rainy days and sundays

hi friends - another rainy day in nyc. we've had several of late - can be downright depressing - but having a cute trench and galoshes certainly helps. plus - it's supposed to be 71 on thursday. mark your calendars to wear skirts ladies.

had a lovely weekend here in nyc - the first without work or real plans in awhile. hook has been closed for awhile now - not just the pong area mind you - but the entire bar for reasons no one really knows. we discovered this on the friday of my bday week, and while that was only three weeks ago, it feels like an eternity. we're all a little lost without our go-to, so we've been hanging out at this other bar owned by the folks that own the hook, the blue room, when the hook bartenders are working. this place is on 60th and 2nd, so us upper east siders like that better, but it is literally next to the 59th st bridge, and a verrrrrrrrry different clientele than hook. like sketchy. and the place serves food, so people come to sit and eat. just a weird vibe. but it is nice to see the hook crowd again, and we're all looking forward to how amazing the hook re-opening party is going to be (off da hook you might say) - whenever that may be.

sat vin and i cleaned up the terrace in anticipation of a spring that doesn't seem to want to come. it looks like it wants to be spring in the afternoon light and the buds and daffodils in on the trees and in central park, but so far, no dice. sat night we played in a charity beruit tournament for a friend who is running the boston marathon at town tavern in the west village. there were 32 teams and 3 beruit tables, so the evening was a bit more about the open bar and less about the beruit, but it was fun to meet some new people. vin and i played together and lost first round, but i contributed to our performance, and did not have to go sit in the corner to think about what i'd done, so i'd consider it a success. charlie and hopper were the cinderella team, and made it to the third round, as did kendra and hilary, so us dartmouth folk represented.

grabbed brunch with celeste yesterday up by columbia at 'kitchenette'. reminded me a lot of 'good enough to eat' in the 80s on the upper west side. great to see her as always, and she may be in for our trip to hanover next weekend. we had such a great time on the green key road trip last year, and who doesn't want to be in hanover when it's spring? i rest my case.

running on empty

so you may recall that back in december (effectively 4 mths ago) i signed up to run a half-marathon in june (effectively 2 mths from now). the covered bridges half marathon in woodstock, vt to be exact. this race will be part of what i'm calling 'the still north trifecta': three weekends in nh/vt in a row. but i digress.

have approx 8 weeks to go before this happens, so plan was to start formal training on monday. then rowena talked me in to running the scotland week 10k next sat in central park. i am supposed to run a 10k as part of my training, but it sure isn't scheduled 1 week into the plan. on top of the fact that i haven't run a formal road race in maybe 7 years? i think i only allowed myself to be talked into this because i am a. scottish and b. like bagpipes. disaster awaits.

sunshine state

quick post b/c i'm late to work, but i also know i'm overdue for a blog post.

got back from my vacation to florida yesterday morning. i don't know if i can fully explain how much i needed to not be at work, esp after the weekend we spent in the office. the words of jb 'i got to fly to st. somewhere, i'm close to bodily harm' sum it up, and 'the new mental toughness training for sports' advises you to 'work hard and recover equally hard' as the consequences of overtraining and undertraining are painfully clear. in my case i was falling into the prior category.

didn't do a whole lot down there; went to bed around 9 most nights, didn't binge drink, ate vegetables and read a couple books. i think the weather was better in nyc than in fl - it was pretty cloudy and chilly most of the time, and i hear it was a spring thaw in these parts - but i was kind of okay with that. in a ridiculously uncoordinated effort very unlike how we normally act, linsalata and i failed to coordinate our trips. turns out his parents have been renting in the same housing complex that my grandparents live in, and he was down visiting the weekend before. next time we'll do better.

speaking of my grandparents, my grandfather turned 81 on st. paddy's day. both my grandparents are in decent health, although they move much more slowly than they used to, but my grandfather still plays tennis on thurs and sats. so while it seems i'll have them around for much longer, am more and more conscious of the fact that i won't forever, and more grateful for the time and memories i do get to share with them. families are funny - they shape us in so many ways, but how much do you really know about your parents and grandparents hopes and dreams and lives before you came into them? it's hard to think of them as people in their own right, but maybe that's part of getting older too, the changing relationship with your family.

in other news boxa got matched at mgh in boston for residency, her first choice, meaning she'll be back on the east coast this summer! hooray! she'll also be in nyc the wknd of the 16th for a heigh-ho time. congrats!

will leave you with a sunshine state thought (i love pelicans):

'a marvelous bird is the pelican
his beak can hold more than his belly can
he holds in his beak
enough food for the week
and i'm damned if i see how the hell he can'

;-P

duty is a cruel master

sitting here at work instead of hanging out with the usual suspects in boston for st. paddy's day festivities thanks to a last minute directive to have a product spec'd out, timelines defined and a vendor selected by noon on saturday for an 8:30 meeting on monday morning. was at work til 2:30 last night. i realize some people do this all the time, but it def put a kink in my plans. sigh.

pouring rain in nyc and all up and down the east coast. went for a run in central park this morning in the rain and actually kind of enjoyed it. i've been craving running outside like your skin misses ocean water. i'm a pisces - what can i say? water, emotion and feet - that's me in a nutshell.

