I'm Old.

My eyes kept wanting to close as I drove to work. I'd passed out early on the couch last night, so it must have been my persistent cold that kept me tired. As I stopped at a red light, all I could think was how I must have had huge bags under my eyes, so I flipped down the visor and slid open the mirror.

My eyes actually didn't look so tired, but my hair looked crappy. It was raining out, so of course my hair was becoming frizzy as it dried. I was about to slide the mirror closed when I caught a glimpse of something sort of shiny in my hair. I looked closer and realized that it wasn't shiny, but white. I reached up to get out what must have been a rogue feather from my feather bed but when I grasped hold of the white thing I realized that it was something much worse. It. Was. A. Grey. Hair.

I panicked and ripped it out of my head and brought it close to my face to confirm the horrible truth. When I finally grasped the fact that it was, indeed, a grey hair I panicked again. I ripped it out! Isn't that bad?! Isn't there some old saying or rule or something that says that you shouldn't pull out a grey hair because you get, like, a million back in it's place?!?! Shit.

Then someone beeped behind me, obviously irritated that the traffic light had turned green more than 5 seconds ago and I hadn't moved yet, shaking me from my silent terror and causing me to focus some of my attention on the road. The offensive hair remained in my hand the rest of the way to work. I didn't know what to do with it. I felt like if I dropped it in my car I'd lose track of it and it could attack me again at any time. My mind was racing. How do I prevent more from coming back? Maybe I should try and stick this one back in and it could act like a frightening effigy to scare off others from coming: see what you'll get if you come here? You'll be ripped out and die!!

I figured that plan probably wouldn't work though and that I'd just have to resign myself to the fact that I'm old. It's all downhill from here. Who knew that your life ended at 25? Now I'm on that slippery slope, speeding towards my worst nightmare: I'm going to wake up one day and I'll be my mother.

The offensive hair.

never a dull moment...

so i thought this would be a quiet weekend... (this is a crazy long post)

my plan for friday night was to keep it quiet and go to bed early because i had to take the NYSP test the next morning. the night did pretty much go as planned. alex and i went to delmonico's for dinner and then caught a movie at crossgates: eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. i loved that movie. it was just so, so good. jim carrey was awesomely likeable (lately, i much prefer him in serious roles because that whole wacky-off-the-wall-crazy stuff gets annoying), and kate winslet's character didn't get annoying as i feared she would. sitting there in the theater, the movie gushed from the screen and flowed over me, totally enveloping me. i realized at one point that i was sitting there watching the movie with my mouth just hanging open. it was one of the most interesting and enjoyable movies i've seen in a while. when alex and i left the theater, all we could say to each other was how great the movie was.

saturday morning i got up bright and early and showered while alex made me a power breakfast (egg beaters on 1/2 a low carb bagel with some catsup - 2 points and it keeps you full for hours) and then rushed over to the NYSP Academy to take the test. i arrived exactly at 8:30 (when the admission notice said to get there) and after i checked in, i was given a survey to fill out while i waited for the test to begin and was directed to the cafeteria. i'm very glad that i finally updated my driver's license with my new address (notified the DMV and wrote the new address in the space provided in the back) because the trooper that checked me in definitely saw that the address on my license didn't match the address on my admission notice and flipped over my license right away to see if it was updated. you're supposed to do that within ten days (oops, was a year and a half...) and it's definitely something you can get ticketed for, so i would've felt like such a tool if it wasn't updated and he'd said something to me. i waited for about an hour before the test started. the test was very easy (i don't think i missed any questions) and it took me about 45 minutes to complete it. i was one of the first people to leave the cafeteria. that didn't surprise me, though. i'm an annoyingly fast test taker.

i went back to the apartment where i found alex at work cleaning the dishes, which motivated me to do some chores: changed the sheets/made the bed, picked up clothes off the floor and cleaned the bathroom. when we were sick of cleaning, we decided to go to lunch. i convinced alex that since it was such a beautiful day (about 60 degrees and sunny) we should walk to a local restaraunt. we ended up walking by washington park on state street (which is the really nice side of the park). there were a couple of "for rent" signs and we recorded the phone numbers... hey, you never know. i want to call some of them and see how much the rent is and take a look at them. my lease is up at the end of july and i'm looking around to see what's out there. i love my apartment and might just end up staying here, but it never hurts to look. "i'll look to like, if looking likeing move." the buildings around the park (on that side of the street) are so freaking cute. i'd love to live in one of them. the only prices we saw were for studios (around $525 - $545) and there was one, one bedroom apartment that had a price on it - $800. of course, that was in a building that had a penthouse at the top that went for $2500... here's the notice that was in a window of that building:

we saw another notice in a building on state street that looked promising: a one bedroom with a view of the park that had a marble fireplace and a claw foot tub for $590/month including heat and hot water and DSL... but it wasn't on state street, it was in #5 Henry Johnson Blvd. that road connects the loveliness of state street and the park to the ghettoness of central ave. we went and looked at the building and it's just the very first building on Henry Johnson Blvd, right next to a large, beautiful building on state street, but it looked a little shabby in comparison. alex walked up and opened the front door (a little disturbing... i thought it was a secured building) and the foyer was dark and dirty looking. i was immediately turned off but alex thinks i should call the number and have a look at it. and i think i might still. it never hurts to look, right? and if it's heinous, it'll just make me appreciate my apartment that much more.

