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Fri, September 30
The Answer to the Single Girl's Plight
Best invention ever. Actually, these just might replace the boyfriend. Think about it: It doesn't take up leg space in the bed, it doesn't need a shower, and best of all...No morning breath!
Posted by lexzog at Fri, September 30 | Comments (0)
Soup!
It's definitely fall. It feels like fall (my naked un-sock clad feet are cold), it smells like fall (suddenly you can really smell those street pretzels and the tell-tale Dunkin' Donuts smell) and guess what folks, it even tastes like fall!
You know what I'm talking about...Its time for Au Bon Pain's amazingly delicious Butternut Squash Soup.
I know its being served. It is not yet techinically on their weekly menu,
I have missed it both times it was served this week.
Cross your fingers folks that I make it in time today during lunch for one of the best things ever to happen to fall.
Posted by lexzog at Fri, September 30 | Comments (0)
Mon, September 26
Publicity!
Just found out today that one of the books I helped edit at my old job made it to the news!
Kinda cool...
Posted by lexzog at Mon, September 26 | Comments (1)
Back From Paris :(
It is 6.32 AM and normally I wouldn't need to wake up for another hour to go to work. But I have been tossing and turning since 1:00 AM and decided to do something constructive...BLOG!
Just got back last night from an absolutely perfect vacation in Paris and Provence. I'm a little sad to be back though--Paris makes me nostalgic and home sick for a life I don't have there. Every time I go it feels like home, and I can so imagine living there again (not as a student in study abroad, but as a working citizen!). It is always a bit of a downer to come home to the land of processed foods, New York accents, and dirty sidewalks.
I'll get over it!
So...We started out in Paris, where we were staying with friends of friends. Stephanie and Emric have an adorable top floor apartment with an amazing view of those Paris rooftops. It was a nice walk from most of our daily destinations, and believe me, you need the exercise with all that rich food eating. We did not visit a single museum during our Paris stay--when I go with J to Paris, it is more about the walking and breathing in the sights and smells and sounds of the city. We almost never take the metro--I never knew how small and walkabe Paris was when I was a student there (mostly because it was too cold NOT to take the subway at the time)! On the day we arrived we visited our favorite breakfast place, "Paul" on Rue de Seine for eggs au plat and quiche lorraine. Walked around some more, came home and rested, and before dinner, took a walk through the Luxembourg Gardens at sundown. We sat by the fountains and just admired how lovely everything looked in the late afternoon light, until the guards whistled for the garden's closing. It really seems like everyone in Paris is in love, or in a couple, and they all appeared to be at the gardens, sitting on these little chairs (you'd never see that in New York-someone would surely steal public chairs) as the sun set.
Dinner was at a place that one of my old professors recommended--it started out a bit stuffy, but the food was outrageous and once you've had a bottle of really good wine (for less than most bottles of wine here of course) any restaurant can seem like a party. I had a to die for roast duck ("caught at the peak of hunting season") in a fig sauce.
The next day we met my aunt Dot at her apartment near Les Halles. I knew Jess would love their place--they built it themselves and it is full of things like cool furniture from the Musee du Pompidou and an antique doll collection. My uncle is an artist, so the whole place is filled with whatever project he is working on at the moment. We had croissants that we brought from this great bakery, called "Kayser", and talked until it was nearing the afternoon. Dot brought us to this great big flea market at the end of a subway line, the Portle de Clignancourt. We spent hours walking through the 40 acres of stuff you could only dream of buying and of course, the usual flea market junk. Miraculously, she knew of a quiet indoor courtyard you could have lunch in, which is definitely off the Paris beaten track. It was there that we started drinking wine almost every afternoon with lunch. Talk about slowing things down a bit!
That night was my birthday surprise for J--I had reserved a cute hotel for us to stay in, since we both were not looking forward to sleeping on an uncomfortable couch that night. We were walking along complaining about an upcoming bad night's sleep when I said, "It's a good thing we have a hotel to stay in tonight." He was like, "What? No! Really?" I took him to our favorite dinner spot in Paris (which oddly enough, is British owned) called Fish, also on Rue de Seine. It is very young, fun, and unpretentious, with out of this world fish of course. But our favorite thing is the cucumbers and sesame seeds they put on the table when you sit down. The hotel we stayed in was small but adorable, and in the morning, this bright light was pouring through our French windows over a courtyard.
Did I mention the sky was bright blue and almost cloudless during our entire stay in Paris and Provence (until the last day or so)?
