greetings from the land of maisy, zach and cody, scooby doo, and elmo. these ingredients (and many more of their zesty counterparts) now make up almost 90% of my pop culture diet. you will be happy to know that america’s next top model makes up the other 10. tyra, you didn’t think i’d forget you??
life in the nanny fast lane is in full swing–i’m entering my 3rd week working for the agency, and it is a party. things i have encountered so far (also known as the good, the bad, and the whiny):
–five year old kids with cell phones
–bathrooms 3 times the size of my entire apartment
–delivery mcdonald’s (delivery! they deliver! for no fee! i guess the real question is, why have i ever bothered to eat unprocessed, nasty-lacking real food?)
–houses. in new york city. (this is very weird and rich.)
–huge tips
–crying children i have to comfort
–crying mothers i have to comfort
–crying children i apparently don’t have to comfort
–lots of parents who seem to just want an expensive playdate for their child while they sit around all day and watch me play with them (an experience akin to being exposed to others while peeing: not something you think about UNLESS SOMEONE IS WATCHING AND SILENTLY JUDGING YOU.)
…and my personal favorite, the 11 year old boy who refused to play his gamecube himself, but chose rather to heavily direct my sorry, video game-hating ass while i attempted to play “mario sunshine” for 3 straight hours. it went sort of like this:
inferior, nanny hating child: NO. SQUIRT THE WATER FROM YOUR JET PACK GUN THINGIE INTO THE HUGE GLOB OF MUD’S MOUTH!
me: I’M TRYING. I HATE YOU.
INHC: yay! i love manipulating people who are paid to play with me!

needless to say, this job is barrels of fun. but seriously. it is. i kind of love it. and don’t tell anyone, but i also kind of love hannah montana.

in other news, i am getting lots of arts done, and will be participating in the upcoming mid-program crit next week. harper’s is awesome and intern suzannah and i have been hitting fun parties and organizing antm nights. kara and angie are coming in the near future–sweet.
and of course, i miss all y’all snowed in mini-apple folks.

well, i wish that, in an ode to angie, i could post a picture simultaneously showing my new tattoo and my nipple. but alas, you’ll have to settle with a weirdy looking-directly-into-the-camera-fully-clothed shot courtesy of photobooth.

the artist that did this for me is amazing…her name is lea smith and she’s in my program for nysp. i designed it, and she did it extremely well…it’s pretty much the twin of my original drawing.
(note–though i realize this probably doesn’t matter to most of you, it’s actually on my left arm…photobooth is like a mirror, remember?)

hello friends!
greetings from the land of new york city. as usual, it is lovely here, if a little dirty. many, many things have happened/are going to happen soon since last i spoke to shambot. (he never calls!)
most notably, i gots me a payin’ job! at pinch sitters (did you catch the pun there? it’s very clever) a babysitting agency in the city. it’s pretty much the coolest thing ever. here’s the rundown on how it works: the woman who runs it has a bookful of clients who are “accepted” to pinch sitters–they have to go through a background check, etc before they are allowed to use the service. she (we’re going to call her M) fields all the calls for sitting jobs, then distributes them to her sitters, who email her their schedules every week. so basically, i can work whenever i want–i just let m know when is okay to call, and when’s not ok, and she emails/calls me with bookings, usually about 24 hours in advance. the client pays me directly, and then each week i turn in my timecard and the amount of money i owe m (the client pays me the full amount per hour, m gets a certain amount off the top). everything is in cash, and apparently there is plenty of work available. kind of like drug dealing, i suppose. except with babies.
so, my first booking is tonight. tomorrow, due to a very urgent book party celebration i will be hitting up with suzannah, i will not be working, but i have another booking friday night. i am very excited. and naturally, i will keep you all up to date with tales of the manhattan mini-elite (apartment on park avenue, anyone?). also, news from my first release party to come as well.
oh, and for all you who are wondering, the march issue of harper’s should be out pretty soon. check that shit! it’s a really good issue. “i was a chinese internet addict” is especially wonderful. not to mention those non-commission pieces in the readings section. damn, some art intern over there has a good eye.
ok. more soon. (oh, and seriously, i AM doing art. lots of it, in fact. but the nysp studio facilities blow so hard that a) i am never in them, because i have no f-ing studio space anyway, and b) the scanner is a piece of crap. i refuse to use it until it hooks up properly to my lappy (the computers we have are still stuck on the super old version of photoshop (the one with the eye) and i need to clean it with windex. but i’ll post photos of work soon.)
LAHVE.
ps. angie is coming out here! yay! she wins the prize of my everlasting love and affection! (oh wait, i guess she already had that. oh well.)

