To see me and the girls in action, check out my videos:
http://justin.sixpak.org/pictures/05-Sumar/videos
They should be finished uploading in another hour or so. Be gentle (and patient) with Vince's server...
(Edit: The uploads are complete and I relabled the videos this morning)
Thursday, March 31, 2005
It's Official
Now that three of us have bought it, it's official: I don't recommend my camera to anyone. I have been extremely disappointed with the pictures that my Canon SD300 takes. I apologize for those that I talked into buying this camera. My low-end Canon A20 takes better pictures, to be honest. However, videos on this camera rock. They're being uploaded for your pleasure....
"Normal" Life
Although I can hardly categorize my life as ever being "normal" (just take a look at my eyes and you'll know what I mean), I am back to being as "normal" as I was three weeks ago. Should I even attempt to cover the last week and a half? Debating, debating, debating....for the sake of my personal history, I think I will. It'll be rough and my peculiar personal touches will be lacking, but...whatever. If you know I'm missing details that should be added, let me know and I'll modify it.
So, to continue where I left off last.....Sunday morning/afternoon, we woke up at a reasonable hour and decided to head downtown for a little brunch action. Brunch on Sundays is an institution in NY, and it was something that the three girls had to experience, especially since Wila (the one from Miami) only got one shot at it, she was leaving on Tuesday. We headed down to one of our favorite brunch spots, Noho Star. It's located right off the subway, which is perfect for the wet, miserable conditions that we were experiencing that day. In order to make it a classic brunch, we took our time getting there, arriving at around 3:00. This place is great, it's got really high, lofty ceilings, it's a big, open area, and the subway runs directly beneath it, so the whole place shakes every few minutes when the 6-train comes rolling into Bleecker Street. After brunch, we stopped for the first coffee of the day at Cafe Anglique. I could tell this was going to be one of those days when we stop every hour to drink something warm, it was just soo cold, rainy, and dreary outside. Naturally, my instincts were correct, and we were headed to the West Village, which is the best spot in the city to experience a day like that. Loaded with French, Italian, and New York cafes, we walked for a few hours and then stopped at another Cafe Angelique so Vanessa could load up on her caffeine kick and, since we were there and were hungry, we figured dessert was in order. Prior to that, we toured the cute, Sex-In-The-City streets that compose the West Village and are what people dream about here. If only I had a few million to buy a one-bedroom place....
After dessert, we headed back uptown to relax for a few minutes and then head down to Times Square for a night-cap at the Marriott Marquee lounge on the 45th floor (again). The girls splurged for the $30 buffett while I, being strong willed (and cheap), determined that I could not justify such a ludicrous expenditure for such marginal food. And then the girls came back with their plates stuffed with food and I didn't care how much it cost, I was going to get my own. Woh-is-me...and my bank account :o
After dinner and cocktails, we walked around Times Square for a bit because everyone wanted pictures of NY's tribute to capitalism. Somewhere along the way, Mili and Wila were drawn to a cop car like a magnet in order to get a picture with some of NYPD Blue's finest. Well, the girls thought the cop in the driver's seat WAS NYPD's finest. Of course they got their pictures taken with him (and the other cop) and he pulled a suave manuever and, before I knew it, my mobile phone number was being given to him so that he could call her. "Justin's cell phone service. To whom may I direct your call?"
I realized shortly after they got here that the phone formerly-known-as-mine was no longer actually for my use, but rather for the girls. Nevermind that I'm expecting a call for directions to dinner tonight, it is certainly more important that they have two hour conversations with their ex-boyfriends instead ;o) . Of course, they got teased incessantly about this and I established a "call-waiting" rule that they had to answer the phone if someone else was calling. It was intermittently enforced and followed.
Monday came along and went, and the girls came home at 7:15pm in a mad rush to get ready for their ladies night on the town. They met some crazy party animal girls on the big red tour bus earlier that day and they were going to meet up with them to check out the lady's club (that is, the opposite of a gentleman's club), since NY is apparently home to the finest strip joints in town (I wouldn't know). Wila was being picked up by the Super Shuttle at 4:00am the next morning, so I thought this would be an interesting evening for them. But I sent them on their way and went to bed early, having been self-relegated to my futon. Being the responsible one, I woke up at 3:45am to wake Wila up and get her ready for the bus. I stood up, looked at the bed, and realized that there were only two bulges, not three. So I woke up Vanessa (who screamed when I touched her elbow, thinking I was some murderer) and was told that Wila was out with her friends still. Oh boy. Well, not my problem, I'm going back to sleep!!
Sure enough, Wila came home at 4:00am, quickly packed here gear up, and was out the door when the Super Shuttle buzzed downstairs. I found out later that day that the girls had spent so much time getting ready that night that they were 45 minutes late meeting up with their new friends, who just ditched them. So they wandered around, found a bar, and invited all their other NY friends (they have lots of them!) to come and hang out. It wasn't the scandle-ridden story I was hoping for, that's for sure!
Wednesday night roles around, and tonight Mili is going out with Mr. Officer, Lee. Of course, Vanessa is going to tag along as well, since we don't even know this guy and I don't trust anyone in NY, including cops. I give them my $.02 about this guy and, after being an hour and a half late because he DROVE from thirty blocks down, the guy is invited in while the girls finish getting ready. I talk to him, he seems a bit strange (no eye contact, staring at the floor, etc.), but he seems human at least. So he takes the girls out. I guess they're going to some Italian restaurant and then meeting up with his partner (uh, that would be his partner on the job, not....his....partner partner) to hit up a club. Naturally I'm a little concerned about my girls, for better or worse. Especially since Mili thinks this guy is Zeus the Greek god. Nonetheless, I relax at home, I prepare their bed so that they don't wake me up in the middle of the night (they put the futon away every day) and I hit the sack, waking up every few hours to see if they're home yet. No. No. No. No. My alarm clock goes off, and they're still not home. I'm dead tired because I was waking up all night, but no phone calls or anything. I hit the shower to get ready for work, my mind in a million places, and sure enough they come home at about 7:30am. Hands on hips, I lectured them about coming home late, why didn't you call, etc. etc. etc. and tell them that I'm establishing a curfew from now on ;o) . I'm only joking, but I was not happy about them not even calling me to tell me everything was cool. I guess Lee likes to eat a lot and breakfast after the club was a requirement.
