.: crayon 17 :.

Macarellas

2009-11-23T02:42:00.000-05:00

Macarellas from the Street Sweets truck.

So, so, so good.

We were heading to the Upper West Side today anyway, so we decided to stop by for some macarellas in honor of their GMA appearance. Mmmm, so good.

Special Agents

2009-11-07T15:12:00.003-05:00

I had a really intense, complicated (and long!) dream last night. We were special agents investigating people who we thought were terrorists with some new modern technology. We were constantly following the wrong people and getting wrong leads, and being lead on a wild goose chase, in and out of buildings. (At one point, we also tried going to Burger King, which was supposed to be on one of the main corners of Times Square, and a lot of the tall buildings were just empty construction sites.) There were lots of empty plots, tips that they were hiding bombs in Christmas ornaments or large parade adornments, and other strange things. It turns out the person had some vendetta against someone, and was out for revenge not just for destruction but were willing to take everyone down with them. This dream was so bizarre because for once, it didn't jump around or replay the same scenes with different endings. Instead, it was like watching a movie for the entire time I was asleep! Crazy.

World Series

2009-11-05T01:08:00.001-05:00

YANKEES WIN #27!

So happy!

I updated Facebook and Twitter, and forgot to update here since I've been neglecting this. Oops.

So happy!

Once Again

2009-11-04T23:34:00.002-05:00

Our entire apartment (other than the bedroom, thank goodness) smells like stale cigarette smoke. Thank you, considerate neighbors, for polluting my lungs. I don't care what you do with yours. But leave me out of it and let me choose for myself if I want to inhale cancer sticks.

Mayor

2009-11-04T14:47:00.001-05:00

The NYT one line article summary in my email this morning says:

"Michael R. Bloomberg's repeal of term limits and his campaign spending may have undermined his bid."

I thought it was a given that he was going to win, but I'm really surprised with how close the election turned out to be. I didn't vote for him (or the other guy). In fact, I didn't vote for mayor at all, because I didn't like anyone (but considered voting for the "rent is too high" party when in the voting booth, but didn't because I didn't know anything about them).

But I think those are the right 2 things to look at when thinking about how close this was. The repeal of term limits says a lot about him as a person and a leader. If things aren't how he personally wants them, he will just change them to be how he wants them. Can't be mayor for more than 2 terms? Change the law! Things just seem to keep happening around the city without any of us even getting to comment. For example, all of a sudden, the loading zone in front of our apartment building was turned into parking spaces, and now, not only is it much more difficult to drive down the street (the loading zone doubled as a left turn lane onto a busy avenue), but there's nowhere to park to unload the car (or people, in the case of taxis) so it's leading to lots of double parking. Anyone could have told him that, and maybe it wasn't his personal decision, but as leader of the city, it's easy for me to project this on to him. Don't get me started on the pedestrian plaza thing, which was definitely his idea. I'm OK with it now that it's no longer an eyesore, and we're getting used to it (and I LIKE public space), but in the beginning, it was unused and looked sloppy and cheap, and I still don't buy the argument that it reduces congestion on the city streets. Oops, I said I wasn't going to get worked up over all of this, and there I went.

As for the campaign spending, his spending and his constant mailings almost pushed me to vote for the other guy, even though I knew little about him and didn't particularly feel any great liking for him. For someone who claims to care a great deal about the environment, he sure sends a lot of paper and cardstock in the mail. Every day, we would get something from him. Not only that, but we would get TWO sometimes. It started months ago, and has only gotten worse as we got closer to election day. They go straight into the recycling bin, but it's incredibly annoying. We don't even read them, and he's just killing trees. In addition, we have been seeing his face all over TV. Even though I know the appearance at the marathon wasn't for campaign purposes, I had seen so much crap from him by that point that it almost felt like it was just another ad and another way to get his face in the news.

Am I a fan? Clearly not. But I also figured that he was going to win. NY1 said this morning that with his spending it was about $200 a vote. He outspent his opponent something like 16 to 1. I'm glad it's his own money (at least I think it is) and not ours, but seriously?! I guess maybe I shouldn't be surprised at how well the other guy did! I guess other people felt the same way.

Forgotten

2009-11-03T22:05:00.003-05:00

Thank you DVR, for not recording V (with the same stupid "set top could not record the program" message that means nothing), so now we have to wait until Saturday to see it on Hulu.

Thank you ABC, for cutting into the beginning of the forgotten to tell me that stupid Mayor Mike won again (it was a "special report" because it is oh-so-shocking that he won, seriously?!), and then in attempting to go back to the program, showing me a black screen and then re-showing the ending of Dancing With the Stars, and then finally showing the forgotten once the story has already been introduced. This is the first episode not on Hulu, so can't watch it later!

