All at Sea

June 2011 In Review

2012-01-29T07:16:00.000-07:00

...Took my bike out for it's first ride!

...Impact Day! Best work day of the year! The entire firm takes the day off and goes out into the community to do service. A group of us from International Tax did gardening work down on the Lower East Side

...Went to the Big Apple BBQ. BBQ-ers from all around the country gather to show off their best BBQ skills. We ate SO much delicious BBQ!

...Another Yankee game!

...ANCHORAGE!!! Ran my very first marathon and got to see some of the sights of Anchorage!

...Trip to Six Flags! My first time! It was so much fun and we rode some INSANE rollercoasters.

Oh my goodness...how I miss summer!!!!

May 2011 In Review

2012-01-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

...Spent a week in Mexico with a fam. I love Mexico so much-a week full of lounging in the sun, eating delish food, and relaxing!

...Went to another Yankee game! I was quite the Yankee fan this summer!

...Ran the Wall Streek 5k with a few of my coworkers

...Either I stopped using my planner for a couple weeks or just didn't do a thing. I have a few empty weeks....

...Went to Duck Beach and took next to no photos...ooops

April 2011 In Review

2012-01-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

...Went home for a Deloitte recruiting event. It was so lovely! I ran a race in Emigration Canyon, hung out with the fam, ate Cafe Rio, saw a good handful of friends, went back to my favorite Monday morning spin class (so fun to see lots of the same people there!) and went back to BYU representing Deloitte Tax NYC!

...Did a NYC staycation weekend for Jen's birthday! We ate lots of delish food and stayed in a fun hotel downtown! This is the only picture we managed to take of all of the stay-cationers together (minus Russ). And I obviously missed the memo on making a sad face...

...Went to a Yankee game!

...Went to an Elton John concert for free!! Right outside my building!

...decorated Easter Eggs!! I love Easter so much.

...Had a lovely Easter dinner at Karen and Ashley's house

...Fast Five Friday!!!! A group of us went opening night-one of the most fun opening night movies I have been to!

...Left for family vacation to CANCUN MEXICOOO!!!

March 2011 In Review

2012-01-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

...Coined March as "Say Yes" month so I said yes to nearly everything...eeeek

...Saw lots of movies

...Went to a Maple Sugar farm. We saw how maple syrup was made, got delicious breakfast, and bought far too many maple goods

...Ran the New York half marathon!! My first half marathon in about 2 years. It was so much fun. My dad was in town so he and some of the Queens fam came to watch me and a handful of my dear friends also met me at the finish line!

...Auctioned off a batch of cookies every week for a month at our ward service auction (don't worry that I am still repaying...such a slacker...)

...Went to a super hipster comedy show in Brooklyn. Seriously, was the ONLY one in the room without a plaid flannel shirt and thick rimmed glasses. I think everyone looked down on my for my business casual, clean hair, and pearls...

February 2011 In Review

2012-01-27T17:58:00.000-07:00

...joined TNT and decided to run the Mayor's Marathon in Anchorage, Alaska. We started training in the dead of winter so of course I needed to buy some new winter running gear!

...it's pancake month at Clinton Street Baking Company so of course I had to make a few trips there for their delish pancake specials

...taught Sunday school for the first time ever. Terrifying.

...went to the Joshua Radin concert! Love and love him. And I never get tired of seeing him live.

...ICELAND adventure!! I loved Iceland more than I was expecting to. Highlights included the Blue Lagoon, Fishing, a nice run around Reykjavik, eating crazy meats, seeing the waterfalls and geysers, and riding those precious horses! This is a picture of our whole group with a glimpse of the Northern lights behind us!

...took a few hip hop dance classes. Turns out I am not very "hip hop" but it was a good time!

January 2011 In Review

2012-01-26T21:30:00.000-07:00

So I have been meaning to do a year in review post for a while now (approximately 26 days) and have decided to do it monthly. Chances are very high that I won't get through all the months of the year, but I sure am going to try...So without further ado, here are some highlights of January 2011...

...Continued the New Years tradition of spending it with these girls (and Jennica and Kathryn). Complete with cheesy girl movie, slumber party, food network in the morning, and a day full of laziness...

...Gigi joined the Masihdas family. I wanted to get my mom a kitty for her birthday. My parents both insisted that they didn't want another cat (although I know they really did) and I convinced my mom to "just go look" at the humane society one day before I left to return to NYC. For the record, no one can "just go look" at that place. It really is heartbreaking. We came home with this little gem...It's a miracle we didn't come home with more. We couldn't even go look at the dogs because my dad really would've killed us if we came home with a kitten and a puppy. We'll save that one for another time...

...Every year I'm on a client in Piscataway, NJ on my birthday. I have spent the past 2 birthdays in NYC working 15+ hour days and hanging out in the hotel there. My dear friends sent me these beautiful flowers as a surprise to the hotel on my birthday. Seriously made my day.

...work, work and more work

...NYC got a billion inches of snow-so much so that we had a snow day from work!! I took advantage by going to lunch with Ashley. After lunch, we came upon this little gem in the middle of the sidewalk

That's about it for January!! Be on the lookout for a February 2011 update soon!

Tuesday Tunes

2012-01-24T11:42:00.000-07:00

I am still loving those two songs from last week. As in haven't stopped listening to them non-stop yet. I'm sure eventually I'll get sick of them? Today you get two of my favorite Jamie Cullum songs!!

All at Sea
I think this maybe my all time favorite song. I saw Jamie perform this song on Jay Leno and I fell in love immediately. He is SO talented and puts on one of the best concerts I have ever seen. Check him out-you will love him too!

Get Your Way
This is another great one! From his second album. Love and love.

Happy Tuesday!!

Endorphins!!

2012-01-23T20:57:00.000-07:00

January is kind of a funk month. The holidays are over. The sun doesn't come out. It's cold and grey and gross out there. And to top it all off, I keep getting emails from the ING Miami team about that one run that I was supposed to do this weekend. In MIAMI. Where it's 75 degrees, sunny, and fabulous. Humph. Needless to say, I've kind of been in a funk.

Tonight I left work at a normal time (treasuring these moments while they last). It was raining outside and just generally yuck out there. I had all my spin stuff with me as I was meeting a friend at the gym after work for spin class. Part of me just wanted to stay on the subway and continue on home to my nice warm, dry, cozy house. But of course I couldn't skip out on my friend and leave her to fend for herself in spin! So I made myself go.

Best. Decision. of the Week.

It felt SO good to workout. Between the boot, and being sick, and life craziness, it has been a little while since I've been to the gym. And even though I had to sit the entire spin class (torture a little bit. counting down the days until I can spin like a normal person) it was so great to just be there, with the music going, and everyone pumped up to work out. I forgot how much I love endorphins and how happy they make me!!! And of course every time I think about endorphins I think about this clip...

It was a great start to the week, and hopefully I can continue the good workouts in my handicapped state...

PS. the boot comes off Wednesday!!!! eeeeeekkkk!!!

Tuesday Tunes!

2012-01-17T19:48:00.000-07:00

I am an incredibly inconsistent blogger at best. But I'm going to try to be better! I saw this on someone else's blog (of course) and thought it was fun. Here are two of my favorite songs lately that I just cannot stop listening to....

Andrew Belle-In My Veins
Love love and love
Courtesy of my newest obsession, Vampire Diaries (seriously has such a great soundtrack)

Birdy-Skinny Love
Cannot stop listening
Also courtesy of Vampire Diaries. I know that Bon Iver was the original singer of this song, but I die for this version. Love that piano.

What do you think? Please tell me you love them too! What are some of your current favorite songs??

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

2011-12-14T22:11:00.000-07:00

One of my newest favorites, Andrew Belle sings Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas...

Only one more week until I go home! Yayyy!

fortune cookie says...

2011-12-12T21:27:00.000-07:00

"Nothing is better than the riches of a sound body"

Funny. Thanks fortune cookie-I am well aware of this fact right now.

In other news, my doctor gave me the OK to run my last race to qualify for the NYRR 9+1 program for the New York Marathon next year before giving me the dreaded boot (Dec 21-mark your calendars). So while I won't be running in Rome I will be running the NY marathon next year!! YAY!! I am excited/nervous for this last run-it's 9 miles in the park. Eeeeek. Kind of a big jump from my 5 mile run last weekend. But I will finish-regardless of whether I run, walk, or crawl.

I'm putting together a playlist of my most favorite songs for this run but am in need of some good new music...any suggestions anyone?

stress fractured

2011-12-07T17:49:00.000-07:00

well. the diagnosis is in. and my foot is in fact stress fractured. what does this mean? no miami half marathon. no rome marathon. a very snazzy and stylish boot (read terrible walking cast velcro-strapped boot) for 3 weeks. and 6 weeks off of running completely.

needless to say. today was a less than great day.

HBBC Week 2

2011-12-06T12:45:00.000-07:00

Here are what the stats look like for week 2. My foot has seriously been acting up-my doctor and PT think it may be a stress fracture. Cue freak out here...I have been taking it easy during the week so I can at least get my long runs in on the weekends. I went in for an MRI yesterday. First MRI ever! Kind of an adventure. I don't think I have held that still for so long, ever. I should find out the results tomorrow or Thursday. Eeeek!

Anyways...HBBC week 2 round up:
Mon: 1 hr of power dance-4 points
Tues: 1 hr of weight lifting-3 points
Grand total: 7 points!

HBBC: Week 1

2011-11-25T20:14:00.000-07:00

I'm participating in the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge this year! It's a blogger challenge to stay active and healthy during the holidays. I think it will be a fun way to keep me motivated and working out through December!

Here is my point breakdown for the first week:

HBBC button: 2 points
Race to Deliver: 4 miles (4 points)
Spin class: 40 minutes (4 points)
Prospect Park Turkey Trot: 5 miles (5 points)
Turkey bowl football game: 1 hour (4 points)

Weekend Update!

2011-10-11T15:39:00.001-06:00

It was a lovely weekend in NYC last weekend. The weather was PERFECT!! I almost needed to pull out the sundresses again it was so warm! I wish the weather would stay like that forever. I am dreading the cold, terribleness that is winter...

Friday:
Friday afternoon around 3pm my manager came over and told me that I could finish what I was working on next week and take off. She didn't need to tell me twice-I was out of there in a flash. The weather was sunny and cool-perfect weather for a mid-afternoon run! I ran just 3 miles along the river and it was so wonderful!

