Get FIT (Food, Injuries and Traveling)

My favorite store called me yesterday to say I had a $40 coupon to use before next Wednesday, so what did I do? I went shopping after work. I bought 5 shirts that I didn't need for a grand total of $49, which is typically what some of their shirts cost by themselves. I'm pretty excited about this. I also might be returning one of the shirts because I realized when I got home that I already have that shirt - it was the only full price item that I bought (so basically I will have spent $10 on 4 quality shirts - that I might not need, but love anyway). 

After treating myself to my shopping indulgence, the night just got better. 

I'm pretty sure by this point you have deduced that I love food. I've really been trying to eat as much delicious food as I can in the past two weeks. Yesterday was no different. Not only did I take myself to classy lunch, but I also went to classy dinner (this next section is for you Maxwell)

Some of the foods that I crave, not all the time, but often, are grilled octopus, red meat cooked on the rare side of medium rare, and rice pudding (usually with a touch of cardamom). So, when perusing the restaurant week menus of the places on the Upper East Side by my job, I was pleasantly surprised to see Persephone on the list. It's a restaurant I knew nothing about, but walked past 2-3 times a week on my way to the train from my gym. Guess what was on their menu.

Yup, my perfect craving indulging meal. After trying to go to two other restaurants in the area and realizing they were way too classy for my bermuda shorts and no reservation, I found myself at Persephone, and I was not disappointed AT ALL. The maitre'd was wonderful. I wanted to have a quick meal, and it worked out perfectly because she said she could seat me, but the table had a prior reservation in an hour. NO problem. I could get out of there in less than an hour and not feel like I was eating too fast to be classy - because they needed the table. It was like the planets aligned.

They had wonderful EVOO on the table for me to eat my delicious crusty bread with before starting my meal. They had a special of suckling pig, that had it not been restaurant week, I would've jumped all over. However, my intense craving for red meat helped me to stick with the prix fixe and I was not disappointed.

The grilled octopus was probably the best I've ever had. It was the perfect texture, soft with a little bit of tension but not chewy. My teeth just cut through it, not quite like butter - but maybe a well refrigerator stick of butter (although I've never done this before). The citrusy sauce was perfect and yet still creamy and smooth. The suction cups added texture because they were a little crispier from the grill. I was in HEAVEN.

I wish this picture could better convey the delicousness

For the main meal I was a little worried, because as some know, skirt steak can be a little touch and go. Typically found more in Mexican food, it is often overcooked and I definitely prefer rare to well done. When it came, the israeli couscous made me happy and made me think of my mom. the spring vegetables were chunked, cooked but not mushy, they still had a crisp to them. I love texture! So the couscous was soft and the vegetables added crunch. I was pleased and then I tried the skirt steak. They had actually rolled different pieces of steak and so I got to unroll them and see how perfectly purple/pink they were on the inside. It was brilliant. Add some grilled onion and a delicious sauce and life couldn't get better. I couldn't get a good picture because the restaurant had romantic low lighting and it didn't feel right to have my flash go off, but trust me, it looked simply divine.

Please note that those are indeed yellow grape tomatoes - one of my weaknesses

I was stuffed, but my rice pudding came anyway and it was another textural revelation. The rice was not overcooked and mushy, and still provided some sustenance while the pudding was creamy and perfect.

It was an incredible meal to end the night.

I got home and I talked to my dad for a cool 20 minutes, which always makes me happy. I love talking to him and I think that it's a good thing that I provide him with someone who understands how crazy my mother can be. In fact, at one point I felt a tiny twinge in my heart for him because he's almost at his wits end with her. I feel like this happens every summer, and then it's magnified by the fact that she's not been feeling well (I will touch on shortly).

I'm very much like her, or maybe she's very much like me. When she gets bored and doesn't feel useful, she turns into a crazy bitch. Not that she isn't that way a lot of the time, but as a teacher, when she has off during the summer, she has all of these grandiose plans but ends up spending all of her time watching tv on the couch. This makes her feel like shit, and in turn, she makes my dad and I feel the same way.

My dad never had to take solo car rides with her much before. I was usually the buffer, and not that I provide any real kind of buffering, but my mom would rather direct her anger towards me than my dad. Also, I sometimes provide her with a reason for this. Anyway, they've been driving together a lot more lately and he finally understands what I went through for 12 years being trapped in a moving vehicle with her every morning for at least 20 minutes. I told him how I used to look out the window as we drove through the park for the perfect patch of grass to jump out of the moving car onto, so as to hurt myself the least. More than a half dozen times in high school I opened the door of the moving car to fling myself out. He FINALLY understands, and I'm glad I can be there to commiserate with him. He's such a nice guy, I hope my mom doesn't fuck it up. Anyway...

