Brooklyn Botanic Gardens

From April

From April

I tried to invite my little from Big Brothers Big Sisters out for a Saturday photo shoot. By the time I got there I didn't see her around and called, only to find that she'd forgotten and didn't think she could make it before the free hours were over. Undaunted, I called around to find some Brooklyn-ite to join me. I got ahold of a friend that went to ASU, Ricardo who happened to be around and apparently is a super fast shower-er. He got dressed and walked over to join me in record time. We got to stroll around the gardens enjoying all the amazing spring flowers and then he took me out to lunch afterwards like a true gentleman. I will forgive him for not letting me take his picture :) The gardens were a paradise for anyone who wanted pictures of people taking pictures, haha and there were a bunch of Chinese ladies singing in a circle, and some really cute kids who loved the flowers. Ahh now the weather has turned dreary and cold again. I miss my taste of spring.

From April

From April

From April

From April

Week in Review

I'm getting behind on blog posts. So I'll play catch up with this one. Last Sunday I took my sister Lauren to go see Wicked. I have some connections in the city, which is a good thing otherwise we'd never have managed to get tickets. It was a good show and we had some great orchestra seats. I still like the book better and the ending to the broadway version was not so great, but I guess broadway is a little like Disney, they just can't help but give you a happy sappy ending. The guy next to me too a hundred dollar nap, which seems a little ridiculous. I guess some people just have money to throw away. At the end of the show they asked for donations for the broadway charity drive that they do every year benefitting something like kids with aids or cancer. The lady behind us made some snarky remark about having to listen to such a thing.

On Wednesday a co-worker of mine offered me a ticket to a show at Carnagie Hall. It's funny what you get used to being around. When I really think about it, casually going to Carnagie Hall isn't something most people can do. It was an interesting show with three guys who were jazz musicians but tended to do more of a musical noise routine. The vocalist just played around making different noises and at one point the show devolved into them throwing drumsticks around the stage.

Friday we had a softball game where I actually managed to make it home and caught a pop fly. I was proud. The quote of the day came from a new girl on the team who hit the ball and ran to first but didn't make it before the ball did so she was out. She turned around and said "All that running for nothing?" Haha, I guess the game is kind of new to her. We were pretty far behind, but in the last inning we managed to make a good rally and ended up only losing by three runs. I think the score was 18-21.

Here's a sneak peek at pictures from this weekend. I'll blog about them and post more later.

Last Saturday

From April

From April

I spent last Saturday hanging out with my little sister Lauren. She's not soo little anymore since she's almost 21 and may have a tiny height advantage, but anyway... I decided it would be fun to go check out the Brooklyn Botanical Garden since it is free on Saturdays and some of the cherry blossoms and magnolia trees were blooming. She brought along some of the people she is traveling with for Model United Nations and we all enjoyed being out in the sun and seeing all the nice foliage and grass for a change. A change for them since living in New Mexico means that large grassy areas are usually golf courses and a change for me since the New York City lifestyle allows for more concrete than grass. Though I did notice that the backyard could use some mowing.... Scott.

From April

From April

After the garden we were off to find a brunch place. We tried to do unlimited Mimosas, but unfortunately a good portion of the group wasn't quite of legal age just yet. So we just enjoyed the food. After that we headed up to Central Park where we encountered a couple superheros. I think they may have been at New York ComiCon and wandered off the trail.

From April

We split up after that and Lauren and I decided to go shopping for a little while and Anna met up with us to help. There are definitely some good deals around town if you have the patience. I usually don't. I'm a very strange girl, I don't like chocolate or shopping all that much. Even though I don't like chocolate I know that other people do, so I decided to lead us to Max Brenner. A place reminiscent of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory with pipes of chocolate and a comprehensive desert menu. We ordered the chocolate mess, but I wish we had tried one of the options that came with fresh strawberries and cream. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to visit again sometime.

From April

We decided that for our evening entertainment that Anna, Scott and I would introduce Lauren to Sing Star, the karaoke PlayStation game. That game is very addictive even if you're not usually a big singer. We played until about 3 am and I feel sorry for my neighbor, but once you get into it you just can't put the microphone down. Scott always beats us at the girly songs.