ok, i really, really, really hate to do this to emma, who is the loveliest love of my life. so emma, really, if you’re listening, please don’t be mad. if you’d come out here, i would SO buy you a ticket because i would be THAT excited, even in my impoverished state. i so, so would.
ok, here it is:
I JUST GOT A TICKET TO GO SEE THIS AMERICAN LIFE IN NEW YORK F-ING CITY!!!!!
aaaaaaa i’m so excited i am totally going to throw my panties on the stage into ira glass’s beautiful face. i don’t even care that i just blew $50 and i didn’t even ask anyone else to come, so i am going by myself (unless, that is, miss emma (the only other person who is as huge a TAL fan as i am, and actually, the very person who introduced me to the online archives that have fueled my obsession) decides to charter a private jet to come out here and join me) I AM SO EXCITED i am just going to pee all over the place.
FEBRUARY 26th–YOU CAN’T BE HERE FAST ENOUGH.

good things are happening here.
most notably at this point in time:
a) my laundry is done. and the guy who i always make an ass of my self in front of was gone today.
b) have elected to take a sort of afternoon-long domesticity filled hiatus from the city, during which i will be making (hopefully) delicious lentil soup.
c) am making very good progress in my tattoo designing/debating. as in, design is done. meeting to be had with the perma-needle relatively soon.
d) had a lovely run this morning. seriously, it was so good.
e) am almost through “everything is illuminated” which is weird, but good. next up–back to the stack of books from harper’s. also, the gospels! (have pledged to educate my secular mind to be able to better converse with the scholarly boyfriend).
f) the march issue of harper’s is now in my hot little hand. IT HAS MY NAME IN IT. am not sure when it comes out in stores, but when you see it, look inside! (i’m “art intern”. duh.)
g) have (hopefully) solved a computer crisis WITHOUT CALLING JOEL. which i am sure he appreciates. (love you, joely!) my laptop apparently decided to revolt by randomly turning itself off. irritating. but i called people who were on the clock, getting paid to help me! and they did! seems those pesky little updates are essential.
but, sadly, bad things as well:
a) the abundance of art in this city is great. what is not great is that is is not all great. do you see what i’m saying here? 8 billion openings every night does not mean 8 billion GOOD openings. more like 2.
b) i definitely spent an assload of time making a clever little card for the high stakes mcad valentine’s contest. i sent it in, double checked that afternoon to make sure it hadn’t bounced back and that i did, indeed, send it to the right address. but it’s not in the f-ing contest. does any mcadian know what happened? there are only like 10 in there? excuse the web-acronym, but WTF?
c) my pop culture obsession (well, one) with the OC is being cut tragically short by the lame-os at fox. to make matters worse, openings on thursday nights + no knowledge of how to set up recording on my television = the fact that i have not seen the show that is shaping our corrupt nation SINCE I GOT HERE. now, THAT, folks, deserves CAPITAL LETTERS. i miss you, OC! come out on dvd soon so i can sit in my jammies and give you the attention you deserve!

actually, i think that’s all the bad. except that i miss you, everyone who is reading this. (i may miss you if you’re not reading this, but then you’ll never know, will you?)

