Changing Gears: Personal July Recap

Looking back at the blog, I've realized that I hadn't posted too many personal anecdotes, which is generally what these blogs are for. So here's a quick recap on my month of July, which featured many trips and goings-on.

July 2 - Live 8 concert in Philadelphia. I wrote a post about this.

July 4 - Fireworks at South Street Seaport. I never took any photos of all the things happening there, but it was jam packed. The friend I went to Live 8 with was also at the fireworks with me, and I told him I thought there were bigger crowds at the fireworks but he disagreed.

July 8 - Yankees versus Cleveland Indians. The second Yankee win I've attended. It was also visor night. There's a post about this, too.

July 11 - I skipped work during the day in order to get tickets to "As You Like It," a production of Shakespeare in the Park. It was a good show, with great production quality, and the stage was beautiful, especially at sunset. The lead, Rosalind, was played by Lynn Collins, who I guess has been romantically linked to Keanu Reeves. One thing about the comedy is that Shakespeare comedies seem fairly formulaic (I'm no literary critic). Someone cross-dresses, there's a misunderstanding and a bunch of weddings. They all lived happily (very happily) ever after. There you have another Shakespeare comedy! The other realization I had this day was that there are so many people in New York City who don't work. I'm not sure what these people do for a living but it's not working.

Week of July 11 - Also included a trip to Chinatown for dinner, drinks at the 79th Street Boat Basin, dinner in Times Square (Spanky's BBQ) and a dinner in Times Square followed by drinks in the East Village. Busy week but I don't have any silly stories to tell from any of these events.

July 16-17 - I visited Boston for the third time in three months. I've got a lot of friends up there so it's always nice to pass through the area. Before leaving, I got measured for a tuxedo for an upcoming wedding in December. Then, I stopped off in Connecticut at a BBQ hosted by the couple to be married in December. The weekend in Boston consisted of dinner, drinks and then dim sum Sunday morning. It was nice to see everyone, but I wish I could have spent a little more time up there. The drive was treacherous since I was very tired.

July 18 - I saw the Stephen Chow movie, Kung Fu Hustle. I enjoyed this film much more than Shaolin Soccer. It was much funnier. Someone told me that Ebert called it a combination of Bugs Bunny and Quinten Tarantino. This is a great description since it has the Looney Tunes type of silliness.

July 19 - The dinner destination was Spice Market, a hip and trendy Jean Georges restaurant that opened last year in the Meatpacking District. It was tasty, although a little expensive. We had chicken samosas and a spicy shaved tuna for appetizers, a grilled chicken and a cod dish for the main course, accompanied by ginger rice and for dessert, some sort of ice cream sandwich. I forget the flavor of the ice cream (Thai tea?) but it wasn't too sweet and very tasty. We also got drinks - a mojito and a mai tai. The decor is pretty cool, the restaurant is huge. There's so much hype, I'm not sure the place could ever live up to it, but it was definitely a hip place to be and the food was tasty. I don't know why there is such a difficulty in securing a reservation to this place (I made this one back in early July) because it wasn't packed when we arrived at 8pm.

July 22 - I moved. To a three bedroom apartment just down the road. My roommates are cool, although one of them hasn't moved in yet.

July 23 - Two milestones. I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and I saw reigning NBA MVP Steve Nash while at dinner in the East Village. No comments on the Potter book, except I like to brag about how I reserved it back in January at the NY Public Library and got it right after it came out. What is it that makes Harry so popular? As for Steve Nash, I didn't talk to him, but it was exciting since I don't usually have a lot of celebrity sightings (although in June I passed Ice-T walking down the street in Times Square).

Also on July 23, I had a really substandard experience at Cold Stone Creamery. Not only did we not get very much ice cream, but there were only three strawberries mixed in! While I'm complaining about Cold Stone, why must they try to up-sell the customer on everything? It's like trying to buy a TV at Best Buy, except instead of "Would you like a service plan?" the question is "Would you like a larger ice cream? More mixed in?" Are these guys on commission?

July 24 - I had the waffle ice cream sandwich at the Original New York Milkshake Company. This will not be the last time I have this waffle ice cream sandwich.

July 25 - After several months of missing Smallville, I'm starting to catch up. Five more episodes for the rest of the season. The episode from this evening? Lex Luthor is split into two, his evil and good sides. For some reason I'm finding Kristen Kreuk (Lana Lang) less attractive than in the past. We've been away from each other for too long.

July 26 - Out to dinner on the West Side, at a mexican place. Why isn't this place listed in Zagat or on MenuPages? Note to self: while a chimichanga sounds good because of the words "deep-fried flour tortilla," it really isn't.

Well, that's a recap. If anything cool happens in these last three days, I'll keep the KFB posted.