Joy

I had a yucky laundry day today.  Went to my laundromat and there was only one big washer available, so against my good judgement, and on the suggestion of the nice little old laundryman, I threw all the clothes into it.  And when they came out, my favorite capri’s were stained with lovely blue blotches, along with most other things white or light.  Turned out that the last minute fling of one of Eric’s India shirts into the washer was a bad, bad choice.  Then I trucked it all the way over to Trader Joe’s, and then Whole Foods, in the rain, to get some happy hippie bleach.  Which didn’t work.  So now I am soaking it in a bucket, in my house.  Which probably won’t work either.  But at least I tried.

I spent ten days in San Luis recently, and did a load of yardwork while I was there.  The garden apparently is starting to sprout, and only a third of the plants that I have been planted have been decimated by gophers and deer.  I am sure there will be more causalities before the summer is over.  Apparently an 18 inch tomato plant disappeared completely down a gopher hold a couple of days ago.  I look forward to more animal catastrophe stories down the road.  On my way back across the US, I landed in Phoenix, Arizona, and was lucky enough to get to visit with my friends Robert and Jenny, who had beautiful 8-day-old baby Noah James Holden as the newest resident of their home.  I got to spend the night and it was really wonderful.  Noah was a sweetie and they seem like they are going to be great parents.  He was very slim with long, long legs and arms.  And a thick mop of black hair.  What a cutie!   I think I told him he was cute about a million times, and I hope it didn’t go to his head.

After I landed in JFK, and found my luggage, I headed back to our apartment, and got to work cleaning and putting away my stuff in preparation for our housewarming party.  I made a number of appetizers and drinks, and it took a couple days to get the place ready for our guests.  We also had Noah and Jenny (not the same people from above, but a friend of Eric’s from college, and his wife) over for the weekend, which was exciting.  They did some tourist stuff during the day while Eric and I whipped up the snacks, and then hung out on Sunday as well.  We had a really nice weekend, and the party seemed like a success.  I came down with a nasty cold on the evening of the party, and it just got worse on Sunday.  That sucked.  I am still stuffy and coughing, although not as badly.  Certainly not back to normal yet though.

I have been preparing for my upcoming job as “Nature Specialist” for a summer camp program here in the area, and I am having a blast.  The program planning part is fun, and I have gotten to place some cool science and nature supply orders.  I think I am going to get some kind of reptile pet for the Nature Center at camp.  I have not decided what exactly yet.  Being sick has slowed me down in the getting prepared for work department, but I think that I will have a great program come next week.  Sunday will be a pre-camp workday out at the campground, and I have a feeling it will echo my days of lots of outdoor garden work in SLO.  There is supposedly a garden near my Nature Center, and I am looking forward to the campers planting lots of tasty veggie starts in it.  I am hoping to find something that is going to have a short growing time so the kids can see it through harvest.

Speaking of harvest, we signed up to be a member of Stanton Street Settlement’s Community Supported Agriculture program.  The CSA runs mid-June through November, and is partnered with Farmer Tom of Windflower Farm.  Each week Tom drives to NYC and drops off a load of veggies, eggs, fruit (and flowers for people who signed up for that - not us though).  The members of the CSA show up and pick up their load of goodies.  This week I got 4 stalks of rhubarb, a quart of strawberries, bok choy, turnips and greens, scallions, lettuce, French breakfast radishes & a dozen farm fresh eggs.   The produce changes by the week, depending on what he’s harvesting, and it is fabulous.  I’m really excited to be involved with something that supports local, organic growers.  Since we’ve been here in New York, we’ve managed to buy almost all produce locally, thanks to the CSA and Farmer’s Greenmarket in Union Square.  I have to admit, it’s nice to see the word ‘California’ over and over again in TJ’s and Whole Foods, but it’s NOT nice to think of the thousands of miles each berry or lettuce traveled to get out here.  It was a long drive, and a lot of fuel is used.  So, I’m aiming to support local and organic as much as possible, which thus far, has been good feeling and tasting.

