Tuesday, July 5, 2011

You didn't get to see any fireworks? Well YOU are in LUCK!

Yeah yeah yeah no posts, lazy blogger, blah  blah blah.... CHECK OUT THE AMAZING WEEKEND I HAD PEOPLE!

OK first and foremost, I totally did not post my Weight Loss Wednesday post last week.  And you're probably all "oh no, she gained back all 15 pounds and shhhhh nobody say anything because she'll cry and it'll be terrible!  So let's not say anything until she brings it up...."

HA.

Gotchu.

I lost a pound last week :)  YAY!!

That makes it a total of 16 pounds total!! 

Which is clearly great, you know?  I am not sure I'll be making my goal of a total of 25 pounds by the end of the month.  Because that would mean losing 2 pounds every week, and 3 pounds one of those weeks... which... not likely.  But, seriously?  I am super super happy with this progress!  And even better?  PEOPLE ARE NOTICING!!  Multiple people have mentioned that they can see a big difference which is awesome.  And whether it's physical actual evidence, or simply that I have more confidence and look better in that respect, I'll take it!  Still lots of work to do, but I am definitely motivated. 

I think one reason I have definitely slowed down is that I have not been to the gym.  I just haven't been at all.  And that's terrible.  Granted, I am more active in general, my body is starting to sort of get used to that.  So I need to step that up.  But fo real?  I have been uber-busy as of late.

Speaking of... let's move on to this weekend, shall we?

I had absolutely 100% refused to make any type of plans or commitments for this long weekend.  I have been completely burned out the last couple of weeks.  All the traveling, and moving, and moving furniture out of windows... it's been crazy!  So I didn't make plans.  People asked and I would refuse.  I may have been rude.

I may not have cared.

On Thursday I made plans with Ana to go to the beach at least one day over the weekend.  Within two hours of making that plan, my entire weekend was jam-packed with holiday weekend festivities.  Which I was a little "seriously?!  What happened to sitting on the couch in PJs watching movies?"  But in all fairness the stuff I planned was super fun and pretty relaxing.

So Friday I went and got my hair did.  It's pretty hot.  Sylys worked his magic, the heinous blond highlights are gone and I am nearly back to my natural color.  I have awesome sweeping bangs and layers and.... all for only $50 more than I was expecting.  Ugh.  Fine.  Whatever.  It had to be done and I won't be coloring my hair again for like a super long time so... just haircuts from here on out.  Grrrr...  But yes, very very pretty!

After that I went home and waited for the lady that was buying my loveseat. 

Yeah that's right.  I'm selling more furniture.  Only this time it's the DJ's left over stuff that he didn't feel like dealing with so now I am.  Which is awesome.

Ahem.

Lady shows up at 1AM?!?!?!  She shows up with her teenage daughter and a navigator.  The lady doesn't even get out of the car, and asks if I can help her daughter get it downstairs. 

Like.

For real?

Fine whatever get it out out out of my house. 

People.  This girl couldn't lift a sheet of paper if somebody had added the weight of the ink to it.  It was pathetic.  My roommate and I had moved it really no problem at all.  I basically moved this couch down the stairs by myself.  We get it out of the apartment, down the stairs, out the front door for the woman to say "OK, so here's the problem."

Bitch you better get back in that car before I throw this couch on top of your car and just let YOU deal with it.  She showed up with a navigator that had a ton of crap in it and a speaker mounted in the trunk of her car.

WHAT PART OF YOU ARE BUYING AND HAULING A LOVE SEAT DID YOU NOT UNDERSTAND WOMAN?!?! 

After 20 minutes of repositioning and pushing and pulling and lifting (which by the way, was all me.  Because Lady couldn't lift anything thanks to having cancer and 16 surgeries and like 10 kids and she obviously needs housing from the government which they are changing which is seriously going to screw up her ability to get weaves and long fake nails and more bangles and omg over sharing) we get the couch into the car and they leave.  Holy God.

To be honest, that was the only truly frustrating part of the weekend. 

