Summer Coming

March 23, 2012
At night, I’m not sure about plans until Evan says he’s driving into the city with Bolanos. I join along and then I find out that it’s an 80s party and I don’t even know. It’s cool, but I would’ve liked trying deck out in 80s stuff. We get there and it’s a very small place downstairs. The music is pretty good, a decent amount of people, but we end up splitting pretty quickly.
We stand around Sophie’s for a while and then Stefa and Sara come. We leave immediately though only after a short Hello.

March 25, 2012
I was invited to this Mad Men party in the Upper West Side and I have class tomorrow. It’s a combination of things that make me not want to go. I have hints of a hang over from yesterday. I don’t really feel like driving 45 minutes out there. I have class the next day. It’s just a huge fucking hassle so I decide to ditch, even though I was excited about it all week.
I then randomly get a call from Rebecca, Miah’s sister, and she invites me to this party. It’s her friend Andrew, and Courtney, who I have met. They’re all dressed up. I dressed a bit, but just up instead of in the fashion of the time. It’s a cool time hanging out with people I never hang with and meeting new people.

March 28, 2012
I don’t have class the next day and Jenn texts me if people are around for drinks. Done deal, this works out perfectly. I text people and Kenny, Bolanos, and Erdem come too. It’s just a chill time talking shit and having a few drinks. We chat a decent amount about the party I’m throwing on Friday. I randomly decided to because of the Mad Men thing and I realized that I should utilize my open house. There’s no reason not to and I haven’t hosted a house party in ages. I made the event on Facebook and it’s turned out to be really big. Can’t wait for that.

March 30, 2012
When I was in Montmarte in Paris, there was this one amazing bakery (boulangerie) that I went to. I’ve seen this video of Gordon Ramsay learning how to make a croissant and it randomly turned out to this bakery that I loved. So crazy. I really wish I could eventually move out to Europe.
http://youtu.be/K7zdYKn2RJo
Today is my party party. I themed it for the 1940s because I was listening to Tiny Bradshaw on the radio. The radio is so awesome. I feel a cold coming on, but I take a nap after class and then get up to prepare. Throughout the week, I did most of the set up. Cleaned up, organized the house, made the bar presentable, etc.
I did shopping after class so it’s time to cook. I make an eggplant “caviar,” a Gordon Ramsay recipe. Eggplant with Greek yogurt and sour cream. Creamy with Sriracha as spice and lemon to lift up the flavor a bit. I then make these Spanish egg tapas. Onion and mushroom, bits of bacon, crumbled hard boiled egg on toasted baguette. I then make a hollandaise for the first time. What a delicious sauce for it. I spice it up with some Spanish pimenton and cayenne, sick sauce. Thankfully, Andrew comes with Maker’s Mark and I make a punch with it. I froze a Tupperware with water so I could make a huge ice cube, real fucking fancy I am. Apple cider, cinnamon, orange slices, lemon seltzer to cut the sweetness, and loads of Maker’s. So delicious.
People are slow on trickling in, but it eventually turns out to be a huge party. Enoch and his friend. Andrew and his friend Gio. Jenn, Bolanos, Aaron, Scott, Nikki, Avi, Rebecca, Kenny, Hasan (who brings a case of Bud 40s), Tom, and his friend Scott, Matt, and his lady friend. Everyone’s around the bar, I’m blasting some 40s music, it’s all good, but a bit of a mindfuck because I’m just running here and there trying to keep the party flowing, mingle, and just make sure I run around to reach everyone and chat.
Booze runs out really fast. Thankfully Andrew brought the Maker’s and Tom brought a bottle of Captain. After that, we move onto wine and the 40s that Hasan brought. We play some beer pong because Hasan has been wanting to do that for some reason and I can’t blame him. Jenn drove so she leaves pretty quickly, would’ve liked to see her have a fun night as she usually doesn’t like drinking out.
We talk about the gal that Matt brought, in the most complimentary sense though. She’s a real good looking girl and Matt tells me that they met on Plenty of Fish. Darn, I need to get myself on that site. A few of the guys comment on how she looks young, Aaron tells me and it turns out she’s 27. Motherfucker. I love me some older women. Dammit. Actually, the only thing I thing about the next day when waking up in a hungover daze is how angry I was about the matter. Jealousy anger, but I’m really glad for Matt and how he pulls.
It’s a fun time and I get real drunk up in thurr. Eventually everyone leaves and it’s just Hasan and I. My boy, oldest best friend I got. I’m on that drunken high and really happy that he’s staying so I can hang. We want food, but realize nothing is open for delivery. We cook up some fried rice and just chill out on my computer watching cute girls who sing with a guitar. My man knows how attractive a musically talented girl can be. After a while, he stays for the evening on my couch and I head upstairs exhausted. The food and all the water I drank is getting to me. I’m on Skype with Ela and I just feel bloated and want to vomit. It’s gross as she’s doing dishes and enjoying her day with her roommate Kristina, and I’m a drunk asshole there with my finger down my throat trying to throw up. Eventually it happens in my trash and it’s time for bed. I haven’t actually chatted with Ela on Skype for a week or so, so it’s good hearing from her.

