Elena
Elena drove up from Princeton yesterday morning and got into Hackensack just before 11am. Well, actually she had gotten into Hackensack much earlier for skating practice, but she didn't get to my parents' place until 11. She had been up since 6 that morning, whereas I got up and showered literally just minutes before she had arrived. I was really amazed by how differently my parents welcomed Elena's visit compared to Christian's. In both cases, my mom did her usual thing of showering people with food until they explode and then bringing dessert so they explode again. But the level of talkativeness was just so much more energetic. My dad came down, sat at the table and talked to Elena and made plenty of stupid jokes. That kind of banter did not occur at all while Christian was here; then the conversation was still plentiful between he and my mother, but it wasn't as carefree. It just goes to show you how much they still want me to take an interest in some girl, and encourage any friendships I have with girls so that they might blossom into love. It's not going to happen, and I don't give them any positive reactions to support it, but at the same time, Elena is a friend that I enjoy spending time with, so I'm not going to be cold. It's just obnoxious to deal with.
After having a brunch here, we headed off towards the Hudson river to go to Palisades Park. For those not from the area, the Palisades are these steep cliffs that run along much of the NJ side of the Hudson River, and they can give you some great views of the city from north. Except that I managed to completely miss the exit for the park and instead we just drove up into New York State and headed to Bear Mountain. Like Palisades Park, Bear Mountain was a place we'd visit as a family all the time when I was a kid. The place hadn't changed too much--the zoo was still there, as was the big field, the path around the lake and the hiking trails up the mountain. But the main lodge was being completely renovated, and they had built a new building which housed a carousel. We went inside the new building just to check it out, and it was filled with all these little kids running around and parents frantically chasing after them. There was a concession stand on the side, as well as a table set up where a woman was selling coffee. Except it wasn't just coffee. They had this big sign advertising to try the coffee with the wide assortment of liquors they had available. The liquored up coffee was the prominent item on the menu, while plain coffee and plain tea appeared in small print at the bottom of the sign. I was just so surprised to see liquor so casually and prominently available at a place for kids, because you'd NEVER find that in California. People would go into an uproar about the message it's "sending our children." But here on the East Coast, no one even gave it a second thought. Because quite frankly, the message it's sending to children is that there's this thing called alcohol, it's something special for adults only, and some adults sometimes have it to treat themselves or have some fun. It's not like there was a bar by the merry-go-round with drunkards stumbling onto the carousel and then puking all over the unicorns when things start swirling all around. I personally feel that exposing kids to responsible alcohol consumption is a good learning experience for them--much better than "sheltering" them by keeping alcohol far, far away from them. Yes, kids can learn responsible alcohol consumption from their parents and family, but maybe some of those people are not responsible, and at the very least they can see many more examples of people drinking responsibly, reinforcing what they've learned.
Well, anyway, Elena got a regular coffee, but I treated myself to a coffee with Kahlua. Yum. Just the thing to warm my tummy on a cold day. We then walked around the lake, walked through the zoo, and got to talk about a lot of stuff. Then we drove Nyack, which is a cute scenic town in New York with another great view of the City. We got some eggplant parmesan pizza, which was quite tasty and very filling, and then drove back to my parents completely tired. After a cup of tea, though, we perked up again, rented Once Upon a Time in Mexico and watched it. That movie just got worse and worse as it progressed. There were so many characters and they were all double-crossing each other, and it seemed like the only motivation for many turns in the plot was just so that yet another gunfight could erupt and more nameless people could get shot. I mean, there was no reason at all for Johnny Depp's character to get the retired FBI guy involved into any of this, except that as a character himself, he was pretty noble and somewhat interesting. But he really had no reason to be there in the first place. It was just so boring after a while, because you didn't care about anyone or anything that happened. 5/10.
After that, Million Dollar Baby happened to be on HBO. That was far better, and I normally don't even like sports movies, but this was a noteable exception. 9/10. Then Elena and I headed out to the local gay bar, Feathers, which Christian and I had attempted to go to on New Year's Eve. They had a $7 cover, but that included a free drink, so it was actually not bad at all. You go in through the basement and the dancefloor downstairs had no one dancing. I was rather surprised since when Christian and I had been there, it was packed and tons of people were dancing. But then after 10 minutes, Elena and I found the stairs to the second floor, where there were two more bars and a very large dancefloor with tons of people dancing. There was also a HUGE high heel with white sequins spinning above one of the bars. The two of us danced until about 2 in the morning, at which point Elena was ready to stick me with a tranquilizer and drag my body out of the bar, because she desperately had to drive back down to Princeton that night instead of in the morning. I pleaded and pleaded, but she's too stubborn. I think it's because she didn't have even one drink that night. Oh well. We'll get to go out again soon enough. Feathers was really fun though, so I'll be coming back there again soon.