The next day I got up and got ready to go to.... THE BEACH!!! Wooooo!!!  I was meeting Ana, Miranda and Ana's friend Ryan in Union Square at 12:30.  We got fresh fruit and a box of wine (which we took out of the box so it would chill on the way to the beach because we're classy like that) and headed to the beach.  We ventured to Coney Island for a few reasons.  1), we felt like we definitely needed to experience it.  2) Although it was a long trip (about an hour from Union Square), it seemed easier and about $20 cheaper than Jones Beach, which we plan to visit in the future when I have actual money to spare. 

You.

Guys.

OK, so the sand wasn't super great, apparently the bathrooms stunk (which I didn't know about because although we drank wine for 6 hours, we were in the sun and it just dehydrated all the liquid out of us so I never had to pee.  Or maybe subconsciously I knew it would be awful so I just convinced myself that I didn't have to go...) and there was seaweed in the freezing cold water. 

But we had a BLAST!  We got Nathan's hot dogs!  We just hung out and drank our bag-o-wine and ate fruit... it was perfect!  We had a good group of people, lots to chat about (thanks to the wine I'm sure...) and just drank up the sun...

... some of us more than others...

Last weekend at my Dad's house for my brother's graduation party, I sat outside in a bathing suit for 6 hours.  I got zero sun whatsoever  My legs are basically mirrors, or... like... see through.  They are super white is the point.  Scary white.  So I went with the intention of getting some color finally!

Um...

I got color...

Oh I got color alright...

My back is so red... it's like the red stripes of the flag.  Especially considering that everywhere my bathing suit covered is incredibly white in comparison.  I can't really roll over in my sleep.  And anything touching my back including clothing, sheets, or.. like... air... just HURTS! 

The best part?  My roommate was gone all weekend.  So I stood in the bathroom mirror and tried to twist my arms in various positions trying to smooth aloe on the top of my back.  Any idea how tough that is?  Especially when it feels like your skin might actually just tear apart?  Or if it's not tearing, then it has turned to sandpaper and feels like it is buffing your epidermis down to the raw part?  So that was fun.






None of us exactly recall the train ride home.  There are pictures that Miranda took and posted on Facebook... I don't remember having any of them taken, but I am most definitely in them.  I don't remember walking home from the train.  And for the love of God I have no idea how I got myself to look like this:


But I totally did.  Depending on how large that picture is, you may be able to see the very determined look on my face.  Apparently picture taking with a phone is tough business after that much wine (btw:  3 girls very nearly finished a 5 liter bag-o-wine.  Just saying.)

So I ventured downtown where we got everybody together.  Ana was in PJs eating boneless wings and fries which I finished for her (thank GOD because all I had in my system was wine saturated fruit...), Ryan had gone to meet friends while we finished getting ourselves together (as best we could), Miranda had passed out, Ashley was ready but... well... This is what she was dealing with:


But it's cool... Josh bounced back and was ready to go!  we all got out the door at... around... 1am.  Ah well... at least we made it out!

We were all heading to Polar Lounge to an event I was invited to by Hollywood Hino.  It was amazing!  We were all dancing like crazy people, and even when everybody I came with (Ashley, Josh, Ana and Ryan) headed out, I hung out.  Basically Hino and I have talked about working together and I just wanted to get a good feel for the crowd.  It was fantastic!  That guy knows how to throw a party and work a room and I loved every minute!  Can't wait to do it again!

At 4am, although he attempted to persuade me to keep the party going with him and 20 of his closest acquaintances at his house for the after party, I said goodnight to Hino and the DJ (whose card I really need to find since I said I'd email him...) (No, not that DJ.  Different DJ.) 

The next day I woke up at 12:50pm. 

Yeah.

Talk about sleeping in! 

But I felt really pretty good considering...

And then I realized that I had 40 minutes to get myself together and get to brunch with Bethany and Alice.  I made it!  WOOO!!

