One Step Forward, Two Steps Back in our March Toward Domesticity

Happy Monday, loyal readers!

After a really grown up meal (chicken, rice and green beans) Wasp and I did a major clean of our apartment (which was looking pretty rank thanks to midterms, busy days at work and super lazy weekends!).
"Major" for us means:
vacuum
sweep
Swiffer Wet Jet (my favorite)
clean stove/microwave
clean bathroom
put clothes away in rooms (I did this today when I got home from class/the supermarket, Wasp decided we did enough for tonight and will be doing it "tomorrow").

In celebration of our "major" clean we decided that we should eat some of the instant pudding (chocolate) that Wasp made earlier tonight.

Now, if you know me (and I'm assuming that most of you do) you know that instant Jello pudding is perhaps one of my favorite desserts. I bought it today at Food Dynasty and got chocolate because it is Wasp's favorite (and by favorite, I mean the only pudding she will eat).

Anyway, we finished cleaning and opened the tupperware that the pudding was in. The picture attached to this post is what we found. Swamp pudding. I know what you are thinking, "NLG, tell me you did not eat that disgusting mixture. Tell me that you went across the street to the convenience store owned by the crotchety old man and got some ice cream".

I'm sorry to tell you that I did, in fact eat the pudding. Actually, I'm not sorry because it was delicious. It was a little chunky, but I have to say that I think that added to the experience. Overall, we are going to improve our mixing skills but still the pudding proved to be a happy end to my evening (note: Wasp did not eat the pudding).

Reasons we are more domestic than we were in August:
1. We made big girl meals
2. We cleaned without anyone telling us we needed to
3. I put my pudding in the fancy dessert dishes my Aunt got us

Reasons we are less domestic than we were in August:
1. We made swamp pudding


More soon...thanks for reading!

"Thanks, Yanks!"

Hello Readers!

Woke up today completely forgetting that the Yankees had won the World Series this week and that today was the parade. Wasp seemed to forget too...until we went to our subway station to find it filled with Yankees fans all geared out and ready to go frolic in confetti down at City Hall.

We tried to avoid being on their subway car, but it happened anyway; please see the picture for just a sampling of the gentlemen who accompanied us on our commute today. At the first stop, about 12 teenage boys got on and I am pretty sure they were drunk (please note that it was 8:05am). Actually, now that I am thinking about it, I am pretty sure that all of the parade goers were drunk. I admire their determination.

So, while the rest of New York is out celebrating I am in my cube at work...sober. But I think I speak for everyone when I say thank you, Yankees, for not forcing us to live in the shadow of Philadelphia for another year! Congrats!

Happy Friday!

NLG babysits at the laundromat

NLG came to keep me company at the laundromat today. She ended up befriending Orlando. He's two. He loves snakes and spiders and does not like to behave.

Earplugs: Fashion Statement or Not?!?

NLG here with a fast update:

Today on the subway, Wasp and I saw a woman wearing earplugs. Wasp says she has seen this fashion maven before.

Questions:
1. Are earplugs really necessary on the subway (see below: crying commute)
2. Should the earplugs match your outfit (this woman had in highlighter yellow ones that matched nothing)
3. Should I include some earplugs in Wasp's holiday gift? I'm thinking yes...but now it won't be a surprise because this is her blog too.

Happy Wednesday!

Crazies Make Mondays Lots of Fun...

Hello, Readers! NLG here...updating you on my Monday!

I had a pretty busy day today...two classes with a midterm in one of them (Statistics-EW). Anyway, after two hours of numbers and formulas, I board my subway home, grab a seat and take out my library book (thank you Brooklyn Public Library!) and start reading. Ordinarily I would have been listening to my iPod, but it has been acting up lately and was left on my kitchen table, so I was completely aware of my surroundings.

About two stops into my journey home, a man got on the subway with his headphones blasting. If there is one thing that I have realized that I dislike a lot since living in Brooklyn it is commuters who listen to their music too loud. Anyway, a this guy positions himself about nine feet from me and proceeds to start a new song on his iPod, which sounded like a bizarre combination of Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" and Gloria Estefan's "Congo". He was rocking out; like head bobbing, hip shaking, hand druming dancing. For the record, this man was not small, he was at least 5"11, maybe 250 lbs and all 250 lbs of him was shaking it like he meant it.

I go back to my reading and suddenly, Whitney/Gloria morphs into a bad yelling Death Metal-y (I know not an actual word). Sure enough, I look at him and he has transformed his dancing from fun "I like to sing in the shower" dancing into angry "I live in darkness" headbanging and swaying. At this point I was about 20 minutes from home, and for the duration of the trip his playlist switched back and forth...happy, the world is fabulous, into angry, I want to yell until I make your ears bleed. Needless to say, I watch this guy the entire way home. I'm mostly interested in what his playlist was called...I'm thinking "Schitzophrenic Monday" is most plausible. I'm going to have to figure out if my phone video records in the event that I ever run into this guy again.

Here's to a crazy-free Tuesday...although Wasp and I are commuting together tomorrow and that's usually when the crazies come out in full force!

...More Soon!


PS-friends who stay in touch and come over for dinner make Crazy Mondays happy :)

Commute Email

Happy Monday! LOVE NLG.

Screaming babies on the subway make me want to never procreate slash institute a muzzle policy on children riding the subway. NOT a happy way to start my day when I have a stats midterm that has the potential to kick my ass.

xxo

Happy Halloween

It's 3:15 am (what felt like 4:15am because of daylight savings time). I am by myself (dumb) going home from the most amazing Halloween with the most perfect group ever. (I went to RUSH, if you've never been and are extremely comfortable with your sexuality--whatever it may be--you should go, and dance your ass off.) I am sitting in the Atlantic Avenue station to get on my train. It took a long time for it to come.

Just before it arrived I see these two men. They were about 25. One, who we'll call Shades, was just about functioning and the other, we'll call him Dude, was blacked out, barely walking. Shades drags Dude to the corner of the car, and plops him down in a seat. Dude passes out.



Shades sits halfway across the car from his friend. Shades had on really baggy pants (his fly was wide open, nothing visible, no worries) and a big baggy zip up sweatshirt tied around his waste. He started to dig in his pockets. He wanted to dig into his pants pockets, but he kept digging into his sweatshirt pocket. He was barely standing. He starts screaming profanities, follwed by "I LOST MY SHADES, 200 F*&$ING DOLLARS!!!!!" Play that on repeat in your head, loud, for two hours. That was the majority of my ride.

Intermittently, Shades would walk up and down the subway, empty his pockets (mind you his fly is still open), and take the umbrella (that I believe he just found somewhere) and hit the subway poles with it. Hard. Sometimes he would go over to Dude and whack him on the head too.

I was desperately trying to avoid any sort of eye contact with this man. I did not want to catch his attention at all. All of these observations are out of the corner of my eye. At one point Shades obtained a bag (looked like a woman's purse and I don't think he boarded the train with it) and started taking pills out of it. They were scattering everywhere. He tried to shove some in Dude's mouth, claiming they would make him feel better. Oh dear.

My train ride was extra long that night because the D was running on the N, fail. Nonetheless, I made it home 2 hours later. Alive.

Happy Halloween.


Our trick or treat basket...by the end of the night, it was all gone!