Making a plane full of people clap for you

2 weeks of recapping into 1 glorious blog post. Oh yay. YAY FOR YOU!

The week that we went to KY was pretty lame. That Sunday after we got back from Baltimore, we did exactly nothing. No Pony Bar, no grocery shopping, no pedicure. Nothing but laying on the floor watching TV.

The week before KY went fast b/c it was 3 days long. And that Monday was my boss' first day back in over a week so she was feening to not be there - hence we turned our touchbase into a 2 hour lunch instead. Wonder why the week went so fast eh? But honestly, I'm starting to get super busy again, so it's making time at work fly by. I feel like I blink right now and the week is over.

Thurs we took off for KY. We decided to go out to the airport super early b/c the last time we flew out of JFK together, security was a disaster and we had to get pulled out of line and pushed to the front to make it through in time. So this time we got there 1:45 before our flight.... and got through security over an hour later. Which left no time for the lunch at the airport we had planned.

Our flight to KY was good though - they had just started running this connection the day before, so the flight was pretty dead. Brother R and the Sheriff picked us up in Louisville (or St Louis, KY if you were the flight attendant) and we took the hour ride back to Lex just chatting away. I hadn't seen them (or honestly even really talked to either of them in over a year) so it was really good getting to catch up.

Mr and Mrs Pooh did a cookout for us that night so we headed straight to their house. I got to see TCKITW and TCKITWv4.0 and be completely blown away by how big they are. Well, TCKITWv4.0 is petite, so not necessarily big. But I guess how different they look since I've last seen them. We spent the evening chatting with everyone (mom, sis, and Shugs were also at the Pooh's), eating, drinking and then we dove into a dirty card game - Cards Against Humanity. It made me and everyone else about pee themselves 25 times b/c it was so fucking hysterical.

Friday some of the group took off to tour Wild Turkey Distillery (me, Blondie, Mr and Mrs Pooh, the Sheriff and Brother R). It was a nice tour, free to the public with 2 tastes after. They don't bottle their bourbon on-site so the tour was faster than I was expecting. We spent some time at the gift shop afterwards terrorizing people with turkey calls, and drinking our tastes. Afterwards, it was back to Lexington for some mexican food (and margaritas and shots of tequila) before heading back to the parental units for some quality time.

Note: During the car ride on the way to Wild Turkey, Brother R mentioned that as part of a conf he attended (he has a very prestigious title/role at a start-up and is one of the public faces of the company), he got a swag bag with a bottle of NY bourbon in it. I instantly knew what he was talking about b/c Pony Bar carries this line of bourbons that I've been wanting to try for a long time, but it's $14 a pour. So we also stopped at Brother R's office and got this bourbon (Hudson Baby Bourbon).

Back at the parental units, we started playing board games and drinking heavily. I tried the bourbon that Brother R brought over, and we both agreed it tasted kind of like dirt. Not sure how that equates to $14 a taste at Pony Bar. I like almost all kinds of bourbon but would not go out of my way for this one. We ordered in pizza for dinner and just kept eating, drinking and playing games. And then around 11 pm, the Poohs headed out to go hear some music. Blondie and I were supposed to go with them, but I was completely toe up at that point (and farting) and Blondie had no energy. So we cancelled our plans on them.

Saturday, Brother R, Blondie and I met up with my BFF TT and her hubby for mexican food. Of course, more mexican food meant more shots of tequila. And margaritas and beer. We spent a couple of hours just getting caught up on each other's lives, stuffing ourselves and generally being obnoxious. It's a good thing TT is a regular there and Brother R knows the owner - our tab was ridiculously low for what we consumed.

Brother R dropped me and Blondie off at Mr Pooh's house after, and we stayed the day over there. TCKITW brought down her karaoke machine after I'd had a few more beers, so then I decided to show my singing chops (non-existent) off to the nieces. Blondie did a beautiful thing and video'd the entire experience. The nieces were dying and I thought the rest of the room was going to have a heart attack. Ahem, I SUCK AT SINGING.

