Autumn in New York

I know that it has been entirely too long since I have been posting regularly, so here is an update on how my Autum in New York is going.  

At the end of October, Scott came for an entire week.  How lucky am I!?  

We have a thing for pumpkin flavored items and were delighted to see that the frozen yogurt place by my house had "Fist Pumpkin" flavored fro-yo.  Please note that Scott did not have any sugary substances in the taking of this photo.  

Scott attempting to hide in storefront Halloween decor in the village.

Our friend told us about a Halloween exhibit at the Highline so we met up to check it out one night before dinner.  I love this photo of us just being normal - except with wolf masks.

The text that Scott sent out to our friends with this photo was: "Happy Halloween from the Werewolf family"

On our way to dinner, we had a run-in with some astronauts.  Yes, that is a mini cooper attached to a rocket.  And an astronaut.

Scott and I went to Laudree on the Upper East Side to pick up some gifts.  This was on the day where it felt like the world was going to end - we had a freak snow storm at the end of October and it was horrible.  As my coworker says: "I lost the will to live" about halfway through the day.

At least the macarons were delicious!

For lunch Scott and I ventured out to find Melt Shop.  Find we did - it was a walk-up window at a subway station.  We persisted though and got the sandwiches anyway and luckily found a building nearby that had some tables setup in the lobby.  

The snow

Since I was not prepared for the amount of snow and the amount of time Scott and I would be spending outside that day, we ended up buying a much needed bubble umbrella.  Might be one of my favorite purchases yet this year.  Say goodbye to wet hair in the rain!  I love it.

This year for Halloween I dressed up as Princess Beatrice.  It took the girls a matter of seconds to know who I was dressed as - and the men - most of them are still trying to figure out why I had such a weird hat on.

Rustin was in town and was dressed like Katy Perry from this video.

Brody and I on the way to the Halloween party.  We are so fancy!

This is a horrible picture, but I just had to put it up since it is of me and Jen.  Most people didn't recognize her.  Awesome.

I was in a pumpkin bake-off with the girls from work.  With Caroline's help I made some very tasty pumpkin chocolate chip pumpkin bread.

At the beginning of November I had dinner with Karen who was in town from San Francisco - it was so wonderful to see her.

I went to DC for work and was taken on a nice tour of some of the monuments that I hadn't seen before.  This one is form World War II.  Each gold star represents 500 people who died in the war from the United States.  Wowza.

The Martin Luther King, Jr monument was just dedicated in October - pretty awesome.

The Capitol

I went to the Quidditch World Cup with some friends - please notice that the people in this photo are riding brooms.  I went into this thinking it would be a joke.  I was wrong.

Ashley demonstrating how to double fist at Shake Shack.

I cheered on Scott & Annie when they ran in the New York City Marathon a few weeks ago.  They ran the entire race in less than 4 hours - I believe their total time was 3.5 hours.  Crazy!  So fast!

Adam came to town and we were able to spend a fair amount of time together since he was here for a week.  Here we are at Momofuku having milk and cookies.  Yummmm

Walking back to work from lunch

Adam took me to Katz's Deli for Pastrami one day for lunch - they were incredibly messy and delicious.

Melissa came to town with her Mom for a few days and she bought her first size 0 jeans at 5 months pregnant.  What a cute pregnant lady!

I went to Daytona for work for a few days and went on a tour of the Daytona International Speedway while I was there.  Since I grew up with a NASCAR affiliation due to my dad's job, it was pretty surreal to me.  

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was testing a new functionality on his car while we were there, so we got to see him go by a few times - to just stay up on the track, the cars have to be going a minimum of 95 mph.  Crazy!  I was so proud of my little iPhone camera for capturing him while going by so fast.

Winners Circle!

The view from my hotel room - I am sad to say that I didn't even touch my feet in the sand the entire time I was there.  I just didn't really have time.

I got back in New York and the next evening, my coworkers and I had an event one night and we ended the evening with our very own dance party.  Good times.

