Tokyojupiter - Side B

My only problem with the past two weeks of off-and-on rain here in New York is that waking up in the mornings becomes so difficult. Especially when you have a cat who refuses to budge from his spot at the foot of the bed. Especially especially when the boy is snuggled beside you, making happy sleep noises sporadically.

I guess we all like the new bed.

Saturday was spent puttering around the apartment. I was waiting for an exterminator appointment but they flaked on me so I have to reschedule. I met up with M later in the afternoon. We didn't really have plans of any sort so we just hopped over to Target; I needed to return a couple of dresses, and he needed to return his coffeemaker. I didn't get anything (which is a miracle for me, since I have never left that store without buying at least one thing), but I think I need to go back later in the week to get a few sundries that I forgot. Ooops.

The majority of Sunday was spent in the IFC theater with Tania & co. for 20th Century Boys 1 AND 2. I haven't read any of the manga, but I figured that I'll want to watch the movies more if I have no bases for comparison. The first movie was great -- it really established the storyline and the whole emotional predicament that all of the characters were experiencing. The 2nd movie was more confusing, I felt. The lack of Kenji in the 2nd movie was definitely palpable.

As usual, I do now want to check out the manga. But 22 volumes? SIGH. I'll never have money or free shelf space anymore now, will I?

The boy is away on a business trip till Wednesday; usually I'm the one running off to these things, so it's a nice experience that he's the one running off to meetings and (work) panels.

Weird tidbit: the company that I work for is actually one of the major sponsors of his conference, so yeah, I guess the company swag is all over.

M: Your company provided the conference lanyards! Do you want me to bring you back a _______ orange lanyard?
A: I already have enough _______ swag to last me a lifetime.

I brought the cat back from my mom's after 3 weeks. My apartment has gone through some 'changes' since he's last been there, so of course, yesterday he had to re-explore the whole place, complaining and meowing the whole time. How dare I make changes! The nerve!

Out of curiosity, I counted the number of cons that I've been to since 2002 (which was the first time that I even realized that such an event called an anime convention existed) -- and as of Fanime this past weekend, I'm up to 19.

That's a lot of cons.

I sort of don't want to know how many -he's- been to 'cause I'm sure it'll boggle my mind.

My favorites, in random order:
- SDCC 2006
- AXNY 2002
- NYCC 2008
- Otakon 2002

Goal this week: to be less cranky than last week

Friday was super nice. Met up with even more of M's friends from Stuyvesant at Dumont Burger in Williamsburg. I def. felt like my wardrobe needs more Buffalo plaid in the couple of hours I was there. Eugenia and Nick were incredibly nice, and the three of us bonded over cats, pulling out our iPhones to show pictures of our babies. Wow, that was a yuppie moment.

Saturday was chore day and spent with my mother. I like it when she comes by and brings food, but she could leave the nagging and nitpicking at the door. I did manage to sneak out for a bit and see the place where M wants to move into. It's a studio as well, maybe about 5 blocks from my apartment. I think it's a little bigger than my place, with a much much nicer kitchen. I told him that I would hang out there just to be able to use it. That's some cosmic comedy right there, when the boy who doesn't cook gets the brand-new renovated kitchen whereas I don't.

Sunday found me making a round-trip into Queens from Brooklyn. Had to drop off le chat at my mom's since I'm running off to California later this week and he needs somebody to be around to huggle him and feed him. M came by later in the evening and we continued watching more Gurren Lagann. The Anti-Spiral arc is actually really interesting -- I think the phrase "it's very Battlestar-ish" got thrown around.

I know that I said that I'm not excited about the con, but who are we kidding. Fanime's panel schedule looks so polished and organized. I'm a liiiiitle bummed that I'm leaving on early Sunday so I'll miss the Gurren Lagann documentary that they're having at Fanime, but eh, I'll deal.

Scoop of Häagen-Dazs vanilla honey ice cream: free
Walk through Prospect Park: free
3 Tacos: $10.25
Vodka tonic at Sycamore: free (paid for by M)

A boyfriend who'll put up with bitchy crankiness and existentialist angst: priceless

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Those tacos were so good though. Man, I could live on those my entire life.

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Dollar oysters!? Why do I foresee a few summer afternoons spent in one of these places.

Even though it's not a super fancy movie theater, I'm starting to enjoy watching releases at the Pavilion. Helps that it's only a ten-minute bus ride on the B68 from my apartment.

I'm not a diehard fan of -any- of the series, so I just enjoyed it as a one of the many blockbuster summer movies that I'll be seeing this year. Zachary Quinto also was a great Spock (totally looked great doing it too) so here's hoping that he can actually get a movie career after this, preferably a non-geeky one.

It was also amusing how M first told me that he wasn't that much a fan of series, yet he was able to rattle out all these facts and tidbits when we were having dinner after... and that's why his reaction to the movie makes more sense now.

He forgot to mention that he wants to read the book now.

Also, how come nobody's made a DECENT Twilight (movie) drinking game yet? Seriously, fandom and haters, you'd think that something that important would have been thought up already.

Oh yeah, there was that long weekend, right? Sorry, first days back at work are always so discombobulating.

Before leaving for that DC anime con, M took me out Wednesday for Valentine's Day. He kind of went all out: flowers, dinner, the works. The restaurant that he picked was so spectacular: we shared an an appetizer of carmelized pork belly and charred octopus, and then I had an entree of osso bucco veal tongue. Seriously, just thinking about the dinner is making me hungry again. The boy sure knows how to impress.

On actual Valentine's Day, I went to see He's Just Not that into You with my best friend Karol. It was actually the perfect movie to see, since we didn't feel out of place in the theater -- it seemed like a good number of NY single girls decided that the best way to spend that day was to go out with their girlfriends. Granted, there were a few boys in the theater, maybe five? The movie was actually okay; def. better than some of the chick flicks that I've seen of late. Jennifer Connelly is still the hottest in that cast, even with ScarJo's boobs taking up a lot of screentime.

