Chase you down until you love me.

Too busy to blog you say? I say, yes! So this will be a blog of many colors. I will condense about seven blogs into one healthy blog for your enjoyment...

I present to you:

NEW ENGLAND TRIP!

My parents and cousin Melissa came up to visit me last month. We road tripped it up to New England. We took in the fall foliage and hit up some hot spots you'll see below. Both my parents and Melissa have failed to send me pictures, so these are the few pictures I have, but probably do not do justice to some of the amazing sights...

Look at those colors!

We stopped at a few of these cute roadside stores. Who doesn't want to buy Christmas ornaments, syrup , crafts and antiques when they are on the road?

We stopped at Robert Frost's house. We didn't go inside because we didn't want to pay- even though he was my Mom's favorite poet.

The Chocolate Barn... Seriously? What more could I ask for?

Me and Mel in a cute town in Vermont

My adorable parents sippin' cider on a porch.


My two favorite words: Ben & Jerry

We enjoyed it... obviously!



Oh, you bet we will!

Sharon, Vermont. The birthplace of Joseph Smith.

I was standing on the hearthstone of the original fireplace in the home where Joseph Smith was born. How awesome is that?

This was Plymouth Village... one of my favorite stops. It was a replicate the original pilgrim settlement. They had characters there, in costume and we could speak to them. "Good Morrow!" They also had a native American settlement, but they forbade us to use terms like "how" and "squaw". The native Americans were funny though because they all had Boston accents. They didn't even try to hide it.


The House of Seven Gables. It was the inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel.


The Mayflower II - a replicate of the original



Yeah that's Plymouth Rock.

A beautiful view from our timeshare on Cape Cod.

We also did a billion other things, then we spent a week in NYC. Ash and Brandon also came up to spend some time with all of us. It was so great getting to spend time with my family. I miss them so much!

Moving on...

"CREPES"

I Just ate a tortilla with Nutella on it. It was like a crepe- but not. The tortilla was like, "I'm a crepe. KIDDING! I'm just a tortilla."

I READ IT FOR THE ARTICLES:


what?

I won't really comment further on this, other than the fact that I am SO excited for New Moon to come out next week. SQUEAL!!!

PERSIMMON

I want you to know about this fruit. It's delicious. It looks like an orange colored tomato and has that same kind of texture, but it's sweet and delicious. Don't fear trying out new foods.

DON GIOVANNI

Over the summer I made friends with this girl Keri, who was working in our office as a temp. She was actually an opera singer who needed a temporary job over the summer. She promised me that she would email me if she had extra tickets. Well I knew the season had started and she still never contacted me, so I assumed she forgot. But then I got an e-mail from her on Tuesday and she had tickets for the evening show that night! I of course wanted to go, so I took my friend Phindi from work and we went to see Don Giovanni. It was an amazing show and Keri did such an awesome job. She was a lead too- not just in the company.

In the lobby had all of these vintage costumes hanging like art.


Inside the theater. Nosebleeds...


Me and Phindi at Lincoln Center. Yes my hair deserves a post by itself. It is THAT tall.

So the rest of my thoughts don't really deserve individual headings so I'll just take it from here.

I'm writing a novel. Yes, I can't believe it either. It's not going to be good and I'm sure none of you will get the chance to read it. It's just about me trying to accomplish this life goal of mine. Then once I get this under my belt and have more confidence in my abilities, I can actually write something worthwhile.

So this ambitious undertaking is also eating up a lot of my time. Ugh!

In other news, I almost just DIED on the deathtrap that is my floor. Rachel accidentally sprayed furniture polish on the floor and I just put slippers on my cold feet, which equals a recipe for disaster. Luckily my balance saved me and I did not fall or suffer any injuries. But she just gave me a Reeses peanut butter cup so all is forgiven.

Okay, I'm spent. I need to get back to my favorite show, Glee.

Happy night!

Atlanta

My first "Business Trip"

My company sent me to Atlanta for eight days for some training. I'm actually going back this week for an additional three days of training. I'd never been to Atlanta before so I was very excited! Everyone kept calling it Hotlanta but it was neither hot (temperature) nor *hot (like Paris Hilton would say). It was pretty fun being in a new city, driving a rental car and staying in a hotel room. It was weird eating dinner by myself, but with all of the yummy restaurants around, I couldn't complain!

My hotel room was pretty nice. Here is a tour if you are interested in seeing my suite... (yeah i was bored enough to record a tour of the room.)

My hotel was right behind a mall- which was a great thing for me! I could easily walk there and go shopping or just walk around.

Over the weekend I did the touristy stuff with this really cool lady who was doing our training. Paula, who was also from California and I went to The World of Coca-Cola, the Aquarium (which happens to be the world's largest), and a tour of CNN. Everything was very close, in walking distance of each other. The weather was really nice that day. Most days I was there it was cloudy/rainy but we had beautiful sunshine that day.

The world of Coca-Cola


This was the "tasting room". There were stations set up such as North America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America with all kinds of coke products and you could help yourself. Some were pretty good and others were incredibly disgusting. I choked on a couple of them... literally.

