Spring has sprung!

So I'm sure you've noticed that my blog has been a little boring lately. Or perhaps in light of that boring-ness, no one is left reading this! Regardless, I'm going to soldier on and, for once, actually have something interesting to say :)

The weather this spring has been a little touch-and-go. We had two days a few weeks ago that were about 90 degrees, but then again, March 2010 was the rainiest month in like 50 years in the New York City area. April has been a little less rainy, but it's been yo-yo-ing between highs in the 50s and the 70s all month. Case in point, yesterday was about 70 degrees and sunny and today's high is 52 and it's raining.

Anyway, since yesterday was a beautiful day, Taylor and I took full advantage. It also happened to be Taylor and I's 6-month anniversary of being married (crazy!). So, we celebrated with a jam-packed and very New York City day :) I figured some of you might find it interesting, so here goes :)

Our day started with a 7-mile run in central park. It was an absolutely beautiful morning for a run. Cool and sunny, it seemed like everyone was running in the park. We even took a little detour to the Conservatory Gardens, where we got married 6 months ago. This picture is from Google, but it's a pretty accurate depiction of the weather and flowers in the garden. Quite an improvement from the weather on our wedding day!


Unfortunately, Taylor's IT band is really messed up and his knee has been hurting really bad, so our run was a little painful for him and he was limping pretty much all day.

After our run, we headed out to Citi Field to catch a Mets game with a few friends. The Mets were playing the Braves and some of our friends from Vanderbilt who are also from Atlanta wanted to go cheer on the braves so we tagged along. It was a lot of fun, the weather was great (albeit a little cold) and the Mets won, which made Taylor happy (I didn't really care).

We headed home, but not for long because we had plans for the evening to celebrate our anniversary!

We started out by going to dinner at a really interesting place called Burger Joint. It is inside the Parker Meridien hotel, which is a fancy hotel in Midtown. Here's a photo of the lobby:
That curtain is the divider between the stuffy fancy hotel lobby and the VERY different character of Burger Joint. Those people are lined up waiting to walk into another world. Inside, Burger Joint looks like a run-down, hole-in-the wall burger place that you might find in a decrepit downtown area of a side street in Detroit. All of the signs (including the menu and a sign advertising their wine as "straight out of the box") are hand-written with magic markers, the food is greasy, and the service is purposely impatient, bordering on mean. Here's a photo of the interior:

This must have been taken when the place was empty because when we were there it was much messier and crowded, but it was still fun. The only thing about the place that reminded you that you were in New York City was the guy sitting in the corner using his iPad.

After dinner, Taylor took me to the Plaza Hotel to have a a drink at the legendary Oak Bar. Some of you may know that I have a rather aggressive love for fancy hotels in spite of my unwillingness to ever actually stay at them :) I just love going in, looking around, buying an overpriced drink, and occasionally taking illicit advantage of pool, sauna or workout facilities :).

When we got to the bar, the sign told us that we must wait to be seated and that "proper attire is required." Luckily, our outfits passed the bouncer's sniff test and we were escorted to a very comfortable corner table and presented with the menu for $19 cocktails. After consulting our waiter, I settled on the "Grumpy Garcia" (am I the only one that feels uncomfortable with drinks that contain the word "Garcia"?), which is their "twisted take on the margarita" and contained pineapple and jalapeno infused vodka with pomegranate. They weren't kidding when they said it was spicy, but it was good. I have to say, though, the most surprising moment of that cocktail came when I decided it would be a good idea to eat the entire chunk of pineapple contained therein in one bite. You know how the fruit in sangria is always the most alcoholic part. Well, this chunk of pineapple tasted like it had been soaking in jalapeno infused vodka for about a week, so it was basically like taking a shot! Whew!

Taylor took our waiter's recommendation and ordered a cucumber-basil drink that made us both wonder if the waiter was questioning Taylor's sexuality...But he said it was good :)

After drinks, we headed downtown for what was supposed to be our second covert location of the evening (the first being Burger Joint, the Oak Bar is by no means covert, and that is by design). The place we were going is called "PDT" which stands for "Please Don't Tell." It's supposedly a very intriguing speakeasy and the door to this place is through a telephone booth inside of an unassuming hot dog shop. Here's the entrance to the shop:
And here's the tiny door to the phone booth which, on the other side, houses PDT.


Well, evidently some folks DT (DID TELL) because this place is impossible to get in to. We were running a little late for our reservation and they gave our table away! Not to mention as Taylor and I were standing outside waiting for our friends to arrive, EVERYONE who walked by was telling their friends about PDT. Clearly, this is no longer a "best kept secret."