The Thursday workday comes and goes, and I find out that "we" are going out with Lee Thursday night again. Based on his comments about him not liking NY and going out to eat Italian food, I can tell this guy isn't too adventurous on the food front, so I recommend that we go to a good Morocoan restaurant. Let's see how he handles THIS! So he meets up with us in the East Village, except that we went into the wrong restaurant and ended up at an Italian place (but at least it's one I haven't been to!). The sangria was decent and the girls were infatuated with flirting with the Argentinian bartender while we were waiting for Lee again. I make it my life's mission to get Mili to hand out "her" number to as many people as possible during our last few days. She balks at this one and before we know it, Lee has arrived, so she missed out. Or did she? Guess who are waiter is?
Needless to say, Lee gets (rightfully) pissed about a guy who comes up to his girl and starts wooing her again in Spanish. We high-tail it out of there and head to the Moroccan place to have a few drinks and check out the club they have downstairs. It's off the HOOK! Crazy Arabic techno and hookah smoking upstairs, trance/house music downstairs. It was totally hopping and awesome. Mili and Lee kissed and made up (figuratively and literally) and everyone was having a good time. At around 3:00, we decide to bounce and Lee drives us to another club that he knows the bouncers at in midtown. I learn that cops seem to know everyone in their districts, as evidenced by the fact that he scored us some free pizza at a late-night place as well, after talking to the owner outside for a few minutes. Seems a little shady, but maybe it's a cop thing. I don't ask questions when free food and beverages are offered.
Sweet, it was 4:30am and we finally make it home, and I was exhausted (btw, I did my cardio class before we even went out. Yea, sore.). I woke up a bit late on Friday but I dug in and got lots of "work" done. :o\ .....
Friday night was Paul's last night in NYC, so the night was dedicated to him. I was told the schedule included dinner at a Cuban restaurant possibly followed by a club afterwards. My girls decided to make it an early evening and rest up for the weekend (much to my chagrin), but I wouldn't miss it for the world. After a fantastic feast, we headed back up to the UES and hit the classic piano bar at Brandy's, a place we've been to quite a bit. We had a great time and bid Paul farewell until this summer, when he returns for a few months.
Saturday we went shopping downtown in SoHo for most of the day. Alan and Andrea weren't happy with me because they wanted to know if we were going clubbing the night before with Paul and I didn't call them and let them know :ox . Not to make excuses, but the girls were in possession of "their" phone that night and I was too lazy to ask for Paul's and let them know that we weren't clubbing. And it was late by the time we were done with dinner. And....well, no good excuses, really. My bad. I'm a jerk. Sorry Andrea :o( .
Anyway, Saturday night we decided to go to SOB's with Alan and Andrea. It was Samba night, and since I'm so good at dancing Latin dances, I thought it would be a good idea :o? !! What was I thinking?? There was a crazy Brazilian percussion band with like 15 drummers and bongo players on the stage and a ton of people that apparently knew how to Samba. I wasn't one of them! But SOB's is always a fun atmosphere, so we still had a good time. The girls all learned how to Samba and I did something that really shouldn't be seen in public, but, alas, it was.
My eye issue had a bad reaction to something I ate earlier in the week and my eyelids went crazy on me, so I was forced to wear my orange sunglasses Friday and Saturday in order to hide from public humiliation. Not that wearing orange sunglasses at night is incognito or anything like that, but, trust me, it's better than the alternative. I am beginning to think that maybe red wine is causing me some of these issues. We'll see what the doc says when I go under the knife (again) on Friday.
Sunday, their last day in the city. It was their day, so we went and ate bagels one last time and did some last minute shopping around town before heading to Central Park and enjoying the nice day, followed by a trip to the Metropolitan Musuem of Art for the last few hours of the day. I knew it was a world-class art museum, but who knew that there were Picasso, Monet, and Renoir originals there?? I should really go there more often I guess, especially since I'm a member!
The last events of the evening involved staying local and eating with Sean, Lauren, and Lauren's parents and meeting up with Lee before his night shift started. Afterwards, we went to a low-key Victorian lounge around the corner to socialize and hear about Sean and Laurens' ski trip the week before. We headed home at a reasonable hour (~11:00) so that I could finish burning CDs and they could finish packing.
Monday morning my life became much more simple and much more boring when my roommates moved out :o( . So, things are back to "normal" now, which isn't a bad thing when you're 27 and living in the best city in the world :o)....
And I'm spent...
J.
So, to continue where I left off last.....Sunday morning/afternoon, we woke up at a reasonable hour and decided to head downtown for a little brunch action. Brunch on Sundays is an institution in NY, and it was something that the three girls had to experience, especially since Wila (the one from Miami) only got one shot at it, she was leaving on Tuesday. We headed down to one of our favorite brunch spots, Noho Star. It's located right off the subway, which is perfect for the wet, miserable conditions that we were experiencing that day. In order to make it a classic brunch, we took our time getting there, arriving at around 3:00. This place is great, it's got really high, lofty ceilings, it's a big, open area, and the subway runs directly beneath it, so the whole place shakes every few minutes when the 6-train comes rolling into Bleecker Street. After brunch, we stopped for the first coffee of the day at Cafe Anglique. I could tell this was going to be one of those days when we stop every hour to drink something warm, it was just soo cold, rainy, and dreary outside. Naturally, my instincts were correct, and we were headed to the West Village, which is the best spot in the city to experience a day like that. Loaded with French, Italian, and New York cafes, we walked for a few hours and then stopped at another Cafe Angelique so Vanessa could load up on her caffeine kick and, since we were there and were hungry, we figured dessert was in order. Prior to that, we toured the cute, Sex-In-The-City streets that compose the West Village and are what people dream about here. If only I had a few million to buy a one-bedroom place....
After dessert, we headed back uptown to relax for a few minutes and then head down to Times Square for a night-cap at the Marriott Marquee lounge on the 45th floor (again). The girls splurged for the $30 buffett while I, being strong willed (and cheap), determined that I could not justify such a ludicrous expenditure for such marginal food. And then the girls came back with their plates stuffed with food and I didn't care how much it cost, I was going to get my own. Woh-is-me...and my bank account :o
After dinner and cocktails, we walked around Times Square for a bit because everyone wanted pictures of NY's tribute to capitalism. Somewhere along the way, Mili and Wila were drawn to a cop car like a magnet in order to get a picture with some of NYPD Blue's finest. Well, the girls thought the cop in the driver's seat WAS NYPD's finest. Of course they got their pictures taken with him (and the other cop) and he pulled a suave manuever and, before I knew it, my mobile phone number was being given to him so that he could call her. "Justin's cell phone service. To whom may I direct your call?"
