Thing of the Day: 2010 (Twenty-Ten)

Full disclosure: as I write this, I am watching Jersey Shore in my Snuggie, which is actually not even a Snuggie--it is the significantly more ghetto Costco version of a Snuggie, and a disgusting mustard yellow shade. When I came home for Christmas break, I found this and a similarly ugly colored forest green faux-Snuggie resting comfortably on the section of my living room couch that is usually reserved for snacks, and ever since then my sister and I have been parading around in our new garments (these "Snuggies" also have hoods. As far as I know, real Snuggies lack hoods, which is really very silly since hooded Snuggies allow us to not only be warm and comfortable but also pretend we are dementors/Death Eaters and chase each other around the house screaming normalcies such as "Expelliarmus!" and "Give-me-the-remote-us!" If I were Snuggie Inc. I would definitely implement a hooded version. Also perhaps one that comes with feet. Although that would just be a onesie...). Snuggies aside, I'm really proud of all the characters on the Jersey Shore, especially Snooki, who really seems to have matured since she got punched in the face by a stranger. I hope she succeeds in her mission to find love with a Guido on the shore. I've been thinking lately that Snooki would be an ideal character for a reality dating show. It could be like I Love New York, but Snooki is considerably kla$$ier than New York will ever be, and I'm sure she would not have to repeat her show for a second season. When I googled "Snooki Dating Show" on a complete whim I was shocked to find that Snooki totally agrees with me. Although I was thinking of something titled "Snooki's Got Nooki" or "Nooki for Snooki," and her self-chosen potential title is the considerably inferior "Snookin' for Love." Dear MTV: If you read my blog, credit, please.

A few other thoughts:

1. New Years 2010 was...interesting (And its Twenty-Ten, not Two Thousand Ten. Come on, people). After a mediocre actual New Years Eve that culminated in having to take the subway uptown because we couldn't get a cab in the 15 degree weather, we woke up in our Times Square hotel, looked around at the confetti and glitter and eager bright eyed tourists, and decided to try again. We acquired brand new 2010 glasses (bravo to the genius who designed the 2010 glasses...before seeing them we were very concerned with how the eye holes would be placed now that it was no longer 2-eye-eye-something, but, big success!), wore them for the entirety of our family style Italian meal at Carmine's, and just when we thought the evening would culminate in wine and resolution-writing in bed, some friends saved the day by inviting us to Greenhouse. New Years Take 2 was considerably more successful, thus the only resolution we wrote was: In Twenty Ten, if at first you don't succeed, pick yoself up and try again (you can dust it off and try agaiiinnnnnnn...I miss you Aaliyah). Still working on other New Years' resolutions, but they include gems such as working out more/eating less, wasting smaller amounts of time reading strangers' blogs/StumblingUpon/other internet activities, making post graduate life plans, finding useful hobbies, running half marathons, being nicer to people, etc etc.

2. Why is Avatar 3D IMAX sold out every time I try to go see it? I am completely incapable of planning to see a movie a full day in advance, so nearly every day for the past week I have woken up and checked showtimes for the one movie theater in Brooklyn playing Avatar in IMAX and found it to be sold out every single day. Can the rest of New York City really be that much better at planning than I? All I want to do is see these blue creatures everyone has been raving about so I can blog about it, but the world seems to be against me. FOMO, Avatar.

3. Staying in Times Square for the past few days (thanks, Lauren!) has really got me thinking about tourists and tourism. As a New Yorker, I hate New York tourists. I hate their stupid I <3 style="font-style: italic;">The City. But I really don't mind other tourists. In fact, I think I like other tourists. I can only assume this is because when I am in other places, I too am a tourist, but in reality other tourists just seem more intelligent than those in New York. I was really curious about what the most visited tourist sites in the world were, so I consulted my best friend, Google who informed me that NYC, which I for some reason thought to be #1 (please consult picture on right hand corner of blog), is #5. Additionally, I have only been to 4 of the top 10 most visited cities (#1 Paris, #2 London, #5 New York, #10 Rome). I wonder what it is that drives so many people to go to the same places, and who it is that decides The Eiffel Tower or Times Square or The Colosseum is that which should be seen. But whatever it is, I would like to be a part of it. Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, here I comeee.

4. Speaking of New York, I just finished a wonderful novel, Let The Great World Spin, by Colum McAnn, and in one paragraph it summed up exactly how I feel about the city: "New York had a way of doing that. Every now and then the city shook its soul out. It assailed you with an image, or a day, or a crime, or a terror, or a beauty so difficult to wrap your mind around that you had to shake your head in disbelief. He had a theory about it. It happened, and re-happened, because it was a city uninterested in history. Strange things occured precisely because there was no necessary regard for the past. It had no need to belief in itself as a London, or an Athens, or even a signifier of the New World, like a Sydney, or a Los Angeles. No, the city couldn't care less about where it stood. He had seen a t-shirt once that said: New York F*ckin' City. As if it were the only place that ever existed and the only one that ever would." Oh, New York. Every time I think I am over you, you reel me right back in.

5. For those who are not interested in great books, a great movie: I just saw Up In The Air. It made me think, a lot. Additionally, George Clooney is beautiful. If none of this convinces you, it is currently the highest rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes, which is the only real place to criticize movies. Go see it.

