One-Day Weekend

29 Candles: Michael and I flank the birthday boy, Brian

With Chris and Sebastian

With Paul and Chris

Thanks to a swap I did with a gal at work, my "weekend" was reduced to just Thursday this time around, so that just made it that much busier. First, we spent nearly a half hour in line at Best Buy's Geek Squad trying to buy additional memory for Michael's, uh, let's call it "retro" laptop. Turns out the minimum amount it comes in is 1 gig but his computer can only accommodate two 512 mb sticks (he currently has something like 200 mb, which explains why it taps into the "virtual memory" by merely opening two Web browsers at once!). If anyone has some old RAM lying around please let me know. It was a big waste of time, but the guy behind the counter kind of reminded me of Roger Federer, so it could have been worse. Then I ended up talking to my mom on the phone briefly and she confirmed that she, my stepdad and my nephew were coming to the East Coast at the beginning of June to see my brother Terence's new pad in Maryland, so I'm definitely trying to plan a trip down to see them all. After a quick bite at Cosi and coffee and tabloids at Starbucks, it was off to the gym before heading to Midtown to be a guest on "The Derek and Romaine Show." (Details TK, with possible audio.) That was a lot of fun, then Michael and I had a great dinner at RUB (our fave BBQ place in the neighborhood) and then headed over to my friend Chris' place on 23rd Street for his sweet boyfriend Brian's birthday. He's only 29 -- and it was the FIRST time he turned that age -- which might explain why there were actual "outdoor beer games" being played with his former Georgetown classmates. It was great seeing the happy couple, plus a bunch of other pals (Paul, you totally do not look red in the picture!).

The part was great, but truth be told the whole week had been building up to Michael and me being free at the same time so we could FINALLY watch the reunion of the "Real Housewives of New York City" (BOTH HOURS!). Boy was that an experience I'll never forget. At certain points the women became so cold and vicious that I honestly found it difficult to watch.

Quick observations:

Alex is far less awful than I thought she was and is quite good at mediating the insanity that was this show. (Watch your back, Andy!) As pretentious as she and her husband are, their affection -- while unsettling to watch -- seems genuine. I say let them be (just maybe not on this show next season).

Ramona is one of the rudest people on earth but tends to be right more often than not. She DOES have crazy eyes. And I do not think Mario is the fame whore he was accused of being (See: Zarin, Jill).

Jill seems like a decent enough woman, but her insistence on always having the last word can be really annoying. She got very defensive about Kelly's would-be compliment about the diamond, yet she IS the most materialistic person ever to appear on ANY of these "Real Housewives" shows. (Own it, Zarin.) Also, Mario was TOTALLY RIGHT about the fame going to her head and about the whole tennis partner fixup, which to this day Jill will not admit. (Note to Jill: Tennis players don't want to play against crappy opponents, they want a MATCH. You obviously don't know anything about tennis, as your game clearly indicates.)

Bethenny isn't necessarily my cup of tea, but I'm slowly starting to believe she's more good than bad. I wish when she was admitting to being wrong or hearing someone out, she would actually listen instead of rapidly conceding fault in a way that almost comes across as defensive and dismissive. The girl has been chasing fame for 20 years now, so kudos to her for finally landing it.

LuAnn is easy to take jabs at, but I think she's a good person at heart and generally just misunderstood. (There, I said it.)

Kelly is clinically insane.

Afterward we watched the premiere of the New Jersey edition. I didn't want to like it (I HATE how "Italians" think they have the market cornered on tightknit families, like Irish -- or Polish or German or [FILL IN THE BLANK] -- families don't care deeply about one another and don't "have each other's back), but I did find it as engaging as the reviews have been saying it is. It really helps that they genuinely know each other whereas the other ones are just these people -- some of whom might be acquaintances at most -- are thrown together so artificially. The premiere was mostly stuff we'd already seen in the preview episode, but I am looking forward to what's next.