A Horribly Productive/Destructive Weekend!

My dear Tommy went back home to Staten Island for the weekend, and I was left to my own devices.

Friday Night:
Stayed home to nurse the contrails of my never-ending flu from last weekend.  I ended up drinking about six servings of miso soup, while watching the following:  five hours of Bravo (split between Real Housewives of Atlanta and Las Vegas Taxi Cab Confessions), an episode of Amazing Wedding Cakes, an episode of Bridezillas, Gwyneth Paltrow’s View from the Top, and a horrible Lifetime movie about a Mormon love quadrilateral starring Jennie Garth called A Loss of Innocence.

Oh Jenny....

So basically, I drank two gallons of salt water and had estrogen pumped through the television, into my eyeballs.  It was horrible.  I might as well have cut myself or eaten a quart of Rocky Road Ice Cream while dressing up my Barbie doll collection.  I literally watched TV for 9 hours.  It started at 7pm and lasted until 4am.  WHAT KIND OF FREAK AM I?!?!

Saturday:
Went to brunch with Adina in the East Village, wandered around Urban Outfitters, and picked up my books on reserve from Greenpoint Library.  And you know what?  It turns out there’s another Jennifer Kwok who goes to my branch!  I know this because I certainly did not order a Japanese manga written in Japanese with no pictures in it (seriously, what is that? )!  Then I went home and started reading my actual somehow-in-my-mind-less-dorkier book choice, The Golden Compass.  Then, realizing that I probably shouldn’t have ANY more miso for the rest of my life because I had consumed about 12,000 grams of sodium the night before, I decided to order in a Papacitos fish burrito.

FISH!!!

I ate this while watching Kubrick’s Lolita and marveling at the great acting – Peter Sellers rocks it in this movie (and James Mason and Shelly Winters are no schlubs either). After the movie, I fulfilled my weeklong craving for Haagen Daaz and bought a pint of Bailey’s flavored ice cream at my local pseudo-gourmet grocery market.  I went to bed EARLY – like 9pm, after Friday night’s fiasco.

Sunday:
Woke up relatively early after 12 hours’ sleep and started going through emails.  I grabbed a shower, ran some errands at Rite Aid (where they already have Halloween stuff up, BTW – horrifying!!!!) and bought a couple donuts and coffee from Peter Pan’s, which is now infamous for its Donut Ice Cream Sandwiches.  Got back home and edited/practiced my verse for “Trapped in a Dungeon”, a guest-rap-laden song by my buddy Soce, The Elemental Wizard.  Then I wrote and practiced my rap verse of a song we’re doing together, “Ride the Bus”, which will be released as a B-side to my single (also produced by and featuring Soce), “Date an Asian”.

After all that musical mayhem, I made some No Pudge Brownies and cleaned the house before my Tommy came home (it’s all the Mad Men watching that’s got me acting like robo-live-in-girlfriend).

No effing PUDGE - that's what I said!

Actually, the brownies were for my former boss, who is letting us stay at her house during our vacation, and Soce, who is hard at work producing all these awesome tracks!  I headed over to Manhattan (going from the G to the 7 because there is no service to Manhattan from 23-Ely Ave for the fourth weekend in a row) and met with my former boss to grab keys, directions, etc.  Then I headed downtown to record my rhymes with Soce.

Continuing with the self abuse, I came home not having eaten any dinner – BUT buying a goddamn Van Leeuwen ice cream while waiting for the bus on Bedford Ave.  WHY?!?!?!?!  Ugh, that ice cream is so good it’s hard for me to eat other ice cream now….  It didn’t melt once while I was waiting 15 minutes for that bus – not a square millimeter of it.  It’s perfect!!!!

Stupid Van Leeuwen, you hurt so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally, I got home and found my dear Tommy there, uploading a ton of pictures of his weekend at home, along with adorable 10 second videos of his dog running around and drinking water – videos that, BTW, would probably get more YouTube hits than all my videos combined!

It was nice to be kind of left alone this weekend, but between the miso/ice cream diet and 9-hour lady film festival, I really don’t think I’d last very long.  However, it was superfun to indulge, and I was glad to channel my inner rap star and try a new outlet for my creativity.

