Holy hotel!

How does everyone not spend all their time working to save up money and hang out in hotels? This is the best time of my life! We've gone swimming three times since last night. I don't even understand why people bother going anywhere other than hotels. How do all the tourists find time to walk around Manhattan when they could be hanging out in their hotels having fun in the jacuzzi?

Right now I am wearing a sleeveless dress over a bathing suit with flip flops. This is all I've worn since this morning. I am going to a restaurant IN the hotel for dinner. At 9 o'clock at night. Mind. Blown.

Still awkward even after high school

Today I ran into the math teacher I had last semester. It was weird. Less weird than it would have been pre-college, but still I had that feeling of "Oh my god, I'm busted for cutting, quick, where can I hide?"

My teacher probably has more experience running into students and former students than I have running into teachers, which might be why she ignored my total deer-in-the-headlights look and just started talking to me. We were outside a Duane Reade when we saw each other. She was coming out carrying a bag and I was walking past to get to the subway because I'd just left work.

When she said she really enjoyed having me in her class it was really nice, even if it was a lie (she seems like the type). Then she asked if I saw the new Sex And the City movie yet, which I haven't (and don't plan to). She gave me a whole speech about how she never wants to get to such a level of perpetual indulgence that she acts like those girls. And then she told me not to let my parents spoil me too much. I smiled and said I'd try.

Now eating: blueberries (they are like the healthiest food in the world)
Now wearing: a white, black and yellow dress with big flowers on it
Now watching: MTV with my sister

Writing it in

I don't really feel like writing. So I'll just say the best part of today was that Danielle made chocolate pudding pie after work, complete with homemade chocolate pudding and homemade whipped cream. It was really good. She made two of them and one is saved for when Josh comes home this week.

Dinner of champions!

Carrot sticks, raw string beans and popcorn for dinner. If I still worked at the diner this would have been a night where I'd bring home soup and rolls for us. Tomorrow I'll get back on the proper dinner bandwagon.

HDVixen - I'm not that sensitive, you don't ever have to delete your comments. Thank you for saying what you did, it's a good point to think about. I don't get free shrinkage anymore since I'm off probation. I'm not really against going back.

Best

I signed up to do this blogging every day thing so now I have to blog every day this month. They have monthly themes as suggestions for what you can blog about (but don't have to) and January's is best. So I will say the best part of today is that Alex made dinner all by herself, and even though she screwed up twice, everything tasted good anyway.

It has been really fun hanging out just with Alex. I hope for February's break we can find somewhere to send Alex so I can spend a week just with Danielle, bet that'd be even more awesome.

Still more differences

Having parents around is weird. They ask if we have umbrellas before we walk out the door (we never had umbrellas before we came here - they have an entire basket of them in their coat closet (we haven't had a coat closet since my mom died)). If we are watching tv and one of us says something, they mute or turn off the tv and like, turn to us and look us in the eye to listen. Danielle told me yesterday it's almost overwhelming to go from no attention to so much attention. She's right.

This morning Josh's dad woke me up and said they were taking us out to brunch. "For what?" I asked him. "For brunch," he told me. It wasn't to celebrate anything, there was no reason, they just wanted to take us out to eat. For no reason. So I put on my graduation dress and we went to this fancy restaurant that was so fancy that there were multiple courses for brunch. I mean, I know the diner is not at ALL fancy, but I had never even heard of that before.

I am not used to having adults pay so much attention. Dani was right - it does get overwhelming. Alex, of course, loves it. She will talk and talk and talk as long as you will listen.

Writing every day is hard

I can't believe I was in the routine of doing this every day, ages ago. It is weird being here. There is somebody to make all our food. There is somebody who does our laundry. Alex has two sets of tights and leotards for camp and washes one in the sink and then hangs it to dry the next day while she wears the second one. The housekeeper is so thorough about doing laundry that she took Alex's dance stuff to wash and there was tons of confusion because it wasn't hanging in the bathroom where Alex left it. She thought she'd lost her clothes at camp somehow.

It is weird to be here. I can't believe that last week I was spending my free time writing out what food we had left and what meals could be made from it. So much time was spent stressing about food. Food, or worrying about getting in trouble.

My summer routine

7:30 - get up, shower and get dressed for fancy work. it's nice when you don't have to fight two other people for shower time. I am used to getting up an hour and a half earlier and having to take much faster showers.

