Weekend Update

"New York! I've always wanted to see it and now I've seen it. It's true what they say--it's the most wonderful city in the world."
"Brooklyn's better."
"It hasn't got skyscrapers like New York, has it?"
"No. But there's a feeling about it--Oh, I can't explain it. You've got to live in Brooklyn to know."
--A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, pg. 452.

I feel the same way about Brooklyn. This weekend I went to a restaurant called Bocarou which had a lounge vibe which makes for great drinks but not so great for eating dinner. The tables were too low. Afterwards we went to a place called Death & Company, named after a speakeasy from the old days. It was an awesome place, the drinks were for alcohol purists. One of the drinks had ginger beer, spiced rum, bitters, and a raw egg. On Sunday, there was a St. Patrick's day parade on my street. There were no floats, but a ton of bagpipes. It was a nice day for a parade.

5 Amazing Days in the City

Its been awhile since I posted, because Cali guy came to visit for 5 days. I picked him up from the airport at 5 am on Thursday. I was slightly nervous because we haven't seen each other since January 1, and I was wondering if it was going to be awkward. We started Thursday morning with breakfast at a diner in my neighborhood and a complimentary HIV test at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in the ghetto of Brooklyn. Although I was sure of my negative status, I wanted him to confirm for me, so he agreed to the ghetto trip and we spent Thursday morning in the waiting room for the 20 minute test. We were one of the first people standing in line. We laughed and joked the whole time we were in the waiting room, which may have seemed pretty annoying to all the people who were stressed out about their results.

After we confirmed negative statuses, we met his brother at his apartment in Manhattan and had dinner in the East Village. The next day we met his brother again and went to see a friend in a play and then headed to some bars in the East Village. When Saturday came around, we visited Coney Island and spent some time hanging out in his brother's apartment and then went to see a Socal band called the Leperkhanz in Times Square. It was one of the best Irish pub bands I have ever seen. On Sunday we had breakfast in Manhattan and spent some time at the Met and Cali guy made dinner for his brother and I (Enchiladas and Spanish rice) while his brother made guacamole and margaritas. He left today, but we spent the morning eating the best pizza in Brooklyn and spent some time in Chinatown getting last minute souveniers for his friends.

In short, we had an amazing time--we laughed, we talked, we had so much fun. It seemed as if his high maintenance and pretentious brother liked me which is a high compliment because he generally thinks he's too good for anyone. Cali guy said he can see us having a long relationship together but and at this point, its too early to really feel like that needs to happen. We agreed on the status of where this was going, and we seem to be on the same page about everything. When we were dancing together in the Irish pub, I had this thought and I saw him in my future. Of course we are taking everything one day at a time and it seems to be working so far. I'm going to see him again in May when I go home. That was my week.

Shopping at Saks

I went to Saks Fifth Avenue today. I've generally been very intimidated by the fashion scene here in NYC. I remember in Cali how I wore open toed shoes and skirts every day and clearly you cannot do that when the weather is as ridiculous as it is in the northeast. I was intimidated by walking into the store and seeing all those filthy rich people paying for their purchases in cash. I went in to get some Seven jeans and came out with a pair of Sevens, 2 Marc Jacobs shirts, 1 BCBG Maxmaria shirt, 1 BCBG Maxmaria skirt, and 1 Walter Baker top. I can't explain what came over me. I saw some of the most beautiful shirts and colors I've ever seen. I tried on dresses that cost over $300 and actually considered buying them. Suddenly, $100 for a shirt seemed cheap. It was amazing. The Dolce & Gabbana pieces were gorgeous. $773 later, I still didn't have shoes. So, tomorrow I'm going to some boutiques in Brooklyn to find some cool shit. I decided that I'm not going to be losing weight anytime soon, so might as well look good while I can.

Bingo and Bialys on a Saturday Night

Friday night as I was leaving work and chatting with Cali guy on the phone, I ran into this guy I met in December. I posted about our time hanging in the Lower East Side. Anyhow, he seemed very interested in me, but I couldn't see anything more than friendship. He came up to me just as I was standing in front of the subway station. It was really bizarre because we didn't have much to talk about and he casually slipped, "I'm dating someone now" into the conversation. We made non-specific plans for a non-specfic date to get together with a "group of people". After we agreed to hang out "one of these days" we parted ways. I felt like I was on an episode of some lame drama television series.

I spent my Saturday night hanging out on the nasty part of Lower East Side at a Bingo Hall nestled between the bosom of the LES projects--a brilliant idea from a co-worker. As I begin to realize I was in the ghetto, this man missing teeth asked me if I had a twin sister because his ex-wife Charlene looked just like me. He insisted that I see the picture he claimed to have which was stuffed somewhere in his pants. I told him I had to go and walked across the street. I ended up spending 4 hours of excitement at the bargain price of 6 dollars. Of course we didn't win anything. After the rousing game of bingo, we stood outside for a bit. Suddenly, this delicious scent wafted in our direction. We went to explore and discovered the bialy. In fact, this is the exact place we went to. Fun times.