Joyeux anniversaire, mon ami!

"You say it's your birthday It's my birthday too, yeah They say it's your birthday We're gonna have a good time I'm glad it's your birthday Happy birthday to you." -- Beatles, "Birthday"

Today marks the birthday of one of my most favorite people in the whole entire world. Just a couple of years ago, we became friends because we liked the sound of each other's voice (no kidding, we met in choir). And then we discovered more things we like about each other (and a few weird things too). It's a good thing we take cute pictures together too, because there certainly are a lot of them.

From date parties dressed as kids on Christmas to decked out in our semi-formal finest, rooting for the Sooners in Norman or in the West End, being in Scandals or just being scandalous, and all the random times in between, Kely is one of my most beloved friends. And today, I'm celebrating him!

Happy birthday, little K. Love ya!

I'm fading in and out...

"Red", by Sara Bareilles, from the album "Careful Confessions"

I’ve been down, I’ve been out. I did it all on my own.
Seems growing up didn’t take long.
Feel strange, I feel good. I feel better with you.
You’ve changed, you should. Cause I think I did too.

Made my mistakes, and did a few things right
But it will take what it will take, baby that’s life
You cannot change what you do not own, everybody knows.
But if you live deep and love strong you get pretty damn close.

It moves fast and it scares me. I close my eyes, oh but I still see…

I’m fading in and out. What are you supposed to do save me now
From all of this danger? You don’t know how and I’ll find my way out.
When I’m in the red listening to strangers inside my head
The darkening angels beneath the bed, I still see everything you said,
Painted in red.

I shake and I smile, cause you said
Baby girl it may take a while, but take the good from the bad
And never minds are never sure so never leave them wanting more
What are you waiting for?
How you love is who you are.

I dive in and I sink in. And I find new colors to think in…

I’m fading in and out. What are you supposed to do save me now
From all of this danger? You don’t know how and I’ll find my way out.
When I’m in the red listening to strangers inside my head
The darkening angels beneath the bed, I still see everything you said,
Painted in red.

In the distance is a line defining where I’ve been the state I’m in
And ever since it began to slip from my two hands I’ve been
Taunting fires, touching wires, been believing liars, everything they said
Painted in red

I’m fading in and out. What are you supposed to do save me now
From all of this danger? You don’t know how and I’ll find my way out.
When I’m in the red listening to strangers inside my head
The darkening angels beneath the bed, I still see everything you said,
Painted in red.

What are you gonna do? No way for you to save me.
What are you gonna do? Everything that you gave me is painted in red.

BEAT SAXET.

You know what time it is, right? It's time for OU students to make the Southbound 35 trip to Dallas to see the Sooners "beat the hell outta" texas. Unfortunately, it's not that easy to get there from NYC, so I'll be rooting from here. I'm just a little sad to miss out on the the shopping, the West End craziness, a first-hand view of the game, and all of the "What happens at OU/tx..." moments, but I'll survive.

However, I do need to throw my 2 cents into the trash-talking, so here are some jokes for you Sooner fans:

A guy in a bar leans over to the guy next to him and says, "Wanna hear a good Texas joke?"

The guy next to him replies, "Well before you tell that joke, you should know something. I'm 6' tall, 200 lbs., and I am a Texas grad. The guy sitting next to me is 6' 2" tall, weighs 225, and he's a Texas grad. And the fella next to him is 6' 5" tall, weighs 250, and he's a Texas grad. Now, you still wanna tell that joke?"

The first guy says, "No, not if I'm gonna have to explain it three times."

Q: What do you call a good looking girl on the University of Texas campus?

A: A visitor.

Q: How many Texas fans does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A: One, but he gets 3 credits.

It was reported that Texas head football coach Mack Brown will only be dressing twenty players for the Oklahoma game. The rest of the players will have to get dressed by themselves.

Four college alumni were climbing a mountain one day: a Texas, an Oklahoma grad, a Florida grad, and a Notre Dame grad. Each proclaimed to be the most loyal of all fans at their alma mater.

As they climbed higher, they argued as to which one of them was the most loyal of all. They argued all the way up the mountain, and when they reached the top, the Notre Dame grad hurled himself off the mountain, shouting "This is for the Fighting Irish!" as he fell to his doom.

Not wanting to be out done, the Florida grad threw himself off the mountain proclaiming, "This is for the Gators!"

Seeing this, the Oklahoma grad walked over and shouted "This is for the Sooners!" and pushed the Longhorns fan off the side of the mountain.

Q: What's the only sign of intelligent life in Austin?

A: Norman: 370 Miles

One day in an elementary school in Austin, TX, a teacher asks her class if the Texas Longhorns are their favorite football team. The whole class says yes, except for Little Jimmy.

The teacher asks, "What's your favorite football team, Jimmy?" Little Jimmy says, "The Oklahoma Sooners."

The teacher asks, "Well, why is that?" Little Jimmy says, "Well, my dad is a Sooner fan, my mom is a Sooner fan, I guess that makes me a Sooner fan."

The teacher angered by his reply says, "If your dad was a moron and your mom was an idiot what would that make you?" Little Jimmy says, "Well, I guess that would make me a Texas fan."

