Fabulous Labor Day weekend with US Open + pinkness to prove it

Hi All -

Had some more fabulous adventures this weekend. What can I say? I'm unstoppable and this city just begs to be taken advantage of. Really - I'm now wondering if I have the ability to relax... Hmmm.

Anyway - highlights: biking to Chelsea Piers, seeing Street Festival, going to check out possible place to live, Scandinavian dinner, Coney Island! + Russian food, lots of Harry Potter, and 12 hours of US Open on Monday :-).

So yeah, after I could muster myself Saturday - after hours of watching tennis from the couch (seeing Sharapova lose), I got on my bike and rode. I love having my bike in this city - it really makes me feel free and it's a really easy, fast mode of transportation. Although it's a bit exhilerating/suicidal on certain streets :-). So I went down the Henry Hudson/Riverside Park bikepath that goes for miles so I hear. It's really pretty - right on the Hudson River. Saw lots of people out and neat piers. It's fun to ride down that side of the island. Finally made it down to Chelsea Piers where I wasn't that inthralled. I mean it's neat, I guess. A couple of restaurants, boats for evening cruises, then a really fancy gym, and sports stuff like batting cages, golf range, bowling, gymnastics. Nothing really I wanted to do there, so I kept going. The lady there mentioned Chelsea Market for shopping, so I headed there, but it was mostly food shops. So I kept going and road across town on 14th Street which was a bit scary. I tried the sidewalk for awhile, but people are really annoying. I think I am a NYer - I get impatient with people in my way all the time! People really don't pay attention. But yeah. So I made it over to Union Square, which I love. There were tons of art booths out and I headed over there because I had read about a street festival. I got a gyro there - yum - and walked through the fun booths. Looked at some funky NYC shirts at booths - have to key in on that at some point, plus I want some art from here - maybe photographs of the park or something. I need to figure out where that famous bridge is in the park in all of the pictures and go see it! But anyway - just ended up buying a cool pair of earrings and leaving. Mom - you'd enjoy these festivals! We'll try to find one when you are here... But had to leave and go up to 60th and 3rd Ave to check out a potential neat place to live. Seemed like a really good location and the Eastern European lady living there (she's 30) seems really awesome. And she has a bed for the extra room! So good possibility, but seemed like a lot of people were looking at the room, so we'll see. Fun to think of living in another neighborhood and experiencing that...

So was heading home when a friend of mine said he was at the boathouse hanging out with his cousin and I should stop by. The boathouse is this restaurant on a lake in the middle of Central Park. It's really pretty. Stopped by and chilled for a bit. It really was pretty and relaxing. While I was there we saw 1) ambulances come and look for someone that had fallen in the lake, and 2) a woman exit her gondola ride onto our dock with someone saying "she said yes", and the whole place broke out in a cheer and she held out her new ring for people to see. Very cute :-). So went home after being out on my bike for what seemed like forever (4+ hours). Showered, then went down to the Village/Chelsea area - same area I went Friday night to meet this guy (softball guy) and his cousin for dinner. We ended up at a Scandinavian place - it was very cute! I got Gravlak to try something traditional - sorta like cured salmon with a mustard sauce. Pretty good - I guess it's Norwegian? Then we wandered around to a bar in the Meatpacking District, but that area seems sorta pretentious. I went home not long after, but it was fun to hang out with new people. At least I wasn't at home moping!

Sunday I got up sorta early and went down to meet my friend Shan Shan and her visiting Dutch friend for Dim Sum. I think I've had my fill for awhile, but Shan Shan wanted to go. Back to Chinatown this time - had some good food, but the stuff is all either fried or slimy, so I just get a bit sick of it... But fun times. On the way out of Chinatown I bargained with a Chinese lady for a small weekend duffel - my backpack broke while walking there and I figure I need a weekend duffel to go to Boston anyway. And then I boarded the long train to Coney Island! I'd been wanting to go there to check it out. It turns out this was one of the possibly last weekends it'll exist - someone supposedly is buying it out to turn it into condos or something? It's like a perpetual Carnival down there - lots of rides and games and a freak show and funnel cakes and ice cream and hot dogs - that sort of thing. I walked around, and then had to go on the famous 80 year old rickety wooden roller coaster. Holy God did I think I was going to die. Seriously. It was so jerky - I now have bruises on my legs because I was thrown around my cart so much - up, down, side to side - you name it! Think I won't do it again, but I did survive it! Bought a t-shirt to prove it :-). Then I decided to enjoy the beach! My favorite part - calm, nice sand, and soothing water. Ok, so there were screaming kids and the water was a bit chilly, but the time was very enjoyable! I tuned everything out and just did what I want - swam a bit in the water, laid out in the sun and read... so this is the marathon Harry Potter day. On the (hour long) subway out and back I read Harry Potter the whole way, then I read the book at the beach all afternoon and even while eating dinner by mysefl in a restaurant. I'm an addict :-). Love Harry! Anyway - it was relaxing and I needed that... Very fun. As the sun went lower and I got chilly, I walked the boardwalk to Brighton - apparently sorta "Little Russia". I walked around lokoing for a place to eat dinner. I stopped in a little shop and asked where I could get Russian food. They said "every restaurant is Russian". Literally - people on the street weren't speaking English. Very weird these pockets. But anyway, went into a Cafe and had hot borcsht - yum! And then stuffed peppers and a small order of Variniki or something like that. Basically the stuffed pepppers reminded me of my Mom's - meat and rice cooked in a (red) pepper which was so tasty! And the other was sorta little pasta-like ravioli dumplings filled with stuff - I got chicken. It was good but weird they didn't have any sauce. Although they seemed to give you sour cream with everything. Then I couldn't resist apple crepes for dessert - so tasty! I was so full after.... Very fun experience. So I hopped on the subway back and was very satisfied with my day's adventure!

