um, hey.

wwwwhoops.

i’m back? let’s not get too excited, though.

sometimes you decide to update your blog because you talked to your mom on the phone and are updating her on your state of things and you realize that hey, things are actually going pretty well recently. wait a minute, i should probably qualify that for all you children of jewish parents, because i know what you’re thinking:

you realize that hey, things are actually going pretty well recently… and that you didn’t just make it sound that way to make your parents happy. there we go.

i’m writing every day. i’m taking this writing class that’s like offensively affirming. i almost can’t take it. i often think my path into the writing world was paved with the false promises of a writers’ workshop i attended in high school, which was a whole lot of writing in class, and since then i’ve discovered that “workshop” means a bunch of garden variety douchesnobs who refuse to read anything that’s not by dave eggers and don’t believe in paragraphs sitting around a table, looking down at your lifeblood work and going, “yeah, the thing is, that’s fine but on page seven he said he didn’t like asparagus. so that’s where you kind of lost me for the rest of the story. also, italics… i’m not a big fan.”

but in this class, we write, a lot, on the spot, and then everyone’s super wonderful and supportive. clearly they didn’t get the memo from douchesnob headquarters, and that’s okay with me.

in other news, the rascally kid i tutor was well-behaved and awesome the other day (and is totally doing his book report on none other than mr. flat stanley

(specifically this one- flat stanley does not look nearly flat enough in this picture)

i am muppeting away and have a pretty solid cookie monster impression under my belt;

and i’m going to be in new york SO SOON. i’m probably going to spend weekdays in woodstock, which will include watching the tour de france with my dad, playing a shit ton of scrabble, running in the woods, going into town and hating on tourists, having dietrich drive me around for a journalistic tour of the seedy goings-on of the mid-hudson valley, and the occasional deer sighting… and on weekends i’ll go into the city. my plan is to tell everyone i hang out with that i haven’t gone to the high line yet, and then just go there several times a day so that i can get my favorite sandwich from amy’s bread in chelsea market across the street. it’s that good.

oh, and seeing some hilarious improv, because for god’s sake, seattle, it’s like somebody died over here. all the time.

so i guess that’s it except for OH SHIT WHAT AM I SAYING.

how was your midnight screening experience? mine was riveting, and included a lot of fifteen-year-olds and some belligerent yelling people which may or may not have included me. still, though. jim broadbent. are you listening, academy of motion pictures?