New Year, New Me

Ok, I must apologize in advance...the news I'm about to tell you MIGHT take over my blog. I kind of hope it doesn't because blogging about a diet is about the lamest thing I can think of right now, but I do have a feeling that 2008 will be a big year, so I'm starting it on the right foot. All that to say, I'm going on the South Beach Diet. I've decided on January 2 as a start date. I've already gone grocery shopping ($129,70!!!), chopped up green, red and yellow bell peppers, and baked vegetable quiches (pictured below, get excited). They're frozen now and can be re-heated for breakfast once I start the diet.

The rest of my diet consists mostly of fish, chicken, vegetables, eggs, cheese, and jello :-) Basically it's just eliminating carbs and sugars which are in more foods than I thought!!! Haha. Well, wish me luck!!!

As for my New Years plans in New York, we're having some friends over my place from 6-9 or so and then Taylor and I are going to a friend's house for a bit. It should be fun. We opted to not do the $150/person bar deal that most people do in New York, figuring we could have just as much fun for a lot less money, so hopefully we will. I briefly entertained the idea of going to Times Square, but Taylor said it's just an absolute madhouse, so we're going to skip it.

I'll keep you posted on what's going on with me!

Much worse than "expected"

So yesterday something happened to me that I'm sure happens to many women from time to time. Especially those who are at Barnes and Noble at 7:20 on a Monday night buying a copy of Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love." But still, I didn't expect it to be so terrible for me until it actually happened. So here's how it all went down:

Taylor actually stopped in to visit me last night (as you'll soon see, he can pretty much be blamed for all of this, one way or another). It was really sweet and fortuitous...he ended up going to a school event and I happened to get out of work early, so we rendezvoused on the Upper West side to grab some dinner. Before dinner, I wanted to stop in Barnes and Noble. I grabbed the book I needed and some Christmas cards and headed for the checkout while Taylor ran to the bathroom.

Just to set the stage, I was wearing the sweater and boots below (I know, I know, I'm not that creative) with some skinny jeans.

So, Borders was all set up for long lines, but since it was late in the evening, there weren't any people in the turnstile lines. So as I walked through the back and forth line area, some lady came straight to the front from another direction. Technically it was my turn, but I told her to go ahead. I wasn't in a hurry and she was old (which makes all this a little better), so I figured I'd do my holiday duty :-).

Imagine my amazement when she looks me up and down and says, "No, you go ahead, you're pregnant.".......................................

WHAT?!!!!!!!!????????!

And of course it would have been much less awkward if I had been able to just accept her (mistaken) kindness, but instead I looked right at her and said, "No I'm not!" And she just made an embarrassed face and wandered off....

Like I said, I have never had this happen to me and for some reason it really rattled me. For one, I don't THINK I look pregnant, but even more so I just felt very violated that she just assumed she could say it to me as though it were so obvious!

Of course when Taylor came back from the bathroom I immediately told him what happened. He was so cute "Well, for one, you don't look fat. The only reason I can think that you might is because of the sweater." Ok...I can see that the sweater may make me look bigger, but it pretty much makes you look bigger everywhere, not just in the belly. Silly boys :) Regardless, he gave me the sweater, so I blame him!

Ok, there you have it, my much worse than "expected" experience of the week!

I am Ugg (and so Can You!)

Taylor and I exchanged Christmas gifts last night (I'm sorry if that offends you, Jesus said it was ok since we won't be together on Christmas (cue "Blue Christmas," the Elvis version of course)).

I GOT UGGS!! I know, I'm like 4 years behind the trend here, but that's because I never saw the utility of them until this winter in New York. I think I survived last year by comparing every experience outside to my bi-weekly (at least) runs in the cold, so I didn't really feel like I was suffering that much. Well, this year I have been freezing, especially my feet, so Taylor was kind (and resourceful) enough to scour the internet for a pair of Chestnut Tall UGGs size 8. :-) I am so excited to wear them outside (for now I've only tried them on in the house).

UGGS
I also got a really comfy sweater dress, a cashmere scarf (are you noticing a soft, warm theme here?) and a little heater to go under my desk (not so much soft, but definitely warm!). It was wonderful, and a very cozy Christmas!



As for Taylor, I got him a smorgasbord of presents including 3 ties - grey (DKNY), black (BCBG) and navy (Michael Kors) - (what is this, you ask, Father's day after 10 years of marriage? No! He said he needed ties, i swear!), two sweaters (black and maroon, Uniqlo), a hat with built in headphones, and a heated blanket. I think he liked them, but you'll have to ask him!

This week will be short, I have Friday off and then I'm headed home for the holidays until the day after Christmas.

I hope to blog again, but if I do not, Merry Christmas!!!

Carissa

Radio City Christmas Music Hall Spectacular Stupendous Show Thingy

I seriously still have no idea what order the words in the title of this post would need to go in to accurately describe the show we went to last night. All I can say is "WOW!" I know, I know, everyone told me the show was for kids. Well call me a kid then because I loved it. It was one of the best shows I've seen in New York and definitely put me in the holiday spirit.

