A Very Jazzy Weekend

This past weekend was a full one. It started off on Friday after work at V's housewarming party. She just moved from Williamsburg to my neck of the woods at 78th and York. The Boy and I picked up a bottle of wine and a housewarming gift before hopping onto the 2nd Ave. bus down to the party. Normally, we'd walk over, but it was freezing cold that night, and we just happened to catch the bus right as we got to the stop.

V lives in a large, gated complex at the edge of the East River. The building is quiet and spacious with large, open courtyards. This is unusual for Manhattan, but it was originally a place for tuburculosis patients before it was converted into apartments. We were among the first guests to arrive. Already, the hostess had out a 3 cheese fondue with bread cubes, veggie platter, fruit plate and bacon wrapped dates for us to munch on. The previous owners of the apartment did a wonderful job of remodeling the place. The kitchen was built with granite counters, a mini sub zero fridge, dishwasher, mini laundry machine and rack to hang your pots and pans out on. There were wood floors and compartmentalized closets built all the way to the ceiling to utilize space most efficiently. The Boy and I chatted with friends and drank bubbly glasses of champagne for the rest of the night.

The next day, the Boy had us signed up for a Bloomberg seminar. His main motive was to show me Bloomberg's lavish building. And lavish it was. The place was huge, plexiglass and very high tech. There were Bloomberg screens and terminals all over the place in addition to a free for all snack bar with any type of coffee you wanted to make, sodas, juices, bottled water, many varieties of chips, instant soups, dried noodles, individual cartons of breakfast cereals, cookies and lots of other junk food. On the way up the stairs to the seminar room, we passed the recording studio where Bloomberg News was filmed each day and peered down at the lights, cameras and anchor booth. The seminar wasn't all that interesting to me since I don't use Bloomberg and am not familiar with their functions. But afterwards, the Boy and I stayed for a bit to tour the building and raid their snack bar.

After the seminar, I did a little shopping at H&M (bought a belt and shirt) before going to Chinatown to get lunch and grocery shop. The Chinese New Year celebrations were still going on with drums beating and dragons dancing through the streets. The Boy and I first got lunch at a local noodle shop. I ordered the pulled noodle soup with beef, and the Boy got the cut noodle soup with oxtail. Then, we walked around Chinatown a bit, did our usual grocery rounds and lugged everything back home.

The next night, we cut across the park to the Time Warner center on the West Side to catch a jazz performance at Dizzy's Coca Cola Club. The place had a very nice ambiance, dimly lit with little square tables surrounding the stage with a brilliant city view as a backdrop. We got there an hour before the performance started to dine on southern fried chicken, mashed potatoes, collard greens and sweet potato fries. A little past 7:30PM, the performance started. Normally, I'm not much of a jazz fan, but I loved the ambiance and the familiar piano songs accompanying the soulful vocals. They played a lot of popular songs (Elvis Presley) with a jazzy twist which made it really fun. It was snowing heavily when the performance finished. We took a cab home and ended the weekend.

It's All Chinese!

What do you get when you boil two cups of milk mixed with 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 2/3 cup of Ghiradelli's dark chocolate chips? The most decadently delicious hot chocolate!

I had a pretty successful baking session this weekend. Determined to finally bake a batch of edible cookies, I remebered that a coworker once made the best oatmeal raisin cookies off of a recipe on the lid of a box of Quaker Oats. This was my chance to put the idea that LANYTransplant just can't bake to the test. If my coworker was able to get such a delicious batch of cookies from this recipe, then I'd know that it were me and not the recipe if my cookies failed.

So, I marched right down to the grocery store and bought a box of Quaker Oats. Under the lid was the "vanishing oatmeal raisin cookie recipe." I decided to make half the recipe just in case. I also thought substituting dried wild blueberries and pecans for the raisins would make it taste even better. That, and if they turned out bad, I'd have something else to blame it on.

Surprisingly enough, they turned out great! So nice that even the Boy, who's gagged at every batch of cookies I've ever made, said so and asked for more.

As for the random title, I'm having a bit of trouble reading my computer these days. The Boy decided that he's going to give this laptop to his parents and then give me his old one (newer than this one). So, in preparation for this, he changed the settings so that everything is in Chinese.

Cold, Busy Week

It's freezing out here now!! My ears will hurt after being outside for more than a minute, and my nasal passages will hurt so much from breathing in cold air that my eyes will tear up. It's the windchill that kills everything. The wind drops the temperature another 10 degrees.

