An Enjoyable Evening
Sometimes you just want to escape from yourself, and obligations, or perceptions of expectation.
I'm actually writing this in a public entry, but things have been really difficult between Mason (booksymagnifico) and I these last couple days, and it's really difficult and straining on me, and I'm off my center. It's core-distressing. That's all I really want to say about it.
Last night, infd and Evan and I basically went on an inadvertent walking tour of New York City. We met up outside of Central Park's 72nd street west entrance, planning to wander through the park and enjoy the warm weather and take photos. Of course, I ended up leaving the house in a hurry, worried that I wouldn't make it to 72nd and Central Park West by 6 pm on foot. Which, not knowing our plan, I'd intended to do. My rush caused me to forget my camera which was, indeed, unfortunate.
It didn't matter too much, and I arrived early. Tom had just arrived, and Evan was waiting, and we wandered into the park, which appeared at first to be sort of dark and deserted. As we got deeper in, however, it sort of came alive, and once we got to Wollman Rink it was downright bustling. The weather was, honestly, perfect and I was sorely tempted to go skating.
We were right by the pond, and New York was sparkling and lovely, reflected in the water.
We kept walking and came out at around 60th and 5th avenue. I thought it might be nice if we went to FAO Schwarz and Evan reminded us that there was also an Apple Store next door.
So, after a New York pretzel, the three nerds amigos tromped into the Apple Store and ogled their tech.
Sulking for having forgotten my camera, I convinced infd to take a Photobooth photo with me in one of the MacBooks, angled just so one could see the glowy apple on the front of the store.
I figured I'd just email the photo to myself, but WOE! I was stymied by the evil Apple employees who'd turned off the ability to visit secure webpages (SSL). I thought I'd be able to get around it regardless, but they were very comprehensive in their digi-fascism.
It meant that not only could I not email it to myself, but I couldn't log into Flickrs to upload it either.
I thought I'd be clever and log into my FTP server, copy it over to my home directory, and be done with it. Yet the Apple Store thought of this! I could samba myself into FTP, but couldn't actually upload anything! AAAhhh! What was WORSE was that the Finder required a password to allow me to disconnect from FTP, and I wasn't about to just leave an open connection in the middle of a public Apple store. Hell no! (plus, beknatok would probably strangle me)
infd tried to use Terminal, but it was denied. We mused for a while, using our clever brains to subvert the Apple security.
infd eventually had the brilliant idea to use the unlocked Bluetooth! Of course, I was glad he'd named his phone, because as the MacBook searched for nearby bluetooth devices in a store FULL of laptops and people with fancy phones, the list of random variable codes was getting a bit overwhelming.
So, here is the photo:
Yay, technoweenies!
After we'd had our fill, we went to FAO Schwarz and were drawn up in the warm glow of Christmas Capitalism.
Evan and Tom also managed to get us lost in the "Dolly Section" while we cruised for LEGOs, but we did get to see the new fad for little girls during the holiday season:
Hooker Barbie
Great for any small girl, right?
We did eventually find the nerdish section and infd and I took our picture with the lifesized LEGO Chewbacca. RAWWRRR. We were so happy, and managed not to buy a hundred million things, if only because we didn't want to carry them around.
We walked to the Jewel of India for dinner afterwards (at 44th and 5th), and drank nice wine and eventually decided to walk off our fullness, meeting Rigel at Coyote Ugly on 10th and 1st. (Again, you can reference our map above)
It felt like a longer walk at the end of it, mostly because I wasn't too too thrilled about going to Coyote. I mean, I know it's Rigel's favorite bar, and it was nice to see him, but bleuuch, it's just gross and now that smoking is banned indoors, it just smells like vomit instead of vomit and cigarettes.
Evan and Tom went outside almost immediately, but I hung out with Rigel a little before leaving as we headed west to meet up with Kati and hit the Hookah bar. Tom used his second brain (aka the Treo) to find a place that we assumed was a hookah place, but in fact, was just a lavishly appointed and somewhat trendy bar called F--something. (infd? You remember?)
The entire bar was empty, but every table had a little "reserved" placard on it. ... Sort of ridiculous if you ask me, to make people who want to sit and pay for drinks leave because of some promise of people coming. We weren't sad to leave, but not before we took a photo:
(Evan on the left, Kati on the right)
We went to the Luxor Café, where Kati knew about the best hookahs in town. And she was right. Smooth and pleasing and the most delicious Moroccan tea ever... It was comfortable, and sort of funny in that it doesn't have its liquor license yet, but its counterpart, the Luxor Lounge, does. So there's a huge line at the latter, but none at the former. Yay no lines!
Once we were hookaharific, we wandered next door to the Bourgeois Pig and had champagne and fondue. It was just delicious, and the place played wonderful music. Evan had trouble getting the items out of the chocolate and/or into his mouth, but he's special.
