Hungover Movie Day

We celebrated Stephanie's Birthday on Friday night. Saturday then became recovery day, since we certainly celebrated heartily. We began by having diner food, but that stuff was so horrid that I refuse to put it here. Plus, I didn't even take pictures. Because it was so horrid.

After that we made it to Times Square to watch Bran Nue Dae (this image does not belong to me.)

The movie was awesome. A musical set in 1965 about a young Aboriginal boy who escapes boarding school to return to his hometown of Broom. Right up my alley. The thing was a total romp, with several catchy songs, and with a main actor who is all kinds of cute. Plus Geoffrey Rush is in it. Why aren't you running to watch it?

Afterward we made our way around the city, mostly walking, running errands, and then decided to watch Go the Distance in the Upper East. This RomCom with Drew Barrymore and Justin Long was very cute, a little bit raunchy, and with a pleasing ending. The soundtrack was to die for, but I expect that from D.Barrymore flicks. Her chemistry with Justin Long was pretty good but of course in the back of your mind you keep thinking that they were broken up when they did that movie so it's kinda weird, having to kiss your ex. And make it look good to boot. The questions the movie brings up are not new one's - what do you do when your personal professional life doesn't really mash your personal life? What do you do when the two of you have to live in different places? There are no easy answers. Some people think it's best to sacrifice everything for a relationship. Others opine that if the relationship is meant to work it'll survive the distance or a breakup. I think it's a case-by-case thing, you know? Blanket statements don't really work well in these situations.

Movie was followed by a walk to an Argentinean/Italian restaurant in the Upper East and I sadly do not remember the name right now. I'll search for it later. Their food was ok - we began with some bread with eggplant (instead of butter, which I LOVED)

We shared some croquetas de papa, that were cheesy and perfectly sized, unlike the monstrosities I grew up with

My entree was battered chickend in a lemon butter sauce with veggies

The veggies were perfect, not drenched in oil but light and tasty. The chicken was a whole different business - first it was too hard, and then it was too lemon-y. The lemon butter sauce was good though, and went well with the veggies, which is mostly what I ate.

All in all, a very good Saturday, spent with Ida and Mi Cariño. The weather even cooperated, giving us good crisp air all day long. We finished the night by walking home. Yea. At the risk of jinxing it, I can't help but think that Life is hella good at the moment.

A little Mai, A little Thai

We go to Thai Select all the time, it seems, since 2008 when after seeing an Off-Broadway Show at 37 Arts (The Beebo Chronicles - what an amazing play!), we stopped there for dinner, to have a little mai, a little thai, just as a character in the play describes his drink of choice.

So after briefly attempting to find another restaurant, Ida and I headed to Thai Select, were we started with drinks. I can't remember the name of mine - it had jamaican rum, pineapple juice, and many many other wonderful things. They served it in this beautiful deep glass.

For my main entree, I didn't deviate much from my Thai mainstay, having the Crystal Pad Thai which is sauteed bean vermicelli with crushed peanuts, eggs and scallion.

The noodles gave the plate a slightly different flavor, but Pad Thai is Pad Thai y'all.

After the movie we walked down to Chelsea to catch a showing of "The Tillman Story", a documentary of sorts about Pat Tillman, the NFL football player who gave up his lucrative NFL career to join the military, and died thanks to so-called "friendly fire." The family used this medium to share their story, and it is indeed a heartbreaking one. Any death arriving from this ridiculous unnecesary war is heartbreaking one, but judging by the details that after much investigation the family was able to uncover, I can understand why they did this.

The thing is sad all around. Here was this guy who judged that the best he could do for his country was join the military. This man loved his wife - his wife had actually been his one and only girlfriend, since they were High School sweethearts. This man joined the military with his younger brother. This man gave up a lucrative career. This man thought he was going to be sent to Afghanistan but was sent, instead, to Iraq. This man was murdered by other member's of his country's Military. And then that same organization tried to paint his death as a heroic feat first, later as an unavoidable mistake, and then when his family didn't just accept this, managed to jump through all of that family's legal recourses to point the finger at others, and then go on with life.

Namely not a very happy thing to watch, to be quite sure. I wondered why the middle brother that joined Pat in the military did not really appear in the documentary. I wondered how many other deaths were out there, like Pat's. I wondered how many young men and women are going through life now, trying to get over traumas (physical or mental) that came from this completely unnecesary invasion. It's sad, it's just sad. Makes you wanna drink a little Mai, a little Thai.