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[theinevitable]

Today I came very, very close to texting a picture of the girl I have a crush on to the girl herself.

Who needs drugs when you can get that kind of adrenaline going just being being a dumbass.

[theinevitable]

Wow, it's really hard to save money living here!

I have never been good at budgeting, but have always kind of figured that the fact that I don't buy expensive things (I don't go on vacations, go shopping unless necessary, etc) will balance out that I blow money on silly little things like breakfast sandwiches or burritos or whatever.

Turns out that doesn't work when your rent is over $1k and you live in a city where almost every little thing is expensive.

Wednesday, though, I was bummed out and went on a long walk after work. Got $3 worth of dumplings and an ice cream cone. That was cheap and fulfilling.

This morning I went to a talk and the girl I like showed up with her boyfriend. Same ol' inev story.

[theinevitable]

About 1 month into the new job task where I spend 4-5 days a week walking around taking notes about buildings. Set foot in the Bronx for the first time, and have covered 3/4 of Brooklyn and some bits of Queens. Walking about 40 miles a week. It feels good. Not excited for when it starts getting really hot though. Friday it was hot enough that the iPads we use to take notes overheated and shut down. Yuck.

Today I made Tres Leches Cake. It was freaking incredible. Like, damn, it's bad to know how easy it is to make this.

[pmcd9]

I blow money on silly little things like breakfast sandwiches or burritos or whatever.

You know your city is expensive when breakfast is a luxury. I've been watching Master of None on Netflix and it really brings home the point that NYC is an AMAZING place to live if you have plenty of money. If you don't, it can be murder.

[theinevitable]

You make a good point. $3 food cart egg and cheese sandwiches are not what is wrecking my bank account.

Other than rent, I think you can enjoy yourself here for cheap. The problem is that anything you could ever want is being shoved in your face all day every day. Way too easy to get sucked into wanting to try the cool new place, or buy a cool new shirt, or whatever. And of course all the beautiful people make it look so easy if you're a sucker like me.

Recently I had a bad day and went out for dinner-- $3 for a huge serving of dumplings and $4 for a really fancy ice cream cone. Then I walked around Chinatown for an hour and took the subway home. I need to do that more instead of whatever I'm doing to pass the time that is burning a hole in my debit card.

[wombat]

About 1 month into the new job task where I spend 4-5 days a week walking around taking notes about buildings. Set foot in the Bronx for the first time, and have covered 3/4 of Brooklyn and some bits of Queens. Walking about 40 miles a week. It feels good. Not excited for when it starts getting really hot though. Friday it was hot enough that the iPads we use to take notes overheated and shut down. Yuck.

Whoa this sounds like an awesome job.

[pmcd9]

Whoa this sounds like an awesome job.

I wouldn't want that job in Houston.

[theinevitable]

Important report: I have spent 16 hours walking the south Bronx and I have not seen a single hipster except in the mirror. No trendy cafes, no businesses with punny names, no nothin. It's kind of great.

[Carlos del Vaca]

Yesterday's adorable middle school theatre moment:
I had the pleasure of seeing my kid's school's production of "Legally Blonde, Jr." not once but twice. Two different casts; my kid was assistant director and had a walk-on role in the first show.

In the first show, the role of Emmett (the male protagonist) was played by a diminutive Asian dude, who's a fine actor and a real good kid. In the last scene of the show, the heroine (a good four inches taller than him!) proposes to him, and damn if homeboy didn't kiss her square on the mouth. (In the later show, the same characters did a lame-ass cheek kiss.)

After the show, the kids all go out in the lobby to jump up and down and cheer together, and greet friends and family. I happened to be right there when this Emmett met up with his folks, and a male relative (too young to be his dad, I think an older brother or a young uncle) gave him a big hug and told him he was awesome. Then he kind of stepped back and said "YOU KISSED A GIRL!! You don't need my help, you kissed a girl!"

I bout died on the spot.

[pmcd9]

Kid is cooler than I ever was.

[theinevitable]

I think my finding after exploring every neighborhood in Brooklyn (ok there are like 3 more tiny ones, I'm going to those next week) is that the neighborhoods I'm not supposed to like are the best ones. I knew everything south of a certain part was kind of "suburban" but was imagining the wrong kind of suburbs, the "suburban" part of Brooklyn is still denser than anywhere else I've ever lived. Over the past 2 weeks we have worked our way across the furthest south neighborhoods, which transition from Latino to Chinese to Hasidic to an endless part where it's a mix of Asian and some Russian/Eastern Euro stuff. So much good food. So many weird or cute houses. What a great fuck*ng city.

(ok, the parts where every girl is wearing cute glasses and high-waisted jeans are pretty good too... but it's a way tinier area than most people outside brooklyn think, and WAY smaller than the cute-hipster-people think)

[wombat]

I guess it's too late to say you should have been taking photos all this time and putting them on a blog.

[theinevitable]

I took tons of pictures but I'm not very good at taking pictures. Most of what I got are funny signs. The best stuff is all on my instagram.

Your point actually made me realize something though-- there were way more things I wanted to take pictures of in the fancy/hipster neighborhoods. I don't think there was a single house in all of Bay Ridge/Sunset Park/Borough Park/Bensonhurst/Gravesend/Flatbush/etc that made me say "wow" like the beautiful old brownstones in Park Slope or Bed Stuy. The whole was way better than the sum of its parts, which down south are mostly kind of mediocre houses.

There was one moment in Bushwick when a woman with pink hair leaned out her 3rd story window to water her (bright yellow) flowers, and there were Puerto Rican flags fluttering in the other windows, and I'm so mad that I didn't get a picture of that. So many bright colors and the building was cool looking too.

I think the most perfect example of the kind of building I like is on my block. But I haven't gotten a single good picture of it. It's slightly too big and taking pictures of buildings from below sucks.

[theinevitable]

OK, I'm looking through my instagram pictures now and clearly I should type up a little post about what happened in each neighborhood.

Also I don't use any of the weird instagram effects, I usually just brighten them up a bit and maybe increase the contrast. However, every single one of them looks weird and... digital? grainy? They look so good on my phone screen! What gives?

[pmcd9]

If you don't put, like floppy ears and a dog tongue on them I'm not even interested.