George - my cool doorman

Hey. Been busy lately - sorry about not posting. I'm very tired today and out of it. Reminder to self: don't stay up working until 2am when you have a fixed ride to work with an early morning person. I thought I could just push through the sleepiness, and while I can... my brain is way less functional. Fun :-).

So life is good. New York is awesome. I find again that it's all about people. And really - New Yorkers are friendly - those that see you everyday and sorta know you. Not necessarily strangers, but even people in restaurants are usually pretty nice. Naveen pointed out that New Yorkers really only hate tourists because they are clueless and get in the way of us who know where we are going :-).

So updating from last week - my softball game was rained out last Wednesday evening - bummer. But spent a nice night at home instead - what a concept! We make up the playoff game tonight - hope my brain mush doesn't affect my throwing and catching! At least it'll be easy to stay awake in the beautiful weather (outside is infinitely better than sitting in front of computer screen).

I digress... Thursday I convinced other interns to go out to lunch and we went to a nearby organic farm owned by the Rockafellers. But they grow all vegetables themselves, and have pigs, chickens, ducks, sheep, etc. And they have a farmer's market there some days. We went up through their beautiful grounds and had lunch at their cafe. It was expensive, but boy was it tasty! All the salady concoctions w/ vegies were awesome. Then we all got duck panini sandwiches which were wonderful! Very moist :-). We went back for dessert - they have homemade pastries and desserts too - yum. I got an oatmeal cookie - I have to say that I'm sorry Dad for all the times I made fun of you for eating those. I really feeling like I'm coming into my adulthood because now I love coffee and all the other things I hated as a kid - namely granola/oats/bran. They are really tasty to me now! Yum. I got some scones for Naveen and I for the next morning for breakfast and they were also really tasty - 1 currants and ginger, the other bacon, chives, and cheddar. Of course I liked the sweet and Naveen liked the savory the best. (Yes, I hear Grandpa Sartor saying "Sweets to the sweet and nuts to the Nutty!") And this place also had their own yogurt drinks with 8 cultures! We all decided we have to go back there and often :-).

Thursday night I joined a bunch of interns to go to the Harry Potter 5 movie! Yippee! Watching the movie got me so hyped up about Harry Potter again. So much fun. And I loved Luna. We were all buzzing after the movie - so exciting. What made our movie even cooler was that we went to an IMAX showing and got 3D glasses, so the climax at the end for around 20-30 minutes was in 3D! That was so cool - especially when they were flying. Really felt real! That night I was struck with how lucky I am to have the friends I do here. I have really been bonding with 2 people in particular - Shan Shan my carpool driver, and Emina my labmate. They are awesome, and everyday I have new conversations with them and bond over something new (and we've been opening up to each other more). I feel like we relate to each other even though each of us have different backgrounds. I love it. I was so full of love that night when I got home for how cool friends are in general. How they really make life wonderful. How it's just fun to bond with people. So really - if I don't go to every museum in NYC, I'll be ok. I think what I would rather take home are the experiences with these 2 awesome girls. :-). So my weekend was basically: Saturday - hang out with Emina; Sunday - hang out with Shan Shan. Of course Naveen came to all events.

But before the weekend we have Friday! Was very grateful to get to Friday. I came home early, but Naveen and I ended up working until like 10:30pm. Ooops. It's addictive (at times). So we headed out on the town then and subway-ed down to Greenwich Village to explore. Naveen really liked the grittiness of it. The punkness down there. And believe me you see very different kinds of people there. And couples - combining any 2 random, very different people :-). But it was really fun. We wandered down 4th and finally decided on a Spanish restaurant for food. We literally sat on the sidewalk and it was fun to people watch. We had some tasty paella and fish and sangria. Boy is alcohol expensive here! Crazy... Anyway - then we went to "The Slaughtered Lamb" pub for a beer afterwards. Definitely traditional pub with dark wood and funky atmosphere - fun! I really recommend Youngs Double Chocolate (made with real dark chocolate) if you can get your hands on it - it's a beer and it's tasty. :-). Nice night - we cabbed it home.

