A blog about New York City, my books, and my cats. Mostly.
Nicole suggested putting Godzilla in the window to face the burglars, so I did! Then I added some tiny dinosaurs to help him. And then I added a bunch of tiny naked babies as a second line of defense, in case Godzilla and the dinosaurs fails. Yeah. Tiny babies. That’ll scare ’em. HEY! My Godzilla doesn’t have as impressive pointy things on his back as the one in the previous post! Or bulging biceps. I’ve got the wimp Godzilla.
I’ve been busy editing the final page drafts of my book. I go back and forth between, “This is okay,” and “God, I can’t write. Why didn’t anyone tell me??”
Yesterday, I walked out the front door of my apartment to get something for dinner, and an old boyfriend was standing there on the street, talking on a cellphone. He glanced at me for a second, but was deep in conversation and didn’t even recognize me! I had sunglasses on, but still! I took advantage of this and kept walking, because I was so hungry I was shaking and didn’t want to stop to talk, but still! Not very flattering, I must say!
He and I were night and day though. He loves to travel, and does so constantly, and I mean constantly. He’s in a different city or country every few weeks, and he’s been living like this for decades. My idea of the perfect evening is curled up on the couch watching television. He likes big parties, I prefer hanging out with one person at a time, or small groups, etc., etc., etc. So, even though break-ups are rarely fun, ours was inevitable, so no hard feelings.
My friend Jonathan sent me this picture in an IM. I tried to find out who took it, but no go. Isn’t it great?? I have that same Godzilla. He sits on the floor in the hallway, protecting me from any monsters who might try to attack me while I’m curled up on the couch, watching television. You know, maybe I should get out of the house a little more …
Howard and I tried to see Dark Knight, but it was sold out, in the middle of the day! (This is a picture of people buying tickets at the machines while we sat and figured out our next move.) I’d rather see Mama Mia! anyway, to tell you the truth, but I haven’t made it to that either.
When does The Mummy and the X Files movie open? Soon I hope. I really should be working anyway. I’m putting together a presentation for my book so I’m collecting photographs from people. This really is a fun part. I’m asking the descendants of the people I’ve written about to send pictures if they can, and I’m just dying to see what some of them looked like.
Okay, so according to the Times, “Community leaders are keeping their eyes peeled in Greenwich Village, where burglaries in the Sixth Precinct have increased 26.2 percent. There have been 130 burglaries so far this year, 27 more than last year at this time.”
Beth, who lives on my floor, said there were signs on the street saying that they are breaking in via fire escapes. I have a fire escape outside my window. So what I did was put a lamp in the window, hoping that a thief is going to avoid the window that has a light shining out on him. Light from a pretty little art deco lamp that I bought at a store on Hudson Street about 30 years ago, a store which no longer exists, of course.
It doesn’t look very intimidating, does it?
I’m putting together a presentation and a short movie for YouTube, and I’m trying to gather photographs that will illustrate what’s inside the book. I scanned a bunch of pictures when I was at the Rhine Research Center in 2006, but I need more. I’ve emailed the descendants of various people that are in the book to see if they have any to share, so we shall see. The Alexian Brothers in St. Louis generously sent me a picture of a hospital where an exorcism took place in 1949 (the building has since been torn down). So I’m off to a good start!
Here’s one of the pictures I scanned at the Rhine. It’s of Bill Davidson and the Bettys, Betty McMahan and Betty Humphrey (at a machine they built to roll dice, I believe). I love the expression on Betty McMahan’s face.
