A Hipster Checklist

We had a laugh over this...

A Hipster Checklist

Love living in NY. We actually know what "hipsters" are... something that doesn't necessarily exist in mass populations in the Midwest! :)

Should Be Done By Now

Picture taken along our walking tour yesterday... Store on 5th Ave.

A Visit from Mother: Day 1

As I shared in my post yesterday, S and I are enjoying a visit from my lovely stepmother (me a little more than S, because he's going to be stuck working while we are out exploring all week!) Already, we have gotten a fill of activities. Last night, we met friends at a new bar (new to us, as we'd never been) to play trivia. Questions were difficult, but the beer was exceptionally good! It was fun to have all our friends there for her to meet (now we have a witness to prove that we actually do have friends in Park Slope :)

This morning, after a wonderful Chai Tea Latte at the coffee shop (something I never get to do because I go to work too early), we headed to the Union Square to do a bit of shopping while waiting to meet S for lunch. (Found a sweatshirt jacket in a funky green/blue and a sweater for myself and mom a spring sweater jacket - all for under $20.) Lunch was at Spice and delicious as ever. I finally tried Phad Thai, and I'm sad I've been missing out on it all my life! (I think my friend L is correct about it being addictive... and Seth will be happy I've found something new Thai, because it'll be easier for him to talk me into eating Thai, one of his absolute faves.)

After lunch, S headed back to work :( and we headed up to Grand Central Terminal. Our reasoning for heading North being the American Girl store for a special treat for my youngest sister. We figured we'd head in that direction and tour around on the way!


From Grand Central, we walked to Bryant Park to find the park being taken over by Fashion Week (nothing interesting... just large white tents). From there, we headed to Time Square. In Time Square we saw the New Year's ball from this year (still propped up in its location in the sky) and last year's ball (again). We wondered through Time Square for a while. The sighting of M&Ms reminded me that I wanted to go to M&M's World where we got M&Ms of all colors!

Time Square (had to get a picture of the Hairspray Billboard for Em, heard she loves it!)

M&Ms are my favorite candy! My heaven.

With a bag full of chocolate, we headed off towards Rockefeller Center and the American Girl store by way of the Diamond District! When we finally got to the American Girl Place (after walking 2 blocks past it... City is to distracting!) we ended up spending quite a while exploring the store and all the outfits and accessories to go along with the dolls. Because of the long day and my desire to be in bed soon, I'll have to make an addition post about the store for my baby sister later! Watch for it! :)

Pretty diamonds. Dad got a phone call asking for a travel budget increase... he he! We were dreaming!

Actually got down close to the ice skating rink, something that usually doesn't happen because I'm always there when 10 million other people are.

American Girl Place brought back memories of my own childhood. I read the original books, Meet Kirsten being the first.

When we finally made our way out of the A.G. store, we decided to head towards Central Park, hitting the Disney Story and Bergdorf Goodman windows (again) along the way (also, another post another day) and even venturing into the underground Apple Store at 5th and 59th to play and dream of owning an iPhone (maybe in June...)

Disney Store

Apple Store. I was always curious about this... a funky store entrance. You go in and step down into the store by way of a spiral staircase.

Despite our exhaustion, tired legs, and the chill coming on from the sun going down, we ventured into Central Park a short ways. About half of our time was spent being entertained by some squirrels (easily entertained...) who loved M&Ms... Central Park was the end of our day's excursion; we jumped on the R and headed back to Union Square to pick S up from work and came home. Dinner was burgers from Bonnie's (amazing!) and afterwards, we've been relaxing and winding down. I did do some research and mapping for tomorrow's adventure - Thrift shopping through Brooklyn and Manhattan! Cannot wait! I've been wanting to check out the thrift scene since I moved here. Having a true thrift shopper visit was a guarantee I'd have a shopping partner up for the challenge. I mapped almost 20 shops, not sure how many we'll get through, but we definitely have enough to keep us busy!!!!

A picture I took inspired by a photo I saw recently on the blog 'this girl ...and her camera' where she took a photo accidentally having the ISO set high and created an over-exposed piece of art. Despite the mistake, her pictures (here and here) turned out beautiful... Her mistake inspired me to create this over-exposure!

Reflection of the Day

Park Slope Flea Market toaster... taken on the way to treat my stepmom to a sweet dessert from Sweet Melissa's after her day of travel from Texas to NYC! So happy she's here!!!!

Love on the 14th

Seth and I don't much celebrate Valentine's Day. We don't feel we must have a day to show our love at the same time everyone else is showing their love... SO, no special plans here... We love each other today, just as we do every other! (Plus we feel the holiday is a trick for people to spend money... on flowers, candies, and dinners out...)

