whirlwind

i can't seem to find the motivation to write and i've been really bad about taking pictures as i go. boo on me, i know.


i joined zipcar which allows me to rent a car when i need to go to target, ikea, trader joe's all in one day (actually, within 2.5 hours) or when i need to run around town to buy air conditioners off craigslist. i didn't think i would miss driving as much as i have. the first thing i did was put the radio on npr hoping that car talk would be on. oh the days of driving up and down i-35. 


met up w/ some friends at parkside lounge before seeing david garza at mercury lounge then headed to the bell house for apollo run. man, that was a fun night. i've been a fan of david's since was 15. 


brunch at cornelius w/ a.s. and j.m. followed by a stroll around park slope. dinner at seoul garden w/ a few climbers from chelsea piers. 


ray prim was in town on his east coast tour and stayed w/ me for a few days. somehow d.w. was able to convince me to cook for them (it helped that ray does NOT like to go out to eat) so i had a small dinner party. i miss my dinner parties in austin. can't wait to move to prospect heights so getting to my place will be a little easier so i can continue cooking for peeps. 


ray wanted to play at an open mic at caffe vivaldi in greenwich village/west village. since we got there way too early, we took a little tour of the area. we hit magnolia bakery for a famous cupcake, bleeker street pizza for a mushroom slice, and papaya dog for some hotdogs and a corndog. ray remembers this place from a movie so he just had to eat there (twice). we also met up with denitia odigie who is also a super talented musician and is on tour now so check her out if you can!

ray was playing at googies above living room and, again, we got to the area super early so we hit verlaine for some chicken wings and lychee martinis. everyone that came out headed to epstein's after for some 2 for 1 drinks. by the way, denitia saw this awesome thing in the bathroom at googies. it was meant for me.

on ray's last day, we hit the streets trying to find him some glasses. but of course, food first. ray went to papaya dog and i stopped in at vanessa's dumplings for some...dumplings.

we hung out at union square and chinatown (where he found some frames) then headed to ground zero. i went into st. paul's chapel and the 9/11 memorial and museum. i got a little choked up at some of the items they had on display. highly recommend visiting the chapel.

i'm growing my hair out so it's in that weird in between period. i just needed a cleanup and someone at work recommended astor place hairstylist. this place is funny. there's probably about 30 people working at any one time and it seems like it's more for men. i'm so used to getting pampered since i used to go to jr salon in austin and this was quite a different experience. oh well, it was cheap but i don't know that i'd go back. 

r.l. told me about republic restaurant before i left austin and i finally went last week. this is their version of a bento box. it was good. 

hung out w/ d.l. and k.l. for some 80s dancing at pyramid club. fun! fun! fun! ok, i'm tired of thinking.

xoxo,

p.

thank you, 8 lbs 6 oz sweet, sweet baby jesus. it's spring time!!!

i know the weather affects my mood but i didn't realize just how much until this past week. the weather has been close to perfect and i've been able to get out a lot more than usual since it's still light out when i get home from work.

yet another first to add to the list: climbing. i went to brooklyn boulders w/ d.w. and had a fabulous albeit painful time. i have the blister on my hand to prove it. i went up the top rope wall twice. 

and the boulder wall twice. 

i needed a beer and some food after so we went to pacific standard for some good beer and ordered some sushi from jpan for some good eats.


i walk around madison square park a lot and there's been a new addition to a corner along w/ a few buildings. there's these new statues everywhere of a naked man. it's actually sculptures of antony gormley and they're apparently true to form. you can read a little bit more about it. i was only able to get a good picture of the back and but in the front, he's definitely uncircumcised. 

i've wanted to hit the brooklyn flea market for a while now since i read about it and i finally got my chance recently. this is definitely not the flea market i'm used to. there was no tejano music. no fruit or vegetable tables and definitely no dogs for sale. this is the brooklyn flea.

it was super fun and i would definitely go again since i got some jewelry that i've already received compliments on. gotta love that!

there's also a new brooklyn bridge park that everyone is making a big deal about so i made my way then walked across the brooklyn bridge to manhattan. 

from there, i made my way to union square for the new york pillow fight day.

and since i was in union square, of course i had to hit the farmers market. i got some yummy cookies.

so far, spring time in nyc is pretty awesome.

xoxo,

p.

brooklyn, brooklyn take me in

the 'plan' was to start at BAM and their silent auction and play it by ear from there. the silent auction was fun. there was some good art, some bad art, and free booze so we couldn't complain. please note that the following pieces of art all started at $800.

then we got on our free ride to the city. i'm on a bus!

we got off the bus not really knowing where we were headed so a.s. thought we should stop in at the bowery hotel but accidentally took a wrong turn and instead, ended up at freeman's for a yummy drink at their back bar. it's kinda hard to find since it's down this long alley but it's definitely worth looking for.

we still found the bowery hotel but basically just took a short tour, got some vegan friendly food at tahini, bought some peacock earrings along saint mark's street, then found ourselves at china one for a shakespearean impromptu play.

then we hit verlaine, pianos, schiller's, and the rusty knot. after the yummy frozen mojitos at the rusty knot, we were ready to head back to our hood so we went to our usual hang, woodwork. i.r., t.w., v.p, and k.k. met up with us there and we felt much more at home. 

vietnamese food spot # whatever, nicky's sandwiches. the pho was pretty good but the classic viet sammy had ground pork it in. weird. will not have the sammy again. ok, i'm tired and going to earn my gold medal for sleeping. again.