Elena dropped me off at 2:30 and then left to get back to Princeton. I made myself a small snack and turned on the TV not intending to really watch anything. But then Bowling for Columbine was on, and I started watching it and had to watch until the end. It was a really great documentary, which really went through all the arguments people had for why the shootings happened and just disproved them as myths, one by one. It was so impressive how he really isolated different causes and dealt with them. It was tons better than Fahrenheit 9/11, which IMO was just him ranting. 9/10. Other movies I've seen lately: the original Halloween 7/10. It was reasonably scary, though I had seen many different snippets of it before. Kung Fu Hustle 7/10. This one really disappointed me because I had liked Shaolin Soccer so much, but the humor in this one just wasn't that witty. And the physical humor was practically non-existent.
After having a brunch here, we headed off towards the Hudson river to go to Palisades Park. For those not from the area, the Palisades are these steep cliffs that run along much of the NJ side of the Hudson River, and they can give you some great views of the city from north. Except that I managed to completely miss the exit for the park and instead we just drove up into New York State and headed to Bear Mountain. Like Palisades Park, Bear Mountain was a place we'd visit as a family all the time when I was a kid. The place hadn't changed too much--the zoo was still there, as was the big field, the path around the lake and the hiking trails up the mountain. But the main lodge was being completely renovated, and they had built a new building which housed a carousel. We went inside the new building just to check it out, and it was filled with all these little kids running around and parents frantically chasing after them. There was a concession stand on the side, as well as a table set up where a woman was selling coffee. Except it wasn't just coffee. They had this big sign advertising to try the coffee with the wide assortment of liquors they had available. The liquored up coffee was the prominent item on the menu, while plain coffee and plain tea appeared in small print at the bottom of the sign. I was just so surprised to see liquor so casually and prominently available at a place for kids, because you'd NEVER find that in California. People would go into an uproar about the message it's "sending our children." But here on the East Coast, no one even gave it a second thought. Because quite frankly, the message it's sending to children is that there's this thing called alcohol, it's something special for adults only, and some adults sometimes have it to treat themselves or have some fun. It's not like there was a bar by the merry-go-round with drunkards stumbling onto the carousel and then puking all over the unicorns when things start swirling all around. I personally feel that exposing kids to responsible alcohol consumption is a good learning experience for them--much better than "sheltering" them by keeping alcohol far, far away from them. Yes, kids can learn responsible alcohol consumption from their parents and family, but maybe some of those people are not responsible, and at the very least they can see many more examples of people drinking responsibly, reinforcing what they've learned.
Well, anyway, Elena got a regular coffee, but I treated myself to a coffee with Kahlua. Yum. Just the thing to warm my tummy on a cold day. We then walked around the lake, walked through the zoo, and got to talk about a lot of stuff. Then we drove Nyack, which is a cute scenic town in New York with another great view of the City. We got some eggplant parmesan pizza, which was quite tasty and very filling, and then drove back to my parents completely tired. After a cup of tea, though, we perked up again, rented Once Upon a Time in Mexico and watched it. That movie just got worse and worse as it progressed. There were so many characters and they were all double-crossing each other, and it seemed like the only motivation for many turns in the plot was just so that yet another gunfight could erupt and more nameless people could get shot. I mean, there was no reason at all for Johnny Depp's character to get the retired FBI guy involved into any of this, except that as a character himself, he was pretty noble and somewhat interesting. But he really had no reason to be there in the first place. It was just so boring after a while, because you didn't care about anyone or anything that happened. 5/10.
After that, Million Dollar Baby happened to be on HBO. That was far better, and I normally don't even like sports movies, but this was a noteable exception. 9/10. Then Elena and I headed out to the local gay bar, Feathers, which Christian and I had attempted to go to on New Year's Eve. They had a $7 cover, but that included a free drink, so it was actually not bad at all. You go in through the basement and the dancefloor downstairs had no one dancing. I was rather surprised since when Christian and I had been there, it was packed and tons of people were dancing. But then after 10 minutes, Elena and I found the stairs to the second floor, where there were two more bars and a very large dancefloor with tons of people dancing. There was also a HUGE high heel with white sequins spinning above one of the bars. The two of us danced until about 2 in the morning, at which point Elena was ready to stick me with a tranquilizer and drag my body out of the bar, because she desperately had to drive back down to Princeton that night instead of in the morning. I pleaded and pleaded, but she's too stubborn. I think it's because she didn't have even one drink that night. Oh well. We'll get to go out again soon enough. Feathers was really fun though, so I'll be coming back there again soon.
Elena dropped me off at 2:30 and then left to get back to Princeton. I made myself a small snack and turned on the TV not intending to really watch anything. But then Bowling for Columbine was on, and I started watching it and had to watch until the end. It was a really great documentary, which really went through all the arguments people had for why the shootings happened and just disproved them as myths, one by one. It was so impressive how he really isolated different causes and dealt with them. It was tons better than Fahrenheit 9/11, which IMO was just him ranting. 9/10. Other movies I've seen lately: the original Halloween 7/10. It was reasonably scary, though I had seen many different snippets of it before. Kung Fu Hustle 7/10. This one really disappointed me because I had liked Shaolin Soccer so much, but the humor in this one just wasn't that witty. And the physical humor was practically non-existent.