NYC 2013, Part One

Last week, Jon and I went to NYC. It was an incredibly packed trip - we had something planned almost every day! This is already a super-long post (really unusual for a blog that rarely gets updated anymore), so I'm dividing it up. Here are the highlights from the first half of the week:

Saturday
Our first night, we went to a D20 Burlesque show. This one was especially awesome, because it was a tribute to Joss Whedon!

Even the drinks were Whedon-themed! I had a Slayer-Ade and it was delicious.

"Anya" and "Xander" sang and danced (and stripped) to "I'll Never Tell" from the "Once More with Feeling" episode of Buffy.

The best was definitely Astonishing X-Man Cyclops - he even had tasseled pasties over his eyes to mimic optic blasts!
Sunday
That evening, we saw ASSSSCAT 3000 at the UCB Theater. It was so crowded, we actually sat ON the stage. I didn't take any pictures in the theater, since that was a big no-no (and would've been really noticeable during the improv, considering we were practically sitting in their laps), but one of the shows is available on YouTube:


Monday
At the crack of dawn (seriously), we arrived at the Dominique Ansel Bakery to wait in line for our cronuts:

Let me tell you, the whole cronut thing is NUTS. Jon discovered them while he was researching stuff for us to do in the city, and the hullabaloo over them only intensified in the days leading up to our trip. This is an approximation of a conversation I had with my mom the day before we left:

Mom: Are you guys going to get cronuts while you're there?
Me: How do you even know what a cronut is?
Mom: They were talking about them on the news.

Holy cow. You know it's big when my mom has heard about it. So anyway, we got to the bakery a good two hours before the opening and ended up being 10th and 11th in line. One of the men in line in front of us turned out to be a homeless guy who had been paid $40 by a yuppie to wait in line for him. (!) When Dominique opened up the shop, he was really nice and said hi to everyone, but he refused to allow one guy in because he was an honest-to-God CRONUT SCALPER. Seriously, these people buy the cronuts for $5, then turn around and sell them for $20 - $50. EACH.

Long story short(-er), the cronuts were delicious. Maybe not worth standing in line for two hours again, but definitely worth it for the experience. We also went back to the bakery later in the week to try some of the other pastries; I actually preferred the salted-caramel eclair to the cronut.

Our Monday night was spent at my favorite Brooklyn bar, The Way Station. It's Doctor Who-themed! The walls are decorated in steampunk paraphernalia and the bathroom entrance is a TARDIS (because it's bigger on the inside):

The reason we went to the Way Station on this particular night, however, was because of the band playing there: The Doubleclicks! My current favorite song (and not just because they dedicated it to me, the only English major in the crowd) is "Oh, Mr. Darcy," which you can hear here:


Tuesday
We didn't have anything planned for Tuesday, but while I was getting ready in the morning Jon managed to get us tickets to that day's taping of The Daily Show. This involved going to Hell's Kitchen in the afternoon to stand in line to pick up the tickets, then coming back an hour and a half later to wait in line for the actual taping.
The show was great; John Oliver is incredibly funny and the guest was one of my favorite comedians, Jim Gaffigan.

Continuing our comedy motif, that night we went to the Sweet Comedy Show. It was kind of a weird show - the comedians were great, but there were some very drunk hecklers in the balcony that really detracted from the show and threw off the vibe of the room. By a strange coincidence, I had read this excellent essay by Patton Oswalt earlier the same day. To read about how hecklers can affect a show and then to actually see them do it was disconcerting. I was glad when they finally left (after being called out by the comedians and yelled at by the rest of us in the audience), but I felt really bad for the comedians who had to put up with them during their sets.

That seems like a really weird place to end this part of the travelogue, so instead I'll leave you with this list of the 10 most satisfying cases of hecklers getting destroyed. Stay tuned for Part Two!

