Hot Child in the City

Thursday, November 30, 2017

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Day Thirty-Seven

As usual, Elke and I got a late start on Sunday. It wasn't AS much our fault as it normally is though, because it was raining for most of the day.

When we finally ventured out, it was around 4. We decided to head down to the West Village, because neither of us had done much exploring there. Of course, by the time we actually got down there, we were both starving. So we looked around for somewhere to eat. Elke didn't have much cash left at ALL by this point, so we either needed somewhere cheap or somewhere that took credit card.

We ended up at one of the most amazing Mexican restaurants I have ever eaten at. The food was SO GOOD. Elke and I got the same thing - 1/2 nachos, 1/2 quesadillas, mine with chicken, hers with beans. She managed to clear her entire plate in like 15 minutes, and it was a HUGE plate. Along with having REALLY good food, they also had been rated as having some of the best margaritas in the city, so of course we had to get some. Turns out the critics were right - they were the best margaritas we had ever had.

Sadly, we had to rush a bit through our dinner because we had to get to the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theatre up on 33rd. I wish I could remember the name of the restaurant at which we ate - the only thing I know about it is that it was near NYU, so if I go there I can eat there ALL the freaking time.

We had ordered tickets earlier in the weekend to see UCB's Asssscat show. As you may recall, we tried to go last week, but they were all sold out even though we waited almost an hour in line. But this time we got in because we had preordered and we got to cut in front of all the other suckers who were already in line for the next show, which wouldn't be starting for another 2 hours.

The show itself wasn't bad. I was kinda bummed that Amy Pohler or Jon Stewart didn't show up (it's happened before), but I wasn't really expecting them too, so I wasn't TOO terribly disappointed. The $2 PBR more than made up for it. Gross, I know, but it's the cheap drink of choice at my favorite bars in Athens.

After the show we just headed back home to watch Adult Swim.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Day Thirty-Six

Saturday we were a bit more touristy than we usually are. We decided to spend the day in Brooklyn. Our original plan was to tour the Brooklyn Brewery, explore downtown Brooklyn, get some cheesecake, visit the house where Elke's grandmother grew up, get dinner, stroll along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade walk across the Brooklyn Bridge back to Manhattan, check out City Hall and then head home.

However, we ended up hitting a slight - but very welcome - snag in our plans. We went to the brewery as intended. The tour was kind of silly - we stood in the same room the entire time staring at the machinery while the tour guide (who acted and sounded just like Eric Foreman) told us about the history of the company. But it all turned out to be worth it, because after the tour everyone got one free beer. Elke and I both got the Scorcher, which was amazing. But it was slightly tainted by some creepy old fat man who was already wasted (it was 2.00 in the afternoon), there alone and wanted Elke and I to get in his car with him and go get lunch. He was obviously smashed if he thought we were that stupid OR desperate. We made our escape for the bathroom and waited for him to win.

After we left the brewery we hit our snag. We decided to stop in the cool looking store right across the street called Beacon's Closet. Of course, "stopping in" turned out to be a 3-4 hour binge of shopping insanity. It was this AWESOME thrift/vintage store that was not expensive AT ALL. People get money for the stuff they bring in, so there's much more incentive to donate and therefore TONS of great stuff, most of which is designer. I ended up getting 2 skirts and a dress, which is a lot considering most things were a size zero.

By the time we were able to pry ourselves away from the billions of racks filled with wonderful, inexpensive clothing, it was after 5.00. We decided to skip exploring downtown, visiting Elke's grandmother's old house and strolling along the promenade. By that neither of us had eaten more than a donut and just wanted to find somewhere to eat. But there wasn't really anything down by the bridge - just old people, mostly. I couldn't even find a place to buy some cheesecake.

We walked across the bridge, which was actually a really amazing view. I guess I understand why it's considered to be such a touristy thing to do, but I did notice that a lot of people also appeared to be locals, most of whom were exercising. One of the coolest things was seeing the Municipal Building from the bridge. It's a really neat looking building from the back.

We walked around the City Hall area for a bit, but didn't really see anywhere we wanted to eat. We tried to find the African Burial Ground, but the road to get there was blocked off and it didn't really seem to actually be there. I feel like they may have built over it, which is just twisted.

