The Invisible World Series of 2010

First of all, I am VERY VERY HAPPY AND PROUD OF THE SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS FOR BEATING THE TEXAS RANGERS IN A 4-1 GAME WIN FOR THE 2010 WORLD SERIES TITLE!!





Secondly, I am very very sad and disappointed in the city of New York for not giving a damn one way or the other about the World Series just because their precious little Yankees were not in contention!

I seemed to be the ONLY person who cared about the games. I printed out a schedule on a Giants watermark and kept it at my desk and would highlight their winnings. I had to be the one to bring up results or games to the guys in the office too, and even then they were pretty blase about it. NO bars or pubs advertised having the games on, and this morning, NOT A SINGLE ARTICLE (or even a blurb!) about them in any of the morning metro papers! What a pretentious town this is!! When I came in this morning, people were ASKING "So did the Giants win?" REALLY?! No one even cared to see the results of the World Series? It's one thing to be loyal to a team, but to disregard the whole sport for lack of a team just seems childish!

Now before everyone freaks out (Sri says I can't even spell "Giants") I have ALWAYS said that my favorite baseball team was the Giants when asked (basketball: Lakers). Not because I really followed it or knew the lineup, but just because that's who my dad always liked and what did I care? I'd just be loyal to his team. And you HAVE to have a team otherwise nothing's fun. I know it's such a girl answer, but it's the truth. Then, with all my diehard Bay Area roommates and friends in San Diego, they really helped jumpstart my love and loyalty to the San Francisco team (NOT teamS! I don't care for the 49ers!) and thanks to them I saw the Giants spring training game in Phoenix, watched them play in San Diego, and actually cared about the record and knew positions of Lincecum, Wilson, Ross and Uribe. So YES Pam is a bigger fan than I am, YES Sri knows more than I do, but I always supported the Giants (and YES I can spell it SRIIIIIII!!)



Now if only New York City gave a damn about the World Series AT ALL...

Frigidity

This morning it was SO. COLD!! It actually felt (and smelt!) like an ice skating rink. To be fair, on Mondays I'm out the door an hour earlier than the rest of the week, and the sun was just barely dawning, but still...! It's November, and there's no turning back now. It's freakin' cold here.

Happy Halloween!

I hate when Halloween falls on a Sunday, or even a weekday! Because now that I'm too old to trick-or-treat, I can't really celebrate October 31st, and all the festivities fall on the weekend previous. I still had a pretty fun, last minute, cheap Halloween.

Thanks to my dad, I got an old costume FedEx'd out to me the day before I was to wear it! Ol' faithful Deutscherin fraulein was worn yet again, I have worn it at least 1 night of Halloween festivities for 3 of the past 4 Halloweens. Don't you wish you could know the sort of things you would get such use out of when contemplating buying it? I have more than gotten my money's worth for this thing!

On Friday we had a pretty big Halloween celebration at the school. A lot of the students were so timid to dress up, they said they just didn't understand the whole concept of dressing up and getting into this kinda thing. But we still had a good turnout, and most of the staff all dressed up too. Below are 3 staff members dressed up, along with 2 student workers, too scared to get into costume!! Jenny absolutely stole the whole with her whole Cleopatra getup.



We found a mask that we all tried to put together with the rest of our costumes



Last night, Ronnie and I went to my coworkers house party in Brooklyn. It ended up being off the hook! Great music, loads of people, plenty of supplies, lots of space, and we even had access to the roof which, though incredibly frigid, provided a STUNNING view of the entire Manhattan skyline. I was able to scrounge together a very quick and easy (and cheap!) second costume. Call me crazy, but ever since the chaos of Santa Barbara Halloween's, one costume just doesn't cut it anymore!

Unfortunately I didn't feel like carrying my clutch once we got there so I have no pictures of the Park Slope party, but Ronnie and I had plenty of pre-party shots... like kickin it at my place beforehand...



Can you see my tail??



These are real! ...contacts



I don't think they were so blatantly yellow without the glare of the flash...



Mrow!


Soooo New York City on the weekends is awful when it comes to public transportation!!!! No express trains, always some train having construction and not working, etc. It took us foreverrrrrr to get to Brooklyn, and we had to switch the train an unprecedented THREE times!! It was mildly amusing though, everyone riding the subway in costumes and having fun and playing music and being in good spirits. Here's me waiting at Columbus Circle



And riding on the subway...



My contacts really set me apart from the rest of the cats (how did I forget to put a nose and whiskers on??) but the party was so dark most people couldn't see it! Oh well, all the complements on the subway were worth it I suppose

Ronnie and I left the party separately, and when I left and ducked into the first subway I found, I was lucky enough that somehow it was one that would go straight home for me! (how did I miss that to begin with??) but I promptly stretched out on a row of seats and fell asleep... only to awake almost in the Bronx!! So I got off and switched back to a downtown train, and it happened to be running express (what the heck?) and overshot my stop AGAIN! So I ended up at Columbus Circle again, and waited it out for my actual train. What a mess! I walked in my door at almost 6a, but the whole experience was still fun... I rode home with a sleeping Swiss Army Knife, a drunk Easter bunny, and a very confused looking banana...

Pippin the Great!

I had really wanted to go to this Jon Stewart / Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity / March to Keep Fear Alive in DC this weekend, but really needed a weekend to just chill out!! As such, I offered to dog sit Jayna's chihuahua Pippin for her while she was in DC for the festivities.

