Female Invasion of the German Persuasion

OK, enough is enough. I'm starting to get verbally assaulted about the lack of
updates here, so let me catch you up on the last week or so. First of all, I
think Spring is finally here! The weather has been pendulating from the 70's
down to the high 40's depending on the day. But the warmth of the 70's is very
much welcome and I celebrated the end of winter by buying new, hot-shot wheels
for my 'blades so that I can resume flying around Central Park in the evenings.

Last week, Alex's sister and her friend from Hamburg came to NYC to hang out for
a week. I haven't seen her in a few years since I was in Germany last and hadn't
met her friend, but they were both excited to be out in NYC. In addition to
bringing me a plethora of Kinder Country chocolate (my favorite!), they hooked
a brother up with a bunch of other treats too, like Milka chocolate, a Germany
World Cup soccer jersey, Puma boxers, and small fashion trinkets like a Puma
wallet from the PR agency that Becca's friend worked at. I like it when people
bring me things (hint hint ;o) !

I also like it when visitors do my dishes. So after establishing that my mini-me
"dining room" table shouldn't be crowded with items (except Kinder Country ;o),
I was pleased to see that they kept the table clean for the rest of the trip
and also cleaned up after themselves (and me :) in the kitchen before venturing
out to shop in the city. They learn quickly!

They had great weather for the first few days, so we met up after I was done
with work and checked out the great parts of the city - i.e. downtown. On
Tuesday, we had work obligations eating tapas and drinking sangria at Sala in
the East Village and then eating dessert on 9th Street at an outdoor garden
called Cloister Cafe. We met up with Sean down in NoLita on Wednesday and tried
to eat at the place that got rated with having the best outdoor garden (Jardin,
conveniently located near my favorite Mexican restaurant ;o), only to find out
the garden was closed because of construction. We ended up eating on Elizabeth
Street at Bar Bossa and then had an after-dinner cocktail at the outdoor patio
at Rialto before heading home.

The weather turned cold and nasty over the weekend, so we spent a good part of
Saturday, after sleeping in nice and late, checking out the U.N. after enjoying
some fresh morning bagles at my local bagle-joint. I've done the U.N. our before
(I love the bookstore!) so it wasn't too exciting - especially considering the
fact that I missed the Liverpool vs. Chelsea semi-final game for the FA Cup
tournament. I sent Sean frequent text messages to find out the score and was
elated to find out that Liverpool overcame the top team in the country to
progress to the FINAL!! Clear my schedule, because I have a feeling I'm going
to be watching that game at the 11th St. Bar on May 13th....

Saturday night was going to be our epic night out at a nightclub, so we got home
at a reasonable hour and the girls slept while I read every newspaper known to
man for analysis on the A's game and the Liverpool game. It was a miserable
night - weather wise - so we didn't have any takers on meeting up with us
downtown until Becca gave Sean a guilt trip and finally got him to come out for
a while. We met up at the Delancey, a place playing music "that we know" - which
was the Germans' only request. The DJ with the huge fro was playing all the 80s
music they could ever want to hear.

We got home pretty late that night and slept in until about 11 the next day. We
were going to do brunch at a certain Mexican restaurant and hoped that the
weather would cooperate so that some other folks would come out to. So we went
downtown and ended up with seven people (one cancelled at the last minute),
filling up a corner of the restaurant. I haven't gone out with a big group for
brunch in quite a long time, so it was really nice to get together and
socialize. The weather gods were kind to us and we were greeted by sunshine
when we walked out as we headed up Lafayette to check out a clothing store
who's designer we had met the night before. Turns out this girl designs all the
clothes herself and they are socially-conscious made in LA from materials from
around the world. With out large entourage filling up the boutique, it quickly
turned into a free-for-all with the clothing marked 70% off for the end of the
season. So I got some fashion-PR-employee approved duds to help brighten up my
wardrobe. The designer was overly friendly with me and gave me an additional
$20 off the already cheap clothing, which was fine with me!

In the end, I was spent. It's been a busy week at work and until last night I've
been pretty warn out lately. Time to get back on schedule with my blog action!

J. Riley, I've established that the previous owner of my iPod Nano was a
mid-20's white girl who probably lives in the UES, judging by the depressing
pop-music and mainstream modern alternative rock music. It hasn't been claimed
by anyone, so I guess it's time for me to accessorize it....