After my run, I decided to bake. Ages and ages ago my ward did a charity auction for the tsumani relief in Japan. I auctioned off a month's worth of homemade cookies and have yet to pay up. I finally baked batch #1-Sea salt chocolate chip cookies. SO yummy! And after a week with no treats/sweets, they tasted even better!

There was an NYC singles conference going on this weekend and Friday was the opening fireside. Elder Nash spoke and it was actually really good! After the fireside, scary movie month continued with a showing of Scream. Scream is a little bit more funny than scary-to see that guy running around with that mask and that funny black outfit. I actually fell asleep half way through so we have yet to finish it!

Saturday:
The conference continued on Saturday with workshops and a lunch. Saturday afternoon we split up into groups and went on various excursions around the city. I was supposed to lead the Highline walking tour but they didn't need me so I joined the group heading over to the Met. We walked through the park-which was so lovely. I haven't had a leisurely park walk in a while!

View of the Bethesda fountain!

Usually when I go to the Met it's either winter or it's raining, so I've never been able to go on the roof. Saturday was the perfect day for finally visiting the roof! It's really cool up there, you can see fun skyline views and the treetops in the park. They have some cool sculptures up there and a bar. It's a fun little spot to hang out! After hanging out on the roof a bit, I went and hung out in my favorite spot in the museum-the room with the ancient Egyptian temple surrounded by water. I LOVE that place. I have got to get to Egypt one of these days! I spent the rest of the afternoon walking back through the park and hanging out outside. It was just too nice to not be inside!

Saturday night my friend Rachel threw a favorite things party. It was really fun!! Everyone brought a fun favorite thing for a gift exchange. We just hung out, ate delicious treats, and got to see everyone's favorite things. Such a fun idea for a girls get-together! I got this really cool dry shampoo, which is now my newest favorite thing-anything to let me get a little more sleep in the mornings!

Sunday:

I lounged in bed forever on Sunday which was so wonderful! Lately I have been up earlier on the weekends than I am during the week. Eeeek! It felt really good to just lounge a bit.

Sunday afternoon was filled with church, a linger longer, another walk through the park, and a nap!

Sunday night my friend Angela made a bunch of us a delicious Brazilian dinner. I need to expand my cooking horizon and learn how to cook new things! After Brazilian dinner, I headed down to Caroline and Steph's for a little rooftop s'mores fun. Again, perfect night to be outside. We won't have many nights like that left so might as well make the most of it!!

It was a nice, low-key weekend. And as usual, it went by WAY too fast!

The Friday Five: Round 2

2011-10-07T12:25:00.000-06:00

It's time for another Friday Five!

1. What I'm reading...

Still reading Memoirs of Cleopatra and still loving it. Thank goodness for the Kindle. The book is almost 1000 pages and there's no way I'd be hauling that thing around in my purse! Caesar was just murdered...bring on Marc Anothony!!

2. What I'm listening to...

I have a new favorite song. I listen to it at least 5 times a day and may dance in my chair while I'm listening...

3. What I'm watching...

We decided to get cable back so I've been watching Boy Meets World and What I Like About You as I get ready in the morning. I just love those cheesy shows! Who didn't love Corey, Topanga, and Shawn?!

4. What I'm eating...

TACOS!!!! Tuesday was National Taco Day so of course Jen and I had to celebrate by going to La Esquina and getting their delicious tacos and corn. I love tacos so much-I could seriously eat them every day for the rest of my life and be happy!

5. What I'm pinning...

Again, still not into pinning, but from reading blogs, I have seen a TON of delicious pumpkin things that other people have found from pinterest. I found some pumpkin at Trader Joe's yesterday so I'll be trying out a delish pumpkin recipe this weekend! YUM!

What are your Friday Five?!

It's official..

2011-10-06T09:42:00.000-06:00

...I signed up for my SECOND MARATHON!!!!!

Registration is complete-I am in! Plane tickets are purchased.

18 March 2012

The course: awesome-you run past all of the wonderful things in Rome

The food: um hello? carb loading in Italy? yes please!! Gelato as an after race treat? yum!!

Training starts November 1st!! I could not be more excited!!!

Weekend Update!

2011-10-03T09:22:00.000-06:00

**I started writing this on Monday when it was more applicable, but didn't get to finish until today...ooops...

It was a really nice weekend. Slow, quiet, and relaxing. I love conference weekend. It seems like it always comes along right when I am needing it!

Friday-
Went and saw Fast Five in IMAX! Ha ha ha! I got an email from AMC saying they were showing select movies in IMAX for only $7!! That is almost as cheap as a morning movie! And forget ever seeing a normal IMAX movie for this price. It was the perfect rainy Friday night activity. And who doesn't love a little bit of Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, and the Rock to start the weekend off right?

Saturday-

Started with morning with a little race in Central Park. I decided a month or so ago that I want to run the NYC Marathon in 2012. The NYRR has this program that if you run 9 races and volunteer at 1 in the calendar year, you automatically get into the marathon the next year. Since I decided to do this with 4 months left in the year, I am going to be running a slew of races in the next few months to get my 9 races in. Saturday morning was the Norway Run-a nice 1.7 mile run of the lower loop of the park. They had a half marathon option-2 loops of the park, but I am not anywhere near trained for that and 2 loops of the park sounds like the most boring route of all time. After my run, I went to spin class and spun my little heart out. I just love spin so much!!

Saturday afternoon was occupied with conference. I LOVE conference weekend. It's so nice to just stay holed up in the house, in pajamas, watching the leaders of our church and listening to their guidance and counsel.

Saturday evening Jane and I went to the Russian/Turkish baths in the East Village! It was actually a lot of fun. They have a bunch of different saunas and steam rooms. You just hang out and chat. I feel like everywhere I go is freezing-work, my apartment, the subway (they still have the air conditioners on!) so it was nice to just hang out and be warm. I definitely want to go back-especially during the cold winter months!

Sunday-

Sunday was full of food and conference. It was Ashley's birthday so we did a pre-conference brunch. It was SO delicious-Karen did an amazing job with the food. I made a quiche which was also yummy-I love quiche. And actually all brunch food in general.

Brunch was followed by conference, a between conference nap, and then more conference.

Sunday night we had some people over for dinner. I bought a crockpot (eeek! so excited!) so for the crock pot's maiden voyage we made Cafe Rio pork and had pork tacos. The maiden voyage was a success. Dinner was a lot of fun. It was a good, random group of people and the food was delish!

That is about it for my weekend update. It was a good, relaxing weekend!!

The Friday Five: First Attempt

2011-09-30T08:30:00.000-06:00

I saw this on another blog and thought it might be fun so here it goes!

1. What I'm reading...

The Memoirs of Cleopatra...a historical fiction book all about Cleopatra and ancient Egypt. I am so fascinated by all of it! Great book to make the 40 min commute to and from Brooklyn just speed by.

2. What I'm listening to...

This morning it was ABBA!! Nothing like some great 70s Europop to get the morning started!

3. What I'm watching...

Felicity! Thank you Netflix for finally getting the entire series on instant watch. Poor Felicity is such a crazy cakes-but I am loving watching all of the Felicity-Ben-Noel drama unfold again!

4. What I'm eating...

Far too many treats! Being out at the client site and having candy and treats at my fingertips is WAY too dangerous. I need to get back to my no treat eating again!! AND conference weekend food! Yum!

5. What I'm pinning...

I haven't caught onto the pinterest craze yet...eeeeek.

What are your Friday Five?!?

Spotted: Tate Donovan on the Upper West Side

2011-08-10T09:18:00.000-06:00

They are filming Gossip Girl! a couple blocks up from my apartment. Andrea was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Ed Westwick (Chuck Bass) last night. Me and sister took the long way to the subway this morning hoping to catch him again. Unfortunately they were just getting stuff set up but we did see Mr. Jimmy Cooper sitting on a stoop having breakfast!! I couldn't snap a picture without being crazy papparazzi-like, but it was definitely him!

My new bike!!

2011-08-04T13:25:00.002-06:00

I love love love spin class so for a while I have been wanting a road bike. Well, I finally got with it and decided to get one. I got it right around the height of my marathon training so I've only ridden it a couple of times. Real road biking is sure different from spinning-from the clipping in and out, to the gears, to having to maneuver around other bikers, people, dogs, streetlights, etc. I'm so excited to get into real riding and to be a real biker!!

My inagural bike ride. Please notice my awesome biking outfit and also that it matches my bike. Ha ha ha. We rode down from my house to battery park and then over to Shake Shack for a celebratory dinner.

The view of the sunset over Jersey City from Battery Park

Me, Anita, Preston, and Eric-posing with our bikes near battery park.

This is a scary picture of me. Eeek! Andrea and I went for a morning ride in the park and I used my clip in shoes for the first time. After I finally got clipped in, I couldn't clip out! I definitely tipped over on my bike, feet still attached to the pedals, in front of a big group of tourists. Totally scraped up my elbow, my knee, and bruised my palm (who even knew that was possible?!?). I felt like a 5 year old-who falls off of their bike when they are in their 20s?!? At least everyone in the park got some entertainment that day...

Me, Eric, Anita, James and Elise at the entrace to the park after a Saturday morning bike ride. This was my first time on my bike since falling off a few weeks before. I will admit that I was nervous about using those silly shoes again. Thankfully one fall was all it took and I'm happy to report that I rode the entire park (terrifying hills and all) AND I didn't fall off at the end. Ha ha ha! I'm excited for cooler weather and longer rides!!

July 2011

2011-08-02T12:47:00.001-06:00

How on earth is it August already?!? This summer is just FLYING by and I'm not ready for it to end yet! Eeek! I had grand intentions of taking a photo a day every day in July and being great at posting them for a whole month of summertime fun. And then that definitely didn't happen. Oops.

July was a great month! I took the first 2 weeks off from work which was so wonderful. I had a lovely 4th of July weekend in the city complete with a family party, trip out to Long Beach, and watching the Macy's Fireworks from a friend's awesome rooftop.

Me and my grandmother!

BBQ time on the roof!

