Hello friends. I'm back from Thanksgiving and, let me tell you, I hit the ground running! The title of this post refers to the fact that I did forget to write for a while, but I promise I had a good excuse!
I had a great time at home relaxing, seeing old friends, visiting family, and showing Taylor even more of the glory that is Perrysburg, OH. I believe his exact quote was "Ohio's not without its charm." Indeed.
Anyway, I came back Monday morning and have been going nonstop ever since! On Monday, I had to wake up at 4:30am to catch a 7:30 flight. Of course I finally let someone talk me into arriving to an airport more than an hour early, only to discover that it was entirely unnecessary (as usual). I make a vow never to be more than an hour early, no matter what you or anyone else says! Anyway, my flight arrived in New York at 9am. I then proceeded to drag my 37lb suitcase (is that ALL it weighed?!) to the M60 bus. I took the bus to Lexington Avenue and then drug said bag down into the subway and all the way to the financial district, back UP to street level, and over to my work. It as about an hour and a half of dragging and, let me tell you, I was BEAT!
Monday night I went home and went to bed at the early early hour of 9:45pm!! Aren't you proud! I got up at 6:00am to go running with a friend, then headed in to work. Yesterday was a very busy day because I had to get ready for my first ever training session this morning. I left work at a decent time, though, and made it home to hang out with Taylor, who came to visit me. We had a very interesting night. Well first of all, Taylor has a REALLY sore throat and can barely talk. Despite its painfulness, it's actually kinda cute. So anyway, apparently he was at this deli getting a sandwich and the man behind the counter suggested that he try this ancient remedy for a sore throat. It involves buying honey and a lemon (which, conveniently, he sells at his deli). You squeeze the entire lemon and then add 2-3 spoonfuls of honey and drink it straight up. Taylor had me squeeze the lemon and mix the potion. He drank it, but (shockingly) we still haven't seen a huge improvement in his condition.
Anyway, after that we ordered Chinese and ate dinner while watching the end of the movie 8 Below. It's the one about the dogs surviving a winter in Antarctica, and I highly recommend it. It's so cute! Then came the best part of all!! We decorated out apartment for CHRISTMAS!!!! We put up lights, a Christmas tree, and some jingle bells all around the apartment. It is so festive, we even have a mistletoe scented Yankee Plug in. It is really a wonderful environment! I love it. I will post picture tonight if I have time. Haha many of you probably haven't seen my apartment. You'll be shocked at how small it is!
Anyway, today I got up at 5:45am and left my apartment at 6:05am to get to Jersey City by 7am for my session. It went off without a hitch and (I'm happy to say) I'm all ready for tomorrow. All I have left to do it run some materials up to the conference center (I'm at work right now) and then I'm ready!
Oh, one more thing. Tonight is the kickoff for TEAM IN TRAINING!!! That means that after tonight, my training and fundraising for the marathon will officially commence. Beware, this Blog will take on a little bit of a running and fundraising complex. I hope you will not mind my new focus, but I assure you that it is for a VERY good cause.
Well, I must head out. Please feel free to leave a comment and please come back often!
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Monday, November 20, 2006
NO!!! I WON'T LET IT HAPPEN!
That's right, I am fighting tooth and nail not to give up this blog, but today, I must be honest, I don't have much going on. I really do apologize if you came here for some sort of entertainment, but my life at this moment is just not very interesting. Vanderbilt lost to Tennessee this weekend. Michigan lost to Ohio State. Rutgers lost (and I only care because they were undefeated and Taylor likes them) to Cincinnati. And I am back at work! Haha.
Really, the only exciting thing is that my training starts in earnest for the marathon in under 2 weeks. After that, I will be updating the blog probably every day or two with my fundraising and training status! Please be advised that if you care about me at all (or if I care about you), you will probably be getting a letter or an e-mail from me asking you to donate to my Team In Training fundraising campaign.
Oh! I know one thing I can put on here. Taylor and I went out on a "date" Friday night and got two really good pictures of us (this is a rare occurrence), so I will put them here!
