Derek was kind enough to invite me to a barbecue on the deck of a yacht he had rented for his family to stay on while they visited New York. Between the ferry commute and the view, it almost made me consider living across the Hudson. But then I came back to my senses.
Am off to Maine tonight with Greta and the Lovely Miss Katie — our goal is to have as much lobster as humanly possible. Have a great weekend, everyone!
Scene: A crowded, unairconditioned subway, drenched (from the torrential downpour and from sweat) on the way home from the Philharmonic concert in Central Park (thanks, Teddi, for organizing!). I am with Gabe, a friend. We’re chatting the whole way about this, that and the other thing. We’re both standing for a chunk of the trip downtown, and when a seat opens up, he offers it to me. We continue to chat, but he squats down so that it’s easier for us to hear each other. He departs at 14th Street and I continue on.
The woman sitting next to me turns to me and says, "I know it’s none of my business, but that guys is totally into you." "Really?" I laugh. "I don’t think so." "Why not?" she asks. "Well, when I met him a few years back, we went out on what I thought was a date, but at the end of it, it was very clear that he didn’t think it was. We reached a subway stop and he said, ‘This is my stop. Which way are you going?’" She paused for a minute, and then replied. "I still think he’s into you. After a few drinks you should lure him into a dark alley and shove your tongue down his throat." "I’ll certainly keep that plan in mind."
And on a completely unrelated note — I barely took any pictures this weekend, but here are the few I took.
I was reading "The Taming of the Slur," a recent article in the New York Times about the use of the word slut — essentially how it was overused to the point that it really didn’t mean so much these days. The article was very interesting, but I read one statistic in it that nearly made me spit out my coffee:
"According to a government report released last year ("Sexual Behavior and Selected Health Measures"), men age 30 to 44 have had a median of six to eight sexual partners in their lifetimes. The women’s median was about four." I am making no personal comments on this one, but let’s just say that this provided great conversation fodder at the beach this past weekend. Another hot topic was "Fantasy Fuck Island" — if you were stranded with three celebrities on an island, who would they be? I selcted (at least for the time being) Ed Burns, Ed Norton Jake Gyllenhaal*, and Jamie Oliver. Who would be on yours?
* With a nod to La Depressionada, who makes a valid point below. I think my boyfriend Jake would do the trick (and apparently he is set to change the image of hip male Jews everywhere. I’ll say.).
This morning, in my pre-caffeine fog, I found myself standing next to someone in my office cafeteria. "You look familiar," he said. Well, yeah, I thought to myself. We work in the same office. It’s big, but not that big. "Do you write for Gothamist?" "Yes!" I replied. We introduced ourselves and I went on my merry way, but it was fun to be recognized.
Just got home from a rockin’ good time at the Ozomatli show at Irving Plaza where I danced up a storm with Katie and Rob Y. Also ran into Romy and David B., both of whom I hadn’t seen in way too long. The cameraphone shot barely does it justice, but this is the part at the end where they got the whole crowd to kneel down while they were smack in the middle (we were in the balcony).
Tomorrow night is a wine dinner — let’s just say I hope it’s not quite as damaging as the last one (four women, six bottles of wine).
I was telling Augie that I wanted to write a post about online dating. "Before you do that," he said, "do a search on your blog for ‘online dating.’" So I did. But this post is different (so there). Although I truly believe that it is highly unlikely that I’ll end up with someone that I met through online dating, I still put my profile back online. Why? Well, on the positive side, you do end up meeting people you wouldn’t meet ordinarily, which is a good thing, and going on dates helps you stay in the game, at least mentally. On the negative side, since the last time my profile was up, I turned 35. There’s something about 35 — I think many people use it as a cutoff point. Suddenly, I’m getting emails from guys who are closer to my dad’s age than mine — absolutely disgusting (no offense, dad — you’re not disgusting).
And if that wasn’t enough, I recently had the experience of having my entire profile ripped off. Some guy emailed me recently saying how much we had in common, and giving a few examples. His profile was still "being reviewed by Customer Care" so I couldn’t see it, but when I checked back a few days later, his profile was up. It was, word for word with a few minor tweaks, EXACTLY what I had written in my profile. I sent him an email calling him on it. His response? "Yes, I took the parts of your profile that worked for me as well. I was having a problem figuring out what to say and you covered it very nicely." Well, gee thanks. So then it boils down to this: Apparently this guy and I have so much in common that I was able to give words to his personality without even meeting him, but he’s slimy enough to rip off someone’s profile. Date, or no date?