Our view of the fireworks over the Hudson

Then it was home to SLC to hang out with the fam for a week and a half and for my friend Tawni's wedding (which I didn't take any photos of. boo.) Home was SO great. I spent some time in Park City at our time share with the padres, ate lots of Cafe Rio, saw friends I hadn't seen for like 2 years, had a daddy-daughter golf date with my dad, Caroline and her dad, Hiked the Y with sister, celebrated Megan's birthday with her, and crashed the parents' empty-nester dinner. It was sure hard to come back to work...

YUM! So happy to have Rio again!

Allison, Me, and Lara-we were lucky enough to all be in SLC at the same time for one day!

Daddy-Daughter golf time! Considering I hadn't golfed in about 2 years, I did pretty decent...

Caroline and I with our signature pose-we have 10 years worth of photos doing this same pose

Me and Sister on our way up Y mountain! There is a reason I only did that once in college

Me, Jennica, Camilla and Megan

The rest of the month was fine. Nothing to crazy-work, hanging out, birthday dinners, going to the beach, etc. It has been a great summer in the city! One more month to live it up!!

I'm a marathoner!!

2011-06-23T15:07:00.001-06:00

Last weekend was quite the weekend! It was finally time for the Mayor's Marathon in Anchorage Alaska!! Way back in February I joined Deloitte's Team in Training team and signed up to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society while training to run my very first marathon!! Well, after four and a half months of training, including training runs in Central Park, Iceland, the basement of my hotel in Mexico (apparently it's not safe to be running about the city?), North Carolina, and the bridges of NYC, all of my hard work paid off!

I flew up to Alaska on Thursday 16 June and met up with the rest of the NYC TNT group. We spent Thursday and Friday exploring the city (more like small town) of Anchorage Alaska. Some highlights included a trolley tour of the city, crazy Alaskans all over the place, eating delicious halibut, salmon, and reindeer sausage (not that wonderful...poor Rudolph), sunshine all day and well into the night, and a love affair with an incredible black mink fur coat (seriously LOVED the coat and it fit like a dream! obviously it was made for me!).

(the Anchorage city skyline behind the trees)

(me and a reindeer sausage...mehr. not that fabulous, despite my excited face)

(THE COAT. my one true Alaskan love!)

Obviously the main event of the weekend was the race. I had laid out my race outfit, fuel, shoes, etc the night before and woke up excited and surprisingly not nervous at all! There were buses at the hotel to take us to the marathon start line. We got there a few hours early so we had time to hang out, eat breakfast, get our last bits of rest in. It was a very small race-all of us fit into a little section of a high school parking lot. Quite a change from the NY road runners races of 10,000+ people! Around 7:30 we finally lined up in the starting coral and by 8am we were on our way! It was almost surreal that I was actually running the marathon!

(Amanda, Me, Jenny, and Nick at the starting line!)

The course was really beautiful. For the first part we ran along the highway, which sounds terrible, but it was not busy at all and the surroundings were really pretty. We ran past a cool river and a really green foresty area. I ran the first 10 miles without music which is a little bit unusual. I usually have to have my music but the energy of the people around me and the beautiful scenery kept me entertained. Around mile 7 we left the nice paved road for a wide, rocky, gravely road called the Tank Trail. I think it's called the Tank Trail because actual army tranks train on it? Not quite sure. The tank trail was not my favorite but not the horror situation I had imagined it to be. We ran on that trail for 5 or 6 miles then turned into an actual wooded trail-as in a hiking, one lane trail. Again, I was super nervous about the trail but it actually turned out to be better than the tank trail because it was not rocky. Finalemente around mile 16 we were done with the trails and back on paved ground! I had a tiny moment around mile 17 at the bottom of a large hill but I told myself to suck it up and keep going-I still had 9 miles to go!

(me and the river-about 4 miles in)

(the tank trail)

(the hiking path)

I make my race playlists according to the mileage. Everyone had said that miles 18-24ish are the worst so I saved all my best songs for that playlist. It was seriously a lifesave and got me through those miles! Around mile 20 I started to actually feel really good and kept a pretty good pace. I still haven't loaded my garmin stats so I'm interested to see all of my splits! The course after mile 20 was nice-we ran through some parks and on paved trails through the woods. We ran around this really pretty lake. Around mile 25 my ipod died! AH! I was so glad that I went without it the first 10ish miles because that would've been so terrible if it had died around mile 16. Also, around mile 25.5 there was an enormous hill. Rude and rude. I think I literally stopped and said out loud "are you kidding me?!?" Our TNT coaches were there and got me up and over the hill. And then just like that, the finish line was right there! I ran strong to the finish and ended with a smile on my face!

(me shortly after finishing! 26.2 miles!!)

All in all I had a really great time. The course was beautiful. The weather was great. And I had fun running!! It was fun being there with TNT and a group of friends, all running for the same cause. A HUGE thank you to all who donated to LLS in support of my race!! Seriously, you are so great. And if you didn't donate and still want do-good news! You still can!!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/anchor11/emasihdas

(me at the finish backdrop with my medal!)

Now that the race is over, it's time to start thinking about my next one...Rome 2012...Here I come!!!

Spotted: Glenn Close on the UWS

2011-04-25T14:13:00.002-06:00

Spotted on 73rd bewteen Broadway and Amsterdam, on my way to work (late of course)

A Night with Elton

2011-04-22T11:49:00.000-06:00

So Wednesday morning as I was riding the subway to work, reading the Metro, I came across an interesting article. It talked about the Tribeca Film Festival and events that were going on to celebrate the opening of the festival. Well, one of the events of opening night was a showing of the documentary The Union followed by a performance by Sir Elton John! Even better news-he was playing right in the World Financial Center (where I work) and anyone could get tickets! When I got into the office I told my coworkers and after convincing them that I was not making it up, a group of us decided to take a field trip during work to see if we could get tickets.

We waited in line for longer than anticipated, but we ended up getting in! YAY!! Excitment was in the air the rest of the afternoon as we anxiously awaited Elton time!! They showed the movie outside by the water.Thankfully it was not raining but it was colder than cold, and I was unprepared to spend an entire evening outside so I froze my face off. The movie was interesting- it talked about Elton and Leon Russell (who I had never heard of) and their colaboration for their recent album. By the end of the movie, I was freezing and anxious for it to be over.

When EJ came on and started singing though, it was worth it! He started off with Tiny Dancer, one of my favorites. Then played an interesting rendition of Rocket Man, a few songs from his new album, I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues, and ended with Your Song, one of my favorites. He is such a great performer and is so amazing on the piano! I am convinced that I must see a full Elton concert. It was a great night and definitely worth the wait in the cold!!

This is a photo of the screen-we were kind of far away but you can see tiny live Elton in the bottom left corner...ha ha

Weekend Recap

2011-04-06T15:41:00.000-06:00

I had a wonderful, busy weekend at home (one in which I took zero photos. oops). Thanks Deloitte for sponsoring my trip!! Let me just say that I hate flying. I hate sitting in those seats and watching the airplane on the map creep across the country slower than slow. I get too antsy to read, to bored to watch TV. So I end up just sitting there, wishing I could fall asleep, or urging the plane to go faster. To top things off, on this flight I was sitting in the row in front of the exit row which meant my seat did not recline! Ah! I survived the flight and got into UT around 11.

Saturday:

I ran the Salt Lake 10 miler! More to come on that race...
Went to visit my Abuelita and helped get her house ready for my Aunt Patty who is moving to UT from Colombia!
Quick shower/conference/after race nap
Shopping with sister! I made it out without purchasing anything. Yay me!
Cafe Rio-definitely a must while at home
Michael Jackson Just Dance with the fam. SO FUNNY watching the parents play

Sunday:

Delicious breakfast cooked by my mamma-she made bacon. YUM.
Conference time
Delicious dinner cooked by my mamma (the weekend involved a lot of eating)
Dessert night with some of my favorite Utah friends-It's always so fun to see them when I'm in town! I have such great friends-I am so lucky!
Trip down to Provo to spend the night at sister's place. So strange to be back in Provo and back at BYU off-campus housing. What?!? This entire building is just full of girls? Strange.

Monday:

Paid a visit to my old favorite spin class!! It was so great-and totally worth waking up at 5am for. Camilla posted a great summary of Todd's spin class on her blog here.
Ran errands with Mamma
Trip #2 to Cafe Rio. Still so delicious.
Nap time!
Deloitte Final Four event at Sundance (the reason I got to go to UT in the first place)-It was so funny to be on the other side of the whole recruiting thing. I saw a lot of old accounting friends, BYU professors, and even the people who interviewed me for my internship at Deloitte!
Back to SLC to pack and rush to the airport. Made it just in time to get in line to get on the plane.
Bumpiest, most turbulent plane ride ever. And on the landing we hit the ground so hard I thought we had crash landed (my judgement may have been impaired in my sleepy state...)

It was a really great couple days at home! I only wish that I had been able to be there longer!!

NYC Half Marathon Finisher!! (a few weeks late but better late than never right?)

2011-04-05T21:37:00.000-06:00

I did it! I finished the NYC Half Marathon!! I actually had a really great race. The NYC half is a fun one. You run a loop and a half of central park, then run down 7th Avenue through Times Square, and then finish the run by running down the West Side Highway along the Hudson to downtown NYC.

It was the first half that I have run in 2 years so I was a little bit nervous. The longest training run that I had done previous was 8 miles so 13.1 miles felt like a big jump. Of course I bought a new running outfit. Ha. Unfortunately, in purchasing my new outfit I overestimated how warm it would be outside and ended up wearing my black jacket over it.

(Yes, this is me at 5:30 am self portraiting in Andrea's room)

After a breakfast of half a banana and half of an english muffin with peanut butter I headed out my door to catch a cab to the start line. My cab driver was very chatty and wanted to know all about the race. He also told me that I didn't sleep enough and probably wouldn't be able to finish! Thanks buddy. Ha. I got to my starting corral and had about 45 min until the race started. Don't worry that it was 37 degrees at the start line. I have never been so anxious to start running!

I love races! I love the energy of everyone around you and the excitement in the air. I was so glad that it was not raining and even though it was freezing, it was looking like it would be a nice day. It was fun to see the crowd, see what other people were wearing, and just to see all the different kinds of people that were running. The NYC Half Marathon had about 10,000 participants-people from all around the world. So fun!

