if this is a kitchen, i'd very much like to get out of it

hey! so i bet you haven't heard anything about this heat yet, huh? completely brand new subject, no doubt!

still. you guys. THIS HEAT. it's not great. but you know what's even not greater?

taking a bus from DC to NYC on a day when the heat index was 120° (yes, literally 120°) when the bus has no a/c.

heat index of 120°. bus with no air. 5 and a half hours. it was every bit as miserable as you might imagine it would be.

we'd been waiting (outside!) for about 20 minutes when the bus came, so i was already sweating like a champ, heavy navy tshirt and jeans getting increasingly hotter and grosser (and damper) by the minute. so we were all VERY HAPPY when the bus rolled up - hurrah! a/c! - until we got on. OH HAR HAR HAR.

after about 30 minutes on the bus i just gave up and stopped trying to fan myself or prevent heatstroke. the back of my shirt was soaked through and it was only going to get worse.

in delaware, i led a revolt to make our driver stop and let us buy water. (ok, not exactly a REVOLT per se, but i did yell up to the front that we needed water, and after initially declining, our driver relented and gave us 10 minutes to bask in the glorious, glorious a/c of the rest stop. and to buy liquids. and STEAMING HOT FRIED CHICKEN, if you're chris. weirdo.) (several other bus passengers came up to me and gratefully thanked me for speaking up.)

so, you know, that was pretty awful. but it did make walking around nyc in the heat wave surprisingly not bad, in comparison! which is.. well, kind of pathetic. and not actually worth it.

nyc, however? always worth it. we went up primarily so chris could hang out with some of his best friends, but i also snuck in a full day with two of my lovely girls from highschool (brunch! pedis! starbucks! much gossiping!). we also ate at both peter luger's and at ippudo.

now THAT'S a bowl of ramen. soooo good.

peter luger's was sort of hilarious. the maître d's wore spiffy suits, with one even sporting an errol flynn pencil mustache to compliment it. the waiters were gruff and brusque, and informed YOU of what you'd be ordering half the time. my favorite exchange of the night happened when our waiter was serving out a side of potatoes we'd ordered onto our individual plates. he'd just scooped a huge serving onto my plate:

me: that's good, thanks!

waiter, completely seriously: I'LL tell you when it's good.

..and he continued right on serving me potatoes. well ok, then!

it was a lovely weekend, overall. especially since the bus on the way home had air conditioning, THANK ALL THAT IS HOLY.