Aren't we pretty?!
Really, the only exciting thing is that my training starts in earnest for the marathon in under 2 weeks. After that, I will be updating the blog probably every day or two with my fundraising and training status! Please be advised that if you care about me at all (or if I care about you), you will probably be getting a letter or an e-mail from me asking you to donate to my Team In Training fundraising campaign.
Oh! I know one thing I can put on here. Taylor and I went out on a "date" Friday night and got two really good pictures of us (this is a rare occurrence), so I will put them here!
Aren't we pretty?!
Monday, November 13, 2006
I hate New York
Ok, so I don't really hate New York, but I do have a New York complaint and I figured that this title was a good contrast to the last one.
So my story begins and ends after midnight on Saturday night. My friend Candace was in town visiting some of her friends from college at the University of Chicago. After waiting more than 2 hours for their dinner reservations, Candace and her friends ended up at what I now know to be one of the hippest, trendiest, snobbiest clubs in the city. Because I am officially lame, I have spent 4 months in this city and have yet to attempt to go to an actual "club."
So Taylor and I left my apartment at about midnight (that's right, LEFT at midnight, how trendy am I). For some reason, I thought that a sweater would be the appropriate attire for the evening. So we arrived at PM, a trendy club in the meatpacking district, and Candace and her friends were already inside. There was a line of about 20 people next to the fabled velvet rope. I called Candace who confirmed that they were, indeed, inside said trendy club and that "it didn't take long to get through the line." But as we stood there, it became abundantly clear that the "line" was really just a crowd of people auditioning for admission to the club. It was incredible. I like to think that Taylor and I are a decent looking couple, but it quickly became apparent that the only way to get into this club was to flash some serious cleavage or pay the mean bouncers. Needless to say, at 2am, I am in no mood to schmooze with the bouncers, but I must admit that at some point I found myself feeling REALLY self-conscious in my sweater. And the more I thought about it, OBVIOUSLY Candace and her friends got in. Every group of more than three pretty girls virtually waltzed right in while those of us with boyfriends in tow are left watching them strut by. It was quite an interesting experience, and I must say it left me a little sad for all those people who really do spend their whole week waiting for the moment that they can walk into a club and finally feel important. It really must be an empty life, and, club or no club, I'm glad that my self-worth does not rest in getting in to PM to drink.
So my story begins and ends after midnight on Saturday night. My friend Candace was in town visiting some of her friends from college at the University of Chicago. After waiting more than 2 hours for their dinner reservations, Candace and her friends ended up at what I now know to be one of the hippest, trendiest, snobbiest clubs in the city. Because I am officially lame, I have spent 4 months in this city and have yet to attempt to go to an actual "club."
So Taylor and I left my apartment at about midnight (that's right, LEFT at midnight, how trendy am I). For some reason, I thought that a sweater would be the appropriate attire for the evening. So we arrived at PM, a trendy club in the meatpacking district, and Candace and her friends were already inside. There was a line of about 20 people next to the fabled velvet rope. I called Candace who confirmed that they were, indeed, inside said trendy club and that "it didn't take long to get through the line." But as we stood there, it became abundantly clear that the "line" was really just a crowd of people auditioning for admission to the club. It was incredible. I like to think that Taylor and I are a decent looking couple, but it quickly became apparent that the only way to get into this club was to flash some serious cleavage or pay the mean bouncers. Needless to say, at 2am, I am in no mood to schmooze with the bouncers, but I must admit that at some point I found myself feeling REALLY self-conscious in my sweater. And the more I thought about it, OBVIOUSLY Candace and her friends got in. Every group of more than three pretty girls virtually waltzed right in while those of us with boyfriends in tow are left watching them strut by. It was quite an interesting experience, and I must say it left me a little sad for all those people who really do spend their whole week waiting for the moment that they can walk into a club and finally feel important. It really must be an empty life, and, club or no club, I'm glad that my self-worth does not rest in getting in to PM to drink.
