thirty!

i did it! i'm thirty! here's how it all went down:

i took a week off from work to contemplate the end of my twenties, hoping that it would be enough time. i wanted to get far away from the noise and confusion of my normal life, but where to go? i wasn't sure. i didn't want to tell. i circulated false rumors. it all got very mysterious, didn't it? well, you know how i am. i actually succeeded in leaving and only telling two people where i was going - a new record, even for me. i am gaining confidence in my ability to disappear completely at some point. maybe by the time i am 40.

so i went to madrid (yes, mom, the one in spain.) i had an amazing time there. i went to lots of museums, and had lots to drink. i found out my spanish is much more meagre than i had believed it to be. i easily negotiated the madrid metro, even though everything is in spanish, so clearly my problems with the NYC MTA have more to do with its incomprehensible organisation than my inability to understand the basic workings of a subway map. not too much more to tell, or that i am willing to tell, anyways. i only spent a few days. i came back in time to celebrate my birthday.

for my birthday weekend i went to nyc to hang out. the bonus being there is that you can stay up very late, so a weekend is like 5 or 6 days. which is really what you want when you are having a birthday. it occurred to me suddenly that i wanted belgian food (i was thinking of belgo centraal in london, remember that place? there used to be a belgo nieuw york but it has closed). and my friend took me to a very wonderful belgian cafe for dinner, which shall remain nameless because, honestly, it is getting creepy the way some of you have started showing up all the time at every place i mention. so i won't go on with the rest of the weekend in this manner, but i had lots to drink, i went inside a church** for the first in a long time (for a concert), and i walked a lot. and my lips are chapped, because it was very windy. i had the best birthday i can remember since the one when i was little and we went to wilhelmena to ride trains and i saw a monkey.

**re: the link for the church - "Mystery-Worshipper"? they have people who do this? jesus christ!

Sunday 16-Nov-03