Halloween 2010

This year for Halloween, I am Batman.

I actually couldn’t find a costume so I pillaged the ancient Halloween bins in my parent’s attic and found the old-school batman getup my brother had worn two decades ago. The blue felt was in poor shape, but it would suit my pub-crawl costume needs (absent the original grey unitard- I do not have the physique of a 6yr old boy).  


Here's an excerpt from the evening: 

The other question people would ask me a lot was where Robin was. I told them he was with Morgan Freeman, making me a new car. 


The pub crawl was a lot of fun though. I went with a Bootie Call, Shakira, and David Bowie and the whole thing was a community awareness event for the near east side. We went to 5 dive bars, and let me tell you, the locals loved us. Or rather, some of them did and some of them grudgingly bore our presence until we skipped off onto the next bar. Batman did not have to buy all of her drinks that evening, but a lot of that generosity ceased when she couldn't stop referring to herself in the third person. And also when she discovered one of her would be suiters already had a sidekick. Wah-wah. Another misadventure in singletown for ktb. Really, the absurdity in this area of my life has been on a roll lately, I'm nearly never surprised anymore. 


I just found out I'll likely be suiting up again this Saturday for haunted Putt Putt. I don't do well with haunted things, so hopefully Batman won't pee her pants. Happy Halloween!

Why NYC's proposed Food Stamp Restrictions are a Social Issue, not one of Public Health

As most people in my life know, I have recently spent two years living in poverty serving as an Americorps*VISTA. I learned a lot from this experience, both in my service and in the poverty community. As a result, I have developed certain very strong opinions when it comes to poverty-related issues here in America. Although my goal for this blog (and, let's be honest, my life) is to be as non-serious as possible, sometimes a different tone needs to be affected. What follows is my take on Mayor Bloomberg's request to ban soda and sugary drinks from eligible food stamp purchases in NYC. Enjoy or skip, either way I'll post again soon!

Failure, Hobos, and Other Things

From the lack of my post touting absolute victory, I’m sure you can surmise that I did not succeed in my weekend goals. I had many other successes, including a brief belief I was going to be captured and eaten by hillbillies when I got lost on my trail run. The success there is that this did not happen and the hillbillies had to eat someone else that night.

Hillbillies have reminded me of hobos. Probably because they both start with an “h” and are both tragically misunderstood. And also probably because I’m always looking for an excuse to talk about hobos.

For my 23^rd birthday I had a pillow and potato party. Potatoes to eat, pillows to sit on (I only had 2 chairs, but I had more than 2 friends…at that time). So, there we were, all sitting on our pillows, sipping wine, and basking in that warm sleepiness of carb afterglow when someone brings up my love of hobos. Suddenly everyone is in the conversation, and I find myself on the defensive.

FLASHBACK

My friend Denis says I have to post

SIGH. Ok, I'm posting. Some friends of mine encouraged me to start this blog to share all of my crazy stories. Problem is, I don't think I've had that many stories lately. Life has become complacent and it's just something that's happening in the background while I'm taking care of other things. This is why I would like to announce (to my audience of maybe one) ktb's Year of Living Dangerously.

I haven't taken many risks in a while and I think it's starting to show. The goal of this project is to do something bold, brave, interesting, or outrageous at least once a week and then post the stories here. I have a few ideas of some things I'd like to try out and hopefully more will come to me as I move forward with this project. Since I'm starting late this week, I'll pick something a little boring, but doable in the next 3 days: I'll finish my mom's painting. Now lest you not find this brave, allow me to first note that I am not an artist and to share with you that the last painting I made my mom she has tried to give back to me several times, finally succeeding last week. Ever since I took up the brush again she has been requesting I make something for her, oblivious to how arduous that task really is.

So, I'll finish the painting and take my GRE practice test. I've been putting it off, fearing scores that would prove me having mental handicap, but I can't procrastinate any longer. If I'm going to try to live dangerously, I need to start being more bold about my future. Hopefully this is a first step in that direction. Until next time!
-ktb



ktb is extra susceptible to the evils of the GRE because we are both made up of letters that do not spell real words