so one day, i showed up to work with all these trucks full of gear and trees that weren't there few days ago and cars that i've never seen in person and a few oddly dress people. after i asked rich, our door guy, what's up with that, he tells me they've been filming the re-make of mildred pierce w/ kate winslet and guy pearce outside my work building all weekend. i never actually got a clear shot of kate or guy but just knowing she was there was sorta enough. i hung out mid-morning to watch them set up a scene and it took FOREVER. i was standing behind the director's tent and listened to film speak and got a little bored. so glad i just watch the movies and don't have to watch them set up 1 minute scenes for over an hour.
from my floor
old car. i wanted to jump in and drive off.
the paparazzi. seriously.
cast
since it's starting to get pretty hot in new york, i had to work on the circulation in my apartment. first up: fans. bed, bath, and beyond wraps any large packages or bags with string and attach a handle since most people will have to walk with them. snazzy!
look at me! i have a box fan purse!
the only problem is that my apartment gets a TON of light so one fan would not do (i already have 2) so i had to go back to get another and add thermaweave curtains that are suppose to block out 99% of the light. you think i'm a little crazy, huh? blocking out sunlight? well, in the winter, it's wonderful cause my apartment is nice and cozy. but when it's 80+ degrees in new york, it's just disgusting. and the dogs are home all day so i have to make sure the little sweet, sweet babies aren't going to have heat stroke.
speaking of 80+ degree days, i have a little bone to pick w/ ny. in texas, the 80s are a lovely spring day since you can go outside, do your thing then jump in your car w/ ac, roll down the windows and have a nice breeze, then go home where there's central air. in new york, this is not the case, at least not for me. the buildings are so high that you really don't get a breeze. there's no central air and window units use up a TON of energy and cost a bazillion to run all the time. and there's not pools to jump in and cool off. i remember thursday night ride socials where we'd meet up near town lake, ride around, then jump into barton springs. oh the days! now, i just sweat and stand next to sweaty people then sweat walking home and take cold showers. nice image huh?
so my friends t.h and a.a. added me to a dinner group called the plate lickers. i went to my first outing w/ them at nomad. very nice food (had octopus, snails, and fish tajine). i got an alright vietnamese sammy at home in park slope (da slope from here on out) then occupied several seats at flatbush farm's outdoor area for yummy cocktails, duck confit, oysters, sparkling red wine, and roasted chicken (not all in the same night).
another awesome thing about new york is that you can see a show with really, really famous people in it such as the behanding of spokane w/ christopher walken and sam rockwell. the story wasn't great but it's christopher walken! you really can't go wrong with that!
one of my colleague's is married to bertilla baker so he invited us all to hear her sing at an old church in brooklyn heights. she was amazing, very smooth, jazzy voice. my other coworkers and i went to grand canyon after the concert for late night burger.
even though celebrating cinco de mayo is NOT the same in texas, i still made the most of it in new york. i met up w/a few friends and coworkers for pitchers of margaritas at rodeo bar. the drinks were great but the queso was gritty, like powder cheese. i met up w/ a fair weather friend at 4th avenue pub then we headed to peperoncino for wine, fish, and tiramisu.
there's a coffee house only 2 stops away from me called breukelen coffee house and it's super cute and fun. they have quarterly or semi-annual parties and at their most recent one, they made it a tea party. fun! fun! next door is franklin park where we were introduced to the loveliness of petron xo cafe.
t.b. had an 80s themed bday party at melody lanes. i didn't really dress up but i bowled like i did in the 80s which was not so great.
part of the new york cool kids lifestyle, at least to me, is riding your bike to get from place to place. riding is almost always faster than catching a subway. i've always wanted to do this back in texas but since i was doing century rides and stuff, i figured it would be ok if i skipped the 'i wanna be cool and save the earth by not driving my car 2 blocks'. but lo and behold, i have definitely taken to it here. when in new york, do like the new yorkers i say. so let me introduce you to trixie, the fixie (with brakes!). i already love her so, super easy to ride and super cute! i get compliments on it all the time. too bad it's probably stolen but at least i bought it. i just hope nothing happens to her because i think she's in a very happy home.
so my first ride w/ trixie was to the franklin st immersion in greenpoint. we had to ride about 6 miles to get there but it was an easy 6 with it being mostly uphill the way there. luckily i live in an area with a ton of bike lanes and a lot of other people on bikes so i didn't feel too worried. i am a big dork though (duh) cause i'm also almost the only one wearing a bike helmet. hey man, vanity does not win over cracking my noggin on this one. i met up w/ a.s., a.s, and j.k. after the immersion at black iris for some yummy hummus, fatoosh and wine after my long ride.
