anxiety girl loves you

the vatican in space...

2008-05-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

giving new meaning to brother from another planet, the catholic church yesterday embraced the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial life, seemingly in an effort to heal 400 year-old wounds caused by the persecution of galileo. mulder now has one more reason to get scully to believe, as it's been given the official ok from rome to acknowledge that there may be aliens out there. just don't even THINK of suggesting they evolved from fish, or you'll go straight to hell.

no, he fell, really...

2008-03-18T12:13:00.000-07:00

so what's most interesting about this story is that it does not involve political scandal; rather, it's about charlie rose's abusive relationship with the street. and his willingness to sacrifice his face for his macbook air. i recently saw one of these, and i can't say i blame him. hell, i'd fall on my face for my scratched-up, year-old macbook, no question. plus, bruises make you look badass. charlie rose, you win. ain't no one gonna mess with your tough ass at the next met gala.

the saddest thing i've read today

2008-03-12T07:44:00.000-07:00

now that spitzerwatch 2008 has reached a level of media coverage that even i find hard to palate*, i can't imagine i've got yet more to say.

this morning, the times ran a little profile of silda wall spitzer, the governor's wife. all along people have been commenting on her appearance with the soon-to-be-former governor at his press conference on monday. i'm not surprised; such is the role of a political wife. however, i'm not sure i could ever do that. while i think i'd smack him and leave if i got that news, i'm also from a long line of proud irish folk that bury emotions deep inside for the sake of a good public appearance.

i'm not sure if i applaud her or am just confused by her... but either way, i can't imagine how awful she feels. or how their daughters must feel- as if being a teenager in the public eye isn't hard enough on a good day.

but of all things, this seemed to grab me today. the times was referring to a piece last year where silda gave a tour of the spitzer abode... and it was noted that only artwork by the family or their friends was hung on the walls. one in particular was then discussed:

One multicolored drip painting, in a den that the family calls the Adirondack Room, had been signed “Spitzer Wall,” because the two of them had painted it together early in their courtship.
“Eliot and I had been to the Whitney and were looking at a Jackson Pollock, and he said, ‘I could do that,’ ” Ms. Wall Spitzer said, imitating her husband with a braggadocious tone. “So I said, ‘Let’s see you try,’ and then I helped him.”

i guess it's the tangible quality of this painting, embodying their early hopes and dreams, fun times and whatever... it just made me so sad. also because it was something i'd be likely to do or have... and so i guess it just hit me. this whole thing is pretty sad.

spitzer's politcal career is set to end in less than an hour (although you never know, marion barry came back...) but this thing will drag his family through hell for years.

*coverage is reminding me of the night billy martin died, when my father was watching the 4000 news stories in succession, only to have the rest of my family threaten to make him sleep in the garage if he didn't surrender the remote and let us watch anything else. but there was nothing else on.

yeah, it's about spitzer

2008-03-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

well, by now this thing has been beaten half to death. we don't know what's going to happen to the governor, although political analysts presume there is no going back to governor from client 9. i can't imagine what more can be said about this scandal, but i guess i have a few comments on the situation.

1) last night, on one of the 4000 roundtable discussions on New York 1, someone, i forget who, pointed to the failure of spitzer's aides to keep him out of this situation. now, i am the first to say that any politician is only as good as his best staff member, but if you need an aide to remind you TO REFRAIN FROM DOING ANYTHING ILLEGAL WHILE HOLDING PUBLIC OFFICE... well, maybe politics isn't the right career choice for you. i'm not quite sure what a good career for those unable to discern illegal behavior from legal behavior might be, but i know what isn't: governor*.

2) shut up, wall street douches. no one wants to see your smugness. just because spitzer did something wrong doesn't mean that all of his prosecutions were invalid. it's a real shame, as many of his actual achievements will be filed deep below the client 9 jokes in the history of new york state.

3) is anyone else surprised that the spitzers live in a crummy modern building? i always pictured them as pre-war types. this is more of a letdown than i'd initially figured.

4) "importantly" is still an improper use of the word, i don't care how much you've hurt your family or that the times has reluctantly accepted its usage, it's poor form... and now we can all see that poor grammar evidently leads to a life of crime and the frequenting of prostitutes.

i guess this can be a lesson to us all... the higher your horse, the harder you hit the ground when you fall. mr. spitzer, you steamrolled yourself. (and i was so hoping it would be bruno that was crushed...)

*unless, of course, one is governor of connecticut, where scandal is likely listed in the job description.

extra motivation, coming right up

2008-02-26T15:30:00.001-08:00

i have gotten really really slack with going to the gym lately- twice a week is my max, when i even make that. it's so cold, i'm so tired, etc. while some of my excuses have been valid - wisdom teeth, sickness- the most oft used one is sheer laziness.

i read about a site called stickk.com (corrected, thanks matt!) which lets you set contracts with yourself to achieve your goals. i set up my own contract to exercise three times a week for twelve weeks, and pledged $5 a week to get it done. if i don't go to the gym three times in one week, $5 bucks goes to a charity of stikk.com's choosing. so either i get in better shape, or some orphans get some cash at the end of the 12 weeks. everybody wins! i think. unless i become a skinny orphan hater.

happy valentines day!

2008-02-14T08:07:00.000-08:00

hello reader(s)! i hope you're all having a great day- i don't like the idea of valentines day as a romantic holiday. i think it's kind of stupid. i like to show my bf i love him everyday, and vice versa. i guess i just hate being told that i'm supposed to be all romantic and stupid on this day more than others. that being said, i'm still having a little dinner and movie date this evening. i can't completely ignore tradition (i'm only partially dead inside).

however, what i feel is more important about today is the opportunity to show little bits of love and kindness to people. so every year i try to make little cookies or goodie bags to give to people and brighten their day. if you worked with me, you'd have some cookies and a valentine now. since you probably don't, please accept my virtual good tidings.

in trying to figure out why hallmark says i should be (more) in love today, i did some research, and it turns out that the first references to valentines day as a smooch-fest date to Chaucer's writings sometime in the 1300s. Ophelia also got just that much more mad over the day, referring to it in Hamlet. but until the 1840s, it was pretty much card and rose free. then everything went straight to tree-killing hell.

