Sweet Blog O'Mine

Category: Life

  • Slow Down, You’re Movin’ Too Fast*

    Very often, when people read my blog, they comment that I’m so busy, or that I do so many things.  I suppose I do, but I don’t think about it all that much — that’s the way my life has been for a while now.  I have friends I need to catch up with, places I want to eat and go out, bands and shows to see, trips to go on  . . . and so on and so forth.  Yes, I’m exhausted sometimes.  Yes, I’m thrilled that my friends I was supposed to have dinner with on Thursday night have rescheduled, but even a "quiet night at home" usually means doing laundry, cleaning up, writing something for Gothamist, paying bills, a trip to the gym, and whatever else I can cram in.  Sometimes I think I should schedule nights to myself more often than I do, but every time I try, something comes up that I want to do.  Trust me, I’m not complaining — I wouldn’t want it any other way.  That’s my life, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world right now. 

    * The 59th Street (or where I end up if I haven’t had coffee before I get on the subway) Bridge Song, a.k.a "Feelin’ Groovy"

  • “And in the End . . .

    the love you take is equal to the love you make."  One of my all-time favorite quotes, from the Beatles.  A similar sentiment from Hugh:

    Love_1
    courtesy of Gaping Void

  • Rats

    I’m not sure what was going on, but as I walked diagonally across Washington Square Park last night on the very last leg of my trip home from the beach, I saw more rats scurry across the path in front of me than I have ever seen before, and I’ve been walking across that park for over a decade at this poing.  Little ones, big ones, one huge one — perhaps they were psyched that the rainstorm was over?  Not sure.  I keep trying to think of them as squirrels with naked tails — much less "ick" factor.

    142_4220Believe it or not, I did not take a single picture this weekend at the beach.  I do have a new photography project, however.  My new office is an interior one, meaning that I have no windows.  I’ve been starting to take pictures from the cafeteria, other people’s offices, and conference rooms.  The plan is to find three that I really like, and put them up on my wall, so I have a view.  This one is one of my favorites so far.

  • Apparently I Need to Have Coffee Before I Leave the House

    Yesterday I stumbled out into the world in my pre-caf haze and headed down into the underground oven of the West 4th Street subway stop.  I was thrilled to see that the train was just pulling in as I reached the bottom of the stairway.  I entered the cool, air-conditioned haven and buried my head in a magazine.  The stops rattled off, until suddenly I heard "59th Street, Columbus Circle.  Stand clear of the closing doors"  What?!  Shit.  With my magazine splayed open and my bag dangling precariously from my elbow, I dashed off the train.  Apparently I had hopped on the C train rather than the E and ended up clear on the wrong side of town.  So it was up the stairs and down the other side, back onto the C, but going downtown this time.  After that I somehow managed to skip 42nd Street and didn’t turn around until 34th Street (still not sure about that one), down the stairs and back up, then finally made it back to the E going uptown. 

    When I arrived at work, my computer had somehow dislodged itself from the network, so it was essentially useless to me.  At that point, I wanted nothing more than to turn around, go home, get back in bed and go back to sleep.  Sigh.  Luckily I could caffeinate myself as I waited for the tech guys to fix the large paperweight on my desk.  It definitely got better from there, as a few hours later I had a power lunch at Lever House.  The food was a little too heavily salted for my taste (even the house salad was liberally dosed), but dessert, a light and crumbly lemon-almond cake topped with toasted almond ice cream, roasted stone fruits, and peanut brittle, made up for it in spades.

    I’m dragging my friend Jenn out to the beach this weekend — my only scheduled trip out this month.  Have a good weekend, all!  And by the way, I finally wrote up my story for Gothamist on pickling with Rick of Rick’s Picks.  I’m looking forward to tasting those ramps!

