is what 34 feels like. So far, so good (yes, it’s my birthday today)!
The best part about being in my 30’s? Being comfortable enough with myself to act like a moron and laugh about it (loudly), knowing more and more clearly what I want out of life, and having made enough mistakes in life to learn from them. I wouldn’t go back to my 20’s if you paid me. Rock on.
So, for Christmas, I wanted to share with you my most favorite Christmas song ever. And I mean ever. Love this song. Okay, granted, I also like the Chipmunks hula hoop song, but this one’s much less annoying. Plus, it’s romantic, and I’m a sucker for romance. Not only does this song rock, but they did a piece on the guy who wrote it on NPR the other day. I got such a kick out of it. I can’t find the link anywhere though . . . damn. If anyone can find it for me, that would be fantastic!
Frantically pulling together some gifts. Made another batch of toffee (last one was for work people — this one’s for my stepfather and wine club folks, if I can find them) and a really cool photo calendar. Don’t want to spoil it for the recipient (and I’ll be making another for someone else as well), but it was fun to select out some of my favorite photos of the year. I’ll share them over the next few days — this one’s on the cover of one calendar I made today:
Lovely oysters from Bar Tonno. Well — it’s off to the gym before heading to Bolo for Xmas eve dinner tonight — have a Merry one, everyone! (Bad Jew!)
It’s funny — I’m on vacation, have tons of free time, yet I haven’t been blogging much. I think it’s my way of taking a bit of time off of my unpaid job as well as my paid one. I’m still amazed at my capacity to sleep; I really must have been quite run down. Aside from sleeping, I’m slowly working my way through my monster to-do list, finishing up holiday shopping and toffee-making, and have set aside all of the tips for the doormen and building staff. My apartment is still a big mess, for some reason. Maybe I’ll knock that and some laundry off the home-improvement section of the list today while I finish the toffee, wrap presents, and write a few thank-you notes from the gift section of the list. I have to say, it’s quite satisfying to check things off of the list. I’m one of those people who actually makes little checkboxes next to each item so I can check them off as I go. Do you make to-do lists? How anal are you about them?
Today is my first official day of a two-week vacation. "Where are you going?" you might ask. "Nowhere," I’ll reply. It’s two weeks in NYC — time to do all those things I threaten to do all the time but never quite get around to as much as I’d like: go to museums, movies, possibly the Botanical Garden; and catch up on other things, like seeing friends, holiday shopping, home improvement projects, uploading photos, reading, and writing. I started off the vacation sleeping until 11:00 AM — staying out past 4 AM two nights this weekend apparently sapped some of my energy.
Friday started with Slice on Ice — this month’s Slice pizza club trip to Angelo’s on 57th Street, followed by ice skating at Wollman rink. Tien was fiddling with my camera settings, so many of my pictures are a little, uh, artsy, but I like the festive quality of this one:
Adam raffled off a few prizes, and although I didn’t win, I got my very own Slice button, which I love (Thanks, Adam!).
Due to some unfortunate Zamboni timing, I ended up opting out of skating, and heading to my friend Luke’s party. It was one of those parties where I didn’t know anyone except for the host, but he did a great job of introducing me around, and I met some very nice people and talked at length about some of my favorite topics: food, travel, and the bizzare nature of dating in NYC. Speaking of which — did everyone see the article in the NYT magazine about sex and blogging, Your Blog or Mine? More on that later, but it featured Deb from Smitten, one of my favorite reads. After the party (and this was about 2:30 AM), I got a Dodgeball message from my friend Scott. Last time I saw him, for his birthday pig roast, I had the beginning of the plague part 1, and we didn’t really get to catch up. So off I went to meet him.
Saturday, after sleeping quite late, I spent some time with my mom, and then went off to my cooking class at the Institute for Culinary Education. There will be much more on that later, as I’m writing up the experience for Gothamist Food. Let’s just say that it was a pork-filled blast. Then, on to Emily’s holiday party, where we stayed until she kicked us out at about 3:00 AM. Needless to say, yesterday was a bit of a wash, but I met my friend Eric and his family for a beautiful holiday concert at Riverside Church. I have to admit that I’ve always loved Christmas carols. (Pork and Christmas carols? Bad Jew! Oy.)
And now, vacation. Ahhhh. Well, it’s lovely except for the fact that NPR just told me that it feels like 1 degree out. Maybe I’ll stick with the home improvement projects today . . .
* A tribute to the Go-Go’s. Yes, I’m perpetually stuck in the eighties.
The plague seems to have passed once again, hopefully for good this time. Made it to work yesterday, and even to our work holiday dinner. One more day and then I’m off for two weeks for a vacation right here in sunny NYC. But tonight, it’s Slice on Ice — the Slice Pizza Club trip to Angelo’s and then on to Wollman Rink, with the likes of Adam, Tien, Janelle, Youngna, and a few other folks I don’t know yet. Looking forward to it!
