A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Here is a sampling of some of the random things that I have encountered on my way back and forth to work in the last few weeks:

- I have been nearly run over by a taxi (twice) and other regular passenger vehicles (too many times to count).

- Saw a very proper woman, seated primly with erect posture on a scooter buzzing up Broadway – not so unusual except she was wearing a fairly formal gown. And an equestrian hat as a helmet.

- P Diddy (just once) and P Diddy’s Maybach (at least once every two weeks or so).

- Dead cockroaches on the street (better than live ones, I guess).

- Many rats roaming around, especially in the construction zone in front of my building (and they are FAR from dead).

- Saw Rupert from the Hello Deli.

- A guy unzipping to pee against a building in broad daylight. Buddy, you are NOT a Golden Retriever out for a walk.

- And some poor deluded soul actually asked me for my autograph one morning.

Turning Japonais, I Really Think So

I admit it, I'm feeling a little fuzzy today. I really didn't have that much to drink last night, but I didn't arrive back at my apartment until about 4:30 am, and then for some unfathomable reason, I woke up at precisely 7:30 am. Ugh. Are you KIDDING me? I did manage to fall back to sleep for another hour and a half or so, but I mean, come on -- just over four hours of sleep doesn't cut it.

Yesterday was a sort of fun serendipitous kind of day. It turned out that both PJ and friends Josh and Robin were going to be in New York (from SoCal) on the same weekend. PJ was here to meet a friend for a Rage Against the Machine concert tonight and Josh and Robin were each here for separate business trips and decided to extend those commitments into a bit of a vacation.

After PJ and I visited Niketown to buy him some new runners and grabbed a drink and a snack at favourite Irish pub, McGee's, we all met up for dinner at Japonais, down in Gramercy. Japonais has a very cool, urban vibe and was jammed full of NY hipsters -- and for good reason... aside from the great ambiance, the foold was incredible. We ordered "the Rock", an appetizer where you cook your own thinly sliced pieces of beef on a scalding rock (there's a really similar dish at Megu), and an array of rolls, sushi and sashimi. My roll (the "Tuna Tuna Salmon roll") was so good on its own that I barely even needed soy sauce.

After dinner, Robin hooked us up with bottle service at Duvet. If any of you remember an episode from "Sex & the City" where the fabulous four go out to a club called "Bed", then you know exactly what Duvet looks like because apparently that's where that particular episode of "Sex" was filmed.

There are literally beds arranged around the dance floor, complete with crisp white sheets, tons of comfy pillows and the suggestion of curtains at each corner as if it were a showroom of four post canopy beds. Apparently bottle service for a bed starts at $1200. Yikes.

We danced a little, but mostly we got such a kick out of watching the goings-on. Groups of (generally) girls who were in full-on party mode at 1:00 am, were dropping like flies by the time 3:00 and 3:30 rolled around. It was interesting to watch the progression as fatigue set in and effects of alcohol (and goodness knows what else) wore off. One girl popped right out of her dress on the dance floor -- too bad she had her back to her dance partner at the time, he missed the whole thing! (I'm sure he got to see MUCH more than that, however, as the night evolved!)

The craziest thing about Duvet though was the bathrooms. There's a single unisex bathroom. Think "Ally McBeal", but with bass-heavy custom-spun DJ tunes pumping through the vents, a large black bouncer-looking man handing out paper towels after you wash your hands and a giant circular stainless steel sink in the middle of the room with mutiple faucets and soap dispensers. (Sort of a combination of that one bathroom in the Harry Potter movies and a barnyard trough. Seriously, I kinda felt like a cow, mosying up to the farm water trough.)

But the most disconcerting thing about the bathrooms was that the doors of the stalls were made with one-way glass, so even though you know no one can see in (after all, you couldn't see in when you were outside waiting your turn), once you're in a stall, you can't help but feel like everyone at the giant sink is watching you do what comes naturally. Maybe the more you drink, the less you care?

A Little to the Left, Please

Before last week, here's something I'd never done at work before: get a massage.

Well, on Friday, I was able to check that off the list. Our building has a gorgeous, state-of-the-art fitness center (with views of Central Park, thank you very much) and they also offer massage services.

I woke up last Sunday morning with something pinched in my upper back and as the week wore on, it was not working itself out. Oda reminded me that the gym offers massage services and so I successfully managed to get an appointment at lunchtime on Friday.

Can I just say that we should all get massages EVERY day at work??

Betsy, my massage therapist, listened intently as I described the pain in my back and then immediately said, "You work on a computer all day, you're right-handed, you cradle the phone between your ear and your shoulder when you talk and you carry your [too heavy] handbag on your right side." Wow, impressive.

Betsy set to work on my back, neck and shoulders and by the end of my 50-minute session, I felt amazing. I have a feeling Betsy may be seeing a lot more of me.

