I have absolutely no intentions of moving to Brooklyn, so don't let the title fool you. This past weekend I had (surprise!) a friend in town and on a whim, we decided to head down to the Barclay's Center and catch a Brooklyn Nets game on Sunday. So far I've only been to Yankees games (and rest assured I've been to like five of them) but I was stoked to finally catch a basketball game.
The stadium was nice and shiny and new and the wood floor looked pretty slick and classy (doesn't really translate in a phone picture, but you get the idea). I thought maybe their mascot would be Jay-Z, but it wasn't (and I'm still not sure what it is) but their dancers came out and they're called the Brooklynettes. Call me crazy but I thought that that was pretty darn clever.
On a separate, unrelated note, I've felt kinda tense lately and the only music coming to mind (aside from Yann Tiersen's score from Amelie) to calm down was this song Animal Tracks by a band called Mountain Man that a friend shared with me when we drove through New Jersey in the winter. This also led me to come across more really relaxing songs that consist mainly of female harmonizing voices. I'm putting these up here for all of us to enjoy when we're stressed. Don't act like you're not.
Now I just need to get to a Knicks, Rangers, Mets and Giants game out here. NO JETS.
I always forget how much I love the Chinatown and Little Italy districts of Manhattan. They're so old world still, even if they're super touristy. I met with Brianna and Pablito down there and we ate at what was apparently a very famous Italian place (Lombardi's?) delishhhhh before we went wandering around the neighborhood. I never even noticed this building, I just happened to look up at the right time, it's somewhere like Canal and Mulberry-ish.
More wanderings got us up into the Bowery and we decided to get drinks somewhere, and saw a very dive-y looking place across the street and wandered into what was Crime Scene Lounge.
The place was fairly dead cause of the holiday (all New Yorkers seem to take any chance they get to leave the city, especially three-day weekends), but we went to the bar and got to talking to the bartender, who was a surfer and so very interested in all things California. We then started noticing some of the decor of the lounge and taking pictures, and then he gave us their little tablet to take pictures with by the measurement wall. We had so much fun in there, and he even gave us jello shots for the road.
It was a work night for me, so getting home at midnight was welcome. Today is rainy and cold, wah wah wah, and their last night in the city!
If you are reading this from the comfort of your bed on your MacBook pro with coffee in one hand and the remote in the other, then you are just rude, because not only did I have to wake my ass up today at 6:30am in 18 degree weather, but the trains are also on a weekend schedule so it was a bloody mess of a commute too.
In light of the three-day weekend that most people appear to have off, my cousin Brianna and her special friend Pablo have come out to NYC to celebrate good times (of which, her graduating nursing school was one! Yahoo!) and we spent this past weekend FREEZING (down to the low 20s) and seeing the sites. We've mainly been around midtown, the Village and Central Park, eating good food, seeing pretty places, and dancing at some fun lounges!
All the good pictures are on their camera! So those may follow at some point. My face almost feels frostbitten again from the cold, but maybe it's just windburn, it was obnoxiously windy yesterday as we went through Central Park, we had to stop into the Plaza Hotel after coming out to warm up. I still get to spend tonight and tomorrow night with them though, so hopefully more fun in store!
Just gettin' through this winter one day at a time...
I woke up this morning still half-dressed and with a raging headache. I stopped in a mart on my way to the subway and bought water. And Gatorade. And vanilla milk. I make my coffee at work.
I find I haven't touched my purse since the night before, and this is what's inside: my phone, keys, ID, ATM card, Metro card, $2 cash and 3 business cards: 1 for a Tarot card reader, 1 for a style designer, and 1 for a Secret Service agent. Is this real life? It's exactly why I love New York. You really just have no idea what's going to happen in a day. If that wasn't a sign of a good night, I don't know what is.
Oh, yes I do. Ring pops. And my NY family: Ronnie and Betsy!
I was slow moving on the way work, was lucky enough to get a seat on the train and rest my head against the gently rocking wall. I put in my headphones and listened to a lot of Red Hot Chili Peppers. What can I say? I'm really really really excited for Coachella.
