Happy New Year!

From 2008_01_01

Scott and I have Lucas, Scott's best man visiting us for the week. After we returned from our travels we picked Lucas up on Sunday. Everyone went out for a NYC New Years. It was nice since usually we're travelling on New Years Eve. I think I'm usually on a plane or train or at home in bed. This year we went to Uncle Ming's. We got there and looked around and asked aloud where it was and the people standing near the door said "it's right here." It was one of those clubs that you have to know about to go into. They seem to have a lot of those in New York, I think they think it makes them seem exclusive. We had fun. I hope everyone else had a good one!

From 2008_01_01

Holiday Soiree

I'm going to make this quick, though I haven't posted in awhile. I have been doing pretty much the same thing everyone else has, which is shopping and planning for travel and holiday-ness. I went to my company Christmas party, which is nice. The only drawback is that we aren't allowed to bring a guest, so Scott didn't get to come. It's held at the St. Regis Hotel with a very nice food spread and open bar. It's funny because we all end up dancing with colleagues, and I'm probably one of the youngest employees so I don't feel intimidated on the dance floor. Every year our CEO hands out raffle prizes and everyone is wearing lovely yellow wristbands that give them entrance to the party along with their raffle number. So we're all staring at our yellow wristbands waiting for our number to be called. I did hand out the wristbands and when I handed my coworker Derek his I told him it was a winner and it was! Except he didn't get the 40" flat screen he got the CD gift set. Oh well I didn't promise him the best prize. Anyway, I decided I wouldn't take my camera but other people had theirs there, so here are some pictures. Oh yeah, I also got my hair cut. We're heading to Iowa on Sunday and New Mexico the day after Christmas. So we've got lots of travel. I'll cross my fingers that the weather holds.

From Holiday Party...

The St. Regis Ballroom, so very gilded. These are a couple of my work friends. The girl with dark hair is our volleyball team captain.

From Holiday Party...

This is the corp comm department. That's my boss in the pink jacket next to the CEO of Sony, Howard Stringer.

From Holiday Party...

This is most of the accounting department who also happen to be a good portion of the softball team.

Greenwich Village Halloween Parade

Any adventurous people who like Halloween should definitely come visit me in New York at the end of October next year. I will show you a good time. Marching in the Village Halloween parade is an experience not to be missed. I tried to convince many friends here that they should join me, but they all either watch from the sidelines or pass altogether. When you're watching from the side, you really don't get to see everything, and you're so crammed in with other people that the only costume you'll probably see is the tip of some Wizard's hat. Of course there are the stiltwalkers and the amazing animatronic statues that tower over everyone's head, you'll see all twelve of those. But you won't see and experience the thousands of costumed people walking in the parade, and get people to clap for you, scream at the sight of you, cheer you on, laugh at you all while you have actual elbow room. Last night I headed down to Scott's lab and we got dressed and walked over to the start of the parade. That is the worst part, where you are standing in a large crowd of people who suddenly take up more room than they usually do, due to extra appendages and props. But once the cops let you out of the starting gate, it's smooth sailing. You can walk at your own pace and choose which band or musical float you want to walk by and dance with. You get to see everyone's costume, and everyone gets to see you. I had many small children tell me that I won, that I was the best costume they saw that night, which was a pretty great accomplishment considering the creativity that was on display. Of course, for all I know they could have said that to ten people that night, but I still felt proud. Two separate girls called me "cute" which I thought was a funny way to describe my costume, and many people did double takes as we walked by. A mime and a headless person, in love. That's an interesting plot line. Anyway, enjoy the pictures for now, and make plans to visit next year!

Lovely Ladies

The first lovely lady of the night was one I met on the train. She and I struck up a conversation so I was entertained on my trip into the city. She was a funny girl from Washington DC headed into the city for a fall party. She said her flowy top and brown pants were what she wore to look like a leaf. After that I met up with Anna and two other girls who were visiting from London. The four of us made quite the group, and we were excited to join the bachelorette party at a place called Lips. The Londoners said that in the UK bachelorette parties are called Hen Parties and the Bachelor party is called a Stag party and that guys go around using their hands/fingers to create antlers and making stag noises, whatever they are. So we got to Lips and were greeted by a lovely "lady" who let us look around for our party. We were already half an hour late so we were surprised not to see anyone there. Finally we figured out whose name the reservation was under and found out that they had cancelled it. We couldn't get ahold of anyone who we were supposed to meet up with so we decided to stay for the show anyway. The Londoners said they didn't have drag shows in their country so we showed them a good time. There were four other bachelorette parties there and when we introduced ourselves we got to say that we were supposed to be a fifth but got stood up. The show was enjoyable with the men/women singing and dancing for us. Afterwards one woman came around and made us balloon handcuffs and toys,she filled the baloons from her bra and one of the brides got a strip show right in front of our table. It was quite entertaining. We met up with Sky and another ASU friend who was visiting with her mom and we all went to Sushi Samba. In the UK I guess the thing is that there are a lot of Salsa clubs so people really know how to dance. Sushi Samba is more of a restaurant but they had a DJ there and the music was great so we decided we'd turn it into more of a dancing place. At one point I felt like I was in a scene from a movie when one of the English girls started dancing with a guy from some other table. They really knew how to dance! I bet they could have been on dancing with the stars! The whole restaurant just watched them spin and dance in amazement. All the waitstaff just came over to watch and clap along. It was a very nice time. I left and came back at one point to see my friends all staring at someone's camera and caught them in the act with my camera. Then the people sitting across from us were giving us an entertaining make-out show and I happened to capture our group watching them. It was a great night out despite being stood up.