Maybe I should get this phone case...

Last night, when I was falling asleep, I kept picturing myself scrolling through my iPhone.  Isn't that awful?  It reminded me of when we would spend a week at the beach when I was little and I would fall asleep hearing and seeing the ocean when I closed my eyes. Except scrolling through your iPhone is horrible and the ocean is the most amazing thing in the world.

I decided then and there that I would be taking a break from my phone today.  I'm shutting it off and will only turn it on if I need to use it as an actual phone as in talk to someone and hear their voice- no texting!

Is there anyone who doesn't get burnt out on technology?  Did you know that phantom phone ringing and vibrating is a real thing that many people experience?  (It can also happen with a crying baby) I know I have!  Have you?  Let me know in the comments!  And join me if you can in turning off your phone today, I'd love to hear all about it.

I've been working on my Smart Girls in Long Skirts Pinterest board and thought I'd share a few highlights for this week's Smart Girls post.  I found a lot of these images on Shorpy.com which I just discovered.  I don't know anything about these women other than that something about them struck me.  I could look at these images for hours.

Art smarts:

Mink stole smarts:

Pet owner smarts:

For more smart girl photos, click here!

6am balcony.

Good morning everyone!  I'm up at 6:00AM because I'm going to see the Wendy Williams show today! I thought I'd write a quick blog post while I drink my coffee and wait for my hair to dry, reflecting a little bit on yesterday's post.  First, I just wanted to say thanks for everyone's thoughtful comments. Here's something I've been thinking about since I wrote it: you know that thing called fear? I'm pretty sure living life full of it has never done anyone any good.  It's a really easy place to get to really fast and then get paralyzed in for a long time. I'm afraid of climate change, and a ton of other things too. But I'm pretty sure that making huge life decisions based on those fears is not the way to live a life.

So that's where I'm at right now.  Still scared about a lot of things.  Still very much wanting to be honest and open about those fears, but trying not to connect them to how I choose to live my life.

Fear should be a healthy response to danger, but living in it, can cause danger in yourself.

I've always been a relatively high strung person.  (Please see number 19)  And my sensitivity brings out a lot of qualities that I like about myself- the anxiety and fear part though, not so much.  I am aware that my brain goes to these places and I am making a conscious effort to stop it.  Or at least recognize when it's happening and then blog about it to make myself feel better :)

I might turn this topic into a longer post in the future, but right now I have a daytime talk show taping to get to!  I'll be posting pics from the taping to Instagram, so follow along if you want!

Prospect Park, Brooklyn

I wrote a post a while back on my old blog about not being sure if I ever wanted to have kids or not. The focus of the post wasn't really about which one was the right choice for me, but more about feeling a strong dismay for having that uncertain feeling, and often feeling like I'm one of the only people who just doesn't know.  Here is a little excerpt:

While I read these posts and other "mommy blogs" that I truly enjoy, I can't help but wonder two things- 1: why do I feel like I just don't get it?  And 2: why do I feel like I should?  If I really do never have children, will I regret it?  Will my life be in some way incomplete?  Even though I can't see myself wanting to be a mom right now, I think I always just assumed that some day I would be, without really giving it much thought.  I played with dolls for a very long time!  I'm domestic, I actually enjoy cooking, baking and cleaning!  I work with children!

And yet, I have to wonder, did these working moms really think about how their lives would change with kids (like I feel like I'm always thinking about) or was it just this hormonal gut urge and instinct to know that they had to have children?  Or do they just see it all differently than I do?

Not wanting to or not being sure if you want to have kids feels a lot similar to being an atheist.  What about it does everyone else see that I don't?

So fast forward almost exactly one since I wrote this post.  I turned 30 in March and I swear to god, it's such a cliche, but it was like that baby gene that I was waiting for kicked in...sort of.  I started having a different point of view about having kids.  Really focusing on the joy that having a family with children in it can bring rather than the huge changes it would bring to my life like I was before. Also, (and this has to be the purely hormonal part) babies suddenly started looking way cuter to me.  Almost as cute as kittens- but not quite.  Like I'd see a baby and think, I want to hold that.

Even so, none of this made either me or Alex think, let's get pregnant right now!  But it put us more in the mindset of creating a plan with the end result being this is most likely going to happen in the next few years or so.  So yeah, a lot has changed!

