Well, I have returned from my reading-week excursion to NYC, where I went with my best friend (B) who is from BC and therefore had not been to New York before.
I have been to New York many, many times before.
It was very different to be there as a tourist, though, and a pseud0-adult one, at that. Strange to be unable to drink when we went to a club for a concert one evening and again when we went out for really outstanding Italian food (the waiter brought us a wine list, at least. He thought we were Old.) We took the subway all the way downtown to see the Statue of Liberty and all the way uptown to see friends at Colombia, who showed us where to get a slice of pizza twice the size of your face. (This was quite possibly the highlight of the trip for me. There truly is nothing like New York pizza.) We went into Tiffany's across from the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street and, despite our ragged appearances (it was raining) were permitted to look around the store.
We even saw Phantom of the Opera.
And my French Grandmother.
Overall a successful trip.
Though I'm sure it resulted in about the most boring blog post ever.
Sorry.
21 February 2009
14 February 2009
Life...or similar.
I'm really not the type to write a mad, feminist, lonely-girl rant about Valentine's day. To be honest, I don't much care about the holiday. I think it's a little amusing that these Saint's days have become so important in popular society (St. Patrick's day is another), but the thing is, I don't really give a damn about St. Valentine, and I don't know if I would even if I wasn't a lonely-girl type.
Last year on Valentine's day the following things happened:
1. Our don (R.A. type dorm advisor) made us chocolate covered strawberries.
2. I got a card from a secret admirer. It turned out that it was from my aunt (not as exciting), but I didn't find out until May. It was a red card with a heart on the front that had been cut out of a map of the area in England I was living in. Inside there was just a question mark. Apparently my aunt had found someone in England who did this sort of thing and told her to leave the inside of the card blank so I could send it to one of my friends. Neither I nor the artisan got this message, though (how would I have known to pass it on?) and so I got the thrill of a potential secret admirer.
3. A tried to send me flowers. He tried to send me roses, his sister told me. I'm glad he didn't, it would have been a terrible waste of money. (He was unable to because he doesn't have a credit card.) After the initial shock of someone actually spending money on me had worn off, I think I would have quite appreciated the gesture. The thing is, I'm crazy about A. He's a guy from home. He's a bit younger than I am, so is still at home. We aren't, you know. Involved. But still, I'm crazy about him. I imagine he is too, if he's trying to send me flowers for Valentine's day. I miss him like crazy, but I guess that's how it goes.
This year on Valentine's day the following things are likely to happen:
1. I will go shopping (for liquor.)
2. I will cook food (actually, a friend of mine is going to cook the food. And drink the liquor, I expect. But there will be homecooked food. Chicken, potato salad and cheesecake. We are healthy people.)
3. My best friend, B will come (HURRAH.) and I will take her out to a bar to show her off to all the people who do not get to come spend the week in New York with us.
4. A may or may not successfully send me flowers. I may or may not successfully recieve the Valentine's package my father sent me on Monday. I may or may not have a secret admirer.
We'll see how it goes.
Thankfully, Jews don't have saints, so my beef with Saint Valentine probably isn't going to affect my chances at a happy life.
Well. We'll see.
Last year on Valentine's day the following things happened:
1. Our don (R.A. type dorm advisor) made us chocolate covered strawberries.
2. I got a card from a secret admirer. It turned out that it was from my aunt (not as exciting), but I didn't find out until May. It was a red card with a heart on the front that had been cut out of a map of the area in England I was living in. Inside there was just a question mark. Apparently my aunt had found someone in England who did this sort of thing and told her to leave the inside of the card blank so I could send it to one of my friends. Neither I nor the artisan got this message, though (how would I have known to pass it on?) and so I got the thrill of a potential secret admirer.
3. A tried to send me flowers. He tried to send me roses, his sister told me. I'm glad he didn't, it would have been a terrible waste of money. (He was unable to because he doesn't have a credit card.) After the initial shock of someone actually spending money on me had worn off, I think I would have quite appreciated the gesture. The thing is, I'm crazy about A. He's a guy from home. He's a bit younger than I am, so is still at home. We aren't, you know. Involved. But still, I'm crazy about him. I imagine he is too, if he's trying to send me flowers for Valentine's day. I miss him like crazy, but I guess that's how it goes.
