I spent most of Thursday night at Sascha's studio listening to Grant lay down vocals for some songs for (the now defunct band *sniffle*) Fiasco! ˆ sascha ˆ studio ˆ

Late, late, late Thursday night I went over to the Annex to say hi to Karen who was DJing downstairs. ˆ karen ˆ dj ˆ

Lawrence and Mandy were there. ˆ brother lawrence ˆ mandy ˆ

We made stupid faces. ˆ brother lawrence ˆ ugly face ˆ

Mandy wiggled her way a little deeper into my heart when she pulled out this incredible gem of a face... ˆ mandy ˆ ugly face ˆ

...and managed to upstage MY ugly face! ˆ me ˆ ugly face ˆ

After we closed out the Annex, Lawrence headed home and Mandy and I got pizza! (What's better than the fact that Rosario's is still open at 4:05am on Thursday?) ˆ mandy ˆ pizza ˆ

Saturday was moving day! After two years of dating (with only one break up...a new record for me!), Meredith and I decided to move out of our separate apartments and get a place together. Here's the living room of the apartment on 3rd & B that I shared with Niki. Almost all packed and ready to go. ˆ seige ˆ 222 e 3rd ˆ moving ˆ

Siege, Ellen, Sarah (and KT - not pictured because she showed up later in the afternoon) = BEST. FRIENDS. EVER! Keep in mind, this wasn't about helping one person move...this was about taking taking our U-Haul to BOTH of apartments, and then unloading all of our stuff into our new place. Oooof! ˆ ellen ˆ meredith ˆ sarah ˆ siege ˆ moving ˆ

I'm the worst procrastinator ever and so when everybody showed up at my place, I was still in the midst of packing. ˆ 222 e 3rd ˆ moving ˆ

So the girls took it easy while I finished. Hahaha. ˆ ellen ˆ meredith ˆ 222 e 3rd ˆ moving ˆ

Schweaty! Ellen and Meredith are showing off rolls of that packing saran wrap that I used tons of (because you can use it to just bind everything together instead of having to pack everything in boxes. It's awesome). ˆ ellen ˆ meredith ˆ sarah ˆ moving ˆ

With all of my stuff loaded up, we all crammed into the U-Haul cab to head over to Meredith's apartment on Orchard Street and get all of her stuff! ˆ meredith ˆ sarah ˆ siege ˆ moving ˆ truck ˆ uhaul ˆ

Almost full... ˆ siege ˆ moving ˆ truck ˆ uhaul ˆ

...finished! (With almost no room in the truck to spare!) After we'd finished emptying Meredith's place... ˆ siege ˆ moving ˆ truck ˆ uhaul ˆ

...we headed over to our new apartment and began the LONG and tedious process of unloading ALL of our stuff! Our new apartment was the entire first floor of this building! ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ

The new place had a super-sweet neighborhood garden right next door! ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ

Here's a picture facing east down our new (tree-lined!) block! ˆ street ˆ

And here's a view of our block facing west (just across the street from Zum Schneider, a really fun "authentic" biergarten). ˆ street ˆ

Here's a view of our living room from the kitchen after we'd finished unloading the truck! Again, I gotta give a super-huge thanks to KT and Siege who helped us schlep stuff for hours and stuck it out until the bitter end! ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ moving ˆ

And here's a view of the kitchen from the living room. (You can sort of see the hallway that leads to the bedroom all the way in the back). ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ moving ˆ

Meredith was so tired from all the moving that she laid down and fell asleep right in the middle of our living room. ˆ meredith ˆ asleep ˆ

Wakey, wakey sleep-o-saurus! ˆ meredith ˆ sleepy ˆ

We spent the entire next day unpacking our new place. Here's me working hard to reassemble our living room furniture! ˆ me ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ moving ˆ

While unpacking, Meredith came across the beret I bought when I dressed up as "a mime who got his ass kicked" for Halloween 2005. ˆ meredith ˆ beret ˆ mime ˆ

Invisible rope! ˆ meredith ˆ beret ˆ mime ˆ

While unpacking we also discovered that we both had matching, tan, corduroy jackets! (Mine used to belong to my grandfather - I don't know what Meredith's excuse is. Hahah). ˆ me ˆ meredith ˆ corduroy ˆ

The best part of our new apartment? The small walk-in closet that I decided to turn into the world's smallest office!

