I once took a Food Science class (Foods of the World) in college. The class took place from 7-10pm on Monday evenings, and it was impossible to concentrate on ingredients and culinary cultures when I was starving to DEATH (weight scales have always presented evidence that I'm starving to death, 24x7 ;o) . Well college is over and I successfully gained a few pounds.
So last night I experienced deja vu, all over again. I showed up to my Spanish class directly after my 1.5 hour commute from North Bronx at 6pm. The teacher had the brilliant idea to focus that session's lesson on foods - fruits, vegetables, meats, etc. I was livid, and I let the teacher know that this was an irresponsible idea and that we should take a field trip to Harlem to practice pronouncing on a menu and drinking margaritas. That idea didn't go over too well. And neither did my suggestion that we take a field trip next week for our final class session...
My weekend was pretty mellow. Friday night Paul and I explored the East Village and found a cool little French bistro that was packed with people and served free-range meats. Afterwards, we headed up to Murray Hill to catch a live band who's drummer sat near Paul for a few days at work. Awesome band, though, I dug deep and bought a CD.
We sat next to a group of girls and, in the interest of conversation, I asked them if they were groupies. You know, female fans that see all of the shows of the band, right? Well, Paul informed me that I misused the word and that I was implying that I wanted to know if they were not just fans, but sleeping with the band. I later clarified it with the ladies, but the damage was done.
BTW, Paul:
group·ie - A fan, especially a young woman, who follows a rock group around on tours
Looks like I wasn't misusing the word after all....
Saturday night was a night of feasting. A pure, digestive orgy with hundreds of friends, all dressed in costumes that were designed to scare passerbys. Unfortunately, it wasn't me that was involved in the scene. It was rats, right outside of the subway station at about 1:00am. They were literally all over the place, hundreds or thousands of them. I have never seen such a scene in my life, it was disgusting. They were all over some bags of garbage placed on the curb, right in front of the most convenient Jamba Juice in the city. Disgusting....
Last night I finished The Poisonwood Bible. I enjoyed the book immensley, it was quite eye-opening about issues in Africa, the world's involvement in their affairs (especially colonialism and America), things we don't understand about the region, and the ramifications of these things on a family who's father takes them to Africa as missionaries. Two thumbs up!
J. Riley