This year on Valentine's day the following things are likely to happen:
1. I will go shopping (for liquor.)
2. I will cook food (actually, a friend of mine is going to cook the food. And drink the liquor, I expect. But there will be homecooked food. Chicken, potato salad and cheesecake. We are healthy people.)
3. My best friend, B will come (HURRAH.) and I will take her out to a bar to show her off to all the people who do not get to come spend the week in New York with us.
4. A may or may not successfully send me flowers. I may or may not successfully recieve the Valentine's package my father sent me on Monday. I may or may not have a secret admirer.
We'll see how it goes.
Thankfully, Jews don't have saints, so my beef with Saint Valentine probably isn't going to affect my chances at a happy life.
Well. We'll see.
08 February 2009
Weekend.
This is pretty much how my weekend went:
Thursday night, R leaves for New York City. She went to a concert. No R this weekend.
Friday morning, C leaves for Buffalo. No more C. This means I am home alone all weekend with T and M. Apprehension is high.
Friday lunch, eat with M. Mac and cheese. Have a lovely conversation in which she doesn't once bring up his boyfriend and his inability to brush his teeth. M&M (the boyfriend is also M) are kind of a gross couple. More later.
I'm sure that at some point on Friday I try to write my politics essay. I expect it was probably frustrating in the extreme, as not only did I not succeed in writing it, but also I blocked it from my mind.
More Friday afternoon: discover a text from S. She has a date. With who? With the hot guy from the Shakespeare play that everyone has been crushing on for a month. I do not know how this happened, but S is pretty hot and def. has a lot to bring to the table, as it were, so try not to be jealous. (S reads this blog sometimes: I am not jealous of your new Main Squeeze.) Begin to feel down on self because all friends have acquired boyfriends. Just in time for Valentine's day.
Friday evening, get dressed up. Am going to opera. Go to dinner with a friend first. She lives very far away, so I drove to pick her up, and then to dinner, and then to the theatre, where we watched a lovely opera. However, she ditches me immediately afterward for people she apparently likes better. This was offensive, but there were people I liked better there also, so we split. She left her leftover dinner in my car. See S and date at the theatre. They match. Same haircut. Am no longer jealous, they look good together. Am happy for S. Somehow a group of people that includes me ends up going to a bar. This is a group of my friends plus most of the cast from the opera. They are a lively crowd, to be sure. I end up going to the bar with them, despite having no desire to drink (as I drove.) Go. Sit next to a girl who I know who orders a beer, a pickle, and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with vanilla ice cream. I am not kidding. The PB&J was pretty good. This group of people disrupts the bar thoroughly, doing everything from singing "La Vie Boheme" to pole dancing. Good times, I suppose. End up driving people home. No surprise.
Later, at home. Manage to put my friend's leftover dinner in the fridge and leave mine sitting out next to the fridge.
Proceed to watch television with housemate, T. Ended up with Grey's Anatomy, which I hate. The plot: He was going to ask her to marry him. Nothing to make me feel good about myself like television engagements. Went to bed.
Saturday
Wake up. Remember that S has a Main Squeeze. Go back to bed.
Later, wake up. Rembmer I'm supposed to be writing a paper. Go downstairs, excited about leftover thai from last night. See it sitting not in the fridge. Throw it out (was chicken.) Die a little. Make bad rice with soy sauce. Eat. K calls, she is downtown. They have beavertails. Am jealous. Don't, however, go downtown. Return upstairs. N messages, saying she wants lasagna. LASAGNA? Seriously?
Later, discussion about lasagna has continued. N and I have decided to make the following:
Humus and vegetables. Lasagna. Garlic bread. Brownies.
Realize my oven is broken. Die a little more. Message K, ask to use her oven.