April 5, 2012
It’s a three day weekend for Easter and I want to make big plans because I’ve been feeling shitty all week from being sick. My colds usually go by real fast, but maybe this is something else. How do you know if you have a flu or not anyway? Whatever, I just fight through it and go through the week with a sore throat, sinus issues, loads of mucus.
Aaron is on the Island so Bolanos, Kenny, Aaron, and I go to BHT. After some drinks, we go to White Castle, which I’ve been fiending forever. They have this special deal that Aaron and I split. Dude, chicken rangs, French frauys, and buhrgahs (I’m not sure what accent I’m trying to get at here). It was gloriously delicious. Never felt more like a pig in shit. The bathroom as a separate door that you need to get buzz into by the employees. I guess people were using it too much because it’s near bars. When I get out, there’s this older man and I try to leave the door open for him. He fucking gives me attitude for it.
Then, there’s two guys waiting for it and when he gets out, he gives them attitude and stares at them. They’re standing in front of the glass door simply waiting for him to get out. Fucking old man is fat as fuck and must be drunk or something. The three of them exchange some words. Bolanos mentions that it’s stupid he’s doing that because the two younger guys could easily beat his ass. He was a riot, but I didn’t want to laugh too hard or stare at it because he could walk over and cause ruckus.
During this, we chat a bit about Alon and girls because Alon and I talked about this last week. Aaron mentions something about “he’s in a drought.” (Though every night is a drought for us, ammirite?!). Not trying to specifically bash on Alon or anything, but I mention, “There’s no drought when there’s never been rain.” Boom, there you go, quote of the night. We were dying from it. Again, I’m not trying to disparage my boy at all. I tell you, there’s nobody that’s got our brothers’ backs like I do. I want him to destroy, so I hope he does. He’s also moving into the city soon, so good for him.

April 6, 2012
I pick up Bolanos, Aaron, Stefan, and Sarah and we go to Studio Square. We meet up with Jesse and Teddy. It’s a good chill time.
When I get back, I actually hang a bit on the Tinychat room and chat with Shelby from Wisconsin. Then there’s Lisa from Spain who I catch up with. I haven’t heard from her recently and apparently she was fired and missing home a bit because she’s Dutch and moved to Spain less than a year ago.

April 7, 2012
It’s been a nerdy few days recently. I’ve been watching SC2 during the IPL tournament. I also switch between the Magic stream as well. Hey man, it’s Easter weekend, I get to sit around and do nothing. At night, people aren’t really around and I’m really not in the mood to go into the city. I thought the cold was dying down or gone, but it’s back and annoying me. I decide not to go into the city and go back to BHT with Tom, Bolanos, and Michelle shows up as well.
We’re just sitting around and chatting. Tom’s moving to Williamsburg soon, so that’s going to be pretty awesome. I decide to spice it up and after some beer, I get some Bombay and Knobb Creek. Classing it up and it was frakking delicious dammit.

