How to have a healthy day:
Morning breakfast= Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream at the apartment
A well rounded brunch= Grande Iced Vanilla Latte at the starbucks on the way to Nivaldo's work
Lunch= Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream bar while watching a baseball game at Central Park
AN AMAZING DINNER= Pad Kee Mao at Thai Angel Cuisine
A little evening snack= Pizza with cheese stuffed crust and more ice cream at the apartment
Post-little evening snack= Fresh Pineapple
Today, Rachel and I spent all day walking through the city, to Rachel's work (Rock Center Cafe in Rockefeller Center) and Nivaldo's work, Central Park, Chinatown, and more. Now that I think about it, it'd be interesting for me to draw my mental map of New York before I came.
I used to think Central Park was this rectangular shaped park with vintage benches, trees, a couple fancy clocks where old men in black suits read books while children played nearby. Now I know that the park is large and full of life. Trails wind around a pond, sports fields, and huge shaded areas. People lay out in swimsuits, jog, solicitate, live under trees, take work breaks, play on the massive playground, go for rides on a carnival, paint, and walk dogs there. Central Park is similar to being in a big play pen with the sky scrapers surrounding it. There are beautiful rocks, bridges, and charming baseball games.
Rachel and I stopped and watched a game for a while. The player's love for the game came tumbling out with strong New York accents while discussing game plans and shouting encouragement. "Just hit this bawl outta the pawk, Paulie!"
Rach and I shopped around a bit then headed to Chinatown to a wedding shop where she ordered her bridesmaid dresses. After some complications, bad luck, and disapointment we found a dress for me, the Maid of Honor. We both fell in love with the dress we chose.
I love chinatown because of the colorful assortments of exotic fruits spilling out onto the sidewalks. I would have taken a picture of their beautiful assortments but one Chinese guy objected loudly, "NO! NO! NO CAMERAS ALLOWED! SHUT THAT OFF!" ...I'm not trying to be judgemental, but aren't Asians generally the ones who come with stationary cameras around their necks? "OOoo! Take a picture of this potato. How bout from this angle? How about with a fork in it! Ooo take a picture from that side of the table." (That's quoting Rachel imitating Chinese customers at her restaurant) Anyway, besides the one camera-shy Chinese, Chinatown was fun to see.
The lady who helped me with my dress was very helpful and nice. And when we asked her if she knew where a Thai restaurant was her response made us laugh. "Ohhh. Not in this part of town." We didn't mean to insult her but I suppose that is a rude question in a highly cultured Chinese area. Regardless, we went to an amazing Thai place that fed my craving for Pad Kee Mao which made my day. They probably should've charged us for water; they had to refill our glasses of water multiple times due to our day in the hot city.
At night, Rachel and Nivaldo convinced me to play a game I purposely have avoided many years to escape boredom and deep comas. Monopoly. But this game was fun. Monopoly: Electronic Banking Edition. Dealing with Debit Cards and Millions, this game was much more interesting, fun, and how many times can you say you've gotten 2 Million for Passing Go? Nivaldo's not very competitive unless you think that him saying this counts as competitiveness, "Well, why would you play the game if it's not to win?" and "I don't play for fun." He didn't seem to like Rachel and I handing over two of our estates to help him out to just win if winning was all he wanted. He accepted them anyway. And smoked us badly... probably not because of what we gave him but because he actually is just good at the game. It didn't help when he stood up on the futon and gave a victory dance. All that laughter and arguing made for a fun evening and now I must get some sleep.
To enlarge the pictures just click on them! Some are big, some are not... depending on if I resized them or not.
Tomorrow is going to be a hard day laying on the beach. Woowee!