The running itself was actually fun. The first couple miles are always the hardest for me. I have to give myself major pep talks for most of the first few miles and then after that I get into the groove and can keep going. My dear friend Jane was there to cheer me on right before the terrible hills at the north end of the park. Goodness, I need to practice running hills because I hate them so much. Thankfully we only ran the hills once and the rest of the course was flat/slightly downhill. Anita and Julia were cheering for me around mile 8 with fun, colorful signs. My dad, Aunt Camille and cousin Chris greeted me around mile 12-one more mile to go! Then I saw Anita and Julia again right before the finish line.

It felt so great to finish!! It was barely faster than my slowest half time but I felt really great at the end as opposed to feeing like I was going to die like I have in my other races. I had a great time running and it was so fun to have so many friendly faces along the way! I have such fantastic friends!! I got my foil blanket thing and my medal (the most important part) and met up with Anita, Julia, Jen, Russ and Eric. We all made our way over to the WFC to meet up with the fam and then headed towards the subway.

Friends all made their way to church/naptime and me and the fam went to brunch at Good. I had my traditional after race tacos and my much anticipated Diet Coke (I had given up all carbonation and candy for the 2.5 months before the race)! All-in-all it was a great race and I had a good time!! Can't wait to run another!

I'm coming home!

2011-04-01T11:38:00.002-06:00

See you tonight SLC!

Funny Kitten Can't Jump

2011-03-23T21:08:00.001-06:00

I kind of had a less than wonderful day today. But this video never ceases to make me laugh...and yes. I just might be becoming one of those crazy cat people. Oh well. Watch it a few times-it will make you laugh too. Love it.

5k disasters

2011-03-16T20:44:00.000-06:00

Today with my running group we had a 5k race. I didn't really run it at race pace mostly because I don't want to overdo anything for Sunday. And partly because I was so tired and just not in the mood to run today. Couple that with the fact that my garmin died part way through my run and the fact that I was dressed for 35 degree weather when it was about 50 degrees out-it was just not the best run. Which makes me NERVOUS for Sunday! If I'm not having a great time running a 5k, how on earth am I going to do 10 more miles on top of that?!? Eeeeek!

The next couple of days will be spent pumping myself up for Sunday, creating a fantastic race day playlist, and dreaming of that diet coke I'm going to drink when I finish. Ha.

I'm coming home!!!!

2011-03-16T13:21:00.000-06:00

Just got word that I get to go to a Deloitte recruiting event at BYU!!

That means-I'M COMING HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am the most excited to spend a weekend at home with the fam

-and even better-

courtesy of Deloitte!

YAY!

3.14159

2011-03-14T21:02:00.000-06:00

Happy Pi Day! I didn't realize it was Pi day the end of the day. So I did nothing to celebrate. No pie eating. No thinking about Pi. Nothing. Oops. There's always next year I suppose.

I have been reading people blog about their pies they made today in honor of Pi. I think these are my favorite. How cute are mini pot pies?!? Everything on that blog looks so delicious-I can't wait to try some of the recipes!

NYC Half Marathon in One Week!!!

2011-03-13T22:24:00.000-06:00

This photo was taken after I finished my first half marathon in April 2008. In one week I am running the NYC Half Marathon!! The last time I ran a half was in 2009...eeek! I am actually really excited for the race! It's a great course-through Central Park, Times Square, and down the West Side Highway. I did an 8 mile run yesterday with my Alaska Marathon Training Group (longest training run I've done...oops. Haven't been the most diligent at training) and it felt good. We did 4 miles up the West Side Highway and 4 miles back. The 4 miles back were BRUTAL because we were running against the wind but nonetheless we finished strong and I am not sore today! Can't wait to run those 13.1 miles on Sunday!!

Iceland!!

2011-02-27T22:14:00.000-07:00

I am the worst at blogging. Oops. I spent President's Day weekend in Iceland with 8 friends. I LOVED it! We had such a fab trip-I liked Reykjavic much more than I thought I would. We compiled all of our pictures and we had over 1100 photos of our 4 day vacation. Eeek. Somehow we whittled it down to the 200 best shots.

Check them out in our Iceland facebook album...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2021809&id=3501738

2011 Resolutions!

2011-01-09T16:56:00.000-07:00

I love New Year! I love New Years Eve-counting down to ring in the New Year. I love the chance to examine my life and set new goals. Unfortunately, last year, I did not do a very good job with any of my New Years Resolutions. I think part of the problem was I wrote them in a spreadsheet (yes, I may or may not have a spreadsheet entitled "my life according to a spreadsheet"-I am a nerdy accountant) and then kind of forgot about them.

This year I have a renewed energy for making and keeping my resolutions. I made eleven resolutions to celebrate 2011. (PS-my birthday is 1.11.11-kind of cool right?)

I thought I'd share some of my favorite resolutions...

Run 750 miles this year: I have been reading a handful of running blogs and they've inspired me. Once upon a time, I enjoyed running. I think it took about 2 months of training for my first half marathon before I actually enjoyed it, but I did start to love it. I kind of fell off the running band wagon after moving here, but I really want to climb back on. I'm two weeks into my NYC Half training and have to keep reminding myself that it took a few months to get into running again. I think it will be fun to have the goal of 750 miles to work towards and keep me motivated!
Cook at least one new recipe a month: I love to cook and definitely don't do as much of it as I would like in my bite size kitchen. I want to expand my cooking repertoire and learn some fun, delicious new recipes!
Read one book a month: I need to read more. End of story.
Hand write in my journal at least once a week
Send more letters, birthday cards, thank you notes, etc.: who doesn't love getting actual, hand written mail right??

I'm excited about these and excited about what 2011 holds!!!

Accepted!!

2010-12-19T17:15:00.000-07:00

I got into the NYC Half Marathon!! I have been needing something to jump start me back into

running and this is it! The race is March 20 2011-I can't wait!!!

Less than six weeks...

2010-11-17T22:39:00.003-07:00

...until this one comes home!! OH MY GOODNESS!!! I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!

All Cats Go to Heaven

2010-11-14T20:59:00.003-07:00

We got Rosy when I was six years old. She was our second cat and we loved her so.

I remember picking her out-she was so tiny! She was such a good kitty-she let me dress her up in my doll clothes and push her around in my doll stroller (unfortunately I don't have these photos on this computer). She loved chasing birds around our yard and once in a while would bring us one, so proud of her catch. She got along really well with Goldie the goldfish-loved to stick her paws in his bowl. Other pets came and went, but Rosy still stuck around. My dad was convinced she'd outlive us all. He pretended to hate her but we know he loved her just as much as the rest of us.

After a good 19 years, Rosy finally decided it was time to go. It is going to be so strange to go home for Christmas and not have Rosy around-napping on her mat and meowing away.

Rest in Peace Rosy!! We will miss you!!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-08T16:07:00.007-07:00

This was the first Halloween in a while that I actually dressed up. And I think it was a success. Remember this white dress...from the white party this summer...

Well, I got crafty and turned it into this....

Thanks to a little bit of cutting, some gold items from American Apparel, and some safety pins, my white sundress became my Egyptian tunic/dress thing. I was actually pretty pleased with how it turned out. And not really sad to modify my dress, I didn't like it much to begin with...Here are more photos from Halloween...

Karen as a duckie, Jen rocking the 20's vibe, and Erin the Egyptian

Justin Beiber made an appearance, complete with hand bedazzled jacket and hat

Anita the geek and Antoine Dodson

My favorite costume of the night-NYC stockbroker, complete with coke remnants...

Jen, Betty White, Alice in Wonderland, and the Queen of Hearts

All in all it was a good night. After the party at Kristin and Ruthy's some of us went down to the LES to dance the night away. It was a good time but suffice it to say that New Yorkers on Halloween are crazy...don't think I'll be making any more Halloween trips to the LES...

How was your Halloween? Did you dress up?!?

Funny NYC articles

2010-11-05T09:42:00.002-06:00

I came across a couple of funny articles about NYC...

50 Reasons to Be Pretty Damn Euphoric You Live in NYC

8.4 Million New Yorkers Finally Realize NYC is a Horrible Place to Live

Pretty much opposite articles but still hilarious! Enjoy!

My latest...

2010-10-28T14:11:00.003-06:00

...fav song
...movie I'm dying to see
...adventure I'm planning
...treat I crave all the time
...other movie I'm so excited for! already have tickets!
...potential client location for the next 3 or so months...hm
...favorite TV show

This day in history...

2010-10-26T15:24:00.002-06:00

Does anyone else like to read about what happened on this day in history? I always find it kind of interesting. Maybe it's just me. Well, in my boredom at work today I decided to look at this day in this history of my life, or more specifically my gchat. And I've decided to share it with you...

2006-All I gchatted about was stressing over the jr core. Financial homework! Ah! Systems quiz! Ah! That was basically how I spend my entire jr year of college...

2007-I had ZERO gchats from Oct 26, 2007. Guess why. I was here. In NYC. Doing the first of my 3 flyout interviews with none other than Deloitte. Funny that I'm right here again 3 years later...

2008-I must have been baking something delicious because the few gchats I found were all about people wanting some of whatever I was making. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies? I have no idea...

2009-I was bored at work, chatting about boys with Mika, freaking out about studying for FAR, just a regular day

and today? Let's see...topics range from Halloween, to boys, to roommate day at Deloitte, to hunting and making jerky. Even though work has been boring times 10, it's been an interesting day on gchat. Ha ha ha

Work Field Trip!

2010-10-25T21:27:00.002-06:00

I loved field trips in elementary school (and let's be honest, in jr high, high school, and college). There is something about leaving whatever you are supposed to be doing, to go do something else that is exciting. And yes, that sentence didn't make much sense. Whatever.

Today we got to go on a field trip for work! The parter on my last engagement got tickets to the David Letterman show! Me and 14 of my coworkers got to go as her guests! I actually don't watch David Letterman. I don't think he's that funny-I prefer Jay Leno. Nonetheless, I was rather excited to leave work early to go. I definitely felt like a tourist waiting in line with a couple hundred other people trying to get in. Thankfully we had real tickets so we got to bypass them all. Ha.

