Sunday -A day of rest

Today has been great, despite little sleep last night. I had to put this pic in to describe my evening...Looking at the picture, the first lump is me on my side, booty in the middle (bright white) and legs to picture right. The second bump was my treat all night-Marley. Apparently this little guy is as cuddly as can be. He is also a heat seeking missile-so, all night, I had a buddy under the covers with me, nuzzled right next to my "warmth". Plus, a j-man who was off to the left in the pic. Fun times!

Woke up this morning and went to church. Always a great way to start my week. Nice to take that time, reset and have a fresh start. Love it and need it. Well, this morning was especially needed. Tim Keller spoke, enough said. Actually, he spoke on being a self-centered Christian and boasting. WOW, did this message ring home for me. I honestly felt every work was directed at me. Such a nice reminder that life is not really about me at all!! Plus, made me oh so grateful for my husband. What a good example he is for me. He is honestly the picture of selflessness in every way. I cannot begin to understand what I did to deserve a man like him, but I am more than blessed!

Speaking of, I am struggling with being a good wife right now. B has his boards on Wednesday and Thursday of this week and what I wouldn't give to be with him and cook his dinner, rub his back, love on him-really anything and everything he needs I would love to provide. But, I am stuck here and can only do so much from a far. It is eating me up not to be there and be a "wife". UUGGGHHH. So, please pray for my husband if you are reading this, this week. I know he will pass with flying colors, but scary nonetheless.

Final Sunday thoughts, I have found a new New York treat. It's called Fresh Direct. I had heard about this, but felt like it wouldn't help me since there is only one of me-oh how wrong I was!! F.D. is an online Target basically. You pick your groceries, toiletries, etc from their list and less than 24 hrs later the stuff is delivered!! Amazing. Plus, hard to understand if you don't live here, carrying a 12 pack of toilet paper home is tough because that leaves only one hand for the rest of your groceries. So, to have someone deliver this and not have to make multiple trips-what a treat!!

Even J is happy for the delivery!! Hope you all have a great week.

Snow in October

Ok, so the weathermen predicted snow, but no one really thought it would happen. It did! Cannot describe my shock when snow came pouring down in OCTOBER. Nonetheless, I went and met my friend Emily at a place called Toscano's for lunch. My husband told me I didn't put enough words this time, so I am editing this...Here's my excitement for the day-Scout Mob app for phones. This is amazing, you can get great deals (lunch today was half off) by bringing your phone with you. You tell the waiter and then push get the deal in front of them-crazy!

On my walk (over 20 blocks) I took some pics of the scenery! It's really cold, but these pics don't show that.

See how happy we are, we just paid nothing for a great lunch in the city!!

 On the way home...

Oh by the way, did I mention I am babysitting a friend's dog who is from Cali?? This dog hates the rain and even worse-snow!! Actually, I am pretty sure this is Marley's first snow-ever.  I had to carry him to even get outside...J-man loves the cold, just like his dad.

Here's some pics from window

Crazy snow in October!

Halloween

This time of year is really pretty here. The leaves are starting to change colors, weather is cooling off (30's this week), and people are getting festive. Halloween is a big deal. I think most kids have two plus parties they go to to trick-or-treat. I'm am curious about how they actually do it on the night of as the layout for living does not lend itself to knocking on everyone's door! Even my building is in the mood, check out our entrance-it's like this on both sides of the glass and both sides of the entry...

More sights from walking around Columbus Circle

Finally, the store which I have to force myself to walk away from daily because if I ever go in, I will never leave or I would come back way too much for my little NYC salary! Dylan's Candy Bar-here's their window display (sorry for the random guy, but i waited forever -5min, and he never moved. can only imagine what his text msg said:) ) Candy tombstones, love it!