Argh.

Useless Post

2009-11-02T03:28:00.001-05:00

How is it November?! Seriously?!

And why is it, when the clocks went backwards, I'm still awake at 3:30 which is the old 4:30? This is bad!

Catching Up

2009-10-26T23:32:00.004-04:00

We're still trying to catch up on TV shows after being gone (and watching no prime time shows) for 2 weeks. Not everything made it on to the DVR, so thank goodness for Hulu and other online viewing. But we're so behind.

The only shows we're up to date on (well, some of them aren't shows we watch together, so those would be just me) are Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, White Collar (because it's new!), Modern Family, The Good Wife, Bones and So You Think You Can Dance. At least I think that's it. Maybe Vampire Diaries. That's not much!

We just caught up on Modern Family today. I love that show. It's one of the best shows on TV and makes me so happy. That's really what I look for in TV these days - something enjoyable. Shows that are really dark (coughCBScough) just aren't working as well for me these days.

I think I have watched White Collar 4 times now. I love USA.

And in the last bit of TV comments, I'm really sad to hear that Billy Bell is sick and had to leave SYTYCD. He was one of our favorites, and it sounds really serious if he had to leave, so we really hope he gets well soon. Sad to hear that.

I can't believe it's already 11:30. Where did today go?!

HC: Bath Products

2009-10-26T03:36:00.000-04:00

We spent two weeks in Maui this month for the wedding, and over the course of our time there, stayed at three different hotels/resorts: the Hyatt, Sheraton and Grand Wailea.

Since we compared different items at the hotels during our stay, the "HC" ("Hotel Comparison") series will be putting our thoughts into words. (And, for the things we haven't discussed at length, my thoughts.)

For most things (other than bugs - I'll explain another time), the Grand Wailea will probably win. It's a huge sprawling resort with an amazing spa and pool, and I don't think I've ever been to a place that can compare to it (yet). I suppose we could also make it a 4-way comparison with the hotel we stayed at during our first visit, the Kaanapali Shores, but it was a condo/hotel so it was fairly different in level and style to the other places, and probably wouldn't benefit from the comparison. You probably wouldn't hit Kaanapali Shores if you were looking for a place with a big spa or pools with lava slides.

For the first comparison, I'm going to discuss bath and body products. (Speaking of bath and body, if you go to Bath & Body Works right now, they are giving out Christmas guides with coupons with purchase and also have these "winter indulgence" lotions/creams that are awesome.) It doesn't sound like the most exciting topic, but I just got out of the shower, so it's on my mind.

First up, the Hyatt. The Hyatt's bath products come in these big 2 ounce tubes (big for a hotel size). They come in coco-mango and are the same as the spa (they say). They're usually pretty good about giving you extras even if you haven't finished the old ones, which is really good. They smell good and are pretty good quality. We stayed at the Hyatt twice (thanks, Priceline!) and were really happy with the bath products there (and ended up with so many extras during the first trip that we're still using them).

Next, the Sheraton. The Sheraton's products were made by bliss, and come in mandarin & mint (that's one type, not 2). I was expecting to like these more because they were made by bliss, but of the 3, I think these are my least favorite! They're the least "luxurious" feeling of the bunch, which surprised me since bliss makes spa quality products too. I didn't mind using it when we were there, but I think Hawaii shower water is better than New York water, and I don't think I like the products as much when I use them here.

Last, the Grand Wailea. Like the Hyatt, they also give you products from their spa line, Spa Grande, and they come in honey mango. It's the same exact stuff they sell in their spa store, and they refill your room shelf twice a day (awesome). The quality of these is really good too, and I'm not sure which I like better between this one and the Hyatt.

And I feel the need to mention something about an unrelated resort at this point since I just used the Ritz Carlton shower gel while in the shower. I think Ritz Carlton bath products are my favorite ever. This is a few years old (oops) from my trip to Puerto Rico, and it's still good (and the smell just reminds me of vacations). We went to their spa in Maui once, and they use the same products in the spa showers, and I love them.

I guess if I had to pick, I would pick Grand Wailea by an inch over the Hyatt, and then the Sheraton below it. I just asked A, and he had to think about it between the Grand Wailea and the Hyatt, but came out the same way. He doesn't remember much about the Sheraton's stuff, since we were there less than the Hyatt. And, well, we had other more important things on our minds. I guess it's easier for me to compare since I used Sheraton shampoo and Hyatt conditioner in my shower tonight.

Maybe the key to good products is using mango. :)

It's almost 3:45 and we're still awake... why...