but, on the bright side, the catholic church used to recognize 11 separate st. valentines... this could happen to us every month. maybe hallmark simply rescued us.

happy valentines day!

xo,

anxiety girl

erin go bagless

2008-02-05T07:07:00.000-08:00

the new york times recently featured an article on ireland's plastic bag tax, and the changing popular opinion of plastic bags (icky). there's plans on tap to also tax atm receipts and gum. amazing! now, just see what you can do about being the most car dependent country in europe.

read the article here.

anxiety girl loves spicy lasagna

2008-01-27T19:46:00.000-08:00

this weekend, taybin and i made the most glorious lasagna. normally, my kitchen adventures are not something i can brag about, but this just came out so amazing, i have to share.

i found a recipe online which we slightly modified, creating what i would like to call from now on "kat + taybin's amazing spicy turkey lasagna".

kat + taybin's amazing spicy turkey lasagna!
(serves about 8)
ingredients:
1 small onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 pkg (roughly 16 oz.) ground turkey
one 6-oz. can of tomato paste
two 8-oz. cans of tomato sauce
one can crushed tomatoes (i can't remember what oz. we used, but it was the same size as the average vegetable can.)
approx. 2 cups fresh spinach, chopped and shredded
1/4 cup dry red wine (we used flavio primitivo, bc it's a personal favorite, and a good wine at about $10 a bottle.)
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 1/2 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. red pepper flakes (i actually used almost 2 tsp, and it wasn't too spicy, more like tangy... so this is a matter of taste)
1 pkg. (12 pieces) lasagna noodles (i wanted to use whole wheat, but couldn't find them. we used no-boil noodles, and they were awesome).
1 pkg. shredded mozzarella cheese
15 oz. ricotta cheese
1 egg

directions:
preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
heat the olive oil in a skillet, add the chopped onions and mince the garlic into the pan. sautee lightly until the onions are transluscent and your kitchen is getting wonderfully stinky, then add the turkey, and cook until the turkey is brown and fully cooked (ie, salmonella free. can't be too careful).
take a large saucepan, and add one can of the tomato sauce, the can of crushed tomatoes and the can of tomato paste. with the saucepan over a low flame, add the wine, vinegar, oregano and red pepper. add in the spinach to taste (remember, spinach holds a lot of moisture, so putting in too much can give you a runny lasagna, which has happened to me several times. we used about a cup and a half of the spinach, and it was damn-near perfect). let it heat a bit, stirring the whole time. after about 5 minutes or so, add the cooked turkey and onion mix (carefully, and remember to drain out the icky oil from the pan). heat it some more, maybe another 5 minutes.
slightly beat the egg and add it to the ricotta cheese.
take a large casserole dish, and layer as follows:
one layer meat sauce
one layer noodles
one layer cheese
meat
noodles
cheese
meat
noodles

pour the remaining can of tomato sauce over the top layer of noodles, then top with mozzarella cheese. if you like cheese, throw on the whole bag, if not, use your judgement. we were conservative.

the original recipe i found called for 40 minutes of bake time, but we used a ridiculously large pan, and only needed 25 minutes in the oven.

we didn't make enough sauce to hold some in reserve. you may want to make a little extra in case the lasagna gets dry, although adding the spinach does help with the moisture. it's also really tasty, so having a little extra on hand for the week is probably not a bad idea.

we ate this while drinking the rest of the wine, and were asleep approximately 45 minutes after clearing our plates. and then we ate some more today. all in all, a perfect two-day meal.

bon appetit!

reason # 4764 why i think ed koch is dope

2008-01-22T14:51:00.000-08:00

“David Dinkins and I are lucky that Rudy didn’t cast our portraits onto a bonfire along with the First Amendment, which he enjoyed violating daily,” Mr. Koch said in a recent interview.

above is an exerpt from an article in the New York Times about the vindictive, petty nature of rudy giuliani. (portraits of koch and dinkins were removed from the blue room at city hall after they had the gall to call giuliani on some whacked out thing or another that he'd done.) having lived through his facist and inane regime, i can't imagine a country with this lunatic as our leader. just saying.

IBZs 4eva?

2008-01-05T08:48:00.000-08:00

hey reader(s)! happy 2008! i've been away on a craft blitz, and am taking a wee break from the sewing machine to present an issue of constant concern to me, the fate of industrial businesses.

back in 2003, when i was in planning school, my economic development class was paid a visit by the head of the Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation. aside from being pleasantly surprised that she was so cool (dressed in leopard print and promoting her band- back then i thought all economists were stodgy a la greenspan) i remember asking her if she thought that the brooklyn army terminal and the sunset park industrial area (where over 20,000 people are employed in the manufacturing sector) would face growing real estate pressure for residential conversion in the coming years. she said no, stating the gowanus expressway cut the terminal off from the rest of the neighborhood, making the area less tasty to developers. however, as i drive through sunset park these days and notice the south park slope gentri-sprawl, and think of things like the hotel jolie built practically on the gowanus in the 'burg, i can't help but wonder how long it will take for those prime industrial lofts to become prime residential space, with the gowanus a less daunting deterrent. i then remembered that for now, those lofts are protected as industrial space by inclusion in one of the city's sixteen industrial business zones (IBZs). An IBZ is a mechanism of the mayor's office for industrial and manufacturing businesses that provides business assistance and tax credits, as well as the promise of "real estate certainty." this promise states that the bloomberg administration will not support any rezonings of industrial properties within an IBZ for residential use, which would be necessary to turn the army terminal into apartments. well, phew, i thought... until i realized the wording of the promise only states that the current administration will not support rezonings to residential use; they are not in any way prohibited. of course, legislation prohibiting rezonings of any kind could easily be considered a taking*, so i can see why the law would be vaguely written. however, with the coming 2009 mayoral race about to heat up, it will be important to see which candidate looks to support the remaining industrial base, and the IBZs. so as the platforms start to roll out in the coming weeks, it's an issue to track.