Since we couldn't find anything in that area, we decided to take the train to the West Village, which is completely full of places to eat. We ended up eating at Florent, a diner-type place our Not For Tourists book recommended. Among the clientele, which consisted mainly of older locals, there were two huge men dressed up as girls. But not just any girls. They looked like Little Miss Muffets - gingham dresses, ruffled pinafores, layers of crinolines, giant Mary Janes, ringlet girls, parasols, and the bigger of the two also had a Hello Kitty backpack. It was nuts. But we were glad they were there, as they kept people from looking at us. We both looked like crap because we'd been out for so long.

We walked around the village a bit more, but headed home soon after.

Day Thirty-Five

We were very dull girls Friday. I got up with Garrett around noon to say goodbye to him before he left for Baltimore. I won't see him again until school starts (next week.. not a huge deal).

I think Elke finally got up around 2 or 3. By that time I wanted to go back to sleep, but couldn't since she was up already up. Keep in mind we had a very late night the night before. And, since I got drunk entirely on beer for the first time all summer, my stomach was completely fucked up. I was just very bloated and very grouchy.

Despite that, we decided to wander around the West Village. Elke hadn't gotten a chance to do so yet, since I went while she was in class. I took her back to a few places I had liked when I was there, but we didn't really see anything either of us wanted. There was one store, Girl Props, which is completely crazy. But it was a bit much to take in all at once the first time, so it will definitely be a place to which we return.

Part of the reason we were so glad to be in the Village is that it is very close to one of the very few Taco Bells in New York City. Even though my stomach was mad at me and even though we kept passing delicious-smelling restaurants, we went straight to Taco Bell and stuffed our faces. Elke especially loves it because she's a vegetarian.

After that we did a little bit more shopping and then just came home. We were both still exhausted from the night before.

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Day Thirty-Four

Seeing as I'm updating a few day after the fact, some of you (if there are ANY of you) may be wondering how I keep track of what I did each day. I mean really... what did you do Tuesday? Can you even remember Tuesday? It's even harder if you don't have work or school to take up a chunk of your day. Luckily, I am an ULTRA dork and keep track of all my expenses in an excel spreadsheet. That way I know what I spent each day, which helps me to remember what I did. Aren't you glad you aren't me?

Anyway, Thursday was loads of fun. Garrett was here, so we were supposed to go to Sylvia's for brunch - thanks to Missing Angel Juan it's one of the places I MUST visit before leaving. However, I woke up with a bit of a stomach ache, and so I thought soul food might not be the best thing to put in it, so instead we slept in for a bit longer. When we woke up we sat around for a bit, hoping Elke would wake up so we could go to lunch. But she didn't, so we ordered carry-out from Flor de Mayo, the place that has fried chicken and fried rice in the same meal. Except it was even better because the lunch price was only $6.00, whereas the dinner price was almost $10.00.

After eating Garrett and I headed down to Canal Street so he could get his brother a shirt for his birthday (as requested). Elke was up by this point, but not yet ready to leave, so it was just the two of us. We found the shirt pretty quickly and then headed back home to meet up with Elke so we could all go to Panna II for dinner.

However, Garrett and I had a pretty late lunch (I think it was around 3.00) and Elke's lunch was even later, so it took us a while to be hungry enough to eat dinner. We also called Elke's friend Sarah and her boyfriend Dan and friend Anthony (who is the best person EVER) and they decided to join us. But of course, first we had to stop by Sarah's apartment to smoke, as you can't go to Panna II sober. We also picked up some beer on the way - Panna II is BYOB. Half of us took the classy route and bought 40s. It seemed fitting.

Dinner was, of course, delicious. And SO cheap. They have a special deal where you can get an appetizer, soup, bread, mango chutney, an entree and dessert for $10. And of course it's all delicious. We pretended it was Sarah's birthday and so they played the techno Indian birthday song and clapped and sang and turned off all the lights except for the strobe light and disco ball. Great fun.

I think we finally got out of there around midnight. Garrett, Elke and I had intended to take a night-time trip on the Staten Island Ferry. It's free and it offers one of the best views of the city and the Statue of Liberty. You just ride the 30 minutes out there and the 30 minutes back AND they sell beer for not much at all on the boat.

Of course, all the trains were messed up because of construction, so it took us FOREVER to get down there. And then we had to walk a while when we finally got off the train. We just barely made it in time to pee before the 1.30 ferry docked. But once we were on the ferry we were all much happier, except Elke, who had left her sweatshirt at Sarah's and so was really cold.

