The beginnings of a new year.
Is this part of a plot to sabotage my thesis writing? Why, yes it is... It's funny how time moves so slowly when you actually concentrate, but as soon as you get distracted for a moment, three hours just fly by... DAMN.
12/31-1/1 ~ Ringing in the New Year:
It snowed a little on Dec 31st, and I was afraid we would get snowed it, but it subsided after a little while, and Andriy and I were able to drive out to Newark to meet all the other peeps for the traditional Tony da Caneca dinner and Hoboken fireworks party. We got there early, but we spent about half an hour at the bar chatting, and then Carmen showed up and we all sat down and waited another half an hour for Adel's car to get there (very strange since Adel had apparently left their apartment at the same time. It was a little awkward since Andriy and I were sitting on the end and didn't know most everyone. I knew of course Carmen, Ryan, Lucia, and Maia, but it had been a while, so we didn't have too much to talk about across the table. Conversation got better as the night went on though, we met everyone, and we found some common ground as to the fact that Carly also had a crush on Eric Nellis after which we had momentary bonding. Nice to hear stuff about who's up to what now and reminisce a little.
Also Adel finally showed up with Keith and two random girls, one of which I think is his girlfriend and the other the girl's friend who has a tattoo saying "Virgo" on her boob, which was blatantly exposed. Apparently, they are in high school. I know so because when we mentioned Spice Girls, they said their parents wouldn't let them watch it or something because they were like 5 years old. Still, Andriy thought they looked like they were 35. And Virgo boob girl complained a lot randomly and said she didn't eat anything unless it was french fries and then ordered only a plate of plain rice. And I saw her in the bathroom later sniffing a lot, which was rather sketchy. She got a little bit less weird when I asked her which play she had seen in the city, and she said Equus, so we talked a little bit about how it's weird that Harry Potter guy is doing this and how it's a really messed up play.
I got a lobster and steak dinner, which was very good except I should have asked for the steak well done. I don't know where somewhere along the way I decided I'd start eating medium well, but I actually don't like it as much. I splashed butter all over myself, but the lobster was good. Also, it wasn't humongous like this giant "special" lobster that they brought out earlier, which looked like a big bug. Speaking of big bugs, I started reading this website weirdmeat.com... SO GROSS. I think the grossest thing is something that I saw on something like Road Rules or Fear Factor, which is this thing called "balut" that they eat in the Phillipines and Cambodia and other places, which is a 12-18 day old duckling embryo. Apparently you boil it and it's like a soft boiled egg, except with feathers and a head and stuff. BARF.
We finished dinner way too late and left after taking a picture at approximately 11:40pm or so. So we were in a super rush to get to the waterfront, and by the time we got to the area it was like 11:57pm. So Andriy and I ended up just pulling over and running out, just in time to hear people counting down nearby. So, an improvement over last year in that I was no longer in a car at midnight, but there was no real time to process the event until it had happened already. No grapes =(. We spent another 15 minutes taking pictures of fireworks from across the river (looked like Brooklyn) and freezing our butts off. Nobody else was around because we got out at a different location from everyone else, and when we were done they had all gone to Carmen's already. Then we got super lost for about 45 minutes in Jersey City trying to find the place and then trying to find parking.
The apartment itself was very nice actually, clean and cozy with nice artwork all around. I was expecting much worse for Jersey City, though there was still a little bit of sketchiness in the neighborhood. When we came back to the car the next day there was some guy bent over the front. I just saw his red jacket at first, and I was afraid at first that there was one of those wheel locks on the car. When I saw the guy, he was bent over tying his shoe, but it was really suspicious, like he only pretended to tie his shoes because he saw us coming. Also, he kept looking around. Then we politely told him we needed to pull out, and he kind of got out of the way.
The night was fun. Some drinking, taking pictures, and then I smoked weed for the first time ever. It wasn't very exciting. We smoked a joint and then a pipe, and I didn't feel very much of anything, although I had only had maybe five hits. Also, it tasted kind of bad, but I might have been doing it wrong. Still, interesting to try it. Keith was in Adel's room with Adel and the two girls. Speculation was that he would try to hook up with Virgo boobs, but I guess that didn't happen ("At what point does the nerdiness balance out with how much older he is?") =P. Then Geoff, Carly's boyfriend, apparently puked everywhere, and Lucia cleaned it all up. I have never had to clean up puke before, thank goodness. And then Mikey tried to braid my hair, and Lucia made nachos, and that's pretty much what I remembered from that. Finally we all laid out on the floor, and went to sleep. I woke up several times during the night (weed?), and every time I got up Liz was just sitting around, since I guess she just got up at 8 and took a shower and such.