* an act of the government depriving a citizen of private property without just compensation; the term also covers the act of depriving an owner of the right to a reasonable return on his property.

happy birthday, little flower

2007-12-11T12:27:00.000-08:00

today is the 125th anniversary of the birth of Fiorello LaGuardia, the mayor of new york city from 1934-1945. his name is recognizable to most new yorkers, if for nothing more than his namesake airport. taken for granted by most of us as that small little place where you can only get a domestic flight, before LaGuardia (the man) worked to get LaGuardia (the airport) built, all flights to new york actually landed in newark (new jersey). which is fine for something stupid like football, but you can't very well tell someone they're going to new york, and dump them in newark, now can you? not if LaGuardia was in charge. *

known as the "little flower" due to both the literal translation of his first name from italian and his diminutive stature (quite commonplace in politics, you contemplate the significance), LaGuardia was one of only 3 mayors to serve three terms**. he was known as a mayor who -gasp- put the interests of the city against those of politics. he was known to demand excellence of civil servants, frequently dropping into agencies unannounced (sound familiar?). LaGuardia's public works programs -administered by robert moses, then parks commissioner-employed thousands during the great depression and gave us 10 magnificent public pools(including the pool-turned-stage-soon-to-be- pool-again, mccarren pool), which have recently been landmarked.

in short, LaGuardia = pretty awesome. today has been named Fiorello H. LaGuardia day in his honor. while it's unlikely you'll be able to go for a swim or take a domestic flight today, maybe just take a moment to thank silently the man who ensured you could do that without leaving the 5 boroughs. oh, and be thankful that you no longer have to go to newark to reach new york.

* upon buying a plane ticket to new york and landing in newark, LaGuardia actually demanded to be taken to new york, the plane was diverted to floyd bennett field.

**term limits, enacted in the 1990s, prevent NYC political types from serving more than 2 terms. these limits will also see 4 borough presidents and all city-wide offices (mayor, comptroller, public advocate) posts vacant in 2009. hold on to your hats, kids, it's gonna be wild.

old bags

2007-12-06T07:21:00.000-08:00

no, this actually isn't a post about my fast approaching birthday, but rather the complete nonsense surrounding plastic bags in the city council and albany at the moment.

plastic bags are a problem, period. the amount of time a plastic bag takes to decompose ranges from 20 to 1000 years. yes, 1000 years. and they are the #1 item of trash fishermen find at sea, frequently in the bellies of animals who have eaten them and died. i even saw a sea otter at the brooklyn aquarium cuddling a plastic bag like a toy the last time i was there. it's time to curb the usage of these bags.

in 2002, ireland imposed a 15-cent tax on plastic bags in an effort to reduce litter. people were pissed, to be sure, but soon learned to live with it. and to avoid paying 15 cents, people use reusable cloth totes, cardboard boxes available for free at the store, or sometimes, as my mother is prone to do upon forgetting reusable plastic bags or her tote, wrap groceries in their sweaters or outerwear (AFTER paying for them, natch). it's reduced plastic bag consumption over 90%, and in the first year generated 9.6 million dollars (USD) which were put toward government environmental projects.

forgive me if a fail to see a downside.

now, the city council, god bless em, has introduced a bill requiring stores over a certain size to have in-store bag recycling receptacles and sell reusable bags. that's a great idea. so is the idea of providing tax incentives to business who do stop with the plastic. but the consumption is not going to go down until it hits the consumer where it counts.

giving a 10-cent credit to those who use reusable bags? it doesn't work. wholefoods already does this, and on my last trip there, i was the only person i saw with a cloth tote (depite all the hubbub over those "i'm not a plastic bag" bags that all the fashionistas promptly started using as purses, carried with plastic grocery bags). in wholefoods, the epicenter of liberal grocery shopping, plastic is still king. now, if there had been a 10-cent charge on those plastic bags, you bet your ass i would've been surrounded by cloth totes.

in the sun article comments section, a woman comments that this will kill shoppers and penalize the poor. not really. maybe i'm a little naive or maybe harsh, but a solidly constructed cloth tote can be purchased for $4 or less, and reused over and over again. they're even more comfortable to carry than plastic. maybe i'm wrong, but i don't think this is a big deal. maybe there can be a cloth tote allowance in a wic benefit to counteract the cost, taken from the tax revenue. hell, i'll start a cloth-tote-drive-for-the-needy myself.

i'm not free of guilt in this, i use plastic when i forget my tote, but if it cost me an extra dollar or so every time i went, i'd be sure to remember the tote, or make alternate arrangements.

so in closing, i call for a brave legislator to put a "tax on plastic bags" bill together (the details, of course, are up to you, chosen one), stand by it, fuck the plastic bag lobby, get it passed and help save the earth.

xo,

anxiety girl

oh no she didn't!

2007-12-05T07:49:00.001-08:00

as a member of a gym, i've seen some pretty gross stuff in the locker room. but this was just gross and odd... and puzzling... and disgusting.

this morning when i was dressing, i noticed a strange woman really methodically folding her sweatpants. as though the sweatpants were not going into her stinky gym bag, but on display in a high-end boutique. she was folding the same pair for at least 5 minutes.

noting that as odd, i continued to dress and moved over to the blowdryers to dry my hair. sweatpants lady followed a few seconds later... odd again as i noticed her hair was dry. hmm.

she then proceeded to turn the blowdryer on and blowdry her socks. this was making me a little queasy, i'll admit, as the odor of hot wet sock started to fill the alcove. i decided to just hurry along my morning routine and get out of there... but i wasn't fast enough. i noticed that the blowdryer sounded a bit muffled, and curious, i turned to look at sweatpants lady... and saw that she had actually inserted the mouth of the blowdryer into one of the socks... filtering hot air through the nasty collection of foot sweat.

wow. christ. this wasn't really as bad as the time i saw a different lady stick a blowdryer in her pants to dry her plumber crack... but somehow it was infinitely more disturbing to think of all the foot bacteria being heated and disseminated through the already hot moist air.

bottom line is: from now on, i bring my own blowdryer. i can't even imagine where those things have been when i haven't been looking.

