New York, Again!

Also in October, I had another chance to head to New York. This time it was to visit my friend Neil. He was there on business. I also got to see Michael, which was great. We mostly went shopping and ate delicious food, so I didn't get very many pictures. I almost forgot my favorite part of the trip... We were walking around in the meat packing district and found an old, abandoned warehouse that an art show decided to move in to. I recognized the style of the art from Madonna's latest art montage. I came to find out that this artist met Madonna and had worked with her a lot to create some amazing pictures of her, one that was chosen for her recent album. I was jealous of the artist and I want to meet Madonna so badly! It's too bad that I didn't run into her at the art exhibit.

This is me in front of a very cool statue in the financial district. It reminded me of a balloon animal.

This was in the Diesel store. I pretty much loved the pink army men attacking the woman. It reminded me of Gulliver's Travels. Oh, the best part was the man parachuting down to the scene too.This is Neil hanging out with his best friend Chewbacca at FAO Schwartz. PS That place is pretty much awesome with everything a little kid wants. They had separated gummy bears by flavor. Seriously, who does that?

My Life As of Late

Lately I've been up to a lot of hustling and bustling. It's been fun, tiring, and busy. Here is what I've been up to and what I plan to do this weekend.

A couple of weekends ago, I went to a beach on the Chesapeake Bay with some friends. It was a lot of fun! We attempted to fly my kite, but was unsuccessful because there wasn't enough wind. The sad part is that I still haven't been able to fly it even though I've almost had it for a year. Why can't there ever be enough wind to fly it? Ugh! Besides the lack of flying of the kite, it was still a good time. We ended up getting into a sand fight. We were chasing each other all over the beach and the water throwing sand at each other. It ended up hurting a lot, but it was a blast. Soon afterward, we were playing in the water. Then we decided to build sand castles. We ended up building a volcano, a pyramid, and a spiral jetty (like the one in the Great Salt Lake). I also built a wall to prevent the waves from destroying our masterpieces and a pretty awesome bay that caught the water. It even included a light house. Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me so I don't have any pictures our work.

Then last week, I headed down to Virginia to a Glee party and met some great people there. One of the guys I met there was going to be in the Frederick area on Friday night so he stopped by. We went out to dinner and I showed him downtown Frederick. It was a lot of fun, and I discovered a new part of Frederick. There is a canal that runs through the downtown. It has a lot of artwork painted along the walls and bridges. Some of the art is painted as architecture, so the bridges looks like they are made from stone bricks and that there are porticoes with statues along the canal. I really enjoyed my time with my new friend David in Frederick.

On Saturday, I met up with a friend of a friend in DC whose name is also David. We pretty much had a lot of fun. We first went to the zoo and much hilarity ensued! Seriously! I've never had so much fun at the zoo. We were discovering all sorts of random facts about animals and the people were priceless. At the komodo dragon exhibit, there was a little girl that wouldn't stop talking. David eventually told her that komodo dragons breath fire. They got in a fight about it, and it was hilarious! This girl was so adamant about komodo dragons not breathing fire and then David was just as adamant that they in fact breathed fire. I think she eventually became frustrated and stopped talking to David. After which, we left the zoo.

We then walked to an Ethiopian restaurant. It was a great experience and completely delicious! Everything there was traditional Ethiopian. We sat in low-to-the-ground chairs, ate out of a basket, and other aspects that were uniquely Ethiopian. I guess in Ethiopia, they do not use utensils; they use their hands. They had these tortillas/bread that we tore into pieces to pick up the food. I had a lamb dish and David had a beef dish. I tried both. I definitely plan on going back there. I loved the environment and the food! Such a great cultural experience.

After gorging ourselves with food, we started our walk to the sight-seeing areas. We walked through Adams Morgan (a typical bar crawl area), Dupont Circle, Farragut, and then the Mall. The White House was great to see at night, but it was sad because there wasn't good people watching there. I guess all of the crazies and tourists don't stop by at night. We then headed towards the Jefferson Memorial because it was the only major memorial I haven't seen yet. We walked through the cherry blossom trees, minus the cherry blossoms and eventually ended up at the Jefferson Memorial. Here there was better people watching, but not as much during the day. David had me lie down on my back and look at Washington Monument/DC upside down. It was really cool. We then started a trend because everyone else was doing it too. It was funny. We also had tourists take pictures of us... I'm not entirely sure why. Haha! After the Jefferson, we headed home on the red line. We ended up walking 9 miles in total that day! It was such a good day and a fun time!