We gave in to the tourist thing and had breakfast at Les Deux Magots (an old Hemmingway haunt) to people watch along the Blvd. Saint Germain. We walked to the Louvre and took a nice little nap on a bench in the sun--that jet lag! The plan was to walk to Sacre Coeur. It took over two hours. We didn't take the usual route, where you find yourselves at the base of the church and you walk up a ton of stairs. No, we ended up taking the side route, up these insanely windy cobble stone streets. They are so windy and vertical, the houses seem on the verge of falling over. Yet, there's a bustling street life nonetheless--kids were playing in parcs as school had just let out, and parents were taking them to buy snacks at the patisseries. We rounded a corner on one of the steepest streets and heard classical music coming from one of the apartments above us. The sun was shining on a little stoop, and we sat there to listen for a while.
Sacre Coeur at the end of the day is well worth the trekking. The view is possibly the best in the city and at sundown the light filters through the stained glass and makes rainbow flecks of color on the church's walls.
We met our hosts and another Parisian friend for dinner that night just outside the Jardins du Palais Royale, where I later learned was the site where Emric had proposed to Stephanie. She had urged us to walk through the gardens on our way to the restaurant. There was a canopy of trees lining the parc vertically, creating a cozy passageway of shadows. A big bright fountain was lit up and bubbling on our right as we walked.
The next day we left via TGV for a teeny tiny village in Provence near Uzes, called St. Siffret where J's aunt had been living for the past three weeks (with her boyfriend). The boyfriend, R., was a major middle east correspondant, and he had unbelievable pictures hanging up of the figures he'd interviewed from Arafat to Dali. His house was one among a handful of 13th century ruins that had been restored into a number of breathtakingly beautiful mansions. Technically, his house was a stable that supported the chateau up on the hill but J and I called it "the chateau" nonetheless. We had a guest room that you accessed by going up stairs in the main house, going through a little gated door with windchimes, and a pathway that overlooked a courtyard. Our room was bigger than most NY apartments and overlooked the pool with two big french windows. Of course at night, I was spooked because the house was so old and the walls were made of thick concrete--who could hear you scream? There was actually a lot of talk about thieves in the area (J and I pictures those characatures of french thieves, with a little moustache and striped shirt), so we had to lock our doors every time we left the room.
J's aunt took us on a 16 mile bike ride through all these little towns. We biked through vineyard after vineyard and impossibly small streets (cars and bikes had to take turns). We visited the Pond du Gard, which I believe is the largest remaining Roman aqueduct in the world. Definitely a highlight of the trip. We stopped in Uzes for jambon et gruyere (with butter!) sandwiches, and admired the town square with all its little cafes and shops. This countryside is why biking was invented.
We had possibly one of the best dinner of our lives in a chateau in a neighboring town. It looked like something out of the show "The Bachelor." Does that make sense? There was an interior garden that was lit up just so, and these huge leather chairs that you sit in at dinner. Course after course came but it was more Jean Georges than french bistro. Each dish had tiny tiny tastes on the plate, so you didn't walk out feeling overstuffed but more super enriched by all the tastes and smells and sensations on each dish. I thought the cheese course was dessert--a small cup of hazelnuts in syrop accompanied with a slice of brie, and a little salad with apples and nuts. Even a perfect round dried apple chip. But no! There was more, a tray that held three different takes on banana and pineapple: A yogurt flavored creme fraiche with banana, a chocolate ganache with fresh pineapple on top and a banana flavored ice cream with flecks of pineapple inside and a dried banana chip on top. Heaven!!!
We visited the tiny towns about an hour to an hour and a half away, over the next two days: Baux de Provence, which was like a castle overlooking a valley. St Remis, which was the perfect provincial town and the site of an arch built in the time of Constantine. And all the while, the lavender fields, and countless wineries everywhere. On our last full day there, we woke up and threw on jeans with the idea of going to the local market before it closed, and ended up road tripping the whole day. We went to Nimes which is where there is the best preserved ampitheatre, where bull fights still take place. Everywhere you go are T-shirts with bulls on them or torreadors. We had lunch in a place we read about in a book where the specialty were these potato tarts. Very yummy and also very heavy! It was kind of like a mini Paris.
We almost died on our way back--we took a windy road that had a small stone fence along the side--the kind you see in car commercials (and later, on TV in our hotel, it actually WAS in a commercial), and avoided speeding cars the best we could. This one car passed us and tried to pass a van and they ended up getting in a minor accident. On the side of a cliff! I was praying the whole time and J was laughing. By the way, he only sort of knew how to drive stick until this trip!
Our last night, his aunt and her boyfriend had a fancy dinner party at the house. All the guests were separated at different tables so I had to fend for myself with a bunch of mainly superich American expats, but thankfully found one or two that were nice to talk to. Thank goodness for the generous amount of wine at dinner.