They had flying, camels, sheep, 3-D videos where you feel like you're on Santa's sleigh flying through New York City (ok ok, i AM a kid!) and, of course, the Rockettes!

One thing about the show that I was especially impressed by was their treatment of the Nativity Story. The last 15 minutes of the show were a full-scale, beautiful reproduction of the Nativitiy Story complete with the aforementioned camels, a brilliant, shining star, and passages read aloud from the book of Matthew. It was really beautiful. I was so impressed that after all these years and the diluting of this wonderful season to "Happy Holidays!" Radio City still chooses to call their show a Christmas spectacular and beautifully depicts the scenes from the Bible as its centerpiece. I definitely recommend it.

Alright, off to a day of Shopping in New Jersey :-)

Cool Pictures

I always do this...post twice at once and then not for 2 weeks...oops! Anyway, wanted to show you some really cool pictures of the city that I took a couple weeks ago.

That's a picture of World Financial Center, taken from the 26th floor of the Millenium Hilton at World Trade Center. The two tall buildings in the foreground house the world headquarters of Deloitte and Touche LLP, American Express, and Merrill Lynch. The semi-cirle between them is the top of the WinterGarden Atrium, this beautiful atrium filled with palm trees (hence the name WinterGarden).

Then in the background, the talles building acoss the river is 30 Hudson, which is actually the buildling that I will be working in beginning January 11th. Goldman Sachs has moved our office across the river to their new building in New Jersey. It also happens to be the most environmentally friendly and tallest building in the state! Our other ne building is barely visible under construction on the far right of this picture right across the street from the taller of the two buildings in the foreground. It's just the faming right now, but in 2009, we will open an office at 200 West Street that promises to be pretty amazing (I've seen a few presentations on what it will look like).

Ok, and here's one more photo, it's a picture of Ground Zero construction from 26 floors up.

For those if you who hadn't seen it, it's really just a huge construction site, but nonetheless a pivotal spot on American soil. Sorry it's a little blurry...I had to increase the shutter time to get enough light and I kept moving the camera. Did pretty well with the first one though, huh?

That's all for now!

DECEMBER already?

Haha ok, I know these titles are kinda lame. Well, it's time for an update and I apologize for my infrequent blogging. I must say, part of the problem with my blogging situation is that I have been unable to get the wireless Internet working in my new apartment :( so therefore I have to sit at my desk to blog, when I would much rather do it out in the living room in front of the T.V. or something. That said, I have no excuse. My first item for today is to post a picture of the napkin I blogged about (what, you didn't know you can blog about napkins?!) a couple weeks ago. I finally got around to scanning it and I think you'll find it pretty interesting. Here's a link to that blog if you didn't see it.





And here's the napkin:

Pretty cool huh? Basically it's a picture of me as a crocodile saying "cheers!" to New York City. Very cool.

Next, quick recap of my Thanksgiving:

• Headed home on Wednesday, stayed at my grandparents' place and drove down with them Thursday morning. The airports of New York were incredibly not crowded and my plan was "only" an hour and 15 minutes late getting in. For Thanksgiving weekend, that's not TOO bad.
• Thanksgiving with the family was great :-)
• Friday morning got up at 4:30 to go shopping with my mom and grandma. First stop was Best Buy which opened at 5 and some people had been in line since Thanksgiving MORNING to buy some laptop they had on sale for $240 or so. Not a bad deal, but I can't imaging missing Thanksgiving!
• Friday afternoon I played flag football with some high school friends. That was a good time.
• Saturday I had lunch with my friend Amber, played a game of pool with my oldest friend in the world, Randy, whom I've known since he was born, and went to watch Notre Dame (and Vandy via blackberry) football with Chris and Kelly, and then watched the Perrysburg Basketball game that night. Taryn's friends sang the National Anthem.
• Which took my back to my high school days when I sang the national anthem...man I wish I had that on film! haha.
• Sunday morning, my flight was at 7am so we left really early. I must say, I liked getting back early on Sunday because it gave me time to get situated for the week.

This week went by pretty quickly actually, so here I sit on Saturday morning getting ready to go for a run. It's going to be a lovely NYC day during the most lovely time of the year (in my opinion) to be in NYC. I love the holidays here. Everyone is in good spirits, the city is decked out, and there's always something to do! Today I'm going to run and then either watch the Vanderbilt Basketball game (we're 6-0 baby!) or go to a couple museums (haven't done that much since I moved here). Then tonight I'll hang out with Taylor. Tomorrow it's supposed to SNOW! Yay!

This Thursday is a big day, my mom and sister and sister's friend and her mom (that's 4 people staying with me in my apartment!) are coming to visit. I'm very excited for that. That day is also my work Christmas party (4 hours of open bar, I must be careful!). They're not getting in until late that night though, so it works out. We'll be having a great time in the city all weekend, including a trip to Greenwich village to see my friend perform the Charlie Brown Christmas music on piano at a little cafe and seeing another friend star in "The Littlest Light on the Christmas Tree" off Broadway. It promises to be a good time! Pictures to come.

Alright, that's all for now folks. Thanks for reading!