Birthday Weekend

Since yesterday morning a dog has been crying somewhere in my building. He misses someone or he is without food and water or is trapped. He probably just misses someone and isn't getting enough sun or green grass. There are so many dogs here. New York City is full of them. Overflowing out of apartments, all the sidewalks smeared with shit reguardless of the owners picking up after their friends. There is still the smear. So I went to the building super about this crying dog and he was on the phone so sort of half-way talked to me and told his friend on the phone to hold on and tried to restrain and quiet his own inside-dog. He said, no I haven't heard the crying dog. I think that it's Boris. Okay, thank you for telling me. And the crying continues.

My birthday party turned out somewhat disappointing because of the ridiculous onslaught of freezing rain and snow that began early Friday morning and didn't let up until after the party had come to a close. We (me and my faithful attendees) ate a few things that I prepared, drank wine, ate a beautiful cake from a local patisserie, attempted to dance a little bit and mingled for hours. The stragglers and I ended up at our local pub for a few night caps. I dressed very nicely in my "best man" dress from my brother's wedding. It is wonderful I've gotten so much use out of that dress. What I made: hearts of palm with olive oil, lemon juice, salt &pepper, goat cheese surrounded by tiny artichoke hearts and loads of thinly sliced salami, a large bowl of tiny toasts, caprece salad composed of sliced fresh mozzarella, fresh basil leaves, and sliced roma tomatoes, drizzled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I bought a cheap bottle of delicious Chilean red wine. The evening was wonderful, I for some reason keep thinking about it and being disappointed though. I think it is because I never have parties and I won't have another for quite some time and I still haven't seen all these people that live here that I know or knew.

There were some other things I wrote about today but can't find the courage to publish. I feel like I'm letting Noah Dassel down by not being completely honest. It never feels like the right time though.