Becoming Bridge & Tunnel

Let me start by saying that the drunk train as immortalized by How I Met Your Mother's episode "The Drunk Train" is completely a thing.

HIMYM reps NYC (even if it's filmed in LA)

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I try not to go into the city on the weekends. Let's face it: at a certain point, even going into Manhattan from Brooklyn became a chore. But a couple times recently, I had the occasion to take the drunk train.

The most recent time was this past weekend. Rachel and I decided to be young and give in to excitedly jump on our friend Rae's invitation to go dancing.

Oh and since the LIRR is awesome, when we got to Huntington Station, we found out there were no trains from Huntington and had to take a shuttle to Hicksville. We rolled with it but the old man on the bus with us was pissed.

kind of like this... or something

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Usually I'd go for beer but, this time, my trank (train-drank) was 5 Hour Energy, which just barely lasted until we got home about 5 hours and 15 minutes later. I blame my work/commuting schedule for conditioning me to get tired early, therefore making me drink harmful caffeinated beverages when I should be drinking alcohol.

We met Rae at Culture Club. This is where I crossed the line into Bridge & Tunnel.

For those of you that aren't from here, Bridge & Tunnel (B&T) is a term we snobby New Yorkers use to refer to those overdressed drunks who are bussed (train'd) in on the weekends from such God forsaken places as New Jersey or (heaven forbid!) Long Island. B&T bars are the last place you want to be seen. And I'm pretty sure Culture Club is B&T Mecca.

Culture Club

So, why did I go? 
Was it the $25 cover? (No, I'm not joking.)
Was it the $13 drinks? (Includes a plastic souvenir cup.)
Was it the crowd? (A unique mix of bachelorette parties, middle-aged women, and a few creepy guys trying their odds with either of the above.)

The truth is: I secretly think Culture Club is fun. Bombshell.

sorry

But... ok?? 

Evidence:
1- The 80s room is akin to singing into your hairbrush with your girlfriends at a sleepover. 
2- The 90s-00s room lets me relive my high school and college dance party days. 
3- Plus, thanks to the high female-male ratio, I can mostly avoid the creeps. Except for those that came with my friends (*ahem* Rae).

That said, it bears repeating... $25 cover. Therefore, never again. Never. Um, maybe just except for a bachelorette party or something but that's it, I swear.

Mommy's House

Who can resist a look in someone else's house? I used to live at street level on Mott Street, so trust me: no one. It was like living in a freaking store window...

My mom's house is precious, as we say in my family. In fact, we say precious (adj.), preciousness (noun), or preciousing (verb).  As in: "Mommy is preciousing up her dining room." or, the more general: "How precious." (to be said in a mocking tone).

This is a good example of preciousness...

  

precious dolls and dishes above the precioused out window

Here's the dining room...

And one of several wine racks....

Kitchen...

ok, I bought the gourds so maybe I have a little precious in me

Living room...

my mom's super giant clock

still using the summer pillows - the winter pillows are much scratchier :(

The small but precious backyard...

the grill cover is Cutie's

Plus her house comes with precious cats like this...

Oreo

Or this....

Twinkie

Or these....

ok, so it's the same two cats

Mommy's house is my favorite place to be. It's always clean and organized, and filled with good food and family and girly movies.

But now... we're off to Daddy's, which as we know from the preview is not so precious. To be honest, I don't even fully know what I'm getting into. I'll keep you updated.

Pier What-the-F

I'm blogging about Pier 1. This is my life now.

Last Sunday, I actually had a whole day to just relax and maybe even get some writing done. So, of course, I got bored.

Tom wouldn't go to the library with me because he was out of clean clothes. (Should I do something about that? Eh, he'll figure it out.)

Finally, I just needed to go somewhere. And there's a Pier 1 right here so...

Three natural reactions to Pier 1:

1. Some people have too much time and/or money and/or space on their hands.

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According to Pier 1's website, these are called decorative spheres. So it's like a whole thing.

No offense to anyone that might love decorative spheres and think they're the best thing ever, but my mom doesn't even own any of these and she has different couch pillows for different seasons.

2. I can't wait to have a house, or a home office, or just a room.

super cute wall applique that will make my future home office extra girly

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you can't tell but this clock is super giant and I want it

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3. Uck, that is bleak.

There's a lot of stationery and cocktail napkins with "funny" sayings on them.

must exit suburbs immediately!!!

credit and full catalog for your ordering pleasure

My big haul:

for the girl with too little time and/or money and/or space

Pocket nail files! 48 cents, y'all! Maybe the smallest purchase in Pier 1 history.

