I got off the train near my apt (near if you consider 5 blocks near) and headed homeward. Or homebound, whichever. With each step I took, the sky got darker and I got thirstier. I realized I didn’t have any dinner, but I wasn’t hungry. Only thirsty, for a nice cold cider beer from the Pencil Factory. 

Lindsay and I go to the Pencil Factory, which yes, used to be pencil factory in the good old days, when we are feeling like getting out of the apt but not getting onto the hot, sweaty, stinky subways (i love you MTA! planning on a 13% fare increase by 2011, darn you MTA). And the PF has the best setup for buying a cider and enjoying it. Situated on the corner of Franklin and another road I forget the name of, the outdoor seating is positioned in a way where you feel part of the group (of other barees) and also an individual, as you stare out through the 20 foot metal chain-link fence down the street, across one of the most-polluted waterways in the country, and over to the beautiful, envied Manhattan.

Enough about that though, because I wasn’t about to go to the Pencil Factory by myself, as I hobbled home from work + meeting in 2 inch heels (low for me these days). I wanted something bubbly and refreshing and I wanted it now. … Hmm, I thought as I passed by all the good grocery joints near me. Hmm.. I kept thinking, until it was too late. I was at my resident- and tree-lined block. But wait, there’s that strangely populated Spanish place 2 doors down from my crossstreet. I never go there because there’s always a crew of In-Crowd people standing around, speaking foreign languages I don’t understand (but should, because I took like 5,000 years of spanish in high school). 

I stepped inside and, wow! they have Seltzer Water (I’m planning on making spritzers at this point with the Pineapple Orange juice I have waiting in my fridge). And they have — wait for it — milk! And bread! Someone’s buying a loaf of bread here! Ok, Ok, so I’m not that prejudiced at all. I instantly liked the place actually, and grabbed my seltzer near the front, and turned around to join the checkout line, but there was no end. It was just a mob of people chittering away with their respective companions. I waited a minute or two, not understanding much of anything. Did they think I looked out of place? Wait, I always look out of place, I’m 6′0, skinny, and blond-ish. 

Where’s the end of the line, I asked everyone at once. Are you in line, I asked the guy in the black Polo. Is he in line, I asked the same guy about the strange old man with no teeth and bright yellow shirt that said “Jamaica NO PROBLEM”

Then after one or two quick shrugs of the eye, a nice mom-looking lady ahead of me said “There is no line.” in such a straightforward, there you go kind of way. 

Sorry! I’m a first timer, I shouted to my new comrade as she slowly made her way out of the store.

When it was finally my “turn” to buy my seltzer water, I was ready to get out of there, but the Crazy Old Yeller with the Jamaica shirt and dark leather-like skin hopped in front of me, waving 3 dollars at the guy behind the counter. Who knows!

Finally, the guy rang me up, and said “Uno y sesente y seis” or something like that.

Oh, okay, he wants to get tricky! I know my Spanish and I’ll prove it!

Um, $1.60? I squeaked. 

Noooh, nooooh, Chicitica, $One and $Sixty Nine, he responded. 

We finished the conversation in Mostly Spanish, and he was nice enough to even teach me how to say the right things at the right times. Everything sounded so familiar, like Buenos Noches, but felt so much cooler and edgier outside the classroom.

I think I’ll be needing more selzer water soon so I can attend my Mostly Spanish class again Buenos Noches Amigos!!!

Update: Just learned last night that the building that they made pencils in a long time ago is actually located across the street from the bar, The Pencil Factory.

We’re Interns with a Dream, All of us

The girl I had met 5 minutes before was trying to describe the rather strange gathering of people on the 2nd floor of Red Sky bar at 29th and Park. It was hot, but not as hot as the roof where we were supposed to be. It was dark, but with just enough red candlelight to discern who was standing around. Girls. Lots of girls, with brown hair, blond hair, black hair, a few with red hair. Oh and a couple guys, maybe gay or probably weird.

