Lorraine and premium jeans

Lorraine is definitely my favorite person to shop with of all time. This is not because she lives in a state with no sales tax on clothing, and this is not because she's wonderfully considerate and offers me awesome hand-me-downs. This is because she has impeccable taste---or as she puts it: my taste. We love the same things, look for the same sort of quality, timeless yet slightly edgy design, we research like mad and know what to go to Target for and what to buy at a sample sale. Lorraine also knows how to spot a great bargain, and this summer, wonderfully, she passed two down to me.

I have been looking for new jeans for the good part of the last year, but quite honestly---Vancouver is a very frustrating place to shop. The sales tax is insane, and boutiques only carry one of one size (which is ridiculous but definitely guarantees that what you have is one of a kind---which really is never a concern of mine unless I'm at a wedding) and sales are not so great at all! The selection here is also tremendously disappointing, and if you buy things on the web...there's shipping. I miss shopping in America...land of lots more people, thus a bigger market. Jeans---also are just tremendously annoying to buy for. I usually have no problem finding pants, but jeans have to fit well and have to make your ass look amazing. And ever since Lorraine introduced me to Citizens a year or two ago (bought at a New Jersey boutique for $60), I can't go back to regular jeans. They just don't fit the same. I mean, I was so desparate for a pair of jeans in Vancouver that I went to the Gap---and I just couldn't do it. They fit, but not really. They paled way too much in comparison.

When I visited Lorraine in New Jersey, Lorraine presented me with two pairs of jeans she found for a bargain on the web. A pair of Citizens and a pair of Paige's. The latter is a brand I've never heard of and is especially awesome. I don't mean to overly-spiritualize this, but I really did feel so loved...by Lorraine and by God. I was so sick of looking for jeans, and here are two pairs that give me great satisfaction and pleasure. Come check out my ass this fall. (Okay, I'm really kidding here. Please don't do that...or if you do, don't tell me or make it very obvious. You will make me self-conscious.)

New Haven Apizza (sic)

So, according to Heather, New Haven is the first place in North America that ever served pizza. Re-stated: New Haven is the birthplace of pizza as we know it in North America. Or at least this is what Heather was told.

That is to say---according to my gracious hostess---that New Haven people are snobby about their pizza. And there are like tons of places...and since I was in New Haven, I had to try it. It was obligatory, mandatory, a crime if I didn't try it. (Not a crime if I didn't see the Jonathan Edwards statue...but a crime if I didn't try the pizza).

So, we made several attempts to try the pizza. Apparently, it's disputed which place is the best, and which place is the first...so Heather thought it would be a good idea for me to sample as many as possible, so we headed for the Great Pizza Festival, which was today on the town square. (Tangent about the town square: apparently it was built with millenial intentions; the dimensions relate in part to when Christ will return, or something like that?) The town square pizza was your standard New York pizza stuff (which is pretty good---and not any of the stuff you get in Vancouver that is labeled New York Pizza), but apparently not "the" pizza....so we ended up walking in the hot humidity to Modern Apizza. The picture you see here is our pizza from Modern Apizza.

And that's another different thing about New Haven pizza: most pizza places here spell pizza "apizza." Heather does not know why and no one has been able to clarify that for her. Whatever---the apizza was pretty good.

The Yale Bus.

So, the last time I was in New Haven....the only other time I was in New Haven, actually, was when I was a junior in high school. I had come up with my friend Elaina, and we stayed with our youth group leader Bobby who was in med school here. (He also did his undergrad here.) Anyway. It was February, it was snowy, and we came at night...and we were sort of checking out the school...trying to figure out whether or not to apply, and all I remember is how dark it was, and how at every street corner, Bobby would point out how someone got shot here or mugged there, and how you should never walk alone at night, especially if you were a woman blah, blah, blah. He just kept going on and on and on...

Apparently, it's much safer now...and Yale in part has dealt with this problem by offering a free shuttle bus. Here it is below:

I have to confess I'm much amused by these buses, because it looks like one of those yellow school buses that I took growing up...except painted in Yale colors. The inside also looks like a school bus:

Anyway, as you can see, we did take the Yale shuttle....which has mysterious unmarked bus stops, that change according to time of day, and apparently you just have to know about. At any rate, crime is down at Yale...in part because of this bus?