  • Summer Bounty

    Wing_kei_noodle_co_1I strongly encourage all of you to go to a burlesque show if you haven’t done so already, whether you’re on a date or not.  Not only were we treated to tunes from the New Orleans Jazz Vipers, but we got to see some fabulous ladies parading their goods with a healthy dose of flair, glitter, pasties, creativity, and laughs.  I’d have to say my favorite was Nasty Canasta, if only for costume creativity — she did her routine to Harry Belafonte’s Day-O, and let’s just say that bananas and tarantulas were represented.

    After burlesque it was on to Tapeo 29, which I’d like to hit again — we were so late that we were only to enjoy their late-night menu, which consisted of nuts, cheese, chorizo, and olives.  "We’ll take it all."  Finally, we topped of the evening with a pit stop at Winnie’s for a karaoke fix (because, really, isn’t everything better with a little karaoke?).  On our walk there we passed the Wing Kei Noodle Company, where they were hard at work after midnight on a Friday, making noodles.  It simply radiated whiteness out onto the street.

    Saturday was spent shopping for the evening’s dinner party.  For some reason, it is literally impossible for me to stick to a shopping list when I hit the farmer’s market or Whole Foods.  So I’ve got the few ingredients I need to make the main course (fresh pasta, yellow and red tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, garlic), but so many other things catch my eye and make it back home with me.  Blueberries, corn, an out-of-this-world lemon artichoke pesto, tomatillos, cilantro, jalapeno.  Sigh.  We had an absolutely amazing dinner party, with Vivian supplying antipasti treats from DiPalo’s, Melissa bringing a salad complete with peppery arugula, hearts of palm, artichokes, pine nuts, and  sungold cherry tomatoes (I had bought some of those, too), Jenn rounded out the meal with fresh berries and homemade whipped cream.  Jenn and Melissa also took care of the wine, which was the educational component of the evening.  It was old world vs. new world wines — we did two blind tastings of the same grape, one old world (Europe) and one new world (everywhere else) and decided which one we preferred in each pair.  The new world won both the whites and the reds, but we drank the losers anyway (god forbid anyone should feel bad about losing).

    Sunday night Matt helped me eat the leftovers (I still have some, mind you, but that’ll be dinner on Tuesday night).  It’s always good to know you have friends around to help you out in these situations.

  • I’m the Worst Date. Really.

    WasabasscoI do believe I’m truly the worst, or at least the most inappropriate date ever.  For a while, I was absolutely convinced that the best first date meal would be ribs.  Look, if you can’t find someone attractive when he’s gnawing on a bone with sauce on his chin and stuff stuck in his teeth, it just ain’t gonna work out in the long run.  That’s my theory, and I’m stickin’ to it.  This week alone, I have come up with two inappropriate date ideas: going to see The Aristocrats (a documentary about the filthiest joke ever) and going to see the Wasabassco Burlesque show (not quite as inappropriate, but there’s stripping involved).  Really, to top those, I’m thinking boobies and steak night should be next.  Any other good ideas?

  • Even More Geekiness

    Utter_dorkinessThanks to all for your suggestions and input.  I’ll let you know how it goes (and I may actually wait a month or so to do this), but one thing’s for sure: I will NOT buy a Mac.  I’m just a PC gal, and that’s the way it goes. 

    In other total dork news, I stopped at Staples on the way to work yesterday morning and purchased a little clip with a retractable elastic to hold my ID badge — this way I can hold the badge up to the reader without either a) unclipping it from my clothing, or b) contorting in some weird way or stretching my shirt/jacket/sweater/dress in order to swipe the thing.  It’s amazing how such a small thing changed my entire day.

    Finally, and hopefully a little less dorky, here are the pictures from this weekend’s festivities.  An extra special thanks to Kim, who not only cooked a Thai dinner to die for, but who, with some assistance from John, brewed a batch of blackberry wheat beer that we broke out on the beach on Saturday evening.  Amazing.

  • Not Bad for a Self-Portrait, Huh?

