is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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new york groove.
First: Announcement! I have made some new necklaces and CLOTHING ITEMS and they are for sale on etsy.com. The clothing items are all made from other clothing items or pieces of fabric that I already had laying around the house (or hanging in closets or tucked away in drawers). It's the new eco: make new things without buying new things. Most of the items are one-of-a-kind. More will come soon. As will more necklaces and earrings.
And now, a week with Marco and Evany, retold....
Marco and Evany left New York last Sunday after having been in town for nine glorious days. It was fun to see them, and to show them my New York digs. They were officially in town for Todd and Lisa's wedding, but there was still time for plenty of other hijinx. I work for a living, so I didn't get to join them on their various daytime adventures such as [on second thought I edited this out in case Evany wants to write about their adventures herself!], but I did get to do some drinking and hanging out and eating and debate-watching with them.
On the first Sunday they were here they met Gus, Marilyn, Linda and I at Flatbush Farm for brunch. Usually I love Flatbush Farm. But I may be breaking up with that restaurant. They wouldn't let me substitute things on their too-tiny menu. They always let me substitute things, like swap out grits for potatoes or bacon for greens. But this time the waitress wouldn't do it and didn't even bother to offer an explanation of why, so I ended up with a bland tofu scramble. It was sad. Various other mistakes were made with other meals at the table, so no one was particularly happy. But mostly it was that the waitress just didn't handle the imperfect situations well. A bit of smiling, a bit of explanation, a bit of finesse, usually smoothes over discontent in such a situation. So I wanted to leave her a worse tip than we left her. (I'm not a cheapskate and I understand what a hard job it is to wait tables. I was lobbying for 15 to 18% and I think we left her over 20%, which is just insane given that her service bordered on unacceptable, but, well, whatev.) But at least we got to sit outside and enjoy the company of friends in the lovely backyard patio of Flatbush Farm on a nice day in Brooklyn.
On Tuesday night everyone came over to my place to watch the debate. I made chocolate cake and popped some popcorn, and the guests showed up with various libations and treats. We loved and hated the debate, and then were relieved to have the Project Runway finale to watch as mouthwash.
On Wednesday, after a hellish run of meetings and scrapes with the indifferent CUNY bureaucracy, I met M&E at ~n. You know, enyay. Here in my Graduate Center office they dude-you-got-a-Dell'd me, so I don't know how to make the tilde go on top of the N to make an enyay. So it looks like I'm simultaneously being culturally retarded and speaking pig latin. And perhaps I am. Can you say you know for sure? Anyway, we met at enyay, the tiny little tapas place on Crosby between Broome and Grand. I love that place when you get there early enough to sit in the boothy plush table in the front window. We had some mojitos, and some yummy spanish wine from the rueda region, and some tapas--i had a really good tortilla (which, in case you don't know, when you're in spain, is an omelette, not a species of unleavened corn or flour bread). I like that the tapas tend toward a Basque influence, too. After the wining, dining and whining (me about bureacracy, them about CBGB as a high-end retail store), we decided we weren't quite ready to call it a night, so we wandered around a bit, looking for another destination. I lead them to Double Happiness, and ascertained that yes, it does seem to be totally closed down now. It was a glorious basement bar on Mott near Broome, with lots of little nooks where you could hole up with your party and drink Green Tea Martinis. I'm sad to see it gone. But, since we were locked out of that form of happiness, we were forced to happen upon another. As we were walking back down Broome, considering going up to Temple Bar on Lafayette, Evany said, "um... WAIT." [pause, Marco and I looking at her looking at something.] She continued, "Does that really say BAR AND BAKERY?!" And it did. We found a place that serves booze and cake! There is nothing more perfect than that.
Actually, even more perfect is a place that serves salad, french fries, booze, and cake, because that is my perfect meal. But this place does serve baked things both sweet and savory, and booze. We had cupcakes and wine (and Marco had a beer). It was good. But the cupcakes were mediocre: good frosting but dryish cake. However. New York is all about good frosting and dryish cake. Magnolia Bakery is overrated. Billy's is better. But at both those places you are better off getting a slice of cake than a cupcake. I know from experience that it is very very possible to bake yummy non-dry perfect cupcakes, and that it is not even difficult to do so. But so many of the well-liked bakeries in New York don't go there. They just blob a bunch of buttery sugar substance on top of an overbaked wad of cake matter and call it excellent. But I'm not fooled! Which is why I go home and bake my own desserts.
On Saturday Marco and Evany came to my place to drop off their luggage and get dressed for the wedding. I took some prom-like photos of them before they charged off into the early evening (as Evany put it, up, nup, and away) for the nuptials. Gus was feeling ill. We had tickets to see John Vanderslice at the new 92Y in Tribeca. I didn't feel like going alone. So I said I'd go if someone else took up my offer. Made some calls. JB stepped up. And off into the night I went, leaving Gus home with a baseball game.
Sunday morning we brunched at Abigail's, around the corner from my place, and then sent Marco and Evany off to the airport. Too bad San Francisco isn't closer, like Philly, or Newark.
PS-- This is funny.
12:36 p.m. - October 23, 2008
marilyn - 2008-10-27 16:21:23
haha... was I cleverly disguised as wendy at flatbush farm? i sure do recall wanting some of marco and evany's bacon.
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laura - 2008-10-28 01:49:45
I am sadly without extra cash right now but love that t-shirt and hope you'll make more/another...
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js - 2008-10-28 03:19:17
doh! sorry marilyn. that was a strange whole-word typo. and i do plan on making more tshirts. but they'll probably all be different. so that's good and bad.
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