This weekend I am babysitting one of my colleagues dogs. Here's Marley and J one night (can you feel the love)... And then I'm heading to a party with some girls from work. Thinking I'm going to be a hippie right now. I'll post photos later...Have a great weekend everyone and Happy Halloween

More Caldwell Family

So, while the fam was here, we had a discussion about my dad's family. We haven't seen that side in quite some time. I think it's been 20+ years since I've seen my 3 cousins. My step mom had found them, my cousins, on facebook. She talked me into trying to reach out to them. I swallowed my pride, found all three of them and friended them. With this, I found out 2 of the 3 live in New York. Crazy-I'm here for just this year! So, I asked if they wanted to meet up, and we are now in the process of planning a get together! Yay facebook and probably a little Devine intervention!!

Day 3 Caldwell's

We started off on a mission to conquer the rest of NYC. Luckily we had great weather too! First stop was Ralph Lauren on Madison Ave. What a fun place, so classy. Probably could have convinced B to move into the store the way it was decorated. One warning, purple label= expensive!!

Next Central Park. I am a semi-ok tour guide, but the one thing I lack is the history knowledge. So, I convinced the fam we needed to take a pedi-cab tour around the park. We had a blast. Our guide was from Turkey and studying here in the States to get a Masters in some international business type degree. He was incredible, I feel like we were meant to get him. He connected with us instantly and added a few extra stops on the tour! Here are a few pics from the added portion. We went to the Belvedere Castle and Turtle pond. (Where they filmed the new smurfs) This is a must-see, for a moment-you think you are not in NYC any more. The statue is a guy (Daniel Webster) who ran for president against Lincoln and gave a ton of money to the park. The hotel is the Drake, where Lennon was shot. Always makes me a bit sad...

Then off the Empire State Building. Nothing to say here-just amazing views and great art deco...

South view

 Southeast-Brooklyn Bridge

 North-Central Park, middle left, looks like a brown shadow

 West, my friend Emily lives in the brown and white striped on the right

East, my house in the middle/top!

We capped the night off with dinner at Stanton Social. I love this place more each time I go. Cannot say enough about crab cake corndogs and the donuts. The Strawberry Fields drink is essential to the experience.

Great food, Great fun and Great Family!!

Anything Goes

Night 2 of the Caldwell vacay we headed to midtown-dinner and a show! I use nymag.com as my go to for true recs about things in nyc, including restaurants. So, the Okies wanted true NYC Italian, I find a place with my go to site called Ai Fiori. It was rated 5 stars at a $$ price. That is perfect for me!! We get to this place, it appears super fancy, in a swanky hotel-Setai. You have to walk upstairs to get there and there is this great piece of art in the lobby-well should have known, the prices would follow. It wasn't terribly crazy for a nice NYC dinner, but you can imagine my surprise because this was not $$.

We then headed to Anything Goes. As some of you may know, my step mom loves tap-she even took formal classed with recitals etc. So, seemed perfect to see this show. It was great, entertaining the entire time. The main character-Sutton Foster, is one of the most talented performers I have ever seen. WOW!

We finished the night at Sardi's, a famous older place where Mel Brooks used to dine every night. Their walls are covered in charactures, just classic Broadway! Fun scene.

Caldwell Visit Day 2

Day 2 started off with some sight-seeing on the south part of the island. Everyone has to see their local protester on Occupy-right? After we walked off a few calories we headed back to the flat iron area to eat. ABC Kitchen is one of my favs. Found this place early on and can't quit going back. Love what is stands for (locally grown and earth conscious) and actually love the food even more! Kim and I split a few dishes, including the meat and cheese platter. The haze is from my wet phone still drying out. It gets better!

Here's another pic I stole off the internet of the interior. Gorgeous!

Also, two celeb sightings here at lunch. Natalie Morales from the nbc morning show and Jake Gyllenhaal- in person!! woohoo

Phone mishap

My phone accidentally fell in the toilet the other night. Awful. However, several revelations from this experience.

1. It is nice to see my husband's face on facetime, not just hear his voice
2. I don't know anyone's number anymore
3. The internet is amazing-I googled how to save my phone and it had a video and a bazillion websites all saying to turn it off and put it in rice asap! (I ran to the deli around the corner at 10.30 to buy a tub of rice!)
4. My blog relies on my camera phone and this was jeopardized for an instant
5. I'm really lucky-my phone is 100% fine now!!

