weekend of shock and awe, part II

More mis-adventures at the beer gardens. In this series, Andy was trying to capture the perfect mix of drunk and happy. I think, if you take the series as a whole, he succeeded. I leave you to judge for yourself.

This last one is my favorite. mostly because seth and i have similar expressions on our faces, and a little bit because of how uncomfortable sheena looks to be touching shoulders with me. excellent.

weekend of shock and awe. part I

This weekend was one of wonder and amazement. To the left you can see my cousins, Matthew and Daniel, a mere 14 rows behind home plate while we watched the Devil Rays kick the Yankees in the can. Man that was a great game. Below you will see my uncle Steve.
This is uncle steve. He looks just like my dad. Handsome devil, isn't he?

Saturday was also Sarah's birthday. Happy Birthday Sarah! Here she is, so happy at the Astoria Beer Gardens. After a lengthy subway ride and an even lengthier wait in the line (don't worry, i had a book to read), Andy and I got to join the gang of idiots (well, some of them, anyway) and drink my share of beer. Before our arrival, Seth had made his entrance with a box of Munchkins (as a birthday present, i presume) and was stopped by the security professional, Gold Tooth (I call him Gold Tooth because he had, you guessed it, a gold tooth. and was very much into his job). Gold Tooth told Seth he could NOT bring his munchkins in. So Seth, being a reasonable fellow, said, "ok, that's fine Gold Tooth, can I just leave the box here, behind this tree?" Gold Tooth was amenable, and Seth was allowed to enter. Now, Erin (of whom i have no pictures from this party, sorry) saw the aforementioned exchange and decided to go ninja and rescue said Munchkins. She pulled out all of her spy moves and successfully brought the munchkins to the table, after which they were eaten. The picture below was taken right after Gold Tooth walked by our table and saw the empty box of munchkins. I believe he asked Andy, "Who ate the fucking munchkins?" Andy demured. Seth looked on. Gold Tooth was hurt. Then I took a picture of him.

that might have been a mistake.

immediately he started yelling at me to erase the picture (which i did), and then proceeded to demand my camera so he could scroll through and make sure that i had, in fact erased the picture (way to go, Gold Tooth. you missed THIS one!).

Seth and Sheena (while intoxicated) thought this was hilarious.

well. thank god THAT's over.

As some of you may know, I'm gearing up to apply to grad school As such, I have been studying for the dreaded GRE test. Then, last week, I decided I just. couldn't. take. it. anymore. So I took the GRE test on Saturday. Huzzah!

So, after a few days freaking out, and I apologize to everyone for whatever pain I put you through, I bit the bullet and took the test. Thank you, ETS, for showing me my score immediately upon completing the test. Now I know that I never have to take an ETS test again. Praise the lord.

And now I can go back to doing important things on the subway. Like reading and sleeping. Without feeling guilty. The question remains: who wants to write my personal statement for me?

no, no. don't everyone jump up at once.

The picture is of my cousin, Rory, because he's also really excited that my GRE adventure is over. Thanks, Stacy, for the pic.

dad, you have to return the ferarri

so, surprisingly, we did not win the lotto. someone did, though. congratulations, someone.

if you email me, i'll give you my address and you can send me a check. i know you want to share your good fortune.

jesus my leg hurts * *

The Goldens came. The Goldens changed a tire. The Goldens left. Let's have a recap, shall we? (warning to those with heart conditions or who may be pregnant or who may become pregnant whilst reading this post. it is very long. take a deep breath, drink some water. power through it)

This weekend my parents came to visit, huzzah!!

Friday i left work early to meet them at their super cool modern(e) (with an e because it's so so super modern it's totally french). Hotel on Rivington (also home to super hot hotspot Thor. i mean, come on. thor?)

Sooooo, anyway. I met them at their hotel and then we treked up to Madison Square Park to partake of the Shake Shack (thanks to sheena and seth for waiting in line for 25 minutes so we could cut. it was awesome) and had a lovely lunch. Then we went back to the hotel and took a two (2) hour nap, obviously. Then we had a nice dinner at Mesa Grill - i had the chile relleno, which was nice, but a bit overpriced. Dad didn't like the level of noise (high), Andy and Dad didn't like the wait for the check at the end of the meal (long). All in all, a nice time was had by all. Then, Andy and i went down to the Angelica and watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit (which, by the way, was/is the scariest movie i have and will ever see). I am proud to say that I did NOT run out of the theater screaming during the last scene, and I kept my eyes open the whole time. Even when Christopher Lloyd is all springy and screamy with the red eyes.