But I still feel like I'm on that yo-yo of emotion about the decision.  And also still feel like others aren't burdened with this problem. Here is a perfect example, which got me thinking about writing this post. Yesterday, I watched this TED Talk video.



I highly recommend watching it.  But if you don't have time, the gist of it says that due to global warming our children's children and most likely our children will not have a future like we do.  To quote Metafilter, where I found this link:

"Climate change will take on a life of it's own and spiral out of control. Something like half the earth's currently-inhabited land would become too hot to survive on. I don't mean it's difficult to grow beans, or your air-conditioning bills are inconveniently high. I mean, if you go outside you die of hotness. Places that were an average of 80F will now be an average of 170, 180F. Will there still be human civilization under those circumstances? 

This really worries me. And yet, I feel like saying out loud, "I'm not having children becuase I am afraid of climate change," makes me sound a little crazy.  People just don't really say this.  It seems like an irrational fear, like I think the end of the world is near.  And if the prediction made in this Ted Talk never comes true, will I have sacrificed a huge amount of happiness in my life?  Because let's face it, while I believe that parents are often truly selfless, the choice to have a child is selfish.  The human race is not in danger of extinction.  Not having a child will selflessly make the world a better place, by a tiny bit.  Having a child will selfishly make my life better.  Probably by a lot.  And part of that selfishness includes not being certain about what kind of world my children and grandchildren will inherit.

Because when I think about what I assume most people think about when they decided they want to have kids are things like this post that Jenna from Sweet Fine Day just posted about her amazing Brooklyn weekend with her family.  Picking out library books with her daughters, watching them play with water guns and catch fireflies and then watch an outdoor movie during a classic Brooklyn block party made me think about not only how awesome my city is, but how awesome it would be to raise kids here.  And how having a family is what life is really all about.  How Brooklyn isn't just a place for 20 somethings who like to party, it could actually be a really amazing place to stick around with a kid or two.  Unless they will have to face unthinkable catastrophe.

I guess the bottom line is this- worrying about climate change to this degree (no pun intended) makes me feel totally crazy, but also makes me feel a little smart.  Like a believer in science.  And I'd like to know, does anyone else, with or with out kids think about these things in such detail?  Or do I need to just stop worrying about the future and live in the now.  Go with the flow and see where it takes me? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.  Thanks for reading, everyone.

And PS- This post is about human children.  I'd like to show off my cat children right here:

In case you were wondering, my plan for the rest of the day is to prep a vegetable frittata I'll be baking for brunch tomorrow, catch the 3:10 showing of Annie Hall at Film Forum (I love going to the movies alone on summer afternoons) and then meet up with a friend at 6 at one of our favorite places in the world: Bed Bath and Beyond. Dustin lived most of his life in Austria and can't get over the American convenience that is Bed Bath and Beyond, which is why it's so much fun to shop there with him!  On the list? New summer sheets!  And who knows what else?  Bed bath and Beyond is my oyster.

Have a great weekend everyone!  And thanks for all of your comments on my "visualization" post they are all so hilarious and fascinating!

I posted this status on Facebook and Twitter today and got an overwhelming response:

Every time I turn on the garbage disposal, I visualize myself accidentally sticking my fingers down the drain. What is wrong with me??!

Apparently, not only do a ton of people do this too, but a ton of people have their own weird visualizing disaster moments including:

@suzym_marie "When I'm on the motorway I think about opening the door. It's so weird!"

and

"whenever I cross a drain in a parking lot or getting onto an elevator... I grasp onto my keys for dear life!"

So I was wondering, dear readers, what kind of crazy nonsense do you visulaize in your head? I find this concept fascination and hilarious, so please let me know in the comments!

And btw- if you missed my post on Twitter, why aren't you following me on Twitter? Do it. Now!

And thanks to all my twitter followers who are also blog readers for putting up with this redundancy and commenting on my tweet!

So go!  Tell me you weird visualizations in the comments!

I've spent pretty much all of this 90 + degree day inside in the air conditioning (except when I went to yoga this morning for the second day in a row!)  but know that when I do leave the house soon, my hair is going to need to be up.  I decided to try out this tutorial that I found on Pinterest via The Beauty Department:

via

So mine didn't come out exactly like the tutorial, but its feeling like the perfect summer up do!  I can't help thinking though that my bun is asking- where's a ballet class when you need one?