I realized shortly after they got here that the phone formerly-known-as-mine was no longer actually for my use, but rather for the girls. Nevermind that I'm expecting a call for directions to dinner tonight, it is certainly more important that they have two hour conversations with their ex-boyfriends instead ;o) . Of course, they got teased incessantly about this and I established a "call-waiting" rule that they had to answer the phone if someone else was calling. It was intermittently enforced and followed.
Monday came along and went, and the girls came home at 7:15pm in a mad rush to get ready for their ladies night on the town. They met some crazy party animal girls on the big red tour bus earlier that day and they were going to meet up with them to check out the lady's club (that is, the opposite of a gentleman's club), since NY is apparently home to the finest strip joints in town (I wouldn't know). Wila was being picked up by the Super Shuttle at 4:00am the next morning, so I thought this would be an interesting evening for them. But I sent them on their way and went to bed early, having been self-relegated to my futon. Being the responsible one, I woke up at 3:45am to wake Wila up and get her ready for the bus. I stood up, looked at the bed, and realized that there were only two bulges, not three. So I woke up Vanessa (who screamed when I touched her elbow, thinking I was some murderer) and was told that Wila was out with her friends still. Oh boy. Well, not my problem, I'm going back to sleep!!
Sure enough, Wila came home at 4:00am, quickly packed here gear up, and was out the door when the Super Shuttle buzzed downstairs. I found out later that day that the girls had spent so much time getting ready that night that they were 45 minutes late meeting up with their new friends, who just ditched them. So they wandered around, found a bar, and invited all their other NY friends (they have lots of them!) to come and hang out. It wasn't the scandle-ridden story I was hoping for, that's for sure!
Wednesday night roles around, and tonight Mili is going out with Mr. Officer, Lee. Of course, Vanessa is going to tag along as well, since we don't even know this guy and I don't trust anyone in NY, including cops. I give them my $.02 about this guy and, after being an hour and a half late because he DROVE from thirty blocks down, the guy is invited in while the girls finish getting ready. I talk to him, he seems a bit strange (no eye contact, staring at the floor, etc.), but he seems human at least. So he takes the girls out. I guess they're going to some Italian restaurant and then meeting up with his partner (uh, that would be his partner on the job, not....his....partner partner) to hit up a club. Naturally I'm a little concerned about my girls, for better or worse. Especially since Mili thinks this guy is Zeus the Greek god. Nonetheless, I relax at home, I prepare their bed so that they don't wake me up in the middle of the night (they put the futon away every day) and I hit the sack, waking up every few hours to see if they're home yet. No. No. No. No. My alarm clock goes off, and they're still not home. I'm dead tired because I was waking up all night, but no phone calls or anything. I hit the shower to get ready for work, my mind in a million places, and sure enough they come home at about 7:30am. Hands on hips, I lectured them about coming home late, why didn't you call, etc. etc. etc. and tell them that I'm establishing a curfew from now on ;o) . I'm only joking, but I was not happy about them not even calling me to tell me everything was cool. I guess Lee likes to eat a lot and breakfast after the club was a requirement.
The Thursday workday comes and goes, and I find out that "we" are going out with Lee Thursday night again. Based on his comments about him not liking NY and going out to eat Italian food, I can tell this guy isn't too adventurous on the food front, so I recommend that we go to a good Morocoan restaurant. Let's see how he handles THIS! So he meets up with us in the East Village, except that we went into the wrong restaurant and ended up at an Italian place (but at least it's one I haven't been to!). The sangria was decent and the girls were infatuated with flirting with the Argentinian bartender while we were waiting for Lee again. I make it my life's mission to get Mili to hand out "her" number to as many people as possible during our last few days. She balks at this one and before we know it, Lee has arrived, so she missed out. Or did she? Guess who are waiter is?
Needless to say, Lee gets (rightfully) pissed about a guy who comes up to his girl and starts wooing her again in Spanish. We high-tail it out of there and head to the Moroccan place to have a few drinks and check out the club they have downstairs. It's off the HOOK! Crazy Arabic techno and hookah smoking upstairs, trance/house music downstairs. It was totally hopping and awesome. Mili and Lee kissed and made up (figuratively and literally) and everyone was having a good time. At around 3:00, we decide to bounce and Lee drives us to another club that he knows the bouncers at in midtown. I learn that cops seem to know everyone in their districts, as evidenced by the fact that he scored us some free pizza at a late-night place as well, after talking to the owner outside for a few minutes. Seems a little shady, but maybe it's a cop thing. I don't ask questions when free food and beverages are offered.
Sweet, it was 4:30am and we finally make it home, and I was exhausted (btw, I did my cardio class before we even went out. Yea, sore.). I woke up a bit late on Friday but I dug in and got lots of "work" done. :o\ .....
Friday night was Paul's last night in NYC, so the night was dedicated to him. I was told the schedule included dinner at a Cuban restaurant possibly followed by a club afterwards. My girls decided to make it an early evening and rest up for the weekend (much to my chagrin), but I wouldn't miss it for the world. After a fantastic feast, we headed back up to the UES and hit the classic piano bar at Brandy's, a place we've been to quite a bit. We had a great time and bid Paul farewell until this summer, when he returns for a few months.
Saturday we went shopping downtown in SoHo for most of the day. Alan and Andrea weren't happy with me because they wanted to know if we were going clubbing the night before with Paul and I didn't call them and let them know :ox . Not to make excuses, but the girls were in possession of "their" phone that night and I was too lazy to ask for Paul's and let them know that we weren't clubbing. And it was late by the time we were done with dinner. And....well, no good excuses, really. My bad. I'm a jerk. Sorry Andrea :o( .
Anyway, Saturday night we decided to go to SOB's with Alan and Andrea. It was Samba night, and since I'm so good at dancing Latin dances, I thought it would be a good idea :o? !! What was I thinking?? There was a crazy Brazilian percussion band with like 15 drummers and bongo players on the stage and a ton of people that apparently knew how to Samba. I wasn't one of them! But SOB's is always a fun atmosphere, so we still had a good time. The girls all learned how to Samba and I did something that really shouldn't be seen in public, but, alas, it was.
