Happenings

The last couple of weeks have been busy and stressful (the type of weeks that try your patience and make you wonder if things are ever going to be normal again). Fortunately, the last couple of weeks have also been filled with some moments of fun/happiness (just enough to keep me from completely losing it)...

Jen Lancaster!

Diana & I attended a reading/signing at Borders last week - despite the fact that it was horribly, terribly unorganized (you wouldn't think it would be so complicated considering Borders does these types of events all the bloody time!), we had a great time & loved meeting Jen (yes, I'm referring to her as "Jen" - we're obviously all BFFs now that we've met).

For those of you who have read her books or her blog: yes, she is just as funny and snarky in person! She was also quite quirky and endearing (she was obviously nervous about speaking in front of a crowd - I found that cute, seeing as she's a pretty big-name author & does events all the time), which was a relief to me. I always wonder if I'll really like the authors I enjoy if I were to meet them in person or if I'll be completely disappointed and end up disliking them afterward (e.g. Amy Sedaris).

When I went up to get my book signed, I suddenly reverted back to that shy little girl who used to hide behind her mother's legs. Seriously, after I said hello, I felt like running back to Diana so that we could compare notes and giggle. Fortunately, Jen took control of the conversation and saved me from making a complete fool of myself. :) After I answered her questions, I got all tongue-tied & overwhelmed again and mumbled something about writing a review of one of her earlier books (my favorite). I know I wasn't completely clear, but she just nodded and smiled graciously as if I weren't a bumbling, crazy fangirl. She gets major points for that one.

Jen's friends and husband, Fletch, were also at the event. Although I would imagine it's a fairly common occurrence, Fletch seemed a little confused when a group of girls approached him and started taking photos (yes, I was in that group). He should know better than to show up at an event filled with women (with cameras!) who have spent the last couple of years reading about him. :)

5k For Midwives

I walked a 5k for midwives with Beebs (who is just months from being a full-blown midwife - she was just starting out as a doula the last time she actually blogged!). It was in the upper 60s and the majority of the walk was along the lakefront in Evanston - perfect weather and beautiful scenery!

Of course, *someone* decided he wanted me to carry him for a chunk of the walk (higher calorie burn!). :) Can you believe how big he is now? He was this teeny-tiny baby just two years ago, which really doesn't seem like that long ago. Now, he's very much a boy - one who seems to be already moving out of that toddler phase.

Everyone who finished the walk got a bag of apples. Weird, but I'm very much into apples, so it was all good with me. During the post-walk wrap up, I was approached by a doula who recognized me from facebook (she's mutual friends with Beebs) - she's the wife of one my favorite students from last semester! She had seen me around facebook and made the connection when her husband told her my name. Such a small world! :)

Hard Work/Good News

25 of those lbs have been since mid-January (when I actually got back into my workout schedule). It's slow-going, but it's going, which is always a good thing. :)

I'll get to the craziness in my next post... I'm on spring break, so I actually have some time to get caught up with everything (unfortunately, most of the stressful/bad stuff that's happening is work-related, so I'm forced to focus on the BS even when school isn't in session - sigh). Now, it's time to go to zumba (aka the hour in which I fling myself around like a fool). :)

I *heart* NY! pt 3

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We wandered around some awesome museums!




I really loved the Guggenheim & M's favorite was The Met. We both also enjoyed the MoMA (this exhibit was quite interesting), but it was so bloody crowded! We made the mistake of visiting on a Saturday, but by the time we realized it was horrible time to go, it was too late (we had already used our prepaid tickets). We went to the others on Sunday, which was perfect. There were still a lot of people at both, but the crowds weren't overwhelming (and we didn't have to deal with all the pushy a-holes like we did at the MoMA).

We ate! A lot!

Cupcake stop #1: Crumbs Bake Shop
Cupcakes: Elvis & Brownie
Positives: Large selection, clever cupcake names, and multiple sizes
Negatives: They were all out of vanilla (which I love). Also, I didn't like their frosting at all - the actual cake part was yummy (banana), but the frosting (peanut butter) had a slight chemical taste to it. M liked his Brownie cupcake, but it really wasn't anything special.
Verdict: Worth checking out, but avoid the Elvis! Also, I wouldn't make a special trip there (we stopped at the Times Square location when we were already down there).

Cupcake stop #2: Magnolia Bakery
Cupcakes: Vanilla w/vanilla frosting, vanilla w/chocolate frosting & Devil's Food
Positives: Excellent vanilla/vanilla - both the frosting & the cake were yummy
Negatives: Long line to get in (20 minutes), rude people working there, little selection (they couldn't keep up with the demand), chocolate frosting was far too rich
Verdict: Although the vanilla cupcake was delicious, it wasn't anything better than what I've had elsewhere. In fact, Magnolia was a bit of a disappointment - it really didn't live up to the hype!

Cupcake stop #3: Eleni's
Cupcake: Vanilla-Vanilla
Positives: Very cute shop, friendly workers, wandering employees with free samples! :)
Negatives: Cupcakes didn't stand out, way too many screaming children running around
Verdict: Good cupcake, but nothing exciting.