About six minutes ago the room became suddenly dark.  I thought for a minute that I had lost track of time, and the sun had set.  When I peeked out the window however, I noticed that the sky was a strange yellow-gray color.  It reminded me of a bruise.  I thought that I would give the A/C a break, so I switched it off and opened most of the windows.  It admittedly felt a bit like rain, but there hadn’t been a problem with it coming in the last few times there was a thunderstorm and I had them open, so I figured I was safe.  After spending less than two minutes in the bathroom, I exited to find quite a lot of water pouring out of the sky.  And into our apartment.  The wind was somehow blowing in lots of raindrops on both sides of our place.  I dashed about and shut the windows, but not before the floor, the curtains, the cable modem, and the windowsills were totally soaked.  I couldn’t believe how much water came in over such a short time.  I am really thankful that I didn’t open the windows and leave the house!  My clothes even got wet, because I was in the middle of packing my suitcase, and had left the drawer open.  Of course, water had made it into there as well!  Anyhow, I am realizing that I need to rethink weather, as it certainly isn’t like California!

Speaking of weather, it is getting hot here, and I am trying to adjust!  It’s over 80 degrees Fahrenheit inside most mornings when we wake up, and I am looking forward to getting an air conditioner for the bedroom.  We bought one off Craig’s List last month, and installed it in the living room this week.  It makes it much nicer in here, but it wouldn’t be very cost effective to run it all night to cool the whole house.  I think we’ll try getting one for the bedroom soon.  Eric apparently likes the hot weather and waking up to what I consider a temperature that’s only appropriate for being on the beach, but I think he’ll adjust to keeping it a little below 80 indoors.

I generally write this blog for me, as I realize that not very many people read it. Or at least that is what I get from the lack of comments. Which is fine. Because, really, I’m not writing it for you. I do get lots of comments, as many as 10 a day, and those are spam. Which is not fine, because I don’t like spam. So, it wasn’t much of a surprise this morning when I found what looked to be more spam in the blog inbox. However, after reading it, and looking closer, I have come to the conclusion that it was actually a real comment from someone named Nancy over at Dell. In my last post I had complained that my wireless card was busted, and apparently Nancy had somehow read that and written this comment to me:

Joy,

Dell routinely visits online communities to reach out to our customers.  In doing
so, we have identified you as a customer with an outstanding issue.  We would like
to help resolve any remaining customer care or technical support concerns you may
have.  Can you please provide us with your name, email or a phone number so that we
may contact you directly?

Nancy
Dell Inc.
Executive Services
Austin

And I have to admit, when I first realized that this was not spam, and that it was an actual person from a company whose product I use contacting me, I was scared. I’m sure that’s not what she was going for, but it made me seriously concerned about what steps Dell would take against my blog if I had totally slandered them. Bashed their product and complained on a long running rant about how they sucked. I didn’t do that though, and I don’t currently plan to. But I want to know that I can do that. I’m sure she genuinely wanted to help me out with my problem, which could be a good thing I suppose. But her asking for my name, email and phone number made me even more scared! Didn’t someone (other than your parents because they weren’t as web-savvy as you were at 12 years old) tell you not to give out your personal info over the Internet? Well, I knew that was a bad idea from day one, and the thought that someone from Dell asking for my personal info is weird. Wouldn’t it be strange if your phone rang one day and your kid had given out your phone number to a company rep, and they called to discuss your teenager’s discontent with their product? I realize that I am overreacting, but the idea of Dell having watchers out there is mildly disturbing. Funny thing is that it isn’t my laptop that’s busted, it’s my shitty Microsoft wireless card which I purchased aftermarket. So really, it’s not Dell’s problem. And I’m sure that someone from Dell will be reading this shortly. I’m sure I should thank them for their concern, but it’s just too weird.

So, the Internet isn’t up and running at my apartment yet.  Somehow yesterday the cable guy managed to hook up HBO apparently, even though we obviously do not have a television.  Anyhow, I am using Eric’s iBook to get online.  The wireless card in my Dell laptop is somewhat busted, and decides to quit functioning at random, and often.  I am hoping that the whole internet ordeal will be done and over with very soon.

On a happy note, I had a lovely evening hanging out with Ellie and Dan.  She and I went to the Master of Fine Arts Final Show at Hunter College.  The show was cool, and there was a lot of very interesting art that was presented.  Some of the exhibits which stood out to me included a collection of very vivid paintings which incorporated both matte and glossy finishes that reminded me of batik fabric, and a series of photographs of houses which all had the same street number, 631.  I feel like I am at a period in my thinking about art which is unique.  On one hand, I realize that art is very subjective, and each person is free to appreciate and dislike whichever work of art they choose, but also I am currently intrigued by how each work is created, even if it is not something that I would want to look at every day at home.  I guess I am just in a sensitive period for viewing art, and possibly creating something as well.  I’ve got a few ideas for some projects floating around in my head, and living somewhere that has such a variety of different artistic viewpoints is encouraging.  I have not before realized that each individual is totally capable of creating something which could be called “art” and that most people are not in touch with that concept either.  Anyhow, the show was fun, and I look forward to seeing how Ellie enjoys the MFA program there, because she was accepted (yay!!) and will be attending in the fall.  After the show, we headed back to my place and had Tarragon Lentil Soup, which was quite tasty.  It was a pretty simple recipe, and I will definitely be keeping it in the recipe box.