8 - sit around eating breakfast and talking to Josh's parents, Danielle & Alex
8:25 - 8:35 - pack lunch, pack diner clothes if diner day, book, and leave for work

9 - 12:30 - work at fancy job. there is a lot of down time where I sit around playing online and reading magazines.

12:30 -1 - eat lunch and people watch or read

1 - 4:30 - work more

Option A

4:30 - see Alex come in, leave work with her, put Al on train to get home, run to diner, work there until 9pm, go home

Option B

4:30 - see Alex come in, leave work with her, meet Dani at home, eat dinner somebody else made, walk away from table while somebody else cleans up, lay around watching tv and talking to friends

Now that my schedule is pretty set and I know when there are pockets of free time I really need to start hanging out more with my friends. I have always felt so bad about not having people over but now that I finally can I am scared. This is retarded and I don't know why.

Routine: mine

I'm trying to do this NaBloPoMo thing where you write every day. They give you a theme each month and this month is routine.

This morning I realized I hadn't written out what I've been eating since we moved to Josh's. So here is yesterday's food:

Breakfast: apricot, half a toasted bagel with cheese, OJ
Lunch: half a roastbeef on rye, half a knish, Dr. Browns (can you tell someone at work made a deli run and invited me to order too?)
Snack: chocolate milk, blueberries and strawberries I brought from home
Dinner: seafood with pasta, steamed asparagus

Every single time I walk in the door here, somebody asks if I'm hungry and offers me a snack. All the food tastes different here too. Not bad different, just different different.

Another thing that's different is the way everything here is cooked. They don't just use regular oil, here they use truffle oil. My sisters and I always bought the meat that was on sale - you know, the stuff with the sticker that says "eat it today, or die if you eat it tomorrow". Here they buy whatever looks good to them. It is very weird being here. We are so used to doing everything based on money. Josh's family does everything regardless of money. It's like an afterthought to them.

New summer routines

Now that school is done and the summer has officially started I am happy to have a new routine. Even though it's fun to have a day off from school it was always stressful too. Trying to make sure I had nice clothes with me to change into if I was going to my fancy job, making sure I had gym clothes if it was a gym day, making sure I had a baggie of nuts or a banana for a snack, making sure my sisters had places to go since we tried to avoid being home with Aunt Elaine by ourselves.

Even though this is temporary before we move again in a month and a half, I can't stop feeling like it's temporary before we just go back to the Bronx to Aunt Elaine's house. It's like post traumatic stress or whatever that Vietnam thing is called.

Alex started her fancy dance camp on Long Island and is in heaven. Because her commute takes so long by the time she gets home I am finishing work and I can meet Alex before going to the diner. Alex has balls of steel - she already asked Josh's dad if she can have two camp friends sleep over Friday night. Danielle starts her mother's helper thing next week so this week she is doing nothing but sleeping until noon, then taking a bubble bath and then watching whatever she wants on tv all afternoon.

I am scheduled to work three nights each week and then one morning on the weekend at the diner. It seemed like they were a little angry at me for not working there full time since school is out, but the owner didn't come right out and say that. They just kept pushing me to take a weekend day shift and a fourth night shift. I really don't want to. Maybe in August I'll do it, but for now I just want a little bit of a break.

Nice To Know

Even though Idalis and I have known each other for years we've never been very close. To be honest I was worried about her really giving me all the money from working for her last week. At school I wanted to ask Idalis if she wanted to meet up at her store or what - but I couldn't find her.

Well that's not really true. Once in the hallway I saw her but my teacher was standing in the doorway of the class I was supposed to go into and I couldn't follow Idalis.

The later it got in the day the more nervous I got. I even called Danielle and told her to go to the diner for me in case I had to hunt down Idalis. My thinking was once she cashed her check I needed to be right there to get my money before she went walking around with all that cash.

But right as I was hanging up with Dani, Idalis called to say she was leaving her store and did I want to meet her at the bank, so I knocked some tourists out of my way to get on the train and hike over there as fast as possible. Got all my money. I am so relieved. Good to know which of your friends you can trust.

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There was a good NaBloPoMo topic, like a sub-topic that I was going to do, but I forgot to start so I'm not going to bother this month. Maybe in October.

Ruined My Streak

Tristan invited me to a party Friday night and it screwed up my write-every-day routine. It was all college kids and I felt weird like it was crashing even though I'd been invited. While we were there, I went to the bathroom and it was huge. Seriously it was the nicest bathroom I've ever seen.