Finally, back to Paris for one more day. We shopped at the Grand Epicerie in the Bon Marche and nearly cried because we couldn't take home cheese and ham and all these good vegetables since they would never survive the flight. We had dinner at La Coupole, which I had passed countless times as a student but never had dared go inside because of the anticipated prices. When you wait for your table they give each guest a different fake business card, so when they call your name they say Victor Hugo instead of Alexis. Funny. I surprised myself and ordered steak tartare.
So now we are back. I didn't take ambien last night because when I took it on the plane on the way there I literally tripped. J witnessed the whole thing--I was going out of my mind. It was like dreaming but I had been awake the whole time. And it wasn't really fun! Call me a good girl, whatever.
Ok, time to go to work. Bleh. I'll write more if more comes to me....
Posted by lexzog at Mon, September 26 | Comments (0)
Tue, September 13
Sadly, This Headline is Not a Joke
Those darn lesbians have done it again! Oh Ellen, you've gone done made God REAL mad!
ROBERTSON BLAMES HURRICANE ON CHOICE OF ELLEN DEGENERES TO HOST EMMYS
Posted by lexzog at Tue, September 13 | Comments (2)
Why I Feel Like a Zombie
I woke up not so bright but really early this morning to go vote for the Primaries today. Go Brian Kavanagh!I thought originally that J and I could make a morning of it--get up early together, get some coffee (he was volunteering at the campaign office). Unfortunately, J crashed on his couch and couldn't come downtown last night, so I forced myself to get out of bed for the sole sake of "doing my part." When I got to the little voting place, a place that had a pretty long line (thank goodness, but in the end, it didn't matter cuz Bushy Boy won) last year...I was surprised: No Line Whatsoever. I think I was the first person there. Kind of sad. East Village, please! Represent! Or at least, Vote! I did like that when the "Vote for So and So" people attacked me on my way to work, I was able to say, "Too late! Already did!" or "I voted for him earlier today!" That made me feel good.
I am dog tired now, though. No gym today. I killed myself yesterday on the bike, so there. I love when I'm doing one of my sculpting/weight lifting routines and one of the trainers, or other people working out gives me a thumbs up becauese I can do pushups off of those sturdy weight lifting balls and they can't. That also makes me feel good.
What DOES NOT MAKE ME FEEL GOOD is stinky people on the subway. And whyohwhyohwhy do they insist on standing and/or sitting right next to me?!
Last night I was on my way home from the gym, when I found a nice spot on the bench of a B train. I was happy, listening to my ipod, reading The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll, when we stopped at 42nd Street and this huuuuuuge man with real meaty arms sat next to me on my left. I scooched over a bit, to give his arms some room. Then he scooched over a bit to take up some of my room. I scooched again. He scooched. It was a scooching WAR. I finally, gracefully, scooched over enough without making it totally obvious that I was trying to move away from him (because we have to do this discretely, we can't let the other person know we think they are scooching to get closer to us, because that's just plain presumptuous!), when BAM! on 34th Street, a super dee duper smelly Postal Service worker sat next to me. Did I mention he was quite large as well? So there I was wedged in the middle ofa Smelly Postal Worker and Meaty Man sandwich, and even if I wanted to I COULDN'T MOVE. I held my nose all the way to West 4th Street, and tried to mentally squeeze my limbs inward so as to avoid as much skin to skin touching possible (we were all in short sleeves).
So...Does anyone want to go halvsies on a personal chauffeur?
Posted by lexzog at Tue, September 13 | Comments (0)
Thu, September 8
Coldplay
Just got this email from Becs. I asked her if she could join me at spin tonight and this was her reply:
"As far as tonight, Alexis, I fell down on the sidewalk in front of Duane Reade heading home from work yesterday and had to get a stitch. Yep, that's right. One lousy stitch. So I won't be spinning tonight as I'm supposed to keep the wound "clean" and free of debris. Since I'm lazy, I'm going to consider sweat "debris". And although one stitch may seem medically insignificant, to quote the man who stepped over me tell the person on the other end of his cell phone conversation, "Dude, this girl just fell on her face for no reason.""
WHO GETS JUST ONE STITCH? (Who doesn't love Jerry?--Seinfeld)
Saw Coldplay last night. AWESOME! So rediculously awesome. Of course J was able to sneak us to the standing area, right by the stage. And by "sneak" I mean, he befriended an usher, and even showed our ticket to him, but we still were able to mozy on in.
There was so much energy, so much going on with the lights. Everyone was smiling and excited to be there. The band rocked out fully. My ears are still ringing though.
