Sunday, March 28, 2010
The next morning, we woke up and walked to brunch at Benny’s Burritos. I ordered a terrible Bloody Mary and had an otherwise sub par breakfast. Shannon is a vegetarian and has already scouted out these places for good meals. It was a little misty in Manhattan. We all travelled on subway to Times Square, for Corey and I were going to a Broadway show. Shannon pointed us the right direction and we were on our merry way! I bought us both excellent tickets (Opera seating) to Wicked. Corey and I found our way easily and were 30 minutes or so early. She bought me a $20 Oz-tini, which is an apple-tini in a $5 dollar Wicked cup. We settled in our seats and enjoyed the show. The production was amazing – the stage was elaborate, the acting and singing was superb and I was excited to see a play where I had read the book! The play was significantly different than the book though, which I was able to handle. It turned Wicked into a romance rather than a story about a bad ass, intelligent witch who promoted social justice. And actress who played Lady Glinda definitely outshone the lead, Elphaba. It was beautiful to see and hear though. Three hours later, Corey and I walked to Times Square, which was overwhelming and just as elaborate as the Broadway play. Huge advertisements hang off skyscrapers, alerting people of new movies or stores that lie right beneath the sign. Flashing lights, too many people, photographs and commercialism. But it was fun. After all that Times Square mess, Corey and I settled at a dinner at Bar Pitti, where one of her coworkers suggested we go. First, we would need to find it. About an hour later, we stumble upon Bar Pitti and find the most gorgeous Italian men of the world. Of course, our waiter wasn’t one of them. But we were in perfect vicinity to two others, so Corey and I had a grand ol’ time sightseeing. Corey especially. I had an amazing arugula salad and a beef penne pasta dish, which I didn’t like too much, but still ate it (and the rest at the apartment). Corey had this flat, wide pasta that was like, infused with bacon and heavy cream that was delicious. It was an overall great experience. The waiter loved me and made fun of me throughout the meal (I could never be a New Yorker because I like fun and smiles). He gave me a hug when we left. Bar Pitti left a great taste in all our mouths. Afterward, we headed back to Shannon’s apartment to get ready for a drag show at Barracuda, a gay bar in Chelsea. We went with her friend Cory, who was a super cute John Mayer look alike. He spoke a lot of the gay culture in New York, which is apparently divided. There was also hardly any black gay men in the club. The drag queen show was okay, but the queen herself made me sad. Perhaps I wasn’t in the mood for a party, but I kept thinking, “Is this drag queen happy?” She made up lyrics to popular pop songs joking how she is a prostitute, sleeping with married men and other graphic details I don’t need to discuss here (because I’ve deemed this blog PG for entertainment purposes). There’s the social worker in me, but at the same time from the same teachings, a person can be empowered through means that could be demeaning to others. I’m not suppose to judge, but I’m way too analytical sometimes to have fun. I did have fun though, after letting go and not concentrating so much. The drag queen also spoke about defecating too many times to mention. Anyway, there was a super drunk guy with his drag queen who was just plastered and kept screaming at the drag queen on stage. Cory told us that she usually made fun of straight people in the audience, but she loved that was I was living in Austin, because who doesn’t like that city? By this time, it was raining hard outside and after the four of us danced wildly to bad Ke$ha songs, the women left back to Shannon’s house. I had an excellent conversation with Corey about body image. I feel like I am able to get real answers from Corey, who has a perspective I value and yet do not always agree with. And that’s good friendship y’all.