Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Meal

Got together with some of Mi Cariño's closest friends to celebrate a pre-thanksgiving. It was a potluck, but since mi Cariño cooked I called it a free meal for me.
We had a delicious light salad made by Becky, Mac'n'Cheese made by Michele, Turkey Chili made by Genovieve, butternut squash soup with croutons made by Ryan, and cornbread and pumpkin chocolate muffins (not pictured) made by mi Cariño -assisted by me.
After, we sat around just talking and enjoying each other, with a quick round of Taboo before making our way back home.

I wanna dance...

And so, after spending sometime with Mi Cariño's family, we're back in New York! And to celebrate, why not a road trip?! To Atlantic City!! To see Enrique Iglesias and Jennifer Lopez in concert. We headed out early morning (not too early), Cesar drove, Laura regaled us with fun stories, and Mi Cariño and I lounged in the back seat, praying that we'd make it to AC in one piece. If you've ever been in the car when he's driving, you know what I mean.

But we made it! And we got to enjoy some time at a Casino, at one of the famous Atlantic City Buffets, and of course, the Atlantic City Boardwalk.

What a great feeling to dip your toes in the sand and smell the cool refreshing sea air. I would throw more cliches at you, but there's no need! You get the gist. Then, off to the concert!

Funny beginnings all over: first, Cesar and I sat and saved the wrong seats, and had to have an unfortunate situation with some of them Jersey people where we thought we were right and they were all like "Nah huh," and so we had to make our way further from the stage. BUT, all good since it was still a great view, and a good group of people around us. We managed to go in after the opening act, which was good since none of us were interested in him.

Then Enrique came on. At first, Mi Cariño and I were miffed at the inclination that Enrique was opening for Jennifer - after all, we all know that whomever sings last holds the power! But man, did he prove that his heart wasn't in it. It wasn't so different from his concert in MSG really - just this one was worse. And shorter, of course. But really, just worse. He did the whole "pull a guy from the audience" bit he loves doing. Boring as hell. Then, he continued to do the thing where he expects the audience to sing every one of his songs because he's too lazy to actually sing them himself. I mean, really. It was travesty.

But then, Jennifer came on. And trust, I'm not the biggest Jennifer Lopez fan - hell, I still have nightmares from having to sit through one of her movies back in 2001 when I was attempting to woo someone, again, and again, again. I never thought the woman was an artist, I always thought she was a good businesswoman. But tonight, I've learned she's a show woman as well, because her set made the trip and the entrance fee totally worth it.

Don't get me wrong, she still can't sing. But she has songs that cater to her voice, and she sang all the way through - none of that mumbo jumbo of giving the audience the microphone every two seconds. I paid to hear her sing, and sing she did. And dance. Through almost every single song she danced, and kept the energy going, singing the stuff that made her famous.

After, Cesar managed to drive us back into town in the pitch of darkness in much less time than it took us to get there, and that's even with a pit stop. I'm usually pretty good at putting up with his driving unscathed, but boy did my heart live in my throat that entire ride. We made it home safe though, and am now ready for the last run towards the finish line: I've handed in my resignation, and will be ending my time at StoryCorps in 22 days. For now, thanks to Cease, Laura, and Mi Cariño for an excellent day. 

It's All Happening!

I decided I wanted to spend some one on one time with my sweet Cesar. It's been a while, and the last few times we've hung out it's usually at his place - since I wanted to do something different, I woke up nice and super early and stood in line to get tickets to see "Bring it on: The Musical." It's still on Previews, and it'll be open at the beginning of August, so I figured there'd be less chances that Cesar has already seen this one, not to mention that I don't think this is one that he would choose to see right away.

I was the second in line, which wasn't too bad. Cesar had no idea what we were doing, and so he was totally surprised! He suggested dinner before the show, and so we were at Victor's Cafe in the Upper West. Coincidentally, it was Restaurant Week!

We had so much food! Also, I had forgotten that Mami was taking her GED Test just down the block - I would've called her to share our meal. We - well, really, I - downed a carafe of delicious Sangria.

Since on Tuesdays Shows start early, we hightailed it out of there close to 7pm, and essentially ran down to the theater, just like old times. The show was pretty much as I remember it from Los Angeles, but I enjoyed the songs a little bit more the second time around, I think.

Also, we got up and walked around during the intermission, and while doing that ran into Lin Manuel Miranda, and we - well Cesar - got to tell him we thought he was awesome and super talented. I touched his shoulder. It was awesome.

I really enjoyed the show a lot more from up close. The cheerleading routines were pretty spectacular, and the actors are just as great. They were pretty consistent with their work, which was commendable, too. I related to the storyline a little bit more this time around - it's less about cheerleading and more about trying to make it through High School. Really, a smart move from the producers and creators: great way to get younger viewers interested on Broadway.

NYTV Blue

So, after months - nay, years! Of trying to get my friends to come along and be a part of a Scavenger Hunt in good ole New York City, I finally realized that they are just not the kind of people that would enjoy a scavenger hunt. Instead, we got some of Mi Cariño's friends together, and off we went to our very first hunt!

Now, yes, today was NYC Pride, but since we're not parade people and the fair part doesn't really change year after year, we were okay with doing something else instead. The Hunt's theme was TV. We began by meeting at a Bar near LES and coming up with a TV related name. Since points were given for having uniforms, we all dressed in blue colors and thus NYTV Blue was born. From there the teams walked around asking trivia questions of each other to try to come up with extra points. The task was to run around the city in a certain amount of hours, finding the clues given. Every member of the team had to be in the picture with the "hunted item."

Examples: Finding a cop, a cd of an American Idol winner, someone that dressed like Homer Simpson, a model, specific pubs, and much much more.

