It’s been raining all day. I like it. The Weather Channel forecast for D.C. gives today’s both high and low temperature at 47°F. How’s that for consistent? But tomorrow, the first full day of spring, it’s supposed to get up to 71°. Crazy.
‘I am away from my computer right now.’ Must be a slow news day at the Times, at least for tech. There’s a whole article on away messages on instant-messaging systems and their proliferation on college campuses. That said, y’all are always free to AIM me. I have a dial-up connection, though, which may explain why I have little use for my away messages. When I’m online, I’m usually in front of the computer; otherwise I’m just tying up the phone line. Ah, indulge me a moment while I reminisce over the heady days of the late 1990s when I had both cable TV and ethernet.
‘Cause everything is rent.’ I just got an e-mail about an open house for a new apartment building three blocks away. I should delete it right now. The rents are outrageous. I wouldn’t characterize this as outright gentrification, but it’s something close. All around me, luxury housing is springing up. At the Post Massachusetts Avenue, down my street and around the corner, a typically gorgeous studio goes for about 50% more per square foot (I use rates because the total size is not comparable) than what I pay at my modest, bare-bones place. That might not sound like much, but to speak in absolutes, monthly rent at the Post is upwards of $1340. New Yorkers, I’m sure, are not batting so much as an eye.
Think outside the closet. I’m lucky to live where I do (location is everything, right?), and my rent is pretty good, since the apartment is tiny, even for a studio. I just need to be creative with furniture, and neat about clothing storage. Speaking of closets, last night I read about a Manhattan service called Garde Robe, for people looking to outsource their closet space. First you weed your closet of items you want to put in storage. They photograph and catalog them, and keep your wardrobe at their secure, temperature-controlled loft, with all your clothing viewable online and available to you 24 hours a day, delivered to you whenever and wherever you need it with just a phone call. Cool. You can be all, “I need my Manolos! Meet me at the Plaza!” Their sample closet is fun, if a bit over the top: among the many fabulous pieces, the black-tie section boasts a Vera Wang, and almost all the accessories are Valentino. Nice. (Link found at kottke.org.)
Then again, I could think outside the closet, as it were, and put up clothing racks and shelves in the main area of my studio, which would make the entire apartment a walk-in closet/fitting room. Clothing as interior-design accessory? Not a bad idea.
And the beat goes on. My only comment today on the war: it sure is doing well for the stock market, which I suppose I’m happy about, for the moment. Oh, and would CNN.com please tone down their 48-pixel-high, all-caps headlines? Reminds me of that one Onion front page where the headline is the single word “WAR,” but it’s so large it has to be hyphenated and continues on the next line. “WA-R.” Ha. (Cool points to anyone who can find me a jpeg or PDF of that. I’ve looked.)