1/1 ~ Visiting NYC
In the morning Andriy and I decided not to go out for lunch with everyone and instead walked to the Grove St PATH to head into WTC to meet Dima Sigaev. I hadn't seen WTC in like 5 or so years, so we took some pictures like the tourists we are. We drank tea at Dima's and looked at his (now) two cats. The one cat was really friendly and innocent looking, and Dima kept saying how Si-Hui brought the cat home from the shelter the day before and he hated that cat, and we couldn't understand why. Then the cat started terrorizing the other, smaller Siamese cat. He was jumping on him and chasing him into corners. It was still a very cute cat though.
Finally their other friends arrived, Vova and Cyril and Cyril's girlfriend (wife?) Yuriko. Then we went on the longest search for food ever because everything was closed, and we ended up at South Street Seaport at this Mexican place. I was super hungry, but I didn't mind because we kept busy taking pictures. Si-Hui showed up as well, I was surprised she remembered me, since I haven't seen her in probably two years. I wasn't in the mood for Mexican so I got a chicken sandwich that was pretty good.
Then we went back to the apartment and had some coffee and cake, and then the boys talked for ages while Yuriko fell asleep, Si-Hui went on her computer, and I took lots and lots of pictures of cats and the skyline. The apartment actually has a great view. Finally I got bored and it was getting late, so Andriy and I left for home for dinner.
1/2 ~ Some movies at home
Nothing interesting, but Andriy and I went to the library and rented some movies, and we watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (also leading up to me looking up weirdmeat.com) and then The Departed with my parents. The Departed is such a crazy well-made movie, but a little disappointing at the end because it's not really a happy satisfying ending.
1/3 ~ Back to Boston and David's surprise party
We left for Boston at 10am. On our way we pulled over at Liberty State Park and took some family photos, which I think we haven't done in a really long time because I never go on vacation with my family anymore. It was nice, even though it was freezing cold. Andriy and I took Greyhound because then we could wait inside instead of at Chinatown, and the ticket were only $20. I still would have liked to take the Bolt Bus though, try out the wifi and plus and extra legroom and stuff. It was kind of a pain because we had to walk to the Port Authority, but the weather was nice and I didn't mind the sites. We made it on time with 25 minutes to spare, but for the second time (happened to us once over Thanksgiving), we were two people with only one seat left on the bus. We had to wait another 30 minutes for the extra bus, but it was okay because we got to sit together and the bus driver was nice. Actually, he was so over polite, I don't know if he drove a limo or something before. He was funny too, esp when the bus ran out of toilet paper. It took us like 5.5 hours to get to Boston though, since there was traffic, and also the driver stopped to check when the handicap door apparently came out of its socket a little. Rest stop at Arby's, pretty yummy. Also, we watched the movie Phonebooth on the bus, which was a bit cliched ala Saw type movie but less gory, but okay. I went home to drop off my stuff for a while and then biked to Andriy's so that we could head to Esya's party.
Even though we missed the surprise for David, it was still really fun. Talked to Helen a bit, who was regaling me with knowledge about how Pixar is awesome and she should stop being in finance. Robin also told me a bit, since he's from Palo Alto. Then Esya pulled me in to dance, but I was a bit tired and not drunk enough, so I danced a little and then watched while her roommate - who looked frumpy and was in these mismatching pajamas - started going crazy dancing to Toxic ("She's never done that before." - Esya). Also, Eileen was all over some guy and then hands all over Robin later... maaan never seen Eillen like that before either. Then I drank a few alcoholic root beer floats and we took birthday shots, and then I started dancing a lot, mostly with Jimmy who also loves Britney. It got even better once we took over choosing the music. We sat around for a while, I forget what we were doing, but then Dima was in the bathroom for a very long time until after we left. And Andriy apparently had drank with Dima (tequila out of the bottle? gross), so he felt like crap the entire next day. Somehow we made it home safely on our bikes.
1/4 - 1/7 ~ Too much of nothing
Basically all I've done since then is concentrate on working and also looking through craiglist posts trying to find housing in the SF bay area. Also, I did read about weird meats, and Andriy and I watched the movie Stepbrothers, which is the weirdest movie ever. And we went to Whole Foods and got some food and then ate it. That's about it. Cheers!
