A flying squirrel and lots of pizza

Friday morning I woke up early for yoga class. You won't believe what happened when I got outside...a squirrel almost landed on my head! It fell from the top of our building and hit my leg before it hit the ground. I thought it was going to die right there, but it just shook around for a while until it ran and fell again into a window alcove of a basement apartment. It eventually got out with the help of the landlord. We almost had a squirrel! I was just too afraid to grab it.

After yoga I went home to shower so I could meet David and Cory who were in Union Square. We met up and did some shopping. I bought green polka dotted rain boots. Here I am infront of Two Boots pizza shop. Cory and I both got a slice of pizza. It was really good. Susan Bringard told me that when she was in New York, Two Boots was her favorite pizza. For dinner we went out for pizza at Lombardi's (David of course got his vegan style). This is where pizza was invented in 1905. It is ranked as the number 1 pizza place in New York City and it lived up to it's ranking. This was the best pizza we have ever eaten.

David had to leave early this morning. It was great having him here.

A New York Night

Today, Cory got paid to be in the audience of "Judge Maria Lopez." He got a lot of reading done and was entertained by the court room antics. While he was listening to the dramatic court cases, I was running errands and taking a nap (I had some catching up to do). Then, I had my two Wednesday evening tutoring sessions. When I got home from tutoring we ate dinner, watched an episode of the Sopranos and then headed out onto the town. We stopped for a cup of tea at the Chocolate Bar. Can you believe I went to a chocolate bar and ordered a tea? Their tea is unlike other teas I have ever seen. I ordered the "coconut black tea". Walking along Spring Street in SOHO we passed Alan Talyor who was walking his dog. He is a director for the Sopranos. We recognized him from the two day shoot we worked on the set of the Sopranos. I asked him if we could take a picture with him and he said that it " would make his night." I stepped back to take the picture and I stepped right into his dog's fresh doodoo. I was too excited to care! He said that there might be some "extra" work coming up and he gave us his email so we can contact him. We continued on our walk after that but we weren't quite the same as when we started the walk. We saw this sign in a store window and we wanted to show it to you. Oh, by the way,Cory saw Ludacris in Virgin Records yesterday.

David's first Day in New York

Cory, David, and I started our New York afternoon off at Jack's World. It is our favorite discount store in New York and it is only a few blocks away. It is like Grocerey Outlet from back home because you
never know what you will find. Today we found our favorite: "meal in a bun." So, we bought 27 packages (27x2=54 meals. In Madison Square Park they werefilming the new Will Smith movie: "I am Legend." We did not see Will, but we saw the stunt car driving through the park. We went to American Apparel so David could take a look around. We walked to Punjabi's Deli for lunch. This is where David wanted to go because he heard they had great food. We discovered, that not only is the food awesome, it is cheap. I am wearing a new hat I bought today and a "Triple Five Soul" sweatshirt Cory found for me. For dessert we headed to Joe's on Waverly for a cupcake made by Amy
Sedaris (of Stranger's With Candy fame). I am going to bed now because I have to get up at 5am. If you need someone to talk to you can call me at 2am California time. David just got back from exploring Central Park. He said that the best part was seeing a giant raccoon

Cousin David Has Arrived

Cousin David arrived today. He will be staying with us until Saturday. Don't worry, there is plenty of space on our floor. We have a fancy air mattress that even David can fit on. As you might imagine, when someone is sleeping on the mattress it is hard to walk around the apartment but we make do. I arrived home from work at the same time Cory and David did. We went out to eat and then we took a walk around the city. It was David's first look at Manhattan. Cory say's that I "sleep funny." He is right. I am trying to train myself to sleep on my back but it is not working out so well.

