Day Fourteen
We had a late start yesterday, as usual. We ventured out to eat lunch at Tal Bagels and picked up some delicious bages while we were there. They have the most amazing everything bagels - very salty. On the way home we went to the grocery store to pick up a few essentials.
Once back at the apartment we just hung out for a while until it was time to leave for the
Sonic Vision "How Do You See Your Music?" Show at the planetarium at the
American Museum of Natural History. Before leaving we made some Leary biscuits and smoked a bunch, as it's obviously not something people are meant to view when sober. We were a little late getting there, but they were even later starting the show, so it all worked out.
The show itself was nuts. It was completely trippy, and the music was really good, which was to be expected, as Moby put the mix together. Some parts were almost a bit much, but for the most part it was just amazing. We hope to take our friends to see it when they visit us at the end of the month, especially seeing as the tickets are currently buy-one-get-one-free.
After the show we came back home to change and get ready to go out. We ended up going back to Senor Swanky's, this time to eat. They had a jazz band playing, so we sat at their outdoor tables on the sidewalk and listened to jazz music and watched all the people walking by. We each got Swankaritas and ate nachos until we almost exploded.
We were supposed to hang out with Elke's friend Seth, but by the time we were done with dinner we were on completely different sides of town, so Elke and I just came back here and spent the rest of the evening hanging out.
Day Thirteen
Elke and I reached a new low in productivity yesterday. When I woke up around 2.00, it was thundering very, very loudly. I had a weird dream in which I was part of an island utopian society that had recently been overrun by a dictatorial regime (of course, I tried to befriend and change the dictator). The thunderstorm started just as my people were rebelling, so when I woke up I thought the thunder was the sound of bombs.
Funnily enough, when Elke finally woke up a bit later, she walked into the living room and said, "Is that thunder or are we at war?"
We spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging out. At first we thought it was going to rain, but it never did. Either way, it was too hot to really go anywhere. Garrett was coming for the evening - his family is going to Philadelphia this weekend, so he has Friday off work. By the time we got our shit together, it was too late to go anywhere before Garrett got here, so we didn't actually leave the apartment until almost 9.00.
Garrett got here a bit before 8.00, but then had to spend half an hour looking for a place to park. Elke and I dressed up a little bit, but then we had to spend another 30 minutes looking for a place to eat. Elke and I had a Mexican restaurant all picked out, but Garrett claims he eats Mexican all week, so we had to find something new. We ended up going to this amazing Spanish Chinese restaurant called Flor de Mayo.
And then I found the greatest thing about New York City: there is a restaurant here that has, as a meal, on the menu, for less than $10 fried chicken AND fried rice. I just about shit my pants. Of course I had to get it. Luckily, I had smoked before leaving, so I managed to eat the entire half-chicken and all of my fried rice. The best part about it is, they deliver and there are two of them in our neighborhood! I'm so very excited.
However, Flor de Mayo didn't have much to offer as far as a bar scene went, so we walked up to
Smoke to check out the show. There wasn't a cover, but there was a $15 drink minimum per person per set. We got there near the beginning of the second set and had an hour and a half before the third. I was very embarassed when we walked in though - the hostess asked for my ID, but not for Garrett or Elke's. I guess that's what I get for wearing my hair in a (oh-so-chic) ponytail, but Garrett's face is like that of a 12-year-old's and Elke usually gets carded for cigarettes.
Smoke was pretty cool, but I have to admit I prefer the Jam Session. We each got two drinks, but had to rush through them. We didn't really believe they would kick us out before the third set, but the hostess came up to us five minutes before it was supposed to start and very firmly reminded us about the drink requirement. So we downed our Mai Tais and got the Hell out of dodge.
And then we just came back here and hung out for a bit. We went to bed kinda early since Garrett had been up since 8.00 a.m. YUCK.
Day Twelve
We had quite a busy day yesterday. We left here around 1.00 and didn't return home until almost 11.00. First we went to
Uncle Nick's, a Greek restaurant in Hell's Kitchen only a couple blocks from Times Square. We had originally wanted to go there for dinner the night before, but the dinner menu was sparse and expensive compared to the lunch menu, so we decided to put it off for a meal.
It was pretty good. We both ended up getting the Spanakopita, a.k.a. Spanish Pie. Halfway through our meal the electricity in the building went out and the woman sitting next to us alone started talking to us. She turned out to be the best person we'd met so far. We had been watching her since we sat down because she ordered so many different dishes that we thought she was a food critic. She actually turned out to be this crazy 45-year-old-ish unmarried Greek woman who just loved to talk to strangers. We ended up talking to her until we left, and we were really and truly sad to see her leave.