My eye issue had a bad reaction to something I ate earlier in the week and my eyelids went crazy on me, so I was forced to wear my orange sunglasses Friday and Saturday in order to hide from public humiliation. Not that wearing orange sunglasses at night is incognito or anything like that, but, trust me, it's better than the alternative. I am beginning to think that maybe red wine is causing me some of these issues. We'll see what the doc says when I go under the knife (again) on Friday.
Sunday, their last day in the city. It was their day, so we went and ate bagels one last time and did some last minute shopping around town before heading to Central Park and enjoying the nice day, followed by a trip to the Metropolitan Musuem of Art for the last few hours of the day. I knew it was a world-class art museum, but who knew that there were Picasso, Monet, and Renoir originals there?? I should really go there more often I guess, especially since I'm a member!
The last events of the evening involved staying local and eating with Sean, Lauren, and Lauren's parents and meeting up with Lee before his night shift started. Afterwards, we went to a low-key Victorian lounge around the corner to socialize and hear about Sean and Laurens' ski trip the week before. We headed home at a reasonable hour (~11:00) so that I could finish burning CDs and they could finish packing.
Monday morning my life became much more simple and much more boring when my roommates moved out :o( . So, things are back to "normal" now, which isn't a bad thing when you're 27 and living in the best city in the world :o)....
And I'm spent...
J.
Monday, March 28, 2005
....And Then There Was One.
Stay tuned, my social calendar is now clear and free, giving me more time to sit in front of my computer ;o)
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Hipsters?
Can anyone give me a definition of what a hipster is? I recently finished reading Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" and he talks about hipsters all the time in the book. It's also a word that I frequently see in the style section of magazines like Time Out New York when they're talking about style or about Williamsburg in Brooklyn or Manhattan's Lower East Side. I was down in the LES a few weeks back and was talking to someone about how often they frequent the bar we were at and how they liked it and she said "there's a lot of hipsters here, but otherwise most of the people are pretty cool" or something like that. What's that supposed to mean?? I picture hipsters as people who dress very stylish / industrial and don't really have a lot on life's agenda except to have fun and plan for today. I wouldn't think that I'd find a hipster working as an accountant for a Big Four accounting firm, for example. I picture them as someone content to work in a parking garage. But I'm just not really sure...
Besides meeting someone that isn't particularly fond of hipsters, the last week has kept me quite busy, as you can probably see by the plethora of pictures. On St. Patrick's day, we did the traditional festivities, including a visit to a gentleman named Mr. O'Hurley, who runs an Irish restaurant / bar on the west side. On my first trip out to New York to visit Cathy and Paul for St. Patrick's day, we wandered around the west side looking for a place to settle in for the evening and we came across this joint called O'Hurley's. We stepped in and an older gentleman sat us at a giant table in the corner of the room, which was perfect in case you don't realize how crowded these places get on March 17th. When the waitress came to us, we asked if the gentleman who sat us was Mr. O'Hurley himself. Her response? "No, he's just some old guy who's been coming here for years that likes to help out on St. Patrick's Day". A legend was born that day, and the old guy was christened by Paul and I as Mr. O'Hurley. He doesn't know we exist, but we frequently talk about Mr. O'Hurley seating us at the massive table and about Mrs. O'Hurley in the kitchen cooking up our corned beef and cabbage. So this year we revisited the place to make sure that he was still working the tables and, sure enough, he again gave our small group the massive table. And Mrs. O'Hurley again served up some fine traditional cuisine for Paul, Cathy, D, Kevin, and I as we got the evening started.
The evening continued at my micro-apartment after dinner, where we continued the St. Patrick's day tradition by...having a South American party. Vanessa served up Pisco Sours from Peru and Mili was hard at work being DJ on my digital iTunes turn-table. Paul (unfortunately Cathy had to work), Alan, his girlfriend (Andrea), Sean, his girlfriend (Lauren), the Peruvians, and some random neighbor of Lauren's all attended. Some of us even learned how to salsa that night!
Friday morning, roommate #3 showed up for the weekend, Vanessa and Mili's cousin "Wila" from Miami. I was curious to see how things would turn out with 100 square feet per person in my apartment. Lucky for me, Wila turned out to be easy going and so space wasn't an issue (for me, anyway!) for the weekend. Clausterphobic? You might not want to come visit me with two of your best friends, then :) !! Friday night was pretty mellow, everyone was tired. I made us a little vegetarian meal with some wine and chilled out while the girls sang Shakira and Britney Spears songs (how did those get on my iPod?) and belly-danced to some Arabic music. Boy, life sure is rough for me ;o) !!
Saturday evening was locked and loaded to be a big night, though. After much perusal, I dug up Baldo Vino in the East Village and made our 10:00 dinner reservations for my guests and Cathy & Paul. We enjoyed a fabulous dinner in good company and a warm atmosphere with sangria that had a hint of nutmeg and cinammon (no, I didn't need to ask the bartender, Cathy ;o).
After dinner, we bid P&C farewell and headed to the West Side, Chelsea, to hit up a megaclub. When we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to find that Sean had bought a bottle service inside, meaning he paid an exorbidant amount of money for a bottle of top-shelf vodka and mixers so that we could have our own table and our own waitress. And no cover charge! That definitely made things really enjoyable and we didn't have to fight the crowds inside. So we had a nice little evening with ear-ringing hip-hop and rock music and tearing up the carpet. Nothing too scandalous happened that night and we had a great time until it closed at around 4:30. Naturally, I saw many a "wing-man" formations flying sorties in an attempt to raid our table, but it was fun to see our surface-to-air defense system strike them down before they got too close ;o).
Some of us have to work, so stay tuned...
J.
