I had lots and lots of fun in the sun+sand with my Long Island beach ladies, Kelly and Sham. Took the Long Island Rail Road and zipped over to LI to hang with the girls and head over to Jones Beach. We were equipped with a case of beer, a cooler filled with ice, sunblock and NO snacks (crap). We laid out on the sun and drank ourselves silly. We took turns watching our stuff while two of us went out to the water. It has been a full year since I've dipped in the ocean (or ANY large body of water, anyway. Including a pool). I was so excited that I freaked out when I dipped my feet excitedly into the water and found it to be absolutely freezing. It was close to 100 degrees (fahrenheit) today in New York so I assumed the water would be warmed up. I didn't care, I'm beach deprived and freezing ocean water will not stop me from enjoying a dip this summer. It was funny looking around me while I was in there. Everyone around me had their arms around themselves and their teeth were chattering and jaws were shivering. None of these people cared. We all just wanted to splash around the ocean on a hot summer day!



And what did these girls do after the beach when the sun started to set? We headed straight to KFC drive thru and ordered a bucket of chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy and coleslaw!!! I have NOT had KFC since I left Manila! That's over two years ago! I was so happy! After eating we took a shower and the rest of us who don't live on Long Island proceeded to take the loooooooong trip back home.

Rewinding back to yesterday, I had another spontaneous day (added to today, "spontaneous" would seem like the theme of my weekend. I haven't had this much fun in a period of a few days in a long time. Come to think of it, a lot of the stuff I did in the last couple of days were things I haven't done in a while.

Yesterday I met up with Benny and Magnus (couchsurfer from Denmark) for brunch at Flatbush Farm.
I went back home, gave Taco a bath, watched Star Wards Revenge of the Sith on cable, then dressed up and went to Rann's for 4th of July festivities. The supposed small gathering became a bit of a gathering as one by one people came over, including Mike and Caitlin whom I invited to join us. We watched the fireworks display on the Hudson River from Rann and Oli's balcony. What happened next was probably one of the funnest things I've done in New York. When the fireworks was over, the crowds by the pier began to disperse and walk back east to the main roads towards the subway. Hundreds were walking right by the apartment so Mike, Caitlin and I decided to put out a concert for everybody walking outside. We stood on the balcony and with Mike on guitar, me on percussion and Caitlin blowing bubbles in the air, we sang this song in full force.

About 150 people stopped and stood staring up at us sing. I have never played bongos or any instrument infront of a crowd that large ever. My short stint as a drummer in high school does not count since nobody came to watch us play. Some of the people on the street clapped their hands and sang along and some took their cameras out and started taking videos and photos of us.

IT WAS BLOODY AWESOME!

I've gone to Cheryl's for brunch, took Taco on his morning walk and gone produce shopping at the farmers market and am sitting on the couch watching Independence Day on ABCFamily while munching on frozen grapes...all before 12 noon.

I have GOT to move into this neighborhood. I was excited to shop the farmer's market at Grand Army Plaza today since I could go nuts on shopping without having to worry about hauling all my goods home since Ana's apartment is just a couple blocks away. I scored beefsteak tomatoes, fresh basil, cilantro, fresh picked blueberries and cherries and a loaf of olive ciabatta bread. I've been so into late night homemade salsa lately. They're just so damn good and so much better for you than those canned crap you get at the grocery store. Plus ever since I discovered the fabulousness of frozen grapes, I'm trying to figure out what else I can freeze.

I can already foresee what life would be like if I had my very own place and I was equipped with all the amenities available to me here. I would probably never leave the house. Hahaha! That's why it's so much better to live in a house with other people and not own a TV (we don't have one at the apartment) plus not having an AC in the common areas gives you a reason to get out of the house and do something else aside from sitting on the couch.

My movie's done. Time to flip the channel.