What's your favorite 90 degree do?

I found this image of the 1st Miss. America Pageant contestants on Pinterest yesterday and just knew it had to be my "smart girls" post of the week.

via

Seriously, how adorable are they?  I want to own every single outfit in this picture!  The winner is the third from the right (the one with the really cute hairdo) Margaret Gorman.  A little Wikipedia reading tells me that Margaret really did not want to be known for winning the "beauty pageant" as it was called then and honestly, that totally makes me like her even more.  Even so, she was chosen not just for her adorableness but also for " her athletic ability, past accomplishments, and outgoing personality."  Doesn't she sound like the fabulous heroine of a young adult novel that I need to write?

And although she later denied ever being a tomboy, her obituary states "when reporters from The Washington Herald came to her Georgetown home in the summer of 1921 to notify Marget Gorman that on the basis of a photograph submitted by her parents she had been selected to represent the newspaper in the Atlantic City contest, they found her in a nearby park shooting marbles in the dirt."

Tomboy beauty queen, now that's a perfect combination if I ever saw one.

All images via Wikipedia

When you live in New York and don't have a car, delivery is the way to go.  After facing the debacle that was the top shelf and floor of my closet, I came to the realization that I was in some serious need for containers of all shape and sizes!  And behold!  Who will deliver to Brooklyn on the same day? The Container Store! (cue angelic choir singing now).  And while the delivery charge is $35 that's only about $15 more that the cab ride home would have been- because there is no way to take two jumbo plastic containers and then some on the subway.  And I didn't even have to leave the house IE- lug everything up four flights of stairs, fight crowds etc.  Totally worth the $15 in my book.  These are the kinds of expenses I'm not spending on gas and car insurance.  This is the inner monologue I go through before clicking "order."

So after a morning of organizing and an evening of containerizing this is what my closet now looks like!

Before:

Middle (or the part of cleaning my closet where I ask myself what was I thinking??:

After!:


































































And yet, I'm not exactly sure if this new sense of perfect, serene organization will really bring me the calm I am expecting it too.  Am I placing too much on the idea of a clean and tidy closet?  Perhaps.  But I do feel like I accomplished something yesterday- that much is definitely true.  Next stop- the dressers.  Maybe a drawer that opens and closes without a struggle will finally bring me inner peace.  Or at least a small feeling of calm.

When was the last time you organized?  Any tips?  I'd love to hear them in the comments!

PS- speaking of inner calm, I made it to yoga this morning!  Having not done it in about a month, I was not feeling particularly limber (let's just say child's pose was taken advantage of).  But I'm feeling good and so glad I got out of bed at the butt crack of dawn.  Here was my post yoga nourishment.  Mmmmm the yogurt was so Greek and tangy!

Every summer, I struggle with the gift of free time.  How can I balance the need to relax and not work- use my vacation time wisely with the worry that I'm wasting good time doing things that don't ultimately make me feel happy.  Yes, sleeping in makes me feel happy in the moment, but still being in my pajamas at noon on a Tuesday makes me feel like I'm sick, or depressed.  Leisurely reading my favorite blogs makes me feel happy, but mindlessly clicking through the internet for hours makes me feel in despair!

So this summer, I'm trying out an ambitious summer schedule, but being that this is my 6th (!) summer vacation off, I think by this point I know what I need to feel happy, rested AND productive, as the summer is the time of year where I plan to get the most writing done.

So starting tomorrow (today being the very first day of summer, I decided not to start the schedule yet and work on cleaning out my closet- more on that later) this is how I hope to spend my days Monday through Friday.  With this new season, the biggest change I am going to try is to practice yoga every single day.  At first through classes but hopefully  will start practicing at home occasionally once I feel comfortable enough to do so.  So here it is the Monday- Friday Summer Schedule!

Wake up at 6:30
Yoga class 7:00-8:15
8:30-10:00 Eat breakfast and write, most likely out at a coffee shop or diner.
10:00-12:00 Home.  Type up writing if needed and blog.
12:00 Shower and get dressed.
1:00 lunch

The rest of the afternoon will be time for things like going to museums, parks, the movies, grocery shopping, the library, the beach, reading and naps or to continue writing and blogging if I'm in the zone.  Basically I know that I am the most productive mentally before I eat lunch, so no more putting off writing until the afternoon- that's just not my time of day to write!

