Happy

When I first moved back into Erica's place, I almost wondered if I'd made some sort of mistake. The place was a dark, stuffy hole in the wall filled with junk. No one hung out and it was incredibly dirty, and what's worse, my bedroom smelled of cigarettes all the time. Turns out it was all Rachel and her boyfriend Devin. They had a ton of junk they couldn't fit into their rooms so they let it all flow out into the common area, they left dirty dishes and their junk all over the kitchen, had a ton of rotting food in the fridge, ate other peoples' food and lied about it, smoked cigarettes and pot in the apartment and lied about it. What pisses me off the most was that I got migraines because of their smoking and they blatantly lied about the smoking. If I see either of them again, I will not be nice at all. Thank god they moved out.

And sure enough, I'm back in the world of "I love my roommates." There is Erica, of course, and just like last year she's barely around, but when she is, she cleans up the apartment, gets new things for it, rearranges things. Well, after all, the apartment is her baby. And then there's Chelsea, who just seems to be really cool thus far. Very laid back, fun to talk to, likes to cook and bake, works at Crumbs and gets to bring home free stuff. I met her after her work on Sunday, got free cupcakes, and then we went to the Chelsea Market and looked at kitchenwares together. She ended up going elsewhere and getting an awesome Henckel's chef's knife. We chat in the kitchen a lot, and both like to cook and bake. We're doing dumpling night tonight. Yum!

I think what I was really missing when living in Astoria is having roommates that genuinely care about the well-being of the apartment. I feel like my main requirements are 1) don't be a pig, 2) don't treat the apartment like your closet and 3) don't treat me like your maid. It's weird how difficult it is to find that...

Happy Sunday

I just had a lovely Sunday. I was supposed to do lunch with my sister and Julia, but Julia felt cruddy, so she asked to do dinner instead. So, I went to the gym, ran for 40 minutes and then took my 90 minute aerialist yoga class. Fortune would have that my very favorite yoga teacher was subbing for my second favorite yoga teacher. This lady is a kooky Israeli yogi hippie, but she teaches a darn good class. One of the hammocks was torn and we ended up being one short for a full class. The girl that ended up getting screwed over raised such a hissy-fit that the yoga teacher just gave the girl her hammock. So, you would think that a girl with such entitlement would be amazing. Nope, of course not. She was horrible, had bad alignment, kept turning to me to say things like, "Well, THAT was a useless pose. It didn't stretch anything." Nod and smile... The teacher initially tried to teach the class by having the girl move over so she could get in the hammock and demonstrate, but I think entitlement girl got this annoyed look, so the teacher started using me as her demonstrator. Mostly, I think, because I was located just off center of her. It was pretty fun, in any case. And once she realized how flexible I was, she started to power stretch me. Who knew anyone could go beyond a split? And she kept going on about how I had a lovely body, amazing flexibility, lovely dancer strength and sense. Phew! Be still my heart, I'm blushing! Guess Weight Watchers with all those dance classes really pays off!
After that I met up with my roomie at her job at Crumbs where I was greeted with FREE CUPCAKES!! Best roommate perk EVER! Last year's free Moma perk is nothing compared to this. I got to pick any two I wanted. Sooo goooood. Then Chelsea and I went to this restaurant supply store which had a lot of awesome things for half the price of Bed Bath and Beyond and William Sonoma. It's located inside Chelsea Market which is an event in and of itself. I'm going to have to bring Axel there. I love those sort of places. Ended up picking up a mini offset spatula and some tips for my future cupcake adventures.
After all this, I went out to Flushing for dinner with May and Julia. We went to a Korean place right around the corner from Gramma's. I ordered a bibimbap and what I got...was not like any other bibimbap I've ever had. Usually it's rice mixed with kimchi and other stuff. This place served what basically amounts to a salad with rice and literally strips of raw beef and a raw egg. I was a tad dubious at first, but then the waitress mixed it up for me and it turned out to be delicious. I'm going to fry the leftovers before I eat them. Hope I don't get tapeworms. On the other hand, if I have a tapeworm, I can eat more free cupcakes! Julia left a little after 9, and I went with May to Gramma's (Gramma wasn't home, playing Mahjongg till sunrise) and we cut up the raspberry cupcake. Delicious! It was actually kind of nice to just sit there with May. It felt almost like it was May's apartment, didn't have the parents or gramma to deal with.
And now I'm home. Nice nice day. Though I've feeling some back twinges and my hands hurt like hell from yoga class. Hope I'll be able to move tomorrow...