Sight For Sore Eyes

I've had some trouble posting pictures recently, but here are a few shots from the past two weeks. Enjoy.



Figure I: Autumn on the West Side...
Figure II: ... and the East Side
Figure III: Texas sunrise at 40 mph

"I like spring, but it is too young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like best of all autumn, becuase its tone is mellower, its colours are richer, and it is tinged with a little sorrow. Its golden richness speaks not of the innocence of spring, nor the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindly wisdom of approaching age. It knows the limitations of life and its content."
- Lin Yutang

Oh Give Thanks

It is Sunday night in Dallas and I find myself delayed once again. I don’t mind so much, but I offer my condolences to all of the parents of small children who are running around the terminal in their PJ’s. It looks like bedtime won’t be anytime soon for them.

I was putting off my update until I returned to New York, but now all I can do is hurry up and wait. I arrived at the airport a premature two hours early, anticipating Six-Flags-worthy check in and security lines. Instead I found that there was no wait at the self-check-in station, I got to set up a frequent flyer miles account with the airline, and I made it through security with the only trouble being a women who didn’t speak English in front of me who was trying to put her new puppy through the baggage X-Ray.

I asked my parents to stay and make sure I made it through security with my plastic bag of liquids. I bought new moisturizer at Barney’s this past week and there was NO WAY I was going to let homegirl with a police badge confiscate it. Luckily, it did not come to that, and my moisturizer, lip-gloss and Rosebud Salve were safe.

That took all of 12 minutes.

So, reflecting on my week at home, I’d have to say it was cathartic. I got to hang out with my family, and enjoy the new house with my parents. Every time I wanted to go anywhere, I got in a car. I got to cook in my mom’s huge kitchen, and watch the Cowboys, the Mavericks, the Aggies and the Longhorns to my heart’s content with my dad in HD (nevermind that I could have been watching A&M play basketball in person at Madison Square Garden twice last week in New York…story of my life). Someone came over to our house and asked why I would ever want to live in a tiny apartment in New York when I have such a great set-up at home. Sometimes I wonder the same thing myself.

One particularly strange moment was Wednesday night when my brother and I were both separately making plans with friends, and both ended up hanging out at the same bar. I saw my brother across the room, sipping a beer and laughing with his friends, and I suddenly felt old. L and I were born only 20 months apart, and he may be six feet tall and have my dad’s deep voice, but he’s still my little brother. Needless to say, I felt every day of my 22 years and change.

We are all safely back in New York now, and I now return knowing that I have so much to be thankful for:

1. My family… cliché but true. For many reasons they know, and many they don’t. They mean the world to me and are consistent examples of faith and trust and Godliness.
2. My friends… cliché x 2. I have the best friends anyone could ever ask for. Some of them I’ve known for 15 years, and some were gathered through high school and college and somehow we have struck the perfect blend of personalities and dynamics and awesomeness.
3. George Clooney.
4. Christmas in New York…December belongs here, period. Everyone should visit the city at Christmas. The city comes alive and everyday sees more lights and trees and love.
5. Fifth and finally- I’m so thankful I’m not from New Jersey. It’s the Oklahoma of the North.

My hat’s off to my Texas Aggies for the 38-30 win over UT last Friday. It made my week. As did the Cowboys’ Thanksgiving Day win over the Jets and both of the Aggie basketball wins.

I love to win.

"Look at her standing there with those yams. My two worst enemies, Ross: Rachel Green and complex carbohydrates."
-Will, as played by Brad Pitt, on "Friends"

Sunday Best

We just spent the whole morning talking about what needed to be accomplished today. We are nothing if not efficient.

So AV and KR went out midday to get their laundry done, which is always met with moaning and procrastination. I, on the other hand, opted to stay home since I get to return home to Texas tomorrow and will proceed to do my laundry at home. That’s right, unemployment has its’ benefits too. Chief among them being in-house laundry privileges.

As it turns out, I was not offered the job I wanted. I found out Thursday, which actually came at a good time because now I can go home for a full week to see my family for Thanksgiving. I need to recharge my batteries and be around my dog and see a sunset.

I’m going to start doing temporary work when I get back to New York while I continue looking for a permanent job. It’s really the best option for me right now, and since it’s now the time of year that’s paradoxically busy AND slow, I feel that this will be a good ‘meantime’ activity. If I find a full-time job in the process, then all the better.