The crew headed back to Brother R and Shugs that night for dinner. The rest of the family came and joined, and we again spent the evening playing cards, drinking heavily, and eating non-stop. That night ended around 11 pm, and Blondie and I said goodbye to everyone but the Sheriff and mom as our time rolled around to the end.

Sunday we had our flight out around 1 pm. We took off, and I fell asleep almost immediately, waking up to the captain saying due to traffic at JFK we were in a holding pattern (we were somewhere over the Atlantic at that point) and we would be about 45 minutes late into JFK. Also, the plane we were on had 3 seats per aisle - 1 on 1 side, 2 on the other side. Blondie and I were each in the 1-seater side right in front of each other at the front of the plane.

Okay, so the announcement is made that we were going to be 45 minutes late (we were out of holding and heading towards JFK at that point) and I become aware of a heated argument a few rows behind me. I tried to tune it out, but eventually I couldn't anymore. It's because there was a woman FREAKING THE FUCK OUT that she was going to miss her connecting flight, and she was having a massive spat with the flight attendant. She was trying to push her way to the front of the plane with all her bags and take a seat that was bulkhead (where she couldn't store her bags). The flight attendant (extremely calm - I was truly impressed with her) kept trying to tell the lady why she couldn't sit there, and this lady kept losing her shit.

So now they are standing in the aisle right beside me, and the jackass sitting in the row in front of me (not Blondie) pipes up his giant big fat asshole mouth and starts needling this crazy lady even more (which is EXACTLY what we need - someone butting in where they aren't needed). He keeps telling crazy lady he can guarantee her flight isn't leaving on time (oh really? you can guarantee this?) - she asked to switch seats with him and he said no way, there was no reason and really, what would that buy her?

Flight attendant speaks back up, trying to shut this guy up and tells crazy lady that if she doesn't sit down immediately she's going to get the pilot involved and we will be landing at the closest airport which, ahem, is not JFK. Alarm bells go off in my head, and I leap out of my seat, grab my shit - tell crazy lady to sit where I'm sitting and go flying back to take her seat. And like that, the ENTIRE airplane starts clapping for me (small airplane, it's not like I got a 777 to clap for me). :) We landed at JFK without incident, crazy lady is first off the plane, and I'm relieved that we are in NYC and not somewhere in Canada.

The rest of the week passed uneventfully. Blondie showed me the video he made of me karaoke'ing at the Pooh's and it took my breath away about how much weight I've gained - I'm not stupid, I know I've gained weight but I also work out regularly so I was fooling myself about how bad I actually look. Blondie feels the same way - he's gained a few pounds, so we had a long talk on Monday about what to do. And came up with a plan. WOOT! We will be doing weekly weigh ins at the house on Sunday, and planning our meals and cooking in again. The only thing we aren't giving up is Pony Bar on Sundays, and our local pub another night during the week.

This past week went FAST. I felt like I could barely breathe and it would be 5 pm before I even looked up from my work (it helped with cutting down on my eating so I'm grateful). My boss and I did another 2 hour lunch on Monday, and Blondie and I hit up our local pub on Tuesday. Then on Friday, it was horribly yucky and I had a short day, so we hit up Pony Bar on Friday afternoon around 4 pm for early dinner and a few beers. We kept it short and early, so although we already broke our rules that we set up, we were totally good there (3 beers each, each of us got a meal that was healthy).

Today we weighed in for our first time, and it sucked for both of us. But now we are off to Pony Bar b/c it's Sunday Funday!!! And that's all the plans we have.

Workouts - woot - hardcore again.
Monday: None - still full from all the eating I did over the weekend
Tuesday: Insanity Core Cardio and Balance
Wednesday: Insanity Cardio Power and Resistance
Thursday: 3 miles on treadmill in 39:52 (um, WTF?)
Friday: Insanity Cardio Recovery
Saturday: 3 miles on treadmill in 36:22 (okay, much better)
Sunday: P90X Plyometrics

Ready to eat. FOOD. NOW.