We went to Don Pablos on 96th street and 2nd Ave.  It was delish!  I had blackbean soup, mashed plantains topped with a fried egg and cheese and 2 pieces of Cuban sausage.  And then the three of us split the three dessert options.  Except I didn't have the flan.  When I went to Spain in high school I had flan twice a day every day for 10 days.  I'm kind of over flan.  But the Tres Leche was amazing!  And I had a really good blood orange sorbet.  So so good!  And you got all of this (a 3 course lunch) plus bottomless sangria (which was yummy!) for $20 per person!  You just can't beat that.

It was so good, in fact, that I went home, peeled off my dress (to let my burned-to-a-crisp back breathe) and took a little nap.  Because clearly sleeping until nearly 1pm just wasn't enough time.

At around 7 my friend Davine came over to borrow a bathing suit.  And at 8pm I was on a crosstown bus with Miranda heading up to Morningside Heights in Harlem to stop by our friend Dwayne's BBQ.

Now, when I think BBQ, I'm thinking like maybe 30 people tops.  Some sort of iPod player, one grill with some hot dogs and burgers and a bucket of sodas and beers.  Maybe a table with side dishes. 

We show up to a Par-Tay.  Can we talk about this?  There must have been 200 people there.  HUGE grilling area, Hennessey everywhere (because it's not a party in Harlem with out Hennessey)... insanity!  We just stopped to say hi, but only stayed for maybe 20 minutes or so.  And then came home.  I was so so beat.  So I sat on the couch and watched some TV and relaxed. 

Monday I got up (already in a good mood because YAY NO WORK TODAY!).  I talked to Ana and we considered going to the Met to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit, but then promptly found out the Met is closed on Mondays.  So that was a no go.  So I just took it easy until about 5:45 when I headed out to Reservoir Bar on University Place between 10th and 11th streets in Union Square to visit Miranda on her first day!  After that I was set to head to Brooklyn for a rooftop party where my friend Rose was going to sing.  Unfortunately, before I even left Miranda, cops broke up the rooftop party.  So I hung out at Miranda's place and had some food (Spinach and artichoke dip and a piece of bailey's cheesecake.)  (What??) and then got word that the party had migrated to Manhattan... Hell's Kitchen to be exact.  Perfect, because Brooklyn and I are really not acquaintances and I wasn't sure about venturing over there.

People. 

The place we ended up was AMAZING.  I got there just as the sun was setting:

And then the fireworks started!  They had 6 barges lined up along the Hudson River setting them off, and the show was fantastic!  I think it went on for about 30 minutes, and I probably took 40 or more pictures, but these are my favorites.. and in case you didn't get to see fireworks this year, please allow me to play the part of your pyrotechnical person and give you the show of your lifetime!




































And these are just cell phone camera pictures so just imagine how great they looked in person! 

Speaking of seeing this in person... check this out:


These are people walking back toward Times Square to get on the subway from the West Side of the island where they were standing and watching the fireworks.  And this is nothing... it turned into a steady river of people that we watched for about an hour from the 5th floor club level balcony.  If you look closely behind that silver minivan, there's a hotdog and pretzel vendor just making a KILLING on these hungry swarms of people.  At around 11pm they had finally subsided enough that we could try to get home.  Rather than opening all entrances to foot traffic into the subways and simply stationing extra police reinforcements by the subway gates, NYC MTA decided the best idea was to filter that entire crowd of people into maybe 2 entrances leading to the subway.  2 million people + 2 entrances into public transportation = TOTAL CHAOS!  But thankfully we had waited out the worst of it.  I made it home around midnight.  I can say it was one of the most successful 4th of July celebrations I have had in a while! 

When I got home, I was settling in for bed with Puka and somebody in the neighborhood was putting off their own little fireworks, scaring the bejeezes right out of Puka.  She looked like she was either ready to attack whatever was happening outside the window, or hide in her favorite closet. 

But anyway, it was a really great weekend.  Definitely exactly what I needed.  My sunburn is starting to get a little better I think... Tonight begins the preparations for next Saturday's party (lots of food!) and tomorrow I will be back with a Weight Loss Wednesday edition... yes I'll weigh myself even though I totally ate Bailey's Cheesecake.  And Spinach and Artichoke dip.  It's fine.

No comments:

Post a Comment