At some point I realized I couldn't remember how many drinks I'd had. Time to leave. We went to a diner and ate breakfast at like 4 in the morning. Got home around 6:30, and Alex woke me up an hour later, saying I smelled like outside.

P.S. Tristan has an iPhone. He let me touch it.

Food - Beyond Cliche

Every day I go and mother's help with Nora. Every day after we spend the morning at the pool she eats lunch in a half hour and then promptly takes a three hour nap. Between swim lessons and napping I feel like I get paid to do very little actual work, but I'm not stupid enough to complain.

I hang out near the pool during swim lessons and chat with cute boys. Cute lifeguard boys. Okay, mainly one cute lifeguard boy in particular. Today he asked me out. Well yesterday he asked me out but today's asking was more important because I said yes.

I didn't want to tell him I have a second job at night so just said there were plans but I could meet him afterwards. Dani had to pick up Alex and I snuck them into the diner and got them dinner. A lot of our friends are not around - everybody goes on vacations in the summer. Everybody except us. Especially on weekends - the city feels empty on weekends. I think Aunt Elaine wants us to go away too - she wants a vacation from us.

Met up with the lifeguard and we went to a late dinner. I felt bad - forgot to ask where we were going and I felt a little underdressed for where we wound up. But I didn't get turned away at the door so I guess it was okay.

Nick was funny - he kept making all these jokes about how stupid Italians are. He is 20 and in college. Not now because it's summer but like, during the year. I didn't do or say anything stupid I think (hope). He said I looked cute. We got a booth and when I slid in Nick slid in next to me. At one point Nick asked me something and while I was answering he slide his arm around my back and was massaging my neck really slowly.

When we were walking out the waitress walked in between us and whispered to me, "He's cute, but a player. Be careful." That player got me a taxi and paid for it to send me all the way home.

Oh yeah, and I ate a salad that had shrimp and other seafood in it, and bread and butter.

Food - Did I Remember To Eat Today?

Breakfast - was running late, lots of problems at home in the morning. I remember thinking about grabbing a handful of blueberries on the way out but somehow that never happened. Now there are no more blueberries and I missed my chance.

Lunch - shitty chicken that was very oily and gross and a fruit salad.

Snack - so hungry, wanted a snack, no time, nothing quick to eat.

Dinner - leftover mac & cheese.

This is like practically my worst eating day this month. I suck at food.

Food - Not Just For Eating

Of all three of us, Danielle is the stealer. She is never afraid to take anything, and so far she's never been caught. Because she steals stuff for living, while I mind because it's illegal and wrong, I kind of also don't mind. Danielle wouldn't steal from someone's house or the mall or anything. Today she bought a couple of packets of Kool Aid, and while normally that's not our kind of thing because it's so gross, Danielle didn't steal it and doesn't plan to drink it.

She wanted to dye her hair with it. There was a fire hydrant loose so we opened it up and used a bucket and now Danielle's hair has a bright red tint. It looks pretty good. She is happy. Alex is jealous.

Food - This is the Longest Month Ever

Plus I don't think anyone really cares what I eat each day since it's never fancy anyway.

Breakfast - free yogurt, nectarine
Lunch - grilled fish, brown rice, veggies
Snack - ice pop
Dinner - salad
Snack - cheerios and milk with blueberries & bananas

Food - I Have No Bigger Title Than That

Brunch - french toast, an orange
Snack - watermelon
Dinner - Fire family night with stuffed shells, lasagna, garlic bread, salad, asparagus, sorbet. I can barely walk.

Food - It's Way Hard To Eat Healthy

Breakfast - two hard-boiled eggs
Second breakfast - cereal & milk, fruit
Snack - italian ices
Dinner - leftover mac & cheese, veggies

Food - Because I'm Tired

The ice cream? From yesterday? You can re-freeze ice cream that's defrosted but it won't freeze back into it's proper shape. It still tastes good though and that's the important thing. And that's my food-related post for today because it's way late and I am tired as I said in the title.

Food - Ice Cream

Every day at the end of camp, Alex is given ice cream. Danielle has said that's what she misses most about camp so today Alex brought an extra home. Of course it melted completely before she got home, but right now it's still in the freezer where she's hoping it will revive itself and be okay to eat tomorrow. Morning. For breakfast.