Free Pinkberry!

There was free pinkberry (froyo that tastes like frozen yogurt that people seem to either love or hate) this past Friday to introduce their new flavors: coconut and passion fruit.  Just thought I would share because I love a good free food deal.  I was contemplating going Pinkberry hopping with friends but then it started downpouring (surprise!), washing away all my hopes of a belly full of free froyo :( so I napped instead.

Kristin's here!

Kristin is in the city for a couple of weeks this summer, doing a theater program.  She arrived on Sunday and I went to pick her up at the airport (though it was kind of early so I was late, oops).  The really exciting part of this story is when we went to brunch.  I've been wanting to try this place, Cafeteria on 17th and 7th after a couple of my friends raved about their mac and cheese with truffle oil.  Kristin and I checked out the menu online, saw that they had green eggs and ham, as well as croissant french toast (or as Kristin likes to call it, double french toast), and we were sold.  Being fathers day and a busy brunch place, I decided it would be a good idea to make reservations.  Here is how that conversation went:

Sara: Happy Father's Day! This is Cafeteria.  

Me: Hi, I'd like to make a reservation for brunch

Sara: Oh, we don't take reservations.  But if you have the secret password...

Me: What's the secret password?

Sara: What do you want it to be?

Me: Well, we're pretty excited about the green eggs and ham, so how about that?

Sara: Green eggs and ham it is.  See you soon! I'm Sara.

Me: Thanks Sara, I'm Ali

So understandably Kristin and I were excited to go there after that convo.  When we arrived though, it was pretty empty and the person that seated us was a guy.  So we didn't get to use the password.  But, I did get the croissant french toast, which was pretty delicious and Kristin got a half order of pancakes AND scrambled eggs AND she ate it all! (which, if you know Kristin is pretty unbelievable since she is a firmly established nibbler. but I can vouch for her).  After we finished and left, I realized that I had left my umbrella there, so we went back to go get it (I've had that umbrella since I started NYU, which I think is some kind of record since umbrellas are frequently lost in this city.  and it has a squishy handle, which is awesome).  When we got there the guy that seated us and a girl were admiring the squishiness of it.  After claiming my umbrella, I asked the woman if she was Sara and she was like, No.  And then I had to explain that I had spoken to Sara and that we had set up a secret password and the guy was like, Green eggs and ham? And then the girl was like, Hey how come everyone knows about this but me? And then we left.  But it was a pretty memorable brunch.

After that, I took Kristin to Magnolia's for cupcakes, which has been 3 years in the making since I promised her some last time she was here for Thanksgiving during my freshman year, but after walking all the way there, we found out that it was closed because of the holiday.  

Then we both went back to our respective rooms and napped the day away.  

Oh and apparently Kristin met Matthew Broderick tonight, though I'm not sure how or where yet.  She hasn't replied to my text back...

Sunny Sunday

Note: the following occurred 2 weeks ago. I'm a little behind on the posting, but I'm catching up...

After literally spending all of last Saturday  in my bed (it was lovely), I decided to venture out on Sunday.  Aleja, Lindsay and I went to the Snapple Big Apple BBQ.  It was just like the Rib Cook-Off, but more expensive, busier, less available seating, and in Madison Square Park (not to be confused with Madison Square Garden, the arena...)

The craziness of the barbeque on a sunny day:

What I got.  Literally 6 people asked me where I got mine from while we were trying to find somewhere to sit:

Delicious! 

Aleja went for a pulled pork sandwich.  She picked the longest line, but I think the wait paid off:

Lindsay eats quickly and likes to take pictures of herself.  She got a pulled pork sandwich from another stand, but minus the barbeque sauce because she's a bizarre eater:

Finger-licking good.

Then we walked over to a street festival that was going on and bought some crepes to really round out our meal.  While we were sitting there eating them, we discovered that there is an apartment building called "The Future."  I kid you not. And it's so great because if you're a resident, you get to say things like, "Oh, yeah, I live in The Future." 

Then Lindsay and I decided to bake a cake.  But not just any cake.  We made what no man (possibly) has made before: a brake.  2 layers of cake and a middle layer of brownie.  The results were delicious and due to the color of the frosting and shape of the brake, we were inspired to turn it into an edible pirate's treasure chest.  

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

I borrowed this book from Mom, who read it for her book club and it was probably one of the more enjoyable books that I've read recently.

Written by Mary Ann Shafer (I've never read anything else by her before...) it's an epistolary (thank you, English major) novel about a British female author in the aftermath of WWII who is trying to write another book after the success of her first one. She ends up by chance corresponding with a man who lives on Guernsey Island and gets wrapped up in the lives of those who live there.

It was funny and sad and touching and entertaining all at the same time. I read most of it on the plane ride back to New York and then finished up the last bit in the next two nights. I haven't read a book that fast in awhile...

This is my life:

7:45 - Alarm goes up

7:55 - I get up

8:30ish - I leave my dorm

9ish - 5ish - Internship

5:30ish - 11ish - Student Council Work*

12ish or 1ish - Bed

*Wednesdays and Thursdays are interrupted with a short break for So You Think You Can Dance

Rain, Rain, GO AWAY

It's been raining like nonstop.  Don't believe me? New York Times will back me up:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/20/nyregion/20rain.html?_r=1&scp=19&sq=rain&st=cse

Summary for those who aren't going to read it:

Rain has fallen for 15 of the first 19 days of June

True Blood

In a moment of pre-internship boredom, I decided to watch HBO's "True Blood."  Vin recommended it to me and I had heard a ton of people in Paris talking about it but I was desperately trying to avoid jumping on the vampire bandwagon.  Anyways, here's what I have to say about it:

BEST. SHOW. EVER. 

Seriously, if you haven't watched it, you should stop reading this entry right now and start watching True Blood.  It's about vampires going mainstream in today's society thanks to a synthetic blood drink that some Japanese people came up with.  The show is set in Louisiana with a waitress who can hear other people's thoughts, vampires, murders, and a ton of other surprises (supernatural or otherwise) that I wouldn't want to reveal. 

If anything, you should watch it for the opening title sequence itself, which is this crazy mix of religion, sex, violence, the South, and the supernatural.  It's unlike any other opener I've seen and will stick in your head. 

Also, the ad campaign that they've had to promote this show is ridiculous.  Season 1 started off with ads for Tru Blood (the synthetic blood drink) that were made to look like mock alcohol ads and they even put Tru Blood buttons on vending machines.  There is this really awesome blog that they set up - bloodcopy.com, that is supposed to be a human turned vampire blogging about vampires coming out in the open.  For season 2, they turned to sponsors like Marc Ecco, Gilette, and Harley Davidson to make mock ads for products geared specifically towards vampires, like vampire cologne and motorcycles that drive fast enough to beat the sun.  They did a couple of magazine inserts that were fake little newsletters with vampire-specific news, as well as events that were then photographed and published in magazines where human celebs hung out with other celebs who were actually vampires.  Also, living in New York, I am constantly seeing ads for True Blood everywhere, especially wildpostings (which are when you see like a row of the same poster advertising something.  It's done deliberately, even if it doesn't look like it...)  So they've done a pretty good job of surrounding me. (<---wow can you tell what industry I've been working in for the past couple of weeks?)

So yeah, as you can see, I'm kind of currently obsessed with this.  Thank goodness season 2 just premiered 2 weeks ago, cus I don't think I could have waited any longer.

Sunday, please come soon.