Oh Those Summer Nights

New York is hopping all summer long. There are all the regular things you can do all year round (like the theatre, concerts etc), but summer brings with it a whole layer of free (and usually outdoor) cultural events that are just there for the taking... and enjoying.

There are concerts on various stages in Central Park, free movies in Bryant Park and at a couple of piers along the Hudson, the Good Morning America concert series, the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival... the list goes on and on.

Nick, Reny, Cassandra and I planned to meet up last Wednesday night in Central Park at the Naumburg Bandshell. This is the 102nd anniversary season of free Naumburg Orchestral Concerts and on Wednesday night, they were featuring the Brooklyn Philharmonic.

Unfortunately, we misjudged our timing and by the time we all converged on the Bandshell and found each other, the concert was practically over. It's a beautiful venue for an outdoor concert, however, and we're definitely planning on returning (earlier next time!).

To make the most of the evening that was left, we wandered over to the Sheep Meadow Cafe and wiled away a couple of hours with to-die-for desserts, great conversation and laughs, and a satisfying sense of having successfully stolen some precious peaceful moments in the park on a perfectly still summer night, with the city's constant buzz seeming miles and miles away.

Good for the Soul, Hard on the Soles

No doubt about it, New York is hard on shoes.

I walk back and forth to work most days and I also put on a bunch of miles on the weekends, cruising around the city by foot.

The results (so far):

-- three pairs of worn out soles (including the cute little ballet flats I just bought at the beginning of summer)

-- two broken heels (and counting, I'm sure)

-- a few blisters on various toes

-- scuffed toes and heels from broken concrete and pavement on the sidewalks and streets

-- salt stains from slogging through snow drifts in the winter

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but it hardly seems worth it to invest in shoes in this city because they get trashed so easily.

(Don't worry -- I'm sure I will have recovered to my full shoe-shopping self by the time the weekend rolls around.)

A Yankee Virgin No More

Yesterday, I completed an important rite of passage as a new New Yorker -- I made the pilgrimage on the D train out to the Bronx for my very first live Yankees game (the Tampa Bay Devil Rays were in town). Heidi, Mike and I met at Columbus Circle, hopped on the train and met up with Jake and Ron in front of Stan's, right across from Yankee Stadium. After loading up with hotdogs, pretzels, beer and sodas, we climbed up to our seats (top tier, along the first base line) and settled in for what turned out to be a pretty good game. The Yankees redeemed themselves from a 14 - 4 loss the night before and pulled out a 7 -3 win, including a pretty exciting home run from Shelley Duncan, a rookie in his second ever major league game.

Even though we didn't get there early enough to visit Monument Park, we could see it from our seats -- it's located behind the outfield fence and contains monuments of former Yankee greats (think Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio) and dedications to all the Yankee retired uniform numbers. Now that I know you can visit right before a game, I'll go earlier next time, armed with my trusty camera.

After the game, we decided to wait out the subway rush and we popped into the Ball Park Sports Bar & Grill -- it's a bar, souvenir shop and a bowling alley all wrapped into one. Yes, a bowling alley. For a fleeting moment, we considered going bowling, but with a scrunched nose, I declined since I didn't have any socks and there was NO way I was about to jam my bare feet into random bowling shoes with goodness knows WHAT having been in them previously. Ever the gentleman, Jake offered to loan me his socks, but for obvious reasons, that wasn't a much more appealing option.

We made lots of new friends in the Ball Park bar -- Yankee fans are a back-slapping, boisterous, friendly bunch (especially after a decisive win). With a good beer buzz going, Ron assigned us all alter egos, and before we knew it, people thought I was a Canadian TV news anchor, Mike was a professional fly fisherman, Heidi was retired gymnast and Jake was a professional surfer (and Ron, of course, was Jake's agent). We delicately extricated ourselves from the onslaught of questions we had no hope of answering (Mike has NEVER fly fished and was accosted by an avid fishing enthusiast from Wisconsin) when Ron announced to Jake that we were going to be late for his Quiksilver appearance and it was time to head back to the city. Whew.

Back in the city, we went to Stout's for some grub and darts -- and even after a couple of drinks, I managed to hit a bulls' eye! (Or maybe, more appropriately, it was BECAUSE of the drinks.)

Fantasy Hair? No Thanks!!

Guess WHAT. The Dove viral video that I shot in LA is finally LIVE! I saw it for the first time tonight at a meeting related to this project and so I immediately came home to see if it was actually posted on the Dove Love Your Hair web site... and lo and behold, there it was! And there I was... with Damian and Joseph.... and with fun, funky music, and with a pretty fried 'do by the end of it all! Check it out for yourself. Proof that the shoot really did happen!!