The ferry was every bit as amazing as Garrett said it would be. We just drank our beers (Elke had hot chocolate) and watched the city come and go. I love being on the water and I love the city and I was drunk, so I was a very happy camper. I think I could have made a whole night of it - which is what Garrett used to do with his friends when they were younger because the beer's so cheap and they don't card. But by the time we got back to Manhattan it was 2.30 and time to head home.

So that's what we did.

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Day Thirty-Three

Wednesday I decided to let myself sleep in, and it was lovely. It's so nice to wake up without the awful jangling sound of an alarm. I think I finally got out of bed around 1.00.

The last time we were in SoHo we didn't get to finish all our of shopping there, so we decided to head down there to finish it up. I got some earrings to match the really cool necklace Garrett bought me in Philadelphia, but that's about it. It's really frustrating because so much of what we do is shopping and after a while, everything starts to look the same. It's even worse in SoHo because a lot of the stores carry the same brands with only slightly different prices.

After a bit Garrett called to let us know he was at Penn Station. Wednesday was his last day at work, and so he decided to come to the city one more time before heading back to Baltimore to spend some time with his family before school starts. We met up with him and headed back home to hang out for a bit before going to dinner.

For dinner we decided to revisit Kenka, the insane Japanese restaurant we went to our first week here. We gorged ourselves and drank ourselves silly, as is custom at Kenka. It was great fun. We spent a couple of hours there and then we headed back here, as Garrett was very tired and Elke and I aren't too big on bars.

Friday, August 26, 2005

Day Thirty-Two

The weather here was supposed to be beautiful all week, so I figured I'd spend some time in the park Tuesday morning. So I got up before Elke and packed up all my stuff and headed to my usual spot over by Belvedere Castle. When I left it was 75* and sunny, so when I got there I saw TONS of people lying out and felt completely comfortable doing the same. I did a practice LSAT while I tanned.

I stopped by the apartment to pick drop off my backpack and meet up with Elke, who was up by the time I got home. We headed out to the East Village to see what Howl Fest was all about and check out some vintage stores. It turned out that Howl Fest didn't really exist beyond the nightly performances (there was supposed to be a ton of street art) and the vintage stores were all ridiculously overpriced, which I guess was to be expected. Why can't these people understand that these are USED clothes - and most of them don't even have any fashion value beyond a costume party.

Then we went to St. Mark's Place to find somewhere to eat. We decided on the Dojo Restaurant because it was both cheap and tasty looking. Plus you could create your own smoothie and the bartender was really hot. Of course, we ended up getting stuck in a corner and the food was AWFUL. It was some of the worst stuff I'd ever eaten. My grilled cheese was cold and made on pita bread - I had to send it back. Then my fries tasted like they got them at McDonald's three days ago and then left them on the counter. As for my rice, well, it tasted TERRIBLE and looked (and felt like maggots). They very well could have been. The good news is it was cheap.

Oh, this table of idiot girls sat down near us while we were there. One of them was Asian, and another girl asked her what town her dad was born in and the girl goes, "I don't know - he's Shanghainese - All I know is he's Shanghainese!" Believe me, it was hilarious.

After dinner we decided to head over to Union Square to check out Forever 21 and have another look at Filene's Basement. On our way there we saw a man selling decorated sea shells on the street. We stopped when he said "they're real leaves" as we passed by. They had pressed pot leaves glued to them and they were painted and had a hook. They're really really cool and not expensive at all - I got a smaller one for $3, and Elke got bigger ones for $12 - one for her and one for her friend's birthday. I want to make mine into a Christmas tree ornament and I might even put it up if we get our own little Christmas trees.

Shopping proved relatively fruitful - I got a shirt for $12 at Forever 21 and another one for $10 from Filene's Basement. And they're both very cute - I didn't even buy them for the sake of finally buying something since I'd been failing at it all day. After that we hung out in the square a bit, and then we decided to head home - we needed something in our stomachs that wasn't from Dojo.

Day Thirty-One

We were up late Sunday night, so Monday we got a bit of a late start. Our original plan was to go to the West Village or Canal Street, but by the time we were ready to go, it seemed too late to go down there - many things would have been close to closing.

So instead, we headed to Fifth Avenue. Elke hadn't had a chance to go yet and I wanted to revisit the New York Public Library Store so I could buy their planner and a book journal. I want to start keeping one - you write down the title, author, date read, feelings while reading it and quotes you liked from it. Very cool.

Oooh, but before we left the nice postman brought me my beautiful new shoes. They were even better than I thought they would be. I had no idea my feet could look so pretty.