The cute Coca-Cola Polar Bear. This guys little eyes blinked and mouth moved. He was sooo cute!

A picture from the beautiful aquarium

There's a story behind this one:

So we went on the CNN Tour, and security is super tight, they wouldn't allow photos; they even made you turn your phone completely off. I was bummed because I really wanted a picture there, because I did broadcast journalism in college and this place was very exciting to me.

One of the first stops on the tour was this mock studio where our tour guide explained to us how the teleprompter worked (I of course already know all this, having worked the teleprompter in my internship at the TV station in Vegas) and other interesting things about the biz. Then they asked if anyone wanted to sit at the anchor desk and take a picture that we could purchase later. I was hesitant because I didn't want to hold up the group and have everyone on the tour stare at me while I took a picture at the news desk. But Paula encouraged me, "oh come on! you are having a great hair day." That was apparently all I needed to hear because the next thing you know I volunteered to take my picture at the desk. So I sit down in the rolly chair and situate myself at the desk (I must say I felt pretty comfortable there) and I struck my best news anchor pose, and as soon as they clicked the picture, EVERYONE on the tour started to laugh. I was so confused- I thought, "there must be something happening behind me or something," but I had a feeling that wasn't the case. So I addressed the group (yes, 40 complete strangers) from the news desk and asked, "why is everyone laughing at me?" and the girls who took their picture before me said, "it's because you looked so cute because you got all serious and professional when you took your picture." Then Paula basically told me the same thing. She said it looked like I knew what I was doing and it was funny to see me striking my pose. Ha ha ha. So I had to buy the darn thing of course, cost me more than the actual tour... but now I have a lovely souvenir. This is a picture of a picture, I think you get the gist.

Anyways... on to good eats:

I took this picture for Heather. Yes I had yummy Chick fil-A for dinner one night!

Why did I post this one sideways- oh well, I'm feeling too lazy to change it. This was breakfast in bed. Thank you room service! Yum!

Chili's (obviously) at the airport. At least I had my book to keep me company. BTW- 1776 was really good. I highly recommend it! Especially for all of you history nerds.

This was our office building. Way down yonder on the Chattahoochee. Literally it was right off of the Chattahoochee River!

It was completely surrounded by trees.

Happy Independence Day

This year we went to Long Beach... like we did last year. It was a PERFECT beach day! We had a great day.

Kelli was our independence day mascot. She was very patriotic.

This yellow ball found its way to us in the ocean, and it matched Jenny's cover up!

The sky was so amazing!

Waiting for the train

Jenny and I on the train. (Feeling gross and crispy)

What HAVE I been up to?

Besides looking ridiculously cheesy...I mean fabulous.

Parties with my friends where we put on ties and pose like this... oh yeah and we also watch Arrested Development, aka: the funniest show I have ever watched.

Enjoying gorgeous sunsets! (SO happy that i have my camera back)

Watching the scary storms from my office roll in EVERY DAY! Look at that crazy, evil cloud!

This was just a shot of the apartment that I liked.

"Window" shopping at fancy furniture stores

I took this from the window whilst shopping for shoes

And this fun one (with a super zoom)
I love NY in the summer!

The Ballet

This week we went to Lincoln Center to see the New York City Ballet perform A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was a beautiful performance. I don't know a lot about ballet, all I know is I could NEVER get my body to do what they do. They are incredible! I think thy thought so too, because although we were finished applauding they kept coming out for encores. It cracked me up. I couldn't stop laughing at them coming out and bowing long after the applause was over. Seriously!

(photos courtesy of the websites I borrowed them from)

Jenny, Kelli and Rachel

Fun sculpture inside

That's me... not a sculpture.

Photo of Ballerina's. They had a bunch of pictures like this posted all around the theater.

A view from the top looking down at the cool steps. Our [cheap] seats were in the "fourth ring" aka: the very top.

Flat Stanley also made it to our performance. This was a project for Kelli's nephew, but I think it's a good shot of the stage.

BFF's (we are on the same steps as the photo from above, above)

Did I Make The Grade?

In the busy/craziness of my life I don't think I mentioned that I took an HR Class at NYU last semester (or maybe I did and I'm just looney and too lazy to check my old posts). Anyways, I just got my grade back and I thought I would share the experience that was my HR Class this year, or as I affectionately refer to it as "Night School".

For starters it wasn't on the cool, hip, NYU campus. It was in a High School. Not like the high schools that I am familar with. This was very, very different (see photo). My classroom was on the 7th Floor. Keep in mind that my high school didn't even have hallways!

So every Wednesday night I would pass through security and take the escalator, littered with candy wrappers, mayonaise packets, lint and gum up 7 flights. There were cages to cut you off from the DOWN escalators. The walls were beige tiled and most of them were covered in graffiti. It smelled a bit like wrestling mats. The girls bathroom was just that, the door literally said "Girls", which I found amusing. There were pad locks on the toilet paper rolls and signs up about hand washing.

