My Never-Ending Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving was a great weekend. It seemed to go on forever and that’s always nice! You can see pictures from the weekend here!

Brooke and her mom arrived on Wednesday evening and we headed directly to the Upper West Side where the balloons for the parade were being inflated. It was cold, crowded, and starting to drizzle, but it was still fun to see some of the balloons! They were on 2 streets, but we just walked down one of the two streets. The most exciting part was when we walked by The Beresford—my mom had told me before that a lot of celebrities live there. Sure enough, Jerry Seinfeld was standing right outside the door! We all got a good glimpse of him. I’m not sure what he was doing, but my guess is that he was waiting for his car to pull up to the curb to take him somewhere. Brooke’s mom suggested Italian for dinner so I took them to a place in my neighborhood called Pietrasanta. I knew they had Pumpkin Ravioli and I thought that was a good fit for Thanksgiving! Brooke got that and it was really good! Her mom and I tried other things, but we were all very happy with the food! Afterwards, we walked around Rockefeller Center some. I had not seen it since they’d put all the Christmas decorations up and it looks so pretty! We also saw Sak’s and it has blue snowflake lights all over the building and every so often, they play Christmas music and the snowflake lights do a dance to it. It was really cool! I was originally going to stay at the hotel w/ them, but their room got messed up and they had only 1 bed and my place is less than 10 minutes away, so I ended up just going home for the night and that worked out well.

Thursday was the parade, of course! Unfortunately, it was a miserable day for the parade. It was raining and only got up to about 37 degrees. Brooke was a trooper and went downstairs at 5:45am to save us a curb spot! I got there around 6:45 and she was already soaked and so was the quilt she was hoping we could sit on. I went on a search for crates to sit on, but ended up walking home and getting 3 little stools we have. So, Brooke, her mom, and I sat lined up on the curb on our stools under our umbrellas until the parade finally started coming by around 9:30. We did have a good view, though! We lasted for probably 3/4ths of the parade and were too cold and decided to call it quits. We went upstairs to their hotel room and watched the rest on TV just like the rest of America! It was much more enjoyable there. It took me a LONG time to warm up! I’m glad I got to see the parade in person, but it would have been so much better if the weather had been nice.

For lunch, we went to a family-style Italian restaurant called Tony’s Di Napoli. Brooke’s aunt was in town because she’s a dance coach and a group of her girls were in the parade. So, we had lunch with Brooke’s aunt, cousin, and all these high school girls and their mothers. It was really enjoyable and our food was good. They had a Thanksgiving meal that day, but we opted for the Italian menu. Pretty much everyone there was from Waco and the lady sitting next to me (one of the dancer’s mom’s) was so nice to talk to!

After lunch, I had to head home and to the airport. The airports were so empty that night and I had 3 seats to myself on the plane! I was exhausted by that point and slept all the way to St. Louis. Then, I had a 2 hour drive to Columbia, so I didn’t get in until after midnight. It was GREAT to see my family and Bob & Miriam Perry (who we stayed with and are long-time family friends)!

I also got to see some of my friends from high school while I was there. On Friday morning, my mom, Miriam and I went to my friend Courtney’s parent’s house to visit her family. Courtney is two years younger than me, but we grew up taking piano lessons from Miriam and going to church together. She also went to Baylor and still lives in Waco. She had a baby boy in the spring so I got to see him for the first time. Very, very cute baby! It was good to see her family after so long, too! Her mom was my junior high school business teacher—one of my favorite classes and teachers!

For lunch that day, I met 4 longtime girlfriends, Kelly, Maggie, Jessica, and Jill, for lunch at Shakespeare’s. In my opinion, Shakespeare’s is the best pizza in the entire world. I can’t make a trip to Columbia without having some! The company was nice too! We all went to Jr. high and High School together and everyone but Kelly went to elementary school together, too. And Jill and I started going to church together when we were 2 or 3 and preschool when we were 4. Actually, I think my first two memories are of Jill—she broke her leg when we were 4 and I guess I was traumatized or intrigued by it because both my first 2 memories revolve around her leg. Basically, I’ve known these girls for a long time! Jill and Kelly live in Columbia now and it was nice that Maggie and Jessica were home from Chicago and Austin so we could all catch-up!