After they headed home, I decided to look up information about finding a recycling center here in Manhattan.  There is a curbside recycling program, which I am glad to have, but they only accept two types of plastics, which we don’t use too many of, so I thought I would research another recycling facility that might take all the yogurt tubs and empty cottage cheese containers that we make each month.  Actually, what headed me in that direction in the first place was a link on Amazon.com’s page which outlined my recent purchases (I’m waiting on my new yogurt maker which I picked up in an attempt to save money and make less plastic waste) that talked about the recycle-ability of all of their packing materials.  I ended up finding a website about NYC GreenMaps, which has cool eco-friendly sites around the city listed on it.  I am looking forward to picking a hardcopy up at tomorrow’s Union Square Green Market, as the digital copy is really hard to navigate on the laptop.  Also I found a number of places that are willing to take my food scraps and turn them into compost!  Which I think is about the most exciting thing ever!  I totally can’t compost in our apartment, and I really am sad about tossing all those goodies away (I used to sneak them into the green waste bin in OC, as they could have been garden trimmings, they were just grown at someone else’s organic garden).  So, I toss all the trimmings in the freezer into a container, which cuts down on messy household trash sitting around, and then I drop it by one of the sites around town.  I am really glad to have learned about this, and I know it will be a good place to learn about other green ideas and eco-friendly things to do.

Today might be an exciting day! The installer for our cable Internet service should be coming sometime in the next three and a half hours. We’ve been using a neighbor’s unsecured wireless connection, but it is really flakey, and Eric has wanted to do a lot of large downloads, but didn’t want to jack all the guy’s bandwidth, so he’s been waiting for New York Connect/Time Warner to get ours installed. It’s taken almost three weeks since I started the process to get the installer over, and the woman at Time Warner is only in her office three hours a day, doesn’t have voicemail, doesn’t return messages left with the receptionist and just sucks. I hope soon it will all be over, and we won’t have to deal with them again for a long, long time. It’s funny because all the reviews that I read before choosing NY Connect lauded them over Time Warner, but for cable Internet service, they are only the middleman, so you wind up dealing with Time Warner anyway. The nice thing about NY Connect is that it is month-to-month; there are no yearly contracts with a high fee associated with quitting. That’s cool. I hope that their connectivity is good, but considering we’ve been using someone else’s Internet which hasn’t been good at all, I’m sure my standards have been adequately adjusted.

Yesterday, Jason and I hung out and saw “Thanks For Smoking” at the AMC 20-something down near Times Square. The movie was funny, and the best part was getting to walk out on their terrace, which had some cool views of New York. We headed back to Jason’s apartment where we went up to the deck on the 45^th floor, which was surprisingly open! It has great views of the Empire State Building, the Chelsea Piers, Statue of Liberty in the distance, and the most interesting Port Authority building and bus parking area. The busses snaked into the Port Authority in a huge way, and for every bus that disappeared into the underground bus station, another would appear from around a corner to take its place. It was neat watching the daily pulse of the city going on below. I’m glad we hung out there for a while. We went back down to Jason’s apartment and were inspired by watching some FoodTV, and headed over to my apartment to cook up some dinner. After a stop by Trader Joe’s (both grocery and wine) we thought we were prepared to whip up a masterpiece in the kitchen of Chicken with Tarragon Wine Sauce. Only, I realized that since I never cook meat at my house and that it is not programmed into my brain to even pass the meat section in a grocery store that I had neglected to buy any. So, we stopped into this cool little grocery store nearby my apartment and picked up the chicken. Then it was off for some cooking and really nice wine. I thought the meal turned out pretty good, but I thought the wine with dinner was great. We split a bottle of Bonny Doon 2003 Big House Red. I advise picking it up, even though the screw cap makes it look a little cheap. Apparently (and understandably) the screw cap is a better way to store wine in the long run. Anyhow, I will probably be grabbing a couple bottles of it when I head back by TJ’s next time.

In other news this week, Eric is in Houston doing some onsite work. I am planning on baking cookies at some point (need to buy a cookie sheet), going to Ikea one last time to get some pillows (which I can’t find anywhere else for as cheap), doing the rest of the laundry (since I couldn’t haul it to the Laundromat in one go) and finishing organizing the house. Our place is looking pretty good so far. We need a bookshelf, but after my last Ikea run with Jason, I am sure as hell not attempting to drag something of that proportion home alone.