Luckily the bad news was received on Thursday afternoon, and Thursday is the best night of the week in our apartment. It’s the best because it’s the best T.V. night of the week, if you didn’t already know. We always put on comfortable clothing, preferably something with an elastic waist, and we get pizza and return home to watch The Office, Grey’s Anatomy, sometimes Big Shots (the show is lame but Michael Vartan is in it) and whatever else we feel like watching. It’s the perfect combination of awesomeness.

My friend AR, who knows everything about everything, sadly informed me that because of the writers’ strike continuing, that Thursday was the last new episode of The Office that was finished. Now that is a tragedy indeed. What will we do without the crew at Dunder Mifflin to entertain us? Thank goodness Thanksgiving is this Thursday- I’ll be surrounded by family, friends and food to soften the blow. And the Dallas Cowboys, of course.

Friday was a big day for the KR and AV because they were both debuting their new boots. I was never interested in leggings or skinny jeans until I moved here and became interested in boots. Now they are not only appealing, but also absolutely necessary.

KR found out last week that you can go to a salon in Tribeca to get your haircut for $20 by someone in hair school, and so she rushed over with a file folder of cute haircuts Friday after work to get her hair trimmed and tailored. AV and I met up and walked around for about an hour until AV’s feet were about to fall off from teetering around in her boots all day. We were sufficiently hungry and tired, so we decided to make our way up to Hill Country Barbeque for the evening.

Two hours after leaving KR at the salon, and an hour after we had been waiting, it became clear that she would not be making it to dinner because of the hair situation she was stuck in. I squeezed my way up to the hostess stand wedged next to the bar to readjust the number in our party, and got caught in the middle of the frenzy that was started by a bartender ringing a cowbell and announcing free shots for everyone. Someone with THREE of the free shots shoved one in my hand, said “bottoms up” and I heard “one, two, three YEEHAW”.

Ten minutes later, after scooting myself back to AV and getting resituated, she said she wished she had gotten a shot because then her feet would be hurting less.

I said: “You didn’t get one?”
And she said: “You DID?! Are you telling me you just took a shot over there by yourself?”

I did. And you know what? My feet didn’t hurt one bit. We returned home to find out that KR had spent three hours in the hands of an inexperienced student, and emerged scarred with bangs. She refers to them now as “fringe”. She bought prenatal vitamins and bobby pins to hide them while they grow out. I told her that at least she doesn’t have my hairline, because if I had to pin back bangs, I would be forced to expose my Widow’s Peak and would look more like Dracula than myself. I don’t know if it was any consolation at all, come to think of it.

Yesterday morning we were in desperate need of physical activity, so we ventured over to Central Park to exercise AND get a tour of the fall foliage. Two birds, one stone… it seemed like a good idea at the time. None of us wanted to carry purses and so I had my camera in one pocket of my fleece, my phone in the other, and my Metro and debit cards in the pocket of my shorts.

Trying to get on a bus on the East side, I realized that the aforementioned cards were MIA. In Central Park. Somewhere in the foliage. Awesome.

This morning KR tried to use her debit card and after being put on hold five times with five different people at her bank, was finally told that she had exceeded her transaction limit. Who has ever heard of such a thing? Not me, not AV and definitely not KR. Oh the debit drama.

All that to say that we just got home from church, and I really need to pack.

I’ll be home this time tomorrow!

"Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently."

-Henry Ford

Bend And Snap

I’m a slacker. I’m suffering from an affliction; it’s called Unemployed Writer’s Block. It’s rough, I tell you.

A selfish reason why I wanted to write this blog was just to keep up the practice of writing in general. I met a really intriguing woman in June who has been very successful and has an amazing job, and we spent a few hours talking one morning about her experiences and about my interests. She asked me some things I enjoy doing, and one of the things I mentioned was writing. I said that I would love to be a writer one day; to work freelance or for a publication or maybe be an author…one day.

She told me that if I enjoyed writing so much, that I should do it now, and never to let a professional title dictate what I can and cannot do with my free time. It sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? I don’t want to sit down at a desk ten years from now and have nothing to say.

So hear I am, saying things to you.

We had a great long weekend with our visitors. We got to see Legally Blonde from the second row (for $26.50 per ticket, thank you very much. I’m keeping my student ID as long as I can still pass for my 18–year-old self in the picture). We got to see all of the facial expressions and eyes watering and tiny mistakes that go unnoticed by the suckers in the mezzanine who paid way more than we did to see the show. They can afford it; they have jobs.

There were two theatre students in front of us who had each seen the show four times already. FOUR. And they were giving US a hard time after they figured out that they were sitting with a bunch of sorority girls from Texas. As if the Legally Blonde musical is any indication of a typical sorority experience. It didn’t help that our cause that we ran into a younger girl from our sorority after the show who was in town visiting with her family. Stereotypes sneak up on you when you least expect them.

