New York Stories

I'm one of those people now. The ones who gush about New York and all its glories. GarrettLives told me that he thought Seattle was the ultimate city, and then he went to New York. I feel the same way. My second experience as a grown-up in New York was exactly what I wanted it to be. Most importantly, I have people I love there. When you are in a city with your best friends, it could be fucking Duluth and you'd probably love it. When I left yesterday, all I could think was, "With a cousin/friend and two best friends here, why am I going?". So, it's official: if I can't get a job there, then I will be grad schooling there. It's hard to live in another city when you know New York and your friends are there, just waiting for you to return and with it/them.

In other news: my lap top is dead. SHIT BALLS. I will back date blog entries to tell you snippets about my trip. LATER GATORS

Empire State of Mind

Hello from the Empire State, Teammates!

I got in on Wednesday evening and was met by friends L & M at Penn Station. Thank god I made it to NY from NJ, because, although I have been told differently, NJ lived up to all of its disgusting reputation. NO AIRCONDITIONING IN THE NEWARK AIRPORT. Anyway, I commuter-trained it into Penn and was whisked away to the Chelsea apt. of M. Chelsea = super-iconic NYC. M's apt. looks out over a street with 5story brick buildings, black metal grates, and ivy covering the walls. OMFG. L and M and I went to grab dinner at a bomb, super trendy restaurant called Cafeteria, and then I crashed because I'd been up since 4:45 PST.

Thursday M and L had to work, so I was on my own in the BIG CITY. It was beautiful, sunny, and humid. I subwayed up to Central Park and walked around the lake and Bethesda Terrace, and then caught the subway downtown to meet L for lunch in Madison Square Park. There's this thing called the Shake Shack where you can get burgers, hot dogs, fries, etc. for pretty cheap, and they're all organic and whatnot. FUN! YUM!

Post-lunch it was like 90% humidity (probably like 40%, but to this Northwesterner anything above 15% feels like the inner ring of hell) so I went to The Met to cool off in its air-conditioned halls. I saw lots of great art. EGYPTIAN TEMPLE! PAGODA! STATUES OF NAKED PEOPLE! and like, Monet, Manet, Degas, Coubet, Matisse, Van Gogh, Sargent, and all the stars of the Renaissance. Lots of gold leaf and Lady Madonnas and creepy bambini Gesu!

Subway at rush hour = bad plan. Had to go back to M's and de-sweat. Then we got cute and met L for dinner in the East Village, St. Mark's Place. MOROCCAN FOOD! Drinks, drinks, drinks, calamari, lamb kabobs (baaa baaa), hummus.

Dinner was followed by my first CELEBRITY SIGHTING: Heather Graham buying the SAME FLAVOR OF ICE CREAM THAT WE HAD JUST PURCHASED. She was creepily pretty. Not that tall, not scarily thin. Lots of hair. HOT MAN CANDY ON HER ARM.

We wandered back to L's, grabbed the subway to Union square, walked around and looked at the Empire State building all lit up, saw the craziness of the so-called city that never sleeps, and then slept. Hard.

Now I'm waiting for K to get on the NJ transit from Newark and make her way to Penn, where I will pick her up and play tour guide for the day. We're doing mid-town at mid-day. Wish me luck and hope that the Asian tourists don't trample me to death.

You know you love me
XOXO
TEAM LARA

Things I Like, Things I Dislike

Things I Like:

Saturday: cozy rainy-day breakfast with a friend, eating Ballet's Pad Thai, reuniting with Jessica (recently returned from Michigan) on Saturday night at Harvard Theater.

Sunday: beautiful weather, chillin with Glo and playing Mario Kart, lots of lovely friends over for wine, grapes, cheese, crackers, and smoked salmon, getting tipsy, learning how to play Mario Party.

Monday: not feeling hung-over, watching 3 episodes of Discovery Channel's "A Haunting" with the roommates, eating left over grapes, eating a delish dinner and watching Dirty Dancing with several fellow bloggers (NoPants, GarrettLives, GloJamz, ScenesFromAnItalianRestaurant) and others.

Tuesday: beautiful weather, watching Gossip Girl online, packing for NYC, eating Safeway's version of the Girl Scout's Samoa cookie.