We had decided to hit Ikea on Jason’s day off last week, which was Tuesday. Catching the New Jersey Transit bus which headed out to Elizabeth from New York involved us sprinting through Port Authority, but we made it just in time. We cruised through a wonderfully empty Ikea, a refreshing change from my prior visit which has included far too many harried shoppers and their kids. Jason picked up two rugs, some kitchen items, coat hangers, and other goodies, and I grabbed a small computer desk and a large cutting board. We paid and relaxed in the café while we waited for the bus, and then close to the time we needed to depart, we headed out to the parking lot. Unfortunately the shopping cart wasn’t allowed out into the parking lot, which sucked! We hauled our purchases towards the bus stop, and by the time we got there I thought I was going to die. My arms looked great though, as the desk and cutting board weighed about fifty pounds, and I had just carried them a long way. Thankfully, Jason and I switched loads after arriving back in New York, and he hauled the heavy stuff back to his apartment. I seriously wouldn’t have made it without his help. I didn’t realize that it’s about a block underground from stepping off the bus to the building exit, where I could have gotten a cab. The delivery charge from Ikea is $109, which would have made the cost of my desk $128.99. I thought that dragging it home made more sense. Jason pointed out that I probably couldn’t have gotten a desk on Manhattan for much less, so I am glad that it worked out in the end. We were wiped out after getting to his place, and left my boxes downstairs at the reception while we headed upstairs for some beers. Thankfully after Eric met us for dinner, we hailed a cab, and dropped the stuff into the trunk, which was really nice.

I finally have something to sit on in our apartment!  After a frustrating week, I have correctly assembled our couch.  Well, actually, it is a futon, but it lives in the living room, and is made for sitting on mostly.  On Saturday, Ellie and Dan, who moved from LA to New York last year, came to help us unload the car.  Eric and I had taken the bus from NYC to New Jersey on Friday night, and gotten up early Saturday to avoid the crazy zoo that our street becomes around lunchtime.  With Dan and Ellie’s help all of the stuff made it into the fifth floor apartment in record time.  Then we had a nice lunch, and dropped Dan and Ellie off at a swap meet, and left for New Jersey again.  Eric and I spent the rest of the day shopping at Ikea, where we basically picked up a houseful of furnishings.  It all fit into the Matrix, and there was even some room left!  Then we headed back to Grandpa and Georgia’s place, where we met up with Shelly, and had a nice dinner at a local BBQ restaurant.

The next morning it was off to New York again, to drop off all of our new goodies.  Aaron met us at our apartment, and he and Eric and I dragged the Ikea stuff up the stairs.  At this point, the apartment looked like a trash truck had exploded inside, as most of the stuff that had come from California had leaked out of its packages in the car over the last few months, so I scraped it all up and shoved it into trash bags.  We had a nice brunch with Aaron, and learned that New York is still living in the dark ages as far as alcohol laws go, so we got gypped out of having free mimosas with our meal, as it wasn’t yet noon!  Apparently this doesn’t really matter to any New Yorker, as they never get up before noon on Sunday anyhow.  After dropping the car off in New Jersey, we took a bus back to NYC and began the process of setting up our new furniture.  Hours later, the bed was still unassembled, and we realized that we were going to have to order a few new parts, since the ones that came with it were defective.  We got cleaned up and went out to dinner with some of Eric’s friends from work at a neat German place that had tasty beer.  After returning from dinner, we messed with the bed some more, but determined it to be a dud.  We flopped our new mattress down on the ground and went to sleep.

On Monday I attempted to assemble our new kitchen cart (which will be residing in the living room due to the lack of room in the kitchen) but met with failure, as I couldn’t crank the screws into the wood.  I met up with Eric for lunch, and found a Home Depot, which was awesome.  It was the snazziest one I have ever seen, complete with doormen wearing fancy suits and escalators.  I did some shopping there, and hauled my new drill (yay!) and ironing board home on the subway.  I had to charge the drill, so I couldn’t finish putting the cart together, which was a bummer.  I met up with Eric and some friends from work at an Indian restaurant and we had dinner which was okay, but not great.  We wound up getting back to the apartment pretty late, so there was no chance to finish putting anything else together.