Later, have writting paper (not.) K shows up bearing gifts of a beavertail. Joy abounds.
K and I drive in car to her house. N meets us, we go to the legit grocery store (there are three in town, one sucks a lot, one sucks a little and one is fine. The fine one is far away, I have to drive. Fortunately, I have the LRS, and can drive. Also, I deserve this, as I am afraid of grocery stores.) Spend an hour buying lasagna supplies.
Return to K's to use her stove. Unpack supplies. Discover that her housemates are on carb-free diet. Pity them outwardly, but irony is such that laugh at them inwardly. Also, do not like K's housemates. And we were eating 100% carb meal.
Cook. Successfully. There were three of us, and we were a little snippy, I will not lie, but we cooked and it was good. Then we consumed. A lot. A nauseating amount. Basically, we practiced True Fat Kid Behaviour.
Later, Cleaned up, packed up, dropped K at Rx's for a movie, dropped N at home. Came home. Was alone. Worked on paper.
Later still, rediscovered once-fave television show, BIG LOVE. Is outstanding. Watched three episodes. Not productive.
Also discovered that I potentially have an ear infection. Thrilling.
Sunday.
Get up. Work on paper.
Lunchtime, go to breakfast in the caf. Am sitting with people (K, N, etc.) S's Main Squeeze comes over and sits near us. I "met" him the other day, so I think he eyed me but did not say anything.
Go from breakfast to meet S to see New House. Discover that in fact Main Squeeze had seen her not long before. Am embarassed about not saying hello.
See New House. Like it better than last time. Am assigned room I wanted. Hurrah. Do a dance. Discover that it overlooks nightclub. Am thrilled...ish.
Return home. Do chores (eg, sweeping, vaccuuming.) Vaccuum explodes in my face. Take shower.
Later, begin paper. T and M are not home (joy.) Am successful re: paper. Wanted to finish by 9. Finish by 9:30. Took a break for leftover lasagna, though, did not count.
Halfway through paper realize that house is freezing. Go downstairs for tea, discover that nobody turned the heat on today. Thrilling. Was 13degrees celcius. This is cold. We normally keep it at 18. Turn up the heat. Perhaps higher than necessary. Finish paper.
T and M come home just as I am finishing.
I almost cry.
R messages to say she is delayed, will not be home until 4am.
I have a Russian midterm tomorrow at 10. I have not studied.
So that was my weekend.
Thursday night, R leaves for New York City. She went to a concert. No R this weekend.
Friday morning, C leaves for Buffalo. No more C. This means I am home alone all weekend with T and M. Apprehension is high.
Friday lunch, eat with M. Mac and cheese. Have a lovely conversation in which she doesn't once bring up his boyfriend and his inability to brush his teeth. M&M (the boyfriend is also M) are kind of a gross couple. More later.
I'm sure that at some point on Friday I try to write my politics essay. I expect it was probably frustrating in the extreme, as not only did I not succeed in writing it, but also I blocked it from my mind.
More Friday afternoon: discover a text from S. She has a date. With who? With the hot guy from the Shakespeare play that everyone has been crushing on for a month. I do not know how this happened, but S is pretty hot and def. has a lot to bring to the table, as it were, so try not to be jealous. (S reads this blog sometimes: I am not jealous of your new Main Squeeze.) Begin to feel down on self because all friends have acquired boyfriends. Just in time for Valentine's day.
Friday evening, get dressed up. Am going to opera. Go to dinner with a friend first. She lives very far away, so I drove to pick her up, and then to dinner, and then to the theatre, where we watched a lovely opera. However, she ditches me immediately afterward for people she apparently likes better. This was offensive, but there were people I liked better there also, so we split. She left her leftover dinner in my car. See S and date at the theatre. They match. Same haircut. Am no longer jealous, they look good together. Am happy for S. Somehow a group of people that includes me ends up going to a bar. This is a group of my friends plus most of the cast from the opera. They are a lively crowd, to be sure. I end up going to the bar with them, despite having no desire to drink (as I drove.) Go. Sit next to a girl who I know who orders a beer, a pickle, and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with vanilla ice cream. I am not kidding. The PB&J was pretty good. This group of people disrupts the bar thoroughly, doing everything from singing "La Vie Boheme" to pole dancing. Good times, I suppose. End up driving people home. No surprise.
