On the Road Again

Dear Reader,

Thank you for taking the time to read whimper and whine. Over the next week, I will be traveling a lot, and I will not have internet access. Sorry. I promise to post all about my adventures in New Orleans and Chicago, when I return on May 10th. If you want to see what I'll be working on, I'm going to the annual meeting of the Society for Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM). Come on, I know you're jealous.

In the meantime, please amuse yourself with Hobocamp, Lesterhead and the other links on my page.

Almost Useful

In our day and age, we depend a lot on the internet for directions. And while mapquest, mapblast, and google maps do the job for driving, they sometimes leave us city dwellers a little lost. I have looked many times online for a map that will show the city streets (inlcuding brooklyn please!) along with bus and subway lines. The MTA bus maps are almost right, but still leave some small streets unlabeld. Plus, they are too big to print out on standard paper.

Enter hopspot.com:

This site gives you walking, subway, bus, and any combination thereof directions for anywhere in the city. It still has the trouble that mapquest has of being a bit too based in data and not in the real world.

Just as on mapquest you might find a ramp to a service road that takes about 2 seconds to drive over labeled as “route 24AA,” leading you to miss your entrance while desperately looking for street signs, hopspot tells you that from 18th st, you should to do things like take the local at 23rd st when you could get there faster by taking the express at union square. The site doesn’t understand express, and probably thinks of Union Square as 14th, and forgets the entrances on 17th. But I digress.

It does give you a quick idea on which subways are near your destination, and how to use the ever-mysterious (and anxiety producing at times) bus system. Give it a try. Go from Red Hook to Astoria-I dare you.

Brooklyn Local Finds Monday Night Fun

Well, Monday night is not the best time to try to find a party spot in brooklyn. But, I did find a fun, free event that I recommend. Magnetic Fields has an open-mic DJ booth on Mondays. Bring your own i-pod, vinyl or cd’s and you can spin for 30 minutes. If the DJ’s are less than delightful, you can also go a couple doors down to Floyd, where they have a bocce court in the bar (shout out to my sis who told me about this place). Also, across the street at Last Exit you can find trivia every other Monday, with karaoke on off weeks. Looks like Atlantic Ave between Henry and court is the place to be for fun Mondays in NYCs best borough.

TGI....Monday?

A friend of mine (although not a good enough friend that she ever reads my blog, arhg!) is coming into town tonight and I've taken the day off work tomorrow. The request for her big night out in the city is dancing. Anyone know somewhere good to go out Monday night? Must be cheap or free and Brooklyn is a plus. Providers of good tips will be rewarded with credit online as well as my ongoing love and affection.

I HAVE WIRELESS!

After only 6 months of procrastinating and generally being lazy, I finally figured out my home internet access. I am posting from by bedroom right now. Here's to posting nights and weekends in the future!

Bon Jour!

Fellow whimperers and whiners, I have returned. Sorry for dropping off the face of the internet for a few days, but I was visiting Montreal for business. The city is beautiful, and it's nice to travel somewhere where the dollar is actually worth something. Who needs Europe. Montreal has crepes, a decent music scene, and labello lip balm. So if you're wallet is kind of empty, but you have that yen for all things Euro, try travelling up North. It's like France, without the rudeness and anti-semitism.

I love you Tift! 

I Heart Tift!

Last night I went to see Tift Merritt, an awesome country/bluegrass/gospel/ beautiful female singer at the Bowery Ballroom. Her voice is like a combination of the smooth vocals of sara McLaughlin and the soulful awesomeness of Janice Joplin. And her band plays awesome country while looking like 5 slick hipster boys. Tift sang her heart out, played the guitar and harpsichord (I think), shook the maracas (that is not a euphemism) and the tambourine for a set that lasted 2 hours! Everyone should check her out, go out and buy her album or at least pay to download "good hearted man," "stray paper," and "tambourine."

Oh Baby Baby... 

Britney's Bump

The days of denial are over. Britney and Kevin have announced that Britney is indeed expecting a baby girl this fall. This will be the first child for Britney and the first legitimate child for Kevin. Congrats. Countdown on the tell all book-18 years, 5 months. Countdown on pages and pages of tabloid coverage of the 'bump'-about 5 minutes. Britney has really sped up her approach to mimicking Madonna. She'll be making (more) bad movies, writing children's books and faking an English accent by 2006.

The Man Date

Did you read the Sunday Styles section this weekend? I did. The main story was about the Man Date (no-not mandate-two words). The whole article was a tongue-in-cheek story about how awkward it is for two straight men to get together. Who knew there were all these rules? Going out to share some beers-ok. Going out to share a bottle of wine-not ok. Going for a walk-ok as long as one of you has a ball or some sports equipment. Walking thought the museum-a bit awkward.

At first I was feeling sorry for all you straight guys that just going out with a friend causes such social confusion. Then the article pointed out that men use to have close friendships all the time before women became seen as equals. Sorry guys, didn't mean to ruin your ability to communicate with each other just by asking for equal pay.

Also I remembered that men rule the world, so maybe it's not such a big sacrifice that they can't spend go to dinner at fancy quiet restaurants without us to set them at ease.

How Could I Not Post This? 

Beware the Norwalk Virus!

I'll consider today's post a PSA in support of handwashing (shout out to all my ocd pals who are already on top of this issue). I have spent the last week dealing with a really awful stomach virus that I will spare you any photos, links or descriptions of, other than to warn you that it's going around NYC and is contagious. In my office of 4, 2 of us have had this since Saturday. My girlfriend has it. Other friends in the neigborhood have told me of their sick colleagues as well. So wash up, and hopefully you will be spared the experience. Good luck! Please post comments if you are part of this new 'trend' of spending your weekends praying to the porcelain god without the fun of partying the night before. Maybe we can start a support group and all get together and drink gatorade.