I was so excited about today's beach day with Kelly that I took a long shower last night when I got home from work, shaved my legs, waxed, packed my stuff for the day after and set 3 alarms to wake me up at 8am. My alarms rang but none of them woke me up. Mike walked in my room and woke me up instead.

This is what I call his "Abercrombie white boy heading to the hamptons" look.

But the weather this morning was gray and cloudy and soon it began to rain. So we canceled the beach trip and I was stuck with nothing to do on my day off. Much sooner than expected though, the rain stopped, the clouds parted and the sun came out, bearing its scorching rays on us. Kelly had already made other plans at this point so I walked to Cheryl's for brunch. My god I love this place. I've tried several other brunch places in my neighborhood and despite them also serving good food, only in Cheryl's do I walk out fully satisfied. Food here is so good for the soul. It's the kind of food that I will want to make one day, if I ever do decide to open my own joint. I got the strawberry pancakes with Chantilly cream with a "side" of scrambled eggs and a "side" of bacon.

From there I decided to head to PCRichards & Son to see if they have the same price for the brand of air conditioning I planned on getting at K-Mart. But when I got to the subway station, I decided to walk all the way to Atlantic Ave (about 2 miles) under the intense summer heat and humidity instead of seeking refuge in the air conditioned train cars. It was a good decision too since I never would have discovered the street fair that lined the streets of 7 ave in Park Slope. I decided to check it out and I soon regretted ordering my "sides" of eggs and bacon since there were booths stretched out as far down 7 ave as the eye can see and people milling around and the air smelled of grilled bbq, corn on the cob, shawarma, funnel cakes, mexican food, a fresh lemonade stand on every other corner and a host of other things.
Halfway through (or was it?) I doubled back and headed towards Atlantic Ave once again. By this time I had already purchased a bag and two glasses. One of them was this

PCRichards & Son was selling the unit for $25 more than K-Mart's price so I hopped on a train and headed to the east village K-Mart, bought the AC and hopped on a cab back to Brooklyn. I hauled all 42 pounds of that unit up two flights of stairs and spent an hour installing it. My room looks like a tornado hit it but later became soooo grateful that I will no longer suffer in my hotbox.I took a quick nap after, cleaned up then showered. I decided to make a simple pasta pomodoro for dinner so I made a quick trip to the market on the next block then proceeded to cook while watching The Dave Chappelle show.
I was dripping in sweat out there so I was keen on heading back to my room, turning on the ac and enjoy a nice comfortable sleep. Which I shall get started on right now...

Invited Caitlin to brunch since Mica is MIA somewhere in Queens the past couple of days. We opted to walk over to Cheryl's instead of taking the train since it was such an awesome day out and we didn't want to waste it underground.

We got to Cheryl's and it was full so we had to wait 15 minutes for a table but didn't mind since it was such a pleasant wait sitting on the bench outside watching people walk by. When we got seated, we both ordered omelets. I had asparagus, tomato and goat cheese and she had ham, cheddar and tomato. I also got a side of crispy bacon which went so well with my meal.

I attacked my omelet as soon as they set the plate down in front of me that I forgot to take a photo of it. Here's Caitlin with my plate licked clean.

This shot looks like we ate inside a sauna room. Cheryl Smith herself was in the kitchen making everyone's meals. She walked out a couple of times to check the dining area donning a white apron and her hair pulled back. It impresses me how some celebrity chefs still make time to dedicate themselves to their kitchens.

We headed over to the greenmarket around the corner which was filled with people and families pushing strollers and riding bicycles. They didn't have much in terms of produce yet, mostly still root vegetables so we didn't get much. I did, however get a bunch of pastries like a mini pumpkin loaf, an apple walnut muffin and a small plate of these pinwheel rolls of raspberry jam, pecans, brown sugar and cinnammon. I also got a small package of assorted goat cheese logs and caitlin bought eggs, rhubarb sauce and apple cider. I was so disappointed that the milk place ran out of chocolate milk. I was really hoping on chugging down a jar of it on the way home.
We also bought a half pound bag of dried lavender and proceeded to stuff them into cheesecloth bags when we got home and stuffed them in our drawers and hung them in closets. My fingers smell so good from the lavender that they make me want to take a nap before work. Sadly, by the time I finish this post, I have to change and head back to the salt mines.

