more boots, ma peche, lemongrass, peter dewolf's birthday

a friend is thinking of setting me up with her chiropractor. is it wrong that i feel that sexual favors in return for free adjustments is a totally fair tradeoff?

best pie crust recipe. period. how could anyone not love choire?

colin said a few weeks ago, "you know what i like on girls? those over-the-knee boots. all the girls at work are wearing them." i was all, "OH. WELL. that's nice for them, isn't it? to have legs long enough to wear over-the-knee boots and not have them looking crazy because they don't have midget legs. you see, i can't wear the same thing as your tall skinny modelesque VOGUE staffers. stop holding me up to their standards! GOD!"

hm. well. people keep coming up to me to tell me how skinny i'm looking these days. you know why? because i'm EATING MY WORDS. and yo, words ain't got no calories! holla! what? sorry...

anyway...i've bought two pairs of OTK boots now and wear them pretty much constantly. maybe i've had fat knees all this time and didn't know it, but something about covering up those stubby joints makes my legs look longer and thinner and, dare i say, not at ALL midgety.

oh my god, you guys. know what all this yummy stuff has in common? lemongrass. that stuff that makes me vomit every time i eat it. i mean, maybe it's time to try to shock my body out of its allergy. OR, maybe this is the real way to get skinny, eat all this tien ho goodness but then let my body do the work, wherein i'll throw it all up somewhere between 45 minutes and 1.5 hours after i've ingested it.

getting final stuff for kenya. realized i'd want a notepad for jotting down things to blog about at whatever point i'll regain internet access. some zyrtec in case all the plants (nature! ick!) work up my hay fever. this is going to sound crazy, but we're in amsterdam for the morning on our way back and i'm serously trying to decide whether to pack a scarf so i won't freeze to death as we wind our way through pastries and coffee shops. like, i'm making myself crazy about whether to freeze and have to lug around an extra scarf. both options i'm being overly dramatic about. i think this means i'm over thinking things. it wouldn't be the first time, is all i'm sayin'...

i'm devastated to have missed the lloyd dobler moblers...

have been enjoying the tveit boy on gossip girl. i met him when he wasn't anybody. it's strange to see the trajectory some people's lives takeHhhhhaaaaaapppppyyyyybbbbiiirrrrttthhhhhdddaayyyy...

and last but not least: a happy birthday to peter. he's always a rock when you need one and he's funny on command and he really likes talking on the phone so he's really the best person ever to spend 5 hours with on the phone after you've had lasik and are awake but aren't allowed to open your eyes and so you're bored as shit and restless. he used to be a good lost-watcher but then he fell off and i'm not sure i forgive him for it yet. i'd compare it to someone tossing away their wedding ring, really. but he's still great for west wing reminiscing. ANYWAY, i owe peter some big ones and hope to repay the favors in this lifetime. i also hope he doesn't tell me that some strip-teasing in front of a webcam will suffice because i'm totally NOT doing that. at least not sober.

Status updates part IV: wherein Colin skewers my facebook commenters

Jasmine Starting the Malaria pills. If I happen to have any crazy dreams, I hope they involve unicorns and corndogs.
about an hour ago · Comment · Like

Jared You have malaria????????
about an hour ago · Delete

Richard mmmmm Corn Dogs.
about an hour ago · Delete

Mu-Hsien Where are you going??????!
about an hour ago · Delete

Jasmine Kenya-bound!
about an hour ago · Delete

Mu-Hsien how long?
about an hour ago · Delete

Mu-Hsien Safari bound?!
about an hour ago · Delete

Jasmine Leave Friday, back November 30th!
about an hour ago · Delete

Sharon So jealous! Any time to play before you leave??
about an hour ago · Delete

