Days 4 and 5 - NYC

After a night of fun, we slept in and woke up to get bagels and coffee.  It was very strange to walk around New York on New Year's Day--the city was dead.  There weren't hoards of people walking on the sidewalks or driving around.  It felt like we had the whole city to ourselves!

We stopped in to Brooklyn's Bagels for a full breakfast {and lunch}.  I had a whole wheat everything bagel with plain cream cheese, lox, tomato, onions, and capers.  It was humongous {so was Rich's bagel} so we ended up eating them for our lunch.

After getting some breakfast, we wandered the city.  We decided to walk through Central Park, and I guess this is where everyone we didn't see walking the streets had gone to.  There were tourists taking pictures and lots of people exercising.  Oh, and tons of people walking their dogs who were all the cutest!  I wanted to pet every single puppy but I don't think Rich would have been very amused.  {My puppy is sitting next to me helping me blog right this second!}

As we were wandering, we looked to our right and noticed The Guggenheim.  Our original plan was to go to The Met, but that was closed so we decided to warm up and admire the art and architecture {mostly the architecture} of this gorgeous museum.  This shot is looking up from the lobby of the museum.

Here we're trying to get the cool spiral ceiling behind us.  Fail. 

The next day we went to the Chelsea Market to check out all of the cool shops.  There was this meat shop.  Mmmmmm meat. :)  There was also an Italian grocery store with meats and cheeses and chocolates and LOTS of espresso.  I had some split pea soup from the soup shop.

The whole place was decorated with really fun art displays and there was a guy who was amazing on cello.  I really liked this column that was covered in Christmas lights.

After checking out the Chelsea Market, we had to run into CVS and OHHHH MYYYY GOSHHH do you see this ceiling?!  It's the prettiest CVS I've ever seen.  I think it used to be an old bank.

Then we went to Rich's friend's office to visit and this is their view.  It's looking North over Chinatown.  What a view!

And then I turned into a tourist.  NYFD Fire Truck!

Here's a look at all the cheap chotchkies for sale in China Town.  

We were heading to Ferrara's for some canoli and coffee.

This is Little Italy.  All of the fire hydrants are painted like the Italian Flag (red, green, and white) and they still had their Christmas decorations covering their businesses.  I loved it!

After getting some delicious sweets in Little Italy, we headed to see Ground Zero and the memorial, except you can only see it with advance passes.  Wamp wamp.  We didn't know that so instead we walked around.  I had no idea how huge this area was.  It's 16 acres, which is HUGE in NYC terms.

This building is The Freedom Tower, and when they put the spire on, it will be 1776 ft tall.

View from another side.

We were freezing after walking around so we stopped in at O'Hara's, except it wasn't.  It was an Indian restaurant with this cool ceiling, so we had a few drinks and warmed up before heading back to the hotel.  The food smelled delicious but we had plans to go to Butter that night.

After dinner at Butter (we love our Iron Chefs!), Rich took me to Washington Square.  The park is really pretty at night.  Can you see the Empire State Building behind the arch?

Couple shot with the arch!

And another shot of the arch.  We need some of these in Dallas.

That night we went to McSorley's Old Ale House to meet up with one of Rich's friends.  That place is so cool!  It's the oldest pub in New York and Abraham Lincoln used to get a drink there.  They even have an original John Wilkes Booth Wanted poster.  We met some nice NYU kids and had such a fun night!  Probably a little too fun...haha!

Saw it. Pinned it. Did it.

Today I'm taking a break from my trip recap to join Stephanie from A Beautiful Mess with her link up -- Saw it. Pinned it. Did it. 

I freakin' love Pinterest, though my obsession comes in spurts.  Right now I'm all over Buzzfeed.  It's addicting and hilarious and informative and just great.  Go read it!

Anyway, I've been wanting to link up with these girls (Katie from Keep Calm co-hosts) for a few weeks and remembered that I have photo evidence of a SIPIDI (saw it, pinned it, did it, ya dig?)!

I actually saw this somewhere else in the interwebs (Buzzfeed maybe?) but it's all over Pinterest in a variety of ways (why oh why didn't I paint with sparkles?!?).

The Pin:

Source: buzzfeed.com via Nicole on Pinterest

All you need are:
1. Keys that look exactly the same but are not, in fact, the same.
2. Nail polish.
3. Something to stick the keys into (I used a potted plant and stuck them in the soil).

