Ha, I'm turning into one of those sad country yokels on sitcoms that knows nothing about the Big City and mixes up directions and is not funny at all but keep showing up to make the same old 'garsh!' comment that amuses like, five people. I realized two days ago (two days ago!) that I am but a few blocks away from this hostel that Travis and I stayed in back in November. It took me a few weeks to figure this out. Gahhh...
A combination of frugality and impatience pushed me over the edge the other day and I was like, "gosh darn, I am just going to MOVE!" So I did! Saintly, angelic Daniel came all the way out to freaking Queens and back not once but twice, helping me lug giant, bursty suitcases through all kinds of bus and subway hassle. But never mind that now. I'm all here and only have to go back Tuesday to return my keys and get my deposit.
Things are wonderful in Manhattan. I almost fainted at the West End Market when I saw a box of cereal for eleven dollars. I went to Harlem today since this guy at work recommended Pathway, and it was large and spacious and crowded and I only spent like $39 on a whole slew of food. I saved $22 by using my new discount card, by the way.
I still haven't had any classes yet since one of my professors like, gave birth on Wednesday so I don't know when she'll be back up and running.
Travis is making a trip up on Sunday since he has Wednesday off for Labor Day weekend. I don't like his weird NPR days off, but whatever. I'll have to think of something cool and metropolitan to do on Monday.
If a girl is teased by someone for a glaringly obvious typo which she quickly fixes, did it ever really happen?
Answer: no!
My time home has been great so far, and apparently I have even less of it than I thought because I'm coming back to New York tomorrow afternoon rather than Tuesday. Surprise!
We had a cookout yesterday with some of the fam, and that was nice. Laura came over and we saw Vicki Cristina Barcelona and The Dark Knight at the Destinta. I was prepared for long lines and sold-out shows, but instead the entire theater was deserted. Even the doormen had the night off. I was like, this is Saturday, and right before school starts? Where are the surly unkempt youth?!? The box office girl said that since it was the Steelers game, everyone went home. But it's preseason. I don't understand. Anyways, the theaters were almost empty and both movies were very good.
Since I am super lame and can't navigate through terminals well, I find myself with some free time. Enjoy the pictures from a long time ago:
Is it just me (note: it is; no one else corroborates this) but does this sorta kinda look like the Pittsburgh skyline from Mt. Washington? A little? Maybe?
One of the waterfalls. I wasn't really wild about them.
Longer shot of Manhattan.
Here's Daniel pretending to caress a very old and expensive-looking car.
Now, McDonald's has a lot of money. And clearly this sign isn't too old, since it advertises the internet access. So how did this flag get so beat up and faded so quickly?
They catch you on video as you walk in so you can remember what you looked like before the rapid slide into obesity.
First of all, I had never been in a Popeye's before this day. Daniel and I were horrified with the decor - it was a bunch of different food animals rejoicing in their own eventual demise.
"Here, let me add some sauce for y'all!"
"I'm going the extra mile and adding tasty flavor inside and out!"
"I don't mind that someone had just pierced my spine with a fork and is preparing to gut me from behind. Conga line!"
Attention: we hate kids in a passive-aggressive manner. This is from a teacher's supply store in Brooklyn.
The New York Public Library at 42nd street, oooooh, aaaahh.
The reference desk at the library has the most awesome sign in the world.
Here's a shot of Manhattan from one of Astoria's subway platforms.
If I owned a restaurant, I would definitely consider naming it something like "The Original Chirping Chicken". Are there others? Like, Chirping Chicken Part II, or a spinoff like The Original Burping Chicken?
Scandals! I wish it would have had a 'z' at the end, but whatever. This ranks up there with Cheet
Oh man, these are even older. What a treat for today!
These ants just loooved something sticky on the sidewalk. They were there for at least three days, hundreds upon hundreds of them.
This is from my lovely DC trips a few weeks back. The Value Village was trying to sell this multi-piece bed set for some ridiculous sum, like $600, despite the fact that it was way ugly.
One of the managers caught me taking a picture of it and was like, "you know, it's still available if you want it!" She seemed so eager that I couldn't tell her that I was just getting ready to mock it later. Ugh, it's terrible looking.
Agh, oh god. I can't figure out what would be worse - a man wearing boxers with a picture of his daughter, or a man wearing boxers with a picture of some girl who is not his daughter. Frightening.
Heh, on the bus going to the thrift store this guy got on with curiously defined ringlets.