Jet Lag II

2009-10-22T02:26:00.002-04:00

I'm going backwards in my jet lag progress!

I was going to sleep at a (more) decent hour, but tonight, here I am at 2:30 am, wide awake! This is bad! The past two days, I had gotten myself asleep by now, but tonight, it's not happening. Annoyed.

And my ears are all clogged and really need to pop. It's been like this for the past 8 hours or so. Really annoyed.

How can I get over my jet lag? Help!

Jet Lag

2009-10-19T03:51:00.003-04:00

Remember when I said I didn't know how we were going to adjust to the time when we got back?

Well, it's almost 4 am, and here I am.

I intended to try to "right" my schedule today since I took tomorrow off to get things done and have to be back in the office bright and early on Tuesday (ugh). After spending two weeks in a time zone 6 hours behind, this is going to take some adjustment. Especially when I seamlessly adjusted to that time zone, and experienced no jet lag whatsoever going westward. Going east is so difficult.

So I'm sitting in the dark staring at the computer screen, hoping that this will make me more tired. (It seems to be working, I think.) The best way to adjust would have been to stay awake for the entire second flight from San Francisco, since that would have been from about 10:30 NYC time until 4 NYC time, but I slept through most of that flight. I tried to stay awake and failed miserably, but I guess I didn't really try that hard. Without an in-seat TV, what else is there to do but sleep?

I'm in such a relaxed state of mind that it's so difficult being back, thinking about having to run errands, clean the apartment, do post-wedding stuff and go back to work. I want to spend the day at the spa, the pool, the beach! I think I have post-vacation blues. I read some article before we left about the way most people adjust to post-vacation blues - planning another vacation. Maybe I'll try that. I have research to do. I haven't really been to Los Angeles in almost 20 years (hard to believe it's been so long).

For now, my most immediate goal - wake up at a decent hour! Sigh.

Strange

2009-10-16T07:20:00.003-04:00

It's been SO strange watching "Wake Up With Al" on the Weather Channel when going to sleep everyday. People on the East Coast are waking up and the sun is rising and I'm going to bed. So strange.

Also strange that it's snowing at home and we spent part of the afternoon going on water slides and hanging out in the pool. I don't know how we're going to adjust to time or weather when we get home.

Almost There

2009-10-09T05:28:00.003-04:00

I don't know if I ever mentioned on here the difficulties with booking our reception for the wedding. We had initially wanted to do it at the same place as the ceremony; it would be convenient and went along with our ideas of a "wedding." However, dealing with the people at the site was like pulling teeth (maybe worse) and their contract was one of the worst I have ever read in my entire life.

So it should be no surprise that when I'm reading the "all about the hotel" book on the coffee "table" here, and it said that their convention services and catering people "have made creativity and efficiency a habit," I burst out laughing.

Creativity? Not seeing any creativity when the answer to your wedding ceremony is "either you pick A or B or you have to go through an intermediary wedding coordinator." (And that's just awesome when A and B are each over $15,000, for the ceremony.) Efficiency? If so, I'm not sure that word means what they think it means.

Anyway, we're here at the hotel where the ceremony will be, and we just moved over today from another hotel that we absolutely love (but didn't know that until after everything was reserved, and we probably would have ditched this room block if not for the hefty deposits). Perhaps I'm a little biased because I love the other hotel, but I think it still wins. I'll do a more detailed assessment later after the wedding, when I have thought about it more, but I suppose they could be reading this right now if they really wanted to spy on people. If so, I would like to tell them to revise their book because "snorkleing" isn't a word.

Everything's really moving now. Tonight we had a "parents' dinner" and tomorrow the wedding weekend events officially start. Crazy how quickly the time has flown by.

Candy

2009-10-03T12:30:00.002-04:00

"Can giving your kids too much candy set them up for a life of crime?"

I'm watching last night's Numb3rs and that was the teaser for the 11:00 news. Seriously?! Eating candy can make you a criminal?

Onions

2009-10-03T00:59:00.001-04:00

We got home and our apartment smelled like garbage. Apparently the cover blew off this old plastic container of onions in the fridge, and once we opened the fridge, the whole apartment smelled like onions. The air neutralizer can't work quickly enough!

Ugh

2009-10-01T03:45:00.002-04:00

A few more days until we leave.

As should be expected, that means we are a little crazy!

Not on the outside, though. On the outside, we seem rather calm. I think my stress is at such a buried level that it's causing me other problems though. For example, I usually sleep like a rock through the night. Lately, I can't sleep. I stay up just zoning out or thinking about nothing in particular, and then wake up multiple times during the night. Last night, I woke up so itchy over and over again and nothing I could do would relieve it. At least I had to get up a little earlier for a meeting, so I was able to get up, but still annoying. Now it's about 3:45 am, but I only finished doing work at 3:15, so it makes sense (sadly) that I'm still awake.