Saturday, we took a walk around the lower east side to see where my grandpa (Sambo) grew up (apparently he was a bowery boy and smoked and chewed tobacco at the age of 5 and worked for the mob etc.). We went to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and walked around the rose garden. Some time during this walk I strained a muscle in my shin (didn't really know we had muscles in our shins). Then we had an AWESOME game of pick-up soccer in the park. There were heroics, there were falls, I scored two (2) goals, Robbie scored like eleven. Mom and Dad and Deirdre and Joy watched from the sidelines and cheered us on. I, meanwhile, injure my leg more and realize that I can't hike the Mohonk Reserve (as we have been planning for the past month) because I can't comfortably (or uncomfortably for that matter) walk down the street.

Sunday was the longest day ever. I might need an entirely new post to talk about it, because there are pictures to go with it and they are not available to me right now. I will do a quick recap. In bullet-point format.

• met parents for breakfast at 9
• picked up rental car at east 12th street at 10
• turned onto the westside highway at 10:30
• realized the westside highway was closed at 11 (at 44th street)
• got over to central park west at 11:15
• realized there was a triathalon so central park west was a parking lot and we couldn't cross the park at 11:30
• finally got out of the city at 12
• drove over some road debree on the Deegan at 12:20
• changed the flat tire in Historical Yorktown Heights at 12:30
• made our way to Mt. Eden cemetary to visit Grandma at 1:15 (then tried to yell at someone about the state of the plot, but there was no one in the office)
• drove through Poughkeepsie trying to find a dollar store from which to buy towels
• turned the wrong way down a three lane highway trying to cross the bridge, promptly pulled a u-turn.
• got across the bridge heading to New Paltz (trying to find the lake at the Mohonk Preserve)
• see a sign for the mega-millions jackpot ($849 million), and decide that, with our luck, we must buy a ticket, or twenty.
• stop at Shoprite, RiteAid, Super Stop-n-Shop to find towels. unsuccessful.
• arrive at the Mohonk Preserve at 2:30, eat a picnic lunch on the bench, discover that the lake is not at the Mohonk Preserve, but is a 10 minute drive away.
• make the 10 minute drive. find the lake (12 feet x 14 feet) and the 400 people who have found said lake before us.
  
• leave lake to see the Mohonk Mountain House (another fifteen minute drive off the highway).
• get to carriage house, get turned away from Mohonk Mountain House at 5:15 (I'm convinced the guy saw we were driving on a donut tire and decided we were undesirables).
• drive back through New Paltz, stop at the starbucks (for shame)
• I leave my purse at said starbucks. I remember it. I answer three riddles in order to get it back.
• We stop at a gas station and buy 10 quickpick lotto tickets at 6:46
• We realize that the jackpot is actually only $49 million, and that the $849 was a typo.
• Make it to White Plains, were we pick up a couple of boxes of plates and have to talk to the family that has been keeping them for me for the last two years. They have just come back from Aruba and apparently traded their skin in for tanned leather.
• Finally head back to Brooklyn at 8:30
• Pull up in front of the apartment at 9:30
  
• Drive back to Manhattan at 9:35
• Get to the rental car place at 10
• Argue with the attendant about where to put the car, who needs to inventory the car, and the fact that we're still driving on a donut tire.
• Finally get to Chat'n'chew for dinner at 10:35
• Are told that the kitchen closed at 10:30.
• Walk down the street the the Coffee Shop, eat, digest.
• Get on the subway home.

The end.
* i stole this title from Josh * and from Sheena.

sweet sassy molassy

ok. so scientists have designed a computer (and a brain implant) that allows people to control computers/tv/radio/robot/whatever you want with your mind. YOUR MIND.

full story here.

i'm simultaneously really excited and scared a lot.

**update** ok, andy, i think i fixed it. links are hard.

h-e-l-p-!-!

help me!
my parents are coming on Friday night and I can't think of a place to eat for dinner.

Their hotel is on Rivington in the Lower East Side.
they refuse to give me a preference of cuisine. i am at a loss.

help!

who wears short shorts?

this is a Public Service Announcement:

Nair is burn-y, smells like rotten eggs, and tarnishes silver.