Jersey Pout

My cousins came to town and we went all over the city - one of the coolest things we did was go to the 911 Memorial.  It was awesome.  If you are close by, go.  

Playing the piano at FAO Schwartz

On our way to see the Rockettes.

Madison was named after the Mermaid on Splash - which was named after Madison Ave.  :)

First subway ride.

At the temple!

Outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art

I went up to Albany for the day to pick up Madison after she spent a week upstate and was able to see my friend Becky, who I grew up with in North Carolina.  I hadn't seen her since college and it was great to catch up and meet her husband and darling kids.  Also, I got to hold baby Richard for like 3 hours that day - pure bliss.  I really need to get me a baby!!!

In case you can't tell by the photos in this post, I still want to kiss New York every single day.  What a great place.  What a great life.

Thanksgiving 2011

A month or so ago, my friend Jen and I decided that we would be spending Thanksgiving together.  For weeks we were trying to figure out what the reality of that meant.  There were people that for various reasons we wanted to avoid and thus scheduling became difficult.  About a week before Thanksgiving, our mutual bestie, Rachael, sent us an email that said " I can't deal with you girls and your crappy Thanksgiving plans!!" with a flight itinerary attached.  Thanks for saving us, girl. 

Jen's office overlooks Macy's and the end of the parade, so we went to fight the masses of people and watch the parade.  Of course I was DVR'ing the parade from home so that I could watch all the performances later in the day and fast forward through all the commercials.

We had to lean really far out of the window of Jen's office to see anything.  Rachael is really scared of heights and looked back at me after her first glance out the window and said "I will need a harness and a Valium!"  If you are my friend on facebook you probably saw the numerous updates that Rachael contributed during the week.  She was full of good one-liners.

Jen & Josh

Rachael started yelling "SANTA!!!!!!" right about this time. 

Apparently I did not get the memo regarding the black coat and purple accessory.

We we have a picture of only me in the kitchen is unclear since Jen is the real mastermind behind our entire dinner.  It was amazing.  She cooked all day and brought the tablecloth and cutlery to make our dinner so beautiful.  Lest Rachael be offended,  I did not mention her floral work and roll contribution and her stunning good looks.

It was such a great week - lots of laughter and good times.  The food was AMAZING and I am still thinking about the apple pie!  Dear Jen & Rachael - thanks for being so awesome. Giving thanks for such great friends and for living in this city is always appropriate, but even more so on Thanksgiving.   XO

Fallpalooza 2011

 A few months ago I went to New Hampshire with some friends.  I hadn't been there since I was about 11, so it was nice to head up to New England for some prime leaf-peeping and good times with friends.  These photos are fairly self explanatory, so here goes.  I should also note that most of these photos are not mine.  Thanks to those who actually took photos!

Kayaking after breakfast on Webster Lake

Drew

Tyson

Flag football.  I was quite happy to be the head cheerleader in this game.

On Saturday afternoon we went apple picking and a photo shoot in a tree.  Please note that the apples that we sampled (and bought) were delicious.  

Cute Jane

What I didn't get photos of: 

• Playing Murder in the Dark with a group where 95% of us are over the age of 30.  We sure don't need alcohol to act like idiots.
• Taking a long Sunday walk along the lake
• The cute B&B where we stayed.  
• The hilarious road trip home

Oh, Canada

Last summer I went to a funeral of a family friend, as mentioned here on this blog.  At the funeral, there were some Royal Canadian Mounted Police there because the person who died was one of them.  Random.  

A week later, I was in Vancouver, Canada on a work trip and no kidding, I was walking through the convention center and saw a Mountie who looked a little too familiar.  So I walked up to him and asked him if he just happened to be at a funeral in Utah a few weeks earlier.  He said yes.  And BAM - just like that, it hits you.  I really do have magical powers to remember people that I have barely met.  This story is about to get weirder.

A few nights ago I am watching TV with a neighbor - and suddenly, what do I see on the screen?  I seriously stopped the tv, rewound it and took this photo.  Please tell me that I am not insane and confirm that this is the same Mountie.

