A Beautiful Day in The Neighborhood

I had a pretty great day, and weekend for that matter. Yesterday I hung out and started with brunch with India at Pink Tea Cup - got off at Christopher St. with a monsoon raining on what was forecasted to be 80 degree weather. The weirdest old white guy was trying to holler and followed me into the restaurant before realizing no still means no. The salmon croquettes were great though the biscuits were worse than canned ones
Ended the night with Charanna. What started as a bust at Mars 2112 and a last resort of 40/40 was the best move we could have made.
When we got there we both noticed they were letting folks in the back room instead of the main door. Well, we soon found out when we walked into the main room and were right before the door. The place is PACKED and in comes security, and the man himself, Jay-Z. And the crowd goes wild!
he makes it upstairs and the DJ plays his new song with Pharell six times straight. Yes, I counted before I even realized. Such a cool nerd:)
If that weren't enough to make the groupies on HIGH alert, Diddy gets on the mic and Jay introduces another song off the album that was produced by Diddy. Most folks are too star struck to dance (look at these guys looking up at the dj booth;) We party like the haven't partied in a minute girls we are . . .
today I get up somehow after a few hours of sleep from the early morning return. Im hurrying to church, when Paul, my new British friend, tries to holler. Instead of taking my Im late to church excuse as a hint he invited himself along, which I dont mind. The sermon was a GREAT one on the topic "A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste" based on Matthew 22: 36.
Afterwards, I guess I was feeling neighborly to invite Paul and his cousin who lives around the corner from me over for Sunday dinner. I had already invited India and her friend who is also from London over so it was perfect! I cooked macaroni and cheese, collard greens, corn bread and jerk chicken. I even planned to do the sweet potato smoothies but after baking the sweet potatos, I was ready to get out of the hot kitchen. You can see the sheen on my forehead with my London friends:) I've been itching to get out of the country (I'm way honored Z checks the blog out from across the world at school in Dubai). Between her, Zandile and Anthony, my Marshall Scholar, I have been inspired to make it happen. So if Paul and O could bring London to my Harlem apartment I'll take it. And I took great pride in making the first corn bread either ever had:) here's a pic of me and Yemi, the cousin.

He moved from Nigeria three years ago and was so enthralled by my Jay-Z story because he's a big fan. Which had me completely thrown and he knew all the music. I learned his parents came over first and always brought CDs, including Jay-Z and other things when they would return to Nigeria. Cool right?

He and India might make a great match. I'm not a matchmaker but we all can use a little help every now and then. Let you know how that goes.

And as one of my friends reminded me, there's still a animal in the best of guys. Paul was doing good till he and the cousin were fighting the hint I was putting out there that it was time for them to go and he slide the massage offer out there. LOL. It wouldn't have been so funny had me and India not JUST discussed the infamous massage offer at brunch the day before. I guess wack come-ons are global:) Time to get ready for another week!
CJ