It's after midnight, 52 degrees outside, and I'm sitting here in my apartment sweating like a fiend. Why? Because the HEAT IS TURNED ON.

New York City rules and regs state that from October 1st to May 31st, building owners are required to provide tenants with heat:

* keeping buildings 68 degrees or warmer between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. if the outside temperature falls below 55 degrees; and

* 55 degrees or warmer between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. if the temperature outside falls below 40 degrees.

Which is all well and good, except it's well above 40 degrees -- so why is the heat on? :P I've already got a fan running, but refuse to turn on my air conditioner to compensate for the radiator!

Anyone got some spare Gatorade?

Video game peeps, click here. :)

My mind is veering wildly -- I keep switching off between humming the instrumental version of "Girl from Ipanema" from "Ultra-lounge Volume 11: Organs In Orbit," and the Burning Sensations' cover of J. Richman's "Pablo Picasso," from the "Repo Man" soundtrack.

So for your delectation, I leave you with this:

"The girls would turn the color of an avacodo
As he'd drive down the street in his El Dorado
He was only five-foot-three, girls could not resist his stare...
Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole."

(Not in New York!)

Cookie Monster is eating less cookies! On the one hand, I'm happy that "Sesame Street" is advocating healthier eating habits for kids. On the other...IT'S COOKIE MONSTER! Is nothing sacred?!

So, uh, hi! As you can see, I obviously made it through my site launch -- so I thought I'd say "hello." Seeing as how this is my blog and all, and I needed to do something to get those "Gates" pictures off the front page where they've been for over a month. :)

I know I don't write all that often here anymore, and there are lots of reasons for that...

Some of it's because I'm pretty busy, and that's good. When I moved here over a year ago (!) I didn't really bring much furniture. For the first six months, I was basically taking care of business -- getting things like a couch and bed, learning my neighborhood, and so on. Nowadays, I'm still pretty dang busy -- more socially, though. There's just so much to do here, and I want to do it.

In the midst of the busy, I'll observe something or something will happen to me that I want to share -- but then, "oh, SHINY THING!" and I forget. :) Writing, "Hey, here's that semi-funny thing I heard on the subway last Tuesday" just isn't as good. The "so much to do here" from above can also be pretty bloody distracting when it comes to writing things down.

Lack of creativity isn't helping, either. Ever since I left Michael, I've been in a bit of a creative rut -- I haven't been inspired to do much, either writing or imagery. Most of that, I'm thinking, is because I'm more focused on being out and social right now than anything else. Lots of stimuli with very little time to absorb it all. Some of my creativity loss is also due to depression -- I fought with that for quite a while after I left Michael. I think I've got it mostly tamed now, although it still crops up now and again.

And, last but certainly not least -- the separation itself isn't fun. Or funny. It's certainly the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life, and has required a lot of adjustment. When I left Michael, I not only left my husband, but I also lost my best friend through my actions. It hasn't been an easy time. And what the past year-ish has been like is something that I'm just not comfortable putting out there for everyone to see. It's also not fair to Michael. So, expect small bulletins from the front -- but not long, personal entries. Not about this.

I plan to get better with the short entries, though -- eventually get a new cell phone, do some moblogging from there. Or at least write shit down before it leaves my head, sheesh. :)

Expect more. It'll be here soon.