Beantown

Went to Boston for the weekend. As much as I was looking forward to getting out of the city and being in new surroundings, once we got there, I already started to feel the itch of wanting to be back in New York. I can't really explain what it is but other cities just don't seem real to me; it's like they're movie sets. Not even real, I think the word is authentic. And it's weird because Boston might be as authentic as you can get with things being from the 1600s. I also have this errie feeling of being stranded without New York's extensive subway. But anyway, me, Anne, and Desirea took the Chinatown bus ($30 round trip!!!) on Friday afternoon and got to Boston around eight. We met up with Jenille, who was in town for a med school interview, at the hotel in Boston's South End.

We were hungry, of course, so we went in search of some food on foot. There were a bunch of cute places to choose from and after putting our names down for one, we went to a bar for some pre-drinks. When we walked in, the bartender gave us a funny, confused look. I just figured it was early in the night and he didn't normally see four Asian girls in his bar. Turns out I was half right. Turns out we were at a gay bar. The rainbow poster on the wall tipped me off as well as the black and white, life size posters of half-naked cowboys!!! It was awesome though because Anne, Des, and Jenille got wasted after one drink. The gays know how to party! I played it safe with my Amstel lite. HAHA.

We had dinner at a place down the street called POPS. The hostess was hella nice (and drunk) and pretty much made us order drinks while we waited for our table. Later, when we got the check, she had nicely "forgotten" to put those drinks on the bill.


Anne ordered the oyster po boy but got served a shrimp one. At least it came with French fries!

Des ordered the short ribs special. Hella yums/hella salty. Same difference.

Jenille and her scallops.

Me and my Kobe meatloaf. I've never had meatloaf before and I think this was a good intro to it. Later on in the night though, I had some bad gas although I think that was because I ate Doritos/Oreos/Reese's peanut butter cups/Cheetos/Gummi Bears on the bus. Yeah I'm gross.

Afterwards we met up with JenDesAnne's friends Shawn and Giri at the Pour House. I've never felt so old in a bar before. I've also never been surrounded by so many attractive, nicely dressed white kids. Oh Boston! Our group definitely diversified the crowd although I did spot an Asian guy in the corner who had some nice dance moves. The Pour House was fun though because they played Journey, Keisha Cole, Justin and some other fun stuff. It's never a bad night when I can yell/sing "Just a small time girl, living in a lonely world...."

Last call was before 1:15 and they actually TURNED THE LIGHTS ON and asked us to leave. I'm never been politely asked to leave a bar before. So we left and went next door. HAHA. Somehow we managed to hang out/dilly dally and not get back to the hotel until 3am.

Next morning woke up early for free Continental breakfast. Dee-lish. Then me and Anne took the T (Boston's bus and subway) to Cambridge to check out Harvard. They were still in the middle of intersession so there weren't many students around.

Library we couldn't go inside of.

Cute chapel (?).

I felt my IQ go up a few points just walking around.

After, we found Newbury Comics where Lisa Loeb had performed a few days earlier (that's for another post) and then ate some clam chowder at the Boston Chowda Co. I honestly can't say "chowda" without thinking of the Simpsons episode where there's an angry French chef who keeps saying "chow-deer". Anyway, this was really good stuff.

Met up with Des and Jenille at Boston Common. There was a big mountain of snow.

Jenille and her festive earmuffs.

Anne said to hurry up because her butt was getting cold.

Beacon Hill houses nearby.

Me and a beacon (of) light.

It's cute, no?

And no, Boston is not this foggy. Just my gimp camera.

The requisite Ninanne pose.

Boston has a lot of pointy squire churches.

HOOCHIE MAMA! Me and Jenille's festive earmuffs. I'm not sure why me screaming "hoochie mama" didn't catch on that weekend. People don't know a good catch phrase when they hear one.

Beacon Hill is filled with nice houses and Volvos.

A slight hill.

I liked this red beacon.

Nice view of Frog Pond in Boston Common.

One of my favorite Boston things, the Freedom Trail. It's the walk that Paul Revere did that night to warn everyone about the British and you can follow it all over Boston's North End.

Des was hogging the freedom so I pushed her outta the way.