i suppose this weekend's lack of excitement is made up for by the fantastic weekend i had last weekend - saturday was the official bday celebration, after the 'five day cocktail party' during the week, spearheaded by vin. rang in year number 27th with a bday cake shot to 'bette davis eyes' at the joshua tree. i consider that a good sign.

the actual party was held at a favorite from two years ago - stone creek bar and lounge. nothing fancy, but easy to get into, plenty of room, cheap drinks and a talented and accommodating (and cute!) dj. did 11 shots of bday cake. i counted. saw lots of folks out for the occasion - cody, huyett briefly, celeste, yas, hearn (who put wet hot american summer into itunes format in an attempt to get it onto my ipod. it didn't work but it was extremely thoughtful of him), charlo, mulley and megh as well.

also heard from a lot of folks due to the bday, including laurak, who is out on the west coast for the spring, living in la and working with kids in aquatic pursuits (official information here.) i told her to call up kevin garland for the direct line into the dartmouth la scene. she'll be back on the east coast for the summer and for the five year in june! i also heard from boxa - she's anxiously awaiting her 'matches' for residencies next year. she prefed (tell me this isn't rush) boston and then nyc so either way it will (selfishly) bring her closer to me. we can only hope the decision was a less agonizing one for her than the 'sd vs tri delt' decision during rush soph year. where's a rho chi when you need one?

back in nyc, we found out that we can renew our lease in our apt for another year, and they've been kind enough to offer us a 60-day out whenever, so we have the flexibility and the stability we've been seeking and we're looking forward to another summer with a terrace. i'm off to florida on wednesday for some much need fun in the sun and the excitement continues in april with the dartmouth/yale crew race in new haven, a trip to hanover and boxa's hinting at an nyc trip. all things considered, not too shabby. :)

i heart fratmusic.com

been spending some time on fratmusic.com's spring break playlists. some good stuff:

1. 'if you got it' & 'la da de' - gorilla zoe. 'la da de' is the current fave song
2. 'let's get f*** up' - start trouble. has the line 'i ain't got shit to do in the morning, fuck the surgeon general's warning'
3. 'pass out' - chris brown - has elements of 'good girls gone bad' and 'call on me' with a dose of chris brown
4. 'strobelight' & 'in my head' - jason derulo. nice follow-ups to 'whatya want from me'
5. liking mash-ups from dj milkman. kind of more like 'girltalk' than the usual mash-ups i like, but the combos he's putting together are amazing. like blowing my mind. youtube 'all about it' and 'good sex'

bday celebrations continue. vin's calling it a 'five day cocktail' party. tuesday we hit up mcsorley's for the first time in awhile, and successfully convinced charlo to come to boston for st. paddy's next week. wed was '1,2,3 burger, shot, beer' with the coworkers, and last night we went to stumble inn after watching 'greek'. all our livers have overstayed their welcome, but tonight we're hitting up martini week in honor of my new favorite beverage (and discount drinks at fancy places!) and then kendra's bday festivities.

it is also boxa's bday today. happy bday bad one! is there any more confirmation that she and i are 'the strangest person each other have ever met and we decided a long time ago that we'd know each other a long time' than the fact our bday's are back to back? i don't think so. here's to windex, reasons for things that aren't good reasons, but reasons, sd 202 and a whole host of other things too difficult to put into words. love you friend.

we are the people our parents warned us about

my dad is the least technologically savvy person around. instead of fixing things, he asks my mom or my brother's friend who is staying at our house for thanksgiving ('he asked me about politics and then invited me to fix his chainsaws'. true story) to do it. his former employee (he published a magazine for ten years, among other entrepreneurial pursuits that often involved us kids as slave labor) said he never thought my dad would be able to work a computer, and now he sends me tons of articles via email about job searching, the state of america (dismal), and how things are going to hell in a handbasket, in addition to being a day trader with three screens working complicated computer programs to short stocks. so i suppose i shouldn't be too surprised that the shoe is now on the other foot and he's sending me and my siblings songs for our ipods via email instead of the other way around. he didn't even have an ipod until last christmas!

speaking of songs via email, my gmail inbox was at 95% full. that's right, i was getting notifications that i soon, much like senior year of college, would not be able to send without rapidly hitting shift twice to acknowledge that i was using too much space (the second shift was a 'i don't care, send it anyway' gesture). this got to be an ingrained reaction on blitz, and it looked like gmail was next. however, i did a search for all the emails from my brother with attachments (aka songs) and deleted them, and my inbox went from 95% to 67%. love my music don't you know.

my new favorite drink is dirty martinis. i consider this yet another sign of a. adulthood and b. alcoholism. alcoholism b/c now my go-to drinks are whiskey on the rocks and (essentially) straight vodka. i'm just a step away from enjoying tequila recreationally (hi diana). adulthood b/c i didn't used to like olives and i'm now at the point where my tastes have changed and i like things like olives, onions, & mushrooms, to the point where i want the drink pretty much for the olives. that's what adulthood is folks: olives and delayed gratification. you heard it here first.

march comes in like a lyon (roar!)

In March the wind blows down the door
And spills my soup upon the floor
It laps it up and roars for more
Blowing once, blowing twice
Blowing chicken soup with rice
  - chicken soup with rice