TCU vs. Army

A guy I went to church with in Dallas is a huge TCU fan and he came up with the TCU alumni group to go to the football game at Westpoint-- I got to go too! We took buses with the other TCU alums and it took about 1.5 hours to get there-- west over the Hudson river, then north.

I really like seeing neat college campuses, so I really enjoyed the opportunity to see Westpoint. It was a beautiful campus, set right on the Hudson river and the leaves on the trees were starting to change.
























































When we arrived, we got to see the cadets doing their marching parade.














































We had lunch with the TCU alums at the Westpoint club-- beautiful rooms with large windows overlooking the Hudson.

We took a long walk to get from lunch to the game. I enjoyed walking through the old Army fort, and through the neighborhoods on campus. It really feels more like a nice community, rather than a college campus. Lots of neat houses where Lieutenants and their families live.











































The game was fun-- TCU won. It was fun watching the cadets and their traditions. Each time Army makes a touchdown, the freshman all have to jump out of the bleachers and onto the field and do push-ups. Also, a canon is shot off each time they score. A few cadets did a gun drill at half-time. I enjoyed talking with the older man sitting next to me-- we were in the TCU section, so he was a sweet old Texan. He spilled his hot chocolate ALL over himself-- I felt bad for him, but then we really got a good laugh about it together-- he was funny.












For some reason, I love how they shaved and
colored the "A" on all their horses behinds















You may have to click on this one and enlarge
it to see the freshman doing their push-ups














There were a couple of other "new" things I did while Rob was in the City.

We spent some time in the park and for the first time, I went to the top of Shakespeare's castle. It did have a great view of the park.































The Central Park Resevoir















The pond in CP with the row boats-- I love
this!














We also went to a great steak restaurant--Uncle Jack's -- and saw Spamalot. Now Spamalot isn't exactly the kind of humor I enjoy, but it was a Broadway show, so the singing and dancing were excellent as always. And the show was actually a pretty fun one-- they even had me singing along at the end!

The Jersey Shore

After my mom spent several days in the City, we met my sister and her family at Newark airport. They were flying in for Brian's cousin's wedding and all Beth's in-laws flew in from Texas as well. Seeing Ryder was great!! He looks pretty much the same, but he does have 4 teeth now and he had just had his first hair-cut! He's slightly bigger and definitely feels more sturdy when I hold him. He's saying only a few words, like "da da", "all done", "hi", AND, he can moooo like a cow whenever you ask! He's not walking yet, but working on it. He was really staring at the escalators in the airport while we were waiting for Brian to get the rental car. So, I took him up and down them over and over again. He was walking with me behind him, holding on to my hands. Every time we came back down, I tried to steer him back to our chairs and he'd pull me in the direction to go back up! He's strong-willed! And I gave in every time. It was fun and it was good practice for his walking!

After meeting up with the McFarlane clan and getting our rental car, we drove from Newark to the Jersey Shore aka Long Beach Island. We stayed in a huge house with six bedrooms. Downstairs, Beth, Brian and Ryder were in one room, mom and I in another, and Brian's brother, John in the 3rd room. Upstairs was Brian's parents in the first room, his brother, Robert and his wife Melissa in another, and in the final room was their kids, Jordan, Jackson, and Harper. It was a great time! I loved being around all the kids! Especially Ryder, of course! But Jordan (5-years) and Jackson (3-years) are really sweet and a lot of fun too. Harper's a baby and still sleeps a lot!

Our house was on the bay-side of the island, so we had very peaceful water in our backyard-- literally just steps from the back door. We had a great porch off the second floor. The house came with lots of crab-catching baskets and the kids and Uncle John had a great time trying to catch crabs with chicken backs! They actually caught one and that was pretty exciting! The island is very skinny, so the ocean side is just a short walk across the street. There were huge waves!

I was only there for two nights and a day and a half-- not enough time! But, I had to get back to the City for a friend who had made plans to come to town before I knew my family would be in. Most of my time at the Shore was spent relaxing, working with Brian and Melissa on a puzzle, enjoying the back porch, playing with the kids, and watching the Cardinals/Mets playoff games! It was a good time and refreshing to be in such a relaxing place with family and friends for a few days.

Out our back door-- so peaceful!





























Ryder wearing the Pumpkin
t-shirt I brought him from NYC





































We saw some great fall foliage in the area. Mom
had us do a family photo shoot for her Christmas
card this year.













Ryder taking me to my bus to go home. After
this picture, he started crying and crying and
would not stop! My mom said he cried all the
way back to the house- about 15 minutes. I
like to think he was said to see me go!!

Mom's Trip

The last week and a half has been very eventful and I have lots of blogging to catch up on! From interviews to job offers to consider to visitors and a trip to the Jersey Shore, I've been busy! I'll start with my mom's visit to the City. Here are some of the highlights:

We went to the Guggenheim to see some architectural art. Really the building itself is the most interesting part, but some of the art is pretty cool too.