Finally I succeeded in assembling the first piece of furniture sometime on Tuesday!  It required use of my foot, a hammer, and a drill, none of which were listed on the product instructions.  They helped though, and after lots of cursing at the item, and taking it apart twice, it finally was correct.  I spoke with the landlord’s helper, Russell, and he told me that The Super was going to be coming back to our apartment to refinish the floors (again), so I needed to move all of the stuff off of the floor.  Well, I had reported the problem right after moving in, and Russell had called The Super and told him to deal with the sticky floors, but the guy never did.  At some point he came back to our place and left some dirty rags lying around, but it didn’t help.  I was a bit pissed about the floors, as I had mentioned it before we had moved in any of our furniture, and now it was up to me to move all the stuff into the bedroom.  Needless to say, it was a lot of work.  I managed to clear out the hall and living room completely, which was great, so I would be ready for The Super to arrive at 9am.  Eric and I went out to dinner with my good friend Jason, who I met while I was on London Study.  Jason moved out to the New York area after he graduated a couple of years ago, and when he found out that we’d moved out this way too, he called me up.  We ate at this cool place called Vynl, which is has a record/music/rock theme.  It was fun to hang out with Jason, and I am looking forward to having a friend here in the city.  After dinner we checked out Jason’s apartment in Hell’s Kitchen, where he lives with his sister Heather, who we got to meet.  His room is SO cool!  It is completely surrounded by a wall windows that look out over some water and lots of neat sky-scrapers, as well as the Chinese Embassy (or something or other) which is very communist-looking.  After saying goodbye, Eric and I headed home, dropping into bed after another late night.

Yesterday I woke up early in order to finish moving the last few things out of the way so The Super could do a great job refinishing the floors.  I didn’t want to start putting any of our furniture together, because he was supposed to arrive at 9am.  The hours passed, and finally at 11:30am, I received a call from Russell which said that The Super was running late and would be there around noon.  I realized that he was late already, and waited until he showed up at 12:25pm.  The Super didn’t actually do any of the work on the floors, I don’t think, as he brought along some other guy and ordered him to mop the floors (using MY bucket and MY dish soap).  I was supposed to get out, so I took the laundry soap and the dirty clothes in a backpack and headed to Brooklyn to fetch the rest from Aaron’s house.  After stealing his spare suitcase, I managed to get all the clothes to the Laundromat, where I washed and dried them.  Then I shoved them into their containers, and hauled them back to Manhattan, where I then lugged them up the stairs to our apartment.  The floor was done, from the looks of things, but they had polyurethaned a number of my hairs into the floor.  It looked pretty gross, but I suppose there is nothing to be done about it.  I even left the broom out so The Super could sweep it again.  Seriously, I could have done a far better job myself.  Eric arrived home from work rather late (which seems to be the way of things here in NYC) and we walked in the drizzle to a Cuban place I had read about.  Unfortunately we couldn’t find the place, and after asking around and walking for a few blocks, we gave up and headed towards home.  We wound up having dinner at this little Middle Eastern place which was pretty good.  We split Syrian Meatballs, and rice, and Greek Salad.  Overall it was tasty.  Then we walked home in the rain.

Today I am working on getting the house to look like a house, before I haul the bed out into the living room so The Super can come back and refinish the floor in the bedroom.  I have just assembled the couch and am enjoying sitting on it while typing this.  We have a few more things from Ikea that need to be set up, and then it should be great!  Later this afternoon I am going to meet up with Eric and join him for his doctor’s appointment in El Barrio/Harlem.  He has seen this doctor once before here, but it isn’t a good fit.  The office is way uptown from his work, and the doctor is only in office two days a week, four hours a day, so getting an appointment sucks, and the options are too limited.  Also the doctor, who seems nice enough, is really old-school and by the book in his diabetes care, which isn’t really good for Eric either.  So, sometime after today, I am going to try and find a doctor who is closer to Eric’s work and who is a little more updated in his approach.  Or, as someone else put it, a doctor who will agree with what Eric wants to do.  Finding a doctor seems like a bit of work, and I am glad for now that we found someone who can write a prescription and read the blood-work results.  I still have not heard back about the job at the summer camp, but I am hoping it is because my references are a bit difficult to get a hold of.  I am looking forward to doing a Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods shopping trip in the near future, and stocking up on stuff to eat!  It has been a bummer to not have food in the house, and I miss cooking.  I have been trying to get the kitchen cleaned and organized, so soon I will be back on the dinner party circuit.  I am already thinking about a little housewarming something in the near future.  Should be fun…