This is just another example of why I’m fairly confident that I won’t be meeting my boyfriend/husband online, but a girl’s gotta keep her bases covered, so the profile stays up, at least for now.
Nothing has made me laugh harder than that particular phrase in a loooong time. No, I can’t even begin to explain.
The long weekend was so much fun that I had to stay out at the beach last night just so I could enjoy yet another amazing meal (pulled pork sandwiches (pig roast leftovers) with grilled pineapple, grilled corn with chipotle lime garlic butter, caprese salad, "sex rice," and homemade ice cream cake) with fantastic company and a gorgeous sunset to top it all off. I took the 7:25 a.m. ferry this morning and went straight to work. Between the early morning, four (yes, count ’em, four) FOUR MILE runs (yay!) and a session with my trainer at lunchtime today, I’m about ready to keel over, but I had to put up the pictures first. Enjoy — they’re all right here.
Picture of the American flag composed out of jello shots. Talk about your patriotism!
So I tried to take a picture of the Empire State Building on my way home tonight — the way the light was hitting it made it look almost fake, like part of a movie set. Apparently, my camera phone sucks — you can’t even see it at all.
I’m home tonight packing for an extra-long weekend at the beach house. We’re having our second annual pig roast (pictures from last year are here). I’ve apparently been given the honor of singing the Star Spangled Banner while the pig is being carved. [Note to family: probably not as high-pressure as some of my other Star Spangled Banner performances]
The 4th is also my brother and sister’s 25th birthday, so a happy early birthday to Bill & Katie! Have a great weekend, everyone. Anyone got any good cookout plans (or pig roasting tips)?
After a very long day on Friday, Jenn came over for dinner. We shared a good bottle of wine, some olive tapenade from my night with Ted Allen, and I made what was quite possibly the worst pizza I’ve ever made. I’m going to blame it on the fact that I didn’t let the dough sit out at room temperature long enough, although it could have just been me.
Despite the rain on Saturday, I mangaged to go to the gym get a haircut, do some errands, watch Mean Girls, and eventually made it out to the Burger Bash. My favorite was the green chili cheeseburger (pictured), but I also tasted the Motz burger (named after George Motz, burger documentarian), the Guber burger (with peanut butter — odd), and the butter burger (a.k.a. coronary on a bun). Pics are up on flickr. I’m looking forward to visiting Water Taxi Beach on a sunny day sometime — they’ve got a great view of the city!
Today I met Mom & Stephen for brunch at Prune (after the gym, of course), and I’ve thrown in a couple of loads of laundry, etc. All in all, a fine weekend. Now, a quiet night in to gear up for a hectic week.
Back in January, I got an email from one of my high school boyfriends, Charles. He had stumbled across my blog and had been reading it for a while. Charles was definitely my first major boyfriend. We dated for six months (an eternity in high school), despite being an ardent pacifist, he offered to defend me when some jerk cut off my little braid that I had (à la Aimee Mann circa her "Voices Carry" video) at a party, and he brought me my very own little Charlie Brown Christmas tree, leaving it outside my doorstep Christmas morning.
After reading my jackass stories, Charles had some particularly fitting observations: "You
taught me what the term "ménage à trois" meant, yet when presented with the
opportunity declined. Jackass #2 reminded me of our prom, where you may
have been jackass #2." It’s true. I kissed another guy at our prom, which, looking back, was a big mistake on many levels. I lost a great boyfriend and hurt someone a great deal whom I cared about deeply. I can only defend myself by noting that I was seventeen at the time; my judgment has gotten much better since then. And I truly hope that I got what was coming to me and that I have now paid off that karmic debt through Jackass #2 — Charles made it clear that he doesn’t hold a grudge. Now, hopefully, the slate is clean.
I started a new job. It is amazing to me to look back over the past year and see not only how quickly it has flown by, but all that has happened during that time, both at work and in my life in general. I am also so incredibly proud of the work I did to get the job in the first place — it may sound strange, but it rank up there as one of my most satisfying moments, at least professionally. As I move into my second year, the challenges are different (as I imagine they will continue to be going forward), and I’m excited to tackle them.
Every now and again I look back over my blog archives to see what I was doing, one, two, even three years ago — it’s interesting to have somewhat of a snapshot of a piece of my life at different points in time. Looking forward to what the next year will bring, and thanks to all who have been a part of the last one.
Happy first day of summer!