It was one of the Ed2010 happy hour events. Ed2010 has truly become a household name in the magazine world. If you want to work magazine, live magazine or eat magazines (what?), then you read Ed2010 weekly, if not daily. All the people who work there, from the founder to the event planners, work for free. Maybe they do it because it’s fun and pretty much a social event with people like you. But more likely, when they were interns, someone who had Made It probably went a little mad and actually went out of his or her way to help a newbie, an intern, a nobody (ok, that’s a little harsh and not true). 

The event was fun. I always have to convince myself a little bit to actually make it to the events (hello! i could be watching Melrose Place in bed!) but then realize that only good things could come from Ed Happy Hours (meeting people like you, meeting upper level volunteers, get some fresh air (or stuffy 2nd floor bar air) and $4 Appletinis). I think I may even be on the homepage of Ed2010.com — I know I was definitely posing and cheesing for the camera. We’ll see!

Yes, I’ve finally done it. Made the trip to the historic educational Coney Island!

Check out my pics on Flickr!

I’m always looking for ways to stay healthy and eat healthy, which definitely isn’t always easy especially with Triple Mocha Carmel Whole Milk Frappachinos available on every block (damn Starbucks). But if you can avoid the daily temptations that crowd our environment (I was able to pass up on the chocolate soft serve I wanted at Coney Island and got an all-fruit no sugar added smoothie instead) then your body will thank you.

My latest thing has been pretzels. They’re low in fat (or maybe non-fat?) and just as crunch-worthy as chips, if not more. Downside: they have a lot of salt, but, oh well, just don’t overdo it. And my most recent ”yay” find in this category of munchie food are the Honey Wheat Sticks by Snyder’s of Hanover. They are amazing! Lightly honey-sweet with a mostly pretzel taste. Great bonus, they blended in sesame seeds in for extra great flavor. They are so great with a fresh-cut apple or dipped in some creamy Jiff.

yum

I went to see The Dark Knight last night.

**Before I go on, if you are scared of clowns or very scary clowns, you may not want to view the photos at the end of the post. They’re so cool that I have to post.**

Going to see movies on opening weekend is so much fun in New York City, not only because everyone gets so hyped up about them and tickets sell out days if not weeks in advance, but because most of the plot usually takes place on the very ground we’re sitting on.

Or in the case of last night, on the very ground we were 10 stories above (in a very fictional sense, as it’s actually Gotham City). The theater we were able to get tickets to (my 4 girl friends and I) was in Brooklyn, exactly 1/2way between my place and their place (and Jenn, the odd woman out had to come from New Jersey — the other 3 are roommates).  But it actually works out quite well to have the Brooklyn Heights/Park Slope area as a 1/2way point between our apartments because it’s SUCH a nice area. It’s where all the editors at work live and where rich people stroll along wide, brick-laden sidewalks. And of course, since it is still Brooklyn, you can walk 2 blocks in a particular direction and be in the ghetto.

So we got to the theater exactly 40 minutes before the show, which was very necessary. 5 minutes later there was a crowd of 200 out the door slamming forward to — I don’t know why everyone has to push, it’s not like we were going anywhere at first! We finally were let through the gates and I thought we would be let into the theater, but no. We had to take about 10 flights of escalators up to wait in yet another huge line. Then after chatting away with my friends for a while longer (no problem) they led us to a different floor, yet again, and we got into a third line. And finally, got into our seats. There were definitely several people sitting on the floor by the time the movie started.

And I’m sure they didn’t mind too much because this movie is GOOD. I won’t give anything away, I hope, but it has several very intense moments of action, emotion and laughter. They really pack it in with the special effects, and the acting of Heath Ledger is phenomenal. He has that crazy thing down to a tee. 

Speaking of Heath Ledger, there are several moments where they have a specific way of portraying the character where you can see beyond the caked or dripping (depending on how excited Joker is) makeup to the personable and lovable actor from 10 Things I Hate About You (teen classic). It made Julianne and I very sad at a couple points in the movie, but I think it’s good that if he was going to pass away, at least he ended with a commendable role (do we think awards?)

