Showing posts with label am new york. Show all posts
Showing posts with label am new york. Show all posts

Sunday, January 3, 2010

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.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Thing of the Day: Bill Clinton


Two posts in two days! I must be bored this week. This post will be about as positive as yesterday's was negative. I'm much funnier when I'm being a pessimistic bitch, so consider yourself warned. That being said:

William Jefferson Blythe III Clinton. I love you. I have loved you since your presidency and continued to love you through your not having sex with that woman and strengthened my love for you during that Texan's presidency and I love you unequivocally now. This morning as I got ready for work watching The Today Show as usual (what do I have to do to become Mrs. Matt Lauer? Close runner up: Ann Curry), the live video stream of freed journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee reuniting with their families after months of imprisonment in North Korea came on and I actually cried. Embarrassingly enough, I cry at The Today Show relatively often (about as often as I cry at Grey's Anatomy and a little more often than I cry at 16 and Pregnant), but this was a particularly solid display of tears. When Bill Clinton and Euna Lee hugged, shit really hit the fan. What a wonderful wonderful red-nosed man.

Following that rather inspirational and emotional morning, I picked up the AM New York (I swear I only get it for the crossword) and decided to skim through the horoscopes. I normally think that people who take their horoscopes seriously are about as bright as Katherine Heigl, but today's Leo needs to be noted: "Someone has an unrealistic dream. Should you encourage this? Of course. All dreams are realistic until they are not."

Awwwwwwwuhhhh. I have decided I will do something productive with all this inspiration. Thus far, I have channeled it into browsing the shoe selection at UrbanOutfitters.com (but really. I should buy these, right?), trying to make reservations for birthday dinners this weekend (yes dinners plural. I am going to milk turning legal for all its worth), and deciding which award-winning book I plan on reading next (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay was phenomenal. Exquisite. I cried on several occasions. Maybe I should consider birth control pills with less estrogen).

After two hours of internet perusing and money wasting, I came upon the website for Urban Escapes. I've been meaning to do an Urban Escapes trip all summer--unfortunately, full time 12 week internships leave little time for one to get out of the city for more than a weekend, and save for a weekend or two at the cousins in Jersey, a short trip to Long Beach Island and an even shorter one to the Hamptons, I've been NY-bubble-encased all summer. I suppose one can't complain after a four month 19 city whirlwind Eurotrip-- it's nice to be grounded for a while, but I've been itching to get out of the city and do something awesome. Since I go back to school a week after the end of my internship, space for awesomeness is limited--I planned to squeeze in a few more LBI days and nothing else until I came upon this.

Rachel and I had been perusing the Urban Escapes trips casually all summer, and I have made up my mind that I am going on one. I have wanted to go skydiving for a couple of years now and have always made half-assed flaky plans with my friends to do so. This trip looks great. Skydiving, snacks, and new friends. What could be better? The free periodical forced upon me by little Hispanic ladies, in combination with our adulterous and adorable ex-president has inspired me and I am finally going. Who's with me?

If I fail at being a badass (I'm giving myself a 50/50 chance of success here), does anyone want to go wine tasting and river tubing?

Edit: In case anyone needed further inspiration to jump out of a plane with me, it's SHARK WEEK. You know how they say "Live every week like it's shark week?" What more encouragement do you need?