--K

Bi Bim Bop & Bulgoki; Broadway & Bazinga!; BOOM; Baltimore, Boats & Beer

Sometimes I look at my life and wonder how in the world I've gotten to where I'm at. Sometimes it's a good thing, sometimes it's not. Sometimes I come off a week where I just want to curl up in bed and not move for 48 hours. And sometimes I come off a week like this past one... my love for NYC has grown by 1000 (which I didn't think was possible), we fell in love with Baltimore, I got to see old friends and make new ones, and of course, Broadway.

Last Sunday was our typical Pony Bar day - we headed out around noon to go there, followed by one of my bar friends around 1 pm. We thought it would just be us 3, as my bar friend's husband was off to a different bar to watch the Euro game. But it turned out that there were about 5 of us there in the end, drinking beers and watching soccer. After the Euro game, we took off for little tacos for dinner before heading home and crashing.

Monday I met up with some coworkers (old and new) in Koreatown to say goodbye to a good friend. She's off to Florida now with her boyfriend, and we all just wanted to give her a good sendoff. We ordered a shit ton of food - my favs being Bi Bim Bop (fried rice bowl) and Bulgoki (beef you cook over a grill). Many pitchers of soju along with a few martinis completed our dinner. One of our friends brought a big cake so we had that for dessert before we headed out. I took advantage of the city and walked home, as it's only about 12 streets and 5 avenues to get to my apartment. I also hoped to digest the food baby that was hanging out in my stomach but that didn't happen.

Tuesday was a SHORT day!!!! 1 pm end time, and I was out the door right on time. I met Blondie and we did some grocery shopping, and then we headed home and I took a nap. We met up with our bar friends at House of Brews around 5:30 pm for dinner and some drinks, before we then made our way over to see "Harvey". Our seats were INSANE - we were about 10 rows back from stage, dead center. And the play was amazing. The story for "Harvey" is that the main character Elwood P Dowd (Jim Parsons - aka Sheldon from Big Bang Theory) is an alcoholic and he sees a 6 ft tall white rabbit everywhere - they are best friends. He lives with his sister and her kid and they try to get him committed into an mental hospital (the play is set in the '40s). But by the end, everyone sees the rabbit.

I don't like the Sheldon character on Big Bang Theory so I was a bit hesitant about this play. But holy crap Jim Parsons did an amazing job. His timing was impeccable and he played the role of a jolly alcoholic with gusto. I also loved the fact that they treated the rabbit as a guardian angel type role (a puka). I also loved the fact that you weren't sure if he saw the rabbit because he was deep in the throes of alcoholism; or if he saw the rabbit because he had some mental problems. Okay - but it boils down to LOVE LOVE LOVE this play! We laughed so hard throughout the entire show. They had a line that I loved and still am quoting which is "I've fought long and hard with reality and I've finally won out". Also in the play were Carol Kane (from Scrooged) and Jessica Hecht (from Friends).

After the play we floated back to our local pub and closed down the bar that night. Wednesday I met my bar friend bright and early and we did the last of our grocery shopping followed by a quick breakfast break. Blondie and I had prepared drunken gummies (vodka soaked gummy bears) and jello shots on Tues, so on Wed evening, we just threw together a big batch of guacamole, and then headed up to our building friend's apartment. And had a freaking blast! Their view is amazing - they are 33 stories up and face the Hudson in the right direction for the fireworks show. We made a ton of new friends, drank our asses off, sang along to the radio, and watched the fireworks. Macys does an incredible job with the show, and from the moment we saw the barges start up the river, we got excited.

Thursday we trucked up to the Port Authority and caught a bus to Baltimore. The bus ride down blew chunks. The bus was pretty dead, but we got caught in 2 traffic jams (accidents) and then we had to make a pit stop in Wilmington and they have a drawbridge that was up and also stopped us for 15 more minutes. We rolled into Baltimore in bad moods, 2 hours late.

But the bad moods ended almost immediately, as Blondie's friend was there to pick us up. He's an awesome guy that Blondie was good friend's with in Texas. He stopped and got us a snack, and then we met his roommate, and then all of us headed over to a free concert in one of the parks in Baltimore. The concert ran for about 3.5 hours, and we met so many new (COOL) people. It was blazing hot in Baltimore but when the sun went down, it cooled off some, so it was still pleasant hanging out in the park. After the concert, we hit up a few other bars, before ending the night with some live music and pizza at a local pizza place.