I'm also going to try and go to Zumba at least once a week- maybe twice, which is in the evenings and on Wednesdays I have my writing class also in the evening.

I know I am so lucky to have this time of year to see what it would be like to be a professional writer and blogger.  What is your Monday-Friday schedule like readers? I'd love to know in the comments, I feel like it's a funny thing, but I always love reading about how people schedule their days.

I learned this weekend that a house is no longer just a house when it's been a home.  Even if no one is living in it anymore- the power of a person's energy can be so incredibly strong.  This weekend, we found a buyer for my grandmother's house.  A family with young children who were renting in the neighborhood and longing to buy.  I have not met this family, and probably never will, but I have a pretty certain feeling that they could feel the energy in Mama's house yesterday which made them say, we want to live here.  We want this to be our home.

So I will now spend the weeks leading up to July 30th helping my family empty Mama's home and turn it back into a house.  This is not going to be easy.  I've been trying to wrap my head around the concept of "stuff" since yesterday.  After only spending a few hours in my grandmother's basement I found old Mother's Day and anniversary cards to her from my grandfather.  A "Happy 40th Anniversary" poster I drew for them as a kid, her weight watchers log book from 1973, the piles of ephemera were endless and so many of it from her grandchildren.  Mostly things she never wanted to throw away, and what do you do after looking at them?  Keep them too? And where?  It's really hard to understand and even write about but I thought I'd give it a shot.  The fact that she kept EVERYTHING helps me know how much she treasured her family- and yet it's making it that much harder to face that she is actually gone.

This is what I can say about cleaning out a house- it means you are cleaning out a life that is over.  A life that is no longer here.  Selling a house that someone has lived in for 40 years- the first ones to live in that house and see it built, means we are saying her and my grandfather's lives have ended. All of this stuff is a symbol of how well these lives were lived, and I can't seem to get over how important family is to a life well lived.

I know what you might be thinking- a life is never over, it always lives on through memories, and my grandmother gave so many people so many wonderful, wonderful memories.  But selling her house means she is not alive anymore on this earth- even more so to me than seeing her buried in the ground.

It is so weird to be there without her.  I don't want to let that house go.  It's just a house right? But it was a place where I played so many games with cousins, baked cookies and colored pictures with Mama, ran up and down stairs and bumped my head countless times in the little crawl space in the basement.  I hunted for Easter eggs and made "hula skirts" from the willow tree in the back yard, and evidence of all of these things are still there in that house so many years later.  It's been an archive of our family's history, and now we have to find a new place for all of these things and figure out what we're going to do without her.  How are we going to do that?

I hope to write about this experience more in the coming weeks.  Because I  know that this is the sort of experience worth writing about.  This is the last memory I will hold of Mama's house.  But it's hard. I forced myself to sit down and try and write out what I'm feeling today, but I can't help crying again while I do. I know that all I can really hope for is another family to fill up the house with so much love that it becomes the happiest of homes once again.
Have any of you had to sell a house of a deceased love one?  If you feel up to sharing about your experience in the comments, I'd love to hear about it- I think it might help with dealing with this very big event. Thanks for reading.

Hello lovely and faithful Well and Cheaply readers, I just wanted to check in and say that yes, I realize that I haven't blogged since Monday, and no, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth (again).  It's just that this has been the last week of school and things are busy around these parts closing up the library.

But what it also means is that Monday I will be on summer vacation and will have actual time to devote to this space!  Yay!  I'm really excited about all the potential summer blogging ideas I have piling up in my brain, and can't wait to start writing.  In the summer I try to see what it would be like to be a professional full time writer and blogger, and minus the not getting paid to do it part- it's pretty awesome.

But more about that on Monday!  Right now I just wanted to pop in (i'm actually still in the library) and let you know that no, the book return cart did not fall on top of me or something like that- I'm not buried under a bunch of library books, just trying to put them back on the shelves. (That was my crack at some library humor there, lol).

Tonight my mom is coming into town and we are going to see Romeo and Juliet!  Then I'm spending the weekend in NJ.  So see you all on Monday, and happy father's day!

Me and my dad. Circa 1988?

I've been noticing ads for the new ABC Family series Bunheads but I hadn't really been paying attention. That is until today when I found out that it's written by Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and has Cameron (Alan Ruck) from Ferris Bueller's Day Off In It!

