Alyse and Oliver

The lovely Alia was in town, and we went to the Rodeo Bar with her brother David, his flirtatious friend Chris, and Alyse and her new boyfriend Oliver. This isn't a great picture at all, but I was so taken that night with Alyse's and Oliver's beauty that I had to try to capture the moment. Truly, they are the hottest couple in NYC. And he's perfect for her! Sweet, handsome, and semi-reliable. Sort of the anti-thesis of her last boyfriend, Christopher (whom I introduced her to!). But he is from Maine, which is sort of an afterthought state. And he is as hairy as the drain filter in the Harlem Globetrotters' locker room bathtub, although Alyse has many times tried to convince me that he's only hairy on his chest. As if I don't have eyes! That kid could be skinned for fur by Fendi. There is something dreamy about him, though, and often when I hang around with them, I imagine what his hairy nuts would feel like in my palm. In this picture, Alyse is wearing some pastiche she assembled, probably mostly from Forever 21 (I myself shop at Forever 41), and Oliver is wearing a pastel-colored tee.

Bea tribute

I still can't believe Bea Arthur is gone, can you? On Friday night, Philip and I went to the Bea Arthur tribute at Dixon Place. I meant to dress like Bea, but I forgot to! :( Fortunately, other people didn't ...

I remember once trying to describe the agent Irene Skolnick's outfits to someone, and I told them that she dressed every day like Bea Arthur did when she was trying to be fancy on "The Golden Girls" ...

An author was at the tribute, and he described meeting Bea at her house when he was interviewing her for his book THE Q GUIDE TO THE GOLDEN GIRLS. She insisted that he have a drink with her, and she opened a cupboard (which was filled entirely with liquor) and produced two enormous goblets. He requested white wine, thinking that that was the safest choice, and she proceeded to pour an entire bottle into the two goblets. So he had to sit down and drink, literally, half a bottle of wine with Bea Arthur! I wonder what she wore at home? Probably something flowing ...

Work luncheon

Alberto took the department out to lunch, and everyone looked so fashionable that I wanted to take a picture. What a stylish crew! Especially Kendra, who is hiding behind Vanessa. We went to Arriba Arriba on Ninth Avenue, but then everyone lingered after lunch for a long time, talking. I became impatient and left first, at which point they probably all huddled together and decided to fire me on Monday. I love it that I work in a department that goes out to lunch together, but at a certain point, it's time to put down the fork and pick up the pieces. At my age, I only have so much time left to share at departmental lunches! I have to accomplish everything on my "bucket list," for chrissakes!

Seersucker pants

The lovely Joseph from my new job came in today wearing green seersucker pants and white shoes!! How brave! Actually, he pulls it off quite well, as you can see. He is very slender, and fair, and looks at home in an outfit that you can imagine someone beating the help in. At my age, though, if I wore green seersucker pants and white shoes, I would probably be mistaken for a crazy person, or for the Morgan Freeman character in "Driving Miss Daisy."

Alex

Alex is so cool! I wanted to blog about him, so I pretended to admire his shorts. They are nice, but 'no big deal,' as it were. Really, the limitations of only being able to talk about outfits on this blog are beginning to chafe. As for Alex, I don't want to bed him, I don't need to befriend him, I just enjoy letting him know that I'm crazy enough to befriend. I told him my ghoulish Natasha Richardson joke, and my macabre Michael Jackson joke, and sure enough - he knows I'm crazy now! Apparently, he's an actor on some show, so I'm not showing his face here.

Name tag

Here's me in front of my new name tag at my new office. My next door neighbor, Vanessa, took this pic. She didn't seem too thrilled to do it, either. :( But I am proud to have accumulated yet another name tag in my strange career. I still have my HMH name tag at home, on my desk. I wonder how many more name tags I will accrue in my life, how many more new sets of co-workers I will slowly reveal my insanity to, like babies that you lower into bathwater, to get them used to the temperature.

I am wearing a coral-colored shirt by Band of Outsiders, which got ink on the sleeves - I had them removed. I'm wearing my brown, dotted tie. Forgot who makes it. All day long, I wanted to take off the tie, as it really didn't match the shirt. But I ultimately stood by my fashion decision. I'm grimacing in the pic - I hate being photographed, and I try to grimace or open my mouth really wide in every photo of me, to ruin the shot. I'm sure that one day, someone will be putting pictures of me into some sort of memorial album, wondering why I never - even for one shot, just to have some nice image of myself preserved for posterity - relaxed a bit, tried to look presentable. It's because I'm a control freak, that's why!

George

I had a magical Saturday recently with my friend George. We went to see the new Johnny Depp movie, which was slow and beautiful and a little boring, like life itself. Then we had a lovely supper at a Mexican restaurant, then walked around for a bit. We met up with Miss P. and Nikhil, too - and we all tried to walk onto the Highline, but it was closed. Closed! I've never been, and I thought it would be nice to finally make Miss P. happy and do something outdoorsy on a Saturday evening. But it wasn't to be. Thank you, New York! You sweet, improbable and preposterous mistress. Who would think to close the one thing people seem to love about you on a weekend evening? You!

I loved George's outfit - it gave me hope for what my outfits will be when I'm George's age. Simple, classy, and cute. I don't remember what we did after the Highline debacle, but knowing me, I probably led them to Billy's for cupcakes, then said goodbye, goodbye.