This past week was one of the most anti-poverexic weeks I’ve ever had in NYC. Since moving to the city 4 years ago, this week was the only week I’ve ever had where I went out every single night of the week. Shocking, I know. It’s really because for the first 3+ years of living here, I purposefully avoided going out during the week because it was an easy way to save money (watching HBO at home = free). Back in the day I would literally go an entire work week spending zero dollars and then maybe spending like $40 total over the weekend. How times have changed. I am seriously splurging now, going out for a drink after work with friends. Big baller!!!
Monday night C was back in town so we had dinner at Cafeteria and had the most delicious fried mac and cheese spring rolls. They’re exactly what they sound like — mac and cheese stuffed into a spring roll then fried. Tuesday I had dinner and drinks with K whom I hadn’t seen since my birthday party 3 years ago and I had the most amazing pineapple caipirinha and lamb chops. Wednesday was get-together with ex-coworkers and we went to Mogador where I had chicken tangine with cous cous along with half of coworker A’s plate of leftover chicken tangine with cous cous. We reminisced on good old days when she would eat half her lunch at work and give me the rest; now I have no such food buddy at the office since all my current coworkers eat almost as much as I do. Thursday was a big night for me, starting with work happy hour at Lillies which means we order like 10 appetizers, people only finish 7 of them and I eat all the rest. Knowing I had KK’s birthday dinner afterwards, I still ate a plate of chicken fingers, nachos, french fries and sliders with copious amounts of happy hour drinks, then headed to the bday dinner at Zampa where we ordered like 10 more appetizers and desserts.
I think my body was so unprepared for all the lack of TV downtime during the week that it completely broke down by Friday, and I woke up with what appeared to be pink eye and a horrible cough. I think my DVR was punishing me for not going through it in a timely fashion. I had never had pink eye before, and I don’t even understand how Asians get pink eye — there is so little surface area that can get infected. Anyway, after spending 3 hours at the ophthalmologist and getting meds for my eye which was apparently a very mild case, I was ready to finish off the week with a bang (literally too, if it hadn’t been for my eye). Obviously that meant all you can eat sushi all you can drink sake bombing at Kumo (New Ashiya replacement), which got quite rowdy after the 7th round of sake bombing and after the waitress moved us mid-dinner next to a table full of NYU freshmen girls who were all over M and S. That was our cue to leave for the rest of us, so we completed our usual weekend routine by ending the night with karaoke at Chorus in Koreatown with all you can drink bottle service from B and all you can sing songs by me. I don’t really remember how I got home, but all I remember is waking up at like 6am to 15 (yes, 15) missed calls from T and 2 voicemails that were a bit difficult to decipher but said something along the lines of “you. me. cum. your hot body.” Dazed and confused and suddenly coughing up a storm without the constant booze soothing my throat, I tried to fall back asleep and woke up a few hours later with my eye still stuck shut and with zero voice and zero money left in my wallet. After a full week of splurging physically and financially, I was done. This means going back to one meal a day this week.
Poverexic in NYC 