Things I Dislike:

I have to move home to Portland on October 4th. NOT PLEASED about this at all. Blerg.

Thing I Like about Thing I Dislike: we're going to have a SICK send-off event. You fools best be leaving Friday, Oct. 2 open. Or else.

Sunday Brunch #4

Food for Thought

"We've seen you with vomit in your hair, making out with investment bankers in the men's room at PJ Clark's. You don't have to hide anything from us...You can tell us anything. We don't judge. We're the non-judging Breakfast Club. We're your best friends. Anything you did is something we did, too".

Blair certainly knows the importance of having a good group of friends who will support you no matter what embarressing drunken mistakes you make...Even if that means faux-killing someone, like Serena did.

Mid-Day Update

Today I had to get a new social security card. I left it in Italia two summers ago and since then haven't had a job that required me to show them my original card. Thus, I haven't motivated myself to get it replaced. However, as my job situation is hopefully changing (ie I may become employed), I figured I should get down to 9th and Lenora to replace it. Let me just say that finding 9th and Lenora is not easy. I had to resort to calling the Roommate and having her google my coordinates for me to determine if I was anywhere near my desired location. I was, thank god. Otherwise I may have had to wander among the Cornish students for all eternity. Shudder.

After the harrowing experience that is the social security office, I needed to feed my soul. So I fed it Top Pot's Raspberry Ring donut. Mmm. Only complaint: no Kate Bourget at the counter. After Top Pot I hauled ass to Myrtle Edwards park for lovely views of the Sound and Olympics. After sitting in the sun amidst the homeless and the lunch-time joggers, I made the trek to Ivar's because Top Pot hadn't given me enough deep fried goodness for one day...yeah.

On the bus ride back I saw hoards of clean-cut O'Dea boys walking around with their gym bags and generally looking thrilled to be done with class and able to enjoy the warm afternoon. I remember those September Friday afternoons in high school so well. Easily the best time of the whole school year.

Anyway, now it's the freakin weekend, and baby I'm about to...go nap in Cal Anderson.

Best Dream Ever

Obviously I am a big fan of Gossip Girl, so this dream will probs not come as a shock to any of you Team Lara readers.

Last night I dreamed I was in the fuits and veggies section of the Fred Meyer's by my grandparent's house when I came across the actress who plays Dorota. We chatted for a bit, and I asked her if they were going to be filming in New York next week and what the new story lines were going to entail. She told me the new plot had to do with the girls raising chickens in the city (based off a segment I saw on the news in which crazy Brooklynites were raising a brood of hens in their tiny backyard). She was like, "Here, why don't you just talk to Leighton and hear about it?". She prompty called Leighton Meester, or Miss Blair in Dorota-speak, and had me talk to her for ten-ish minutes. She was super nice and we chatted about chickens and Blair's headbands, but near the end of the conversation I could no longer hear what she was saying and had to hang up (tragic--we were becomming such good pals!). Then, all the sudden, Dorota was describing a new plot-line involving Serena portraying Harry Potter in the next movie (WTF. IDK). But then it went from Dorota telling me about it while we stood in Freddies to me watching it sans narration. Serena was indeed Harry Potter, and she was in a love-triangle with hottie hot Cedric Diggory. At one point they were falling through a blue tunnel that resembled the fan-tube in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (you know, the part where he and Grandpa Joe drink the fizzy drink and have to burp to get back down to earth). But before I could finish this extremely weird dream, my friend texted me and woke me up with the news that our women's high school basketball coach got arrested for her second DUI and was leaving the staff. Now that's some good GG dramz right there.

Moment of Glory

Today I was chatting with Glo, http://glojamz.blogspot.com/, and was giving her a little life-update. She interrupts and tells me, "Oh, I know...I read your blog", and proceeds to summarize my typical blog entries. Excellent. Fame is knocking at my door.

Suburban Tourism

I was brave today. I took the #41 bus from the downtown bus tunnel to Northgate, where I endured the chitchat of high schoolers for several hours while browsing Forever21 and Target. I don't know why I've never bussed it out to Northgate before. It's surprisingly quick and easy! You'll be happy to know that my bravery paid off: I found a dress for under $20 at Forever21, and at Tarjay I got a pair of heels on sale, lipstick, a black tanktop, and tights.

