Just spent the last few days doing a major overhaul of this site. Humby did most of the theme, then assigned it to me to finish. I posted the job on Scriptlance to have someone else finish it, then that was enough to make him finish it! I did some fine tuning and got the new software to work together (Photo albums and all that). I’m far enough along that I can replace the old site. So for the Dexters out there, it’s now a Wordpress2, Gallery2, CSS site.
This is going to make it a lot more pleasant to keep this journal and add pictures to the posts. So hopefully I’ll actually journal more often. It will also let me back-date posts, so I will be adding some posts in the near future that will have older dates than this one (so it looks like they will be before this one, so keep an eye out!) Mainly about my vacations, Texas, Vegas, and the “Yana Circumstance”

Last back-dated post..

Since I didn’t get a chance to go to the beach the day before, we went on Thursday. Yana already scouted out the area and knew where to go. We took the B train, express to Brighton Beach. We caught it at 53 and Broadway, which is quite a peculiar corner. We walked by there about 3 times so far, and every single time, Yana had a sudden urge to go to the bathroom. Quite strange! After the bathroom break, we were on the train. For some reason, it never really sank in that there was a beach within reach of the subway! Brighton beach is a normal beach like you might find in TX. Only there are a bunch of Russians running around! We walked around on the main street for a while to see all the Russian stores. We found a street vendor selling many types of piroshkis. Yana wanted me to try all of them, but I only got 4 and took a couple home for friends. They were only a buck a piece! We then found a fresh fruit stand, and get about 5 pounds of fruit! 4 of those pounds were cherries. Yes, another one of Yana’s favorites. I did not believe she could actually finish all that fruit. I can eat fruit, but 5 pounds!?

We found a spot at the beach, spread out the sheet and laid out. Just eating fruit and chillin’ at the beach. Great time. A Mexican dude came by selling churros, and I tried to buy some with Mexican pesos. Unfortunately, that didn’t work, so I fork over a couple bucks. Street Churros and fruit isn’t really the greatest combination, but at least now we know. After a couple hours, I noticed Yana was still eating the cherries. I did a double-take and saw her eat the last one! I ate maybe 5 cherries. She took down the whole 4 pounds! Not to mention the plums and other stuff we got. Freak! Ha ha. We laid around long enough for me to get burned and tan lined around my sunglasses. After the beach, we went to check out Coney Island. It is a relatively short walk from Brighton beach, but the demographic completely changed. No more Russian, just various English dialects. It was quite a let down. There was old run-down carnival stuff all around. The only goal was to get a Nathan’s hot dog, take some pictures, and take off. We found the Nathan’s and got a hot dog. I didn’t really get what was so special. The papaya places in town are at least as good as those. We ran into a break dancing troop with the cardboard and everything. We got a beer and some other “boardwalk food” and hung out for a while and watched them dance before heading back to Manhattan.

Back in Manhattan, and I finally broke down and took Yana to Go Sushi. She commented about going there every time we passed it. It’s really just fast-food sushi, and there are tons of better sushi places all around, but I think she wanted to take pictures of the take-out displays they have. So we went there and sat near the window to do some people watching. It was funny, but I think this was her favorite place, of all the restaurants we went to. The next day, when her friend came into town to say good bye, this is where we took her!

After go sushi it was another long night at the usual places. We didn’t get home until well after 4. From the pictures, I can tell I was pretty well plastered! She won’t admit it, but I think Yana wasn’t the most sober person in NYC either. Whenever I make a face for the camera, and one eye is bigger than the other, you know I’ve been drinking a little.

The last day, Yana’s friend Tanya came into town and we all hung out before she left for Russia. I took her to the airport and her flight left at 9pm. It was quite sad, but we had a great time together. I’m going to have to visit Ekaterinsburg one of these days, but not in the immediate future. She said she will try and get in to Baruch College in NYC for her third masters degree! Most of her credits will supposedly transfer. So this might not be the last we see of our little Russian friend. Until then, this is the end of this story…

A quick note about the title. For some reason, I was reading the definitions of “circumstance” in the OED, and “incident” is one of its synonyms. So I thought it’d be funny to make a pretentious Ludlum-style title. Haha!