Besides meeting someone that isn't particularly fond of hipsters, the last week has kept me quite busy, as you can probably see by the plethora of pictures. On St. Patrick's day, we did the traditional festivities, including a visit to a gentleman named Mr. O'Hurley, who runs an Irish restaurant / bar on the west side. On my first trip out to New York to visit Cathy and Paul for St. Patrick's day, we wandered around the west side looking for a place to settle in for the evening and we came across this joint called O'Hurley's. We stepped in and an older gentleman sat us at a giant table in the corner of the room, which was perfect in case you don't realize how crowded these places get on March 17th. When the waitress came to us, we asked if the gentleman who sat us was Mr. O'Hurley himself. Her response? "No, he's just some old guy who's been coming here for years that likes to help out on St. Patrick's Day". A legend was born that day, and the old guy was christened by Paul and I as Mr. O'Hurley. He doesn't know we exist, but we frequently talk about Mr. O'Hurley seating us at the massive table and about Mrs. O'Hurley in the kitchen cooking up our corned beef and cabbage. So this year we revisited the place to make sure that he was still working the tables and, sure enough, he again gave our small group the massive table. And Mrs. O'Hurley again served up some fine traditional cuisine for Paul, Cathy, D, Kevin, and I as we got the evening started.
The evening continued at my micro-apartment after dinner, where we continued the St. Patrick's day tradition by...having a South American party. Vanessa served up Pisco Sours from Peru and Mili was hard at work being DJ on my digital iTunes turn-table. Paul (unfortunately Cathy had to work), Alan, his girlfriend (Andrea), Sean, his girlfriend (Lauren), the Peruvians, and some random neighbor of Lauren's all attended. Some of us even learned how to salsa that night!
Friday morning, roommate #3 showed up for the weekend, Vanessa and Mili's cousin "Wila" from Miami. I was curious to see how things would turn out with 100 square feet per person in my apartment. Lucky for me, Wila turned out to be easy going and so space wasn't an issue (for me, anyway!) for the weekend. Clausterphobic? You might not want to come visit me with two of your best friends, then :) !! Friday night was pretty mellow, everyone was tired. I made us a little vegetarian meal with some wine and chilled out while the girls sang Shakira and Britney Spears songs (how did those get on my iPod?) and belly-danced to some Arabic music. Boy, life sure is rough for me ;o) !!
Saturday evening was locked and loaded to be a big night, though. After much perusal, I dug up Baldo Vino in the East Village and made our 10:00 dinner reservations for my guests and Cathy & Paul. We enjoyed a fabulous dinner in good company and a warm atmosphere with sangria that had a hint of nutmeg and cinammon (no, I didn't need to ask the bartender, Cathy ;o).
After dinner, we bid P&C farewell and headed to the West Side, Chelsea, to hit up a megaclub. When we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to find that Sean had bought a bottle service inside, meaning he paid an exorbidant amount of money for a bottle of top-shelf vodka and mixers so that we could have our own table and our own waitress. And no cover charge! That definitely made things really enjoyable and we didn't have to fight the crowds inside. So we had a nice little evening with ear-ringing hip-hop and rock music and tearing up the carpet. Nothing too scandalous happened that night and we had a great time until it closed at around 4:30. Naturally, I saw many a "wing-man" formations flying sorties in an attempt to raid our table, but it was fun to see our surface-to-air defense system strike them down before they got too close ;o).
Some of us have to work, so stay tuned...
J.
Monday, March 21, 2005
OMG! More Pictures!
Okay, I know I owe everyone a major, major update, there's been a lot going on lately. In the meantime, you can make up stories to go along with the new pictures (there are additions to the ones I posted last week) that I put on my website!
Friday, March 18, 2005
A New York Moment
I had a NY moment on the subway this morning that I had to share. I'm riding the 4 train from Brooklyn back to Manhattan. Brooklyn is home to, among many many other people, Hacidic Jews, the ones that have the long, curly side-burns, the ten-gallon hats, and the black suits (I'm demonstrating my ignorance here). From what I know, these tend to be very conservative Jewish folks who spend a significant amount of time praying and reading their...documents. That are written in Hebrew or Yiddish (frankly, I can't understand or read either). But one characteristic of them reading is that they nod back-and-forth continuously while reading, as do the conservative elements of Islams (according to a documentary I saw once). So a whole bench in the subway was full of Hacidic Jews who were reading somewhat aloud, under their breath, and nodding - except for one fellow, who had his iPod on under his hoody sweatshirt. And he was nodding right along with them and rapping somewhat aloud, under his breath. It was just a funny experience to see a whole row nodding and reading/rapping outloud, but from two polar perspectives and purposes. Well, I guess you had to be there to appreciate it :o)....
J. Riley, sleep deprived before the weekend even begins.
J. Riley, sleep deprived before the weekend even begins.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Monday, March 14, 2005
Haunted Windows
We've all heard about haunted houses, churches, castles, etc., but have you ever heard of a haunted window? Well, I guess you heard it here first - they exist!! I know, because my residence provides a comfortable home for such an item. Winter refuses to leave New York, and Spring is too afraid to arrive, so we've been in the high 30's - low 40's all week, and will be so indefinitely. So it's kind of annoying when someone keeps opening the window next to my bed in the middle of the night, in the morning, etc. Naturally, I gave my guests a tongue-lashing and told them to stop opening it. Peculiarly, I didn't get much of a response. Then, one day when they were gone, I noticed that the window was open again, even though I was sitting right next to it and had closed it earlier in the day. My window is opening itself. It is truly possessed, as I am also possessed with figuring out how to keep the damn thing closed....
Well, lots of activities in the last week. First of all, I am quite healthy once again. Surely the rigorous workouts I've given my body over the last week helped out. When I last left you, I was detailing my plans for the week, going to Baraonda's for the Wednesday-night disco party. Well, we stopped by my old roommate Alan's apartment before hand (at around 10:30) and had a pre-party drink. Since he lives a block away from the place, it worked out well that we arrived at the restaurant at about 11:30 and the place was jammin, full of sleezy Euro-trash and gorgeous women, though none as gorgeous as the ones I arrived with ;o). Disco tunes, 70's, 80's, hip-hop, salsa, Mediterranean, Italian, and Arabic (belly-dancing) was all part of the mix. It was pretty fun watching the girls dance. Why can't I have Latin hips?? Thanks to a lack of food for the day, the girls got carried away pretty quickly after a few drinks and so we had to leave early, at around 2:00am. Before we left though, when Kira was waiting for the bathroom, some sleezy Euro came up and started talking to her in Spanish and before she knew it she had a small mound of white powder in her hand. Gee, I wonder what that is. Good thing Vanessa was there to help her throw it against the door and get the hell out of there. Yea, we're talking about serious Euro-trash, which is part of the fun ;o).