Later, at home. Manage to put my friend's leftover dinner in the fridge and leave mine sitting out next to the fridge.
Proceed to watch television with housemate, T. Ended up with Grey's Anatomy, which I hate. The plot: He was going to ask her to marry him. Nothing to make me feel good about myself like television engagements. Went to bed.
Saturday
Wake up. Remember that S has a Main Squeeze. Go back to bed.
Later, wake up. Rembmer I'm supposed to be writing a paper. Go downstairs, excited about leftover thai from last night. See it sitting not in the fridge. Throw it out (was chicken.) Die a little. Make bad rice with soy sauce. Eat. K calls, she is downtown. They have beavertails. Am jealous. Don't, however, go downtown. Return upstairs. N messages, saying she wants lasagna. LASAGNA? Seriously?
Later, discussion about lasagna has continued. N and I have decided to make the following:
Humus and vegetables. Lasagna. Garlic bread. Brownies.
Realize my oven is broken. Die a little more. Message K, ask to use her oven.
Later, have writting paper (not.) K shows up bearing gifts of a beavertail. Joy abounds.
K and I drive in car to her house. N meets us, we go to the legit grocery store (there are three in town, one sucks a lot, one sucks a little and one is fine. The fine one is far away, I have to drive. Fortunately, I have the LRS, and can drive. Also, I deserve this, as I am afraid of grocery stores.) Spend an hour buying lasagna supplies.
Return to K's to use her stove. Unpack supplies. Discover that her housemates are on carb-free diet. Pity them outwardly, but irony is such that laugh at them inwardly. Also, do not like K's housemates. And we were eating 100% carb meal.
Cook. Successfully. There were three of us, and we were a little snippy, I will not lie, but we cooked and it was good. Then we consumed. A lot. A nauseating amount. Basically, we practiced True Fat Kid Behaviour.
Later, Cleaned up, packed up, dropped K at Rx's for a movie, dropped N at home. Came home. Was alone. Worked on paper.
Later still, rediscovered once-fave television show, BIG LOVE. Is outstanding. Watched three episodes. Not productive.
Also discovered that I potentially have an ear infection. Thrilling.
Sunday.
Get up. Work on paper.
Lunchtime, go to breakfast in the caf. Am sitting with people (K, N, etc.) S's Main Squeeze comes over and sits near us. I "met" him the other day, so I think he eyed me but did not say anything.
Go from breakfast to meet S to see New House. Discover that in fact Main Squeeze had seen her not long before. Am embarassed about not saying hello.
See New House. Like it better than last time. Am assigned room I wanted. Hurrah. Do a dance. Discover that it overlooks nightclub. Am thrilled...ish.
Return home. Do chores (eg, sweeping, vaccuuming.) Vaccuum explodes in my face. Take shower.
Later, begin paper. T and M are not home (joy.) Am successful re: paper. Wanted to finish by 9. Finish by 9:30. Took a break for leftover lasagna, though, did not count.
Halfway through paper realize that house is freezing. Go downstairs for tea, discover that nobody turned the heat on today. Thrilling. Was 13degrees celcius. This is cold. We normally keep it at 18. Turn up the heat. Perhaps higher than necessary. Finish paper.
T and M come home just as I am finishing.
I almost cry.
R messages to say she is delayed, will not be home until 4am.
I have a Russian midterm tomorrow at 10. I have not studied.
So that was my weekend.
04 February 2009
Bookends
So I tend to have these long conversations with my best friend, B. She called tonight and was upset that she had drifted apart from an old friend of hers.
I don't know what to do in these situations. I had what could either be called a fight or a rational conversation with an old friend of mine a few months ago, the result of which being that we haven't spoken since. Not being someone with such a plethora of friends that I can just toss them around like...things you toss around, I was unhappy to lose her as a friend. On the other hand, our friendship was definitely not healthy, nor had it been for years. This is key: I didn't like her all that much.
