Thing of the Day: Lent

When I was a wee teen, I thought Josh Hartnett was the hottest thing since sliced bread (I've never really understood that sentiment, actually. What is so hot about sliced bread? Bread is really a rather boring food and if I were a metaphor inventor I would select something considerably hotter, like spinach and goat cheese pizza, or lobster ravioli, or Ben & Jerry's Half Baked in FRO-YO form)--so I obviously also thought that 40 Days and 40 Nights was the most fantastic movie ever created.

Being a wee Jewish teen, I never really understood the concept of Lent. What the f was the point of giving up something that you liked for 40 days? The Lord didn't have a choice, we do. No thanks. But after seeing Josh Hartnett in all his hotness struggle through 40 painful days and nights (what Mr.Hartnett's character gave up was sex, and sexual relations in every way shape and form), I decided if sexy Hollywood movie stars could do it and find the love of their life in the process, damn it, so could I. So with the help of Google (or were we still using Yahoo in 2002?), I discovered that the purpose of Lent was to "give something up and take something on," and more or less followed these guidelines through the rest of high school and into freshman year of college.

As I have become older and somehow, less mature, I have stopped giving things up for Lent. True, there is nothing actually wrong with this, seeing I am Jewish, but after this weekends' celebrations of Mardi Gras in the wonderful New Orleans (beads, booze, Bourbon Street, funnel cake, jambalaya (stolen from strangers at my favorite NOLA bar, Pat O Briens, and carefully picked over for traces of meat. Somehow, I am till a vegetarian, but I may have ingested half a piece of jamalaya sausage by accident this weekend), pizza, Hurricanes, Hand Grenades, and general debauchery), I have decided that if I choose to honor Fat Tuesday quite so, um, vigorously, it is only fair that I give the same respect to Ash Wednesday.

Thus, starting today, and for the next 25 days (I am leaving for spring break in Jamaica (!!!!) on March 6--one does not fail to indulge in anything when on senior year spring break) and then the 8 days after I return from Jamaica, I am giving up dairy, and taking on writing.

Anyone who knows me knows how I feel about dairy. I consider cheese its own food group. I once ate an entire block of goat cheese alone within an hour. I get Bagel Bites/Pizza Rolls as a late snack every time I go out. And I devour those Fage yogurts like its my job. But, for the next 25 days, I will remain dairy-less. This means: No cheese. No frozen yogurt. No ice cream. No chocolate products. I obviously plan on blowing through hundreds of dollars at Whole Foods tonight buying the organic vegan lactose free versions of all of these products, but I can safely say I feel about dairy how Josh Hartnett's character in 40 Days felt about sex.

I'm not sure I can live without it.

As for writing, I plan on writing something every of these 25 days--whether it be a blog post, a story, a journal entry, a poem, or a bunch of random scribbled nonsense. My only guidelines is that it has to be non-academic.

Wish me luck.

And by the way, whatever happened to Josh Hartnett?!

Thing of the Day: Nashville

Yo yo yo. Things have been hectic to say the least. I got to Nashville a little over a week ago and it already feels like I not only never left for the summer but also spent spring semester here rather than travelling around Europe. A very wise away message once told me "Its funny how things change--even funnier how they stay the same," and that's definitely how I feel about returning to Vanderbilt.

We've had an amazing first week back, from the 15 hour road trip down, to reuniting with all my favorite Nashville eateries (Sunset Grill changed their dinner menu! Summer salad, anyone? Seafood PLATTER? Artisinal cheese assortment?!? Also the waitress who has worked there for the past 3 years and served me copious quantities of 50% off Pinot Grigio asked me for my I.D last night and upon seeing it very happily exclaimed "You're actually legal! Happy birthday--I can serve you with a clear conscience now...just kidding, I never cared") to exploring downtown Nashville (The following pictures are from the Music City Beer and BBQ Festival yesterday--beer in plastic bottles, roasted corn and sweet potato fries,excellent Nashtrash people watching (favorites included baby with beer bottle and man who offered us sweet tea flavored whiskey and barbecue to hang out by his tent and "make him look good") and fine country music) to our final year of dormitory living (Question: what do you get when you add 6 sorority girls and thousands of dollars spent at Target? Answer: veryyy brightly colored chaos).

Living with 5 of my good friends has actually proved really excellent, and the apartmentmates have already implemented several senior year rules. On Sundays, we take turns cooking family dinners and on Tuesdays, we plan on exploring a new Nashville restaurant that we haven't been to. We've really jump-started this program and thus far have been to Rumours Wine and Art Bar (adorable), and Tayst (delectable). Future venues (on color coded post-its at my bedside) include Urban Flats, The Wine Loft and Cantina Loreda in the all-of-a-sudden really cool and trendy Gulch area, Restaurante Zola, 1808 and Firefly Grille in the greater Vandy area, South Street, The Blue Moon Lagoon and Martha's at the Plantation in the "funny Southern food" category and a wide list of "places we kept meaning to try" throughout Nashville. Reviews to follow. Outside of the eating category, various apartmentmates have pledged to do hot yoga, run half marathons, apply to graduate school, ace LSATs/GREs/GMATs, volunteer, go abroad, learn Spanish/piano/photography and develop post-grad life plans. So it should be a very interesting year, to say the least, and I'm psyched. My personal goals for this year:

1. Take the GREs/GMATs. Since I ideally want an MBA but am the sort of person who sent deposits into three colleges and two study abroad programs,will consistently order 2-3 appetizers instead of entrees and told 2 people I would be their prom date in high school, I really can't make the choice to close the door on graduate degrees of other sorts. I know I don't want to go to grad school for at least 3-5 years after graduation, and by the time that rolls around I could be anywhere from the business world in New York, volunteering in China, a homeless surfer in California or practicing at a monastery in India, so I think I should get both tests over with while I still have brain cells and am in a school mindset.

