I'm in Miami Bitch

I thought I'd start writing while our Shepherds Pie is in the oven.  I also just read that sushi should be tossed after 24 hours which is a total bummer because for the first time in my life I ate less then half of my order from last night (what's happened to me??)

On Friday night I finally watched 127 Hours.  Danny Boyle is my favorite director, so I'm not quite sure how a) it took me so long to get around to watching it, and b) we let the Netflix disc sit in our apartment for over a month while we continue to pay their recently-inflated prices.  Anyway, I thought it was terrific, except for the fact that I didn't realize how horror-like the "main part" was actually going to be.  (DON'T FINISH READING THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT.)  We all know that the main character cuts his arm off, but the details shown were absolutely horrific.  I definitely did NOT realize he was going to break his bone first (two times actually), and I don't know why but I started crying as soon as that happened and just didn't stop until the credits finished.  I always say I don't watch scary movies because I think they're stupid, but maybe I really am scared of them?  If you were lucky enough to have gone with me to see Titanic in the theater, you might remember that I did the same thing (I literally didn't stop crying until the end of the credits.)  Well, this was almost to that proportion which is highly embarrassing but I think warranted.

Dave and I are watching Taboo which is showcasing a man who loves his cars and a woman who loves the Berlin wall...and they "make love" to them too.  Dave's already seen this show in the UK, so I think he's pretty excited that he gets to finally see it again.

Last week Dave and I went to see SubsOnica at Highline Ballroom. When I studied abroad in 2000 I discovered them, and even used them for my final in my Italian class the next year - my professor used to play songs for us and hand out a sheet of lyrics with half the words missing.  We'd have to listen and fill them in (not as a test, but for educational fun.)  So, I did the same with my favorite song of theirs, "I Tutti I Miei Sbagli", for my final.  I never even imagined they would play in NY so I had to go when I heard they were coming. Casino Royale, another Italian band, opened for them, who were okay, I don't really know how to describe it, just very Italian.  When SubsOnica came in, everyone was SO into it (by the way the entire Italian population of NYC was there and I think we were the only native English speakers in the audience.)  Everyone knew all the words to all of the songs, the keyboard was on a spring and the keyboard player would push it in this weird, sexual way back and forth, and the singer had the crowd squat down on the floor and jump up a minute later - and everyone actually did it!  People were jumping and dancing the whole time, and I always wish regular NY crowds were as enthusiastic as this.  Here are photos:

SU LE MANI!

Nuovo Ossessione

I don't know how, but we managed to get Radiohead tickets for Roseland a few weeks back.  They primarily played songs from In Rainbows and almost everything was from Kid A on and it was excellent.

Also, Adrien Grenier was standing above us in the balcony (he drives me crazy if you catch my drift.)  Awesome lighting at this show too by the way.

Street Spirit

Four Tet opened which I was looking forward to because the I love the only song I know by them (him?), "Smile Around the Face", but it was just okay.

I'm going to see Kevin Griffin of Better Than Ezra play an acoustic show at City Winery on Sunday.  It's such a small intimate setting, I can't wait.  I'm also going to see Duran Duran next week, and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds (aaaaaahhhhhh!!!) in November.

Last month we went to Miami for Glenna and Tony's wedding.  We'd never been there before and were quite worried that the cost of food, drinks, and going out were going to be through the roof.  Much to our surprise, when we walked through the restaurant strip in South Beach, all the brunch specials were $5.95, I couldn't believe it.  Well, that's until the food came.  I got an omelette with olive tapenade and goat cheese, sounds delicious right?  Well, it came out all oily - I tried one bite and it kind of tasted hard boiled with oil on it (I'm holding back the vomit as I write this.)  I thought the waitress was going to beat me up when she kept asking "You didn't like it!??" I figured the next day I'd be safe and get pancakes because how can you go wring with that?  Well, they were not as as gross as the egg, but they did prove that you can most definitely also go wrong with pancakes.

We mostly hung out at the pool during the weekend as there were loads of jellyfish in the ocean.  When we walked along the coastline I saw a one the size of my head which was quite shocking (my first time.)  On Friday night we went to the rehearsal dinner where G&T handed out Oscar-like awards to those who had attended all 4 weddings of her and her triplet sisters.  Then we saw Master P and Lil Romeo eating outside but I didn't know it was them until someone pointed it out.  The best part of the evening was when the guests were surprised with a Mister Softie truck with ice cream for everyone, yum!!