There and back again, Part One

I've been home from New York for a few days now, but I'm still trying to adjust. The difference in weather is tremendous - I loved the rainy, cooler weather of NYC and now the heat and humidity of GA is really getting to me. Plus, I have a little over a week to move out of my apartment. The woman who bought it actually harassed my parents while I was away in an attempt to get me out sooner. She also called my roommate (at work!) and told the landlord that she wanted to bring in some contractors to replace the carpet, linoleum, and cabinets, so we needed to get out before the 30th. We finally had to threaten to sic the sheriff on her, and that seems to have done the trick. So it's been an interesting few days...

As far as the trip goes, oh, man, was it amazing!

Day One
I went to NYC with my friend Casey. She had never been to the city before, and had never flown on a plane, so this was a very exciting trip for her! We stayed at my sister's house Wednesday night, and she agreed to drive us to Hartsfield/Jackson in the morning. Our flight was scheduled for 11:40am. Not knowing what the traffic would be like, we left around 8. And then promptly turned around and went back, because I had left our plane ticket/shuttle bus/hotel information at the house. There was little traffic in Atlanta (a shock in and of itself), so we actually made it to the airport in record time. Add in the fact that our flight was delayed due to thunderstorms at Laguardia, and we had roughly three hours to kill before takeoff. Yikes.

The flight went well; it was a little bumpy due to the storms, but nothing too bad. And then, we took a shuttle to the hotel. It was pretty much the scariest ride I've ever been on. Seriously, this guy apparently thought that traffic lights, lanes, and speed limits were just guidelines - we almost hit pedestrians several times, and I was terrified that we would end up in the hospital before we ever saw any sights.

We eventually arrived safe and sound. Casey and I were the last ones dropped off, because we elected to stay in the quieter financial district, rather than in Midtown. Our hotel, Club Quarters Downtown, was just amazing. The people were friendly, the rooms were nice, it was right next to a Subway station (the 2/3, which was really convenient), and there was a refillable water bottle station on almost every floor. We unpacked, and then set off to see the city.

Our first stop was Times Square, because it was really easy to get to on the Subway and we were hungry! The rain had pretty much stopped by then, but it was really foggy:


We ended up eating at Red Lobster, because it was the first restaurant we came to. After walking around for a bit (and buying hoodies emblazoned with "New York," because we were cold and really wanted to look like tourists), we made our way over to Kabin in the East Village to see the anniversary show for Comedy as a Second Language. To be honest, we only went because one of my favorite comedians, Max Silvestri, had e-mailed me to say that he would be there. But it was a great show! We ended up staying for about three hours, drinking $2 PBRs and laughing our asses off. Of course, then we were stuck trying to find our way back to the hotel at 2 am. Drunk and lost in a strange city in the middle of the night - what a way to start a vacation!

Day Two
We didn't set the alarm when we got back to the hotel, so we ended up oversleeping on Friday. Big surprise there, I'm sure. We got up and made our way over to Brooklyn, stopping at a comic book store (natch) before hitting up Mezcal's for brunch. I really don't understand the negative reviews on Yelp!, because they had the most amazing sangria and cerritos. Yum! Next came one of the things I was most looking forward to on this trip:


THE BROOKLYN SUPERHERO SUPPLY COMPANY!

Seriously, this was one of the funnest places we found. They sell "real" superhero supplies - costumes, disguises, anti-gravity devices, invisibility detector goggles, and, of course, capes:


(that's Casey - on the left - and me doing our "fighting for justice" stance)

This place is awesome. And all of the profit goes to 826NYC, an organization dedicated to helping students improve their writing skills. How could I not spend tons of time and money in this place?!

After getting our fill of Brooklyn, we went back to the hotel to change. Dinner was at Sardi's, the one restaurant Casey really wanted to go to. It's a bit expensive, but it's also a landmark, so it was fun to eat there. We made reservations, but didn't really need them as we got there before the big dinner rush. Which gave us plenty of time to eat and then head down to Christopher Street and...


THE CORALINE MUSICAL!

