Merry Christmas
December 24, 2009
Through a few weeks of painting Christmas bulbs for gifts, I discovered that I’m no artist. Sent them off to Georgia last week and promptly opened my sister’s gift to me last night. I’m an adult. I see no reason to wait for Christmas morning.
Spent last weekend in Scranton PA for a special Tuesdays on the Ridge party and a couple of gigs that Nate played. I hadn’t been there in a year and found it to be a friendly, picturesque town again.
Home on Sunday night to find a few feet of snow and then promptly came down with what feels like the flu. Leaving for Colorado tomorrow to spend the Christmas holiday with Nate’s family. Home sick, curled up and feeling awful I received a lovely bouquet from Mort in Florida. Timing couldn’t have been better.
Thinking of you all down in Georgia together for the holiday. Love you.
Online Goodies – December
December 13, 2009
My day to day at work includes a lot of surfing new apps, social networks, user-driven services. I get to see a lot of new ventures take off and I love that part of my job. People are so clever and innovative.
A few recent favorites that I’ve found:
Groupon.com – select your city, register, and get at least a 50% discount on a local service (i.e. spa), restaurant or product. The service gives locals a good discount on something they might otherwise have walked by.
Glyde.com – the average American household has $3000 of unused media lying around (DVDs, CDs, books). In these hard times Glyde offers a familiar concept similar to Amazon or eBay (one of eBay Motors’ founders started Glyde) that gives you a marketplace to easily list your stuff and sell it. Pretty slick, check it out.
Gliider.com - planning a trip online (airfare, hotel, attractions, restaurants, etc.) can be a mess of bookmarks saved up for months leaving you scratching your head and wondering why you saved a page. Gliider is a simple add-on to Firefox (or Safari) that allows you drag your copy and pasted content from any page to it’s friendly floating console. You call on the console when you need it and hide it when you don’t. When you’re ready to book your trip, all the things you want to do are neatly sorted by category (shopping, dining, attractions) and stored on Gliider’s server for you.
GateGuruApp.com - this iPhone app is for the frequent traveler who finds themselves stuck in an airport a good deal of the time. Search by the airport you’re in and GateGuru tells you which services, restaurants and shops are before security and beyond security.
I don’t know why these all start with G. Weird.
Hello Winter
December 6, 2009
After Saturday brunch at Schiller’s with a lovely new friend Ashleigh, I was trying to find a subway stop that would lead me to the 1, 2, 3 line. I think I was in the Flatiron District (could have been in Chelsea, or the upper Village…sigh) when it started to snow for the first time this year. Getting lost is in my DNA. I’ve made peace with it. If I say go right, do yourself a favor and go left.
Fat flakes coming down, ear buds in, listening to the Black Keys – it was a sweet moment I had by myself in the city.
Wind Warning 2009
November 29, 2009
On the windiest day of the year so far, we thought it would be a good time to go walk the elevated park in the West Village – The High Line.
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| From atop the elevated High Line Park, New York |
After freezing our…well, we stopped for coffee and pushed our way through the wind in Chelsea to check out some galleries. This is an excellent way to spend an afternoon for free in Manhattan. I’ve only seen a handful of the show spaces and will be back.
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| From Chelsea galleries |
Babies Everywhere
November 26, 2009
A visit to Newnan GA drops you into a family focused community. Having 8 kids running around the house at one time is strangely not annoying when you’re there. It’s the norm.
It was good to get back for a visit with my family and Adi’s new family, old friends and new places. Celebrated my sister’s 29th birthday (again) for 4 days. I had to come back to New York to get some rest. Seriously.
Lots of photos in my November album – click below.
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| From November 2009 |
Note: Don’t ever go to Beluga Martini in Buckhead. I swear I saw a Richard Branson look alike (add 20 years) wearing an ascot watching his two ‘lady friends’ grope each other on the dance floor. I’ll never be able to get that image out of my head.
