How to feel stupid 101

1. Assure your two new roommates that you never use the top padlock of the door to the apartment and that there is no need to have that key.

2. Not realize that your overnight guest has locked that padlock. Fall asleep.

3. Sleep through multiple missed calls (the first of which began at 2:30 am) from (the nicer) Roommate #1.

4. Sleep through a second round of missed calls from an energized Roommate #1, which begins at 4 am with the arrival of (the less forgiving) Roommate #2 (whose cell phone battery had just died) despite the fact that both Roommate #1 and Roommate #2 can hear the obnoxiously unmistakable cell phone ring tone of Rip Van Roommate through the painfully thin walls.

5. Finally wake up at 8 am and use the bathroom, only to be distracted by urgent knocking at the door. Open door and realize that your two new roommates have each slept for the past three hours in the hallway on half a cardboard box. Offer the feeblest of apologies. Barely survive the Death Glares of Roommates #1 and #2 before they make their way to their respective beds to pass out because sleeping on a cardboard box in a hallway is physically uncomfortable and psychologically unpleasant.

Grrr.

Places I've eaten in the past four days

There's really nothing like a two-week break from work to remind me that I pretty much have no life beyond work and food. Take away work, and now I pass my days wandering aimlessly around the city looking for something to do (i.e., eat) because wasting away in my apartment actually succeeds in making me feel lethargic and disgusting. Anyway, I'm recording this because I'm hoping that seeing a written record will force me to go on a diet or something. This would probably be more interesting than pictures, but then again, my goal is to remind myself of what a glutton I am, not making my mouth water.

* SATURDAY 6/28 *

After spending the afternoon at my coworker's BBQ in Long Island, I went to meet Yunji who was visiting from D.C. in Koreatown. I was stuffed from beer, burgers, and chips (I know!), but I ate anyway because I had nothing else to do:

Gahm Mi Oak
43 West 32nd Street

Yunji suggested that we get a "snack" of bin dae dduk. So we did. She suggested dessert. Off we went to...

Koryodang
31 West 32nd Street

I f---ing hate this place. It's so ridiculously overpriced, and the people are too trendy-looking. We had paht bing soo (what else?). It was pretty decent but my cousin Sarah made a fantastic homemade paht bing soo once, so now I think it's ridiculous to pay any money for it. I mean, if you think of the English translation ("shaved ice"), it makes you feel even more ridiculous for ordering it. SHAVED ICE! (Well there's more than that but you know.) Jane joined us at Koryodang. Our paht bing soo was melting, and Jane wanted to go to a restaurant that would validate her parking so we went to...

Kum Gang San
49 West 32nd Street

Yunji and I were stuffed at this point, so Jane ordered kimchi tofu bulgogi dolsot bibimbap. She was annoyed that it probably cost twice what it would in Palisades Park, but whatever. Holy crap did it look good. I ate some of the dooboo pieces at the end... I wanted to eat more but whatever, it was like almost $20 probably so I felt bad even though she offered. I ate most of the orange and strawberry pieces that they gave us with the bill.

Pinkberry
7 West 32nd Street

Somehow, Yunji wanted Pinkberry after Kum Gang San. (Well... I guess she and I just picked at the food there.) Pinkberry she got. Yum. Brain freeze ensued, but she claimed it was worth it.

* SUNDAY 6/29 *

I rotted in my apartment on Sunday. I did positively nothing. Actually I went jogging for the first time since November, but I went around noon, which was pretty stupid since it's so hot out. When I got back to my apartment at like 12:40, I seriously sat around on the couch until like 6:30 when I forced myself to leave and buy milk from the supermarket just to get off the damn couch.

* MONDAY 6/30 *

I stupidly did not stretch properly after exercising for the first time in months, so I was sore as all hell when I woke up. I used this as an excuse to not run, and Lucy mentioned to me via chat that there's some great pizza place that her brother had told her about:

Artichoke Basille's Pizza & Brewery
328 East 14th Street

Lucy warned me about crazy lines out the door. I arrived around 4 pm, and I didn't have to wait, but as soon as I got there, a ton of people starting queuing up behind me. (At FOUR on a Monday?) Lucky me. I had a round slice of margherita literally fresh out of the oven (which cost me $4.50 along with a Boylan's ginger ale... which sadly I thought was a total deal). Pretty darn good although I burned the roof of my mouth so I probably should've waited for the slice to cool down. I ate it standing up at the little counter while staring at a creepy portrait of three smiling John F Kennedys. Bizarre. Sexistly (I'm sure there's a better word that actually exists), I thought that some middle-aged woman who had a crush on JFK probably bought that picture. Anyway, after I ate the slice, I was bored so I walked back up to Koreatown to cool down with something from...

