A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Or rather, many cherry blossoms grow in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden had a Cherry Blossom festival today and of course everyone in Brooklyn showed up. I used my student ID to get the $4 discount, which I feel slightly guilty about. Slightly. Cherry Blossoms were in full bloom. I couldn't see any of the performances, because all of Brooklyn was in the way. So, I roamed around looking at random things like Sushi Pillows. As I was leaving I saw a girl that I had gone out with a few times. I think she has a girl crush on me. I have had a few girls crush on me in the past, and it usually doesn't end up pretty. She's a nice girl, but not very interesting. She quotes rabbis on a regular basis, and she's not even Jewish. The first time I met her, she asked me to guess her nationality. I guessed Italian and she was disappointed that I didn't guess Jewish. She is Italian but wants to look Jewish for some reason. After the BBG, I went to enjoy a Chocolate Stout Float from The Chocolate Room. It's created with Brooklyn Brewery's Chocolate Stout Beer and Vanilla Ice Cream. That's right honey. Beer + Ice Cream. It was interesting. I wouldn't say it was delicious, but interesting.

Fuckbuddies and Whores.

I had a conversation with Cali guy today. Let me give you some background first before I dive in. A while back ago, before we were involved in our romance, he had a fuckbuddy. One whore of a 37 year old with two teenager daughters. Just to further illustrate my disgust for this individual, she has a Myspace profile in which she posed in her lingerie. This is the filthy picture, but you may need to have a myspace account to view it. She has this picture next to other pictures with her and her daughters. Trash. Pure fucking trash. They are no longer fucking, and when they were, neither of them had ever wanted a relationship with each other because they felt like it wasn't going to work.

Okay, flash forward to the present. They still are friends though no longer have sex. They go to local venues to see bands and I think he still goes to her house to help her daughters with homework. He has already assured me that they aren't having sex. I believe him because he can be brutally honest sometimes. I think its weird that they still hang out. He told me she is a friend. He felt that she was more a friend with benefits than a fuckbuddy. Emphasis on friend.

Every fuckbuddy I ever had got thown away like a used tampon when I was done with them. They had absolutely no value to me afterwards. This is the same for all of my ex's too. I understand he's different, he talks to most of his ex's and is on friendly terms with his ex-wife though she cheated on him with his sister's husband. We aren't in a formal relationship, so its not like I can tell him not to hang out with her, and I don't really want to do that anyways. He told me that he wouldn't be jealous if I was hanging out with an ex-fuckbuddy. Typical guy. I know I'm totally hating right now, but where does this 37 year old slut get off fucking a 28 year old? Bitch. She needs to fuck guys her own age.

UPDATED: I looked at her myspace again. This bitch makes me sick. her address is sugarpuss69. She has a picture of herself licking cali guy. I'm over it. I text messaged him and told him, "I know I'm not allowed to say this, but I hope there's nothing going on between you two, because if there is I'm going to have to say goodbye. To this he responded, "She's my friend and she doesn't have many friends." I responded with this: "That's great. I'm just saying if something more happens between you two I'm out. I don't know her but her myspace is gross and she's licking you--its total trash." To this he responded, "Ok". I know I'm sort of out of my boundaries, because we aren't together, but enough is enough. This guy has to know that I think this girl is trash and though he has permission to fuck anyone he wants, if he fucks this girl again, I'm done. I don't like this girl and I want to make it clear. And if he does fuck her, I better not know about it.

Assholes & BFFs

So, I've been recently pondering some recent events in my life. A mental review of my friendships has caused me to do some introspection and ask myself a single question: Am I an asshole? Probably. When I moved to New York I had a circle of friends from Cali. One of the people I considered a BFF deleted her Myspace account. Without warning she was gone. This is akin to a slap in the face. I left an irrate message on her phone. She left a message explaining why she did it and that was the last I heard from her. That was 5 months ago. I text messaged her a month ago, and left a voicemail 2 weeks ago. No response. I think its over.

Another situation developed when another BFF went to Ireland for 5 weeks. I asked her for a single item--a Guinness shirt. She came back to the states empty handed. When I asked her about the shirt she said, "Go Online." I know this may not be something to be angry at, but I was extremely pissed off and haven't spoken to her since. Its been about a month. I think I have a friendship disorder.

Its not you It's me

When is it appropriate to dump a friend? When I moved to the NYC, I had a single friend here whom I knew the whole time in Buffalo. We lived in the same complex. We have hung out often since I moved to Brooklyn. He's very resourceful and always willing to help. But, there are things about him that really bug me. Over time these things have built up and finally come to a breaking point. I can't even fully articulate what he's done or if he's done anything wrong at all. I just feel like I'm tired of him. I feel guilty about not wanting to be friends with him because we had been fairly close for the last couple of years. Is it really fair to dump someone when they haven't really done anything wrong? (except irritate me?) My concern is that I may not be judging this situation fairly.