Sheena wasn't home yesterday to tell me "no" so i bought some nair (because the girl on the commercial wears short shorts and looks so happy and her legs are smooth) and tried it. and today i'm wearing pants because i have some pretty awesome chemical burns on my legs.

Lesson learned. burn-y = bad.

and how many hot dogs can YOU eat?

Oh how I love the four-day weekend! Friday, my boss surprised us by giving us Monday the third off in addition to Tuesday the fourth. Huzzah!! How did I spend my un-earned but very exciting day off, you may ask? Well, I spent three hours at the DMV getting a New York State drivers license, actually. It was pretty awesome.

Technically (according to Josh), you are supposed to get your license switched no more than 30 days after you move to a new state. I have been living in New York for three years now (if you don't count the four years of college, which I don't, as poughkeepsie is in a whole different country). So, I was pretty overdue. Now I just have to wait for my shiny new license to arrive in the mail.

Monday night saw a blow-out BBQ at chez Josh/Evonne/Deirdre/Katrin. This BBQ featured a Guac-Off (which yours truly won in a very tight race), a shotgunning contest (in which yours truly did not participate, but was splashed by from a distance), and very nice tofu hot dogs. Thanks, guys!

Tuesday, Seth and I rode our bikes (huzzah!!) to Coney Island to see the hot dog eating contest. Now i've done that once in my life, i never have to go back, right? Here's a picture of the winner.
Yeah, he ate pretty much 54 hot dogs (and buns) in 12 minutes, beating his own record of 53.5. The surprise was the guy who came in second place, Joey Chestnut, who went dog for dog with Kobayashi, even getting into the lead at about minute 6, but fell behind at the very end - finishing with a whopping 52 hot dogs. I could be wrong, but I think that's the closest anyone has come to Kobayashi in the last seven years he's won.

oh sweet face analyzer, why do you hate me?

Thanks to Josh, I have been spending the last half hour (i should be on my way home now) playing with the Face Analyzer, which is tons of fun. The first photo I uploaded was my spider bite photo. here it is, in case the image has not been burned into your retina and does not haunt your dreams. or in case you're bridget and in need of a giggle.
Scary, right? So, according to this photo and FaceAnalyzer.com, I am 92% Southern European (wrong)
8% Middle Eastern (wrong)
and my celebrity look-alike is Kelly Hu, who was Deathstrike in X-2 and is, yes, Asian. Also, apparently I have a "very low gay factor". thanks for that, guys.
my character type is a "beta academic" and apparently i am uninterested in, and bad at, relationships and social interactions. instead, i want to make lots of money.


so the next photo i used was this one:
Slightly better, but still not ideal. this time, however, they got more of it right. Now they claim that i'm 70% middle eastern (wrong) and 30% eastern european (now you're on the right track!). BUT my celeb look-alike is now Ashley Simpson. ummmm. yeah. i still have a "very low gay factor" and am still bad at social interaction. and, yes, i still want to make lots of money. at least some things stay the same, right?

Thank you josh.

**update** links are now fixed. who's the noob now??

bye bye, bruno.

This is very sad. Bruno has passed on. Boys, I'm very sorry for your loss.

Apparently, Bruno's chicken-killing rampage made everyone a little nervous, and the Bavarian government gave hunters the green light to get rid of him.

I like that the headline refers to him as "Bruno the celebrity bear".



picture respectfully borrowed from www.brunnvalla.ch

mellow velo

So, I went to the auto repair place under our apartment and asked the nice man at the air pump to, you guessed it, pump up the volume AND pump up the jams. (although i didn't actually use those words. i wanted him to actually pump up the tires, not call me crazy and kick me out of the garage).

Anyway, he was very nice and proceeded to pump up both the volume and the jams. but BUT when he got to the jams he said, "this looks bad. i don't think it'll hold. it looks like dry rot". i told him to go right ahead and try, because what did i have to lose? it turns out, he was right. i totally popped my tyre. (see? because the bike is british???)

he was exceedingly apologetic, which i found amusing because i'm the one who told him to blow up the tyre. at least i didn't have to go far to find a bike pump. if anyone is looking, the auto repair place on 14th and 4th ave is very accommodating.

hello velo ...or... let's pump up the volume, pump up the jams

Yesterday, as Sheena and I were returning from Lowe's with our curtains, magnetic paint, chalkboard paint, etc. (we have many projects in the works right now. our apartment is an exciting place), we passed a stoop sale on 5th ave. Now, i (and sheena as well) have been coveting a bike for quite some time. what i really wanted was an awesome old cruiser, onto which i could attach a basket and carry dogs or baguettes or cats or what have you.