12/31-1/1 ~ Ringing in the New Year:
It snowed a little on Dec 31st, and I was afraid we would get snowed it, but it subsided after a little while, and Andriy and I were able to drive out to Newark to meet all the other peeps for the traditional Tony da Caneca dinner and Hoboken fireworks party. We got there early, but we spent about half an hour at the bar chatting, and then Carmen showed up and we all sat down and waited another half an hour for Adel's car to get there (very strange since Adel had apparently left their apartment at the same time. It was a little awkward since Andriy and I were sitting on the end and didn't know most everyone. I knew of course Carmen, Ryan, Lucia, and Maia, but it had been a while, so we didn't have too much to talk about across the table. Conversation got better as the night went on though, we met everyone, and we found some common ground as to the fact that Carly also had a crush on Eric Nellis after which we had momentary bonding. Nice to hear stuff about who's up to what now and reminisce a little.
Also Adel finally showed up with Keith and two random girls, one of which I think is his girlfriend and the other the girl's friend who has a tattoo saying "Virgo" on her boob, which was blatantly exposed. Apparently, they are in high school. I know so because when we mentioned Spice Girls, they said their parents wouldn't let them watch it or something because they were like 5 years old. Still, Andriy thought they looked like they were 35. And Virgo boob girl complained a lot randomly and said she didn't eat anything unless it was french fries and then ordered only a plate of plain rice. And I saw her in the bathroom later sniffing a lot, which was rather sketchy. She got a little bit less weird when I asked her which play she had seen in the city, and she said Equus, so we talked a little bit about how it's weird that Harry Potter guy is doing this and how it's a really messed up play.
I got a lobster and steak dinner, which was very good except I should have asked for the steak well done. I don't know where somewhere along the way I decided I'd start eating medium well, but I actually don't like it as much. I splashed butter all over myself, but the lobster was good. Also, it wasn't humongous like this giant "special" lobster that they brought out earlier, which looked like a big bug. Speaking of big bugs, I started reading this website weirdmeat.com... SO GROSS. I think the grossest thing is something that I saw on something like Road Rules or Fear Factor, which is this thing called "balut" that they eat in the Phillipines and Cambodia and other places, which is a 12-18 day old duckling embryo. Apparently you boil it and it's like a soft boiled egg, except with feathers and a head and stuff. BARF.
We finished dinner way too late and left after taking a picture at approximately 11:40pm or so. So we were in a super rush to get to the waterfront, and by the time we got to the area it was like 11:57pm. So Andriy and I ended up just pulling over and running out, just in time to hear people counting down nearby. So, an improvement over last year in that I was no longer in a car at midnight, but there was no real time to process the event until it had happened already. No grapes =(. We spent another 15 minutes taking pictures of fireworks from across the river (looked like Brooklyn) and freezing our butts off. Nobody else was around because we got out at a different location from everyone else, and when we were done they had all gone to Carmen's already. Then we got super lost for about 45 minutes in Jersey City trying to find the place and then trying to find parking.
The apartment itself was very nice actually, clean and cozy with nice artwork all around. I was expecting much worse for Jersey City, though there was still a little bit of sketchiness in the neighborhood. When we came back to the car the next day there was some guy bent over the front. I just saw his red jacket at first, and I was afraid at first that there was one of those wheel locks on the car. When I saw the guy, he was bent over tying his shoe, but it was really suspicious, like he only pretended to tie his shoes because he saw us coming. Also, he kept looking around. Then we politely told him we needed to pull out, and he kind of got out of the way.
The night was fun. Some drinking, taking pictures, and then I smoked weed for the first time ever. It wasn't very exciting. We smoked a joint and then a pipe, and I didn't feel very much of anything, although I had only had maybe five hits. Also, it tasted kind of bad, but I might have been doing it wrong. Still, interesting to try it. Keith was in Adel's room with Adel and the two girls. Speculation was that he would try to hook up with Virgo boobs, but I guess that didn't happen ("At what point does the nerdiness balance out with how much older he is?") =P. Then Geoff, Carly's boyfriend, apparently puked everywhere, and Lucia cleaned it all up. I have never had to clean up puke before, thank goodness. And then Mikey tried to braid my hair, and Lucia made nachos, and that's pretty much what I remembered from that. Finally we all laid out on the floor, and went to sleep. I woke up several times during the night (weed?), and every time I got up Liz was just sitting around, since I guess she just got up at 8 and took a shower and such.
