arlie - or hafters as i prefer to call her - is my bestest phone conversation / tv schedule reviewing / lounging around the house mate ever…

i first met arlie when i moved to london from san francisco. we were both working at peoplepc and had come from sf. weird that i never met her in sf, but then again my friends are drug addicts and weirdos and she clearly doesn’t fit into this category. well, not quite. at first, we didn’t hang out much together. i do remember that she had an obsession with going and getting soup at EATS or sandwiches at PIGGIES around the corner, but that is about it. i can’t even remember when our relationship turned from friday night afterwork pub crawls to actual friends…but we did. and that is when the phone calls started…

arlie and the only straight boy at gay pride

at first it was probably casual. “hey, what are you wearing tonight” kind of thing. but then they turned much more serious. “oh my god, what are those people on temptation island 2 doing? i think there is a threesome. oh shit, gotta go it is back on.” yes, we are so pathetic that we actually called (still do) each other during commercial breaks to discuss our favourite programming. and that is one of the things that i love about arlie. she has a keen and critical eye for good television programming. you name it, she knows it. she knows so many seinfeld episodes that we should call her kramer.

the other reason that we get along so well is our love of sushi. arlie is the only other person in london that is willing to splurge - night or day - on NOBU. even in her brokest, darkest despair of joblessness arlie was willing to hop in that black cab and spend an assload of money on the culinary delights of raw fish. you have to respect that in a girl.

arlie and the tongue

usually our nights of nobu consist of food that is so lovely that we end up confessing some traumatic event in our lives over the last softshell crabroll and nearly crying in our austrailain shiraz. to lighten our moods, the traditional post-nobu eve consists of heading over to chelsea and to poonahnah bar for cranberry vodkas. i am usually goose, she is usually maverick. ie, i am arlie’s wingman while she works her magic on the unsuspecting british lads.

other things about arlie:

• she sits on her sofa with her broken IBM laptop and her dialup connection for hours at a time and has thusfar refused to switch to ADSL - a true testament to her patience and zen-like manner
• she has had a leaky roof for 6 months and no one has come to fix it, yet she doesn’t really care. there are pots strewn all over the floor to collect the water. another example of the buddha within.
• when she eats french fries, she dumps the bag out then precedes to squish each on with her pointer finger to test the crunchiness of the fry. she only eats the soft one. this is quite convenient for me since i like the crunchy ones.
• she orders prawn korma for me before i arrive at her house from the airport!
• she loves macaroni and cheese which her mother imports from the states
• she has the best tweezers in the world - red and very sharp. great for even the tiniest eyebrow growth.
• she has the dirtiest shower in the world, but gets mad at me for saying this. denial!
• she reads tons and is always a good person to borrow books from
• she and i can sit in her house all day without leaving and don’t get on each other’s nerves. ok, she tells me to shut up a lot when watching tv, but other than that it’s cool.
• she comes from jersey and isn’t afraid to admit it
• she always, always, always answers the phone - night or day - especially when i am traumatised or drunk! and never never never gets mad about it!
• arlie is - as stuart and aiden say - A TOP GIRL!!!

• [url=http://www.jewishbulletin.ca/archives/Nov02/archives02Nov29-08.html]a story about a young arlie[/url]
• [url=http://www.arlie.net]arlie’s website[/url]