Beth & Brian went out Friday night so I got to give Ryder his bath and put him to bed. I was trying to find his jammies and turned around and he had found his dad’s hat and put it on—so cute! This weekend was also the first time I got to see him walking!

On Saturday, I got to go to the MU football game and sit in a box. My sister’s friend works for coke so she got us all tickets in their box. It was a lot of fun. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect for football. Ryder loved it the game! And Mizzou dominated KU. Jill’s family has a box a few doors down from the coke box, so we got to visit with her and her mom and see Jill’s baby girl, Sydney, who I hadn’t seen in a year—too many cute babies this weekend!

My mom and I did some shopping later on Saturday—Columbia has several newer boutique type stores that were very cute! I was impressed with the new additions!

Beth, Brian, my dad, and I went to the good ol’ Columbia mall on Saturday as well. Beth wanted an Orange Julius—she worked there in high school and The Perry’s own it, so they’re a favorite drink of hers. We also let Ryder try out the carousel and he loved it! He rode it twice and cried when we left.

That evening, my family went to some friend’s house to visit. It was fun! They had been to New York recently (I was out of town) and they had a couple of places I hadn’t heard of that I have now added to my list of places to go!

My family left early on Sunday—I would have as well, but the flights were SO much cheaper on Monday, so I waited. Sunday morning, I tried out a newer church in Columbia called The Crossing. I’d heard about it several times and wanted to check it out. I enjoyed the teaching and the music. There were a lot of people there—mostly young people. I wish they’d had something like that when I lived there—seemed like a good place to be involved!

Sunday afternoon was slow and lazy. I felt like I’d already done everything there is to do in Columbia! It is such a nice town and so pretty, but I’m not sure I could go back to living somewhere so slow-paced. I find myself a little bit antsy and bored. But, Miriam had taped Grey’s and we hadn’t watched it yet so we did that. Then, we started getting out her Christmas decorations! That night, I went and had dinner with my friend Kelly and her husband Greg. He did all the cooking and it was really good! I also got to tour her house, which they had just barely moved into last time I’d seen it. I also got to see her wedding pictures from the last time I was in Columbia a year ago.

Monday morning, I was off to St. Louis. I left early enough so that I could hit a mall—specifically a mall with a Chick-fil-a! Got lunch, did some shopping and driving around St. Louis and then caught my flight back home!

It was a great long weekend!

Thanksgiving's here!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and here in New York it’s the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade! I can’t wait! My friend Brooke and her mom are coming in today for the weekend. They have a hotel on the parade route and I am going to stay with them there tonight, so that should be awesome for tomorrow morning!

Late tomorrow, I’m off to Missouri. My family is spending Thanksgiving there with close family friends. I’ll miss the big Thanksgiving feast, but will get to spend the rest of the weekend with everyone and I’m looking forward to it (and mom said she’d try to save me some of my favorite potato casserole)! I’ll also get to see a few friends from high school which is always fun.

I’ve been working as a contractor at the NHL for 8 days now. It has gone pretty well. It’s been pretty slow, but okay and really has gotten better every day. I think I will like the people I’m working for/with, but the office is generally VERY quiet and I’m afraid that could make me crazy some days. They’ve been really nice and pretty much have told me it will turn into a full-time permanent job in a couple of weeks (unless something unexpected comes up). They’ve been willing to work with me on my vacations I already had planned for Thanksgiving and Christmas and a short trip to Niagara Falls next week, so that is really nice.

Otherwise, you may remember me mentioning a position at a company that owns private schools. Well, I was supposed to have an interview there over 2 weeks ago, but it was cancelled at the very last minute. I followed-up on it several times, with little response, so I finally decided to just give up on it. But, they called finally. They wanted me to meet them at noon today, but I didn’t think it was a good idea to take off from the NHL—I need to be on my best behavior here so I don’t miss out on the full-time opportunity. So, it looks like the school company is willing to meet me next Tuesday evening. I’m a little turned-off by them at this point, but I am going to go and check it out—maybe there is a reason for their flakiness over the past few weeks. We'll see and I'll keep ya updated until I'm locked-in somewhere.