I picked up the keys for our new place on Tuesday evening, but couldn’t go in until Wednesday morning.  So, I stopped by Target on my way to our new place, to pick up some cleaning supplies which I thought would probably be needed.  After wrestling with the numerous locks on our door, I finally made my way inside.  It was pretty exciting!  There was our new apartment, looking even bigger than before, and it was all ours!  When we checked it out the first time, it was full of the old tenant’s stuff, as he had not moved out yet.  I took a look around, and realized that I had forgotten to buy a bucket at Target, so I climbed back down the stairs and headed to the hardware store.  Once I returned, I got to work cleaning the drawers, which were full of nasty contact paper.  I took a break for lunch and met up with Heather’s sister, Tina and her fiancé Andre, and their friend Dana.  After a nice breakfast, I had them over to check out our new place.  Our first visitors and we’d only been in the place for two hours!  Afterwards, we took a long walk around the neighborhood and surrounding area, where I found our first piece of furniture in a trash pile.  It was a small bedside table, and after cleaning it up, it looked pretty good.  Especially for free.  There is so much cool stuff to be found on the street around here.  I seriously could have furnished our apartment if I had the means to drag it home.  Anyhow, Eric and I are planning on picking up the car in New Jersey on Saturday and driving into the city to unload our stuff then.  And we might make a trip to the closest Ikea to see if we can find some nice as-is merchandise.

I scheduled two interviews in Manhattan for two totally different companies.  The first interview was for a nanny agency.  I arrived a little early, dressed in my new grown-up trousers which I had bought the day before, and my ugly loafers which I had picked up earlier that morning.  I was prepared with my resume, references, and a copy of my transcripts.  I filled out the (redundant) application, which I think I had already filled out online, and was escorted into the office.  After the owner of the nanny firm looked over my resume, she expressed some feelings that parents who are nanny shopping are looking for babysitting experience, and that they wouldn’t take my experience which I had gained through earning a degree in Child Development at a program whose motto was “Learn By Doing” as enough.  So, that was deflating, somewhat.  But overall it made me wonder if I should hope to work for someone who doesn’t think a college educated child care specialist is better than a babysitter.  After hanging out in front of the library and doing some errands, I headed to up-town to where my interview with the second place was, and had some lunch while I waited.  I met with the director of the camp programs at this non-profit, and it was great!  He was very friendly and encouraging about my experience and degree.  I felt like it was a really good fit, and that I could do a great job as their nature instructor at their day camp program.  According to the director, there was no reason he wouldn’t offer me the position if my references checked out, so now I am waiting for the phone call.  The position is only through the summer, but it is nice, because it will give me a bit of time to get settled before I start in June, and then I will be able to spend time with our visitors who are due in September and October.  So, the interviews were pretty funny to have had on the same day, but it was nice to know that my education is worth a little.  After typing that I realized that it makes it seem like I might be looking in the wrong field.  I will have to consider this.

Eric, Aaron, and I went to a bar in the East Village to watch a short film called Banner of Your Best Interest.  Corey, a friend from work, had written and directed the short and the actors and film and sound crew were all there too.  It was an interesting storyline, and I thought it came out great.  There were some ‘extras’ that Corey had put onto the DVD, and they were fun to see.  Some of the behind-the-scenes stuff was hilarious, and seeing how they had created the effects was neat.  We talked with a few of the people who were there for the screening, and had some drinks.  We went to a new restaurant for dinner, which was having a half-price special.  It was Asian-fusion food, and it was pretty tasty and creatively presented.  The owner checked in with us and showed me how to eat the dish that I had ordered, which was good, because I had no idea.  I can’t remember the name of the restaurant or the dish that I ordered.  I will have to keep better track of the places we go.  I find that often we’ve passed somewhere that looked cool, but that I could never find my way back there again.

Eric and I went to the Taste of Chinatown.  We took the subway in from Brooklyn and (after a few wrong turns) made our way over to Mott Street.  There were dozens and dozens of restaurants which had set up tables out on the sidewalk.  They offered small plates of their delicacies for one or two dollars.  We tasted lo mien, fried rice, noodles of various descriptions, egg rolls, and other items.  Some were pretty good, others were just cheap, but overall it was great.  We found a lovely Chinese bakery that had a number of delicious buns and rolls for under a dollar.  I am planning on going back there for treats sometime.  The coconut bun was great.  It had a nice brown egg glaze on the outside, and was still warm.  The inside was a tender egg pastry with coconut paste filling in the center.  I bought a cheap umbrella, and we hid under it as the rain started to come down.  Then we headed back to Brooklyn.