One Year Later...NYC in Full Effect

Wow. What has happened that I haven't returned to my beloved blog. Well, so many movies, so many bees, so many trips...but I will start with today's amusement- my phonecall with a local NYC pharmacy that was trying to deliver a prescription. So I called to find out how much a medication would be, as it would depend on how much my insurance would cover. I was told $10. It was notoriously an expensive medication. But I said "no, I'll hold off for now". Then I thought about it, and wondered why I said no to ten bucks which is pretty reasonable...and 15 minutes later I called and explained to the person on the phone that I was in shock that my insurance covered so much of the cost and that I was suspicious I would get screwed somehow and that the cost really wouldn't be so affordable! The man on the phone starts laughing and then I'm laughing, and then he tells me to wait as he pulls up the account, and not to tell him how much I was quoted because he wants to see for himself. He then sees it's $10 and says "oh Michelle, $10...this is classic New York Syndrome"....he was so right. Why have I become suspicious when things are the way I would like them to be?!?! Ahahaha.

Just Like Back in the Day...Well Maybe...

This last weekend, Terry-a and I had a sleepover! And what good fun it was. I made a great quiche, Marcus and us had some good dinner conversation, and then Terry-a and I headed off into the night. First we headed to the Bowery Hotel Bar...and then decided to leave when we were told we couldn't be seated because we weren't guests at the hotel. So we shuffled over to the standing room only, but eh...it wasn't worth it, and there wasn't any music...what's up with that? But still it was a cute place. After we walked over to Beauty & Essex, and found that there was a line to get in. I think we're way past waiting in a line to get in somewhere....remember those days??? Ha. THEN we headed over to The Living Room, which was totally low key, almost dive bar-ish, but not really, and that was the spot. I liked that place. We sat, and talked for a while. And oh how some things change, and some stay the same! For one thing, can everyone and their mother now call themselves a "DJ" which a little computer? I miss the days of turntables. Not to say that mixing with a computer is wrong, it's the mainstay now, and I appreciate that. I honestly had no idea about this (I felt like a dinosaur) until about a year ago I got some experience, which was pretty cool. Then a "kid" (I'll call him that because a lot of these people out look so young!!! And to think we were like that way back when!) was drunk or stoned and proceeded to ask us about how to keep a marriage going. It was great. Then some loud mouthed attention seeking guy walked it, and it was annoying, so we left. Then we pondered where to go next. I suggested Sutra Lounge, which we both think maybe used to be Bar 16 where we went a lot in college to dance to a friend of friend spinning hip hop...Sutra has the music, but without club attitude. But then we ended up in La Linea, there was dancing, which was great, with no attitude. But woah has hip hop changed. Some of it's awesome, a lot...not so much. Bring me back to the 90's and early 2000's! But good to know this place is there. Maybe with another DJ, the music would be better. I mean, hey---I was just happy to be out!!! I find between friends' schedules, less interest in going out dancing late (not by me...by my friends), and just getting more tired more easily, I don't get to do this much, unfortunately! Plus Terry-a was out with me, which was awesome. After that, we took the subway, and while waiting in the station for a long time, we were privy to the excessively dramatic conversation between two young guys speaking French, complete with one of the guys chain smoking, creating clouds of smoke in our faces, and him throwing cigarette butts into the tracks---hello littering?!?! It was entertaining in its own way. We finally got on the train, got off in TriBeCa, and headed to Bubby's!!! Which is open 24-7 most days, and has a midnight brunch menu. So we ate yummy breakfast at 2A.M. Yummy. And the vibe was great. It wasn't busy, the music was bumping (I wished we could have had some dancing going on there), and we were eating comfort food! So good, so right. Then finally after that we headed home. Then the next morning we met up with Grace and ate brunch at Lafayette. A nice place. I still contemplate whether I should have ordered the special that day---a coconut, banana, and chocolate filled croissant. I don't really like banana, but I love me some coconut and chocolate...maybe I could have made it work...hmm...and random, but I really liked the movie "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada", directed by Tommy Lee Jones. And a weird, creepy, but good movie--"Tony Manero"...about a guy in Chile during the Pinochet era who was obsessed with Saturday Night Fever...And then a guilty pleasure--"Chernobyl Diaries".

