best weekend ever

some weekends, i think, are really fun and relaxing and you see people you like and have fun. some weekends are productive--you get some chores done and feel good. THIS weekend, however, was a fabulous combination of the two.

thursday: s and i went out to dinner at the delicious miracle grill, this cute little southwestern place in park slope. i like anything with tequila, but the limon fresco was particularly good. we had one of those big relationship talks over dinner, too, and i was further reminded of why he is so important to me, why this relationship is the best i've ever had (and ever will have.) i took him out for amaretto sours at 12th street bar and grill, which i like better in the daytime. (it's quieter, with fewer dudes watching basketball on tv.) but it's a nice spot, and it feels like a neighborhood place, which i like a lot. we ambled home to push a few epis of house m.d. and fell asleep.

friday: i had an appointment to get my taxes done, which i know sounds all fancy, but i had five jobs in three different states last year, and i am not so good with the math and the numbers, so i walked down to colacino partners and handed over my w2s. s had to bring me my checkbook, so in thanks i took him out to brunch at dizzy's, which is one of my favorite neighborhood spots, and usually packed full of local families. we ate and chatted and squeezed out to head home so that s could go to work. i did laundry (the machine is finally fixed) and then headed into manhattan to the park avenue armory (which is such a cool building) to meet up with a friend from work, bhr. he's also a former art history major, so we had a great time discussing the pieces in the whitney biennial. (unless you read this and go sunday, you've missed the chance to see some very cool stuff, at least at this satellite space.) i particularly liked the piece by mk guth, ties of protection and safekeeping (2007-08), an interactive installation, where the artist had people write on red flannel in response to the question "what is worth protecting?" (which of course provides a multitude of responses, some faux-profound like "children" and some silly like "catties are god's favorite creatures," which really made me laugh.) the flannel flags were then braided into long ropes with artificial hair and strung around a room, so that the pieces brushed your shoulders as you walked through. it looked like a strange set-piece, and i liked the feeling of standing in a room strung with wished-for protection. also worth my free admission was dj olive (gregor asch)'s triage (2008), a tented room with cots that we laid down on in order to listen to the soundscape. it was a totally different way to experience an installation, and i loved listening to the piece. (also, this middle-aged asian tourist was totally freaked out by a woman who had fallen asleep experiencing the piece. she didn't believe us when we told her the woman was real and just asleep, and got really close to her, just to check, and then jumped back in fright and ran away when the sleeper turned her head. then the woman took pictures. it was hilarious.) last night was the co-worker park slope happy hour no. 2, as organized by myself and ls, another work friend. bhr and i took the train to bar tano, a totally cute bar on a not so totally cute corner. my owf, her boyfriend (whom i had not yet met, but really liked), my neighbor, his roommate and ls were all there, and we had a nice evening talking work and non-work. (i also had the most delicious drink ever, the tano, which is muddled orange, whiskey, triple sec and some other things. to-die-for, i thought. i know this now sounds like the weekend of acohol, but it wasn't really.) after a while, and being joined by another co-worker, we decided to get mexican food and hang out at our apartment. the six of us converged on boyland and ate, drank and played wii for a few hours. i really really like the group i've met at work. the young contingent, at least. everyone is a lot of fun, creative and smart and looking to find new ways to hang out. (next up: basketball on the roof playground.)

saturday: s and i spent our morning in ritual, eating bagels, drinking coffee and watching tv. (i love our saturday morning tradition. i look forward to it every week.) i mentioned i wanted to clean up the kitchen before we did anything else, and my off-handed comment turned into an intense afternoon of spring cleaning. i scrubbed the kitchen and did four more loads of laundry, s cleaned and organized the bedroom, and together we tackled the living room. (the bathroom is its own beast, to be done sometime this week.) it feels like a new apartment (almost), and i took great delight in opening the windows and letting in some fresh air. now i am blogging and he is talking to his parents, and soon we will settle down for the night.

i love getting to do new york things, like experiencing some art or getting a drink with co-workers. but i also like doing things that remind me that this is where i live, and this weekend made me feel really at home.