Even so, we ended up going to another bar and having a great time playing darts and having a few drinks. All and all, a great day and night in New York City :)

We're going to Indonesia and Australia in 6 weeks!

Time has flown by and here we are at tax day, which means we are halfway through April. Wow! Well, I am very excited today because Taylor and I leave for Indonesia and Australia exactly 6 weeks from today!!!

Just in the past few days, we have really started to plan our trip and it is going to be so fun! I tell you what, our honeymoon seems like a million years ago, and I am really itching for some time on away. We'll be stopping in Indonesia for 4 days to visit the village Taylor lived in when he was there.

There's this GORGEOUS little hotel near Taylor's village. The rooms are super cute, they have a fantastic pool overlooking the rice fields and they have a delicious restaurant. We'll stay there any head to Taylor's village each day to visit with the folks there. I am so excited! We'll also spend one night in Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia, at the Novotel. Probably one of my favorite hotels in the world, it has a beautiful pool and (again) delicious breakfast.

Also, in case you've ever wondered, the photo of me at the top of my blog was actually taken in Taylor's village. There's a woman there who runs a tiny cafe out of her home. When I say cafe, I really mean that she has a bench outside and sells coffee and rice that she cooks in her kitchen. But don't let the imagery fool you, she makes the most delicious coffee I have ever had, for just $.05 a cup! I can't wait to get back there and drink some!

After a few days in Indonesia we're heading to Melbourne! Our friends Kim and Will are expats in Melbourne and have concocted a fantastic plan that allows us to see Melbourne, Sydney, the Great Ocean Road, Philips Island (where there are evidently penguins in their natural habitat), Mornington Peninsula wine region and even an Aussie Rules "football" game! We are so pumped and the countdown begins today at 42....May 27th cannot come soon enough!

I'm on a diet!

As you read this, I am dreaming of cupcakes, coffee, and chips and guacamole. Because I can't eat any of those things (well, actually I can eat the guacamole but not the chips). That's because I am currently in the thick of Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet. The diet sounds significantly more fun than it is when they describe it on their web site:

Phase 1, the shortest Phase, lasts for just two weeks and is designed to eliminate cravings for sugar and refined starches - and to jump-start your weight loss. The purpose of Phase 1 is to stabilize blood sugar (which minimizes cravings), making it ideal for people who are prediabetic or diabetic, as well as for those who need to lose a lot of weight.

The focus of this two-week period is on eating plenty of nutrient-dense, fiber-rich (and guaranteed delicious!) foods that satisfy your appetite. Your meals include lean protein, such as fish and other seafood; skinless white-meat poultry, and lean cuts of beef (vegetarians can enjoy meat substitutes, tofu, and beans); high-fiber veggies; reduced-fat cheeses; eggs; low-fat dairy; and healthy, unsaturated fats, such as those found in avocados, nuts and seeds, and extra-virgin olive and canola oils.

To me, it means I have to eat eggs for breakfast, a cheese stick or peppers and hummus for lunch, and another salad or straight-up meat and veggies for dinner. I have not been enjoying the diet, but I have enjoyed the two best outcomes it provides:

1. Getting rid of sugar cravings! My sweet tooth was out of control until 5 days ago, but I finally feel like I'm getting it under control. That's the irony of this diet. It simultaneously, torturously deprives you of something you love (cupcakes) and helps you learn to live without it. Magic!
2. Weight Loss. I have lost 6.2 pounds since I first weighed myself Monday morning. I have weighed myself at the same time and under the same circumstances every day. I think they actually say this is a no-no, but I am truly enjoying seeing the outcome of all this deprivation on a daily basis. In fact, this diet is supposed to last until Sunday the 18th, but Taylor said that I could stop it as soon as I reach my goal weight, even more incentive!

NOTE: what I mean by "Taylor said" is not that he is the one forcing me to be on the diet, but rather when he sees me depriving myself he feels bad and tries to tell me I can stop anytime but I won't let him, so we compromised and he said that I should stop whenever I get to my goal (he loves me either way). Here goes nothing!

That means I only have 6.4 lbs left! Wish me luck!

Wow, I cannot believe that in 3 days it will be April. The year is 25% over. Time sure flies, doesn't it?

I'm pretty excited to finally be making our first trip back to Ohio this weekend! I haven't seen the family in 2010 and with Garret's near-death-experience last week and the Easter holiday, now seems like a good time to visit the homeland. We've got lots of plans, hopefully we'll have time for everything!