you know that voice, don’t you? the one where, after having a slight sore throat the other day, you decide that OF COURSE you will go out and have free drinks with the entire staff of harper’s at von, because you are cool and they have good beer there and you’ve always wanted to try a martini on an empty stomach, and then you stumble home and cram down a bagel and wake up the next morning with the sickies.
and then you have that voice, that at first is horrendous, but by the end of the day it’s just kind of scratchy, and you wish your voice was ALWAYS like that because you sound like an old movie star/johnny cash, which, let’s face it, is an unbeatable combo.
well, here i am, deep in the throes of the raspy sexy voice. i rarely get sick, but i think it was some combination of the week of neverending excitement and fun with ben added to babysitting craziness, work, and too many late nights. lovely.
it’s a little sad around the old apartment without ben, who, surprisingly, fit in nicely to my teeny tiny hobbit hole. we had a great week that involved lots of museums (whitney and met) numerous gallery openings, and lots of rock-star like eating and drinking out with various nysp and harper’s people. it was wonderful, and i must say i hope he comes back soon.
but now it’s back to real life. i am currently working on the art i’m doing for the end of semester show, babysitting to make the big money, working the internship, and i just finished a bunch o freelance stuff for paper prince…it remains to be seen if the big guys like it. so cross your fingers, cause i could really use a big fish here.
anyway. there are some new pictures from birthday, which was awesome (and thank you all who called!) so check out ye olde photobucket.
also, new tattoo coming? maybe? there’s this girl in my program who’s a tattoo artist, so hopefully i’m looking at a pretty low cost operation at her parlor. i’m working on the design right now. fun!
so, call me sometime. i’m trying to catch up with individual emails too, so if you have time but don’t feel like hearing my voice, drop me a line, eh?

it’s been quite the week.
finally, i’ve arrived…i am officially moved in to my apartment in brooklyn heights (which, if possible, is even more amazing than i remember it being when i first came out to see it). but what happened in the days that led up to the move, you ask?
well, i’ll tell you. if you insist.
it all began at work, at harper’s. all was normal, i was planning on going back home after work and having myself a nice plate of noodles and watching gilmore girls, when fate intervened. he was in the form of intern barry, a nice guy (and the one who sits next to me in the intern cubicle). previous to his internship at harper’s he worked at a place called the paris review (a big deal in the literature world). well, the paris review is sort of old school–and they host these swanky cocktail parties every few months. all of us at harper’s were invited, including me (by way of barry).
it started at seven, and previous art intern bree (who i met that afternoon) and i showed up about 7:30. we were offered free drinks straight away, and they flowed freely all night (heaven is 150 smarty pants people smashed into posh offices, getting trashed, let me tell you). i met tons of people, most notably the former interns at harper’s–i think i met 3 art interns and twice as many editorials, who all cling to their harper’s experiences like the remnants of a previous relationship (apparently, the real world isn’t quite as fun. who knew?). i stumbled home, accompanied on the subway by an equally inebriated intern suzannah, at about 11–then entertained the ben for a few hours by phone. well, i was entertained, anyway.
wednesday was the babysitting experience–the woman’s name is lisa (this is cynthia nixon’s cousin–she was ON sex and the city once) and her kids are isabella and gabriel. it was lovely, and very profitable. i think i may be babysitting as a part time job for her (she apparently needs some help mondays and wednesdays–my free days).
thursday brought more excitement–i had dinner after work with about 8 other nysp-ers (brannan from tennessee sort of orchestrated the get together). it was great, and i think it’s going to be a fun group. but i seem to be the only internship student (awesome). this means, essentially, everyone else will be bonding in the studios all week while i am at work, alone. so sad.
as luck would have it, new nysp friend juliet offered to help me move friday afternoon. her and i braved the subway together with my loads of stuff, then had a bonding session while shopping on atlantic avenue (items bought: sheets, sponge thingy for dishes, and bath towel).
saturday i was woken up at 11 by intern suzannah, who called with big plans to venture over to the international center for photography and check out the cartier-bresson exhibition, which was awesome. it was busy, since we didn’t get there until early afternoon, but definitely enjoyable (and i got my sexy flapper quota from the louise brooks mini-show downstairs. hooray for pandora’s box, man).
this morning, i was instructed to be home in the afternoon to receive my birthday package from the ben. i had just returned from my run when he called to check if it had arrived.
then my buzzer rang.
yes, that’s right. my valiant, noble white knight of a boyfriend flew all night to get here this morning, and he is this minute sleeping off a minor case of i’ve been up all night-itis. but he’s here to buy me my first beer and gallavant around the city for a whole week! hooray for ben and the best birthday present ever!
ok. enough. pictures to be posted soon. birthday on tuesday (send alcohol).

