Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Gearing Up for SF

I'm gearing up for another trip to California this week. This time, I'll be headed to my homeland....the Bay Area. Among the things I'm excited about are hanging out with Grandma Alice, mom and dad in Golden Gate Park, seeing M&M and hearing about their trip to Japan, taking a cap-nap on my parent's back deck, watching my friend Serene get married and having a drink with her after, squirming around in my feminine side while getting ready for the wedding my lovely friend Jenny, hearing all about my amazing friend's adventures and life-changes like Shi who recently moved back to SF, Ashley who recently moved into the city, Heath who is slowly building my dream home in San Rafael and so on. It's always a rush to see everyone and catch-up but I still can't wait.

See you on the flip side....

Monday, July 21, 2008

Two More Favorites in the LES

I'm undergoing another East Village and Lower East Side phase, which seems to be cyclical with warm weather. We met up with 8 friends in the LES last Saturday night for dinner and discovered 2 more favorite spots. The first, a Cambodian noodle bar called Kampuchea (75 Rivington Street at Allen) offered us easy-to-enjoy cocktails, a tropical like setting, and wide long tables which made sharing food easy. We dined on amazing Cambodian crepes, which actually came with lettuce leaves and chili sauce for fun-food dining, seasoned corn, perfectly prepared noodles, pork "sampler" sandwiches, tiger shrimp and some tasty white wine. It's now been elevated to one of my favorite noodle bars in the city. Perhaps next time I go I can talk them into turning on the AC and abandoning the tropical feel of the great outdoors.

After dinner we headed to Nurse Bettie's (106 Norfolk St. at Delancy) which my colleague recommended a few weeks back. It was a perfectly relaxed, mid-to-small sized space that actually had their AC pumping (thank gawd!). It felt like a neighborhood staple with charm, as all the pin-up girls looked down on us sipping cocktails in one of the small booths. The melting pot crowd had a positive drive and all seemed to be enjoying their relatively cheep drinks. It will be added to my list of "fun bars."

Dying to see The Dark Knight

So all the buzz on the newscasts and "around the water cooler" is about the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight. While I've always been a comic book fan, I've never really been the first one to run out and catch the blockbuster comic book movies. In recent years, I've loved the different versions of Superman along with Ironman and Braveman thrown in there, but I have not been enchanted by the Batman movies of the past. But, based on what I've heard, this version will blow me out of the water. Here's to hoping I'll get to see it soon :)

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Ai Chihuahua

The illness of 2008. The illness that nipped at my ankles for days like a frenzied chihuahua before moving up my legs to grab a hold of my calves with its lock jaw has finally subsided. The chihuahua, or kidney infection as my doctor liked to call it, took hold of me during my trip to San Diego last week.

The beast attacked me full-force on my return to NYC, including a few nice days of involuntary sweating (followed by some unpleasant ice-cold baths), the shakes, the shivers, a sore back and an overly sensitive belly. I don't remember being that sick since I was a kid, although I know I've used that line in the last 4-years.

Now that I have shaken the chihuahua back down to my ankles I can make fun of it again.....daydreaming of the day when it will be completely gone.

Ai Chihuahua that was close.

San Deigo -- July 4th

It felt like a wave of stress was flying me into my July 4th vacation. Now that it's melted away, I can't even remember what I was so stressed about in the first place. Isn't that how it always goes?

Anyhow, visiting Brian, my brother, in sunny Southern California always mellows me out. So, I was ready for the trip and welcomed it with open arms. The first couple of days, sinking my toes into the sand and swimming out into the crashing waves I wondered what in the hell made me even think to leave California.

Midnight swims, sipping cocktails overlooking the sunset and driving everywhere (oh wait, maybe I just remembered why I moved to NYC) all offered us good times. But, as many of you know, I am not much of a sun-bather or "modern settler" as I like to call them. You know what I'm talking about, those fantastic mellow people who can lounge all day outside without a-care-in-the-world and do...nothing. I occasionally accomplish this on my couch, but somehow it's different there (I blog, and somehow, sadly that makes me feel as if I've accomplished something).

So by day-three Jen, my travel mate from SF who also flew down for the weekend, and I were ready to try our hat at surfing. We had a tough time, but caught some waves and grew an amazing amount of respect for surfers before our arms got too sore. We also talked Michael (Brian's room-mate) and Brian into takeing us up the coast on their motorcycles. Although I wondered a few times if my brother was trying to kill me for something I had done to him in the past, we all made it home alive.

T'was a great trip, checking out his new diggs(a brand-new-god-only-knows-how-many-square-foot home that sits a mere mile from the beach), partaking in far to much debauchery, and getting to know everyone in his life a little bit better.

If only NYC and San Diego were closer.....