This show was the impetus for this whole trip, so I was really looking forward to it. Our tickets were great: second row, center. Casey hadn't read the book, but she had seen the movie, so I had to explain that it would probably be a little different. No Wybie, for example, which surprised her. The show was excellent! I was a little taken aback at having Jane Houdyshell play Coraline, but she was wonderful in the role. She does "bored tween" very well. Julian Fleisher was amazing as The Cat, and the music was great! I loved the toy pianos and the creepy vibe they helped create. My only complaint: it wasn't scary. It was more funny, or campy. Which is fine, I was just expecting it to be, I dunno, more intense than it was. But overall I really enjoyed it, and I wish I could get the soundtrack.

Aaaaaand I think this has gone on long enough for now. I actually started writing at 8:15, which...yikes. It took me way too long to upload pictures and find links. I'll post more about the trip throughout the week. There are a few more photos on my Flickr page (more coming when I get paid and can upgrade to a Pro account).

Besotted by B's

Care assigned me the letter B in the alphabet meme. Here are ten of my favorite B-words:


Caspian Beach ساحل خزر
Originally uploaded by >TOORAJ
1. The Beach! Any beach, really, but I'm partial to Hilton Head Island, SC (my family vacations there every year) and Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL (where my mom grew up and the majority of her family still lives).

2. B Bands. The Beatles, Boston, bis (RIP), bicycle, Ben Folds (Five), The B-52's...


3. Boston terriers. Generally speaking, I love all dogs. Yes, even the two that bit me on the face when I was little - OUCH! But when I finally have a house and fenced-in back yard of my own, I really want to get one of these. They're so cute! And smart and lively to boot.

4. Baking. I love making cookies, cakes, cupcakes, etc. It's relaxing. And yummy!

5. Backrubs. Speaking of relaxing...who doesn't love a good rub down now and then? One of my friends went through training to become a message therapist a few years ago, and I loved being her guinea pig.

6. Book-related websites. BookCrossing, BookMooch, LibraryThing, GoodReads...I use and love them all.


7. Bernal, Gael Garcia. One of my favorite actors. I loved him Amores perros, Y yu mama tambien, and El Crimen de padre Amaro. I have yet to see The Science of Sleep, but I'm sure it's wonderful, too.

8. Bubble wrap. Is there anything as satisfying as receiving something in the mail and then spending the next ten minutes blissfully popping all the bubble wrap it came in? I think not.

9. Buffy - the movie ("Pike isn't a name; it's a fish.") and the TV series ("Well, I like you. You're nice, and you're funny, and you don't smoke. Yeah, okay, werewolf, but that's not all the time. I mean, three days out of the month I'm not much fun to be around either."). I still listen to the "Once More, With Feeling" soundtrack almost every day. It must be bunnies!

10. B&Bs. When I went to the UK, my tour group stayed in a variety of Bed & Breakfasts. They're cozy, the people who run them are friendly, and you're guaranteed a great breakfast when you wake up. The place we stayed in Monmouthshire (Wales) even had cats that slept in the bed with you!



I realize this meme has probably run its course by now, but if you'd like to play along, leave a comment and I'll give you a letter.

Weekly Geeks: Passions

This week's Weekly Geeks challenge is:

#1. What are you passionate about besides reading and blogging? For example, are you crafty (knitting, woodworking, scrapbooking, model building)? Do you cook? Into gaming (computer or board)? Sports (player or spectator)? Photography? Maybe you like geocaching, rock climbing? Or love attending events like renaissance fairs, concerts? Music? Dancing? You get the idea.

Tell us why you're passionate about it. Post photos of what you've made or of yourself doing whatever it is you love doing.

#2. Get us involved. Link to tutorials, recipes, Youtube videos, websites, fan sites, etc, anything that will help us learn more about your interest or how to do your hobby. Maybe you'd like to link to another hobbyist whose work you admire or tell us about a book or magazine related to your interest.

#3. Visit other Weekly Geeks. Link in your post to other Geeks who've peaked your interest in their passion. Or maybe you might find a fellow afincionado among us, link to them.