Colin omg. SO jealous, have a blast!!! I can't believe you contracted malaria.
41 minutes ago · Delete

thrillist, gaga, kenya, yerba buena, le bernadin

thrillist had their 4th anniversary at carnival which is a club atop a bowling alley that has carnival/street fair games. it was a cute place for a party but the stuff you won was stuff i didn't want to carry around. there's something snotty and ungrateful about saying no to a free prize that some people were excited to get. so i pretty much didn't play the games at all. we did discover a mini dance club in back but the DJ there was terrible. wasn't matching up the beats at all (and if not for that, what is the point of a dj at all? might as well put your ipod on shuffle) and would play 2 measures of a song before cutting it off. it was a total mess. but the cocktails were good, the atmosphere so playful, the crowd good looking and there were CORNDOGS. enough said. this party wins.

re: this, lindsay's response is perfect. although my very first thought was, "um, that guy's wife is a shoplifter" and my second thought was, "she's buying this shit and is probably on some budget so lies about how it's free which we all know is BS." i'm sure she's all, "these shoes? yes, they're new...but i didn't buy them! the man at the store told me i could just have them! isn't that incredible? so nice of him!"

i can't stop watching the lady gaga bad romance video. it's hypnotizing. info on all the clothes is here. i mean, insane.

roller skating was good but it was so much harder than i remembered. also, these dudes who were flying around the rink and kind of racing each other tripped me and i definitely went flying. it all happened so fast and then i sprang up as to not get run over so i didn't really have time to think, "fuck! that hurt!" until a few minutes later. i've got bruises on the heels of my hands from the fall. those skates are damn heavy and really pretty clunky. our yellow bus driver's name was pressure. yes, you read that right. lots of people dressed up and our friend rob even grew a cheesy mustache for the event. speaking of mustaches, everyone is growing one these days. it's a trendy thing now and it is BAD BAD because, really, they're so unattractive. urban outfitters used to sell a shirt that read, "guns don't kill people. people with mustaches kill people." it's true.

i'm packed for kenya. i can't decide if i have too much clothing or too little. it doesn't feel just right at all. zanzibar will be a steamy 95, the safari's highest will be 80 degrees so it won't be oppressive heat. nights are cool and we'll be in muslim areas where i'll have to have my skin covered. so it's a bit of everything. so far it all fits in a medium-sized backpack. we got lots of dollar store trinkets to give to the kids. colin says they'll want to see our cameras which kind of scares me because, you know, i paid for a leica and i'd like to see it live through the trip. he also says not to wear clothing with insignia or labels on it because they'll go crazy asking what they all mean/stand for. good thing i don't buy clothes with words on them because they're tacky.

saw precious too. i highly recommend it. but i must warn you, it's HEAVY. but precious takes all the hits with her feet firmly planted and her sights set on a better life.

ran into an old friend a the new yerba buena on perry street. the food there was fantastic. we ordered half the menu and the croquetas twice. we're gluttons.

another friend just had dinner at le bernadin. we've been talking about it for weeks and she was so excited. i see her today and she says the service was disappointing. like, her friend had a nut allergy and twice, TWICE, they put things with nuts down in front of her (a dessert and petit fours), having told her there were no nuts in them. they said their water was never refilled and that her friend had to ask 3 times for a cup of coffee. i'm sorry, but when you're spending that much money on food, you shouldn't have to ask for more water. or more coffee. nor should you tell someone you have a nut allergy and have one waiter say, "oh, there's no nuts in that" and another say, "there's almond paste in that, is that okay?" HELLO? NO. NOT OKAY. nut allergies are serious shit. i've never been to le bernadin but i know eric ripert is amazing and it was definitely on my list of "places i will head when i win the lottery" but maybe i shouldn't be in such a rush...

maialino, things i don't miss about chicago, stalking

i'd RSVPed for a humane society party with charlotte and sam ronson which might mean that, YES, mark ronson could be there. but i also had a reservation at danny meyer's new place, maialino. is it worth missing night one of a danny meyer newbie to kind of stalk a ronson who isn't even a confirmed guest? the answer is no. i have to admit i've never been the most dedicated of stalkers anyhow. i'm quite a lazy one, in fact. listen people! i can't be perfect at EVERYTHING! i'm sorry.