alright, people. after many requests (and by that i mean emma making me feel like people care) here is a plethora of pictures from the last day of my long weekend, which consisted of me walking around new york city for 6+ hours each day. it was amazing, mostly because i got to see everything, everywhere.
well, not everywhere, exactly. friday i did tribeca and soho (and got job applications) saturday was noho and the east village (and turned in job applications). yesterday was times square, central park and fifth avenue…which unfortunately included groceries that cost almost $30 (for six items….yikes. my cheap self was like, “stop! it hurts!”).
finally, today was the west village, where i did many exciting things, including STANDING ON CARRIE BRADSHAW’S STOOP. oh my god. i almost peed myself in all my nerdly glory. you don’t want to know how i found the address. but it was awesome.
next, i hit up magnolia bakery, which had a line around the block for the famous cupcakes. so i decided to splurge and let down my cholesterol guard. unfortunately, it really wasn’t that good. lame. so, i guess i learned my lesson. sugar is a tempting mistress, but it’s an empty indulgence! turn away! fake brownies are the answer.
then i met up with lindsay and chrysa (from paper prince at DG) and lindsay’s local friend jesse. we went out to this crazy indian place and then to coffee, after which i hightailed it home because i’m a lame-o who hasn’t been out after 10 pm since before i got to nyc.
anyway, see pictures of today (sorry, i forgot le camera yesterday) on photobucket, here:
http://photobucket.com/albums/f133/kwilson123/. enjoy!
and now, at this nice and early hour, i shall hit the sack so i can get up for work tomorrow.

today marked the first full day i was all by my lonesome in the big apple. took mom (who accompanied me out to the east coast to sightsee/help find an apartment) to the airport yesterday afternoon (and by “took” i mean “went to the airport via subway with her”. do not get the impression that i have any outside means of transportation). that was followed by a lovely account opening process at commerce bank, and an evening by myself.
today, i took a shot at simulating a normal katie routine. which worked, kind of. this morning i woke up nice and early to get a run in, which would have been nice, had i not attempted to run in the only park-like place around this part of brooklyn. see, apparently the brooklyn police don’t take kindly to runners. i jogged in, listening to beck and minding my own business, and all of the sudden i was being honked at and flagged down by a uniformed gentleman. naturally, i assumed he was waving hello. so i waved back and continued on my way.
well, he wasn’t. he was yelling that i was not allowed to run in the park.
ah, yes, people here are so friendly.
work was a large improvement over the running incident, as i have finally gotten my bearings with everything. and, i got to gallery hop for over 2 hours around soho. amazing. it was wonderful, and i felt very chic.
i’ve got a few empty days ahead of me now (i don’t work again until tuesday) but there are plenty of things to occupy my time–not the least of which is all the reading that i want to do (harper’s lets the employees take all the books that are submitted after our guy reviews them) and i must find a part time job.
anyway. give me a call or whatever if you all have a spare second and keep me in the mini apple loop.
and maggie, though i don’t know you outside of shambot, i am so happy you share my new york dream! and seriously, you have half of a teeny tiny soon to be mine apartment anytime you can get out here in the next 5 months.
the end.

well, here they are–the pictures of the new apartment, which i will be moving into january 18th. until then, i will be staying with a friend of kate’s (i seriously owe her big time) in park slope. that begins tomorrow…as you may or may not remember, right now i am staying in the lap of luxury that is connecticut, with a fam friend–the grandmother of the kids i babysit for in portland.

JUST KIDDING. here i was, about to post these little mo-fos, and then i realized i HATE BLOGS AND COMPUTERS AAAARGH and i can’t get them at the right size. they are far too tiny. so check out my photobucket pictures. they will be there.

http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f133/kwilson123/

i think that’s where i’ll probably always post le pictures….that way you all don’t have to deal with my technical ineptitude here. okay. that is all.