Close-up of the curls. Weird.
Oh, and I went to the Safeway to grab lunch beforehand since they had the 'take-out deli' in the back where you can grab prepared fixings. I saw that there was a kids' meal for $2.50 that included a chicken strip, a small side, and a small fountain beverage. However, when I ordered it, the handsome deli man gave me not one but three chicken strips and a good half cup of the best macaroni and cheese in the world.
Also, he let me pick out something from the beverage cooler rather than a small cup. How nice! Look at this meal!
Speaking of meals, Travis and I went to Nando's Peri Peri for dinner on his birthday. He was forty-five minutes late and I looked pathetic sitting on my own reading the menu.
But he made it, finally. Happy belated birthday!
Oh, and since I haven't posted any dead things lately, this was in one of the classrooms at St. Johns. He sees you. He doesn't like you.
I am on a roll today. I never got the chance to detail the incredible dinner (I have low standards, okay??) that Daniel and I made practically from scratch. We didn't make the tortillas. And the salsa was from a jar. But everything else! Except the cupcakes. Those were from a box. And the icing was from a tub.
But check out this glorious chicken!
The finished, pizza-like product.
Daniel made the inaugural slice. This quesadilla was so, so good.
Cupcakes! I don't know how we were able to make so many, but they lasted for days on end.
The kids at the summer camp had to do pre- and post-writings to gauge how much they learned (answer: probably not much) and I am nosy so I browsed through their essays when they were done.
I hate to toot my own horn, but I will reprint this girl's essay in its entirety here, probably violating some intellectual property law. The prompt was "describe your favorite experience here at CampUS". This girl wrote,
When I met Miss Alaina she seemed to be to nice. Miss Alaina was also great. She is also very nice to her students. She never has to yell at us. Also Ms Alaina is very consistant about her work. Finally Ms. Alaina is so talented and unusual. I say that because I have never met anyone who is allergic to most fruits and vegetables and I think that is very unusual but I think it is very unique and cool at the same time.
New favorite student alert!
So guess who came to CampUS on the last day as a surprise visitor??
MR METTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I simply must be honest. If someone had asked me what the Mets' mascot was before this day, I would have answered anything besides an anthropomorphic baseball. But the kids loved him!
As did most of the counselors apart from those too lame to be into the Mets.
Some sign fun:
This made me laugh out loud right in the middle of the subway tunnel. In case you can't read it, the writing on the burger says "I'm bad for you".
I was sitting at the bus stop the other day and was like, "the second Golden Compass movie looks a lot like the first one. Is there anything new?" Then I noticed the release date. Change it up, people. I need fresh entertainment in advertising!
This was on the diaper change table in the handicapped bathroom at the library. I pondered it for awhile. Is the baby wearing a onesie? It seems so, because it has no fingers. But why would a mother strap a baby into a diaper changing table while wearing a onesie? Then I figured that this was just a nude baby without any naughty bits shown. But why not have discernible fingers?
Since I am nothing if not a crowd-pleaser, here's another dead bug. This is a locusty thing being devoured by the aforementioned herd of ants.
For those curious about my future apartment share, here's a picture back before it was all neat and organized. This is only part of the living room, aka my bedroom.
A tiny, cute kitchen.
And the tiletastic blue bathroom. Apparently the former tenant was some kind of funky artist and he left his touches all over the apartment.
There's this thing of yogurt that has been in my fridge since July and definitely is not good to eat anymore. But I'm so guilty about letting it go to waste that I haven't opened it yet since I am depending on the Schrodinger's Cat of yogurt to tell me that there is still this eensy weensy chance that it hasn't spoiled. However, in doing so, I just keep putting off opening it so if there was any possibility that it was still good at first, it is certainly not anymore.
I'm pretty sure that I have a job (and like, a job-job, not just some dinky ten hour a week part timer) but I don't want to talk about it because then I'll totally jinx myself and be all embarrassed.
So let's move on to other things.
I'm definitely moving next Saturday; I'll be staying in the living room of Daniel's swanky Upper West Side apartment. It's very exciting to get out of Queens because I am so, so tired of bus + subway commuting. Even better, it is close to the Job That Must Not Be Named (hint: I will be working at 40th and Madison, find me!). I dragged one huge suitcase already and that was enough to convince me to hire a Man with a Van next Saturday for like, $60.
I have my cornucopia overflowing of reasons that I want to get out of here, and the latest one is that the Russians leave a gross, stinky kitchen. Enough said.