i mean, to marry robinson cano i'm full on intending to just run into him at a bar someday and then he'll fall wildly in love with me. the dominicans in my 'hood love me. it's just a gut feeling at this point but, you know, i'm sooooo having his babies.


maialino opening night: from the three gleaming smiles you that meet you at the front door to the warm, super-attentive service, this place has danny meyer written all over it. he runs his restaurants like walt ran disney. his staff is culty but unfailingly professional and kind. the space is warm without seeming cramped. crisp without seeming sterile. ruth reichl at the next table. the wine recommendation (something soft and full-bodied from 45 minutes outside of rome) was perfect for the $46 price point in that it tasted more expensive than it was. we started with the prosciutto di parma (delicate and salty) and a spicy/unusually tender sopressata, accompanied by a basket with a variety of breads (a foccacia, cheddar sticks, a semolina). antipasti was the octopus, served in impossibly thin little slices with a sea salty purple potato salad and arugula. anna wintour enters: gets a table in back. the carbonara was perfect. actually, it could have used a tad more pepper but otherwise, it was probably the best i've had this side of the atlantic. (someone tell mario batali that his is always too salty.) dana cowin gets sat next to us and seems to smile apologetically at me every time someone else comes by to welcome her but i'm loving watching someone else get this much attention. danny meyer himself comes over, chats with her about how easy it was to open the place, he knew what he wanted so there wasn't too much to think about. it all came from the heart, not his head. he asked if they could tell that they were on the park. they said yes. (for the record: i disagree. the windows sit too high, the curtains even higher that, no, there's no way you have any idea you're on gramercy park, sorry danny.) a wide smile flashed at me and sharon, a quick inquiry as to how we were enjoying our meal and then off he went to eleven madison park (which, coincidentally, he says opened on this exact date 11 years ago...he said he hadn't planned on them having the same opening date but compared it to birthing, that you can't control when that baby wants to enter the world).


sidenote: YES, OMG, i couldn't help but eavesdrop on all this, soooo guilty as charged. i'm sorry, danny meyer is a god as far as these things are concerned. i can't ever thank him enough for bringing new york the only decent chicago dog that this city has (and oh, how i miss my vienna dogs...) and i worship eleven madison park. i think i've mentioned a hundred times how much i'd like to get married there but how it'll never happen unless i win myself some lottery. my solo lunches (the only meal there i can afford) there are blissful and i'm treated like i'm the most important person in the room which is nice for a diner alone, where i'm often passed over or just plain ignored because my check average isn't enough to motivate a server. meyer and his people have treated me right and i'm devoted, eternally, for it. the locanda verde folks are fantastic too, which is why i keep going back. i sometimes want to walk into restaurants that weren't happy to have me and be all pretty woman on their asses, "hey, remember me? big mistake. big. huge! i have to go eating now."


so ANYWAY, the veal arrives and it's just massive. at least two inches thick and the most flavorful veal i've ever had the pleasure of meeting. served with some pancetta and wilted kale, we made ourselves finish it even though we were both so full we thought we might be sick. i mean, until the dessert menu showed up. two glasses of moscato d'asti and a tartufo later, we drag ourselves out. i run into my friend alex on the way out and feel quite proud of myself because he's so cool and whatnot and i'm a huge nerd and we somehow managed to both score a table at the same place, on the same night. small victories. the girl at the coatcheck asked what we had and approved, nay, seemed downright jealous, of our meal so i think we chose well.



and when I come in from scraping and clearing the snow and ice from your car, you want more than anything in the world to be a couple hours late for work because we are playing lumberjack and high society woman whose car broke down

i don't even own a car anymore but just reading a sentence about someone scraping off a car that i don't own made me want to marry peter like, immediately. it's been a while, but that is probably my LEAST favorite thing to do in the whole world and being from chicago, i've done plenty of it. the more i reminisce, the more i think i'm actually psychologically scarred from those cold dark mornings. subconsciously, it may be the one reason i moved to NYC to begin with. and except for the food thing, i think peter would be pretty easy to please. one french maid's outfit and he'd probably be content for months. it takes so little. so the tough one is ACN. she's the one you'd really have to win over. BUT i'm named after a princess so that works in my favor. and i'm in nyc where rachael ray lives. bonus points!