(For the record...Bobby told us not to apply to Yale, though he did like it there. I listened to him, but Elaina didn't. She though ended up at the University of Chicago...but I've always wondered...hmm...what would have it been like to come here? I've liked every single Yale person I've met. And this is when Heather knocks me on the head and reminds me that I wouldn't have met her. I would have defintely been a different (or as one Harvard friend once opined: scary) person if I had stayed on the east coast.)

New Haven...

So, it's Friday...and I've been having a good time catching up with my friend Heather! Heather was my sophomore year roommate in college. We weren't the best of friends back then when her two alarm clocks used to terrorize me at an obscenely early hours and my light by my bed used to terrorize her at obscenely late hours. But we've made great amends (and have never shared a room again)!

Hebs is now living in New Haven...and she took me around campus.

Here's a pic of Hebs (and a sleepy gargoyle):


Hebs then too me to this really cool rare book library...the inside tower is designed by Noguchi, who makes one of my favorite coffee tables.

There are all these cool manuscripts here...some very interesting and very mint early Christian manuscripts....I forget the significance of this one...

And here's another random pic for you....imagine studying here...

Friend or foe?

I haven't quite decided yet, if I really like "backpacking" yet....I guess it's a friend right now because it's Betsy's. It's her beloved backpack, and she insisted that I bring it with me this summer...and going to New Haven was it's first trip.

I've never traveled with a backpack before; I've always gone for one of those wheelie things, or if I'm going minimal, a duffel bag. I don't know. I'm not entirely decided. This thing is like a small little child, and it's like a big black hole...so to find anything and to keep anything from getting crumbled, you have to put everything in its own little bag....which adds to the weight.

Anyway, it fared well on the way to New Haven. 2 trains and 2 subways.

Haven't quite seen New Haven yet, I got in late last night, and I'm waiting for my friend to get back from class for lunch.

Yay!

Yay! I just finished my paper! Only a week past my self-appointed
deadline! I'm not sure why I dragged it out so long...but now that the
care-factor is practically gone and I've come to terms with the fact
that I really can't quite wrap my head around the relationality of
Yahweh vis a vis Elijah...I will let this thing be done. So yay! it's
done, and now I can work on the next one...and most importantly go play
with my friend Heather! Yay!

Off to Connecticut today. But first, I will go mail my paper.

Audrey's Wedding

Yesterday, I went to Audrey's wedding. Audrey is a friend from youth group. I think the last time I saw her was 4 years ago? It's been a long time. Anyway, way back in the day...we sort of co-ruled the youth group, and made the kids do all sorts of things, like rebel against our Taiwanese youth orchestra. We kids also were expected to put on little concerts or something for the adults on holidays. I'm particularly proud of the Father's Day obstacle course that we slapped together in 24 hours....sending dads to different stations having them do things like fold fitted sheets and point out different states on a map. And that make-shift Christmas play we put together in 2 weeks....I wrote the script and made costumes, and Audrey picked out the music and did the choreography...and we told the Jesus birth story with help from several of the gospels, INXS, Erasure, U2, Three Dog Night.... Okay, not all the lyrics worked, and looking back, it probably was a bit heretical...but we didn't know any better then, and it was a lot of fun!

Audrey was also my source of New Wave music in high school. We used to make mix tapes every month. We would tape copy of a copy of a copy of a copy....needless to say, sound quality wasn't so hot, but we had to make sure each tape had at least 2 Erasure songs on it...sigh. Erasure was our favorite group back then. (I was persuaded to go to Erasure concert a few years ago in San Francisco. Very, very sad. Some things are really better left in the past. The same upbeat pop-syncronized music with depressing lyrics. Why did that epitomize me back then?)

Anyway, here she is getting married:


And here is a picture of some of my youth group at the wedding.

It was so good to see everyone! And a bit trippy to see some of these folks I haven't seen since they were like, 10....and now...in college...or done with college? How crazy! This wedding really was like one big reunion. All these random parents coming up to us, staring at us...and saying, "Wow! You're so-and-so's kid. Etc." It was great to see everyone.

And speaking of parents...here's mine:


I was a bit unnerved last month when I realized I would be going to a wedding with my parents. I haven't done that since I was 12 or 13! But then, I got used to the idea, and really came greatly to be amused by that idea...only to have my dad ditch me right before the reception! Okay, to be fair, I ditched them first. As we got to the church my friend Melody was standing right at the entrance and I kind of just followed her....but then I hooked up with my parents again....only to be walking with my dad, Derrick and Terry to the cars when he suggested I go with them instead. Gee, thanks Dad. This photograph documents the only moment of the wedding I saw my parents. (But it was fun talking to Derrick and Terry!)