Dave getting his vanilla on

I cheated and got sprinkles

The wedding itself was so much fun, very different than any I'd been to before.  Everyone received a pair of sunglasses for the ceremony, their friend sang as they walked down the aisle, and all the people at the pool and on the balconies were watching.

First Dance (Glenna wore an amazing Betsey Johnson dress)

The dress I got at Ann Taylor for $20 down from $160 :)

They changed into matching Nikes that said Bride and Groom with the date on them. 

The reception was at Niki Beach, and it had a movie theme.  Here's the Concession Stand.

Everyone got to pose for the photographer in front of a step and repeat banner with their logo on it (I personally didn't get any good shots, obviously, but here it is.)  

Later in the evening they had fire dancers perform on the beach.

The next day we rented bikes and rode up the boardwalk and then went to dinner at Barton G.  They do insane presentations of all the food, but let's talk about the desserts.  They bring you the menu on iphones, and the desserts start at $38 each.  The couple next to us got the brownie ice cream sundae (that came with sparklers in it) which could easily have fed 20 people.  It was a really nice place but we steered clear of that, the other desserts the size of our heads put together, and the $30 drinks.

Our chicken cordon bleu bites came in a shopping cart.

The check says "THE DAMAGE" which was absolutely titled correctly.

On our final day we were dorks and took a bus tour through Miami. This is the third one we've done now and I think they are really great if you don't have much time in a city and you have no idea what areas to visit.

Holocaust Memorial

 Lil' lizard (on the bark in case you don't see it)

What a cock

Cool tree that has roots grow from the top down and then grow into the earth

Domino players in Little Havana

Speaking of weddings, there were a couple this summer.  I already blogged about Rachel's in VT.  Here are a few other highlights:

Julie looking very old school Hollywood glam while getting ready.

It was so hot in the bridal suite that the attendant had the fan blow up her dress.

Cake toppers of Eric, Julie, and Toby

With Vicki & Sherri (Lauren missed the wedding unfortunately, but fortunately she had a very adorable baby.)

Mom with two gents

Love her dress!!

Then we had rehearsal dinner silliness before Erica's wedding.

Getting ready

Applying the lashes

Right before becoming Mrs. Corvin.

With a very pregnant Erica.

Just us

Jenn's wedding took place in a barn.

The entire estate was gorgeous.

With a ridiculous sunset too.

This is how we do it

The after party took place in the library

Damn, my husband is gorgeous.

By the way, our room at The Hampton Inn had a jacuzzi in the middle of it.  The Hampton Inn, who would have guessed?!?!  (Also we were the only people we knew who had one.)

In other bathroom news, the showers in the rooms at the estate were HUMONGOUS.

 So of course we all got in.

Our second anniversary is actually on Tuesday.  Aaaand, we finally finished our wedding album!  Well, we finalized it but haven't received it yet.  We still need to choose photos for the DVD montage so I'm guessing that will be done by our third anniversary.  Here's a fun photo from our wedding that I don't think I've posted before:

Can't believe I finally posted a blog.  Bed time now.

Blowin' in the Wind

I know that we had to be prepared, but after today's "storm", Irene was the most overhyped Hurricane ever.  On Friday, as I was working my half day from home, I got three phone calls from my dad, and finally decided maybe it was a good idea to go to Associated for some groceries.  But instead of buying water and non-perishables, I thought it was more critical to buy ice cream, yogurt, and swiss cheese (oh and Diet Coke and Sprite Zero.)  The supermarket was like a zoo, you'd think we'd be trapped for weeks the way people were stocking up.  Anyway, they didn't have the chips I wanted, so I dropped the bags off at home and headed back out to Trade Fair.  I did then to decide to buy a 3 liter bottle of water amongst the panic, the chips (though still not the ones I wanted - apparently there is a shortage of Baked Tostitos Scoops during hurricane season), and some more totally unnecessary perishable items.  In the evening, Dave didn't feel so hot so we went to C Town to buy orange juice (we have 3 supermarkets within a 3 block radius in case you were wondering.)  The lines were absolutely insane again so we gave up.

Yesterday morning we were still awaiting the storm, which wasn't coming until the evening now, so we decided to take a walk around 11 am.  Realizing we only had one dinky flashlight, we thought it might be a good idea to see what the local 99 cent stores still had in stock.  We bought some more batteries, water, and lighters (we have about 75 candles thanks to a bag of tealights and the fact that my mother-in-law now works for a candle company), but had no luck finding a battery-powered radio.  After coming home, we did actually realize that our alarm clock takes batteries (duhhh), so we headed back out and bought a 9V.  It had started raining lightly at this point, but the 99 Cent stores all still had long lines of people buying duct tape and saying "I can't believe you don't have any flashlights left??"  The storm was coming in a few hours, I mean really.