April 10, 2012
Talking about snack game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erlw-ODVZxU&feature=youtu.be
Darwin: I've never seen a man more nonchalantly break up a fight. He did not stop his snacking for a moment. My biggest issue was answered on Reddit:
"He is eating pringles off of a white cheddar popcorn bag ಠ_ಠ"
"Raises so many questions. Did he combine the chips and popcorn to make a new flavour? Was he disguising the chips in a popcorn bag? What's going on!!"

I'm confused as fuck how he's pulling that off with his snack game.

Darwin: Yo, Doritos are the Baltic Avenue of the snack game. I wouldn't be caught with that shit in my grill.
Our boy had some premium chipage, BBQ Pringles. His popcorn game was pretty sick too.
You guys don't know, I'm all up in this snack game. I once killed a man over Fritos.

Another one
Eric: Snowing in April? Well played Michigan.
Darwin: Just like the Night's Watch of The Wall.
Eric: When you're this far north, the only place to go is south.
Darwin: I told that to a girl once. Let me tell you, she was not amused.

Me talking about Tom’s choice of a woman.
9 is a good choice. She's got that dark hair, very Czech looking. Those girls are sluts. You can probably get her anus for 2400 krona.
20 minutes with her would be cheap, maybe 90 USD and a bottle of Becherovka.

Man, I'm on a roll today. Someone pat my back.

http://youtu.be/HQb1ZEYmZHc
The end of this clip and how excited Larry David gets over something like that is exactly how I feel all the time. Ted Danson is just standing there, a person he barely knows, and has no clue what to say. Larry lights up, he pushes Ted a bit, and just wants a brother to acknowledge his acheivement and Ted is having none of it. Feels like that all the time with my “brothers.”
And also, can we also talk about how unbelievably beautiful Lucy Lawless is? Blonde hair, sharp facial features, and don’t even ask me about that Australian accent because I’m about to faint.

April 13, 2012
At night, we were planning to maybe go into the city because I’ve been planning with Jenn. However, we end up wanting to go to Josh’s, but that plan falls through. I haven’t seen that man in a while. We end up making it my place. Jenn, Bolanos, Tom, and Kenny head over. We just hang out talking shit and doing nothing, an easy night. Tom is actually moving out to Williamsburg in a week, so that’s some super exciting news.

April 14, 2012
It’s Sara’s birthday today so we go in. Bolanos picks up Kenny and I and we head into the West Village/Meatpacking to meet Nikki and Scott. She bartends at this bar that I’ve been to before. We walk around trying to look for Corner Bistro and boom, we randomly see Scott outside of the bar we were supposed to go to. We weren’t even trying to walk past that bar. Coincidence.
Corner Bistro is obviously too busy so we go to get fish and chips. Bolanos doesn’t care for it, but I love me some fish. Walking to find somewhere to eat it because the place was closing, we randomly walk into Alon on the street. Coincidence. Then sitting on the ground eating, Aaron randomly walks past us. Coincidence.
So literally I texted these three guys and we were planning to meet them at some point after food because I told them to come downtown. However, even without us texting each other where we were getting food, we just run into all three of them. Crazy night.
We end up going to Ace Bar because Sara’s there. I like the place, even though it’s a bit crowded always. Lots of girls though. And skeeball, can’t forget skeeball. I give Sara my birthday wishes and the card I made. Stefan meets up with us.
We then move over to Sophie’s because that’s where we always go these days. It’s nice because I haven’t been there for weeks.
I’m texting with Ala and I find out that she’s going to be visiting NYC in May with her friend and wants somewhere to crash. That’s going to be great. I haven’t caught up with her recently and I’ve always wanted to visit TN for the sake of it being the south and also having someone to show me around.
I give Alon a chat about women. Our boy has prospects and I need to make sure he gets this shit done. None of us have any freaking prospects and while I care for myself the most, he better make moves on what he has going on.
When we’re about to leave, Bolanos and Aaron are waiting on the line for the bathroom. There’s this girl that just cuts them and Aaron tells her, “You know, we’re a society here.” She then tells Bolanos, “Your friend is the worst person in the world.” When I hear this quote, I die. I always enjoy topping off the night with a highlight and a “quote of the night.” It really makes the night meaningful to have something that really emphasizes a story and gives us something to take away from it.
Bolanos responds that there probably are worse people in the world. She says, “Not on this planet.” Aaron and I end up having this conversation. He’s clearly on the side that women should be treated equally, society should have standards, and women shouldn’t be allowed to be an exception. The other guys seem to be of that opinion.
I feel that chivalry isn’t dead. Unless it’s a crazy emergency, I don’t really care waiting a minute for a lady. As much as I like the idea of equality and blurring lines of separating people into groups, I still think chivalry can exist. It’s how I want to treat the women in my life, friends, family, or significant others, so why not be an example of that and just treat women in general fairly. A man needs a code.

