come on irene

hurricanes aren't funny.  i know that.  but they can be fun.  let's get a little nostalgic here, people...

the biggest hurricane i lived through - 1991's hurricane bob

up until a few months ago, my family owned a summer house near port jefferson on long island.  when i was a little kid, we would actually kind of move out there between memorial day and labor day.  it was the most amazing thing.  on my dad's side of the family, it was his brother, sister and cousins and their kids.  we all stayed in the house together during the summer and the men, my dad and uncles, would come during the weekends when they were off work.  the best way to spend summers, hands down.  during the day we would play around the villa and head to the beach, where we spent the majority of our time.

but the reality of being on long island during the summer means, as many are finding out, the occasional hurricane or tropical depression.  now this isn't good news.  this is boarding up windows if you aren't evacuating, stocking up on flashlights and candles, and bottled water.  but that's in this day and age.  when we were shook by hurricanes in the early 90s, we didn't have days to evacuate before hand - we buckled down and stayed put.

last fill-in-the-blank of august!

hooray!  the summer is almost over!  it's the last friday of august and i couldn't be more thrilled.  so, here we go.  a simple post for a simple friday.

1.   one of life's most simple pleasures is enjoying a drink outside with philip, on sunday evenings, while he smokes a cigar and we just talk about our lives.

2.  intolerance makes me want to punch someone.  also morning radio talk show hosts that think people care about their opinions.

3.  i like swimming because it reminds me of my childhood... and for a few moments, when you are under the water with your eyes closed, you could be anywhere in the world.  it's like being lost in a whole other world.

4.  bouillabaisse is a funny word.

5.  if i had to choose one beauty product to use for the rest of eternity it would be nars creme blush stick in cannes.  beautiful, sun-kissed glow.  nothing else required :)  or maybe burt's bees garden tomato toner, i loooove the smell.  and in the summer you can keep it in the fridge - totally refreshing.

6.  i'm happy that my brother lives in boston with two people who seem to really care about him, since i'm not around.  and that my husband is so supportive.  and that i'm able to go back to school.  i could go on and on with this one - i'm a very happy person :)

7.  i would never turn my back on someone i cared about in need.

happy weekend friends! :)  xoxo

sigh.

me, 1st day of school in prague.
i imagine this upcoming semester
to be the total opposite of this.

hi friends.

it's been a busy week.  i started school monday [insert long, loud, deep exhale here].  it's finally here - my much anticipated (by me) return to university.  as of monday morning i was able to log in to my two online classes (math and macroeconomics), so of course in between mascara and blush all monday morning i was logging on my laptop to see what i could find out about my classes.  and here is what i've learned so far.

1 - i think i'm actually going to like my macroeconomics class.  it's a lot of work but none of it is necessarily difficult, and all if it is interesting.  not to mention incredibly relevant for my 9-5 right now.  we have to do a lot of discussing issues our professor poses and find a lot of articles to share and discuss.  i already finished this week's work for the class - four days early!  totally not the way i used to study... seriously though, i don't think i'll have problems getting into this class or taking anything away from it.

2 - i can't do math.  seriously.  remember a while back when i couldn't figure out basic algebra over happy hour (and actually cried about it)?  well it's worse now.  much worse.  because my math problems now look like this:                    

x= -b ± √b²-4ac

                                                                                ------------------------            

                                                                                      2a

so yeah, i'm going to need some help, a tutor or something.  it's going to be very, very difficult and frustrating for me.

3 - my "only meets three weekends" class?  a whole lot more work than that.  a LOT.  i got the syllabus today for my first public policy 5000 level course and it's intense.  i immediately got into the car with philip and explained how totally overwhelmed i felt.  4 classes?  what was i thinking?  thank god that the two weekend courses aren't overlapping - i seriously couldn't do it.  the three classes that will be going on at one time is definitely enough for me at this point, thank-you-very-much.  

