Sweet Blog O'Mine

Category: Life

  • It’s a Small World After All

    Friday night, for the second time in a week, I ventured to the Upper West Side. For those of you who know me, you realize that this is somewhat of a big deal — I’m one of those annoying people who rarely goes out above 14th Street, and would sooner haul out to Brooklyn than uptown for whatever reason. Earlier this week I had dinner with two law school friends whom I hadn’t seen (at least together) in ages. Last night, I had dinner with my friend Eric. Eric and I were walking down the street and lo and behold I bump into one of the aforementioned friends and his girlfriend. Jon was stunned that I was on the UWS twice in a week, and Eric commented that virtually every time he’s with me, we run into someone I know. It’s true — I run into people I know all the time. I don’t know if it’s because I just know a lot of people or because I’ve been here for over a decade. [A brief digression — Jon volunteered to organize a trip up to the Blue Hill at Stone Barns, since he has a car — just wanted to memorialize that in writing . . .]

    As the evening progressed, I kept running into more and more people. Some of it was planned — after dinner I headed to the Magician on the Lower East Side to meet a friend for a drink. He was there with another blogger I had met earlier in the week. Some of it was less planned — on my way to the bar, I ran into my neighbor, whose band was playing at Luna Lounge — so I had to run over and see the set. When I returned to the bar, I bumped into one of the Speed Sisters, who had tapped my shoulder inadvertently, thinking I was someone else.

    Friday night was also my first experience meeting a new person through Dodgeball. I’ve been using it to check in when I go out, and I met up with Nichelle last night because she knew where I was, but last night one of the folks in my “friends of friends” group started text messaging me because I was nearby. On my way back to the Magician from Luna Lounge, I stoped into Pianos, where he was, and introduced myself. So it works!

    I finished the night at ‘inoteca — where I hadn’t been in a while. And even though I arrived there just after they stopped serving food, they were kind enough to serve me a little snack because I’m friendly with some of the folks who work there. All in all, a fun, social, people-filled Friday night.

    The only downside to a night like that was that it completely derailed my plans for an active Saturday. I ended up relaxing for most of the day, doing a few errands, then staying in and cooking for the evening (the picture is for Tien — I think the crust needed much more salt and I’m still not great at making it round, but it was nice and crispy). Now I’m off to fit in a quick rollerblade or run before I head up to my camp reunion, but more on that later. . .

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  • The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions

    As a single woman, I have several well-meaning friends (most of whom are in couples) who, from time to time, mention that they’d like to set me up with someone. Now, although I am currently feeling somewhat laissez-faire about dating, I always reply positively. Sure, I say, just let me know when. Great, they say, we’ll arrange brunch/cocktails/dinner.

    Which never happens.

    I’m sure my reaction to this is somehow tied in to my feelings about timing and scheduling in general, but I would be absolutely shocked if one of these “set-ups” actually came to fruition. It’s not that my friends don’t mean well. They do. And even my family has tried to get into the game (Laren, we just talked to the Goldbergs and their 35-year-old son who lives in New York is single — isn’t that fantastic?!). But what they don’t realize is that it does me absolutely no good to hear that there’s some random guy out there they know whose company I might enjoy. I’m sure there are at least a few. The difference between the specific guy that has been discussed and the absolute stranger, however, is that there is someone I know, the aforementioned friend or family member, who can actually make a phone call or send an email to increase the odds that the two of us may actually meet. We may or may not like each other — who knows? But the bottom line is this — you are in a position to have some degree of influence over the situation. It’s not that hard to pull together a handful of people to grab a cocktail on any given night. I do it all the time. But if you’re not willing or able to make it happen, don’t even bother mentioning it. You might as well be saying to me, hey Laren, there’s this really cool guy I know that you might like; perhaps the two of you will bump smack into each other on a streetcorner one day. Yes, I respond, perhaps we will. There are only a few million people in Manhattan. I’ll keep my eye out for him.