The cats have actually taken to Pippin! P Diddy came over late last night and his energy really freaked Wolfie and Dip out, but once he was more calm, they really seemed like they wanted to make friends to the latest addition. At night, Pippin laid by my feet and Dip laid by my head.



I set my alarm to be able to walk Pippin in a timely manner. As I was trying to figure out his harness, he got so excited about walking that he ended up peeing all over my sheets. It wasn't so bad since my sheets were due for a wash, and since it would be a longer time out visiting the laundromat, I made coffee, gathered up my sheet and comforter into a trash bag, and headed out of the house with a purse on one arm, a trash bag of sheets in the other, coffee in my left hand, and Pippin's leash in the right.

We went across the street to the laundromat, I made change, we waited for a washer, and got a load going. (Pippin will ONLY walk on the left side so it proved difficult to finagle my way through the Saturday morning laundry crowd, but we survived!) we then walked a block to Central Park to Strangers Gate and did a loop on the Great Hill. It was barely 10 a.m. and the air was sharply crisp and it felt so great. I just love that feeling of being so warm but your face is nipped with cold. We made it back to the laundromat, put the load in a dryer, walked around the nearby stores until it was done, and got back where I made breakfast and more coffee (!) and watched Seinfeld. It was fun to walk a dog since my cats refused to acquiesce! It was cold, so Pippin needed his blingin' hoodie!!



I worked on an art project this afternoon... I'm branching out on my acrylic medium and am working with watercolors and ink. And now I'm getting excited for the Halloween party tonight in Brooklyn. Yesterday at work was fun with lots of Halloween festivities (it's fun to work at a school! You still get that immature side of things!) and tonight will be FUN!

The Rent...

This (real) video has gone viral, and everyone is just loving it and making jokes about it, but it's actually really serious, and I totally support this. Considering I've overdrawn my account, and my entire paycheck tomorrow goes directly to rent, it really is true that the rent is too damn high.



I feel like only in New York City can a budget not cut it...

Vegas Baby!

Back in August, the plan was set in motion by my friends in San Diego to plan a surprise birthday weekend for Pam in Las Vegas. With the help of my dad, I was able to get a plane ticket out there for this past weekend. I was SO EXCITED not only for Vegas, but to see all the SD friends. A little of me thought my Vegas days were over once I moved to New York City, so I was ecstatic a trip came up that I was able to finangle my way into.

It was definitely a strange feeling having to take a 5 hour PLANE ride to Las Vegas, but once there, it felt like I had never left home!! With a suite in the Palazzo (connected to The Venetian), and two birthday girls in Las Vegas, it was a recipe for success!


Pam and Colleen, her friend from law school with the exact same birthday!


Pam and her boyfriend Doug, who more or less organized the weekend


Our group on Friday night before heading out to the Wynn and Encore


Me and Rafael! He wasn't able to come to NYC for Labor Day Weekend, so I was uber excited to see him this weekend


Next morning brunch at the Grand Lux Cafe.


Me and Sri at brunch. His favorite city is Riverside!


After brunch was poolside lounging at the Palazzo pool






Rafael, Sri and myself were the only ones who got in the water






I just love Vegas!! I love seeing all the different hotels all around, it's one of my favorite parts!


Me and bday girl Pammy inside the Palazzo. I specifically remember we were running up to the suite to finish watching the Phillies - Giants game and were a bit stressed about it, but I still made us stop for a picture




Celebrating a Giants win!


And our whole group before heading out for Saturday night on the town


Pam's goal was to hit up the Minus 5 ice bar, which we did and was really fun! We weren't able to take pictures inside but Rafael made best friends with this penguin we got a picture with on the outside



These were the pictures we took on the inside that I cheated and took a picture of. Pam's boss Christine and her coworker Laura ended up being there the same weekend and joined us for the ice bar + gambling afterwards. In Monte Carlo I begrudingly laid down $30 on the $10 minimum blackjack table and ended up playing for about 4 hours!! The table was all us and it was SO. MUCH. FUN! I got up to over $100 at some point but couldn't bring myself to cash out since the table was too fun, the music too good, the dealers awesome, the pit boss having fun with us by taunting us with a Go Rangers sign, etc. Sri spilled many a drinks, Rafael tried to climb on the catwalk, and I sang to every single song that came on, and after 4 hours still left the table up a few bucks. I sat next to Christine at the table and we had the best time joking and betting together. It was fun that it was all just us at the table. All our cheering and jeering at both the table and the Giants clips playing on the TV in front of us made people keep coming over and try to wait us out for a spot, but we were there hours!








And the walk back, I just love the Strip:


And the completed city center:


The next day we checked out and got In-n-Out (I hadn't had that since I left and was craving it!!) and then I got dropped off at the airport. It was really hard for me to say goodbye to my friends, and also to take a PLANE home, and not drive back like old times. Sometimes I forget all the little things I gave up. I love the desert landscape too. One last picture of Las Vegas from my seat on the plane...


I'm sure I'll make it back someday. I LOVE LAS VEGAS! Thank you Dad, for making it happen!!

Cousin Bobby Pictures

Cousin Bobby put up pictures from his time here, so thought I would share them here too.

This is 106 St, which I walk down frequently


Sheep's Meadow, Central Park. Just behind this from the picture are the volleyball courts I played on in the summer


An owl deco in the architecture near Angel of the Waters. Cousin Bobby was as enthralled by it as I was!


Rockefellar Plaza with the rink up already!


Empire State Building at night, I loved this color scheme (changes a lot)


Us in Times Square


Police Horse!


Little Italy, where we had our last dinner


And our gelato / canoli dessert


Happy Friday everyone.