It. Was. A. Blast. And totally worth it. We ran all over the city, jumping on the subway, relying on our knowledge of trains, on our smart phones, on our wits, everyone contributing thoughts and ideas as to what to do next while enjoying doing crazy things all over the place to take a picture with some guy drinking a McDonald's Sweet Tea.

I hope we get to do this again sometime!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!

Finally it's Cesar and Bruce's Wedding! It was the event of the year, for sure: ceremony in Queens, party time on Broadway.
Everyone was dressed to the nines, everyone wore lovely hats. The grooms looked perfect, with Cesar wearing a most perfect train. Some pictures!

Pride

An actual weekend in New York City! No, let me rephrase that: an actual weekend in New York City with mi Cariño. It was also Pride Weekend; practically perfect.

We didn't "do" much. Kept busy Saturday Morning and early afternoon in the Upper West Side with messy burgers, singing-while-walking, smiling at twenty-somethings learning to ride a bike on Riverside Park, stories, ice cream, the agony of USA losing to Ghana, book stores, and more stories. We got our gay on down by Bryant Park, where we joined the Dyke March.

Afterward there was Broadway Heartbreak, movie laughs and pizza - pretty low key, but wouldn't change a thing. Sunday was just as good, just as hot, just not as sunny. First stop was Pridefest '10.



We caught a bit of The Red States performance. They were alright, although I wished they would've move about the stage a bit more - or stood in a more organized manner. I've always been an acappella fan - no instrument like the human voice! They looked like they were having fun.

Vanessa Valtre was MC'ing and was not funny at all. Luckily Menage A Twang got on the stage rather quickly. They were rather a great surprise, as I didn't know they'd be performing. Go Emily! Not just a talented writer and teacher, but also a pretty good singer. Their songs are really laugh out loud funny.



We couldn't listen to their entire set, though, since we had limited time at the 'Fest, and so we walked on to find some comida. Enter Empanada Mama.

Typos aside, their shredded chicken was delish. Empanada Mama is in the 50's on ninth and it's a good quick spot for some really tasty empanadas.  We kept on walking, making a beeline to what I consider a NYC Street Fair must have: Mozzarepas.

This Colombian piece of heaven is perfect for the eating and walking of a fair, and it's quite filling. But they will make you thirsty. And so, we walked to the next Fair must have: Sugar water with a hint of lemon. Also known during this day as "Lemonade."

Tastes just like the kind Fabi and I used to make as children. Perfecto!

After the Fair, a mad dash to Times Square, and some Gypsy Kings "Hay un amigo en mi" accion (Yea Toy Story 3!) Cariño, her good friend Mariah and I headed to Ninth for some nourishment. Wouldn't you know it, we chose Thai Food (Ha!). We stopped by one of the Yum Yums.

The meal began with a glass of lychee sangria and some Vegetable Tamarind Soup

which was followed by some Vegetable Dumplings

and in a surprise move, Tofu with Thai Basil Sauce with white steamed rice

Dessert was Red Bean Ice Cream, which I will not show you a picture of because I did not like at all. Yuck.

We walked off the meal by heading to Junior's for some promised Cheesecake before stopping by the craziness that is Toys R'Us.

No, I did not ride "La Estrella" (although I wanted to). I did get me a Parcheesi Board, and the night ended with me showing mi Cariño how to play; unfortunately she's a pretty quick learner, and she beat me. But I'm not worried, there's always next time.

The only shadow during this weekend was the passing of Love personified, Ms. Lillie of ATL. She was one of the best facilitators I've met, and just an all around awesome person. This is an extremely overused expression, but to have known Lillie was to love her indeed, and I will miss her sweet deep voice as she walked in the office, demanded a hug and would proclaim "We'll make a Southerner outta ya yet, wait and see." Listen to an excerpt of her SC Interview here.

Girl's Night

So Heather's in town! Perfect reason to get together, eat tons, dance some, drink some. We began the night at Gnocco's.

I got there a bit earlier than the rest, and so I sat outside to wait. While waiting I was roped into dogsitting for a bit... Puppy's name was Josie, and she seemed to be quite able to sense that I'm not much of a small dog lover. In the meantime mi Cariño arrived and we did some chatting while waiting for Heather and Steph.

Once everyone was there, we got to seat in the Garden out back, and the weather was perfect for it. We began to whet our appetite by toasting with some Prosecco, and it was perfectly fruitty. We liked it so much we soon decided to ditch the "by the glass" we had started with and asked for a bottle. Laura arrived and our party was complete. Steph chose our appetizer, which I think consisted of Burrata Cheese, cherry tomatoes, toasted italian, evoo and black pepper goodness.

Entree for me: Caserecce al Pesto. A very simple but quite mouth watering good plate - pasta with basil pesto, string beans and potatoes.

Dessert was Steph's favorite: Tiramisu.

It was all extremely good. We go to Gnocco's often because a good friend of Steph's works there, but the food really is worth the visit.

The rest of the night will be told mostly in pictures, some of them really blurry. First, there was Eastern Bloc.

Eastern Bloc held beautiful posters, plenty of pictures of penises, and an extremely amateur three way male pole dance. Then there was the Pyramid Club

Since it was Friday night, there was no DJ and they seemed to stick to their "only music from 1984" rule. We took a cab to what we thought was The Annex, but has now been renamed, The Doghouse.

Huge disappointment.  Music's changed. Place was empty. We walked some more, this time close to Delancey Street until we hit Los Feliz. The place moonlights as a club/lounge, has three kinda tiny floors, serves as a Taqueria in the daytime.

Either the music was better there, or we were tipsy enough to enjoy ourselves regardless, because we stayed there for the remainder of the night. Good Times.