4 - i worked on school work monday pre-going in to the office and when i got home til 10:30, repeated the same on tuesday, today read two macro chapters on my lunch hour and did two and a half hours worth of work at home post-coming home from the office and it's just wednesday.  the first week of the semester.  which means there needs to be one designated NO SCHOOL ZONE day.  philip and i decided it will be thursdays - that will be the day that when i come home from work (typically a slower work day, too) it will just be philip and i, and our favorite fall thursday shows of course.  ideally we will have more time together too; but at least now going in there will be one day a week where no textbooks will be opened, no math problems cried over.  and that's good news for me.

i think that's the major stuff right now.  but you know what the best part of this week was?  i am getting a taste of what the next few months will be like, and i think i'll be so busy that it will go by in a flash.  i can do this.  and i have pride and purpose in my life outside of work right now, which is something i also really love.  it's going to be busy ladies and gentlemen, and i can't promise you blog posts every week even.  but i guess that's what they call opportunity cost in economics :)

weekend wrap-up

hi friends!  as promised, i'm here with an awesome wrap up of an incredible weekend :)  in all seriousness it was one of my favorite weekends of the summer (see last post).  i didn't even post this - but yesterday while we were nursing our hangovers, we actually biked down to cherry creek to the farmer's market that we always want to go to and never indulge in.  what is up with all the food cars?


after hanging at the market for a good part of the late morning/early afternoon, we retired back to the house via bike ride to hang out with walker.  it was quite lazy and much deserved after friday's insanity.  anyway, all weekend we have done all kinds of cool stuff, and today was no different.

mom, aj, philip and i enjoyed a boozy brunch on the patio at lola, one of our old favorite hangouts.  it was nice just the four of us - we don't always get that when aj comes in for one of his quick visits.  the wedding he was supposed to attend sort of fell through, so we ended up having him all to ourselves for the weekend.  huzzah!

just want to throw it out there that lola's makes GRAPEFRUIT MIMOSAS.  for those of you who are new to the blog, you'll need to know that i am totally obsessed with grapefruit.  which means that while the sun still shines on sunday mornings, you can find me on the lola's patio drinking one of these.  they were amazing.

of course, some had bloodies

some had mexican mimosas (& fancy fingers)

the fam :)

two goofy peas in a pod

my fave

biking home, y'all

it was a great time.  and the vegetarian chili w/fried asparagus and eggs... to die for.  after brunch we ditched the bikes and headed right over to mom's for a aj's-last-night-here family barbeque.  grilled shrimp and pesto quinoa... delicious.  and, of course, a few rounds of family table topics.

lovely, lovely, lovely weekend filled with lots of my favorites.  and i needed it big time.  tomorrow is a big day for me - august 22nd, the day i start school.  of course it's just logging into my two online classes, but all the same i definitely have the first-day-of-school jitters big time.  i'm nervous - there's no screwing up for me this time.  i just need to stay motivated, stay positive, and keep studying.  it'll be over and on to the next chapter before you know it.  at least i hope so - i want to see what that next chapter is :)

but for now it's time for me to relax outside with my hubby i love so much.  happy sunday once again, all!

xoxo

fill-in-the-blank... saturday?

i'm not gonna lie to you friends... this one kind of got away from me.  it's been a crazy random interesting last few days here in denver.  and i missed fill-in-the-blank friday, as well as work, yesterday.  it all started thursday late afternoon with chloe's (warning: their website is kind of sleazy but in my defense i was only at the garden bar!) happy hour in the garden with my good ol' friend jess.  well i'm not quite sure what happened but whatever it was i was super super sick all day friday, which meant laying on mom's couch and watching arrested with aj, who is in town for the weekend (uh-oh...! :) ).  after a three hour nap and serious lounging, we finally made it to green russell.  not quite as cool as raine's, but definitely a welcome change of pace for denver hangouts.  anyway.  you can see where this is headed.  as usual the night ended at red square ("where all nights go to die," as aj says) where we ran into some old friends.  a great time was had by all, except maybe walker ;)  don't worry, there are no pictures to share.  that's a good thing.

just real quick, have to post this to share.  ran into a friend from what feels like a few lifetimes ago who shall remain anonymous (i know now he reads the blog!) who had the line of the night: 'i walked her to the bus stop, like a perfect gentleman...' wow.  good times.

but anyway i started this series just a week ago and i'm already skipping.  not good.  i'll try to do better folks.  in honor of this being my last weekend before school starts, it's a summer blank special.

summer edition! 