Saturday we slept in and worked. But this was the day of days for work - we finally fixed our bug that was holding up my research project. Well, ok - my partner fixed it! I was soooo excited - you have no idea what a relief this was to me. So now I'm fully in paper mode and scared... August 7 baby. But anyway... finally got dressed and went to meet friends for Ethiopian food. Yes, Mom - I was scouting out for when you visit :-). Funnily enough the place was on "Curry Row" street in the East Village - basically full of Indian restaurants. But we met Emina and her now fiance Alad (they got engaged a couple weeks ago the same day we hung out with them!). Awesome food, awesome company, random conversation - my favorite. Emina's friend Rishie joined us and we went to a she-she bar where everyone dressed in the latest NY fashions. And I have to say they are very weird! Poofy hair, short dresses. We definitely didn't fit in :-). Emina said she doesn't even get the appeal of these bars that are loud and basically for the popular people to be seen at and spend oodles of money in. Very trendy. Naveen and I had more fun when we left (although their cocktails were good) and got dessert at a 24-hour diner-type place. Yum cinnamon twist and red velvet cake. Then - the long way home. It just seemed long because we walked a lot and I had heels on :-).

Sunday - up early, but for a good cause: Dim Sum in Chinatown with Shan Shan! Oh yeah! Seriously - why didn't I discover Dim Sum before? Tell me this? It was so awesome going with a Chinese person. She did everythign for us :-). And everything was wonderful. Chinatown itself is very funny - there are stalls everywhere trying to sell you handbags and watches and fruit (but they don't really press the fruit on you). We bought some dragonfruit to try! But Dim Sum was awesome - tons of little dumplings and things - all tasty. Naveen and Shan Shan liked the chicken feet, but there's not the best to me. Of course we got the buns with the sweet pork in them too, and the sesame balls. We ate to our contentment and we were full! And at the end, it was only $10 per person - woohoo! We are so going back. We meandered along streets on the way back - through Little Italy (which Chinatown is really encroaching on). Unfortunately the gelato really doesn't seem authentic. We found a Paul Frank store - the guy with the monkey apparel - and I bought a funky "Lollipop Dragon" shirt. My first NYC clothing - yippee! Very cute. Then we headed home. We've had very nice weather let me add. So the rest of Sunday was basic - went grocery shopping (which is very frustrating when people come to the counter with n items and see the total is above what they want to pay, and then make them take back like 3 of the items). Then we went to Starbucks and work for a few hours again. Being productive :-). With coffee :-D. I decided I was done for the evening because I really wanted to go to this movie in the park thing. Naveen decided to work, so I went by myself to Riverside Park. I saw the 1938 movie "Bringing Up Baby" with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. I love old movies! We sat on a grassy hill - actually laid - which was perfect. I swear everyone but me brought their dog. But it wasn't that crowded. The movie was so cute - I laughed out loud at the jokes about people and clumsiness :-). And of course it was sorta a romantic comedy so it was liked by me. Very cute story - I recommend it. I wonder why movies aren't still like that? Maybe I just liked it so much because I related to Katharine Hepburn's character - getting into trouble/clumsiness at every turn :-). I was so happy to have gone. I came back and chatted with George my awesome doorman about movie night. He recommended I go to Bryant Park for movies, too, which is awesome because it also shows old movies. He said he saw "Look Who's Coming to Dinner" there with Sidney Poirtier which is an awesome movie. Lo and behold Casablanca is playing the week after our deadline - I hope we can go! Yay :-). I just am happy because people are friendly and I really look forward to seeing George every time I leave and come home. And all the security dudes wave to me too :-). Nice people. Needless to say I feel a bit more welcome here now. Although really there's no way to know ALL of this city. Just gotta know your part. I enjoy seeing the guys that give me my paper every morning on the way down the subway steps. One calls me "Beautiful" :-). It's the little things...

Ok so I have to go play softball. I'm in paper mode now so don't know how much I'll blog, but I'll try... But know that everything is well :-). Here's wishing wellness on you too.