was flavorless and oily; I had to add lots of pepper to bring in an edge to cut the sharp oil & vinegar coating. But the biscuits - I'd come back for those!