New in Town

Ana visited New York (and me) these past two weeks for the first time. She mostly did sightseeing during the day while I was at work, and we did a bunch of random things at night and on the weekends. Like...

Checking out High Line Park - the new park on the old elevated train tracks on the west side which spans about 10 blocks. They still have train tracks laid throughout the park and tons of places to sit while you can look down over the various side streets (12th to 20th I believe.)

View above 10th Avenue... View of the spot where Ana was just standing... More views from the Chelsea end...We walked around the seaport...Ana playing tourist...We went to the BBQ-fest in Madison Square Park. Free Snapple and Pop Chips! Some random dude (on the left) took this photo. Too funny not to post... Even better... Ana's ankles were swollen from the flight. We didn't have a proper icepack so Meghan filled up a cleaning glove instead...Had to teach her beer pong...Went for Indian food at one of the tacky restaurants on 1st ave...Squished ourselves into the Love sign in Midtown...I got stuck in the E...At Better Than Ezra...Too pooped to write about the show, will save that for another post.Heather rented out a karaoke room at iBop for her 30th birthday... Graham with the ladies... Travis with the ladies...We went to Citi Field. It rained (of course.)During the rain time out...The Mets lost (of course.)Went to Banshee with Rachel and Robyn and had the worst pub quiz MC ever!! I knew the answer to "Who was the Prime Minister before Tony Blair?" Shows that I did learn something from living in London for a year and a half.We went to Crocodile Lounge for the free pizza (of course.)Then we took photos with monsters on the Lower East Side...I finally saw one of our postings for the game, yay!Yummmm crepes...We checked out wedding invitations and flowers, then went to the diner with my mom. Ana loves the diner, who could have doubted that she wouldn't?We got her obsessed with Pinkberry (and Red Mango, and Berrywild...)The stupidest thing I have ever seen - a massive line around the block for an American Apparel sample sale. Ummm are you kidding me? Maybe I'm even dumber for taking a picture of this. @$^$%# hipsters.I walked over the Brooklyn Bridge for the first time...Random stoop posing in Brooklyn Heights...Sculpture thing... More sculpture thing...And finally, more jumping photos (I was unsuccessful in getting any mid-air shots.)Time to leave Brooklyn, hooray!

Put 'em All Together and What Do You Get...HOOOOT DOG

Saturday night we saw The Bangles at BB Kings. Antigone Rising opened. To put it simply, they were awful. They ended with a cover of 'Midnight Rider' though which was a bit redeeming. Lucky save.

I am not kidding, The Bangles rocked it. They played most of their classics (did you know that Prince wrote Manic Monday?) opening with my favorite, their cover of 'Hazy Shade of Winter.' 'In Your Room' was most excellent and I got excited when they played 'Watching the Sky', a song I used to love but forgot about. I had to do some research the next day just to see how old they are and it turns out that Susanna Hoffs is 50! FIFTY!!! Cute does not begin to describe this girl. I mean, she was always cute, making the eyes at the crowd and in videos and everything, but still looks like she's 25, it's amazing!

Sistas

Hottest 50 year old I've ever seen September Girls

I didn't want to film this one but I was running out of chances, so here's 'Walk Like an Egyptian'

I went a little hot dog crazy this weekend. Friday night we went out on the LES for $3 happy hour (I didn't even know that still existed) with a stop at Katz's in between. That was hot dog #1 plus a knish for luck. On Saturday I went to RK Bridal with Heather and Liz and under the latter's influence, went to Gray's Papaya (which I should mention I NEVER frequent.) That was hot dog #2. On Sunday, after The Bangles, we went to Rudy's. Those were free so I had hot dogs #s 3 and 4. Yesterday was a BBQ where I had to have one simply out of principle, but there were none! I had a sausage instead. I also had grilled haloumi for the first time ever. Hi, umm why did no one ever tell me to eat this cheese before? It was like heaven in my mouth.

I'm finally catching up on the first episode of The Bachelorette. They upped it to 30 guys from 25 and there isn't even a single cute one! Men must produce this show - are they kidding me with this selection?!

On Saturday I went for sushi in Forest Hills with peeps and on the way to the restaurant with Heather, a woman came out onto the street with her dog. I put my foot in my mouth and just blurted "That is a WEIRD looking dog!" I tried to cover it up with "I mean it's so different looking, I've never seen a dog like that before," asked the offended woman what the type was, didn't understand what she said and then complimented it's hair/fur because I didn't know how else to save myself all while being distracted by the dog. I told my dad about it because I couldn't get over how weird looking it was. So this morning I find this email from my dad in my inbox:

Subject: ugly dog !!

Meredith, I think the dog you saw was probably a Bedlington Terrier( looks like a lamb) . The other breed may be a Miniature Bull Terrier , big head like a torpedo !! Look at them on Google, tell me if I am correct.
Dad

That made me laugh the whole way to work! Retired people are too funny. Anyway, I'm pretty sure it was a Bedlington Terrier. The one I saw was a golden blonde/brown but here's an image from one I found on Google:

Somebody missed the evolution boat...

So, a bomb exploded 3 blocks from my apartment. Nothing new for me. Next blog I'm going to give a rundown of how trouble precedes or directly follows me everywhere I go.

The White To Your Left, The Red To Your Right

On Friday night I walked almost 80 blocks after work just to avoid going back to the apartment. When I got home Meghan had started cleaning and I joined in (we were on such a mission that we didn't even cook dinner till after midnight.) As I was sitting eating unevenly (high stool eating off a low table to avoid the critters) Meghan found the source - ready for it? Breadcrumbs baby! Eggs, ants, and all. No bites since then but we've caught a few strays. Hopefully that's the end of it and I can stop having random conversations with people at the gym who approach me asking about my bites.

For Liz's 30th birthday we took a limo out to the wineries in Long Island. You may have known this from the book of face photos already.

Big Pimpin' Multicolored light action On the way to Lawngisland Birthday Stuffs Some Asti Spumanti Dance Party: Begin Liz, Graham, Andy, Me , MeghanSoda before the storm Winery #1 Line-Up Serious tasting Winery #2 It was cold, they gave us blankets More wine seriousness Followed by frollicking Pizza breakPoland Spring PosseWinery #3 where I discovered that Port is DISGUSTING Poseurs Winery #4 Riesling Damien and Erica came tooThis is how we act after 4 wineries Happy birthday Liz Cake cuttin' When Erica misbehaves Oi Obligatory choking photoIndie club in the limoContinued dance party back at the apt

Totally blah on the ride home

Yesterday was brunch-a-licious. Blockheads unlimited mimosas + too many tortilla chips = good Sunday. Some of the group went off to karaoke (yes at 3 in the afternoon.) Not quite sure if the bar actually allowed them to sing but I'm assuming so since I didn't hear otherwise.

Today I was illin' due to sinus awfulness all through the night. I alternated checking emails with watching the Grey's Anatomy season finally (OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE IT), Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, and 4 Prison Breaks. Still on the list to watch: 2 Prison Breaks, 2 One Tree Hills, 2 Desperate Housewives, the Lost finale, and The Bachelorette. Last night I only watched 4 hours of Survivor. Not quite sure what I'm going to do with myself after the shows all end this week (except twiddle my thumbs until Big Brother starts.) Hello loser central.