  • Just a Shout-Out to da Boyz

    Had lunch today with two of my former AKO colleagues. After weeks and weeks (and weeks) in the making, we ended up at Joe’s Shanghai, the midtown branch. Although the soup dumplings didn’t disappoint, the rest of the meal was a bit sketchy — the service was spotty and they managed to screw up two out of the three of our meals. Regardless, I just wanted to give a shout-out to Rich and Schmitter — it’s great to keep in touch, even after all this time (damn, we’re old). Back when we worked together, I never would have imagined that in five years’ time, we’d be having lunch together, talking about kids (their kids, mind you).

    After lunch, I stopped by Niketown to pick up my race number for Thursday night — wish me luck! Lord knows I’ll need it.

  • Blogging vs. Online Dating

    After attending The Black Table party this past Friday night, and spending time with the lovely ladies who blog, among others, I realized that blogging is one of the two doors that have most impacted my social life over the last year (the other being hanging out at Otto). Through my blog, I have corresponded with and met incredibly smart, diverse, interesting people, who all have expertise in areas in which I have none (Brazilian culture, lesbian erotica, panties (well, I have some expertise in panties, although I tend not to use the word so often)), which makes for scintillating conversation. And although I have not yet met any dating prospects through blogging, it sure beats online dating. I’d rather spend an evening having pizza at 2 AM with a group of cool women chatting about The Straight Sign and food, than on a shitty online date with someone who, although he may seem charming and smart via email, is entirely lacking in wit and/or social skills in real life. Bloggers also seem to enjoy getting together offline a great deal — makes for good blog fodder, at the very least. So — a shout-out to The Brazilian Muse, LustyLady, GirlyNYC, Nichelle, and Lux, and thanks to Colin, a co-worker who joined me at the party on blind faith — I told him there would be cool, smart women there (in addition to me, of course) and there certainly were!

  • What Are You Lookin’ At?!?

    I heaved my lazy ass out of bed early this morning as part of my training for next week’s 5K — even debuted my Run Against Bush t-shirt! But there was one thing that I noticed during my run, and all of my prior runs around Washington Square Park: there’s this guy who hangs out at the corner of Washington Place and Washington Square East. He’s there every time I’m out running — usually around 7:45 or 8:00 AM. And every time I run past him (which is not more than 5 times right now — I’m up to 2.5 miles), I want to shout at him — don’t you have someplace to be right now?! What the hell are you doing, standing here watching us all jog by? Are you looking at my boobs? Eeeww! But I don’t. I just keep running. See you tomorrow, creep.

  • The Blogosphere is Smaller Than I Thought

    Had a great time at the Gothamist happy hour last night. Despite showing up somewhat late, I was able to chat with many of my fellow bloggers, some of whom I knew and some of whom I met for the first time. At one point, I was introduced to a blogger to whom I had linked in the past, not knowing who he was. When he was introduced to me by name and I saw his face, it took a moment, but then I placed him — we went to high school together waaaay back in the day. We spent a great deal of time catching up and reminiscing about who we were then and how our current lives are such an interesting contrast — I never would have pictured him the way he is today, and I’d imagine he might say the same about me. What about you? Would the people you knew in high school recognize you today, or is your current persona such a far cry from who you were then that you would be virtually unrecognizable?

    And no name-dropping, but I wanted to give a shout-out the evil group of bloggers who kept me up way past my bedtime on a school night. You know who you are. . .

  • Laissez-Faire Dating

    It has been a long while since I’ve been in a mutual, committed, exclusive, serious, long-term relationship. During the course of my single-dom, I have engaged in various and sundry permutations of “dating,” from brief encounters, to longer-term situations, from “this has no future, but it’s okay for now” to “I could imagine the possibility of a future here.” I’ve gone from strategic and purposeful alone time to strategic, purposeful, and plentiful dating.