Saturday we woke up leisurely and went to eat at our favorite brunch place in Murray Hill called Penelope. Have I mentioned it yet? The Penelope people consider brunch to be an art form, and we consider it to be delicious. We then made our way over to Herald Square to browse around and shop, and made the hideous mistake of entering Macy’s.

The flagship store.

On a Saturday that also happened to be a holiday weekend.

Did I mention that there are three Starbucks inside this one store?

I camped out with AG in the Bandolino section while AV and KR searched for their perfect fall boots. I wasn’t even going to try- it was madness. Like Century 21 madness, just more civilized. They both made purchases, which somehow validated the time we spent there.

Saturday night we went to a restaurant called Cleopatra’s Needle for live jazz and Italian food. The place had great ambiance, and the saxophone player flirted with us and even dedicated a song to our table. It was a nice try. We made our way over to Rockefeller Center to see the tree and watch the ice skaters. And by “watch the ice skaters” I mean we watched them fall. Sunday the weather in the city was beautiful, and we spent as much time as we could outdoors. AG spotted some celebrities, and KR found her REAL pair of perfect boots, at the Steven by Steve Madden store. Steve himself even made an appearance at his store for the occasion.

I sent AG and LB to Century 21 without me on Monday morning. I did laundry instead, because I prefer sitting in a hot underground room with a book to Century 21. They did well and did not get lost at ALL.

I’m so proud.

"Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life. Well, not small, but valuable. And sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven't been brave? So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around? I don't really want an answer. I just want to send this cosmic question out into the void. So good night, dear void."

-Kathleen Kelly, "You've Got Mail"

Commensurate With Experience

This week has not been the greatest for any of us. It’s actually been rather awful (with glimmers of hope- albeit), to be perfectly honest.

It’s been the worst for AV. Her precious grandmother, Dot, passed away on Sunday back in Texas. AV maintains that her grandmother was her biggest supporter in her decision to move to New York, and would not hear of her doing anything other than exactly what she wanted to be doing. You know how there are things about people that precede them? Even before Dot fell ill unexpectedly a little over a month ago, I knew how wonderful she must be because of how loved by AV’s whole family she was. I may have never met her, but I know that she was vivacious and fun, that she was notorious for her great style and that she loved living independently. She will be missed.

AV also resigned from her current job on Monday, and will be starting a new one next week with THE company she would have hand chosen to work for in New York, even years ago. She had to get through the initial blow of telling her boss she was leaving, which she was dreading all weekend, but it had to be done. It was practice in confrontation, and who actually enjoys that? I harassed her all weekend for having two jobs, while I’m still hanging out with my big goose egg.

My friend MJ came to the city for PowerPoint training the past few days. MJ was my roommate during my study abroad program last summer- we shared many a World War II battle site adventure together: trenches, beaches, bunkers. You name it- we saw it. Basically, I introduced her to Nutella, and we became friends.

The company she works for in Houston literally incurred all expenses to send her to New York for two days. Beyond animation and bullet points, what’s there to know? “Oh plenty” said MJ, after spending an entire day with a woman who went through every possible PowerPoint scenario that no one ever wanted to know.

We met up and went to see Hairspray Wednesday night, and enjoyed every minute we spent in our third row orchestra seats. The show was amazing, but musicals really make me wish I could sing well. The woman who played Motormouth Maybelle brought down the house with her song “I Know Where I’ve Been”. Her voice literally gave me chills. I love singers who can do that- it’s the same with people who have really piercing eyes, something about them just reaches your soul. Does anyone know what I’m talking about? Good.

To update you on my job status, I’ll admit to the cyber world that I turned down a job today. It was with a company I had thought I wanted to work for, for a long time. When I got asked to interview for a job with them, I was ecstatic. Maybe my expectations were too high, maybe it just was not a great fit. Regardless, I ultimately said no. Something about it just did not feel right. I’m a big believer in intuition, and I try to pay attention to my own when it’s nagging at me.

Fortunately for me, my parents have been supportive of my decision. That’s been one of the only reassuring aspects of this whole process. I am working with some other options, and hopefully something will come of one of those.

Luckily my friends AG and LB came into town last night, and they have been making me laugh since the minute they got here. They have been taking my mind off of everything with their antics. The three of us went to find inexpensive show tickets this morning, and started out early. They wanted to see the Today Show, and when I reached Rockefeller Center I called to see where they were. They had already taken pictures of Al Roker and the massive Christmas tree that was delivered there this morning, and had moved onto the American Girl Place. Why didn’t I think of that?