    141_4129

    Taken on the rooftop of Daisy May’s BBQ, where Adam Perry Lang showed me and Jen his garden.  Not only was he gracious enough to take the time to show us around, but he gave us each a beautiful aromatic bouquet of herbs and lavender to take home and throw in the tub.

    A reader commented the other day that he gets tired merely reading about my social life.  Trust me, I’m pretty exhausted by the end of the week, and I sometimes feel like I never leave myself enough time to get everything done that I set out to do.  But that said, I love every minute of it.  Other things I did this week (outside of the new job — which is going quite well, thank you) that haven’t yet made the blog: lunch at Pampano Tacqueria with Christie, dinner with Jenn B. at Diablo Royale, dinner with Ali at Bar Jamon, a very sweaty yoga class, two other trips to the gym for cardio, a little quiet time at home (really, Dad, I swear!).  And tonight, back to the beach.  I’m already getting tired, but at least I know there’s a nap on the beach (and hopefully the new hammock that John claims to have put on the deck) in my very near future.

  • Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs*

    Devilsign Nosmokingplease

    *Who sings this?  Someone help me out here . . .

  • Whew.

    To start off: Gothamist makes Forbes’ Best of the Web!  Hooray!

    And now, for the ridiculously fun weekend recap.  Friday night, after a trip to the spa for a little microdermabrasion (I know it’s froofy, but my skin felt soooo soft the next day), I met up with a fairly significant posse from the beach house.  Chip had friends who were having a rooftop party in Hell’s Kitchen, so after a quick taco at Tulcingo Del Valle, we headed on up and enjoyed the view.  In line with my small world issues, within five minutes of chatting to the one non-beach-house person I spoke to that night, I discovered that we knew three people in common (I’m telling you — I know everybody).

    dogs?Saturday was brunch at Home with some of the fabulous ladies from the beach house (we can’t get enough of each other), then off on a wild adventure in the Rockaways with Alizinha.  Through the magic of the interweb, she and I were invited to a party by the Gurgling Cod and his wife, the Cinetrix.  They were coming down from Beantown just for the occasion — a birthday party and a pig roast (that’s two pig roasts this month, if anyone’s counting).  My friend Rick of Rick’s Picks was there as well (bearing his Windy City Wassabeans — yum). After a very, very long ride on the A train, we made it out to Rockaway Beach and had a grand old time: wading in the ocean, playing darts, drinking pina coladas, eating well, and meeting new people.  Thanks to Jen (the birthday girl) and Rob, our very generous hosts.  In organizing our ride back home, I somehow managed to convince one of the partygoers to come with me to Williamsburg, where I was to meet up with the Lovely Miss Katie for yet another rooftop soiree.  After a ridiculously long car ride and finding the right address on the wrong street, Tom and I wound up at the Levee instead.  We were joined by Manhattan Transfer (thanks, Dodgeball!), and lazily decided to stay put rather than track Miss Katie’s party.

    Blue Crab Fest at Bar MinnowBut the next day, it was rise and shine and back out to Brooklyn, this time for the blue crab festival at Bar Minnow, where the Lovely Miss Katie, Nikki, Scott, Mike, Rob and I gorged ourselves and made quite a mess.  Instead of subjecting people on the subway to our crustacean-spattered selves, we opted to air out at the Gate and the Patio Lounge, enjoying some of Park Slope’s finer outdoor establishments, perfect for an afternoon beer, a pitcher of sangria, and plenty of good company and hysterical laughter.  Pictures from the Rockaway Beach party and other random pics are here.

    As if all that wasn’t enough, we ended up on Scott’s roof making grilled chicken tacos with grilled pineapple salsa, and finished up the evening watching Adam Perry Lang make his Iron Chef debut.  When I finally made it home, I slept like a baby. 

    After this weekend’s food festivities, I took advantage of the one-week pass to Equinox that I was given at my new job and went to a spin class after work, which kicked my ass all over the place.  Did I really do that several days a week at 6:30 am at one point in my life in the not-so-distant past?  Sheesh.