And so, huzzah, as we passed the stoop sale, i saw an awesome old 3-speed cruiser (pictured to the left). i asked how much it cost, talked the guy down to an even $50, and took my new bike home! now all i need is to get a) a helmet because i will kill myself on this bike b) get a bike lock and c) i need to pump up the volume and pump up the jams. and by "volume" and "jams" i mean the front and back tires. of course.

so wish me luck, friends, on this new adventure. sheena and i will be zooming all over brooklyn now. we really need some streamers for the handles.

GENIUS!

so i have my ipod set to shuffle by album. and i'm currently listening to all of the greatest hits albums i have on shuffle. because they're all listed under "greatest hits".

so i am currently listening to a medly of cat stevens, the band, bob dylan, tom petty, and the cars.

it. is. awesome.

this is 168th street. have an incredible day.

As some of you may know, I had an incident with a spider bite a few years ago. Of course, as you can see to the left, the spider won. Similarly, I had an incident with a cold this past week. and I don't have a photo of it, but the cold definitely won. At some point during the weekend, I actually had mucus leaking out of my eyes. GROSS!

Anyway, I apologize profusely to anyone I may have infected. I blame my co-worker who came to work very sick about a week before I came down with the cold. She will pay. Do not worry. She. Will. Pay.

Good things DID come of the disgusting cold, however, as Andy and I played tons and tons of Katamari Damacy. Maybe one of the best and most original games ever. It's a single player game in which you roll a sticky ball around. Wait for it. The sticky ball picks up things. You start very small, picking up thumbtacks and paperclips, chocolate chips, etc. The more things you pick up, the bigger you get, the bigger the things you can pick up. So you move on to shoes, buckets, dogs, people, flowers, fences, cars, people, apartment buildings, islands, clouds, GIANT SQUID. It is so awesome. I tried to upload a picture of a katamari, but blogspot is being a douche. later, if you're lucky.

apologies for the lack of posting. it's a combo of non-interesting things and my complete lack of time during the day.

meow, do i look like a cat to you?

Hello Friends.

my what a weekend it has been. for full coverage of our 36-hour bender and soccer game, replete with pictures, i would direct you to sheena or josh's blogs. i don't have the pictures, the patience, or the talent to regale you with all of our adventures. i WILL give you a quick recap, as i have stayed home sick today and have a little time!

Friday night: sheena and i trekked to Whole Foods, bought eight pounds of Maine mussels, and tried very hard to get them home alive. as she has noted, the train was crowded and running local. lame. we all felt like a can of caviar. we made it after all and had a lovely picnic in our living room with josh, his new roomate katrin, lara, and seth. sheena made some delicious stuffed brie and we all feasted. Then we decided that, considering lara and katrin (a lovely german girl) were in america, we should do something decidedly american. so we took them bowling, of course. both of them bowled very well - apparently the boys all individually sidled up to lara, giving her discrete bowling advice. it was only the first line of boys to try to talk to lara this weekend.

saturday: the decision was made, some where in the fourth bucket of rocks on friday night, that we should all go to the brooklyn brewery on saturday, do the tour, hang out in the tasting room and get food. sheena and lara and i also decided we should go to the aquarium before that. needless to say, the aquarium fell by the wayside. but we DID make it to the brewery. we met up with andy and the gang, went on the tour (which consists of standing in a room listening to a guy talk about beer) and then ordered dinner delivered to the tasting room. it was prety good.

after the brewery, we stopped at beacon's closet and i bought a new umbrella. it's clear and dome-like and super awesome. then we headed to mugs for more drinks. (i had a coke, thanks very much, my drinking for the day ended at 3pm). from mugs we went to an art opening for a group called Build. Seth knew the DJ, and we ran into two of our friends from saturday ladies' soccer. after standing on the corner avoiding hipsters for a few hours, we headed to another party, this time in Greenpoint. Lara's friend, Tim, had invited us to a birthday party in a huge crazy warehouse-like artists apt. it was pretty cool, but after such a long adventure i was ready to go home. so we left lara to fend for herself with her friends and the rest of us took a car to.... another bar! well, i took a cab home, but the more intrepid folks went to magnetic fields and rounded out the evening with a trip to the chip shop. good choice.