Some building on our way to Faneuil Hall.

The Faneuil Hall area is this place where tourists can come and look at shops. The area also has a lot of bars and restaurants.

I liked this alley way.

AnneJenDes in front of Paul Revere's house. It really looks like they're waiting for him.

Too bad it was closed because it sorta made it anti-climactic. I'm not sure what I was expecting but it was still cool to see it.

Paul Revere statue over yonder.

Boston really is America's walking city because after Paul Revere's house we walked and walked and walked in search of the wharfs and even though we could see the water we didn't see anything like Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. Or maybe we just didn't find it, though God knows we tried our best.

Exhausted and freezing from walking so much we stopped to eat at The Salty Dog near Faneuil Hall. My second cup of chowda for the day.

Shared a plate of oysters. Yummers. I could probably eat a dozen on my own.

Next was our round of fried stuff. Catfish and oysters.

Shrimp and calamari.

Ending with some Boston cream pie.

I had been having a problem with my contact lens all day so I called it a night and went back to the hotel, watched Pretty Woman, and fell asleep at 11. The others stumbled back in at 4 after a night of Celtic bands, pool, and Korean food.

We all woke up to a blanket of snow thanks to a Nor'easter storm, scarfed down our last round of free eggs and sausages, and headed to the airport/bus station.

Glad I met you Boston.

Zombie no more

I've been on my sick bed since Tuesday when I left work early, came home, and guzzled some Tylenol. I didn't start feeling better until Friday afternoon and after this three day weekend, I won't have been at work for six days. That's even longer than my Xmas break. Being sick was sucky because even though I was home, I wasn't in any shape to enjoy it by watching tv or reading. Sleeping, which is another of my great pastimes was also hard to do because my whole body ached. Anyway, I'm back to my old self and just spent seven hours at a bar watching football. The Giants are going to the Super Bowl!!!!!!

I also recently discovered Mark Ronson and my new favorite song is Valerie. Is it lame to link to his myspace? I wish Amy Winehouse would take care of herself. What a crazy mess she is.

Mini British Invasion

It started of course with BBC's The Office, followed by The Ricky Gervais Show podcasts, and most recently with Extras. I just finished watching the Xmas special and bits of it were just so, so, so sad (Maggie) and so, so, so, so funny (Darren and Barry). I guess that was more of a Ricky Gervais invasion. Now I'm looking at flights to London, moving there (although that requires a work permit, visas, and hassle), borrowing The Kinks cds from the library, reading the Daily Mail, the Guardian, the Telegraph and trying to incorporate British slang into my everyday speech (that's mental, loads, winge, bloke, bollocks, wanker, loo, queue, havin' a go). . .

When did Katie Holmes get smokin hot?
It kinda makes up for Tom getting Will Smith to convert, not really. . .

Project Limelight or "ninanne's attempt to write a script and become rich and famous" is at a standstill. Last week it was all I could think about. I even went to the library and checked out a bunch of screenwriting books. The whole process of standing there while they zap your books and tap away at the computer is really uncomfortable because I can't help but think that they are secretly judging me. Like "Who does she think she is trying to write a script" or when I was mildly interested in Buddhism for two weeks they probably thought "Hmmm, so all Asians are Buddhists". . .

Poor Hillary. She can't seem to do anything right. I'm pretty torn between her and Obama, probably like most people but thanks to Wes and this survey, I'm now supporting Dennis Kucinich! He's as left and crazy as I am!!!! Even more surprising is that, according to the survey, I am more for Clinton and Edwards than Obama but I think that's only because Obama doesn't have a stance on some issues.

Asti + Douchbags + Congee = Super Funny NYE

Scroll down if you just wanna see pics.....

The thing I've noticed is that I have a tendency to overlook major details. It's only in hindsight do I realize how obvious my mistakes are, but I guess that's true for everybody. Anyway, the NYE plan was to watch the ball drop from Rachel's office in the ESPN building, which is right smack in the middle of Times Square. Rachel planned everything and got us passes and it was agreed that we would get there early because the crowds outside would be extraordinarily ridiculous. I dropped by Rachel's after work to pick up my pass and told her I'd meet her at ESPN by 8. I decided not to go at the same time as her, Anne, and Sue Jean (at 7) because I wanted to go home and rest a bit before the long night. That was mistake number one.