Friday morning was miserable - it was 100+ degrees outside and I was hungover. We finally left the friend's apartment around 1 pm, and headed to the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore. We grabbed some lunch there and then looked around the area some more before we hit up Fort McHenry. This was the fort where Francis Scott Key penned the Star Spangled Banner. We toured the fort (HOT HOT HOT) and spent some time on the top of the fort looking out at the water before heading back on out. I was sweating so bad that it was running into my eyes, making it impossible to see.

After Fort McHenry, we did a driving tour around Baltimore - we saw Fells Point, the National Bohemian beer brewery, Patterson Park, etc. After our driving tour, we met up with some other friends for sushi and beers, before they mentioned they were meeting someone else who had a boat to go out on the water - and did we want to go? Of course we do! We left sushi and bought some beers and then met up with the boat guy. We didn't get to go out for very long as the water cops busted us for not having a light on the front of the boat, but we still got a quick tour of the harbor.

Also, funny note - even water cops bother me. As soon as I saw them, I was like "oh shit, busted!" But the boat guy was pretty awesome with them - he talked his way out of a ticket, and even had them escort us back to our dock. I was impressed with this guy.

After we docked our boat again, all of us decided to head around to this bar on the end of a dock called Tiki Barge. We made our way there and met up with 1 other person who I immediately named Will Ferrell because he kind of looked like him. The bar was really nice - it was open air, but the sun was down and it was getting a breeze. After Tiki Barge closed, we headed over to Little Havana for cubans and more beer. There I met a woman who I totally hit it off with - the next thing I know I'm doing shots with her at the bar. And then we were getting kicked out because it was closing time.

We headed back to our friend's apartment at around 2:30 am, and when we got there, we realized that they were filming a movie with Kevin Spacey in front of our friend's apartment - so we headed down to watch the filming for a bit (very very cool) before crashing out.

Yesterday we headed out around 1 pm to get crabcakes - a friend from Friday had told us about a place that had the best crab cakes in Baltimore so we headed over to see if they were indeed good. They kicked ass, took names, and beat the shit out of any other crab cake I've ever eaten. The place was Faidley's Seafood in Lexington Market, and if you're ever in the area, GO. After our lunch, we stopped at one last beer bar for the afternoon, before heading back to catch our bus at 5:30 pm.

And it was like the gods were making up for our shitty trip down to Baltimore as the bus was exactly on time, there was only 8 people on it, and we hit no accidents. We got back to NYC about 20 minutes earlier than scheduled. We ordered in dinner from our local mexican restaurant as soon as we got back home, and then crashed out after.

Now it's Sunday and I don't know what to do. I should do a workout, but feel like taking 1 more day off. I should get a pedicure, but it's hot out there. I should meet up with my bar friends at Pony Bar, but it's hot out there. Maybe I should just lay here?

Plans - we take off for KY on Thurs afternoon. I'm excited to see everyone, and play cards and drink beers. After KY, we slow down for a bit, before heading back to Wisc in August for a cousin's wedding. I need to start eating right again - all the beer drinking in Baltimore made my jeans tight (yes, it's the beer drinking; no, it's not the 20 lbs of food I consumed daily over the past week ;)

Also, an observation that cats are ridiculous. Our friend has a cat "Cassie" who is this ginormous ball of fluff; and his roommate has a kitten "Charlemagne" who is flat out silly. Cassie would sprawl her enormous body on the coffee table, scooting up so her front paws and face were hanging off the coffee table, while her hind legs were laid out like a dog. It was so effing funny. And Charlemagne was this tiny little thing who loved to show you her teeth. She wasn't growing or angry or anything, but just would do this fake "smile" and you'd see all her teeth. Ridiculous.

Okay, off to enjoy my last day of freedom. Hope everyone came off an awesome week!