1/1 ~ Visiting NYC
In the morning Andriy and I decided not to go out for lunch with everyone and instead walked to the Grove St PATH to head into WTC to meet Dima Sigaev. I hadn't seen WTC in like 5 or so years, so we took some pictures like the tourists we are. We drank tea at Dima's and looked at his (now) two cats. The one cat was really friendly and innocent looking, and Dima kept saying how Si-Hui brought the cat home from the shelter the day before and he hated that cat, and we couldn't understand why. Then the cat started terrorizing the other, smaller Siamese cat. He was jumping on him and chasing him into corners. It was still a very cute cat though.
Finally their other friends arrived, Vova and Cyril and Cyril's girlfriend (wife?) Yuriko. Then we went on the longest search for food ever because everything was closed, and we ended up at South Street Seaport at this Mexican place. I was super hungry, but I didn't mind because we kept busy taking pictures. Si-Hui showed up as well, I was surprised she remembered me, since I haven't seen her in probably two years. I wasn't in the mood for Mexican so I got a chicken sandwich that was pretty good.
Then we went back to the apartment and had some coffee and cake, and then the boys talked for ages while Yuriko fell asleep, Si-Hui went on her computer, and I took lots and lots of pictures of cats and the skyline. The apartment actually has a great view. Finally I got bored and it was getting late, so Andriy and I left for home for dinner.
1/2 ~ Some movies at home
Nothing interesting, but Andriy and I went to the library and rented some movies, and we watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (also leading up to me looking up weirdmeat.com) and then The Departed with my parents. The Departed is such a crazy well-made movie, but a little disappointing at the end because it's not really a happy satisfying ending.
1/3 ~ Back to Boston and David's surprise party
We left for Boston at 10am. On our way we pulled over at Liberty State Park and took some family photos, which I think we haven't done in a really long time because I never go on vacation with my family anymore. It was nice, even though it was freezing cold. Andriy and I took Greyhound because then we could wait inside instead of at Chinatown, and the ticket were only $20. I still would have liked to take the Bolt Bus though, try out the wifi and plus and extra legroom and stuff. It was kind of a pain because we had to walk to the Port Authority, but the weather was nice and I didn't mind the sites. We made it on time with 25 minutes to spare, but for the second time (happened to us once over Thanksgiving), we were two people with only one seat left on the bus. We had to wait another 30 minutes for the extra bus, but it was okay because we got to sit together and the bus driver was nice. Actually, he was so over polite, I don't know if he drove a limo or something before. He was funny too, esp when the bus ran out of toilet paper. It took us like 5.5 hours to get to Boston though, since there was traffic, and also the driver stopped to check when the handicap door apparently came out of its socket a little. Rest stop at Arby's, pretty yummy. Also, we watched the movie Phonebooth on the bus, which was a bit cliched ala Saw type movie but less gory, but okay. I went home to drop off my stuff for a while and then biked to Andriy's so that we could head to Esya's party.
Even though we missed the surprise for David, it was still really fun. Talked to Helen a bit, who was regaling me with knowledge about how Pixar is awesome and she should stop being in finance. Robin also told me a bit, since he's from Palo Alto. Then Esya pulled me in to dance, but I was a bit tired and not drunk enough, so I danced a little and then watched while her roommate - who looked frumpy and was in these mismatching pajamas - started going crazy dancing to Toxic ("She's never done that before." - Esya). Also, Eileen was all over some guy and then hands all over Robin later... maaan never seen Eillen like that before either. Then I drank a few alcoholic root beer floats and we took birthday shots, and then I started dancing a lot, mostly with Jimmy who also loves Britney. It got even better once we took over choosing the music. We sat around for a while, I forget what we were doing, but then Dima was in the bathroom for a very long time until after we left. And Andriy apparently had drank with Dima (tequila out of the bottle? gross), so he felt like crap the entire next day. Somehow we made it home safely on our bikes.
1/4 - 1/7 ~ Too much of nothing
Basically all I've done since then is concentrate on working and also looking through craiglist posts trying to find housing in the SF bay area. Also, I did read about weird meats, and Andriy and I watched the movie Stepbrothers, which is the weirdest movie ever. And we went to Whole Foods and got some food and then ate it. That's about it. Cheers!