And in conclusion:

Pier 1 embodies everything that is good and bad about the suburbs. And I lovate them for that (excellent new word stolen from saradraws).

Quick Life Update + Beyonce

I apologize that my posts have been a little less frequent but I have good reasons, which are:

a) I'm moving;

b) I'm working on script writing; and

c) I left my bag on the LIRR that had a bunch of Tom heads in it (another story) and also my memory card reader so now I can't get all the awesome blog photos that I've been taking off my camera and there's only a Staples Express by my office and they sell cameras and memory cards but not memory card readers and I should have just ordered another one on Amazon but I was dumb enough to think the LIRR Lost & Found might function as intended and ugghhhh....

But I promise to all my loyal readers (I know you are out there even though you never leave comments or any trace of your existence but then when I talk to you in person you tell me you're reading so I'll take your word for it) that I will get out at least two posts a week. And this one doesn't count.

This has been a very train-of-thoughty announcement.

And now, a photo collage of Beyonce from Saturday's Jay Z show at the Barclay's Center...

Ms. PC ♥ Ms. KC

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MTV has an awesome photo gallery that I was afraid to steal from. More about the concert later.

Walking 4 Love

Enough complaining about commuting! For now. Despite what you may have heard (or read here) I am determined to deal with commuting better than I did when I was 22 (story for another time, perhaps). 

On Saturday I did something really cool: The Jana Piccola Walk 4Love.

pink and blue everything!

I had heard of the walk but never thought to sign up. My friend Greg told me that it was a mini HHS reunion. This did not particularly entice me. Plus I wanted to have one free weekend after all the moving and non-wacky chaos.

Greg then tried to guilt me into going but nobody can guilt me but me. Which is exactly what happened when I read this story about Jana. So I signed up and roped my friends Jenny and Erin into going as well.

you can tell we're really serious about this race

The event started at Mill Dam, which is a place that the cool kids would often mention in high school and I never knew if they were referring to Mill Dam Park or Mill Dam Road or if there was an actual dam somewhere... And I never knew why they were hanging out at whichever one of those Mill Dams they were at, except presumably to drink and smoke, and I still don't know to this day. Any former cool kids reading this, feel free to enlighten me.

There were around 600ish? people there, which seemed like a lot for this little event...

...but luckily or unluckily, the high school reunioning was kept to a minimum.

And then there were some middle aged women dancing to Gangnam Style for some reason...

Then the "race" started. Greg, his girlfriend Kristin, Erin, Jenny and I set off on a leisurely walk around the Southdown area of Huntington.

Huntington is, like, seriously beautiful sometimes

Greg had originally said that he would be embarrassed to walk, rather than run, because last year he finished the 5k in 24 minutes. (And wordsmith that he is, he managed to phrase it in a way that Kristin thought he was embarrassed to walk with her.) But, hobbled by a toe injury, he was forced to walk anyway. And I was on a stroll....

About halfway through the walk, there were kids set up outside their houses handing out water and granola bars (aw). A little while later, we got cheerleaded. I found it cute; Greg felt patronized.

go free spirits! get there when you get there!

Don't be too impressed but we managed to walk 3 miles in under an hour, which is just slower than the average person not in a race walks on a hot day going uphill.

did it!

Finally, the sweet, sweet finish line...

And the results...

at the last second, I sprinted ahead yelling "I beat Greg! I beat Greg!"

Jenny and Erin got out of being timed because they signed up on the day of. Cheaters.

Afterwards, we hung around for the medal ceremony (yes, there were medals) and then went out to lunch and cupcakes.

Sunny day walks and cupcakes? Maybe I like living in the suburbs.

Futon Week

And now...

The suckiest things about futon week (as it shall henceforth be known):

1- Having no TV in the living room. Don't worry, I survived with a combination of Netflix and the TV in my bedroom. Close one.

2- The futon. It wasn't so uncomfortable, but it was so not like a bed that I couldn't sleep at all the first night and slept crappily the rest of the week.

3- Packed our curtains + position of the futon + position of the sun relative to the earth this time of year = sun directly in my eyeballs starting at 7am.

Doesn't capture the true blindingness of it but you get the idea.

4- When my procrastination paid off and I had to stay up all night packing/moving, hopped up on Jamba Juice energy drink and Wendy's iced tea.

5- I miss Frosty! (My sister took her to their new apartment.)

 mrrrow.