Housing Works

I went to this really awesome comedy show at Housing Works Cafe on Tuesday night. My old roommate, Emily, has been a Housing Works volunteer for the past year and I never really knew what it was until this week. Housing Works is an organization that donates all of its funds to provide housing and social services for New Yorkers living with HIV and AIDS. They have a bunch of thrift stores around the city, as well as this bookstore/cafe and it's almost all volunteer run.

Anyways, they do free comedy shows all the time and the one I saw was the last installment in a special series of summer comedy shows, called "Staycation." It was really great and I can't honestly remember the names of the comedians that performed, but they were much more impressive than I was expecting for a free show - one of them was just hired to be a new SNL writer, another is on the Comedy Central show "Michael and Michael Have Issues," another just filmed his Comedy Central special, the list goes on... It was a super enjoyable night and my cheeks hurt at the end from laughing so hard. And I got to see Emily, Dianne, and Pat for the first time all summer, which was great! I definitely plan on attending more shows and exploring the bookstore and thrift stores some more.

2 WEEKS UNTIL THE STUDENT COUNCIL WELCOME WEEK BLOCK PARTY!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

In the Loop

I saw "In the Loop" last night (I've been seeing a lot of movies this summer for some reason), which is a British comedy that is based on a show called "The Thick of It." Basically it's about whether or not the UK and America should declare war on the Middle East and it's a comedy. The movie was okay, funny at times though not "a gut-achingly hilarious farce" as the previews promised, and the ending was a total let down. Maybe it's because we're used to super happy endings where the good guy wins and the bad guy gets what he deserves, but the end of this movie was kind of a downer, just warning you. There were some pretty great insults in the movie though, including calling someone "the Nazi Julie Andrews," so if anything, you can enjoy that. Oh, and remember the girl from "My Girl"? Well she's in this and all grown up!

Pier I Cafe

Went to this cafe on 70th street with some friends the other night and it was really cool. So basically, if you're walking on the street, at 68th street you will come upon this giant staircase and ramp that will take you down to the water where there are lots of bikers, runners, a pier, a great view of Jersey, and this cafe. It's self serve and the food is pretty good, but the real appeal is that there are a ton of tables where you can just hang out and look at the water. It was really nice and even though NYC is an island, this is the first real waterfront restaurant that I've been too. Anyways, this is what it looked like:

Paris to the Moon

I just finished reading Adam Gopnik's book "Paris to the Moon." I originally found this book at Dad's house during Winter Break and started reading it, but didn't finish before I had to go back to school. Then when I was home over the summer, I found it again, this time on Mom's bookshelf and decided to take it. It's a collection of essays that Adam Gopnik, a writer for The New Yorker, wrote when he and his wife decided to move to Paris for 5 years with their baby son because they knew if they didn't do it then, they never would. I really enjoyed the book, mostly because of the anecdotes about his son, who is thoroughly entertaining. Also, I loved just being able to relate to the places he went to and the experiences he had as an American in Paris, although he was there from 1995-2000, so some of the stuff is outdated. So even though this one took me a long time to read (over half a year) it was still really good. And I finished it yesterday and had a dream last night about going back to my homestay in Paris for another semester abroad, weird...

Paper Heart

I saw this new movie with Charlyne Yi and Michael Cera the other day. I think it started as a documentary but turned into a fictional documentary (I hesitate to use the word "mockumentary" because that always sounds like they're mocking the documentary, which they weren't really). Anyways, Charlyne claims she doesn't believe in love and sets out across America to interview people about their views on love. She visits high school sweethearts, scientists, bikers, romance novelists, little kids on playgrounds, but somewhere along the way, she finds herself in a relationship with Michael Cera (they are perfectly awkward together), but is she in love? Of course there was only one way to find out: go to Paris. The movie was cute, but kind of left me wanting more or at least wanting it to be true since Michael Cera is an actual movie star and he played himself in the movie. Oh, and I really wish that Charlyne had brushed her hair. Just once.

Moving!

So I moved into my new dorm for the school year last Saturday. I'm now living in Lafayette, which is a dorm (surprise!) on Lafayette Street, and is at the bottom of Chinatown. I had a horrible moving experience that involved the street being closed (thanks for notifying me, NYU!), a cop literally screaming in me that he had no time to talk to me and that I needed to keep moving, a surly security guard, a sassy student checking me into my new room, a street fair that caused a traffic backup, and the world's hottest day ever. I'm living in a 6-person suite, in a 2-person bedroom with my friend Kelsey who doesn't get here for another 2 weeks and while we have the best room because it comes with a closet and our own bathroom, the room itself is the smallest that I've lived in since being in NYU housing, not to mention I'm incredibly confused as to how 6 girls are going to share 1 fridge, about 7 cabinets and absolutely zero counter space in the kitchen. So that will be...interesting. While I've been moved in for almost a week now, I'm still not even close to unpacked, mostly because I'm trying to figure out where I can fit all my stuff, but good news: I bought closet organizing material at Kmart yesterday, since this closet is about 1/4 of the closet space I've had before. On the plus side, I'm actually enjoying the neighborhood more than I thought I would (well, I mean I haven't actually done much in Chinatown yet, but it's not as annoying as expected and I'm looking forward to some cheap meals of dumplings or something) and the walk from school is actually only about 20 minutes through SoHo and surprisingly nice. I get to see lots of very nicely dressed people, which I always enjoy. So that's about it, pictures to come once I've actually set up my room.

