Not Fit For The Office

Allegedly I NEVER dress appropriately at the office. Sure, I am aware that I dress on the casual side. There are a couple tattoos visible, wore colorful dresses and sandals all summer, and don't care to wear things that will make me miserable all day, but I thought that with an occasional mix of preppy-ness, overall I wasn't that bad.

Um yeah, apparently I have just been delusional.

This morning while rummaging through my "in between the seasons clothes", I came across this short sleeved black sweater with a little bit ruffled white collared short sleeve shirt underneath. I haven't worn it in a very long time. Well obviously. It's been summer. Anyway, I paired it up with a black skirt and black ballerina flats and headed out the door. While walking to work, I realized my poor edgy bob, who is in dire need of a cut, started to flip all over the place, so grabbed a head band out of my bag, and off I went. OK. I get it. Not my everyday style. For example, lets go back to perhaps Tuesday. I wore this wonderful, but odd, dress from Bali (was once my Granny's) with a little brown cardigan and brown boots. Or maybe we can take any old day when I add weird and colorful jewelry to an already overly bright ensemble. Basically, yeah, I guess today is not your typical Kristine. In my own defense, I thought I looked cute. But instead, completely freaked everyone out.

In the day thus far, I have gotten,

"Wow you look so serious. Like you should be serving drinks on a plane".

Great.

Next comment was alittle better.

"Omg your so preppy today, I almost didn't recognize you until I saw the tattoo on your neck"

An "aww you look cute today" was thrown in. That's fine.

Then the finale. The most annoying comment made was as follows: "Why are you so dressed up? What? Are you going somewhere", with a look of suspicion.

I replied with, "um I'm not, didn't have anything to wear today."

I don't get it. Rest assure co-workers, I'll be back to being the office mess tomorrow.

Man On Fire!

Tuesday night the game plan was to get back to Hoboken quickly and make dinner for Chia, Jay, & Andrew. MM by the way, dinner was lovely. I should have taken pictures! I made chicken terriyaki, a recipe brought to us by Shape Magazine. While looking around for recipe ideas (I always like to try to make new things), Chia's criteria was basically something tasty, but light. It was great and definitely a dish I'll be making again.

ANYWAY. After work, Andrew & I met up with the plan on going into Hoboken together. While walking along Sixth Avenue, chatting about the day and what not, allegedly a fire ball blew into the air and a hallal-cart-man burst into flames!! I didn't actually see the fire ball, but next thing you know, the man took off down the street on fire and let me tell you, it was unreal. Almost too shocking to do anything shocking. Luckily, other people around were more alert and about ten or so rushed towards the burning man with the shirts off their backs to put him out.

Moments after getting over the shock, one of us commented on why he didn't just stop, drop, & roll. And the other said something along the lines of - oh I know! It's like the first thing you learn in school! I know. Real nice. Later, I thought about it and I'm sure when you're in that kind of panic, set on fire and all, you don't think clearly and just go into shock. OR maybe in his country (perhaps Turkey) stop, drop, & roll wasn't emphasized in the school system like here.

So we stood, jaws dropped, & amazed by the scene taken place. Then we noticed an upside-down gas can, next to the halal cart, slowly beginning to set fire as well!! So we followed our first instincts and power walked the other way, in case the gas can exploded, causing the entire truck to do the same.

Yeah, my karma is just getting better and better. In all fairnessness though, what do either of us know about grease fires and extinguishing them? If anything, we did them a favor by staying out of the way and not creating a panic. No running or trampling over anyone took place. We just got the hell out of the way.

30 Days Of Yoga!

Long story short, my friend E & I's ghetto gym has recently closed with no explanation. In the past week or so we have been trying to come up with a decent alternative. Honestly, the only reason I even went to the gym was for yoga, pilates, & cardio. This particular gym however was super shiesty, hasn't charged me for 6 months (thank you :) ), and may or may not have been seized by the IRS.

We figured it was time for a different plan and decided that instead of getting in at another gym, would join a yoga studio and take the cardio outdoors. Surprise surprise, joining a studio is pretty expensive, so we have taken time each day to search for a good deal.

Last week I found it. "30 Days for $30 Yoga Challenge" at the NYC Bikram Yoga Studio!

OMG

How amazing? It's pretty self-explanatory. For 30 days E & I will be doing yoga. Every single day. HOW AMAZING.

If you are wondering, yes it's going to be miserable the first week. In case you aren't familiar with different types of yoga, Bikram is practiced in a room heated at a 100 degrees for about 90 minutes. It's unreal. Between sweating profusely and gulping down gallons of water, you leave feeling completely cleansed. Image doing that every single day? I feel like it's going to be the ultimate detox.