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Shannon had to get back to work, because apparently, you need a job to live in New York. Corey and I made an itinerary of the day, planning to stop by the Modern Museum of Art (MoMA, Best Buy to return my camera, Museum of Sex and Museum of Biblical Art). Full day. We rocked the subway (and keep in mind, Corey Ann is really doing all the work here. Whenever she asked me a rhetorical question, I gave her a terrible answer) and we were outside the MoMA. The line to get in though, was out the door. We decided to scrounge the gift shops and order the tickets off my Iphone and skip the lines! So smart! Of course, this didn’t work and we decided to leave about 30 minutes into the ordeal. We passed by some NYC highlights, like where they film 30 Rock and those others things that are interesting, but I don’t particularly care about. And then, I saw it. H&M. Better selection than San Francisco. Ahh. Corey allowed me to indulge for about 30 minutes and we decided to grab some lunch. Lunch was nothing significant (Cafe Metro, never go), just now lost calories. But a woman next to us with a pizza put both ketchup and mustard on her pizza. Shudder. We then stop by the Best Buy, easily returned my camera and were on our way to Museum of Sex. It was decent. One of the most popular exhibits about animals and sex was closed down for renovation. We walked through condom development, STI history and safe sex promotion advertisements. We then headed to the pornography and sex toy exhibits. There were good tidbits of information, but nothing Corey and I hadn’t seen before. We are educated feminists here. There was a creepy man taking pictures and video of some of the porn that was playing. And people would just stand around these tvs, staring at the porn. It was odd and didn’t seem necessary for analytical purposes. Corey and I ducked into another shop and then headed to Bowery Poetry Club for drag bingo. The announcers were in drag, we were not. And in case you all were wondering, Corey does have a thing for drag shows. It was a long walk and closer to Shannon’s apartment. My feet, this entire trip, are killing me. Well worth it. The Bowery Poetry Club is housed with this fun nonprofit center for girl empowerment. Corey and I got some delightful organic frizzy drink, along with a pretzel. We were there about 45 minutes early and was able to hear this older man’s poetry. Apparently, he does the same act every week, but he is probably around 80 years old, pretended not to know how to work with his radio and spoke a bunch of gibberish/cuss words. It was odd to watch. I thought Travis’ friend, Jacob, would have loved the guy, because I could imagine that’s how he would be when he was old. When it was closer to bingo, he read a poem he wrote about his experience with a man. Cool, I’m all for that. But I was ready to drag bingo. Who doesn’t like bingo? The announcers were great – one drag queen who had perfect comedic timing, along with a young man dressed almost like Urkele and a drag king who was awesome. Bingo had these ridiculous prizes, like ceramic frog soap dispensers, Hannah Montana pen/towel. The announcers were so great and really pushed the prizes. It was just so much fun and I would recommend to anyone in Lower East Manhattan. The beer was also cheap and the cards were $2 each. One round had the winner pick a new friend from the crowd and share the prize. Another was the winners had to strip and cover their genitalia with bingo cards. The last one was the jackpot from the card sales. Though I felt like I was going to win that one, everyone felt the same and four people ended up splitting $212. I was not one of them. We made friends with our table after Corey bought some bags of organic popcorn to share. We sat next to two German woman, one who knew English and one who did not. The one who spoke English was great fun. When we would cheer, she would give a little dog bark. All in all, one of the best things I did in New York. I was thoroughly pumped up afterwards. I found an all you can eat sushi and drink bar nearby (Iphone!). We walked to Ashiya and shared about six rolls, which were delicious. We also got some sake, which was cheap and had only two drinks from there. We also shared two pitchers. We walked over to a bar where Shannon was on a date with DC (remember, the guy from earlier?) and picked up her keys. Corey and I lugged ourselves up the five flights of stairs and watched Millionaire Matchmaker until we fell asleep (and I rubbed her feet for like 30 minutes, ha!).