Then on Monday I was in Bethesda most of the day for meetings at the main campus. I met up with my friend April. We went out to dinner to catch up and plan our trip to Amish country in October for the harvest. While at dinner, I happened to spill my whole water glass on myself... Yeah, I'm cool and awesome like that! Haha! I was soaked for all of dinner and the whole way home. It was a good time though. I really enjoyed talking to April and catching up. Also, I cannot wait for our trip to Amish country! Can you say apples, squash, pumpkins, and everything delicious about Fall? I hope that they have spiced pumpkin cider there because I love it so!

David from Saturday also invited me to a musical called Chess. I went with him on Tuesday. The main reasons I went are because I wanted to hang out with him again and because they have my favorite 80's song in the musical, "One Night In Bangkok." The musical was ok. The performers were great and the lead female had an amazing voice, but we both agreed that we wouldn't have paid money to see this musical. It was interesting, but yeah... I don't know what to say about it.

Yesterday, I was finally able to start my HIV/AIDS project in full! We finally received approval from EHS. I spent most of the day yesterday deactivating the virus in monkey sera. I will start working on that project full-time coming very soon. I still have a few projects to finish up on before I can work full-time on the HIV/AIDS microarray. I'm excited to actually be working on the project I signed on to do! YAY!!! :D Yesterday, I also was pulled over by the Fort Detrick police officer. Ugh! :( The only problem was that one of my head lights was burned out. I have a fix-it citation and need to get it fixed ASAP; otherwise, I have to pay a $100 fee and possibly lose the registration to my car. I think that is a little much, but it is Maryland law. Oh well... I fixed it this evening and now I need to take it to the police department to show them it is fixed so that they can sign a stupid paper and then I'll be free from the citation.

Tomorrow, I'm going to a musical called Falsetto, and then on Saturday I'm going to the DC Rollergirls opening bout. It should be a good weekend of culture, roller derby, and friends! Life has been good as of late and I love how I'm making a lot of new friends!

Labor Day Weekend: New York

I woke up at the crack of dawn to leave Mollie's house on Monday. It was sad to say goodbye to her, but we had a jolly time together AND we will be getting together more often (or at least I want to). I started my drive to New York. It was the most uneventful drive of my life, but I still had a lot of fun. It was good to see scenery of New England since the last time was in utter darkness. I really love New England and the east coast.

I eventually made it to New York and I didn't have to pay any tolls to get in! I don't know how I managed that one, but Barbara was a great help. I stopped by my friend Michael's apartment on the upper west side. It was a very unique area. I think this area is the little Mexico of New York. He had a rocking apartment and I loved what he did with the little space he had. He still has work to do and I think it will turn out nicely. I also met his roommate who is also a great, genuine guy. It was good to get to know him and hang out with Michael. We hopped on the metro to go down to China Town for lunch. On the way, we ended up at a very cool lighting store, which Michael was dying over because he wanted to make some awesome light fixtures for his apartment. We finally arrived at a dumpling shop and met up with two of his friends. We had delicious dumplings for under $5. It was definitely one of the best lunches I've had for that cheap. I order boiled chicken and mushroom dumplings and they were delightful! I also had little Asian women trying to sell me cute baby turtles. I did not buy any turtles, but they were so cute and it is something I regret now.

After that, we headed about the town. We stopped in a few stores for shopping and then ended up at Central Park. I've only been to Central Park in the dead of winter. It was good to see it lively and full of people. The highlights of Central Park were the Bethesda Fountain, pigeons, and pond turtles. I loved the Bethesda Fountain! I wish I had my camera with me. It was so beautiful in summer. The water flowing out of the fountain with the lily pads and cattails was very peaceful despite the crowded area. If I lived in New York, I could definitely find myself studying there and just hanging around there. The pigeons... How I love pigeons! I have no idea why I love pigeons so much, but I enjoy chasing after them and trying to catch them. Plus big city pigeons tend to be bigger than normal pigeons so that adds to the fun. Finally, I loved the turtles in the pond. They were also cute, which caused me to regret not buying the turtles from the little Asian woman. It would be fun to have a little pet in my apartment. I think it would add a lot to it and make it less lonely to come home every night. I'd have someone to greet me every day! That is something that I truly miss about home. Someone to greet me and bother me, even though I hated it back home.