We anxiously awaited this pain in the ass by playing Xbox games (ilomilo, The Beatles: Rock Band (I still have to write that out properly), some make-your-own-Bobblehead-that-looks-nothing-like-you game on Kinect labs), Scattergories, cooked, did my nails, tweezed my eyebrows, and watched Party Down.  I also read two magazines from my tremendous pile and finished The Hunger Games (disappointment, sorry peeps.)  It had been raining at a normal level until the middle of the night when I heard it coming down hard. Then this morning it was seriously like nothing?!?  When Dave and I headed out to take a walk around 1:30 pm today, the ground was actually dry!!  We went up to 30th, had brunch (all of the brunch places were open and packed), and walked back.  It's still a bit windy and the sky is gray/grey? but the temperature is pleasant. There were some fallen branches but nothing crazy.  Here are a few photos of the most extensive damage we saw -

Not bad at all

Unless you own this car

I like the effort Duane, you've finally impressed me

I HAD to get Parmesan cheese (we made bolognese and chicken parm this weekend so obviously it was necessary.)  This was the bread aisle in C Town today.

There were leftover Toast R Cakes which I just still can't believe.

Anyway, I guess I should give a shout out to the Earthquake as well. I had my headphones on when that started, so I couldn't hear people discussing anything, and I literally thought the skin on my butt was twitching. After about ten seconds of that I got up and everybody was like "Uh, do you feel that?" I made the smart decision to switch from heels to flip flops, grab my bag, and head to our safety point on the floor. Most of us decided to go down the 80 flights of steps (which I actually did once before when I worked on the 41st floor during the blackout.) Me and my jelly legs got to go home after that, so thank you Earthquake! Why Irene couldn't show up on a weekday, and instead faked us out during my only Fire Island weekend which was totally non-refundable, is still beyond me.

So, I started reading books again, yeah! I also joined a book club in which we just discussed "Gun, With Occasional Music", and I hated it. Next, I'm going to read the book I suggested for the September meeting but lost in the vote which is Rob Sheffield's "Talking to Girls About Duran Duran."  Now that I have finally started using my eReader, I think the thing is absolutely amazing.  And, I took out the latest book out from the Queens library digitally - it simply expires after 21 days and wipes from the device, so easy!!  I also need to read "Super Sad True Love Story" as that's next for the book club, and the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy even though I'm still disappointed by the first.  Where was all this sexual tension I kept hearing about???  Unless it's in books two and three, the Twilight series blows these out of the water.

Pumped Up Kicks

I'm finally trying out Spotify.  I don't understand how it works yet, though it looks fairly straightforward with a purty interface.  So far I've been listening to Ellie Goulding and the whole album has been playing with a few ads.  What's the difference between this and the version you pay for?

I've been stuck in the house all day because of the pouring rain.  One thing I did was trash a garbage bag full of clothes.  Despite having only worn most of these shirts during the 2001-2003 Sutton Place era, they were hard to part with (what if I one day suddenly had the desire to wear them again?)  On the plus side, there is a TON of space in the closet now.

Hey, did you hear that The Stills broke up?  Too bad.

I've been watching more Locked Up Abroads lately as well (best show ever.)  During the commercial break while I was tensely awaiting the Brooklyn teenager's sentence for trying to smuggle heroin out of Colombia, I saw an ad for a show called Break Out. Apparently, its reenactments of jail breaks!!  I am so shocked at how amazing the National Geographic channel is, and I haven't even watched anything about nature yet.

Check out this wack-a-doodle bike I saw in LIC:

A few weeks ago Dave and I went to see Man U at Red Bulls arena. On the first day we got to see their practice which was awesome because it was first come first served and no one was there, so we got to sit in the third row in the middle.  Also, all of the players were out doing their Rockette-like drills and played a mock game.

In case you didn't know, Michael Owen is still as gorgeous as ever.

I took a photo with him back in the day.

Also, here's a quick video of the team walking past the crowd.

The second day they played the MLS All-Stars and I got to see David Beckham do his thing.   Chicharito and Giggs didn't play, nor did Landon Donovan.  I figure for a $90 ticket, I surely am owed approximately a $15 refund.

So, I've got 6 weddings to go to this year.  And that means a lot of connected events.  I'm not posting bachelorette party photos directly on Facebook, so instead I'll post them indirectly on Facebook through my blog.