I don't know anything about the film world so it was interesting to go see what filming a show is all about. We actually watched the taping of Friday night's show. So if you watch David Letterman, look for me in the audience on Friday. I was rather disappointed to find out that the show didn't actually air live. Kind of takes the fun out of it. We got to see David Letterman interview Michael J Fox and Shaun White. I am so out of the loop that I had to do some google research to find out why both of these people are a big deal right now. Just FYI-the 25th Anniversary edition of Back to the Future is being released this week (Michael J Fox) and there is some new skateboarding xbox, PS360, something gaming system game being released this week. It was really cool to see Michael J Fox and to hear about his Parkinson's foundation and what they are doing to find a cure. It made me want to go back to school to become a geneticist a little bit...Shaun White was not that exciting-but maybe it's because I'm not really into snowboarding/skateboarding.

All in all, it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon. Definitely beats freezing in my cube all afternoon...

Halloween Anxiety

2010-10-21T22:12:00.006-06:00

i am the worst at halloween...just a taste as to how bad at halloween i am here are a few photos from past halloweens for your viewing pleasure..

Halloween 2007-no photos. we did not do anything

Halloween 2008- we decided to forego dressing up and went to dinner and a scary movie. we went and saw The Haunting of Molly Hartley. it was so terrible that we ended up leaving half way through and calling it a night early

Halloween 2009-probably my most successful halloween in a few years. we went to a 7 deadly sins party and i was supposed to be wrath. not quite sure if i pulled it off, but definitely a step up in the dressing up department from the previous year (which is not hard to do considering we did not dress up...)

i always say that i hate halloween but that's not true. i think halloween is actually really fun especially here in new york. everyone seems to get really into it. there is a big parade (of course, nyc loves their parades), lots of parties and halloween events. i just am never ready for it. around july/august i start thinking that i should get a jump start on a halloween costume, to avoid the happenings of the year before. inevitably it gets to be the week before halloween and i realize i have no idea what to dress up as and have nothing to wear. welp. here we are again. approximately a week before halloween and i am drawing a blank. suggestions for a great costume would be appreciated...

INDIA!

2010-10-14T08:05:00.002-06:00

Goodness. So much for doing a photo a day...eek. I have not been the best blogger (obviously) but I intend to get back on the blogging bandwagon. Perhaps I'll do a large summer catch-up post, but for now I will leave you with this:

http://tracyjeanmills.blogspot.com/2010/10/india.html

Remember when I posted about going to India? Well, I finally went!! It was so amazing and I loved almost every bit of it! We were there for only 5 days and I definitely could've spent at least another week there. Above is a link to my friend Tracy's blog. She is quite the blogger and photographer and she's a bit more on the ball then I am when it comes to blog posting. So check out her blog and you can see a glimpse of some of my adventures in the motherland!!

August 3-Lunch with Taylor!

2010-08-03T21:03:00.002-06:00

My friend Taylor was in town for the day so we met up for lunch!

So fun to see him and catch up!

August 2-My front porch

2010-08-02T22:29:00.004-06:00

obviously i need to work on my photo taking skills. and on remembering to take a photo during the day. when i was walking home tonight i realized i didn't take a picture of anything! so you get a glimpse of my porch. i kind of love my building. it is just steps away from riverside park. if i lean my head out of my window i can see the hudson and new jersey across the way!

august 1-CPA bet celebration

2010-08-01T19:32:00.003-06:00

Andrea and I have great home teachers. Way back in April when I was "studying" (more like not studying) for the CPA my home teacher and I made a bet as to who would pass the CPA first. Whoever passed first got dinner cooked by the other person. Luckily for me, I managed to study enough to pass the CPA and I won the bet!! Today hometeacher paid up with an amazing lasagna dinner. YUM.

Return to blogging...

2010-08-01T19:28:00.002-06:00

whoa. how on earth is it august already?!? where has the summer gone?? obviously, i have been the worst at blogging. but i have decided to return to blogging! remember last august when i did a photo a day for most of the month? well, i have decided to do that again this month to jump start the blogging and to force me to take more photos. not only have i fallen off the blogging bandwagon, i have also fallen off the photo taking bandwagon. so here it goes! happy august 1st!

DONE!

2010-06-01T16:56:00.003-06:00

It's official. I finally got my FAR score (75 is passing...cut it close) and

have now passed all 4 parts of the CPA exam!!!

YAY!!!!!

Back on the face of the planet

2010-04-18T15:34:00.003-06:00

So I had to fall off the face of the planet for a bit to study for the CPA and it's nice to climb back on. I had quite a lovely weekend-I just LOVE the weekend. I never realized how much until full time employment came around.

Friday night I went to a dinner party. My wonderful friend Jen cooked us all dinner and it was so yummy!! I've decided that I need to start cooking more-at least once or twice a month. Sad that it has come to that. I think I've eaten more cereal dinners since moving here than I did in college.

Saturday we went to brunch at Schiller's Liquor Bar down on the lower East side. It was really good! I don't think I'm much of a fan of the LES though. 1-It's like a million miles away from us and takes ages to get down there and 2-it's super dirty and gross down there. Unfortunately a lot of the good restaurants are down there, so I guess it's worth the trip.

Saturday afternoon I went to the Sotheby's auction display! I think that may be one of my favorite things I have done in the city. The coming auction is entitled Magnificent Jewels and it features all kinds of amazing jewelry! It was like being a museum-except better because you could actually touch and try on the jewelry! I loved it!! I also went and saw "How to Train Your Dragon." I LOVED it! Such a cute movie-definitely recommend it to everyone to see! I ended the evening with a trip to Korea Town to do kareoke for a friend's birthday. It was quite the experience and so much fun!

It was a wonderful weekend and I'm so excited to not have to study for at least another 2 months! Yay!

Remember...

2010-04-07T22:05:00.002-06:00

...how it was 90 degrees today. IN APRIL.

...and remember how I had to be inside ALL day doing "virtual training"

...and remember how it's supposed to be the nicest for the next week?...and how I have to study for the CPA so I can't go out and enjoy it...

8 days until I take my last CPA (hopefully) and can have some kind of life again! Pray that I study hard enough to pass!!

The first day of Spring!!

2010-03-20T22:23:00.005-06:00

So fitting that today was the first day of spring!! Today I had the loveliest Saturday and just wanted to share! I need to get better at taking pictures-I have hardly taken any since I've been here! The day started out with a favorite Saturday morning ritual-AM spin class at NYSC and a yummy scone from here. I decided to take the scone to the park and hang out there for a bit-people watching and enjoying the sunshine. It was so wonderful!

After a super long shower and an after spin nap I gathered up my FAR notecards and notes, this book that I'm reading for book club, a blanket, and my sunglasses. I spent the afternoon in Central Park with some of my favorites! We lounged in the sun, chatted, rode bikes (ps-I've made the executive decision that I'm buying a bike! yay!), and loved the sunshine. Definitely didn't even touch my notes or the book...oops. It has been SO nice these past few days I just can't get enough of it!

After we all left the park I decided to go down in Riverside park and sit by the water. I had never gone down there and it was so great! I just love being down by the water-I definitely will be going back. I sat by the water until it got too cold. I finished the evening with dinner here and an evening showing of Alice in Wonderland. I actually really loved it! I am not usually a huge Tim Burton fan but the movie was pretty good!

Such a lovely Saturday! Hooray for spring!!!

The hangover truck

2010-03-18T21:43:00.004-06:00

So apparently NY is very into St Patrick's day. I read somewhere that NYC has the largest St Patrick's day parade in the world! Unfortunately, I didn't know this until the day before and had to work rather than attend the parade. This city really loves their parades...Macy's day parade, Yankees parade, Chinese New Year parade, Puerto Rican day parade, Halloween parade-you name it, there is a parade for it. And of course yesterday all of the bars were full to the brim with St. Patty's day celebrators. I definitely wore green to work for the occasion and I may have joined the bar crowd for a bit (of course sipping my club soda with cranberry juice) for a work happy hour.

The most amusing thing to me about St Patrick's day in the city is the day afterwards. As we were walking back from lunch in Battery Park today (did I mention that it was almost 70 degrees outside? i am LOVING it!) we passed a tabasco truck. Apparently these trucks appear all over the city today only, serving up bloody marys for those with crazy hangovers (apparently those help with a hangover?) from too much celebrating last night. What?!? Gotta love NYC...

6 months!!

2010-03-03T19:44:00.004-07:00

Today I realized that today marks 6 months since I moved to NYC! Whoa! Has it seriously been six months already?!? Sometimes I still feel new to the city and others I feel like I've been here for ages! Crazy!!

In other news-I finally get to see Jamie Cullum perform live again tomorrow!! AH! I am so excited!! Last time I saw him was in Reno and that was quite the adventure. Driving to Reno (seriously, there is nothing between SLC and Reno), getting lost once we got to Reno, trying to scalp the extra tickets (quite unsuccessfully-but we did make some great ticket scalper friends). I even got to meet him (of course I was so starstruck I couldn't put together a coherent sentence)!! I cannot wait for tomorrow!!

Jamie, me, and Mika at Johnny Rocket's-don't worry, that smile was

plastered to my face the rest of the night...

2010-02-15T23:40:00.000-07:00

ps-Coke at 9pm=bad idea. just for future reference...

The landlords might hate me.

2010-02-15T23:13:00.003-07:00

I think our landlords think I'm ridiculous. It all started the first month that we lived in our apartment. I got home late one night. It was rainy and terrible outside and I was excited to just get in the apartment and relax. I hiked up the 5 flights of stairs to our apartment, got out my keys, and tried to open the door. For some reason, I could not unlock the door! No matter which way I turned the key, which lock I unlocked (and locked and unlocked again) the door would not open. Roommate was out, I was new to the city and didn't really know anyone that lived close, definitely didn't know any of our neighbors, I was stuck. I camped out on our stairs for a bit, thinking maybe if I gave it a rest for a second I'd be able to unlock the door and get into my apartment, but to no avail I just couldn't get it open!

Finally, after about half and hour maybe 45 minutes of trying, I gave up and had to call the landlord. How embarrassing to have to call the landlord and tell them you can't open the door. He said he'd be out to our building in about 30 minutes so I pulled out my book and started reading on the stairs while I waited. He arrived as promised and I apologized for making him come out in the rain so late. He then turned to the problematic door and opened it in about two seconds making me feel like a complete idiot. Turns out I just wasn't turning the key hard enough. Seriously? He was incredibly nice about it and assured me that he had to come out for another call anyways and left after giving me a lesson in unlocking the door. I am convinced he went home and told his family about the dumb girl that just moved in and can't unlock her own door.

