Day 3: 5 Boroughs in 3 Days

Julie, Dan and I took the Staten Island Ferry. All the tourists were crowding on one side of the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty so we decided to move to the sunny side.

Once we landed in SI, we sought a vintage clothing store that Julie heard of. I bought a hat, a bandanna, and some super hippie dress that makes me look like a virgin that's standing in a meadow with a horse. It was an impulse buy.

Then we got Indian food for lunch on curry row. I had some super delicious chicken tikka masala, mmm!

Then we took the tram to Roosevelt Island. Dan thinks it's a creepy island in an old prison sort of way. But it's just some industrial turned residential area with weird generic stores.

We headed back for a nap and then decided on dinner and a movie. This time we ate at Flor de Mayo, which serves Peruvian and Chinese cuisine. I had the best pina colada and shrimp ceviche. Dan got this roasted chicken and fried plantains that were quite delicious. Then we headed to the movie theatre to see The Namesake, which made me cry. I'll write a review on it later.

Then we headed back and played a blank map game until it got late. I half snoozed until 5:30 the next morning to catch an early train back home.

The Guide:
Every Thing Goes - Staten Island
Spice Cove - Manhattan
Flor de Mayo - Manhattan
Paris Theatre - Manhattan

Day 2: 5 Boroughs in 3 Days

I read somewhere that this is the last season Coney Island will be open before they close for major renovations. Dan thought it was sad that they would try to change the creepiness factor to something modern and yet still creepy.

So we took the subway all the way to Coney Island and looked for a pizza place called Totonno's on Julie's recommendation. Let me just tell you, it's the best fucking pizza I've had. We hadn't eaten a whole pie since college and we did it again. Pepperoni, sausage and mushrooms. Best fucking pizza, seriously.

Then we walked on the boardwalk and then got a Nathan's hot dog. I felt gluttonous. After we had enough of Coney Island, we hopped the subway to Prospect Park and Park Slope. Then we ended up on the Promenade that faced Manhattan and considered the long walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. I couldn't do it. It was too long and my feet started to hurt.

Before we made our way back to Manhattan, Dan suggested stopping at Jacques Torres' chocolate shop. We ogled the plentiful choices and each picked 4 truffles to try.
If you ever get a chance, you've got to try his chocolates!

We had plenty of time to kill before we met up with more friends for bowling, so we spotted some cute puppies in a window, got massages, and got chocolate chip cookie sandwiches.

The Guide:
Totonno's - Brooklyn
Nathan's - Brooklyn
Jacques Torres - Brooklyn
Bowlmor - Manhattan

Day 1: 5 Boroughs in 3 Days

I met Dan at Penn Station at 3:30 and we headed back to his apartment to drop off my bags. We made a list of places to visit during my stay and then grabbed dinner and a movie. We saw "Avenue Montaigne", a cute little French movie that sort of broke my heart. I'll do a full review later on that. And then we stopped for dinner at Cafetasia, which is some hip Thai restaurant with communal seating.

Dan notes that cafeteria-style seating is becoming the fashion in the newest eateries and I agree that it's definitely cool. They had electric candles hanging from the ceiling that looked like the dining hall in the Harry Potter movies. And we had an oil candle at our table that looked like it could have set my hair on fire. I ordered the pad thai, which I swear was refilling itself from the bottom. After eyeing down the dessert the next table ordered, we ordered our own fried mango ice cream in a flaming sauce. And yes, I'm responsible for giving Dan that taste of alcohol he hasn't had in over a year. Whoops, my bad.

The Guide:
Quad Cinema - Manhattan
Cafetasia - Manhattan

Fitness for Skinny People

Some people would think that skinny people don't have a reason to exercise or watch their diets. This is simply ridiculous. Skinny people huff and puff after climbing 5 flights of stairs. I should know. I guess I'm a typical skinny girl. You know the type- skinny all my life, never had to exercise, ate whatever the hell I wanted. In high school I weighed around 97 lbs. In college, I never got the "freshman 15", pigged out at all hours of the day, and still weighed around 97 lbs.

It wasn't until after I got out of college that I gained some weight. A few winters ago, someone told me that I looked healthier (I got up to about 117 lbs). I guess I looked unhealthily skinny back then (I couldn't donate blood for being underweight). But then I realized something. I might have looked healthier, but the fact was that I didn't feel healthier. In fact, I felt bloated all the time.