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Today was an extremely rainy day. Corey and I had to pick up the keys from Ann and it was hell to do so. We both did not have enough warm clothing, were wet, angry and cold. Sigh. We got to Ann’s place of business and walked across the street to a burger joint and had some mild conversation. I think we were all a little exhausted. Ann offered her membership to MoMa card, which we promptly accepted. Afterwards, we walked directly to MoMa and flashed our card, walking right in, no lines to buy tickets, no lines to pick up tickets, nada. We saw so much beautiful artwork, including Picasso, Van Gogh’s Starry Nights (Ferris Bueller anyone?) and two Fridas. I have decided that a life goal of mine is to own a Frida. After a run-through, we headed back to Shannon’s apartment, where we met her up and walked down to a great Indian food place, Brick Lane. The vegetable samosas were amazing, the mango mojitos were superb and it was a light conversation to end our time in Manhattan. We walked back to Shannon’s apartment, got our bags and lugged our way down to the subway (with a woman and a group of men offering to help!). The subway was then amazing easy and fast from Manhattan to Brooklyn and Ann’s apartment is right down the street. We settled in quickly and decided to chill out for the night! We walked across the street to a Polish owned convenience store, where they had great deli options, $2 pints of blueberries and delicious Polish beer. After stocking up, we played Uno and Bananagrams at Ann’s (Bananagrams is not as awesome as people make it out to be) and fell asleep.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Corey and I purchased tickets to Ellis Island today, with out tour starting at 12:30PM. We headed out to the subway easily and walked to the Financial district. If you hadn’t purchased tickets, you would wait in a line for about an hour and a half without Crown access to the Statue of Liberty. By this time, Corey and I knew better and were prepared. We bought a NYC hotdog and settled down to eat it. Little did we know, when the man offered us jumbo hotdogs, they were actually Italian sausages and so, we did not eat NYC hotdogs. Le sigh. We waited in line, boarded the boat and prepared for some history lessons. I had never been on a boat, which was exciting. There was a large group of middle schoolers on the same boat as us, which was annoying, but something that could be avoided. We stopped first at the Statue of Liberty. The security to get in was intense – I was wearing a dress and a shot of air blew it straight up (it was checking for chemical toxins). Afterwards, we met up with our park ranger (who told us some of her perks) and then descended 350+ stairs up to the Crown of the Statue of Liberty. The structure is amazing, but something I could not focus on as I almost died walking up all those stairs. But I figured – this was the time to do it. The view from the Crown was almost overwhelming with the specs of people below us. We soon walked down the stairs headed to the gift shop where I bought my mother a tacky Statue of Liberty foam crown and a light up torch. We also checked out the museum, which was informational and had anything you’d ever want to know about the Statue of Liberty, the designer or the funds to create the project. It was assembled all in France and then disassembled and brought to the USA. Funds were primarily sought from France with about $10, 000 earned in the USA. And now it is a symbol of freedom and liberty for all citizens. We boarded the boat to head to Ellis Island, which was a lot of hype, but not what I expected. It was about a 5-10 minute ride and there are many buildings on the island. Ellis Island, I’m assuming, was primarily this building where in the foyer, immigrants would be checked in, inspected and hopefully sent along their merry way to the USA. The museums were impressive, detailed and intimate. There were many photos and stories from actual immigrants with their homeland stated. There was also a propaganda gallery at the end, promoting and criticizing immigration. It a repeat of what is occurring now in the USA. We also took a citizen test and did pretty well on it. We went to check up on ancestory, but decided against it, as it was $5 to check up a name and free if you did it at home. My ancestors from my mother’s side came through, but it was hard to look up his name as it could have been misspelled. We checked out the gift shop (lame!) and headed back to the boat. The ordeal took about 4-5 hours and we Iphoned a restaurant nearby to eat some Thai food. The food was decent – we both went pretty light. I ordered some jasmine rice and chicken satay, along with two elaborate drinks. Corey and I were ready to head back to Brooklyn, out new home. I chilled out at home while Corey went and got some beer at the Polish market across the street. She came back with a pizza, beer, flowers and balloons for my birthday. This woman is amazingly sweet and considerate. Delicious pizza, beautiful flowers and wow, she even blew up the balloons herself! We had to go out now right! We headed to one bar with cheap Pabst and too many rockers. We went to another bar, expecting ping pong and found none. We did speak to these two guys, who told us about a cool bar with shuffleboard. And off we went! We got a pitcher of cheap Brooklyn lager and started our game. Soon into it, a British man asked to play. “Find a partner,” we said. He asked two other