Aug 13, 2008

During the day, Chuck and I went out and played a round of disc golf. I wasn't doing so well at all.

Later I tried to find some vegan ice cream, which is harder than you'd think (or is it?) Once I found some at Haars, I went to share it with Katie. It was actually really good, tasted just like regular ice cream or better. After ice cream, I went to Nate's to check out his amp that I might buy from him. I brought it home to use for a while.

After she finished work, we made some vegan spicy tuna sushi. It's so good. Then we watched a bunch of It's Always Sunny.

Too much tv and sushi makes me tired.

Aug 12, 2008

I met up with Katie, her sister and her cousins in the morning and we headed out in her car. We got giant bagels from Bagel University and then we were on our way to New York.

Once we found a parking garage, we headed into Central Park. We stopped at the Alice in Wonderland Statues.

We enjoyed the nice benches and scenery.

We watched this guy rollerblade in circles while summoning pigeons to land on his hand and eat food.

Then we went to my favorite Central Park overlook of Midtown Manhattan.

Here is a shot without people in it.. I think the other one is better actually. It looks different without the ice skating rink at the base of the hill.

Continuing the postcard tour of New York City, we went by Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall.

We even saw the Naked Cowboy.

And the giant billboard that is Times Square.

Then Katie's cousins finally got to do what they really wanted to: shop at stores that exist in every other city in the country. So we went to H&M... and it started raining before we got out. Katie and I stood with the people under the Old Navy overhang until it calmed down and eventually stopped, then we got some food at a buffet place and got on the subway.

We had gotten tickets to a stand-up comedy show at Stand-Up New York, the club that was used in the intro scenes for Seinfeld.

Being a huge Seinfeld fan, I had to get up on the stage. The place was really cool and small. The drinks were outrageously priced and there was two drink minimum, however. All of the comics and host were really funny. I'm glad we went.

Even better, we had to fill out cards for a raffle to win free shots and I won! They called my name and I won free shots for my whole party! We got our six shots of some kind of vodka (I think) and had them out in the bar before talking to some of the comics that performed and heading out.

We found our way out of the city and headed home after my most tourist-y visit since I was about seventeen, but also my most fun visit.

Aug 11, 2008

Ryan and I went for a walk at Parvin's today after my plans to go to Philly didn't work out. We went over to the course afterward and played by ourselves until Chuck got there. Chuck got his new best game of -2 while Ryan and I were just a bit ahead of him.

The rest of the day was pretty boring and then I went to watch Scrubs and Man vs Wild with Mo. Later, I went out near Laurel Lake and watched the meteor shower. I took a lot of pictures but just couldn't catch one. Some of them were amazing though, streaking across the whole sky!

It was pretty chilly out, but the sky was perfectly clear and even without shootings stars it was a great night to sit out and look at the sky.

Aug 10, 2008

It was a pretty nice day in the early parts, but when I met Ryan at the course to play a game of disc golf, it was raining. We played two holes under the cover of trees to try to wait out the storm, but it just got harder. We went to play Goldeneye at his house and while we were there the sun came out.

Katie and her cousins wanted to go to Atlantic City since they had never been there so we headed to the Tropicana.

Katie played her first slot machine ever and I won thirteen dollars off of the two that I had with me! Not too bad for slots, I never win.

After the slots got boring (i.e. five minutes later,) we went up to the table games and I played the Bonus Hold 'Em game for a little while. I was up for a while, then down and ended up losing, but only fifteen dollars, so it's okay.

Katie played after she sobered up from her alcohol-saturated apple martini that she had at the slot machines. She won a little bit and decided to cash out. It was fun even though I didn't win.

Aug 9, 2008

Today was Katie's birthday, so after I got my hungover-self out of bed and got ready, I picked her up and we headed up the Turnpike to New York. I wasn't feeling well for most of the drive, but once we got close to the city I was feeling remarkably better.

Once we finally found a place to park we noticed a place with bubble tea. It was a challenge to communicate with the Asian woman at the counter, but we ended up getting a fresh mango bubble tea after all.

We hopped on the subway (it sounds graceful, but really it was confusing finding the one we wanted) and headed to midtown.

We went to the NBC store and almost bought a bunch of Heroes or The Office items, but didn't get anything. We went to H&M and each got a new hat, then got a pomegranate smoothie at Jamba Juice.

We sat in Bryant Park for a while, drinking the smoothie and enjoying the perfect weather, wishing we lived in the city. There was a bird enjoying the top of this statue's head also that I thought looked cool.

We continued walking around midtown until it was time to head to the first real birthday destination.

On the way, we stopped at Times Square to blow bubbles..

and do a Hiro "Yattah!" pose. (If you don't watch Heroes, don't try to understand.)

I didn't tell Katie where we were going but it worked out nicely because she suggested we get something to eat as we were headed to this restaurant that I made reservations at.

It's an organic vegan restaurant and she was very happy with the food. I really enjoyed what I got too, especially the mashed potatoes inside half an onion.

We made another stop at Jamba Juice for a strawberry-banana-granola-peanut butter dessert.

The next planned stop was Angels and Kings, Pete Wentz's bar in the Village. It's her 21st birthday, there had to be a bar involved!

It was a nice, small bar. The drinks were a little expensive but definitely tasty. The mixed drinks and shots are named after songs by Fall Out Boy and other artists like: "Nails for Breakfast, Tacks for Snacks" (Panic at the Disco), "Black Mamba" (..the Academy Is), and "XO" (Fall Out Boy).

Katie got a "King of Clubs" first and then we tried the signature drink, named after the bar itself, the "AK-47." It was an awesome drink, I want to make it myself. We also saw a band called Hamilton play acoustic poppy songs that were really good. We watched the next act also, a guy from Buffalo that played solo acoustic things, who was also very good.

We made the long walk to our final stop, the Brooklyn Bridge. We walked halfway across and enjoyed the view for a bit, then headed back to the car.

Katie slept half of the ride home, but she woke up and I gave her the last actual gift I got her.

It was a good and tiring day, time to sleep for a long time.

Aug 8, 2008

I started off today going to get hair dye and then getting my hair dyed black.

Next, we put the bleach in random places.

I liked the way it turned out, so instead of putting the red dye in that I planned on, I just kept it like this.

We didn't have time to go to Philly to skate like we planned, so we went to the library, where I used to skate a long time ago, and Katie tried it out.

I tried it out again too, I can still do a few things, but I have to re-learn.

Katie liked it enough to go over to high street and buy a board. I managed to get us a show in September as well while I was over there.

Later on I met Jess at Sidelines for some drinks.

I ran into Kristy, someone I used to be really good friends with years ago, who tends bar there now. She hooked me up with a drink and we caught up a little bit. Jess' friend bought us a shot, which was probably a bad idea in hindsight.

After Jess left, I hung out with my sister for the rest of the night. I bought us another shot (bad idea number 2, if you're counting) and we had a few more beers.

When I decided to leave, I wasn't feeling very well. I walked home (luckily the bar is only several blocks from my house) and proceeded to relive some of the drinks I just had. After a while I finally went to bed, somehow remembering to take a picture of myself.