Saturday, August 22, 2009

lobster & steamers

i've only had lobster once in my life. it was in mexico and i know now that it wasn't good. it was spiny carribean lobster and over-cooked. last night i had fresh maine atlantic lobster. kelly and munir had a new england clam bake type dinner. she bought lobsters, they were alive. they were so alive that they were crawling around on the floor and the baby was quite amused. i was slightly appalled. five hours later they went into a big pot of boiling water. [i put one of them in] they were still very alive. i picked him up and he just started frolicking in my hand. i almost freaked. kelly really wanted to take a picture. i threw him in the water and jumped back, and screamed a little. 12 mintues later i was enjoying delicious lobster soaked in hot, melted butter. the dismemberment of the poor guy was almost more than i could handle. but i got over it. he was really scrumptious and cooked perfectly. i also tried steamers. steamed clams. those were good too. a little different. and so fresh there was still sand on them. i liked the lobster better because with the clams i felt like i was eating tiny organs wrapped up in thin pasta. is that what i was eating? don't tell me, because that would gross me out. but wait, my night gets better. thunderstorms. it was drizzling and raining all evening but at 3am i woke up to thunder so loud i felt like i was on a battle ground. it was seriously deafening. and the lightening was lighting up my whole room. i was really tired but so enthralled by the thunderstorm that i got up and just sat by my window for a good 20 mintues and watched it. the rain was pouring in my window, but i liked it. it was mesmerizing. no pictures=no camera. blah. soon hopefully.

Friday, August 14, 2009

times square

Last summer Gunnar and I and another great friend {"rachy"} had the brilliant plan of taking a vacation to NYC together. And who would have thought it actually would have worked out. Well, sort of. He happened to be out here for some business/intern/other fun stuff and so I met up with him in the city! {Rachael, we missed your pretty face}

Such a lovely day. I took the train into Grand Central station- a sight to see in and of itself I thought- and we met up at the Hyatt. We strolled around the city for like 45 minutes and then decided we better actually do something. So we went to Times Square. I'd never been. It was lots of fun. They have lawn chairs parked right in the middle of it all and we just sat for probably an hour&a half and chatted. It was so wonderful. After lots of people watching, he was the sweetest and treated me to lunch/dinner at this cute little restaurant. I had the best grilled veggie sandwhich I've ever seen/tasted/dreampt of. After we'd stuffed ourselves we went across the street to the M&M factory. That was insane. I really enjoyed it- and I don't even like M&Ms. They had dark chocolate M&Ms with coconut in them, scrumptious.

Unfortunately the afternoon had to end. He had some meetings and such to attend too. And so we rode the subway back to GCS {luckily he was with me- otherwise who knows where I would have ended up} and headed our seperate ways. He's still in town and we're meeting up again tomorrow. I'm looking forward to that. love gunnar. love friends. love the city. love my life.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

city.

im in new york. it feels like a different world. its beautiful; a huge, noisy, bustling city surronded by woods. seriously the trees here are incredible. i went to a little park yesterday and was completely surronded and engulfed by these massive, delicious trees. and its humid. and i love it. today i drove in manhattan. one word... chaos. in cache valley people hardly honk. if someone does something stupid other drivers mostly ignore it unless their life or car is in immediate danger. here not so much. today i got honked at. for a long time. i had to remember that it wasn't a personal attack, only an attack on my failure to yeild to the pretty beemer speeding up behind me. anyways, it was crazy and slightly intimidating but i did it. oh, and apparently the taxi cabs aren't required to follow any of the rules and regulations everyone else does. they just kind of go where they want, when they want. the yellow and white lines mean nothing. parking was astronomically expensive. $15.00/hour. but i am home safe! one last observation, people here aren't friendly to strangers. i was at CVS picking up a few things and when i walked up to the counter i smiled at the clerk and he said, "thats the first smile of the day!" really?!! at 4pm? yup. happy to oblige sir. i like it here. already on the verdge of loving it here. especially the city.