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Neene Takes Manhattan

My “little sister” Whitney came to NYC this weekend with her friends Kelly, Tara and a new friend named Robin. It was great to hang out with Whitney and her friends. Whenever Neener and I usually hang out, it’s with the entire family (my Mom, kids, etc.) and while that is really nice as well, it’s good to have some one on one time, too.

We all went to a piano bar called “Don’t Tell Mama” on Friday night and that was pretty funny. It was great for me to go out in the city and do some “New York” stuff because I’ve been a bit of a hermit lately, with school and work and winter hibernation/nesting issues going on.

Friday night was fun but Saturday night was the real adventure. We met up at Lucky Cheng’s for dinner. Lucky Cheng’s is this institution in the east village and all of the servers are actually transvestites. It’s one of those places that you go to when you first get to the city, so I hadn’t actually been there in years. The last time I went, I was singled out by one of the servers/performers and my ex-boyfriend, Kenny, was forced to eat whipped cream off my stomach while everyone stood around and hollered. It was mortifying, so I guess that explains why I haven’t been back in a while!

The food is pretty horrible and the place is a circus but it’s probably worth it just for the entertainment. There was this one very large, black transvestite who did lap dances that was especially entertaining. Words seriously cannot describe the show that she put on multiple times. It was totally embarrassing to the poor victims and we all quickly agreed not to do that to each other – thank God! Usually it’s me going through these horrible ordeals while other people laugh and think it’s funny (see above).

The funniest part of the entire night was the people one table over. The place is basically packed with bachelorette parties and birthday groups. The table next to us had a girl who didn’t look much older than 16, a bunch of other people, and then an older grandma with a shock of white hair. I was totally embarrassed for the grandma half the time, because the things that the transvestites were doing during their shows and the lap dances made even me blush.

A little bit before we left, we looked over and noticed the 16 year old puking in a bucket. That was funny/sad enough, but then the table paid for the large, black transvestite to do a lap dance on the older grandma. It was like a bad car accident – I wanted to look away but I just couldn’t. I seriously thought that grandma was going to have a heart attack or get hurt because the lap dance/show was pretty physical.

After Lucky Cheng’s, our friend Seth met up with us and we went to Winnie's, a karaoke joint downtown. It used to be quite the spot, but its day is definitely done. I will never go back there – the drinks were overpriced and the karaoke machine was hardly turned up at all. To add insult to injury, it was a two-hour wait for karaoke, which was disappointing because Tara has a beautiful voice and we really wanted to hear her sing.

So off we went to a dance club in the East Village – Lit. It was fun to dance and the crowd was good.

On Sunday, we all met up again for brunch at Odeon. My friend Roger met up with us, thereby completing his goal to meet everyone in my family! Roger really liked Whitney and that was fun because now Rog is officially a member of the family. My friend Meredith and a friend of hers, Marcus, met up with us for brunch, which was fun because I felt a lot of worlds colliding. It was a nice brunch and I have to say that the service at Odeon was really great, as well as the food.

We had just enough time to walk down to Ground Zero, which made me really sad. I haven’t been down there in so long and yesterday I was reminded why. It’s pretty disgusting to me all of the political wrangling that has gone on down there and that a memorial isn’t even built yet – just because of politics and money.

I took the girls down to Wall Street and then Battery Park and then Neener and I jumped in a cab and I showed her our “new” apartment. That was fun because I’ve never really had a nice place in the city to show off. Thompson St. was great but more of a novelty, and my apartment with April…well, we all know how that ended. And my studio in Prospect Heights was cute but so small. This place is really starting to feel so homey and it was nice to show Neener.

Today I am working on school stuff and work stuff and then tomorrow I fly with Neener to Kansas City and then on Wed. we are driving to York for the weekend and my Grandma Babe’s birthday on Sat. I’ll probably update then!

Crash Landing

It’s been a crazy month and a half since we’ve been back. To be honest, at first I was happy to not be updating the blog every day but now that I sit down to write I realize that I’ve really missed it.

Rusel went right back to work, and I had a few days before school started just to relax a bit, see friends, and settle in. It was nice, but in a way it was really hard for me to go from fast-forward to what felt like the pause button. I think that my body was just so used to being on the go that when I wasn’t moving anymore I suddenly found myself kind of like a boat lost at sea (ironic, of course, because it was the first time I was actually not traveling).

Of course, Rusel had to go back to work, but at home alone all day after being with people non-stop for six months was difficult for me. I have to admit, I started to find myself slipping into a bit of a depression. The best way to explain it is that I felt as if my life had gone from color to black and white. I have difficulties in the winter anyway and add to that all of the major changes going on, I was having a rough time dealing. I hated to complain because I’d just had the most amazing life experience, but the more I didn’t talk about it, the worse I felt.