Pinkberry
7 West 32nd Street

I had a medium original Pinkberry with Fruity Pebbles, strawberries, and rice cakes. My sister discovered the glory of this combination and positively swears by it. (FYI, the rice cakes are always kept in a secret stash in the back, so you have to specifically request them.) I ate the whole thing by the time I reached 34th Street.

(Fun fact: I had to program "artichoke" into my T9. Strange that the T9 people missed that. "Cupcake" is also not a part of their vocabulary, but I'd discovered that one long ago.)

* TUESDAY 7/1 *

Sheesh. Today was ridiculous. I had dinner plans with Arielle but I left my apartment way early because I was so freaking bored. I went to the post office to buy a stamp but wound up buying three because you have to spend a minimum of $1 to buy it on the machine, but there was a guy behind me who had only cash, so he bought two stamps from me. I gave him two 42-cent stamps, and he didn't want any change, so I made a 16-cent profit! I rule!

Dunkin Donuts
2524 Broadway (Astoria)

I bought a medium iced coffee. It cost $2.70, and I handed the cashier $3.20 because I wanted to get rid of my change. She was extremely confused and stared at it for maybe a full minute until the cashier next to her took the money in exasperation and handed me back two quarters. Yeah!

Dumpling House
118 Eldridge Street

Jenny had told me awhile ago that Dumpling House had some major renovation done, and it actually looked like a real establishment instead of some sketchy hole-in-the-wall. There's actually seating there now! It was my first time there in months, but yum, the sesame pancake with beef was still delicious as ever (especially with a ton of sriracha sauce). Unfortunately it now costs $2 instead of $1.50. I know it's just 50 cents, but I mean, that's a 33% price increase! Damn the economy.

Starbucks
Somewhere around Herald Square

I walked over to SoHo and felt too chicken to use the bathroom at the many Starbuckses, so I went to the Union Square Barnes and Noble to use the facilities. :-) Then I walked over to the 1, hid from a customer from the cleaners (I'm POSITIVE it was him... yuck!), went to midtown to stalk down my cousin who was about to get out of her internship. We walked into a Starbucks and I ordered an iced vanilla latte for almost $5 (I sicken myself) and chatted with her briefly before meeting Arielle for dinner.

Kashkaval
856 Ninth Avenue

Yummy. Arielle had previously raved about this cheese-market-slash-wine-bar-slash-restaurant to me before. It was pretty darn delicious. We shared a sampler plate that came with pita and your choice of five condiments. We got guacamole, babaganoush, spicy walnut pepper spread, tzatziki, and olive tapenade. SO GOOD! And cheap! It was just $12 for all that. Unfortunately, the fridge wasn't working, so we couldn't have any wine with that. Boo! But overall very good. But since we shared the single sampler plate, we decided to get some dessert before watching Wall-E (very good, by the way!).

Pinkberry
330 West 58th Street

Gosh darn, I must sound like a Pinkberry freak, but I'm not. It was my first time at this new-ish location, but something truly remarkable happened. The cashier asked for my name... I responded and paid in cash... AND HE ACTUALLY SPELLED MY NAME CORRECTLY ON THE RECEIPT! What the hell! This seriously never happens. I love that guy. Normally when people ask my name, I just give them my last name because it's too annoying to look at "Annie". Then again, I shouldn't complain because when we were 11, the cashier at Pizza Hut (who happened to be the older sister of one of our best friends) spelled my friend Lucy's name as "Louse"...

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Gosh darn, I spend a lot of money on food and overpriced beverages/desserts. It costs $5.96 for a medium Pinkberry. I mean, you could buy probably two gallons of ice cream with six bucks.

I'm also quite bored. Yes, I looked up all those addresses. What the heck am I going to do for the rest of the break? I should probably help my sister, who is amazing and going to rule the world with all her knowledge about... life. My sister rules.