I think my dad is going to get a dog soon - probably hypoallergenic - so that my mom can have something to entertain her that loves her and doesn't yell back and he can have a retreat. I think it would be cute to see him biking with the dog running alongside.


There's one problem with this though. We tend to end up with pets with shit health, and in the past year or so, collectively with my parents, we have been in the hospital 2-3 times a piece at minimum. I've been three times (ER twice - I took this guy I knew there once during the christmas snowstorm just a week after I busted my knee), I believe that today is my mother's second stay, but her first one was way longer (both admitted through the ER). My dad had one hospital STAY, but he was there at least a half dozen other times for tests and when he popped his calf muscle. Pretty much, this past year has not been good for us, but has been great for the hospital business! I blame working at a hospital.

In 2008-2009, I was in the hospital once, my mother once and my dog about a half dozen times.

Basically we're tired of hospitals, pet or otherwise - thus a new animal with unforeseen issues might be tough. And as I mentioned before, my parents are at the hospital right now. My mom's stomach is not doing so hot. I'll update you later on why that is, other than the fact that she's an idiot that can't take care of herself and after being fat for so long, she kind of takes pride in not being able to eat very much (even if it's not healthy).

While my parents are in the hospital, I was enjoying a nice sushi lunch of sashimi salad (with tuna, white tuna, salmon, mango and kiwis), a white tuna roll, a shrimp tempura roll and some green tea ice cream with my favorite Mexican.

I inadvertently touched this girl's butt on the train this morning because it was so packed and immediately I started hearing the typical train announcement in my head talking about a packed train is still no excuse to touch people inappropriately. The Mexican told me a story about a gafasian (guh-fay-zhun) on the train this morning. Basically a gay fat asian guy with frosted "highlights" and a too tight shirt literally stood 3 inches from the Mexican on the train and their bellies touched. The Mexican wanted him to and I quote "trip when they got off the train and get AIDS and then fall into the tracks". He was not pleased. I laughed hysterically and considering we had both inhaled our lunches, my stomach hurt.

I have a meeting in less than a half hour and I plan on spending the rest of the afternoon on the phone with ITS, again. Gotta love it, eh?

Lastly, I hate planning vacations. Something's always a mess. I'm a little sad because I could've gone to Philly to see T with B the first weekend in August, because B's plans got canceled (and she never has a free weekend), but I already told Ni that I would go with her to this "crab fest" thing in Gettysburg, PA (WHICH I DID NOT REALIZE WAS A 5 HOUR BUS RIDE EACH DIRECTION) and I already paid for it - so it doesn't make sense to bail. I need to suck it up, but planning an alternate trip to Philly is going to be tough.

I was talking to Mo about going on a road trip to the south this fall, but we figured September would be best - and part of the originally road trip was for me to get to Chicago via Detroit to see B, but B won't be there until October.

Basically, we're postponing said roadtrip and planning a two week European extravaganza - stay tuned.

Did I mention that I hate planning vacations? Honestly, I'd rather someone just tell me when and where and then I just have to book the tickets. All of this searching for the best price shit is terrible. I also have to somehow tell my bosses I'm planning on taking off a lot of time this fall. With my impending surgery and vacations, I don't know how I'm going to manage to get a paycheck. I just want to take September off.

I'm also supposed to go to Texas with B and her family over Thanksgiving, but now I don't even know if she's going.

I realize I only have middle class problems and I should stop complaining, but WHATEVER.

P.S. I promise to be funnier in the future. I realize when I RANT, I'm hilarious. When I talk about my day - not so much.

Shopping, Subways, Stupidity and Seafood (with some ducks)

I've decided that I'm going to start off every as many as I can remember, blog entries with random facts about me that will help you get to know me a little better (whether you want to or not).

1. I can speak French semi-fluently, only when I'm hammered. You can ask Mo

2. I will only drink Snapple out of glass bottles, otherwise it tastes funny!
3. I did my first guest blog post that you can see here right before I went to Bermuda.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. Speaking of which, I got the cutest set of texts from my dad today.

Yup, he's the best

The reason he asked why I was alive and well however, is that I didn't go home last night. Which is perfectly fine and pretty common, but still I had mentioned how he only cares about where I am if I have the car, but I guess I was wrong!