Fast forward to about a week ago when I called to complain that our apartment was an ice box. Andrea actually called the day before and they came and "fixed it" but nothing the apartment was still freezing so called again. Don't worry-our apartment is like a sauna now. We have the fans on and the windows open...

Yesterday after a long day at work I come home to find a note on our building door alerting all of us tenants that due to a MAJOR leak there would be no hot water until 5pm the next day. But don't worry-the cold water is still working. Ha. Awesome. One day-I suppose that's manageable. Good thing I did my hair that morning.

So today I come home, looking forward to taking a hot shower. Turn on the bathroom hot water faucet-ice cold. Hm. Let it run for a while. Still ice cold. Page the landlord and he returns my call. I tell him the hot water isn't working and he asks me if I'm sure, because it should be working. I reply that I'm pretty sure, turned on the water, let it run, still cold. Should I let it run longer? Turns out that the plumber forgot to flip the hot water switch or the pump or something plumber-y like that. The landlord said he'd be in early in the morning to fix it. Hm. Day 2 without hot water.

We have this interesting neighbor in our building. He's actually one of the only people I've met that lives in this building. Bless his heart he is nice, but strange. Every time we see him, he's complaining about something in the building and apparently the landlords have stopped answer his pages because he calls so frequently about silly little things.

I'm worried that I'm going to be the next on the do not answer list...

2010-02-09T19:57:00.003-07:00

my apartment is freezing. not just kind of cold-ish. but actually freezing. i have never had a radiator until moving here, but from what i understand they are generally supposed to be warm in the winter, thereby keeping the house warm.

our radiators are like metal ice cubes. i might as well be living in an igloo. actually. an igloo is probably warmer than our apartment right now (supposedly igloos are warm? perhaps it has something to do with the furry coats eskimos wear...). with the imminent snowstorm there's a chance i might freeze to death (and yes, i'm being dramatic).

and about this snowstorm. NY is FREAKING OUT. all schools were cancelled this afternoon (when it wasn't even snowing!). i got a handful of emails from work telling me to be sure to take work home, just in case the snow makes it impossible to get to work tomorrow. how considerate of them! i'm interested to see what this city is like in a "blizzard"...

please

2010-02-08T21:58:00.000-07:00

can I have one of these??

what a morning

2010-02-05T21:25:00.003-07:00

today i saw the craziest thing on the subway. a full on brawl. 9am. 2 train going from 72nd downtown. me and andrea are sitting, riding down to work and these two people start arguing. a larger man and a small lady (although i guess lady wouldn't be the right word when you read what's comes next). all of a sudden they start pushing each other.

then all hell breaks loose. they stand up (mind you it's a full, moving train) and the girl tries to push the guy. HE PUSHES HER BACK! what on earth kind of man pushes a girl who is about half his size?!? she flies back, hits the subway pole and falls to the ground. all the while, her coffee is flying all over the place, people are trying to break it up, and me and Andrea are watching in disbelief. the girl picks herself off the floor and goes back at him for more!

luckily, the train pulled into the 34th street station and a couple guys pulled the girl off the train (much to her dismay) and away from the man to end the fight. then the man sits back down and continues to read his coffee sodden paper like nothing happened. SERIOULSY? what on earth could two perfect strangers be fighting about at 9am. and seriously man? you think it's ok to physically assault a girl who obviously is no threat to you? some people are just crazy.

and that's how i started my friday morning. luckily the rest of the day was a little quieter...

one month!

2010-02-04T21:22:00.000-07:00

yes. i am slightly obsessed. but i'm fine with that. one month until i get to see this one in concert!!

Gone in seconds!

2010-02-03T19:25:00.006-07:00

A couple days ago my fav singer in the whole wide world announced a small concert in NYC. Today was the day that tickets went on sale! I was online-ready-at noon. Tried to get through. Site down. Tried again. Site still down. Twenty-five minutes later I finally made it through. Tickets gone. Sad. Come to find out, tickets sold out in mere seconds!! Seconds! Way to go Jamie. At least I have tickets for his big show the next day.

In other news, today I went to a friend's viola recital at Juilliard. It was so wonderful and the pieces were beautiful!! I loved seeing people perform who were so passionate about what they were doing. I've been doing some thinking and I think I need to find something to be completely passionate about...

So here's my question for you readers (if anyone still actually reads this....):

What are you passionate about??

Sick Day

2010-02-02T19:17:00.003-07:00

Today I took a sick day. Not to go do something fun. Not to just have a random day off. But because I was actually sick.

Sick days are BORING.

My sick day involved...watching last nights bachelor in my bed, taking a trip to the fairway in my sweats and uggs-looking like a hot mess, napping through a few episodes of gossip girl season 2 (I am more than ready for new GG episodes), trying to watch Days and giving up when I realized it's been years since I've watched and had no idea what was going on (since when is Carly back?!?) watching The Lizzie McGuire Movie, sleeping through some silly shows on the Disney channel, and watching Mamma Mia.

I'm ready to not be sick and go back to real life!

Finally February

2010-02-01T17:22:00.002-07:00

Wow. Was it just me or was January the longest month ever. Seriously, I'm pretty sure it lasted for about 10 years. January was a decent month...some highlights (sans pictures because I didn't take any) include....

a fab birthday dinner with all of my fav NY friends put on by my great roommate
not working in NJ anymore
2 shows: The Fantasticks and South Pacific
seeing the NY Ballet put on my favorite production-Sleeping Beauty

All-in-all, January was a decent month but I'm glad to see it go. I'm getting anxious for spring and sunshine and February is bringing me one month closer!!!

India!

2010-01-07T21:11:00.004-07:00

Yes. I know I have other things to blog about-like Christmas break, New Years Resolutions, my crazy adventures in New Jersey, and my imminent quarter-century turn, but right now I'm going to blog about INDIA.

Want to go? September 22th. 8 days. $999 including round trip airfare from NYC, hotels, and tours. Come. It's going to be amazing!!

I'll be home for Christmas!

2009-12-23T08:39:00.003-07:00

First of all, thank you Delta for free wi-fi-currently I'm somewhere over the Pittsburgh-ish area of the country.

Can I just say that going home for Christmas was much MUCH easier when I lived a 40 minute drive away from home, rather than a six hour flight? I never realized how nice it was to be able to pack up my car, with as much stuff as I wanted, and drive home, whenever I decided to.

JFK was a disaster this morning. Seriously, I think 5 year olds could run the airport better. After standing in line for the 1 kiosk that was actually printing out boarding passes (note to self, check-in and print boarding pass at home next time) I waited in line for OVER AN HOUR just to drop off my suitcases. Which, ps, I had to pay $50 to get on the plane. Come on Delta, free wi-fi but no free baggage?? Good thing I decided to take a cab instead of taking the airtrain-I never would've made it...

The good news is that I'm on the plane and heading HOME!! We actually left JFK on time....I think...I fell asleep for a bit...and in some hours I'll be home in SLC! I can't wait!!

p.s. in the absence of my usual suitcases packers (ie my mom and or roommates and friends) i packed my own suitcase, all by myself...ha ha ha

5 days...

2009-12-20T18:58:00.005-07:00

...until I get to talk to this one!! What a great Christmas present!

Jamie Cullum is coming to town!

2009-12-17T07:42:00.003-07:00

Jamie is finally coming to NYC!! March 4th. Calendar is marked and I'm counting down the days!!

17 days left...

2009-12-14T12:51:00.003-07:00

...in 2009! Crazy! This year has gone so fast! With a little less than 3 weeks left in the year, I thought I'd do a review of my 2009 New Year's Resolutions and see how I ended up doing...

Resolution #1: Run the Salt Lake Half-Marathon in April. I'm also considering doing a triathlon in July...considering being the key word
Check! I did the SL Half and beat my last year's time! I also ended up doing the Wasatch Back and a couple of smaller races over the summer. I signed up for a triathlon but realized I'd probably drown and chickened out...perhaps next year?

Resolution #2: Be better at writing thank-you notes
Half check? I definitely wrote more thank you notes than I did previously...but there's still room for improvement...

Resolution #3: Keep my room clean
Um. Yes. My room was clean once in a while? Does that count? This will be a repeat resolution next year for sure.

Resolution #4: Cook more and eat out less
Half check? So when I was in Utah I did alright at cooking more but once I moved to NYC that all went down the drain. I think NYC is slowly sucking all of the domesticity out of me. Does making a bowl of cereal count as cooking? Sad and sad.

Resolution #5: Attend the temple at least twice a month
Half check? Again-when I was in UT I was pretty good at this. Not so much so being out here...

Resolution #6: Write in my journal at least once a week...I have about 15 journals in my room just waiting to be used
Check! I have actually been decent at writing in my journal. I've started writing on the computer because it's much faster. Of course anyone that reads my journal years down the road is going to think I'm completely ridiculous...but whatev.

Resolution #7: Be better at staying in touch with family and friends
Half check. I have kind of been better, but definitely could make more of an effort to stay in touch with my family out here in NYC...

Resolution #8: Exercise at least 4 times a week
Half check. Apparently not working or being in school did wonders for my resolution keeping. I was great at this over the summer and pretty decent during school at the beginning of the year. Again, not so much out here...

Resolution #9: Take advantage of all opportunities that come my way!
Check? I don't really know how to measure this or not. All in all, it's been a great year so far! So I'm going to call this resolution a success!

Overall I have 5.5 checks out of 9. Not too bad...time to start thinking about 2010 Resolutions!!

my new purchase

2009-12-07T18:47:00.002-07:00

i may have purchased a pair of these over the weekend. and i LOVE them. i am trying to figure out how i survived winter without them! am i totally ridiculous??

The Garden State

2009-11-30T14:55:00.005-07:00

so starting next week I will be working on a client out in New Jersey. now this is not New Jersey across the river New Jersey. this is big time, real New Jersey. like take the NJ transit more than an hour into NJ. honestly-i haven't heard wonderful things about NJ. most people say it and wrinkle their nose. since that is going to be my work home for about 3 months i decided to do a little NJ research via wikipedia...