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And partially because it won the Newbery, and partially because I'd read any good YA that you'd throw in front of me, I have to say that I really enjoyed Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. Everything about it was just right, from the characters, to the pacing, to even the structure (which admittedly bugged me at first, but then I realized the reasoning for it). It's such a departure from when I read Stardust and felt such discontentment upon finishing the book -- with The Graveyard Book, I felt that all the details were in the right places all at the right times.

So, Philadelphia. We were our touristy selves again -- there were a few things from your suggestions that I was interested in trying out (and thanks again for those!) but at the same time, we did only have a couple of days, and like our previous trips, we wanted to be able to take our time and enjoy the sights leisurely. What we did see were the Olympia and Becuna at the Independence Seaport Museum, the Franklin Institute, and the Liberty Bell, of course.

But the highlights of the trip were definitely the restaurants and bars that we visited. We literally ate & drank ourselves into comas these two days.

City Tavern
138 S 2nd St

We came into Philadelphia around lunchtime on Monday. Mikhail had seen a write-up of this restaurant in his research, and funnily enough, it was a block away from our hotel. The building is a historical replica of a tavern actually frequented by colonial figures. Even the dishes hail back to that time; they serve hearty American fare like meat pies, game medallions, etc. It's somewhat kitschy and touristy, as the servers are all dressed up in costume and they served water in metal goblets, but hey, it was a good way to start off our visit of this city. They had the most amazing soup, btw -- I had the spicy ham and cabbage soup and it took a lot of effort for me not to lick the bowl clean.

Marrakesh
517 S Leithgow St

This place is on a small alley just off South St. I found the place through Yelp, and figured that it would be pretty good because of all the positive reviews. Dear God in heaven, I am so happy that I did. It's a Moroccan restaurant, complete with the low couches and pillows and rugs and hangings. We had a seven (yes! seven!) course dinner, starting off with two appetizers, couscous, two entrees, and fruits and baklava and mint tea. The price also wasn't too scary -- it was $25/person, not including drinks. It was the first time for both of us to have the 'authentic' Moroccan experience. The server washed our hands with rose water and then handed us towels as our napkins as we were eating with our hands. The food was absolutely excellent. I think everybody who left that place had a glazed look in their eyes because of all of the food.

Rum Bar
2005 Walnut St

We lucked out so much since Monday was 1/2-price Mojito Night. I'm surprised that New York doesn't have one of these yet, especially with all of the liquor-specific bars coming up all over the place. This bar has a long, long list of a variety of rums -- I'm sure any pirate would be proud to visit. The space is also really chill and pretty. It's not a dive, for sure, but it's also not a high-class lounge where people only come to be seen. Our OMG! discovery for the night was their Chili Coriander mojito. It was spicy and and sour and sweet -- it was so good but it hurt but you still wanted to drink more. Our bill for the night came out to $21. I could not believe I could have drinks for anything less than $25 in any town, but hey, I guess it's possible in Philly.

Standard Tap
901 N 2nd Street

At this point, I was starting to feel a bit out of it. But I wanted to go to at least one more bar before calling it a night, so off to Standard Tap we went. It's again another chill bar, more of a pub this time around. They had a lot of interesting beers on tap, but I unfortunately had to wuss out -- M seemed to like his beer though. I do have to say that I think it's cool that most Philadelphia bars also serve food or snacks. I think I'd personally stay at a bar longer if there were things to munch on other than pretzels, etc.

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One last thing from Philly, courtesy of my boyfriend and my awesome new camera.

This was at the Franklin Institute, on a ride that they call the Sky Bike.



I had so much fun. I can't wait till our next trip, wherever it may be.

It's only Tuesday, and I'm already ready to call it a week.

I guess I still haven't fully recovered from the weekend. Can I say again how nice it is to have him home? Our phone conversations have actually gotten shorter, only because we actually get to see each other now!

Friday was Sky Crawlers at the Walter Reade theater in Lincoln Center. We got there early, so we walked around a bit to see if there was anywhere to get food and/or drinks. I wanted to go to Rosa Mexicano, but the bar was insanely crowded, so maybe another time. (The Lincoln Center branch actually looks so much nicer than the one on First Ave near my high school.) The movie itself was all right -- I really am not a Mamoru Oshii fan -- for me, it felt more cinematic than your run-of-the-mill anime movie. By cinematic, I mean, the focus was more on mood and tone, and not so much on plot. The theater did fill up with the usual crowd of NY otaku. But maybe because the movie was more 'serious' than your typical anime fare, I didn't get the feeling that the screening was like a mini-con (thank god). Though, the guy sitting next to me (not Mikhail!) kept mumbling stupid comments throughout the movie so that was a teensy bit annoying, but anyway, it wasn't bad enough that it ruined my entire movie experience.

Saturday was our bar crawl of Red Hook. We met up with former co-workers of mine, one of them who actually lives in the area and decided to show us around the place -- and by that, everything else that's not the Ikea. The two bars we went into, Tini and Brooklyn Ice House, were super nice. It makes me wish that places like that would open up in my neighborhood (HA! I highly doubt the Muslim populace of CIA would be down with that).

Sunday was my idea of Christmas shopping. Actually, it was more of decoration and party prep shopping more than anything else. I had to trek all the way out to Queens for a Michael's, because apparently Brooklyn doesn't think it needs one. Also got to see Kris and Ian's new place, which is really nice (as well as being a convenient 5-minute bus ride away).

Oh yeah, I also got my hair colored -- nothing drastic like purple or flourescent orange (though if I did that, Renji and I would be a matching pair).