Cory's Birthday

Friday was Cory's Birthday Eve. I got him a portable record player and he got started right away using it. He was finally able to listen to records that he found here three months ago. It is hard enough keeping secrets from your husband, but it is even worse trying to do it with no place to hide things. Our apartment doesn't allow for secret hiding places. While Cory was having a good time I went and made $60 selling tickets. Remember when in the last blog I told of how we were hanging out in Union Square? Well, we were given three free tickets for Friday night. We like making money when we do not have to do anything. That night we went to Brooklyn to celebrate Cory's Birthday. We had fun just hanging out with friends. We also got to watch Cory on television. Did anybody else watch David Letterman? Cory was outside wearing a blue shirt in the crowd watching Lebron James and David shoot free throws. I called Ross to let him know since he is the basketball player in the family. For those of you who do not know, my cousin Ross is going to Fresno Pacific and he is on the basketball team. Maybe he will go out for track after basketball like I did? Today is Cory's actual birthday but I had to work. It is after work now and Cory and I are having a relaxing evening at home. We are about to watch the first "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movie.

Union Square

Last night I slept for 11 hours to make up for the past three nights. If only there were "roll-over minutes" when it came to sleeping. Cory and I had a lovely afternoon in New York. The weather was wonderful. We ran into Will and John Paul at Union Square. It was our first time running into friends. You can't go even 3 days in Lemoore/Hanford without running into a friend. Will took some pictures of Cory with his new camera. After hanging out with them for a while, Cory went to 79th to tutor and I went shopping at Trader Joes and at Integral Natural Foods for a few things for Cory's Birthday party tomorrow night. I stocked up on hummus for the party as requested by Cory. If you didn't get invited to the party it is becuase we did't think you would come to NYC. Don't worry, we love you all and we will be having lots of parties when we get back to California.

New Pictures for our Viewers

Here are four pictures that Cory took Monday night. The first picture is a picture that Cory says "Sums up New York." Next is a picture of Pancake's lady friend. She was in New York for a few days before she heads off to Russia (her home). Cory met with her to give her a friendly interview session to see if Pancake should have a long distance relationship. If you want to know the results you can ask Cory yourself. For the past three mornings I had to get up at 5am for work and that is quite early for me. Monday night I had a couple of "New York" moments. The first was taking my first taxi ride since I moved here. The girl I tutor forgot all of her math stuff at her dad's apartment across town, so we had to take a taxi ride. Tutoring is fun, I get to see alot of great New York apartments. After the session I ran out of the building to the corner because I had to hurry back to 34th and this feeling of..."This is New York" came over me. I can't really explain it, but it was pretty cool. This city is great!

A Nice Sunday

Today is our 3 month anniversary! To celebrate we invited our squirrel friend for breakfast on the window sill. After breakfast we went to church and on our way out of the door, we noticed our neighbor leaving too. Here she is walking down 30th as she spots an unsuspecting smoker. Sometimes she doesn't have to walk far for her cigarette and light. After snapping a few pictures we headed for Glad Tidings. In this picture I am in front of Glad Tidings and I am wearing my work clothes because I had to go staight to work after church. I had a nice day at work today. I just love the "Fairytale Eggplants." I brought some of them home to cook. Once I discovered that I liked eggplant, I can't stay away. For
some reason I would never touch it growing up, but I was missing out! It is my Papa Tom's favorite and our favorite thing to do is make eggplant parmesan together. So, when I get back to California I will be over at your house Papa so get ready!

Saturday and Celebrities

While walking down 7th Avenue, Cory passed Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick on the Street. Meanwhile I was at Yogo Integral Natural foods working my 8 hour shift. While I was lost in thought washing dishes, Maggie Gyllenhaal ordered a "purple passion" smoothie from my co-worker. I only know this because my co-worker told me after Maggie left. I am becoming famous! Famous for missing out on celebrity sightings. At work today it was "Day For Your Health." Which meant work was crazy because they had a schedule of free things going on and a ton of samples throughout the store. Next Saturday is Cory's Birthday!!!!