A few fun facts about NJ:

It's the most densely populated state in the US
Jersey oak has been used extensively in ship building
The median household income is the highest in the US but Newark is the 4th poorest city
The drive-in movie, the ice cream cone, and the zipper all originated in NJ
There are more diners in NJ than anywhere else in the world
NJ state slogan: "come see for yourself"....why I think I will...thank you very much

I will be commuting approximately 2.5 hours each day, by train, to reach Piscataway New Jersey and I'm in search of some good train reading. now that I'm done with the CPA I can read an actual book without feeling guilty that I'm not studying Becker (and hopefully after scores are released I can keep that up and not have to study again...). any train reading suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Thankful

2009-11-29T19:12:00.002-07:00

i know i'm a few days late but i'm still thankful for...

my family...my parents came into town this weekend and wow it was great to have them here! i am so grateful for their unending love and sacrifice for me. i can't wait to go back home for a couple weeks over the holidays. AND i get to talk to sister!! ah! these must be the longest 18 months of my life...

my friends...oh my goodness. my friends are seriously amazing. i am so grateful for their love and support. i don't know how i got so lucky to have such great people in my life!

my job...so far (and i know it's only been 3 months-3 slow months at that) i really like my job! i am so grateful to have such a great job right now. we'll see if i still feel that way after busy season...

my Savior Jesus Christ...i am thankful for His sacrifice for me. i am so grateful to have the knowledge of the gospel and for all of the blessings that it brings to my life.

i just love thanksgiving and the coming of the Christmas season!!!

A letter to Jamie

2009-11-16T21:20:00.003-07:00

Dearest Jamie Cullum,

Please send Amazon UK more of your CDs so they can send mine out. I want it. Now.

Kind regards,

Erin

2009-11-14T13:35:00.003-07:00

Thank you hunter wellies for making my day in the rain much more pleasant.

A change in career?

2009-11-04T20:12:00.003-07:00

today i was a teacher. don't worry-i'm def not planning any career changes anytime soon. work has been pretty slow so caroline and i decided to volunteer to teach a junior achievement course at a public high school here in the city. today was our first class.

we're teaching at an "inner city" school (at least i think it's inner city...definitely more inner city than Skyline...) and i had visions of the type of inner city schools you see on tv-complete with gangs, drugs, and unruly scary teenagers. when we first got there we ended up trying to go through the student only entrance. it was complete with id card scanners, metal detectors, those people scanning rod things (have no idea what they're called) and x-ray machines to put your belongings through. it looked a lot like going through airport security. when we finally got to the correct entrance we had to go through the same process and check in. it was definitely different from my high school...

i have never taught anything. ever. not in church. not at school. so i was worried. luckily it turned out i was worrying about nothing (as is usually the case). today's lesson was on budgeting. junior achievement has a great lesson manual and actually has pretty much everything you need to talk about written out word for word. after going through the beginning part of the lesson, we decided it would be more fun to just go to the game part of the lesson. surprisingly the kids actually got into the game and really played it! i think the kids enjoyed a break from the normal school day and we had fun teaching!

can't wait to go back for round 2 in a couple of weeks!

Home for the Holidays!

2009-10-28T15:16:00.003-06:00

i just booked my ticket home for the holidays!! dec 23-jan 4. can't wait!

sometimes i make bad decisions

2009-10-26T19:46:00.002-06:00

like the time i decided to sign up for all 4 CPA exams at once. and the time i decided not to study so much over the summer. and the time i should've been studying when work was INCREDIBLY slow but didn't.

yep. sometimes i make bad decisions. and now i'm paying for them. i take FAR in two weeks and still have 5 lessons, all the homework, and all the simulations to do. boo and boo. oh wait. and then a mere 2.5 weeks later i take BEC.

if you don't see me for a few weeks, you'll know why. and if you do see me, please make me go study...

a sunday miracle

2009-10-18T15:53:00.003-06:00

remember when everyone had games on their calculators? it was super high tech to have tetris or poker or that drug mafia game on your TI-83. and when you were playing in class, it just looked like you were doing a complicated math problem and not playing a game. well, remember the game frogger? you had a little frog and you had to get him through several lanes of cars and trucks, safely to the other side. it was a classic.

today i played my own game of human frogger. and it was definitely unintentional. i was late late late to church. the local trains weren't running downtown (which i discovered after i was already down in the subway) and there were no cabs to be found so i schlepped it down to 65th for church. i was so close-i just had to cross columbus and i was safe! and not super late. so the light for the traffic was red. i didn't know how long it had been red for so i figured i had enough time to cross the 5 lanes of traffic and get to church on time. i leapt over a puddle and started my trek across the street. the light changed to green as soon as i had crossed one lane (ie i still had 4 lanes of NY traffic to cross).

you would think that the nice taxi drivers would stop and let me scamper across the street safely. not a chance. they all start driving and i'm standing in a sea of cars, trying to make it across the street in one piece. luckily, a few cars had pity on me and let me stop to cross the street. and luckily, i made it across still intact and made it to church mostly on time!

moral of the story: maybe it's a good idea to watch the lights a little closer to avoid any further human frogger experiences...

2009-10-17T16:41:00.003-06:00

today i was supposed to study for the CPA (which i am taking in approximately 3 weeks). i still have 7.5 lessons to do, several hundred homework problems, and a handful of simulations. INSTEAD i went to brunch at elephant and castle, i shopped in soho (oh my, i love shopping in NYC), i caught up on The Hills and The City, and went to a spin class which was hands down the WORST spin class i have ever been to. oh how i miss todd's class.

the big news of the day though-i got a blackberry! i am super excited and i'm sure it does wonderful things. the only problem is i have absolutely no idea how to use the thing. anyone want to volunteer to give me blackberry lessons??

Weekend in Italy anyone?

2009-10-14T22:17:00.002-06:00

I get these TravelZoo emails with fantastic travel deals every week. Today one of the deals was a weekend in Italy for only $499!!! It includes airfare, 3 nights hotel, and breakfasts for a bunch of different weekends in January/February. Who wants to come with me??

and yes, I'm actually serious about going...

The City

2009-10-09T20:30:00.002-06:00

so before i moved out here, chelsea and i would joke about having "the city" moments in NY. you know what i mean-those cheesy, totally scripted conversations at some cute restaurant in soho or the meatpacking district. of course we would wear shoes we could barely walk in, and talk with absolutely no emotion. it would be wonderful and hilarious.

tonight i was in soho for dinner with some friends and who did i see, sitting on the curb chatting on her phone?

KELLY CUTRONE

no one that i was with watched the show. or knew who she was. but it was totally her. and yes, she is just as scary is she seems on the show. and she's kind of dirty and gross. strange that she's a fashion designer... i wanted meet her but was a lot bit terrified of her. ha ha ha. i was still excited about it-my first NY "celeb" sightseeing experience (if you can consider her a celeb). hopefully there will be many more to follow!

One month!

2009-10-08T21:39:00.003-06:00

I've been working for one month! Crazy! In some ways it feels like I've been working forever and in others I still feel like I'm an intern.

I'm going to Vermont this weekend! I am seriously excited to see all of the leaves and be in nature! Get excited for fall photo shoot pictures to follow...

PS

2009-10-07T18:03:00.002-06:00

Check out this from Lara's blog...excuse the super sick picture of me. I think I may be going through an ugly ducking stage right now. Ha ha ha.

About the hair, sister said it kind of looked like something was sick in my hair. Thank goodness we did it somewhere no one would really notice it...

Today

2009-10-07T17:50:00.003-06:00

Today work was slower than slow. You can only muck around on the internet for so long until even that loses its appeal. Maybe when they send me to CT (that's right, I'm going back to CT-remember this?) I'll actually be busy?

Today I got my corporate credit card in the mail and my business cards are on the way! I'm officially official! Yay!

Today I went to the grocery store and remembered why I choose to grocery shop online. Whoa. Overwhelming. I might as well be grocery shopping in a foreign country. Apparently I need to learn the NY grocery shopping protocol.

Today I discovered the most AMAZING orange juice at the grocery store! Turns out I forgot to add orange juice to the freshdirect order so I stopped in at Fairway. They sell fresh squeezed orange juice by the half gallon! (probably by the gallon but the size of my fridge prevents such a purchase) I tasted it when I got home-it really is fresh squeezed! Best orange juice from a container ever!

Today I realized I'm on a first name basis with the salesperson in Papyrus. It's a little bit dangerous living right around the corner...

A run-in with the NYPD

2009-10-06T08:08:00.003-06:00

I am not a good driver. I am not the worst driver ever, but I don't think I'm wonderful at driving. I actually don't really love driving, which was one of the reasons I was so excited to come to NYC-no driving!! Somehow, I managed to make it 6 years only getting pulled over twice and ticketed once.

Now rewind to about 3 weeks ago. I was on the subway coming into work. I had been at work until all hours of the morning the few days before. The train was nearly empty since I was almost to the end of the line. I decided to put my feet on the seat next to me and take a little nap until I got to my stop. The next thing I know, a cop is shining his flashlight at me and beckoning me to get off the train. I get off and go to talk to the cop. He asks if I know why he pulled me off the train. I questioned as to whether it was because my feet were on the seat? That was the only possible explanation I could think of, although that really didn't seem to make much sense to me. He told me that it was and that he was going to have to write me a ticket. WHAT?!? A ticket for having my feet on the seat?!? I told him that I seriously had no idea it was against the law to put your feet on the seat, and that I had just moved to the city 2 weeks before, and asked if there was any way he could let me off with a warning.

He told me no. Flat out no. He assured me that it wouldn't go on my criminal record, that it was like a parking ticket (which ps-I've never gotten a parking ticket!!). No matter what I said, I couldn't get the man to just waive my ticket. He did tell me though, that if I called the number on the back of the ticket and explained what happened, told them I was new in the city, etc etc they would most likely waive or dismiss the ticket. He gave me the ticket and left me standing on the platform, late for work, and waiting for another dumb train to come.

So this morning I finally called the number. I had been putting it off because I was a little scared to call. The lady on the phone tells me that they don't waive tickets over the phone and I'd have to appear for a hearing. Um. No thank you. There goes $50, to the Public Transit Authority whatever. Boo and boo.

I feel like only I could make it 6 years, driving like I do, and only getting one ticket, but then manage to get a ticket on the subway after only 2 weeks in the city!

Goodbye Gourmet...

2009-10-05T19:30:00.005-06:00

So today I found out that one of my all-time favorite magazines is closing. Sad and sad. The magazine had awesome recipes and cool articles about wonderful places to travel and eat. Hopefully it's sister magazine Bon Appetit won't follow in it's footsteps...