We had pizza three times...
Pizza place #1 (right): Super-greasy, crappy crust (soggy & flimsy)
#2 (left): Less greasy than #1, but nothing special
#3: Definitely the best we had all week - unfortunately, we didn't find it until the last night. They had my favorite combination (artichokes, black olives & fresh tomatoes), which was a definite plus. However, it wasn't anything better than what I've had in Chicago.
Verdict: Eh. I wasn't impressed with the pizza at all. It had nothing to do with the Chicago-style vs. NY-style debate (I'm not a fan of Chicago-style pizza - I prefer the thin Roman-style) - it just wasn't good pizza!

Fish & chips on Liberty Island and street food (M had dirty water hot dogs & I tried a smoked pretzel)


Brunch at Colicchio & Sons: M had the Tap Room Burger and I had the Brioche Pain Perdu with Smoked Maple Syrup & Bourbon Butter. Everything was delicious, the people were all very friendly & attentive, and I loved the layout of the restaurant... excellent experience! [However, I still think Rick Bayless' food is better! :)]

Oliva's for M's birthday dinner: delicious tapas & even better live music. It was insanely crowded (it's a tiny place) and there was an issue with our reservation (we had to wait almost 40 minutes past our time), but the owner made up for it by giving us free wine, a huge pitcher of sangria, and dessert (oh, and he was smokin' hot!!). We were completely wasted by the time we left, but luckily, it was an easy trip back to the hotel. :) We even ended up on the same train with another couple who had been at the restaurant & had an interesting conversation (well, as much of it as I can remember) about Brooklyn and various salsa clubs - one of the guys resembled Dan Lauria & the other was a dead ringer for a young Fidel Castro. :)

We took pictures of garbage!

The garbage fills the streets & is whisked away by morning. I've never before been in a city that doesn't use bins to contain the garbage! Then again, I don't know where they would put all the bins because there aren't many alleys (Chicago is all about alleys - garbage bins, parking spots, giant opossums, and sometimes even restaurant entrances are in the alleys). Although the pick-up system seems very efficient, the piles of garbage are just so stinky & nasty!

The other nasty thing about the city? The French tourists. They were so damn rude! I'm not someone who believes that it's just the French in general, as I've traveled to other cities in which there were far more French tourists & didn't have any issues (and I've met many delightful French people). However, the French we encountered in NYC? OMG. Pushy, nasty comments, dirty looks... ugh! The non-French Europeans at our hotel? Delightful! The French? Not nice at all! Just an FYI - it's really not polite to stare at couples during breakfast & make inappropriate comments (amazingly, some Americans actually understand French!). Ugh!

Despite the nasty tourists (and we actually spent a lot of time laughing about the stupid people) and gigantic rats in the subway (*shudder*), we had an amazing time! I'm so ready to move there or go for another visit... something! NYC is incredible and I'm so happy I was able to experience such an amazing city with M! :)

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*full photoset here
(they're not labeled yet - I'll do it later this week & will also add the non-blog friendly pics to facebook!)

I *heart* NY! pt 2

The six days we had to explore NYC was a lot of time... but it also wasn't nearly enough! We only got through about half of our Manhattan list of things we wanted to do and didn't even make it our Brooklyn list! We probably could have gotten through more of the list, but we didn't want to fill up all of our days with structured activities - we spent a good chunk of time just walking around and stumbling upon new-to-us places (and occasionally getting turned around- we somehow ended up in SoHo without knowing it!).

As I've mentioned roughly 500 times since returning - we LOVED the city! NYC is such an amazing place (and it makes Chicago feel so tiny)! :) Besides being an incredible trip, it was also good for M & I relationship-wise. We had never taken an actual vacation together before - it really was an incredible experience for us (and yes, we discovered we are very compatible as travelers - thank goodness!).

Here's some of what we did...

We explored our neighborhood!
Our hotel was a block from the Empire State Building....

and just a few blocks from Times Square.



Our hotel room was the tiniest I've ever seen, but it was clean & included breakfast and free wi-fi. Of course, the best thing about the hotel was the location - it was perfect! We were able to walk to so many place & the things that were a little too far to walk to were easy accessible via the subway (which was just blocks from our front door). I was very impressed by the subway system; once we got the hang of it, getting around was incredibly easy. Also, it was so fast - a trip that would take about 40 minutes in Chicago took half that time in NYC.

Oh, and let's not forget the rooftop bar with the incredible view!

We visited Battery Park & took a cruise to Liberty Island!





We spent hours in Central Park!

We walked around Rockefeller Center (and vicinity)!



We saw quite a few wipeouts :)

Shortly before we were about to leave the area, an intern for the Jimmy Fallon show approached us and asked if we wanted to attend a monologue rehearsal (he runs through all of the possible jokes for the show a few hours before he tapes). Um, hell yeah! :) After we took a short tour (there were about 30 in the group), we were ushered into the studio where Jimmy spent some time telling us about how the show works & how he comes up with materials (we also met his head writers) before he did the run-through. Awesomeness! :)

We walked & walked & walked and stumbled upon random places!

We planned to visit the WTC site, but the rest of the places were unplanned - we saw so many things on our random walks! I loved just walking around - there was just so much to see & take in!



That *may* be a certain blogger you know hanging out under those balls. ;)


This is a really crappy photo, but if you look closely, you'll see Sean Hayes (aka Jack from Will & Grace) in the center!

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