A Cessna 172 crashed a block from our beach house this morning a little before 7. I slept through the engine noises, collision, and explosion, but woke to screaming and thumping feet as my family ran downstairs and to the scene. It hit a rental house a block away filled with children. We could see flames from our doorstep, and the street is still full of emergency vehicles. It’s been a horrible time for a small neighborhood, but our family is safe.

It’s a sunny day in New York City and I’m just about ready to set out for another day of exploring. Tuesday was great. I have a cute new haircut that looked kind of like a chin-length cap when styled but will probably be shorter and curly when I let it dry naturally. My room at the Duane Street Hotel is really nice. I have a few complaints — not enough outlets, tricky shower switch, too-early maid service — but these are pretty minor things. It’s very comfortable and the staff is friendly.

Yesterday Brendan and I went on a cake-tasting tour, but one slice of cheesecake at Two Little Red Hens in the Upper East Side filled us up. So we kind of failed. But I still made it out to Brooklyn to order a chocolate cake from The Chocolate Room (such an amazing chocolatey place!) and then back up to pick out a spicy pumpkin cake from Sugar Sweet Sunshine. I was going to get a lemon cake from them, but switched to pumpkin at the last minute because it looked so good. Brendan and I also dropped by the Willard suitcase exhibit, which I’ve been wanted to see for a while. I picked up a sheet listing a dozen books that I should have cited in my thesis. I’d like to read them. We had dinner with Liz and Brian at a thai restaurant and then walked around until we found a comfy wine bar, so that was a fun evening.

Today is my birthday, I suppose. Mom suggested we go to Norma’s e Parker Meridien for breakfast, although it’s now noon. I’ve always enjoyed breakfast for lunch.

ok, so valentine’s day wasn’t quite the most exciting day of all time. i mean, the only valentine i received (discounting those mailed to me) was a pile of valentine-enclosed pink condoms that baldwin (aka evil health center) threw at me as i walked by. i gave them to the boys at the media cloisters because, well, that’s funny. hehe, nerds with condoms.

oh, but i did purchase this t-shirt:

from threadless.com, which cheered me up grandly. look how cute they are! i also ordered myself a few movies (don juan de marco, eternal sunshine) and cds (baxter, emiliana torrini) with the amazon gift certificates i’ve accumulated. oh, and “veronika decides to die” by paulo coehlo, which i’ve already purchased before. when i lend books out i tend to not see them again.

so there, britta, perhaps it wasn’t an epic valentine’s day, but i did use the cheesy artificial annoying-pda-encouraging holiday as an excuse to buy myself lots of things. and that counts for something, right?

So everyone is reporting a wild success on the cookie front. At one point we had to rearrange the furniture and remove the red chair from the room in order to accomodate people. The evening featured nearly all expected, and a few unexpected, appearances. Nina came to pick up with her things and we got to keep her for the whole afternoon and night, which was delightful. My music is still flowing from the speakers under my desk, actually the first time I can hear it without the din of chatter. It echoes.

One of the nicest things about this party was the selection of people it attracted, a different crowd from the one that buzzes around an open bar. Recurring conversation themes of the evening include: Finding Nemo fishtank screensaver, the D & D Players Handbook, Maker’s Mark whiskey, and my posters / decor. We served no alcohol, just cookies and milk. I played the happiest silly music I could think of. And still I turned melancholy / cynical (though I masked it well enough). People are just so transparent, getting so excited about their own stories about themselves. It frustrates me to sit and watch a room full of lonely people pushing themselves on other lonely people, it’s just sad.

Of course I did receive three different boys’ phone numbers throughout the course of the evening. Just something else I will have to deal with in the morning. I did enjoy the party, it was pleasant having everybody in this room. I’m expecting about 10 new Facebook friends. Isn’t that the whole point of throwing a party? Oh sweet cynicism, you taste like molasses.

I did something social last night, really! Erin and I smuggled Chunky Monkey icecream into the new directors’ workshops and watched every one of them. That ended around, say, 9:30pm. Guess where I’ve been ever since? If you guessed ‘installing a PHP photo gallery’ then you the biggest prize of all…access to my new PHP photo gallery!!! The whole point of not opening that new (and by new I mean I’ve been putting off its consumption for 3 weeks) bottle of wine was to stock up on sleep and study hard tomorrow. It being well into today already without an ounce of sleeping (I don’t even really feel that tired)…well who knows. I mean, yesterday was stressful enough that I feel I deserve time to relax and play around, even if somehow “relax and play around” ends up referring to endless compiling errors…

But do check out the photo gallery. It’s still kind of ugly (those stylesheets = my new mortal enemy), but it will be fun.