Plan B

Last night I spent a good part of the evening at Nat's birthday party at Plan B, a small (but as it turns out very very happening) club in East Village. Nat was one of the birthday girls (and boy) and she had free-flow drinks from the bar so she was very kind and generous and got drinks for us on the pretext that they were for her. I hear that the birthday people were so generous that they ordered too many long island iced teas and apple martinis that the bar stopped serving them to people with wristbands (the birthday girls/boy). (I am mildly disturbed as I'm typing this cos I'm quite sure I'm hearing either a girl who's in pain from rubbing her bruises or erm... doing something else that causes her to moan. You go figure. Funny that I only hear her and not anyone else... By the way the sound is NOT coming from my room but from some room upstairs cos I'm hearing these noises through my window. Both my roommates are watching a DVD outside so it's nothing to do with them.) Sorry for the digression. The club got so crowded by around 1.30pm (we really couldn't move very much despite the nice music) and so Shuxiang, Marc and I left the club to go home, but not before I gave Nat her present, a copy of "Blue Like Jazz" by Don Miller.

The caption to Blue like Jazz reads "Nonreligious thoughts on Christian spirituality" and that's exactly right. It's really a collection of Miller's musings on the Christian faith, how he came to acknowledge Christ as Lord and Saviour and his contemplations on issues of the faith like tithing, marriage, love, confessions, etc. One day I'll quote a few passages from the book to show you how refreshing his forthright style of writing is. I was quite moved and intrigued by his writing and I felt that it really applied to me and my life. I highly recommend it.

This morning I went with Shuxiang and Marc to Century 21 to do some shopping for winter clothing. I got myself a rather nice CK winter jacket that's actually worth describing cos I like it so much. The whole ensemble is black in colour; the outer layer is waterproof (a bit like the black jacket I got from G2000 in Singapore); the inner layer is actually a separate fleece jacket that can be removed from the outer layer; and the hood is nice and big and solid and is also detachable. It cost a whopping $170 but I think it's really quite worth it (although I must admit I must have a paid at least slightly more because it was CK?). I also got a pair of black Timberland walking boots for the snow and slush. I took a long time deciding between this pair and another pair cos I couldn't figure out which was better. In the end I found a really nice salesman who talked me through it and said that both would perform equally well in the New York winter weather cos Timberland boots were really built to last and the more expensive pair (by about $20) was more popular so if that wasn't an option for me, he'd go with the less expensive pair. I thought the analysis was fair enough so I took his advice and went with the cheaper one (which I actually preferred cos it looked nicer, to me, anyway. Shows you how my taste goes against the grain.) I also got myself a beanie hat which I found I could carry off. I never did wear beanies in Cambridge. Finally I got myself a pair of black leather gloves lined with cashmere inside. (Yeah I know -- quite a luxury item but I think it's going to be useful.) So I spent around $280 in all -- but I don't think I'll be doing any more shopping this year so I think it's OK. I know it's quite a lot to spend at one shot but I don't have much time to shop in New York so that's that for me I guess... According to the Century 21 receipt I saved about $230 compared to retail prices elsewhere.

OK now I know why sometimes on TV they always say that the girl sometimes sounds as if someone's killing her. And she's definitely NOT rubbing her bruise. Cos she just crescendo-ed. And crescendo-ed again. Honestly she's been going on for more than half an hour already. It's beginning to annoy me now and the novelty / curiosity value has waned somewhat. Humph. I do want to sleep.

Well at least we know some people aren't getting any sleep tonight.