when i tell peter i'd probably marry him for car scraping, i'd forgotten that i'd already told him i'd marry him for something else and so his response was: "hurry up and get your cancer." because of course i told him if i ever got sick i was marrying him and moving to canada. yay socialized medicine! but now we have obama so, you know, maybe i can stay here afterall. but on a sidenote: how much fun does "lumberjack and high society woman whose car broke down" sound?! oh, i suppose an alternative to scraping the car would be to make enough money to have a garage...

knee socks and sweatbands have been purchased for STATE-uhn EYE-lund roller skating this weekend.

blah blah eating, drinking blah ditty blah

had a kind of all-over, silly, drinking weekend.

 

julie and i started at our regular dive. some french people attacked us. but not really. they were just weird and too close. then one of them told julie to thank her parents for him for giving her such beautiful eyes. a nice sentiment, but a pretty convoluted compliment if i've ever heard one. then we met some lawyers. ick. and then they absolutely refused to believe i was a lawyer too. double-ick. but the evening ended with disco fries so all is well.

 

saturday was dinner at locanda verde with erika. we had a perfect, cozy little corner booth that faced out into the whole restaurant. we probably looked like we were on a date. that is, to everyone but the drunk man at the next table who started hitting on us when his wife went to the bathroom. "my wife's not happy with me. we always fight. i think we'll get a divorce. how old are you ladies? you've never been married? you live in the city? you come here often?" he'd scooted over to sit next to me on the booth and i kindly pointed back to his chair and told him he might want to head back there before his wife came back. men are dogs. oh, except for the always beautiful luke. our table actually gave us a great view for kitchen/luke watching. score. and....AND we got free dessert, compliments of a host there for reasons that are beyond me. i'd say i was a sort of regular there but i wouldn't expect anything for it. i'm happy for the good service, better food, and the gorgeous room to enjoy it all in. but anyways, who doesn't LOVE an affogato?!

 

then we headed to bobo, the GM there is a soho house alum and we gossiped about former staffers and tried to figure out which ones were the next ones to get visits from us. which are the new hotspots and who can get us into them. andy and erika reminisced about a chef that used to work there seriously courting erika. (he made her this crazy 10 course meal from food that wasn't nearly on the menu, i.e. think insanely high seafood towers, they didn't know each other well at the time but there's something to be said for people with that much passion/talent/genius. they're usually a tad crazy.) our favorite dancing busboy works there now too so it was good to see him as well. and the bartender was all, "oh, you know andy?" as he re-filled our carafe of sauv blanc, gratis. (i'm telling you, one year in the restaurant business and you're pretty much set for life in terms of restaurant goodies all over the city. it's like living off royalties.) for those that haven't been, bobo feels like someone's private townhouse. the dining room feels like a library/study and they have a small garden that's a perfect place for a date. in other words: go early and go often.

 

sunday was a glorious day with a park tour: highline to washington square, where we saw uma thurman and colin's brother said, "are you sure that's uma thurman? she looks homeless" (which she totally did, but don't all celebrities in nyc look that way?), to union square to pure where we lounged outside with sangria. then julie and i met up with the secret service high school dude and his roommates. they all have badges and we thoroughly enjoyed whipping them out and trying to make civil arrests. we wanted to be handcuffed but were not granted our wish. tacos at snack dragon and then hung in an empty bar playing with their jukebox till the wee hours.

 

and so today i'm exhausted. colin has been obsessed with this crazy looking woman that he found at cnn.com attached to some article about the healthcare rallys or something. or a teabagging party. i'm not sure. what you do know is that this woman is trashy, dumb and ANGRY. so i had her put on a t-shirt for him which i seem to have done more for myself than for him since i can't stop laughing at it. i think i amuse myself too much.

too. much. shopping...

ohmygod people. i cannot stop online shopping.