All the city streets a wondrous chorus singing...

The green autumnal parks conducting
All the city streets a wondrous chorus singing
All these poses oh how can you blame me
Life is a game and true love is a trophy
-- Rufus Wainwright, Poses

Yesterday, as I was walking home, a beautifully brown leaf drifted its way down from the branch of a small tree lining 86th street and onto the fringe of my jauntily-draped tartan scarf. For me, that means Autumn is officially here in NYC. As if the quickly declining temperatures, mannequins decked in layer upon layer, and Pumpkin Spice lattes at Starbucks didn't give you the clue already.

"Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address. On the other hand, this not knowing has its charms."
-- Joe Fox, You've Got Mail

However, unlike Mr. Fox in You've Got Mail, school supplies are the last thing I want to think of in conjunction with this fabulous season. It makes me itch to leave the office, which is probably a good thing for my productivity. Pauses for blogging aside, I'm being ultra-efficient so I can get out of here as quickly as possible each day and go experience my favorite city in one of my favorite months. (There's a tie between October and April, if you must know.)

I know I'm about a week behind, but here's a few tidbits and anecdotes regarding the way my October has blown in:

• It seems that Christmas comes earlier and earlier each year. Of course, I'm never one to be left behind the times, so I've made my early yuletide contribution by starting my Christmas wish list. But more about that later.
• I will divulge one thing on that list - something I'm taunted with by the likes of Bloomie's and Bendel's. I love scarves. And hats. But mostly scarves. There are so many lovely ones my shopaholic heart is lusting after. (Mother, you'll be proud to know I gave in only in the form of a $5 scarf from a street fair, even though the $170 DVF ones were calling my name.) So, there's one item on my wish list: a fancy scarf (admittedly, I don't need one quite that expensive).
• The reason I'm even in the neighborhood to be tempted and teased so regularly by my favorite retail sandtraps is that I've basically been living at the Apple Store on 5th. Poor LaMaque (my MacBook) is feeling slightly under-the-weather - it is fall, after all - and I've had to make multiple trips to get him back on the up-and-up. He'll be good as new soon, though!
  
• Speaking of LaMaque, there's a funny story about how his name came to be. Let me know if you're interested. It reveals too much of my nerdiness to warrant posting here.
• The crazies come out in October, apparently. The other day, as I was walking down the block, a pack of teenage boys ran past me dressed in frog costumes and afro wigs. What?
• It's OU/tx week, y'all. Though I am a native Texan, I absolutely abhor the burnt orange travesty of a university that is home to the longhorns. Though I'm sad to miss out on the West End/Fair Park festivities this year, the rivalry is alive at the office. I decorated the desk of a UT-grad coworker today, and sent her a lovely little ditty.
• My friend Flavia and I went to Forbidden Broadway this weekend. I'm so glad I got to see the last reincarnation of this silly Off-Broadway show. I particularly loved the jab at In the Heights that reminded me of "Camp" and this diminutive diva's spoof of Kristen Chenoweth's "Glitter and Be Gay." Genius. And I got all the jokes - am I part of the theater cognoscenti now? Does that mean I should start spelling it "theatre"?
• I had a conversation on the Subway today with one of those wacky protester types. You know, the ones who stand around selling political buttons and toss out words like "jingoistic"?
• Why is it that everyone at work thinks I'm blonde? And I don't mean because of the way I act/talk. No blonde jokes in there at all. My hair is red, people. On the blonde spectrum, it's strawberry at the most. At least my handsome stranger complimented my RED hair the other day.
  
• Finally, in the everyday and mundane category, I'm a big-time media consumer lately.
  

Books: I'm rereading Velvet Elvis, by Rob Bell, which I recommend highly. This is the 4th time I've read it. I'm also very into the Tales of the City series, by Armistead Maupin. I also read at least a chapter of the Book of Job each night. It's my favorite.

Music: It's old, but you have to listen to Corrine Bailey Rae. Especially "Choux Pastry Heart" and "Three Little Birds". Another song I can't get out of my head is "I'd Rather Be Sailing/Set Those Sails," a beautiful duet from "Make Me A Song." And of course, I'm still on my MGMT kick.

TV: As much as I didn't want to do it, I've once again joined the ranks of people who schedule their evenings based on what's on TV. I think it's part of being a "grown up" in the "real world". Ha. Anyway, I'm a regular viewer of Gossip Girl, Pushing Daisies, Ugly Betty and Private Practice. Sorry to say, but Grey's jumped the shark. I'm over it.

Movies: Like I can afford $12 for a ticket? Well, maybe I can, but I'd rather spend that money on live theatre. (See what I mean about the spelling. So much classier.)


Ok folks, that's all I have for now. Vast improvement over my last few posts, no? I'm balancing this whole city love/no love for my job thing. More updates to come.

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Sorry that I'm terrible about blogging lately. Work is sucking the life out of me. And kind of sucking in general.

I don't like to write about downer things, so I suppose that's why I haven't been writing. I kind of hate Mondays. (And I'm not the biggest fan of Tuesday through Friday either, right now.)