i love new york.: November 2006

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Day-by-day randomity

Ah, many things to discuss this Tuesday morning. A couple of Sundays ago, Dustin's parents treated us to a sold-out concert at the Blue Note: Chick Corea was playing, and Tommy (Dustin's drummer brother) was dying to see Steve Gadd play with him, so we all headed down for the amazing jazz show.

Super cool. Later that week, Wednesday was low-key at work, and Rob brought in his adorable puppy Sadie. I can only think of one dog in the world that I love more than Sadie, and she lives in Missouri.

Stephanie trained Sadie to be a receptionist.

I don't know why, but I thought of my and Stephanie's outfits as Thanksgiving-ish.

Thursday I went to Dustin's for Thanksgiving. His parents just moved here and his brother and sister were down from school in Massachussetts (spelling?), so it was super-fun family time! I looked out across the street and into the windows of everybody else's holiday goings-on, men wearing aprons, kids setting tables, relatives and friends greeting each other. You can't see it in this picture, but just believe me.

It was a delicious and lovely meal, all courtesy of Mrs. Stephens.

Friday I rocked a new hairstyle. Kind of silly.

That night we went to the Peaches concert at Irving Plaza, and it was AWESOME. Awesome. She rocked like no other woman I've ever seen.

So we rocked with her.

She's absolutely crazy. Most of the time she was just in her glittery underwear.

On the subway ride home, we sat next to this couple, who I guessed to be in their 60s, and we looked over and saw that they were holding ticket stubs.... to the Peaches concert. What?!

I couldn't see them enjoying that crazy show like we did, but apparently it's never too late to be awesome.

On Saturday I made the trek to New Jersey to go to Target. It did not disappoint. I got all new bedding. The sheets are blue, which, if you know anything about me at all, is a very different choice.

My bunny and polar bear seemed to enjoy it.

My roommates were gone for the weekend and I very much enjoyed my alone time, deep-cleaning my room, watching crappy lite movies on cable ("Sky High" and "What A Girl Wants"... again) and collage-ing.

I wrote in my journal, which is such a rare occasion lately that I'm writing about it in my blog.

Finally, on Sunday night, we went out for a final dinner with Dustin's family before the brother and sister headed back to school at Duwat, an Indian restaurant. Who was there at the table next to us but Nole Marin, judge from the first couple of seasons of "America's Next Top Model"!!!! We all pretty much flipped out.

Chances are if you're reading this I'll see you within the next few days. It's the holiday season! The most wonderful time of the year! Oh Andy Williams, I miss him so! Merry early Christmas from your New York City elf-ette.

love,
*jenna*

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Birthday Bonanza

Against all logic, I am dating someone of the same astrological sign as me. Scorpios, no less. Dustin was born just 5 days before me, on Halloween of 1980. For his birthday, after a long and arduous day of work for both of us, I treated him to a fancy-schmancy dinner at Tabla, an Indian-American fusion place that is crazy good. It's the kind of place that makes you feel like a king (or raja) and gives you amuse-bouches and pinafores.

I got a ginger snap with my dinner, a cocktail that consists of ginger-infused vodka and champagne. Oh, so good!

The gift-giving began before the appetizers. I gave him a one-of-a kind card made by our friend Stephanie, created with Mexican Lottery paper.

The card was in one of his gifts, a stylin' new messenger bag made of ballistic nylon. I'm still not sure if he likes it. He seems to in this picture though.

Also in the bag was a DVD collection of one of his favorite shows, Home Movies, and tickets to go see the Peaches concert later this month.

After our super-delicious meal consisting of steaks and such, we had delicious desserts. Mine was a flourless chocolate cake with chili pepper chocolate mousse.

And Dustin got the Tahitian Vanilla Bean Kulfi, or something, complete with birthday wishes from the staff. (We told them his name was Jack Bauer, the greatest hero of American television.)

And who could have dessert without fresh tea? Not Dustin. No teabag either - just a straight-up strainer over the cup.

The next day the P.S. crew surprised Dustin with a little party in his editing room... we didn't want to give away the surprise by calling him to the kitchen, so we brought the party (and all the blurry pictures) to him.

We got him sweet rice empanadas from Dos Caminos.

And, just because they were a day old (he was out of the office on his real b-day), we also got him an ice-cream cake.

We sang.

He made a wish.

And then we gave him a gift and card.

The gift was, appropriately enough, a mustache trimmer.

I think it was a good birthday for him.

My birthday was the following Saturday... but on Friday morning I came to work to find autumn tulips waiting for me from Dustin. (one, two, three.... "awwwww")

They're so beautiful! My favorite.

The day was like any other... all work, very little play, and the sun went down at like 4pm.

But it sure was beautiful.

At around 5:30, I could hear rustling going on in the kitchen. I thought, "Yeah, they're gonna give me cake!! Whoo-hoo!" Then my boss Zarina came into my room and said, in an excited whisper, "We're all going to gather in John's room with a cake, then John's going to call Patrick in and we're all going to surprise him for his birthday!!" I said, "Uh, okay." In my mind I was saying, "What? Patrick?! It's my birthday!" But yes, Patrick's birthday was going to be the day after mine, so I signed his card and gathered in John's room with everyone else.

We lit the candles on his cake.

He came in and we all yelled "Surprise!!"

We sang, and he made a wish like people do on their birthdays.

We gave him a card, of course.

Then everyone started singing again and they pulled out a cheesesteak, a delicious food which I enjoy at least weekly, with candles on it. They did a good job of surprising me.

I got a card too.

Pat and I enjoyed our birthday delicacies.

Everyone had some cake, and some people shared my cheesesteak.

Mmmmm.

We interrupt this message for a hat-haired Dustin interlude.

Saturday, guess what? I had to work. Awesome! On my way in, I saw the familiar catering setup, director's chairs, and trailers set up on 28th Street. They were filming something there, an action movie from the looks of it, I realized when I got to 5th Avenue.

Craziness!

P.A.s stood on the lookout for looky-loos like myself. It turned out to be a movie called I Am Legend, in which Will Smith plays the last man alive, struggling to survive in a world inhabited by vampires.

Luckily I only had to work until about 3pm. I went to Union Square to see Stephanie and support her stationery-selling ways.

That night Dustin took me to my favorite restaurant, Otto, which is owned by Mario Batalli and has the most amazing arugula salad this side of the Mediterranean.

Dinner was delicious but of course I only have pictures of the dessert. I had a gelato trifecta, which included olive oil gelato, pumpkin gelato, and chocolate-chocolate chip gelato.