Not to be outdone, Thursday night we met up with a "friend" of Vanessa's and Kira's who lives here in the city. After chilling and chatting with some coffee at DTUT, We took the girls out for some real American food at Brother Jimmy's, which serves up ribs, buffalo wings, and every other kind of barbequed item that you can imagine. And cheap, watery beer. So we got our calories for the evening and then headed over to a not-very-UES place called Stir, which was kinda trying to be a downtown nightclub. On the Upper East Side. Yea, it doesn't work too well up here. But we hung out around there for a while before heading home at around 12:30.
Friday night, after my apartment was overhauled, we hit the town at about 11:00 and went down to Max Fish in the Lower-East-Side, my favorite part of the city. I had actually wanted to check this bar out because, as some of you know, it was right outside this bar that an aspiring actress was recently shot. I figured it was in some seedy, cool part of the LES, but no. It was RIGHT in the middle of all the clubs and bars down there. Pretty amazing that something so tragic can happen on a street like that. Of course, we weren't down there at 4:00am like they were, either...Anyway, we met up with Vanessa and Kira's friend again and he helped me get my liquid courage going by buying me multiple rounds of Rum-'n-Coke. Sure, don't mind if I do! He actually brought a friend that he works with who has been learning German since July, so I got to "ueben" my German. I was quite impressed with her vocab and grammar skills in such a short amount of time. I guess it's good motivation when your boyfriend is German and his parents don't speak English!
Saturday was the day of recovery from the Rum-'n'Cokes. Not that I had too much to drink, but all that cheap rum was burning my stomach up. I kept popping pills all day (ummm, Tums), but they had little effect. In fact, I didn't really recover from it until that night. But, nonetheless, Paul and I took the girls down to the WTC site, the Staten Island Ferry (for Statue of Liberty and New York skyline views), and Wall Street before heading out to the West Village to meet up with Cathy and D for dinner at Deborah's. Wow, was that food amazing. It wasn't anything too crazy, just American food. But it was excellent. I see why Paul and Cathy are such fans of the place! So we cruised around and checked out the scene down there for a while, had a coffee at Cafe Reggio, home of America's first cappucino machine. We like their desserts and coffees, so we spoiled ourselves for the evening.
Sunday, I got a little group together to do brunch downtown before the girls realized that they couldn't go :o| . And since the girls weren't going, the group slowly melted away and so just Sean, his "friend" Lauren, and I headed downtown. They were bummed that they couldn't meet the girls, but they'll be around this week to meet up with, I hope! Anyway, we went down to SoHo and found a cool little place called Bread and had brunch/lunch there. Sorry, that name is a little too generic for me to provide a link to. But the food there was excellent! Dude, do you get the picture about the food in this city?!?!? I love it!! Aftewards, I did some tagging-along while they shopped for their upcoming ski trip. The rest of the night was pretty chill. It was Sunday, afterall!
Monday night we chilled again, but Tuesday night Paul had gotten us free tickets from work for the Irish Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Carnegie Hall!!! I hadn't been there yet, so I was pretty stoked about checking that out. Not being a big classical music aficionado, I figured it would be a nice little show and that was it, but I was really blown away by the acoustics and precision of the group. It sounded way better than the classic music MP3s that I play on my little computer speakers (imagine that!!). In addition to the string orchestra, they also had a tenor singing, a poetry reader, and an Irish-dancer-guy. I guess it was tap-dancing, but it was very Irish and the guy was pretty amazing. I can't put into words how amazed I was by this, but I think that I'll add Carnegie Hall to the list of events to attend more often here.
Afterwards, Paul and I took the girls to The View, the rotating lounge on the top floor (~45th) of the Marriott Marquee in Times Square. The views from there are, not surprisingly, very impressive and it's a good spot to mingle with other tourists and gawk at the city from above. I did a little sweet-talking to our waitress and got her to wave half of our cover-charge to make the evening a bit more reasonable-priced, if you can call $15 martinis reasonably-priced!
Whew, that's all I got for now. I have loads of pictures to upload, which I will do at some point in the near future. Maybe even tonight, since the girls went AWOL on me and left me at home by myself :o( ....
The J.
Well, lots of activities in the last week. First of all, I am quite healthy once again. Surely the rigorous workouts I've given my body over the last week helped out. When I last left you, I was detailing my plans for the week, going to Baraonda's for the Wednesday-night disco party. Well, we stopped by my old roommate Alan's apartment before hand (at around 10:30) and had a pre-party drink. Since he lives a block away from the place, it worked out well that we arrived at the restaurant at about 11:30 and the place was jammin, full of sleezy Euro-trash and gorgeous women, though none as gorgeous as the ones I arrived with ;o). Disco tunes, 70's, 80's, hip-hop, salsa, Mediterranean, Italian, and Arabic (belly-dancing) was all part of the mix. It was pretty fun watching the girls dance. Why can't I have Latin hips?? Thanks to a lack of food for the day, the girls got carried away pretty quickly after a few drinks and so we had to leave early, at around 2:00am. Before we left though, when Kira was waiting for the bathroom, some sleezy Euro came up and started talking to her in Spanish and before she knew it she had a small mound of white powder in her hand. Gee, I wonder what that is. Good thing Vanessa was there to help her throw it against the door and get the hell out of there. Yea, we're talking about serious Euro-trash, which is part of the fun ;o).
Not to be outdone, Thursday night we met up with a "friend" of Vanessa's and Kira's who lives here in the city. After chilling and chatting with some coffee at DTUT, We took the girls out for some real American food at Brother Jimmy's, which serves up ribs, buffalo wings, and every other kind of barbequed item that you can imagine. And cheap, watery beer. So we got our calories for the evening and then headed over to a not-very-UES place called Stir, which was kinda trying to be a downtown nightclub. On the Upper East Side. Yea, it doesn't work too well up here. But we hung out around there for a while before heading home at around 12:30.
Friday night, after my apartment was overhauled, we hit the town at about 11:00 and went down to Max Fish in the Lower-East-Side, my favorite part of the city. I had actually wanted to check this bar out because, as some of you know, it was right outside this bar that an aspiring actress was recently shot. I figured it was in some seedy, cool part of the LES, but no. It was RIGHT in the middle of all the clubs and bars down there. Pretty amazing that something so tragic can happen on a street like that. Of course, we weren't down there at 4:00am like they were, either...Anyway, we met up with Vanessa and Kira's friend again and he helped me get my liquid courage going by buying me multiple rounds of Rum-'n-Coke. Sure, don't mind if I do! He actually brought a friend that he works with who has been learning German since July, so I got to "ueben" my German. I was quite impressed with her vocab and grammar skills in such a short amount of time. I guess it's good motivation when your boyfriend is German and his parents don't speak English!