What you do:
Paint the top portion of each key with a different color nail polish.  I used two coats on each key, letting them dry in between coats.  Let them fully dry and put them back on the key ring.

Ta Da!

 

And I use 'em every day!

 

Click here for the other links because I'm to slow to understand how putting a button on my blog works...lame.

Days 2 and 3 - Philadelphia to NYC

On our second day in Philadelphia, we woke early and a little dreary-eyed (Thanks a lot Dirty Frank's) to take the train to see Rich's parents in another part of Pennsylvania.  It was my first time on a train!!!  Yes, I've been on subways before, but this train went ABOVE GROUND!  (though it did start below.)  So I documented mundane things like....

Rich standing in the train station!

And a train behind us!

Once his parents picked us up we immediately drove across the river to Jersey to pick up his younger brother and head to the Shore.  Sick, Bro!  We drove around looking at the destruction Hurricane Sandy had caused-- houses filled with sand, once flat boardwalks warped and twisted, entire homes moved off of their foundations, but I didn't feel appropriate to take pictures of anything.  I'm not a fan of destruction and devastation unless it's on Emma and David's Kinect Party.  (Check out the dragons at 1:01)

After roaming around in the freezing cold, windy weather, we stopped at his parents' friends' house and I met Lucky Cat!  I can't resist a cute kitty picture.  Can you see the crazy in his eyes?  It's there and I had the bite marks to prove it!  Then we grabbed pizza, opened Christmas gifts, and headed back to Philly.

New Years Eve we woke up hungry and found a cute little cafe called Sabrina's Cafe and Spencer's Too.  Delicious and HUGE servings!  I had one of their specials-- Eggs Benedict with Canadian Bacon, Avocado, and home fries on the side.  They didn't serve mimosas so we went in search of a watering hole.

Pretty cherry blossoms (I think) we saw on our trek.

We found what we were looking for at Kite and Key.  Of course, that's after we walked around for 30 minutes because nothing was open at 10:30 in the morning.

And then we got on our train to New York City!!  There's a train person taking tickets up there.

The most flattering picture of us on the train.  New York bound!

Once we got in, we went to the Corner Bistro to get the Bistro Burger, and it was THE best burger I've ever had.  Juicy and delicious and it makes my mouth water just thinking about it!  After that we went back to the hotel to get ready for our swanky New Years Eve party in the Meat Packing District.

Here's our NYE goodies at our own private table at STK.  FANSAY!

We didn't sit alone at our little table for long.  We made friends!

Me and my honey all dressed up :)

Another new friend!  She and her friend were on the prowl for fresh man meat.  Hopefully they found what they were looking for!  They were pretty hilarious.

Mellini (pronouced like bellini), our new Brazillian friend.  She's a personal trainer in Brooklyn AND Brazillian so obviously she's gorgeous!

 

We left around 2 in the morning and grabbed food from a street food cart and I forgot my purse, which had my ID, which I needed in order to get back home to Texas.  Thank goodness for moms who overnight passports!  It was a fun, eventful New Years and I'm so happy I got to spend it with the man I love!

My first trip to Philly

And hopefully not my last!  I really loved this city and wish that we could have stayed longer.  Next time I want to check out the history of the city more and maybe go on a guided tour.  I will say they have pretty awesome people that live there.  Everyone was so nice!  My boyfriend warned me that folks from the Northeast could be cranky, but I didn't see that, thank goodness.  I don't deal well with rude.

First night - late night grub at TGIF

The view from our hotel room. It snowed the first day!

Philly Cheesesteaks "Double Whiz Wit" which translates to double the cheese whiz with onions

The view from the restaurant. Do you see the huge, creepy ants on the building across the street?



 

Almost done! These babies were delish!

Stoped in at Jones to warm up. Rich is drinking beer made from George Washington's recipe.

Touring Indenpendence Hall

That painting above is of this room where the Declaration of Independence was signed.

So cool to be so close to history!

THE BEST meal I've ever had in my life. Everything chosen by the chef included the drink pairings. It was out of this world.

I have a new goal in life -- to one day have my own personal Chef Morimoto.

Enjoying our Morimoto dinner. We were in heaven!