Lion's and Tigers and....Reindeer???

Tonight I went to the Bronx Zoo for their Holiday Lights special. I've been working on putting together an extensive list of all the things I need to see/do in the City during the Holiday season. When I saw that the Holiday Lights festival at the zoo was starting this weekend, I decided to get a head-start! It actually didn't turn out to be very impressive, but it was okay and seems like a nice zoo. It did start getting me in the Christmas mood as has walking around the city lately. Places are already getting all decked out for the Holidays! Anyway, here are some pics from the zoo!

Choclate Lover and Diana DeGarmo fan!

On Friday, I went to The Chocolate Show. Wow! So much delicious chocolate. Basically, it's just a place for chocolate vendors to come and display and sell their stuff. But, every vendor has samples!! I don't think I've ever eaten so much chocolate! Granted, most of the samples were tiny, but with the number of vendors there, they added up quickly! I tried some different things like Green Tea infused chocolate. One of my favorite things was this piece of chocolate filled with a cinnamon/carmel mixture- it was great! I also tried some delicious dessert wines. One place even had bananas with chocolate fondue- yum! There were also two theatres with cooking demonstrations. I went to one with Alexandra Guarnaschelli, the chef at Butter. She was awesome!! A great speaker and really funny-- definitely kept me entertained. They had asked her to cook something savory since everyone else was doing sweet things (it was the chocolate show)! So, she did Duck with Cocoa. We all got to try some and it was amazing. Her pastry chef made little chocolate cakes filled with a carmel sauce-- also very good. I went to Butter in Sept. with my high school friends and we weren't too impressed, but after this show with Alexandra, I became so endeared to her, I may have to try it again! I also saw a show with Martin Howard- the pastry chef from Brasserie 8 1/2. He was not nearly as entertaining. He does a show called "The Chocolatinas" and he is dressed in drag and it was all very horrible. I thought it might be entertaining, but I decided that he has no personality so he dresses in drag to make up for that, but then just comes off looking both boring and stupid. He made this chocolate briocche stuff..didn't compare to the food made by Butter! Check out pictures from the chocolate feast here!

Saturday, I spent the day with my old co-workers Joy & Kristin, as well as two other girls, Carlie and Kelli. All really fun gals! We did some shopping and then went over to Broadway hoping to score lottery tickets for Wicked. We didn't get any there, so then we tried for Spelling Bee and thought for sure we'd get those because there weren't many people there, but again we got none. So, we ended up getting standing-room-only tickets to Hairspray. It was really, really good and we only had to pay $20! I'd seen it in Dallas and liked it, but Broadway is Broadway! Diana DeGarmo (runner-up on a previous American Idol) was in it. I'm a huge fan of hers now! She was a great actress and has an amazingly powerful voice. Standing wasn't bad, but at intermission, Kristin, Kelli and I got some seats of someone who had never shown up and that was much better!

1 in 20

As a Christian living in Manhattan, I am by far in the minority. At The Journey, they often reminded us of the statsitic...1 in 20 people are believers. Whenever I'm riding the subway, chances are, I'm the only Christian in my car. But, since leaving my job at the church, I've been amazed at the number of Christians I have come across during my job search. I already told you about the woman at the media-ad firm. I was never 100% certain she was a Christian, but I think she was and I think that's why she went out of the way and put so much effort into trying to find something that would work for me. We had that in common, we clicked. My head-hunter told me yesterday that she had asked about me- wondered if I regretted my decision to turn her offer down. I don't regret it, although, I think working with a woman like that could have been a great experience.

Also, I mentioned my "exploratory interview" at Warner Music in a previous post. But, I did not mention that the HR girl I met with there was also a Christian. She was very familiar with The Journey and was very open about her involvement in the church. She also took an interest in me, but, unfortunately, they don't have any finance/acct'g positions to fill right now.