After staying in New York a lot longer than expected, I drove home. I didn't get stuck in any traffic, which surprised me. I guess I was lucky or something. Also, I was lucky I did not lock my keys in my car again. That would have been no good. My labor day weekend was most excellent! I loved every minute of it, except the hour and a half that my keys were locked in my car and while I was lost in New York. Thanks to everyone for making it such a great weekend!

Labor Day Weekend: Cambridge/Boston

After my adventurous drive, I woke up in Cromwell, Connecticut. It was a beautiful morning and Mollie made breakfast. We then ran some errands and she showed me around her old stomping grounds.

At the end of the tour, she took me to the Connecticut River as shown above. It was huge! I wonder why we never have rivers like this in the West. In there river there were boats with water skiers, rowing teams, and people fishing. After this stop, we headed up to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mollie showed me her house and I met her roommates. Then we headed towards Cambridge Commons and Harvard Commons for lunch. There were a lot of colonial style houses along the way and some of them were huge! They are probably worth millions of dollars right now. I can't even imagine how long they took to build and how much money they cost to build. Let's just say they were crazy big!

We went to Pinocchio's Pizza. It was delicious and we both ate for only $6! I had an artichoke pizza slice (delish) and Mollie had a tomato basil pizza slice (also delish). It was a great place to start off.

After a delicious lunch, we headed to Harvard. We walked around Harvard Commons and then went to the famous library. We explored the library and since it was both our first time we got lost. The library reminded me of a castle. It was the coolest library ever! I really wished I could study in there. It was that awesome. We then walked more around the commons and unsuccessfully tried to touch the founder of Harvard statue's feet (crazy Asian tourists were flocking there making their children touch his feet so that they could go to Harvard in the future). It was insane! Mollie and I were not forceful enough to get up there and have someone take a picture of us or let alone touch his feet. After that craziness, we headed back to Mollie's house and then went to see Inception. I loved the movie, but this is not the point of this blog.

The next day we went driving around Cambridge and Boston looking at Tufts, Boston, and Harvard medical schools, and then went to church. After church we headed home for lunch and went to Boston Commons. At Boston Commons, I jumped into the frog pond for a swim. I was sad there were no frogs to catch there. We saw a policeman on a horse, saw the Make Way for Ducklings statue, and started on the Freedom Trail.

The Freedom trail was a lot of fun and we saw a lot of the city and American Revolution history AND we ran into a gigantic noodle! I wanted to ride the noodle, but sadly they wouldn't let me climb on it. My guess was that a lot of people have fallen off it and got hurt.

At the end of the Freedom Trail, we were in Little Italy so we naturally ate in an Italian restaurant. It was some of the best Italian food I've ever eaten. We then waited for about 30 minutes in line at Mike's Pastry Shop. It is famous.

I have the life motto "Go big or go home," so Mollie and I went big! We bought 5 scrumptious desserts from Mike's. They included two canolis, a chocolate creme brulee, a strawberry lobstertail cream puff, and an eclair. They were all so yummy! We definitely went big and went home with full stomachs from dinner and dessert. In fact, I still have some dessert in my fridge. Mmmmm, tasty! After dessert, we had an invigorating discussion about a lot of topics and then went to bed. I said my goodbye in the morning and then started my trek home. I really loved Cambridge and Boston, and I wouldn't mind living there.

The Fam in Town

Here are some pictures of what I did with my family and some of the cool things I saw. I went to the National Art Gallery, all of the monuments, Annapolis, and Baltimore with them. They had fun without me while I was at work.

Headless girls in the park... Awesome! It was my favorite sculpture I've ever seen!

Look, it's me! I'm Hermes!

The world's first tranny? Possibly...

I went traveling to the future on this moving sidewalk.

I loved this hand exhibit! I believe that there were fifteen different hands in different poses.

For some reason, I just really loved this painting. I think it's beautiful!

The Washington Monument from the WWII Memorial.

The Lincoln Memorial.