1. one of my happiest moments ever was... october 2006, italy, with five of the most insanely awesome people i know.  we drank champagne out of the bottle at the trevi fountain and i threw a coin in the fountain and wished for true love... little did i know that one of my friends there that night would end up being my husband :)

2. summer is wedding season and weddings... are totally uniquely different to each couple.  i love going to a wedding where you can really get a sense of who the couple is by their style, their decor, their choices and their own love.  it's sooo awesome.

3. this summer has been... the first summer i haven't taken a vacation.  seriously.  but it's been a fun semi-lazy summer, with a few visitors and LOTS of biking adventures with philip.  awesome.

4. my summer food of choice has been... popsicles.  can't get enough of the tangerine just fruit bars.  amazingness in my mouth.

5. my summer uniform has been...  from the top down: curly hair --> tank top --> open shirt over it --> linen skirt --> my comfy but super cute faux-gladiator-sandals i bought in tennessee.

6. if i could spend the entire summer in one location i would choose... the villa demarco, which sadly does not exist anymore.  it was my family's summer house near port jefferson, new york, which was around for generations until just this summer.  i'm heartbroken i'll never be able to go there again - but it's been my summer destination all my life and always will be the place to summer.

7. my summer anthem is... i could never pick just one, and in the interest of honesty here i have opened up iTunes and ranked my songs in order i play them in most.  apparently it's iron & wine's the creek drank the cradle, bibio's lovers carvings, and anything belle & sebastian.  they all sound like things to listen to on bike rides :) 


that's it til my usual sunday-wrap-up post!  enjoy your saturday nights - be safe! 

the seven continents

i'm getting the itch, folks.  and i'm not talking about mosquito bites sustained while drinking my new beer obsession outside with my husband.

i want to take a trip.

we have a little bit of money saved up (read: little!) and it's burning a hole in my savings account.  philip and i met while studying abroad and we took quite a few epic trips together.  and every year since we have met we've tried to make one big trip outside of the country...

2006:  we met in prague; went to hungary, italy, austria and slovakia 

2007:  spain, germany

2008:  germany, czech republic, turkey

2009:  france

2010:  spain, morocco

2011:  NO TRIP PLANNED! 

now, we had said that we weren't going to take a trip because we were redoing our bathroom.  well guess what?  i changed my mind.  i haven't stamped my passport in a year and that is 100% unacceptable. but the problem is that i've signed up for school including weekend classes - which means we are very low on time to take a trip.  we only have one possibly weekend in october and it will only allow us three days - which means... ALL INCLUSIVE!  i've never done an all inclusive before, including during college when all my roommates went to spring break in mexico and i went to the hockey hall of fame in toronto with my dad :)  true story.  but my cousin emily and her fiance swear by all inclusives.  and i think i could handle that.  sand, surf, sleeping in with philip, all you can drink booze... yeah that sounds good to me.

now, every little kid dreams of something.  they want to be astronauts. they want to be presidents, they want to be the first girl on the rangers.  i wanted to step foot on all seven continents.  now i'm not trying to say i didn't have any other dreams - i wanted to be a writer or an ambassador - but because they involved travel. and so that is something that we have tried to incorporate on all of our trips.  we take a few trips a year; with family in new york, massachusetts and california it's hard not to take multiple trips each year.  but we only take one vacation - so that vacation has to last us.  it has to be meaningful and we like to go somewhere we have never been before, where we can see something worthwhile and experience a new culture.  we are into experiential travel - doing the fun stuff but also living a bit like locals.  i've never seen the value, or the point, of sitting around on a beach for a few days.  but now that i'm a little bit older i want to experience that trip at least one time before we settled down.  so what better time than a mini-break from school this fall?