B.runch, M.ovie and W.ork

Last night, I promised myself I wasn't going to waste another Saturday morning at home watching nonsensical crap on Hulu or surfing the web (a.k.a. refreshing Facebook about 50 times). When I got home from work, I found Mica in the living room reading and I invited her to go to brunch with me this morning followed by watching Alice in Wonderland before I had to go to work. I set my alarm, woke up this morning an HOUR after it rang. Caitlin woke up soon after I did and we invited her along for brunch. Went to Flatbush Farm since I was craving for their sausage gravy and buttermilk biscuits. I ended up ordering the Chorizo Stew and eggs instead, which freaking ROCKED btw.

meet our new roommate Caitlin
here's Mica overly salting her meal
(as she does with just about everything)

We checked out The Brooklyn Larder over on the next block to see what they had in store. I was disappointed to see they didn't have a wide collection of cheeses. I was hoping I didn't have to go all the way to the west village to get my cheese fix. I did, however, find these
I was not aware that Davao produced chocolate or cocoa beans good enough to merit a $10 chocolate bar. I love the packaging and it's pretty good too.

Mica and I headed to the cinema while Caitlin headed to the flea market. It was a good thing Mica and I went early because within minutes the theater filled up and were please to get good seats. The movie was a joy to watch although I guess you can't get anymore elaborate with it plot-wise since it's Alice in Wonderland. I was very much excited to see this since I've mentioned before that it's my favorite book of all time. I suppose since I was a child, I gravitated more to reading stories of fantasy that take me to places no one can go and people you will never meet. Which is also why I think I love Neil Gaiman so much.

Work was surprisingly busy. Last night was busy too so we expected tonight to be slow. It's rare that we get both Friday and Saturday full, it's usually one or the other but we had good luck this weekend.

I got home and was pleased to see Caitlin brought a bottle of wine home from work so Mica and I had a glass before bed. Quoting a line from Waiter Rant, "For waiters, your first drink is medicinal, your second is for relaxation and the third will anesthetize you."

I have another 12 hour day tomorrow so one glass is enough to put me to bed.

Met up with BabyG for lunch today. She treated me out on my birthday and I felt it was only fair that I returned the favor on her birthday. I took her for brunch at Cornelia Street Cafe. I pass this place on my way to work and I've always been curious if the food is good. I had eggs benedict (as usual) with smoked salmon and she had the smoked salmon platter. I think the egg benedict I had from La Palette is still the best I've had so far. I got coffee from The Grey Dog and we sat by the benches on the square nearby and chatted until my shift started. There are so many good places to eat in the west village and so little time (and so little company) to try them all. I miss having a regular food trip buddy. Niki! Come here quick! Mica is going back to Manila for 5 weeks by the first week of June and I can't imagine being alone here with no buddy to drag around with me. Crap!

My mom will be here by next weekend and I'm so excited! I don't know where to take her since she has this thing where she prefers to stay home rather than spend out but this will be a rare chance that she will be in NY and I don't want to waste it staying in. She can only be here for a week and so little time for me to go to Queens to see her. I can't take the entire week off since there isn't anyone else to take my shifts for me but Lily has been nice enough to grant me half day shifts on my full days.

Angel will be in Baltimore by the end of the month and I am so glad to have another friend within close proximity (and another name to add to my regular call list). She will hopefully be staying here fr the next few months as she tries to go back to school in Maryland. She promises to come visit during the summer the same time grace (from Rome) promised to come visit too. Sino pang bibisita? Punta na dito dali! I can only offer the couch but your lodging is already set! Come!