We finished our meals in near silence and started waking to the Museum o' the Day. However, on our way we happened to stop at the
Times Square Toys 'R Us, which is even bigger than the now-closed 5th Avenue
F.A.O. Schwarz. They have a Barbie dream house and a ferris wheel inside the store. It was kinda nuts. They also had a demonstration of this awesome
Star Wars game that you plug directly into your T.V. and it comes with a camera and a light saber and you play as the Jedi warriors. Fucking sweet.
After Toys 'R Us we headed over to the
International Center for Photography, which was also very close to Times Square. We spent a few hours there, looking at cool photography and photography books. My personal favorite was a book entitled
Carnival Strippers. Along with the pictures, there were a bunch of interviews with the stippers and the men in the audience. It was really neat.
We left the museum around 5.00, but we weren't ready to go home. So we wandered around Times Square for a little bit, trying to figure out something to do. We found coupon for
Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum, so we went there, but it turn out to be over $20 even with the coupon AND a student discount.
Finally we decided to head back over to Union Square to hit a few stores there we had missed
Monday when we were down there. First we went to Shoe-Mania and
Filene's Basement, which was very similar to Century 21, but WAY less insane. There were only a couple other women there instead of like 4 billion. I ended up getting 3 shirts and a skirt for under $28.
By that time we had both worked up quite an appetite, but didn't want to spend a ton of money, so we went over to
Zen Palate to get a bowl of spanish wonton soup, which is Elke's new favorite food ever. After that we hung out in Union Square for a little bit before heading to a couple other stores before they closed.
We didn't get home until almost 11.00, and by that time we were both so tired that we decided to just stay in for the evening (surprise, surprise). But we were both very satisfied with our day, so no complaints here.
Day Eleven
Yesterday, I finally got some shopping done. It wasn't the first time I'd been to stores, but it was the first time I really bought anything.
But a quick side note before starting in on the shopping... Remember how we cleaned the ENTIRE apartment last night? Well, irony of all ironies, the long-lost cleaning lady showed up at our door not even 10 minutes after I got up. She was supposed to call last week, but never did. She didn't even know what to do while she was here because it was already so clean.
And now for the shopping.
Elke and I both have a thing for hot men in suits, so we headed down to the Financial District to check out a store we knew of down there. Also, cheesy though it may be, I really wanted to see Ground Zero. That was our first stop, but it was an exceptional letdown. They've built this giant metal pavilion overlooking the site and there's a plaque on the fence, but other than that it looks like just another empty lot.
Luckily for us, we didn't have to go too far out of our way to see Ground Zero. Right across from it is
Century 21, this HUGE discount department store known as "New York's Best Kept Secret." Unfortunately, this secret wasn't kept well enough, because it was TEEMING with crazed women. It didn't help that it was the most disorganized place I've seen since I last entered a Forever 21. We were a bit overwhelmed. It was almost too much work to even bother with. However, I managed to find a really cute black and white skirt for $10. They also had one in pink and orange, and I'm kind of suffering from non-buyer's remorse for not getting it. I love the black one, but I really wish I had both.
After that we headed to
The Strand Annex, which is a warehouse for books left over from The Strand. It was amazing. I ended up buying five books from the $1 bin. I got
The Beat Reader for Phil (I own it, he doesn't);
The New Our Bodies, Ourselves (which is one of my favorite books that I've wanted to own for years);
The Breast: An Anthology; High Times Presents Pot Stories for the Soul (it was only a dollar); and
The Bad Girl's Guide to Getting What You Want. Elke got a few books too, but hers weren't all from the dollar bin like mine. I swear to god, I probably haven't even spent a quarter of what she has.
The hours we spent shopping helped us work up quite an appetite. Elke knew of this great pizza place on our way home, so we got off the train at the Spring Street Station and headed to Famous Ben's Pizza of SoHo.
Yet again, we had big plans to go out, but we were both so tired. So we stayed in for the evening again, and went to bed early. However, I had a cup and a half of Diet Coke with my pizza dinner, so I had a bit of trouble sleeping. My mind was just RACING with ideas and stuff. But I finally fell asleep in anticipation of another day in NYC.
Day Ten
Yesterday was so much fun. True to form we didn't get out of the house until after 4.00, but that didn't prevent us from having a great day anyway.
Starting next week, Elke will be taking comedy classes at
Second City during the day, and she wanted to be sure she knew how to get there, so we did a test run. We looked up the locations of a few cool-looking stores and spent most of the evening shopping. First we went to
American Apparel, because Elke wanted to return something. They had this amazingly beautiful halter dress that had just come in, but they only had it left in extra large. I plan on returning to see if they have new ones until I leave if I have to.
We went to a few other cool-looking stores. I had mapped it out so that our final destination would be the best place in the world:
The Strand. The Strand's motto is, "18 Miles of Books." Yes, you read that correctly, that said MILES. I saw it on someone's bag when I was getting on the plane, and I immediately wrote the website address on my hand. It's this gigantic multi-level USED right in Union Square. They have some new books, but most of their books are used. We spent HOURS there. Neither of us bought anything. I looked through the entire craft section and couldn't find a single book to buy. One book had an awesome knitting section, but the rest of the book was useless to me and it was a HUGE book, so I don't really have room for it.