guys, staring at the shuffleboard table, but making no moves toward it. One of the guys just moved to Brooklyn that night, basically across the street. He was in a bad mood because he had sublet an apartment. He spoke to a man today about it, made arrangements and gave the guy $800 for his deposit and rent. And…that wasn’t the guy that was subletting his apartment. He was then given a discount from the actual guy with the lease, but was still out $800. Oy. This was my third or so time playing shuffleboard and Corey’s first time. We just learned the rules that night. The British guy, slightly annoying but still encouraging, loved it. And we won. It was awesome. I was able to tap into my gaming skills and kicked some ass. Corey did okay too :-D We spoke to the guys on the outdoor porch and the one who was screwed out of his money left home because he had work the next day. Luckily for me, I am unemployed. And Corey was on vacay. We spoke to the British guy and the other one of the rest of the night. We were first debating about inequalities in the UK, which I stated there was definitely some, but he denied it all, stating anyone who was anybody could go to college. Which I know this is not true. I had to bring in the race inequalities. Then the British guy started flirting. With me. Again, really people?! I have to fight them off with a stick. He first started with the, “You’re hot,” comments, but at the end of the night, asked Corey and I to go back to his house. After stating no and saying I have a boyfriend NUMEROUS times, this guy would not let up. I even told him about Travis, the all-American, super masculine who hates Europeans and the Brit was still not fazed. He turned around looking for his jacket and Cor and I were outta there. Good night, good night.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Corey and I decided to stay in Brooklyn for the day. She was craving yoga and I was craving shopping. I think we both needed some time away from each other as well. I did some shopping, picked up a few things here and there. I found a great recycled vintage dress made by Lavai Maria. The designer/sewer was the womaning the shop and when I tried on the dress, said it was made for me. But it was $136 with 20% off. From my GRE tutoring, I figured out that was still way too much. It is a wool wrap dress, with a plaid like pattern of yellow, pink and gray. I told her I would debate it. After I consulted with my mother, who rationalized I needed to remember the places I went to with fun things, I decided I was going to get it. I met up with Corey at Surf Bar, because we were both craving seafood! Yes! I had an excellent, strong Sangria and spoke to the bartender/manager a bit. He was Australian. We got a great place outside, because Brooklyn was just beautiful out. We both ordered some soup; I got the clam chowder and Corey got the crab and corn chowder. And then we both realized we would never need anyone else in our entire lives because those chowders were DAMN good! I savored that soup to the end. I ordered a Bloody Mary, which was great. The manager was having fun with us and particularly Corey I think. I ordered ceviche, which was alright. We bid farewell and walked by a bar that was offering power hour, which was 25 cent Tecate and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. Too fun. We told the bartender, Sean, we’d be back in an hour. After some primping, we headed back to the bar. You could get four beers at a time, so Corey and I did just that. And then we chilled out. A creepy McCreeperson started to hit on me and commented how great my hair was. He had his headphones on, but I’m pretty sure he wasn’t listening to anything and instead choose to listen to our stimulating conversation. We made friends with two guys from the next table and decided to meet them up later at their apartment to have some drinks and go to a bar. After much power houring, Corey and I went back to Ann’s apartment and Shannon met us there. We walked over to the boys’ apartments, had some drinks and were on our way. We stopped by at some bar, that I have no idea what it was called, but we were there. I was friendly with Alex, who I thought was nice and somewhat interested in Corey. And then I realized…he was interested in me. Nooo. I did ask him to smoke a cigarette and he bought me a shot. But I thought he was being kind! But no, women, never ever expect this is kindness. This is payment for sex that will hopefully occur later in the night. Gross. After he bought me a shot, Corey said it was time to go. I told Alex and he said to wait for him and “I just bought you a shot!” And Corey, well Corey said it was time to go! So Alex turned around and we took off. I didn’t answer his two calls and felt bad. Until we got to the next club and danced our butts off. I was wearing my new wool recycled vintage dress and got hot after about 30 minutes. I decided to take a break outside, call Travis and chill out. I was feeling bad, homesick and disgusted in men. It’s always good calling your boyfriend after these experiences as you are then able to realize what a great guy you have. Corey, Shannon and Ann found me outside, concerned, and I said I wanted to go home! Corey, Shannon and I walked home, but made a detour to get Cheetos. No Cheetos at the Polish market. We then went to a disgusting fried chicken place, which I insisted on (sorry) and they had none of the things we wanted. After gorging on bad food, I fell asleep, calm, but still a little upset.
