4 years and counting

the highline restaurant & bar

i thought i would go somewhere far to celebrate my 4th year here in the US. instead i stayed in the city in what ended up as a fitting commemoration of the 4 years past.

july 21st, friday. 4 years to be exact since i started this US journey. an impromptu afternoon lunch out was shared with officemates at the highline restaurant. a reminder of sorts of this city's diversity. thai food in the middle of the meatpacking district with quite a multicultural company. mei, lisa, cindy, the chinese trio, julian (my boss) the italian new yorker, brockie the brit, eduardo the venezuelan, another officemate and her hungarian friend, and of course i the pinoy of the group. food was great and the conversations lively. only in new york i guess will i be seated next to my boss who's talking about wanting to get a russian bride while trying to get a date with the model-looking girl at the next table. ok maybe not just in new york, coz turns out he just might be in amsterdamn as well when i hit the lowlands in august. nice.

saturday night was spent at a friend's east river-side apartment for a makeshift barbecue party. what wouldve been an afternoon of grilling turned instead into an indoor dance revolution slash karaoke party. rather interesting group. all of whom id only met there. well, except for josh who invited me over of course. as i was singing and dancing along with the new acquaintances, was reminded of how that inborn pinoy sitting in the corner shyness just wont cut it. especially in a city where there's a whole world of different people to meet and learn from. well, if the timidity is just too strong, wine and hard cider could always fix that.

pretty girls make graves @ mccarren

sunday brunch was shared with a group of filipinos, mostly from the same university and class from manila. good food but the same old same old "oh its such a small world" crap talk had started to suffocate me so i biked back to the quirky hipster entirely different world of billyburg, otherwise known as my neighborhood. was another fun in the sun afternoon spent in mccarren park for the pool party. indie bands were again playing and the dodgeball games were heated and entertaining as ever.

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little miss sunshine: must must-see film

july 31st now, week plus over the 4th year anniversary. another nice eventful day. good day in the office—aside from it being payday, more and more am i getting involved in the "fun" assignments. without being overly busy of course coz i was able to catch a 5:40PM of what could arguably be the best must-watch film of the year so far, little miss sunshine. after laughing the brains out, i was off to get myself some mental and highly physical activity, a 90 minute kick-your-ass bikram session (aka wtf-are-you-doing-in-a-torture-chamber yoga). it was a special one coz it was the 31st straight session in the past 31 days. yup, that's right ive completed the 30-day challenge. and of course, that officially makes me a bit sick in the head for having done all that exertion in almost consistent heat wave temps here. great preparation though for the heat i'll face in less than 2 weeks. a vacation to sunny the real city that never sleeps, madrid. and the much-needed days of "retox" in amsterdamn after. sweet. the hits and learning and growing have not ceased so far. no signs of geriatrification or slowing down. the journey continues. carry on.