Drinking Too Much And Worrying About The Neighbors

Ha, the title of this post makes it seems like I've been up to shennanigans in front of the neighbors while under the influence.  Nothing so interesting I'm afraid, I'm at a point in my life where the excitement of the week was realizing that the long awaited Whole Foods on 57th St is opening this coming Thursday.  Hurrah!!  It was such a highlight to see the "Opening Thursday August 23rd" when I walked home from the gym last night that I immediately took to text to inform my friend Melissa.  She is excited too, but apparently not as excited as she would be if it were a Trader Joe's opening instead.  So no, no shennanigans in front of the neighbors, I'm trying to cut down on drinking and generally lead a healthier lifestyle these days.  I've pretty much got the food thing down, I eat very well, lots of fresh fruit and veggies and healthy fats and proteins, but alcohol is my downfall.  As far as health guidelines go I definitely drink too much and my consumption has increased in proportion to my day to day work responsibilities over the last couple of years.  Yup, my job is driving me to drink!!  Anyway I've decided that enough is enough and I'm making an effort to cut down, but it's interesting that when I mention this desire to curb my indulgences to other friends in New York, the typical response is "but you don't drink too much, you drink the same amount as me!!"

Uh-huh, and I think that says more about you than it does about me my darling. 

Overall I've cut back a lot, and after a stressful day I was very proud of myself for swerving the wine store on Monday, I even allowed myself to feel just that teensy little bit superior to the woman a few steps ahead of me who suddenly veered into Serendipity Wines having lost the battle with her own will power.  Oooohhhh I was so very smug!!  However I wasn't so lucky yesterday. That saying about pride coming before a fall certainly rang true for me last night as I fell headlong into a bottle of Chardonnay.

Sigh!!

This is not the way to attain my 'feel okay in a bikini' bod for Belize in a month and a bit now is it? The weird thing is I wasn't even bothered about having a drink last night and I coerced myself into it!!! What's that about? I was perfectly content to look forward to my protein rich healthy shake (frozen banana*, 1 tbsp almond butter, 1 cup of skim milk, a tsp agave nectar, 1/4 tsp chocolate powder. Delicious!!) with my salmon burger, but I'd slept so horribly the night before I was worried about repeating the experience - I find insomnia, like waves, comes in sets and once it starts I'll often have a few consecutive nights of disturbed sleep. How ironic is it that one of my clients is a manufacturer of an insomnia drug?? - so in my wisdom I decided that wine - as opposed to say a hot lavendar both, a few relaxing yoga poses plus a couple of Tylenol PM - was the perfect cure. Well let's face it wine is more fun, although the hangover....considerably less so!! Seriously I wish I got the hangover as I was drinking and would therefore be less inclined to continue. Oh well. I'm trying not to beat myself up about it too much. Negativity makes you fat apparently, I think it's because you go "oh f**k it, I'll never lose weight, I may as well not bother and eat cream cakes."

So in other - more important and neighborly- news I am concerned my elderly neighbor may have died. There's been a package outside an apartment door on the 3rd floor since Friday and as I ran up to my place on the 4th floor last night I noticed it was still there and then I twigged it was outside number 15 - I just kept noticing it before, but I wasn't really paying attention to which floor it was on - which is where the sweet elderly lady lives. I sometimes help her with her shopping, if I arrive at the building at the same time as she's trying to climb the 30 steps to her floor.  She must be at least in her 70s and has such a hard time with even the lightest load.  I always ask her if I can drop her shopping outside her door for her while she negotiates the stairs. Anyway I suppose it's possible that she's just on vacation, but now I've realized whose apartment the package is resting outside of I'm concerned. I should have gone down and knocked on her door last night, just in case she's lying helpless on the floor. Oh now I'm really giving myself a guilt trip for sitting home and quaffing wine last night. See, this is a classic example of the Bystander Effect that Deesha was talking about the other week. Part of me definitely thought "Oh I'm sure the people who live opposite her would have noticed if something were amiss" or Tim, who works from home and also helps her with her shopping, but then Tim is on the second floor and would have no reason to walk up to the third floor and notice that the package is still there after 5 days - 6 if it's still there tonight - and would her neighbors really notice?  I'm not entirely sure who exactly lives across from me these days, I got new neighbors about a month ago and i think it's 2 girls, one of whom is blond, but I wouldn't know them if I passed them on the stairs. This is so New York of me not knowing my neighbors. I used to bump into people who lived next door and they were there for years so I knew them to say hello to, but now...not so much. Maybe I'll see if the package is still there tonight and knock on her door if it is. If I don't get a response I'll talk to the landlord when I see him around the building at the weekend. This reminds me of that quote at the beginning of When Harry Met Sally where Meg Ryan's character - duh, Sally - is talking about moving to New York to make it as a writer and Harry responds "suppose nothing happens to you. Suppose you lived out your whole life and nothing happens you never meet anybody you never become anything and finally you die in one of those New York deaths which nobody notices for two weeks until the smell drifts into the hallway."** God I love that film.

Btw I also came across this service on Agency Spy called Huntcha which apparently integrates with Facebook and allows you to chat with your crush anonymously to see if they’re crushing on you too. Given my crushes on the creative men of late and the fact that I have the dating maturity of a 12year old I think I should sign up. The issue is that most of the people I crush on are not my friends on Facebook and I am assuming a requirement would be for your crush to be in your Facebook circle.
  
*I feel like such an innocent, but I never knew you could freeze bananas until about 2months ago. You can just slice 'em up and put 'em in bags and they are fantastic in banana shakes. They work better frozen than fresh in fact as they thicken the shake better!!

**Is it wrong that I paused on the 3rd floor this morning and sniffed for the unpleasant odour of decomposition?  One too many episodes of Law & Order perhaps!! I am sure those sorts of smells would have got the attention of her immediate neighbors.

Update: I worked late today and arrived home around 9pm.  The package had gone from outside #15.  Thank God for that, my neighbor is ALIVE!!  Phew!!