Friday, 7/16/10 - Level 4 Day 18 (Family Meal)

I repeat (from an earlier post): I love Fridays. Everyone's just workin' for the weekend, getting their stuff done and dreaming of their Saturday plans. We powered through Family Meal preparation, cutting vegetables and cooking meat like crazy people. We were planning on making a significantly less amount of food because the final third of my classmates were putting on their buffet, themed European Summer Bistro (?). You might be wondering why we even bothered to make Family Meal if there would be a huge buffet being presented in the same room. Well, in addition to setting out the Family Meal each night in the main kitchen, we also bring five full meals upstairs for the lower culinary levels and the pastry students who can't make it downstairs (really, they're kind of not invited. We were always told to stay upstairs for dinner in Levels 1 and 2.) They are also not exactly invited to the buffets either (even though every once in a while someone gets wind of the buffet and they all pile downstairs, as we did once or twice, to revel in the culinary glory that is Level 4). Alas, they still need to be fed, so we have to send some food up for them to eat in their cool, air conditioned and quiet kitchens. We also set out the meal in the main kitchen, as we do every night, to give everyone several options. A lot of times, buffets don't include a lot of vegetables or salads, so most people will still file through the family meal to get some non-protein nourishment.

I have to say, diplomatically and unbiased, that after sampling all three buffets put on by my class that the Street Food theme was most definitely, without a doubt the best buffet ever. Oh wait, was that mine?? Gee, I'm so honored. Seriously though, it was the best...and we were told so by students and chefs alike. One team one dream.

I had a little surprise waiting for me when I exited the school on Friday night, hair slicked back with sweat and grey t-shirt already forming with wet stains (who chooses grey on a hot day??) - my AWESOME husband was there to meet me WITH MY NEW IPHONE!! That's right folks, I've finally embraced modern technology, and the time was right for me to update my cellular device. Let me just tell you, without bragging too much, how ridiculously amazing he is: everything was taken care of and set up...everything. The last step, needing me to complete, was him literally taking my old SIM card, popping it in the iPhone and that was it, I was 100% ready to go. Update: I've had the thing for 45 hours (including sleep time), and am absolutely obsessed with it. I've already downloaded the necessary apps: mobile banking, sudoku, weather and scrabble. Tomorrow's going to be a fun day at the Fed, if there isn't any filing for me to do that is...

We will rarely pay full price for a movie. Considering the price for two hours of entertainment in an air-conditioned room is reaching $12 per person, we try to find other ways to see the newest releases, one of them being the half-price matinees at Loews theaters on Saturday and Sunday mornings. We decided to get up early to see "Inception," the new thriller with Leonardo DiCaprio. First of all: AMAZING movie, I highly recommend it. Second of all: you can always trust a movie with Leo...he only choses the best scripts. I won't say anything about the actual plot, but it is well worth the 2.5 hours.

That evening, we had a bittersweet dinner with two very good friends who are moving out of NYC. We've only been friends for little over a year, but will miss them very much. They bought a beautiful home in South Carolina, and will be moving there to raise their baby boy, due in early November. Don't worry, we made sure they had a free guest room so I'm sure we'll see them again soon enough.

I have a small confession to make, one that I never thought I'd actually declare publicly for fear of ridicule and unwanted isolation. We went to the public pool today - please don't judge me. There's actually a really nice and clean public pool about twenty blocks south of our apartment, right on the river. The NYC public pools all run on the same schedule: they open at 11am, everyone must leave at 3pm and then they re-open at 4pm, only to close again for the night at 7pm. This ensures that different groups are being given the opportunity to use the pool, get a prime tanning spot or claim one of the few beach chairs. We had every intention of getting there at 11am, but once our lazy Sunday morning started to take over, we didn't actually arrive until 1pm. We walked up to the building...and were met with a line of about 75 people all waiting to get in. Apparently, the pool was at capacity, so they were waiting for people to leave before letting others in. We were already all slicked up with sunscreen with visions of rippling, clear blue water running through our heads, so we decided to just wait it out. Forty-five minutes later, we finally made it into the main pool and found a prime spot of concrete to lay our beach towels. Since we only had an hour left to enjoy the sun and water (sad face), we spent a few minutes reading our books (Me: Laura Bush memoir, Steve: "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell") and took a quick dip in the cool main pool. The couple right next to us, who managed to grab two of the twenty-or-so beach chairs, told us they were leaving and asked us if we'd like to take their chairs. We were only able to enjoy them for about fifteen minutes before the lifeguards started asking first and then telling everyone to leave. Many lessons were learned, primarily that we need to get there a little earlier next time if we don't want to wait in line. Having some brief relief from the steaming concrete jungle was a beautiful thing, and the public pool will have to tide us over until we move somewhere with private pools.