From April

From April

Last Friday

I have lots of catching up to do, but I'll start with this past Friday. It was a beautiful day out, almost 80 degrees and I got out of work early. I went and grabbed Scott and we went and found a spot for dinner where we could eat and drink oustide by Union Square. Afterwards we wandered through a farmers market and bought some tasty oatmeal cranberry cookies then checked out a silent rave. A silent rave is something where people all get together and bring their own music, usually on an ipod and dance at the same time, but not together. It was an odd sight to see so many people dancing to their own beat. It was interesting to see how different it was compared to a regular dance. It very much highlighted the way music can bring a crowd together. Everyone in this crowd was doing the same thing at the same time, but they weren't as cohesive a group as they would have been if they were all dancing to the same music. I think the facebook group had over 6000 people signed up for it. There was definitely a large crowd. We went up in a nearby store to get a birds eye view of the crowd.

From Friday

Then we just sat around people watching for awhile. There is a large display in Union Square that has a bunch of numbers all flickering away. I think it is a clock of sorts counting up and down the minutes in the day. Reading one way is the time and reading the other way is the time left in the day. After that we wandered down and decided to head home. We had to make way for a large rolling ball that some guys were moving down the sidewalk.

From Friday

From Friday

It was a sponsored ball for some cancer charity, that the sponsors offered to pay x amount of money for however many signatures were gathered on the ball. So of course we signed it. It was an interesting and very random sight. My sister Lauren also got into town that night, but I told her I'd see her the next day since so much sitting in the sun had left me very tired and a little pink. It was sooo nice to finally see and feel the sun. I don't think I could get any whiter.

Great Deals!

I've been seeing some signs lately that just make me laugh. Like this one that I walk by in Jersey City every day. I'm not sure if I get the great deals at 1 o' clock or 1 dollar. That's understandable though. The owners or sign makers probably speak English as a second language. The one that really cracks me up is the way Sears, a major retailer, is slashing prices. I was checking out how much a washing machine might cost me as I was procrastinating and trying not to take a trip to the laundrymat. I saw that they had a sale going on. I'm not really sure why they advertised these prices. Is it a marketing ploy? Just stick a slash through it and it seems to be much cheaper. Maybe they assume that the average person won't look at the original price. I'm not sure if you can read the prices in this screen shot, but I assure you that all but one of the orginal prices is a whopping 11 cents more than that sale prices. That's right folks, through May 3rd only you can save 11 cents on their washers.

Causes

Monday I went to the New York Women in Communications Matrix Awards. This is a big awards show that was held at the Waldorff this year honoring women in communication. I saw many well known news people, actors and the like such as Bob Woodruff, Christiane Amanpour, Diane von Furstenberg, Wolfgang Puck, Diane Sawyer, Bill Irwin, Robin Roberts, Anna Deavere Smith, and Padma Lakshmi the host of "Top Chef". For all that there were some famous people related to food, the chicken was some of the dryest stuff I'd ever had. I don't give the Waldorf=Astoria high marks for culinary craft. Wofgang Puck joked that he'd make lunch for all thousand some of us next year. Some of the speakers were pretty interesting. Bob Woodruff was the reporter who was severly injured in Iraq, Robin Roberts is a reporter on Good Morning America who is recovering from Breast Cancer. It was neat to see what these people had to say about where they came from and how they got to where they were.
I also had to think of Sarah and wish that her event could be just as packed as that one was. Sarah is coordinating a fundraiser for the non-profit she works for, Hope Communities. If anyone plans to be in the Denver area around April 19th they should go. While I'm putting in a plug for charitable events
I should probably also mention one of my favorite causes, Camp Sparky. If you're interested in having a nice dinnner along with an inspiring speaker and a silent auction where you're nearly gauranteed to get a good deal you should definitely go. This raises money to send an entire 5th grade class of underpriveliged kids to a 3 day camp run entirely by ASU student volunteers. It's pretty amazing to think that they spend just about $7,000 to take a hundred kids a hundred miles and feed, house, entertain and teach them all. It's really neat to hear the kids talk about leaving the city of Phoenix for the first time or see how excited they are to see snow or even a mountain. If you have time or a few bucks they're definitely a good organization to give to. Here are a few fun memories from the time when Scott and I ran around with packs of kids. That's him leading the charge and encouraging everyone to jump in to the "orchestra". Then there's me being the firm instructor that I am and finally one that's back from the day when Scott liked to be a little more wild with his looks and dance moves. Ahh memories.