Saturday was the day of recovery from the Rum-'n'Cokes. Not that I had too much to drink, but all that cheap rum was burning my stomach up. I kept popping pills all day (ummm, Tums), but they had little effect. In fact, I didn't really recover from it until that night. But, nonetheless, Paul and I took the girls down to the WTC site, the Staten Island Ferry (for Statue of Liberty and New York skyline views), and Wall Street before heading out to the West Village to meet up with Cathy and D for dinner at Deborah's. Wow, was that food amazing. It wasn't anything too crazy, just American food. But it was excellent. I see why Paul and Cathy are such fans of the place! So we cruised around and checked out the scene down there for a while, had a coffee at Cafe Reggio, home of America's first cappucino machine. We like their desserts and coffees, so we spoiled ourselves for the evening.
Sunday, I got a little group together to do brunch downtown before the girls realized that they couldn't go :o| . And since the girls weren't going, the group slowly melted away and so just Sean, his "friend" Lauren, and I headed downtown. They were bummed that they couldn't meet the girls, but they'll be around this week to meet up with, I hope! Anyway, we went down to SoHo and found a cool little place called Bread and had brunch/lunch there. Sorry, that name is a little too generic for me to provide a link to. But the food there was excellent! Dude, do you get the picture about the food in this city?!?!? I love it!! Aftewards, I did some tagging-along while they shopped for their upcoming ski trip. The rest of the night was pretty chill. It was Sunday, afterall!
Monday night we chilled again, but Tuesday night Paul had gotten us free tickets from work for the Irish Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Carnegie Hall!!! I hadn't been there yet, so I was pretty stoked about checking that out. Not being a big classical music aficionado, I figured it would be a nice little show and that was it, but I was really blown away by the acoustics and precision of the group. It sounded way better than the classic music MP3s that I play on my little computer speakers (imagine that!!). In addition to the string orchestra, they also had a tenor singing, a poetry reader, and an Irish-dancer-guy. I guess it was tap-dancing, but it was very Irish and the guy was pretty amazing. I can't put into words how amazed I was by this, but I think that I'll add Carnegie Hall to the list of events to attend more often here.
Afterwards, Paul and I took the girls to The View, the rotating lounge on the top floor (~45th) of the Marriott Marquee in Times Square. The views from there are, not surprisingly, very impressive and it's a good spot to mingle with other tourists and gawk at the city from above. I did a little sweet-talking to our waitress and got her to wave half of our cover-charge to make the evening a bit more reasonable-priced, if you can call $15 martinis reasonably-priced!
Whew, that's all I got for now. I have loads of pictures to upload, which I will do at some point in the near future. Maybe even tonight, since the girls went AWOL on me and left me at home by myself :o( ....
The J.
Friday, March 11, 2005
Girls Gone Wild
So I went to work this morning and got home at about 11:00am to find the lazy Peruvians lounging in bed still. Yes, I know we didn't get back until 1:00am last night, but that's not an excuse for not getting up early and exploring the city - like me. So I started getting to work as they slowly started moving and getting ready for the day. By 11:30, they were up and had decided that they wanted to completely redesign and reorganize my apartment. Geez, you would think this place was a bachelor pad with all of their criticisms and "ewwww", "grosssss", and "this is so dirty" (all of it in Spanish, of course). No respect....
In any case, it's now 7:00pm on Friday and my apartment has been given a makeover by the Fab 2 from Peruvian Eye for the Straight Guy. Well, though I gave them endless problems and resisted all of their changes, my apartment does look nice, my closets are very organized (not that they weren't before ;o), my kitchen cabinets make it easy for me to find my saffron spices, and my bathroom smells like chemicals that will surely help fish grow three eyes in the East River....
Let the weekend begin...officially!
J. Riley
In any case, it's now 7:00pm on Friday and my apartment has been given a makeover by the Fab 2 from Peruvian Eye for the Straight Guy. Well, though I gave them endless problems and resisted all of their changes, my apartment does look nice, my closets are very organized (not that they weren't before ;o), my kitchen cabinets make it easy for me to find my saffron spices, and my bathroom smells like chemicals that will surely help fish grow three eyes in the East River....
Let the weekend begin...officially!
J. Riley
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Return of the Incas
Saturday my friends from Peru left the summer sun of South America behind and arrived in brisk New York city for a few weeks of fun. I haven't seen my friend Vanessa for about two and a half years, so it is great to be back in her company, and now I'm getting to know her sister as well. Thus far, they've kept me busy and entertained with their antics. Lucky for everyone, I was well on my road to recovery when they arrived, though the sudden increase in the use of my vocal coords definitely led to my demise and the loss of my voice on Saturday night.
Nonetheless, D had scheduled a dinner get together at Shun-Lee's on the Upper West Side for Saturday night because her mom was in town. It was very good food, but was very very expensive. As much as I like waiters hovering around the table and a very good roasted pork dish with scallion sauce, I'm not sure it justified $36 a person. But, it was an experience, paper mache dragon and all!
One of the big events that the girls wanted to attend was to see the show Stomp! Cooincidently, this was the first show that I saw when I visited the city for the first time. Since it's been a few years, I decided that that would be fun, so we hit it up on Tuesday night, when I knew we wouldn't have any problems getting in to see it. It was as entertaining as I remember it being, it's funny how characters can be developed on stage when they don't even use words. The performers are certainly amazing, the way they can hold a rhythm with so much going on. That's certainly something that I'm not capable of... ;o)
Following the show, we checked out the local neighborhood in the freezing cold weather (it snowed yesterday) and had a few drinks and some tapas at an alphabet city establishment called Yuca Bar & Restaurant. It was blistering cold outside though, and though I really wanted to make the long walk to the subway for an 11:30 ride home, I caved in and went for the $10 cab ride up 1st Avenue instead :).
Tonight we're going to try to attend the Wednesday night festivities at the local Euro hangout Baraonda's. The late night discotheque at this place is legendary, so hopefully tonight I will finally get to experience this cultural milestone!