Adventures on the Manhattan Bound Express

Again, this story starts on the morning express train. I wasn't able to get a seat, so I stood in front of a row of people. As we rolled into the Atlantic Avenue station this woman in front of me began to dry heave. She cupped her hands in front of her mouth. I scampered away envisioning a spew of puke. I was the only person who moved. Her cheeks puffed out as if she was holding it all in her mouth. The muslim lady next to her reached into her bag and pulled out a produce bag with fruit. She dumped out the fruit and handed over the clear produce bag. The woman began to puke into the produce bag. Everyone was staring at her. Thanks to the clear plastic, we all saw the contents. The fun never stops on public transport. The week just started, I can't wait for the next show.

Brooklyn Alive

View of Verrazano from Bay Ridge

I boarded the crowded express train on Friday morning. After we stopped at Canal street, 2/3rds of the train emptied out. I was standing against the door when I noticed a nasty smell. I looked at the guy next to me and I could tell he smelt it too. He glanced down at the floor in front of him. I followed his gaze and as my mind began to register the horridness of what I saw, I had to fight the urge to puke. On the floor of the subway in front of me was shit. I'd like to believe it came from a dog. A dog with runny doo. Or maybe a baby. But Fifi has assured me that it was in fact human shit I saw. The guy on the subway nonchalantly checked the bottom of his shoes. I glanced around looking at other people on the train. They were looking at it but didn't appear concerned. I knew my face betrayed my disgust. That's the thing with New Yorkers, nothing shocks them. Note to self: never wear flip flops in the city again. My Friday ended with a yoga class.

On Saturday, everyone was outside and as I was walking down the street this guy in a van looked at me and said to his friend, "Holy shit, look at the cans on that girl!" I walked to the edge of my neighborhood which borders on the Upper New York bay. I was expecting to see a beautiful body of water, but instead saw huge ships (oil tankers?) circling the bay. Garbage lined the rocks and the water was a mysterious hue. A funky odor was in the air. I saw Manhattan in the distance cloaked by a thick layer of yellow smog. Ah Brooklyn, the place I call home.

Doodletown USA

Saturday I spent the day hiking in a ghost town known as Doodletown. I drove to New Jersey to pick up my ex-manager and drove upstate for an hour in an attempt to view this magical place that was once inhabitated by people until 1957 when everyone moved away. We expected to see remnants of life, but instead found land with small signs stating that a family with a beautiful Victorian house to live here. You couldn't even tell at all that anything lived there besides a wild deer. We hiked for 4 hours and saw two cemetaries and beautiful cascading waterfalls. It was a perfect day on Saturday. I spent Sunday in my house trying to avoid the Nor'Easter that has hit NYC. A quiet weekend indeed.

P.S. Is it wrong to have an intellectual crush on your new manager? You know like the "professorial" crush.

I Heart Brooklyn

I had a major awakening while walking through my neighborhood last week. I love Brooklyn. I can't go so far as to say I love New York, because I don't give a shit about the other boroughs. Never been to Staten Island, The Bronx or Queens. I am less than impressed with Manhattan. There's something about Brooklyn that cannot be described until you live here. Today when I was searching for information, I stumbled upon The Brooklynites and in some way it gave me the reassurance that it was okay to love Brooklyn because millions of others do too. Brooklyn feels like a community. It has a rich history and an interesting diversity of people. Brooklyn has an attitude. Brooklyn feels like a small community within a large city. Every neighborhood in Brooklyn has its own personality and vibe. I know I will never live in another place like this.

Boutiques & Blueberry Ale

I haven't been posting as frequently as I had liked. Last weekend I had the best Mexican food in all of New York City. It's difficult to find real Mexican food and every fucking Mexican and Chinese person believes they can deliver on this promise. They can't. All the Mexican food places in Manhattan are run by Chinese people. I'm fine with that, but fuck give me a real fucking taco then. So, the best Mexican I've had so far is in Greenpoint, a neighborhood in Brooklyn. Acapulco. After the Mexican food experience we headed over to the Magnetic Field to catch a Dansettes show. They were fun.

I spent all of Saturday walking around getting to know my neighborhood. Cupcake shops are all the rage in here in New York and I found a cute one a few blocks over. I finally had a tacky Red Velvet Cupcake which was delicious. I also found some cute boutiques and spent way too much on clothes. It was a Saturday morning and I had literally rolled out of bed, so I looked a bit unkempt. I felt like I was having a Pretty Woman moment when I walked into the first boutique. The shop owners didn't bother to greet me or even offer to help. I spent about $170 in their store but felt like their selection was crappy and their attitudes shitty. Bitches. I walked another block and found another boutique which had way cuter stuff and the shop owner was attentive and helpful.

I've spent the rest of my weekend watching the Netflix in my queue including Martin Scorcese's Mean Streets which is really good and drinking Blueberry Ale. Tastes like real blueberries too. As a sidenote, I have a friend who recently came from traveling in Ireland for 5 weeks. I requested a Guinness shirt and offered to give her money for it. When she got back I asked her about the shirt and she said that I could just go online and get it. Is that bullshit or what? I just can't believe that she could even say something so stupid. And, she's also wrong. The UK Guinness Webstore does not deliver to the US and has different merchandise. The US store has total crap. I just thought I'd share that because I thought it was completely lame that she didn't bring back the one thing I asked for and had the nerve to tell me to go online.