Friday, April 2, 2010
I woke a bit pissed, a bit sad and a bit hung over from the night before. I felt bad that I just left that guy because he did buy me a shot, but at the same time, he tried to push himself on me because he bought me a drink. This manipulation from gender roles is exhausting. I got up at 8AM to walk with Corey and find a taxi. After about 15 minutes, she decided to take the subway and was on her way to a Chinatown bus to Boston! Goodbye Corey. I was tuckered out this day and packed up my things quickly. I picked up non-fancy, regular food at Subway and was on my way to the subway. I spoke to my mom about my feelings from the night before and she made me feel much better.
From the oh so fabulous Alicia Keys:
Now you’re in New York. These streets will make you feel brand new, bright lights will inspire you!!
Yes, you did. Thank you New York for a great trip.
I made a great transfer to the Bolt bus. I thought immediately the bus was right by the subway stop. It wasn’t. I went across the street to another bus location, waited 30 minutes and found out it was the wrong station. I then went across the street to the actual Bolt bus and made it! On time! It was my first time taking a bus trip and I was so nervous that I wouldn’t be able to get on. But I bought my ticket ahead of time, so yes, I was able to get on. Lets remember people, eliteness is preparation and this gets you the best spot in town! I got a good spot on the bus next to this woman that makes the trip every weekend to see her boyfriend. I plugged in my Iphone and slightly accessed the Internet. Five hours later and a variety of bus driver quips, I was in DC and hopped a cab to Amina’s. It was good seeing Amina. And her apartment is fabulous. I settled a bit and we went to get me some pizza and a fennel salad. We went to a nearby grocery store to get items for queso. And Amina made some hot queso that evening. I re-met her friend, Ann, who is a 28 year old woman who writes for Feministing. She and Amina are like peas in a pod. I also met Ryan, Amina’s friend from Austin, who had a job interview in DC and was crashing on her couch. We watched bad television and I read good magazines articles. And I was then ready to crash out…(after reading a great article on Sex Trafficking and the 15 year anniversary of Selena’s death in Texas Monthly magazine).
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Amina and I woke up late and walked to a coffee shop a couple blocks from her apartment. Delicious chai and bagels. We then got ready for the day and walked to a park for a picnic with her friends. But first, I got super sexually harassed. I mean harassed like I was still a good 5 feet away and I was being cat-called until I was five feet in front of them. I laughed – I was surprised, but then I learned from Amina that this kind of thing in DC was the norm. For the rest of my trip, I was sexually harassed about 2-3 times a day. We arrived at the park, where her friends had set up an intricate set-up. Delicious salads, hummus, vegetables, guacamole. Now, I was in my kind of scene. Amina and I brought some Tecate in her huge purse and proceed to have a beer. A little while later, two policemen showed up, asking if we had alcohol. “No, sir,” we stated. Then he saw the empty beer cans in a trash bag, as well as an almost full beer in a Dixie cup. He called us liars and asked whose beer it was.
“What are you talking about officers?”
“It’s not a big deal,” I said, “we can just throw it out.”
“Oh it is a big deal. Someone better throw that out.”
So I got up and threw it out. And that was that. Lets continue with the picnic. Ann showed up, along with Amina’s friends Becca, Liz, Jen and Jonah. All are very much into thrifting and I am into vintage shopping. I think this is the start of some beautiful friendships. We chilled out for a couple hours and decided to walk to Ann’s house. We made a detour at a Japanese market, where Ann and Jen went crazy for ethnic food. We decided to make sushi for dinner. After a quick walk to Ann’s apartment and a free coffee table on the street that Amina picked up, we were on our way. Now, I love Ann. Very sweet, a feminist, considerate, almost motherly, bad-ass and loves to vintage shop. She chopped all the vegetables, made the rice and showed me how to make sushi rolls. It was so exciting and yes, easy! I was cranking them out and showing others how to make it. We had some red wine and good conversations. I really connected with Jonah, who was asexual to me and therefore non-threatening. He was neat to talk to and it was cool because I knew he did not expect anything from me other than friendship. He told me about a movement class he is taking, but is for theatre. They have a couple classes over anatomy, body language and different poses. This guy is neat. Amina and I left and went to her friend’s Dayo’s house. This woman is cool. ALL of Amina’s friends are cool. She’s always had this. Dayo is applying to law school, but writes for a black newspaper. She is critical, enlightening and fun. We then walked home to Amina’s apartment and repeated bad tv from the night before. She has got me hooked on “Be Good Johnny Weir.”