Then it was 2 am, and we were fat, and happy, and sleepy.
It was a great night.
I'm actually writing this in a public entry, but things have been really difficult between Mason (booksymagnifico) and I these last couple days, and it's really difficult and straining on me, and I'm off my center. It's core-distressing. That's all I really want to say about it.
Last night, infd and Evan and I basically went on an inadvertent walking tour of New York City. We met up outside of Central Park's 72nd street west entrance, planning to wander through the park and enjoy the warm weather and take photos. Of course, I ended up leaving the house in a hurry, worried that I wouldn't make it to 72nd and Central Park West by 6 pm on foot. Which, not knowing our plan, I'd intended to do. My rush caused me to forget my camera which was, indeed, unfortunate.
It didn't matter too much, and I arrived early. Tom had just arrived, and Evan was waiting, and we wandered into the park, which appeared at first to be sort of dark and deserted. As we got deeper in, however, it sort of came alive, and once we got to Wollman Rink it was downright bustling. The weather was, honestly, perfect and I was sorely tempted to go skating.
We were right by the pond, and New York was sparkling and lovely, reflected in the water.
We kept walking and came out at around 60th and 5th avenue. I thought it might be nice if we went to FAO Schwarz and Evan reminded us that there was also an Apple Store next door.
So, after a New York pretzel, the three nerds amigos tromped into the Apple Store and ogled their tech.
Sulking for having forgotten my camera, I convinced infd to take a Photobooth photo with me in one of the MacBooks, angled just so one could see the glowy apple on the front of the store.
I figured I'd just email the photo to myself, but WOE! I was stymied by the evil Apple employees who'd turned off the ability to visit secure webpages (SSL). I thought I'd be able to get around it regardless, but they were very comprehensive in their digi-fascism.
It meant that not only could I not email it to myself, but I couldn't log into Flickrs to upload it either.
I thought I'd be clever and log into my FTP server, copy it over to my home directory, and be done with it. Yet the Apple Store thought of this! I could samba myself into FTP, but couldn't actually upload anything! AAAhhh! What was WORSE was that the Finder required a password to allow me to disconnect from FTP, and I wasn't about to just leave an open connection in the middle of a public Apple store. Hell no! (plus, beknatok would probably strangle me)
infd tried to use Terminal, but it was denied. We mused for a while, using our clever brains to subvert the Apple security.
infd eventually had the brilliant idea to use the unlocked Bluetooth! Of course, I was glad he'd named his phone, because as the MacBook searched for nearby bluetooth devices in a store FULL of laptops and people with fancy phones, the list of random variable codes was getting a bit overwhelming.
So, here is the photo:
Yay, technoweenies!
After we'd had our fill, we went to FAO Schwarz and were drawn up in the warm glow of Christmas Capitalism.
Evan and Tom also managed to get us lost in the "Dolly Section" while we cruised for LEGOs, but we did get to see the new fad for little girls during the holiday season:
Hooker Barbie
Great for any small girl, right?
We did eventually find the nerdish section and infd and I took our picture with the lifesized LEGO Chewbacca. RAWWRRR. We were so happy, and managed not to buy a hundred million things, if only because we didn't want to carry them around.
We walked to the Jewel of India for dinner afterwards (at 44th and 5th), and drank nice wine and eventually decided to walk off our fullness, meeting Rigel at Coyote Ugly on 10th and 1st. (Again, you can reference our map above)
It felt like a longer walk at the end of it, mostly because I wasn't too too thrilled about going to Coyote. I mean, I know it's Rigel's favorite bar, and it was nice to see him, but bleuuch, it's just gross and now that smoking is banned indoors, it just smells like vomit instead of vomit and cigarettes.
Evan and Tom went outside almost immediately, but I hung out with Rigel a little before leaving as we headed west to meet up with Kati and hit the Hookah bar. Tom used his second brain (aka the Treo) to find a place that we assumed was a hookah place, but in fact, was just a lavishly appointed and somewhat trendy bar called F--something. (infd? You remember?)
The entire bar was empty, but every table had a little "reserved" placard on it. ... Sort of ridiculous if you ask me, to make people who want to sit and pay for drinks leave because of some promise of people coming. We weren't sad to leave, but not before we took a photo:
(Evan on the left, Kati on the right)
We went to the Luxor Café, where Kati knew about the best hookahs in town. And she was right. Smooth and pleasing and the most delicious Moroccan tea ever... It was comfortable, and sort of funny in that it doesn't have its liquor license yet, but its counterpart, the Luxor Lounge, does. So there's a huge line at the latter, but none at the former. Yay no lines!
Once we were hookaharific, we wandered next door to the Bourgeois Pig and had champagne and fondue. It was just delicious, and the place played wonderful music. Evan had trouble getting the items out of the chocolate and/or into his mouth, but he's special.
Then it was 2 am, and we were fat, and happy, and sleepy.
It was a great night.