Lemonade 10¢

Sunday was a GORGEOUS day, absolutely amazing, so I went to sit in Central Park with the rest of New York City. Besides meeting some interesting gentlemen that I absolutely cannot begin to describe, I walked by a lemonade stand that was run by two little girls. They had quite a nice setup, table, lemonade, cookies, nice little sign.

I was actually going to buy some lemonade, thought it was pretty cute, then I realized where I was walking. Yeah, I was on 86th St between Madison Ave and 5th Ave. For those of you not familiar with the city, these little girls live in a VERY nice neighborhood. I could not bring myself to provide them with any more money. Their combined allowance is probably the same as my salary so the lemonade stand just wasn't as cute.

Am I mean?

Cutest kids ever

YAY! Abby uploaded new pictures of the kids! A lot are from Colin's birthday, but these are by far my favorite.

Thank God for Netflix

Ok, if I've already blogged about this, feel free to send hate mail. I never remember what I've actually blogged and what I just thought was a good blog topic and never actually blogged about.

I have a new plan to watch all of the TV Shows I can think of on Netflix and get the New York references. It never occurred to me the first time around of watching Seinfeld, Will & Grace and others that I wasn't getting the joke. Lately while watching these shows in syndication I realize that they're New York references to Broadway, the subway, parking, that I'm just not getting.

Along with not getting adult innuendo in movies when you're younger I think getting NY references in movies will make me happy.

How Do You Get There from Here?

A favorite pasttime of New Yorkers is discussing their routes to...well, everywhere. It never really occurred to me until I heard someone discussing it on This American Life. This guy from Chicago was talking about life in New York City after his recent move. He said that New Yorkers seem completely preoccupied by discussing their routes to and from work. And I completely agree.

Whenever I meet someone new, you get through the what you do, where you live, where you work, the next logical question is, "Well how do you get to work?". EVERYONE has an opinion on your route, and this is in no way a bad thing. If someone informed me of some magical connection that would make my commute shorter I'd probably kiss them but it's so entertaining to listen to.

Also, when someone asks me directions on or near the Subway (happens a lot - tourists probably don't think that a nice Midwestern-looking girl will rob them) another New Yorker occasionally joins the convo to provide their faster route.

So maybe New York's sub-slogan to I (heart) New York should be, "We'll get you where you want to go". That might be the slogan to some car company already, but I say we steal it.

Early Riser?

Ok, so I've decided I either only need approximately 6 hours of sleep a night or I've become super sensitive to the sun rising.

For the last couple of weeks I have been waking up (different than getting up) in the 5s! I wake up, think "what is the sun doing up", squint at my wall clock, look at my cell phone AND my alarm clock to verify the time, then go back to sleep.

This morning was particularly crazy since I woke up about 5 times before my alarms started going off at 7:05. What's up with that? The bummer is that when I wake up at 5:30 I am completely refreshed. Then after waking up and snoozing for the next 2 hours (yes, I hit snooze approximately 3-4 times every morning) I wake up tired. I would like to experiment one day and actually get out of bed at 5:45 and see what happens. I think you just get lots of stuff done, and maybe go to the gym. I have no idea, I've never had this problem before.

Side note though, I am loving this sun in the morning thing. Since I do not have an air conditioner in my room, I sleep with my window open and my fan blowing on me. It is SO NICE to wake up in the morning with the sun and a light breeze.

My Boring Life

I worried I'm getting used to New York and I don't find anything that exciting anymore. To prove that is not true, here are some fun things I'll be doing soon:

#1 JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge - this is a 5k race tomorrow sponsored by the obvious. 10,000 runners ran yesterday and there will be 10,000 more tomorrow. While I had great ambitions to actually RUN the whole thing, odds are I will be walking briskly most of the way. The best part about it is the Harris Interactive tshirts we got. The back has a big beer mug and says, "Survey says: 99% of people would rather drink beer than run." I concur tshirt, I concur.

#2 Ladies Night at Mo's Caribbean tonight - can anyone say $2 margaritas, 50 flavors? Yeah, I can.

#3 Park laying - this weekend I have a hot date with my book club book to go lay in Central Park and read. The weather better cooperate or we're going to have words.