April 15, 2012
It’s a beautiful day and I want to go to Williamsburg, but I end up giving up on that plan. Usually with these plans, I have something “to do” other than eating somewhere, but I didn’t really have this with Williamsburg. Maybe I can go on the bridge, but I just stay home. I go to Macy’s and try to look for some clothes because I need some nicer stuff for law school. I actually really need to buy a suit and be a man. Great thing that nothing fits so I walk away empty handed.

April 20, 2012
It’s a week or two before things go crazy so it’s good time for me to figure something fun, but also get ahead on work so studying won’t be so crazy. I almost plan on staying in for the night, but Bolanos gets away from his work and I pick up Kenny and him to go to BHT.
We stay there for a while, but I drove so only grab two beers. I get to sleep by 2:30, despite mad procrastination. I plan tomorrow to meet Vanessa in Brooklyn.

April 21, 2012
I wake up at 10:00 and it’s sick feeling active in an un-hungover sense. I could drive into Williamsburg, but I decide not to. I have time, I have a Yelp event, I don’t want to deal with parking, done.
I catch a bus to Flushing, then a subway to Court Sq. The G train is messed up, so there’s a bus downtown. It’s crazy how close the Long Island City is to North Williamsburg. We go to Smorgasburg, which is one of the best things ever. It’s in East Side Park, right by the water.
There are new, probably expensive, as hell apartments. The people are rich mofos considering they get their groceries delivered and get to throw it onto a luggage cart instead of carrying it to and from the store like normal people.
It’s such an incredible view of the city for a gorgeous day. It’s the 70s. Warm with a nice breeze from the water. It won’t be this nice in a few weeks.
I meet with my friend Vanessa, who just came back from England and Paris. She got me a Mind the Gap keychain, so how very nice and cool of her. Something about that phrase is so cool.
We start off with oysters, the Saint Simon Canadian one is the best. We share a half done, one each of the three different kinds. I’ve been itching to do $1 Happy Hour oysters, so this is a great move.
We walk all over the place and I wish I could try everything. We literally spend 30 minutes just checking out things without getting anything, just tasting samples and soaking it all in until actually getting something. I get a fried fish sandwich, so good. There’s also a crazy line for brisket and lamb with two guys with a smoker. The line is literally the longest line there by far and it’s quite obvious that apparently that’s the place to go. Boy it did not disappoint, crazy you can get a small sandwich of that quality stuff for $5. We sit on the grass for it, it’ll be a perfect place for a picnic.
I get a delicious apple and ginger soda, which would be a horrible idea if mixed with bourbon, you’d get so shitfaced. We then walk to the L train and we walk past all of Williamsburg. I forget why I’ve been to Public Assembly and still can’t think why I have, even after looking through the blog. We then walk over to the Yelp event, which is at a new place that celebrity chef David Burke opened up.
We came an hour late and only an hour left, however, I grab as many cocktails as I can. It’s a swanky outdoor cocktail area that is attached to a nice hotel in TriBeCa. They get celebrity bartenders to make drinks and it’s basically an free open bar.
Holy shit, nice ingredients, nice venue, beautiful weather, free drinks, great bartenders, loads of people, it’s so amazing. And freaking David Burke is actually there schmoozing around with people. I’m too shy to ask for a picture with him, then again, I haven’t tried any of his food, so I don’t have much to stay to him. However, the little bites of his food served are quite good.
The place is closing down and Vanessa is crazy and pulls a bottle of the rum into her bag. That is some skeevy move that I completely support. I haven’t pulled anything like that before in my prime days. I even take a shot because the bartenders need to get rid of the liquor that they’re given to make the drinks. I eventually split from Vanessa because she’s going to NJ. I tell Scott that we should meet up, I contact loads of people, but no one is really around.
