Yesterday was a torrential, soggy, windy mess and I decided it was best to postpone picking up my new bike until next week. 
The winds were whipping at 40+ mph and broken umbrellas littered the streets of the city. It was all I could do to head to midtown and exchange a bag I had picked up a few weeks ago. In my effort to cut down on the weight and number of things I carry on a daily basis I had selected a really tiny bag and after around a week of deliberating I decided it just wasn’t going to work. When you take a train into work and could be gone for 15 hours without any easy opportunity to run back home it’s important to be able to carry stuff around.
Stuff like a water bottle for example, which comes in awfully handy if a train screeches to a halt and stays there for almost an hour, underground, in semi darkness. This is exactly what happened on my way home from the city yesterday. I was so thankful for my water and my music and for “Water for Elephants” the book I’m reading on my iPhone. I was also happy I had a seat on the train, as it really would have sucked to be standing that whole time.
Anyway, I managed to find a new bag I that I love, check it out:
Doesn’t it look cozy on my big brown comfy chair?
It has tons of room, lots of cute pockets and it’s brown so it’ll match all kinds of stuff that the black bag does not.
It’s no new bike, but it is useful and it was purchased with a gift certificate from my mom, so I’ll think of her each time I use it. 
Last night I got together with a couple of friends and had a little dinner party. We had steak, potatoes and veggies cooked to delicious perfection by my friends Alex and Shosh. We followed it up with a pretty terrific dessert too. I brought an assortment of goodies and some semi-sweet chocolate which we melted down and, well, take a look:
Now it certainly wasn’t the most healthy of desserts, but it was delicious. Sharing it with good friends made it that much better as well!
Early today I met my friend Amoy for a delicious brunch at Piquant in Park Slope. I decided on the sweet potato tamale with pulled pork in green chile sauce with honey roasted pumpkin seeds.
So yum! I’ll be hitting the gym every day this week I think, but this was so worth it. I need to learn how to cook pork at some point in my adult life. I spent so many years as a vegetarian I still find myself cooking mostly without meat. I would love to learn to recreate this dish though.
I spent the afternoon cleaning the apartment and cooking up some quinoa for this weeks lunches. I’ll also be tossing some overnight oats on the stove before I head to bed.
Work is really turning around these days and I’m finding myself looking forward to Mondays again. I love this as it has been too long and I would always rather it be this way.
The new plan is to pick up the new bike on Saturday. It looks like it’ll be nice weather so hopefully I’ll get a nice long ride in as well.
Off to do a little serious writing now, have a happy Sunday evening!