I had to stay home on Wednesday to wait for a furniture delivery. Yana has a friend who lives near Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, so she went to hang out with her for the day. I had the day off putting together my new TV stand and napping. I guess my nap prepared me for later, because that night we went to the usual places, but I was able to stay awake longer.

Yana didn’t get back into town until about 11:30pm or so. She called me from outside “The Snug” so I could meet her there. I walked over, and saw her across the street before I made it over there. About halfway across the street, I saw some drunken guy stagger out of “Vintage”, sidle up to her, and put his arm around her waist while she was looking at me. He didn’t notice me, but by this point, I got there and am facing the both of them. He slurs out, “You’re absolutely gorgeous, can I have your number?” She freaks a little, jumps to me, wraps her arms around my neck and says, “No, I’m with my boyfriend!” The guy notices me for the first time, and his eyes widen, as if he was actually scared of me! Maybe it was the You-must-be-crazy! look I had on my face. He put his arms up, told me how sorry he was, and back-stepped away. I couldn’t stop laughing about it. Every time we passed that corner afterwards, either Yana or I would bring it up. Great story! We spend the rest of the night at Snug. I confirm that it was me being a big wuss the last few nights, because we stay out until 4am this time, and Yana showed no signs of slowing down! She will be the death of me..

We got home very late, and consequently, woke up very late. We went to Arriba Arriba, the Mexican place on the corner. She demonstrated her enthusiasm for tomatoes, once again, by putting salsa on every piece of lettuce in her salad.

After lunch, out of the blue, she decided to get a tattoo. She wanted a white tattoo, the kind that looks like a tan line. I’ve seen them before, but I didn’t realize they were tattoos. We looked around on the internet for some recommendations on a place that would take walk-ins. We decided on “Cutting Edge” in the Village. It went pretty quickly, considering she got a freakin’ tattoo! Crazy girl! We decided on a butterfly design. The artist customized it a little, then went to work. They told us that these white tattoos tend to fade very quickly with exposure to sun, so be liberal with the sun block!

We had dinner at “Hell’s Kitchen”, where we got a bunch of appetizers. That is one of my all-time favorite places, the food is so good. Yana said that it was absolutely the best tuna she ever had, referring to the tuna tostada appetizer. I have yet to find someone who doesn’t think that the tuna tostada is the best appetizer around!

The rest of the day involved walking around, and more visits to “The Snug” and “The Irish Rogue”. I should mention the “special liver”.  At some point, Yana claimed to have a special liver. She claimed to be able to drink obscene amounts of alcohol with very little to no effect. We have heard this once before from Humberto. A few long island ice teas later, we knew the truth of the statement.  I was skeptical, but I was convinced after this particular trip to Rogue.  After a few drinks, we met some guy who was walking around with a portable breath alcohol tester (Breathalyzer).  He was a friend of the bartender, Mick, so that was enough accreditation for me.  After he tested both bartenders, we talk him into testing Yana.  Her blood alcohol came out to .233.  For context, normally, people start losing balance at .15, and lose consciousness at .30. She was acting normal and walking around like nothing!  You may be thinking to yourself, “Ah, but she’s Russian!” Even her Russian friends say “yeah, Yana can drink way more than us!” It’s quite strange, but I always find girls that can drink me under the table.  It’s quite emasculating! I don’t mind though.  It was another late and fun night. Don’t know if I can keep this up!

Another back-dated post…

I typically do not post about women. It just seems tacky to write about ephemeral relationships for some reason. I debated this one, and I finally decided it was one I wanted to chronicle and remember. I’m not going to write about emotions or any of that gossipy/chisme material. This will just be a narrative of the week.

As the gentle reader may recall, my TX vacation concluded with me casually inviting a beautiful Russian girl in Austin to visit me in NYC. I tell that to all my friends, so I didn’t think anything of it. I went off to Vegas, had a good time, came back home.
After a few days back, while eating some bratwurst at a German place on 10th, my phone started ringing with “Yana” on the caller ID. “Who the hell….” I mutter. Then it registers. I almost tipped my chair getting up and went to a quieter area.
She decided to quit her job and go back home to Russia early. Her flight will leave from JFK, so she figured she’d come to NYC a week early and hang out. Maybe I could show her around? We chat for a while, and I finish the call by inviting her to stay with me and then plan to meet at the airport.