For Rachel's bachelorette we went to the wineries.  We stayed at her friends' house in Jamesport which had a tennis court, a pool, a ping pong table, a giant Elvis statue(?), and it overlooked the Long Island Sound.  In other words, it was kind of amazing.

We took a limo from winery to winery.

Wine junkies

Go Rachel Go!

Back at the house we decorated penis cookies.  In case you were wondering, there will be more penis cookie decorating, penis-shaped dessert, and penis-destruction to come in this blog post.

Whee!

Hi

I'm all shook up

The next bach party was the following weekend in the Hamptons for Erica.  We stayed in another amazing house for this one.

Every good hen do starts off with a fly swatter fight.

Jackie T. had the biggest shoes I've ever seen.

Yay penis straws!

And penis cake! (Not creamy inside.)

There was also a jacuzzi on the left and the canal behind the pool, plus two outdoor decks and an entire outdoor kitchen.  My back got nice and toasty while laying out (aka bright red and blister-popping good.)

Not sure who that guy is?

Julie's bachelorette was in the city.  We took a striptease class and I'm definitely not posting any photos of that.  Before going out for the night, we destroyed a penis pinata.

Then there was some dancing on the pole action (but not what we learned in the striptease class.)

Speaking of stripping, at the risk of sounding like a grandma, I absolutely cannot believe what girls wear out to clubs these days. On one pole, a girl was thrusting against it like her life depended on it, with some guy ramming his crotch into her from behind (clothed, but still totally unnecessary.) The other pole was much worse - some chick in a skintight black dress was also doing the thrust, with less force but enough so that her dress shifted all the way up to her waist!!  Her friend told her to pull it down, and she barely did, then kept dancing with it up.  Some guy saw me and Vicki hysterical (I'm talking projectile tears flying off our faces from laughing so much), that he stopped me just to say "DO YOU SEE THAT GIRL'S ASS??"  Yes, yes I most certainly did.  When I was going to bars at that age we wore jeans and a tank top and still managed to pull guys while keeping our dignity in tact and our asses covered.  I met Dave in a turtleneck and bellbottoms, I mean are these 2011 non-outfits really a necessity??

Non-hos at da club

Afterwards we got pizza and Julie's sister Erica was taking photos of all of the ingredients, as if it was this new food phenomenon.  The guys who worked there were really confused but it was funny if you were drunk like us.

Glenna's bachelorette party was on a Thursday night and I had work the next day, so naturally I participated in the open bar and flip cup portions of the night.

I probably should have stopped playing after the tenth game or so. 

Her sister had a bag of little goodies for everyone like giant gem rings, rings with doggies on them, and butterfly barrettes.  The next morning I woke up with a full face of make up and all of the accessories on my fingers and hair, plus I was still drunk, so work was awesome that day.

The final bachelorette party of the summer was Jenn's.  This one started off with our car breaking down right as we crossed into Delaware after having driven for 3 hours.  This is us eating KFC in front the gas station while we were trying to figure out a plan for not being stranded in the middle of nowhere.  

We wanted to get 40s to complete the scene but they don't sell beer at gas stations in Delaware (BOO.)

Cheap gas and girls on a rock in the 'ware

Long story short, after about an hour trying to figure out how the hell to get out of New Castle, DE, a random AAA truck showed up and saved the day.  This guy put our car on the flatbed and drove the 5 of us an hour and a half to the house at 1 am which was kind of a miracle.

Then we made penis cookies.

I still don't know why Kristine put the food coloring pen in her mouth but I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was an accident.

The weekend was pretty standard.  A couple of people fell on the floor in the bar, a few puked, one of my friends came home minus her dress (you know who you are), I almost got our asses kicked by another group of girls because of my big drunk mouth, there was one door-slamming-in-the-eye incident thanks to the bouncer, a dance party on the counter with the bachelor party we'd met at the bar (while the bachelorette slept on the couch right in the middle of it), random guys showing up and fighting in our house, and some girls dissing us by saying "What are you, 28??"  Ha, we wish.

On the last day, four of the girls had to go an hour south into Maryland to pick up the now-fixed car.  The rest of us made two trips in the heatwave to the next town over to return all of the bikes we'd rented during the week.  The logistics of the operation forced Ilyssa to sit in a car seat for one of the rides back to the house.

This was Operation Deflate Tubes Before the Psycho Cleaning Woman Comes Back.

By the way, what the hell is this electric slide dance that everyone in the bar was doing?  I was so boggled that I took a video.

Current Music: Beyonce - Best Thing I Never Had