xoxo,

p.

yummy yummy in my tummy

we've had some semi cold days lately so for me, cold = soup. i popped into rickshaw dumpling bar for the rickshaw regular. i chose the peking duck dumplings with the chili-soy noodle soup.

i've been to waldy's wood-fired pizza before and had the clam w/ garlic, crumbs, and ricotta white pizza and the sweet & hot sausage, roasted peppers pizza. this time i tried the arugula, garlic, and sunny side egg pizza. j.m. and d.c. thought i was crazy. j.m.'s actual reaction was 'EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW' and when i asked if he wanted to give it a try, his response was, 'what part of EWWWWWWWWWWWWWW didn't you understand?'. d.c. tried it and he actually said it was better than he thought but he probably still wouldn't order it. i thought it was good and would order it again.

i went to seven bar & grill and totally didn't take pics of anything i ate but let's just say the dinner consisted of ravioli, sliders and roasted scallops with very good wine.  you can just imagine it if you check out their menu.

last but not least, i met up w/ s. at wichcraft for a yummy sammy. this place is owned by tom colicchio of top chef and of course, many delicious restaurants in ny. all the sandwiches sounded good but i went for the goat cheese, avocado, celery, walnut pesto, & watercress on multigrain bread. it's definitely not mandola's multigrain but it was a damn (expensive) good sammy.

i don't just eat in ny. i promise. other activities include bowling and gstaad. ok, so that's not much more but my plan is to start working out again, hit the brooklyn museum, climb, and BAM before sunday. but ya know, i'll still be eatin' too.


xoxo,
p.

i'm at a loss. can you give me directions to your heart? chinling?

s.c. and n.p. just left back to texas after spending about 4 days in ny with me. it was an awesome visit and the weather was just about perfect. there was no plans except for a couple of shows so we pretty much went with the flow (and our stomachs) on what we were going to do next. they got here wednesday and after they got settled, we headed into the city to go shopping, in particular, to hit all the h&m's we came across. after buying purses, scarves, clothes and some jewelry, we worked up a small appetite so we went to shake shack for a burger, chicago dog and fries. shake shack is pretty insane. it's at madison square park and there's always a line. always. it gets so long that they actually have a 'shake cam' so you can check the line before you go. the first time i was there, i was in line for 40 mins but the food is definitely worth it, especially with the shake sauce. they also have custards and shakes but i haven't tried any of those...yet. 


so after our snack, we made our way to the h&m at 59th and lex but passed by grand central station along the way. 

as you can imagine, this place is pretty insane. there's so many people walking in and out of here. to watch it is pretty surreal. like s.c. said, it's like parts are moving in fast forward and others are in slow motion. hopefully you can see what she means in this video. like our commentary? we also tried to get a drink at the campbell apartment but it was way too busy at 5 in the afternoon so we opted to keep shopping. more bags, clothes, and accessories make for hungry girls so we headed to the meatpacking district and went to pastis. does this place sound familiar? the girls in sex and the city were here! or maybe they just talked about it. either way, it made me feel more like a new yorker. 

cheeeeeeeeeeese. 

another obsession of mine, along with many others, is ramen. i had the best ramen in l.a. with s.c. at daikokuya. one of my assignments has been to find the best in ny. i've had it had ippudo and momofuku but it still wasn't as good. so we thought we'd give minca a try. it was good and i'd definitely go back but i'm still looking for a good ramen and rice place.

we shopped some more and got some beautiful dresses at yumi kim, more h&m, and topshop. one of the many reasons we get along is because we seem to always be hungry and want food at the same time.  so we ate pizza, pasta and salad at otto where n.p. used to work. it was awesome having an insider there so we didn't have to even look at the menu and we left very satisfied. s.c. and i had tickets to present laughter at the american airlines theater so we parted ways w/ n.p. and headed to the show which was really funny. you don't think the dad from alias could be funny but he actually was great. 

i'm already so verbose and there's still 2 more days to share so here it is: fried oreos and fried cream puff from led zeppole.

and yes, after these delicious things, we still managed to go to chinatown for some dumplings at new wonton garden. we. are. awesome. we will go out of our way for good food. we spent 1 1/2 hours on the train on friday to make out way to arthur avenue in the bronx for some real, amazing italian and we found exactly what we wanted with a little pit stop for raw oysters along the way. we even found the cafe where bobby flay at an eggplant parm throw down. it was fantastic!

and then we head back, take a nap, and go out for french food. seriously.

mussels and frites

pork w/ pea puree at canaille. super cute and super good (except for dessert)

i was told my a friend that the cloisters was an amazing place to see and be. we tried to speak medievally but it didn't work out very well. it just sounded like out horrible british accents. there's a lot to see here but i won't go into it. i'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

i know you know the next part. we went to west 3rd common for brunch and had unlimited mimosas. which was great for the shopping to be done at the young designers market. i love one of a kind pieces of jewelry so this place was perfect. i got me a necklace and a present for a good friend but i'm definitely going back for some stuff in the future. there were some jewelers making stuff right on the spot!

hungry. again. joe's ginger for soup dumplings and more.

we left chinatown and walked the manhattan bridge back over to brooklyn since it was such a lovely night and a beautiful sunset.

last night with my dearest kindred. we had a ton of laughs and pickle backs, applewood smoked bacon and whipped ricotta. i miss her already.

xoxo,

p. (aka chinling)