*shudder*

holiday cheer

2007-12-04T06:28:00.001-08:00

this morning on the subway platform, there were two women waiting for the train with a crapload of shopping bags containing wrapped gifts. one of the bags fell over, and presents tumbled to the tracks. like the rest of the commuters on the platform, i stared helplessly (and very likely open-mouthed) at the ladies and their bags, to see how this would play out. woman A panicked, and then woman B told her to go upstairs and tell the train agent. as woman A ran up the stairs, a man came up from behind woman B, took a cursory glance downtrack, and jumped onto the tracks. he retrieved the presents a little slowly- for effect perhaps- (as i bit my finger in terror that the train would come and squash the presents and the good samaritan) and then jumped back onto the platform, cool as a cucumber. he waved to woman B as she started gushing thanks, and went back to his original spot on the platform, like the whole thing was nothing more than his average morning routine. by the time woman A returned from her seemingly futile trip to the token booth, the train had arrived and the man waved a slightly dismissive "it was nothing" gesture to a clearly amazed and grateful woman A. if it weren't for the arrival of the train, i would have had no choice but to initiate the slow-clap staple of 80s movie fame.

it's good to know that both chivalry and the holiday spirit aren't dead... at least not in bay ridge.

hope that guy has an awesome day.

contest: tell me what this building is saying!

2007-11-07T12:40:00.000-08:00

this building in lower manhattan (somewhere in the place where the lower east side becomes chinatown, or vice versa) caught my eye due to its uncanny resemblance to those old fashioned computer punch cards. you know, the ones that used to tell the computer what to do?

so my question is, if this building is a code, what is it saying?

prizes for best guess!*

*disclaimer: judging is arbitrary and based on what makes anxiety girl laugh hardest. prizes may not actually exist.

happy election day, dumbass.

2007-11-06T09:04:00.000-08:00

this is, in fact, the least happy election day for me since 2004, as it's my first one back in the private sector. election day is one of those random city holidays that's always midweek (tuesday, in fact, when holidays should never be), and sort of comes up by surprise. today, however, i join the privately employed masses back in the office. at least there will be no calls from city agencies.

but i digress. today's the day where you get to go out and perform your civic duty, and vote. it's expected that voter turnout will be spectacularly low this year, as most elections are local and largely uncontested. with the exception of the staten island district attorney race*, i haven't heard a peep about any of the other elections around the city or state.

i suppose in a year where there is so little electoral content to analyze, the pundits turn to the habits of voters, who are turning out less and less in america. perusing through the theories on the freakonomics blog, i found this comment, in a completely unrelated story.

It would be interesting to see online voting tied into social networking.
It would decrease barriers to voting, while also increasing the social benefit of voting. I’d vote so that I could have an “I Voted” picture on my “facebook” “myspace” or “linkedin” page. — Posted by [name withheld by anxiety girl, as she is about to be incredulous]

um, ok. well, i have to apologize, because everything in my head just turned to white noise as all the thoughts i had tried to get out at once. but now i'm back. and well, wow.
can someone please explain to me the "barriers" to voting? i mean, sure, it's a pain in the ass sometimes, but takes about 4 minutes (there's usually no one else in line, unless it's a presidential election, when at best 65% of the registered voters in your district might show up) and those little lever machines are flipping awesome. (get it? ha.) unless you live in one of those poor urban districts which the republicans seem to always get into and muck up the process somehow, it's a pretty barrier-free operation. do i vote as often as i log into myspace? well, no. but if i were allowed to post a snarky bulletin on the voting booth, i might be so inclined.
and on the topic of myspace, and her bastard stepchildren facebook and linkedin... yes, well, name withheld, that glitter voting logo certainly is a good reason to vote. i am most certain that people who value a decoration for a myspace page higher than the actual public policy ramifications of the action of voting are definitely going to vote wisely. i can see it now: "i voted... for tila tequila!" her open door trade policies are completely amazing.
this year i won't be getting the glitter voting logo, and will have to settle for maybe just a glitter calvin pissing on a chevy logo, as i never registered to vote in brooklyn. as much as i love to smugly do my civic duty and follow all the rules, i have absolutely no interest in staten island politics this year. i'm saving up all my excitement for the big election... that's right: the 2009 citywide/mayoral elections!!! (i'm crossing my fingers for the first lady mayor: chris quinn would so kick tila tequila's ass, even if we do switch to an all myspace-based policy think tank. ok, maybe not then. unless she really took her page up a notch. i can help her.)
what? is there another big election coming up i should think about?

ps- if you do decide to vote today, you can read this first.

* anxiety girl has refrained from comment on this issue. in some ways, it's just too easy. and kind of sad, actually.

and the winner is: the B63!

2007-11-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

my fifth avenue bus is a winner! ok, well, kind of- it received honorable mention for the pokey award, handed out by the straphangers' campaign for slowest bus service. it's not the slowest bus in the city, but it is the slowest bus in brooklyn, clocking in at an average speed of 4.9 mph. that doesn't sound quite so bad, till you figure, as the post did yesterday, that the speed of the average chicken is 9mph. that's right- almost twice as fast as the B63.

however, given the limited reliablilty of the R train after 11pm, i decided to test the B63 the other night returning to bay ridge from a show in park slope. my friend dola, leaving at the exact same time, took the R train. it should be noted at this time, that in a ridiculous display of good luck, the R train arrived just as dola entered the union street station, leaving his travel time at just over 20 minutes, total. i've waited more than 30 minutes for that stupid train after dark, which is why i like the bus in the first place.

meanwhile, on the sidewalk of 5th avenue, the scheduled 11.38 bus did not arrive. i got on a bus at 11.49, arriving home at 12.20-something. leaving my full travel time at approximately 50 minutes. next time, i'll just hail a chicken.

above: chicken expresses shock at learning he is faster than an NYC bus.

happy halloween!

2007-10-31T14:07:00.000-07:00

warmest wishes for a happy and safe holiday to all (2) of my readers! i hope someone loves you enough to have made you a super costume like this one and take you trick or treating. unless you're a sex offender, in which case you'll be locked in the house. because nobody wants your tricks or your treats.

oh, and if you want to do something really scary today, go to whole foods in union square and wait on the massive lines of people and their antsy, costumed kids (and a bunch of over-hyper, drunk-at-lunch nyu freshmen awaiting the start of the halloween parade). that's some frightening stuff.

xo,
[spooky frightening] anxiety girl

what up, G?

