Thank You, Lord, for Sending Me the F Train (part 2)

After spending the afternoon at Emmalee's; Sean, Schenck and I meet up with Natalie, Chris H., Natalie's friend, and eventually Hung at a restaurant called Panorama. They served good Italian food. The three of us ditched the others and made our way back to Brooklyn to a frisbee party. As for the party... the place was nice, good music, decent conversation. When we got there, I had no trouble finding the liquor but the mixers were another issue. I eventually opened a bottle of wine and started with that. Later on, I found some Coke and and made a Captain's & Coke. Even later, I found some cider in the fridge and decided that would go great with the Captain's. I eventually had two of those. The next day I found out that the cider had already been spiked and that probably explained my severe hangover. The three of us stumbled home.

Sunday was the day we had planned to watch NFL and Sean and Schenck thought eating nacho's was a necessity for football viewing. We eventually made our way to some crappy bar in Manhattan near NYU. There was a $15 minimum per head and none of us were drinking beer, that meant for a lot of cheese & fried food. We consumed two orders of nacho's there. We were planning on going somewhere else for the 4pm games but one thing that made this place exceptionally bad was the fact that they switched off the Brown's game with 45 seconds left in the game to turn on a 4pm game. In our attempt to find our next drinking hole we came across a bar and walked in. It turned out to be a Steeler's backers bar, we walked out pretty quickly. Our next location advertised all NFL games on Sunday, but had none on even though all the 4pm games had already started. We then made our way to the west village to a place called the Barrow Street Ale House. This place was very pleasant with good service and food. We stayed through three quarters of the Sunday night game and had at least one order of nacho's there. I believe I had my first "celebrity" sighting at the bar. A guy with some friends sat in the booth next to us and for some reason he looked very familiar. After asking Sean and Schenck if he looked familiar to them, which he didn't, it came to me where I recognized him from. I could not think of his name at the time, but I believe this was Harold form Top Chef on Bravo. Whoever he was, he was probably creeped out by how much I was looking at him.

We had planned on watching Monday Night Football as well. The other guys had to go to work, which meant I was on my own in NYC. While still at their place, I got a call from a place that hires designers to do logo's all through an online system where the designers have no real contact with the client, but they can go on to the companies site and choose as much or as little work as they like. I logged on to the site and chose my first job that day. I then made my way into the city and grabbed lunch near Madison and E 57th. I checked out the new 5th Ave Apple Store, it was around 3pm and it was very busy. There was a long line for purchases but the computers were all being used as though it were a library in there. I then went to take some picture and went to Central Park and Times Square. I eventually meet up with Sean and we went to McSorley's to meet up with Schenck. Our MNF viewing happened at a place called Central Bar(the same place that had no games on the previous day) it seemed to me that we were the only people in the bar that were actually interested in watching football. The bar is an Irish bar and the clientele seem the type that would rather watch fótball than football. The food at this bar was very good, two orders of nacho's, both Sean and Schenck had burgers while I had lamb stew. The monday night football game was a sleeper and luckily the Cavs were playing the Knicks that evening and that game was on as well, and the Cavs won. We all made our way back to Brooklyn and before going to bed, I told the guys I would be seeing them again soon since I will be making my way back to NYC in December.

Thank You, Lord, for Sending Me the F Train (part 1)

I got into Brooklyn at 9:30am Saturday morning to meet up with Sean and Schenck. From their place we hopped onto the train to Manhattan to meet up with Schooney, his girlfriend, his sister, and his girlfriend's sister (Emmalee), who lives in Manhattan. We meet up near Central Park went to Bryant Park, Times Square, Central Park, and finished our stroll at Emmalee's somewhere near 81st and 1st Ave. We eventually walked about a mile for each of us. Schooney and his two girls could not get out of the city quicker as they pulled away from Emmalee's around 3:30pm. That left me and my two boy's at Emmalee's. The four of us spent the rest of the afternoon in her apartment talking and eventually eating an entire package of Oreo's.

To be continued...

Schedule

I spent the past weekend in NYC and I am making my way back to Cleveland today. I will be in Michigan this coming weekend and I hope to spend an extra day or two in Ann Arbor. Looking forward, December looks like I might head to Boston come back to NYC and then I was thinking about hitting DC again before heading home for the holidays. More to come about this past weekend in NYC soon.

Hiding in the Bushes

My last full day in DC was quite eventful. I started the day by taking the Metro out to Woodley Park. I grabbed some lunch and then made my way to the National Zoo. The zoo was nice, not all of the animals were out even though the weather was nice enough that I had wished I had worn shorts. Sometimes when I think of zoo's, I think of animals in cages... a common thought I am sure. Well, it seemed to me that at the National Zoo, there were less "cages" and more areas where the animals seemed to be in their own environment with only a fence or a sheet of glass separating them from the on-lookers. I know that this is not a new concept and I have seen this implemented at other zoo's, it is just nice to see confined animals being treated well.

Peine and I had dinner with her roommate at a Chinese fusion restaurant in Eastern Market, very nice. We then made our way out to Arlington to a place called Car Pool. We were meeting some of her teammates there to celebrate Bertha's birthday. I spent most of my time there watching the Louisville vs. Rutgers football game, I was amazed that Rutgers was able to pull out the win. We then hitched a ride with Margalit back to the District. She was heading back home and then out to Adams Morgan. We decided to tag along. This wound up being pretty much the same area that I was in earlier when at the zoo. To me it seems like a very lovely area of DC to live in, very nice neighborhood. Then we finally made our way to Adams Morgan and I was blown away with the departure form nice neighborhood into crazy nightlife street. It was a very nice evening of drinking and chilling.