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Amina and I woke up and instantly began to chill out. It was nice after back to back activities in New York. We were going to go “thrifting” with Ann, but both her and Amina were working on salary for work. I walked around a bit, came back home and got ready for the day. Amina and I walked to Whole Foods, which by the way is an Austin creation. The Whole Foods in DC is NOTHING compared to the insanity in Austin. We debated buying a $15 blueberry pie and decided to go cheaper with a Pineapple Upside Cake. We picked up some light food and walked over to Ann’s. We ate, watched the lovely woman cook and hung out. We headed to Jean’s in a taxi cab, where her apartment looks like an old re-vamped hotel. Her mother’s friend brought a lot of wine from Napa Valley and the party was ready to begin. I sat with Amina and her friends at the dining room table, next to a guy, Hunter Riley. Hunter works at a non-profit in Arizona and was going to the Easter Egg Hunt at the White House tomorrow. After discussing with his friend Chase (who would love to hug Michelle Obama for about five minutes), Hunter decided to tone down his own hug in case the opportunity showed up. Hunter was very sweet and reminded me of Travis! I told this to Amina later and she said she thought the same thing! Hunter is from Arkansas and has a Masters in Public Service at the Clinton School in Little Rock. He’s done field work in Cameroon and lived in Mendoza, Argentina for 6 months. Hunter was shorter than Trav, definitely not as built and had some fun lime green suspenders on. After I almost burst with this information (“OH MY GOSH, YOU LOOK LIKE MY BOYFRIEND!”), he gave me his card and I later emailed him for Argentina info. Good times. Now the food was absolutely delicious. There was incredible kale with massive amounts of garlic, short ribs (which I don’t like), Ann’s stellar pasta salad, homemade mac-n-cheese and of course, the Pineapple Upside Down cake from Whole Foods. It was good to have something on Easter, if it wasn’t my mom, brother and a turkey dinner prepared. Amina and I took a cab home and chilled out at home with good, insightful conversation. Amina is my girl. She welcomed me with open arms, spoiled me rotten in DC and had no remorse doing so. I miss my close female friends that moved away from Austin, but it is relieving to know they are still there in spirit.
Monday, April 5, 2010
I woke up, not prepared to be on my own and sort of dreading it. I had been relying on Corey and Amina for the last couple of weeks and I had to be by myself? I finally got myself out of the house and to Chipotle, where I decided to reward myself before going to the depths of hell (ie, the subway). I faced harassment, but brought my headphones to drown out the oppression. I took the yellow line all the way to Huntington to see the exhibits before realizing I had no idea how to read the suway. And then, after that, it clicked. The subway IS easy in DC, I just confused myself to no end. I walked easily to the Smithsonian National History, but it was so hot and there were way too many kids, families, anything else you could name. I quickly went inside, walked upstairs to the Live Butterfly exhibit, remembered I’d been there when I was in 8th grade with my mom, walked to the Hope Diamond exhibit, saw a ridiculous line and got out of there. I didn’t want to learn anything. I didn’t want kids to run into me. I called Sigi and Travis, who convinced me to walk to the Lincoln Memorial. I past by the phallic Washington memorial, the gross Reflecting Pool (can no one clean this?) and 30 minutes later, showed up in front of Lincoln. I took some pictures, read his speech and was on my way. I walked through the Korean War memorial (reading, Freedom is not free and reflecting on this), past some cherry blossoms and then…I was ready to go back home. But not without harassment from older men. I stripped my clothes and threw myself on the couch and waited for Amina to come home! We arranged to have dinner with a friend Juan and his boyfriend, who offered to make everything if we brought bread. I met Juan my freshman year in college when he was a friend’s friend’s roommate. We instantly connected then, though he does seem to push away his friends even if they have great fun. We took a bus and lugged up a nice hill to be greeted by Juan outside. His boyfriend supplied us with red wine, delicious sausage red sauce and pasta, along with garlic bread and a fabulous salad. The boyfriend’s cat was in heat, so we watched her groan and rub herself for about two hours. We headed back to Amina’s and ended the night.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