2007-10-25T07:47:00.000-07:00

holy crap! first off, great job, mta, in keeping that smith/9th street news* from the public till it went to the press.

but, ready for some better news? the g train is being extended to church street! think about it- now, thousands of western brooklyn residents can descend upon the nabes of williamsburg, greenpoint, and long island city- without ever going to manhattan!

the g, the saddest train of all- it's short, unreliable, and the color of pea soup- pretty much connects some of the trendiest emerging enclaves in the city: red hook, williamsburg, lic, gpoint, etc. and in between is the long established carroll gardens. and soon (ok, conservative estimate= 2010), anxiety girl can get to all of these places from bay ridge- with only ONE TRANSFER! of course, no one will be able to get to or from smith/9th station, but hey, it's not like you'll need to go there to get the G anymore!

all aboard the G(entrification) train!

*this news, of course, being that the smith/9th street station will be closed for up to a year for major rehab work to the viaduct over the gowanus that is more dangerous than an illegal queens loft.

joe torre rejects shitty job offer, world stands still

2007-10-19T07:27:00.000-07:00

well, maybe not the whole world, but at least the world within a 12-mile radius of yankee stadium appears to be in some kind of post-traumatic shock coma. new york 1, the predictably repetitive cable news channel, was, as of 2 am this morning, only covering this story and the eviction of a bunch of tenants from a CLEARLY ILLEGAL "residential" loft building in ridgewood, queens. (which, fyi, is located just north of bushwick, in case you, like me, have no idea where the fuck ridgewood is. i'll save you the trip to the map.) surprisingly, given my interests in land use and admitted lack of knowledge of or interest in baseball, i'm going to comment on the former, and not the latter. i'm not even going to mention how effed up it is that NY1 decided to ignore entirely the suicide bombing in pakistan. i mean, only 130 people died. come on people, joe torre turned down a job! a job that WILL UNDOUBTEDLY SUCK.

seriously, is anyone really so surprised here? the man has been the whipping boy of a lunatic and his whims for how many years? i don't even follow baseball, and every year around this time, there are "will joe torre get to keep his job?" stories dominating every NYC newscast for at least a month, to the point where i even notice them. i'm so shocked that he didn't jump at the offer to take a paycut to continue to be abused and have job security waver like britney spears' committment to her children. there can only be so much glory in working for the yankees. i mean, is it worth it?

i'll admit, i actually have no idea what joe torre does. i know that even the "cut" pay is a little ridiculous for a man to earn to do whatever it is he does to facilitate a bunch of grown men to play a child's game. but to hear that he's not taking that job again? not surprised.

christ. get real, people. this kind of isn't news at all.

if you'd like to learn more about joe torre or read some informed commentary on the situation, please visit my friend super-extra. if you'd like to find out about some news actually affecting the course of world events, please visit the new york times. you can probably read about joe there, too.

ps- sorry for the lame, negative rant-post. my cat's sick and i've been up all night. i was either going to post this or an account of the late-night pet ER, and this seemed less negative, somehow.

xo, anxiety girl

anxiety girl poses for cheesy tourist photo, gets punched in head*.

2007-10-12T07:48:00.000-07:00

i probably deserved it, too, considering how many times i've threatened to cattle prod the tourists that clog up the streets around the empire state building.

*note: no anxiety girls were actually harmed in the taking of this photo.

anxiety girl loves santa monica

2007-10-09T21:25:00.000-07:00

yes, anxiety girl loves santa monica, the beach, this video, and the man who made it. she's not too fond of the mullet that sprouted for this video, however.

hello? aspca? i'd like to report an incident of animal cruelty

2007-10-08T20:18:00.000-07:00

discovered while searching for costume patterns for humans. i think the cat looks more unhappy than mine the time i accidentally stepped on his tail. also, santa dog may maul your face off. and if you did this to him, you deserve it.

quote of the day

2007-09-28T07:23:00.000-07:00

i am reading a great book i borrowed from the bf, called cryptonomicon, by neal stephenson. it's a good read, about war and code and nerds. it's extremely intelligent and funny, which is how i like both my books and my men. but i digress. every now and then, there's a surprise comment relating to urban planning or architecture and it's not only erudite, but witty. for example, one of the main characters, stationed at military base in england in WWII, is surprised to find a building on the site that is not architecturally offensive. in describing the building, he constrasts it with the others, comparing them to the then-under-construction pentagon, calling them, "a blunt need for space unfiltered through any aesthetic or even human considerations".

brilliant! i can't wait to drop that line at work today. maybe it'll go over better than the battlestar gallactica joke i made in yesterday's meeting...

anxiety girl is a terrible blogger

2007-09-26T05:31:00.001-07:00

that's right, i'm just bad at this. i realized it's been over 2 months, and i just needed to start with something to get back in the game. it's been a really eventful and awesome two months of concerts, barbeques, bike rides, robot creation and exhausting work schedules. i swear i'll get some pics up here one day.

however, it was just that exhausting work schedule that got me to work early enough today to be caught in a little secret service action. it's odd, because if you forget about the UN being assembled (as i have, except for when i realize i need to do some fieldwork on the east river waterfront and can't get near the UN) there's little reason for anyone of importance to cross park avenue at 30th street at 8 am. which is why when you see two giant men in suits yelling in the intersection, you might assume, "gosh, the homeless are getting better dressed every day", or something similar, as your sleep deprived brain tries to assess the situation, only to then find you are not allowed to cross the street. the homeless certainly do have some power in this part of town...

i'm not one to normally get excited about politicians- my brief foray into the political realm has more than reaffirmed my previous belief that it's not all it's cracked up to be- but maybe it was something about the almost dukes-of-hazzard style way those giant agents jumped into the (still moving) police car at the front of the motorcade that made me a little tingly. what power! what grace! (ok, not really, the bigger agent kind of rolled into the back seat of the police car and struggled to sit upright kind of like a weebul for a few seconds, but still...) then the giant SUV filled with more, less brawny people waving for us peasants to stay put on the sidewalk (politely, even holding up the "just-a-sec" finger) ambled by, followed by the blackest, most secured sedan i'd ever seen bringing up the rear. which was a little boring, but you'd have to know that the actual politician or diplomat or whatever would be the most boring part of the whole event.

i almost kind of wanted to follow them to the next intersection, and watch it all happen again, as i assumed it would, all across midtown, but sadly i was just too hungry.

but it did make me realize that anxiety girl loves the secret service (or, more acurately, anxiety girl loves the one thing that may be actually able to beat midtown traffic). maybe i'll be an agent for halloween...

