Forwarding smiles

I found out today just how much my friends and coworkers love me and know me. There was a DailyCandy email sent out today with 5 fun biking accessories that are basically aimed at women cyclists. When I opened my email this morning I saw the title, clicked open the email and read about the products. There were some fun items featured but nothing that I would really use.

Forgetting about it, I went through the rest of my emails and went to work. I opened my work email and saw that my boss and my best friend had both forwarded me the email! There were a pair of biking heels featured and my best friend wrote, “you totally have to get these!” I opened my personal email and there was another email from a college friend who also wrote “You should totally get the pumps!”

I smiled and laughed. I must talk about my biking all the time for everyone to have forwarded me the same email. Those shoes will totally go with my biking skirt. Gosh, I am such a girl!

So anyone have an extra $127 they want to give me for these shoes that I just must get?

A Bean goes to Brooklyn

What would you do if you were invited on an adventure to a warehouse the middle of Brooklyn at midnight on a Wednesday night? An old friend of mine was in town from California and wanted to meet up. We started out in the East Village and enjoyed a nice scotch before dinner. Then we ventured off to a Peruvian place for a delicious meal. We filled up on lots of fish and seafood (mine was hot and spicy!) and talked about the plans for the rest of the evening.

Both of my friends are music lovers. They live and breathe all kinds of music. One is in a band and a high school music teacher. So when he tells me that we have to go check out a group then I follow him. Even to a warehouse on an empty street in Brooklyn. As my loyal readers know, it takes a lot to get me to leave my borough.

So after dinner we walked to the L to take it 5 stops into Brooklyn. We had a street address and a number that my friend thought was right but he didn’t really remember. After we exited the train, we took out our handy phones with map apps and found our location and began the walk to the venue. The numbers were going up from 223 very slowly and we were looking for a number in the 600’s. As we continued to walk the apartments disappeared and were replaced with old graffiti covered warehouses with trucks parked on the street. I am a tough New Yorker but knew that this could not be a good neighborhood to stroll at night. We got to the 300’s and the street looked as though it would hit the water in a block or two. Certainly we were not going the right way. We went to take out our phones when we heard a muffled sound of music coming from a building a few steps away. This had to be the correct place! We opened an unmarked door and sure enough it was the venue and by venue I mean a small room for a “bar” and behind it a small room with the band playing.

The bar was serving cans of miller high life and some energy malt beverage with 12% alcohol and caffeine and guarana and artificial crap. I tasted it and it was like a carbonated watermelon jolly rancher with a nasty aftertaste. I am glad I didn’t drink more of it because I would have never fallen asleep as my insides glowed radioactive pink.

We stood and listened to the opening band play and then much later we heard the band we had come to see. It was fun but standing in one place for 2 hours was exhausting. There were tons of people smoking inside and my poor lungs are not used to that anymore. I knew I would smell real bad and have to shower when I got home. We left early so that I could get home and get enough sleep so I would not be a zombie at work.

We walked down the deserted street without incident back to the subway. Shockingly, we did not have to wait long for a train and I made the transfer and got home pretty fast!

What a fun Wednesday night!

The curse of the Blackberry!

I am officially addicted to my Blackberry. I knew it would happen which is why I resisted the call of the phone with a data plan for so long. But I knew I had to enter the connected world or be out of the loop so I decided to get a Blackberry. In actuality, it is a Purple Berry which makes the girly girl in me very happy.

I have started to download apps that I think would be helpful to me. I know that the droid phones and iphones have many more capabilities but I chose to not be overwhelmed and just to use the phone for some other uses. About two days ago, I downloaded an app that reads my text messages to me when I am driving. The temptation to grab the berry while it is buzzing is very strong and so I thought this app might help me to be a safer and legal driver as it is illegal to play with your phone and drive.

Today was the first day of using the app while driving to work. I didn’t think anyone would text me in the morning but about 5 minutes into my drive I heard : "message from Jen: Did you bring the camera in today?" The computer voice spoke well and of course I decided to pick up the phone to text back. Yes, I know, bad bean. I wrote “Nope” and put the phone down. After about 30 seconds passed, I hear my phone say “message from Jen: fuck.”

I burst out laughing in my car. The computer voice cursed! HAHAHAHA! Yep, I have the maturity level of a fifth grader but you know you would have laughed too.