You can be my black Kate Moss tonight

This was a pretty good weekend.  Let's talk about it in reverse chronological order, shall we?  Right now I'm eating ravioli and watching the Grammies, and Danielle and I agree that Tina Turner has had a lot, lot, lot of work done on her face and Beyonce seems to have forgotten her pants and is so, so gonna get fugged tomorrow.  And Jason Bateman looks like he's going to fire his agent for making him stand outside with the wannabes. 

Earlier I met Danielle and some of her friends from studio for yoga at this place on St. Mark's called Yoga to the People, which has donation-based classes.  Sunday nights are the candlelit yoga, and there were hundreds of people stuffed mat-to-mat in four rooms on two floors, with a teacher in each room leading us through downward dog and the like.  At first I wasn't sure if I would like being packed in so close to others, but there was so much energy in the room that I really enjoyed it.  It wasn't as good as Prague yoga-- I remembered how at the end of each class my teacher would have us lie on our backs, close our eyes, and concentrate on relaxing every part of our body, one by one, from toes to skull.  And then she would light some incense and tell us to focus all our energy on someone we're feeling especially loving towards that week, or maybe concentrate on someone who we're having a conflict with and can use that energy to resolve that conflict and find love for them too.  It was all very touchy-feely and I loved it.  Then there'd be like a minute of silence where we'd just breath, then she'd hit a little gong, more silence, repeat two more times, and then it was all over.  Lying there silencing to her ring the gong was one of the highlights of my study abroad experience.  Anyway, tonight's yoga was also good because now, when I'm sore tomorrow, I don't have to tell everyone it's from getting way into Wii tennis and boxing.

Before yoga I did some business around the dorm, like cleaning my side of the room, doing the dishes, and trying to sort the papers from each class that had gotten mixed together in one folder.   I still need to type up all the notes I handwrote during the first week or two of class, and I'm tempted to leave that for midterms but know I should just do it now so I don't lose anything.

I woke up this morning semi-hungover, but I got a bottle of berry-flavored Gatorade Rain from the drugstore the night before and that picked me right up (just like Mindy Kaling's blog said! Ok, it was a different poster who wrote about it, but I'm still giving credit to Mindy for curing my hangover).  Danielle and I curled up in her bed with toasted pita bread and hummus, and watched Wish Upon a Star on Youtube.  The other night I played a song that was in Model Behavior, which led to a discussion of classic DCOM's with now famous stars, and since Model Behavior isn't on YouTube we settled for some vintage Katherine Heigl body-switching, which is pretty perfect for a Sunday morning.

On Saturday morning I went to the gym and worked hard on improving my speed within the 3 mile/30 minute window.  I think it's going to take a while before I can run for four miles, but the year is young.  After showering and sitting around in my robe for a while, Danielle and I went for brunch at Petite Abeille, a Belgian restaurant a few blocks away.  I love living with Danielle because, for no reason, we'll both put on dresses and do our hair and makeup and wear cute shoes and just generally look awesome, and then go out to lunch.  Anyway, this local restaurant is really cute and chill and the food is great, so I decided to pick up a job application.  I'll bring it back on Monday and hopefully I'll get to be a hostess again.  I think it'd be pretty perfect-- I'd get all this free food, a paycheck to fuel my spending habits, and some extra purpose in my life.  Plus, if I had a job then I wouldn't have to feel bad about not getting invited anywhere on Friday nights (pity party alert! and one that is pretty unwarranted considering that two weekends ago I went to a party at a bar, last weekend I went to Ryan's birthday party, and last night I went to a pretty rocking party).  So I'll let you know how that goes; it's a pretty small restaurant so they might not need extra hostesses, but we'll see.

That afternoon Danielle got a package from a jewelry company she ordered from online;  it was a pair of beautiful earrings.  But the thing is, Danielle doesn't have her ears pierced, and for as long as I've known her she's been talking about getting them pierced.  So I started telling her that it's ridiculous to buy earrings that you can't wear, and that she needs to get her ears pierced this weekend, no more stalling.  She did some research online and found a place that looked very reputable, and then I somehow convinced her to go that very night.  Which we did!  We made our way to the heart of the East Village, talked to some very nice and heavily tattooed people, and Danielle was very brave and I held her hand and how she has two extra holes in her ears.  Yay!  I was like a proud mama, and I can't wait to see her wearing those super fierce peacock feather earrings.

Ryan texted me about a party at Ariel's, and proposed getting dinner beforehand.  But Danielle and I had brunch at 4 so we weren't hungry for a full meal.  So we had some time to kill before the party started, so first we hit up Tasti Delite for some celebratory fro-yo, and walked around the East Village a bit.  We went down 7th St, my old neighborhood, and I saw how the diner on the corner that was being built when I lived there is now open, and the Cooper Union building that was torn down is still a big pile of rubble.  And the scaffolding in front of the dorm is gone now, making it almost unrecognizable.  Our next stop was the liquor store, since last week I drank a bunch of Ryan's tequila and I wanted to give back.  We went to the place near 3rd North that is infamous for not carding, and the owner gave Danielle and I the sketchiest looks-- it was all, "Oh, you little girls and your alcohol!  Haha, I'm so in on this little conspiracy and I adore you crazy soon-to-be-drunk kids!"  I really wanted them to ask for my ID so I could prove that I wasn't the one in the store breaking the law, but they totally didn't. 

