extravaganzas

my trip in foods:
cuban (the first night in new york, in a tiny restaurant at a booth next to molly sims and kate bosworth); chocolate fondue and pizza at an all-chocolate restaurant; hazelnut rice pudding at "rice to riches"; accidental stick o' butter bagel that i refused to eat because it was so damn buttery; amazing indian biryani at the place where we ran into the hot guy from union square; three cocktails from two different bars (both of which we snuck into when the bouncers were in the bathroom - that was surprisingly easy); brown's dorm food, which is delicious; huge deli sandwiches; giant cookies and chocolate mousse pies (for my birthday); bavarian nuts (almost); pumpkin and banana pancakes; vegetarian sushi; raspberry chocolate cake; too many blueberry muffins; thai veggies; almond boba; moroccan cous-cous; belgian french fries; more almond boba.

i lost five pounds in a week. how the hell i accomplished that shall remain a mystery to me.

we went everywhere in new york: central park, times square, broadway, the metropolitan museum of art, soho, the battery, the statue of liberty, brooklyn (where we stayed), union square, saw "the producers" on broadway. i absolutely adore the city. i loved that everything was completely accessible all the time. anything you could possibly ever want to do is right at your fingertips via the subway or your legs. we did so much walking. that allowed us to do a ton of eating, as evidenced above.

providence was amazing. brown is an adorable school, with all the classes held in old brick victorian buildings and all the dorm rooms placed in renovated cottages. we went to this thing called "waterfire" over the weekend, which is a big festival celebrating the rejuvenation of providence by a former, now-imprisoned mayor. firepits in the middle of the river that runs through providence were set on fire and seeing them all down the river at night was beautiful. also, we got to hang out with zoe, who i love, and to see zak, who is hilarious.

this has made me even more sure that i need to travel to as many places as i possibly can. i always totally love where i go, but in the end, strangely, i come back home with a new appreciation for where i live.

next up is a trip to europe - when i magically have the money and the time.

my mom signed me up for a seat at this democratic luncheon tomorrow afternoon, without telling me, and that means that i can't move into the apartment tomorrow like i planned to. i could go afterward, i suppose, but i have no idea how long it's going to last. all i know is that i'm going to be harassed by some women who cannot believe that my activist mother could have possibly spawned such an apathetic child. what they don't know is that while i don't particularly like canvassing the neighborhood i live in, knocking on unsympathetic doors hoping that no one throws a bible in my face, i do actually care about what's going on in the world. i'm just not as flyer-y about it.

also, my dad and my brothers are officially beginning the halloween preparations. it's the 16th of september. according to my calculations, they're a day late. they took down all the many boxes of ghouls from the attic this morning, and i just helped my dad plug in a glowing spector that lives in the attic window, holding his head in his hand by its hair. there's a leg bone and some chains on my parents' bed and i think there's a skeletal body in the other corner of their room. it's all part of their planning phase, when they figure out what goes where and which type of motors to use to move decaying monsters around the garage. my personal favorite is the hanging witch, whose motorized rope turns around and around as if she's swaying in the breeze.

halloween is a huge deal in this house.