    As of this moment, I’m currently open to meeting someone, but am not going out of my way to be proactive about dating. No more internet dating, no participating in dating columns. I did promise one friend that I’d be her wingwoman at a Jewish singles event if necessary — what are friends for? But generally, it’s summer, and I’d rather spend my free time with my friends and family (whom I don’t get to see enough as it is) going to free, outdoor events and enjoying everything NYC summer has to offer. This weekend it was an active weekend, complete with a long, leisurely rollerblade down the West side with my friend Eric, and a 60 mile bike ride to Oyster Bay with the girls.

    Even though I’m not really looking, I have an odd feeling that, soon enough, I’ll end up dating someone with a blog. This could be good or bad. Who knows? We’ll see what the future brings. . .

  • Graduation/Yay Maine Update

    I’m finally home early enough that I have more than five minutes before crawling into bed exhausted. So now, the weekend update.

    The weekend started out with a road trip. Haven’t done that in ages. But, you put three single women in a car, and the subject always comes back to guys. knowledgeAt one point, we were discussing the varying degrees of cute when it comes to guys: there’s cute when you’re sober, cute after you’ve had a few drinks, and not cute ever, even if you’ve had plenty to drink. After more guy-chatter, we took a break at Rein’s Deli, a New York style joint off of Route 84 — and I’m pretty proud that I was able to find it after all those years. It used to be a regular stop on my trips to and from college. Having enjoyed a salami sandwich on seedless rye, some pickles, and a chocolate egg cream, I was ready to continue up to Maine. We arrived quite late, but awoke to a spectacular day, and drove out to lunch at Two Lights Lobster Shack in Cape Elizabeth. Stunning scenery, and a good lobster roll. Huge chunks of meat, and a dollop of mayo, not mixed in — had I known, I would have ordered it without the mayo. Next time.

    My road trip companions dropped me off in Portland, and we relaxed a bit until our first graduation event of the weekend — dinner at Mims Brasserie, a new spot down at the old port area. I thought it was a great setting for a casual celebration, and the food was simple and well-done. I had my second serving of lobster for the day in their lobster bisque. lobster_roll_heavenThe next day, we woke up bright and early to head up to Bates for the on-campus festivities, including a Baccalaureate service and the Phi Beta Kappa induction (my brother’s wicked smahht — takes after me, of course). Did you know the Phi Beta Kappas have a secret handshake? They may be wicked smahht, but they’re still a fraternity. We had a barbecue back at my brother’s house that night, with all the parents and siblings of his housemates floating around. The party got even bigger later that evening, and my brother, with his best peer pressure skills (“I don’t care if you come to graduation, it’s more important to me that you stay and hang out tonight!“), convinced me and my sister to stay the night. Unlike my brother, however, we did not stay up all night. But, being the old woman that I am, I made sure he had provided me with a towel, something to sleep in, and a place to store my contacts before the drinking started in earnest.

    The next day was graduation. The weather was perfect, the speeches were short, and my brother didn’t pass out or throw up from the previous night’s festivities. Congratulations on all counts — including the graduation part. Upon returning back to Portland, I had time for one final lobster roll before I flew back to NYC. This time, at the Portland Lobster Company. And it was perfect. Perfect. No mayo, huge chunks of lobster, toasted bun, Bibb lettuce, drawn butter, and lemon. Combine that with a picnic table on the water and end of the day sun, and I was in heaven. Yay Maine! You can find the rest of the photos here.

  • Dump-o-Rama

    Deb, of Smitten, in an attempt to cheer up a friend who got dumped via text message (how lame is that?!), has been collecting “worst breakup” stories. Strangely (and to my relief), I can’t think of anything to add from my own life, certainly nothing quite as hideous as some of the stories people have posted. As painful as some of my breakups have been, they have generally been civil, and have never happened via email, text message, or IM. Apparently, this is not as uncommon as one would hope. Technology really can suck sometimes.

  • The Return from Down East

    I made it back from Maine — my brother successfully graduated from college, I survived my final college party (co-llege!), and I managed to have lobster in one form or another four times in three days. What more can you ask for? The full report, I suppose. Tune in later in the week for the grand rundown plus plenty of pictures. Congrats, Bill!