"you wear your pink glove every night..."

2007-07-17T18:55:00.000-07:00

no longer only a legend in my own mind, today at work the office manager for my floor brought over a young woman who'd heard i have my own pair of pink boxing gloves. yes, yes i do, i replied. but don't let my supplies fool you into thinking that i have any talent at the sport. i still think it's fun, but let's face it... i suck.
according to my instructor, who advised me to hit him "like he was billy macgillicuddy from kelly's bar in the bronx", it's pretty clear i'm about to hit him, since i pull back my arm before a strike. demonstrating the correct method, he hit me square in said pink glove, sending me recoiling halfway across the room... topping it off with a straightfaced, "come on, that didn't hurt, did it?" er, no, of course not. we're totally equally matched, you, professional ex-boxer, and me, professional sitter-on-my-asser with mild carpal tunnel. good times.
but i'm keeping at it. i'll be the next laila ali before you know it. or at least a slightly less noodle-armed version of myself.

in other self-betterment news, i've signed up for a class at make workshop, www.makeworkshop.com. looks like it's going to be awesome. i'm taking sewing I to learn how to sew properly. my mom and i sewed together a lot when i was a kid, but i never remember the correct way to do things, so i'm pretty excited. i generally hate the mass produced clothing readily available to me (this does not, repeat, does not stop me from buying these items, i just don't like them very much.) so i'm psyched to be learning how to make my own. i'll keep you posted on that, hoping it will go better than the boxing, or my ill-fated "apparel construction" class at parsons several years ago. i wrote a piece on that a while ago, i'll post it if i find it.

i've officially kicked my own ass

2007-06-28T05:47:00.000-07:00

Ever since i accidentally wandered into a boxing gym in bed stuy on a school field trip five years ago, i've wanted to box. not like, against people, as i have an intense fear of things flying at my face, but against a bag or long suffering instructor. i've taken lessons on and off for several years, and took a boxing boot camp class, which involved lots of pushups but very little hitting of anything other than air, at the Y for a while. two nights ago, i took the boxing class offered by my new gym. because i'd been in boot camp and other classes, i had a vague idea of what i was getting into, and some limited talent and knowledge of boxing. i thought i'd be fine. i've been going to the gym regularly, but it's been at least a year since i seriously boxed in any form.

it was a great class. i had a great time, even though the instructor mercilessly taunted me and my spaghetti arms. i figure you're there just as much for the ridicule as the workout. keeps you humble and all that. lots of pushups, squats, jumping jacks, and a cool circuit where you alternated bag hitting (yes!) with strength training and some instruction with the trainer. i felt amazing, if sweaty, when i left, ran a quick mile on the treadmill and went home. i was surprised to find that the next morning, i still felt ok. no stiffness or pain. well...

this morning, i could barely lift myself out of bed. seriously, my lower body is incredibly pissed at me from my knees to my waist, my abs are ridculously sore... and my spaghetti arms are cooked. i practically had to roll out of bed and start over from the floor. i'm pretty sure this means it's working.

uh, ok

2007-06-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

so last night after stopping by a lovely farewell party for the lovliest pair of my friends, matt and phil, who are moving to boston, i stopped by a party of boston area ex-pats to keep my friend lil c company. have you been to the holiday cocktail lounge on st. marks place, btw? it's great if you enjoy the smell of urine and sitting on booths made entirely of duct tape. but i digress. one of lil c's friends is in an awesome band called the hazzards, which enjoys a broad following. (of not just broads, either). so as she's leaving the bar, one of a a pair of guys yell, "hey, dukes of hazzard!" she's all, what's up, etc... she knows one of the guys, and speaks to him for a bit, while the other turns to me and declares, "i just got out of rehab!"

now, i'm a little, "out of the loop", as they say, musically, so i assume this is one of their songs or something, and respond, "yeah dude, awesome. good choice with this place to break it in." "no, really," he says, and holds his arm up in my face to show me several track marks. sweet! actually, i couldn't think of a more perfectly depressing place to undo a minimum of 28 days work and withdrawl. and they say the EV is all yuppified. i think not. as long as there's still at least one post adolescent shooting up his dad's money, the EV is forever punk rawk!

i sure hope he's either a) an nyu student, or b) living here on mommy's dime.

pedicure: $23. flip flops: $2. humiliation: priceless.

2007-06-15T15:03:00.001-07:00

today to complete my beauty/pampering lunch, i went to get a pedicure. after waiting over twice the promised five minutes for the technician, i followed the hostess to the chair, passing a bin of flip flops which were marked $1 each. since i had forgotten to bring mine, i asked the woman, "i wanted to buy flip flops, should i get them now?". "no!" she barked, "those small! big feet over there! two dollar!". thanks very much.

(above- men wear the flip flops i purchased earlier today at VIP nail)

someone get this man a speechwriter...

2007-06-14T10:26:00.000-07:00

...and get me some ice cream.

in yet another stellar example of idiocy, staten island borough president james molinaro was all over the news yesterday calling for a boycott of an ice cream called "staten island landfill". this yummy flavor is a vanilla ice cream stuffed with brownie chunks (mmm), heart shaped chocolate crunchies (mmm, and aww!) and cherries (oh god yum).