but, oh, the buildings in that area are just so lovely. they're all mostly from the late 1800's/early 1900's and they're just awesome. a few of them had interesting gateways to parking and other buildings in the rear... here are a couple of pics:





so yeah. we ate lunch at the Bleeker Cafe which is on Dove Street and then came back to the apartment, where one of us took a nap:



;)

i got a disturbing call around that time from the wham. she said that david had been in a car accident. she assured me right away that he was ok, but she wanted to know the name and location of dod's dad's shop so that the could have the van towed there. a few phone calls later she said that the van looks like it was totalled anyway, so they just had it towed to the tow yard. she said that the whole front end was wrecked and the airbags came out. i was afraid that it was going to be david's fault - he is a 17 year old boy - but thankfully it turns out that it was the other person's fault. I guess she made a left turn in front of him. from the points of impact, it looks like she just pulled right in front of him. how do you not see a large green minivan? and it happened at like 4 or 4:30 so it was still really bright outside. whatever. i guess there's really no point in getting mad at the woman. i mean, accidents happen. of course, if my shitty (my nickname for david) was hurt at all i think my opinion would be different... so yeah. it looks like she pulled out to make a left in front of him and when they hit she spun around and hit the back of the van too. here are some pics of the cars after they were towed:


The van...

Front of the van again...

Driver's side rear tire where the other car spun around and hit...

The other car....

...other car...

...other car again...

Yeah. So the trooper at the scene gave my dad a copy of the accident exchange form with both drivers' info on it (name, address, insurance company code) and a brief little description of the accident at the top (not normally on one of those forms): V1 (other lady) failed to yield the right of way to V2 (david). So it looks like the police report will reflect that. i'm not sure if the lady got ticketed... she should have, but she did ask for an ambulance and the trooper might have felt bad for her and not ticketed her. it doesn't matter though. she's still clearly at fault. i looked up the insurance company by the code for my dad and he reported the claim to her insurance company. they better treat him right.

Also, i don't know how people ever have kids and then let them do anything. after i got off the phone with the wham and she'd told me what happened and that david was ok and everything, i still cried. it was just so upsetting to think that something really horrible could have happened. ugh. i'm so glad he's ok!!!

saturday night alex and i went to the Albany Pump Station for dinner, and then met with Steve and Debbie and went to see the burners at northern lights. it was ass crowded in there. it was so crowded and hot that right in front of the stage where the largest concentration of people was, it was raining sweat. how disgusting is that?! so yeah. it was a good time, though. Dodi was there with some friends and i hung out with her for a bit. i couldn't get drunk for some reason (I think it's because of my cold), so I was the DD that night for me and alex.

today, i met beck and dodi at ruby tuesday's in crossgates for lunch, and then we went to see a sneak preview of the prince and me. it was a very sweet movie. i don't think it ended the way it was originally supposed to end (it felt like the ending was sort of slapped on after where the movie felt like it concluded) but it was still good.

and now i feel like this post lasted forever. but there's more...

i was browsing around the times union site to research cars for my dad to get to replace the van and i popped over to the "homesTU" part and started browsing through the houses for sale in the area. I stumbled across a listing for this condo on the south east side of Albany... here was the description: "ABSOLUTELY EXQUISITE,UNIQUE CONDO,2 BR/STONE QUARRY JACUZZI TUB,STONE WALL IN MASTER BEDROOM.TOTALLY ROMANTI 1 CAR GAR.COURTYARD,GATED ENTRY.SECURITY SYSTEM.GOURMET KITCHEN WHITE." The numerous typos and random grammar are annoying, but the place sounded awesome. and the building is just so unique... here's the pic from the listing:



Yeah. I fell in love with the building. but the price was $87,500, and that seemed very inexpensive for the type of place that they were describing. so i decided to go play "in search of..." and i drove down towards the south east side of albany, going down Madison Ave, peering down every side street, trying to spot that really cool circular part on the top of the building. and i actually found it right away! It's on the corner of Trinity and Westerlo (sp?), in the "mansion" neighborhood of albany (named so because the governer's mansion is in that neighborhood)... the circular part on top looks even cooler in person... like a crown on top of the building or soemthing. but the neighborhood isn't really all that great.... it's right across the street from the schuyler apartments, and they seem very nice... valet parking and doorman, so maybe it's not all that bad. but as i drove up the street there were some youths on the street who felt the need to holler at me... not very comforting. I still want to go look at it. Not like anyone would actually give me a mortgage, but it would rule, because i looked at current rates and if i got a 20 year mortgage the montly payment would be about what I pay now in rent... but yeah. it's really not like i could buy a place right now. and considering my tendancy to get itchy when i stay in one place for very long it's probably not a great idea. also, if, by some miracle, i make it into the NYSP, I could be sent anywhere in the state, so having a place that i owned probably doesn't make sense. but it's a nice fantasy!

so that's it!! no more typing for this post! thanks for hanging in there and reading it! :)