I’m moving back to Brooklyn, yay!! Not right this moment, but in about 6 months, when my current lease is up. Have been spending most weekends lately exploring neighborhoods, some where friends live and some friends have suggested…Prospect Heights, Fort Greene, Greenpoint, Williamsburg, DUMBO, Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Boerum Hill…I know the most popular/cool/hip ‘hoods will be out of my price range, but it’s been fun checking everything out. And you never know, someone might hear of a deal…

Next on the list: Bed-Stuy, Bushwick, far South Slope, Greenwood Heights, Sunset Park. Looking forward to finding my new home, and hopefully settling in for a long while. Will talk more about my Brooklyn adventures next post, gotta run now. Happy Sunday!

I’ve been gone, but I return just in time to spread holiday joy and cheer…  :-D

I missed the super-special, every-many-years lunar eclipse + winter solstice, but NY1’s Pat Kiernan (who always tweet-shares great links, @patkiernan) posted cool time-lapse video. This being the first day of winter, I know we’ve still got plenty of cold grayness to come, but it’s a teeny bit of comfort that the days will now start getting longer, even if imperceptibly at first…

I’m running again, after about two months off to nurse a twinge-y ankle and a sore back (bruised tailbone, I think…fell smack on my butt on a concrete floor…ouch!). All my parts seem fine so far…first run soreness feels goooood!

Visited my old haunt Art Bar recently after many years away…the clientele these days clearly has a little more cash than we did back then, but  I still felt right at home, awash in memories of long nights of conversation in that front booth…

Christmas comin’ up…doing a new thing with the family this holiday. As the aunts are getting older, the cousins with the big suburban houses have started taking over the holiday duties, but this Christmas Eve, my sole NYC-based cousin is hosting. His wife is an amazing cook, and her mother is here from Italy (her dad as well), so the traditional Italian feast will be awesome…but I’m wondering how he’s going to fit some 30 people in his apartment, which although fancier than mine, isn’t much bigger. This should be interesting… Then Christmas Day back at one of the aunts, where I expect to stuff my face with her unrivaled eggplant rollatini! Merry Christmas!!

Some summer stuff, to make up for my time away:

Socarrat Paella Bar…very tight quarters, with a long, narrow communal table and bar stools (that I almost fell off at one point, which I do sometimes, but this time I hadn’t had a drink yet!)…we had the Paella Soccarat, which was good but not the best I’ve had. Also, because of the limited table space, your paella pan is perched precariously on one of those wire stand things, so your plate is half under it and your hands are always a little too close to the hot pan your server tells you not to touch…that said, I would return if they put backs on the stools…

Went to see Ray Lamontagne and David Gray at Jones Beach back in August. I adore Ray Lamontagne, and Rock & Roll and Radio, one of the songs from his new record, had me in tears…he’s an amazing songwriter, and the record just got three Grammy noms. I didn’t know much about David Gray, had only heard a couple of songs, but really loved him and looking forward to seeing him again.

Also in August, day-tripped out to Long Beach…who knew it was such a quick shot from NYC on the LIRR, and the beach just a few blocks from the train station??

More summer / fall catch-up later…

AMAZING Tony Scherr, just awesome the other night at The Living Room despite the fact that the a/c was broken and it was a thousand degrees in the back room…he’s there every Monday in August and September, you should go…

Yummy pre-show treats at Cafetasia. They have a dinner happy hour with $2 appetizers and $6 entrees, not huge but big enough, we did not leave hungry (the online menu says til 5pm, but it was after 7pm and they still let us order from the happy hour menu). We had the steamed shumai and the cheese & crab rangoon for apps, and both decided on the grilled salmon main course. Delicious, fast, cheap…

Tom Waits. “Waltzing Matilda”. Nothin’ more to say…

Dinner at Supper last night, one of my very favorite places…especially on a Wednesday. Why? Because the “daily supper” on Wednesdays is lasagna alla bolognese, which tastes exactly like the one my grandmother (“nonna” to Italians) used to make. So much so that I always joke they have her chained down in the basement, churning out lasagna for the hungry hordes…”Faster, Nonna! More lasagna!”…

In fact I did not have the lasagna last night, it was a little too hot out and I wasn’t feelin’ it, but am always comforted to know it’s there, just in case I need it. I had, instead, the tagliatelle alla bolognese, also just like Nonna’s. We also had the grilled polenta, which comes adorned by shaved parmesan, prosciutto and marinated fennel…can you say “mmmmm….”??