-made by a new york company called 5 boroughs ice cream, the flavor was not meant to cause any harm, says the company's founders. in an angry letter to the company, moronaro says, "I'm outraged and disgusted that you would name your Staten Island-themed ice-cream Landfill", and then called for local businesses to boycott the company. unfortunately, the borough insulted is THE ONE BOROUGH THAT DOESN'T EVEN SELL THE ICE CREAM. to add, um, more insult to this injury, the flavor has sold out all over the boroughs where it is sold, thanks to the added publicity.

the upper east side flavor, "rich white vanilla" (i'm not kidding), was met with some hesitation as well, but in the end, common sense won. "The upper East Side suffers from a stereotype, that everybody is white and everybody is wealthy," said the chairman of the neighborhood's Community Board 8, David Liston. "Having said that," Liston told the Daily News, "if the ice cream is good, I'll eat it."

the ad-wizards over at staten island borough hall then offered this compromise: how about "ferry berry"?. get it? because staten island has a ferry. and that's how you get there. moronaro also thinks that is more of an SI icon than the landfill ever was. wow. he sure is wasting his time in politics. he also noted that queens has several landfills. (take that!). hey, at least they remembered staten island, unlike rockstar games, who erased the borough from its replica of NYC in its newest grand theft auto rendition.

but, ever the helpful (if anxious) girl, i would like to offer another possible solution:

staten island guido. a neopolitan flavor featuring these guys as spokesmen. free date rape drugs and cigarette ash come with.

an open letter to the jerk who's been stealing my paper

2007-06-11T06:50:00.000-07:00

dear asshead,

please cease and desist from stealing my paper. even though the deliveryperson, despite repeated calls to the times customer service center, has continued to leave the paper on the front steps of the building, this in no way makes it yours for the taking. i'm not sure what makes you think this is ok, so i am offering the following excuses.

1. you are confused, and think you live in apartment 3A. well, i'm pretty sure you don't. i was just there this morning, and it was just me and the cat. there is no other human in residence, and not even another creature with thumbs who could enjoy perusing the times. even if you've been hiding in the closet, i apparently am already paying for your lodging, i'm not paying for your paper, too.

2. you can't understand the "3A" labeled on the paper. you think this is code for "free". hmm, well, good luck understanding the rest of the paper then. maybe it's just a fancy litter box liner to you, but it's my entertainment and news source for the day, so try stealing the stack of store flyers in the vestibule instead. you may find they suit your needs just as well.

3. you're really poor and can't afford your own paper. sorry- i'm not that much of a doormat that i will continue to subsidize that. sorry. guess what- it's online, for free. so steal some time from your workday, and stop stealing my paper.

4. you're an asshole and you don't care. this is probably the most likely explanation. as the most republican voting district this side of staten island, bay ridge is sure to have its share of assholes. (of course the two are mutually exclusive. of course.) you just invade my stoop and capture my paper for hating your freedom every morning. i can't imagine you'd enjoy the times, though, what with its lack of standard hillary bashing, racy lindsay lohan pics and front page accounts of paris' time in prison*. i recommend picking up a copy of the post at the newsstand by the subway, as i feel that would be more appropriate for you. i'll even leave a quarter on the stoop where the paper used to be, if that makes you feel better. you better not turn around and use that shit as an itemized deduction in the end though.

in closing, i appeal to your sense of basic human decency, and ask that you stop stealing my fucking paper. be a better person and buy your own.

xo, anxiety girl.

*in truth i have no idea what, if any, coverage has been given to paris in jail, as i have not recieved a paper since her incarceration.

oh, eliot!

2007-06-08T07:50:00.001-07:00

just when i thought i couldn't possibly admire the self-proclaimed "f*cking steamroller" himself any more, eliot spitzer proves me wrong. yesterday he announced his support for mayor bloomberg's congestion pricing plan, which, if approved by the state legislature, will be the first stateside application of london's successful measures to curb traffic in its core. “This is a necessary investment for the future of New York City, which is to a great extent the economic engine of New York State,” the governor said. “And so this is not really a question of whether, it’s a question of how, it’s a question of making sure that we do it properly.”

state legislation approving congestion pricing is still facing opposition from constantly contrary sheldon silver, as well as some long island republicans, who carry considerable weight in state government, despite the entire sad tangled suburban mess being little more than a vestigial tail to the state (east of the queens/brooklyn borders, that is).

state approval could lead to millions of dollars in federal aid to manage urban traffic, said us transportation secretary, mary peters, who was also present at the announcement, despite having been delayed in traffic on the FDR drive.

image courtesy of the NY Post.

the new sport i've been playing

2007-06-04T19:36:00.001-07:00

i work downtown, by city hall, and lately i've noticed that the sidewalk on broadway outside of the city hall gates has become ground zero for fresh-faced earnest young adults asking passersby for money. ostensibly part of some organization (save the whale's children, the fresh air frump, etc.) and in matching t-shirts, they show up in teams and grab the first idiot stupid enough to make eye contact to attack with their spiels. typically i frantically search in my bag for anything so as to show i am way way too busy with my important job and my important bag to stop and listen to the plight of children raised by whales. unfortunately, they seem to have multiplied exponentially since last week, as though someone has fed them after midnight. today, when making my busy show happen, i almost collided with a greenpeace guy trying to avoid the whale guy, only to get heckled by the random guy selling spa packages smack in the middle of it all. it's my own personal obstacle course, and it stands between my work prison and the R train to freedom. i don't have a plan for how to handle this all summer... perhaps one of my two readers might have a suggestion?

RIP chivalry

2007-06-01T06:33:00.000-07:00

yes, yes, this is a trite topic. however, after a particularly grueling subway ride this morning, i felt the need to comment about the attitudes and actions of men i encountered. full disclosure: i am a huge fan of the "gentleman", the guy that holds the door for you, offers to help if you're carrying huge packages, or sees you struggling with luggage on the stairs.

but i'm not asking that you throw your coat over a puddle for me, that would be ridiculous. i'm not even asking that you give up your seat for me on the train or bus or let me win in the "eyeing the seat-sitting transition" race. men have just as much right to sit as women. i am, however, asking that you not shove me out of your way to get that seat on the subway, or to get off the train five seconds faster. that's just rude. this little dude actually made me stumble today when he was in such a rush to head to the steaming chambers street station that he literally pushed me from the side into the coffee pot i had between my feet. there's no need for that. and while i'm ranting, for the love of god, sit with your damn legs closed on the subway. there's no need to spread your legs open so wide that your thigh is pressed against mine in a level of intimacy that i am just not prepared for at seven am.

just a warning, the next time i'm shoved by you, a dude trying to race me to a seat, i'm might have to to make myself faint (which i am getting tons of practice in doing these days) so you look like a huge ass jerk to the entire car. be warned.

even though i take a ton of crap at my job, a bullet has yet to be among said crap