You may remember that I had an interview with the NHL over 2 weeks ago. It has turned into quite a process. First, the Director of Acct'g over there got very sick-- so sick, he was placed in the hospital for over a week. During that week, everything got put on hold. Except that everyone else over at the NHL had time to do some thinking. They all liked me and wanted me except for this one lady, Mary, who I did not even meet. Mary noticed on my resume that I worked for The Journey and she must have googled it or something because she became worried that I would be "too" Christian. She seriously asked my head-hunter if I would say "God Bless You" every time I saw her. As my head-hunter was explaining this to me, he told me that he, himself is a Christian and was just baptized a couple of weeks ago. I was surprised to hear this! I talk to him almost daily and now he brings up Christ in almost every conversation we have.

Sunday night, I had my 4th encounter with a random Christian in the city. I was on the bus going to church and was talking on the phone to a friend, telling her about my NHL experience and this Mary lady. I thought I was talking quietly, but I think I probably always talk too loud on the phone and apparently the woman in front of me could hear everything I was saying. She was an older lady-- probably near 80 and very cute. We came to her stop and she got up and situated her cane, then turned around towards me before heading to the door and said "I hope you find the right job. It's in God's hands!" How sweet! And completely unexpected. According to the odds, there should not have been another Christian on that bus!

So, why all the Christians? I don't know why. Maybe God is using these people as an encouragement to me during this time of uncertainty-- they have most definitely helped keep my hopes up! But, it keeps me asking the question...does God want me to working for a Christian right now, or not? When I had the opportunity to at the ad-firm, that definitely sounded appealing....easy. But, life as a Christian isn't meant to be easy. At The Journey, I learned a lot about how important it is to purposefully put yourself into non-Christian environments so you can befriend these people and, hopefully, be a tool God uses to glorify Himself to them. So, maybe a non-Christian environment is one where I can best be used for HIS purposes. The NHL is definitely a non-Christian environment. Anyway, I'm not sure what God has planned for me ultimately as far as my work environment goes, but I know He does have a plan and that it is perfect and for that I am excited!

Soooo, back to the NHL--- I went back there on Monday to meet this Mary character, basically so she could see if I am a crazy Christian...I was going to see if SHE was the crazy one! The conversation was pleasant though...I told her "God Bless You" several times, of course! (Just kidding)! So, now, they've decided to hire me. Except that they have this crazy background process that takes TWO weeks! So, I'm planning to start Monday working on a contract basis and then will become a normal full-time employee in about a month.

This contract deal is good, because I'm not feeling a strong sense one way or the other about taking this job. This will give me more time to feel out the job and also figure out if it's where I'm supposed to be at this time. I've always had very strong feelings one way or another about past job opportunities. When I left EY and went to the law firm, there were jobs I turned down first because they didn't feel right. However, when the law firm job came up, I had a complete sense of peace almost from the very beginning. And with The Journey, I also had a complete sense of peace-- I knew it was where I was supposed to be. It didn't turn out like I anticipated, but I don't regret it and I know that God used my time there for a reason. And with the ad-firm job, I had a sense of uneasiness that couldn't be explained and I just knew it was not the right place for me. With the NHL, I feel none of that, so it's nice to have the time to see before I am committed to the full-time job. Plus, the inflow of some cash would be kind of nice!

Additionally, another opportunity has come up. It would be doing the accounting for a company that owns 10 private schools in the city. Nine of the ten schools are for autistic children. It is a for-profit company, which is good- I don't think I'm ready to get back in the non-profit world just yet. It sounds very, very interesting. I was supposed to interview yesterday, but the CFO had an emergency come up at the very last minute. We haven't rescheduled, but I am hoping something works out this week before I start the contract work at the NHL.

So, that's the update on me and my crazy job situation!! GOD BLESS YOU!!!

Monday Night

Last night I went with Joy, George, and Rachel to see Mike Birbiglia again. He's a funny guy! He was at a little venue in the East Village called "Mo Pitkins House of Satisfaction". It was a very cool place with a bar/restaurant downstairs and a tiny little theatre upstairs. A bonus last night was their $3 Margaritas! After the show, Joy and I got Starbucks and walked through the Village some. It is such a cool area and we saw some shops and restaurants we really need to go back to! We ended up walking all the way to my neighborhood-- must have been about 3 miles and I was wearing my tall black boots-- crazy! It was so nice though to just enjoy the city and great weather we've been having!

