I've been battling a fairly severe cold for the past week, most likely brought on by a lack of sleep and poor maintenance of my health in general. I finally started to come out of it in time for the weekend, which coincided with the 28th anniversary of my birth.
As an early birthday present, I got to see 5/6 of my immediate family on Thursday when my parents drove up with the littlest brother of them all, Galvin. He was set to fly back to Japan after a three week visit, so they came up a day early. They hung out in the apartment with Miss Charming Melodee while Geoff and I drove down to Circuit City so that I could return a hastily purchased PC computer, which I thought would enable me to work from home but instead just caused all sorts of problems. As we were parking the car, I could see the outline of people playing foosball, and surmised that my mother was probably playing foosball and frantically screaming while doing so. She gets very enthusiastic about certain things. When we played youth soccer, the one thing you could be sure to hear at any of our soccer games, besides whistles blowing, was my mom yelling. It was cheering, really, and not even at the top of her lungs, but it was its mere persistence that was really noteworthy. From the first whistle till the last, you could always hear her yelling. I noticed this in myself some time later, much to my surprise. But as I was playing, I notice I was also yelling and cheering my teammates on. One year I actually won a trophy for "Best Team Spirit" if you can believe that. I was really hoping for best player, and I still feel I was robbed. But just slightly.
Anyway, the six of us drove over to Park Slope for dinner. Actually, Geoff and Galvin walked, since the car only seats five. Regardless, after some confusion we met at the Italian restaurant Al Di La on 5th Ave. I've heard good things about this place, but was a little underwhelmed. The food was ok. I had the lamb carpaccio, which was a little on the tasteless side, followed by some slightly overcooked porkchops. The real kicker was the bad attitude of our waitress. She talked to us like we were five years old. She also had this air about her like we were lucky to be eating there. Also curious to me- for dessert Miss CM and I split this ice cream dish that was "drowned in coffee," yet when my dad ordered a coffee, he was told they only had espresso. So from whence did this coffee come that our ice cream was "drowned" in? I doubt I'll be going back. The food was just ok, and even the sort of charming wine bar they had was no match for the much nicer wine bar that's just a block from my home.
On Friday, Miss CM and I had a little night on the town, which for me has almost always means a movie followed by sushi. For the movie portion of the evening we saw "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." We thought about seeing this movie when it played at BAM down the street from us, but I'm glad we waited and saw it on the superior screens at Union Square. The movie had a very indie-film, lo budget gloss to it, and if we saw it at BAM I would've thought this was due to the smaller theatre. Plus, I wasn't terribly excited to see this film, and was really only going due to the fact that "Kill Bill, Vol.2" doesn't come out until this Friday. That said, I enjoyed this film immensely. I knew I'd like it, but I didn't think I'd love it, which I did. It was just, all around, great. Everything that I felt the film tried to do, it did really well. The dreaming sequences really captured the dreamlike state, where everything's sort of chaotic but somehow follows and underlying thread of logic that makes perfect sense in the dream state of mind. And the treament of the romance came across wonderfully. The casting worked marvelously as well. The main characters, it seemed to me, sort of played the role that the other is usually typecast as playing. Kate Winslet played the extroverted free spirit, while Jim Carrey was the quiet introvert. And they played them pretty well. I don't like Carrey all that much, but I thought this was the best I've seen him. I particularly liked the contrast between their personalities when they first met and after they were involved for a long time. They're kind of at opposite ends of the personality spectrum, but meet each other halfway in their private moments, as the shields come down a bit, and its very touching. The more I think about the movie, the more I want to see it again. There's a bit of a time distortion that's sort of like Memento in a way, that makes you want to go back and see all the references that you're now aware of. If you've seen it, I thought the small detail of the Huckleberry Hound reference was an excellent little bit.
So after that, we went over to 1st ave to the new location of Sandobe. Sandobe used to be exactly like its sister store, Jeollado, but now in its new incarnation has become somewhat more upscale. The fish is a little better and the overall quality is noticably different. The food was a lot better than I thought it would be, and as a little bonus we had a small celebrity sighting. I was already on the lookout, since the woman sitting across from me looked a lot of former Prince protege Vanity. Then in walked a women who Miss CM remarked looked a lot like Cynthia Nixon from Sex and The City. Upon further inspection, it turned out it was Cynthia Nixon. She wasn't looking her best, though I've long said that out of all of the characters from the show that I hate so much, her character was probably the only one out of all of them that I wouldn't hate if i knew them in real life. As for her in real life though, I don't think I'd get along with her at all. Anyway, I was more taken with her celebrity status when I thought of her not as Miranda from that accursed show, but as an actress with bit parts in big budget movies like The Pelican Brief and Amadeus. Her identity was confirmed when the wait staff started taking pictures of themselves with her. It took a long time, and by the end, even I was feeling uncomfortable with the invasion of her personal space. They did give her some free food though. By the way, Miss CM and I had been talking about the movie we just saw, which featured Kirsten Dunst, and both she and Cynthia Nixon have the same mouth affliction, wherein they appear to have many, many small but extremely pointy teeth.