Lunch at Mary's Fish Camp...highly recommended by mom's friend DeAnn for their Lobster Rolls. It was delicious, but quite expensive- I guess that's expected with lobster, though!

Spent much of Saturday doing double red decker bus tours. Although we've both heard great things about these from friends, we weren't terribly impressed. We encountered long lines, lots of waiting, and guides with thick accents. It was also a little chilly that day so riding on top wasn't very comfortable, but if you rode on bottom, you couldn't see a thing.

This is is the church where people injured on Sept. 11th were taken for emergency care. It is just steps away from the WTC site.

Saw two Broadway Shows. First, the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee which was very cute and fun! Then, we saw The Color Purple, which was excellent!

Went to the Columbus Avenue Flea Market that happens every Sunday. It was HUGE and a place I want to go back to and spend more time!

Split a huge brisquit sandwich at Carnegie Deli and got delicious cheesecake at Roxy's afterwards. We split a Peanut Butter Cup slice of cheescake and it was the most amazing cheesecake I've ever had-- actually, the cheesecake part wasn't so extraordinary. But, what was so different was, first, the crust, which was an undercooked sugar cookie with almond flavoring, and, second, the fact that the slice was topped with delicious icing!

Took the NBC studio tour. This was okay...we weren't terribly impressed, but some things were neat to see, like the SNL set.

We tried to get stand-by tickets to "The View", but didn't make the cut. However, since we were up at that time, we did see people waiting outside the ABC studio for the Regis & Kelly guests to come out. We saw Kirsten Dunst in her car-- she was trying hard to avoid the papparazzi and I didn't blame her. They were very weird looking men! We also saw Ice-T coming out and driving away.

We happened upon a red carpet event and saw lots of celebrities striking a pose!

Harry Connick, Jr.

Salma Hayek















Jada Pinkett Smith arrived in a cute coat....




















but, stipped down to her sexy dress for the photographers!



















Jean Chatzky, the financial lady on the Today Show















Trisha Yearwood




















Emme, the model



















Maria Menounos, Entertainment Tonight correspondent

Last Day

I had my last day at The Journey last week. There are actually some things I'll miss about that place. I really liked my job there-- the accounting was do-able and kept my busy, but I also liked being able to help with some of the Kidz stuff and events and coordinating volunteers. And I'll miss Joy and also Kristin, my new found friend. We only got to work together for about 6 weeks, but I love her and she definitely reminds me most of my friends from home. I think we'll stay in touch, I hope so! I still can't believe I never saw a celebrity while I was working there-- everyone else in the office had- even James saw Felicity and he's only been there since August!! But, it was fun hearing about the different stars coming in and out of the building-- I'll miss the excitement of that. And I'll miss the view of the Hudson River from my desk:


















So, what's next?? You may remember me mentioning a great interview I had at a Media Ad firm, but I felt I was probably underqualified. Well, they liked me so much that they ended up creating a new position for me that they felt I was more qualified for. Sounds great, right? I was hoping so until I heard what the position and pay was. I wasn't really interested in the duties I would have had and I would have been severely underpaid. So, I turned their offer down. I may regret that later-- I guess any job is better than no job at all! But, I do have some other leads. I had an "exploratory" interview at Warner Music. They most likely don't have a position currently open for me now, but it went really well and the HR lady was very interested in me for future reference and even mentioned passing my resume on to other people she knows! Today, I had an interview at the NHL. Don't get too excited about getting free Stars tickets, though! It went great and seems like a good environment and culture. They were worried that I'm OVERqualified for their position. Geez! What's the deal?? I don't think I am and tried to convince them of that as well, so we'll see where that leads. It was the longest interview ever-- over 2.5 hours and I met with 5 people! Crazy!!

The last week and a half have been busy, busy, in my personal life as well, so expect some blog catching-up from me over the next couple of days!!!

There ain't no Gaypers in New York City!

My friends Michelle and Melanie came to visit this past weekend. Neither of them had been here before, so we saw and did EVERYthing. It was great being a tourist and so much fun to be with good friends! The majority of the trips I've taken with these girls have involved skiing. One year while taking advanced lessons, Melanie and I learned from our instructor that anyone who wears those bright, neon ski clothes (circa 1988), is known on the slopes as a "gayper". So, now we are always on the lookout for a gayper, hence the title of my blog.

So here's what we did!

Thursday night
Michelle got in first and we had an excellent dinner at Kashkaval, just down the street from my place. I hadn't been yet, but Joy's been telling me to go. It was great Mediterranean food-- hummus, Dolmas, artichoke dip, chicken kebab. We were impressed with the food! We also took a brief walk that included Times Square and Central Park. I saw the Hello Deli from Letterman for the first time!

































