Be Careful What You Ask For...

Because you might just receive it. Last weekend the post-op hibernation in my apartment ended when Sean came back from Aruba and the fact that I had started eating solid food again. We didn't do much, but I was determined that by this weekend I was going to start doing things again. We had phenomenal weather for a few days, almost reaching 70 degrees two days in a row, followed by the precipitous drop in temperature and potential first snowfall of the year on Monday :o/.

Anyway, I planned on doing something this weekend but it turned out that my plate was pretty full during the week! Aside from the typical surgeon post-op appointment, chiropractor visits, and onsite technical support visits, I caught a concert that I'd been looking forward to, a birthday dinner, a night out at Brandy's, and another dinner out with friends.

Citizen Cope is a band that I credit my brother with introducing to me via an mp3 exchange and I totally dig their music. Everyone asks me how to describe their music and I'm not really sure how to answer that. I guess a southern-rock version of Jack Johnson plus a pinch of reggae/hip-hop would confuse most people, but that's as good as I can do! I saw some posters a few months back mentioning that he was playing a show at the Nokia Theater in Time Square, which is a small 2,000 capacity place that I hadn't been to so I bought two tickets in the hopes of coercing someone into going to a concert with me. An old work friend who moved to the city a few months back canceled on me at the last minute so I invited a new "friend" (not sure how to define her yet) to go and I had an amazing time. The concert was great, though not the type of music to jump up and down with. But good music to enjoy in the presence of someone with whom there appears to be a mutual attraction.

The following night I had an appointment at the surgeon's office, where he gave me the retroactive "cleared for solid food" synopsis and a farewell & good luck wish. I enjoyed my experience with Dr. Gary Ruth (any googlers??) but I am also looking forward to never having to see him or talk to him again ;o). After that, it was off to the chiropractor to get an adjustment, then a few blocks over to birthday-girl D's apartment to try to fix her under-performing computer (modem exchange pending). We then met up with a bunch of friends to go over to Dos Caminos for a high-class Mexican food dinner. It was quite exquisite, but to be honest I'm as happy with a $5 burrito as I am with a fancy helping of enchiladas.

Friday finally arrived and it was my day for relaxation at home after work with a movie before being coerced into visiting Cathy and D at her apartment to greet her out of town friend. And then heading over to Brandy's for some entertaining music performances and before I knew it, it was past my bedtime. Waaaay past it. And this with a Liverpool game the next morning! I recently found a great underground site that has illegal streaming broadcasts of soccer games from just about anywhere in the world. Of course I didn't use it ;o), but I did install the software written by Chinese that undoubtedly installed Trojan Horses on my Windows PC. Good thing I'm a Mac guy now :-D.

After sacrificing my mid-afternoon for Alan's benefit in making sure that his newest X-Box game worked in two-player mode, I met up with Cathy and her out of town guest to go ice skating on some extremely dull and painful skates at Lasker Rink in Central Park. I'll be going there in a few weeks with the volunteer group, so I was perfectly happy to test my skillz and demonstrate the same lack of grace that I display every time I go rollerblading :o).

Last night I went with Alan and Andrea to Park Avenue Cafe, which is a swanky, extremely ridiculous-priced UES place that has a great deal - pay your age! This is a place I'll go to while I'm young(ish) because the food definitely was average and I don't think I'd go if I was more than 35 or so!

J. Riley, now I'm going to enjoy a fine Trader Joe's meal!