I have quite a few interests that I'm passionate about, other than reading and blogging. I enjoy a good video game: I have a Wii, DS, GameBoy Color, PS1, PS2, and Sega Genesis. I'm currently playing Final Fantasy XII on the PS1, Okami on the Wii, Kingdom Hearts on the PS2, and bunch of random strategy, puzzle, action-adventure, and RPGs on the other systems.

Some video game sites of interest (to me, and hopefully to you):
GameFaqs - a great place to go for walkthrus and cheat codes. I post (very infrequently) as jessidee on the boards.
Penny Arcade - a hilarious comic series geared to gamers
Kotaku - a blog about games with great reviews

My next big passion is crafts. I scrapbook, cross stitch, knit, and crochet. I post my completed and works-in-progress on Ravelry - my username is jessidee on there, too, if anyone would like to friend me. Which brings me to...

The Dewey's Book Reading Challenge Knit-a-long Mini-Challenge! Whew, that's a long name. Anyway, here are the projects that I've started this year in honor of Dewey:



This is a hat-in-progress. It will eventually have i-cords and kitty ears. :) I'm excited about this one, because it's my first time using double-ended needles and knitting in the round. I had to frog it a few times, but it's coming along nicely now.



This is a shawl I'm crocheting by request for my mom.

And here are a few works-in-progress that are still hanging around from last year:



This is an amiguri (crocheted stuffed animal) lion that I'm making for my friend Casey. She's a big Harry Potter fan, and she wanted a "Gryffindor Lion." I've actually gotten more done since I took this picture, but I still haven't gotten it all put together.



This is a star-shaped baby blanket I started crocheting when I found out that one of my coworkers was pregnant. She's already had the baby, so I decided that who ever is closest to giving birth by the time I actually finish, gets it. I'm usually not this bad about completing projects, but I keep putting this one down in favor of other projects.

My flickr account is exclusively devoted to my knit-and-crochet projects (and my yarn!), because that's the photo organizer that Ravelry uses. Other fun crafty sites:

Cthulhu Crochet and Cousins and Geek Central Station both feature geeky amigurumi projects, usually with patterns or links for purchasing. I especially love the Firefly-related posts.
Modern Cottage - recipes (another one of my passions!) and general craftiness
Not Martha - as in Stewart. But I like their ideas and tips much better.
The Mario Scarf Blog - If you haven't heard of Cassie Smith, you really need to check this out. She's knitting the first world of Mario as one long, continuous scarf. It's pretty much the most amazing thing I've ever seen.

So, what are your passions? I'll be visiting other WGs and posting about what I discover throughout the week

The Sunday Salon - 28 September 2008

Hello, fellow Saloners! This hasn't been the most productive week for me, reading-wise, and I'm pretty sure today won't be much different. I'm terribly far behind in my grading, and my goal for the day is to get caught up with all my school stuff. I have to give my principal an updated list of my failing students, which means I have to go through a mountainous pile of tests, quizzes, short stories, and daily work that has been patiently waiting for my attention for the past two weeks. Yikes. After I finish grading, I may get some pleasure reading done - we'll see.

I do have some updates from my last Weekly Geeks post, though (I'm not participating in this week's theme, because I haven't really read any books from 2008, sadly). First, my TBR/Currently Reading pile:
Sadly, some of these books have been sitting by my bed for months. I plan on really digging in during the 24 Hour Read-a-Thon, which I am FINALLY able to participate in.

Next, my "Free Books!" box that I will be dropping off at Curves tomorrow evening:
All of these books are registered on BookCrossing and a lot of them are also part of the 2008 Movie/TV Books Release Challenge.

And now, my newest Ravelry project:
In case you can't tell, it's a star-shaped afghan. I started it as a gift for a coworker, but she's already gone on maternity leave and it's nowhere near finished, so who knows who will actually get it. It's my first time using this pattern, so it's not exactly perfect, but I think it's cute.

