Days 169-175 - NY, NY - Week 1 - Friendship? Yes please!

This week has been filled with friends. I love it. I really have the best friends in the whole entire world! I cannot thank my lucky stars enough for making me so-so fortunate in being surrounded by kind, warm, loyal, fun, intelligent, and in every which way amazing people!

Trip to Brooklyn on Monday, Yama on Tuesday, a SURPRISE PARTY!!! at the Frying Pan (an awesome place by the way) on Wednesday, ex-office on Thursday, intimate hang-out with Tatyana on my couch on Friday, and a weekend on Long Island at Erica's - my life in NYC is a moveable feast.

"One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives."

- Euripides, Greek playwrite

Random Notes

Culture Shock

I would not impress anybody by saying, “Oh boy, Manhattan is expensive!” But right now I’m thoroughly impressed by it myself. Went to Duane Reade to buy toilet paper and paper towels and ended up spending a hundred and forty dollars on nothing in particular. Granted, Duane Reade has always been my soft spot; but on the other hand I have never been that shocked by the receipt. In Argentina, an enormous BBQ for 14 people was seventy dollars with drinks. And I never spent more than a hundred dollars on the groceries at La Mega in Cozumel, no matter how hard I tried to fit the entire store into my shopping cart.

In all seriousness though, I am a little confused by how UN-weird New York seems. After almost half a year away, I expected the city to feel at least somewhat strange and alien. But I feel as if I have never left.

Like Riding a Bicycle

I have not used my cell phone or watched TV for the past 5.5 months. But it turns out that it is like riding a bicycle. Except I cannot ride a bicycle, but it's a technicality. I text as fast as ever and I can still do it with my eyes closed. TV was a tad more difficult as I couldn’t really remember how to use DVR, but after I successfully shut my brain and just let my fingers run through the remote without any actual thinking on my part, it was all fixed and now I can record as many of my favorite shows as always.

A Beauty Parlor Riddle

Saw a puzzling picture at a manicure place: a guy with 3 blackberries and a pen. No notepad. Question: what does he do with the pen? An answer from Tom: “He is an effeminate drug dealer. He stabs people with the pen.” I have to admit, sounds very plausible to me. A side note: the guy displayed an annoyed disbelief every time one of his blackberries rang while he was getting his manicure. Another question, does he actually want them to keep silent?