foodage, journal

almost halloween

by m3ntal

holy nuts its almost halloween already. and following that, thanksgiving, then the happy holiday season…woot. in the meantime tho, my parents are roaming eastern europe. i think. im never sure, because they just up and leave willy-nilly. but whatever…usual excuse about not posting, blah blah blah. but you know…my friends were just in chicago a week ago(?). and i thought it was for vacation. it turns out they were sent there by vw to test out a new car! and all because of their design blog. damnit…i never got any perks like that. =( i think the most i ever got was the premiere for life aquatic, and even then that was thru tien. im totally not utilizing my blog effectively…

anyhoo, running down the list of things ive done these past few weeks…din with grace whos visiting from texas, beer at radegast beer hall in williamsburg, din with fonz (my old roomie and high school friend) at amor cubano, wine tasting at bacchus, brunch/lunch with pho at nyonya, the new cornell dean reception on the 7th floor of the new museum (purrty views), and hey…korean bbq tonite with m and mikey. ah that was easy…

journal

hamptons and socks

by m3ntal

super-rewind…yay. postings no fun when i’d rather be doing something else. last friday was dinner at supper with the cornell crew since dora was back from beijing, sally was back from cornell, and aarij was back from dubai. international! i retired early tho because we were headed oot to the hamptons saturday morning. hamptons! well…montauk actually. but we still got to drive by a polo game going on while headed to our beach house. polo…ha! it was a pretty relaxing weekend…we just lounged around eating, running around the beach in pitch black darkness, and roaming the farmers markets and waterside.

the following tuesday was both the clodagh party and drinks with my building mates. but er…i wasnt really feeling the whole chummy chummy good neighbor shit (especially after the prior weeks meeting), i just decided to chill at the clodagh party with lauren, her friend justine, and di (who works at clodagh). we even got taisho afterwards too. pish to building happy hour…har!

saturday was suppose to be lunch with the ‘rents and sis…but it turns out they werent even going to be home. so, ya…that was canceled. blah…whatever. they’re off to eastern europe in 3 days. bai bai! satty nite tho was tiens annual socktoberfest…woot. i actually missed last years, and thus hadnt actually seen tien or shannan in 2 years. damn time flies. and sunday was brunch with schwack at cafe mogador. yummy yummy brunch. we roamed east village and alphabet city afterwards, since itd been a while since id been in the area. theyre overhauling more of tompkins square…woot!

k, now…montauk pics! or, singular…pic. ill photoshop the others later.

journal

building meeting=fun!

by m3ntal

my new building just had our first “official” gathering last night, to discuss issues and whatnot (the building is actually still unfinished…so you can imagine the punch list people had). and fucks sake…i can see why in new york city in particular, there is some seething underlying hate people have for homeowners. oh i used to think it was based out of some form of jealousy. but nope…i learned last night it was because alot of nyc homeowners are over-privileged, self-important douches.

k i just wanted to type that out…now ill backtrack a bit. not all are, but the most vocal are (obviously) more times than not, the most douchey. there are a number of issues to contend with in my building, sure. thats understandable given its unfinished state and ongoing construction. but when you hiss and bitch about the fact that they wouldn’t allow newspaper deliverymen to deliver the newspaper directly to your doorstep (the management cited security reasons), then fuck, get some perspective you lazy hag. if you want newspapers at your doorstep, move to the suburbs. even people in the suburbs more times than not have to walk the length of their driveway to get the newspaper. i was hoping to hear about construction time tables, some way to make sure all fixes are done, updates on the amenities, etc. instead it was an hour of people prattling on about the aforementioned newspaper delivery (she just wouldnt let it go), how the hot water wasnt instantaneous (less people=less cycling of water), if the door handle on the front entrance couldnt be raised (!?! its for the handicapped), letting people in at specific hours (oh noes keep the scary minorities out of mah building!), and on and on.

i spoke to the dude after the meeting myself and sorted out my issues. at least now i know who to avoid in the building…im looking at you, self-important swedish journalist…

archive | favorites, journal

homecomings and weddings

by m3ntal

i’m home! and when i say “home“, i really mean “home“…as in “mi casa“. it’s been nearly a full year since i first started looking for an apartment to buy…but now i’ve finally closed, moved in, started piling shit into my place…etc. and its been pretty good so far. the apartment is nearly fully furnished. there are only a few pieces left to either build or put up, but hopefully by the end of this week i can say that my apartment is 99% done (with only random household doodads left to buy). k, now i have to backtrack (per usual) since it’s been a while.