The next day I was heading to Hightstown, NJ. Before I left, Peine and I made our way out to Georgetown. We needed lunch before doing some shopping. I was having a hard time on deciding on where to get some food. We eventually walked into a place that might have been called The Guard, it was a very ol' timey type of pub/bar. We sat at the bar where the guys next to me were smoking what could have been their last cigarettes in that particular bar. I felt at anytime we were going to get kicked out because we did not have Country Club memberships and/or were not card carrying members of the GOP. The food was decent the service was slightly less decent. It was definitely an experience. That evening I had a good time hanging out with the Bobiak's in NJ.

The District Sleeps Alone

Things I have seen in the past couple days while in DC, in chronological order. 11.06.06: The Korean War, WWII, & FDR Memorials. 11.07.06: The Building Museum (check out The Green House), The International Spy Museum, The National Portrait Gallery (The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2006 was particularly interesting) & Smithsonian American Art Museum. 11.08.06: Borat (the movie).

In the past few days a couple of significant dates have passed; 11.05.06: one month without Rima and 11.07.06: our four month anniversary. It is a difficult thing to even think about sometimes. For five years, Rima was always there when I was doing anything. Even if she was not directly there, she was the person that I could call and just talk to about what was going on. My process right now for dealing, is to be on the road and visiting with friends from across the country. It is nice to be out of the comforts that was our home, and my time here in DC has been very chill.

I will be making my way home next week and I am sure there is a bunch of stuff waiting there for me to take care of. But it won't be too long before I'm on the road again.

A Long Weekend

I got into the hotel that my team was staying at in Wilmington, DE around 8pm. It turns out that I would be the first one there by a few hours. I got all my stuff situated and ordered food to be picked up, I had found a place with Paella on the menu and it called my name. After getting lost on the way to the restaurant and eventually getting back to the hotel, the food wound up being fairly average tasting.

That evening I was fully exhausted and just watched the two season finales of Project Runway, a show that Rima and I had watched together all season. I had a strong urge to see Michael do well in the final with all the good work he had been doing through the season, but after seeing what he brought to the finale it just did not feel as strong as some of the other work he had done previously. Being that MIchael did not win PR I was happy that Jeffrey did. Where as the other designers had specific types of dresses that were their standards Jeffery was all over the place with the types of clothes that he designed. On top of that, his "rock" style added a nice twist to the garments he presented.

The reason for the hotel in Delaware was an Ultimate tournament called PADA Mosh just over the border in Pennsylvania. The team was a Case Ultimate reunion team. This was my first time to the tournament, but RIma has been before since her mom lives nearby. We were even able to get Vilija to come out and play on Saturday. The team is comprised of players at various levels of competitive ultimate commitment. I would say the majority of the team is on the less to none commitment to competitive ultimate side, but all had been at least at the college level recently. The tournament is broken into two divisions, Competitive and Beer. We had asked to be in the Beer division but instead got seeded 8 out of 12 in the Competitive division. I understand that the previous year the team was doing more competing and less beer drinking which might have been the reason for the placement. A lot of the teams at the tournament are comprised of players from various areas mostly on the east coast. Our team was Cleveland, NYC, Boston and Jersey. The teams we were playing against it seemed as though there were Nationals level players scattered throughout them all. It just seems more likely to run into an ultimate player on the east coast that has been to nationals than in Ohio. Maybe that will change someday. The team finished with two wins and one loss on the first day. Even though I am terribly out of shape, I felt as though I could really contribute to the teams success. Sunday we again went 2-1. Our final rank was probably 5th or 6th. It was a very nice if a bit chilly weekend of ultimate. I was really happy to be playing with this group of people. I look forward to getting out and playing more.

The miles are adding up

I am ready to be done with being in such a rush to get to places. I left Cleveland last Tuesday to get to Sarasota on Wednesday evening. I left Florida this Wednesday to get to Philly by Friday evening. I have traveled more than 2400 miles, and I have probably spent somewhere near two days in my car just driving. After this weekend, I have two weeks until I need to be anywhere so I feel that I should be able to slow down a bit and hang out places a bit longer. After Philly, I plan on heading down to DC for a few days then maybe up to NYC for a little while.

Sweet Tea

Being in the south, I am surprised that I have not come across more Sonic Drive-Ins. As I currently eat my lunch at Panera somewhere off of 85 in South Carolina, i fell as though my drink choices have become simpler here in the south. When I lived in North Carolina for four years, I fell in love with sweet tea. I continue to enjoy the drink very much and I feel it is unfortunate that it pretty much does not exist in Cleveland.

Tired again.

I got into Atlanta today around 4pm and met up with Fred. He gave me some suggestions of what to do including the Louvre exhibit at the High Museum and/or the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. After walking to the museum, I found out it closed at 5pm which would have given me 30 minutes there before getting booted, so I passed it up. Although as it turns out, starting on November first the Botanical Gardens closed at 5pm as well. So I did not get to check anything cool out in Atlanta today. Instead I walked back to Fred's place and got on my running shoes. I went for a 30 minute run through Piedmont Park. I managed to get in 3.5 miles, it felt good.

Fred and I got some good pizza for dinner, Jerk Chicken pizza with chicken and pineapple. It was quite tasty. While at the pizza joint we watched the first half on the Cavs game. We left to go watch the second half at Joy & O-Towns. It was raining on our walk to their place and my new rain coat was sitting unused in my car. The Cavs won! It was no longer raining by the time we made our way home.