Sadly, when we got there, we found out that the library is CLOSED on Mondays. Closed. Every single Monday. I was very sad. I know I can buy those things other places, but I wanted to support the library, even though the main branch kind of sucks. So much for that.

But we continued up the street toward Bloomingdale's, which was our final destination. Elke had some really good memories of it involving her dad spending lots of money on her, so she wanted to check it out. Of course, we stopped in other places on our way, one of which was (surprise, surprise) H & M. We spent a TON of time there, as we both love everything they make. I ended up getting a BEAUTIFUL trench coat that was on sale for $50. It falls just below my knees, is made from a cool-looking, almost wooly/denimish in appearance textured tan material and has two rows of big buttons down the middle with a matching belt and a HUGE collar. It's very classic, very Audrey Hepburn. I was a bit apprehensive about getting it because I already have a lightweight coat and I really need a winter coat, and it just isn't warm enough for that. But I figure with the right scarf and hat, I can wear it well into November at least. Plus, it's beautiful.

We went to a few other places, but $50 is my daily budget, so I didn't really want to spend anymore money unless I saw something I absolutely "needed."

By the time we left Bloomingdale's, my new shoes were making my feet hurt - they're really comfortable, but not for 5 hours of walking. They're too pretty for things like that. However, I did spend most of the day running into things because I was staring at my pretty, pretty feet. Something tells me we have just seen the birth of a shoe fetish.

When we got back we went and got some pizza down the street and then came back and watched the new episode of Weeds, with which we are both obsessed.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Day Thirty

Sunday was great fun. Because we got out of here so late on Saturday, we arranged to be up and gone at a reasonable hour. Under the influence of some stuff, we all agreed to be up and ready to go by 11.00 a.m. in order to make it to the MOMA early.

When we actually woke up, Garrett decided that the MOMA was much too pretentious for him and he wanted to go to the Guggenheim instead, even though we got up so early for the sole purpose of having enough time for the MOMA, which is MUCH bigger than the Guggenheim. However, both were on our list of places Elke and I wanted to go before leaving, so we didn't really care, and off to the Guggenheim we went.

It was actually pretty cool. I didn't realize that very few (if any) of the exhibits are permanent - the majority of the museum was revolving exhibits by not very well known artists. And the building is every bit as awesome as people say it is. I think we ended up spending about two hours there.

Because we'd gotten up so early, it wasn't even 3.00 by the time we finally left the museum. We had plans for the evening, but not until a little bit later. So we walked a little bit around the Upper East Side until we finally reached the Central Park Zoo. We bought admission tickets and visited the very small, kinda crap-tastic, infamous Central Park Zoo. It was really small and didn't have very many animals. And the few that they did have were very inactive because it was so hot out. The Rainforest was virtually unbearable.

After that we were exhausted, and so we headed home. We only had an hour and a half to kill before leaving for the evening, so I didn't really get a chance to take a nap. But Elke did, and so we didn't get out of here until a little after 7.00, but it was a little bit too late.

Our intention was to see the Sunday show of the Upright Citizen's Brigade, but the 7.30 show was sold out and the 9.30 show was free, and so we had to get there early to get tickets. We sat on the sidewalk waiting for about 45 minutes. I called before to find out how many tickets they had (about 160) and only counted about 100 people in line before us, so I figured we would be fine.

I was wrong. It turned out that they saved 50something tickets for standby, even though we got in line two hours before the damn show even started. We ended up being 10 people behind the last person to get a ticket. Then they told us we could wait in line until right before the show (which was, at this point, an hour away). None of us cared enough to wait in line that long, so we decided to do something else.

Since we were in the area, we stopped by Elke's friend Sarah's apartment. We hung out there for a little bit, but we hadn't eaten dinner, so we were all starving. Sarah and her boyfriend were going to some vegetarian restaurant, but Garret and I didn't find that idea to be at all appealing. So Sarah recommended a Mexican place nearby, but when we got there it was closed. Instead we ended up at this Indian restaurant where Garrett and I shared a two-person platter that included all sorts of appetizers and entrees and desserts and such. It was, ABSOLUTELY, delicous. We might have gorged ourselves just a wee bit.

From the Indian place we headed back home. Elke went to bed soon after we got back to the apartment, but Garrett and I stayed up to watch Edward Scissorhands, which we had borrowed from Sarah. I hadn't seen it since it first came out on video, so except for a few snippets it was all new to me. I LOVED it. Johnny Depp is a genius.