The fun never stops (Fri and Sat)

Well, I just got home from a long, fun day with Alicia. More about that in a second...

Last night, Natalie and I met up around 7:45 for dinner at a vegetarian restaurant that Julie recommended, called Angelica's Kitchen (12th St., btwn 1st and 2nd Aves). We both ordered the 'Wee Dragon Bargain', which was a smaller portion of the dragon bowl, cup of soup, and bread with spread. We both got the corn chowder with jalapeno and corn bread, which was a nice hearty variety, without sugar. Both were very good, then came our dinners. It was a plate of tofu and vegetables, cooked al dente, then a miso dressing for it all. I think that it was a bit bland, and not my ideal meal, but perhaps my taste for tofu and sea vegetables isn't fully developed. If I go back though, I think I'll have something different.

Natalie and I then made our way to St. Marks Place, and strolled down, looking for a good spot. I'm fairly familiar with the East Village at this point, and we ended up coming to a spot that I've tried to check out twice before, but it's always WAY too crowded. This time it was lively, but not packed, so we went into Bua (St. Marks btwn 1st and Ave A). We had Caipirinhas to drink, after seeing the bartender making one by mashing limes in a glass with a wooden pestle. It's made with a special rum, and is actually the national cocktail of Brazil. Go figure. We hung out and talked to the bartender every now and again (he thanked us for straightening out the coasters on the bar into OCD-neat piles), and eventually ordered another drink. We waited a bit for our friend, Rick, who is also a former SCAD student, and has been living in the city for a couple years now. We hung out there for a bit longer, then moved on to another bar (which I can't remember the name of) for one drink. While there, Alicia called me and asked me if I wanted to go to a concert the next day to see a bunch of bands. Her boyfriend bought the tickets, but then he couldn't go, then his replacement backed out last minute, so of course I was happy to fill-in. We decided to meet the next day at my place around 2.

Then Natalie, Rick, and I moved on to Sidewalk, and decided it was time for a shot, then finally ended up at The Skinny (Orchard Ave). We met Rick's neighbor, Cori there. We were there for the remainder of the night, and by the end of it, I was just drinking water. We had fun, though, and enjoyed meeting more of Rick's friends and neighbors (they live at the far end of Prospect Park in Brooklyn), dancing, and playing pool. The night ended pretty late, and Natalie and I ended up walking to my house (after grabbing a slice, of course).

Today, Natalie and I took our time waking up, but then went in search of food. We found a Chinese place not too far from my apartment (imagine that..), and just as we ordered, I got a call from Alicia that she was out of the subway (she came in from upstate). I walked to meet her, then we went back over to the restaurant, where the food had already arrived. We ate a bunch of little dumplings and things from the dim sum menu, then all walked to the Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall 6 train station (last stop on the 6). We all took it up, and Natalie got off at her stop, then Alicia and I took it the whole way up to the 125th St. stop. We bought $5 bus tickets, and boarded for a short ride to Randalls Island.

The concert was an all-day festival that started at noon, but we didn't get there till 4pm. Unfortunately, after Public Enemy (and Flava Flav!) played. The concert was called Rock the Bells, and NY was the kick-off of the tour. We did, however, see: The Roots, Cypress Hill, Wu-tang Clan, and Rage Against the Machine. It was a lot of fun, and we danced around a bit. By the end, our feet were killing us from standing on the pavement the whole time, and the sweaty shirtless guys caused us to reach our annoyance threshold. The end of the concert was cool, though, because we walked back onto the (softer than concrete) grass, and saw Rage on the big screen, which was actually a bit better than staring at the 85% white male crowd's backs. By the way, the lack of females was evidenced even more by the (very much unwanted) attention we got. "Oh my god, you're so beautiful" and an anonymous butt slap later, I was sort of over the good odds (and the odd goods).

A long line to get back on a bus, then a traffic-y bus ride and subway ride to Grand Central took us a little over an hour. We reached Grand Central at 11:40, washed our hands, and sought out food and drink. We ended up with a pretzel and water, and I sat with Alicia on her train until it was ready to leave at 12:10.
It was a lot of fun to see the Mini, and I'm looking forward to visiting her upstate, probably sometime in September, when Tracy and Hannah are around. We said our goodbyes, and I caught the subway. After briefly scanning the local bar by my train station for my roommate, I headed home.