top ten

i've been out of town for the holidays in d.c., but i head back to my beloveds (ny and the boy) tomorrow, just in time for new year's eve. in honor of the end of this year and the start of the next, i would like to present my top 10 list of things that happened this year. some are specific, and some are more general, and all are previously referenced in this here blog (which means you can go back and read more!) and everything meant something to me, whether meaningful or just fun. now we've had plenty of ado. and so . . .

10. i enjoyed all that restaurant week had to offer. i love a fancy night out to dinner and drinks, and restaurant week is a great way to experience places i might not normally be able to afford. i've marked my calendar for this year, too.

9. i heard a lot of new music. from hearing friends play downtown, to the mars volta at terminal five, to eric bibb on governor's island, to fred sherry plays zorn, we had a lot of great auditory experiences this year. i look forward to discovering more new music in 2009.

8. i watched men battle to eat the most hot dogs at coney island. i know it may sound strange that this was one of my favorite things, but the contest was hilarious, coney island was as weird and wonderful as i had expected, and the day was all-around perfect. i will always remember my view from the top of the wonder wheel.

7. there were some great celebrity sightings this year, including christian bale, tony danza and the johns (hodgeman and oliver) of comedy central fame. i promise i'm not a rubbernecker, but come one--there's something kind of cool about seeing someone famous right next to you.

6. i went to a number of museums, and saw courbet at the met, miro at moma, and the next generation at the whitney biennial. there's a lot of art in this city, and i aim to see more in 2009.

5. s and i enjoyed "spring awakening" and my mom and i were enthralled with "gypsy", among other shows. i saw some fabulous theater, and even got an autograph from miss patti lupone.

4. we got to see a game in the soon-to-be-old yankee stadium. all team loyalties aside, there was something special about going to a game in the same stadium my grandfather had visited. as new york grows and changes, the opportunity for that gets smaller and smaller (my g'pa lived here in the 20s through the 50s--this is a different city.) plus i am a huge nerd for baseball, so it was a great time for me. we'll see if i can convince s to go again this spring.

3. i've had some "only in new york" experiences, including seeing paul simon perform at "revenge of the book eaters" and crashing a vampire weekend after-party with some delightful new friends. for me, this is why i moved here, why i stay here--i don't always love the challenges, but i do enjoy the rewards.

2. i made a lot of new friends, like mk, aa, my neighbor, ls, and others, and got to reconnect with other people, including jay and zp. for me, it is the people that make the place, and i am thankful to have such wonderful people in my life here in the city.

1. we moved into our own apartment. we'd been in progressive co-habitation since college, and of course we lived with the boys in boyland when i first arrived, but this was the biggest step we've taken towards saying "you are the one i will be with for good." and it feels good; it feels great. even when things are not so perfect, there is no one in the world i would rather buy towels with, wake up to in the morning, cook dinner for on the weekends, share a tiny apartment with. in a year that often felt like growing pains, this was the easiest, best and most rewarding step towards adulthood.

thanks for following me down memory lane. what did you love about 2008? (oh, and if one thing you loved about 2008 was this business, magical new york, fear not: my new year's resolution is to blog more. yay!)

snow day

i inadvertently taunted mother nature the other day--it had snowed for maybe five minutes before giving up. "what a tease!" i thought. "i know what you're capable of, new york. i remember the blizzard on valentine's day in 2003." i woke up to a soft white world this morning, with a few inches on the ground and more coming down. it was beautiful, albeit a little cold. i had planned to meet up with s for christmas shopping and a movie in the city before heading to dinner with some friends, and so i hopped on the train. despite bloomberg's dire predictions on the news this morning, the snow didn't deter us, although the later sleet and then freezing rain and hail made the wandering a little less pleasant.

manhattan sidewalks tend to clear themselves; the heat of the subways melts anything that might want to hang out for too long. the strangest thing about snow in new york is how quiet it makes everything. the sounds of the city are muffled by the snow on the ground, so that the whole place becomes preternaturally silent. brooklyn is especially eerie this evening; i can't hear the usual neighbors and street sounds. it's like having my own private city, which is a strange feeling. i'm just hoping that there's enough on the ground tomorrow for some frolicking in prospect park. here's looking at you, white christmas.