We did get a sweet treat from my wonderful grandmother. Her handmade card made its way to our mailbox with a monetary gift. (Put it towards brunch this morning Grandma!) When the mail came the other day, we knew we had one of the special handmade cards... Seth was the first to grab it and refused to let me open it... I figured I'd let him this time, since I'm usually the one who enjoys the fun of opening the cards, being the first home to get the mail. :)

We also had a sweet email from Seth's father. It was filled with pictures of the family and titled "My Valentines". Seth and I enjoyed all the pictures, and I've looked back at them a couple times since :)

Despite not celebrating the holiday, we still share our love. Hope you all enjoy your Valentine's Day!

Dinner Party

Last night, we were so lucky to join friends for a wonderful dinner party Friday evening. Lauren made an amazing pasta and Vicky a delicious salad. There were plenty of bottles of wine to go around. Including a new find, a sweet German Riesling called Kees-Kieren Mia Riesling Lieblich. I've been leaning towards red wine lately, so it's nice to go back to white and make a find! I guess buying a bottle because I like the label wasn't such a bad idea after all!

Finding Peace Around Us

A few months ago I found an amazing blog that I immediately knew I had to follow... It is filled with creativity and inspiration. Her recent post was about the words she finds in the world around her. Some of her pictures included pictures from my beloved city. I wondered how she found these words in just a quick trip, and I live here and feel I don't have quite the collection! As I thought about it, I realized, I do have a start.

Check out her words at Kelly Rae's amazing blog. And below, I linked to a couple of my past posts with some words I've found around the city. I realized my theme for pictures is inspired by Peace.

Peace in the City... Click Here.

A trash can with a message... Click Here.

Williamsburg, Brooklyn Peace (fave)... Click Here.

With Kelly's inspiration, I'll be keeping an eye out for inspirational words around the city! Watch for more to come :)

Statue and the City

Saw the beautiful Statue today. I still get overly excited at the thought of being so close to this landmark. Remember, I do come from a state where landmarks a little bit more ... boring? We only saw it from the ferry, and didn't get off at Liberty Island. Sadly, we didn't have enough time. It would have been amazing to get a little closer, as most of the group hadn't been as close as the ferry took us today.

Our little ferry friend. He entertained many, along with his other bird friends.

The city, so small, so far away. The fog is definitely settled over the city, as I feel it has been for most of the sunny days recently. (Does weird things with the way the sun shines down... or at least this is my theory. I've been feeling that the sun just doesn't quite shine as bright and clear.)

I survived the days adventure! It was a beautiful day too. Couldn't have possibly asked for a better one! I didn't even need my winter jacket - even from the top deck of the ferry. I actually was quite warm (almost too warm) for part of the ferry trip. Our Ellis Island museum time was cut short with out schedule. The subway was a fun adventure, even if we were slammed in the doors a couple times while trying to keep them open for our whole group to make it on before the train pulled away! I love NYC. I just hope I'm not forced to move out of NYC this summer... I was told today to start planning for my layoff. Joy.

Wilting in Winter

These are not my plants, just some on a stoop somewhere on the Slope (obviously they are not mine, I only get to dream of having a stoop for my plants!!). But sadly, a few of my plants are falling to this plight. I am a bit clueless and very nervous about the state of my plants. I really don't want to fail at keeping them alive. I have managed to kill a few plants in the past, except for one guy, which I took clippings from and brought on the plane to NY last summer (it was way too big to move and Seth was always rather annoyed by this particular plant). I also brought spider plant clippings (that I got from a previous co-worker) on the plane as well. They've been living the life since last June, but now, I'm afraid their numbers may start to dwindle. Hopefully, I can figure out what to do with them -- maybe re-pot them and give them fresh soil next week over my break. January and February are always pull my spirits down. I can't help but wonder if these winter months have that same effect on the liveliness of my plants.

Today's warm weather made me hopeful for spring, but I reminded myself not to get too excited as I dreamed of leaving my winter coat behind and shedding the layers. February isn't even half over and March still holds the chance for a little winter weather. This photo also left me pining for warmer days. I cannot wait for spring and summer to make their presence known in our lives again. (I Really want to hit up the botanical gardens with my new camera! I keep thinking about it every few days!)

P.S. 3 more days until the weekend. I've survived, with only minor pains and abuses, the first 2 days of the week... A wink from a creeper at the 59th st. stop as my subway pulled out of the station... Disrespectful comments from a handful of 10 and 11 year olds who think they can speak to me as they please... Whatever though, my week is almost half over and tomorrow, I'm headed to Ellis Island!

