Pirate Love

On my way home the other night (from watching the most fabulous episode of Gossip Girl in which my true love for Chuck Bass was solidified) I encountered a plethora of ridiculously skinny people coming from the general direction of Lexington and 26th (my 'hood). They were all smoking, talking with heavily European accented voices and wearing the most outlandish and outrageous that fall lines have to offer. I was intrigued. And annoyed. The circumference of one girl's thigh was roughly about the same as my arm. Annoyed. Still, gotta love New York fashion week in all its glory. Including, Betsy Johnson's line for men (pictured above). Anyone who knows me knows how much I LOVE pirates. Love it. Love New York. Love Crazy Thin Models. Love Crazy Pirate Inspired Designers.

An Eventful Five Months!

It was dark outside tonight by 8pm and that makes me want to throw myself on the pavement, bang my fists on the ground and scream that summer come back RIGHT NOW! (I don't know what's with me and childish tantrums right now. Yesterday at work, I missed the elevator and instead of waiting patiently, my initial reaction was to pout and stomp my foot down. Yes, that's right... I'm regressing.) I must admit though, from time to time I went out and had some fun... I went to Santa Fe for work . . . and it was boring. The most exciting thing for me was getting to drive a car on the freeway. Gasp! I still know how to drive a car! (Yes, I took this picture while driving which is probably why it is a good thing that I no longer drive on a day to day basis... I also was told the other day by one of the partners I work with that he was shocked people didn't inherently know that texting and driving was bad. I didn't respond, just blushed and looked away sheepishly. Sometimes driving is boring! I think I'm beginning to get the idea that I'm a bad driver.)




I went to my family summer home in Rhode Island with my parents and brother....

Just Kidding.

I trolled the Hell's Kitchen flea markets for several weeks before I found the PERFECT mirror for my apartment... and the perfect sofa for a whorehouse.


I went to Atlantic City and partook of the offerings of the buffet at some casino, marveled at the lack of natural light in said casino and wondered at the mall on the pier complete with sand INSIDE the mall. Amazing! Oh, and apparently, I got fat in the last five months too.

I enjoyed the city for all its summer delights: eating Grimaldi's down on the pier, eating ice cream on the pier, hanging out in Central Park, seeing shows, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge (where I ran into, of all people, an old roommate from four years ago - small world!) etc.

I did get out of the City a couple times. I went to Utah for friend Karen's wedding and enjoyed the outdoors by hiking, playing tennis, taking walks, bbq-ing and off-roading. There's nothing more beautiful than seeing the sun rise over Strawberry Reservoir ... and then going to The Eating Establishment (even though Thomas looks like he has been dragged here against his will, he agrees - best food ever).

I got sworn into the New York State Bar Association, First Appellate Division (and still look fat... my photographer is sooooo fired).

I managed to take some horrendous one arm shots... I should fire myself from being the photographer...

I went to Chicago.

And fell in love...

Best summer ever! I wonder how much more fun I can cram into my summer in the next month before it's officially over (although, i swear I can feel the crispness of fall in the air tonight).

This post's for you Justin!

My Spring Walkabout (New York City Style)

I've been desparately longing for spring recently and after my trip to Washington D.C. last weekend for Easter, I was beyond disheartened to realize that spring had come to D.C. but not to N.Y.C. I was determined this weekend to go in search of any sign of spring that I could find in N.Y.C. and so I called up my new good friend Liz and invited her on my adventure to search out spring, even if it was the last thing I did. My brother Chris decided to come into the city at the last minute and so it was the three of us that set off on Saturday afternoon to wander through Greenwich Village on a hunting expedition, so to speak.

I don't know if I found more amusement from my new friend Liz (she's awesome), my childish glee in finding the smallest bit of green sprouting out of the ground, or the randomness that is New York. (And yes, I'm a serial comma user ... sue me.) The first thing that caught our eye was the gas station on the corner - so surprising to see in this urban jungle. We had to document it.

We wandered further on into the urban jungle and finally came across the smallest of trees sprouting itty-bitty shoots of green. Another picture taking session ensued.

Signs of spring came more and more frequently as we traversed the landscape, coming at us from the right and left side of every street. The natives in Greenwich have a curious habit of displaying spring outside their dwelling places with zealous abandon - a tradition which I will definitely want to imitate in the future.

All of the seeking for spring tired us out and we had a delightful repast at a local watering hole. The natives were out in force in their tribal dress, making for great people watching and observational study. The Greenwich Village dweller, at 2pm in the afternoon emerges after a late night of clubbing in the Meatpacking district, dons the sunglasses to hide the hungover glassy nature of the eyes, and stumbles along the street in their most trendy "I just woke up and threw this on" outfit that they probably spent an hour assembling. Said native meets up with other members of his/her tribe to relive the affairs of the evening, plan more outings, and drink mimosas, thereby taking the edge off the hangover. We non-drinking, neutral scientist types merely out in search of spring who happened to stumble upon this new society, drank our non-alcoholic, fresh-squeezed OJ in amusement.

Oh, and of course we found more spring fun on the way back to the subway.

Saying goodbye to Liz at the 8th avenue subway stop, we came face to face with a New York urban myth of gigantic proportions: the alligators in the subway. It's true - they do exist. I saw them with my own two eyes.

I am now perfectly content that Spring really is here in N.Y.C. and if I'm just patient and give it another week or two, I will be able to venture outside in open-toed shoes without fear of frostbite. Perhaps if I'm a very lucky and very good girl, I will be able to find more signs of spring out in Utah when I am there - maybe even a tulip or two.

To Blog or Not To Blog...

I've been wrestling with this question for a while now. Should I jump on the blog bandwagon and embrace the narcissism of my generation in thinking that the world will read my blog and give me honor and praise for my witicisms and insight into life, love, and everything in between? Apparently I've decided to do just that seeing as how I'm typing this at this very moment into my brand-new blog. We'll see if this becomes my vehicle for political thoughts, fulfills my desire to become a writer one day, or just becomes a way to keep my parents and friends updated on my goings on. Of course, if it becomes someone's way to shirk a little bit of their life while wasting a little bit of time on my blog even though they get nothing out of the exercise, I'll probably be allright with that too!

And my attention span has waned....