Sunday: (oh, it's not over yet, guys) we rallied the troops and headed up to the city college field to play the last game of Castle Greyskull FC's metrosoccer career. as only two members of the rival team showed up, we won by default. Vlad, our very favorite ref, agreed to ref a scrimmage of ourselves against... ourselves. it was a victorious victory, and at the same time a crushing defeat. we all played exceptionally well, if i do say so myself. and we rounded out the day with a lovely pizza meal and xmenIII. which was entertaining, if slightly disappointing and preachy.

All in all it was a lovely weekend, and I'm so glad that everyone got to meet Lara. We're heading to the patio at Commonwealth tonight at around ten-ish if anyone is interested in bidding Lara a fond farewell - she heads out to DC via Baltimore tomorrow, and then goes back to Wales.

picasa is the suck

So, on Monday night I uploaded all of my pictures from my weekend in j.crew land, in the county of abercrombie. Where was I, you ask? At Middlebury!

My little sister graduated from Middlebury College on Sunday. Congratulations!!

I don't know how many of you have ever visited Middlebury College, but it is for prepsters what Williamsburg was for hipsters about a year ago (before the douchey frat boys arrived). One of my sister's roomates' boyfriend arrived at the BBQ wearing nantucket red shorts, flip flops, and a polo shirt with a popped collar. a-mazing. Needless to say, I'm pretty well prepstered out.

They DID teach me how to play Beirut and my sister and I took on her friend (and her siblings) while both sets of parents watched and cheered. Surreal, yes? Later in the evening, my sister took me to a scary keg party (where I ended up vomiting behind the modular housing unit - not alcohol related, but no one will believe me). I met about a billion boys who look pretty much the same, and about a thousand girls wearing tiffany necklaces. Every single person I met was incredibly nice and personable. and they're all pretty smart too. All in all, an enjoyable weekend.
Congratulations to Ali again - she graduated with high honors, suma cum laude, and got the American Civilization Department prize (for highest GPA and most improved) and got a buttload in prize money. Now she can buy me the pony I've always wanted.

Anyway, I tried to post pictures of this BBQ on Monday night, but Picasa had an aneurism and it didn't work. I will try to post a picture or two later.

cupcake, this one's for you.

as requested,

i have tried to illustrate what i think i might find in the stall of the bathroom. i've taken some artistic liscence. our toilets don't look like that. they're more industrial. but then there'd be nothing for the little guy to stand on.

is there a leprochaun hiding in there?

So, the bathroom that we use at work is not actually located within our office suite. It is, in fact, located next to two classrooms and, as a result, is constantly filled with Barnard girls and is really gross.

In an effort to fight the gross, the janitor (a very nice man named Jose) uses copious amounts of airfreshener. This, in theory, is ok. No one likes a bad smell in the bathroom. I mean, it's usualy unavoidable, but you know, you can try. Unfortunately, Jose (or his supervisor probably) has consistently chosen "Bubble Gum" as the airfreshener flavor.

There is nothing worse than a bad bathroom smell. Unless it's a bad bathroom smell mixed with Bubble Yum mixed with strawberry lip balm. It also has the added benefit of making me feel (every single time I enter the bathroom) like someone is hiding in one of the stalls, furiously chewing bubblegum and blowing silent bubbles.

It's just a funny mental image. I'm pretty sure it's one of the wee folk.

"there has been talk of you helping out with these studies. you will NOT have to. I PROMISE"

That is what one of my bosses said to me about a month ago regarding our two Hepatitis-C studies, one involving an antidepressant double blind placebo study (i just turned you on hardcore, huh?) and one involving two MRIs, two PET scans, and about a million man hours per subject.

so guess what today's meeting was about? ME TAKING OVER THE FUCKING STUDIES.

I mean, I know that one of my other studies is ending Friday, but I still have three-four other studies to do, I'm still pretty damned busy every day. Sheena will vouch for that, as I never have enough time to chat with her on the g-chat.

Oh, Hepatitis-C you have ruined me. RUINED ME!

Ok, that's it. I just needed to vent a little. Also to let you know, oh loyal five readers, that my posting might fall along the wayside. stick with me. dealing with hep-c subjects is sure to yield many many hilarious stories of disease and hijinks.