Erika in NYC

Dunkin Erika
Originally uploaded by thenugespeaks.

Erika and Me at the late night Dunkin Donuts!
Click on the photo to see my individual notes.

Had a great time with Erika. She stayed for about a week. I've uploaded photos. Just click the link below....
Photos of Erika's Trip to NYC

Picking up erika

Me and "Teabag" Pierce enjoying drinks at Grand Central station waiting for Erika to fly in.

Dinner at Sardis!

Hey, I get to have dinner at Sardis tonight.  Apparently a gentleman named James Chladek is taking the cast and production team out.  He owns several television and radio stations in NYC and Florida. He was introduced to Jorge (Exec Director of Ma-Yi) by Mark Druck, who is a drama critic, playwright, and member of the Dramatists Guild. They urged many of their friends to see TRIAL BY WATER and there is talk of giving the production another life and/or transferring into film.  At this point it's just talk and dinner.  But who knows, maybe something will come out of it.  As always, I will keep everyone updated!    ~ Nuge

Fun in the sun!

Had lunch today at a park at tudor city just a few blocks from where i work. weather is beautiful here today!

Living in Astoria

Click here to view a slidehow of Astoria Park

I have found myself very busy, with dragon boat practices and just constantly working on networking with people and seeing theatre. But sometimes on a nice Sunday afternoon, I get to go for a run in my neighborhood. I usually run down to Astoria Park which is located right on the East River. What I love about this place, Astoria, and New York in general, is that they have figured out how to carve a piece of paradise out for themselves admist all the garbage, dirt, and noise. In Astoria Park there is a running track, an olympic size pool, and a view of the east side of manhattan and Randall's Island. Here, people sit on blankets amongst overgrown grass in desperate need of mowing and little kids laugh and play just the same on the concrete and grass with no awarness that they are lacking for anything. Even the view of Randall's island and the the bridges are not that spectacular, but Cherry Blossoms abound and there is that feeling of beauty, with a reminder that this is still New York.

Mysterious words from Jones soda co.

The inside of the bottle cap of my root beer! what does this mean?

Easter 2006

Here's a photo slideshow with comments from Easter 2006. Enjoy!



Click here for Slideshow

First day of boat practice

First day of boat practice. pic of us jogging to the marina. On the other side of the fence is Shea Stadium!

The marina located between Shea Stadium and LaGuardia Airport. It's kind of pretty. Kinda.

Here are come of our competitors - they are very serious - and they hardly smile. One of the teams is called the Wall Street Dragons. I have an image of business men in suits and ties rowing with briefcases.

Our team suiting up and getting into the cold water. More pics to come ~ Nuge

Performers@ times square station. There's always different performers everyday. Sometimes, even breaking dancing! Of course, it's kind of gross seeing them do backspins and headspins on the tile floor. Here in NY, the ten second drop your food rule does not count. The floors here are so dirty, the food literally disintegrates on contact! Ok, I'm being dramatic, but you get the point. -- Nuge

Trees at tudor city - about three blocks from where I work.

It's right next to the United Nations building (which is not a part of New York - each country that is a member of the UN owns part of the land)

Dragon Boat Practice - Thursday

My body was still pretty sore prior to Thursday's practice.  Nonetheless, I got on the subway and met the team at the park. We did lot's of sprints, push ups, and sit ups.  Needless to say, it was intense.  However, the backdrop of Central Park and the windows of buildings looming behind the trees, made for splendid scenery. 

With each push up, each sit up, each leap frog up the hill, I felt my body being literally ingrained into the soil of Manhattan.  After the workout, we huddled up and I immediately felt bonded with the team.  Their philosophy is simple - leave no man or woman behind.  Pick up their slack if they can't go further.  We do it together or we don't do it at all.  Saturday mroning at 9am, we get to train on the boat, which I am looking forward to. After the workout, we all dispersed, saying our goodbyes, and I walked by myself down a different path in the park, and it was a nice quiet walk, and nice time to just wind down and revel in the delight of wearing home spots and patches of mud and grass, courtesy of Central Park.

First Day of Dragon Boat Practice

Hut, two, three, four...hut, two, three, four....Don's body is soooo sore. 

Last night was my first practice with the Ma-Yi Dragon boat team. We met at Pro Fitness near Broadway and Columbus circle, did some stretches and then we all went over to Central Park to run.  There was about 20 of us.  We started off with a short sprint (which turned out to be the longest sprint I've ever down) and we ended up near Bethesda fountain. From there we did pushup, crunches, jumping jacks, more sprints, dips, everything that Zeke (our land trainer) could have thrown at us.  All of this with about two or three 10 second breaks. Vincent (our boat trainer) was good at checking in on the new people.  Saturday we get on the boat at 9am at Flushing Meadows.  I am aching all over, but loving it.  This has been the most intense workout I've ever had since my good old gymnastics days or even when I used to wrestle!  We finished at 9pm.  I was surprisingly able to keep up pretty well given the fact that everyone else have been training much longer than me.  I found out today that last night we had worked out harder than they ever did for last year's team.  I look forward to the boat race festival which will in August.  Here's a link to last year's festivities...

http://www.tinysandwichsweatshop.com/mayidb/gallery/index.html

Lunch at Grand Central

So today for lunch I decided to walk over to Grand Central Station to look for some new places to eat.  It's so strange to be able to walk through this humongous building, seeing all the heavy marble and mortar and the soaring ceilings and watch the people walk through it without even noticing. My reaction is, why are you taking this for granted. Maybe it's because of my architecture and design background that I find myself gawking at these amazing spaces.  To think that man is capable to building these things is just awe inspiring.  The lower level concourse of GC is full of dining - lot's of restaurants and an Oyster Bar!  I find myself feeling very lucky to be able to go to GC whenever I want, or look up at the Chrysler Building whenever I want.  Tonight I start my first practice with the Ma-Yi theatre dragon boat team. We are practicing in Central Park tonight!  I will keep you posted on how that goes!