Ugh! Rain!

Not much goin' on this rainy weekend. It sucks that the weather has been so nice (60-70 degrees) all week so that it could rain all weekend. I'll get out to go shopping with my Brooklyn friend tomorrow, though. The Boy's taking his GMAT next Friday, so next weekend will be full of fun activities! We have a reservation at Cafe Boulud on Friday, spa appointments on Saturday morning (my idea-I signed him up for a massage and booked a facial for myself), and will try to catch a movie at the Tribeca Film Festival afterwards.

The weather last weekend was nice. I went shopping with a friend one day, and then running in Central Park with the Boy the other day. Blossoms were blooming and flying all over the park. It was really nice to watch, but caused a bit of a problem for me when my running slowed down to a walk. I told the Boy to go on so as not to stop his momentum. A slight breeze sent blossoms flying everywhere and got into the eyes of a cyclist behind me. She couldn't see, and by the time she was able to open her eyes again, it was too late. She slammed right into me and knocked me down so hard that I couldn't stop my face from hitting the asphalt. Luckily, the damage was just some minor cuts and bruises. I was annoyed that my knees, which had finally healed from a rollerblading accident a couple of weekends before in SF, were now all messed up again. But all's fine now (well, with my face at least. still got a huge black bruise on the back of my leg where she hit me, and my knees still hurt).

The cyclists in NY are a bit annoying, though. They peddal like maniacs and don't always follow the rules of the road. A coworker's foot has been run over, and many times, the Boy has nearly been run over while crossing the street when they appear out of nowhere.

This Past Weekend

By last Friday, my cough was in its last stages but still annoyingly there. The Boy and I made a nice dinner of salmon and string beans together and then went out for a walk around the neighborhood since the weather was nice and warm. Lots of people were eating outside and taking walks. At around 11PM we headed back to the apartment, cleaned up a bit and then crashed.

The next day, I had an appointment with a couple of friends at a spa called the Nardi Beauty Center. My friend got us all spa gift certificates last Christmas and thought it would be fun thing to do together. I had a good time hanging out with the girls, but the spa was another thing. I'd already read on Citysearch to beware of all of the extra charges you could rack up using one of these gift certificates which is very specific about what services are covered. You have to be very aware of what the gift certificate says because the staff will not notify you of any extra charges you incur until you get the bill, which I think is very tricky and misleading.

I showed up to my appointment a bit late because of train cancellations and rainy/windy weather. The receptionist wasn't particularly friendly, but it didn't bother me too much since the facialist lady was warm, welcoming and promptly took me away. She laid me down on a bed and shone a light on my face to get a good look at my pores.

Facialist: Oh, my! You have a lot of blackheads and new pores coming out. I highly recommend a deep cleaning facial to clear this all up. Shall I proceed with that?

Translation: Can I con you into spending an additional $100-$200 today?

Me: (This is the wonderful skin analysis advertised in your coupon?!) Umm...can I just get what's included in the gift certificate for today?

Facialist: Sure, you're the boss!

Translation: Damnit!

The "European mini facial" was lame. All she did was spread on a mask, leave it on for 8 minutes and then rub in a couple of lotions. Next, she gave me a quick eyebrow wax which wasn't too bad. The facialist was done with me now and took me out to wait for a hair stylist.

I waited and waited and waited some more. My friends walked by me several times and were surprised to see me still sitting in the wait room. I think the staff overheard my friends' continual surprise each time they saw me still sitting there which forced them into some sort of action. The manicurist came out to do my nails shortly.

I'd never had a manicure before. In fact, I'd never had a facial or eyebrow wax either. The idea of a manicure always scared me after I'd heard horror stories of how unsanitary it is and how people get infected during manicures and pedicures. So, I was a bit nervous. The lady sat me down and was going to start working on me until another lady interrupted her and barked at her to rinse out the conditioner on my friend's hair. As I waited for her to finish working on my friend, I started to pick out colors for the manicurist to use. Ten minutes later, she came back and was about to start on my hands when someone sat down at the hair washing station, and she left me to work on someone else again. Ten minutes later, she finally came back and started working on my hands. When it got time to push back and cut away my cuticles, I unknowingly started a little tug of war with her over who got control over my hands. She looked up and smiled as if to say, "If you want me to give you a manicure, you're going to have to cooperate!" I stopped tugging. After she put on the first coat of nail polish, she turned on a blower and tapped it to signal for me to use it. I'd never seen one of those before and didn't notice the slot underneath where you put your hand to dry, so I just sort of waved my hand over the top which seemed to blow out a bit of residual air. She looked up and tapped the bottom where I stuck my hand in to dry. The whole thing took about 20 minutes, and by the end of the day, I'd already screwed my nails up.

Afterwards, a lady came to wash and cut my hair. This was the only service that I was satisfied with. She did a pretty good job of cutting my hair, and I knew to refuse the blow dry which would cost a good amount extra. My friend wasn't so aware of it and had to pay $25 of the normal $55 fee for this. She was pissed because no one told her that there would be a charge for blow drying, and she didn't even get her hair cut! She almost got conned into the steam/deep cleaning facial, but asked if there would be an extra charge right before the lady was going to start.

All in all, none of us were impressed by the place. The service and some of the work was crappy, and the people seemed a bit shady. Each of us left a skimpy tip. We weren't coming back here again.

I went back to the apt afterwards, took a shower and prettied myself up to have dinner with the Boy who was cooking. My nail polish melted off a bit in the shower. Well, that was pointless! We had dinner and then watched the entire first season of The Office (British version) which cracked me up all night.

The weather was somewhat nice again this Sunday, so the Boy and I hung out at Central Park again.

Last Weekend/Week

I didn't do much last weekend. I just came back from a conference in SF and caught a nasty sore throat and cold on the plane ride back, so I slept a lot of the weekend. But I did manage to get out a couple of times. My Brooklyn friend had a huge bash at her place on Friday, so after work I came back home, baked some rice krispies to take to the party, and headed over to Brooklyn with the Boy for a couple of hours. The theme of the party was Havana Nights, so everyone was dressed in cute party dresses and there were cuban sandwiches, empanadas and lots of sangria.

I felt pretty crappy on Saturday, so I stayed in and slept most of the day. But on Sunday, the weather was so nice that I had to get out. The Boy and I walked around Central Park for a couple of hours and ended up grocery shopping at Fairway on the West Side. It was there that we ran into Cynthia Nixon. The place was so crowded that she was temporarily trapped in the olive oil/balsamic vinegar section of the store along with everyone else. I got a pretty good look at her there, and she looks exactly as she does on TV except that her hair isn't red, but blonde. We ran into her again later in the street as we were lugging out groceries back to the East Side.

I'm glad that I got to enjoy the nice weather on Sunday because it was cold and rainy the rest of the week. It even snowed on one of the days! My cold/cough lasted throughout the week. I was really busy at work, so I didn't want to take any time off. I'm not so sure how happy this made my coworkers, as I'm sure the entire building could hear me hacking and coughing all day long. Pretty disgusting.

I went out again last Thursday to see a play called "Trial By Water" about a couple of Vietnamese brothers whose parents try to send them to America in the late eighties. It's a true story where a boat carrying about 100 refugees gets stranded in the South China Sea when the engine dies. People get desparate for food and start to eat eachother. I tried to keep my coughing and throat clearing to a minimum and only during silences so as not to drown out the dialogue. The play was good, but a bit overacted and shockingly gross at times. This pretty much ended my friend's sushi cravings and mine too for a while. Afterwards, we grabbed a quick bite at Oh Taisho! in Astor Place.