FURNITURE SHOPPING
the saturday before i moved in, i headed out in the shitty weather to furniture shop around manhattan with ky. i had an entire list of shops to check out…for some reason i thought i’d actually hit all the stores. ha! we spent most of our time browsing cb and cb2, who are admittedly straight up my alley. cb2 more than cb…but i dig both their stuff. i ended up ordering a couch set from cb, along with a number of other pieces of furniture from cb2. by this time it was already well into the evening…bugger. we ran thru the rain to have dinner at blue ribbon sushi in soho, followed by drinkies at little branch. then i had to dart back to port authority to catch the bus back to joisey (i won’t miss those)

MOVE-IN
i moved in the following saturday…and then pretty much spending every day after that picking up extra household necessities and assembling the furniture i’d ordered (with a ton of help from g+r). they were pretty much over every night helping me assemble furniture and setting up my apartment, so mucho thumbs up to them…you two rock. ikea in red hook too on sunday to pick up some book shelves (and other random shit i happened to come across). i met up with ky again afterwards for dinner at cube 63 in…whatever brooklyn neighborhood we were in. lets be honest…i know shit about brooklyn.

FIOS
the verizon people swung by wednesday to set up my fios cable and internet….fuck yea! wednesday nite was also g’s big berfday bash at kanvas! except kanvas is gone! so we relocated to la bottega instead…woots.

FUGIO DIEM
thursday was steph and jj’s premier party for their short film fugio diem at the knitting factory. very cool…there were even boobies. boobies!

MARISOL’S WEDDING
i continued picking up more things for my apartment all week long…eventually leading up to saturday…m’s wedding. omg! i met up with sean and anna saturday morning at grand central to catch the metro north. m and chris were having their wedding at a water-side park in connecticut, so we took the train out to new haven, then caught a taxi to the wedding site. the ceremony was held out on the beach (should’ve brought sandals…doh) and the reception was held in a carousel house next to the beach, replete with a working carousel. very cool. it was a nice and not-too-formal wedding…word. grats you two. considering my currently-broke nature, i took a ton of photos for them in lieu of an actual wedding present. only a few hundred photos left to photoshop…whew.

SUNDAY REMAINDERS
…and ideally i wouldve ended the post there. but hey…the fun continues. sean and anna came over for brunch sunday morning after they got out of church (they were already uptown). i made them home fries and my specialty omelettes, feta and chorizos with cilantro, basil, pepper, and other random spices. the home fries came out especially good…yay! they headed home to rest after brunch, while i headed down to soho to pick up extra things. i actually ran into ky and her friend outside of cb…which was a nice coincidence. we talked for a while before they headed back to brooklyn and i went into cb to find some nice coasters. i decided to continue south towards muji, and while waiting for the lights to change at prince st, i thought i spotted another friend of mine and called out to him. holy fuck its brad! brad not only went to cornell with me (one of only a few non-architect friends of mine), but is actually from my hometown also. he wouldve even been a frat brother if i hadnt come to my senses and wondered to myself “wtf…did i just rush a frat?!?” i hadnt actually seen brad since he graduated from cornell and headed off to tulane for med school. we had just gotten back in touch thru facebook about a month ago, but shit…this was just freaky coincidence. we grabbed coffee at cafe angelique and caught up on about 8 years worth of stuff, which was pretty nice.

i headed off to continue shopping after coffee and met up with di later for sunday night ramen. shoyu char-siu ramen at setagaya…yum yum. we grabbed a round of drinks at angels share to round out the night, since i hadnt actually seen di in a while and had a ton of stories to tell. woot.

k, now im shit tired. ive gone thru only about 10 photos so far from saturday. *sigh* so many…

journal

labor day weekend

by m3ntal

*yawn* what a boooring labor day weekend. not that this is not entirely my own doing. i sort of didnt bother with any fancy plans for the long weekend, save for laundry, grocery shopping, and other various household chores. ha, doesnt that all sound quaint? thats what the suburbs do to ya eh. plus i had to kill any actual plans for labor day itself, because i had to pick up my parents from the airport. keep in mind that they also had me drive them to the airport on the 20th…my birthday. they are some awesome parents.
on the flipside, since i only have a few weeks left in the ‘burbs (closing on thursday, woohoo!) i decided to get back in touch with my high school friend jill, who i hadnt seen since…well, high school. she was one of the actual friends that really did fall thru the cracks. but hey…thats why we have facebook! i messaged her, and we met up at jose tejas saturday nite for some beering (albeit responsibly…damn this whole driving and shit). she brought her (newly minted) husband, but he sort of got relegated to the sidelines as we caught up on 12 years worth of shit (sorry dude!). in all honesty, she looks and acts the same as she did back in high school. its like shes been in a hyperbaric chamber for this whole time…eery. we noshed on crawfish popcorn and sucked down negro modelos and chatted on pretty much anything that crossed our minds. lotsa fun…and it made me all warm and fuzzy inside reconnecting with an old friend. yay for facebook!