E & I are curious about the aftermath of the 30 day challenge. Will we leave this experience as super vegans? God I hope not. I don't know if I could seriously say, "don't eat flesh" with a straight face Will we quit our jobs promptly after, move to Washington (state, not DC), and live on some sort of commune, living green and off the earth? That would be better. Or perhaps we will go to Australia and get trained to be yoga instructors. EVEN better. Or. Most realistically, it will be a wonderful chance to cleanse the body & soul and see life a little bit clearer.

Stay Tuned....

Parade Of Asians

Spotted: 53rd & Madison. 9:01 am. 200 senior citizen Asians, wearing red shirts & matching hats, slowly (and I mean SLOWLY) parading their way down 53rd. Guess who somehow got stuck in the middle of this? Typical.

Poor Pick-Up Attempt: Walk From the PATH Edition

Last night I had a wonderful classic date night. Dinner - mm Thai. Movie - "Burn After Reading", which was pretty good. John Malkovich was hilarious, & then a drink and some good conversation. Couldn't have been better. Afterwards, I waited for the stupid PATH and then made my way back to Hoboken. The PATH is OFFICIALLY on the shit list after making me wait an hour plus Saturday night, causing me get home after 5 and then sleeping til 1:30 pm the next day. Yeah yeah I know, it's my own fault for staying out late, but come on! An hour plus! Doesn't the path know people are out and about on Saturday nights desperately trying to get back to Hoboken?!!!

(Sorry about the rant. Anyway...)

So just to show me how much it despises me, again I had to wait a considerable amount of time. When I finally got back to Hoboken, I merrily bopped along, re-playing the night in my head and thinking what a good time I had, when all of a sudden I saw an image walking up towards me. Great. I don't know what it is about me that strangers feel the need to say weird things. Maybe they think I want to do the same, but there he was. Skinny. Had a super shiny face. Looked like he was 18. Wearing tight jeans.

"Hey....um you.."....

I turned around and he was awkwardly smirking at me.

"Um...yeah, your flip flops are too loud. heh heh. Way too loud".

I looked at him again, rolled my eyes and replied, "Right. Ok. Well good thing I'm turning here then huh?"

And off I went.

It could be either of two things:

(a) As a possible 18 year old, that brand of wasteful conversation works for him when chatting girls up. Bad for him, I was still basking of a night gone well and quite frankly don't need the bullshit dialogue.

(b) He was drunk/and or stoned/whatever and perhaps in the crazy land of his mind, maybe my flip flops were too loud.

Or (c) all of the above.

I'm going with (c)

Random Act of Gentlemenly Kindness

While leaving the chaos that is the morning rush of Port Authority, it is near impossible to smile or think happy thoughts while being pushed this way and that. How do I paint the scene? Think of total chaos for one small block. Between the Am New York and Metro guys thrusting their arms towards you competing to give away their free newspapers & slow moving tourists overwhelmed to which way to go, you literally have to elbow and push in order to get to the street.

This morning, like any other morning, I was frowning and raging in my mind behind a slow moving sea of Germans. All of a sudden the equally fast moving chick next me stopped short and realized her heel was stuck in one of those subway floor vent things in the middle of the street. As in there was traffic coming. Not fun. The man in front of us stopped and dove down in an extremely non- creepy way to help her get her heal out. He then asked her if she was OK and merrily continued his way to work. Her & I were in awe. We found one of the last gentlemen in the city! Any other business man would have pushed her out of the way and then cursed the situation for making him a minute or two behind schedule.

I inspire to be this wonderful whistling man, well minus the aiding damsels in distress. What inner peace he must have to whistle his way to work via Port Authority.

An End Of An Era....

It's a little bit behind, but I feel I should probably talk about a true end of an era for us musical theatre people of NYC.

RENT IS GONE. Omg just put me out of my misery. Rent is off Broadway FOREVER. I don't know if there is any reason to be in NYC or live.

Ok fine, I won't be so melodramatic. It is just sad and even though I haven't seen it in a year or so, will miss it's presence in Midtown and on my walk home from work each day.

To torture myself, I walked by the empty vessel of the greatest Rock Musical of our time last week. And it was disturbing. There waere trucks, boxes, and pieces of the set on the street. One of the side doors of the stage was open and as pathetic as it sounds, of course I stopped dead in my tracks, became one of the street-stopper walkers I loathe, and lurked in. I don't know why I did it. I guess I needed to see it in person to realize that it is gone and out of my life. And yes, that was a tear rolling down my cheek.

Why I'm Still Single : A Wednesday Edition

First of course, updates & a quick work of advice.

Last we spoke about my living situation, our crappy roommate was moving out. This week, she asked Meg if she could push her move-out date from October to November 1st because her plan fell through I guess and wanted to move-in with her sister. Psh. We agreed that a) why should we go out our ways to help her out when she has not been friendly, considerate, or a good roommate in the months we lived with her b) it's her own bad karma for giving us so short notice. Now she has to do the scrambling around making plans. Sorry sister, but the world does not revolve around you. c) showing the apartment sucks. We have like 4 people coming to see it tonight and 2 tomorrow. Showing the apartment = not having a life. We want to get someone in there ASAP.