We even saw an episode of "Law & Order" being filmed on the street and recognized a couple of those guys. Then, headed back home for Melanie's arrival!

Friday
We did not get up super early, but headed straight towards the Today show. It was drizzling by the time we got there, so they weren't filming outside. We were able to see Ann Curry through the studio windows.
Since it was raining, we decided it was a good time to go to the Met and see some art. Now, the Met has a "recommended" entry fee of $20. I've always felt required to pay it, but Melanie was up for trying otherwise and I was her #1 supporter. She handed them $30 and said it was for all 3 of us and they didn't ask any questions. I think next time I'll try to get in for just $5. They had a great exhibit going on with Renoir, Picasso, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Degas, etc... We really enjoyed it!















We went to Serendipity for lunch. Their food is really good, but they're famous for the FRRrroozzzen Hot Chocolate! We chose to share the Peanut Butter version and it was delicious, of course!




















































We had some fun in Dylan's Candy Bar (owned by Ralph Lauren's daughter).





























We went to FAO Schwartz where we saw the show they do on the famous piano (from the movie BIG!). Even Michelle and Melanie gave it a whirl.













































We shopped for diamonds at the original Tiffany! Of course, we didn't buy any, but it was fun to look!















We went in Trump Towers.















We toured St. Patrick's Cathedral.







































Then we walked through the Waldorf.















We saw the ice skating rink and walked around the rest of Rockefeller Center.















































We saw Radio City Music Hall.



















We went to a Broadway show...The Drowsy Chaperone. It was really cute and funny and we all really, really enjoyed it!






























After the show, we had a late night dinner at Hudson Cafeteria. We took a little bike cart with a guy named Vitaly pedalling us 18 blocks from the theatre to dinner! Again, we had excellent food! Now, this isn't a cafeteria like Luby's. It's very hip and swank and located in a popular boutique hotel.





























Saturday
We slept in a bit and then headed towards the Staten Island Ferry. Michelle & Melanie got to take their first NY Subway to get there!






























I've heard that lines to get on the ferry to the Statue of Liberty are very long, so we opted to just take the ferry to Staten Island and it does a nice drive-by of both Ellis Island and Lady Liberty. Bonus: the Staten Island Ferry is FREE!
























































































We headed up to see Wall Street, then walked over to Ground Zero.

















































































We got street vendor hot dogs for lunch.















Next, we headed to stroll down Bleecker Street. Of course, we stopped at Magnolia Bakery for cupcakes!
See Susan? She's waiting in line for a Magnolia cupcake!






























We saw the NYU campus, Washington Square Park, and the old carriage houses on Washington Mews.
















































We kept walking through SoHo to Chinatown. We each bought a purse in Chinatown. I'd been wanting to get a much bigger leather one that would hold all my normal stuff, plus a book and an umbrella and I found one I love and got it for just $18!
We ate dinner at Angelo's in Little Italy, then grabbed dessert at Ferrara's to take home. Angelo's was great as always, but at Ferrara's we all tried Canoli's for the first time and none of us were terribly impressed! But, the Tiramisu was good!















Sunday
We started the day with a walk through Central Park. It was a gorgeous day and everything looked so green!


































We tried to get half-price tickets to another show at TKTS, but the line was extremely long and they didn't have tickets for anything we were dying to see.
We ate at the Shake Shack for lunch. I really love their burgers...the shakes are good too!















We saw the Flatiron building, the Empire State Building, and the Chrysler Building.










































































We walked through Grand Central Station.

























































Outside Grand Central, they were filming a movie..."I am Legend" starring Will Smith. It doesn't come out until Christmas 2007. This was the 3rd time I've seen this movie being taped in various parts of the city, so I will love seeing it! But, this was the first time we actually caught a glimpse of Will Smith himself. Pretty exciting, even though we couldn't see him too well!

It's Will, I promise






























Probably my favorite thing we did was Top of the Rock. As in Rockefeller Center. It was amazing! The view from up there put the city in an entirely different perspective for me. It's gorgeous, and huge, and crowded...I love it! I could kind of make out where I live and other areas I'm familiar with. You could see all of Manhattan. It was truly an amazing view!






























































We saw Madison Square Garden.















After our long morning/afternoon, we went home and rested before our big Brooklyn adventure. We walked through the quiet, ritzy neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights a little bit to get to Grimaldi's...a famous pizza place. Once again, we had a delicious meal! Afterwards, we got ice cream at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. Then, we walked back to Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge. It was excellent!











































My weekend was fun-filled and I got to be a tourist again! We did some things I've done before, but I also got to have some new experiences. It was great to just hang with Michelle and Melanie, too. Michelle's coming back in a couple of months and Melanie will hopefully be back, too!