:(

Tomorrow's the last day of my internship. It went by so fast and I'm going to miss it and the other interns a ton. We close out our time there by giving presentations in front of like 55 important people in the company plus other people that work there too. Scary...

Harry Potter...twice

I dragged Lindsay to the opening night of Harry Potter and we got there at 10:30 and the line was already around the block just to get into the midnight showing. We toughed it out though and actually got great seats. Unfortunately, due to the late hour at which we saw the movie, I kinda feel asleep a little at the end.

AND THEN I got to see it for free when my mentor at work gave me a pair of tickets. It was still good the second time.

Here's what I think about it: It was much funnier than the other movies (not funny, but funnier). There was a ton of teenage romance, more so than I remember there being in the book. As a movie by itself, it was good, but it really didn't focus much on what the book was about. Despite the fact that it's called "The Half Blood Prince" there was literally 3 mentions of the half blood prince during the movie.

Okay, I'm gonna go read the last book now and wait expectantly for the final movies...

The Dark Lantern

Took out this book by Gerri Brightwell from the NYU library. It was an okay read, nothing that I would rave about, but entertaining. It's the story of a maid who comes from the English countryside to work in a house in Victorian London. But of course, everyone in the household has secrets of their own...duh duh duhhhhh! Anyways, like I said before, it kept me entertained but I have NO IDEA why it's called the Dark Lantern. Not too many lanterns, let alone dark lanterns...

Public Enemies

I got to see a free private screening of the movie, Public Enemies. It's Jonny Depp's new movie about John Dillinger, a criminal in the thirties. I enjoyed it but I think a lot of people were left feeling a little disappointed by the ending. It was based on a true story, so the end wasn't all guns blazing and elaborate plotting. The one thing that annoyed me was Marion Cotillard because she was supposed to have an American accent but it was so clearly a French person trying really hard to have an American accent. It would have been better if they just let her be French.

So my opinion is: glad I saw it but also glad I didn't pay for it.

Regis and Kelly!!

I got to go to a taping of Regis and Kelly the other morning with all of the interns. It was pretty awesome.

The set from our second row seats. It's tiny.

But Kelly is even tinier. I don't think that I can convey to you how incredibly small she was. In this picture she looks fact compared to how little she actually is.

Shot of Regis and Kelly with Katherine Heigl, the guest of the day. She wasn't too exciting, kinda blah. Jordan Sparks was the musical guest and she was amazing. Her song Battlefield has been stuck in my head for like a week now.

Regis asking Julia (one of the interns), "Is that your final answer?"

Regis and Kelly filming some extra stuff after the show, with Gelman being all executive producery on the side. He was great, kinda makes me wish I was an executive producer...

After the show, we got to take a tour of the ABC studio and all of the interns took a picture behind the local news desk. Aww, such a nice picture!

Jacques Torres Ice Cream Sandwiches

So sometimes we get f0od at work and the other day we got ice cream sandwiches from Jacques Torres (he is know for his chocolate though he makes other delicious things too). Needless to say, as you can tell from the below picture, they were absolutely amazing. Now the other interns and I occasionally take little afternoon breaks at the Jacques Torres factory across the street for these sandwiches. I'm salivating just thinking about it...

My favorite video online right now...

Celeb Citing #3 and #4

3. When Brad and I were walking back from dinner the other night, we spotted Jimmy Kimmel and his wife across the street from us. It looked like Jimmy was looking at a map or something, while his wife kind of stared at us, since we were clearly staring at Jimmy. She gave us a "I know you're staring at my husband because he's famous, but lets all just play it cool" face.

4. This morning on my way to work I was walking through Washington Square Park and they were filming something by the fountain. It looked like a pretty low budget movie to me, especially after they filmed The Sorcerer's Apprentice (live action version of the Disney movie starring Nicholas Cage), Step Up 3 and Remember Me (Robert Pattinson's new movie) in the park earlier this summer, all of which where huge productions with lots of people yelling at you to walk around where they were filming to avoid being in the shot and to watch the giant wires on the ground. Anyways, as I was walking through the set (nobody yelling at me this time) I saw this guy walking towards me that looked familiar. It was Mark Feuerstein (you might recognize him if you google him - In Her Shoes, short lived show Good Morning Miami, other various things) walking directly towards me. So exciting! They were filming Royal Pains, his new show on USA that I've been watching because Verizon Wireless is a sponsor. Anyways, that was my excitement for the morning and a great way to start my day!

The Radys Came to VIsit!

So a couple of weekends ago, the Radys stopped by New York on their tour of colleges. I got to hang out with them on Saturday night in Times Square. First we had sushi at this place called Haru right off of Broadway. It was super delicious and I kind of keep dreaming about it, so clearly, I must return. Then we went to see Mamma Mia, which was really great. It was almost exactly like the movie (or probably more accurately, the movie was almost exactly like the show...) except that the actors sang about a bazillion times better than they did in the movie. I always want to go to Greece after watching it... And I always have ABBA stuck in my head for a solid week. Anyways, that about concluded our night since the Radys had been up since a really ridiculously early hour. Hopefully it was the first of many visits to come :)

Hiiiii...

Sorry I haven't posted anything in awhile. I'm probably going to do some massive posting in the next couple of days, if I can remember everything...

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.