Halloween!

The annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade was insane. I saw stiltwalkers, ghosts, ghouls, witches, Batman, Superman, Rainbow Brite, Wonderwoman, Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion, Marilyn Monroe, Ali G, women and children dressed as Elvis, kings, queens, drag queens, a mammogram machine (insert boobs here), sexy nurses, 3 different marching bands, animal rights activists, 2 popes making out with each other, line dancing priests, a leprechaun, Highlanders, the Grim Reaper, devils, angels, Jesus, a Jew, and Fridha Kahlo's self-portrait. I highly reccomend it to the uninitiated.

(Also scroll down and look at the last picture first.)

And naked men. 

Brooklyn in da house! 

No definitely Halloween. 

Carnivale? 

Mardi Gras? 

The roof leaks...

So yeah my ceiling/ roof leaks. Monday night it started dripping down and for the next two days, I had cups and bowls collecting rusty smelly water as it dripped down onto my floor and kitchen table. It was lovely. At first I was totally freaked out and thought that the flooding would compromise the structral integrity of my apartment causing the ceiling to fall on my head, but that didn't happen. Then I thought I would come home from class to find that the sprinkler had fallen out of the ceiling and had destroyed most of my furniture in the process. That didn't happen either. After the first day I decided to embrace the situation and I listened to jazz and pretended that I live in a Parisian garret. It's going to get fixed soooometime.

Ambivalence

1) Motherhood. I never really thought about having babies until I was 17. In my AP Psych class we would watch videos about child development which would often prominently feature smiling laughing babies. I'm pretty sure every girl in my class ovulated on those mornings. I, too, wanted a baby. Not right there in first period but eventually. For several years I entertained fantasies of being a stay-at-home Mom in the West Village; raising cute children and sending them to posh private schools. Yet the closer I get to that point in my life where I will be expected to get married and have children, the less I want to do it. The world is over-populated as it is. There's global warming, disease and social unrest (and that's just Brooklyn!) Also marriage is terrifying. I don't want to hear the m-word until I'm thirty, at least. Currently in my fridge you will find tortillas, a green tea eye compress and wine. I can't take care of myself; how can I be expected to take care of anyone else?
2) Reform Judaism. The Days of Awe have just ended, and I have had my fill of schul for another year. This year I attended services at NYU. Despite the fact the liturgy of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur have remained relatively unchanged for thousands of years the sermon was a surprise. This year's Rosh Hashanah sermon centered on not feeling guilty for not being Orthodox. Of all the things I feel guilty about, this is not one of them. I am not Reform because I am lazy or want to half-ass my religion. I'm Reform because I believe that women have the right to have an equal share in the practice of their religion. I don't think that I should be forced to sit in the back behind a screen and be kept away from the Torah because I am "unclean." Yom Kippur's sermon was a little closer to my actual sins: is reading US Weekly actually committing Lashon Harah? I can't quite remember what conclusion the sermon came to, but I came to my own: making any resolutions to refrain from talking shit is futile. Especially when I was wondering where the girl sitting in front of me got her nose done.

"Got a feeling 21's going to be a good year"

Yeah and the Weekend of Vicky has only begun.

I was always jealous that my sister got to have a summer birthday. Now thanks to global warming, I have one too. Did I mention that I have AC on in OCTOBER!?

"It Ended Bad, but I love what we started."

I wrote a whole post about how much I love the new Fiona Apple record, but it gotten eaten. Suffice to say, it is amazing. I can't remember loving an album so much on the first listen. It's been on since about four this afternoon.

Tomorrow, I turn 21. I've never been terrified about a birthday before. This is the last fun birthday; the last milestone birthday. I feel like I'm no longer getting older, I'm just getting old. That's a semi-ridiculous way to feel, I know, but I've been teetering on the edge of adulthood for a while now and tomorrow I finally fall over the edge. It's sink or swim.