You guys, I'm really excited.  On top of the fact that it's about ballet.

Is anyone else planning on watching it?

In case you don't really know me, I thought I'd post a recap of a favorite Gilmore Girls episode to prove what a true Double G fan I am.  I originally posted this on my old blog- so it will be familiar if you've been following me fora  while.  And please excuse the messy formatting especially near the end of the post.  Blogger was making me pull my hair out and I just gave up.

Will Bunheads be the new Gilmore Girls?  Oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please!

And now, my play by play analysis of “Nick &Nora/Sid & Nancy” Season 2: Ep. 5 

This episode starts in Luke's diner (of course) and Rory is dorking out about the first day of school (of course.) Calm down Rory, and stop talking so fast!  Hey look it's Lane- do you ever notice how much socializing is done before school starts in this show?  And doesn't school start at like 7:30 AM?  And isn't it like a half hour away from Stars Hollow? So what is it like 6:30 right now?  Anyway, moving on.  

Lane found a record store near Rory's school and needs her to pick up some CDs for her because A: this is 2001 a no one had the internet?  Don't you think Lane would have totally been on Napster?  I do. And B: because Lane's mom is a religious nut, it's just something we all accept.

Oh no! Taylor just walked in with a troop of boy scouts, what a tool.  Why are these obnoxious boy scouts on a field trip to Luke's on the morning of the first day of school?  I don't get it.  Also, none of them are ordering breakfast food.  UGH these kids are the worst!  Even worse than Taylor, well, equally worse.  

Woah, Luke is losing his temper on the phone!  How unusual...

Opening credits song!  Everyone sing along!  "If you need, you need me to be with you!  I will follow where you lead!"

Lorelai and Luke on the sidewalk- witty banter ensues.  Something weird is afoot because Luke has bought Frosted Flakes and Lorelai knows better.  He never buys Frosted Flakes!  Holy crap, do you know what Frosted Flakes means?  It means Jess is coming!  OMG.  Bad boy swoon.  Lorelai is suspicious...

We're in Luke's bachelor apartment now and he's blowing up a raft for Jesse's bed.  What a bachelor!  Lorelai remains suspicious.  She doesn't even know that her daughter's going to fall in love with him yet!!  Just compared Jess to Fredo (Corleone right?)

We're at Chilton, and look, Rory and Paris still hate each other!  Rory's trying to convince Paris that they should try to get along, Paris doesn't give a shit.  I love Paris.  Stop whining about the school paper Rory.  Well, her rambling convinced Paris to try and co-exist peacefully with Rory.  Rory always wins!

Jess just got off the bus (which looks like it's from 1960) with a duffel bag.  Holy Hotness.  He is a man of few words, and it's driving Luke crazy!  Awww Luke is trying so hard and Jess is such a dick.  A hot dick though. Jess scopes out Stars Hollow as "This is Hell" by Elvis Costello plays in the background.  Please Jess, you have no idea how lucky you are to live in Stars Hollow!

Cut to innocent little Rory, back at Chliton, happily waiting for the newspaper meeting to start.  She's been fooled by Paris!  The meeting started at 3:15 but Paris told her it was 4:00!!! Nice one Paris!  Now Rory has to do a story about paving the parking lot!  Sucker!  But Rory gets her back with sarcasm.  Hasn't anyone ever told you that sarcasm is the poor man's wit Rory?  I'm rolling my eyes right there with you Paris.

OMG it's Max, Max Medina!  awkwardness ensues and Paris witnesses it!  Oh no, the last thing Rory needs is Paris knowing that her English teacher isn't boning her mom anymore!

We're at the diner and Lorelai wants to meet Jess.  She's kind of being patronizing and assuming Luke doesn't know what he's doing.  Jess walks in and refuses to fall for Lorelei's charm.  Lorelai suggests that he meet her daughter (oh man is she going to regret saying that!)  Jess is still being a total dick, but Lorelai did say "where all the good wilding goes on."  Who says that?

Lorelai invites Luke and Jess to dinner tomorrow night.  Rory walks in bitching about Paris.  Then she lies to Lorelai about running into Max.  Lorelai sees right through it!

Luke walks into his apartment upstairs and Jess is up there smoking!! Luke plays it cool.  Poor Luke.  He tells Jess about the dinner.  Jess gets up and leaves without saying anything.