I left my apartment around 7:30 (or maybe it was closer to 7:45), and took the W to Times Square. I was really proud of myself because I had scoped out the closest subway exit to the ESPN building which would allow me to avoid fighting through the crowd. God forbid I end up on the wrong side of Times Square and not be allowed to cross over (which happened when I was at the West Village Halloween Parade and when I tried to go to the Rockefeller tree lighting). So what went wrong? The police decided to block my prized exit and instead were ushering everyone onto 41st and 7th. This was not good. I made it to the street and stared over at 6th Ave. It may as well have been California. It was miles away and blocked by police fences. I asked an officer where I would be allowed to cross over to 6th and he said I would have to go up to 48th. Ok, that wasn't so bad. So I walked to 8th Ave and headed north with the crowd. Got to 48th and that was blocked. I asked another officer and he said I could either go to 60th or 33rd and try there. I asked him why other people were allowed to pass through and he said it was because they were staying at the hotel. Bollocks.

My mood at this point was panicky to say the least. All I could think about was how I would be stuck in a crowd, alone on NYE, because of my own sheer stupidity. But I didn't have any other options so I continued walking. When I got to 58th I found a gigantic mob of people not moving. Somehow I managed to duck under a fence, ignoring the police, cross the street and land in the free zone that was 59th/Columbus Circle. At this point, I texted Anne to find out where she was and she of course was safely inside the ESPN building. I think I must have been walking for half an hour. SO. Now I was at 59th but still two avenues away from 6th Ave and still 16 blocks from there to 43rd. Seriously, I must have had pure NYE adrenaline coursing through my veins. It was a good thing I was alone actually because I really didn't need anyone's negativity besides my own, bringing me down.

I made it to 6th Ave and down to 44th before I was stopped again by police fences. I approached another officer (by now I must have had a really crazed look in my eyes) and showed him my pass to the ESPN building and he let me walk through. Two officers carrying rifles nodded at me and I nodded back. I made it to the corner of 43rd and 6th and it only took me an hour and about 5 miles of walking. (Note: I also had the genius idea to wear jeans under my party dress and sneakers. See, I do think things through.) I joined the somewhat large group of people outside the building doors and when the guard opened the door, I smiled, waved my pass, and walked through. Once inside there was another line for security and I pretty much stayed where I was thus cutting in line and called Anne to come get me. SIGH. I'm an idiot.

If anyone's interested, Anne and them got to ESPN without a hitch because 1) they left earlier than me and 2) they walked north from Rachel's apartment at 31st and just went east.

It's too bad I can't draw a map of what I did. Just imagine one gigantic, unnecessary rectangle.


The ball at the corner of 43rd and 6th.

We crashed the offices on the 32nd floor because they had an eye level view of the ball.

SUE JEAN (prior postings ID as Su Jin) and Stefanie.

Pros now.

The dreamy quality is unintentional.

The ball.

Revelers.

Rachel making her way over.

LOLRachel

10, 9, 8 . . .

7, 6, 5 . . .

4, 3 . . .

2 . . .

1 !!!!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!!!

Whooo-hoooooo!!!!!!

Woot.

I love that everyone had to check the ball drop asap.

Confetti.

Some building across the way with a pretty clock. That might actually be the original NY Times building.

Again, the surreality (word?) is unintentional.

That's Stefanie laughing at Sue Jean getting super pissy at Brandon who will forever be known as "Douchebag-I-Want-To-Rip-Off-His-Balls-Because-He's-A-Douchbag-
That-Licks-His-Own-Balls-And-I-Just-Want-To-Twist-Off-
His-Testicles" Brandon.

You can't make that stuff up people.

2008!

Soooooooo, afterwards we wandered down to Chinatown for some grub but why the hell was everything closed at 2am? It's New Year's people!

But we did stumble upon a place and ate congee (just a funny name for rice porridge), turnip cakes, wonton soup, dumplings, and shrimp fried rice.

A confused Tusky greeted me when I finally made it back home pooped and exhausted. No cab so I walked!

Not bad.

Here's to a great 08!