A few things...

1) I have come to the realization that participating in a boot camp class is a commitment to what some would call "extreme" pain for the next 3 days. I am still wincing when walking up and down stairs today.
2) I am not meant to live alone. When left to my own devices I allow myself to be swallowed up by an overwhelming wave of inertia, causing me to spend most of my time indoors staring at some type of glowing screen. Fer has been away for only two days, and in that time I have managed to watch 3 full-length movies, innumerable YouTube clips, 2 episodes of House, and half of a Mexican soap opera. Thankfully I was rescued from solitude today by Brooke, who kindly invited me to lunch at Caracas Arepas Bar. It was delicioso, and saved me from eating another meal consisting entirely of spoonfuls of peanut butter out of the jar. She also deserves a shout-out for giving me her free sample of freeze-dried bananas that we got while walking through a street fair.
3) While free events are really awesome, sometimes the crowd that attends them is not. Tonight I went to a cool and free arts festival at Theater for the New City, which is really close to the apartment. It was a fun way to spend the night and I got to see a few performances that I really enjoyed. The company left a bit to be desired however- apparently a majority of the audience members were under the impression that the zero dollars they spent for their seats gave them the right to boss everyone around and demand complete silence at all times. One lady actually shushed me and gestured for me to stop turning the pages of my program. Oh of course, I can see how the gentle swish of paper would be an assault on your ears, distracting you from the terrible poem being read aloud on stage as a filler between acts. Sheesh.

Yes Drill Sargeant!

So yesterday I was invited to dinner at the home of one of Fer's students (along with Fer of course). I hopped on a train over to Jersey City and spent a fantastic evening full of sushi, wine, dance performances, and......karaoke. I know, dream come true right?
But then today I was feeling guilty about skipping running group and instead eating 4 tons of sushi and custard and cheesecake. So I decided to finally go to this boot camp exercise class that I've been planning on attending for about a month now. And, sadly, I discovered that I am not the same spry young thing I was 5 or 6 years ago. The days when I delighted in being bullied into infinite sets of crunches and squats and lunges seem to be gone. Everything hurts.

The Wonder of the Internet!

With my newfound free time, I seem to have developed an unhealthy propensity to watch YouTube videos whenever I have 5 minutes that are not occupied by other activities. Downside: a lot of hours lost watching completely inane videos such as makeup tutorials (I wear makeup maybe once a month). Upside: finding some cool new music- like this! Check it out.

Los Ronaldos: No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti

I Am The Law

Yea...it's not as great as it sounds. After returning from a lovely trip to lovely Charlotte this weekend, I reported for jury duty on Monday morning as a dutiful citizen should. And I got picked for 4 weeks of grand jury service! I didn't even know what a grand jury was, having not been in a courtroom since my mock trial in AP History. (Boy, we defended the dickens out of FDR). Anyways, after now hearing several explanations in verbal, written and video form of the history, purpose and particulars of grand jury service I now feel confident that I understand my task. Sooo...I guess it's all up to me to keep the streets of Manhattan safe for all. Never fear denizens of this fine metropolis, Jessica Butler is on the case. And I'll be filling all my readers in on all the exciting details of the criminals that face the wrath of my justice. Just kidding- I don't relish the thought of being charged with a felony for revealing the secret proceedings that take place within the grand jury room. You'll all have to remain content with the mundane details of my daily life that I typically dole out to you. Please don't stop reading.

Big Day!

So yesterday was a Big Day!! Here's why:

First real job interviews with the KIPP schools. I think it went well despite the fact that I may have been squinting with one eye for most of the time....stupid contacts.

Last class of graduate school! It was strangely anticlimactic, but then I went out for some drinks with Brooke and Mariam and we toasted to the end of grad school several times...so obviously that made it seem more real.

My mom won Fingerlakes Home and Careers Teacher of the Year!! Send flowers, words of congratulations and blank checks!

I'm leaving for a short weekend trip to Charlotte today, so may not post again until Monday- have a happy weekend!

Spring Showers and Springer Ladies

Went for lunch on this rainy rainy afternoon at 88 Orchard with my friend Brooke and her mom Ilene. My bistro salad with dates, walnuts, goat cheese and red onion was delectable, but the real treat was the company I got to enjoy. Brooke's mom is visiting from Malta where she now lives. Last time she was here I met her and Brooke at a Starbucks, where Ilene had her first taste of that strong Seattle brew. Since then I've been keeping track of her through her fantastic blog: an-american-in-malta. On this current trip I begged her to write about some of the positive things about the Big Apple after reading a few posts chronicling some of her NYC misadventures. She kindly complied, and even dedicated the post to me! It made my day! So go check out her blog and learn more about ex-pat life in Malta!