We had an adventure looking for tickets- AG serenaded everyone outside of The Little Mermaid, which was just LB, myself and the technical crew who were just trying to eat breakfast. The shows for this weekend were sold out, and we went to check out Wicked. That was also a no-go, as well as a close call buying tickets for the wrong show altogether. After strike two, we made our way over to the Legally Blonde theatre (called Illegally Blonde half of the day by AG), and finally lucked out. We also got to meet some enthusiastic theater students who had rushed over to get tickets for tonight. They had seen it four times. That’s right, four.

We ate lunch at Peanut Butter Company in Greenwich Village today, and in lieu of lunch, I only have two words for you: toasted Fluffernutter. If I know anything- it’s peanut butter. Trust me on this one.

Did I mention it was a guy who told me that? He said you haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen frat boys dancing and singing on stage. I don’t know how I feel about that.

We’ll see in a few hours, I suppose.

"People talk about being successful or not being successful, but the concept of success is very ambiguous. There is no need to pursue other people's ideas of success."

-Ichiro

Falling Back

Figure I: THE New York Marathon
Figure II: "They look like rats with wings"
Figure III: Baby it's cold inside

It’s finally starting to look like a place we can call home around here.

Friday night we enjoyed a post-work (post-interview for me) nap while waiting for AV to arrive home from her office. It took her an hour and a half to get home on the bus. You’d think we would have learned our lesson with that mode of transportation by now.

We met up with some friends from our Community Group at church at the Hudson Hotel that night for a going-away party. One of the girls that leads our group is moving to London and her sister and roommate planned a fun night out for her before she leaves town. We knew the area, but walked a few blocks past the hotel initially because it was unmarked outside- no address and no name = posh in New York. You “just have to know” it’s there. I feel sorry for the Postal Service workers.

So we finally found where we needed to be, and took the escalator up to the second floor which had about four different (yet still unmarked) bars on the same floor. We located the Library, and met up with the girls from church to wait for the surprise. It was a little anti-climatic, considering we spotted the guest of honor and friends across the bar half past 10. It was a fun evening, considering we have been spending recent nights grocery shopping and buying curtains.

KR made us some waffles on Saturday morning- since her mother, the professional suitcase packer that she is, somehow managed to fit in a sandwich griller as well as a waffle iron into her bag of tricks. She also mailed us a bag of mini Snickers, which may have been intended for trick-or-treaters, but actually only made it as far as our glass kitchen jars.

We cleaned around our apartment yesterday after yet another trip to Bed Bath & Beyond, where we annoyed our fellow shoppers by testing out all of the hand-held vacuum cleaners on each other. Our place finally looks more put-together, though. We try to touch the coffee table as little as possible, considering it was assembled with a screw driver and the heel of a shoe, and might crumple the second we so much as look at it the wrong way.

I had made plans to meet up with our old friend MD, who got married in January and moved to NYC in February, and so we went to the Irish Rogue Pub to watch the Texas A&M/OU football game with the other Aggies in the city. Having limited cable and Internet access the past month, I almost did not realize how much I’ve missed watching college football. I love college football, but with all of the moving and weddings and being overruled by girls, I usually only catch up with the latest through ESPN.com and Sportscenter. If someone could find a way to market sports to make them a little more female-friendly to watch, they could make a lot of money… just a thought. Maybe it will be me, even though I don’t need much convincing.

We got to watch the 26-mile marker of the New York Marathon this morning, which was truly an inspiration. The day was beautiful and we got to see all of the leaders in the different divisions as they were coming up on the finish. We saw a woman who had to be around the age of 65 finishing in a little over two hours. 26.2 miles. Two-ish hours. She could be my grandmother, almost. You do the math.

Every five minutes or so I would convince myself it would be a good idea to train for one, only to mentally smack my imagination back into place five minutes later. It’s a good thing too, because I have marathon-running friends who would surely harass me about it if they heard.

Heaven forbid I challenge myself physically. And who can think about running when there’s a Snickers waiting for you in the kitchen?

In other news, an e-mail just popped up on my phone telling me that KR, who is currently sitting four feet away, just tagged me in new pictures on Facebook, which I obviously need to peace out to view.

It is also now confirmed that in the wake of Halloween, both my brother and KR’s are now bald. LH had sported a mullet for the big night; TR had bleached his hair to look like Zack Morris, respectively. Sometimes these things happen.

In the words of a pillow I once saw in KR’s mother’s kitchen:

“I’d give up chocolate, but I’m no quitter.”

Rabbit Rabbit

Halloween in New York City.