The classroom took me back to my childhood days. There were all kinds of colorful posters and work on the walls. They had vocabulary words like "mingle", "betray", "isolated", "chaos". I hoped this was a freshman english class. I realized that I have been out of school for a long time. I found myself wondering what it would have been like to attend a high school like that.

So the class itself was pretty good. There were only 8 of us, and we were all women. Boys, if you want to meet some smart, cute girls, take an HR class.

We learned about employment law and fair employment practices. It was all very interesting and applicable to my job. I ended up getting an A in the class!

Virgin

First of all let me say that I am a loyal Jetblue flyer. But I found a good deal with Virgin Airlines and even though I've never used them, I thought I'd give them a try (yes, that makes me a virgin to Virgin).
When I arrived at the large, open JFK terminal I passed the rows and rows of cold, impersonal airlines. Then I see a red banner in the corner that says Virgin Atlantic check in here. How inviting! It's like a birthday banner. I round the corner and it's a little airport-check-in sanctuary. They have these modern "kiosks". Sleek screens on this very smooth white counter. I think there were even red carpets. I checked in with ease and my little square boarding pass pops up from the counter. I go drop off my bag to the friendly attendant. He was this older, German gentleman (a la President Dieter F. Uchtdorf) and he informed me that I had a window seat and that as of now, no one was sitting next to me. SWEET!! I thought that it was really nice of him to tell me that.

The next leg of my experience I do not blame on Virgin. Must remember to wear socks to the airport! There is something so skeezy about walking around barefoot through security. I might as well lick the pose on the subway. Another thing to blame myself for is my case of being chronically early. I ended up with a lot of time to kill. It's okay tough because I got to eat breakfast, read Vanity Fair, listen to Kelly Clarkson and stare out the window, although visibility is about 30 feet, it's very foggy outside...needless to say my hair looks pretty bad. Also, I wanted to mention that the bathrooms at this terminal are small and icky. AND there is NOT a great food selection. I can get any kind of duty free perfume but can't find a decent muffin or orange juice. Where are you Dunkin Donuts? Starbucks? McDonalds?

It's time to board the plane, so far its like every other time. But then, I get on the plane and it looks like a club! The seats are black and the cabin lights are purple (I expected the lint on my dress to start glowing!) There's this cool, jazzy, techno music playing. There's a screen at every seat. The backs of the seats including the tray tables are this smooth, bright white plastic (although in this lighting nothing is 'bright'). I woke up pretty early, maybe I'm dreaming? Airplanes aren't supposed to be purple!

I squeeze down the aisle to my window seat. Hmmm... I look at the top- 18A. Look at my boarding pass- 18A. Why is there a passenger in my seat? Could Virgin fail me after all? Noooo, turns out it was a misunderstanding. After we got it worked out I settled into my chair... One thing I noticed and it sounds very silly, but the seatbelt buckles were VERY shiny. The belts were black like the seats, and the buckles were just so sparkly! The plane is also outfitted with WiFi! It's $12.00 though... no thanks.

I also discovered the magical entertainment they have. It is a touch screen with all sorts of goodies: TV, music, music videos, games! And the other amazing feature is the controller to the tv. It comes out so it feels just like a real remote control. Yay for channel surfing! The flip side of the remote is the controller for the games, including a full keybord.

They have to pause my game of Mahjong for the safety information which is this funny little animation.

The rest of the flight was pretty standard.

Part Two of the story has nothing to do with the airline, but it was funny to me and needed to be included. I documented this on the flight right after "the incident" here is what I wrote:

Flight VX251. 9 May 2009. Somewhere over the Rockies

OMG this "crusader against the swine flu" just turned around shoving napkins at me shouting, "Miss! Miss! Could you cover your mouth!" which she repeated again. I had no idea what she was talking about. I had my headphones on, minding my own healthy-proper-hygienic-etiquette business and apparently someone in the vicinity was coughing, causing her to freak out, blame me and try to save the rest of the innocent passengers from some kind of disease. Sheesh lady get a grip!

After we landed the woman turned around and said to me in her cool, raspy, slow, Los Angeles voice, "I apologize for waving those napkins at you like that." I forgave her of course and thought the whole thing was pretty funny.

Overall I had a great experience with Virgin. I am not forsaking Jetblue- but the times I don't flywith them, I'll probably be on Virgin!

Top Model

My friend Emily is a designer and she recently completed her first line of wedding dresses. She did a photo shoot and asked me to do hair and make-up! Check out the photos on her blog: http://thebalcon.blogspot.com/

Oink Oink

Apparently there was a confirmed case of Swine Flu in Brooklyn... I wanted you all to know that I'm OK! It is in a neighborhood far from me and I have been excessively washing my hands and talking necessary precautions. I'm safe! Don't worry!
I think people are really freaking out too much and the media is perpetuating this fear. Yes, be prepared and try not to spread germs, but let's not panic! Today the news said, "all of humanity could be threatened." Wow- all of humanity could be threatened with all sorts of things! Why the ominous language?

Be safe out there.