My past weekend was colored by the Nemo snowfall, music, aaaaand Palak! I had such a nice weekend, I'm still coming down a little bit. On Friday we got out of work early because of the storm, so my coworker and I went for drinks at In The Heights, a bar around Columbia with a third floor covered roof, which was perfect to watch the snow (conveniently overlooking Tom's Restaurant).
I had to leave in time to get home before the train rails iced over and I would have to swim across the East River. This picture is crazy because of the 0% visibility...
...where the next day you can see the Manhattan skyline perfectly
On Saturday morning I made it to the post office in the snow before heading into the city for my morning class.
I had my early class and then we all went for drinks afterwards, so that it was lunch when we were finished and Palak had just arrived in the city, and I met up with her and our other friend, Pooja, whom I did the rock climbing with. (Palak was one of six people on that bus! It's like there was a snowstorm or something and people didn't want to come up from the DC area). Weird. Some Panera bread, then splitting to get ready, and then down to Webster Hall near Astor Place in the Village to see Lindsey Stirling!
Here's the story on Lindsey Stirling. Palak had caught some of her videos on YouTube and loved them and kept sending them to me at work. I thought they were nice, sure, but didn't think of them much after, but Palak never recovered from those and always said she loved Lindsey Stirling and wanted to see her in concert. Lindsey playing a show in New York City was part of what got Palak out to NYC in the middle of February, and I really wanted to go to the concert with Palak because I knew what a big deal it was for her! I met Palak and Pooja at the venue, thinking this was going to be a long two hours (just some dancing violin like a Shire hobbit? No words?) and I ponied up to the bar before moving deep into the thick of the crowd.
All I have to say after that show is: HOLY. S@#%. I was actually moved to tears. It was incredible and absolutely unreal. Lindsey Stirling plays with a drummer and a guy on synthesizers, so it is loud and deep and you feel it vibrating. She has lots of lights and backdrops, and then she goes and puts these passionate strings on top of it and it is unlike anything you've heard before. It was so beautiful! She even did a Michael Jackson medley (on the violin!) and then Phantom of the Opera! I was sold. I chose this clip below a little arbitrarily, but anything you look up by her is well worth it, especially to see live performances!
After the show, Pal, P and I went to Union Square for some Mexican and then looked up dance clubs, only to find 1 bar with 2 1/2 stars on Yelp, which we went to, and it was the worst little wannabe dance place, but the music was so good, and I was just in love with how awful it was! And we got to dance for quite some time, I loved it.
On Sunday, Palak and I braved the residual snow to Brooklyn for a warm, beautiful, great brunch. It was so relaxing and nice and perfect.
We met up with Pooja in the city, got Palak's ear pierced at the place I got my nose pierced in East Village, then went down to SoHo until it was time for Palak to catch her bus back down to DC, and I went home to relax and go to bed early, which never never happens, as I can never seem to get to bed before midnight no matter what I do.
For what feels like the 17th time in the past 6 months, "the worst storm ever" is yet again hitting the East Coast and we should all "be prepared." Well whoever was naming the storm and came up with Nemo wasn't exactly prepared.
It was already a steady snowfall when I left for work, and now it's partly rain that's washing it away and apparently very icy and all slip'n'slide on the sidewalks out there. Joyous. I'm happy for the snow but Palak is supposed to come up here this weekend and I was supposed to go out tonight! Why do these storms keep hitting on the weekdays?!
Enough of these were relevant to post. Happy Friday, world.
So last night I partook in an acrobatics session of diving training at the Chelsea Piers gym with a small group of the team under the Greek coach's instruction. It. Was. AWESOME WITH A CAPITAL A.
It didn't start til 7:30 and I'm off work at 5, so what was I supposed to do with that time? If you're going to say I should stop in for a beer, then I got that answer correct. I wasn't sure if alcohol and trampolines would mix, but I figured it couldn't hurt to be a little more relaxed. Plus it was cold and snowing and I had to get to the piers on the Hudson River so I could also stand to be a little warmer.
The small group of us warmed up before moving into the gym and wow. I felt right at home. Uneven bars, balance beams, floor space, trampolines and MATS MATS MATS MATS everywhere. It was hard to even pay attention with so much going on in that space.
