Hot Child in the City

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.

posted by Megan @ 2:40 PM