Friday, November 10, 2006
I love NY
The fact that I finally employed this prase is not an accident. I think I've been in New York long enough to use that overused cliche and actually mean it. Today is my 4-month anniversary in New York (much like a relationship, my affair with New York gets "month anniversaries" for the first year. Since I am the only willful member of the relationship, I can choose to recognize or not recognize these milestones at will...anyway), and I have realized this week that I really do love this city and all it has to offer. Allow me to expound (though I am sure I will not do so in full).
First of all, this week was week four at my new job, and I feel more useful, productive, and satisfied with my work all the time. I had worried that moving to the financial services industry would be less satisfying than any other work I had done because I have spent most of my life working toward "good causes." However, my former job made me realize that one must be happy in their work environment for the "cause" to matter anyway. As opposed to my first job, this job is a great environment for me, and I love team on which I work. Everyone is very hard-working, well-spoken and kind. They take time to help when I need it (and belive me, I do), and the use constructive criticism and praise liberally. Also, I have found that I can really find small ways to see the bigger picture of what I do. Whether it's helping a co-worker who is swamped with work or being the only friendly client that a vendor has spoken with all day, I really feel that I have flourished in my new environment, and I am thankful for that every day.
Along with my fabulous new job comes a new area of town to explore! I now work in the financial district, which is the oldest and most historic part of New York. Of course, Wall Street is the most famous landmark of the Financial district, but on Thursday I decided to find out what else there was to know about my new neighborhood. At the encouragement of my supervisor, I took a long lunch (yay!) and went on a free walking tour of the financial district. The day was perfect (70 and sunny in November!), so yet another reason to get out of the office. There were many sights to see on this tour, and our guide was kind enough to expound with stories and historic facts where appropriate. Here is a brief list of things I saw.
•Federal Hall - The site where Washington gave his innaugural address, where the Continental Congress met, and where the Articles of Confederation were written.
•The New York Stock Exchange
•Trinity Church – which interestingly is the 3rd largest land owner in Manhattan, having gotten most of it’s land from the government.
•Fraunces Tavern – the host of many famous early Americans and the site of the victory banquet for George Washington after the end of the revolutionary war.
•Delmonico’s – The first restaurant in America. Delmonico’s was the first restaurant to allow guests to order their food custom-made from a menu instead of being served whatever the owner was cooking that day.
•40 Wall Street – Which was the tallest building in the world for about a month before it was surpassed by New York’s Chrysler Building with its huge spire. This building is where Chase Manhattan bank was started, among other things. Annoyingly, Donald Trump somehow purchased the building and now has it titled “The Trump Building.”
•The Woolworth Building
•Bowling Green Park – the oldest park in the country and the location of the oldest still-standing structure in the country: The fence around it was constructed in 1773.
•The Charging/Wall Street Bull – This bull was created un-commissioned by artist Arturo DiModica. The statue weights 7,000 pounds and is worth about $1 million in bronze.
•Finally, it was interesting to see the original boundaries of lower Manhattan and to realize that about 50% of it is landfill and used to be water (the boundaries symbolized by Pearl Street, Beaver Street, and Canal Street).
Finally, this week I have had the opportunity to begin spending more and more time with some girls from the fellowship group that I have been attending, and they have been such a blessing to me. I am even going to start running in the mornings with one of them two mornings a week. I finally feel like I am starting to build some viable friendships in the city, and I am so thankful for that!
I must get to bed, but please feel free to leave a comment!
First of all, this week was week four at my new job, and I feel more useful, productive, and satisfied with my work all the time. I had worried that moving to the financial services industry would be less satisfying than any other work I had done because I have spent most of my life working toward "good causes." However, my former job made me realize that one must be happy in their work environment for the "cause" to matter anyway. As opposed to my first job, this job is a great environment for me, and I love team on which I work. Everyone is very hard-working, well-spoken and kind. They take time to help when I need it (and belive me, I do), and the use constructive criticism and praise liberally. Also, I have found that I can really find small ways to see the bigger picture of what I do. Whether it's helping a co-worker who is swamped with work or being the only friendly client that a vendor has spoken with all day, I really feel that I have flourished in my new environment, and I am thankful for that every day.