anyone been to any good all inclusives?  let me know because i am on the vacation hunt!

the closest we ever got to a beach getaway: costa del sol, march '08

come into my bedroom.

hi folks.  happy sunday.  we are having mom & vince over for dinner tonight - i'm making my famous fish tacos!  it's one of my favorite pescetarian dishes :)  i'd share my recipe with you, but i've never been big on food posts.  for one, i don't cook much or very well.  and secondly there is absolutely NO measuring in my cooking.  i'm serious.  i fill things up until they look full and i pepper them until i tastes the way i want to.  no rhyme or reason here and it's impossible to share.

but i'll tell you what i will share with you - my bedroom.  that's right.  come on in.

excuse him.  he thinks this is his bed.

this is our giant bed.  we decided to buy the biggest bed we could possibly find because we could fit it.  our room is huge, and thanks to our five closets in our room we really don't need to put in any drawers or chests.  the bed is the only real piece of furniture in the room besides my vanity, so we could let it stand out.  but i haven't quite figured out how to hang linens around the bed.  i did, however, come across some awesome ideas...

my personal favorite - i love the thick white linens that drape on the ground.  and the fact that this isn't even a canopy bed - just bars mounted to the ceiling.  so creative!  from coco+kelley.

  these paper-light linens act like window curtains - you can open and close.  lovely.  from apartment therapy (one of my old favorite sites when i was in a one bedroom pre-war walkup in brooklyn!).

 ok maybe this is my favorite now.  i can't decide.  this has a moroccan style, which everyone knows i have a major weakness for.  the fringe on the curtains are so unique - as is the black wicker chair next to the bed.  love the contrast.  from daisy pink cupcake.

the mirror, the wall paper, the white linen draped just above the pillows... so sublime.  very alaina :)  from whitehaven.

sigh.  a girl can dream, can't she?  someday i'll get around to buying fabric for my bed.  and hanging up pictures in my room.  but until that day comes... i have these awesome blogs to look at :) 

ok - enjoy your weekend friends! 

xoxo

fill-in-the-blank friday!

so everyone in the blogosphere (ugh i hate myself for saying that word) does this thing called 'fill in the blank fridays.'  and for those of you who read this, you know i regularly run out of things to blog about.  so i thought i'd join in.  now, i don't know if i can do this every friday - but maybe!  so here we go with my first FILL IN THE BLANK FRIDAY! why not? :)  thanks to my bloggie gf jess for the idea (from me stalking her blog).

1.   in the story of my life the actor who would play me would be... mandy moore.  not much looking alike there but i love her love her love her.  she looks more like my sister anne.  or zooey deschanel, i think we have alike personalities.  she could capture my quirkiness.

<----------mandy

anne --------->

2.  if i could change one thing about the world it would be... oh wow.  only one thing?  i wish people cared more about their fellow human beings.  i once saw a bumper sticker that said get involved - the world is run by those who show up.  so i guess i wish more people showed up.

3.  yesterday... all my troubles seemed so far away.  sorry couldn't resist the beatles there :)  i believe in yesterday...

4.  my favorite comfort food is... my nanny's spaghetti.  hands down best food IN THE WORLD.  but seeing as she lives in ny i don't get it too often... so i guess i'll just go with macaroni & cheese.  not the boxed kind, the kind that i make myself from scratch.  delicious.  

5.  my new favorite blog find is...  ju ju hats!  i want one - i could put it above my fireplace and ditch the mirror!  and also these hmong bags. 

6.  if I could meet any blog friend (who i haven't met yet) in real life, i'd choose to meet... i can't say he's a blog friend, but... can i go with alec baldwin over at huffpost?

7.  my favorite breakfast food is... toasted bagel with cream cheese and tomatoes, paired with coffee of course.  hands down.

the list.

yes, the list.  everyone has one.  and it is a constant source of stress in my marriage.  ok not really, but there is kind of an ongoing joke philip has that i just add whoever i feel like to my list and there is no end to it.  well today i will change that and post my list here in a very public way so i can't change it any more.

ok people... don't judge.  but do feel free to create your own list!

now these are in no particular order - but here they are.