On Friday I'm getting my hair cut by my sister Taryn who is a full-fledged adult these days with a job at a salon in Perrysburg where, ironically, I worked as my first job in high school. I was a towel girl, though, low woman on the totem pole and she's a real, live hair stylist. Good work T! I'm excited! After my haircut I think we'll head to lunch in beautiful downtown Perrysburg. I'll also probably get my wedding rings cleaned since it's been a few months (oops!). Then it's back to my mom's hair salon for a cut for Taylor and a color for me. Any suggestions on color??

Friday afternoon we'll probably hit up Mr. Freeze (duh) to hold us over until dinner at Jed's for some FREAKBALLS (if you don't know what those are, you are missing out!) followed by Clash of the Titans. Sounds like fun!

Then Saturday we're having a family get-together for Easter. Since Taylor and I have to fly out shortly after church on the actual day of Easter, we're celebrating a day early. I'm sure we'll also end up playing some card or board games and taking another trip to Mr. Freeze too :) Sidenote: as I was writing this, I became a fan of Mr. Freeze on facebook, you should too!

So that's what we have on the docket. Next weekend is followed by 4 consecutive weekends in the city with no real plans. Taylor and I will be training for our half marathon in May in hopes of getting a personal best time for me (faster than 1:55:48).

Praise God!

Yesterday, my brother, Garett, was in a car accident. Miraculously, he crawled out of the car without a scratch, but I'm still having trouble believing it based on these pictures:




That's Garett in the red, acting like it's just another day :)
Brother, I think God's got a plan for you!

My husband the fruit vendor

So, I know I always talk about me, me, me, so I thought some of you might appreciate a post about my husband.

If you know me, I'm sure you're aware that Taylor is a very nice person. Very. The following story, then, comes as no surprise :)

So today Taylor was helping his boss with some really random task of moving a couch (around Manhattan, beats me...). So he went and got the car and was idling outside of his office waiting for his co-worker when a man operating a fruit stand on the sidewalk said that he had to go to the bathroom in Penn Station and asked Taylor to watch his fruit stand for him.

Of course while he was gone, two customers came to the stand. Taylor tried to explain that the real "fruit stand guy" would be back soon, but the prices were listed on the stand (see photo), so he obliged to sell one guy bought 2 apples for $1 and a lady a pound of grapes for $2. Evidently, the real fruit stand guy was very happy with Taylor's fruit sales skills and offered that he could take anything he wanted from the stand (I vote for avocados!), but instead, Taylor bartered and asked him to return the favor by guarding the car from the parking police while they unloaded the sofa. And there you have it, Karma, NYC style.

Snow, Work, and Travels

Well hello there! Is it really February 15th already? It would appear so! Well, I have had a couple of very busy weeks, which is the reason for the lack of blogs. Last week we had a 3-day training at work that I pretty much planned soup to nuts. It was a lot of work with many prep sessions, agenda revisions, and contingency plans. The latter because, as you may have heard, New York City was walloped with a massive snowstorm on Wednesday, the exact day that our training was scheduled to start with sales folks arriving from the far-flung reaches of Vegas, Chicago, and Connecticut.

We were supposed to kick off at noon on Wednesday and, miraculously, all but one of our sales reps - ironically, the one from Connecticut - arrived by 2pm. Unfortunately, our presenters did not fair so well and we were only able to have one session on Wednesday. With almost everyone else working from home, our team managed to have 12 people in the office for 2.5 hours of training on Wednesday. We are so hardcore.

The rest of the week was just busy and included 2 nights of free drinks with the team. I'm still trying to recover from the over-eating and pursuant sense of fat-ness, but that's ok.

And now, Taylor and I are seated squarely on our couch watching reruns of scrubs becasue, blessedly, we have the day off today! Plenty of time to recouperaet from the long week :)

So that pretty much covers the Snow and Work portions of this title. The last is travels, which was just a reminder to myself to update you all in blogland about our travel schedule.

This will be a really short week because Taylor and I have taken off Friday to go to Buffalo and watch Taylor's sister's last conference swim meet before she graduates college.

Two weeks later, we aren't the ones doing the travelling, but I think it warrants mentioning nonetheless. When Taylor was in Indonesia, he encouraged one of the teachers at his school to apply for a sort of reverse Fulbright to the United States. She applied and actually won the scholarship and has been studying new Cincinnati at Western Kentucky University since January. This is big because she had never even been off the Indonesian Island she was born on until this year.

