Don’t Burn The Day

Wow the last two days have been just crazy all over the place…and somewhat SPONTANEOUS and RANDOMMMMMM. I think thats’ gonna be the name of the game for my remaining week here…

For journaling purposes, let’s see..

Well first off it kinda started this past weekend when I was feenin’ to play scrabble. And admist random convo with my friend Edric, I mentioned it… and he had the game!! So we hit up some jamba and played a round of s-c-r-a-b-b-l-e. Edric cheated a lot so he won by a few points. I also attempted guitar hero, but I totally suck. (My - I’ve never played a musical instrument in my life-self definitely showed its true colors. MORE reason why I admire musicians.) I am definitely going to add it to my “Need to improve on when I’m at home in Boston” list.

Tuesday 2/19 - I dipped down to Tribeca to have lunch with the GS homies (George and Erik). I then hopped on over to Park Slope to meet up with DJ friend and artist, Geology to simply kick it and catch up. Well, in mid-convo as my blog became a topic of discussion, he noticed my broadcasted pong skills and got super excited:

• G: You play table tennis?!
• Me: Umm, I can play table tennis, but I’m not like a pro or anything…
• G: We are going down the street right now to play!
• Me: Are you serious?
• G: Yes (and grabs his OWN PADDLE in its OWN SLEEVE)
• Me: You have your OWN paddle?!
• G: We’re gonna play. I never get to play.
• Me: Oh great.. you’re gonna kick my ass.

Soooo off we went.. down the street to Ocean’s 8 to play some pong. Upon entering, my eyes locked to the left as I saw 3 Air Hockey tables! I LOVE AIR HOCKEY!! There were pool tables, bowling, pong tables and air hockey! I felt like I was in adult version Chuck E. Cheese!! G and I had our bouts in pong, but I was really anxious to hit the air hockey table. We eventually manage to get over there and we, hands-down, got “Loudest Patrons Award.” (Sad part is, since it is winter break for NYC schools, some younguns were in the mix and YES, G & I were the loudest ones. Sad… but FUN!) Vengeance G!!
Next, I hopped back into the city to one of my favorite Italian restaurants in the west village, Valdino’s West with Deborah. D had me as an intern, assistant and now as a great friend. (Thank you so much for the travel charm from South Africa!!) Now I’m not much of a flan person, but this place has amazing vanilla flan!! It’s texture is like no regular flan - at all. Very smooth, almost pudding-like consistency, however retains its shape like jello would, with real vanilla bean extract and the chocolate drizzle gives it a fantastic spunky contrast with fresh strawberries all around. Mmmmmmmm!!! (mouth-watering!) D and I have been going there for a couple years now for its delicious pasta and vanilla flan… Here are some flicks:

Involtini di Bresaola (besaola rolls filled with arugula, parmesan and truffle oil) - Yummy appetizer!

Mmmmm Vanilla Flan!

Then, I managed to get home to chill for a bit and switch coats because that wind along the Hudson was no joke! For old times sake, I rolled thru Tillmans at about 11:30ish to check the fellas (Ant, Center & Marcus) in addition to meet up with friend, Jeff Sunscreen. Cool, chill night up in the front/VIP mix of course. We closed the spot down eventually, and J had the tummy grumbles, so we shot down to the East Village and popped into 7A as default since Sidewalk was closed. Boy oh boy.. chit chatting, had us leaving at 4AM! Good convo, good company, thank you sunscreen!
Finally, yesterday Wednesday, 2/20 - I met up with awesome blast from the past, Michael at his office at Universal, and we grabbed lunch at Vynl - cool for music heads spot… you guessed it… vinyl decor. So great to have M back into my life as I was only a mere marketing/sales assistant and he a big shot executive when we met years ago. It’s all about good people vibes, isn’t M?

I then capitalized on the opportunity and did a quick round thru the Def Jam offices. I thought to myself, “Wow I’m so glad I’ve graduated from ALL of this (record business stuff) and NOT working it anymore!!” L.A., JD, familiar execs blasting music had me thinking, “haven’t we heard this before??” Anyway, onward - chilled with G-Lavi Lindsay  and then got to see my “Mama Sandie.” - Always such a pleasure. Mama S was part of the “Good Ol’ Days” Arista publicity fam.

And then next up, was dinner/drinks at Bar 89 with J & S. All I can say is… “taco meat on his chest” LOL LOL LOL! HILARITY!

Thennnn I get a text from another friend, BoomBox Mehmet as he lives in my neighborhood and just came back from a trip out to Hawaii. So of course, I had to link up with him as we’ve been talking forever to check this Argentinian restaurant in the hood called, Buenos Aires. Unfortunately I had already eaten dinner, but I dabbled off of his plate of steak and mashed potatoes nonetheless. Steak was OK… too dry actually, but I wouldn’t mind going back at some point with an appetite. And oh! I did check the eclipse on the way to the BA. (I also hope to hit the REAL BA some time soon….)

After my 2nd dinner, we hit up Drom where BoomBox M is picking up residency and dallying bookings work with. Known for world music, this night was packed with Greeks clap clappin and dancing away with hands in the air to the live band. It was quite a scene and made me LOVE NEW YORK that much more. I mean in one day, I had gone thru so many ethnic scenes, ie. Argentina to Greece! We chilled with some tea and this dessert M insisted for me to try. I eventually met the chef as well, since the dessert was his very own creation:

Cingene Eggplant (Layers of chocolate, crema catalana, raspberry coulis toppd with frothy eggplant mousse)

I was iffy on the whole “eggplant” part … but it was actually delicious! Didn’t taste like eggplant persay. (bc I’m not huge on eggplant either) My favorite part was the cookie since it had chili powder specs on them for a nice spicy kick. Delish!

And then home…. and sleeeeeep. and oh, I’m also still sore from the air hockey madness!

. . don’t burn the day. .