...And Put the Toilet Seat Back Down!

The Boy and his friend went rock climbing after work somewhere in Connecticut and were coming to the apartment afterwards for dinner at around 8PM. I got off of work at a normal time at around 6PM and rushed home to start baking the brownies that I had promised would be ready by the time dinner was over. Since I didn't have all of the ingredients for it nor the ice cream that was supposed to go on top of it, I ran down to the grocery store to pick up a few items. Time was coming close. The brownies didn't get into the oven until a few minutes before 8PM and the apartment was a bit of a mess. I quickly threw all of the clothes from the floor into the hamper and got out the mini vacuum cleaner, which for some reason didn't seem to be working. Annoyed, I gave up and did a quick sweep of the floor instead. As I put the vacuum back into the cabinet, I noticed the vacuum's attachment was taken off. That would explain why the floor wasn't getting any cleaner - without the attachment, the vacuum was sucking everything in one end and blowing it right back out the other. Why would someone not put the attachment back on?! It's the little things like this that make living with another person so much fun...

Weekend Update

Last Friday
After work, I went to dinner with the Boy and a bunch of friends in Chelsea (Lower West Side). The Boy and I got there a bit early and decided to explore Chelsea a bit. Supposedly, Chelsea is like the San Francisco or West Hollywood of Manhattan. As we walked around the area there were a lot of people dining at the restaurants. We went into an Ahhhs!-like store which seemed to cater more to the area clientele. That was interesting, but expected I guess.
After exploring Chelsea for about a half hour, it was time to meet our friends for dinner at a nearby Szechuan restaurant. The food was really good, but spicy! After dinner, we all went out and checked out a couple of bars until we found a dive bar to stay at a short drive away. The drinks were really cheap there. For the rest of the night, I sipped a $4 chambord while talking to friends.

Last Saturday
My day to sleep in! I woke up at around 11AM. The Boy and I went over to the Upper West Side to check out a rock climbing gym that we were considering signing up for. The wall was lame. That was all that was there. It was a small, semi-open aired strip mall looking place that had just one wall in it. Since there was a sports store that sold rock climbing gear right next to it, we went in to check out how much all of our gear would cost. The place was so packed that we couldn't get anyone to help us. Where were all of these people climbing?! Not at the wall next to the store, obviously! There were three people climbing when we went there, and two of those people were instructors. So the rock climbing idea was a total bust. We got some groceries at Fairways and then went home to make dinner and watch the Netflix movie that just came in the mail (Crash).

Last Sunday
Slept in again. I had some code running over the weekend that I had to check on, so I spent most of the day cleaning the apartment and trying to figure out how to remote into work from home. I was always too lazy to test it out. Bad idea. Didn't look like it was going to work, but later in the day, it finally worked! Good, cuz my program crashed 2/3 of the way through. The network was out of space. I made some minor adjustments and resubmitted the program until it went through completely.
Meanwhile, the Boy decided to make chicken, beef and veggie skewers with his new stove-top grill pan. It set the smoke alarm off. He ripped the smoke alarm off the wall and hid it in his drawer to shut it up. Then he opened the door and windows to let the smoke out, but for some reason, it only wanted to stay in the kitchen. It wouldn't go anywhere else no matter how much we tried to fan it out. By the time the skewers were done, the kitchen was really cloudy, and the entire apartment and everything in it smelled of smoky barbeque. But the skewers were pretty good.

Bar Hoppin' Fun

The Boy went back to LA to visit his family this weekend. What did I do during my first weekend alone here? I did all the laundry, cleaned the apartment and got a haircut during the day. Then, at night I went out to dinner with a couple of girls. We talked over tapas and 2 pitchers of sangria. Then we popped in and out of 3-4 bars in the area. The first bar we went into was too crowded with no where to sit, so we left. Then we went to a cool bar that was one big glass window all over and talked girl talk over drinks. We could see all of the bars outside through the glass windows, so we picked out a nice looking one to eventually hop over to. But before that, we went into a really cool bar that looked like a bat cave. One of the girls knew of it as a good place to get hookas (?). It was really crowded, and they were out of hookas for the night, so we skipped out of that one and into another for more drinks and girl talk.

It's now Sunday afternoon, and my head hurts.

Almost Lost My Shoe

A little after noon, I went out to run an errand and then buy lunch. I had to cross the street several times and wasn't watching exactly where my feet were hitting the ground ( I usually don't). At one point, I stepped over the top of a covered manhole, and my heel got stuck in a small hole in it. Thinking nothing of it, I gave my heel a gentle yank, but that didn't work. So, I yanked harder. Shit! My foot was stuck in the middle of the street. Each lady that passed by gave me an 'Oh, no!' with a sympathetic look. Argh! I knew better than to walk over the grid drains, but who would have thought you'd ever get your foot stuck in a manhole cover? So there, in the middle of the street, I took my shoe off and wrestled it out with my hands before putting it back on. Then, I walked off and tried to act like nothing happened.

Upper West Side and a Street Fair

For the past 10 days, the weather has been really nice. It's warm, but not in a humid way. The Boy and I had nothing special planned, but wanted to take advantage of the nice weather. So, we decided to explore a part of Manhattan that we're never in - the Upper West Side.