Regardless, it's been a pretty busy February so far with work events, happy hours, and visiting friends. Last Tuesday, the Boy and I went to a hedgefund event at the Opera Gallery down in Soho where they were showing modern Chinese art while trying to sell software packages. There was wine, bread and cheese catered by Artisanal. It was all a very strange combination, but I went along with it to view the Chinese paintings and get my fill of Artisanal bread and cheese. These events are always fun for me as long as I'm with the Boy. Why? Because I'm not in the hedge fund industry so I don't need to schmooze with anyone just for the sake of schmoozing, and I don't need to be on my best behavior. I can enjoy the food and art without having to pay attention to anyone or feel out of place as long as the Boy is next to me to suck all of the attention away.

The event started at 6:00PM and was a 15 minute walk away from my work. It was a much further commute for the Boy coming in from Connecticut. We were supposed to meet there at 6:30PM and go in together. Technically, I wasn't invited, as the event was exclusive to people in hedge funds only. The Boy signed me up as an employee of his firm.

I got there 5 minutes early. Normally, I would have waited outside until the Boy showed up, but it was so freezing cold outside that I had no choice but to go in first. Crap! I was crashing an event that I wasn't invited to...alone. I knew that the Boy's trains would probably be delayed due to bad weather and estimated that it would probably be about 20 minutes before he showed up. Twenty minutes where I'd be in a room full of people, but would have to avoid contact with anyone. What was I supposed to say if people asked what I did, or how long I'd been in the industry, or where I'd worked, or what area I focused on?!

I can do this.

Hostess: Hello. Your name please?

Me: LANYTransplant.

Hostess: Ah, here you are, and it says here that you work for [Boy's firm]. Do you have a business card for us?

Crap! I pretended to look inside my wallet for one.

Me: Hmmm...can't seem to find one right now. I must have forgotten them.

Hostess: That's alright then. What area would you say your work focuses on?

I knew better than to get too creative with this one, but was probably a bit over my head with the answer.

Me: Quantitative research and analysis.

Hostess: Alright, then you get a purple bracelet to identify your group.

I asked the hostess to check if the Boy had come in yet. As she searched her list and asked around, I shoved the bracelet into my purse.

Hostess: Sorry, I don't think he's signed in yet.

I surveyed the crowd briefly and decided to get a glass of wine while waiting for the Boy. I waited by the main bar first, but it was so crowded that I decided to get a bit of food first. The bread and cheese table was really crowded, too, with people schmoozing and networking. I didn't want to seem to eager or aggressive, so I headed downstairs where I knew it would be nearly empty and I could easily get a glass of wine. I didn't want to look like a pig, so I decided to wait for the Boy to come before getting any food.

As always, no one was really paying attention to the art except for the loners and misfits who had no one to schmooze or network with. I sipped my glass of wine while admiring the art, careful not to spend too much time standing next to a fellow attendee admiring the same painting for fear that I might have to swap information about where I work and what I do. I wandered around awkwardly for about 15 minutes before the Boy finally showed up.

Thank god! I now got a plate and piled it with bread and cheese. Immediately, the Boy struck up a conversation with someone, and I blended pleasantly into the background. As everyone else daintily nibbled at their slices of bread and broke off small bits of cheese, I slapped a healthy slice of cheese in between two pieces of bread and ate it like a sandwich while paying very little attention to my company's conversation. As the boys talked, I scanned the room and people watched. I was enjoying myself now. When the conversation finished, I gave the Boy a tour of the paintings while we sipped on more wine.

It was a very cold night, so we headed back after this.

Skiing in Vermont

A couple of weekends ago, the Boy's boss offered to let us stay at his vacation home in Stratton, Vermont. It was an unexpected invite, but we had no weekend plans at the moment and jumped at the idea of our first ski trip this winter.

Bright and early Saturday morning (7AM) the Boy's friend ("the Russian") drove in from Brooklyn to pick us up. Surprisingly, he was stuck in traffic getting into the city and looked beat when he arrived. He'd been up till 4AM the previous night partying with a bunch of friends and could barely keep his eyes open (bad, bad...so dangerous!!). So, the Boy and I loaded up his car as the Russian climbed into the back seat and passed out. The Boy took his keys, hopped into the driver's seat, and handed me the directions to navigate. Four hours later, we arrived in Pittsburgh.