6. And finally, or those who are uninterested in great movies, great TV/great eats.
Double food porn tonight: The menu that I'm currently obsessing over, and the premiere of the White House episode of Iron Chef America on The Food Network (Bobby Flay + Mario Batali + Michelle Obama?! Leaving on the TIVO queue forever).

As usual, this blog post failed to have a concentration. So for new beginnings' sake, Thing of the Day: 2010.

Thing of the Day: New Years Eve

I've always had a love/hate relationship with New Years Eve (someone pointed out to me that having love/hate relationships seem to be a quasi-forte of mine: The Jersey Shore, guidos and all things tacky in general, binge eating and drinking, pop culture, most people I interact with on a day to day basis, technology, becoming an adult etc etc)--but New Years Eve especially. The issue that I have with New Years is the same one I have with birthdays--it makes me feel old, and it makes me feel guilty for not having done more since the last New Years Eve/birthday.

This year has been a little different. Over the course of the past year, I have done, experienced, and changed more than I have during any other year of my life that I can remember (which, to be quite honest, isn't saying much--I have an incredibly selective and can't really recall any memories that I may have formed before the age of 16, save for the ones that Mama Bogo has embedded in my head via telling and re-telling of stories. "Do you remember the time you...were 1 and pretended you didn't know how to walk and insisted on being carried everywhere even though I had caught you sneakily walking around your room at least 10 times when you thought nobody was watching? Were 3 and kicked your pediatrician in the genitals and then ran out of the office and down several floors completely in the nude because he tried to give you a booster shot? Were 5 and got yourself banned from the playground and thus myself banned from the mothers-who-gossip-at-the-playground because you stole all the little boys toys and nearly cracked ones' skull with a shovel when he tried to refuse toy surrender? Were 9 and broke both your wrists trying to demonstrate to the playground you had just been re-admitted to how well you could cartwheel on top of the monkey bars? Were 14 and got a one day suspension from school because when your cell phone went off in Chemistry class for the third time that week you pulled it out and answered the teachers' reprimands with "sorry Mr.Banks, I really like this boy and have to talk this call?" NO Mom. I have no memories from before at least sophomore year of high school. But while you're at telling stories can we talk about how I was 4th grade Brooklyn spelling bee champion, or how I once placed at the science fair, or how I wasn't the bane of your existence? GOSH.) But I digress.

I've done more this year than I ever have in the (memorable) past, and I can say surely that 2009 has been an action packed year for the world as well. America inaugurated our first black president. The world got swine flu, one Mexican spring breaker at a time. Michael Jackson died, and everyone immediately forgave him for (maybe?) molesting children. Bernie Madoff swindled millions of dollars from thousands of Jews and caused us to doubt everything we hadn't already been questionable about (which wasn't much). Google, Twitter, and Facebook continued to take over the world. Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian got married and knocked up and all of America got to laugh along. Banks collapsed and were rebuilt. A (maybe?) terrorist's plan to hijack a plane from Amsterdam to Detroit (Amsterdam to Detroit? Cmonnn...that has got to be a plane full of some chillll individuals. Who would wish harm to those flying from Detroit to Amdam?!) was foiled and we cheered for America. A dude landed a plane on the Hudson River, no one got hurt, and we cheered for America. Barack Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize and we booed for America. Sarah Palin "wrote a book." Our favorite d-bags, Levi Johnston and Spencer Pratt, continued to show the world what d-bags they were by posing in the nude and, well, just posing. Iran elected and re-elected presidents. The longest solar eclipse of the 21st century (7 minutes!) came and went. Jon and Kate + mistress + mister + Ed Hardy + 8. The G20, NATO and Hopenhagen summits came and went. People continued to purchase Nooks and Kindles despite this blog. Brittany Murphy died and we forgot to notice. Susan Boyle sang. Kanye West was a jackass. Sweden was named capital of the EU and gave us Tiger Woods' hot thang wife Elin, who will soon be retiring back to said capital. Wars were fought. People died. We passed and subsequently broke laws. People laughed and cried and fought and fell in love and got married and divorced and had kids and kids who had kids who had kids who were paid by MTV to appear on "16 and Pregnant." Life went on.

When I first started this blog entry, it was meant to be a list chronicling my personal best of 2009 moments. Because of my issues with selective memory, however, I found myself stuck and unable to recall specific instances. It was only yesterday when someone tried to help me come up with memories for my list that I came to a terrible realization, a cliche, and the oldest one in the book at that: it's not, and will never be, what you do that matters. It's who you're with.

So off the top of my head, without overthinking and overanalyzing and overwriting, for those best moments of 2009 and those who were there with me: "Black Monday". Our last day in Amsterdam. Mulled wine and the Charles Bridge in Prague. Thursdays (every) at Kulor Bar. Meals consisting solely of "salats" and cold fish. Caiscax and the end of the world in Lisbon. The day of culinary adventures in Paris. Dinner with long lost relatives in Moscow. Norwegian Booze cruise. Our last day as stoweaways in Copenhagen. 4th of July weekend. The day of 9 bottles of wine and a lost camera on the roof. My 21st birthday party. The day of the Brooklyn Bridge/the last day of my internship. The Bourbon and BBQ festival. The first tailgate. The last tailgate. The Jay Z concert. Wine and cheese in the park. Sunday night family dinners. The entirety of the last week of finals. The suite evenings with Pie Cook. Skiing Mt. Mansfield. The Christmas Party. Oh, and Love Hill.

Welcome, 2010. We've been expecting you.