g-way weekend update

As per tradition, I went out on Friday night with Bassey and Joe. We went to/crashed Joe's friend's private birthday party at Bowery Electric in NoHo. Luckily we arrived just in time to catch the last of an open bar hour. Once drinks bounced back to full price, however, there wasn't much to entice us to stay (obnoxiously loud music, people we didn't know). We walked to a bar I'd heard about called Kettles of Fish in the West Village. THIS WAS A WISCONSIN THEMED BAR. They had Packer/Badger football memorabilia all over - it was just like being at home, minus the mulleted Wisconsin residents donning camo.

I had a headache on and off for most of Saturday, so I laid low that morning. In the afternoon I decided to venture out to activate my library card (finally) and walk around Park Slope. There are neat little shops, restaurants and bars all over - it's basically like State Street, but exploded. I caught a glimpse of a shopping center farther out, so I went to check it out. I went into the most intense Target I'd ever encountered: two stories, no daylight, tons of people, only one way exit/checkout area...nuts, just nuts. Anyway, I guess I didn't realize quite how far out I had walked, because it took me an insanely long time to get home. Later I figured out I'd walked over five miles in total. On a whim, you know. The usual.

My headache came back in full force after a while, so I took a nap. I also watched Milk, which I fully enjoyed. I'm one of those people who likes knowing the ending before it happens, so at one point when the suspense was building, I paused the movie and looked up Harvey Milk on wikipedia. It's terrible, but it made me feel better. I'm trying to watch all the Oscar-nominated films for this season, but I've had Frost/Nixon sitting around in my room for over a week and still haven't gotten to it...and Benjamin Button is like three hours long, so I'm putting that one off too.

Today was beautiful (an unseasonable high of 59), so I couldn't just sit in the house. My roommate Jeremy had mentioned he was thinking about taking the Staten Island Ferry. I decided to go with him and we made an extremely touristy day out of it.

We took the subway to the ferry, which is free (!!!) ... the wind was out of control, so it was rather cold, but the day was gorgeous and bright. We had a great view of Manhattan, Brooklyn, New Jersey and Staten Island, along with an abundance of seagulls, ships and tugboats. It reminded me a lot of taking the ferry in Seattle...which isn't that surprising, I guess all ferries are created equal.

Post-ferry, we walked along the shore, trying to figure out how to get onto the Brooklyn Bridge. We had to backtrack into Manhattan a ways, but it was definitely worth it - walking the bridge is incredible! It's funny (but also understandable) how aggressive the bikers are...they bark really angrily at the pedestrians to get the hell out of their way. I saw a guy who almost crashed into another biker give an unmistakable death stare to the couple who caused his dilemma. They were completely oblivious. (Did I mention I love to people-watch?)


After trekking over the bridge and into Dumbo (my work neighborhood), Jeremy and I went in search of Jacques Torres Chocolate - a chocolate shop renowned for its amazing cookies and hot chocolate, among other things. First though, we accidentally ran into a really cool indoor flea market - I'll have to go back next weekend, because I could have spent a lot of time there.

Jacques Torres was PACKED (a good sign). After waiting in line for 10-15 minutes, I bought a hot chocolate and a chocolate chip cookie. It. Was. Delicious. I should probably give up baking, because there is absolutely no way I will ever make a cookie that can compare to Jacques'. And the hot chocolate? Without a doubt, this was the thickest, richest hot chocolate I've ever consumed. It was only 8 oz, but I couldn't have possibly have had any more. I went into a diabetic coma. The most magical diabetic coma ever. I was Augustus Gloop and I had just fallen into Willy Wonka's chocolate river. It was a religious experience: Jacques Torres is the god of my personal heaven. As this heaven is only a few blocks from where I work, it's a very dangerous heaven indeed.

Tomorrow I'm going to the Westminster Dog Show with Caryl, my boss from the bookstore I work at back home. She comes up to New York for the show every year; I'm really looking forward to seeing her (and the dogs too - I'm not much of a dog person, but I'm sure it will be quite interesting).