As if everyday here isn’t filled with enough weirdoes.

Seeing as I was on house arrest yesterday waiting for our fifth (and final) visit from the cable company, I had no idea the lengths that some people would go to around here for Halloween…but then again, I should not have been surprised. I was too distracted by the precious little pumpkins and Hermione Grangers in our neighborhood to notice the scary men in black capes wearing masks from every horror movie I’ve never seen.

We headed down to West 4th in the Village for the Halloween Parade after the girls got home from work last night. My only previous experience with parades was the Homecoming parade that my hometown would host in our downtown square when I was younger. My friend RW and I were even the mascots our junior year (it was cool- I promise) and we rode in the back of a convertible, waving to everyone while in our costumes and inching down Louisiana Street.

Anyways, I did not have the correct mental image of what this was going to be like. I should have known when KR, AV and I stepped off the subway and onto the busy platform only to wait for ten minutes before reaching the surface that I did not know what we were getting ourselves into. We reached the top and the madness ensued. KR’s phone was plastered to her ear as we started weaving through Bleecker Street to attempt to find RM, and AV and I gripped each other for dear life as we continued walking further into the crowds.

We finally found RM, still in his suit and tie from his job training, and we settled into an outdoor patio table at a Mexican restaurant so that we could view the mayhem from a safe distance. There were two conclusions drawn during our dinner:

1. Since Slutty ______ is always a popular choice for Halloween, it would only be fitting that since Jerry Seinfeld’s new Bee Movie just came out that girls would walk around dressed as Slutty Bumblebees. A Slutty Ladybug sidekick, or a cast of Slutty Disney Characters most often accompanied them.
2. An alarming number of men in New York dress up as women on Halloween. I’m talking heels (primarily boots, a few dared to wear pumps), dresses, panty hose, make-up, dresses, purses… the whole nine yards. Except I doubted that any of these guys watch football.

So after watching the spectacle that is Halloween in the Village from the safe haven of our table and my jeans and turtleneck- we ventured out again into the abyss of crazies. We made our way to Magnolia Bakery for cupcakes, since all the other kids were getting candy, and waited in a surprisingly short line for our favorite vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting. Magnolia is always an experience, because there is usually a considerable line to wait in (even late at night), there is an army of workers who look like they should be employed at an old record store rather than piping frosting, and there is always what we have affectionately come to know as a “Cupcake Bouncer”. He’s a guy who stands at the door (often in an apron) and keeps the peace among the people in line, and maintains the number of people passing in and out of the bakery. All that’s really missing is a VIP list and a velvet rope. We harassed him for allowing someone to breeze right in before us, and he explained that the guy “knew someone” inside. We should all be so lucky.

Returning back to the subway station with our little white boxes, a girl who was probably drunk asked us why we were holding white boxes. We explained and she looked at us as if it were the strangest thing she had seen all night. People dressed as themselves holding cupcakes- how avant-garde.

We had to wait in line to get back onto the subway, which was alarming. Once we were underground, we realized that half of the staircase was barricaded for the people coming in, and the other for people leaving. When the train would come in, they would get everyone off who wanted that stop, and they would corral them over to one side and let everyone else get on. The train arrived while we were with the rest of the cattle trying to get through the turnstiles, and suddenly it was every man for himself. As if New York isn’t one big game of Survival of the Fittest anyway. Out of the corner of my eye I saw RM and KR fleeing for a subway car three doors down, and AV and I darted into the first open door we could find.

I found an open seat next to a man who kept falling asleep leaning on me between stops, and then would wake up in a panic when the train halted and would frantically ask which stop we had reached.

I went to visit MK in Murray Hill this morning, and helped her prepare for the presentation she had this afternoon… and by “prepare” I mean I CHI-curled her hair and listened to her read through her note cards. I spent most of the day there in my Nike shorts; drinking coffee, reading, writing this thing, using her laundry facilities. I was distracted by the fact that I had purposely worn clothes to exercise in, and I put it off as long as possible, but inevitably pushed the button for the fifth floor and spent 25 miserable minutes on the treadmill.

We got to spend one last night hanging out with MK at her place tonight- doing our usual Thursday night routine of eating Libretto’s pizza and watching The Office. MK’s mom is in town, and we got to hear about her week working in New Jersey. The rest of their family was getting in town tonight as well, so we left and came home just in time to hit Broadway when all of the plays got out and every senior citizen from Central Park West refused to wait for the next bus.

Timing is, after all, everything.

“Ever notice that ‘what the hell’ is always the right decision?”
- Unknown Hollywood scriptwriter