Capped the night off with a drink at Press, on the roof of Ink48 hotel. Some sort of raspberry concoction that the hostess suggested. Dangerous move, since I had alread had wine with dinner…but no ill effects, so all’s well that ends well… Beautiful views, lovely breeze, amazing orange moon…should have taken a picture. Next time…

Deliciousness: The most luscious burger last night at The Redhead on E. 13th. Perfectly medium rare, with white cheddar. I licked my fingers. Seriously. Accompanied by slightly-too-salty and not at all special chips. A burger as beautiful as that deserves a more worthy companion, in my humble opinion.

Confusion: Inception. Still processing, but I found this movie very stressful to watch. Lots going on onscreen, interesting special effects, still not sure after all these years how I feel about DiCaprio. I was ready to have my mind totally blown, but kept thinking “this is a lot like The Matrix” but corporate espionage replaces saving the human race. Glad I saw it though, lots of interesting stuff to think about, and I’ll probably re-watch a few times. And also, because I carry on an obsessive love affair with futuristic dystopian sci-fi, Inception further fuels my dissatisfaction (boredom?) with real life…

Um…and who is this Tom Hardy, and why have I never seen him before?…

While sometimes annoying, and way too addictive, I find Facebook fascinating. The people who friend you just to pump up their friend count and then never communicate…the ones whose posts are just one continuous complaint…the TMI-ers… I’ve found it very helpful for keeping up with friends and family members who have moved away, or are too busy with their kids to get together, and there are some people I’ve actually gotten to know better through their posts, but I sometimes look at my hodgepodge collection and wonder if I’m supposed to be more selective or something. My current FB tally:

— the usual assorted friends/colleagues/ex-colleagues/high school & college buddies

— 12 cousins

— 3 ex-boyfriends

— 2 guys I dated briefly (one of whom offered to list me at work as his common-law wife so I could get travel discounts on his company’s plan)

— 1 cousin’s ex-wife

— 1 brother of ex-boyfriend (not one of the “friend” ex’s)

— 1 ex-girlfriend of brother of ex-boyfriend

— 3 guys I’ve never met in real life

— 1 casting director who can’t possibly actually remember me from one audition many years ago, but probably thinks he does because we have mutual friends

Unfriended one belligerent ex-boyfriend. Unfriended by one college friend for my political opinions and one teacher because I couldn’t afford to continue in his class.

Some free money unexpectedly dropped into my lap recently. Not a lot, but just enough to take this continued unemployment thing down a notch, from terrifying to extremely concerning. And when I say “free” I mean that I didn’t work for it, not that it came without cost. The money was from my dad’s life insurance policy, which I didn’t even know he had. Surprising that an old-school, old world guy, who still paid for everything with cash or a check, with his kids grown, would have life insurance. He never mentioned it, even as he declined in the last four years. But then he never said a lot; he was a quiet guy. Once he became housebound, I would sit with him on Sunday afternoons, watching hours of “Gunsmoke” and “Bonanza” reruns, old Clint Eastwood movies, baseball games, with hardly a word. We’d laugh at Festus’ misadventures, and my dad would always get angry when Joe Girardi (and Torre before him) would leave a pitcher in long after he’d started to fall apart…and every single time that J & R commercial would come on, the one with the long-haired guys listening to metal on headphones, he’d say “Who thinks up these things?”… Every. Single. Time.

So now I have some cash, but I don’t have my dad. Not really a fair trade, I’d say.

…yikes…tired…does hummus, bread, slightly hardened brie, olives and a bowl of peas count as dinner?

and why do I always turn on “Bones” - with its never-ending parade of decomposing bodies - while I’m eating??…