Pizza Suprema

I had the day off today! So, I did our laudry and cleaned the bathroom. Our bathrooom is literally sparkling clean thanks to the Magic Eraser. Have you used one before? Many companies make them. If you haven't, you must get one as soon as possible. Using the eraser I was able to get off stains that I coudn't using other methods. I made Cory watch me erase soap scum away from the tile grout and he was even amazed. I think I will stop talking about that because I think I made my point...get a magic eraser, you won't be dissapointed. Cory went to work today as a PA. He helps with production but he also has speaking parts. They love him so much he even got a raise. For lunch we went to "Pizza Suprema." It is ranked in the top 10 pizza joints in the city and it is around the corner from our apartment. Cory ordered the "Sicilian." He liked it alot! We have a new neighbor who lives directly above us. He is a nice guy. He has the same size apartment that we do except he shares it with two big dogs. I couldn't imagine living in our apartment with even one small dog. We hear them moving around alot but we don't mind that noise. What we do mind is the extremely loud techno music he plays. It was so loud this afternoon I coud't stand it. The music even woke Cory up and 4am. Thump, thump, thump...

Pizza and a Cupcake

Yesterday (September 12, 2006) I worked from 7am-2pm. Isn't Cory cute! He took this picture of himself to answer a job ad on Craigslist. At 6pm that night we both had tutoring sessions. His was on 79th and mine was on 57th. We met up with each other and walked home. We decided to go out for pizza! Cory read that John's Pizzeria on Bleeker Street is rumored to be the best in New York City. We decided to check it out. If the line waiting to get into the restaurant is any indication about the quality of the pizza then this pizza is the best! We waited for 30 minutes to get a table then we waited another 30 minutes to get our pizza. Was it worth the wait? Yes! It was really good. I am not saying it is the best New York has to offer, but it is the best we have had so far. We are trying not to compare New York to Me N Ed's pizza from back home but it is hard not to since this is our favorite pizza place of all time. How do they get the crust so thin, flavorful and flaky? Since the pizza joint was on Bleeker we walked down to Magnolia's (one of our favorite bakerys) to get a cupcake to finish the meal with some sugar! What a great night! It was definitely not healthy like drinking green juice but Oh so wonderfu!

Take your Bloggers to Work Day

Green Juice Anyone? I finally took my camera into work to get a few pictures to put on the blog. The first picture is of me in case you forgot what I looked like. I am holding a juice I just made for
myself. In the second picture you can see the juice machines and the produce we use. The third is of the produce isle in the store and the last one is a picture of the front of the juice bar. Do you like the coral paint job on the walls? It was done last night. On the left is the hot deli bar. The center case is for the vegan and raw pies. My favorite pie so far is the vegan berry cheesecake. I think it tastes better than real cheesecake if you can believe that. Then on the right holds the cold deli food and the other desserts and snacks. I hope this gives you a better idea of what my work is like. I hope you all can stop in soon!!!

Beauty

Surprise, Surprise! Cory waited for me outside my work to greet with a beautiful flower. It was a good day to do it too! Work was a little rough for me. After a short rest and two episodes of the Sopranos we walked the whole length of Hudson Street. We ended up at a park that has all sorts of cool looking art.

A Lovely Day in the City

I just had a very nice day today. We didn't do anything crazy or especially cool but first of all the weather was beautiful and I had the day off. I won't bore you with all of the details but I will tell you a few of them.
I picked up my paycheck and did some shopping at Integral with my 25% discount.
I found a cool stamping store. The only store totally devoted to stamps in NYC.
I got another tutoring job for Sunday.
Cory and I had a nice walk up to the Upper East Side of Manhattan. I took alot of pictures of the buildings which I will be showing you on a later blog. The first picture on the blog is of Cory in a really cool candy store. We saw a huge ball in a store window that allows you to walk on water with it because of the cupholder like holes in it.
I needed a new purse and we found a cute one at Daffy's Department store.
Cory had a tutoring session and I went walking around while I waited for him. I walked by a beautiful First Baptist Church building. After tutoring, we went out for dinner at Burritoville. I got the mego soy burrito filled with brown rice, beans, tempeh, soy cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and guacamole. It was delicious. Then we got a cupcake at Buttercups. Yummy, Yummy. I wish I could better decribe for you how lovely of a day I had, but I guess you will just have to take my word for it.