Side Note: There’s one thing that made me really upset that night though. As we were in the area of Cobble Hill that can be a little more low-income shall we say, there were at least half black people in the theater (I didn’t really think anything of it, although I did notice) And let me first say that a person’s color doesn’t matter to me. But I have seen several instances of rude and/or stupid behavior in my life from Black and White people. It all just depends on the type of person, and there are definitely low-quality types of both. Anyways, there was a scene in which people had to evacuate the city of Gotham. They had one huge cruise-ship-type boat of inmates, who happened to be mostly black, and another boat of “civilians,” who were probably 100% white and the boats both just sat on the river off shore. The joker gave them each a bomb trigger to blow up the other boat, and said if neither had blown the other up before the hour’s end, he would blow up both the boats. Well, as you can imagine, it was a pretty intense scene of back-and-forth decisions and arguments on each of the boats, whether to do it or not. At one point, the civilian boat was about to pull the trigger to blow up the boat of inmates, and this black girl behind me said “You got the wrong boat” and her friend a few seats down repeated “You got the wrong boat” snickering. I’m sorry, but when did it become okay to be openly racist?! Or racist at all… I mean, I know we all have our prejudices (that I wish were not there, but don’t deny everyone has them), but don’t be outright hateful and mean. Unless you think they could be talking about something else? I really don’t. It was pretty obvious what they were saying. I mean, come on! 

But after losing about 2 minutes of the movie because I was steaming about it, I got back into the plot for the last hour. Honeslty, the only thing I’d say to critisize the movie is the length. It’s well over 2 hours long and the last 1/3 is not quite as gripping as the prior segments. But it’s still quite good throughout and well worth paying the $12 to see it in the city (or the 8 to see it in another city).

And one of my favorite parts, and I think pretty much everyone else’s in the theater, really was Heath Ledger as The Joker. He was absolutely amazingly psychotic and thrilling. And somewhat of a lovable character, too. Weird, huh? Here are some pics I like:

Marc Lee, The Daily Telegraph
The Dark Knight has plenty of high-speed, maximum-volume action sequences, but it is also one of the most intelligent big-budget Hollywood movies of recent times; and no sympathy vote is required for a cinematic creation as accomplished as Ledger’s deranged, demonic Lord of Chaos. It is a genuinely unsettling, brilliantly nuanced portrait of evil.

Life is busy in New York!  I have so much to talk about here — observations, explorations — yeah, you get the picture. But no time to write! Currently, I am so tired, I must take advantage of having nothing to do but sleep. But I’ve also been up to a lot of things and thinking things I wanted to share. The least I can do is post some pics for now.

I went to a dinner w/ Lindsay, and Gavin DeGraw was there performing an “intimate acoustic set.” We met him after the show around 11 and talked about how we are vegetarians. While he was eating a steak for dinner.

Today at work I went downtown to the Playmobil showroom and they showed me all the toys for their Holiday Preview. And they also let me take whatever toys I wanted. This little guy is now chillin’ and grillin’ at my desk!  I also have the Cop on my keychain and I’m going to give the Air Traffic Controller to my friend Amy for her bday — she loves a man in uniform!

When you’re in the middle of something — anything — it feels like that feeling, that environment, those people.. It feels like all the things that make up who you are at that moment will always be.  I think we all know from experience that things change. But there are certain things — certain friendships in particular — that you Know will always be strong, always be understood, always be. 

I had an experience that really hurt me where one of my best friends was around and we didn’t get along. This person didn’t Get me, and didn’t even really Like me either. We didn’t Click at all, which is hard when that happens. It tells you that nothing in your whole entire life will be permanent. I mean, I’m sure there can be some arguments about that. I guess you could say Faith is something that stays the same. I’m not so sure. FaIth wavers, strenthens, falters, adapts just like everything else. 

Life is beautiful because everything that happens is unique and no one in the whole entire world (not even you) will experience those people or that moment again.

And after this draining weekend of not getting along with one of my “bffs,” life redeemed itself with agorgeous evening with fun friends on the edge of the Hudson River.

We had dinner and drinks and talked about.. well, we talked about me and my problems a lot, which is always nice (hey! no one else chimed in!) lol

Hudson Boat Basin 6/17/08