Flight shows up on time, and I meet her at the airport. Get back to the apartment and drop off her stuff. We decided to walk around Times Square, 5th Ave, and then get a few drinks. She had been away from Russia for a long time, and I mentioned one of my regular places is the “Russian Vodka Room” in my neighborhood. I didn’t really want to bring it up, because it seemed kind of cheesy to take a real Russian to a Russian-themed place. She wanted to go though, and she loved it! People speaking Russian all around her, and we had pickled mushrooms and some other favorites of hers. She had a good time. We then went to a Shimizu, a sushi place on my street. Sushi turned out to be her favorite food. She also, apparently, really likes wasabi. She told me she likes that stinging sensation you get when you eat too much at once. Then she started doing that over and over again! It was a riot! Next stop was the Irish Rogue, a bar, if you couldn’t tell. While we were there, 2 friendly girls from out of town sat near us. After the alcohol started flowing, and the music got louder, they started dancing very suggestively with each other. Yana and I were convinced they were lesbians, but they told Adam they weren’t. In any case, they started flirting with Yana, and got her to get up and dance with them in a total lesbian dance sandwich! Quite a show! After that we visited the recently reopened Galaxy diner, which is now open 24 hours. While there, Yana tells us how crazy she is for tomatoes as well as mushrooms, so she orders the Portobello salad. She goes straight for the mushrooms, then tomatoes. She then takes each leaf of lettuce, one at a time, and puts about a half an ounce of ketchup on it, before eating it! Adam said, “Oh, now you’re just showing off!” I think I threw up a little in my mouth! It was a great time..

This has more words than I thought it would, so I suppose I’ll split this “Yana Circumstance” over a few posts.

Another back-dated post…

The IBM Storage Symposium took place in Las Vegas during the last full week of July. Adam went with a coworker and I figured I’d tag along. I used frequent-flyer miles so the trip was extremely cheap. I played poker, checked out the different restaurants and casinos while Adam was at the conference. I pretty much stayed in the Ceasar’s/Bellagio area. There was more than enough restaurants to keep me busy.

As for Poker, the plan was to buy in for $100-200 or less. ($3-$6 to $5-$10 limit hold-em) While I was checking out the tables, I saw a $5-$10 No-Limit table with a $400-$1000 buy-in! No-limit pretty much makes the $5-$10 aspect irrelevant. Everyone was sitting with an average of $800 in front of him/her. The reason this caught my eye is because there were a few, forgive me for profiling, older asian ladies at the table just “gambling”. Basically they would stay in every hand, hope they got something, and just end up throwing a lot of money away. I only had $200 bucks in my pocket, and was already $500 down. What the hell! I went to the ATM and took out another $500 and sat down with $800. I got cards and thought I played well. I stood up after a few hours and left with around $2500! No-Limit is quite a rush, which I don’t think goes well with money. I don’t know if I’d do that again, but it was an experience!

We went to go see the Penn and Teller show, and I got to meet Penn after the show. I am such a fan-boy. I listen to his radio show, watch his TV show BS on Showtime, and now I’ve seen his Vegas act. I’ve seen all the bits from various TV shows, but it was still great. My favorite is the Silhouette rose bit, which is one of Teller’s oldest tricks, according to the Bravo Profile, which I’ve also seen! I got an autograph and got him to do the double-pistol pose with me.  It is so cheesy it’s funny! I got Alton Brown to do it a couple years ago as well, hehe.
Near the end of the week, Adam’s brother Trevor, sister-in-law Laura, and friend Dawn, came into town to celebrate Adam’s birthday on Sunday. One of Trevor’s friends Marcus is one of the Blue Men, and was able to hook us up with tickets to the show. This is me posing with him afterwards. He wouldn’t do my double-pistol, although he did do a funny post for it. He explained later that they have a list of policies that they have to follow when in that Blue Man persona, so that’s what he had to do. We hit a bunch of clubs and bars and just had a great time.
I took a “red-eye” flight on Monday night after eating at the Emeril restaurant in MGM with Laura. I think I sat next to Doyle Brunson when I was there, but I wasn’t 100% sure, so I didn’t bother him. He was sitting with 2 other guys with strong TX accents and cowboy hats, talking about poker. If it wasn’t him, it was still cool as hell!