Along with my fabulous new job comes a new area of town to explore! I now work in the financial district, which is the oldest and most historic part of New York. Of course, Wall Street is the most famous landmark of the Financial district, but on Thursday I decided to find out what else there was to know about my new neighborhood. At the encouragement of my supervisor, I took a long lunch (yay!) and went on a free walking tour of the financial district. The day was perfect (70 and sunny in November!), so yet another reason to get out of the office. There were many sights to see on this tour, and our guide was kind enough to expound with stories and historic facts where appropriate. Here is a brief list of things I saw.
•Federal Hall - The site where Washington gave his innaugural address, where the Continental Congress met, and where the Articles of Confederation were written.
•The New York Stock Exchange
•Trinity Church – which interestingly is the 3rd largest land owner in Manhattan, having gotten most of it’s land from the government.
•Fraunces Tavern – the host of many famous early Americans and the site of the victory banquet for George Washington after the end of the revolutionary war.
•Delmonico’s – The first restaurant in America. Delmonico’s was the first restaurant to allow guests to order their food custom-made from a menu instead of being served whatever the owner was cooking that day.
•40 Wall Street – Which was the tallest building in the world for about a month before it was surpassed by New York’s Chrysler Building with its huge spire. This building is where Chase Manhattan bank was started, among other things. Annoyingly, Donald Trump somehow purchased the building and now has it titled “The Trump Building.”
•The Woolworth Building
•Bowling Green Park – the oldest park in the country and the location of the oldest still-standing structure in the country: The fence around it was constructed in 1773.
•The Charging/Wall Street Bull – This bull was created un-commissioned by artist Arturo DiModica. The statue weights 7,000 pounds and is worth about $1 million in bronze.
•Finally, it was interesting to see the original boundaries of lower Manhattan and to realize that about 50% of it is landfill and used to be water (the boundaries symbolized by Pearl Street, Beaver Street, and Canal Street).
Finally, this week I have had the opportunity to begin spending more and more time with some girls from the fellowship group that I have been attending, and they have been such a blessing to me. I am even going to start running in the mornings with one of them two mornings a week. I finally feel like I am starting to build some viable friendships in the city, and I am so thankful for that!
I must get to bed, but please feel free to leave a comment!
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
I'm running a marathon!!!
Three and a half years ago, my grandmother was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Since then, she has undergone months of Chemotherapy and many, many complications. Everyday, she shows me more strength and courage than I could ever muster.
Over the course of the next 6 months, I will spend most of my time on this blog chronicling my experience with Team In Training and sharing my grandma's story and the stories of those like her who, unlike me, have no choice but to run a marathon against cancer.
The basic gist is that I will be training for 5 months to run 26.2 miles in Nashville on April 28th, 2007. At the same time, I will be raising $4,000 to support the research and patient aid programs of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The research that I will be supporting is responsible for improving the quality of life of sufferers of Leukemia, Lymphoma, Hodgkin's Disease, Myeloma, and many other related cancers. I am so proud to be involved with Team In Training, and I hope that over the next six months, you too will feel a connection to this cause. I will give you plenty of opportunities to support me, don't you worry. For now, let's just celebrate the fact that I'M GOING TO RUN A MARATHON!!!
Over the course of the next 6 months, I will spend most of my time on this blog chronicling my experience with Team In Training and sharing my grandma's story and the stories of those like her who, unlike me, have no choice but to run a marathon against cancer.
The basic gist is that I will be training for 5 months to run 26.2 miles in Nashville on April 28th, 2007. At the same time, I will be raising $4,000 to support the research and patient aid programs of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The research that I will be supporting is responsible for improving the quality of life of sufferers of Leukemia, Lymphoma, Hodgkin's Disease, Myeloma, and many other related cancers. I am so proud to be involved with Team In Training, and I hope that over the next six months, you too will feel a connection to this cause. I will give you plenty of opportunities to support me, don't you worry. For now, let's just celebrate the fact that I'M GOING TO RUN A MARATHON!!!