Go Veg!....or not

Yesterday, while running some errands around Union Square, I stopped by the Veggie Pride Parade gathering where I stopped by some information tables, listened to vegan "testimonials" and observed a bizarre vegetable/animal themed costume contest. Best part: Free vegan empanadas. Strangest part: two toddlers dressed as little piggies with H1N1 printed on their pink little footie pajama outfits. This in itself I found a bit confusing, but then the announcer started discussing how great it was that they were reminding us of the dangerous avian flu, aka the "bird flu" spread by chickens and turkeys, which would not exist in a vegetarian world. Um, lady, you see the children dressed as pigs right?....as in swine.....swine flu. In general, I felt that most of the people present actually weren't the best ambassadors of a meat-free lifestyle. I encountered more cranky, crazy, and pushy people in the half hour I was there than I usually do in the Times Sq subway station (which is saying something).
And I must report that their proselytizing was relatively ineffective, considering that that evening we went to get tacos at the amazing La Superior, where I consumed carne asada, beef tongue, and chipotle shrimp tacos. Sorry vegans...but they were delicious.

Saturday Night Futbol Fever

Fer and I were invited to go with some friends to the NY Red Bulls game last night, and had so much fun! We got to check out the new stadium (pretty impressive), and see a battle royale between the Red Bulls and Seattle Sounders. (Battle royale might be overstating it a bit- the final score was 1-0). I ate roasted peanuts and cheered raucously along with lots of fans, so I had a fantastic time. Soccer is one sport that I have seen enough of to feel like I usually understand what's going on in the game and even occasionally offer an appropriate comment/critique of the play. Big moment for me, as a girl who has had a sports inferiority complex for most of her life.
On the way home, we stopped and had some surprisingly tasty guacamole and sangria at a little mexican place in the East Village, and sat outside enjoying the warm night air. Hope everyone else had a Saturday night as great as ours!

Obsessed!!

So, ever since posting the video about soda pop yesterday, I've become obsessed with the show Obsessives. (I'm not sure if this is ironic or not- everyone is so picky about the definition of irony these days). So I've been watching one episode after another on Youtube (a fantastic waste of time), and then I stumbled across this great one about Una Pizza Napoletana here in NYC. And I'm watching this pizza-making maniac, thinking, oh yea I've heard of this place, getting all excitable and planning when I can experience this pizza nirvana. (Seriously, watch the video, the pizza looks amazing.) And then I found this NY Times article: Una Pizza Napoletana Has Closed. Big Debbie Downer moment. I can take small solace in the fact that I have had pizza from Motorino, which is the pizza joint that replaced it, and it was in fact excellent. But I really wanted to experience Anthony Mangieri's pizza- I feel like he channeled all his rage and misanthropy into making the perfect pizza, and with all that behind it, you know it had to be good.

Additionally- you should watch all of the Betty White SNL skits, after getting started with Debbie Downer. You'll laugh, or my name's not Blaaarrfangar Blaarrrrfangar.

POP!

My cousin Tim in LA is always posting the coolest videos and articles on his facebook page, and today I remembered this one about a guy who owns this soda megastore in LA. I stopped drinking soda a long time ago, and normally don't even think about wanting to, but hearing this guy talk made me want to guzzle down bottles and bottles of the fizzy stuff. (The rosewater soda especially!). Check out this video- he's a character!

Obsessives: Soda

The Return of Xunta

I cannot describe to you the deep despair I experienced when I found out that our favorite neighborhood tapas place, Xunta, was closing last year. No more cheap sangria, tasty tortilla and live flamenco at a convenient 10 block distance. I still feel a pang of sadness every time I pass their shuttered facade. But I was mildly cheered when I found out they were reopening in Brooklyn. We finally tried out the new locale tonight and the reaction was over all positive. Some changes, both good and bad, but it's still essentially the same basic Spanish tapas that I love- and the same waiters, who remembered us from our frequent visits to the East Village location. Although we can't make it over to Williamsburg with the same frequency we did when they were over here, I think we'll stop by every once in a while when the old Xunta craving hits.

** The picture here is of the old, beloved, defunct Xunta. *tear*

Pancake Paradise

Hey! So not very much exciting happened in my life today. But maybe you had a day like that too- and in that case, you may be just browsing the internet, looking for something that sparks your interest. Well, if you're anything like me, I've got just the thing.