10.  philip seymour hoffman

i know.  unconventional.  but he's amazing.  it all happened when i became obsessed with truman capote, and then his bio was turned into a movie, and capote was played by my boy here.  of course i know capote was gay.  but do i care?  no.  i still love love love mr. hoffman.

what i didn't do this weekend

yes, another weekend blog update.  it's like my new favorite thing to do on sunday evenings: wrap up my weekend with a good blog post.  of course that will change someday but until that day finally comes sometime next year i'll just blog sunday evenings.  it was a pretty uneventful weekend (but a damn good one!) as usual.

highlights of the weekend include: friday night mexican with my awesome momma, trying to get into arrested development via netflix watch now (back in boston a few months back we had an AD marathon and i thought the show was a little too weird for me - but now getting into the 2nd half of the 1st season and i'm kind of addicted), a new purse on saturday (50% off plus a 20% off coupon from one of my favorite customers!), dinner with new friends at an indian restaurant that brews their own IPA, and ending it all with city park jazz (as usual).  pics of weekend adventures below :)

on our way to yak + yeti1

ESB + IPA = LOVE

umm i want a DISCO BALL @ cpj! 

'would you want to see an alien?'

me & momma on AJ's birthday :) 

brew drinking my brew... (haha)

but guess what i didn't do this weekend friends?  go to ikea.  that's right.  us coloradans just got our first ikea down in centennial which opened last week on wednesday.  i kind of wanted to go last weekend, but instead we did the dragon boat festival.  and it's a damn good thing we didn't go.  philip found out from some work friends that there was a two hour wait just to get inside the store - and then once you got in there were too many people to even browse.  not really my thing.  i don't do lines very well.

now i've been to ikea before.  philip and i LOVED the one by us in brooklyn.  people in colorado are super excited to have an ikea here - it's on virtually every blog out here.  but i'm finding out that people are overwhelmingly confused and frustrated by the store.  once you get in it's a maze, you can't pick up anything you want at first, why did they put it in centennial, etc.  it's a little ridiculous.  i'm personally a huge fan of how ikea lays out their store, i get it.  but people out here just don't seem to be into the whole ikea thing, they seem to be flocking there out of curiosity or something.  there are certain types of coloradans who aren't big fans of anything european.  hahaha.  but seriously guys it's going to be a while before i get to ikea.  i get stressed out in big shopping areas with lots of people - and as much as i love a bargain as much as the next person i really can't handle big crowds gabbing at clothes and things.

don't get me wrong - i'm crazy excited to have an ikea here.  i've already started a list of new projects i can start now that i can shop there (finishing the bathroom , carpeting the stairs, re-doing the kitchen cabinets, maybe a new rug...)  but it's not worth the panic attack right now.  don't worry blog friends - you will all be the FIRST i tell when i head over to ikea!  but you can expect that to be sometime last summer or early fall when i need a homework break (15 days til school starts!) or in-between trips - we are heading to boston and la in the next month and a half.

but for now... that's it!  time for me to get back to my hubby :)  have a great week all!

xoxo

the coolest guy i know.

today is AUGUST 7th, 2011: also known as my little brother's 25th birthday.  so in honor of aj being all growed up, i thought i would share the 10 best reasons why my brother kicks ass and is the best brother a girl could EVER ask for.  sorry all those of you reading this who have brothers, but it's just a fact.

10.  because, like me, he doesn't take himself too seriously.

9.  because while he may have tried on different lifestyles for size, he never once stopped being true to the person he is.  and that hasn't always been easy for him, and i know that.

just sayin'.

not much going on today.  just finished watching the daily show with philip, having an ipa on this gloriously cool and overcast day.  jon stewart had jason bateman on his show and they were exchanging some banter about how they bumped into each other on the street a few weeks back.

which has me wondering...

why don't i ever run into this guy in the streets in ny???

just sayin'.  :)

happy wednesday all.