Yesterday after my chiro appointment I got a message from B saying that there was a basketball game at Dyckman (pronounced, dyke man - like a butch lesbian, get it?!) in Spanish Harlem all the way uptown. Anyway, in order for me to go, I decided that it would only be logical to stay in the Bronx afterward. In order to stay in the Bronx I needed clothing to wear, and I surely wasn't going to go home to get some. I had been thinking about going to Express for a few days since they've been bombarding me non-stop with their emails about their big end of season sale, and yadda yadda run on sentence.

So I went. I spent a whole goddamn hour in that store and wanted to gouge out my eyes. But wait, I ended up with a few shirts and pants, but I needed panties. This led me down the block to Victoria's Secret. Guess who's having their semi-annual sale? Yup, 40 minutes and another absurd line later I had 10 more pairs of panties than I needed. You didn't think it would end there, right? I plan on staying at B's a lot this summer, so I dropped by Duane Reade and picked up some essential toiletries to leave at her mom's house. It doesn't end there folks...My feet were hurting at this point, so I decided that I should pick up some flip flops at Old Navy. Guess who's having another end of season sale? Yup, 40 minutes after that and another ABSURD line I made my way to the train.

I got on the train with my gigantic bags to make the 18 stop trip up to Dyckman. Two things happened on the train that really could've messed up my night. First, B called me and said the park was packed and they weren't letting anyone else in the game...

Let that sink in.

I was going to a basketball game where I couldn't get on the court, 10 local stops from where I currently was with approximately $300 worth of merchandise in tow and wearing shoes that were killing my feet. I got off the train and tried to figure out what the hell I was going to do. I decided that I could loiter for 20 minutes outside of the park and I was still on my way. I had already blown off 3 other people. One BC, one guy who wants to be a BC but flipped out because this is day two of blowing him off and the Mexican, because it was Wednesday and I was considering going to the Stumble Inn with him.

Here's number 2 hitch of the day. Guess what stop the Uptown 1 train wasn't making. Yup, you guessed it, Dyckman. I had to take the train to 207th, walk down the staircase with all of my junk and then walk back up on the other side to catch the downtown 1 that would take me to my destination. Then I didn't know which way to go and it's a good thing that I get along with Bodega people because they pointed me in the right direction.

I eventually made it to the park and my phone started doing something janky, it started switching message windows. Now this is either because I'm a fucking idiot (highly plausible) or that the world has an evil twisted plot to make my life more difficult (more plausible, in my opinion). So I was messaging Mo, all of the messages that were meant for B about where I was and how to locate me.

Good going KG, good going.

As I was loitering though I ran into none other than OhD. I'm sure I will mention him again at some point, but now is not the time. Just know that he's a "friend" (and no it's not in quotes because it's sexual, but his friendships are limited). Anyway, he was looking around because he lost his friend's pinky ring when he was pissing between two cars. I tried to help him look for it, but it didn't really work. I was still kind of surprised to see him up there, because I usually see him in Brooklyn and Brooklyn only.

The good thing about finding him was that he managed to get me in the park. The bad part about this is that B left the park to look for me because she couldn't find me inside. Then she got frustrated and made a joke (a crack at OhD) and he flipped out, and there was yelling and I tried to keep the peace, but it didn't work. Oh well.

The game ended about 5 minutes later and B came back inside and we were all talking to people on the court and killing time. We eventually got ourselves together and went to go drop Niece off at Sister's house and to pick up Mike before going to City Island!

City Island was glorious. Basically it's where you go for Seafood, if you're unfamiliar. I had this cold seafood sampler which included shrimp, clams oysters and a whole lobster. That came with a salad, linguini, corn and rice. It was pretty phenomenal. Some of us got drinks which made things a little funnier, but overall the whole family is hilarious and it's always a good time.

Sister's crab legs

Cheers!

That was my Wednesday. I made it to work in record time. It takes literally 15 minutes to get from B's corner to 68th Street on the train, that includes the walk to the train. We've been talking about switching living locations. I live 20 minutes from her job, she lives 20 from mine. We're planning on keeping full wardrobes at each others' houses.

Oh and as a treat, the Mexican and I took a lunch walk yesterday to Rockefeller Institute and they have these fountains and there were DUCKLINGS in the fountain. Super cute.

Mama watching the duckies

Quack quack!

Lastly, I have the sense of humor of an 8 year old and I bought donut holes for this conference at work today. I think they're naughty and the Mexican and I laughed about them for a good 10 minutes. They also said other raunchier things on the box.

 

Delicious Glazed Hole anyone?

And since it's been pretty springy lately I figured I would post some flower pictures.

These were from my Fellows on Administrative Professionals Day. Note the unbloomed amaryllis in the middle.

It bloomed! And is looking longingly at the sunshine outside of my window.

And for all of you stalkers, this is what the side of my house looked like a few weeks ago.