LINES OF THE DAY

". . . But the past does not exist independently from the present. Indeed, the past is only past because there is a present, just as I can point to something over there only because I am here. But nothing is inherently over there or here. In that sense, the past has no content. The past -- or more accurately, pastness -- is a position. Thus, in no way can we identify the past as past." p. 15

". . . But we may want to keep in mind that deeds and words are not as distinguishable as often we presume. History does not belong only to its narrators, professional or amateur. While some of us debate what history is or was, others take it into their own hands." p. 153

Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (1995) by Michel-Rolph Trouillot

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Home Again, For the New Year

We knew it would be like this. We were sorely tempted to stay in C'town. But our friends! Gigs! Shopping! Movies!

It was an ordeal by the end.

First there was the inevitable New Jersey Turnpike slow moving mess at some point.

Then it was the one-hour wait mess to enter the Holland Tunnel. We also took the wrong turrn and instead of joining the endless stop and start train for the Tunnel, we went to Jersey City instead.  What?  We hit it at the height of rush hour -- the Holland Tunnel for those who don't live in the region is where essentially 6 lanes turn into ... two lanes.  So we enlessly stopped and started though mid and residential Jersey City to the Holland Tunnel instead.  It was a one-hour delay between the toll plaza and entering the Tunnel, and it took the same amount of time between the toll plaza and entering the Tunnel via our detour.  But the detour caused the stress levels to rise as we had not an idea of where we were at first or how to get back to where we were supposed to be.  Then we saw we were on the route to the Holland Tunnel and relaxed.   But it still was a drag.

Followed by the snow mess that is NYC, with nowhere to park, and a car loaded down with stuff, including much beer, wine, champagne, etc. for tomorrow night's party. We managed to unload all our things into the apartment in relays, then drove the liquor to M's loft on the lower east side, where a good parking spot was found, and walked back over here. It's nice outside, temperature-wise!

Then the mess in the apartment. What has he been doing in here when I'm not around to oversee? And it's cold in here .... And the sink is leaking .... The Time-Warner cable service here as usual really sux. I also forgot my power supply cable for my laptop.  How did I do that?  I was wrapping the cables and I swear I recall putting them into the bag -- but obviously, I did not! Only the laptop itself got inserted because, ah-hem, himself was getting antsy about leaving and I was doing about 18 things at the same time, so I lost track of what I was doing, I guess.  I can use el V's power supply fortunately, as our netbooks are very close siblings. So we can switch off and re-charge our batteries. My HP Pro desktop here still works fine, but all the research and drafts I'm doing with The American Slave Coast is on the laptop -- and, um, a new version of Word on the laptop, so kablooey with footnoting format and so on, as we'd learned way back when I got this in July.

We brought a lot of C'town groceries with us. It sure beat running around in the snow mess tonight to go grocery shopping or find a restaurant.  The city's packed with tourists.  As well, it turns out the soups and porkchops I'd frozen from our last together trip here were perfectly fine.  And we brought some of da Fox's favorite wine with us as well, which she is now drinking in preparation for sleepy time, while el V has a stash of some of his favored cervezas on hand in the refrigerator too.

So all will be well -- and I get to take ye laptop up to the NYPL Humanities (I CANNOT get its new name in mind or right!  a billionaire's name) and do some work there after NY's too.

5 comments:

K. said...

First thing you do is drive right through that Holland Tunnel
Pay your toll to the soul on the other side
Pick up a ticket for the New Jersey Turnpike
And drive, baby, drive
("Holland Tunnel," John Phillips)

"Then the mess in the apartment. What has he been doing in here when I'm not around to oversee?"

You had to know this was coming!

Foxessa said...

And as of about an hour ago, while washing dishes, I realized the heat in the building had gone out. No. Hot. Water.

New Year's Eve day. It's going to take forever to get this fixed, particularly as navigation around the city is pretty difficult still. And no where to park. Nobody's been able to dig out their cars yet, generally, and places where they were dug out as so covered with snow and slop you can't park there either. And the hotels have just by siezure taken over most of the parking places on this street!

This is kind of miserable.

Love, C.

K. said...

Worse, you've already delivered the booze!

Quiet night for us -- some friends over for dinner. To show you what a wild place the suburbs of Seattle can be, the big thing here is playing board games at parties. Whatever happened to all that fun stuff we used to do?

Foxessa said...

I am feeling far more cheeful, happy in fact.

The heat is fixed and back! Yay!

Not till next week can they deal with the leaking sink. But it's not so bad, yet, so it is manageable. Another good reason to keep coming back is to keep up with these things and make sure the apartment doesn't get destroyed. (We also shut off the water to the bathroom and kitchen when we leave for so long.)

Love, C.

Foxessa said...

I just spent all day working on my recommended reads for da List's annual members' reads this year. Many books, many wonderful books!

Love, C.