Miracle of Miracles!

Just because summer's winding down doesn't mean the fun has to. Last night we celebrated the male-roommate's 23rd birthday with style. And by 'style' I mean Cooks. Male-roommate is friends with lots of people who I used to work with on a daily basis, but who I'm not close enough to see regularly now that school's over, so I got very excited to have a mini-reunion with those fine gents. I stayed up way past my bedtime! But, luckilly, when I was grumpy next morning due to the previously stated lack of sleep, a miracle saved me.

A Miracle of St. Nicholas, to be exact.

St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral is on our block, and they were hosting a festival/bazaar called "A Taste of Old Russia". $3 pirogies and vodka shots. A Miracle, I tell you! God was smiling upon me, as pirogies are widely known to be the best hangover food on the PLANET. Yes, I had to endure church ladies and old priests and little grubby kids, but in reward, I was granted a delicious, so good I thought it was glazed, pirogie.

Sunday Brunch #3

Blair (in response to a creepster hitting on her)

"My answer is usually 'never say never'. But for you I'll make an exception"

Blair certainly knows the best way to avoid unwanted gentlemanly attention is to have a quick retort at hand. We could all learn a thing or two from the Queen of Headbands.

TGIF

Yes, even when you're unemployed you Thank God It's Friday. On Fridays I feel less guilty about taking a two hour nap, reading a good book in bed, browsing Perez, eating Taquitos, watching Ellen, etc. Not that the above isn't my daily routine, but I just feel less Catholic guilt when I indulge on a Friday than on, say, a Tuesday. Today I can excuse my laziness in the afternoon (see entire contents of list above) with the accomplishment of waking up at 8am and going to the gym by 9:30. However, gym-going, despite its good intentions, backfired. I was waylayed by a group of hideous Seattle Academy middle schoolers while I waited to cross Madison. While wearing ballet flats, skinny jeans, Urban tee shirts, and raybans, these twelve year olds stared me down as I sweated in my ratty gym clothes. I was seriously getting the Evil Eye from these kiddies. I'm pretty sure they were thinking "Why is this old woman standing near us? I hope her bad clothes won't rub off on us". It's a little intimidating to be hardcore judged by half a dozen sixth grade girls, let me tell you. As nostalgic as I am about September and the start of school, I am mighty glad to not be starting my sixth grade year. Shit. Them beezies are scary.

To summarize: it was no way to start my precious Friday. I'm gonna need a drank tonight. Then maybe I'll be able to shake off their stares. Maybe.

Reasons to Leave Seattle (temporarily):

Lizard

Mdawg and Katkins

Claire Bear

I miss you all and am so excited for our upcoming adventures

Food for Thought: Sunday Brunch #2

Quote #2

"When the truth fails you, you have no choice but to abandon it"

I'm a Mad(wo)Man

At long last, I'm where I belong: in a bar with the dashing Don Draper.

Cheers!

Mom, Please Don't Wear That. Dad, Please Stop Taking Pictures.

My family's coming tomorrow. In post-grad speak, that means FREE FOOD for 3 whole days!!! And, you know...bonding, I guess. We're planning on going to the SAM's Target Practice show, avoiding all the Bumbershooters, and browsing Elliott Bay. I'm quite fond of the parentals, actually, although I never quite know what to do with them when they come for a visit. But they always take me out to great restaurants that I couldn't otherwise afford, let me use their car for a run to Target, and pay for my sales-taxed clothing So it'll be pretty win-win! Lots of photos will be posted later.

Fall? Is that You?

3:30 in the afternoon, reading in bed post-nap, gray and raining outside, wearing a cardigan, house is quiet...Seems like Fall. I have this nagging feeling that I should be going to class at 3:45, and that when it's over at 5:50 it'll be dark out and raining even harder, and the bottoms of my jeans will get wet when I walk from Admin back to the apt.

But it's technically still summer, and I've graduated, so none of those things will actually take place. It just seems like one of those rainy Tuesdays on which I'd have an undesirable lit. class to attend (and half-nap through), followed by several hours of reading for a 10-12:05 art history class the next morning. Right? Anyone else feel like they should be in class right now? Anyone? Anyone?...Bueller? Bueller?