I decided an itinerary before I woke up and wanted to go to the Phillips Collection, where they had an exquisite exhibit on Georgia O’Keefe. The collection in general, was amazing. Of course, I only walked an hour to the exhibit, because I only had a $1.45 for one bus ride. I decided to save it. I learned on the way that Travis’ friend Jacob won a lawsuit against a boat company for 3.8 million dollars! !! It was odd to hear that because I was listening to Jacob’s mix tape at that very moment. I arrived at the exhibit, sunburned but still cute and forked up a student admission. I saw some Van Gogh’s, Picassos and everything in between. The collection is in an old renovated house, which is neat to see. The O’Keefe exhibit was informative and beautiful, spanning across her charcoals, oil paintings and naked photography. Towards the end of it, I was getting a nasty mood from not eating and headed over to Raku, a decent Asian restaurant. I walked around Dupont Circle and was ready to go home. I waited for Amina and we decided to go to a nearby wine bar for appetizers and delicious drinks. We ordered our alcoholic drinks, showed our IDs and then the waiter told us he couldn’t serve underage customers. After debating that 1986 meant I was 23, we got our drinks. Amina and I had reflective conversations and were able to get more lighthearted at her apartment. She wished me a happy birthday at 12AM with a full glass of red wine and I went to bed happy, full and ready for Top Chef tomorrow.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
I set an alarm at 830AM to get to the National Zoo at 10AM, but then I decided since it was my birthday, I was going to sleep in. I left the house at 11:30AM to catch the subway to 1301 Constitution for the Top Chef taping! I apparently signed away my life and cannot speak of any of on the Internet (they “police it). It was awesome though – great food, some well-dressed people and unlimited, yes I said, unlimited wine. People loved the reconstructed vintage wool dress I got from Brooklyn. Well worth my $85. After Top Chef, we trekked a couple blocks to get some good margaritas. By this time, I was ready to go home. Amina and I took a bus home and I half-slept on her shoulder. I then “slept” for an hour until we were going to her friends’ (and my new friends!) Jen and Jonah’s house for vegan meals. Amina’s friend, Ann, made me a delicious carrot cake with lemon cream cheese frosting, which is absolutely sweet, surprising and loving. I am so happy Amina has a good friend like that in DC. Amina and I took a cab home, watched bad tv (Law & Order SVU) and headed to bed (but not before I devoured some of Singto’s, Amina’s roommate from Nigeria, delicious peanut stew. I just can’t do vegan y’all).
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Today, I woke up. First great thing of the day! Found a sweet letter from Singto, wishing me well. Left a note asking for the yummy peanut stew recipe. Waited outside for the Super Shuttle for 30 minutes. Went to the Baltimore airport, which was beautiful, had great food choices and shopping. Got approached by a man who offers pre-paid legal services and “felt” like a social worker. Gave me a magazine to read two articles on his mentor. Asked me for my number to speak about the articles later. Told him I had a boyfriend. Said it was for networking. Told him to give me his email. Said to remember my word about emailing him. Never gave him my word. Got on a too long plane ride and sat next to a strange couple where the wife was way overbearing and the husband did whatever she asked. Waited two hours for my delayed flight to El Paso. Spoke to my dad over the phone who asked if I was going to “Guat-la-ja-ma.” Going to Argentina, dad. After a two hour layover, bad wings and a margarita from Buffalo Wild Wings, I boarded my flight to El Paso. I saw my mom, fell in love again (I miss her sooo much) and had some good food. I came home and saw that Coco had become a 5 pound monster. She peed all over the place when she saw me, but I’ve never condoned that! Soo cute, haa. And now, I was to prepare for Argentina!!
