The Big Apple

Some friends and I met up in New York City for the weekend.  New York has never been my favorite city to visit.  I’ve been a few other times to see friends who live there, and I find it rather claustrophobic and so crowded.  However, I had a plane ticket that needed to be rebooked in the next 6 months, some friends in the city, and another friend in Virginia who was willing to fly there as well…the weekend was booked and highly anticipated.

I made the mistake of not packing my real camera  because I didn’t want to carry it around.  The iPhone didn’t take any pictures that I would enlarge and put on the wall, but they did capture the highlights of an amazing time…

We stayed in Astoria which is a lovely neighborhood in Queens. I taught with Jill when she lived here in California before moving back to the East Coast.  Her sister Tracey, who also lived in LA for awhile, is an actor and photographer who lives in NYC.  Tracey took us on a wild, fun filled weekend!

After we all arrived Thursday night and Friday morning we were ready for our “running” tour.  The only time we stopped was when I yelled, “Wait, I’m taking a picture!” 
- The best part about being in a big city…taking the subway!

- A stop at TKTS to purchase Broadway tickets for later that night
- Lunch at South Street Seaport with views of the Brooklyn Bridge

  - Battery Park to see the World Trade Center Globe Memorial and the Statue of Liberty 


I had never made a point to see the Statue of Liberty when I was in New York before.  We didn’t have time to do the museum, but at least I got to see it.
Battery Park
- We passed through Zuccotti Park which is the home of the Occupy Wall Street protestors.
I think I understand what the protest is about, but I wondered as we walked by if, one, how many of the protestors actually knew what they were protesting, two, how many of them would be jobless even if we weren’t in a financial mess, and three, how long it had been since they had taken a shower.
- After fighting our way through the protestors, we found our way to Canal Street to buy purses, (which I guess is ironic to a point). - and then had dinner in Little Italy.

- Books of Wonder was next – Have you ever seen the movie “You’ve Got Mail?”.  The children’s bookstore that Meg Ryan runs in the movie was based on Books of Wonder.  Well-known children’s authors and illustrators visit on a regular basis and sign their books.  It is like a candy store for those of us who love children’s literature…
 
They had signed copies of The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.  It took every part of me not buy it.  It is such a wonderful book, but I already own it AND it weighs as much as a brick and I didn’t want to carry it home in my luggage.
- We wasted some time in Time Square before the show started.
Time Square is the epitome of what I don’t like about New York City.  It is SO crowded.  The lights and busyness are fun, but I don’t like being bumped into!
- It was then time for a Broadway Show!  We saw Billy Elliot, which was wonderful. 
  I do like that theatres on the East Coast are very, old, ornate, and usually smaller than their West Coast counterparts.  Our seats were half price, and they were great. 
- We headed back to Time Square for some shopping after the show, before making our way home for the night.

And that was just day 1!

Procrastinating?

After a wonderful long weekend in New York City with friends (which I’ll post about later), I’m now begrudgingly headed to bed because morning will come soon enough, and it will be time to go back to work.  I got back into LA very early this morning so spent the day catching up on sleep and chores, playing in the art room, and NOT working on any of the school work I brought home with me. 

Hmmmmmm….

Oops! I Didn’t Mean To Do That!

There have been a few times that I’ve accidentally hit the “reply to all” button rather than just “reply” on an email.  They’ve mostly been innocent work emails where I’ve responded to a question by replying to all.  The times I’ve done it, I’ve been relieved that the accident didn’t cause any strife at work. 

I have not been quite so lucky on my personal emails.  A friend of mine, who is a pretty staunch Republican, periodically sends me political jokes.  Most of the time it’s about how bad Obama and the Democrats are doing and/or overinflating the good the Republicans do.  I usually have some witty and amusing reply that bashes the Republicans sent right back to him. 

After receiving one such email, my snarky (but clean) comment was accidentally sent to all the recipients.  Most of the others on his email list are Republicans, except for his mom who responded to my reply with a chuckle.  That’s when I realized I had replied to all.  Later that day I received an email from someone I didn’t know with the same subject.  This person lit into me.  Something like “I don’t know who you think you are but…”  I was mortified!  My friend’s and my political exchanges had always been very friendly, agreeing to disagree, and poking fun at each other.  My response was in good fun.  This person did not appreciate my humor at all. 

Since then, I check and recheck responses to email to make sure I didn’t send to everyone.  After sending a particularly sensitive email, I even cringe when I send – worrying that I’m doing it wrong.  Then I have to look inside my send folder just to triple check.  I don’t want that to happen again.  Yikes!

This Gluttony Must Stop…Just Not Yet

With birthdays and out-of-town guests and Dine LA the last three weeks have been spent on an eating-out marathon. 

Going out to dinner as a social occasion is something I do like participating in – good conversation along with good food, what’s not to like?  But I know it’s been too much when going out to dinner sounds like the least appealing thing to do, ever. 

Most of these meals out have just been to local and/ or chain restaurants – a quick bite after a late meeting or meet ups with good friends.  However, I’ve also visited a few very fancy places that aren’t usually in my “going out” repertoire…

My mom had been traveling in Spain, and on her way back home she stopped in LA for a quick visit.  We had a family dinner at Ruth’s Chris for a belated birthday celebration. 

After a wedge salad, their filet, sizzling in garlic, was served.  It cuts like butter!
 

Along with the au gratin potatoes.

Warm apple crumb tart for the birthday girl (me)!  Of course it was shared amongst all at the table just before we rolled out of the restaurant.

This fall, Dine LA was the first two weekends in October.  It is such a good chance to try expensive popular restaurants at a fixed cost.  It would have been criminal not to take advantage of it…twice!

