we could be sisters, no?

tonight i has a surprise night on the town (read: shamir-style...west village and union square) with the ever glamorous KC (pictured above with me at a party this past july in j'lem). we grabbed dinner at an old favorite of mine, Panchito's Mexican Restaurant.

i can't lie; i'm pretty sure it was my first time that i went there and didn't have an alcoholic drink. it was actually one of the first places i ever had a drink out at a restaurant -- in oct. of my junior year of college i came to nyc for the weekend and met some friends there for dinner. it was a few months before i turned 21 and they didn't card. wahoo! i've been there a few times since, including the night in may 2005 i went to see Mysterious Skin (our first Joseph Gordon-Levitt movie) with AB (this summer we saw Brick at the j'lem film festival).

anyway, i'm not at all trying to imply that the lack of alcohol had anything to do with my disappointment in the food, however, i was not as impressed with the food as i have been in the past. the salsa was watery. we were seated in a corner and we were forgotten about many times. our waitress didn't ask if we wanted drinks even once; after we ate some salsa&chips and our order finally came, then we asked for water which she brought. we also had to ask for forks and knives after our meals came.

i splurged and ordered jalepeno poppers in additon to a huge veggie burrio. poppers are one of those semi gross deep friend foods that i've only recently started to like. (they are quite spicy but the cheesiness wins out!) sadly, despite the menu description of plenty of hot cheese, the poppers merely contained a small blob of solid ambiguous white cheese. that was not worth eating something super spicy and crazy deep fried. the $7.95 burrito was decent, but spicy for no reason and way too many beans. at the end of the day, the real issue is that it wasn't as yummy as my regular order from burritoville, lost in austin, which is $6.99. will i ever enjoy mexican food again beyond burritoville?

the waitress did check on us once during the meal; however, we had to track her down in order to get the check after much waiting.

all in all (forgive me for using inexcusable redudant phrase), it was a lovely evening. we took a walk up to union square and enjoyed a cool evening that still wasn't bone-chillingly-freezing.

day 2 at the beach in st. croix

things that are different in st. croix in december (as compared to the northeast of USA where i've spent all of my life):
-it's not cold
-there are mosquitos at night, and no-see-ums at sunset on the beach. i'm covered in bites!
-the only snowmen are blow-up dolls (yet still on people's lawns)
-on the radio, you get wished a "brown christmas" in a west-indian accent

okay, that's it for now. more photos tomorrow!

day 1 at the beach in st. croix

sometimes people ask me why i keep the daily temperature & weather forecast for St. Croix, USVI on my blog. well, to make a long story short i have a little gig down here where i come twice a year to lead services and teach.

when i left nyc this past fri, it was 20 degrees F, but with the windchill it was ZERO. very very cold. the coldest day yet! my host family is the one i first stayed with last october, EH and CF. three dogs and one sweet cat. seriously it surprises me how much i love cats. i just love 'em!

best things about st. croix: warm air, beautiful ocean views, fresh fruit, local beer. oh, and EVERYONE says "good afternoon" in addition to good morning and good night (as a greeting). freakishly polite, in a good way.

worst things about st. croix: MOSQUITOES. NO SEE-UMS. why must the small bugs constantly eat me up? why must i sleep with a mosquito net yet still have something buzz by my face at 4 in the morning? also, i wish i had some friends to hang out with here. the community is super sweet, but if i could just afford to bring a few friends along, it would be really great to have people to hang out with after 9pm. who wants to come in april?

okay, photos.

PICTURE #1: this is me on a chair at the beach. notice my camping pillow keeping my neck comfy. (love thermarest!) if you look closely you can see the trunk of a palm tree. eventually the shade from this spot was making me a bit chilly, so i moved to an area with more direct sunlight.

PICTURE #2: here are my toes. this is the view directly in front of where i'm sitting. again, gorgeous view -- yet, who to share it with? if you answered harry potter, the new yorker, an iced coffee, and jane magazine, then you'd be correct.

PICTURE #3: general ocean view, this time without the toes. notice the palm trees. my favorite!!