So I saw the alleged crappy roommate last night and said hello. What did I get? An evil blank stare. OH hell no. I went right into my room, texted Meg with a "oh that Crappy Bell. I walked into the apartment and said hello to her and she ignored me. She is sooooooo out!" HELL no am I helping out someone who doesn't have enough courtesy to even say hello.

Nexxxt

Quick word of advice: NEVER go out on a Tuesday night, drink 2 large mix drinks, and then follow them with 2 shots of Jaiger and then another one of vodka. Your just asking for trouble. I mean, luckily I've never been there, but I've heard it causes you to be miserable all day and arrive an hour late to work. Oooopsa

Ok. Now the reason to this post.

(The scene: At a local bar around the corner. Kristine, the star of the show, is chatting up her friend Nina, whom she hadn't seen in awhile)

Stranger: Excuse me...I love your tattoo! (sniffling giggle) I think I'm going to get the same one!
Kristine: Oh, (fake laugh) nice..?

(Kristine looks at the stranger and notices he is a very short petite old man. Typical, she thought. This is apparently the only breed of people attracted to her anymore. Not only is he way out of her dating age range, but she could pick him up and put him in her pocket)

(Later. She sees someone else she knows and proceeds to chat him up. Coincidentally, the pocket old man is friends with friend chatter).

Pocket Old Man: (mumbles under his breath) are you smitten with anyone?
Kristine: excuse me? Huh? What did you say?
Pocket Old Man: I said, 'are you smitten with anyone'?
Kristine: (thrown off) oh, ha, I don't know, I guess not. Well maybe. Kind of. Well.
Pocket Old Man: (giving her a look of confidence) well, (yet another sniffle giggle) that's good for me then.
Kristine: ha...right.

Seriously. This is all I can hope for out of life. Senior Citizens that I can push around in a stroller.

The Valley Of Empty Staircases

What do you think would happen if, for one day, we turned off all the escalators in the City? I know what would happen. People would go into a frenzy and immediately stampede to the nearest elevator. They would REFUSE to take a step near the lonely staircase,who would then feel depressed and have to contemplate what it ever did to become so unpopular.

Working in the city, commuting, being in places that are publicly used, moving up and down, above and below ground, there are 3 ways in getting where you need to be. The elevator, the escalator, and the lowly staircase.

I got to thinking about this the past few weeks, while watching 7,000 people mush themselves onto a crowded escalator, when all the while there was a mere 1-2 people brave enough to venture up and down the staircase. Why be so lazy? When you think about it, most of us commuting at 8ish in the morning and later 5ish at night sit the majority of the day away. Shouldn't we take advantage of the space between to move around some?

I'm a staircase kind of girl unless I am carrying obscene amounts of bags (which happens often because I'm a vagabond) or am miserably hungover. I feel though, in cases that you need to ride the escalator should use it as a tool to move faster, not to take a break. I hate HATE when you are stuck on a 1 laned escalator and people just stand around, basking and enjoying their ride. That's whats great about 2 laned escalators. The lazies or those who have two much luggage to pass can stay to the right and us fast-movers have the ability to zip on by. BUT THEN you got to love the couples who need to stand next to each other to "escalator spoon" or tourists who don't understand NYC commuting etiquette and take up both lanes, leaving us "I need to be running or else I'm angry" commuters pouting and shaking our fists in rage.

I fear technology. I fear it's ability to create a world where we don't need to move or think to get through the day. Whats next for our future NYC? Side walks who ask were your going and then slide you to your chosen destination? Body-robot doubles who live the entire day for you and then tell you all about it at night?

I'd rather take the stairs.

Home Sweet... Railroad Style Apartment..?

I awoke Thursday morning in a great mood. I had an awesome night sleep & it was my last day of work before the 4-day Labor day holiday. I grabbed a towel or two and headed down the hallway to the bathroom to take a shower. I open the door to the living room and am shocked to discover two people laying across my couches. Fine fine, I don't care. My roommate Courtney had some friends sleep over. They probably went out late and decided just to crash out our place. I have had people sleep over, so I have no problem if my roommates do the same. As I quietly tip-toed through, attempting to not wake anyone up, I stopped dead in my tracks.

They were tangled up IN MY SHEETS. I repeat - strangers on our couches. In. MY. Clean laundered sheets. As in they had to physically go through our linen closet, pull out all my crap (they were flannel sheets and on the bottom of the pile) and bring them over to the couch.

I was AMAZED. Courtney & I are NOT friends. If my other roommate Meg did that, I wouldn't have even noticed. She can take whatever because if the situation arose, she would have probably washed them. And then told me. And then folded them back nice. Not Courtney. Oh no no, her and her friends were apparently too good for that and hastily shoved them back the next morning.