Apparently I gave B some wise advice awhile back which I of course don't remember at all, which was that when such a thing happens you have to step back an evaluate the friendship. Sometimes friendships don't work, and if it isn't working, then what can you do?
On the other hand, part of me thinks there must be a better way. I dunno.
Anyway, B is coming in 10 days and we are going to NYC to have the time of our lives for a week. As part of this we're going to see some old friends of mine who currently reside in that neck of the woods. We'll see how it goes.
I'm excited.
I don't know what to do in these situations. I had what could either be called a fight or a rational conversation with an old friend of mine a few months ago, the result of which being that we haven't spoken since. Not being someone with such a plethora of friends that I can just toss them around like...things you toss around, I was unhappy to lose her as a friend. On the other hand, our friendship was definitely not healthy, nor had it been for years. This is key: I didn't like her all that much.
Apparently I gave B some wise advice awhile back which I of course don't remember at all, which was that when such a thing happens you have to step back an evaluate the friendship. Sometimes friendships don't work, and if it isn't working, then what can you do?
On the other hand, part of me thinks there must be a better way. I dunno.
Anyway, B is coming in 10 days and we are going to NYC to have the time of our lives for a week. As part of this we're going to see some old friends of mine who currently reside in that neck of the woods. We'll see how it goes.
I'm excited.
01 February 2009
Super
So I have an essay due next Monday, I was going to write it this weekend.
The thing is, my weekends are three days long. And I didn't write the paper. Oops. Whatever, I was going to, but then I realized I had to actually do research first, and I didn't want to research, I wanted to write a paper, so whatever, I didn't do it.
I also found out this morning that the Superbowl was tonight. I'm not the biggest football fan out there (though I do like the American version more than the European), but I, like so many out there, have a soft spot for the Superbowl. Last year when I was living in England all the Americans stayed up until all hours (I think the thing started at 11 and went till 3 or something ridiculous) and ate wings and pizza (no chili, which is my preferred Superbowl cuisine) and drank beer and, you know. Watched the game. Tom Petty played halftime last year, he was excellent.
Anyway, tonight I went with some friends to a sports bar, ate a hamburger and fries and watched the Steelers fight the Cardinals for the Superbowl title. I was underwhelmed by Bruce Springsteen's halftime show (he didn't play Born in the U.S.A.) and was distressed to find that CTV shows Canadian ads and not the $3million/30 seconds ads that are shown in the States. I saw the Budwiser Clydesdale fall in love, but that was about it.
The sportsbar gave us free Budwiser promotional stuff though, which was cool.
Anyway, the end.
14 days till New York Pizza, my mouth is watering already.
The thing is, my weekends are three days long. And I didn't write the paper. Oops. Whatever, I was going to, but then I realized I had to actually do research first, and I didn't want to research, I wanted to write a paper, so whatever, I didn't do it.
I also found out this morning that the Superbowl was tonight. I'm not the biggest football fan out there (though I do like the American version more than the European), but I, like so many out there, have a soft spot for the Superbowl. Last year when I was living in England all the Americans stayed up until all hours (I think the thing started at 11 and went till 3 or something ridiculous) and ate wings and pizza (no chili, which is my preferred Superbowl cuisine) and drank beer and, you know. Watched the game. Tom Petty played halftime last year, he was excellent.
Anyway, tonight I went with some friends to a sports bar, ate a hamburger and fries and watched the Steelers fight the Cardinals for the Superbowl title. I was underwhelmed by Bruce Springsteen's halftime show (he didn't play Born in the U.S.A.) and was distressed to find that CTV shows Canadian ads and not the $3million/30 seconds ads that are shown in the States. I saw the Budwiser Clydesdale fall in love, but that was about it.
The sportsbar gave us free Budwiser promotional stuff though, which was cool.
Anyway, the end.
14 days till New York Pizza, my mouth is watering already.
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