on saturday, mouse and i left for nyc at 7:30 in the morning. it was stressful from the beginning because it seemed like we were going to be late for the bus, but luckily the bus was super late so we made it ! i was already kinda cranky at that point because rushing around and having a tight schedule puts me on edge. the ride to nyc went by super fast. when we went over a bridge, mouse made me put his headphones on and his mp3 player was playing the theme from 'taxi'.
we had some subway trouble when we got there- i figured out what we needed to do beforehand and one of the trains we needed wasn't running. i figured out a workaround, but not before taking us to harlem by accident ! oh, by the way, we were going up to go to moma. mouse had never been before ! i've been there approximately 400 times but i do like the museum and i like doing stuff with mouse ! all the same junk was there as always, though i did take a picture of this mondrian that is in roxy colors:
we also saw the marina abramovic exhibition and it was the coolest thing ever. i obviously like, don't know shit about art, especially not performance art, so i wasn't impressed when we passed by her exhibit on a lower floor- basically, she sits at a table silently staring at the chair across from her and anyone can sit and stare at her for as long as they want.
when we got to the actual exhibit upstairs, though, i was blown away. while i might not be educated about art i can always appreciate a total weirdo. part of the exhibit (which you may have heard of, for groping reasons) is two naked people standing inside a doorway and you're supposed to squeeze between them. i didn't do it, but lots of middle aged mom ladies with fanny packs did ! my favorite part was the room with parts of her installment balkan baroque (which included six thousand pounds of cow bones !)
after the museum, we went to candle 79 for brunch.
it was okay ! a lot of people recommended it to me really highly, but i thought it was kind of bland and overpriced. i got pancakes with strawberries and strawberry butter, a side of yukon gold skillet potatoes, and an iced coffee. the pancakes were kind of tough, the strawberry butter just tasted like salt, and i got like.. two strawberries cut up on it. the only saving grace was their ginger maple syrup, which was delicious. the iced coffee was okay, but they only had raw sugar, which does not dissolve in iced coffee, like, at all. haha. also the menu said it was $3 and they charged me $4.
the potatoes were actually the worst thing of all. doesn't "yukon gold skillet potatoes" evoke like, country potatoes with crispy edges or whatever? it was skinless boiled potatoes with some green onions and some spices, served by an icecream scoop ! i know that sounds terrible, but the ginger maple syrup was so good that they get an 'okay' rating. mouse had tofu scramble with seitan sausage (the sausage was in imperceptible teeny chunks in the scramble), potatoes, and toast. he finished it, but i'm not sure what he thought !
this is what i expected !
anyway, we made our way to the bus after that. i kind of dislike new york. it's full of transplants and tourists who don't know how to walk on a sidewalk and i did not pass a restaurant without seeing at least 2 people taking iphone pictures of their food ! i had a good time though, despite being kind of cranky, cause i like hanging out with mouse. he also tickled me a lot on the bus ride home cause he was bored and i enjoyed that, because i'm basically a toddler.
on the bus ride home, i finally read the hunger games and totally loved it.
if you haven't read it, the basic premise is that teenagers in a bleak future are forced to compete in a "battle royale" type scenario, but like... more interesting ! it's been awhile since i've been so into a book i read- even though it's pretty clear from the beginning that the protagonist will prevail in some way (this is not a spoiler- there is no way there would even be a book if this wasn't the case), how she does it and the actual outcome were both super interesting to read. there were a few times that i felt frustrated by her waffling over her feelings and thoughts, but it was actually a pretty realistic interpretation of what would go through a teenager's head in that situation. all in all, the only thing i didn't like was the wolves. i'm not doing a good job of hyping up the book because i don't want to give any actual spoilers ! ahhhh.
after i got home, i took a very brief nap and regrouped with mouse and christina to watch the first episode of the new season of doctor who.
1) i love amy pond. i love how they introduced her and i loved her as an adult, and i'm so excited to see what happens with her
2) matt smith is okay so far ! kinda funny but kind of seems like he's aping david tennant. maybe that was the point, since he was just getting used to his regeneration? but i truly don't think i can take another like, "theater" doctor.
3) the story was pretty good, though i guess they're saving their special effects money for later stories. it wasn't quite as goofy and over the top as i expected
4) HATE the new theme and rebranding !
overall i'm pretty excited to see what happens ! i haven't been able to watch the show almost as it airs since the revival started- i've mostly had to download episodes or wait til the seasons were over.
my big plans for sunday were to wear comfy pants all day. they were somewhat foiled when christina and i decided to go to the green line and have iced coffee and knit, and then do some grocery shopping. i decided to buy the exact food i ate every day when my eating disorder was in check, so i'll be having gross black bean burgers for lunch every day and maybe that will magically cure me until i can get a new e.d. therapist. magic is real right?
after that, we cleaned up the kitchen and made pierogies and watched tv and knitted together. super super super relaxing day ! i started on my sweet socks, and switching colors is surprisingly easy. i watched like 30 seconds of a youtube and just decided to keep both colors of yarn over my left index finger (i knit continental) and just grab whichever color i needed with the needle.
unfortunately, though, i've been knitting super tightly, as i'm wont to do when i learn a new technique, so the socks are like... baby sized. i'm obviously going to have to start them over with better tension, but i'm totally dreading it. oh well- my hands and wrists are killing me from knitting so tightly, and i have blisters on my thumbs from sliding the stitches off my super pointy needles. haha. ohhhhh welllllll.
oh yeah. i wanted to mention that i've kind of given up on the pacific. i'm 1.5 episodes behind- i tried to catch up yesterday and i had to turn it off halfway through because it's so motherfucking boring.
my problems so far
- they are trying to create a 'band of brothers' feel to it by obscuring the fact that leckie, sledge, and basilone don't know each other and aren't in the same unit.
- the pacing of each episode is so terrible; it's impossible to tell if one day or one year has passed at any given point.
- they are doing a horrible job of telling the story of the war. very little talk about strategy or battles or japan or like.. anything, besides the tom hanks narration at the beginning. if i didn't already know what was going on i'd think that the soldiers spent like, one night in the pacific and either one long weekend or one year fucking australian girls so far?
- the episodes are like 30 minutes long with a bunch of padding
- they've wasted so much time trying to work on character development, yet i cannot name a single person besides the three main characters and don't know who is in what unit and don't care about any of them
- everything seems way too modern. nothing really looks old and no one acts like people did in the 40s.
- it blows
okay, time to go do some actual work. this entry has taken me forever and ever to write because my super annoying coworker has been annoying the fuck out of me all morning !!!!
p.s. i forgot to mention that i tried that thing where you wash your hair with baking soda and apple cider vinegar (i refuse to say 'no-poo') and my hair looked okay but felt disgusting and greasy and my whole face felt greasy all day ! and despite rinsing my hair for like 239283 minutes under warm water, 3092830293 under cold water, waiting a day, washing it with HEAD AND SHOULDERS and conditioning with pantene, my head smelled like apple cider vinegar today when i blowdried. and the mix was definitely not too vinegar-y- if anything it was not vinegar-y enough because i filled the shampoo bottle without a funnel.
