Wednesday, June 11, 2008

As Good As It Gets

If you're wondering where the hell I've been this last week (and I know you are!), just know that I have been keeping myself very busy (but not getting busy, sadly...well, ok, there was that one night...).

Last week I attended my very first Media Meshing event with
Ha Ha Sound and Fiesty Red. It was fun to sit outside at Sweet and Vicious and mingle with 12 yr olds who probably make WAY more money than I will ever see in a lifetime..

Friday was Kristen's bday, and what better way to spend it than at the Boat Basin. I'd never really hung out there before, but rest assured, with summer Fridays underway, I am planning on being there as many Fridays as I can, weather permitting! It has a being-on-vacation feel, sitting on the water looking at the boats, lots of fratty boys chugging bud lites...pitchers of green, toxic and delicious Electric Lemonade. Damn I love summer!

Saturday was tri class..followed by a viewing of Capt Abu Raed at BAM. I'd been hearing about this movie for a while from a former classmate of mine who was one of the producers on it. It was made in Jordan, where I grew up, by a Jordanian director and stars only Jordanian actors. It was odd to see my hometown, Amman, featured in a film..I know Jordan has been used in movies before, but I've never seen Amman as the main focus. It made me a tad homesick, surprisingly. At any rate, this movie is not being released in the US yet, but if you get a chance to catch it somehow, it's worth a look.

After the movie, UK and I headed into Fort Greene for food. As we sauntered down one of the gorgeous brownstoned streets, lined with stoop sales, I hear "CHEESY". Who the fuck knows me in Fort Greene? My friend Tahari, that's who! I'd forgotten that she and her bf just moved there last week...she gave us the guided tour of her new place and OH MY GOD i didn't think such an apartment could be had in Brooklyn...They had an entire floor of the brownstone, windows front and back, with a giant loft bedroom. I thought I had walked into a page of Metropolitan Home. And yes I had giant apartment envy when I left there...you know when you think you've got it good til you see your friend's giant loft in Fort Greene? Yea...

Still reeling, UK and I found our way over to Chez Oskar for a late brunch, where the service was kinda sucky but my grilled veggie sandwich was pretty tasty. As well as the strawberry mimosa. MMM.

Moseyed back to Prospect Heights where I attempted to rest up for the next leg of my Saturday..The Gate with Kristen, Ha Ha Sound, my friend Bergen and my sister. I love the Gate, it's totally unassuming, has a great selection of beer and a spacious patio where people bring their dogs. We opted for indoors, however, being that the heat wave had already begun...and proceeded to drink, and drink (well, other than Ha Ha, who was power chugging water). The girls and I decided to move on to a house party deeper in the slope, where we were surrounded by extremely young people...I recall odd theological conversations and a contest as to who could find the cutest boy in the joint. I'm not exactly sure which one of us was the victor, but high school behavior was in place that night, for sure.

3am I was finally home, and 5 hours later I was awake, alert, and plotting my escape from the heat with a trip to Long Beach, LI with Kiki. Me, and everyone else in the five boroughs, thought this was a brilliant plan. It was like being in the middle of Times Square, on a beach. In addition to this maddening turnout, the ocean was filled to the brim with seaweed. I'm not talking little bits here and there...I emerged from the water at one point lookingi like a fucking TREE...I am not too keen on having to pull seaweed out of my naughty bits for days at a time, so I didn't go in the water all that much..which kind of defeated the purpose of being at the beach.

On the way back we discovered that the connecting train back to brooklyn didn't arrive in Jamaica for a good TWENTY-FIVE minutes...at that point I had grown tired of the heat and just wanted to be home. But Kiki had a brilliant plan. The Air Train depot, which is also located at the Jamaica train station, was AIR CONDITIONED. So, like two homeless vagabonds, we threw down a beach towel and loitered there til our Brooklyn train showed up. I have a feeling I'm going to be doing that a lot this summer...

We finally made it back to my beloved PH and grabbed Akat for some tasty Chevella's. Sadly, our favorite restaurant is not air conditioned, so we opted for the "outdoor cafe", which is really one table, smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk, in front of a pile of garbage. Gotta love Brooklyn!!!! I wouldn't shut up about the garbage, so they made me sit facing away from it so I wouldn't have to look at it. Thankfully, in the midst of our meal, the sanitation guys came by and took it all away. It was like dinner theatre, right there on Classon Ave!

Nobody really wanted to go home, so we decided that, since Kiki had to get on the 2 train anyway, we should have one drink at Franklin Park, as it is on the way. It was great to see the look on Kiki's face (who lives on a beautiful block in the W Village and is not quite used to our Brooklyn ways) as we walked down a pretty decrepit block, to unveil the beauty that is Franklin Park, tucked away from the street. She was pretty impressed! Until, of course, we heard what "might" have been gunshots a couple blocks away...but quite possibly was a blown tire...and then there was the giant thunderstorm that hit as we were finishing up our beers out in the garden. Nothing funnier than seeing a mass exodus of Brooklyn hipsters and nerdsters trying to shield themselves from falling water. It was great.

Monday night I made an appearance at Triviotic for the first time in a while and am happy to report that I was on a winning team, for once, "Kind of Awesome". Along with Ha Ha Sound, Brooklyn Gal, and others! My favorite part was matching up songs with lyrics, and then getting to sing along with each song afterwards. Yea, I'm a dork. So what.

So, kids, that's what your girl Cheese has been up to this last week. She is tired, and a little cranky, and trying to rest up for her next 5 day stretch of fun. Thank God work is slow!!

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