saturday night alright

saturday night was epic. jay and i started the night with dinner on st marks in the snow with a new friend. romantic yes, but good schlepping-to-the-subway weather no. this led to a cabbie who had no idea how to get to williamsburg, which is always an adventure, and eventually we got on the right track. we had headed cross-brooklyn to the lovely kat's ugly christmas sweater party (an excellent event last year as well.) we were first to arrive and first to leave--we couldn't stay forever, as the possibility of rap stars was calling my name, but we did get in some good goofy picture-taking in ugly christmas sweaters. thankfully jay's friend l-t was driving, so we were spared further cabbie distress, although there was some real celebration when we finally navigated our way to DUMBO. we had planned to attend the book party for "digging for dirt: the life and death of ODB" (did you know about my love for the dirt? it is bottomless), but we arrived too late for the party, probably just missing the RZA (i wish.) the party had moved on to drinks at superfine, where we took more goofy pictures, this time in l-t's wonder-woman jewelry. while deciding on our next move (bar? home? chicken fingers?), the girls got a call inviting us to party at vampire weekend’s sweet apartment “the boneyard” (i think it’s hilarious when people name their homes.) it was a little like being back in college--a small space packed with hip kids mixing vodka in red plastic cups, although clearly we hadn't gone to the same school. everyone there was a columbia grad except for the girl who asked us if we were also columbia grads, and sighed with relief when we said we were not. it was a fun mix, but by that point we'd had enough of the evening, and i had to work in six hours, so we called it a night. i (luckily) got a doorstop drop-off, and a pillow-side recap with s. and then promptly passed out.

it was one of those "anything could happen!" nights that i love. saturday night was why i moved to new york, for the possibility in every evening.

*when they turn this into a movie (which hello, totally gonna happen), there will probably be a few key differences: we'll probably start the night out with some simple goal, and then each event will lead to another, escalating throughout the film, teaching us things we never knew about ourselves and each other. also (and sorry s--steady long-term relationships do not a good "wild and crazy night" movie make), there will need to be some romance. probably one guy we see everywhere we go until we end up together at the end. also, i will not have to work the next day. totally cramped my style. anyways, i digress.

in which i go on an adventure

i got a call this morning from s's mother, asking if i could do her a favor. his teenage cousins have asked for "big, knock-off dolce&gabbana purses" for christmas, and as she couldn't find any in indiana, she wondered if i knew where to find them in new york. i happened to be headed to chinatown for birthday party supplies anyways, so i said i would be happy to wander down there looking for the fakes.

i wasn't sure where to start, so i headed down canal street, the faux-purse runway, wandering into every storefront that wasn't already monopolized by diamonds and perfumes. usually when the hawkers whisper "handbag? handbag?" to me as i walk by, i ignore them, so i actually found it fun to say "yes, take me to the gucci" today. i had finally found a couple of cute purses (a "versace" and a "d&g vogue") at some unnamed place on canal and chrystie, when the woman helping me asked if i wanted to see more. she then ushered me and about 10 other women through a false wall and down some stairs into a hidden basement room filled with chanel, coach, fendi and gucci. (the whole day, i couldn't stop thinking about the episode of "sex and the city" where they go to los angeles and samantha buys the fake fendi, and she has to go to the valley and buy out of some guy's trunk.) they lock you down there until the sales people can confirm the coast is clear to emerge with some probably ill-gotten goods, which feels a little sketchy, but it was also kind of funny to me that fake purses are such serious business. the woman waiting on the stairs with me was from alabama, and i guess this is a big deal for tourists--everyone in the store had accents (eastern european, southern, scottish), and seemed really excited about buying their illicit purses. i ended up buying the two i had originally wanted, which were kept upstairs in the clear, and was even able to haggled the price down. it was a totally new experience for me, the hiding and the negotiating, and actually a lot of fun. only in new york, right? (oh, and la, i guess.)

special victims

they are filming "law and order" (i am not sure which iteration) outside my office right now. i love this show, though i had to stop watching it when i moved to new york. too many recognizable crimes in recognizable locations. anyways, i plan to spend my lunch break trying to lurk into the shot. exciting!

(i have more things to talk about, but this is breaking news and therefore takes precedence.)