Central Air and Girls Night Out

Central Air and Girls Night Out

So I'm hanging out with Tony and Geo at Tony's house because Geo needed to fix his car. It's been making some godawful rattling noise that makes you feel like the car's two seconds away from falling apart. Not the most reassuring thing to hear on the parkway. Actually, the guys are finished with the car and are rollerblading outside with the dog. I've elected to seek out the sanctuary of Tony's air-conditioned room. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....central air. Central air is one of those simple pleasures of life you take for granted when you grow up in L.A. When I first came to the East Coast I took a look at one of those old air-conditioners that you plug into the window (then have to plug some shit up on the side) and was like "What are these?" Worst part is, unless you live in any of the valleys or the inland empire, you don't really need an air-conditioner. Just open the window. Here, during the summer if you don't have air-conditioning you fry AND get disgustingly sticky. Yet this is the place where central air is something you get put in the house, not something that comes standard with the apartment.

I bought this book today called We Were Soldiers Once...And Young: Ia Drang -- The Battle That Changed The War In Vietnam. They recently made it into a movie, but I've been meaning to read it for awhile because one of the soldiers they talk about is Mike's dad. It may take me awhile to get through it though. I realized while reading Black Hawk Down that non-fiction war novels are pretty brutal to read because it all really happened and your mind starts digressing on the emotion and thoughts the stories evoke.

Anyway I bought the book at Costco which is really the most wonderful place ever. Where else (other than BJs I guess) can you get a barrel of animal crackers larger than my clothes hamper, for $4.00?? Or 5 dozen eggs for $1.79? Or enough soap to last you from the Fourth of July to Christmas for $3.99? The problem with Costco though is that you start convincing yourself you need things you don't really need. Like the second to last time I was there I had to run out because I was on the verge of convincing myself that I needed a cooler for my balcony, big enough for me to bathe in. Damn. Now I want it!! I have to go back to Costco.

Last night I hung out with Lani and Mandy, who's visiting from L.A. We had a "Girls Night Out" which started out with tapas at Divine Bar. I had the chicken quesedillas and the potato pancakes. I had to get the potato pancakes because I had wanted to order them at lunch when I was at Tomato Bar with Geo, but I was apprehensive. They're not very good by the way, they're like tasteless hash browns. And I put the sour cream and applesauce on it like you're supposed to but that just tasted weird. It had so much potential too.

I have bizarre tastes in food. The other night I was sitting around reading some trashy romance novel, when I looked down and realized I had been absent-mindedly eating ground beef while simultaneously eating strawberries and whipped cream. I was pretty much mixing it up too. It was good. That's just me though, whenever I eat something sweet I need to eat something salty and vice versa. Okay I better go before I gross you all out and you guys are probably reading this during your lunch hour. Before I go though, let me just tell you that in college my favorite thing to eat was a scrambled egg, burnt spam and cream cheese sandwich. Yummmmmmy.

After Divine Bar, we headed up 2nd Ave to find a place to chill for a couple drinks. Some guy was handing out roses so he gave us each one. They were the nice kind too, long-stemmed and thick. We're talking about roses by the way. So we headed into some joint called the Sutton Place Bar because they had a rooftop bar. The bouncer was nice enough to buy us drinks after Lani gave him a rose, so we decided to stay for a bit even though the crowd was lame. Really lame. Like "people who open the J Crew catalog every morning to match their outfit" lame. Afterwards we went to the Hudson Hotel Bar which is by Lani's house, cuz she's always wanted to check it out. The place itself (like Sutton Place Bar) was awesome but the crowd... I've never seen so many people trying so hard in my life. It was like a Sex and the City nightmare in there. There were mismatched couples, plenty of "old guys at the bar" and silent women everywhere. Silent because they were unable to talk and pose at the same time. Too much concentration involved. Needless to say, we bounced without even getting a drink and called it a night.