 

i bought more shoes. first came the black patent leather pumps (the ones i bought last year were bought in a severe crisis moment on the way to a holiday party. and when i say severe, i mean SEVERE because really, what holiday dress doesn't need patent heels. and so i had this awesome dress by some designer whose name i can't remember and it's killing me...anyhow, i bought black patent shoes that weren't even in my size and stuck toilet paper in the toes just so they'd fit. awful. i deserve a pair that fits me.) but there were like 10 styles and they all looked the same so i ordered 4 pairs so i could try them all on (there is nothing better than zappos free shipping both ways) and surprisingly, i did find one pair a bit sleeker and more comfortable than the rest. bravo! THEN there was that who what wear daily that showed every single woman on the planet wearing suede over the knee boots which meant, of course, an impulse buy at zappos. but they were cheap. and they kind of look it, but how many times am i going to really whip these things out? i like that the high boots feel like wearing pants since most your leg is covered but then WHAM, some leg! HOT.

 

then geren ford was on gilt groupe. BAD. i got the zip front sheath in navy and a perfect oatmeal colored bell-sleeved boatneck sweater.

 

then i decided i needed hats. a big-ass straw one for kenya so that i wouldn't burn all day and, while i was at it, a black wool trilby kind of thing because don't hats just pull together any outfit? won't it go great with my suede boots? the answers to these questions is YES.

 

as my friend rachel would say: i have a fever. she's got amazing taste, go visit and love all over her, will you?

 

then starbucks brought out the red cups which reminds me that i should start christmas shopping. and kate is having a girl so i need to start buying insanely cute girl baby things. i'm excited actually because if i stay in the city i think it would be awesome to have a niece to come visit me. some girl who i didn't have to really take care of but for whom i can be that ultra-hip role modely type of person and then send her back on her merry little way back to the cold midwest.

 

i've been craving korean fried chicken desperately since i posted that "dave chang getting drunk and happy" clip. i LOVE that chicken place. but there can be hella long waits during happy hour and i prefer to go in groups of 4 because i've never finished one of those light up, simmering beer towers with just two people.

 

lots of brunches and dinners planned this weekend. and maybe i'll toss in a massage for myself while i'm at it.

 

cousin sent me this mix cd that i'm obsessed with. this song, which pitchfork wasn't all too pleased with, is my new addiction. it puts me in this swingy, sassy, peppy mood wherein i want to mashed potato around in a betty draper dress. if he's lucky, someday i'll try to teach cousin how to dance.

 

i could see the yankees ticker tape parade from my office and it was pretty awesome. jeter is such a big guy and i'm so used to the way he moves that i spotted him from a mile away (and a dozen stories up). i didn't spot my boyfriend robinson cano. i will make that man mine somehow. there were millions of people down there and i knew when to check the window by the volume of the screaming fans all over. rock on.

korean day spa, changes, ragtime, brian williams

king sauna out in NJ: awesome. it was very reminiscent of a hamam. getting naked in a huge room with lots of random women, getting your skin scrubbed off. a series of hot tubs and saunas. you get a massage, hang with some shaved ice and coconut milk, have lunch at the korean restaurant inside. it's a perfect way to spend a day.

 

this is going to sound crazy but ever since that life coach told me to be "open to the possiblity" that my loans would just poof! disappear, i've felt this change in the tide kind of sweeping over my life. i've been strangely optimistic and fun things keep falling in my lap. i've been meeting random new people who are now random new friends. i think the new positive energy is actually attracting people to me which sounds weird, i know. i was told the other day by a new friend that when he met me, he felt that i should be in his life and that we'd be friends for a long time. a lovely friend of david's said she wanted to have me over for dinner and poof! amazing, intimate dinner party and plans to meet up tonight. i usually have such an aversion to new things but change is gonna come and i'm sitting here, arms out, saying BRING IT.

 

regarding the pork: "It's, uh, a couple teaspoons of salt and some black pepper and a couple hours of don't fucking worry about it."