As we walked, we passed a movie set on the street. We could see Richard Kind and Alan Alda and an unidentified woman. They were taping a scene where Richard and the woman were talking on the street and would then walk into a brownstone and Alan Alda was inside. It was fun to watch!

NYC Marathon Weekend

I had a fantastic weekend! Friday night I went to dinner and a movie with Joy. We ate at a place called Serafina's. It was good Italian food....we got 2 pizzas and shared and they were really good--more like authentic Italian pizza. They were really rich, though! We saw "Borat" after dinner. It was pretty funny, but definitely went overboard a couple of times!

On Saturday, I met Joy and another guy I used to work with, Stan, for brunch in the East Village. We ate at a place called the Sidewalk Cafe. It was good food and a great price for their brunch which included mimosas-- yum!! The weather was really nice so we even sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine for a couple of hours! There is another restaurant on the street called 7A and I'd also like to try it out-- it's really popular for brunch as well.

I spent most of the rest of the weekend volunteering for the New York marathon! It was an experience and I had a lot of fun! Saturday night was the Barilla Pasta Party for all runners. It was crazy...trying to feed 37,000 runners! I was put on dessert duty which was definitely the worst job. The runners would eat in this huge tent that was added on to Tavern on the Green for the event. Then they would be sent out the exit where they got a goody bag and lots of free pasta and food and other items and then they would just get dessert to go. We were outside serving Italian Ice! It was already cold enough, but having to handle the little tubs of Italian Ice made my fingers turn purple! It was kind of miserable. But, I enjoyed some of the people I worked with and I got a free t-shirt, some cookies, and a pasta timer out of it! I do love free stuff! Actually, it brought back a lot of memories from when my old roommate, Deanna, and I used to do races...we ran the Honolulu marathon together, but also did many 5k's. I think we were both pretty driven by the free stuff, though. We would leave with bags stuffed full of bananas, bottles of water, yogurt, etc.... Some weeks, it was our main source of grocery shopping, I think! So, when I saw people coming out of the Pasta dinner with huge black garbage sacks full, I could relate! It was fun.

Then, Sunday morning, I volunteered at the drink station at mile-24 in Central Park. It was a great location to be! I was a Gatorade girl and it was quite a process. We had to set up tables, hang banners, then mix and pour the Gatorade- lots & lots & lots of Gatorade! All the Gatorade mixers got these huge ponchos to wear because it can become a sticky mess-- I thought they were hysterical! We also wore plastic medical gloves and one girl I talked to some said it was "just like Grey's Anatomy!" She was really funny to talk to. The most exciting part of the day was seeing Lance Armstrong run by-- he looked great! We also had fun figuring out the best technique for the Gatorade "hand off". See, the runners would go by so fast that they would often knock the cups right out of our hands. I quickly figured out a way to hold the cup to help ensure a good catch...I still lost some, but it did work pretty well and other people began following my lead!

Sunday night I had my first opportunity to try out a new chruch, Redeemer Presbyterian. There are 2 churches in the city I've been most interested to try and Redeemer was the only one that has evening services, so that worked with my marathon schedule. It was really good-- the pastor seems like an excellent preacher and very wise so that was refreshing for me! But, it is a HUGE church and I wondered how difficult it would be to get involved and meet people there. I think there could have been 1,000 people there tonight and it was one of 4 services today. I am going to try out the other church next Sunday...it's a church plant and they're still averaging only about 100/week. The pastor there came from Lake Pointe in the Dallas area and I've been told that it's where "all the Texans" go to church. I know a guy I went to both high school and college goes there and he seems to like it and I've heard excellent things about the pastor through some Lake Pointe people. So, we'll see how that goes!

Here's some pictures from the marathon!! It was hard to get the runners though so I missed getting one of Lance...sorry!

Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing

When I was in the 4th grade, my parents took us on a trip to Washington DC. I hated it. My sister hated it. My parent's love DC, but that trip....they hated it. Beth and I were brats the entire time and my parent's vowed to never take us back! And they didn't! I just wasn't very interested in all the history and all the museums. I remember having to get up really, really early to get tickets for the White House and back then, I had this weird thing where if I stayed up too late or got up too early, I threw up. So, that morning I threw up right in the middle of a street near the White House. It was a great trip!

Since I'm now living in the Northeast and haven't really seen much of it at all before, I have a lot of places I want to conquer while I'm here. DC was on my list because I thought that now that I'm grown up, I'll enjoy it. Also, a friend of mine was there on work for a short-term assignment, so I had a free place to stay! Unfortunately, I discovered that my feelings towards DC in the 4th grade might have had less to do with my age than I thought. I'm just not a history buff. I was never really a C student, but I started making C's in my History classes in 8th grade and continued to make C's until I took my last History class my Freshman year of college. I'm just not interested. However, this time I did discover that DC is a very pretty place and walking around it was very nice especially with the great weather I had. DC also has some really nice neighborhoods-- DuPont Circle and Georgetown. I really liked walking around them. Unfortunately, I only had 48 hours in DC, so by the time I realized my lack of interest in the museums, I didn't have much time to spend exploring these communities! The other downfall was that I was having slight stomach issues and am now 2-for-2 for throwing up in DC....lovely! Anyway, here's what I did with a link at the bottom to my pictures!

• Went to the Supreme Court and got to watch about 5 minutes of the case they were trying. I actually did find this interesting to watch and enjoyed seeing the Supreme Court Judges.
• Went into the Senate Office Building to grab a muffin in their cafe-- my mom told me to go here to try to spot Senators! The most vivid memory I have of being in DC when I was 9 was being in this building and my mom seeing some famous Senator. She got SO excited and had us following him all over the place until he got on an elevator we weren't allowed on. So, she made us get on the elevator for the public and try to GUESS which floor this Senator was going to so we could see him again. I had know idea who he was, but I sure did think this was exciting!! That's my mom for ya! Anyway, this time it was VERY quiet...Senators were out campaigning, so my dad says.
• Went to the National Cathedral-- attempted to go to an organ concert there, but got confused getting there and was too late. It was a pretty place though.
• Saw the monuments/memorials-- Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR, WWII, Vietnam Vets, and the Korean War Veterans. I went late afternoon so that I was able to see most of them in daylight and after sunset...very pretty!! The FDR Memorial was my favorite-- it's much bigger than the others and is basically just a ton of different waterfalls and quotes from FDR.
• Went to the Holocaust Museum. This museum I did like. It was very interesting. Luckily, the day I went, it was very quiet. My only issue was that there was SO much information, to me it was overwhelming and I began to feel a little ADD. It took me about 2 hours to get through-- I had been told it takes 3, but I started skipping over stuff after a while. Also, I can see how it could get very crowded and you get stuck behind people waiting to see the next thing which would not be fun.
• I was disappointed that the Smithsonian Museum of American History was closed for renovations....until summer of 2008!!! Two years-- wow! Anyway, I had read that they had moved their best exhibits temporarily to the Air & Space Museum, so I went by there to check it out. Unfortunately, the temporary exhibit wasn't open yet. So, I did walk around the Air & Space stuff and some of it looked cool, but for the most part, I just wasn't interested.
• I went into the White House Information Center-- it had some pictures of the inside of the house and some history, but really not very much stuff of interest in there.
• Walked up as close as you can get to the White House...very pretty. It looked as expected from the front, however, on the side, I was surprised by the size...much bigger than I thought.
• I walked around Georgetown...both the neighborhood and the shops. Like I said, I could have spent much more time here! The houses are really cute and I had a list of houses JFK lived in, so I looked for those, mostly just because I enjoyed walking through the neighborhood so much! If I had had an extra day, I really could have done some damage shopping around there! The restaurants looked interesting, too!
• I also did a bit of walking around DuPont Circle. Again, if I had had more time, I would have enjoyed the shopping and restaurants!

So, that was my whirlwind trip to DC! If you want to see pictures, they're located here!