The point of this story is to prove to you that I have strange magical powers.  Let's start taking bets on where I'm going to see him next.    I mean -  you never know when you are going to run into a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, right?  

ha

Canada, I'm watching you.

Palm Reading & Other Nonsense.

Have I ever told you about the time that I accidentally-ish had my palms read?

A few months ago I was in Houston for about a week at a work conference.  I went out a few days early to go on a tour of Galveston Island with other meeting planners and so in consequence ended up making a few friends.  When I say that I made a few friends I typically don't mean that my friends are even close to my own age.  There is usually a huge age gap with people in my industry - you are either straight out of college, have grandkids, or are a gay man.  Ok maybe that is a slight exaggeration, but not by much.  Anyway - a lot of the friends that I make on work trips are much older than me.  For those who know me well, this is no huge shock.  

I became friends with 3 ladies in particular who were all grandmothers and from various parts of the country.  They loved me.  They told me constantly things along the lines of: "If my son weren't married, I'd set you up with him!"  Old ladies are always entertaining and I frequently get invited to do things with them.  So I spent 5 days with these ladies and the last night they invited me to dinner.  I overheard two of them talking before we went to the restaurant that the other one had read their palms earlier that day.  I was surprised to say the least.  I mean - I don't know any other women with 5 grandkids who lives in Palm Beach with her third husband who reads palms.  Maybe I am just ignorant.

Over dinner one of them brought up the palm reading and curiosity got the best of me.  I asked my friend if she would read my palms.  She got very serious and grabbed my hands.

*Related Tangent* - I shouldn't don't believe in psychics.  I used a ouija board when I was in the 6th grade with my best friend and when I told my mom about it, she said two things:

1. Don't do that ever again.
2. I used a ouija board with my friends when I was in elementary school and it told me I'd marry Bill.  

My dad's name is Bill.  Also, needless to say, my best friend in the 6th grade did not marry her crush, Hunter, as we were told by the ouija board.  Obviously I am thereby curiously skeptical about their powers.  I also think that psychics in general are creepy and I have no interest in giving anyone my money to tell me something that may or may not be true.  When someone that you have come to mildly trust over a 5 day period is looking at your palms though, it is harder to be skeptical.  Also, I was not paying her for her services.  

Back to having my palms read:

I don't remember a lot of what she said to me, but a few things stick out in my mind.  She told me that my life line was the longest she had ever seen.  My mom's great grandmother lived to be 104.  My dad's mom is going to be 98 next month and unless her gangbuster neighbors take her out in the next 2 years, she's going to make it to 100 quite easily.  I just might live forever with those genes.  Then she started looking very closely at some lines on my palm and held them over the candlelight to get a better view and got very excited.  She said to me: "I have never seen this before!  Wow!  What a lucky girl!"  I was obviously very curious at this point and then she looked into my eyes and said "You are never going to get married.  How fun!  You'll never have to be tied down to a man!  But you will have one child."  Then she dropped my hands and picked up her glass of wine and asked someone a question like she had not just shattered my eternal life plans.

Now you should know that I'm not blogging about this to get sympathy comments and emails.  It happened about 6 months ago and I haven't shed any tears or had any sleepless nights.  I don't think about it very often because even if it is true, I still like men and how will I ever get pregnant if I give up completely?

What are your thoughts on this?  Fess up if you've ever used a ouija board and had something come true.  Just be anonymous in case your mom reads this.

My latest dating rant

Today I read an excerpt from Mindy Kaling's new book.

When men hear women want a commitment, they think it means commitment to a romantic relationship, but that’s not it. It’s a commitment to not floating around anymore. I want a guy who is entrenched in his own life. Entrenched is awesome.

So I’m into men now, even though they can be frightening. I want a schedule-keeping, waking-up-early, wallet-carrying, picture-hanging man. I don’t care if he takes prescription drugs for cholesterol or hair loss. (I don’t want that, but I can handle it. I’m a grown-up too.)

Obviously I bought it.  I shouted "Amen" in my head when I read it.

