bowling for jersey city.

As a tribute to our fair hometown, this lovely city of Jersey City, B and I thought it would be appropriate to bake a cake honoring one of our lovely local bowling haunts, Hudson Lanes. We were on the hunt for even more venues, which forced me out of my bed at an atypical 7 am. We went to see more sites along the West Side, and found ourselves in a shitty diner by 11 am, reviewing what we'd learned, and what we'd liked through the day.

Restroom story #1
With nowhere in particular to go, but just needing to go, B took me to her hospital, because the bathrooms there are clean. Well, they best be, shooot. As gorgeous as the tiles and hygiene were in that ward, the chatter of two other women coloring their hair found its way to me between the slats of my stall. I couldn't focus, which resulted in an aborted mission.

For the rest of the time, B and I wasted away in the big bookstore by Union Square. Yes, that one. It's good for passing the time, no? B and I outed the very hidden feelings we buried quite deep within us: we love a good graphic novel. Comics (my end) and mangas (her end) included. We spent a lot of time in that section of the store, and I ended up with V for Vendetta and the news that Kingdom COme will be reprinted in a new edition and released this September. Tee hee! I called J (who has not updated his damn page since 2006, apparently) to report the good news: I had legitimately joined his nutty nerdworld with my first trade paperback purchase.

I then met up with S for late lunch. We spent about an hour in line for a cheeseburger, though I'd eaten the exact same thing not too long ago. Still delicious. Still mine. And despite his order of a shake and fries, he was quite satisfied (they are pretty dang good for crinkle-cut fries.) We talked about the difference between East Coasters and LA-ians. We talked about privilege guilt. We talked about how I had never had a proper rootbeer float in my entire life. I think he found my surprise at the rootbeer float's excessive foam fascinating and backwards! With impeccable timing, B came back from the last venue as S left, and had the Shackburger I had waiting for her as she gushed on and on about finding HER DREAM WEDDING VENUE!

Restroom story #2
For $0.25 you can pee at Madison Sq. Park. We tried it. It was clean, but the floor was VERY WET.

B and I ended up on a bunch of accidental side explorations. A cute comic bookstore for things we wanted to read (including the copy of Blankets S mentioned earlier during lunch,) then looking at cake-things! I really like stores like this; in utter disarray, where you have to touch everything, and pick apart cluttered rows of crap to find the perfect piece/tool/whatever you need. I guess I'm just hands on like that. I was all sweating the mini tart pans and madeleine trays for no reason at all. I mean, don't really bake or anything fancy like that, I just like the equipment necessary used to make cute things.

After the longest, most humid, and crowded train ride in the history of afternoon commutes, I ended up at B's place to make use of our time in the bakery supply store. We watched episodes of Cash Cab (because I get all deer-in-headlights-ish whenever I'm in a place with cable, not having it myself) then headed out with B, A, and M for the BEST BOWL OF PHO I EVER MADE FOR MYSELF IN MY LIFE! I never seem to get my hoisin, sriracha, (insert other condiments here) proportions to my liking! So, now that I finally formulated it to taste good, it was kinda big deal to me. The weather's been cold lately, so it was nice to warm up to a big ass bowl of tasty broth...eventhough I was picking out the pieces of tripe from the broth. (We googled the difference between stock and broth.) THen, we went back and spent the next 3 hours baking that dang cake. Lopsided, yes. Not the best tasting, sure. But as B said...this is the worst it'll be; nowhere but up at this point!

WORRY: My sisters leave so soon. :*(