Batman

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

So I’m definitely a fan of the Batman movie. It was great! It took us a week to get them, but we bought tickets to Batman in IMAX. Heath Ledger did such a great job. One great part of living in New York City is that there are many movie stars here and movie premiers. The movie theater that I always go to held the world premiere for Batman. Thus, all the big name actors showed up. I didn’t see any actors, but here are some pictures of the Batmobile that they brought to the theater for the premiere.

Endless Summer

Summer is so busy here. There is always something going on. We try to go to the beach every now and then, but there are many events that occur in the summer. In addition to the events I mentioned in my earlier posts, I have also recently attended Shakespeare in the open. A group performed MacBeth in Battery Park. With every new scene, the players would move to a new part of the park for the scenery change. It was actually really interesting and helped you keep your attention during the performance. Just one note: We took dinner there, which would not be advised because every time we sat down and tried to eat, they would move.
Then someone had the bright idea to make New York more artistic, so they hired this artist to design waterfalls that they have positioned along the river at different places. They are pretty cool, but not worth the price that they paid for them ($15.5 million for four of them).
Then here are some pictures of the Death Cab concert that I mentioned in my earlier summer post.
The summer is winding down, but I still feel like there is so much I want to do. Sad day! One of the terrific things about summer is Broadway in the park. Every week in July and August, a few Broadway shows perform a number or two from their show. It seems like I’ve been gone from work or have had something every Thursday, so I haven’t attended any! Hopefully I can make it tomorrow.

My Birthday

Thursday, August 7, 2008

My birthday was amazing this year. Everyone went out of their way to make it special. All my coworkers at work signed a card and gave me a gift certificate to Crate & Barrel. Then I got to pick my favorite restaurant for lunch. I went to Tao which is an amazing Asian restaurant. It's actually where the speed dating scene is shot in Hitch. For my birthday, they brought me out a giant fortune cookie filled with custards. It was delicious. If that wasn't enough dessert, my coworkers also bought me a cheesecake and even had me blow out the candles.

Then Camas had told me we were going out to dinner and that afterwards she had invited some friends over for some cake and ice cream. She refused to tell me where we were going for dinner. When we showed up at the restaurant, some of my close friends were there to surprise me. It was so awesome. I don't think anyone has ever had a surprise party for me. It was fun. (Thanks to all those who came.) The food was great too. It was a place called Dinosaur BBQ. Who would have thought that you can get some good BBQ in New York City.

Then we moved the party to Megan and Mitzi's apartment for cake and ice cream. It was a great night.

My birthday was on a Thursday, but there were so many of my friends with birthdays the same week as mine. So, we decided to have a joint party for all of us on Friday night. We had a friend who knew this lady with a penthouse apartment and terrace overlooking the Guggenheim museum and Central Park. It was the perfect place for a party, with amazing views. It just topped off an awesome birthday week.

4th of July

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Another first of mine was the 4th of July in New York City. It was an amazing day. I had a nice relaxing morning and then had lunch at the Boathouse in Central Park. It’s in the movies and Enchanted and probably many more. The atmosphere there is really amazing as you are eating overlooking the lake in Central Park. After we ate, we actually went out on the row boats on the lake. It is almost surreal as you are rowing in a lake surrounded by trees with a backdrop of skyscrapers. It’s a sight you can only see in the city.

After our adventures in the park, we had an amazing BBQ. What would the 4th of July be without a BBQ? It was the inauguration of a new grill that Camas received for her birthday and boy did the burgers turn out well. We were slightly grossed out, though, as we watched the Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest on TV. I guess burgers don’t sit to well as you watch someone stuff 59 hot dogs in their mouth.

To end the night, we met up with about 50 friends to go over and watch the fireworks. The city closes down the one highway in Manhattan, which runs along the river, and allows residents to sit on the highway. We arrived about 2.5 hours early and staked out our spot on the road. Then we just chatted and played some games as we waited for the show to begin. We were having a great time until it started raining. Luckily we were prepared and brought our umbrellas. We started to get hopeful when the rain stopped, but sure enough the rain started again about 15 minutes before the fireworks started. Nevertheless, we stuck it out and watched the fireworks with our umbrellas out. The fireworks were great coming off three barges on the river. It just wouldn’t have been the 4th without fireworks.