For Thanksgiving today – Connecticut for my first time. A gracious invitation from Nate’s aunt and uncle to spend the holiday with them.
Happy digestion-ing to you all.
Autumn In New York
November 17, 2009
I was joking with Adi the other day that I was going to write a story about how New York holds no romance. All the Meg Ryan roles, Woody Allen conversations, Empire State Building rendezvous – it was all a trick and you fell for it. Once here, you have to commute along with all the other sheep. You run errands on your lunch break to avoid the insanity that is pushed into every store in the city after work. You deal with the mean crazies on the street who claim to be prophets but will only tell you that you are going to die (seriously, one day I’m going to yell back at that guy, “OK I get it!”).
Sunday, the city and I made up. She only took $100 from me that fueled a lovely warm Autumn day of breakfast for two, a long walk through the leaves in Central Park, a stop at FAO Schwartz for presents for my nieces, a refreshment stop at a hidden pub (will remain nameless lest we won’t find an open stool someday) and a new shirt for me from BR. Didn’t get home until after dark and went to sleep tired and happy to have had the sort of day I’d been wanting.
For my dad
November 14, 2009
My dad tells me when I blog I make things sound like a fairytale.
So – this one’s for you dad.
The five things that sucked this week:
1. My commute coming home from work through Times Square (aka hell on earth)
2. Being unable to spend less than $50 a day just from leaving the house
3. The strange smell on Lenox Avenue in the morning. What is that?
4. Getting shoved so hard I nearly fell over, just trying to leave the Union Square station
5. A simple plan for a trip to Scranton in December turned into a tiff that ruined Friday night
The Long Count at Brooklyn Academy of Music
October 31, 2009
After some wine (good), cheeses (good) and pork belly (meh) last night at Stonehome Wine Bar & Restaurant, Nate treated me to a show at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (aka BAM).
It’s a known fact that I <heart> The National. I have eagerly been waiting and half dreading the release of their next album after the always current, amazing, gut wrenching, get-stuck-in-your-head-for-weeks 2007 album Boxer. My hopes are high and my fingers are crossed that the follow up will be as good if not better. Last night we saw Bryce & Aaron Dressner of The National, coordinate a collaboration of rock & roll, imagery (by Matthew Ritchie) and vocals set to their original collection of compositions titled The Long Count.
After Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) slowly glided onto stage and opened the show between the twins with the voice of an angel, the sound quality crashed and burned on the second piece and sisters Kim and Kelley Deal (The Breeders, The Pixies) somehow made it through. I felt for those girls and their faulty microphones.
I didn’t read the program before seeing this show. On the 2 train heading home afterwards we scratched our heads at the show’s analogy of the world starting in 1976 after the Cincinnati Reds won the World Series, the significance of twins and the Mayan calendar that depicts the end of the world in 2012. I don’t know – I didn’t get all that and I’m sort of glad I didn’t have the background before seeing the show. Frankly, getting to hear Matt Berninger, lead vocalist for The National sing just one song in a relatively intimate venue – well that was delicious.
Back to Work
October 22, 2009
When I was really young I wrote in a blue notebook about wanting to live in New York one day.
Union Square (with farmer’s market three times a week) is at the end of my commute every day as I head to work in the morning.
After a day of getting back into the swing of things (affiliate marketing) and meeting dozens of new co-workers, I headed back up to Harlem last night and opened the door to the smell of a home cooked meal by Nate.
And dessert…
It’s been a good week indeed.
Recent Culinary Exploring
October 15, 2009
From a little kitchen in Harlem I’ve been making something new nearly every day;
Halibut marinated in honey, soy, fresh ginger, white wine with crispy shallots topping and white wine reduction. Asparagus, jasmine rice with roasted pine nuts and golden raisins.
Mustard crusted salmon (thank you Balthazar). Lentils with bacon, roasted carrots and potato.
And I never have to do the dishes. Thanks Nate!
