gainfully employed

it's been awhile since i've written in you, my largely ignored blog. as before, it gives me comfort to know that no one else is reading you (read: desperate plea for comments). a number of events have triggered in the recent past to make my life a bit more "eventful."

-i am now employed by Earthpledge, an urban greening and multitasking environmental non-for-profit in Midtown. i am excited beyond most comparisons to begin tomorrow. my position revolves around science in some vague and enticing way.

-i am presently looking for an apartment in Brooklyn, most certainly in a "hip" area. this means when i walk outside my door, i'd like to see starving skinny-pants-wearing melodramatic specters floating down the sidewalk. and not just one or two. a whole undead army's worth!

-i have recently become a Hare Krishna, but i am having trouble growing the essential ponytail. my beat will be Union Square, and i will strike my drums and sing for all the passers-by garbed in blazing orange robes.

the other day, at a dinner at a friend's house, we decided to play one of those games in which the players pass around a beeping device that gives a phrase to the reader, who then must explain the term using words and gestures to the others on her/his team. naturally, this is a game that reveals everyone's innermost ignorances and inability to form cogent explanations. there were a number of moments laughable for pretentious pricks like me, but one took the cake. one girl took the device, saw the phrase, and then yelled, "um! someone Jewish! a Jewish name!" those on her team began to shout out endless variations on "berg" and "stein," but she kept shaking her head. "no! no!" she yelled, "more!" when the time finally ran out, she showed us this mysterious Jewish name. "Hare Krishna."

needless to say, i nearly self-combusted with disbelief. i felt it my duty to school her on the Hindu relation to Krishna, the inherent un-Jewishness of the name Krishna, who exactly are the Hare Krishnas, how they are not Jewish, and various other tidbits of useful knowledge that came up in the midst of my flurry of explanations. i felt somewhat rude to do this, as if i were being condescending, but she really did need to know this, in case she approached a Hare Krishna in the street and wished him a Happy Chanukah. i mean, he probably wouldn't mind. he might even say thank you.