Still, trampoline is a really underrated workout! I was definitely feeling it within the first 10 minutes, but it was fun. Especially when we are doing diving approaches and then get to flip straight into that big pile of cube cushions.
We did workouts with the belt that is pulleyed on the ceiling to work on high jump back flips off the trampoline. I really bonded with the coach too, and he was loving my back tucks and I was just going to town. All in all, it was superfun. I have to say, that I am really enjoying how my lifestyle has changed in the past few years. I was doing absolutely nothing other than going to work and going home, wouldn't even take the stairs, and a 12 minute Zumba workout was my max for the day. Now I am running 2-3 miles a weekday on my lunch breaks, diving consistently and now working on back flips and pikes and TRAMP WORKOUTS. Who would have ever thought?! But I am sad I don't live in a world where I don't have to worry about bills and money and can just be active all day and do ballet and diving and playing in the gymnastics gym :(
As me and the one other girl diver were changing, she was saying that they used to have a lot more tramp workouts. That's what she said, she actually said "tramp workouts" and that's when I thought yes, that is definitely how I will be referring to this.
How bout dem Ravens huh? My roommates and I threw a Super Bowl party at our place and no one seemed to have strong feelings one way or another, so I was able to convert everyone to go for the 49ers. Which no one seemed to mind. The only show of sports feelings in the group was a girl wearing a New York Giants shirt and my roommate wearing Dan Marino's Miami Dolphins jersey, and then me, who only had this...
Oh wellsies! The game was good, but sad ending for us. I still got glimpses into everyone back home going for the Niners, and boy that must have been one sad room to be in when the clock ran out.
Oh and in case you were wondering, Beyonce annoys me and I don't care for her at all so I didn't care about the halftime.
In other news, it snowed last night and was snowing this morning on my way to work. SO. BEAUTIFUL. I am still in love with the snow, especially when it's snowing. Also, I was told I look very Irish today by my very Boston-native-Irish-descendant coworker Jen. I don't know what that means, but she said it nicely so I think it's a compliment. I'll take it!
I learned a new dive yesterday! And the reason I am so excited about it is because I got the fundamentals down in the last 15 minutes of practice. I learned a... (I have to think about this) a reverse... inward... tuck dive. This means I stand on the edge of the board backward, jump up and back while flipping forward towards the board in a ball and then opening into a layout in time for the water.
The Greek coach was back (which always makes me quivering with fear) and some people on my board were working on this dive. About 15 minutes before practice ended, it was my turn and I stepped onto the board when the coach asked if I wanted to try it. I wasn't one to say no, so I said yes.
A little backstory: whenever we're trying new things (with the other coach) we generally get dryland instruction first, where it's explained to us on the ground and we go through the motions on deck, then we're coached in a complete preparation on the board how to approach it, how to hold and move your body, and what to expect and do as you're jumping and falling. With the Greek coach, it's a little different, apparently.
I've done reverse take-offs before, so I went to the end of the board and turned around, with my heels off the edge, and then looked at him expectantly. He looked at me. I looked longer. He returned my stare.
"You're going to do it, right?" he asked me.
"Yes, I am," I said.
"So what you waiting for?" he called.
"I don't know what to do," I responded.
"Just do it!" he yelled.
So I did. It resulted in me getting halfway around and planting in the water on my face, and emerging to a great big round of applause from everyone who witnessed it. The coach told me that was great, now I have the sensation of jumping backward and turning toward the board, so now I just need to really do it next time. And you know what, I did. And that was the craziest part. The first time doing any dive is always a mess because your body probably isn't sure how to react to the gravity and direction and it's hard to command it as you're falling through the air. The next time I went up, I thought about it harder, prepared for what it felt like... and I nailed it enough to get a non-ironic round of applause. I was so proud!
I wanted to write about diving today cause I've been so busy and exhausted and mentally tired and I find it's the only 2 hours of my week where I finally get outside of my head and forget about the outside world and just have fun. Going home in the 10pm cold and wind is miserable, however. But now it's February!