#4 Room Rearrangement - I am not the more organized person out there as anyone who personally knows me can testify, but I'm trying to make the most of my limited space. Since I purchased a laptop, I am no longer in need of my desk, so I have posted it on Craigslist and I have someone coming to look at it on Sunday. Yay! Saturday I'm carting several bags of clothes and books to the Goodwill. As soon as I'm done with my reorg I'll post new pictures!

Bad blogger

Ok, I haven't blogged for a month. I'm a VERY BAD blogger.

You just get all these ideas and you want to blog about them all, but then it's just too many and you can't deal with the thought of doing them all at once.

Anyway, this first blog is to let everyone know that I upload pictures to my Flickr site of Doug and Stacey (Scott) Langley's wedding and my most recent trip to DC. I had so much fun at both events!

More blogs to come...

Star Spotting: Political Edition

Ok, so while I didn't see this gentlemen in NYC I'm going to do a special "Star Spotting" with the politicians I've seen recently.

#1: Senator John Thune (R-SD)

Last Monday, while waiting for my flight to DC, I saw Senator Thune running for a plane to Washington, DC. When he realized I recognized him he smiled and said hello. Now this isn't CRAZY exciting because I've met him before and shared a little small talk with him. As student body VP, it was my duty to introduce him in the absence of our student body president when he came to speak at my high school.

Regardless, I thought it was cool to see him.

South Dakota Guilt

Ok, everyone at home, if you want to feel guilty, watch, "Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee" on HBO. Yeah, it talks about how the Pine Ridge Indian reservation was created. Yeah, depressing.

New Phone Part II

My emotions have been ALL OVER the place today with this phone. First, I couldn't turn on my phone yesterday after it fell on the sidewalk. I assumed it was broken and spent the better part of last night looking for new phones on eBay.

Then, this afternoon, I went to Verizon to have them pronounce it dead before buying a new phone, they plugged it in and suddenly it worked. I knew that the battery wasn't dead but they made me sit there for 5 minutes while they charged it and lo and behold, as soon as they unplugged it, nada, dead. They told me I could get a new phone (Razr...grrr) to replace my old one for $50. I decided not to do it then and there because I would have lost my phonebook and wanted to document my phone numbers before getting a new phone.

And then, tonight, I went to the Verizon by my house and the guy looked at it for one second, bent back this metal piece and turned it on. Yay for a second opinion. Still hate my phone though. :)

East Coast = Bad Luck for Roxie phones

Well, I've been on the East Coast for a little over 2 years. In that time, I've gone through 3 phones. This is not good. Now, mind you, I have been a cell phone owner since 2002, and I was on a good clip of getting a new phone every 2 years until November of 2005. Since then I have:

• Lost a phone
• A phone purchased online croaked (prob bad quality to begin with)
• My Razr died after dropping it

Mind you, I HATE my Razr. I have hated it since shortly after I got it when I realized that the operating system is ridiculously slow and that you can talk for about 60 minutes before it needs to be recharged.

So, since Verizon charges and arm and a leg when your contract is not up, I will probably be buying another phone online through eBay. Sigh.

So, odds are I won't be able to transfer my phone numbers, so if you would kindly email me your phone number, I would greatly appreciate it.

Jeopardy - thee are so wise

I was a little behind on my Jeopardy One-a-Day calendar when I ran across this clue tonight:

A. "It took thirty years for the appliance to be in over 50 percent of U.S. homes; the need to bake a potato in three minutes wasn't pressing."

I won't bother waiting for a response because the question is obviously, "What is the microwave (oven)". See, I'm not so odd. However, the microwave oven was invented in the 50's SO yeah, maybe not having one is a little odd.

Graduation Advice

While scouring the University of Kansas student newspaper I ran across some advice for new graduates joining the real world. I found this point particularly interesting:

Always pick Kansas to win it all in your office pool. It’s the right thing to do. Be really annoying and vocal during March Madness in your office if the ‘Hawks are still alive, especially if you have Mizzou and K-State grads as co-workers.

Um, yeah, so admittedly, I do this every year. I know it's not a "smart" strategy but some day it will pay off. SOME DAY. As for Mizzou/K-State grads, I've only run across a few in NYC so far, and I would gloat if I ran into them. Especially if they came to a KU bar to watch the basketball game. Rude, rude Tiger fans.

Looooove her

I am a huge fan of an artist that opened for Joshua Radin (blogged earlier) whose CD I have been listening to nearly non-stop for the last month or so. Thanks Nicole for burning it for me!

