weekend thoughts

This weekend has been weird. It started with fellowship applications, and ended with Daniel Radcliffe’s naked body.

Weird.

What happened between those two “extremes” was pleasant. I cooked for Adam and Ryan on Saturday night (a healthy chicken stir-fry with chocolate pecan pie for dessert) and we all were reasonably drunk by the time they left. On the plus side, my dinner turned out well and I think I’m finally starting to enjoy wine. I think Michael Pollan would be happy with the way my stir-fry was prepared (not so much the chocolate pecan pie…) :)

Earlier that day, I went shopping for cleaning supplies for my apartment and a few other odds and ends (from the Container Store). I kinda hate dealing with Saturday shoppers so my Saturday shopping didn’t last very long.

This afternoon, I saw Equus. Overall, I think I liked the play. It was my first time seeing a non-musical. It was a fairly dark story: “Harry Potter” plays a troubled 17-year-old who worships a horse (Equus), and it consumes his life. Most of the play takes place in a psychiatrist’s office, where the doctor is trying to get to the root of Harry’s problem (background: Harry had just recently blinded 6 horses, forcing his parents to send him to a psychiatrist). At the same time, the doctor is struggling with his own personal life issues. Essentially, both main characters are hot messes.

Then there’s the infamous sex scene between Harry Potter and his “love interest”. I’m not gonna lie – seeing Harry Potter naked was super weird. Obviously, I was unable to get the whole “Harry Potter” image out of my mind throughout the play (his character’s name is actually Alan Strang), so that screwed with me a bit. On the whole, I think Daniel did a really good job in that role. It reminded me of Harry Potter in Book 7 – angry at  everyone and everything.

So – who should see Equus? Anyone who:

a) loves Harry Potter

b) loves Harry Potter/Daniel Radcliffe so much they want to see him naked

c) likes dark, quasi-twisted stories

d) has $31 and a free Sunday afternoon (and lives in the NYC area)

e) is a fan of Richard Griffiths or Peter Shaffer

FYI: I fall under options a and d, and sorta c.

what’s for dinner?

Trying to figure out where to eat dinner tonight was sheer madness. I have no idea why it’s so difficult for 40 adults to decide on what they want for dinner… Geez.

There were 40 of us in the lobby of the hotel around 7pm – and no one knew where to go. And there were no ideas. Clearly, all 40 of us couldn’t all go together, so we first had to break into factions.

That took forever. Everyone had to see who was eating with who, and which fellow was going to where. And so on…

Then, the vegetarians wanted to break off into their own thing. Wtf, vegetarians? I had to put my foot down on that one because I wanted to hang out with them without having to not eat meat. I don’t have anything against vegetarians, I just didn’t believe they should segregate themselves (“I’m all for integration – it’s the new frontier” – name that movie). Anyway, they were trying to find an all-veggie restaurant.

That faction never formed.

Fifteen minutes later, we were down to 20-something people. The final options were Thai or Indian cuisine.

Thai or Indian. Thai or Indian. Thai or Indian… I didn’t care, so I just decided I was gonna follow the group of people I liked the best.

Five minutes later, the entire group left together for Thai. Twenty people going to a restaurant without a reservation? That’s every waiter’s nightmare… but we didn’t care.

We roamed the streets for about 10 minutes until the people in the front of the group decided only 12 of us could actually fit in the restaurant (They claimed it was a small restaurant). “Fine,” I thought, and I started walking back towards another area of restaurants. I was over the “being a follower” thing. I made a decision and other people made it with me. It was cold as hell outside (or cold as ice), but we found a pair of nice looking restaurants. Of course, one restaurant was Thai cuisine and the other was Indian.

I just went for Indian (along with 6 others). End of story.

deva in the city – day 1

Last night was pretty miserable after my uncle, Adam and Ryan left. I just sat around in the mess that was my room and read articles in my google reader. My new bed stayed in its boxes, as did my new dresser. Last night, I didn’t do a damn thing that resembled “unpacking”.

Today was different. Today was super productive.

Sleeping on the sofa bed is something I’ll hopefully never do again. That might be the most uncomfortable surface I’ve ever slept on – and getting out of bed this morning was super painful. I HAD to build the bed today.

I also had to get some food. My days of constantly eating out are finally over. I have my own refridgerator with my own food. I left the apartment around 12:30pm and set out to Trader Joe’s for some inexpensive food shopping. Sadly (this was expected, of course), I encountered one of my biggest pet peeves – crowds of rude people. Trader Joe’s is almost always crowded and I had to fight a billion people in order to get most of what I needed. I would probably spend a lot more money in that store if there weren’t so many effing people around. And If I could’ve postponed that trip to another day (a weekday morning), believe me, I would have – but I needed food.

ANYWAY, I got some food. I made it home by 6 and it was pitch black outside (almost). I sometimes hate daylight savings. So yeah, I ate a quick dinner then starting my bed-building project. I’m not gonna lie – I was a little nervous about putting the bed together by myself, but once I got the headboard and the footboard attached, the rest was easy. Eventually, it all came together:

Tomorrow’s fun project will be dresser-building. I almost started it tonight, but I decided that I had enough productivity for one day.

I’m super excited about going to sleep tonight because tomorrow morning will be my first 40 minute commute to work! Hooray for sleeping until 8am!

a taste of my childhood

Throughout my 3rd grade year I had a couple of daily rituals involving food:

In the morning, I went to a shabby convenience store close to my school – P.S. 145 – where I bought exactly 10 “sour powers” (aka. sour straws). It was the breakfast of champions…

And after school, while walking home/to my grandma’s school, I’d stop at one of these Papaya places and get a papaya drink. I really loved those drinks.

yum

Today, during my daily mid-day walk, I went to Gray’s Papaya and got one of those awesome drinks. It was super tasty… and I experienced a brief moment of nostalgia (3rd grade was my favorite year of grade school). No, that’s not the same location I went to back in the day, but it’s close enough.

No thanks, McDonald’s

This is a McDonald’s Southern Style Chicken Sandwich… and it’s completely lame.

Never in a million years will I find 2 pickles and a piece of deep fried chicken between a stale-looking hamburger bun appetizing. Ewww.

But have you seen the ridiculous commercials? I mean, I know most McDonald’s commercials feature Blacks and Hispanics and play into almost every stereotype, but I almost threw up when I saw the commercial with the 2 Black women talking about “Grandma’s Fried Chicken”…

Wtf. No.

I wanted to violently punch whoever thought that commercial was a good marketing idea. NOT EVERY BLACK PERSON ENJOYS FRIED CHICKEN. And the Black people who do enjoy fried chicken on a regular basis are not going to McDonalds for that nasty sandwich (I hope).

This just about sums up how I’m feeling:

This series of advertisements for the Southern Style Chicken Sandwich has served as another reminder to me that when it comes to selling products to the public, people of color are still horribly misrepresented. – LaShonna McBride, The Easterner – June 4, 2008

I will spend my life fighting these stupid stereotypes…

*** Side note: As a Black woman who enjoys her grandma’s fried chicken (maybe once a year), I bet that crap McDonald’s sandwich doesn’t even come close in deliciousness to my Grandma’s awesome chicken.