So it’s back to the flannel pj’s for me. Even though I was just sick last week, apparently I didn’t kick the bug all the way. After spending most of yesterday afternoon blowing my nose (thank God for those lotion-y tissues, or my red nose would be in even worse shape than it currently is), I took to the couch, accompanied by even more tissues, Airborne, and a few DVD’s. I slept like crap last night, and am still blowing my nose every five seconds, so I’m working from home instead of subjecting my co-workers to my snot-ridden self. I’m going to have to go out at some point for more tissues — damn, I miss Kozmo.com on days like this. At least I have some soup (pho this time) left over from last night.
Before I left work yesterday, my friend Rob and I had a little IM conversation about my being sick again.
Me: I have the plague again.
Rob: I thought they eradicated that. How’d you get it? Did you kiss a rat?
Me: I’ve kissed many a rat in my day.
Me: See, even despite the plague, my sense of humor is still intact.
Rob: If you can’t laugh in these situations, when can you laugh, really?
Sniffle.
* Note — this is slightly paraphrased, as the real IM log is on my work computer.
I can go into my neighborhood bar and sit one seat away from Michael Stipe. Sometimes, I do get quite starstruck. Bono and Michael Stipe in one month? Only in New York, my friends.
I’m actually wrapping up this weekend before the weekend’s over, for a change. After a somewhat draining week at work, I stayed in Friday night, stopping briefly at Von Singh’s for dinner on the way home, then flopping on the couch watching The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and knitting presents for my brother and my mom. Exciting, huh? Actually, it was perfect.
Saturday I made up for it, frantically cleaning up my apartment in time for brunch with the lovely ladies who blog. Now, I generally have a latke party every year, but this year I didn’t plan one, so I took brunch as an opportunity to make latkes, and to use the platter my friend Deb thoughtfully gave me last year (thanks to Nichelle for the photo). I was so much fun just catching up, eating, and gossiping, and we certainly missed the ladies who weren’t in attendance this time around.
Next, on to a haircut, then off to dinner with my brother and stepmom at Angon on the Sixth, where I’ve wanted to go for a while, given all the raves on Chowhound. Unfortunately, I was so full from brunch I could barely eat, and the service was dreadful for some reason. I’d like to go back and give it another chance. After dinner, my brother came along with me to my friend Sara’s holiday party out in Fort Greene. We walked a route from the subway that was new to me, and I have to say that I really liked the neighborhood out there. The party was lovely, and we bonded with some very friendly folks over the varied and plentiful cheese selection. I impressed one party-goer, not to mention myself, by pulling out the name of a cheese that was there — an ubriaco. I had tried one in the past, and enjoyed it so much that I remembered it, and was able to identify it immediately. We talked food and cheese for a while, then headed back to Manhattan so I could get to my next stop, which was Jake‘s Chanukah party. Since it was a bit late, I ran into a few people I knew on their way out as I was on my way in, but stayed chatting with my friend Ethan for a while. Finally, we headed out, and I stopped in for a nightcap at Otto, knowing full well that someone I knew would be there. And, of course, Nic and Luke were at the bar.
Today is a pajama day — I had leftover latkes for brunch, and have been lazing around, reading the paper, chatting on the phone, and am going to head uptown in a bit with my friend Roopa for dinner at our friend David’s. He’s been threatening to have us over to his new place for a while, and I’m glad we finally managed to pull it together, so we can catch up and taste these chicken tacos he’s been telling us about all this time.
This week is my last full week of work before a much needed two week vacation. I can’t wait. But, have to make it through the week first. Wish me luck. Okay — I’m off hit the shower and get out of my pajamas. At 4:30 in the afternoon — nice job, lazy girl.
Just a shout-out to my boy Slice, who added me to his link list recently — want to make sure visitors from New York’s best pizza blog to feel at home, so I bring you two gorgeous specimens: the marinara and the bianca pizza’s from Una Pizza Napoletana, which I hit for the second time last night with Rob, Nic, David, and Mike.
Una Pizza only serves one thing, classic, Neapolitan-style pizza, cooked in a wood-fired brick oven, and they offer four varieties, two of which I tasted on my first visit. Now that I’ve had them all, I have to say that my favorite is still the filetti (cherry tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, garlic, olive oil, basil, and sea salt), followed by the marinara (San Marzano tomatoes, olive oil, oregano, garlic, basil, and sea salt), the bianca (buffalo mozzarella, olive oil, garlic, basil, sea salt), and then the margherita (San Marzano tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, olive oil, basil, sea salt). Each of us ranked them slightly differently, which just illustrates the variety in palates that are floating around out there. If you haven’t been to Una Pizza (or to Slice, for that matter), you should go as soon as humanly possible.
And on a non-pizza-related note, thanks to Hugh at Gaping Void for the recent link-love as well. NOTE: If you’ve come here looking for a picture of my tits, you’re not going to find one. Sorry.
