Cooler than You: Stupid Things I Say and Do

Last week was a shitter. Here are the accounts . . . 1. A friend who had made plans with me months ago, and canceled them just days before I got to NY, sent a text message asking if I wanted to go camping last weekend. I was a little rebuffed, but I initially said okay. Then her boyfriend started with comments, and I got uncomfortable. Mostly, I was uncomfortable because I could already see that their weekend was based on two people, and I would only be a third wheel. Perhaps things wouldn't have gone so badly if he hadn't posted two messages on FB that I have "no sense of adventure" and "no sense of humor." Also, note that he misspelled my name. Anyone who knows me knows I hate that shit. I know better than to ask a friend to choose, I don't do that, and I no longer allow people to treat me like that. I have no beefs with her, and I'm a bit upset that I can't talk to her anymore. The problem is I never know if her boyfriend is reading ...

I've been up on Long Island for about a week now, visiting and job hunting (yea, go figure on the latter), and several things have hit me. The first: I knew that I missed the north, but I didn't realize just how much of my identity can now be called "northern." Little things from delis, coffee shops, the style of clothes I wear, the large amounts of dark colors in my wardrobe, shoes, to just being very comfortable in the skin and soles of an urbanite and northerner. I do realize LI is the burbs, but going into the city reminded me of more than the island did/does. As for this recession . . . well, my first two days here I drove to some of my old favorite and "unfavorite" spots. I wheeled my car to Montauk, rolled down the windows, smelled the LI shore, put my feet in the sand, and rubbed my toes along the rocks. I closed my eyes as I walked along the boat docks in Montauk and remembered many a summer's day spent taking in the view and character of thi...