Thoughts Branching Out

These branches are like my thoughts, too many to count and reaching in every possible direction. I wish I could get a hold of them and direct them a little more. Someday when I have time to really think, maybe I'll do something with all these thoughts. Family and friends, know I'm thinking of you, despite the fact that I haven't much made myself heard to you lately.

Quiet Ride in the Park

This picture is from a couple weekends ago. Caught a guy taking a ride through the park on his bike. What I would give to have been that rider this afternoon... any Monday afternoon. One day down, 4 to go until a week off from work!! One of my moms (stepmama from TX) is coming on Sunday, so I'm definitely counting down the days this week! Today was relatively painless, but I know it has to get worse, right?

Snowscrapers and Putt-Putt Golf

Saturday morning, after Seth met his brother early to work on a project they are starting (up at 6 a.m. on a Saturday... in my sleep I say "Go You!"), plans were made to meet for brunch and head into the city to a snow festival. We were both excited to spend our day with Phoenix! Our brunch destination was Bar Toto, which I've been craving for a couple weeks but have been unable to coax S to walk that far for brunch.


After brunch, we hopped on the F train and headed towards the Lower East Side for Winter Jam 2009 on the East River.

We saw a group of trampoline jumpers called the Skyriders. Loved the Williamsburg Bridge as the backdrop to the jumpers.

There was a 90-foot "snowscraper" for snowboarders to board down and do their jumps. We didn't stay long enough to see them go full on, but did catch a few jumps.

One of the snowboarders. Made me a bit nervous... I'd never be able to get the point of making a jump like that myself!

After we were snow fest-ed out, we headed towards Union Square so Seth and Ethan could pack up a few things from their old office and take to their new office.

The blue wall I posted a picture of yesterday (of myself) was a focus of my attention. I made Stephanie stand and let me take a pictures as I tested out different settings on my camera! She was such a good sport and let me click my heart out! This was my favorite shot, one of I've been wanting to try for a while.

To fill the rest of our time, we joined Phoenix at the putt-putt golf course on the floor below. (He had tried to convince me to venture downstairs with him on our short office adventure, but I guess I'm not as brave as his mama and him!) Stephanie and I followed them to their discovery downstairs.

There were 3 holes and a view of some wonderful rooftop gardens. I wish I had a golf area at work!

Phoenix putting the ball in.

There were 3 holes. One had the white cup to catch the ball. The second had the cup, but it wasn't staying in the hole correctly and had to be fixed (until P and his mama made the cup stick completely). The third was completely missing a hole. After putting a while, P turned his attention to the hole and what was down in it. We pulled out many things, including white plastic shavings and a ply-wood half moon. In order to see if anything else was down in the hole, a camera was used to snap pictures of the space underneath. The white cup was seen just a bit further, and I was the one who got my arm shoved down the hole to recover the it! I only had a short moment of panic on whether or not my arm would come back out -- the things we do for our favorite nephew!! :)

The view from the putting green.

S and E moving their boxes from one office to the next. Phoenix thought it would be a good time to give Uncle Seth a little tickle! We side-tracked him with a fun game of chase so Uncle Seth could focus on carrying the box and not drop it! :)

Seth and I love that cute little smile!

Blue Wall

I want this blue wall. When S and I live in a home where we can paint the walls, I will definitely chose colors that make good backgrounds for pictures :) For now, I'll just take advantage of them when I can... Sadly this wall will not be visited anymore, as it is at Seth's old office and today was the day they packed up and moved to a new one.

Secrets Written in the Windows

Last week, F*ed in Park Slope shared a story about a window full of secrets. Sad I didn't walk by it more regularly, I'd love to keep up on everyone else's secrets!

A Dumb New Yorker

You'd think I'd learn by now. I knew a snow storm was coming. I've been watching the weather and praying we get as much as they predict. The first thing I did this morning was check out the window (much as a young child would) to see if we had any snow yet. (I'm over the sad fact that school doesn't get canceled around here like it does at home... I just truly love the beauty of snow falling in the city.) ...Yet, what is it this snow-loving New Yorker hasn't yet learned? I'm a bit slow at figuring out when to wear the correct shoes (or close to correct, since I still don't own a good pair of water-proof snow boots - a must for any New Yorker!). I walked out of the house with my slip on Birkenstock-like shoes... and I suffered all the way home...

Someday I'll learn... and Hopefully soon, I'll be smart enough to buy some good boots!