 

hilarious via sloane's twitter.

 

wise words from michele obama on finding a good man: Look at how the guy treats his mother, what he says about women, how he acts with children he doesn't know. And more importantly how does he treat you? When you're dating a man, you should always feel good...you should never feel less than...you should never doubt yourself, you shouldn't be in a relationship with someone who doesn't make you completely happy or make you feel whole. And if you're in (such a) relationship, don't get married, and find that person who brings you complete and utter joy.

 

i get that i'm a recognizable person. i'm multi-ethnic, wahtever. i'll see people whom i haven't seen in 15 years and they recognize me. i'm slightly used to this but it hit a new high/weirdness factor when i went to go pick up my expidited passport last monday. the guy working the x-ray scanner conveyer belt thing says, "you were here friday. you're picking up your passport. go to floor ten, window 29." just like that. unbelievable.

 

am going to see ragtime. i saw it right after it opened on broadway some 12 years ago and loved it then. not sure how it'll be better than it was with audra and brian stokes mitchell but we shall see. the early reviews from my friends have been outstanding.

 

the love of my life, brian williams, was recently on wait wait don't tell me (again) and the interview was hilarious. not as funny as paula deen, but really damn good.

baltimore, annapolis, xanadu, bloggers being awesome

baltimore was lovely. i drove down with a college friend of gina's. she was a senior producer at NBC but is leaving for france where her mother is sick and dying. but the conversation down was real and deep and funny and i genuinely think S is going to be a friend for life. gina and will are very earthy people. she's an acupuncturist, they're both into holistic medicine. their house has a hodgepodge of furniture and art on the walls and tons of herbal oils scattered about, a hippie laboratory with a couple cats roaming around.

their wedding was thrown together in a month. a huge tent (heated, thank god) in a large pasture across the street from the grooms' parents house. the grass had be up to their waists so the whole thing was mowed, weeds were pulled. hay was thrown down in muddy spots and paper bag votives place all over. artisan bread from a local bakery was in heaps at the center of the table. S and i made satchels of homemade tea as parting gifts: rose petals, calendula, lavendar, lemon basil, wheat buds.

all the guests showed up early in the morning to help decorate the tent and get all the tables and chairs set up. food was made via potluck. it was just such a peaceful, homegrown, absolutely gorgeous wedding full of so much love that it made my heart ache.

gina's dad is a huge wine importer in chicago and he shipped in the most amazing wines for the wedding. a rose champagne, a 2005 bordeaux...i was in heaven. and the dancing, oh, the dancing! swing was everywhere.

and i got a text message. flight canceled! and so i drove back the next day with S. we made a stopover in annapolis, where the married couple and S were students at st. johns. i've written about st. johns here and i'll likely get a second graduate degree there. maybe sooner rather than later as we stopped in to see a gree tutor (you see, they learn ancient greek and then read euclid and plato in greek. insane! amazing!) and we had the most fascinating, smart, wide-ranging conversation ever. we sat for hours and talked about modern medicine, immigration, life changes, the phaedo, his son who works at google, and before we left he told me that it was fate that we'd met and that he looked forward to having me as a student there. (note, that's two people in 3 days telling me that having met me was fate...i'm not sure what that means but i'm disinclined to disregard it.)

we then went to the most famous annapolis crab shack and got a huge tray of crabs piled with old bay and a few mallets and some knives. i'm not sure that i liked having to work that hard for my food, especially because we were starving by the time we ate. it felt a bit cruel to make us pull of layers of shell and pick out little pieces of meat from the legs. that being said, OLD BAY. is there any savory food that doesn't taste better with old bay? there is not.

i've organized a birthday for a friend. we're taking a yellow school bus to staten island where, in our best xanadu attire, we'll go roller skating. have i mentioned lately how much i love my friends? i mean, legwarmers! holla!

and look what jon did for cadiz: a treasure hunt, the prize? her engagement ring. sooooo awesome. jon: major props pour toi!