together in the late-nineties, huddled up in the COB Computer Lab
until 10:00pm (closing time) madly writing code together before going
our separate ways to log in remotely to continue writing the code that
would get us a passing grade in that damn CSC 101 class? Yes, I
remember that, I remember those that couldn't make the grade (pun
intended) and fell by the wayside, switching their Business
concentrations to something like Human Resources or Management.
But, I digress. The point is, I got a phone call at 9:00pm on Thursday
night with an interesting proposition from Paul, who's company was in
desperate times and in desperation called me to see if I would be
interested in doing some MS Access coding work for them. I told them I
would consider it after I could see what was going to be involved.
Confident in my skills after reviewing their database, I set off
coding away at night, confident that it shouldn't take toooo long to
finish this project. Unfortunately Erika had just come home after
spending a loooong day with her grandfather (who has terminal cancer)
and deserved my attention at the same time. Being the wonderful girl
that she is however, she was fine with me just talking for a few
minutes before letting me continue on.
Fast forward 14 hours later, and it was 12:30pm and it felt like the
day was over. I hadn't even finished but I had called in sick because
I just couldn't give up at that point, and I couldn't go to work after
pulling an all nighter, the first in years – Risk-game-playing-night
aside. I quickly passed out on my bed and didn't wake up for many
hours, and when I did, I wanted to go back to sleep again.
After a deflating draw for Liverpool Saturday morning, I headed to
Sean's apartment to continue with the project where I left off on my
coding project. First we had a nice "business lunch" over in
Williamsburg at Dumont, where I enjoyed a fine, thick burger with a
slice of Danish blue cheese. It was one of the better burgers I'd had
in a while. Considering that I had eaten two pieces of wheat toast in
a 14 hour coding session, it was no surprise that I had a famish-like
hunger!
After continuing my work for a few more hours, Paul and I headed out
to Manhattan to meet up with a group for dinner at Samba Le, a dining
establishment long the object of my dining obsession for its cuisine
genre: Italian-Brazilian. Fascinating combination! I had tried to take
a girl there years back for a first date to take their complimentary
Samba lessons and eat dinner, only to arrive and find the place
shackled up and closed. The story of my former dating life!
This time, however, it was open and our reservations were well
respected. For some reason, I can never resist the Feijoda dish when I
eat Brazilian food. Every place I go, they always note that, hey,
Feijoda is the national dish of Brazil. How many countries do you know
have a "National Dish"? Not to mention their "National Drink"
(caiparinha). So, of course, that's what I ordered and I was
definitely satisfied by this meal, as were the others (note to self:
grilled skirt steak was awesomely garlicky!).
Not satisfied with having a wrecked sleeping schedule from just one
night, after having a drink at our newly-found favorite watering-hole
The Bourgeois Pig, I got a ride from my Dominican Republic / Hungarian
group of friends (a wonderful combination of friends for me, don't you
think?) to check out this new Latin night-spot downtown. Well, after
mediocre music and having my package touched "accidentally" by a
gentleman in line at the bar, we decided to go somewhere else and we
(they) chose Gonzales Gonzales in Noho.
I've heard about this place having the best Mexican food around from a
Chinese/Cuban mix guy that actually lives with his family in the East
Village, so it wasn't totally unknown to me. But I didn't know they
had Latin dancing there and when we arrived, there were police showing
up because of some conflict that had happened inside and later a guy
came out with his face bleeding from another conflict at the bar, I
knew that I was at a REAL Latin establishment. Excellent! They had
great music (live Salsa band followed by DJ) to boot!
We capped the late-night off in Washington Heights at a roach coach
serving fine Latin cuisine to all the locals leaving the clubs up
there. We ordered up a couple of Patacones, which are essentially meat
sandwiches with the bread replaced by a fried plaintain "bread" that
was absolutely amazing! A good end to a late night – I wasn't really
planning on being up until 5:00am :-# !!
J. Riley, not much for the public consumption happened on Sunday, but
I did research a new mobile phone, which I purchased this morning! The
new Motorola Z6C Global Phone from Verizon! Looking forward to getting
that in two days :-D
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