So now I'm on this health kick, working out regularly and wrangling in my eating habits (although I refuse to eat anything labeled fat free or go on those restrictive diets). I've even experienced that high I keep hearing about and it makes me want to work out more.

I started looking for articles online about fitness for skinny people like me, but wouldn't you guess...there aren't very many. So I guess I'm going to somehow become some role model for other skinny people who work out/exercise/diet, but can't stand the hissing stares from other women who think I'm being pretentious.

Mongolian Blue Spot

I was reading about some kid in Georgia that wrote a book with his mom about birthmarks. He has a port wine stain on his face.

Minutes later I found myself looking up my own birthmark online. Here's what I found:

- It's called a Mongolian Blue Spot.
- It's very common among East Asians. In fact, around 90% of infants get one.
- They typically disappear by age 13 (although that's not the case for me).
- Normally found on the lower back and bottom.

I kinda think it's cool.

This Day in History

Today marks the anniversary of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Incident. I wasn't even one year old and my dad tells me he whisked me away to another state (I think New York) to protect me from whatever it was that was a threat.

It surprises me how close the nuclear plant is to home. On clear days, you can see it from the South Bridge (I think. Can someone verify that for me?). It was only 7 years later that the Chernobyl meltdown occurs that we can only imagine what could have been.

Here is a link I came across several years ago that a woman posted online that documents her trip through Chernobyl in present day. Nothing has been disturbed since the population evacuated. A sort-of time capsule of how people lived there at the time. It's interesting to note that this woman took her trip by motorcycle and took special equipment to warn her of radiation exposure.

Ghost Town- Chernobyl Pictures

The End of Snowboarding Season

Yesterday was our last attempt at snowboarding for the season. Too bad we drove all the way up there to find it exceptionally crowded on the warm and sunny day and too much for Joe to handle. We decided to go to the country club and ride down the hills of the groomed fairways.

The idea of sliding down the hill just to turn around and hike it back up the long hill wasn't exciting for me, but I agreed just because I knew that's what Joe preferred. It started out quite difficult because the snow was so powdery that I kept cutting underneath it and slowing down. Then I would take off my board and look up the hill I would have to climb just to do it all over again.

We were even joined by Joe's dad who also was having trouble with the soft snow. But in the end, it was a grueling workout. And I had a small victory jumping off a ramp Joe made in the middle of the hill. That ramp made the whole thing worth it.

Movie Review: The DaVinci Code

I know the saying goes that the movie is never as good as the book. But standing alone, this movie was pretty good. I would probably see it again actually. But that's just me, I'm just into suspense/mystery type movies. And this is so full of international intrigue and religious reference, you can't avoid getting involved.

Plus, the main character's name is Sophie. You can't go wrong. (wink wink)

4 eggrolls out of 5

I Want to Be Stereotyped. I Want to Be Classified.

Today starts March Madness, an annual excuse to gamble with your co-workers. Well, today the branch on the first floor was hosting a March Madness event with food and games and so on. They had a kiddie basketball hoop set up and you could basically play a heavily modified version of Horse for prizes.

The one guy that works in the branch actually said to me, "I bet you're good at volleyball, aren't you?"

Say what?!?!?!

Look people, this may come as a surprise to you but I'm horrible at volleyball. I learned that in grade school gym class. And while I'm at it, I also don't play ping pong or play the violin. Yes, I do know how to use a pair of chopsticks but come on people! Give me a break.

You Can't Make This Stuff Up, Except We Just Did

Last night, over buffalo wings, I asked Joe if he heard that they were going to shoot Stephen Hawking (my personal hero) into space next month. He nodded yes, he had heard something of that sort.

He wondered what gave Stephen Hawking the privilege to go into space over someone like Lance Bass (duh, he's a freaking genius physicist) and whether that would make him the first handicapped person in space. I didn't know the answer to that, but before I could say anything the conversation took a hilarious turn. Here's sort of how it went...

Joe: What if they shoot him into space and he miraculously comes back cured? Not only does he become cured, but then he comes back with, like, one giant arm. And one regular arm.

Me: If he came back cured.... I don't even know, man. That would be crazy.

Joe: They'll start sending all kinds of parapalegics into space.

Me: (laughing at the idea)

Joe: Then they'll go and get... Christopher Reeve, and shoot him into space.

Me: And he'll come back cured. And he'll actually be Superman! Wow!