The walk-in closet had an even smaller little cubby hole inside of it, that Meredith filled with a roll-up mattress and blankets, because she loves to nap in small, dark places (just like a little rat!). Here's an aerial view of Meredith's lovingly furnished "Rat Hole." ˆ rat hole ˆ

And here's rat who sleeps in there. ˆ meredith ˆ rat hole ˆ

Meredith was carrying out a trash bag that had some broken glass in it, and the glass poked out of the bag and sliced her up real good. Ouch. ˆ blood ˆ

Here's Swimmy (Meredith's fish) getting acclimated to his (her?) new home. ˆ fish ˆ

Here are a bunch of pics I took a few months later after we'd gotten all settled in that give a much better idea of just how rad this apartment was. (Meredith and I were only there for a little over a year. The landlord ended up getting hit with way more real estate taxes than he'd planned on and found out he could get a tax break by reducing the number of apartments in the building. So he eventually ended up putting a spiral staircase in the middle of our living room and turning our apartment and the entire apartment below into a huge duplex. He gave us the option of staying, but in the end we decided to get a new place rather than finding another couple that we wanted to share a duplex with. Boo!) Anyway, here's a pic of the living room taken from the kitchen. ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ

Close-up of the living room. ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ

Reverse view. ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ

Dining area. ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ

The bedroom. ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ bed ˆ

Reverse angle. Pretty sweet place, right? We had anticipated that it would take forever to find an apartment that we both loved, but we lucked out and this was the very first place we saw! Score! ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ

After a full day of unpacking, Mer and I headed out to a warehouse in Greenpoint, Brooklyn (that was just one block away from IndoorVillage, my old Brooklyn loft) to attend the Nightmare of You's video shoot for their song My Name is Trouble ˆ nightmare of you ˆ video ˆ

Meredith in the crowd playing a "fan of the band." ˆ meredith ˆ nightmare of you ˆ video ˆ

Here's a bunch of people trying to cool down between takes. Enormous Abandoned Brooklyn Warehouse + August = 110 degrees inside. Blech. ˆ jeet ˆ karen ˆ nightmare of you ˆ video ˆ

The band on the "live show" set. ˆ band ˆ nightmare of you ˆ video ˆ

Sarah and Brandon had just gotten their dog, Monkey! They were both preoccupied so Meredith and I got to spend a lot of time babysitting her! Look at her chubby little pink puppy-belly! ˆ meredith ˆ monkey ˆ puppy ˆ

Awwwwww. ˆ meredith ˆ monkey ˆ puppy ˆ

I needed to get out of the heat so around midnight I went up onto the roof to get some fresh air and to check out the awesome view of Manhattan (the warehouse was right on the river). ˆ new york ˆ

On the way back in I took sneaky spy photos of Brooke and Gurj from the balcony. Me so sneaky!

Then I chilled out and let the Monkster nap on my lap. It looks like she's wet, but she's just greasy. ˆ monkey ˆ puppy ˆ

Hahaha. Flying puppy! ˆ monkey ˆ puppy ˆ

Her puppy hair was so greasy that when I sculpted her hair into a little doggy-mohawk, it stayed like that! ˆ monkey ˆ puppy ˆ

Last shot of the night! ˆ nightmare of you ˆ video ˆ

The concept of the video was great. It was sort of a Bradbury-esque sci-fi story about a groupie who's so in love with the Brandon (the lead singer) that she orders a robotic clone of him (er, or something). ˆ band ˆ nightmare of you ˆ

Here's the finished video! ˆ nightmare of you ˆ video ˆ

Later that week, I went to see Fiasco play at Crash Mansion. ˆ band ˆ fiasco ˆ

Fatty getting ready to sing a shirt! ˆ fatty ˆ autograph ˆ

Frank even drew a staff and charted out the first two bars of If You Lived Here! ˆ staff ˆ

Fiasco was followed by one of the worst bands I've ever seen. Normally, I wouldn't have remembered their name, but since they're drummer broke one of the cardinal rules of rock and wore his own band's t-shirt on stage, I can now happily inform you that the worst band I've ever seen play a show in NYC was called Monument. ˆ band ˆ

The singer was like the poor man's Scott Stapp (from Creed). And considering that fact that the real Scott Stapp is already the poor man's version of Scott Stapp, that's saying a lot. ˆ band ˆ

Saturday night I went out late and met up with Sarah, Brandon and a few of Brandon's friends who were in town visiting. ˆ brandon ˆ me ˆ sarah ˆ

Brandon and a girl he used to date back in the day. (Awwww!) ˆ brandon ˆ strangers ˆ

The next morning Mer and I went to La Palapa for a little Mexi-brunch action with Brandon and Sar. ˆ brandon ˆ sarah ˆ brunch ˆ

On the way home we all stopped at this pottery studio (because I was interested in signing up for some time on the wheel)... ˆ brandon ˆ sarah ˆ clay ˆ ghost ˆ

...and Brandon and Sarah reenacted the scene from Ghost. Hahaha. ˆ brandon ˆ sarah ˆ clay ˆ ghost ˆ

Mexi Brunch + Margaritas = Sleepytime! (aka - The Best Photo of All Time). This is one of the photos that the longer you look at it, the funnier it gets. ˆ meredith ˆ asleep ˆ best ˆ book ˆ

