still blogging, after alllll these years...

(sung to the tune of a little paul simon number)

life is fantastic- monica's home from LA for the weekend. this morning we went to bernardsville, nj and had brunch with cousin laura and pete and their awesome kids (who i want to call second cousins but are actually first cousins once removed but maybe i'll just say cousins) charlie and kate, plus charlie's pal greg. it's beautiful in suburban nj today, with changing leaves and lots of rolling hills and multi-acre homes. the coles represented in the brunch field with a highly-big-neil-worthy spread: pancakes (in many polka-dotted permutations), bacon, cinnamon rolls, quiche, blueberries and OJ. and perfect hostess laura apologized that there wasn't more.

after brunch we went to an apple orchard and wandered a couple miles of tree rows, looking for hidden apples on trees that had been massively plundered already. the fields were beautiful, the air cool and clear, with the intoxicating and rich smell of decaying apples. apples lay in the hundreds at our feet, inedible, with gorgeous untouched halves facing the sun. a kick revealed the horror-movie-worthy other halves, rotting away in the mud. we hit the very corners of the huge orchards, finding treasure troves, untouched branches with grape-like clusters of heavy apples, and our special tools (a cross between a lacrosse stick and a pronged mediæval torture weapon) snagging some large perfect tens at the upper reaches. before we knew it, we were muscling back three large baskets filled with red delicious and winesap apples, more than we can eat any time soon!

back on the upper west side and monica is in the bedroom clearing out her closet for me to ship to her in LA. as she shoots the first season of her show, she'll stay in a sublet, and to our minds, her being in LA is still 'temporary.' but i have a weird and ominous feeling that she may never leave the west coast again. i hope i'm wrong, but there are worse places to be tethered to, and i'd be happy to move out there next year and join her.

tonight we're going to see her best friend laura-leigh in 'boys' life' off-broadway at the second stage theatre in midtown. it's a classic (and sort of sexist) 80s play about getting laid and it stars jason biggs (from the american pie movies).

i'm actually enjoying working regularly these days at niche media, fact-checking for various magazines. it's nice to have money coming in. i'm still auditioning here and there. monday i interview the ceo of the new jersey nets for gotham magazine. that'll be fun, although i know very little about professional basketball, and i'll have to be careful not to expose my ignorance in the article!