We really wanted to see her while she's in the U.S. but instead of buying two tickets to visit her in Cincinnati (sorry, Lepolts), we decided she probably wants to see New York anyway, so we would just buy her a ticket to come to New York City. So on March 6, Taylor's friend Tutik is coming to stay with us and see New York City for the first time. She is really, really excited to come, it's really cute!

A couple of weeks later, Taylor is going on a business trip to Toronto, so I'll have to fend for myself. I think I can handle it though! :) And then hopefully one weekend in March or April, we're going to go visit my grandparents near Orlando, Florida. The dates depend on on when we can get cheap tickets, so fingers crossed!

Alright, sorry this is a really boring blog, my apologies!

A Belated Volunteering Story...

Last Monday, Taylor and I had a really interesting volunteering experience that I've been meaning to write about. We volunteered for the Department of Homeless Services’ (DHS) annual street survey, called the HOPE Street Survey, on January 25, 2010, from 10:30 PM – 4:00 AM. The HOPE survey is basically a point-in-time estimate of the unsheltered homeless population in New York City.

The way it works is, 3,000 New Yorkers (and folks from outside New York, I know some kids came from Princeton) show up at 10:30pm on the night of the survey at one of several "hub" around the city. We went through about 45 minutes of training for the night. The basic setup is that they divide New York City into thousands of small areas and then assign 4-5 volunteers to survey 1-2 areas each. Each group has to walk every sidewalk in their assigned several-block area, including both sides of every street and any parks or other public areas. We are given a short survey which basically is intended to find out if the person is homeless, and we have to ask that survey of EVERY person we see. That includes someone in a North Face jacket walking a poodle, a man getting out of a Mercedes after a long night at the office, and of course any actual homeless folks. The reason we have to talk to everyone is that they want to eliminate any volunteer bias about who may or may not be homeless.

We were actually assigned to a large group (9 people) and went up to the West Harlem area around 125th Street. Basically we walked the street in that area and didn't see a soul. Then we were also assigned to the 125th Street subway stops of the 1 and the A,B,C,D trains, which was really interesting. We interviewed some homeless people as well as some obviously NOT homeless people.

I actually had the most robust experience of our group when I talked to a really nice homeless man on the subway. He was really sweet and answered all of my questions. At the end of our conversation, I asked him if he would like to receive shelter for the night. It wasn't a very cold night, so we didn't expect many people to accept the offer. He was funny, his answer was “No, thanks, I have some things I have to finish up,” which was clearly not true since he was just standing on the subway platform with two suitcases not going anywhere. But he was very nice and, at least for that night, not too cold.

The other interesting thing about the survey is that they actually place decoys around the city to ensure that the teams of volunteers do in fact talk to everyone they see. They plant decoy homeless individuals on some of the streets, parks, and subways that volunteers will survey. The researchers who analyze the survey then adjust its total estimate of the homeless in New York based on the percentage missed. New York is the only U.S. city that ensures the accuracy of its count through this technique. Our area actually had two decoys and I’m proud to say we found them both!

HOPE 2009 found the number of individuals living on New York City streets down by 47 percent since 2005, and a 30 percent decline from the 2008 survey. We’re still awaiting the results of 2010, but it was really fun either way!

First half-marathon of 2010!

Crossing the finish line, action shot!

Official finisher photo, looking nice!


The photos are watermarked because I cheated and stole them with Snagit.

We aren't even one month in to 2010 and Taylor and I are already well on our way to one of our goals for the year! This past Sunday we ran the Manhattan Half Marathon, part of the New York Road Runners Half Marathon Grand Prix. Basically, they sponsor a half marathon in each borough every year.

This one really snuck up on us since the only training that I have done for the best few months has been to expand my stomach! Our training basically consisted of two training runs the two weekends leading up to the race. We did 7 miles on January 10 and 10 miles on January 18 and that was it!

I have to say, though, the race wasn't really that bad. For starters, the start line was less than 2 miles from our apartment. This is in contrast to the Brooklyn Half Marathon where we'll have to travel about an hour and a half BEFORE the 8:00am start! Second, the weather was about perfect for a half marathon. It was about 40 degrees and cloudy but not raining (well, until the very end). It could have been a little warmer, but it worked for us.

We woke up at around 6:45am, ate some breakfast and hopped in a cab to the race. When we got there, we dropped off our bags and headed to the start line to do some stretching before the start. Evidently I was faster in a former life because we were in corral 3, which was pretty close to the front. Turns out we probably should have been a little further back because once the race started people were passing us left and right! We were running at about a 9minute 45second pace. It's true, that is much slower than I have been at other times, but we were just trying to set a very achievable goal to beat next time (haha).

