Matt, Shut up! =)

1) FINALLY MOVING!
I’m moving to Kiehl’s at 13th & 3rd, from my lovely home in East Village.

I’m sad to be leaving Back Forty, Westville East, Mercadito, The E.U., Max, Kasadela, East Village ice cream, B Cup, Panifico, Café Mogador, and much much more. Oh, girls across the street – I’ll miss you two, too. Sad!!

2) Text: Hope you are having a great day at work!! I enjoyed your blog :) Although I was looking for the hot sexy bicycle museum guy story!!!!

Haha…here’s your shoutout man! This is the only text/email I'll transcribe, because this whole writing about my life for random people to read thing really weirds me out. Aside from my Street Date post (BTW, I'm Winnie), I am going to avoid writing about guys I go out with unless it’s particularly funny/embarrassing/cute/ridiculous or completely in the past.

Like the time I got yelled at by this guy I was seeing, Peter, for not knowing that Donald Trump’s second oldest son was turning 24 years old. Eric Trump’s birthday party invitation said “Come to sweet 16 ice skating party!” and I told Peter, no thanks. How was I supposed to know it was a joke?! Ivanka, Donald Jr., fine - I’ve watched the Apprentice and they are in the media, so the average person knows roughly how old they are. But who the hell knows who Eric Trump is?! Or how old he is?! Eeesh. If you thought you were being invited to a sweet 16 ice skating party, wouldn’t you laugh/scoff too?! Peter, who I quickly realized is crazy (and I mean CRAZY), decided to give me the silent treatment for a few days, then cancelled plans to go to Fuerza Bruta….an hour before we were supposed to go. His way of getting back at me…for not wanting to go to a sweet 16 birthday party...for a 24 year old. He’s writing a book now…a memoir, at age 27. Whaaaa? Exactly.

3) Late bloomer

I am 23 years old and cannot ride a bike, no joke. But I’m going to learn this this month, even if I can’t find training wheels big enough for me. My friend Valerie, who's 24, used to not be able to ride one either, but she learned during the long weekend - traitor. Come to think of it, I’m a late bloomer with a lot of things…hmmm…

I imagine bike riding to be like this (Audrey Hepburn and what appears to be Toto from the Wizard of Oz)

or like this (X GAMES!)

but realistically, I will probably end up like this =(

4) Blog news

After coming across this blog from Down by the Hipster, Miss Model Behavior (entertaining, irreverant, funny) contacted me about a possible future project! I actually went to a party in East Hampton last weekend that she wrote about, so I’ve probably seen her before. I got another email from a Josh Beckerman, who writes nycfoodie and was at Rose Bar last Wednesday, the night I wrote about. It’s a small, blog-filled world out there. I'm like a blog groupie...

Also, while I can’t claim to be the entire cause of the ruckus between two popular NY nightlife blogs, I’m tickled to have been mentioned. I like stirring things up…

Street Date: Blog-style

Sidebar:

Hope you all had a great holiday!

1) Thanks for the feedback/questions/comments/date requests! You 2-3 readers really make me feel like I'm not talking to myself...=) My second favorite comment thus far (#1 being an email from DownByTheHipster!) was from my friend John, who said, "Wow, I thought your blog would be more cultural, not Sex and the City on drugs." Obviously, you overestimate me!

2) I will hold off from telling you about my weekend, so I don't sound like some out of control party chick. Actually, nymag.com has already stolen my thunder...but more on that another time. I met Steve Aoki, who is totally cool and so down to earth. Sorry, my only name drop!

3) The photos on this blog are from my crackberry. I like being able to take photos without anyone knowing that I'm doing so...

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Onto my story...

About two weeks ago, my coworker/friend Matt thought of a little project with which he could amuse himself. Ryan, a friend of Matt's, writes for Single-ish, a blog on Glamour.com about his dating life as a young, single, straight guy in NYC.

Matt thought that Ryan and I meeting up was a particularly brilliant idea, as it would mean that 1) he would be amused to read about Ryan writing about me (...especially amusing if it was unfavorable), 2) I would get a honest description of the first impression I make on men, with no risk since Ryan is a tactful writer and does not use real names, and 3) Matt assured me Ryan is cool, so I might end up getting along well with him. Since I couldn't recall being set up before, and I can't say my own instincts with guys are stellar (the sniper, the train guy, etc etc), why not? Worst case scenario is that he's psychotic, which is no problem. I have dealt with a grown man sobbing into a Bellini in public because of me, so I can think I can handle almost anything.

Unfortunately, Ryan asked Matt if I knew about his blog, so incentive #2 was off the table. After performing some due diligence (Facebook profile analysis, naturally), I agreed to have Matt email Ryan a picture of me along with my contact information.

So, Ryan and I met up early Thursday evening, at a bar in LES. I have this rule that you should never look your best on a first date. Of course, this is assuming you were looking great when you were asked for your number prior to the first date, which is not the case if you are being set up. However, I think getting three hours of sleep the night before, then running around all day in extreme heat and humidity, and not having time to change isn't exactly putting the best foot forward. My bad! Although I could care less because as I was going to meet Ryan, I found out this blog was linked to nymag.com; I freaked out since I was originally writing just for a few friends, so I had to figure out how to take this blog down ASAP. If that's not a good excuse for tardiness, I don't know what is!

Anyway, Ryan seemed like a genuinely nice guy. Sorry, nice is a lame descriptor - we chatted for maybe an hour and a half, and he seemed interesting, fun, friendly, and has a really good sense of humor. He's cute and has a tattoo on his forearm - hot! As for what he thought of me, we shall see (uh, read). I have to admit though, I felt a little uncomfortable talking to him, which is really unusual for me. Not to worry, a friend of mine who works for another Conde Nast magazine mentioned she can hack into Glamour's site and edit, if need be. Not sure if she was kidding, but how sweet of her to offer! haha...

This reminds me of "Street Date", a feature in the Oxford Student I never missed when I studied abroad. Two random students would be set up, then each person would describe their perspective of the date, and their opinion of the other person. The best part is that the parties involved had to quantify their date's looks - must have made for some pretty awkward run-ins at the Bod, no?

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L.P.N.

July 7, 1984 - March 9, 2006

Happy birthday, I miss you so much!

May God bless you and keep you always,

May your wishes all come true,

May you always do for others

And let others do for you.

May you build a ladder to the stars

And climb on every rung,

May you stay forever young,

forever young, forever young

May you stay forever young.

-Bob Dylan

I'm afraid of the internet

I'm famous, what are the odds? [nymag]

I removed a few things I've posted before, but I think I'll continue writing. Thanks for the encouragement, neighbor! =)