Tomorrow my Danish friend Nina comes to town with her 2 year-old child Marcus (say: Mar-coos). It'll be an interesting week, for sure. It's been a long time since I've cohabited with a child for an extended amount of time, no less in New York. My usual regimine of going to the gym, going out for dinner, going out to bars and/or clubs, experiencing nightlife, etc. will be temporarily suspended and I'll have to change gears to more of a "family life" situation. I guess that means doing more cooking at home (no problem here!) and more chilling at night rather than running myself ragged. Should be interesting, stay tuned for stories...
On Friday night Joclyn came over to enjoy some creative Americana cuisine cooked up by me. I marinated a couple fillets of pork tenderloin with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, fresh-pressed garlic, fresh-sliced ginger, and rosemary and it was delightful after some baking in the oven. For sides, I went with string beans with honey-lime vinaigrette and mashed potatoes (thanks for the blender, Graham!) with sour cream and garlic. Turned out to be a nice little meal. The extra large portions turned into a nice mid-day snack for Sean and I on Saturday, as well :)
Saturday, Paul and I headed out into the sweltering heat to adventure over to the ultra-hip Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg. Our only excuse for going over there was to check out some kind of arts & crafts street sale they were having. We knew that we wouldn't find anything to buy, we were just looking for an excuse to check out the industrial warehouse-laden hipster enclave that the area has turned into in the last ten years. According to my coworker, ten years ago this neighborhood is where your car would end up after being stolen - missing the wheels, tires, and every other valuable accessory. Fun! In any case, looked like a cool area. But it was HOT! Because we were going pleat-free suit-shopping for Paul (and potentially me) afterwards, we wore jeans and that was a mistake. We were drenched with sweat after an hour of walking around. At least it was reasonably dry heat, unlike most of the steamy, swampy weather we get this time of year.
Saturday night I was supposed to go to a party but the friend I was going with told me that she wasn't going afterall, so I altered my plans and hooked up with Sean, Brett (the third amigo in Puerto Rico) and some felines that Sean met and some family friends of Brett's who were in town. We found a sweet place over on the west side called the Boat Basin, which is basically a big outdoor area located under an overplace where you can eat barbequed food and drink cold beers. Very beer-garden like, it's rare to find a place that has ample space like this in New York. After hanging out there for a bit, we played our credit-card roulette game again and, being an expert in statistical risk, I calculated that the chances of me getting my card pulled again were very slim. This time, the odds actually worked in my favor and Brett got stuck with a pretty light-weight bill. Sweet, I love free drinks :).
Afterwards, we walked over a few blocks to a place called Jakes Dilemna. It was a pretty mellow collegiate-type place that had a back room called "The Living Room". The bouncers kept the curtains tightly closed back there, but when the waitress went in and out we snuck a peak and realized that there were a bunch of old, fat bare-chested guys back there with a stripper or two. Seeing those guys back there made us want to stay as far away from that place as possible, though.
A few hours and a few beers later, Sean and his new friend Emily (he sure has a way with girls 10 years younger than him ;o) and I headed back to the east-side before calling it a night. We bought some orange juice (Sean mixed it with rum - gross!) and headed up to his apartment to chill out, chit-chat, and hear about Sean's dilinquent youth. He's always entertaining to hang out with, so his rum-and-coke banter was even more entertaining...
Bedtime,
J. Riley
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