Miracles and A Festival of Food....Just the Way I Like It

Labor Day weekend has just passed. And it was a good one. Marcus and I had a bunch of stuff we were doing. Saturday we ate breakfast at Bubby's in TriBeCa---hubba hubba. I had biscuits, chocolate chip pancakes, scrambled eggs, and bacon. It was so crazy; I was so full, but I kept going. Did you know that Bubby's is now open in Japan??? Who knew. Then we walked from our place downtown, over the Brooklyn Bridge, along the waterfront to Red Hook. Now I'm gonna take a tiny detour---it's 4 miles to walk there. And although that may not seem like a lot, I have to marvel at the human body. I had surgery this past Spring on my knee. And it's just so awesome that now I'm almost as good as new in that department. I mean, I still have a ways to go, but still! The day of my surgery I walked out of the hospital! No crutches or anything. If I just think about that--the fact that I had a doctor messing around in my knee joint cutting, prodding, and shaving things in there, and then I walked out, and now I'm walking 4 miles, that's awesome! That's the longest I've walked since surgery. And I remember post op, when I couldn't even walk a block without having to concentrate on every single step. Okay, so I digressed. So Saturday we walked to Red Hook, and ate crab sandwiches at Brooklyn Crab with friends and our God son. Great food. Then one of our friends had to go into IKEA, so we walked there, Marcus got some Swedish stuff from the food mart, and then we took a car home. THEN I napped, and we met up again with one of our friends and ate at Lafayette in Noho. Sunday, Marcus and I went to my parents' house and my sister Jennifer made graham crackers from scratch, and I brought Cadbury milk chocolate, and we made s'mores. This was a new experience for Marcus, so I'm glad he got to try what I consider classic Americana fare ahahaha. We also checked on our bee hive, and this season has not been kind to us. We saw our new queen thank GOD---now we only hope we can save them and they can make it through the Fall and Winter. We won't have honey most likely, but we don't care, we just want them to survive. We have thousands of little bees dependent on us, so I really hope this works. Then Monday (Labor Day), I asked, I mean begged Marcus to please go to Locanda Verde for breakfast. I don't know what it is, but I love eating at restaurants, and I LOVE breakfast and brunch, and I love Locanda Verde! So we ate there, then we watched "Closed Circuit", this political thriller that takes place in London. It was decent, nothing crazy. When we got home Marcus started patching up the holes in the walls of the second bedroom, because we recently got a new ceiling fan and some electrical outlets installed. Then we watched some episodes of "Orange is the New Black"--a great series. Tonight I am so excited, the third season of "Luther" is starting on BBC America, and next week Arsenio Hall comes back to TV! I used to love that show, I think he's really funny. Today I'm what I lovingly call "playing housewife". I get to clean our place. I love cleaning so much and I love being domestic. I wonder if this is a personality thing, or a female thing that's hardwired, or that I'm mostly a Virgo. Probably a combination. But I love vacuuming, sanitizing, doing laundry, and mopping...and I LOVE baking, bu that's dangerous because then I eat everything I bake, and that's not good...

Cool As Fall?

The weather can't make its mind up. It's now cool enough to wear a thin long sleeve. As I walked back from the gym this morning, I was listening to Madonna's "Lucky Star", arguably, the best song she's ever made. And what a great video! I'm a Madonna connoisseur. Well let me re phrase that---I'm an Old School Madonna connoisseur. Growing up I worshiped her---watches her videos, danced to them, and dressed up like her in the 80's. It was great. Well, this is a positive, because lately I've been feeling just disgusted in the human race...to those I've been talking to, you know what I'm talking about. Anyway, Marcus and I have been trying to eat a modified version of the Paleo diet--eating non processed foods similar to those eaten by our ancestors. So no grains, beans, processed sugars, dairy...it can be tough. Sometimes I'm super motivated, sometimes less so. We have also been having some problems with our beehive. We lost our queen bee, and once that happens, things go to crap. So we ordered another one which arrived today and Marcus is going to install her...we really hope the hive accepts her and that we still can save this hive. Harvesting honey would be great, but at this point we don't expect it or care...we just want them to survive so we can continue with them next season, which would be such a victory! I recently went to New Orleans with a good friend, Gina, and we had a blast. I love it there! I have never seen such debauchery as I did there...and the food, music, people...so awesome. We even ate at Popeye's!