But I am happy to report that a series of events helped me “snap out of it.” A few weeks into the semester and after our return, I was asked to freelance for the company that I was working at before I left for my trip. They needed help promoting a documentary about Meat Loaf (the singer!). Although I am taking a full load of classes plus Spanish, I decided to go for it and I’m actually really glad that I did. It’s really helped me manage my time better and quit procrastinating about studying. As my friend Bob’s mom always used to say, “If you need something done, give it to a busy person” and it’s so true. Even though I had more to do, everything actually started to get done.

Then, it was my birthday. The actual day was rainy and glum and fell on a Wednesday, when I have class from 3:00-10:00 – yuck. But my older sister, Paige, flew out for what turned out to be quite the weekend. As it just so happened, our roommates Jess and Evan moved out on the Saturday after her arrival on Friday night. The Saturday that they moved, I had a really fun birthday dinner with a bunch of the usual suspects at a restaurant in my new neighborhood, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It was so much fun and a great way to see a bunch of people that I hadn’t even seen yet.

The next day, and the following three days, Paige, Rusel and I took on the apartment. With Jess, Evan and the cat gone we were faced with a very daunting task. Basically, Rusel has lived in this same apartment for the entire five years that he’s lived in New York….and let’s just say that the words “clean” “scrub” and “soap and water” really aren’t in his vocabulary….whereas “painting” “gluing” and “bachelor pad” seem to be familiar to him.

The day following my birthday dinner party I had hired a cleaning lady to come around 1:00 and I assumed that Rusel, Paige and I would go out for a leisurely brunch, reminisce about the night before, and enjoy a nice stroll around the neighborhood. Rusel and I woke up around 10:00 a.m. that morning and started cleaning…..Paige came at noon and started cleaning…the cleaning lady came at 1:00 and started cleaning….and we all just kept on cleaning. At 6:00, it was time for the cleaning lady to go and she had basically cleaned the bathroom and a closet. That was it.

Paige, Rusel and I were up cleaning until about 3:00 a.m. the next morning! And we weren’t anywhere near being done. Seriously, it was beyond anything I could’ve imagined. Yes, Rusel got lots of shit. And it was deserved. In the end, we threw out thirty bags of trash. THIRTY!

The next morning, Rusel and I were up around 10:00 a.m. and continued cleaning. At noon, we started painting. The walls were in bad shape – five years of our dear artist hanging multiple paintings on every inch of wall space. We painted the living room/hallway a really gorgeous blue and the kitchen a great yellow. It took until about 7:00 that night. Then, we started in on the bedroom. I had picked out a deep purple to paint in there and unfortunately it was really transparent so we ended up having to put about five coats on over the course of the next few late nights.

Paige left around 1:00 a.m. and Rusel had to work the next day. Somehow, Paige managed to go back to the hotel’s business center, rent a U-haul van and Mapquest the location of a kitchen table that I had bought on Craigslist, which was located in Yonkers, New York. The next day she was at my apartment with the U-haul around 1:00 and we were off again. I’ve never seen a non-New Yorker drive the way that Paige drove that day. We have been talking about a road trip someday together but after that day, I’m not sure my nerves could take it. She took the term “defensive driving” to a new level.

We found the antiques dealer without one wrong turn, which was a huge triumph in and of itself because I am a really bad navigator. In addition to picking up the kitchen table, we found a really nice coffee table and a great yellow retro chair there as well as some great end tables so they also went into the U-haul van. Saul, the guy who was working there, seriously didn’t know what hit him. We were in and out in about a half an hour – Thomas women on a mission!

Next, Paige (a.k.a. MacGuyver) had Mapquested the nearest Target from the antiques store so we did some damage at Target (with Cher’s Mastercard – thanks for the housewarming, Mom!). We got back to Brooklyn just in time for me to jump onto my bike, go into the city for class, come home, have dinner with Paige and then take her to the airport. Poor Paige never even made it into Manhattan – we seriously owe you one, lady!

WHEW!

I can’t believe that was two weeks ago – and the last two weeks we’ve just spent settling into our “new” pad. It seriously is a new place. I’ve uploaded “before” and “after” pictures to show you the difference. This weekend was especially nice because Rusel’s boss, Jackie, brought her little boy Max over as well as her husband, Chris. It was so great to have guests and not be embarrassed or have their lives be at risk! Max was the cutest little baby ever and it was nice to see them. Jess and Evan had a dinner party that same night and it was really nice to inaugurate their new apartment, which is only about three blocks away.

Tonight, I cooked dinner for Rusel with a recipe out of the “Better Homes and Gardens” cookbook that I requested as a birthday gift from Neener. I must report that it was delicious, and I had fun making it. I hadn’t really cooked in a kitchen since Moscow, and Aceh before that, and it brought back some great memories (Banda Aceh surprise, anyone?).

Settling in has been so much fun and I’m really starting to enjoy my new neighborhood -- which is extremely Polish on one end and extremely hipster on the other.

Spring is on the way…..life is really good.