What caused me to blog about it now is that I watched last week's Grey's Anatomy episode last night on abc.com (they should pay me for all my plugs) and one of her songs was featured.

Check out Ingrid Michaelson if you get a chance.

HIMYM - Part 2

Tonight was the airing of Tim's proposal to Jana on "How I Met Your Mother" - I'm sorry I couldn't remind you all, but blogger and I were fighting today. The news cameras were there to capture the engagement party (I was totally there) and Tim and Jana watching the proposal for the first time.

You can catch the news segment here.

Congratulations again Tim and Jana (pictured above with the cast)!

Parker Wedding Extravaganza 2007

The Parker wedding was as much fun as we all expected. Erica was an absolutely gorgeous and glowing bride and you couldn't get the smile off Russell's face. Me being the sappy person that I am started crying about 15 times.

Since they met at the University of Maryland, each of the tables was named after buildings on campus. They went to the campus and took pictures in front of each building and left a large 8x10 picture on each table. It was such a cute idea.

Here is a picture of the happy couple! The rest of the pictures from the weekend, including several from Friday night's activities are posted on My Flickr site - see the link to the left.

Some random comments

1) I love bananas - and the one I just ate was PARTICULARLY good.

2) I'm going to Ocean/Atlantic City for my friend Erica's wedding this weekend! Yes, this makes my 3rd trip there in a year. Woot woot.

3) My mom is hilarious - check this out.

You're the next contestant on the Price is Right

I saw a quote on OverheardinNewYork.com that made me contemplate the price of things in New York. I'm completely desensitized by it after 8 months but this quote made me laugh (edited somewhat for younger readers):

"Dude: I don't think I'll do too well on The Price Is Right. I'm too used to Manhattan. I'd say 35 dollars for a box of Bounce. Then I'd be like, 'Holy crap, five bucks? Damn, Bob, where the %#$@ do you shop?!"

So you all know, Bounce is not $35 but prices are pretty high. My friend Molly in Austin told me that where she shops she can get 2 gallons of milk for $5. Um, I can get one for about $3.58. I did call my dad a few nights ago to let him know that I was it the fancy frou frou grocery store behind my house and they had brown eggs that were delivered fresh every day. You don't buy them in packages, but separately. For $.60 an egg. This is by no means the rule for eggs in NYC, but something I found hilarious.

Group Bonding

I've found that one of my favorite things is to have a really unusual person on the subway car and watching other people's reactions to them.

Scenario #1: Well dressed middle aged woman sitting on a bench on the subway. She begins yelling "I can't believe you! Don't touch me! An old woman sitting here and you sit on her! Don't sit on me!" Everyone starts making eye contact, rolling their eyes and smiling. Then when this other passenger gets up at the stop after be yelled from 86th St. to 59th St. another person sits down next crazy woman and she begins yelling at her. While it sounds uncomfortable, it was really funny and bonded all of the people on the car. Not as much as scenario #2.

Scenario #2: A couple of weeks ago on the first nice day of Spring I was riding the subway and I look behind me and there is an ~275 lb, incredibly muscular man listening to his headphones. Now that is not that uncommon, neither was the fact that he was wearing a wife beater, what was odd was that he was making his pecs dance to the music. Oh, and his music was loud enough that EVERYONE on the car could hear the bass line of his song. Sometimes one would go up, sometimes the other, sometimes both, sometimes they'd just shake. And he was VERY into this and had his eyes closed the whole time. The second I realized what was happening I start laughing hysterically into my arm (on the bar above), trying not to be too obvious, I kept sneaking glances and on the second glance I notice the guy sitting next to him. He is half the size of this guy, dressed business casual, and RIDICULOUSLY uncomfortable. That made me laugh even harder. There were very few people on the train not smiling that afternoon.

Not you too Grey's!

Thank you Grey's Anatomy for trying to freak out all the young single women out there. Addison is 37 years old and finally decided to have a baby after putting her career first for so many years to find out she can't have a baby. She's infertile. Hey...we get it. Alllllll of us single twenty-somethings out there understand. You can stop reminding us now.

Ok, rant is over. Thank you for listening.

However, since the episode is not yet over, there is still hope that the tests were wrong or she'll use some homeopathic remedies. I can't believe that Shonda Rhymes would tee off her base.