And now, for whatever reason, I can’t seem to go to bed just yet.  But…a girl has to try.

Good night!

Moving to New York

One of my high school friends, Matt, is coming to visit next month and asked me what it’s like to live in New York.  Is housing impossible?  Is it as hard to live here as “everyone” says?  (I’m assuming that “everyone” is non-New Yorkers, as he’s asking me to confirm/deny what “everyone” is saying.)

Thinking about this question made me look back at how I felt about New York before I moved here.  I had wanted to live here ALL my life.  It was a self-fulfilling prophecy for sure, but even when I went to school in upstate New York, I still had no idea what “the city” was really about.  All my college friends were from Long Island, Queens or the Bronx -  all I ever heard about Manhattan was looong train rides and how easy it was to sneak into Webster Hall with a fake ID.

Now New York and I have been through thick and thin, richer and poorer, single and taken, repressed and creative:

New York v1.0 ( 2004-2005 )
When I first moved to Queens (for a few months) and then Manhattan, I lived as “Sex & the City” as a single gal could:  cosmos, clubs, cappuccinos, boys – all the stuff that makes me vomit now.  Living in Hell’s Kitchen was amazing.  Plus, I was drunk half the time.  Whoooooo!!!

New York v2.0 ( 2005-2008 )
Working in the performing arts allowed me to do good, get  free tickets to amazing events and hang out with the world’s greatest musicians.  I took a huge pay cut when I moved from a Big Four accounting firm to a non-profit arts organization, but I was happy to struggle a little if it meant working with awesome people and being part of a great cause everyday.  I had an amazing new boyfriend, and people thought I had the coolest job ever!

New York v3.0 ( 2008 )
Last year, I decided to become a comedian.  Now people REALLY thought I had the coolest job ever. Eating out on Ninth Avenue was replaced with a skillful rotation of ramen, Aunt Jemima pancakes and frozen Ikea meatballs.   I also discovered something cheaper than shopping at H&M:  not shopping at all.  Plus, living on the West Side and having a boyfriend on the East Side was great because I had a short trip home no matter where the gig was!

New York v4.0 ( 2008-current )
Three months ago I moved to Brooklyn, where my only link to the outside world is the G train, I live with my boyfriend, and there are no tourists standing on our doorstep.  Polish is heard more often than English in the neighborhood, there’s a washer/dryer in our apartment, and we actually have room to play Wii!

Same girl, or maybe not the same girl.  But definitely many, many different versions of New York.  And one thing never changes:  my love for this fucking place.

This is what I wrote to my friend:

Hey Matt,

I’m good – thanks for hittin me up! We should def meet up and i’ll let you know what shows are going on!

It IS hard to live out here compared to the rest of the country, but there is no place like it.  It’s hard to explain, but basically it’s a COMPLETELY different lifestyle from the suburbs or even other cities like LA and Chicago. And also, what a lot of people don’t realize is that most people who move to “the city” can’t afford to live in Manhattan anymore. Despite the romanticized vision of New York in the movies/tv, most people our age are living in the outer boroughs like Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, Staten Island and even New Jersey or Westchester.

Housing is not impossible, but it’s harder than the rest of the country. No matter what your expectation, there is almost no doubt you will get less square footage than you want for more than your budget. Unlike California, stuff is old. It breaks. Everything is more expensive (almost double). A normal lunch (sandwich and a beverage) runs at least $8-10.

All that being said, for people who want to live in New York, there is absolutely no alternative for us! It’s like family: you deal with the bullshit.  If it’s truly what you NEED/want/can’t picture doing anything else, you can make it here. It won’t be easy, but it can be done. It just takes being willing to adapt and make it work. And for those of us who love it, that is a tiny tiny price to pay

Jen

Great Chicken-Kale-Potato Roast Recipe!

Hey you guys!  My sister introduced me to this awesome recipe, which we made for dinner tonight:

Roasted Chicken with Potatoes and Kale - yum!

This recipe is awesome because there are just three main ingredients.  You chop the taters, you chop the kale, you throw on the chicken and roll it all around in some seasoning.  Pop it in the oven and voila!

For more detailed instructions at Food & Wine:  Recipe for Roasted Chicken Legs with Potatoes and Kale