Following Rabbits Blog — do it

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Lemme start out by saying I hate being scared. I don't watch scary movies, I frequently have nightmares, and I'm generally paranoid of others. And yet a friend of mine convinced me to go to Vortex's Haunted House. One of the many rules that you must agree to is that you are required to go through alone. No gripping your friend's hand, no sharing the experience- it's you, your senses, and your imagination cut loose in a maze of darkness, violent detention and disturbing imagery.

We started out together in a holding cell of sorts, where fog and a strobe light quickly disoriented us to an unsettling degree. Then we were snatched one by one and set on a path towards uncertainty, walking along with one hand trailing a string on the wall and the other out in front of me as a precaution. I don't want to give it away, but be warned that their rules and warnings are to be taken seriously. You will sign a waiver, and if the experience is too intense for you, you can yell "safety!" and be removed. And an intense experience it was... suffice it to say that I found myself at one point kneeling in a dark corner with a Guantanamo-style black bag over my head, one shoe missing, my hearing blocked, blood smeared on my face and my hands tightly tied behind my back. I was broken down to relying solely on my senses once reason and logic went out the window. 

The Haunted House is running through Halloween, however all advance tickets are sold out. They do offer a standby waiting list, and there have been a few tickets available on Craigslist. I was more unsettled than genuinely scared, but I think the element of being uncomfortable and disoriented was an interesting effect that not many could have achieved with such intensity.

Now that I've made the switch from iced to hot tea with the weather cooling down, I'm craving a tea party! I found some fab tea party essentials on etsy:

invitations by tomkatstudio, 'eat me' cupcake tags by pinkcherrymama, Alice notebook favors by TheGiftShed, tea party cookie cutters by cutesupply

loose tea from peacelovetea (clockwise from top left): forest park blend, pumpkin spice chai, coconut chai, vanilla peach apricot blend

assorted tumblers and mugs by utilemud (clockwise from top left): bright teal tumblers, turtledove mugs, turtledove tumblers, olive and pink mugs

Last weekend I met someone new... we'll call him a person of interest and leave it at that for now. I invited him over for dinner, then panicked over what to make. I had a lot of people putting in their two cents about what I should cook-- including my entire office. I was reluctant to cook anything remotely resembling Italian, since he comes from a big Italian family, and I'm less than gourmet level in my chefness. The CEO of the company I work for offered to pick up some fresh mozzarella, basil and tomatoes from a market near his house in Jersey. We decided as a group I couldn't go wrong with chicken, some sort of starch, a vegetable, and the tomato/basil/mozz to start. The morning of my date, my boss called me from the checkout line at the market-- along with my app ingredients, he also bought organic chicken, lawry's seasoning salt, fresh chives, rosemary and parsley, fresh green beans, garlic, onion, sea salt, an orange and lime, olives, a hard cheese for crumbling, orecchiette pasta, strawberries, dipping chocolate, "and an african violet centerpiece... it was only $1.99!" What a guy! Everything I needed for my dinner, top to bottom. He gave me instructions for how to put everything together, and sent me on my way. I picked up a baguette from the bakery near my apartment, and set to work. 

The chicken went into a glass casserole dish. I squeezed half of the orange over it, added the lawry's seasoning salt, rosemary, parsley, minced garlic, and a drizzle of olive oil. That went into the oven at 350* for 30 minutes. 

In the meantime, I put the pasta on to boil, nipped and cleaned the green beans, and cut up the tomatoes and mozzarella. I sautéed minced garlic, butter and olive oil to toss the pasta in, adding a dash of sea salt, cheese crumbles, and some chopped basil and parsley to the mix. 

I was running out of time before he arrived, so I cut up the bread, arranged the tomato/basil/mozzarella and olives on a plate for the table, and ran to change and touch-up my makeup. I threw the green beans in for a quick steam and pulled out the chicken. A little spritz of lime to the chicken, and butter and lime on the beans, and voila! Probably the tastiest, nicest dinner I've ever made. Yay!

I went to Oktoberfest on Governors Island yesterday! It was absolutely gorgeous out; was a perfect day to sit outside enjoying a few brews and great conversation. Colonel's Row was fenced off for the festival, so we got our free admission bracelets and walked around a bit until it started at noon. Once we went in, we got in line for beer tickets-- the line was crazy long! 

Tickets were $2 each, and beers were $6, $8 and $10. We bought $40 worth of tickets, and got 5 beers to split between the two of us. They were all beers neither of us had ever tried-- we got some good stuff!

There were various food stands, ice cream, and a live band. It wasn't as crowded as I had expected, which was nice. We had no trouble finding seats, and spent the afternoon drinking and talking in the blazing sunshine. Was an amazing afternoon.

various things salvaged from my purse: business cards and tickets, a receipt from dinner out with a friend, spare keys to my apartment that my ex-bf mailed me after we broke up, a new museum wish ribbon that fell off my wrist during the sox/yankees game, spare change, and an admission bracelet.

Empty your pockets in the name of art! Art House Co-op has started a project called Pockets. They're collecting everything that weighs the average jane down and making it into a giant art installation. I certainly am always carrying around much more than I need, and save things that don't warrant saving. Art House has even broken down our pocket debris into categories:

To participate, check out the project website to take the Empty Pockets Pledge and see rules on categorizing your stuff and sending it in.