We still had time to kill so we went to Veselka, which is also a something that Mindy Kaling loves! It's this great Ukranian coffee shop/restaurant, and everyone working there is Ukranian and related to each other.  I should have gone more when I lived a block and a half away, seriously.  But after visiting Poland I now know what a joy pierogies are, so Danielle and I spilt a place of various pierogies and a blintz.  Yum!

Finally we could go to Ariel's apartment to party.  There was no one there so we did some tequila shots and played Wii, but soon both strangers and friends started showing up.  I met the girl who lives in the room next to mine in UCourt (which was random but cool), and saw Evan, a friend from freshman year who took part of sophomore year off so I hadn't seen in a year.  At one point the ratio of girls to guys was like 5 to 1, and all those girls wanted my rum, so in order to get my money's worth I had like 4 rum and cokes, light on the coke.  So I was pretty drunk, and Evan's genius girlfriend commandered the iPod and played Wannabe by the Spice Girls, and these Peruvian guys were begging to salsa dance with me and Danielle, and I played some more Wii, and we went up on the roof and Evan beatboxed while Danielle rapped Kanye West, and I didn't puke all night!  Go me!

Around 3 (or was it 4?) Danielle and I called it a night and headed home with Ryan and his roommate, Jason.  On the way we stopped at CVS to get some soap for Danielle to wash her ears with, and I got some Gatorade, and finally we made it home to eat French bread and brie and discuss her infamous ex.

Friday!  I went to Brooklyn in the morning to get my haircut.  I was too much of a chicken to show the photo of Lauren Conrad to my stylist;  she was so cool with this hip short hair, and I was in Brooklyn, and I just couldn't be that lame.  But I did get a nice, simple, classic haircut, although it's so simple that I'm not sure it was worth what I paid.  But that's ok, because when I was in the hairsalon I picked up a little pamphlet with a map of Brooklyn and locations of all the cool boutiques and restaurants.  So I walked over to Bedford Ave, the heart of Williamsburg, and spent the afternoon going into vintage shops and shopping.  I got a vintage scarf by Bill Blass that's going to be perfect for spring, two pairs of earrings, a wall calendar featuring treehouses of the world, and a dress!  It's a wrap dress with a babydoll waist and cap sleeves, and the top is black and the bottom is pink with a black leaf print.  It's very cute and I think it might be perfect for Valentine's Day if I decide to go for the obvious color combination.

It was a beautiful day, Brooklyn is adorable and refreshingly free of Duane Reedes and Starbucks, I bought an apple at a grocery store and ate it as I walked, and everything was on sale.  I went to this one store that Linnea and I always used to pass when we volunteered walking shelter dogs in Brooklyn freshman year.  I never went in because it's not like I can bring shopping bags to my volunteer job, and afterwards I smelled like dog.  But on Friday I finally went in, and I tried on a bunch of really cute dresses that were 50% off (I love end of winter sales) but were just a little too expensive to buy.  I might have to go back, though.  At least expect an entry in the fashion blog on the designer, Akiko. 

Yes, that's big weekend news!  The superblog, now officially known as Oh my God, where did you get that? is now up.  Again, if anyone else has some thoughts on fashion and wants to contribute, you are so invited.  Ali, I don't think you read this, but it could be a good hobby for you!  Anyway, on Friday I made Danielle sit down with me and the list of names, and we passed it back and forth, crossing off one name at a time.  Finally there were two left, The Style Section and OMGWDYGT, and we both agreed we liked the latter more.  So go check it out, Alex and I are already giving Mindy Kaling a run for her money (we wish).

And it's kind of a funny coincidence, because just a few hours ago my friend Ryan invited me to join his group blog on TV, called Yes, I Watch Too Much TV (and am jealous of Twop).  So I'll be blogging it up all over the place!  Homework, schomework.

What else happened on Friday... when I came back to Manhattan I hit up Whole Foods for some groceries, then went back to the dorm to veg out.  The lack of social invitations gave me the opportunity to catch up with Friday Night Lights, which is good I want to cry every time I watch it.  I also heard back from Hannah about housing.  She said that her and Vic won't be in the dorms, but since they're spending the summer in CA and are now in Paris, they don't really have a plan for finding an apartment so "i feel bad letting you count on us since we're kind of in an up-in-the-air situation you know?"  What she didn't say is that they'd love to live with me and it'd be so much fun, etc.  It's basically what I would say if I had someone asking to live me and I didn't want to.  So I'm taking the hint and the current plan is to go into housing by myself, maybe try and get a single.  I know people who've put in the "non-refundable, non-transferable" housing deposit and gotten it back, so if an opportunity presents itself I know it's always a possibility.  But now there's another good housing option:  NYU just bought a brand new building that was designed to be luxury apartments, not crappy dorms.  It's just a few blocks from here, but since it's south and west it's closer to the subway lines, right by the 23rd St bus stop, and a bit closer to school.  I mean, look at this mock-up of the kitchen:

Could be incredibly sweet, right?  I'm a little hesitant to go for it because it'll house 900 students, so it's doubtful I'd meet any new people in that environment and the majority would probably be underclassmen anyway.  And also, it's essentially the same neighborhood I live in now and I'd like to try something new.  So now I'm leaning towards applying for the Residential College (and I don't see any reason I won't be accepted), because it's more important for me to have people to talk and laugh with in my dorm than having a dishwasher.

Ok, time to get back to Melville and his scrivener.