I walk over to Grandaisy Bakery because that is amazing stuff, a butternut squash pizza with sage. Seriously? So good. I walk over the Washington Square Park and there’s a few young guys playing jazz. A trumpet, sax, drum, and bass. It’s so amazing. I record a few videos of it. It’s a beautiful day and beautiful music. People are enjoying it and I’m just a pig in shit. I’m drunk as hell now because I grabbed as many drinks as I could while I was there. I imagine I had at least 8-9 drinks and that’s a crazy amount for me these days.
I meet with Scott and we go to Down the Hatch, or whatever West Village bar is from the same people of Jake’s Dilemma. Other bars didn’t have Happy Hour this late since the event ended at 5 and I met Scott at 6-7:00. However, this bar has Happy Hour until 9, $3 shots and $1 beers. Good thing I can barely drink because I would’ve ordered so many freaking beers and shots with that value. After a couple drinks, we meet Nikki at the Magician in the LES.
Freaking hell, so many girls. I wish I was more sober or something because I wasn’t conversing with these girls and there were so many. It was literally like 6-7 girls and Scott and I and two others dudes. Hanging out with the usual group, we’re lucky to have one female hang out with 5-6 of us guys. I don’t know, it’s still just an amazing time. I’m too freaking happy. I had one of the best days I can recently remember, great food, great views, great drinks, great weather, just a great day. Beautiful New York.
And now, I’m drunk and hanging out with my boy Scott and Nikki and some other people. Just love it. Soctt and I realize we didn’t get food other than a hot dog after Down the Hatch, so we get pizza. Despite eating a lot earlier, I haven’t eaten dinner. I get the best pizza slice I’ve had in New York and then we join back with the group.
We go somewhere else and it’s a fucking walk. I didn’t realize. I told them not to take a cab, but they told me the wrong address. We all the way from the LES to basically Greenwich, between W Houston and Bleecker. It turns out to be this Hispanic place. There’s a live band playing salsa. The bathroom is the weirdest situtiaton because it’s in the basement, but down a 50 foot hallway. It’s just crazy how long the way is to the bathroom. I’d imagine people getting freaked out or lost. At the bathroom, there’s the obligatory guy that gives you a napkin and sometimes gets tipped. I thank him with a “Muchas gracias Senor.” He gives me a “De nada.” Great feeling. Not only do I get to use my Spanish, but I get a gentle reply. The Spanish I’ve dealt with recently is just pure racism. I hear all this “Chino” this or that all the time when I’m at stores or restaurants with workers. Hey man, the fuck!
I get some dancing down because I’m a dancing boss like that. We end up deciding to leave and pick up our stuff from the real sweet girl gives us back our stuff. Nikki had a suitcase because she was working at Whole Foods and I have a backpack with some law school work, an umbrella and whatnot. She offers us freaking sombreros! How sick!! Real fucking sombreros!
We walk outside and realize, WHAT THE FUCK. It’s a torrential hurricane rain. It’s only 11:30 and it looks like the night is dead. Damn that sucks.
I end up taking the subway up with them, they go home, I go to the LIRR. I obviously look sick in my hat. Had a sweet day though. Love it.

April 25, 2012
“Well I hope you as a future lawyer hold by the ideals of legal formalism. It would just be as fair for two hoodlums to beat you or I for helping a person who has fallen on the street. Unless you think bicycle messengers should be allotted powers of judgment, sentencing, and punishment, this man was innocent and had a Constitutional right to stand before a judge for a trial. Unfortunately, these deviants ignored the fundamental values this country was built upon.

We do not live in a land where punishment is dealt with by "street justice," vigilantism, and mob mentality. This is a society of laws and justice. Justitia omnibus.”
Something I wrote replying to Tork’s post. It was a video of some bike messengers beating on someone who tried to steal a bike.