That's another thing about leaving soon. So much to do at work! This is the longest vacation I have ever taken (2 weeks) and there just seems to be so many things to do!

So, forget about working out.

Mostly because I want to run and it gets dark early now, and I can't get out of work early enough to go. And forget mornings, because not only can I not usually get up early, but see above.

I was supposed to be super-diligent about working out because, um, strapless dress and big audience coming up soon, but that doesn't seem to be happening. Once we're there, I want to run, swim and go to the gym every day, but I wonder if I'll be able to keep that up. If I can, I should hopefully sleep really well!

Anyway. I think I'm going to stop listening to 80s music and complaining, and will try to fall asleep watching QVC. Of course, tomorrow will be a really long day at work (since we're running out of time) and I will have gotten very little sleep. I'm thinking wedding planning + intense job = bad for your health.

I think I'll do some yoga stretching and then go to sleep. Sounds like a plan.

Countdown

2009-09-28T18:12:00.003-04:00

The date is getting closer!

We have now shipped out 2 boxes with one more to go. The first box is almost there (it's at least in the same state now). The other is sitting at the FedEx place we brought it to, and I think I'm going to be obsessively checking its status for the next few days. It's a pretty important box, as it contains all of our wedding clothes!

Slowly, everything is getting done. Crossing things off the to-do list feels good (and at this point, is necessary). It's at that point people always talk about getting to - if it's not done by now, do we really need to do it? Some of it (like hair and makeup styles) would be yes (but we're doing that when we get there), and some of it (like the guestbook) just isn't going to happen (because we don't have enough days for them to publish it and mail it to us, even on next day shipping which itself would be like $20). Plan B, here we come!

Off to put the last box together. So much to do, so little time!

ABDC Top 3

2009-09-22T23:19:00.003-04:00

We're finally getting around to watching the top 3 episode of ABDC. I have had a problem with ABDC this season. It seems like the teams the voters keep putting in the bottom 2 consistently have the better performances. For example, this time Afroborike was the safe team, but the other two teams both had better dances! I can't complain that much because I don't watch the show on time and don't vote, but there's something messed up if the safe teams are consistently the worst ones.

At least TPTB will finally have a girl win this show. Too bad it isn't one of the girls from Rhythm City instead.

Weekend Update

2009-09-21T11:45:00.002-04:00

We were really productive this weekend! We had a DIY crafting weekend and can now cross a lot of things off our to-do list, which makes me really happy. We did escort cards, table signs, photo sharing cards, reserved signs for ceremony seats, and tags for our welcome bags. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it really is!

On a negative note, I have been dealing with some sort of GI issue all weekend, ever since the weekend officially started on Friday night. I am working from home sick, and it just sucks.

Stupid

2009-09-11T15:52:00.001-04:00

To the Idiot I Met on 45th Street Today:

You are an inconsiderate idiot. The sidewalk was crowded. It was raining. People were holding umbrellas.

You had room on the other side of you to walk around my umbrella. I am sorry that I couldn't walk further out of your path, but it would have put me in the path of other people. You, sir, had a clear path.

Instead of being kind and considerate and going around my umbrella, you chose to push into it hard. This pushed the pole of my umbrella hard into my glasses and pushed my glasses into my eye. It hurt. A lot.

You suck. What is it about the rain that makes people act even more like jerks?

Love,

Crayon

Unhappy

2009-09-10T21:22:00.001-04:00

Dear Thai Restaurant In My Neighborhood That I Actually Somewhat Like,

I ordered delivery tonight from your restaurant. I have been to your restaurant and I like eating there. But I am very unhappy right now.

If you are going to include broccoli in your dish, please put it in the description. You listed the onions, the basil, the peppers, but no broccoli. Basil, tomato, chili, egg, onion, scallions. That's all you listed. I just checked. Am I supposed to assume broccoli is in it? That would be an unreasonable assumption since you listed broccoli as an ingredient to the other dishes but not this one. That would lead one to conclude that broccoli is not an ingredient or you would have listed it the same way as the other dishes.

Due to your omission, I cannot eat my dinner entree. I am really glad that (a) I'm not personally paying for this, (b) I ordered 2 appetizers so at least now I have something to eat and (c) I have someone at home who can eat this. If I didn't, the entire thing would have gone in the garbage, and I'd be even more pissed. What a waste.

But, no, I'm not going to call you and have you send over another one because I don't want to wait around for it. I don't want to waste my time.

Please fix your *%$&# menu!