After our growling stomachs pried us away from The Strand, we sought out something delicious to eat. It turned out we were only a couple blocks away from
Zen Palate, one of Elke's favorite restaurants, in the entire city, so we went there. It's a completely-vegetarian Chinese restaurant. I got spinach noodles with a peanut sauce and some peanut basil rolls and then Elke and I split some vegetable dumplings. It was surprisingly really good. But I still have no clue was the hell wheat gluton is.
We wanted to go to a bar while we were down there, as it was already 10.00 p.m., but neither of us was dressed appropriately. I hadn't even showered in 3 days (I know, I know). So we headed home. On the subway we met this really funny girl named Ellen who just moved here from small-town Georgia a year ago. She went to college in Athens, Georgia. She was just really excited about everything. Elke and I wanted to make friends, but I guess we didn't have enough time.
When we got home we CLEANED the apartment. I rounded up all the spare hangers in the entire apartment so we could hang up our clothes. I couldn't find more than 30, and she took enough clothes with her for the entire summer. I did the dishes and changed the litter box and Elke vacuumed the entire place. We cleaned the kitchen (but not yet the fridge) and the bathroom. The cleaning lady was supposed to come last week, so we didn't bother until now. I also organized all my clothes to make living out of a suitcase more bearable, which is something that NEEDED to happen, as I have NO room in my bedroom.
We were supposed to get up early today in order to be less lazy, so Elke went to bed early. I, however, got wrangled into staying up until like 5 a.m. to keep one of my friends company. Then I proceeded to have the WORST dream I have ever had, but that's a story for another day....
Day Nine
Garrett was upset that we hadn't done anything "New York" all weekend during the daytime, so we planned to get up "early" yesterday and go to the
American Museum of Natural History, which is only a few blocks up the road from here.
We ended up staying there almost until closing time. We spent too much time in the stupid part about ancient peoples because it was our first stop and we didn't realize how huge the museum was - or that not all of it was as boring as those exhibits. A disproportionate amount of the museum was dedicated to rocks and minerals and they had this stupid 4-minute video about the Big Bang narrated by Maya Angelou that was hilarious. We were really looking forward to the dinosaur exhibit, which took up the entire 4th floor, but we had to kind of rush through it in order to make it to the museum store before closing time. Elke and I both bought hand-held fans that have a light show in them as well. They're the best things ever, especially on the subway.
We wanted to go somewhere delicious for dinner, and Garrett kept talking about Ethiopian food. It turns out this recommendation was not nearly as good as his last one. We went to
Awash, and every single thing was spicy, and I don't do very well with spicy. I got one of the more mild chicken dishes, and it was pretty good, but not nearly filling enough. And you eat it with this weird dough-bread stuff that I didn't like. There are no utensils and everything's dripping in sauce, so it's really messy and gross. I had to stop at McDonald's for some fries because it left me so unsatisfied.
The fries, of course, were delicious.
Day Eight
Because we were up so late the night before, we didn't get up until almost 3.00 yesterday. Elke and I were used to this, but Garrett kept freaking out about how we had wasted the entire day. I guess time is more precious to someone who is just visiting New York instead of LIVING here like I do.
But we finally got all our shit together and went to
Artie's Deli, which is a Jewish restaurant. They had something called a "Knishpuppy," which is a hot dog in a knish. It was great. Then we went to
Zabar's so I could get some more broccoli and cheddar knishes, as I've already eaten the ones I bought last week.
Unfortunately, something was wrong with my eyes. I think my left one had a little cut on it. Either way, they were very dry and itchy. So when we got home I took a nap, despite the fact that we'd slept so late. I wrapped my blanket around my eyes to keep out the light. Garrett sat on the couch, bored, while Elke and I napped.
Seeing as it was Saturday night, we decided we should go out. We found a cool-sounding bar about 10 blocks from us called the Dublin House. However, when we got there it was definitely not our scene. There was a HUGE neon sign outside shaped like a harp and the people there were at least twice our age. Also, there were 4-5 women standing outside, all wearing white shirts and jeans. It was like there was a dress code that no one told us about.
Luckily, we had passed some pretty cool bars on our way to the Dublin House. There was one,
Prohibition, that looked AWESOME, but we were not dressed nearly nice enough for it, so we went to the restaurant/bar next door, Senor Swanky's. It was really empty for a Saturday night, but they had unlimited free chips and salsa and you could sit outside. So we got beers and Garrett got a margarita and we had a great time. Anywhere that gives you free chips is like heaven as far as I'm concerned.
And then we came back here and drank some more and smoked and just hung out. However, we went to bed a bit earlier than the night before, as we knew we'd have to be up "early" (by noon). And then I had sweet, sweet dreams about free tortilla chips.
