Almost a Vacation

Except for the fact that I’m working 40 hours a week in a windowless office, it feels like I’m on an extended vacation.

Last night I saw the first half of LSU at the UW at the Rattle & Hum Bar in Midtown.  I met M there.  I was a little worried at first; darkish loud bars are tough for me.  But the plasma was bright, the beer was half price, and the Dawgs were playing good football (in the first half, at least).  It was fun to watch football again, after two years of being in China, and a few more years of not paying attention.  I had forgotten about how much I love Husky football.  I will be back to the Rattle & Hum.

This morning I went to meet my prof friends S and O at Ping’s Seafood for dim sum.  S and I went on a quest afterwards for 空心菜 which she calls “water spinach”… I’ve heard “hollow greens” and “swamp cabbage” but get better results in Seattle if I just say “kangkong” in Tagalog.  Anyway, we found it by asking around, and found the fresh vegetable street on Mott north of Canal.  S also showed me an Asian grocery store with the right smell.

Later we walked a few blocks to Little Italy for a shot of espresso, a gelato, and she had a beer.  We stoped at Di Paulo’s and tasted olive oils; I was feeling a little small surrounded by a dozen huge wheels of parmiggiano and a dozen whole prociutti hanging all around above my head.

Short walk to S and O’s place to drop off the groceries, and then a wander through the West Village.  We stopped at Murphy’s and saw all kinds of cheeses, sausages, and olives, and then continued wandering all the way to Hudson River Park, where we sat for a good while.

We wandered back to the East Village and had some snacks (i.e., no rice) at a Japanese bar.  Then S showed me her new awesome office, and then we went to Washington Square Park to hang out for a while.

So it was a pretty awesome day.  Tomorrow is all about moving in to my new apt.