2007-05-31T08:21:00.000-07:00

apparently a wendy's manager in miami was shot yesterday for refusing to give a customer an excessive amount of chili sauce packets. even though the customer had bargained his way up from the store limit of three packets to a rather generous 10, he continued to demand more packets from the drive-through until the manager came out to deal with him. the manager was then shot in the arm, and the customer fled with a female passenger (whom i suspect may have been constructed from condiment packets in order to let the customer use the carpool lane. just a theory.) said the manager to the associated press: "I got shot over chili sauce. I was trying to figure while in the hospital why someone would shoot me over some chili sauce." word.

even though i've had to deal with some pretty agitated constituents in my time, no one has shot me yet. although that dog run debate is heating up, so i'm just going to fill my desk with sauce packets, just to stay on the safe side.

things i can't wait to do

2007-05-30T07:51:00.001-07:00

1. see this movie: the radiant city (check it out some more at www.radiantcitymovie.com)

as i am both a huge nerd and an urban planner, as well as a person with a good bit of "i grew up in the fucking outer-ring-middle-of-nowhere boring-ass suburban subdivision rage", this movie may well have been tailor made for me. written and directed by canadians gerry burns and jim brown, this film is aboot the lives of a few of the people lucky enough to call sprawl home. the film includes commentary by james howard kunstler, author of the fabulous "geography of nowhere" (excellent for anyone concerned about planning, the enviroment or the origins of suburban life as we know it.) as well as philosopher james heath and an urban planner, beverly sandalack, who dares to ask, "why can't we walk anywhere anymore?". good question, eh? it's playing at the pioneer theatre in the ev- which is the theatre under the pizza place. (sprawl and pizza?! i might die of excitement- be warned.)

2. go to coney island!

thanks to the development machine/steamroller that is the current city administration, this summer will be the last for coney island as we know it. which means i will be out there as much as possible from the mermaid parade to the siren fest and beyond- photographing obsessively and skipping anxiously through the glass-littered sand. thanks to massive beach cleanups in the recent years, there's a good chance i won't come out of the water a pallid grayish-green like i did last time i went in. except there will likely be glass in my foot. it's ok, i'm resigned to that. warriors, come out and play!

3. finish unpacking my home

i'm ashamed to admit this but a month after moving in, i'm still living out of boxes. i blame brooklyn though, for being so damn exciting and offering so many pleasures for a young girl such as myself to behold. i feel like my entire life is now dedicated to either working or painting shelves. shelves from ikea which then need to be wrestled into position, leaving me looking like i went a couple of rounds on american gladiator. shelves which then sit crookedly on the floor. as a friend once said to me, "ikea must be swedish for leans to one side". therefore, my poor assembly skills are clearly not to blame.

4. finish writing this entry and actually post it

i'm excellent at writing in this blog, just not so excellent at finishing and posting. so i'll leave you all here while i have the momentum to hit "publish", and before my boss catches me doing non-work-related items for the 15th time in a row.

anxiety girl DOES NOT LOVE parking tickets

2007-05-08T06:19:00.000-07:00

when i started the blog, i swore i would not make it one of those forums where i just complain all the time, giving an underlying tinge of "wah wah wah" to my posts. those kind of blogs just give me a headache (to be fair, most things give me a headache, but these in particular are like drill-bits in my eyes).

but i really, really hate parking tickets. and the reason i hate them is that when i get them, i know it's 100% my fault and could have easily been avoided had i simply paid attention or read a sign or something. they're little more than a tangible reminder of my faults, wrapped neatly in an orange envelope which cruelly clashes with the teal of my car.

today, however, i got to experience a new humiliation in parking discipline: an alternate side of the street parking ticket. alternate side is a new concept to me- staten island didn't subscribe to that nonsense (do you really need clean streets when 45% of the borough is a landfill? come on now.) here's the thing- my block and the one to the west has alternate side parking on thursday and friday. one block east, however, where i parked, is monday and tuesday. for whatever reason, i never bothered to check. maybe i assumed the whole area was thursday and friday, figuring that would make sense, you know, get it done all in one fell swoop. (note to self: whenever a city regulation "makes sense" in your head- double check, you've likely interpreted it incorrectly). maybe i thought, "who cleans streets on a monday? that would be dumb."

either way, not only did i get a parking ticket, there is also a GIANT CHARTREUSE STICKER on my car letting everyone know i completely disregarded the rules, and therefore the street could not be properly cleaned.

ack! full irish shame in effect, i tried in vain to pull the sticker off the car- everyone can't know that i broke the rules! however, without warm water and a scraper, that thing is clinging to the car for dear life. adding to my embarrassment, the 78th street retirees coffee club were gathered with their take-out cups and dogs about 50 feet from me, discussing life on the block (and undoubtedly, the harpy shrew that left her car in the wrong spot and left their block dirty!) i'm sure it was pretty amusing to watch me first try to block the neighbors' view of the sticker with my body, and then, standing there dressed for work in an unfortunately eye-catching red dress and leopard flats, try in vain for several minutes to surreptitiously remove the sticker in a failed display of nonchalance.

several minutes later, defeated by the sticker, i gave up and went to work, leaving my car to suffer in shame... on the bright side though, i totally don't have to move my car until sunday, and for $45, that's not bad.

um, does anyone have a scraper i can borrow?

finally, a post!

2007-05-05T19:58:00.000-07:00

so i created this blog at least a month ago, and had yet to post. a combination of a busier work schedule, the death of my home computer, and a move to my fifth borough of residence (with the smallest dash of complete laziness) caused me to callously ignore my newfound creative outlet. so here i am, finally. and of course, i have nothing to say.

it is nice to have a computer again. my old one had viruses so bad they were apparently reinstalling themselves as they were being uninstalled from the hard drive. also, i am now on a mac. the fancy packaging, flashy-but-not-at-all-flashy commercials, and the sweet packaging sucked me right in. so far, so good.

i wasn't planning on getting a computer this weekend, either. but after two beers this evening, my boyfriend decided he wanted an xbox 360. never one to discourage frivolous spending in others, i not only encouraged this idea, but also countered- "if you buy the xbox, i'll buy a macbook." so three hours later, here i sit blogging on my new mac while the bf shoots things fairly realistically and may or may not be playing against some korean 14-year old boy due to the free online trial. we may be the most exciting couple ever.