2. Train for a half/ marathon. I am not sure if I want to bike or run, but due to my diet and excercise pattern of "run when I feel like it" and "eat whatever I want," I've never been in really good hot-girl-jogging-in-sports-bra shape and I feel like it'd be nice.

3. Expand this blog. I want to add photographs, post more often, and develop some sort of following that isn't composed entirely of friends who laugh at my rants and rambles.

4. Get a 4.0: This sounds reaaaaally ambitious, but (duh) it's not. I am doing an internship for my major this semester (hi, Universal Music! I am so excited for my first day this week! I even bought an appropriate length dress with SLEEVES) and the internship program consists of one class and one (really really) long paper. I think I can handle it.

5. Develop a hobby that isn't: eating, writing about eating, watching TV, writing about watching TV, drinking, and reading strangers' blogs. Self explanatory. Suggestions, anyone?

6. Have an amazing senior year! It's off to a great start.

Thing of the Day: The PS1 Warmup

Does anyone remember that episode of Friends when someone at work eats Ross's sandwich? In summary, Monica makes Ross this awesome sandwich, which he brings to work and labels "Knock knock. Who's there? Ross's sandwich--please don't eat me, okay?" His boss ignores the rather witty note and eats the sandwich anyway, leading to very understandable fury.

Well. Around 11:30AM this morning at work, I decided to go upstairs to the communal kitchen area and eat one of the low-fat mozarella string cheese sticks I had left in the fridge. These sticks came in a bag of 12, neatly had "Nikki" written on them in permanent marker, and as of Friday numbered around 5 or 6. Imagine my feelings when I trekked upstairs to find ZERO string cheese sticks remained. Not one. Apparently someone decided my string cheese was a free for all and proceeded to hand them out to friends and coworkers. How to win friends and influence people: free food. Namely, mine.

It's taken me all morning and most of the afternoon to finish mourning the loss, and although I am fairly sure I am not fully over it, I can bring myself to talk about something else, if only for a little while.

This weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the Summer Warmup at the PS1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City. PS1 used to be a shitty New York public school, and about 10 years ago the MoMa bought it and it was somehow turned into an art museum. The exhibits themselves are ridiculously cool, they consist of really contemporary art pieces ranging from sculpture to painting to audio and video, but what makes it really unique is that many of the elements of a disintegrating NYC public school are preserved in building, from the graying staircases to the classrooms. (I haven't been keeping up with NYC Prep but something tells me Jessi would faint from disgust if she ever stepped foot in such an educational venue, and it really made me appreciate Stuyvesant's glass bridge and marbled hallways). To add to the really sweet museum itself (our favorite was the Jonathan Horowitz political And/Or exhibit), the Summer Warmup features up and coming bands, a beer and wine bar, and really attractive Hipster McYuppies imported straight from Williamsburg and the Lower East Side. The band plays by the sculpture in the featured picture above, which is basically this 30 foot tall fuzzy...thing...which sprays everyone around it with a fine mist. We goth there around 3pm, and by 4pm, everyone was raging. I have never seen people so blatantly trashed/tweaked during the day (disclaimer: real adult people, because Vanderbilt tailgate, duhhhh). There was a man in purple Ray-Bans and skinny jeans who I swear beat-boxed and break-danced for two hours straight, a couple decked out in matching fluorescent iridescent mermaid costumes, and a plethora of Vneck McWayfarer couples grinding more aggressively than I have seen in any club at 3am. This place was so amazing and I would highly recommend it to any New Yorker or visiting friend--future Warmups on August 1st, 8th (but you won't be there because you will be celebrating my 21st birthday. Duh), 22th, 29th and September 5th.

After a great day at the Warmup, we went to Battery Gardens, where an employee friend treated us to extra full glasses of Chardonnay, delicious tuna tartare, succulent crab cakes and a massive platter of chocolate, cheesecake and mousse dessert. Further culinary adventures this week include Daniel Boulud's most recent eatery, DBGB, the Vanderbilt Summer Sendoff Party at Cipriani 42nd Street (what's up, open bar?), and the Hudson Square Food and Wine Festival. In non-food-and drink-related activities (surprise)!, I plan on seeing Billy Elliot with the best friend on Wednesday and checking out candle-lit yoga at YTTP Sunday.

My New York summer is quickly drawing to a close and there are so many things I have yet to do (speed date, see Shakespeare in the Park, go to a SummerStage concert, walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, explore Williamsburg, visit the Brooklyn Yard, shop at the Chelsea Flea, see In The Heights, have the all-you-can-drink brunch at Garage, see a Hudson River Flick, bike to work, student rush the Ballet, and eat at a growing list of potential eateries. I think if I up my after-work/happy hour dates from two to three a week, I can squeeze it all in. Who wants to eat, drink, and be cultured?

I think I'm going to go steal some peanut butter from the work fridge. Sorry, co-workers. Karma's a bitch.