From Camp Sparky

From Camp Sparky

From Camp Sparky

From Camp Sparky

Garden Secrets

Saturday was a beautiful day here so I decided to go out and enjoy the weather while I could. I took on what I thought would be a small task, but what turned out to be at least two trashcans full worth of pruning. Our front yard has ivy growing like crazy and I thought it was trying to take over all of our sidewalk space so it should be trimmed a little. As I trimmed I saw an area where the ivy had grown up a little taller than the rest and I wanted to chop it down. So I went in with the sheers and ran into a rusted spring. I pulled and to my surprise out came a garden stake with a cat head on it that I hadn't seen in our nearly three years of living here. It was a little creepy looking so I tossed it aside. A while later I came upon a short wooden post sticking out of the dirt. I decided to pull it out thinking that it was unecesary. I believe I was correct in my thinking since I found out that there was a knife blade attached to that wooden post. Very strange. I added it to the pile. I started picking up the piles that I'd created and sweeping off the edges. and what do I find when I bend down to pick up something that has clattered to the ground, but another kitchen knife! I also picked out plenty of trash and dead leaves and a funny washer looking piece of metal. The kitchen knives are definitely the strangest part though. I can't quite figure it out. Perhaps some of the neighborhood kids stole their mom's knife to play with and left them stuck in my ivy as a good hiding spot. I don't think it was anyone particularly malicious, since they were pretty stubby knives. It was a very odd find.

From April

Good Ole Grover

I got the picture from my event with Grover back. I had to scan it into the computer so the colors came out all funny, but it was still really fun meeting him so I had to share. We had empanadas for dinner at Reuben's Empanadas. They were pretty tasty. I'm pretty sure you could find a restaurant dedicated to almost any type of food there is in New York. Except for Green Chile. I'm not sure why no one has or serves green chile around here, but I miss it terribly. Maybe I should open a place called The Green Chile and serve only green chile related items. Maybe not.

DoHicky

This Sony gadget, the "GPS Unit" is something I might buy if Sony decided I could go on a shopping spree. You carry it around and it synchronizes your pictures with where you took them. It's a keychain sized thing that would be nice to have sometimes. I have definitely tried to figure out how to do a googlemap of a set of travel pictures. This does it for you automatically. Ahh to be rich and have whatever you want. Well, except for the fact that there'd be no fun anticipation and no reason to ever blog. Or I could just blog about what I bought every day. Hmm interesting thought. I wonder if there are blogs where people detail their daily purchases. I know people have detailed every meal they eat. Alright, I'm done. I've been shopping online way too much.

A nice gift

I just had to post a picture of these flowers. Scott got them for me last Friday for my birthday and they're still going strong. Seriously, my whole office smells like them. Not just my office, but the whole office area. I don't even notice it after awhile unless I leave and come back. But they are very nice. I had someone call me to come get them and I was trying to figure out who would have sent them. I thought maybe Joyanne, or Sarah or my Mom or my Grandma... I never even guessed my husband would send me flowers! They still look gorgeous and make me happy every time I see them. That's some good conditioning Scott. Love you.

From 2008_04_01

Exciting News!

Today I was at Lee's Craft Store on 57th Street picking up some materials for one of my workshops when this little girl ran up to me. She was about 2 years old and super cute. She wanted to show me some toy she'd found so I looked and said how nice it was etc. Then I looked around and didn't see a parent nearby so I asked her who she was there with. She said "mommy." So I asked if she knew where mommy was. She took off running and I followed along just to be sure she wasn't lost. After a few turns she ran up to a well dressed looking woman who I assumed was either an adoptive parent or a very well-to-do nanny since the girl was black and the woman was white. She thanked me for helping to find her little one and it somehow came up that I liked kids and babysat. We kind of hit it off and had a nice chat and she asked if I'd be interested in sitting for her kids some time. I told her I'd be happy to if I was free. So she turns to a woman standing near by and asks her to get my information. I thought this was kind of strange, I mean there are wealthy people in the city but most people don't bring personal assistants around with them. So I gave the person my info and said to call anytime. As I was saying goodbye to the lady and her little girl who had told me her name was Zahara, it suddenly clicked!!!! I had been speaking to Angelina Jolie!!!! I totally didn't recognize her until she was walking out the door!!! So I guess we'll see if she ever calls. Oh man, that would be a fun time.