journal

emo post

by m3ntal

its been a while since i made a post eh? i mean a real post, not a regurgitation of past drinkies and foodage. but this has been on my mind pretty much all week. well, if you want to be completely accurate, probably the last 10 years of my life too. with my rockin’ 30th behind me now, i didnt really expect this wave of weird and funny feelings to wash over me so thoroughly. see, i just hit the 30th mark, and im still flying solo after all these years. i have of course received lectures, assessments, and advice from all points across the board…telling me to do this, or be this way, say this and whatnot. in the end, im really just sitting here dazed and confused wondering what kind of person i should be…or what kind of person i even am. and im instead left with this awkward, incoherent post. was i suppose to say or do something? how come i got weird vibes the next day? maybe i was suppose to say something then. action or inaction, nothing ever seems to turn out right. and instead im at this point sort of thinking im predestined for disappointment.
/end emo

archive | favorites, journal, photo journal

hello mid-life

by m3ntal

i wonder if 30 is even considered the “mid-life” anymore. doubt it, right? so yer…um, im “officially” 30! official as in ive made peace with it. shit, its not that bad. actually, its just another day i get an excuse to throw a big party for myself. but i have to rewind a little bit because while ive (surprisingly) been posting, they havent actually been journal posts. whups.

for the most part i cant remember what i did…but last week greg did come up to visit noo yerk from austin. woot! the g-man was my roommate second and third year of college, and is honestly the only friend i kept from my freshman year dorms (class of ’22 word!) and one of the few non-architect friends from college in general. wahoos! he came up with his friend tom, and we hit up the moma with some other friends of theirs to check out the prefab exhibit. we pretty much just bummed around central park afterwards, then headed to croxleys for stonkin’ wings and to watch michael phelps win his 8th gold (which he did…yay!)

THE BIG 3-0
fast forward a wee to this past week. my official partying started friday. lysha and alice were visiting from amsterdam, so i took the day off to show them around this ginormous city. the “day off” seemed a little inconsequential tho, considering by the time we got out of brunch at delicatessen, there wouldve only been about an hour and a half left of work anyway. we had a half day and a company picnic that day (it was originally the friday before, but got rained out). fuckers. well, it was all good then because i brought lysha and alice to the great hill in central park for some bbq, frisbee, and soccer-ball kicking into sides of peoples heads. it was super.

we lazy’d around in the sun for a while, then headed back down to marisa’s place so they could prep for the big partying. steph and kyoko were already at en when we arrived, followed by a long and steady stream of people showing up…wee! it was a pretty big gathering of friends from a variety of circles…cornellians, ex-coworkers, travel friends, and shit…even random coincidences (terence had reservations there that night anyway!) all coming together to get drunk with me. =) we eventually took over the entire front bar area with a ton of sake, food, and good vibes. big big big thanks to everybody who came out to have fun with me. best. berfday. evar.

as an aside. everybodys told me plenty of times before, and its not like i didnt know this already…but shit do i have a disproportionate number of female friends to male friends. it was made all the more apparent with everybody gathered in the same place for once. the night btw, actually started with five girls…and me (not that im complaining!)

THE BIG 3-0, PART DEUX
ya we’re not done yet! saturday was my original party day! except alot of people either couldnt make it, couldnt afford it, or were just scared off by the whole thing…hence how friday came about. ;p burlesque, word! and not just any burlesque, this is burlesque with murray hill and the pontani sisters! and i have to say, everybody who wasnt there missed out. not only did the performances rock (miss saturn…wow), but i got a free birthday cake! it came with tassles. it was pretty good too.

pictures! yay! thanks everybody! extra special hai fives to steph for friday, and gina and renee for saturday!

journal

what day is it?

by m3ntal

me | i <3 birthdays. so far ive gotten:
1. a donut
2. 2 apple sidras (a taiwanese apple soda)
3. 2 fantas from amsterdam (they taste better)
4. dutch chocolate
5. stroopwafels from amsterdam
sj | nice
sj | fanta’s are gross
me | in america yes
me | but in europe, it tastes like heaven…pureed and liquified into a carbonated form.
sj | still sounds gross

journal

beijing olympics aiya!

by m3ntal

yea ill just get it out of the way…i havent done much (anything this past week). all the fun is forthcoming! heeya! but i had to post, because the article below was depressing me everytime i fired up my browser (my journals the home page).

oh and the olympics have started! i heard that theyll be parading around tibetan monks during the opening ceremonies and just poking them with chopsticks for 3 hours straight. so i heard.
k an actual youtube of the ceremonies so far (think its from univision). the interior of the stadiums all fancied up with ridiculously huge projections of whales (?). and sarah brightman and liu huan (?) are singing a duet on top of a giant death star. craziness i tell ya.

beijing olympics (via ny times live blog)