Lastly: this isn't actually a project of mine, but I thought it was interesting - Book-spines turned into stories (found on BoingBoing).

Have a great Sunday, and Happy Reading!

Peachtree Road Race

A week later, and I'm finally getting around to posting pictures from the Peachtree Road Race. This was the first year I was actually able to be in the race - my mom did it two years ago, she and I both applied last year (and were denied), and we didn't make it this year, either. Fortunately, a friend of hers decided not to go and agreed to sell me her number. Unfortunately, I had stopped training. It really wasn't too bad, just a little over six miles. I didn't even notice "Cardiac Hill" because it was nothing compared to the steep hills in my old neighborhood. The best part was getting to do it with my sister, Liz, and my friend Jen (this was her fourth PTRR). We didn't take a camera with us, but my sister had one on her cell phone.


The starting line, way in the distance...
There were over 55,000 people running this thing. My number put me in group 3, but Liz and Jen were in group 8 so I went with them. The race started at 7 am, but the groups were released every 20 minutes or so, so were stuck waiting around for almost 2 hours. Liz had a stopwatch and pedometer on her phone, too, and she had to restart them four times. We kept thinking, "Okay, we're REALLY going this time!" and then we'd walk about 10 feet and stop again.


FREE BEER!
One of the best perks of being in this thing: random strangers stand on the sidewalks to cheer you on and give you stuff. We hadn't even completed the first mile when a bar started giving out beer - at 9 in the morning! Jen and I ran to get some, and my sister joked that it would be the only time we'd actually run for the whole race. That wasn't entirely untrue.

My mom called to see how we were doing right after this picture was taken. She wasn't quite as excited about the drinking-beer-while-completing-a-10k as we were.

Some people dressed up:


We weren't sure if this was a tribute to Reno 911's Lieutenant Dangle, or just some guys celebrating Pride Week, which was also going on that day.


Guy in a banana suit. Don't know why, but I'm sure he was sweating like crazy...
There were also girls wearing t-shirts declaring their love for Clark Howard, a local radio personality who runs every year. I didn't see him, though. I also missed the pub crawlers, although I saw them two years ago when Mom did the race. Those guys are hardcore; they walk all 6+ miles, stopping at every bar along the way. I'm sure it takes them a while.

And finally...


The finish line!
It didn't actually take us 3 hours. According to Liz's pedometer, we walked 15,675 steps (or thereabouts) in an hour and 48 minutes. I'm not sure if that includes all the stopping-and-starting at the beginning, but it certainly gives me a time to beat next year.

Summer Reading Extravaganza Day 4: Summer Reading Activities

Today’s topic is summer reading activities. What we love so much about reading is that it expands our world! If you have any fun traditions or activities that you share with your kids or students that have to do with reading, today is the day to share them.If you don’t have kids, maybe you have a bookclub that does has some fun traditions or you enjoy organizing your books in the summer. Be creative and share with us!

I don't have any kids, and I don't really have any summer reading traditions (yet), so today I'm going to talk about one that I would love to start.

The summer between my Sophomore and Junior years in college, I participated in a Study Abroad course. We actually had two classes (British Romanticism and Spirit of Place in British Literature). For two weeks, we read a bunch of books and came to class every day to discuss them. Then we traveled to the UK and spent two weeks visiting the places mentioned in the books! It was amazing! My two favorite places were Lyme Regis (I'm sure many of you remember the Cobb that Louisa Musgrove fell down in Persuasion) and Arthur's Seat (site of a rather sublime scene in James Hogg's Confessions of a Justified Sinner). Spending three hours climbing to the top made the idea of seeing God in the clouds a lot more believable.

We also visited the moors of Haworth (Wuthering Heights), Wales (Tintern Abbey), Hampstead (home of Keats), Newstead Abbey (home of Byron), Dorchester (site of pretty much anything Thomas Hardy wrote), and various other literary locations. It was the most fun I've ever had reading.

