Sailin' around Manhattan

Hi all - I guess it's the end of another fabulous weekend. Had a fabulous time!

Friday Naveen and I picked up Cuban take-out on the way to a free Central Park show. We sat and ate our tasty dishes - shrimp marinated in a red sauce with onions and peppers and Naveen's rice with spicy sausage - and watched some Afro-American dance with some ballet and hip hop influences and some awesome African music and drum work! They had colorful costumes with tons of loose fabric tied around their body and they moved very freely and lithely. It was great fun. We got the feeling they were telling stories with the dance, we just didn't know what stories they were telling. Then we walked home during the pleasant night, and called it a night.

Saturday was great, too - we met up with friends for brunch at 1:30 or 2. Yay afternoon brunch! We went to this hole-in-the-wall place called Freeman's in the East Village. I swear you couldn't find this place even if you knew it - it's down an alley that doesn't show up on maps, and the restaurantdoesn't display it's name anywhere. It's just a door... But it was very nice - we got mimosas, and I got a baked omelet with spinach, gruyere cheese, and bacon - yum. And the company was wonderful - so my lab-mate at IBM is Emina who is originally from Bosnia. Her boyfriend came in from Boston for the weekend - he's from England. Then we met up with her MIT friend who lives in the city - he's from India. He brought a friend who was studying in the city just for the summer - she's from St. Petersburg. Holy Cow! Varied people. So the Indian was an interesting guy - his name is Rishie (something like that). He did engineering/computer stuff in school, decided he didn't like that environment and got a job in finance - high-profile trading. That totally wiped him out in 4 years even though he made a good living, so he just recently switched into the field of real estate. He has something to say about everything, and he's a very personable, intelligent guy. So we quizzed him on his careers, living in NY, living the American dream, etc. We learned a lot and it was very enjoyable. First - in careers we came to the conclusion that it's all about connectors - the people who can connect specialist doing X with specialist doing Y, or take ideas solved in 1 field and apply them to a problem in another. Maybe I can be a connector somehow! He did say you need both the skills and the drive in your career, and you should switch it up if you don't have both. I'm thinking I am not sure I have drive in CS - maybe I should switch a bit so I can still use my skills but work with people more? Also - the way to make Manhattan manageable, friendly and knowable is to find your neighborhood, then cultivate it - get to know the people who work in the restaurants you like, know the people in your neighborhood, friends, then everything there is familiar and nice - you can make it your own.

Anyway, we had some good brunch - these guys liked dessert, so we got bananas foster and a chocolate dessert. Then we took off and went up to the Met - Metropolitan Museum of Art. We saw an exhibit that Emina wanted to see - about a fashion dress maker that was revolutionary in the 1910s. Then we wandered a bit - seeing horse armor, musical instruments, a bit of the "Venice and Islam" exhibit, and seeing paintings and sculptures in between. It's just too big there - you really have to just want to see a particular part and go there and leave - it's exhausting otherwise! So we left, and walked aimlessly around the east side and talked. Then for a "snack" ( at 7pm) we took a cab down to Rishie's neighborhood and went to a little french restaurant he knows. We ordered beers and appetizers - very fun. Got mussels and crab cake, a potato and blue cheese gallette (layered thing), and calimari and fries. And of course dessert - Naveen and I got creme brulee. Fun times - and the people really made it a great day - so many interesting stories. I want to be that inspirational and adventurous - all these people that madke wonderful things of themselves by moving to another country which has to be so hard! After this we went our separate ways, and I took Naveen down to Union Square area because I like it, and we walked around. We checked out a brewery/restaurant and sampled several beers that were tasty - I really liked my summer apricot ale and my red ale as well! Nice that the city is so accessible and everyone is out and about...

Today was a day of sailing - it was wonderful! David Bacon - a colleague of mine at IBM - loves sailing. He sails every weekend at belongs to a club in lower Manhattan, so he invited us to go with him! So we did get dramamine, and headed off with him - getting down there around noon. It was so much fun to sail! Setting up the boat was really satisfying and tactile - Naveen and I surmised I should've studied civil engineering because I like that so much. We tied ropes all around this tiny boat - around 30 feet long and could only have 5 people aboard. It was fun to be put to work and learn to tack and winch and switch sails and all. And it was a HOT day - 95 in the city supposedly. So it was nice to be on the water and feel the breeze and the water, although the sun does zap your energy. We took snacks and just hung out. David did most of the sailing, and a friend of his came too. We tacked back and forth (switching the sail from 1 side to another) up wind - we went a far ways - past the Statue of Liberty south. We got beautiful views of Manhattan, Brooklyn, New Jersey, Ellis Island, Staten Island, Coney Island, and the statue herself! Very fun! We went down to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge which is pretty far. Then coming back down wind we could go a lot faster. We brought out this awesome huge sail - I can't remember the name of it right now (spinicker?) that really made sailing exciting (besides before when one side of the boat hit the water and you were semi-standing up). Beautiful. There's a lot of good hard work involved in sailing, and you do get zapped, but I can see the appeal. You really can get into the rhythm of it and forget your life. Relaxing :-). So we had fun with David hanging out afterward - just got drinks after coming back. Then he dropped us near home, and we were hungry so we stopped at Haitian food nearby on the way home. It was pretty good - we really liked their soup with meat and potatoes and vegies - hearty, but their pork dish seemed over cooked... Naveen's meatballs were tasty... But after the long day of sailing, we came home and passed out - tiring! Another Monday to look forward to tomorrow...