On Thursday, we went to Asia de Cuba in the Mondrian Hotel in West Hollywood.  It was a very pretty restaurant overlooking the city.  We had a picture window table.

The food was very pretty, but some of it was really prettier than the flavor of it…

    The drinks were good, and rimmed in gold!
 

The first appetizer was actually quite tasty – a braised beef spring roll.

  
The sauce on the lemongrass chicken skewers was better than the chicken.

The strip steak with a ginger soy sauce and chick pea fries were very good.


Cuban opera layer cake was so so.  It was sweet, but not much else.  The coffee brittle ice cream and chocolate thing were delicious though.

The week before, we visited Lucques, also in West Hollywood.  It was amazing!  We shared …
 
baked gnocchi with eggplant

Hanger steak with squash and shallots

Chicken with cornbread pudding and chorizo

  
Warm apple crostada with salted caramel
ice cream

Chocolate torte with hazelnut caramel and coffee ice cream

Now I’m not saying that all these restaurant visits weren’t completely delish, but their frequency is definitely taking its toll.  I haven’t cooked a meal at home in weeks.  Since usually, my left-overs are used for lunch at work, I’ve been brown bagging it with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  It’s all getting to be too much really.  My wallet is shrinking and my waistline is expanding.  It must stop.  Now! 

Except that I leave for New York City this weekend.  I guess I will have to wait to stop until a week from NOW!

Post-Its Here, Post-Its There!

Post-It notes have become quite a novelty in my classroom this month.  A few weeks ago, I passed them out to my students, and we used them for graphing tools.  We drew pictures on them for picture graphs, and they make good bars for the bar graphs.  The lessons I do with them always go over quite well.  This year however, it seems to have created more of a stir than ever before. 

A few of my students hoarded the ones I passed out to teams during the graphing lessons.  Some  kids have brought in various colors and sizes from home.  And now we have Post-It notes EVERYWHERE!  Not a minute goes by without a sticky note stuck to someone’s finger, desk, pencil box, book, arm, leg, etc.  Throughout the day, I spot random notes on the floor, and at the end of the day I’m pulling them off of the computer, filing cabinets, and cupboard doors.  I’m beginning to feel like this is slowly happening to our classroom…

I’m a bit of an office supply nut myself, so even though this joy over Post-Its is becoming a bit unruly, it’s also a little bit endearing.  Hopefully this trend will run its course in the near future, but until then I’m biting my tongue.  School needs to be at least a little bit fun.  If sticky notes are doing it for them right now, who am I to complain.  Who knows, maybe we can turn them into an art project like this…

So Maybe Green Wasn’t Such a Good Idea After All

Every few weeks I go to the nail salon to get my nails done.  Earlier this year I was turned on to gel nail polish.  Dealing with paper and washing my hands as much as I do in my job, regular nail polish lasted about 5 minutes before getting a chip or wearing off.  With the gel polish, I can go 2-3 weeks before the color shows wear.  It is a miracle really!

This weekend, I went in for my regular appointment.  I like the sparkly polish and usually go for a glittery pink or brown.  Sometimes I get really adventurous and have my nails done in super glittery purple or dark blue. 

Tracy, who does my nails, always tries to get me to venture out – hence the purple and blue – with the colors I choose.  That is how this happened…

Yah, that’s right, I paid money to have my nails painted green.  Over the last few days, I’m getting a bit more used to it, and there have actually been times when I like it.  The 7 year old girls in my class “LOVVVVVEEEE” them.  On the other hand, every so often the green catches my eye, and for a fleeting second it looks like I have gangrene of the fingernails.

Oh the price we girls have to pay for fashion!

Random Thoughts about September and a Calendar

Another month down.  It’s hard to believe that we are in October already.  This year is flying by.  Here is my calendar for The Kathryn Wheel’s calendar challenge. 
 
September is usually a good month.  I wrote and sketched about it in the background and then punched the date circles out of cardstock.  My white pen started to get goopy so it didn’t turn out exactly like I had hoped.

• I’d like a do-over for September really.  It was a rough month at work which had a tendency to seep into my personal life as well. 
• This is ALL the creating I did this month which I think puts me in a funk too.  When I pulled the calendar out on Friday for a photo I realized I hadn’t even written for two weeks.  When I need to art the most is when I tend to not do it.  I must stop that!
• When I lived in New England, a guy I knew used to tell me that I held grudges because I was Irish.  Of course, in New England neighborhood stereotypes run rapid, and this guy is Italian so he had plenty of his own.  However, I am trying HARD to get past my grudge holding stereotype.  Someone who I thought had my back for the last 9 years turned out to be a backstabber for that long instead.  And not just to me but to some dear friends as well – which I think made my feelings worse.  My usual M.O. is to remove myself from any interaction with the person.  Instead, I have put on a fake smile on my face and keep the conversation to a minimum – nothing personal since it might eventually used against me. 
  “Holding a grudge is like letting someone live rent free in your head.” 
• My birthday is the first day of fall most years, and I’ve always found that so fitting because fall is my favorite season.  That is if it ever arrives.  Yesterday it was in the high 90s again. 
• My closest friends helped me celebrate my birthday this year with a party.  It’s funny how one group of people can laugh so much every time we get together.  That laughter was sorely needed, plus there was red velvet cake.  What fun!
• After more downs than up this month, I was ready to put September behind me and enjoy October when a dear friend of mine got some awful news yesterday.  I can’t stop thinking of her and her family.  The downs keep coming.  But it’s only the 2nd day, so I’m hopeful!