Moving
Please take a hop over to
my new site. Updates of links will be much appreciated. Its still kind of a work in progress, but I'll be posting over there from now on.
Weekend Fun
Oh, and I almost forgot that I had the best weekend hanging out with my brother. I got back from work Friday night to find my brother and his friends hanging out in the garden. We had been debating going downtown to the LES, but since
they still didn't have power (and besides, the subway wasn't running!), we decided to go out to the bars in our neighborhood instead. But not until we finished a bottle of wine and all the beer left over from my parents party a couple weeks ago. In reality, there were four of us and I think we polished off 9 beers and a bottle of white wine, but my parents were amazed. Reminder: my parents, if they're splurging, might
share a bottle of beer.
After we finished off the beer, and I finally consumed some dinner, we headed out to Amsterdam Ave, otherwise known as Frat Row. We decided to go to
Jake's rather than
The Gin Mill since Jake's is a bit roomier (i.e. cooler) and slightly less fratty (i.e. actually over 21). Before we went in, though, I predicted I would see at least one person I knew. Turns out I saw three, of which two of them lived on my ex-boyfriend's hall in college. Felt like I was back in Boston, but at least I could get away with smiling and mouthing hi without any awkward conversation. Anyway, it was fun hanging out with my brother and his friends. He's hung out with mine a lot, but it was probably one of the first times I went out drinking with his. Highlights of the evening: a tie. First was my brother and I kicking ass in darts against his friends. Second was a guy apologizing to my bro for hitting on me. And along that same line was the guy asking me straight up if he had a chance with me, since he had to go with his friends across the street, and me saying no - it was quite freeing. (Besides the fact that I didn't find him attractive, I think I was quite fair to him since I listed three solid reasons of why he had no chance - 1, that he was an investment banking intern, and therefore worked 60+ hrs a week, and I have now vowed not to date anyone who works more than me, 2, that he is getting his MBA in Chicago, ie not NYC, so would be gone in two weeks anyway, and 3, he was shorter than me).
Then on Saturday after my brother got his car inspected, we headed out to Queens with his friends to
P.S. 1 for their Warmup series. When we first got there, it was really chill because it wasn't too crowded yet.
For a while we just hung out watching all the adventurous ones on the dance floor get down. Then I found
Sam, who was there with some of his friends, and hung out with them for the rest of the time. The highlight was definately
Prohibitied Beatz, who came on around dusk. They are a drum and bass type of collective, performing live. Very cool, but would have liked to see it a bit closer up, since it was quite crowded by that point.
After PS 1, I split up with my brother and his friends and headed down to the
Bowery Poetry Club, which was hosting the 1st Annual Accordian Punk Summit. Definately an interesting event, and a couple of the bands were quite good, though you wouldn't have guessed by the first one. I don't know if it had to do with the acoustics or the band's lack of practice, but the first band was quite out of tune and not very punkish at all. The second band,
Stupid, rocked and lived up to the concert name, though I may have been partial to them because of their free homemade stickers (duct tape!). And
Corn Mo was a riot. His music cracked me up, both for its resemblence to Bon Jovi ballads as much as for its content. I would definately see both of them again.
Then on Sunday, I enjoyed a nice traditional NY brunch - bagels and lox. One of my brother's friends had never had it before, even though she's been living in the city for 6 months! And proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon trying to nap before swim practice and enjoying HBO's Sunday evening lineup. I don't know how I'll get through Sunday's at the end of this season. Anyone heard anything on the new shows coming up?
And since this week doesn't look any calmer, I'll have to wait till this weekend to catch up on sleep. There's nothing like free beer on a Wednesday afternoon.....
Blackout Aftermath
Ugh, I still have chills running down my spine.
After the blackout, I was a bit hesitant about the milk in my fridge. I'd only opened the fridge once, and its in the shade, so I was pretty sure things stayed relatively cold, but bad milk is pretty much my second biggest fear, behind huge crawly bugs climbing over me while I sleep. So naturally, on Saturday morning when we were looking for milk for our coffee, I made my brother taste my milk to see if it was ok. Which it was.
And why should I think it would be bad by today (beside the fact that in NYC, milk seems to have a lifespan of 3 days on a good week)? I smelled the milk and it seemed ok, so I proceeded to pour it into my cereal bowl. Clunk, clunk, clunk. That's right, its not a good sign when your milk more closely resembles cottage cheese. Now that I've sufficiently grossed everyone else out as much as me, I can start my work day.
Surviving the Blackout
So I managed to make it through the blackout safely, though not with great inconveniences. Since the trains were down, I offered to give all the other Manhattanites rides into the city, but we were a bit hesitant to leave since the traffic was pretty bad in Westchester and we had heard that there was no inbound traffic on any of the bridges into Manhattan. So we hung out outside the office for a while, and then another coworker who I had never met before who happens to live just a few blocks from me decided she was going to brave the traffic. By that time, there were only five of us who lived in Manhattan and one decided to stay over in Westchester, so rather than taking two cars, the four of us decided to go in her car and leave my car at the office. Despite all the warnings about no incoming traffic, we were able to get into the ciyt without any problems whatsoever.
However, when the power came on at 6 am this morning, I had the delimma of how to get into the office. None of the trains were running, and I didn't have my coworker's phone number. And I could take a bus if I got to The Bronx, but I didn't know the schedule and didn't know how I'd get there. And I could have stayed home but I would have to take time off since most people in the office drive normally and wouldn't have problems getting to work. So I ended up borrowing my brother's car. He got in safely last night from Chicago, and the only reason he even knew there was a blackout was because I called him to warn him (though he probably would have figure it out by the time he hit the city). And he was originally going to get his car inspected today, but given the lines at all the gas stations, that was probably not going to happen, so I'm driving my old car from college again. Let me tell you that for all my bitching about my car, it would be ten times worse if I was still driving that old thing.
So now I have to slog through this day and try and get some work done.......those of you in the city, enjoy your day off and think happy thoughts that you're not in the office like me.
Will This Week Ever End?
I can't believe that this week isn't over yet. Have been way too busy this week at work, which has apparently been playing with my mind since I'd been doing diddlysquat previously. But today my brother comes in for a long weekend, so I have something to look forward to since I haven't seen him since March.
It's Over!
All's well in the dollhaus as I have completed my first triathlon without dying! I was pretty happy with my time, especially since the bike portion was way harder than I expected, and during the run I didn't feel like I was about to have an asthma attack, always a good sign. This was probably because my legs felt like Jell-o, but hey, whatever takes my mind off my lungs. And best of all, now I don't have to feel bad about sitting on my ass while I should be working out.
What Am I In For?
Tomorrow I'm doing my first triathlon, which I am so not ready for but its pretty short so I think I can make it through. I am sooooo glad though that I am not doing the
NYC Triathlon, which is also tomorrow (while convenient, its twice as long as the one I'm doing so I didn't want to commit to something that long). Because of all the horrible rain we've been having over the last week, the water quality in the Hudson River, where the swim portion of the tri was to take place, is literally sh-t. New York has their sewer system combined with the stormwater overflow system, so when it rains hard, the sewers overflow into the river. And as a result, the officials canceled the swim portion of the tri and made it a second run instead. And since swimming is my strong suit, so I would have been basically screwed. So wish me luck!
P.S. If you have time today or tomorrow and are in nyc, go see "No Such Roses" at the Henry Street Settlement - was great, much better than I ever expected (fof was the writer and director of the show so got dragged by f)
