3 posts tagged “summer”

View other items tagged “summer:” Photos, Audio, Videos, Books or Links. View “summer” on Vox.

summer procrastinator

Aug 31, 2006
Post a comment

Things I did not get to do this summer and am now actually very depressed about:

swim in the ocean (3 beaches, but no water action)
swim in a pool (that's really ok I understand this is NYC)
go to an outdoor movie at Bryant Park or the waterfront
go to an outdoor concert (unless you count sitting way far away from Summerstage one Sunday because I had my bike and wasn't allowed inside with it)
observe fireworks
sit on the deck on a lounge chair and have my dad grill me hot Italian sausage with peppers and onions on top
eat Mister Softee (Can you believe it?! But last summer I was in Washington Heights where I had multiple Mister Softee trucks at my disposal round the clock, every day... so far I haven't seen--or rather heard--any on the UES)
eat coco helado from a dixie cup
go to Coney Island for the first time ever
try any new places on the pizza tour
drink up on someone's roof (ok maybe once, twice if you count the Met--but that is not nearly enough for one summer)
have a real picnic like with the blanket and basket and everything
accomplish any serious reading or brain activity of any kind whatsoever

I try not to have regrets though. I had a lot of fun this summer. I got in some amusement park rides, an extended vacation, ate some good eats, got a cute-ass little folding bike and pedaled around town like crazy. That had to have been the highlight, really. Maybe I will try to accomplish at least one of the above items this weekend, before Labor Day rears its terrible hideous no-more-wearing-of-the-white-shoes head. Unfortunately for all summer procrastinators in the tristate area, the forecast calls for rain.

SF in five hundred words (more) or less

Aug 7, 2006
Post a comment

I just got back to the oppressive heat that is NYC, and you know something, I’m totally glad to be home. I'm thinking I may decide to move to SF one day, when the barometric headaches and the psychic stinkiness of this place finally wear me down. So maybe like next year? I'm trying not to think too hard about the starting salaries at other libraries... 'cause I don't know if I would even take it if it meant I couldn't live here anymore. Listen to me get all romantic about nyshitty. San Francisco was my first love but New York is my soul mate. Or abusive husband? That makes Paris my extramarital affair. Akron is... ~~my gay uncle~~ uh forget it this analogy really has to stop. Anyway, How I Spent My Summer Vacation:

DAY 1:
JFK to SFO. SFMOMA*. Matthew Barney overload. Tenderloin. Union Square. L'Ottavo for dinner. Red drinks at the Red Room.

DAY 2:
Sailing. Turkey sandwiches with San Francisco sourdough*. Ginger Snappers*. Nob Hill. Earthquake*. Chai-Yo Thai takeout.

DAY 3:
Clement Street. Chinese grocery stores. Burma Super Star*. Golden Gate Park.

cervantes statue with hat

De Young Museum. Quilts of Gee's Bend*. Hayes Valley. Blue Bottle Coffee Co.* Potrero Hill. Baraka for French Morrocan. North Beach. Saltwater taffy sample overload. Tummyache. Cannoli, tiramisu, dolce alla Napoletana.

chic 'n' noodle do

DAY 4:
Berkeley. Peet’s coffee. Lunch (wine bar and overdone Niman ranch burger). BART. Suburbs. More coffee. Gorgonzola cheesy bread* at Barone's.

DAY 5:
Breakfast in town. Saint Bernard puppy**.

annie

Allergies. Pseudoephedrine. Flight delay from 4 to 6, to 8, and then 9. Flight rescheduled. In-N-Out cheeseburger animal style*. Really bad reaction to pseudoephedrine†. Grocery store for birthday party. Nap. Party. Wine. Food. Python Ron. Cake. “YOU BELIEVE in global warming?”‡. More wine. Piñata. Observing a Mel Gibson debate. More wine. Opening of awesome dinosaur and reptile related presents. Bedtime.

DAY 6:
SFO to JFK. Brackish liquid in somebody’s bag leaking on me from the overhead bin. Later agreeing to change seats with a woman so her (too old for this to really be excusable, plus he freely admitted he could watch something on his portable DVD player) kid could watch the in-flight movie, except things didn’t work out and I didn't want to sit next to a baby and all the screens in our cabin were out anyway so it was something of an inconvenience for all involved. Town car ride home to my bed on the UES**.

*awesome

**priceless

†Please don't anyone ever let me take that again. I would rather have my sinuses amputated.

‡Said after I made some offhand comment to a friend of the family I was staying with as we were discussing the recent heat wave in that part of California and the northeast. I said, very casually and with no intentional partisan slant, “Yeah, well we might have to start getting used to this crazy weather... mumble, sigh... global warming...” To which she responded, quite fiercely and with some bizarre air of condescension, “OH, do YOU BELIEVE in global warming?” as though I were... I don’t know... proselytizing all up in her face about Charles Darwin or some such nonsense. Then a bunch of people started dissing Anderson Cooper--totally unrelated to the original topic--though I was somewhat relieved at the digression. The whole thing was just weird and unsettling, and made me want to hightail it back to big, bad, blue New York. But seriously, since when is empirical data something you can choose to believe in or not believe in? I know this is a huge debate for some people and I haven’t seen the Al Gore movie and I don’t feel like arguing with anyone about it but please, um. I don’t even know you and was just trying to be polite and talk about the weather.