And Monday - the US Open! Oh my God I was so excited to be there. It was great fun. Went again with softball friend - really nice of him to invite me. And he's lived here forever, but never gone, so he was excited. And we found out Federer (one of the best men's players ever) was playing at night so he immediately went and got night tickets as well when we got there! I wasn't sure, but we did end up staying 12 hours watching tennis - sheesh! Crazy :-). But fun. So we wandered around the grounds a bit, then headed to the Aurthur Ashe stadium. First the women - Azarenka and Kuznetsova played. Didn't really know them. Then we went and grabbed lunch - they had a lot of options! But I got a salad but was disappointed because it was expensive, small, and everything had been frozen so it was weird. Boo. But anyway, went back to watch Roddick play Berdych, but Berdych forfeited in the 2nd set! Boo! Wimpy. We were very disappointed not to see Roddick play more - he's cool. Oh well. So we walked around the grounds a bit before the awesome 5 set match between Blake and Tommy Haas. Very good match. Blake was really strong and powerful, but then lost his mental game over time. Tommy Haas was a bit up and down too, but was really strong in the end. Lots of winners in this match :-). Was great to watch good tennis! It was a warm day, though, and I dressed for it but felt the rays of sun beating down on me. I really don't know what the difference was, but I didn't put on sunscreen at all at the beach and was fine versus I felt like I was burning after an hour watching tennis! So I went and bought some expensive sunscreen to put on. But still, I woke up this morning with pink shoulders :-). But it's proof I was there! Good times :-). So watched some good tennis, hung out, looked at ALL the merchandise there which was fun. I tried to get some pictures - I'll post them later. We sat in the upper deck, so the players are a bit small, but you really can see from everywhere :-). So we hung out a bit before the night matches started. First at night was the women again - Chakvetadze vs. Paszek. I didn't watch too much - didn't know these girls. Went to buy some fun merchandise and come to find out that morning is the time to do it because booths sell out by night! Bummer, but running around to different stores, I found most of what I wanted anyway, so that was good. And I got back to the big stadium before Federer came on to play Lopez! That was great fun, though I felt burned out and sun-blanched. My eyes hurt from the sun - I think I burned them. But yeah - good match. Lopez came out strong with a really good serve and took the first set. We kept wondering when Federer was done warming up and would get in his game, and he did in the 2nd set. Some good tennis, though. I liked it best when they went to net! So after Federed steam rolled through the 3rd set and won that, too, we decided 12 hours was enough tennis and left to get some sleep! Rode the long subway home, and got home a bit after midnight! I need a vacation from my weekend :-). But had a fabulous experience, and I'm excited to go back Friday - maybe I'll see Henin and Venus Williams play! Very cool :-).

Some thoughts on the weekend - I am self-sufficient and driven and enjoy adventure. I can have fun by myself, and of course know how to fill my time. I have told some poeple, but I feel I really hit a pinnacle this summer at my brother's wedding. Felt like I had become the person I always really wanted to be, and was so excited and outwardly exuberant. So confident and happy. Felt great! I'm proud of myself. And looking back, it's not just the weight loss, although that was a big part of it. I've really grown - especially in the last 2 years. And I know Naveen's been a part of that. But I've accomplished a ton of my goals - look at my black belt and getting healthy and losing weight, and doing triathlon training. I'm really secure with who I am. I've built up a great friend network. And I just feel happy and friendly with people, and they respond in kind. I'm still working on some things, but I feel I have so much control over myself, my activities, my happiness. I don't know if that makes sense, but I've guided myself in a wonderful direction. And I've grown through my relationships - loving my friends, even growing more confident and self-reliant and independent (less needy) because of Naveen. I know I am a hard worker, too, and I've proven to myself that I really can put all of myself into my research, but I know that doesn't make me happy per se. I know I am not perfect and I still struggle with things, but I feel I'm better at a lot of things - enjoying things for what they are, flexing, not getting "prickly" as often. And I struggle with Computer Science sometimes, but it's good too. I am a very lucky person! It feels great to be at this place in my life. I'm sure I haven't figured it all out - I never will :-). But I feel a lot more me - the best of me - and that's happy.

Also I think I want to visit Philadelphia. I'm up here, and it's not far away, and I hear it's a cool city. And I'm going to be here until December - aaack! We'll see...

Ok gotta get back to work. There's my saga for today - hope you all had great Labor Day weekends as well! And I have a busy week going this week too (surprise surprise). :-)