And that was just the first day there!  Next up days two and three!

Tis the Season!

Tis the Season to buy gifts for all those wonderful people in your life!  I love giving gifts.  LOVE IT!  And I'm terrible at recieving gifts.  I'm not sure if I'm supposed to act super excited or just say 'thanks' and be done with it.  It's a really awkward sitution for all involved, but for some reason I keep getting gifts every year.  They must love me or somethin'.

Here are my top ten gifts I'm hoping to find under the tree this year:

This Texas-shaped Cutting Board is freakin' awesome!  I'd probably leave it out all the time so everyone could admire my sweet cutting board.

This bar. It's a geography lesson and a party in one.  This may be a need more than a want.

My coats hang over chairs or on tables all winter.  It'd be nice to have a pretty place to hang our coats.

I love this Kate Spade dress, but I love everything Kate Spade.  Her lines are clean and classic from her clothing to her purses to her china.  She can do no wrong.

 

This is the perfect New Year's Eve polish, so it'd be perfect if it arrived on Christmas Day!

One of my favorite gemstones is opal.  I love how each one has different straitions of color and don't these look perfet next to diamonds?  I think yes!  (No clue where this is from...found it on Pinterest)

This lamp is so cool.  It's sophisticated and crazy all in one (kinda like me!).  Party on the top, plumbing on the bottom....yeah, that doesn't really work.  I'd just have to make sure Cooper doesn't think it's a REAL fire hydrant.

Taylor Swift is a fave.  And since her first single off of this record was my most recent break-up anthem, I'm betting I'll like the rest of her stuff.

Aaaaand we're back to Texas stuff.  What can I say?  I'm obsessed with my state.  Born & Raised, baby!

This nutcracker is so freakin' cute that I'd keep him out year round!  So cute!!

Honestly it was really tough this year to pick out things that I wanted for my birthday and Christmas.  I guess I just buy crap when I want it now.  I've tried to be more minimalist with my crap lately and only buy things when I really want them.  Adult?  Me?  What?  No!  And on that note, bu-bye now!

What will they remember you by?

I'm an avid mommy-blogger-reader.  I read probably 10 mommy blogs each day (interspersed with Twenty-something girl blogs, innappropriate humor blogs and real estate blogs) and a recent blog entry on Cup of Jo about how your eyes should light up when your child enters the room, and it brought me back to this memory I have from when I was probably 10 years old. 

At that point my mom, stepdad and I were living in Austin, but I still visited my dad in Houston regularly.  We had a very close relationship with my aunt, uncle and cousins who lived in League City, and we'd hang out with them pretty much every weekend I was in town.  On this particular day, my aunt and uncle had just bought a brand new Suburban.  The second my uncle pulled into the driveway, we were all out there checking out this huge new car.  It was awesome!  And huge!  There were so many doors and seats and as I climbed from the front seat to the back seat (there was no center console installed yet) my uncle screamed at me that I was ruining his new car.  I was shocked and stunned and froze up as he continued to yell at me about his nice, new car that I was messing up by crawling through where the console would eventually be installed a few days later. 

Why is it that this memory is so vivid in my head?  It wasn't supposed to be a life changing experience.  I was just getting yelled at by my uncle for doing something that he didn't want me to do.  Adults yell at kids all of the time.  But I still react the same way to someone yelling at me to this day.  I freeze up.  I take it.  I take the yelling in my face (and this is much more rare of an incident as an adult) and I cry.  Ugly crying with big tears to where my face swells up.

And the more I think about it, the more I realize that I remember my uncle as angry.  I don't see him any more because of family drama reasons that I won't get into at the moment, but my main memory of him is this incident when I was a child.  And I don't EVER want to be remembered as the friend/significant other/daughter/aunt/wife/mom/whatever who is angry all the time.  Or who is mean to others.  Or makes anyone feel bad.  I don't ever want to be remembered that way by anyone I come across in this life.  I want people to remember my happiness and laughter and jokes and meals with friends and love and caring, deep hugs and everything that is good in this world.  I want to be remembered by that. 

Going back to the Cup of Jo post, she suggests your eyes light up when your child enters the room so that they know they're loved.  My eyes should light up any time a loved one comes in the room.  I want my loved ones to remember that about me.

PS: Don't yell at people.  It's just plain rude!