To get there, we took a stroll across Central Park. The Upper West is pretty different from the Upper East. There seems to be more space with wider streets, making it seem less crowded. It also looks newer and cleaner than the Upper East Side. It doesn't really smell there, either. I think I like it better than the Upper East Side now.

We walked around the neighborhood a bit and got a bunch of snacks from a Trader Joe's-like supermarket called Fairways ( a foodie's heaven (the Boy)). Then we read magazines while sharing a Frappaccino at a Barnes for a bit.

On Sunday, the weather was nice also, so while walking around the neighborhood to shop for running shoes, we stumbled across a street fair and hung out there for a while. The Boy and I each bought cashmere scarves for the winter.

Coldplay!

Yesterday, the Boy's coworker had tickets to a sold out Coldplay concert at Madison Square Gardens that he couldn't make. Surprisingly enough, he couldn't find anyone to give them to. Everyone at his work was so Coldplayed out from listening to the CDs over and over that no one wanted them. So, the Boy gladly stepped up and took them.

I was so excited! This was my first time going into Madison Square Gardens, my first time going to a real concert, and I was going to see Coldplay! The Boy's coworker got pretty good seats -front and center in the middle of the stadium.

The concert started at 7:30PM, but Coldplay didn't perform until close to 9:30PM. An opening band performed first for an hour. They weren't bad, but they were so loud that my ears went deaf, and we had to leave our seats for a bit. By 9:00PM, the stadium was packed! When Chris Martin entered the stage, everyone stood out of their seats, started clapping and cheered loudly.

The concert was great! Coldplay performs very well live, and at one point Chris Martin ran from the stage to the center of the stadium to sing! He was close enough to where we were sitting so that I could see his face very clearly!

The concert lasted until about 11Pm. They Boy and I left happy, deaf and smelling like weed from all of the smokers around us.

Labor Day Weekend Trip

For Labor Day, the Boy and I did a Chinese bus tour to Philadelphia, Virginia and DC. Normally, I hate bus tours because you spend more time on the bus than anywhere else, and I don't like the time constraints. But considering that we don't have a working car, insurance, or a sense of direction (well, actually the Boy does), the bus tour made perfect sense. Also, the crazy gas prices ($3.19 is the cheapest gas price I saw all weekend long!) made the Chinese tour look even better.

We all met in Chinatown at 8:30AM on Saturday morning. The first stop was to see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and other nearby historical sites in Philadelphia. We drove through New Jersey to get to the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and had been in three states all in the same time it would take to drive from PV to Irvine.

After taking a few quick pictures and walking around various historical buildings, we were off to Delaware for lunch. Of course, the tour dropped us off to a Chinese buffet with only one fast food restaurant as an alternate choice. We figured we'd be eating crappy Chinese food for the next couple of meals, so we went to WaWa's instead (convenience food mart) and got snacks and quick bites.

Next, we were off to Virginia to visit the Shenandoah Caverns. That was cool! We were in the caves for about 45 minutes and got to see all of the rock formations. My favorite was the famous "Bacon" formations . They literally looked like huge slabs of bacon hanging from the ceilings and walls.

This was it for Day 1 sightseeing. We went to Maryland afterwards for dinner at a Chinese restaurant (the food was so bad that people were hungry and complaining) and then to the hotel to get to bed early (10PM). Wake up call for the next day was 5:30AM.

The next day, we saw all of the sites at Washington DC: Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Washington Monument, Capitol Hill, White House (outside), the Air & Space Museum and the Museum of Natural Sciences. The gemology exhibit at the Museum of Natural Sciences was really cool! They had the Hope Diamond (largest blue diamond in the world with a long, interesting history) on display along with a lot of other famous jewels.

After all of this, we drove to Baltimore to see a famous submarine and walk along a harbor before going back to the city.

I Can Never Get it Right

The dress code at work is driving me crazy! Before I started, I knew I'd have to dress nicely. Since there was a constant, humid heatwave going on when I got here, I bought a bunch of work shells (sleeveless) and short sleeved work tops along with some open toed sandals from Ann Taylor, the Gap and Steve Madden for my summer work wardrobe.

About two weeks after I started, an e-mail with the company dress code attached (this was not in my welcome packet) was sent around, and the part with NO SLEEVELESS SHIRTS under any circumstances was printed in red and highlighted. So, after that I tried not to wear sleeveless shirts, and if I did, I always brought a pullover sweater to wear over it when I got into the office.

A little after that, there was a reminder that sandals were a banned item also. So, I bought new shoes which I leave in the office. There's so much walking involved in getting to work that almost everyone wears sneakers, sandals or flip flops during the commute and then changes into work shoes at work.

The weather is still hot here, and I've now just learned that today is the last day that people are allowed to wear short sleeved anything to work. After Labor Day, skin other than on your hands and face are faux pas.

I just know I'm going to screw this one up.

Evening City Tour of My Work-Home Route

Last night, I ended up working late to make a deadline. Since it was about 9:30PM, the manager ordered cars to take all of us home. I'd always taken the subway to get between work, home and anywhere else, so I had no idea what the city looked like when driving between places. Looking out the window, I saw Soho turn into the West Village and then the Theater District before crossing over to the East Side. I love how the City looks at night.