It got me thinking about roommates. One of the problems with a great city like New York is that because we all want to be here, rent is astronomical. If you don't have the desire to be in NYC, the idea of sharing a closet with 17 other people or living in a railroad style apartment is unheard of.

About 16 months ago (give or take) that was me. I got my first job in the city and wanted the NYC experience Obviously I could NEVER afford anything in Manhattan, so went for the next best thing - Hoboken. And let me tell you, it is a great wonderful place to live. Beautiful and safe. But it too is getting more and more expensive. I mean where else in the world can a landlord feel justified in upping the rent in a room the size of a bathroom. But I guess it's worth it if you have a 30 minute ride (if that) into the city.

When I moved into Hoboken, the only thing I cared about was getting there. I didn't care who I lived with or how small the room was. All I wanted was something mostly furnished (because I have nothing) and on the cheaper side (again because I have nothing). I found an adorable place to live with 2 chicks (thank you craigs list). It was awkward at first because they were friends, but later we got to know eachother and were cool. The only issue was the fact that the apartment is railroad style, meaning my roommate Megan had to walk through my bedroom to get the rest of the apartment.

Around December, Joanne (the other roommate) dropped the bomb that she was moving out and immediately Meg & I got an ad up for a new roommate. Thank the good lord I got to move out of the walk-through and into Joanne's HUGE room for a mere $25 extra. Seriously. It is a gem.

In a fit of desperation, we gave the room up to this dude Ben. How do I explain Ben? He is basically a filthy-goat- stew- eating no-personality-weirdo-pot head, who happens to be a microscope salesman. We were amazed how he could possible be a salesman because he sucks soo bad. His room consisted of his huge microscope, a half-deflated air mattress, and some random boxes. Luckily for us, he only lasted a month or two. I'd just like to say thanks to Ben ordering a whole bunch of movies on paid per view before he left.

Then we got Courtney, who I guess is fine, in the aspect that she's never around and if she is, stays to herself and doesn't make much noise. What gets me is that if you are both home, she will NEVER initiate conversation unless you ask her 20 questions. Only time I have talked her was when she was upset about something or I was drunk and apparently chatty.

She is moving out Oct. 1st, so it makes Meg & I wonder whether a) we just have bad luck with the little room or b) perhaps we are bad roommates who are hard to live with.

But that's silly, what am I saying? Between the two of us, we are never around, super clean, and laid back. So maybe it is the room. All I know is it BETTER be filled by Oct 1. So if you know anyone looking for a cheapy room in Hoboken with yours truly as a roommate, let me know!

And Just When We Thought It Couldn't Get Any Worse....

Texts last night between E & I during the season premiere of the new 90210.

Me : ok how about all the teachers on the new 90210 are super hot.
E: Right? I'm in love

(After the show)

Me: It was actually not that bad, I'll def watch again.
E: Ha I thought it was terrible but I'm still going to watch! Because I'm that sad.

Oh Thank God Your Back

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it before, but I really love bad television. As in, I'm pretty sure I have TV maturity of a 17 year old. So you could probably guess what I like to watch. The Hills? Yes. All the Real World/Road Rules challenges/Gauntlets etc.? Of course. I Love NY, Flavor of Love, Rock of Love, and ANYTHING else VH1 tells me to watch? Well yeah, they told me to, what can I do?

But my absolute favorite thing to watch now, the TV show that I am obsessively way to excited about is....(drum roll please)

GOSSIP GIRL

I love it, I love it, I love it. And you know what, I'm not ashamed of loving GG . It's just soo good.

Last night, Chia & E came over my place (god bless Chia with her stocks of dips and chips at home). The three of us sat around my television with bubbling excitement to see what our ficitonal friends have been up to all summer.

*sigh*

Tell me, on a scale of one to ten, how pathetic are we for actually clapping and yelling, "thank god Gossip Girl is back! How did we survive the entire summer without it!?"

Even worse is the fact that I now live life parallel to television. One of the characters, Nate (who is INSANELY hot) is having an affair with an older married woman. Later on, I fell asleep, blah blah dream dream, and the next thing you know, I was the one having the affair with Nate (in my dream world). Is this really where my life has come to? I have no romantic prospects on the horizon (oh, we'll get into that in a later blog) so am forced to dream about fictional characters.

But, what makes watching the show even better is coming to work Tuesday mornings and clicking on NY Magazine's blog "The Daily Intel" where they tear the episode apart and we viewers get to relive all the great realistic moments to the "that is SO fake" moments.

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/09/where_the_chuck_have_you_been.html

I read somewhere that there will be 22 episodes this season. Count it - 22! So, thank you WB for being, in general, a crappy TV station, but somehow providing us with the best television show of our time.

: )