Oh, I went to Central Park for the first time in my entire life on Saturday. We watched some softball games and I got self-conscious because I was the only person cheering out of two entire sets of bleachers. We need some more life in our crowds here.
In case you were wondering, after Breathless came Mean Girls. I might watch a documentary. Right now I am considering Cold Case Files: the most infamous cases.
I have a ton of garbage (not organic matter, just old envelopes and things that keep well) and I can't get rid of it because I still don't know when garbage day is. I need to keep my eyes open.
Today on the Q46 home this really elderly man sat next to me, effectively blocking my access to the aisle. The bus was crazy-full, and when I awkwardly got up to leave, this old guy just barely turns to the side. I had to scootch past him with my butt all up in his business. I was uncomfortable but I doubt he noticed.
I'm enjoying my time off, but there's that nagging reminder every so often that I'd better find a job stat or else. I don't know how much longer I'll be in my current apartment (rent system turning wacky, smelly new Russians, you know how it is) so it's incredibly hard to judge where I will be most conveniently placed in the future.
My plane is for next Wednesday, I think, so that will be nice to spend some time at home.
I am seriously racking my brain for things to say. When did I get so slothlike? I really go out and DO things a lot, but nothing is really coming to mind. Uh, I didn't have to present in one of my library classes because the professor forgot to call on me. The assignment was not the most challenging in the world, so I was prepared, but relieved that I didn't have to bore people for a good ten minutes.
Daniel and I stopped by Ray's last night after the bar and it's such a NYC cliche, like "ooh, we're supposed to have the best pizza EVAH!" And I am all for disproving such grandiose claims, but man, oh man, this crust was so fantastic. Amazing. Usually, I love the Washington's Finest almost-gooey pan pizza crust, but this almost converted me.
I'm rewatching a lot of old movies on Netflix Online (Tim is awesome) and in the past couple days I've gotten through Casablanca and some really old Edison/Lumiere/Melies shorts. Now I'm on Breathless and I just don't know what I'll do next!
I was on the Chinatown bus reading some Word document and, more for a lark than anything else, decided to check what wireless networks were available. If you can believe it, Apex bus lines now have wireless on their buses! Those sly dogs didn't tell anyone!
Also, I'm sitting next to a Buddhist monk.
Eeeee, I just finished Dexter season 1 and I had thought that it was the only one on Netflix online but as it turns out, they also have 2 and 3. Oh man, oh man, there go another dozen hours of my life.
I'm really taking advantage of my weekends lately. When I party, I party hard, I suppose. I just got home and now I have caught a second wind. I fell asleep on the subway but magically intuited that it was nearing my stop and I woke up at Union Turnpike.
The tango lesson was fun - the hardest thing was keeping my balance. Luckily I had strappy tango-ey shoes so that base was covered.
Daniel had to go to the bathroom something fierce so we stopped in a diner and split a grilled cheese sandwich (cheddar, bacon) and hung out there for awhile, then walked eastwardly past Park and drank spiked Gatorade on a stoop, because we are nothing if not classy. After awhile, poor Daniel had to go to the bathroom again so we went to yet another diner and shared a good tiramisu. We are both fond of sharing food.
We have tentative plans to make quesadillas tomorrow and, of all things, go to Connecticut and visit Yale on Sunday. Wacky wacky wacky.
What else? Uh, it's hot. Really hot. I have the mister right next to the air mattress and must mist myself gently before I can even think about falling asleep. Sometimes when it's super-hot, I just soak a towel and use that as a blanket. But then my towel smells like an old bathing suit in the morning and I start to worry that I smell musty so I try not to do that often.
Jump for joy, the camp is over and I am home! We had the commencement ceremony today and not just one but both of the kids I nominated received the scholarship. Rock! I didn't return all of my supplies, either, mwahahaha.
I halfheartedly began to pick up stuff in my room but then quickly abandoned that to take a shower. If you can believe it, my room is still hot. And cluttered. There's a ton of stuff that I need to pitch but I'm afraid to throw anything out for fear that I've misremembered garbage day.
Tonight I'm going to an amateur tango lesson with a new friend of mine that I may or may not be having dinner with tomorrow. You know how it is.
My classes are good, but would be incredibly boring to discuss, so I will save you all from it.
Now I don't have any work next week (hello, unemployment) so I will probably be taking this time to do the NYC walking tour that I never got around to before.