And for my lady readers, here is a great link to an article I saw on my friend's facebook page recently.  50 universal truths about men.  I found it interesting.

An Anniversary

Two years ago today, I sent out the following email:

Friends & Family-
I don't want to make this long, but I wanted to share with all of you that I finished my first marathon today. Most of you knew about it, but yes. Read that sentence again. I ran a marathon. (And am alive to tell you about it!) ha! When it was pouring down rain at 6am when we got in the bus to go to Marathon, I was slightly discouraged. We had a two hours wait in the rain before the start and took refuge in a burned out apartment building. And the pouring rain didn't stop until at least mile 10. Starting a race like that isn't ideal for sure. True to form I made a few friends along the way - John from Canada who is a Team Diabetes coach ran about 5 or 6 miles with me when we were going up the worst part of the hill, and Melanie from France and I ran/walked the last 5 miles and even finished at the same time.
My time was horrible and we can talk about that later, but I just wanted to send out a huge thank you to everyone who encouraged me along the way. I felt so much love today and I'm just grateful that even though I was running "alone", I had so many people cheering me on from around the world. Few people are as lucky.
Oh - I've also learned that getting emotional when I'm at mile 20 might lead to a temporary case of asthma. That's what I like - to constantly learn new things about myself. We're off to Santorini tomorrow - should be awesome.
Love you all.

This has caused me to reflect on a few things. Initially this race always makes me think of this. Which then of course makes me think of this and this. And which then how can I not remember this and THIS. Time to lay down? Yes, I think so.

Conversations with Uzi

This is an excerpt from a conversation I had with Kristy a few days ago about how my day went.

I thought about transcribing this more, but with very few edits, here you go.


me: so this morning i worked from home

which means not working and running errands, obviously

so i wake up around 7:30

and decide to go running

not sure how far i went

a few miles

we'll say around 3

i put some laundry in before i left

i get home around 8:30 and take a shower

i had a call at 10

so i get ready

finish the laundry, etc

at 10 i get online

and my boss says that i missed the call - it was at 9

Kristy: shut up!

me: so then i send him a screenshot of my appointment request that said 10am

so that he doesn't think i just missed it

not my fault

anyway

so then i have a chiro appointment at 10:30

so i throw my pink hoodie on and run out the door

meanwhile i text whatshisname to see if he wants to grab lunch at 11:30 before i get on the train 
my chiropractor was running late or something bc i laid there forever before she came in  

so i get out of there around 11:10

whatshisname has now called and texted

i tell him to meet me at chipotle by my house and i will meet him there

btw - i have not yet packed

then i realize that i have to drop something by the office - a gift for my boss since he is running the marathon on sunday here

(oh hells bells!)

so i run by the office and drop my stuff off

then i literally run to the subway

just miss the express

hop on the local

there is a delay

ugh

so i finally get out of the subway and luckily find whatshisname walking the wrong direction from chipotle

my train was at 12:25

at this point it was 11:45

he runs over and is like - forget food - lets just get you on the train

so we go to my apartment and he puts some soup in the microwave

while i am PACKING

hahaha

i have clean laundry all over my bed

so then we start eating soup at 12

he is panicked

i'm like - whatever! i'll make the train!

Kristy: haaaa ha ha haaaa

me: so we leave

he carries my suitcase 

so i hop on the subway

and he goes to get a bus

then i start realizing that i might not make the train

HAHA

i get to penn station, try to print my ticket, and it won't let me

so i get in the customer service line - its like 12:24

there are like 12 people in front of me

so i call the lady who booked my ticket to tell her there's some problem and i'm missing my train

so i finally get up to the window and by then the lady has rebooked my ticket for the 1pm train

and the guy at the window prints it out for me and tells me that my train was actually at 12

of course it was

Kristy: HAAAAA, shut up!!

this is hilarious!

me:here is my text exchange with whatshisname:  me: so. my train was at 12. got confused with my train back to new york. haha. they put me on the 1pm with no problem. oh we could have finished our soup. LOL

whatshisname: haha well you are having a very consistent day at least :)

me: so true.