The race consisted of two full loops of Central Park followed by another mile of the third loop to come in at 13.1 miles. Central Park has MANY hills, but I have to say they didn't really bother me, perhaps because we were going so slow. We didn't really struggle too much in the first lap and took some Goo (a carbohydrate boost packet that runners use) at about mile 6. On the second loop of the race we were feeling good so we sped our pace up to about 9:30 miles. We started to get bored at this point so we had a good time making fun of other runners (I'm talking about you, Crazy Arms McGee) and talking about when we will buy our first house (NOT in New York City, that's for sure!).

The last 3 miles we were just ready to be done running so we picked it up a little more. Our last three mile paces were 9:31, 9:24 and 9:09. Now that's what I call conserving your energy until the end!

In the end, our time was 2:07:20. My slowest half marathon to date, but a good starting point for some serious improvement in 2010. We haven't set a formal goal, but I definitely want to break my personal record of 1:55:48 this year. Stay tuned!!

Interesting Story

So I originally started this blog on MySpace (if you can believe that) back in 2006 when I moved to New York City. My idea was that, living in New York, my life might be at least mildly interesting and that my friends, family and possibly even perfect strangers might be interested in my stories. Then I decided to train for a couple of Marathons and raise money, so a blog to complement my training and fundraising seemed to make sense and so it went. Lately, I feel like my life has been somewhat boring, and I've been wondering if I really have anything to tell in this blog. Well, turns out that things do stay interesting in New York. I mean, the story I'm about to tell isn't life-changing, but it is fairly interesting and probably what this blog was originally designed for. So after much blabbering and lead-in, here goes :)

Last Thursday, I left work at around 6:30pm to go meet my friend Katie for dinner and drinks. While I was walking up Park Avenue, I found a wallet in on the sidewalk. After checking around to make sure that there was no one close by was realizing they had dropped a wallet. I didn't see anyone, so I picked up the wallet and realized it was definitely someone's main wallet, complete with driver's license, credit cards, etc.

In the very front of the wallet, right next to the driver's license was a card from the ASPCA that (quite morbidly) said something to the effect of "If you find my wallet and I am incapacitated, please call one of the following people" and then it listed the name and number of some folks I presumed to be her parents. So I decided that my first step would be to call them in case they could give me her cell phone and I could somehow find her nearby and return her wallet. I got voicemails at both numbers, but I didn't leave a message.

I found the wallet outside of the New York Life building, which has many employees, so I went inside thinking that perhaps they could tell me if the person worked there. If not, I had planned to just give it to the police to track the woman down. They directed me to the building's security office and I left it with Security who said that they would give it to the police to return to the woman.

As I was leaving the building, I decided to try to call one of the numbers from her wallet and leave a voicemail in hopes that they would get it and let the girl know and maybe she could get her wallet back before she got to far away. The number was still in my phone, so I called back as I walked to the subway. I assumed the call would go to voicemail again and was surprised when, after about the 3rd ring, a man answered and said, "Don't call this number again!" I guess they thought I was a prank caller or a telemarketer of some sort. I spoke up immediately and said, "Wait, sorry, my name is Carissa and I just wanted to let you know that I just found Jennifer's wallet on a sidewalk in New York City and left it with the security office at the New York Life Building on Park Avenue. I just wanted to let you know so that you could call her and let her know it's there. In all likelihood, they will send it to the Police, but just wanted to let you know." The person - a little contrite - said thank you and that he would let the wallet's owner know. And we hung up.

While I was at dinner about an hour later, I missed a call from a number in the same area code as the two numbers in the wallet. So I decided to text back after dinner just to confirm that the person didn't have any questions about the whereabouts of the wallet. I said that my name was Carissa and that I hoped she had gotten the wallet. Our conversation went like this:

Jennifer: I can't thank you enough! Absolutely karma. If you're still in the neighborhood, I owe you a drink.
Me: No worries! I work at 25th and Park but nothing owed :) Feel free to email though, we could do lunch. csmith@akamai.com
Jennifer: OK this is weird, I work at Akamai too! I'm on the 8th floor!

So basically I gave her my work e-mail and it turns out that she works at the same company as I do! We just work on different floors so we've never met. I think we'll probably get lunch next week, but talk about a small world! I find a random wallet (albeit it close to my office, but there are many offices around), and it turns out that the girl works for my company.

Alright, this is a long post so I'm going to sign off now!