I'm not even supposed to be here today.

[offbalance]

If the weekend had gone as I had planned, I would just be re-adjusting after my flight home from St. Louis. I would be full of pictures and stories about my time with zyll, and would probably be good and exhausted.

However, thanks to the utter and complete incompetence of American Airlines, I did not get to do this.

Friday: I was supposed to have an early flight out, land in St. Louis around 10:30 or so local time, and spend the day doing various things with zyll. Perhaps it would have been World's Fair Donuts and the City Museum. We don't know.

Instead: I took the day off from work anyway, and decided to try and find a way to amuse myself. I ventured to Cobble Hill, which turned out to be a giant mistake. By the time I got there, school was letting out, and the place was teeming with everything from toddlers to teenagers. Now, I don't mind kids in very small dosage, but they were everywhere. And loud. Though I found the cutest pair of Keds known to man (seriously) for only $20, I still didn't enjoy myself. I was denied a Dashing Diva pedicure (too crowded), AND, I was run over by a stroller. The woman who ran me over thought a wide, stupid smile and a declaration of "Oopsie!" in a high voice was a sufficient apology. When my look of utter flabbergast was the only response she received, she declared that "Maybe she should step on my foot for real next time."

I know mothers who are normal and reasonable people, which is why I'm not heading off on a tirade right now. Suffice it to say, I was not a big fan of anyone under the age of 21 by the time I go through the door of my apartment, finally. Then quasisonic came home, we ordered burritos from Rachel's, and watched a big bunch of season 1 of How I Met Your Mother. That was great.

Yesterday would have been spent on more sightseeing, I wager. Perhaps a trip to a couple of the restaurants zyll mentioned, or the acquisition of a Ted Drewe's Frozen Custard. But again, seeing as how I bought a ticket on Fuckwit Airlines, this was not so.

Instead I spent the day at my parents' house. I got my allergy shot, did a tiny bit of laundry and worked on redesigner's thesis (I'm giving it the old writing center treatment). After that, an attempt was made at karaoke at a local place. My immediate company was great. The only problem was that the bar itself was overrun with a representative of just about every annoying idiot to post on newyorkers in the history of ever. In a perfect world, I would have been able to turn a fire hose on them, but alas, this is not a perfect world. They eventually annoyed us out of the place fairly early by Saturday night standards (12:30 or so), but the hostess (who was cool) assured us that Thursday nights are better. There is talk of testing this, but we shall see.

Today I should have enjoyed brunch and some last bits of the city with zyll before boarding my flight home on Gang of Morons Airlines. Obviously, I did not.

Instead I slept in, had tea with teany (how appropriate! ha!), and wandered the East Village a bit. I wound up finding a spectacular dress on sale in a little boutique on 9th street:


Mine is burgundy, though.

The beauty of buying it directly from the designer in her shop is that she insisted on letting out the lining before I took it home, at no additional charge. I was impressed, and it's good business. I would go back to that store again in a heartbeat. (And teany has a good track record with putting me in the path of unique and awesome things - it was her suggestion that we shop in NoLita a few years back that caused me to find my ubiquitous red bag - the one that was in constant use for 3+ years and is now about to fall to pieces. I have similar hopes for this dress.) We then met up with redstapler and wandered around until teany had to head off to her hair appointment. I hung around for a little bit after redstapler headed off to dinner with her folks, but I wanted to hit the grocery store before I headed home, so I went back to the slope and did that.

Today was pretty good, all told. Despite some flirtations with a dark mood at different points during the last few days, I managed to rally. I think. I hope. And tomorrow I head back to work. No sense in wasting a perfectly good day off on a day that doesn't fall between Memorial Day and Labor Day, in my opinion. Beach days are creeping up on me, and I can't wait to start using them.

Now, I'm going to make a salad, take a shower, and go to sleep.