Joe: No. He'll come back dead, Sophie. Space doesn't cure death. But he could come back as a zombie Superman. And he'll turn all the cured parapalegics into zombies too. Then we'd have a problem.

Me: Seriously, you need to write this down. This would be a great movie.

Cute Band Alert

I'm totally freaking out about this band I stumbled on at MySpace. I know this is going to sound dorky, but the songs are really cool and creepy and like nothing else I've ever heard. I swear, see for yourself. I like The Greatest Show Unearthed the best, but I have to respect the references to Edward Gorey (who I really like).

CREATURE FEATURE

My Dream Came True

Back in November, I wrote a short open letter to Brangelina asking them to adopt again. Turns out, Angelina has just filed for adoption!

Here is my original blog post:
Dear Brangelina

Playlist

Here is a sample of what's on my playlist when I run on the treadmill.

Renegade Cavalcade- Ash
London Calling- The Clash
Rock Me Amadeus- Falco
Amber- 311
The Adventure- Angels & Airwaves
Something to Talk About- Badly Drawn Boy
No Rain- Blind Melon
Can't Stand Me Now- The Libertines
Steady As She Goes- The Raconteurs
Here's Where the Story Ends- The Sundays

Ubiquity

Have you noticed how popular MySpace has become? People are not only giving away their web address but also their MySpace address now. It's almost out of control.

"Log onto mycrazycat.com or myspace.com/mycrazycat"

It's so far reaching that I'm wondering where the limit is with this.

Why Your Netflix Queue is Exactly the Same as My Netflix Queue

Netflix is cool. I like the convenience and what not, but what's really interesting is that renting movies has become a social thing somewhat like MySpace. I'm linked to 2 of my friends' Netflix queues and I can see what they're watching and send recommendations (or warnings) on certain movies and whatever. It's actually sort of voyeuristic. If there was actually porn on someone's queue, that would be embarrassing. "Hey, how was the movie last night. Wink wink nudge nudge."

Sometimes I feel like I need to overhaul my whole queue so that in the odd case someone looks at my queue, I'd just seem a little cooler. But screw it, right? I really do want to watch Weird Al Yankovic's video collection.

I log on one day and find that someone else put that same video collection in his queue!!! Hey wait a second, he just stole my rental pick! And then I realize that a lot of the videos in my waiting list are also on other people's list. Is that why we're friends? Because we have the same taste in video rentals? Or is this the new strategy for choosing movies, stealing from other people's list?

Zero Gravity Sex? Really?

I caught myself actually wondering about how this would work. And then I laughed. And then I think I might have blushed.

Here's what started it: Do Astronauts Have Sex?

Guilty Pleasure Revealed!

Last weekend, Joe put 2 and 2 together and figured out that I bought the 30 Seconds to Mars CD because of Jared Leto.

Yeah ok, I admit it. I think Jared Leto is pretty dreamy and I'm willing to give his band a listen. It's not the best thing in the world but it isn't too bad either.

A.I. Artifical Intelligence vs. I, Robot

Ok, I realize I'm comparing Stanley Kubrick to Isaac Asimov. But I put them right after another on my Netflix queue and now I feel like I have to compare them.

I think it's interesting that anyone would try to debate whether or not robots should be given human qualities. I think it defeats the purpose of what a robot is. But in any case, that's what these 2 movies did.

In A.I., the question is whether to make a boy robot real (a la Pinocchio) in order for him to feel love. He waits through ages, wishing on a blue fairy, to become a real boy so he can go back home and be loved by his mother. And then in I, Robot the question is whether we should give robots free will (meaning the ability to break from the 3 Laws and kill). I guess A.I. was suppose to be really touching, but I think it came off the wrong way. For me, I don't see the point in building robots to be humans. That's what we have cloning for.

I guess what I'm saying is, robots should be robots. I think I pick I, Robot as the better movie. Plus, I really think Jude Law is a doofus.

The Importance of Black History Month

Me: Hey, why haven't we gotten Black History emails yet??

Dana: Yeah, February is Black History Month! Carol, did we eliminate the Diversity Department?

Carol: Don't you know? The Diversity Offices waits until after the month is over before they send emails.

Dana: Oh yeah. Duh, Sophie.

Me: Oh yeah, duh. Sorry folks, I'll wait until March before I ask about Black History.

My Love/ Hate Relationship with Dairy Products

I'm pretty confident that I'm not lactose intolerant. But when I get the belly aches, I blame it on my lactose intolerance.