Love,
Crayon

More on the Inbox

2009-09-08T03:10:00.003-04:00

I realize that this is an entirely useless thing to blog about, except anyone who has followed this blog for a long time (and I would love to know who you are and how you found this and why you keep reading, out of curiosity) knows that I like to blog about things to try to keep myself accountable. I am really trying hard to get my inbox under control (all of them, but concentrating mostly on work and gmail), and I don't know how else to make myself do it! It's so time consuming, which really means I just get too many emails (which is true), but I also need to be better about taking care of it.

So I am proud to announce that after a lot of work today, I am down to 3962 messages in the gmail inbox! I would really like to keep the inbox under 4000 (and really, I have no idea how there are that many thousand messages in the inbox still - what ARE they?), so let's see if I can do it!

In fitness news, I went running 3 of the 4 days this weekend (counting Friday), and by running I mean, alternating running with walking since I am still a beginner. It's really difficult to go during the week because of work, but hopefully I'll find some alternative during this week to keep the good progress going!

Inbox Update

2009-09-07T01:42:00.001-04:00

My gmail inbox is down to 4255. I spent a LOT of time today deleting emails. I hope I can keep it lower than this number, because it feels so cluttered and hard to manage otherwise!

Dreams Repeating

2009-09-05T10:53:00.002-04:00

Have you ever repeatedly had a dream one night based on the same situation but ending differently each time?

That happened to me last night. I was dreaming about this little girl, about 8 years old, who wanted to get help for her little sister who was sick. She wanted to see a Chinese doctor and the address she kept showing me was in my parents' neighborhood. For some reason, it was difficult to help her and I felt terrible.

I think one time I tried to give her instructions but she couldn't find it. Another time I somehow didn't know who the person was or how to get there. Another time she confronted me with the paper with the address when I was in a store where for some reason people were giving me bridal shower gifts even though I thought they already did (plays into my real life anxiety about thank you notes going to the right people) but I tried to help. She just kept coming back. In the last segment before I woke up, we had gone to the address and she found the doctor, who was trying to help her sister and either intentionally or unintentionally created an earthquake solely in that room.

It was really bizarre. Has that ever happened to you?

Wedding Dates

2009-09-04T01:18:00.003-04:00

Once upon a time, there was a couple planning to get married. They chose a date, they chose a location and they chose to make it a destination wedding. They told their family and friends and invited a small number of people. They told their extended family about their plans for the small wedding and a larger reception next year to which everyone would be invited. They found out about the dates other cousins in the extended family were getting married, and decided to plan around those dates for their at home reception.

The couple struggled to plan a date for their at home reception. They knew one of the cousins was planning a wedding for that month, and they didn't want to step on anyone's toes or make it difficult for the family, since two wedding receptions very close together are a bit of a strain both on time and finances. They tried to find out details about the cousin's reception - where it was, what type of reception it was, whether the whole family was invited - so they could plan accordingly and not create any family drama. The couple doesn't believe in drama if they can help it.

A little more than a month before their wedding date, the couple found out that the cousin that was to get married next year has decided to get married this year. In the same destination state. In the same month. The same weekend. And quite possibly the same date.

The couple recognizes that this isn't catastrophic because they don't really know the cousin well, and the cousin wasn't invited to the destination wedding, but the couple still feels annoyed. They had publicly discussed their plans to get married that weekend in that (small) destination state, and now another couple in the family is getting married at the same time and virtually the same place. Maybe, ten years from now, no one would even remember that this even happened, but somehow, it just felt less unique, less special, to have someone doing the exact same thing in the exact same family. No two weddings are the same, but did they really have to do this the same weekend? Maybe they have a really good reason for moving it up, but no one told the couple why they are now sharing their wedding date.

Is the couple crazy for feeling this way? Are they more annoyed by this because they went out of their way to get details about the cousin's wedding so that they wouldn't step on anyone's toes since it's not great etiquette to get married the same time as another family member? Is it crazy for them to feel like someone stole their thunder a little bit because they're doing the same thing? It's always said that everyone only gets a day, but what if, in your extended family, your day isn't even just your day anymore? The couple has read lots of posts online about people's reactions to hearing about friends or family getting married near their wedding dates, and thought about how they would feel, but never thought they would be in this situation themselves since they thought they had talked to everyone and knew everyone's wedding dates.

To add to the madness, the cousin is having her reception this year and the couple is having their at-home reception next year. So the couple with the original idea and the original plan is going second, and it's going to look like they copied the first couple's idea even though they did it first. Weddings always create so much unnecessary drama, and the couple wants to just let this go, but they feel annoyed. Many people share wedding dates, but do you really have to do that within the same family?