Renter's Insurance?

2009-10-04T22:12:00.003-06:00

Does anyone have renter's insurance? Do I need it? Who did you go through? How does it even work? Any suggestions or tips would be appreciated!! I'm thinking I should've paid more attention in that personal finance class I took a year ago...

Backstreet's Back!

2009-10-04T21:46:00.002-06:00

I may have been a teenie (teeny?) bopper back in the day. My first concert ever was The Backstreet Boys at the E-Center in SLC with my Daddy. I own all of the CDs, had their pictures up all over my room (I think at one point I had a subscription to Big Bopper...ha ha ha). I got up in the middle of the night to stand in line for concert tickets. The teeny bopper phase may have continued into my college years a little bit. I may or may not have gone to Walmart at midnight with Kelsie the day that the BSB new CD came out a couple years ago. We went kind of to be funny, but kind of to be serious. And of course we listened to the whole CD before we made it back home.

Imagine my excitement when I discovered this! That's right friends. Backstreet's Back! The new CD comes out Tuesday! Ha ha ha ha ha....

Abbrevs

2009-10-01T21:25:00.003-06:00

I kind of like the abbrevs. You know-like abbreviations. I think that perf is my favorite. Awes. Another one I have become fond of-sitch. As in situation. Remember that dumb cartoon Kim Possible? She used to say sitch all the time. One day Lara and I decided we'd get really into acronyms. NGH. LFA. PBHA. We may use these in coversation regularly. Yesterday at work I had an entire convo with my friend using only the first letters of each word. We actually got pretty good at figuring out what the other was trying to say. LI.

One of these days I'll get around to taking some pictures of the new apartment. PS-I'm still looking for decoration ideas. Suggestions are appreciated.

Jr League?

2009-09-30T21:21:00.002-06:00

So I'm considering joining the Jr. League out here. I'm going to an orientation meeting on Monday to see what it's all about. Does anyone know anything about Jr. League? Is anyone a member?

Today I was weepy

2009-09-29T19:55:00.002-06:00

we finally got our cable and internet all hooked up, which means that we finally set the tivo! one of my favorite shows is the biggest loser. i used to watch it at the gym while i was on the treadmill but had to stop because without fail i get weepy at some point during EVERY episode! chelsea and kat will vouch for me. don't worry. i watched it today. and of course i got weepy. i wept when hearing the green lady talk about how she lost her husband and two children. i got teary when the everyone helped the purple team guy finish the ramp challenge. my heart just breaks for him, getting stuck with that crazy woman. he seems like such a dear old man and she's just insane. i hope she goes soon, i think she's just horrible. i definitely got weepy during the deliberation meeting. goodness. does anyone else get like this watching this show?!?

My very own "ricardo"

2009-09-29T19:10:00.003-06:00

My office is cold. And not just oh the air conditioner is on and it's a little chilly cold. It's arctic tundra, bring a coat and blanket to work when it's 75 degrees outside, mittens and hat cold. Around the office our cube is referred to as the ice box. Perhaps this has contributed to my current state of illness? (and yes, I realize I'm being a little dramatic about being sick) Anyways...today Caroline (one of my cube mates) and I decided we'd had enough. We hopped online and each ordered one of these...

A space heater!! Hooray! Anyone remember Steph's space heater "ricardo" in Italy? Remember how it warmed up those cold dorms in the dead of winter in Torino? Remember how wonderful it was to not have to wear seven layers of clothing indoors? Well, I will finally have a "ricardo" of my own to keep my cube nice and warm! They are being delivered to the office tomorrow. I can't wait!

isn't being sick great?

2009-09-28T20:56:00.004-06:00

no. no it's not. not when you have to be an adult. and go to work. and have to think and be coherent (although i love the research project that i'm working on, much better than scanning or printing). gone are the days when you can skip class and be sick at home in your pajamas today. sad and sad.

my favorite part of being sick is when you have to go to the grocery store to buy medicine. i feel like it must just look hilarious-sick girl stocking up on nyquil, dayquil, kleenex, and vitamins. too bad my medicine stash didn't make the packing cut.

honestly though. the best part of being sick. nyquil. is it bad that i think it tastes good? probably. good thing i don't get sick that often.

in other news: i got my insurance card in the mail today. my very own insurance card. i'm officially a real person now.

My to do list this week:

2009-09-28T09:13:00.002-06:00

1. Find some cute rainboots-fall is officially here and I'm totally unprepared. Anyone know where I can get some great rainboots?

2. Figure out the laundry situation-we actually have laundry in our building but apparently it's super sketch and dirty dirty. I'm thinking wash and fold? But have this fear they will somehow ruin all my clothes (which may not be a bad thing because I'm currently hating everything I own...)

3. Decorate! We finally got all our furniture-kitchen table, couch, my bedroom furniture! Now I just need to decide how I'm going to decorate. Too bad I'm the least decoraty person there is. Any ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

The magic word

2009-09-24T20:15:00.002-06:00

DELIVERY.

This week I have had great experiences with delivery. Over the weekend I needed to go grocery shopping. I got caught up doing other important things (brunch, visiting my new baby cousin, watching that BYU game...) that I didn't have a chance to grocery shop and come Monday I pretty much had zero food at my apartment. I had all kinds of things to do Monday evening so I couldn't go to the store then so I decided to give Fresh Direct a try. Fresh Direct is this company out here that lets you order your groceries online! You pick out everything you want and then pick a time for them to come deliver it to your house! How great is that! I live on the 5th floor of a walk-up building and of course don't have a car so if I shop at all, I can only buy as much as I want to haul around the city and up the 5 flights of stairs with me, but with fresh direct, it's someone else hauling your stuff up the stairs for you!

I placed my order Monday afternoon and Tuesday evening, it was all delivered to me! The poor man sounded like he was about to have a heart attack after carrying the box all the way up the stairs. I guess the stairs south of campus and the tanner building stairs prepared me for the 5 flights of stairs because I don't really notice them too much anymore. All my groceries arrived packed neatly into a box. It was like getting a fun package! AND it was cheaper than going to the grocery store! I am definitely a fan of Fresh Direct!

Second delivery experience: Since both me and Andrea are new to the city, we are basically starting from scratch with our apartment. I was in charge of getting the kitchen table and chairs. I found a good looking set online and decided to just order it without seeing it. There were several delivery options: curbside delivery (uh. no. there's no way i could get a table and chairs up the stairs and put them together. recall the bookcase incident...), in home delivery with no assembly (still no), in home delivery with full assembly (yes please). It was delivered tonight. Once again, the poor men that brought it up were on the brink of death after climbing the stairs with the huge box. It took them over an hour to assemble everything, which means it would've taken me at least 3. Worth every extra cent I paid. The finished product looks great though! Hooray for being an adult and owning my own furniture!

I guess to sum up my ramblings: Delivery, big fan. Love it.

2 down, 2 to go!

2009-09-24T20:10:00.003-06:00

So after a week of anxiously checking the nasba website to see if my audit score had posted, I finally found out tonight! I PASSED!!! What a relief! I barely passed, but passing is passing.

Only 2 parts left! I'm on my way to CPA!

quick updates!

2009-09-21T20:33:00.004-06:00

yes. i have been neglecting the blog. we don't have internet at the apartment yet and i'm not so sure about blogging at work, hence this is coming from a starbucks about a block from my place.

suffice it to say that i LOVE it here. LOVE. my place still doesn't have furniture and is an utter disaster. i'm still meeting people and making friends and trying to figure out where i fit in this big city. but i'm happier than happy!

the first week of work was absolutely insane. we worked 62 hours in 4 days. i work with fun people so it wasn't too horrible but it was quite the way to begin work and i got a car service home every night so my dreams of having a driver came true! since the 15th things have been SUPER slow. hopefully i'll get some CPA studying in. i've passed one part, still waiting to hear about one part (and the suspense is seriously killing me), and have 2 more to take before december 1st.

i have managed not to get completely lost on the subway or above ground. i have eaten at great restaurants and shopped just a little bit. today i discovered a good spin class. and i've made several adult type decisions involving 401(k)s, furniture, insurance, etc.

i have just been informed that starbucks is closing which means my internet time is up! i'll post some pictures of the new place soon!

Secret:

2009-09-09T20:22:00.003-06:00

Me with my 5 suitcases the day I arrived in NYC

I rarely pack my own suitcases. This was actually brought to my attention in a letter from sister (oh how I miss her...). I had told her that my friends helped me pack everything to take to New York and this was her response:

"I laughed when you said that your friends helped you pack. Someday you will have to learn how to do that yourself."

It's not that I don't know how. I am perfectly capable of packing my own suitcases. I just don't really like to. Thank goodness for wonderful friends and my mamma who are willing to pack me! :)

Another thought I had today-completely off topic from packing-my days of singing in the car are over! I was watching Glee (any thoughts on the show? i am still undecided...) and it made me want to sing! Then I realized the only time I really sing is when no one can hear me when I'm driving. Since I don't drive anymore...I don't really have singing time anymore! I suppose I could sing on the subway? or while I'm walking down the street? Ha. Don't think that will be happening anytime soon.

One last random thought: I'm going to be in downtown NYC on September 11th. Deloitte's office is actually right across the street from the World Trade Center site. That should be interesting...

First day of work!

2009-09-08T19:37:00.004-06:00

So from the time I was little little I would take a first day of school picture in front of the door every year. I even continued the tradition on to my college years-taking some kind of first day of school picture. Since this year I didn't go back to school I decided to take a first day of work picture instead!

Another thing I loved-buying school supplies! I always got so excited to pick out new folders and a planner and pens, etc. This year instead of school supplies, I got to pick out a bed and new bedding! Oh the joys of "adult life." Up next...furniture to furnish my cute little apartment! Yay!

I have a home!

2009-09-05T21:14:00.002-06:00

So I have a ton of pictures to post from my last days in Provo/SLC and from my arrival in NYC, but for now I have great news to share....

WE FOUND A PLACE TO LIVE!!!!!

It is on the Upper West Side in a great neighborhood, right near Riverside park, and is so cute!! I can't wait to move in and get settled!!! I forgot to take pictures but don't worry....I'll post some soon!

Yay! I'm not homeless anymore!