My Last Meal

Watching “The Practice” lately (I love lawyers, and the law). One episode is entitled “Spirit of America” and it shows the last meal of a death row inmate. He eats lobster and strawberry ice cream. It’s got me thinking about what I would eat, just eat, for my last meal. Probably everything, I think. But mostly just tapas of everything I love.

Here goes:

- my eggplant dip

- georgia peach

- dad’s seed-y pretzels

- sarmale & mamaliga

- maryland crab cakes

- mom’s pizza

- rib eye, prepared by Alex

- vosges truffles (why not have the best?)

- fried chicken from vai

mm. i’m hungry.

Black and White Nights...in D.C.

I don’t like D.C. so I’m happy that I actually didn’t “go” there, but mainly stayed in Clarendon and Fairfax with Jane, my corporate “pitbull with lipstick”. We took the Vamoose bus down to Arlington and enjoyed tapas, shopping at Tysons, Jane’s housewarming party and a delicious brunch at the Silver Diner.

In Arlington Old Town with Natalia and Jane

There’s a LEGO store in Tysons???

Boy plays with mannequin. See what happens?

With Boy at J’s Black + White party

Breaking it down

(wearing an Alice and Olivia dress)

Discussing the meaning of life over brunch

Silver Diner with Jane and roommate Lori

At Crate & Barrel in Clarendon.

(wearing a Gryphon jacket, H&M tank, Botkier purse)

Thanks for being a wonderful host & friend, Janey!

Jean Company Media Party, Murray Hill, NYC

I love going to media parties. Who doesn’t? Pretty goody bags, free gifts, good conversation. I’ve been to loads as a member of the “media elite” (whoosh big claim) and last night I used the media party at The National Jean Company to get chat up my friend Erica from PAPER magazine.

With Erica. Wearing a Target skirt, Forever 21 tank dress (worn as top) and thrifted top. Botkier purse.

Syracuse Pride...with a dash of pink

I just saw this picture from Betsey Johnson’s Spring/Summer 2009 runway line:

Pink and green are Betsey’s signature colors. I should know, I have a beautiful green + pink ruffly flowery dressy number my mom bought me in the Hamptons (in 10th grade, before I knew who the heck BJ was). I still fit into it (yay!) and I wore it to my college graduation in 2007.

With my amazing parents at graduation with The Dress

Betsey was an obvious choice - she was an SU alum, after all. It was not a conscious decision...I think.

Missing Londra

When I was sixteen, I left the U.S.A. for a SIGNIFICANT amount of time. I went to Kings’ College in London to study filmmaking. I edited, I developed film, I worked with cranky actors, I made a huge mistake which cost me my best friends back in the States. I ate a lot of Pret a Manger, I did the sightseeing stuff, I watched a lot of movies and fell in love with Godard at the Curzon Mayfair. This is cheesy (I should know, i hate cheese) but I learned more about love, friendship and art that summer than in any of the previous fifteen years of my life.

It changed my life — one of those defining time periods that…only recently I’ve been mulling over and really appreciating. And I know this is pretty lame, but when I saw these pants I became really nostalgic. I had almost the exact same pair (no buttons) that I wore (almost) every day. Matched with my tie-dye Powderpuff shirts, of course.

Hangin' With Madre

My mom came to visit this past weekend and it’s about time I post some photos! A great weekend starts off with great food, right?

Try Good Enough to Eat (Amsterdam at 83rd)

Delish, especially the buttermilk biscuits with strawberry butter!

After meeting up with Mama, we took the subway down to Canal, and Alex (finally) bought me a meat hammer!

Though nowhere close to these ladies’ sizes, Mom likes to show off her curves!

Love you mom!

Found: Tasty Noodle Bar in W. Village

I have a thing for noodles. Wok-fried, boiled, whatever - they find a new home in my stomach! Two nights ago I had a delicious dinner with Alex and Kevski at Noodle Bar, and since I (weirdly enough) like having my picture taken with food, here we are.

Enjoying my shrimp wonton noodle broth with wanton abandon…

(wearing a Theory top, Swiss Army watch, vintage earrings)

My noodle-eating companions’ antics…too cute!

This has put me on a new path/mission: eat at everrrrry noodle bar I can find - Chinatown, here I come!

Feeling Lucky

Sometimes you forget what you have and something snaps you back and you’re like “wow, i am truly, ridiculously, happy and blessed beyond all blessings”. The first part is not this situation because I have a constant reminder of “what I have” (relationship-wise) waiting for me when I get home. But during the day things can get hectic and I lose my mind and it’s times like that where I get a little “bloop” in my Gmail chat box and it’s the boyfriend.

• boy: you think you are soo funny
• me: i am funny
• you know it
• i can haz kiss?
• boy: HAHA
• you kan haz meni kizzes

Moment of silence today.

Discovering that Manhattan is an Island

After doing completely squat this past weekend and failing to rally friends to go to Astoria’s Bohemian Beer Garden, I managed to rally Mars out of Queens and we went tanning in the Park. It was a beautiful day when Hurricane Hanna left town but it was a smidge too hot for early September (global warming?). After deeming it too hot to layabout in the Park sipping iced tea and watching puppies all day, we moseyed to Riverside to wander, go (free) kayaking and enjoy popcorn shrimp and chopped salad at Boat Basin Cafe.