Summer in the City

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Maui is yet to come because I realized I haven’t received all of the pictures that the rest of my family took. So here’s a post about all of the amazing things there are to do in the summer in New York City.

So first of all, almost every band you could ever imagine comes to New York. So a few weeks ago, a couple of friends went to the Death Cab for Cutie concert. It was really good. It was at a fun outdoor arena in Brooklyn. The only downside to that is it is subject to the forces of nature. About an hour and a half into the concert the wind really starting picking up and you could see lightning in the background. Pretty soon, the lights hanging over the stage were swinging pretty hard. So, the stage manager came out and said they had to cancel the rest of the concert. We were disappointed, but at least we saw them for most of the songs (and that meant we didn’t get home too, too late). Then as we were walking back to the car (luckily, we had a friend with a car), it started pouring rain. There’s nothing like an East coast torrential downpour.

Then this last week, the New York Philharmonic hosts the summer concert series in the parks around New York. The best thing about it is they are all free. A couple of friends went to the concert in Central Park (as seen in the movie “August Rush”). It was a lot of fun because everyone brings blankets and sits out on the lawn. A lot of people, including us, brought dinner to eat while listening. The Philharmonic plays songs most people would recognize and then they finish the night off with a fireworks show. It is a definite must do in the city.

Then yesterday, we took advantage of another free event that the city and generous donors provide called “Shakespeare in the Park.” You get tickets the day of for a relatively small theater in Central Park. Right now they are doing Hamlet, so we were able to enjoy a great, slightly contemporary, performance of this Shakespeare classic. It was really well done, just as good as any Broadway play. Definitely a fun thing to do if you ever have the opportunity to go see while you are in New York.

Duck Beach

So everyone told me different things about Duck Beach. When I told some people that I was going, they would give me a look. I would always say “what”? They would just respond that the only reason that people go to Duck Beach is to hook up with someone for the weekend and never have interest in them anymore.
Others would tell me that Duck was a blast with a chance to make new friends and just have a great time at the beach. After going, I would totally agree with the second. Although the first stereotype does occur, it’s not always the case. I had a great time.
For those of you back west, Duck Beach is in the outer banks of North Carolina, close to Nags Head and Kitty Hawk (where the Wright Brothers) took their first flight. It is a beautiful beach with some beautiful beach houses for rent. There were about 60 people from New York that went down, so we rent two houses. Sixty people still might sound like a lot, but just look at the picture of the house I was in. It had 11 bedrooms, a giant kitchen with two ovens, two stoves, and dishwashers (which I fell in love with as I helped with the food).
One of the best moments of the trip was when the first group of my friends (who all arrived together) went to Costco to buy all of the food for the weekend. We ended up having 11 carts and spent $2,500 (and that didn’t include perishables which we bought at the grocery store in Duck). Needless to say, we didn’t go hungry in Duck. Thanks to Adrienne Martin for all of her planning efforts in our behalf. Once we got there, I realized that there is a huge party every night. The party would rotate around different houses every night. I think there was over 1,000 young single adults in Duck. The town has a stupid rule that you can’t park on the street, so pretty much the cops came to every party we went to.
Even after the parties get broken up, everyone goes back to their own houses and stays up all night. I didn’t get much sleep that weekend, but luckily I had a week in Maui to recover (see soon to be post above). All in all, Duck Beach was something you have to do at least once. If anything, it’s a nice weekend at the beach with all of your friends.

My First Yankees Game

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

So it has been forever since I have posted anything! Hopefully I will get three posts up in the next few days. Here we go with the first. After 8 months in New York, I finally attended my first Yankees game. It was really fun. I couldn’t have asked to go with more fun people. We had a great time and watched the Yankees kill the Mariners. It’s such a nostalgic stadium. Luckily, I got to go before they tear it down next year.