We tried to go to the 40-40 club (Jay Z's place) after, but it was completely dead. I did enjoy those swinging chairs they have, though.
Tonight. Is. The. Night. First episode of the O.C. When did I become a TV watcher? I have "shows" now. You know how people have "their show"? Like, something that they HAVE to watch and no other plans can interfere? That's what I'm like, for Laguna Beach, My Super Sweet Sixteen, and now, I am sure I will become obsessed with the O.C. But there is a reason I am watching all this TV--I need to stop going out to dinner all the time, and these shows will be my incentive to eat in. My visa bill was out of control this month. Kind of depressing. Kind of had an anxiety attack about it...And it isn't even like I was out buying new clothes! I bought nothing but some walking shoes this month! But its the eating that just adds and adds and adds up. Even cooking for one isn't going to do much to help...By the time you buy your veg, your starch, your meat, or what have you--it's like, fifteen dollars later! For one meal!
You can't win.
Next year, when I (supposedly, hopefully) move in with J, we will cook and cook and cook.
Posted by lexzog at Thu, September 8 | Comments (2)
Tue, September 6
Jellyfish and Toasts
This weekend I went to a Bar-Mitvah and a Wedding. No funerals, thank goodness. The Bar-Mitvah was for J's twin cousins. So adorable. The party was fun, but a bit crowded. We spent the five hours of the party drinking bad white wine and admiring the golf course behind the beach club where it was held.
For the second time in a row, J scored at the Hertz rental place--instead of the Buick or whatever crap car he was supposed to get, the woman asked him if it was "OK" if she gave him a Jaguar. A Jag! (And just last November, he ended up with a red convertible by default!)
My feet were already killing me from these new sandals I bought during No-Tax week, so you can imagine how much pain I was in after a full day of doing the YMCA, the Electric Slide, and the "Cha-Cha Slide" (the hip, new version) in heels.
Ahhhh...But Saturday night was nice. We just hung at J's cousin's house and laid low.
The next day was a gorgeous day at the beach. Unfortunately, there was this massive amount of jelly fish that had washed up on the shore, dying and rotting in the heat. I tried to stroll along the shore without stepping on one, but every few steps I felt that distinctive SQUISH that meant that my foot had squashed one of those jellies till it burst. I felt guilty. I wanted to throw all the jelly fish back into the water, in the hopes that they might survive. (Some of the ones on the shore hadn't yet died, but were in the process.) And then I thought, if I threw let's say, twenty of them in, what would that really do overall? They were probably just going to wash up again on the shore anyway.
Which is defeatest, I know. Much different than my heroic bug-saving acts as a child, rescuing beetles and even bees that had fallen into the pool back-first as they kicked in the air. I couldn't begin to enjoy a day at the pool until I'd saved 80% of the dying creepy crawlies.
But this weekend, with the jelly fish, I just threw my hands up and decided not to go into the water at all...
The Wedding was gorgeous--it was at a fake winery, yes, a fake one. But still beautiful grounds for a wedding nonetheless. The Best Man's speech was the highlight of the wedding: He spoke for over twenty minutes, starting with anecdotes about his early friendship with the bride, describing the many vacations they had taken together before she'd met her husband to be and then through the day when he met groom, on through their friendship, with lots of examples to substantiate his statements, along the way. At the twentieth minute, the Best Man was about to launch into "there was this one Hannukah, where the bride". J burst out laughing. He couldn't believe we were about to hear yet ANOTHER story. OF course, I lost it completely. I laughed so hard, I snorted. Everyone else who had been trying to contain themselves also started to giggle. Thank goodness he ended his speech shortly after that so we could all let it out amidst the clapping.
By the way, we had amazing tickets to the U.S. Open, thanks to my parents who got free tickets from a friend. The tickets were corporate tickets, so that meant we had a full-bluwn suite that was stocked with tons of yummy food, from thinly sliced steak and tomatoes, to chocolate chip cookies, to wine. I don't know if it was all the free food, but by my second glass of red, I decided that tennis was my favorite spectator sport.
Venus makes funny noises when she swings. Federer is H-O-T.
Like I said, H-O-T.
Saw my brother on Friday, when we both went up to hang with dad at the office. Dad wasn't able to leave to get coffee with us, but we had a nice time wandering along Lexington Ave. Justin's new haircut was....different. Can't wait until Mom sees. (Then I'll let you know what kind of cut it was.)
Dinner with the new roomies tonight. I ordered the wrong thing at Max on Avenue B. The best dish there, hands down, is the rigatoni with eggplant and mozzarella.
Where does the time go? I am so tired! Early meeting tomorrow...
Posted by lexzog at Tue, September 6 | Comments (2)