Hot As Fire and Patriotism

This is July the Fourth weekend. Marcus is in Calgary for a 50 mile race he's running. He texted me last night to tell me he finished, so I'm waiting for the full details. But very proud of him. He was training a lot for this. In addition to running as usual, he's been going to Cross Fit regularly, and it's awesome. He's an avid believer now---who knew?!?! So it's sweltering outside. Like crazy. Hot is nice, don't get me wrong. I just wish I had a beautiful ocean to jump into with temperatures like this. The past few days I watched a couple of good movies: "Mommie Dearest"--about the madness that was Joan Crawford, and "Teddy Bear", this Danish movie about a socially awkward bodybuilder who goes to Thailand to find love. Random, but really good! Then some classics: "Coming to America" and "Harold and Kumar Go to Whitecastle". I'm not the most patriotic person, but I definitely appreciate being an American. Don't get me wrong, I think there's a lot this country can learn from the rest of the world, and I think that the U.S. can improve on tons of things and try to be more open minded in some regards. We have a long way to go, and there are a lot of shameful things in our past (and present). But when I see what's going on in Egypt right now, it really makes me feel lucky to be an American. That's a scary situation, and I wonder how it will get resolved. I feel lucky I happened to be born here in the U.S., lucky to have opportunity. And sometimes I do feel like the "American" attitude can be so disrespectful and almost bully-like, but then again, it's pretty awesome to be so ballsy and in you face about freedom and your beliefs, and I guess without that, this country wouldn't be where it is today. Okay, I'm done with my patriotic speech. But I'm just sayin'...Anyway for Fourth of July, I went to my parents' house and we had some BBQ. Jennifer made homemade graham crackers which were crazy and we made s'mores with them, except with Cadbury chocolate instead of Hershey's. Incredible. I've been sick for what feels like forever, so I've been home bound and somewhat stir crazy. I got some sewing alterations done, cleaning, started studying Swedish again, and trying to eat healthy since I haven't been working out the past two weeks. Marcus and I are considering trying to make some healthier changes to how we eat at home, but we figured we'd start once he's done running the 50 mile race, so he didn't have to focus on the diet thing, too. Fair enough.

Summer, No I Mean Spring Is Here

It's practically 80F outside---is it....summer in New York City? This brings to mind people sunbathing in Central Park, taking long walks outside, street fairs, taking the subway out to the beaches....but wait! We are in April---in New York City. Weird. But the weather is unpredictable these days. Tomorrow it will probably be cold again. Oh well. But speaking of summer which makes me think of vacations, my in-laws just bought a vacation home in Costa del Sol in Spain....so hoping to check that out one day! Anway, Marcus just left for Atlanta for a business meeting, but will also be watching the Masters Golf Tournament, which he's excited about. Marcus' friend came in to town for work and stayed with us, which was a lot of fun. I got to get to know him a little bit, which was great. I also just found out a friend, Eric, is leaving my job, which I'm happy about for him, but I'm still going to miss him. I actually met him when he came to me as a client at the hospital I was working at. He had told me that he was interested in veterinary medicine and asked for advice. I got a really good vibe from him so I asked him to come back another day on my lunch break and I would talk to him about it. He ended up getting a job at my hospital, and it started from there. Two years later and here were are! I consider him my friend and I'm pulling he'll get into veterinary school. Well with spring comes spring cleaning...we have done a little of that here at home, and finally we are getting a little renovation done in our second bedroom, so I'm looking forward to that. Springtime also means beekeeping time! Marcus and I are prepping for our second year of beekeeping, so that will be exciting...

Food Porn to the Rescue

First I wanna say that I just logged in to write this blog entry and saw a photo of myself in the beautiful Caribbean from a previous blog entry---and it looks like I have armpit hair! I don't though, I swear. It's unfortunate shadowing and pooling of the water. Anyway, I was just thinking about food...and what I love to call food porn...my personal past time...talking and fantasizing about food, especially when I can't have it. It's kind of sadomasochistic, because it really hurts to talk about it and not be able to have it, but it's also very satisfying. I realized I found my ultimate food porn TV show---"Paula's Home Cooking". There's something about Paula Deen's unapologetically unhealthy recipes and her speaking with that slow, Southern twang. It's madness. I once caught myself staring at the TV screen with my mouth slightly open. Anyway, an easy recipe I got from her show is Guinness Chocolate Cake. Yes, with Guinness Stout. It's super easy, and very impressive. Now it's not a fancy looking cake, but it tastes so incredible. I made it for my father's birthday and he was raving about it. You can get the recipe on her website, and believe me it's worth it! YUM YUM YUM. Speaking of food porn, I recently went to Hill Country, a Southern style BBQ restaurant that serves up fresh cooked mouth watering meats and sides. I got to hang out with my vet school crew which was great. It was pretty good and I ate like a lumberjack!