I've been talking with friends and family about saving up some money this school year and going on a trip to Italy next summer. I probably won't be able to go for very long, but I'd love to make it a literary tour! Any suggestions for books set in Italy? I'll definitely be re-reading John Berendt's The City of Falling Angels, because Venice is so on my list of places to see.

Visit The Friendly Book Nook for more fun summer reading activities!

Cunning, ain't it?

I finally got around to adding the pompom ball up top. Yay! This one's for Fran, but I'll be making more for Dragon*Con later. My next project is an amigurumi penguin for Ashley, who's moving into the apartment complex this weekend.

Fun in the sun

Pictures from our annual family trip to Hilton Head last week:


the view from our balcony

Sand sculptures!

a land shark eating a sunbathing tourist


an eel (?)


the requisite sandcastle


starfish

I didn't actually make any of these, but I thought they were cool and wanted to get pictures of them before the tide came up and washed them away. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that taking my camera from the nice, cold air conditioning into the hot, muggy sunshine would make the pictures come out fuzzy. Oh, well. I also have pictures from a kayaking trip we took through the marsh, but I used a waterproof disposable camera for those and am still waiting for them to get developed. I did make something on the trip (Mom and I both brought our creative outlets; she quilted, and I crocheted), but I'm still working on it. It's actually for Dragon*Con this year, and I'm hoping it'll be a big damn surprise for one of my fellow convention-goers.

Adventures in god-sitting

A few weeks ago, my mom's friend asked me if I would stay in her house and watch her dog for a week and a half. I jumped at the chance, because a) I LOVE dogs and have always, always, always wanted one of my own, and b) her house is five minutes from where I work on the weekends, thus saving me a bunch of gas money. Win-win!

This is Mulligan:

He's a very sweet, energetic springer spaniel. He had a few digestive problems earlier in the week, but after a trip to vet, a few pills, and some special wet food, he's doing much better. We were having a great time together, until...


Well, actually, this was pretty cool. I was downstairs cleaning up when I looked out the window and saw a deer, chillaxin' out by the fish pond.

In the middle of the day.

I was surprised, because although I've seen hundreds of deer out here in the sticks (I even hit two in my old car, which is why I upgraded to the Yaris), I had never seen one after 9 am or before 7 pm. This cell phone picture was taken at around 1:30 yesterday. Right after I took it, Mulligan saw the deer and went CRAZY. His barking and scratching at the windows drove the poor deer off into the woods. I figured that would be the end of the drama.

Five minutes later, Mulligan starts giving me the "I have to go outside now, human!" look. As soon as I opened the door, he ran like hell for the woods. I started to get worried when he didn't reappear for a few minutes. I was all set to start organizing a neighborhood search when I saw the deer, running for its life from a dog one-fifth its size. Mulligan eventually returned to the house (after exhausting himself chasing his new friend), and that was when the smell hit me.

Mulligan's owner warned me that he liked to roll around in deer crap, but I didn't believe her until I saw (and smelled) it for myself. Washing him turned into a huge ordeal; every time I picked him up and put him in the tub, he jumped right back out. Then he wagged his tail and ran around in circles, because he was clearly having the time of his life. In the end, I managed to herd him into the shower stall, although he cowered in the corner where the spray barely hit him. Let me tell you, trying to wash deer excrement off of a squirming wet dog while fully clothed and mildly annoyed is NOT a good way to pass the time.

Luckily, yesterday was also the day that I finally got to see the Iron Man movie. I think I embarrassed Casey; I made her sit through the end credits, listening to me talk about the Avengers movie and how disappointed I was that there was no Sam-Jackson-as-Nick-Fury-cameo in the movie. And then that little teaser scene at the end happened, and I completely lost it. I haven't had a geekgasm like that since last year's DragonCon.

Oh, and the subject line isn't a typo. I was trying to tell Casey (via Facebook) "I'm dog-sitting this week" and ending up typing "I'm god-sitting this week" FIVE TIMES before I finally got it right. Freudian slip much?