Dandy Deli Deviation

May 24th was the first day of Fleet Week NYC 2006. Wow and am I excited! This is when ships filled with men in uniform by the thousands come into port. All these ships come into port and dock for a week, give ship tours and either dock at Pier 88 in Manhattan or Staten Island. Ships started coming in around 11 o'clock on Wednesday, this morning. We also went to see the fireworks...probably to kick off Fleet Week. So...to catch everyone up...with the last five days. I've been looking for a job...not much progress, but there are more possibilities in the City. The weekend started off with a *BANG*, well not literally. My cousin, Becky, and I went out Friday into the City to take advantage of Fleet Week and started out in The Village. There wasn't much going on, so we traveled to East Village which was a bit more "happening". Minus the fact that it was pouring outside and we hadn't planned for rain and bought a very cheap umbrella.

The night began at an Irish Pub...definitely filled with men and even very Irish men at that. Since I'm still pretty new at being legal to drink, I got carded, and then Becky who's 10 years older than myself, also got carded. Every where we ended up going, she got carded...and I was pretty amused. we were at the bar having our drinks, some very drunk men, sitting/standing next to us were commenting on my shirt that I had chosen to wear out..."Oooo i must be Italia...", "Italia...", "Italia..." Becky suggested that I turn around abruptly and say, "Do you have a problem with my home country?" in Italian, but of course the alcohol hadn't started to effect my judgement yet, so I declined. Drinks are seriously expensive, especially when one comes from a place where they are very inexpensive and then goes to a city which is much larger. After finishing our drinks, we saw some men in uniform outside and decided to follow them. As we walked out of the pub, we casually sauntered behind them. they headed into a little alcove because this bar was below street level by four stairs. to my surprise, I found myself in a karaoke bar. This place was small, quaint, and long. As you walked in, the bar could seat about 12 people. There was a small walk way behind the stools, which led you to a small area with tables and chairs. The walls and ceiling were painted and sculpted to make one feel as though they were in a cave, with lots of grays, specked black with dim lighting. they had a two drink minimum and I agreed to stay. I found a new beverage of choice, Malibu Rum and pineapple juice. so when one is confronted with being at a karaoke bar, one is persuaded to sing. After some contemplation, I decided on Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. This time while we're at the bar, one of the sailor-commander guys decided to come and sit to the left of my cousin and I was on her right. Later on, another man decided to come and sit to the right of me, so that my cousin and I were sandwiched in. Funny thing about these two men was that the one hitting on my cousin was 22 and the guy hitting on me was....well I don't know his age, but my educated guess would put him in his late 30's. We spent the rest of the evening at the karaoke bar then taxied home. Getting us home around 3am.

Saturday, I slept in until noon. Watched Becky give Gizmo a summer cut hair0do. He's pretty skinny now. Becky and I later went to the dog park with Gizmo and Wally. There weren't a lot of dogs there when we arrived, but as we laid there basking in the sunlight more came with their owners. one thing to know about Becky is, she likes to make associations with people which helps her remember names and dogs. First came Michelle "she sells shells by the sea shore" with Meeshy, "Sounds like Michelle." Then came Chery "like the Alcohol" with Barkley "like the basketball player." After Chery was a man with Roxy the Boxer and Chewy as in "Chewbacca" (but Chew is a Pomeranian and very fluffy so the name is very easy to remember because it's unusual.) Lorain with her dog George, all white and very cute, who drools a lot. And a lot of the other dogs that I just cannot recall at the moment. After spending most of yesterday afternoon at the park we headed back home. Later Becky needed to exchange some shirts at the mall, so I went along. But before exchanging the shirts, on the way Becky managed to get a new cell phone, the "enV" phone from Verizon, and ice cream. she practically clutched the phone the entire time we were at the mall. After exchanging the shirts at Aeropostale, we walked our way to Forever 21 to see if my "Italia" shirt was still there for Becky to buy.

After leaving the mall, we went to the grocery store. Let me say that was an experience all in its self. the store is like the ones we have back in Iowa, but the processes in getting things are a bit different. When we went to the deli to get some deli meat, i had to "take a number." Then when I asked the deli assistant for smoked turkey, he said something similar, and I said, "That will do." he sliced a piece off and held it in front of me, and I pretty much gave him a blank look, not knowing that this meant that I was supposed to taste it, to make sure it was the desired meat of my choice. there were people around me who must have thought I was strange for not taking it right away and tasting it. then the deli assistant said, "You wan to try it?" I didn't know what to think of this custom. i had never experienced this before, where I could actually try the product before purchasing it. like getting the free samples of food at the grocery store on Saturday's back home. Also since we're so close to New york City, they had fresh mozzarella in water. And I'm getting really used to having fresh mozzarella on my pizzas...oh...it's so delicious!

Last night we decided to go out again. Wow...I'm on a roll for going out on the weekends! We went to a local spot called The Iron monkey, since it is Memorial Day weekend the place was pretty sparse. It's a four story restaurant, martini bar, and roof top lounge. We walked in and there were two people on the first floor, as we climbed the stirs to the martini bar, there was only the DJ at a little desk. As we passed he said, "the crowd's up on the roof top." Well after the next two flights of stairs, we made it to the roof top. The "crowd" was pretty bleak, there were two large (I'm referring to about 7 or 8 people) groups and about 3 smaller groups of 2 or 3 people. The interesting part about the two large groups was that one group consisted of all females and the other group consisted of all males. I thought this was a little odd, but went with it. After having two drinks and socializing with Becky while we waited for her friend to arrive, I realized that the two groups were actually together. The men were with the women and vice versa. that was a pretty strange way of hanging out, this must have been their way of having a "boy's night out" and a "girls night out". Becky's friend has no sense of time what-so-ever. he was very late in his arrival, but oh well. thank goodness for cocktails before we left the apartment. Then we headed to a place called Hearts and Horns.

Upon our arrival here, I was of course carded, then Becky was carded and even her friend was carded...quite amusing since he's in his mid 30's. from what Becky says, most Saturday nights it's usually an Asian dance party, but last night because of the circumstances the place wasn't as busy. Becky said that she had been to this bar one other time and she was a rare commodity because she's a tall female. And that I was more of a rare commodity since I'm a tall Asian female. Of course we had more drinks here as well. They had on dance music, so we danced and were merry. After we had had our fill of drinks and dancing, we headed back to Becky's friend's place. There, we hung out and I met a guy named Dwayne...pretty nice guy...he's the doorman for the apartments of where we were and he was on his break when he came up. Went home after chilling for a bit and that pretty much explains the rest of the evening.

Today, now the 28th, WoW...what a weekend. Got up around 9ish and started working on this blog then got a bit queasy then laid back down for a few more hours. Then had brunch at the Kitchen Cafe...which is below our apartment. Becky played with her new phone for the rest of this morning and updated everything from old phone to the new one. later today we went to sun bath at the dog park without the dogs. And now we're back for some relaxing.