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Mom's visit!!
Phew! Well, this week has gone by nice and fast because my mom was here for the first three days of the week. We had a great time, and Mom did a great job of keeping herself busy during the days by taking bus tours all over the city. Heck, by the end of the week, she was mentioning “Soho” and the “Flatiron Building” like a pro (I didn’t even know what those things were until I’d lived here like a month).
Mom got in on Saturday night and we went to dinner in Queens. My idea had been to take advantage of Taylor having a car and go somewhere that most tourists don’t go: Queens! Well, we did succeed in going somewhere most tourists don’t go, but I can’t say it was a totally cultural experience. We did end up in a very Middle-Eastern dominated area, with Hookah bars and Koran reading rooms all along the street. But the “Mexican Fusion Sports Bar” that I picked out ended up just being a bar with some rice dishes thrown on the menu. Oh well, it was fun .
On Sunday we toured around the city, stopping at the Museum of Natural History (see giant cross-section below), TJ Maxx (I had to return something!) and even church! It was very windy and cold on Sunday, so we were tired out by the end of the day and we went home early and ordered Pizza for dinner.
Monday morning we got up early and discovered that I had NO HOT WATER in my apartment! I sucked it up and skipped the shower and we went to Rockefeller center to see the taping of the Today Show. Mom got a picture of Matt Lauer, so it was successful. I had to work and mom spent her day exploring the town. We met for dinner at 5pm and went dinner in the Financial District. There is this really cute cobblestone street right outside one of the buildings that my company has offices in. We ate dinner at the Stone Street Tavern. It was delicious and very reasonably priced. After that we took a self-guided tour of Wall Street, which included stops at the New York Stock Exchange and the World Trade Center. It was fun, but I got some bad news when I called my leasing company during dinner to check on the status of our hot water situation.
Apparently someone had forgotten to “deliver the oil” (no wonder my rent is so high, I’m paying OIL prices….). They assured me not to “worry” I would have gas the following afternoon. Which obviously didn’t help me because I would have to go another morning without a shower! We decided that we would have to go get showers after dinner. My best idea was to go to my gym, which has two branches. One is closer to my apartment, and the other is NOT. We went straight to the closer one, only to find out that their showers are out of commission…AWESOME. So we trekked all the way down to the far branch and FINALLY got our showers at around 9pm. My mom was such a trooper! I was grumpy the whole time because I really wanted a shower. Thanks mom
On Tuesday we grabbed coffee at my favorite place near my old work: Guy and Gallard. I love their hazelnut coffee, and I think Mom agreed, it was pretty good! After that, I went to work, and Mom did a couple more tours before she met me for lunch at South Street Seaport. We had a nice lunch in the food court there and then I went back to work. I managed to leave work early and we went to try to get tickets to see Wicked via the box office lottery. The way it works is you go there 2½ hours before the show to put your name in the pot. You can ask for up to 2 tickets, so my mom and I each put our name asking for 2 tickets, that way if either of us was drawn, we would be able to go. Even though it was Halloween, there weren’t many people there, so I thought we had a good chance, but we ended up not getting picked . That was ok, though, we decided to just have a relaxing evening. We went out to eat at this really good little sushi/Thai place up by Columbia and then had cupcakes from Buttercup Bakery before going to bed nice and early.
Oh, and if you were on the edge of your seat waiting to find out how I calculated the speed of the sunset, here it is . Ever since the sunset, it has been getting dark REALLY early in New York. I checked and sunset is at 4:51 tonight. CRAZY! Well, it occurred to me that since Ohio is about 566 miles west of here, but still in the same time zone, it must get dark quite a bit later at home. Sure enough, sunset there isn’t until 5:28. That’s a difference of 37 minutes. Do the math and you have 566 miles/37 minutes=15.3 miles/minute. CRAZY! I’ll keep up with this for the next few weeks and I’ll be sure to give you not only the velocity, but also the acceleration of the sunset as the season progresses! See…having a challenging job really gets my juices flowing!