The view of (many) Trump buildings from Riverside

A pretty awesome shot of Mars…too bad there’s a West Side Highway:

A view of Jersey from the riverwalk

After kayaking…I was really happy!

79th Street Boat Basin (and Boat Basin Cafe)

The Boat Basin is awesome - I highly recommend it, not just because it’s a cool summer hangout to watch games and drink margaritas but also because they are living green! Their plastic cups are completely compostable and made from plant matter. I think I’ve tracked down the brand: Greenware.

The Food Snob

Yes, that is I. Food snob. Almost reason number 1 for moving out of Harlem? Horrible (C-Town) grocery store run by maniacs.

I shopped for the first time at the Pioneer Market *thinking I would save money* and felt like I needed to shower afterwards. Thing is, you almost can’t live in Manhattan and not be concerned with what you eat. The city is home to thousands of restaurants and, mostly to stay in business, the chefs really care about what goes in their food. On the other hand, I am the daughter of two pretty amazing cooks. I try to buy organic (when I can afford it - and when it’s the right call - like dairy and animal products, thin-skinned fruit and veggies - those definitely need to be organic!) and I’ve learned a lot this past year about spices, spring rolls and salmonella. In this fashion, I shop, most every Sunday, at my local (Columbus & 77th) Farmer’s Market. It’s usually directly across the street in the school’s parking lot, but this summer it’s next to the Museum of Natural History on Columbus.

Neighb people, everything is there! Tasty tomatoes, sublime squash…even a violinist belting out “Annie” showtunes.

I picked up:

6 ears of sweet white corn

Plums, peaches

Jelly doughnut & Italian sesame bread (from Not Just Rugelach)

New basil & mint plants (since ours died…oops)

Arugula & Romaine

Zucchini & Tomatoes

Murderous Art

If you know anything about me…well…maybe you don’t. But I love guns. I dream of waking up Hanukkah/X-mas morning, running into the living room and opening up a package - inside there would be a lovely velvet-lined box with a Walther PPK inside. And so today, I bring you my new obsession. The perfect - if not very practical (what luxury is??) - sculpture collection from Peter Gronquist.

What can I say - I’m from Maryland…I blame it on that.

Dali @ MOMA - Cinephile In the City

Yesterday I went to see Dali’s exhibit at the MOMA before it closes on Sept. 15. It was raining hard (thanks Hurricane Hanna) and it was so humid - you could see it in the air. I still went! Can’t stop le artist. I’ve been to the MOMA before so I’ve seen the biggies - Brancusi, de Kooning, Pollock, Johns…but I love going to see the special exhibitions. Dali’s in particular stands out because it focuses on some of his lesser known paintings and his film work - of which I wasn’t aware he was so prolific. Here is one of the beautiful pieces that I saw!

Personal Enhancement

I decided to enroll in some certificate courses at NYU, specifically “Art Business”. I’m pleased with myself finally because I’ve been talking about taking classes for a while but was so stuck on what exactly I wanted to throw some money (and time) at. Art History? Dance? An(other) instrument? Argh. But I’m taking three course starting in October - December. One (”the Art Auction”) is just over the October 18th weekend, but the rest (”Law and Ethics in the Art Market” and “Today’s International Art World”) are Wednesdays and Thursdays essentially 6-8pm.Hopefully I can score a gallery job in the meantime…here’s hoping!

Still haven’t gotten to the grocery store, still too poor to go out to eat…so after (hopelessly) shopping at Loehmann’s on 73rd, I hopped the C train with Boy to meet DK at Rudy’s in Hell’s Kitchen. This is our go-to spot since Boy & I feel ripped off if a bar doesn’t give us food with our plumb-cheap beverages.

The Giants game was on the tube, but so was the RNC…there seemed to be a war over the remote. No worries for true-blooded Americans will always pick the redskin over any politics.

Rachel, Alex & I at Rudy's

Beers and a few hot dogs later, I called it dinner and….deliberated over going to see “Tropic Thunder” or “The House Bunny”…but decided to do neither, went home & watched Bones reruns before sleepering at midnight. Fabulous!

P.S. There are ONLY condiments in the fridge a la “Fight Club”…

Caipirinhas & America's Next Top Model

Wednesday nights are for what? Drinkies, quesadillas & bad tv, most definitely.

Since I went to Brazil for spring breaky of ‘07, i have been obsessed with Caips (Caipirinhas). It’s vury special.

Take oh, about a whole lime, dump 1.5 tablespoons sugar (depending how much sugah you want) and 2 shots of CASHAZA (tis the phonetic pronunciation, it’s spelled “cachaca”). Mix and enjoy!

I went to Astoria with Rachel for a Mexican fiesta with Mars & Sammy and finally met Z’s “other woman” - her hairstylist, Lindsay. She works at Gigi on 30th Avenue in Astoria - it’s an Aveda salon so I will shamelessly plug it.

So we put our “cook” hats on and made quesadillas, burritos, margaritas & caips and flopped to watch America’s Next Top Model!!!!!