The Pancake Project

The blog doesn't get updated really often, but when it does, ooooh boy. It's fun. It's pancakes! It's art! It's pancart! (that's not so clever)

Mixin it up

So last week, in honor of my impending graduation, I attended the annual student/faculty mixer of the Hunter College speech pathology graduate program. In the end I had a great time because I got to hang out with these lovely ladies (see photo)- my two favorite people in the whole program. However, I did have some reservations about joining the festivities due to my experience at last year's mixer.
At the time, despite having spent almost an entire year with my classmates, I didn't feel like I knew anyone very well, and was a mite uncomfortable socializing. But with an optimistic spirit, I decided to attend the event anyways and give it the old college try to make some friends. At some point during the awkward mingling, some trays of gross, fried bar food arrived to appease the hunger of the crowd. As I was perusing the comestibles, my favorite professor Dr C. amiably asked if I would be willing to distribute the snacks by carrying one of the trays to the other side of the crowded one. I willingly obliged...much to my detriment. As I struggled to transport this large tray through the fray, I was thronged by ravenous young woman, jostling to grab at the food, all asking me questions about what was being served. "Ummmm, what do you have? Ewwww what is that?" I suddenly became plagued with insecurity, thinking "Do they know that I'm another student? Have they mistaken me for a waitress?" After several awkward exchanges and terse responses on my part, I finally tossed the tray onto the nearest flat surface and abandoned my duty.
This year I managed to escape food service responsibilities. Unfortunately this means I also don't have any interesting stories to tell about this year.

High-brow/Low-brow

I like to consider myself a person of eclectic taste, meaning that I enjoy both the finer and simpler pleasures of life. It is in that spirit that I offer you the following highlights of my weekend. On Saturday night, I got to fulfill one of my New York dreams, by going to my first opera at the Met. We saw Tosca, and miraculously got amazing orchestra seats for the student ticket price. In the mail that day, I also received this free sample of Kashi GoLean Crisp...which also made me incredibly happy. Because if there's one thing I love as much as world-class opera, it's free trial-size cereal boxes.

Oh also, we went to a delicious Sunday BBQ at our friend Chip's garden, which is neither high-brow, nor low-brow, but somewhere in the lovely in-between. He made awesome food as always, and we were serenaded by Belarusian folk songs.

My Mom

She's traveled all over the world to visit me, even enduring more than 8 hours on a rickety old schoolbus to come share my experience living in tiny San Mateo. But whether she's near or far, she's always given me all the love and support I needed to live my life fully and happily. I love you Mom!

New Sneakers!

And household clutter in the background. Sorry about my miserable photography skills. Anyways, I was super excited about finding these new kicks (for a bargain price at DSW!), since my old running shoes were in pretty sad shape. Somehow having new sneakers seems to motivate me just a little more to go running. That combined with this crazy nice weather we're been having, and suddenly I'm Maniac Magee. Despite the claims that this book "addresses issues of racism and homelessness", the only thing I ever recall is that the main character runs around constantly.

Marxist Yoga

So now that my indentured servitude (internship) is over, I've found a lot more time to do some stuff I've been wanting to do for a while. Yesterday, I checked out a yoga class at Yoga to the People studio on St. Mark's. It's this great studio, with a really cool, laid-back, welcoming philosophy that makes yoga accessible and non-intimidating to everyone. Plus, it's pay what you wish/what you can afford, which is just awesome for me. On top of all that- the class was great, and I loved every sweaty, stretchy minute of it. Woke up today with some pain in muscles that I had forgotten existed, but it was just further proof that I need to do this more often.

It's May!!

Yes, May is here, and while this means many wonderful things, including the arrival of more flowers, and less April showers, it also means that I have to recognize that I have neglected this blog now, for almost an entire month! And not because there wasn't anything to write about- on the contrary, so much fun and exciting stuff was going on, that the blog just kind of fell by the wayside. Sooooo, let me hit you with the highlights:
April 17 Fer's birthday, and his dad came to visit us in New York for the weekend. Birthday dinner at Peter Luger's- steak overload ensued, and it was amazing.
April 19 My birthday! My parents came to visit Wednesday-Friday of this week and we went to see Jersey Boys with them, and had delicious bistro dinner at Le Bonne Soupe.
April 24 Springtime birthday BBQ, on the rooftop deck at a friend's apartment. Tons of delicious Argentine steak and sausages, sangria, sunshine and lots of friends came to hang out- best birthday party ever!
April 30 Last day of my last internship at Gouverneur Hospital- free at last! No more unpaid internships! Going to try to take this extra time to invest more in my job search, and have some fun too!

So, anyone who's still out there reading, please keep doing so, and as your present to me in honor of my birthday, please forgive my lapse. May is here!