The next morning, Miss CM prepared a very nice birthday breakfast for me, which consisted mostly of fruits and sugary toppings. Bacon was also served. She also presented me with the best birthday card I've ever received, which did basically made while I was in the shower. In the afternoon Caryn came over and we went to Ft. Greene Park, stopping off at Matt's to meet him and his ladyfriend. A lot of recreating was going on in the park, and combined with the spring weather I felt somewhat invigorated though I was still pretty ill. Matt, Caryn, and I spent an hour or so throwing around a baseball and a frisbee, while Miss CM and matt's lady sat and chatted.
Back at Matt and Jed's apartment, we sat around and played Crazy 8's for quite some time, amusing ourselves with our made-up custom rules. The game is basically like Uno, but we throw in a lot of little different scenarios. Playing one red queen after another results in everyone having to draw a card except the person who played the card, and is called "Sailing the Lady." If all four suits of a particular card are played, everyone must draw a card. Jed originally named this "waterfall" or something, but it was later renamed "dream shower." And if a player must draw cards, and exhausted all the cards and still can't play a card, the game is over and it's a "bitch out." Following a bitch out, Crazy 8's cannot be played for 48 hours. Matt once thought the "bitch-out" a mathematical impossibility, but it was proved conclusively to him on Saturday. He was quite proud that he was the one to initiate the bitch-out, especially after we had also seen a "dream shower" and a "Sailing the Lady."
After that, Caryn and Jed relocated to my and MCM's apartment with us, and we proceeded to eat a lot of cheese and drink margaritas. We then rocked the rumpus room for a good amount of time, which was quite a good time. Each of us could play at least two various instruments that were about, which was good for variety. Jed dubbed our makeshift band "Horn of Plenty."Around midnight Matt and ladyfriend came over, and we amused ourselves talking and playing cards. At one point Miss CM ran off to the store, and I assumed she needed some sort of feminine product. So I was quite surprised when she came back carrying a variety of dessert cakes. Being my birthday and all, she ran out to the only place that was still open, the Mexican restaurant up the street, and pick up some key lime pie, some flan, and some chili chocolate cake. Miss CM can always be counted upon to deliver the snacks. Last year she made me a delicious double chocolate cake. So a quick happy birthday was sung, more cake was had, more cards were played, and more alchol consumed. Jed was the last to remain, and he, Miss CM, and I played blackjack for a while. Jed and I took some ill-advised shots of Jack Daniel's, which were totally uncessary at that point of the night. I paid for this early the next morning, as we had to rise early to catch a train to upstate New York to visit with Miss CM's grandparents. Good gravy, was I hung over. And still sick. I'm pretty sure I was runny a mild fever. We almost missed the train, and I don't think I've ever seen Miss CM move as swiftly and skillyfully through a crowd as she sprinted to catch the various connecting trains. All in all, though, a tremendous birthday weekend, spoiled just a bit by it being easter as well.
Galvin and the mom playing foosball in the corner of the apartment I like to call "The foosball corner"
Miss CM's birthday card to me, the Hairdo-O-Rama. The underlying picture is me with now hair, and through the top and middle of the card she ran a loop of clear plastic, over which she drew renditions of my various haircuts through the last few years. By pulling the plastic, you could view the different 'doos. Honestly, best card ever.
On the left, is me now. On the right, me circa summer 2002, when we started dating.
On the left is me, v. summer 2003. Possibly my favorite. Shaggy and dirty. On the right is one she just made up, since she hadn't seen anything like that "yet." I think I look too much like an asian Jon Waters. Missing from these pictures: the ill-advised ponytail of 1996-1997, which she captured amazingly well, and the bowl on and off bowl-cut.
The curtains MCM recently put up. Opinion so far is that they look like they came out of the Mohegan Sun casino, or that they look like the logo of some South American airline. They've kind of grown on me though.
Miss CM's fish, "Shiner," so named due to his one black eye. It's a constant battle with Shiner for Miss CM's attention. I'll win yet.
Ft. Greene Park. Matt's lady, Matt, and Caryn.
Me, birthday cakes, and annoying trick candles.
A Vietnamese pheasant kept of the property of Miss CM's relatives. Truly remarkable birds. Only picture I got before the batteries died.