--K

TX friend, NY friends, wine

Last Sunday turned out quite well. We hit up our usual spot - Pony Bar - and had one of our favorite bartenders there. This bartender loooves Milwaukee, so in turn, loves Blondie. As soon as he saw us come in, he was excited which made us excited for Sunday. Soon after we arrived, our bar friends showed up followed closely by a friend of Blondie's from TX (he no longer lives there). I forgot how funny this friend of Blondie's is, and we spent the afternoon almost in tears from laughing so hard. Even our bartender was cracking up at this guy, and bought us many rounds on the house. We got home that night, and I crashed out for a few hours, and then was up until almost midnight b/c of my inadvertent nap.

Blondie texted on Monday that he wanted to hit up our normal bar b/c our bartender was back from his almost month long vacation. I headed over to the bar after work, and it was a fun evening just getting caught back up with him (he's the one we spend NYE with in Jersey each year). Some of the regulars were also there, and we spent the evening laughing and talking.

Tuesday and Wednesday were a bust. Work is picking back up speed so at least they went by fast. And then Thursday happened. It was like 95 degrees in the city on Thursday so I wore a skirt to work, which is all fine and dandy. Normally. My subway lline was down on Thurs night, and my train was running on a different line. It's a 45 minute walk home from work for me (2 miles ish) and sometimes I love that - I walk home maybe 2-3 times a month (usually when the thought of cramming into the subway platform 6 stories underground creeps me out). But I almost always know in advance I'm going to walk home. Long story short, very thin soled shoes, skirt and 95 degree weather - I have to strut myself 2 miles home in that. I rolled on home with blisters, burning feet on the soles, and massive chub rub.

Which then of course in my brain makes sense that I can have a glass of wine. Because I had to walk home. Blondie had run 6 miles that day so he saw me getting a glass of wine and decided he wanted one too. 4 bottles of wine later, we went to bed.

And then Friday BLEW. I was a little nauseous but mostly headachy and dehydrated - which is my typical wine hangover. The day felt like it took forever, but finally, finally, I got to leave work. I stopped on the way home for velveeta to make queso (Texas represent!) and gummy bears. And Corona b/c I desperately needed a hair of the dog. I got home, collapsed, had a beer, and then our bar friends called. Blondie and I decided to join them for "just a few" (famous last words). Our bartender was still excited to see us so next thing I know we've got shots of Jameson's in front of us. Other than that though, the night was good.

Yesterday we decided to take it easy. I was very tired anyway and my allergies are kicking my ass right now. So when our bar friends texted that they were out again, I declined the invite. I'm glad I did - Blondie and I ate pretty healthy yesterday and then spent the evening in bed watching movies. Today I've done a 1 hr, 45 min workout already, ordered some groceries and paid our rent. We're (of course) headed to Pony Bar around noon, but it might be an earlier day for me.

Plans coming up are AWESOME. Tomorrow night, I have a dinner for a friend who is moving to Florida - I'm meeting up with her and a bunch of my other friends (former coworkers mostly) in Koreatown for dinner and drinks. Tuesday I'm done at 1 pm, and then Blondie and me and my bar friends have tickets to see "Harvey" on Tuesday night (broken record, but the Broadway play starring Sheldon from Big Bang Theory) - we might even wait outside after to get his autograph. Wednesday we are headed up to our building friend's apartment for the fireworks show. They are on the 33rd floor and face the Hudson opposite of how we do. We'll be able to see the entire show from their place. And Thursday we leave for Baltimore. We'll be spending Thurs-Sat with another friend of Blondie's who used to live in Texas. A week from Thursday we leave for KY so that we can see my family for the first time in over a year (with the exception of Mr Pooh who was here in May). PHEW!

Workouts were good this week:
Sunday: P90X Kenpo
Monday: rest (oops, the bar happened intstead)
Tuesday: Insanity Max Recovery
Wednesday: 3 mile run on treadmill in 34:45 (almost threw up)
Thursday: Insanity Cardio Power and Resistance
Friday: rest (planned)
Saturday: P90X Yoga
Sunday: 3 mile run on treadmill in 34:46 (felt a LOT better than Wed), P90X Stretching

--K