Another paper meeting.  Rory is the first one there.  Take that Paris, kill her with punctuality!  Now the teacher is praising her on how good her parking lot article came out.  This smug look says it all:

Oh snap!  Paris gives Rory the best story of the week but it's an interview with Mr. Medina!  How is she ever going to face him?  There was a catch Rory!

Sookie's planning the big dinner and freaking out.  Of course she's making too much food.  Jess and Luke show up and Jess starts roaming around the living room and picking up pictures like a weirdo.  Then he goes into Rory's room and starts judging her book shelf.  When she asks if he reads, he says "not much."  Oh Rory, are you in for a surprise!  You know who doesn't read?  Dean!  That's who!  Haha Dean is so lame.

Jess tries to get Rory to sneak out the window with him.  Of course she's not going to do that!  Duh, Jess!  Also Rory is so oblivious to the fact that Jess just fell in love with her like 2.5 seconds ago.  Rory you are so smart, but sometimes you are so dumb.

Jess sneaks out the back door with a beer!  What a rebel.  Poor Luke.  Lorelai was right in her stupid judgey way, it is not going to be easy taking care of Jess.  Lorelai finds Jess.  Don't fuck with her, Jess!  Lorelei will not be fucked with.  Up, he fucked with her.  

Cut to the kitchen- way to go Luke for calling her out on her judgey ways! But, Lorelei also has a point...Big fight!

Post fight day, Rory is telling Lorelei that she's being childish (of course she is!  Because sometimes it's like Rory's the mom!)  She just wants her 6am danish or whatever the hell time it's supposed to be.  Oh also, Rory doesn't pay.  

Rory has to interview Max Medina now, she's so nervous!  They both admit that this is weird and they don't know how to act.  Now that they said that, everything's going to be okay!  Oh wait, they're not perfectly okay, yet, Rory's rambling on and on about Barbara Walters.

Max Medina's middle name is named after his father's butcher.  Very clever Amy Sherman-Palladino!  Oh, he also wanted to be a clown when he grew up.  Uh oh, Rory just told a charming story about her mom and a clown and things got weird again.

OMG Rory just said, "I just want you to know, I really wanted you to be my step father."  And Max Medina said, "I just want you to know, I really wanted to be your step father."  Kind of emotional!  Oh, she also stopped her tape recorder when she said that to go "off the record."  What a professional, Rory!

Luke is waiting for Jess outside of the public high school because Taylor called about something bad he thinks Jess did.  We don't know what it is yet.  Damn!  Jess works out!

Jess and Luke get in a fight and then Luke pushes him in the lake.  Best scene ever!


Back in the kitchen Lorelei's complaining about coffee (what else is new?) and Rory has to "go buy a folder" for her Max Medina interview.  What does that even mean?  Hmmm, I wonder who she's going to run into in town?

Luke barges in and confesses that he just pushed Jess into a lake.  HAHA.  He also tells Lorelei she was right.  Now Lorelei's telling him he can do this.  Oh you guys!

Uh oh, Babette just barged in!  Her gnome's missing!  If that doesn't look like a lady with a missing gnome on her hands, then I don't know what does.  This town is so zany!  Hmmm...I wonder who stole him?  wink, wink.

Okay, Luke is taking action.  First step, no more smoking.  Looks like he spent like, $200 on anti smoking stuff.  Jess is confused.  He's not friend Luke anymore, he's DAD LUKE!  

Dad Luke found the gnome.  I like how there's a card catalog in the background.  Jess just walks out after being yelled at by Dad Luke.  Poor Luke.

Guess who Jess runs in to?  May or may not be someone purchasing a new folder...

Haha, Rory calls Jess "too cool for school."

But here's the thing:  Jess stole Rory's copy of Howl so he could put notes in the margins for her.  Finally!  Now do you guys see why he's so swoon worthy?  But then Rory calls Jess "Dodger" and you know he's in love with  her- because she's wicked smart!  He get's it right away.  An Oliver Twist reference, obvs!  True love is blossoming, I can feel it.

And that's the end!  If you made it this far, thanks for reading!  Also, just to be clear, when I was first started watching the Gilmore Girls, I was a little confused, and didn't really know the whole Jess story, so I kind of hated him like Lorelei does.  But now that I know the entire Double G saga, I LOVE JESS.  He is the best boy Rory ever dated.  And, he's a troubled artist- my fave!