On Saturday night I met up with Vin and Eric P. (who I hadn't seen since college back in '98!) and we went to our friend Connor's house party to see Conor and Josh play in a new band. ˆ eric p ˆ vin ˆ

Eric P. is a kung-fu master. No joke. ˆ eric p ˆ vin ˆ kung fu ˆ punch ˆ

Here's Connor and Josh playing drums and bass in what was to be a very short-lived music project. ˆ connor ˆ josh ˆ band ˆ

Dave G, The Ladies' C. ˆ dave g ˆ

Joshy laying down bass. (Holy shit, isn't the the lead singer the Wellspring??) ˆ josh ˆ

Ken, Vin and Dave (this picture makes me giggle). The apartment was getting crazy-packed and sweaty so we all decided to go outside to cool off... ˆ dave g ˆ ken ˆ vin ˆ

...and watch Eric P. show off some of his kung-fu moves. Here's Vin getting ready to take a picture of... ˆ vin ˆ

...Eric pretending to kick him the face! ˆ eric p ˆ vin ˆ kick ˆ kung fu ˆ

Since I like to play devil's advocate (almost as much as I like to see people I love get kicked in the face by accident), I asked Eric to see how close he could come to kicking Vin in the face without actually hitting him. (Pretty darn close!) ˆ eric p ˆ vin ˆ kick ˆ kung fu ˆ

How about a three-part jump-off the wall kick? ˆ eric p ˆ kung fu ˆ

How'd you like that expression to be the last thing you remember before getting kicked in the face? ˆ eric p ˆ best ˆ kick ˆ kung fu ˆ

Pow! ˆ eric p ˆ best ˆ kick ˆ kung fu ˆ

Fast-forward a little more than a week later (Meredith and I went on vacation to the Cayman Islands!) and it turns out I arrived back in town just in time to attend Mandy Tannen's birthday party! She may be the birthday girl... ˆ mandy ˆ tiara ˆ

...but I'll always be her little birthday princess! ˆ mandy ˆ me ˆ tiara ˆ

Gina BonJersey was DJing... ˆ gina bonjersey ˆ dj ˆ

...as were Sarah... ˆ sarah ˆ dj ˆ

...and Karen. ˆ karen ˆ sad ˆ

Around 3:30, a totally crunked Dennis Crowley rolled in! ˆ dens ˆ me ˆ

Little known fact: If you take the drawstring out of your hoodie... ˆ dens ˆ diane ˆ

...you can use it to lasso girls into whispering sweet, sweet nothings into your ear. ˆ dens ˆ diane ˆ

Brother Lawrence: Gay 80s Icon. ˆ brother lawrence ˆ gay ˆ

Happy Birthday, Mandy! ˆ mandy ˆ sunglasses ˆ

I ended up staying ridiculously late and was planning on going home, but when I finally made it outside, ran into Anna Maria (whom I hadn't seen in years!) seen here showing off that her shirt was actually a bathing suit. Bonersville! Anyway, it turned out that Sarah and Karen's friend Wyatt was in town with the Killers and was having an... ˆ anna maria ˆ

...an after-hours party in his hotel right around the corner.

Here's Xioating, Karen and Anna Maria living it up. ˆ anna maria ˆ karen ˆ xiaoting ˆ

Michael and I reflecting on the fact that 5am on a weeknight isn't as much fun as it used to be (aka - we're OLD!). ˆ me ˆ michael ˆ

Not sure who the mustachioed man in the embroidered shirt was (one of the Killers roadies?). But when he broke out his guitar and started playing tunes... ˆ guitar ˆ moustache ˆ strangers ˆ

...I ended up managing to convince a TOTALLY WASTED Xiaoting that the guy in the hat was "Slash from Guns N Roses." She got all giddy and was like "Ohmigod, I LOVE GnR! Are you serious? Are you sure that's him?" I was like "Of COURSE it's him! Don't you know what Slash looks like?" She started freaking out "Wow! I HAVE to meet him! Should I go over there?" I told her I thought she should, but offered up one last word of advice: "Whatever you do, don't bring the whole Guns n Roses thing right away. I've heard he HATES people that only want to meet him because he's famous." So Xiaoting went over and was being all shy and flirty with him (while we laughed hysterically and watched). ˆ xiaoting ˆ moustache ˆ strangers ˆ

Here's the pic I snapped of the two of them cozying up at like 5:30am before I left. I ran into Xiaoting two weeks later and she simultaneously started laughing and hitting me. Then explained, "I was so drunk I ended up flirting and talking with that dude for hours before finally getting around to mentioning how cool it was that he was in Guns n Roses and he was like 'What?!?'" Hahahahahaha. Oh man, what's better than this photo? Happy August! ˆ xiaoting ˆ moustache ˆ strangers ˆ sunglasses ˆ