Found a Job

Working again at the Community Environmental Center. Its for a year, paid with benefits. They are an energy conservation non-profit in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan. I'll be in Brooklyn (high five). Probably should not reveal too much real world info on the blog, aye? In other news I also grew my own beans and ate them. Hu- mother fuckin- zah. I'm so happy I feel like I could dunk on Shaq. The above photo helps illustrate this elation. So does this one:

In Some Hallway Where Loves Never Been

I got to take home a small tree from Sprout because I found that it had a bizarre (yet treatable) disease. Because of said funkiness the guy was totally unsellable. But totally still a tree. So totally something I'd ask my boyfriend to pick up in his car and drive home with me with only minutes to spare before he had to go to the airport...

As you can see above (in the not so clear photo) there were fat growths along the branches covered in orange, fuzzy stuff. The leaves were being suffocated and dying off. We believe these were Galls: abnormal growth in plant tissues (similar to cancer cells that keep growing and growing) and can be caused by anything from parasites, to fungi, to bacteria, to insects and or even mites. From the orange mold evidence along the whole plant and seeing that this little guy also had leaf rust
I'd blame a little fungi known as Ceder-apple rust.

This was all happily treated by cutting off the growths at their base and spraying down the whole tree with Neem Oil- nature's favorite insecticide/organic plant helper. The leaves will indeed grow back shortly and I planted it in a half wine barrel an acquaintance found while dumpster diving and brought by my house as a garden present.

Am I

Bored of blogging? Perhaps yes. Perhaps no. I'm not sure I've got the fire in me without having the school work to procrastinate from. My spare* time has been full of things I actually enjoy doing. Such activities include but not are excluded to: crossword puzzles, taking the dog on infinite walks, urban exploring, maintaining pen pals, biking, drinking, collaging, gardening, sculpting, reading fiction and the New York Times, painting objects in my backyard that were formerly brown or gray, finding the cat, working odd jobs, playing dress up, listening to NPR, watching every episode of Arrested Development ever, cooking, constructing puppets, deconstructing societal rules, planning hikes, beach bumming, playing tennis, sewing and fitting thrift store finds, discovering interesting garbage, composting (duh), attending baseball games, and watching many, many movies. Strangers on a Train was soooo good and Kazaam is next in my Netflix queue. Yes, that's the one where Shaq is a genie.



*is there such a thing?

She Said

This girl must be the cutest urban taxidermist alive. I've been watching the New York Times' "One in 8 Million" series. They're all great photographs, real stories and give you the same feeling as a mini episode of This American Life. So happy Fourth o' July, y'all! We're off to soak up what beach side sunshine has finally appeared over New York City. Yesterday we road bikes to the Prospect Park petting zoo where we made friends with a miniature cow (same sized torso- short, tiny legs like a dachshund!) named- wait for it... Agatha, goats, an alpaca and lamas. No pigs :(. Swine flu, perhaps? Oh and don't forget that darned wallaby with offensively large testicles. That mostly fascinated Dylan.

Keep the Customer Satisfied

So... how much of a bad idea is it to sell one's eggs? Cause I'm way poor and need a new computer/groceries/rent/maybe a plane ticket to Mexico. Thoughts, suggestions, experiences? I was organizing paperwork the other morning and came across all the stuff from Columbia University when I sold my body to science two or three summers ago. With all that time in between then and now I can't really remember how crappy that made me feel.

Get Real Paid

To teach about compost for the first time, ever. Today at 6pm come over to Sprout & Home on Wythe and Grand in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for all your worm and rotting food needs.

Suddenly I Just Woke Up

Happy July, and summer, and Canada Day, everybody! What a good day too! I may even be tanned (high five!). Brooklyn's finally hot and sunny and today's the day I FINALLY got my bike back from Williamsburg's Affinity Cycles; a bike shop I'll probably never go to again. Its B's Bikes for me forever more. Not only did Affinity take a week longer than expected (one DAY is too much without a bike for me, thank you) but when I called this afternoon someone started arguing with me. However (to their credit?) when I realized they ripped my handle bar tape they gave me a new roll. Even so... I don't dig it. I'm still counting down the days till my special someone comes home from Munich where his movie is airing at a big, fancy film festival. Till then, I'll tend to the flowers out back and blog about tree diseases.