Wish me luck,
The J.
Nonetheless, D had scheduled a dinner get together at Shun-Lee's on the Upper West Side for Saturday night because her mom was in town. It was very good food, but was very very expensive. As much as I like waiters hovering around the table and a very good roasted pork dish with scallion sauce, I'm not sure it justified $36 a person. But, it was an experience, paper mache dragon and all!
One of the big events that the girls wanted to attend was to see the show Stomp! Cooincidently, this was the first show that I saw when I visited the city for the first time. Since it's been a few years, I decided that that would be fun, so we hit it up on Tuesday night, when I knew we wouldn't have any problems getting in to see it. It was as entertaining as I remember it being, it's funny how characters can be developed on stage when they don't even use words. The performers are certainly amazing, the way they can hold a rhythm with so much going on. That's certainly something that I'm not capable of... ;o)
Following the show, we checked out the local neighborhood in the freezing cold weather (it snowed yesterday) and had a few drinks and some tapas at an alphabet city establishment called Yuca Bar & Restaurant. It was blistering cold outside though, and though I really wanted to make the long walk to the subway for an 11:30 ride home, I caved in and went for the $10 cab ride up 1st Avenue instead :).
Tonight we're going to try to attend the Wednesday night festivities at the local Euro hangout Baraonda's. The late night discotheque at this place is legendary, so hopefully tonight I will finally get to experience this cultural milestone!
Wish me luck,
The J.
Friday, March 04, 2005
Did You Know....?
Did you know that you might be able to efile your federal taxes for free online (if you're a resident of the United States)? Check it out at http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=118986,00.html
I just did all my taxes in about an hour and a half - with good results!! Looks like I've got a shopping spree to plan...
I just did all my taxes in about an hour and a half - with good results!! Looks like I've got a shopping spree to plan...
Morning Sickness
Now that I've been self-diagnosed with the bubonic plague (thanks webmd.com), my mornings have become quite interesting. I feel like a girl, it takes me so long to get ready. Of course, I haven't been to work all week, so I can't totally claim to know the full impact of my new routines. But it goes something like this:
- Alarm clock goes off
- I wake up briefly, turn off my alarm clock, and go back to bed (as usual)
- Wake up at around 9:30
- Blow my nose; Repeat every 1-2 minutes
- Wonder who poured sulfuric acid down my throat
- Go into kitchen, turn on stove to heat my heat pad
- Put a cup of throat tea into the microwave
- Survive a series of convulsions resulting from my cough; Repeat every 3-5 minutes
- Stumble to the shower
- Soak my eyes for 3-5 minutes in scalding hot water
- Take antibiotics for my eyes
- Put antiobiotic ointment on my eyelids; feel burning sensation in my eyes for the rest of the day and give the appearance that I've been crying
- Take two Vitamin-C tablets
- Take multivitamin
- Nurse and drink tea
- Apply heated compress to my eyes for 3-5 minutes
- With remaining hot water, put into bowl, lower head to bowl, cover head with towel to enjoy a homemade steam-bath.
You know you're jealous.
J.
- Alarm clock goes off
- I wake up briefly, turn off my alarm clock, and go back to bed (as usual)
- Wake up at around 9:30
- Blow my nose; Repeat every 1-2 minutes
- Wonder who poured sulfuric acid down my throat
- Go into kitchen, turn on stove to heat my heat pad
- Put a cup of throat tea into the microwave
- Survive a series of convulsions resulting from my cough; Repeat every 3-5 minutes
- Stumble to the shower
- Soak my eyes for 3-5 minutes in scalding hot water
- Take antibiotics for my eyes
- Put antiobiotic ointment on my eyelids; feel burning sensation in my eyes for the rest of the day and give the appearance that I've been crying
- Take two Vitamin-C tablets
- Take multivitamin
- Nurse and drink tea
- Apply heated compress to my eyes for 3-5 minutes
- With remaining hot water, put into bowl, lower head to bowl, cover head with towel to enjoy a homemade steam-bath.
You know you're jealous.
J.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Anti-Virus Needed
As an information technology security professional, I take viruses very seriously. I use the latest Anti-virus products, I keep my virus fingerprints up-to-date, and, of course, I use Firefox in order to prevent websites from sending me malicious content unbeknownst to me. So, you can imagine how frustrated I was when I got a virus on Sunday or Monday. At first, I thought I was just dehydrated after a night out at Lake Tahoe following a day of skiing, but from what I've read, it sounds like I was experiencing the first symptons of the virus. Headache, neckache, sore joints, light-headed, cough, sore-throat etc. I'm sure that my red-eye flight home on Sunday night didn't help things, and neither did sitting in an air-conditioned data center all day Monday. Things started going downhill on Monday night, when I came home and had the chills, unable to get myself warm, despite hot-boxing my tiny bathroom with steam from a super-hot shower.
Tuesday morning, I woke up with a throat that was on fire. I took a shower and nearly passed out, so I crawled back into bed and sent out the emails saying I wasn't going to make it into work today. This was even after getting 14 hours of sleep that night! So, for the first time in my career, I took a sick day. I went to the doctor, who said he thinks it's just a virus and I have to just wait it out. Great. Today I woke up with the same symptons, so I'm gonna go ahead and holler sick for this one as well.
I'm powering down vitamin C pills, multi-vitamin pills, water, and throat tea. Hopefully this will help clean my body and restore my self-respect for my skills as a security specialist....
J. Riley, cough-cough.
P.S. Congrats to my brother and sister-in-law for their pregnancy!! (unofficially)
Tuesday morning, I woke up with a throat that was on fire. I took a shower and nearly passed out, so I crawled back into bed and sent out the emails saying I wasn't going to make it into work today. This was even after getting 14 hours of sleep that night! So, for the first time in my career, I took a sick day. I went to the doctor, who said he thinks it's just a virus and I have to just wait it out. Great. Today I woke up with the same symptons, so I'm gonna go ahead and holler sick for this one as well.
I'm powering down vitamin C pills, multi-vitamin pills, water, and throat tea. Hopefully this will help clean my body and restore my self-respect for my skills as a security specialist....
J. Riley, cough-cough.
P.S. Congrats to my brother and sister-in-law for their pregnancy!! (unofficially)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)