Just kidding! Haha. We made it to Stratton quite smoothly at around noon without ever getting lost. We went straight to the mountain to get a half day of skiing/snowboarding in before relaxing at the guesthouse. But first, we gobbled down tupperwares full of pasta salad that the Boy had prepared the night before. Now we were ready to take on the mountain. I went straight to the ski rentals. Never before had I met such an incompetent staff (looking back, this probably isn't true). There was barely anyone in the shop, and I had to continually bother people to help me. I then made the mistake of leaving the rentals place without trying on both of my skis first.

We decided to start off light and ascended the lift for an easy beginner slope. It was freezing cold out there (6 degrees Fahrenheit)! Thank god I rented a helmet to keep my head and ears warm. My lips, cheeks and chin started tingling until my entire face felt like it had been shot up with novacaine. Ten minutes later (no joke), we'd reached the top of the mountain and exited the lift. Now with the wind, I was getting worried that I'd get frostbite. I couldn't feel my fingers or lips anymore. The boys threw down their snowboards and started boarding up, while I plopped down my skis and tried to snap my boots in place. The first ski snapped on, but the second ski didn't look like it fit. The place where my boot should have snapped in looked way too big for any part of my boot to make contact. Damn it! Those morons at the rental place were too busy chatting with each other to bother fitting my skis properly. They only adjusted one side!! Argh! It took 10 minutes to get to the top of the mountain, and now it would take another 10 minutes to ride the lift back down and then another 10-15 minutes to get them fixed and then another 10-20 minutes to get back up with the lines!

As I fumed and cursed, the boys noticed the snow patrol's office nearby. We walked over and knocked on the door. Thanks to them, it wouldn't have been a total waste of time! They were able to adjust my ski so that my boot would snap in, but there were some other adjustments that they were not allowed to make that I could fix at the ski shop. But at least this way, I'd be able ski down the mountain with the boys rather than have to ride the lift down.

It was freezing cold, but the snow was nice and powdery! It was the softest, thickest snow that I'd skied in on the East Coast. So thick that my skis would trip over a pile, and I'd fall out. When we got to the bottom (a very long ride down), I got my skis fixed. The Russian bought a ski mask and hand warmers. I got a pair of hand warmers from the Russian and took the Boy's scarf to wrap around my face which was frozen white as snow by now.

We rode the lift up again and did a few more nice, long beginner runs before calling it a day and going back to the guesthouse. The cold had gotten to us, and we couldn't stand being outside with frozen digits and blue lips anymore.

The guesthouse was about a 10 minute drive away. The Boy's boss had built a mansion and guesthouse upon many acres of land. The street leading up to the house was named after the boss. And what a mansion it was! The entire place looked like a ski lodge built to house a hundred rooms! Our jaws dropped in awe as we drove up the circular driveway. Unfortunately, we would not get to see much more than just the outside of the house. The Boy's boss has a policy that no one stays at the mansion when the master is not in.

Right next to the mansion was a pretty sizeable red barn-this was the guesthouse. The boss's caretaker met us there to let us in and show us around. As the Russian pulled his car into the garage of the guesthouse, our eyes lit up as we saw some of the nice toys that the boss was storing in there. There were two ATVs, two snowmobiles and plenty of ski/snowboarding equipment. A door in the garage led to a full sized basketball court. The caretaker led us up the stairs to a very nice two bedroom house with a fully stocked kitchen complete with a dishwasher, high tech microwave and subzero fridge, living room with a movie theater sized TV, and dining room. The Boy and I claimed the master bedroom which had a very large, comfortable bed and one of those antique-looking, porcelain bathtubs. This was better than any hotel or lodge we would have rented.

We ordered steaks and lobster rolls in for dinner and had a nice night lounging in the guesthouse. The next morning, we woke up early to get in a full day of skiing at Stratton again. It was freezing cold again, but the night laid out a very nice, thick blanket of snow for us. But for some reason, Stratton was obsessed with keeping the snow thick and had their snowmakers on full blast. I'd seen snow makers before, but none so intense as these which were blowing snow out at such a furious pace that they managed to create a mini blizzard over many parts of the mountain.

This time, we went down one beginner slope to warm up, and then went straight to the intermediate slopes. The blizzards were intense on these slopes. It was really quite irritating to ski through, as you really couldn't escape having little ice pellets constantly shooting out at your face as you careened down a slope. How were you supposed to see?! And then they would stick to your eyelashes and freeze the top and bottom lashes together so that you could barely open your eyes. I fell through much of this. By the time I'd finished with the slopes, my helmet was covered in a layer of ice, and I had icicles hanging off my hair. Some of them I broke off. Others I had to wait to melt off when the car's heat kicked in on the way home.