less quiet on the eastern front.

if you've been keeping up with the weather, you might know that at this particular moment, crews in new york are preparing to build a legion of arks to deliver us from what is about to become a flooded washout of a city; we may be an island nation off the coast of the united states, but too many more nights of rain like that and we will be headed off to sea in no time at all. despite the horror that has been the weather of the last few days, i was not deterred in my course last night to engage in a much needed and long overdue ritual: girly movie cookie night. never mind the fact that one of the girls is a boy and that ice cream had to stand in for homemade cookies: we had romy and michele; we had the fab five, and we had each other. and i know we've seen romy and michele, like, thirty six times, but i never get tired of making fun of it.*

one thing i will say about last night's storm, though: killer lightning. really spectacular--i could see it with my eyes closed. i got off the subway nanoseconds before midnight and during a lull in the storm; i was met halfway by my delicious escort, and we scooted inside just moments before the heavens really opened up again, resulting in the loveliest light and sound show imaginable from the safety of our cozy bed.

in other news, i am inching ever closer towards the acquisition of my UK passport. after nearly two years of grousing and fretting and being confused (and, more specifically, waiting on my father to follow up on his promise to look in to what happened to my initial application), i have decided to take matters into my own hands. and oh, the mysteries and wonders of bureacracy i have found. i have spent the last couple weeks tracking down my birth certificate, my father's birth certificate, my parents' marriage certificate, all kinds of craziness. and, miracle of miracles, i've actually obtained most of it. the only document remaining that's going to potentially cause me trauma is something called the 'marriage declaration,' which both my parents need to sign. never mind the fact that they're no longer married. discovering this fact very nearly made me shriek loudly in frustration right in the middle of my office--due to the fact that one of the necessary signing parties is in CHINA and the other is on the opposite side of the country. not insurmountable, but knowing my mother's post office habits and my father's general tendency to file me under "to address later", i was distraught at the notion of how much this one piece of paper was going to slow me down. so, imagine my surprise when i get a phone call from my father last night, telling me he'd just finished filling out and signing the form and was fedexing it to my office--so it would be here in time for my mother to sign it during her trip on the sixth. hot-motherfucking-cha. all that stands between me and a passport is the stamford connecticut town clerk and the arrival of a visitor from hong kong (don't ask).

(and yes. i know that getting a passport is a cakewalk compared to what some of you have been through in terms of taking on The Man, and probably not widely considered a monumental undertaking. but this is a journey several years in the making, one that is ending with me finally casting off the vestiges of childhood and at long last ceasing to depend on my father and taking care of the damn thing myself. finally, and against all precedent.)

and last but not least, i have a show on the 7th. at the orange bear. you should come if you're in town. email me for more details (the shiny address is in the sidebar over there)

and that's all.

*that's a quote from the movie, kids. let's not have legions of people telling me that romy and michele are fab, because i already know it.