Stacy Horn

My last day at the Census is Friday. TOMORROW. Tomorrow!!! They just let us know yesterday. Thank you thank you thank Dept. of Commerce, you were a life-saver and I am very grateful, but I am so going to wallow in being able to write full-time for a little while.

Except I am going to take next week to have a Staycation.

A bunch of us from the Census went out to dinner last week. I conked out early actually, but they went on from here for a night of drinking and karaoking. I loved the dinner place. Cowgirl Seahorse. It was on the very end of Front Street, basically under the Brooklyn Bridge, in a spot that still has that old New York feel I love. The vibe was friendly, the food good, definitely recommended.

7:52 Live from the Red Couch-ette: Finn! I couldn’t get him to look at me.

I’m only barely paying attention to the pre-show, which I usually enjoy so much. People who looked fantastic that I noticed: Lea Michele and Tina Fey. Probably a lot of other people looked great, but I haven’t really been watching.

6:20 Update: Watching True Blood and the E! Red Carpet show at the same time. Not really paying attention to anything.

– Read two People magazines and one More.
– Exercised (couldn’t help myself, I was feeling too slug-like).
– About to watch one of two episodes of True Blood.
– Agonized about jeans shopping all morning and went with, “fuck it.” Fuck it means no more shopping. I’m going to stick with what I got yesterday.
– Food consumed so far: an apple, brown rice and broccoli, dark chocolate, walnuts and dried cranberries. Will be eating crappier food later.

The landlord is at long last working on repairing the roof (and they took down my bird feeder, so now I just spread it on the ground), but my concern is that decades of water leaking into my ceiling might have created mold up there which they are just covering up and not addressing. I sometimes smell this musty smell in the back of the apartment.

I will be back to post live updates of the rest of my day off. That’s the plan anyway.

I ended up mostly working yesterday. It’s like I’ve forgotten how to goof off or something. Today I must! must! must! not work. Except, I have to continue jeans shopping, for the love of God. And that’s work as far as I’m concerned.

To make a boring story short, I’m a 4 in terms of fit and what looks good, but I’m a 6 in terms of what feels comfortable. I always get the 6 and end up looking a little dowdy, so I was determined to buy the 4 and look good for once. And I did. But now I’m not sure I made the right decision. I’m going back in. Freaking insane. I hate shopping. HATE.

This is the Wall Street bull at the bottom of Broadway. When I was looking for the site of Echo’s first (and only) office I almost went with a building to the right of this bull. I love this spot and I fell in love with the office—it had transom windows!! Everything about it had that old New York feel that I love, but the building was completely empty otherwise, and the whole area was kinda desolate and I didn’t feel confident it would turn around soon (I was right). But I would have been personally very happy there.

My first weekend off since I started the Census!! So far my plan is catch up on True Blood and People Magazine, buy a pair of jeans, and go to the library.

I wish I didn’t have to go jeans shopping in New York City on a Saturday, (a HELL like you wouldn’t believe) but I need them now. Holes have formed in unacceptable spots in my current pair and they are no longer work-ready.

I took these shots yesterday in front of the Burlington Coat Mosque (what Kathy at the Census calls it). When I was walking by someone came out to speak to the people outside. He was quickly swarmed.

I felt for the guy. Imagine having to stand alone like that, to justify your religion to a largely uninformed public. By the way, I am ambivalent about organized religion in general, I have problems with all of them, but plenty of good people belong to churches and mosques and synagogues (like the people reading this) so I’m not going to condemn someone for being a part of them.

I will look at you funny though. (Kidding.)

Anyway, this guy stayed to talk to everyone who wanted to talk to him. Stupidly, I hung back to take pictures and didn’t hear a word. I am an idiot.

There was a cat, two dogs, and a guinea pig. How come the guinea pig so obediently just sat there?