Eye of Newt

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One of the strange afflictions that's taken a hold of me since moving to New York City is a mysterious, incurable, unidentifiable skin rash. It's primarily confined itself to under one eye -- confounding dermatologist and ophthalmologist alike with its resilience and specificity. Beginning back in June, this ailment has caused incessant itching, redness, and swelling of the delicate under-eye area (not one easily dismissed by women of a certain age.)

In my ongoing quest to solve the problem, two weeks ago I visited a Chinese herbalist / acupuncturist. (This, after months of futile $50 copay doctor appointments and a full battery of contact allergy testing.) Frustrated by two rounds of failed acupuncture, said healer prescribed an alternative medicine chest full o' herbs late last week. Herbs, to drink. Stinky, witchy, weird-looking herbs. Much like my ailment: herbs that are unidentifiable, infinitely odd, and endlessly colorful.

I'm double-boiling them right now, fearing the moment of ingestion.

Man they stink.

What's Young Is New Again


Sree Sreenivasan, dean of students at Columbia Journalism and television technology reporter, tells me that I'm remiss for not partaking in Facebook. I mean -- I've had a blog since 2001, I've uploaded my photos to flickr since the pre-Yahoo! days (and via Photoshop albums long before that), and I've had full profiles on Friendster and LinkedIn and Yahoo! 360 for as long as I can remember. So aren't I, er, grandfathered in on online coolness or something?

But I have to admit it: Creating a Facebook account today was kinda fun. Within five minutes of adding my contacts I received e-mails from an old professor at UMASS and a former colleague at Microsoft. I checked into status of German friends met in Africa, Canadian friends met in Sunnyvale, and American friends who simply travel a lot. Regular repeat usage remains to be seen -- but for now, it's my technological Botox.

Plus, I can get 62% off Omaha Steaks!

Welcome back.

It's been nine months and 11 days since my last post. In my time away, I've posted erratically over here, while at the same time moving to New York City and starting my new life. I've also found a new job and bought a new apartment.

It's been weird.

I've missed you, blog. I've missed the person I was when I blogged here -- the person who accosted Bono at work and was interviewed on the radio every week and came up with Halloween costumes like this. I'm not sure I am that person anymore, but I'd like to think a remnant of her still exists. I left her back in San Francisco in January of 2006 to travel around the world -- and I don't regret it for a minute. But that doesn't mean I can't miss her.

So here we are, New Yorkers now. Things that are going on include decorating our place, doing yoga with Jen, hosting friends from out of town, visiting the Hamptons and planning for a trip to Germany for a wedding.

In between I'm going to try blogging here from now on. I think it's time.