i joined several meetup groups in new york to meet new people and try new things. however, i've only attended one, my neighborhood group, prospect lefferts garden (plg). we recently had our first one (i think) at lincoln park tavern which is my closest bar or at least the only bar i would go to right now. we had a lot of fun and i've already made some friends through it. it's definitely nice having friends nearby. one couple just had a bbq in their backyard where they grilled pizzas with different ingredients from their amazing garden and eggs from their 2 hens. it only took me 5 minutes to walk to their house!
there's a race here called the amazing race nyc and a few friends and i did it. SO fun! basically, we had a list of things we had to do and things we could do for extra points. along the way, we had to take pictures of our activities, with the whole team in the pictures, to take back to the village pourhouse where we would show the judges how much we kick arse. well, that was the plan anyway. we had to do stuff like take a picture with: a man and a toddler, a musician, with a kissing couple, someone w/ a subway map, and our most favorite one, with a taxi driver (gay boys did not have to be included). i got to do a lot of the touristy things on my to do list so it was great and team white noise worked very well together.
met up w/ another new person at pace gallery for art opening (david byrne was there!!) then to room service for some yummy thai food and the best lychee sangria.
i'm so used to having a lot of green space around me and living and working around brooklyn and new york doesn't afford me that luxury as much as i'd like. so for my birthday, i wanted to get the hell outta dodge and head to the hudson valley. luckily, my friend a.s.'s bday was exactly a week after so we decided to do this together. we stayed at audrey's farmhouse bed & breakfast because they allowed dogs, ate at the brunyswick inn (literally 2 minute walk from the b&b but the owner had to drive us back cause we had a few birthday shots), and had a.s.'s bday dinner at the village tearoom. we were known as the 'party girls' all weekend and the owner wanted to adopt us. that's just how we roll, baby.
the village tearoom
my 2nd bike ride was with r.b. and we headed out to red hook (best way to get there is by bike cause transit doesn't really go there) for a nice wine tasting and ate some robecelli's cupcakes. the elvis. yes! that's candied bacon!
tres leches
my taste buds have recently matured a bit according to b.m. and e.h. and now i'm a little obsessed with:
with the weather becoming nicer by the day, i've found myself having more and more picnics at prospect park. it's semi close and has a lot of space for people to spread out. i love living in brooklyn.
the vanderbilt is owned by one a michelin starred chef so i've had every intention of going to try out the food...but alas, all i've had was a bloody mary but dang, it was super fresh and delightful.
our intention was to head to governor's island for the opening and yeasayer concert however it didn't quite work out that way. so instead, we ended up on a little boat ride from brooklyn (pier 6) to manhattan (pier 17) then on the train back to brooklyn to make something else of our night.
habana outpost has refreshing drinks and shows movies outside on sunday nights in the summer!
being that a.s. is vegan, we really have to be selective on where we eat but luckily, she's not TOO crazy about it and also luckily, i love fruits and veggies. so we went to zaytoons for yummy olives, pepperocinis, fatoosh, and hummus. there's this new bar called branded in da hood so we went for some cold beers (they serve lone star!) and met their resident dj, spencer. isn't that a funny name for a dj? i think he needs to change it to dj spency spence or something catchy.
met up w/ someone new for japanese ramen at zuzu and drinks at sheep station in brooklyn. the ramen was great and the bar played ray lamontagne so you know that was bonus points for me.
a.y. came to visit from austin and brought me a bike pump, chips and salsa made in texas and one of the best things ever: jalapeno creamy dip from chuy's. i ate that shite up! while she was staying w/ another friend in the city, we met up one night for franny's where we had pork belly w/ marinated greens, tomato, buffalo mozzarella and basil pizza, and penne w/ pork sausage, broccoli, and provolone piccante. she wanted cake but the best i could do on a cold and rainy night was brooklyn crepe for nutella, banana, strawberries and whip creme crepe. delectable. someone told me that if i wanted the best pizza in new york, i just had to go to di fara's pizza. it's famous because an old, 82 year old, italian man makes each pizza to order. he literally cuts the basil w/ scissors right before you're handed the pie. best. pizza. ever. a.y. could not stop talking about it. so worth the wait and travel. we also used my groupon at bussaco for brunch and i had gorilla coffee for the first time. i think i still like blue sky bakery's coffee (and muffins) so much better.
ok, i think that's it for now. man, this was a lot of work. i really should try to keep this updated so it doesn't take so long to think back. my memory is definitely going. i have dementia. hang w/ me now before i forget your face. but i'll leave you with actual images of the best dogs in the world. btw, calvin is doing SO well here now that there's no snow. it's like he's reversing the aging process. he's the benjamin button of dogs. we went for a 6 mile walk and he was able to keep up the whole time. what other 15 year old dog do you know can do that?
fin.
xoxo,
p.
