Emilie Jackson's Online Thing

This is my New York

Yesterday I made time for one of my favorite activities, sitting in a coffee shop and doing nothing. Not reading, not writing, NOT ‘rithmetic, not staring at my phone. Just sitting there with my coffee and watching everyone walk through the door, either making people uncomfortable because they know I’m observing them, or making them feel bad because I look like a girl waiting for a date who will never show up.

Next to me, two women about my age were catching up over coffee. One of them has been spending a lot of time with her new beau, just the two of them. They’ll go out and she’ll sleep over his house and they just spend the whole next day together. They do this a few times a week now. He keeps syringes full of B12 in his fridge that he injects in his buttocks the morning after drinking. (This girl was really excited to tell this story.) He goes to her one morning, “Can I stick something in your ass?” That was the punchline; the story kind of fell apart after that.

The other woman, like me, didn’t find it that funny and let out a few forced chuckles. I lost the thread of the conversation, but they clearly shifted topics and at one point she said, presumably quoting herself in a previous conversation, “Fuck you, you’re 23! This is my New York!”

There were a few couples in the coffee shop. One reminded me of me and my ex-boyfriend, in that she looked extraordinarily stressed out about nothing, and he looked like he was about to go to the bathroom and climb out the window and never come back.

Another couple was passionately into each other. They should have just stayed in bed because clearly all they wanted was to be lying down and groping each other. They accomplished this in public by stretching their bodies across their small table and nuzzling their faces in each other’s arms and squeezing one another’s elbows. I think it goes without saying that I was both jealous and disgusted. Wistfully resentful.

I’m glad I made the effort yesterday to take the time out to do nothing in a coffee shop instead of doing nothing in my bed. It even exhausted me a little bit, partly because I ventured out of my own neighborhood and was sitting in a coffee shop in Park Slope. Park Slope on a Saturday, when you live in Williamsburg, feels like a different galaxy. I felt accomplished walking out; a successful date with no one, a reminder of why I used to love living here and why maybe I still could.

Frantic Texts From a Friend Who’s Just Discovered ‘Friday Night Lights’

I just discovered Friday Night Lights yesterday; sent a similar barrage of texts to my FNL veteran friends.

fleish:

XX: FNL totally has its hooks in me.
XX: So so so addicted to FNL. Things I love: Connie Britton, saracen’s best friend, street’s crippled buddies. Things I don’t love: the street-riggins-lyla love triangle. Seems stolen from a trashier show.
XX: Also, smash’s mom.
XX: Billy? Don’t even know who that is yet. Halfway through the first season. Yeah, adrianne palicki is better than the “trashy bitch” story lines they give her. Yeah, you get the sense they were shooting for the OC crowd with the love triange. Although I think taylor kitsch could do more with better material. He’s the breakout star from the show, but that probably has more to do with his looks. Also, saracen and his grandma! So sweet. Like 8 episodes into the 1st season.
XX: YOU WERE RIGHT I LOVE THIS SHOW
XX: AHH LYLA IS THE MARISSA OF THE SHOW. But Minka Kelly is real fun to look at. The people on the show are all improbably good-looking.
XX: Britton! So attractive.
XX: AHHH MICHAEL B. JORDAN
XX: I’m so excited I have like 70 more episodes of this show to watch.
XX: D’s on it?!?
XX: It’s funny that D and Avon started in football movies.
XX: Oh, billy is tim’s brother. He’s got some serious characterization problems. Oh my lord Adrienne Palicki is so gorgeous.
XX: Wood Harris was 32 in [Remember the Titans]? Man, no one has any idea how old black people are.
XX: I always forget The Wire started when we were in 8th grade.
XX: Also I just realized smash’s real name is Brian Williams. Lol.
XX: Theyre good at efficient dramatic bookkeeping. They jettison plot lines that are, no pun intended, nonstarters quickly. LIike the voodoo tatum thing. Served its purpose for seracen.
XX: Sorry so many thoughts about this show: they get southern families perfect. Tami is just like my aunt and buddy garrity is like my uncle.