been in town and as most of you know, when there are visitors, there are too
many stories and not enough time to blog about them. And on Friday, Summer
arrived in town to visit Susannah, which makes for an even busier and pleasant
long weekend.
On Friday night, Summer and I met up for some $4 salsa classes (that would be
the dancing, not the chips-and- variety) that my Dominican friends had found
on Craigslist and told me about. I realized during the class that my salsa is
royally messed up and I'd been doing things wrong ever since....well, forever.
My problem is that I am much more comfortable with swing-dancing and I've
converted some of the aspects of swing, such as the hand-grasp, to salsa. When
I changed the hand grasp, I couldn't lead my partner as well and of course this
wreaks havoc on everything else that follows. So maybe I'll drop that little
change when I'm dancing socially ;o) .
After lessons, her and I went down to Kirara, which served up faithfully good
sushi like it always does. I'm always amazed that I can go into a place that is
listed as one of the top 100 restaurants in NY at 8:00 on a Friday night, get a
seat without waiting, and have a complete meal for less than $50 for two
people, not to mention the fact that the food is awesomely fresh. We didn't
binge on any sake, which is probably one reason for the small tab, but their
house sake is pretty good anyway!
After my Saturday morning wake-up-call to Peru (I was doing the waking-up ;o),
Becca and her friend came over (they're staying at Paul and Cathy's abandoned
apartment - thanks guys!!) and checked their mail while I got ready to head
downtown to the MoMA when the devastating news from Alex in India came that he
had split with his girlfriend of four years. Naturally, the reaction to this
was like a death in the Hain family and cast a dark cloud on the day to Rebecca
in particular until he sent reassuring emails later in the day that his solo
trip to India wasn't completely ruined.
After checking out the MoMA (free, courtesy of my employer) in midtown, we
headed back uptown and Becca and I continued the bootcamp that she has been
forcing on me - running a few miles on the running path along the East River.
This was my third run of the week and my legs - and knees, in particular -
weren't too happy about the pavement pounding. Becca and Summer both said that
I should try looking at some new running shoes, but I was pretty sure that my
$29 New Balance shoes (with custom $20 insoles, no less!) were just fine. Until
I tried a new pair of shoes on on Sunday and fell in love with them. Apparently,
my New Balance shoes, which I typically wear when walking a lot around town, are
good for just that: walking. So, they will shortly be retired and become my
"dirty" shoes and replaced with the latest pair of my extensive shoe
collection.
I had my third (fourth?) pisco sour party on Saturday night, which was
generously held at Alan and Andrea's apartment, which is much bigger than mine
and features Andrea's cooking skills. There was more drama than usual by the
end of the night and judging by my friends' questionable decisions, apparently
the pisco sours are an aphrodisiac!
Sunday we met up with Summer and Susannah down in Brooklyn to clog our arteries
with cheesy, cheesy grease with a side of eggs at Paninoteca, which was quite
fantastic. After stage one of Saturday's recovery was over, we checked out the
Brooklyn p-p-p-promenade (why do I always have such a hard time remembering
that word?) and then went back uptown to watch Shrek 2 at Paul and Cathy's
apartment.
The evening was capped by Sean, Melissa, Rebecca, and Kerstin attending a
speed-dating event downtown (sorry ladies, I'm taken) while Summer and I went
walking for some roasted chicken before being halted in mid-step by
intoxicating scent of garlic from a nearby Italian restaurant, Rocco
Restaurant. Plans of eating anything else were quickly dashed and we had a nice
dinner of fresh gnocchi with gorgonzola along with spaghetti with garlicy,
spicey, heart-burn-inducing tomato sauce (yum!).
J. Riley, I finally made it home and *crashed*!
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