Ok, enough blogging for now. Thank you for reading. Please leave a comment so I know you’re around!
Mom got in on Saturday night and we went to dinner in Queens. My idea had been to take advantage of Taylor having a car and go somewhere that most tourists don’t go: Queens! Well, we did succeed in going somewhere most tourists don’t go, but I can’t say it was a totally cultural experience. We did end up in a very Middle-Eastern dominated area, with Hookah bars and Koran reading rooms all along the street. But the “Mexican Fusion Sports Bar” that I picked out ended up just being a bar with some rice dishes thrown on the menu. Oh well, it was fun .
On Sunday we toured around the city, stopping at the Museum of Natural History (see giant cross-section below), TJ Maxx (I had to return something!) and even church! It was very windy and cold on Sunday, so we were tired out by the end of the day and we went home early and ordered Pizza for dinner.
Monday morning we got up early and discovered that I had NO HOT WATER in my apartment! I sucked it up and skipped the shower and we went to Rockefeller center to see the taping of the Today Show. Mom got a picture of Matt Lauer, so it was successful. I had to work and mom spent her day exploring the town. We met for dinner at 5pm and went dinner in the Financial District. There is this really cute cobblestone street right outside one of the buildings that my company has offices in. We ate dinner at the Stone Street Tavern. It was delicious and very reasonably priced. After that we took a self-guided tour of Wall Street, which included stops at the New York Stock Exchange and the World Trade Center. It was fun, but I got some bad news when I called my leasing company during dinner to check on the status of our hot water situation.
Apparently someone had forgotten to “deliver the oil” (no wonder my rent is so high, I’m paying OIL prices….). They assured me not to “worry” I would have gas the following afternoon. Which obviously didn’t help me because I would have to go another morning without a shower! We decided that we would have to go get showers after dinner. My best idea was to go to my gym, which has two branches. One is closer to my apartment, and the other is NOT. We went straight to the closer one, only to find out that their showers are out of commission…AWESOME. So we trekked all the way down to the far branch and FINALLY got our showers at around 9pm. My mom was such a trooper! I was grumpy the whole time because I really wanted a shower. Thanks mom
On Tuesday we grabbed coffee at my favorite place near my old work: Guy and Gallard. I love their hazelnut coffee, and I think Mom agreed, it was pretty good! After that, I went to work, and Mom did a couple more tours before she met me for lunch at South Street Seaport. We had a nice lunch in the food court there and then I went back to work. I managed to leave work early and we went to try to get tickets to see Wicked via the box office lottery. The way it works is you go there 2½ hours before the show to put your name in the pot. You can ask for up to 2 tickets, so my mom and I each put our name asking for 2 tickets, that way if either of us was drawn, we would be able to go. Even though it was Halloween, there weren’t many people there, so I thought we had a good chance, but we ended up not getting picked . That was ok, though, we decided to just have a relaxing evening. We went out to eat at this really good little sushi/Thai place up by Columbia and then had cupcakes from Buttercup Bakery before going to bed nice and early.
Oh, and if you were on the edge of your seat waiting to find out how I calculated the speed of the sunset, here it is . Ever since the sunset, it has been getting dark REALLY early in New York. I checked and sunset is at 4:51 tonight. CRAZY! Well, it occurred to me that since Ohio is about 566 miles west of here, but still in the same time zone, it must get dark quite a bit later at home. Sure enough, sunset there isn’t until 5:28. That’s a difference of 37 minutes. Do the math and you have 566 miles/37 minutes=15.3 miles/minute. CRAZY! I’ll keep up with this for the next few weeks and I’ll be sure to give you not only the velocity, but also the acceleration of the sunset as the season progresses! See…having a challenging job really gets my juices flowing!
Ok, enough blogging for now. Thank you for reading. Please leave a comment so I know you’re around!
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