so, it seems like the carrying capacity of my family is about 96 plus or minus 24 hours. the first two or three days were frightenly normal. too normal. too good. un-kladney, seriously. i'm not complaining. it was great. forgive my apprehension, but the last time we were all together it was the same ole bullshit but amplified by extended seperation anxiety and the rents' travelling fatigue. dunno why, but this time around twas the complete opposite of the italian bliss from about a year ago.

all good.

new york is dead cool. i wish i could stay longer to get more of a feel of how the city works, but this week turned my nyc revulsion to revolution. i can see why i didn't particularly like it last time i was around (mostly fundage shortage), second time was much better. would like to hit the city in my way - namely sans family reliance (even if just for a day). could be the new vegas, ya know, if i was an east coaster, or if amsterdam wasn't so close. the hipster scene is painfully cool (and by cool i mean not cool, which can possibly mean ubercool). met some *real* (read:stereotypical) hipsters. seriously terrifying. on the same night discovered that my douschdar is aligned with the nevadans and working perfectly. mind you, when you're pre-introduced to someone with, 'he's a tool', they're a bit screwed to begin with, but a tool is a tool - prewarning or no.

i'm totally with blythe on the closet hipsterness. nah, that's a lie, i wish i was a closet hipster. my musical superiority is known to be minimal at best, i can't be arsed loooking badly-good, i tend to do one or the other. usually bad. i can't judge as i'm rarely exposed to the species, so i won't. (well...much)

found a REAL arcade in chinatown. it was dark and danky, i was the only white guy inside (second time on the trip), they had pinball! pinball! i haven't seen pinball since moving to the UK. aaaaah. got whupped at DDR. lame. practice practice yo. also treated myself to a banh mi - the lady was well impressed when i asked about a getting a bun, then translated to banh bough (or however it is spelled). eric - your ex-girlfriends are superhandy at times. so my banh mi was BBQ chicken - as i slowly decend into casual vegetarianism i got a hot dog at the yankee game. it was simeltaneously gross and...well...gross. still ate the damn thing, but a hot dog is NOT gonna be the thing to return me back to the flock. nevertheless it was the prototypical newyork food and veggie or no i'm not missing out on shit like that (oh, and veggie hotdogs are NORTIOUSLY horrible - flacid 90 y/o penis is what springs to mind...at least that's what i imagine them to be like...the penises that is...jeeez i've been typing about this for too long...ya know, the penises...aaaargh, it never ends!).

didn't realize american apparel had brick & mortar stores. tre cool. no logo anywhere, simple, single colour, non-sweatshop, quality clothes. i'm happy for them - seem to be doing quite well.

went with my dad to a WNBA game. reminiscent of mikey & myself cheering on the anteater ladies. was well impressed by the crowd (both the size and loudness - esp. for a preseason game), the game itself was like watching two upper-mid ranked college teams play...would like to chat with mikey about this...

-----------------

MUST.
STAY.
AWAKE.

jet lag will not kill me. neither will my luggage taking an extended vacation in london while i stay in my heavily unmedicated state in grey edinburgh. a cup of good (gasp!) coffee is calling my name, but i can't leave as my bags have a limo service direct to my door...or so british airways says.

::crosses fingers::