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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

I Totally Meant to Do That

Today I went to lunch with one of my mother's dear friends, Sandy, who is up here dog-sitting for her daughter. As she would say, "It was awesome." We lunched at Grey Dog near my office in Chelsea and chatted about jobs, dogs, family, trips, church, but mostly about being a southerner. Specifically what it's like being a southerner in New York City.

Moving from the south to the north is quite strange. I've always been a city girl but let me tell you that I have a love/hate relationship with this city and it's inhabitants. Some days it picks me up and energizes me and other days it leaves me exhausted. During our lunch conversation, Sandy mentioned a book that I must read - "I Totally Meant to Do That" by Jane Borden. It's a memoir about one woman's experience moving from North Carolina to New York City. Right up my alley, huh? Sandy says it's one of the funniest books she's read and the stories she tells are hilarious. Particularly one about how her face hurt and she didn't know why until one-day she realized she was smiling at everyone on the street. That's a lot of smiling compared to walking down a street in NC. Most New Yorkers don't smile.

I'm headed to the book store after work today, because as Sandy would say, "it's fab."

Monday, March 28, 2011

Check your Toilets and Under the Bed...

Did the title of the post make you wonder what I'm going to write about?? Well, CNN just reported that a deadly Egyptian cobra from the Bronx Zoo is missing. EWWW. Apparently, this snake's venom is so deadly that it can kill a person in 15 minutes. Um....run. I just got shivers.

Officials haven't found the snake yet, but it does appear to have it's own Twitter account now (of course why wouldn't he?), which is actually pretty funny. I'll keep you posted if I hear any updates. Until then, watch yo self!!

Friday, March 25, 2011

Well...

...I guess the only positive thing I can say about the spring weather here in NYC is that at least it is sunny. It snowed and sleeted this week, in case you hadn't heard and I haven't been feeling very springy.

In fact, last weekend I went to the store, bought seeds, potting soil and pots to plant my window sill garden, and I haven't even taken my purchases out of the bag. Is that bad or what? I just can't seem to garden when the temperature outside is 40, at best. Maybe that will be something for the weekend.

Oh, wouldn't it be nice to have this...
or this?
or this?
Yes. It would. Once the weather improves, I'll share photos of our roof deck with y'all and perhaps my growing plants (hopefully!).

In other news, I'm so excited to watch THE TARHEELS tonight! It makes me feel good inside that Duke lost last night, wait - got whooped! I even searched for tickets to go and see Carolina play because they are just one train stop over in Newark. Though I love the heels, I can't imagine paying $200 to see them play. I'll be cheering them on from my favorite pizza place tonight instead and will probably look a little something like this...
Gardening images from Lonny Mag and Roy image from MidWestSportsFans.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close...

That's the name of the movie (based on the novel) being filmed on Broadway near our apartment today. Most New Yorkers don't look twice when they see the large movie trucks on the streets. Nothing phases them. Yet, I still find myself getting excited and curious. Maybe I'll catch a glimpse of someone famous? Maybe they'll ask me to be in the movie and then I'll become a movie star? Ha, a girl can dream right?

I'm probably most excited about this taping because it's close to my apartment on the upper west side AND it stars Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock and John Goodman (Walter Sobchak). I mean, really?!? I will probably walk past the set all night tonight. I even went home at lunch and snapped a picture of their craft services (that's the food table for actors and crew in case you aren't familiar) and it was quite the spread:
Hopefully I'll have more pictures (of actors) to share later...

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Windowsill Gardening

Most New Yorkers don't have yards, let alone terraces where we can plant pretty flowers, herbs and vegetables to grow. I've never had a green thumb, but I can say that I have kept alive the basil plant my parents gave me almost two summers ago. Not really sure how I did that, but that's not important, right?

We're fortunate enough to have a very cool roof (I need to post pictures), but we share it with the other tenants in our building so I doubt they would appreciate my random plants scattered about as it would probably mess with our building's decor.

So this spring, I really want to plant potted herbs and flowers on my windowsill. Our apartment faces east so we do get good light, especially in the morning and we have deep window ledges so I can probably fit a few small pots on each ledge. Now...what to grow...

Here's an interesting article from The Daily Green on how to start a garden in any amount of space.

Have any of y'all had luck with windowsill gardening?




Images from TheDailyGreen.com

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Spring Cleaning

Do y'all ever get in the mood where you just want to change everything about your house or apt? Maybe it's the fact that spring is just around the corner (more like around the corner in my mind because it's very much winter up here), that makes me want to change everything.

Though my wallet won't let me change too much in our space, I do have a couple of projects in mind to jazz things up a bit. A few things on my list:

1. Paint the chair in my room (maybe a bright fun color)
2. Organize my closest and donate clothes (the hall one is a hazard area)
3. Re-do my kitchen shelf and living room shelf
4. Buy new kitchen chairs
5. Change out some of the pictures around our space
6. Make The Husband's work space more functional and pleasing to the eye
7. Buy new lamps for the bedroom

I'm aiming to do at least a few of these things over the next couple of weeks...and perhaps I'll share with you.

Here's some photos from Lonny for inspiration:













Friday, March 4, 2011

Conversations from the Subway

First, I got the new iPhone and LOVE it. I'm one of "those people" now and am amazed by how much it can actually do. I'm still getting the gist of it but if you have any recommended Apps, send them my way.

Now, because I have the new iPhone, I was able to scribe, in verbatim, the entire experience that happened to me in the subway today. This event, though funny, sad and strange, has inspired me to write a weekly blog post titled, "Conversations from the Subway." Some of the things I hear each day are just too good to not share.

So without further adieu, here's today's:

The subway doors open. I walk inside checking my surroundings and for any empty seats. I sit down, pull out my book and look to my right. A rather large lady (if you can call her that) is screaming at her three year old girl (named Diane).

Large Lady: "Come on and sit yourself down, now!"

Me: Eye rolls

A couple stops pass by and I quickly look up from my book at the commotion going on in front of me. The father (Darrell, as they called him) is holding his three year old up and removing her pants so she could use the bathroom.

Me: [thinking] What the??

Large Lady: Squat Diane!! If yous gonna pull her pants down Darrell, make sure she she squats or she gonna just pee all over herself.

Me: [thinking] OH MY GOD! That woman just told her daughter to pee in the subway!? What happens when she gets older?

Large Lady: Come on, just pee Diane. Get it over wit!

I had to tell myself to close my mouth after the Large Lady looked at me with eyes like, "You better not say anything." I glanced around the car to see if anyone else was astonished, but saw nothing. Another subway rider even got up and proceeded to help Darrell hold Diane up. I mean??

Darrell: Ahh snap! We just missed our stop cause she was going to the bathroom.

Large Lady: Oh Darrell, we just aint right!

Me: [thinking] Yeah no kidding.

We pulled into 42nd street and the doors open.

Large Lady: Come the [flip] on Darrell and Diane. Man you slow.

Me: [thinking] Oh gosh. Poor Diane.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Happy March Y'all!

Happy March! You know what that means? Spring is just around the corner. Well, maybe not in NYC as it tends to stay cold up here until May. But, I'm staying optimistic. I even left the big ol' winter coat at home this morning. Though, I quickly learned that was probably a mistake because I was freezing!! Depsite it being March, it was still 38 degrees out.

I can't wait till the flowers and trees start blooming and spring is here!

Images from Google