The Five Points

So yesterday I went to -- or attempted to make it to -- five fuckin' parties. The schedule, in brief:

• 2:00 PM: Chrissy Rodney's going off to UCLA for grad school, so his dad threw a goodbye / birthday party for him
• 4:00 PM: My boss's engagement / housewarming party
• 6:00 PM Dinner party at my friend Asta's house
• Later: BBQ at Degraw St.
• Later: Gabi's birthday party, more or less around the corner from the Degraw St. residence

Here's what actually happened: Got up to Chris' at around 3:00. There was a nice spread from Fairway, including that ketchup-and-mayo macaroni salad that Chris fell in love with on the trip to Newport. I had a whole bunch of that stuff. I left Chris' at 4:30ish, intending to take the 2/3 down to Borough Hall to walk to my boss's house. Unfortunately, the U.N. assembly had basically ruined all downtown train service in Manhattan, so I hitched the 1 to Chambers and then took a cab the rest of the way. When I got to my boss's place, I started feeling like that macaroni salad was going to come up on me. I pinched a startlingly large loaf, but it didn't seem to help. Around 6:30, I excused myself and left for Asta's in Astoria. By a stroke of good fortune, the G was just pulling in at Bergen St., and I took it to the end of the line, which, as bad luck would have it on the weekends, was three stops short of 36th St., where I needed to go. I waited for about 20 minutes for the V, which should have gotten me the rest of the way, except that there is no V service on the weekends at all. So I left the station, still feeling like I was going to puke, and wandered around the vicinity of Court Sq. looking for a car service in the rain. That place is a fucking wasteland! I pretty much gave up after about 10 minutes, since I was already practically 2 hours late, and turned right around and took the G all the way back to Smith and 9th, and walked from there to The Friends' place. I walked over the Gowanus Canal, which stinks, even in the rain. Got there at around 9:00 and called Razor to get Gabi's address. He was still at Pizza Box, but gave me her number, which I promptly forgot. I did have a great time at Degraw St., until Drunk Ted showed up. Jesus.

The Rase is here to stay! She moved in the weekend before last and promptly left for a week. But we are having a fun time, and she is a great roommate -- cleans, cooks, etc. -- except that she is replacing all of my comfy (but, yes, ugly) furniture with stuff she buys at IKEA. We watch a lot of movies, free rentals of which are provided by Luisa, a friend Tom made for me at the video store with the simple donation of a Rockstar Warriors t-shirt. Hook-up for life, she says. I'm married, but can I give you a hug, she also says.

So last weekend Katharine, Tom, Ted, Emma, Don, and I went on a pretty spontaneous road trip up to this cabin that Katharine's dad owns in Cape Cod, and I had a totally wonderful time. I ate a whole bunch of fried seafood, bacon and delicious grilled hamburgers; drank beers and blender drinks; and actually swam a fair amount. Even the drives up and down were fun (granted, Ted had to do literally all of the driving, everywhere -- we all just got to look out the window and sing along with the stereo). I think some photos are in order:

The cabin, starring Katharine and Tom

This is the first beach we went to; the water was stultifyingly frigid, but Tom and Ted managed to get themselves submerged for a few seconds

Out by the bay, found this dead horseshoe crab that, by some miracle, had not been picked clean of its legs and insides and stuff. So of course I had to lick it.

Another one of the crab, because you really care.

Most of the actual beach beaches on the Cape have these huge sand dunes (not sure if they're man-made or not) leading down to them

The beach we went to on the last day (Monday -- I took a long weekend) had a bit of a red tide problem, which I think you should be able to see here. Stank. I maintain that you're not supposed to get that seaweed on you, seeing as how it, oh, I don't know, exterminates all life, but Tom was chugging it down by the bucket

Sadly, on the last day, Ted died.

Ouch, the pizza I was eating burned my mouth. So what happened on the cape... there was some barfing, a little moaning; a big fat toothless dude with the demeanor of a 5-year-old came up to us while we were waiting for some clam chowder at P.J.'s and said that he'd driven 10,000 miles for their lobster rolls and couldn't believe the prices were so high this year. He'd have gotten two, he said, but now he'd just have to settle for one. Oh yeah, and I also went running in my new ASICS running shoes that I bought. T, T, and I ran about 5 miles up and back this lakeside road, the most I've ever run before, though I did have to stop a few times. The shoes are great -- they totally put a spring in my step, but the left one is still pinching the fuck out of my ankle.