Time Off

Some of you have been asking "What has Susan been doing with her unemployed self"? I've managed to keep myself somewhat busy these past couple of weeks--- a very enjoyable, slow-paced busy! I've taken my mornings slow, which I love to do. Finished reading "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" and am working on "Desiring God", which I've been trying to read for a while now. Both good books I recommend!

I've also done some shopping!! I bought my winter coat to gear up for the bitter Northeast winds and cold air! I ended up getting a long down-filled one. They're sort of "in" right now, but I think mainly just because they're so warm, not so much because they're super-cute. I got a choclate brown one and I love it! And it was pretty cheap because I went to Century 21 to get it. Century 21 is a famous department store here full of Designer clothes, shoes and accessories, but all at discounted prices! I also went shopping in both the big Bloomingdale's and Macy's. Didn't buy anything at either place, but they're both fun to look around in. When I was in Jersey w/ Beth's in-laws, her mother-in-law was telling me that she used to buy Caviar at the Macy's market when she lived here while she was in the NYC Ballet. I told her I didn't think the market existed anymore. But, I was wrong because I found it this time! It's in the basement. I grabbed lunch there, so taht was fun. That store is HUGE! I wonder what else I'm missing there! I also bummed around an area called Astor Place that has some good shopping. I was on a mission for gloves and a scarf, but didn't find anything I wanted.

I also made myself get out and do some NYC things. I went up to the Cloisters Museum one day. It's located in very far-north Manhattan in a park called Ft. Tryon Park. The park was gorgeous! Full of trees and located on a cliff above the Hudson. They had a beautiful garden and it sounded more like spring with all the birds chirping away! I couldn't help but explore the park some before heading to the museum! I really liked The Cloisters as well. The building itself was just so neat. They've brought in parts of 5 different monasteries to create the rooms and doorways and it really was pretty and unique. Amazingly, it is a museum where they allow pictures to be taken (with no flash). You can view pictures from my day-trip here.

On Friday night, I went to a show at St. John's Cathedral. It is the only gothic cathedral in Manhattan and it's quite pretty. They were having a Halloween show! It was really fun and interesting. First, we watched an old silent film about a vampire. Someone was playing the organ in the cathedral along to the movie. That lasted about an hour and then they had a parade of ghouls! It was actually pretty fun and interesting! Pictures are here!!

Curly Girl

Last week, I got my hair cut at Devachan-- which I lovingly refer to as the "Curly Girl" salon. Most of you know I went there when I was up here on vacation in May of 2005. That time I got my hair cut by THE curly girl herself, Lorraine Massey, author of the book "Curly Girls". A lot of you have borrowed my book, but if you're a girl with curly or even barely wavy hair and have not read the book you should get it! Anyway, Lorraine's hair cut was the best I've ever gotten, but also by far the most expensive. It was kind of a once in a lifetime sort of thing. But, I needed a haircut last week (I haven't had one since I moved up 6.5 months ago)! So, I called to see how much the other stylists at the salon are and they actually have some that are fairly reasonable! Yippee! So, I got to go back to Devachan. I love that place! My stylist was an Asian guy named Jeffrey. I loved him! He asked me where I was from originally and I said Dallas. I added that I just moved up here 6 months ago. And he looked totally shocked and said "What?!?! I thought you looked like a true New Yorker! I thought you'd been here for years!" How amazing is that? A true New Yorker already! Anyway, the hair cutting at Devachan is an experience...they give you this delicious fruit tea and they pamper you and the head massage while they wash your hair is the best!! It was a fun day!

Martha Stewart

I saw Martha Stewart tonight! I went over to the Columbus Circle shops to pick up a Jamba Juice for dinner. As I was leaving, I noticed a huge line outside William Sonoma, so I walked over to figure out what the hype was all about. Turned out Martha was there signing her new book. So, I went inside and pretended to be shopping so I could catch some glimpses of the homemaker. She looked like she was being very friendly to everyone-- I've always heard she's mean! And she looked small. Of course, she was beind a table, so I couldn't see her too well, but I could see her legs and they looked tiny.

I'm WAYYY behind on my blogging. I have updates from last week and I also went to DC for a couple of days, so I've got some catching-up to do!