a long buncha days

i just dropped a knife on my foot.

seriously.

it was like it went in slow motion. i am putting away dishes ... i accidentally knock my knife strip with the cabinet door ... i slowly, slowly see my 10-inch forschner loose itself from the strip ... it knocks against the counter ... bounces off the garbage can ... and there i find myself in my kitchen with a goddamn sliced open foot.

then my phone rings. it doesn't hurt yet, and it doesn't even seem to be bleeding, so i answer.

G: hey, i have a quick question.
me: i just dropped a knife on my foot.
G: what?
me: i just dropped a knife on my foot!
G: haha, are you kidding? you are a hazard.
me: G, i just dropped a goddamn knife on my foot!!!! ohmygod! i dropped a knife on my foot! (this is at which point blood started pouring from my toe and i began to panic, in case you couldn't tell.)
G: wait, really?
me: i dropped a knife on my foot! ah! i gotta go!

it makes me extremely grumpy when i do stupid shit like this. but because i am a klutz, i do stupid shit like this all the time, and i guess i should get used to it. the last time i battled a chef's knife was when slicing avocado when B and i were going through a chili-and-avocado phase, and in the process of halving an avocado i split my index finger clear open. my finger is still a little bumpy.

sigh.

anyways. despite my annoyance at this evening, i am glad that if it had to happen, it waited until today. because this weekend was off the hizzay, in the most chill way possible. it was wonderful.

it all started thursday, when AZ said "no need to come in tomorrow, guys." yippeeeeeeee! i had a few calls and emails to make but that's why cell phones and webmail were invented, right?

right.

so instead, friday afternoon, AB, Y and C and i lounged and sipped fruit smoothies on the sundeck at chelsea piers, overlooking the hudson. it's not quite like crashing surf and a white sand beach, but tugboats against the jersey city backdrop does have its own kind of charm. and i can't imagine better company. this is also when C brainstormed her brilliant "no you didn't" website idea, coming soon to a brower near you. camera phones just took on a whole new purpose ...

saturday found me, Y and G at PS1 in long island city, where AM, SS, and a whole buncha other kids were in waiting for us. the installation this year is beatfuse! by obra architects, a clever raw plywood and white mesh that has a kind of epcot-center quality to it. i kinda dig it, but it still doesn't hold up to the bamboo installation a few years back. but it is infinity more appealing then the red plastic silver crap last year. anyways, body & soul kicked off the first warm up party, and the splendiferous house was almost too much for me to take. here's a buncha happy people, going nuts in the ps1 courtyard: it's 300 degrees, my dress is wet with sweat and i'm still smiling. something must be good: perhaps it was AM, super mad about england's loss on saturday morning but still happy about body & soul. AM is buddies with the music curator at ps1 — a ludicrous subject for another time — and hooked us up in a big way with free drinks from the VIP section, so that increased the cheer level even more. oh, AM. the day kept getting hotter and better and crowdeder ... er. more crowded? it was time to seek relief. we found it in one of the beatfuse! wading pools. ignore the color of the water. we did. and how glad we were that we did! how relieved does he look? Y looks pretty thrilled too, methinks, minus the fact that she needs a refill. AM! where you at?
we left towards the end of the party, noshed on moroccan paella at black betty, and called it a night. but wait, there are still three more days left in the weekend.

sunday. time for strong island. i'm having fantasies of daisy and jay and drinks with crushed mint. in real life, all i want to do is hang with D and family. and hang with D we do. but first, there is the LIRR. and the LIRR seems to spur very thoughtful discussion, at least for boys. case in point: AB and G. baseball or basketball? brazil or italy? standing up or sitting down? so many things to think about: we girls were a bit more goofy. and soon, we arrive to heaven on earth for slightly homesick city kids ... a backyard barbecue in what may be the perfect picture of suburbia, aka great neck, new york. this could be any sunday in any backyard on the block where i grew up. sigh. sigh. sigh. i love this picture, and if somebody's bitchass cankles weren't in the way, you could see C sitting tucked in betwen V and a new favorite person, J. oh wait. did i say cankles?

why yes, yes i did. here's our hostess extraordinaire, smiling for a few before KILLING it in a game of pig. and i mean killing. i wasn't the first out in the game, thankfully, but i wasn't even near close to the last. AB, the ambidextrous jerk, started calling all kinds of left handed shots, while V refused to take anything other than a shot from directly below the basket. they knocked me, C and Y out ... but D represented for all of womankind on the pig court, with the pinnacle moment being when her daddy, RE, saw her go for a long shot from the edge of the driveway without calling it first.

RE: D, grow some balls! call the goddamn shot.
D: (without a moment's pause) fuck you, dad. fine. no glass, no rim.

*swish*

RE: (huge smile on his face and opening his arms up for a hug) that's my girl.

needless to say, we exploded. it was the hottest thing i'd ever seen. and i don't think anybody else made it. yay, D! AB couldn't let go the rest of the game. here he is, still wondering how D made it: i think G had given up at this point. this may have been his recovery from the shock of being handed a poop-sized pine cone from C, who literally did not stop laughing for a solid 9 minutes after giving it to him. heh. my lil bunny. she's so weird. anyways. after eat eat eating burgers, steaks, hot dogs, chicken, and every bbq-appropriate side imaginable ... corn salad, cole slaw, salad, marinated veggies ... it was back on the LIRR for us kids. arriving back at penn station around 10pm, ready for sleep.

but wait. there are two more days left in the weekend.

monday. central park. my first time so far this summer. sigh. i heart central park. i still remember when i first moved to new york, with no job and no money and no anything, and every day after spending hours on mediabistro and journalismjobs and monster and sending emails to random alums from my medill directory, i would go rollerblading in the park to try and clear my mind and decompress. it was free and it was beautiful and all the freaking humanity just reminded me there was a reason to be in new york, after all. have i mentioned i heart central park?
me, Y, and G camped out in our usual spot in sheep's meadow with food, speakers, and a frisbee and chitchatted about all sorts of nonsense. soon was the arrival of my crazy bunny C, accompanied by new favorites peeps V and J. even from this distance, you can see them smiling:
now, V completely charmed me this weekend. and part of it was his glee. he and J spent the afternoon doing completely ridiculous camera tricks and playing with perspective ... and this was my special trick. i was gossiping with C and wondering what the hell G was doing to my foot, when all of a sudden she starts cracking up, and V, waving his finger around a solid three feet from my foot goes, "wait! is my finger touching the cap! is it touching the cap? now? now? to the right? now?" heh.
AG and MB arrived after a few, with AG's cousin in tow. they just arrived in the neighborhood on friday night and are partaking in the first annual south williamsburg apartment crawl this coming weekend, which features stops at some bazillion of our neighborhood cronies' apartments. yay, more neighbors! sigh. neighbors. here's my littlest one, smiling away: and then it comes the end of monday. sigh. i don't know how much better it gets than ending a day at the park with a late night movie ... especially one like wordplay. if you haven't seen it, and you have the slightest affinity for geeks and anything geeky, you must. that and a game of futbol on my sister's massive plasma screen were a perfect pair for ending the loooooong weekend. and though i was deeply, deeply wounded by the germany-italy match, i think my deep, deep love for this movie makes up for it. it was hilarious and moving and did i mention, hilarious? i quite possibly haven't laughed that hard in ages. at least, i haven't laughed that hard since V last asked, "is my finger on the cap! C? to the right? is my finger on the cap?"

tee-hee. people are so funny.