Ice Ice Baby

“Hey Shannen, what do you think of when you hear the word, word?” I had just returned from a run and had been considering the word, word while I was out and about the city.

“Word up homey.” My roommate replied.

“And what does that mean?” I typed her answers as she spoke them.

“You know, something like, ‘What’s up G?’”

“And what does G mean?”

“Friend, boy, girl, it - it’s like a generic phrase for, ‘What’s up you?’”

“How do you know all of this?”

Shannen paused for a moment. “I don’t know. I’m a little white girl, raised in the ghetto until we moved when I was 10. The year after we moved…” Shannen went on to tell me the stories of two horrific crimes that took place in her childhood neighborhood shortly after she and her family had moved away. And I stopped typing. They are the kind of stories that would easily find their way into a Stephen King novel, but won’t find their way onto my blog.

She ended her recall by stating, “I’m glad we got out when we did.”

“I’m glad you did too.” I set my computer aside and hit the shower, thinking about Vanilla Ice, his bad eyebrow job, and the part at the end of his song that where he says, “Yo man, lets’ get out of here - word to your mother.”

Word to your mother? What does that even mean?

The reason I was overanalyzing the word, word is not simply because I’m a girl, and that’s what we do, but rather because tonight I went a different sort of run. You see, I’ve known for quite some time that I live in the Publishing Capital of the World – I just didn’t realize that I lived so close (i.e. within running distance) to two of the biggest publishing companies in the world – Random House at 56th & Broadway, and Harper Collins on East 53rd street between 5th and Madison.

And so this evening, after spending several hours researching publishers for my graduate work, I ran to the skyscraper homes of Random House and Harper Collins and did somewhat of a charismatic thing – I laid hands on the buildings and prayer walked around them on the adjacent sidewalk. I can’t tell you all that I prayed, mainly because some of it was in tongues, and so really, I couldn’t tell you even if I wanted to, but some of it was also rather personal – you know, like how it should be in a relationship with God.

But it was at Harper Collins on 53rd, that I really began to consider the significance of words – and I began to ponder the Scriptures – like at the beginning of John 1. The chapter starts off by saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” This passage of Scripture use to confuse me as much as Vanilla Ice. Finally one day someone told me the “secret” that the Word was Jesus, and so really the passage was trying to say, that in the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God.

Granted, it says later in the chapter, that the word became flesh and dwelled among us, and so I should have put two and two together, but I also should have known that when I signed up to take Hebrew in college it was study the Hebrew language – not the books of Hebrews.

(more to come)

Found It!

September 25th I started my search, and today – forty-eight days later – I finally found it! To be honest, my search has been less than intentional, yet I’ve been hopeful that our paths would eventually cross, and today, they did! I discovered it while I was out running along the Hudson River. I smiled when I read its sign – Pier 40.

The reason why Pier 40 is significant: well, you’ll have to read my September 25th entry to hear the whole story (a piece I’ll soon be posting for those of you who follow…)

But I will tell you, shortly after midnight on September 25th, my facebook status stated, “Katrina Blank got lost tonight and rather than watching a soccer game at pier 40, i ended up on a yacht at chelsea pier 59... sometimes it's not such a bad thing to be directionally challenged...”

The Office

"The sink in the kitchen has become problematic."

I'd like to say that this is quote from The Office, as in the television show, but oh no. It's a quote from my office. The words were spoken at this past week's staff meeting.

I honestly think I need to start recording some of what happens in our office and submit the content. Because on days like the day when my boss tells me, "You win a roll of duct tape!" And hands me one, explaining...

An hour or two later he pulled out a Jimbay from under his desk and started singing an impromptu song to the beat of his drum.

And then there are the times when the conversation just gets awkward - like back in September when a coworker started telling me about her yoga instructor. And that he might be someone she might want to set me up with... and her next line...

Missed Connection #2

Africa Craigslist > Ethiopia > Personals > Missed Connections

(more to come)

Nightomedy

I spoke with my Chicago friend again tonight. He was concerned that I might be high. I promised him that I wasn't, but I can understand his suspicion. In our phone conversation I giggled more than I ought. It started off okay - I told him a story that I thought was funny; he thought so too and affirmed my humor by laughing with me. But... then I kept going on with a part 2 to the story - kind of like an encore. And well, I kept giggling and he had stopped laughing at the end of part 1.

A few hours later, as I pondered my Chicago friend's, suspicion, I started giggling again. To which my roommate Shannen inquired, "Okay Roomie, what's going on in that head of yours?" It's not uncommon for Shannen to eavesdrop on my giggling - typically this occurs when I'm up writing some sort of nonsense that I hope the world (i.e. all 5 people who read my blog) will read and also chuckle - either inwardly or in a LOL sort of way.

But Shannen recently informed me that I also giggle in my sleep. I didn't know that was possible. Gosh, I must be dreaming up some pretty funny stuff at night. A scary dream at night is called a nightmare, but what do you call a funny dream? Perhaps a nightomedy? (nightmare + comedy = nightomedy)

Double Rainbow

This evening my second hottest guy friend introduced me and my roommate Shannen to an Irish man name Thomas, and to a band named Sarah & The Stanleys.

The introductions took place following a short stint at Bowery Electric where we watched a band called Brenn perform. The guys from Brenn, when not on tour, reside in Nashville, Tennessee - which is where I first attended one of their shows a year and a half ago. (I was in town co-emceeing a friend's wedding reception with a gal who I learned much later on is the Chief Religion Correspondent for FOX News; I'm glad I didn't know that then - I might have been intimidated.)

But it was at that Brenn show that I had my first dose of city luck, meeting a cute boy and going on two dates with him all within my short 3-day stay. For some reason I seem to have much better luck meeting guys in non So Cal cities - such as Paris, Chicago, and New York (definitely New York).

Although, tonight the only guys that I met are the ones that my second hottest guy friend introduced me to, which, to be honest, I can't even remember who he all introduced me to - I can only recall Thomas and Evan. Thomas is the Irish man and he oversees an amazing nonprofit called One Home Many Hopes that builds orphanages in Kenya. You can check out the website at http://www.onehomemanyhopes.org/

(In works)

The one they are working towards funding is to be built on a Coastal town north of Mombasa (which is where I celebrated my 26th birthday, snorkeling in the Indian Ocean). If you'd like to make a contribution...

And Evan, well, he doesn't so much work with orphans, but he certainly has a gift for bringing joy to the world by helping to create songs and videos that make people smile.

He plays keyboard in the group Sarah and The Stanleys,
(More to come)

They played at Rockwood Hall 2

When my second hottest guy friend told me about the band and insisted that I would love them, I knew that I would - simply based on the name of their group. You see, I had a camper once named Sarah Stanley, and she was one of my favorites. I think she was one of my favorites because she was perhaps even more random then me and we had the same taste in men - or at least one counselor in particular.

Sarah Stanley lives in Boston and I recently tried to convince her to NYC and go with me to a Halloween Party in Brooklyn. She wasn't able (so she says), but she told me...

Reservoir Part 2