Family

Finally, my dad and step mom came to town!! We had a blast, but no surprise here. The first night here we had dinner at Grand Central. They had been to the Oyster Bar before and loved it, so we figured it'd be a great way to start the trip.

The night ended at a local bar to watch the World Series (my dad is a huge Cardinals fan). I warned them that I had only walked past the bar, and didn't know what we were getting into. We walked to the back of the bar and noticed a band setting up, so we tried to put ourselves far away from them. But, no such luck. When the band started, we heard a girl's voice who was a decent singer, but a little off. We wondered why this band had been booked... Then as the first song ended, the main guy announced that next up would be "Dancing Joe"signing a little Journey. Instantly, I felt terrible because the girl was pretty good for an rookie! Kim and I had the best time watching and listening to the karaoke the rest of the night, my dad (as evident from the pic) was sad about the Red Bird loss.

Old friends

I finally met up with one of my first "New York" friends. He is buddy of one of my best friends husband-we all met in college. After college he worked for a bit and then moved to NYC to start his Masters (MBA) at Columbia. And now he's never left, he said it had been ten years the other night. So, my first trip to NYC-back in the day, Dave took me around. He was so generous with his time and the tours! Dave is such a good guy, so it was great to meet back up! He lives in the West Village area (did I mention, my fav), so when he suggested a restaurant there-I gladly agreed. We went to Aria, an Italian type wine bar. Food here was served in small, sharable portions. It was totally reasonably priced and best yet, it was EXCELLENT. Our waiter suggested a few (8 or so) specials and we ordered 4 of them-including octopus. I am not normally a fan of this, as it seems strange to eat and it is usually rubbery-this placed changed my mind!!! Oh my, it was so well done, it melted in your mouth with it's warmth and still had a tart based flare-amazing. They have great drinks and tons of wine to supplement the food (although it doesn't need anything!) Here is a pic inside the place I stole from the internet. It is super cozy and filled with people. Here's a blog quote..."Aria’s best selling point is the venue itself — exposed beams and brick lend a rustic, provincial feel that’s well-suited to the Italian fare and casual, tapas-style dining." 

just your average night out in the west village... :)

Bento Box

Almost daily I get made fun of or teased about being from Oklahoma-whether it is the accent or lack of culture or lack of whatever they choose-I mostly take this in stride and wish they could see where I came from. Pretty darn good place! Anyway, one thing Ed made fun of was the Bento Box. Supposedly, this is a catch all dinner thing that I had clearly never heard of. As things go, once your eyes are opened, you see and hear about the item/thing everywhere. So, I had my first Bento Box experience and I think I may be in love!

Look how many things come in the box-miso soup, rice, salad on perimeter and in the actual tray-edemame, cali roll, dumplings and chicken teriyaki. All in one for under $15. Great for the budget and great for the belly! Guess it was worth the tease, to find this gem.

Mikel 5- the finale

Mikel's last day here we conquered the Lower East side. I love this part of town, it has great bars and cool local places to hang out, see and shop. The food is not bad either. We got off the subway to find Katz's deli-the famous scene from When Harry Met Sally

Found a great little shop called Mint Julep. I loved every piece of clothing in this store and it was reasonably priced too. I actually bought my sister in laws their bday presents here, hope you guys like them. www.shopmintjulep.com

We visited The Doughnut Plant as I was told these were the best you will ever eat. I'm not much of a donut fan, but best ever-you have to try. I can say they were good, they were fresh, filled with goo, but best ever may be a bit of a stretch...Plus, it is pretty much in the middle of the Manhattan projects, would have been nice to know prior to dragging Mikel through them.

Dinner was at Beauty and Essex (see previous post). Round 2 was fun, we tried all different types of food, loved the environment and most of all the quality time, as it was her last night. I can't say enough good things about Mikel as a friend, as a mom, as a person-I am really blessed to have her as a friend! Unfortunately, she had to leave while I was at work, but when I got home-she had decorated my house. Very fall festive!

Mikel 4

The next day I had to work a bit, but with Mikel's good fortune (weather) came an early day at work! I met up with her around 2 with the goal of conquering Chelsea and West Village. I am pretty sure goal accomplished! We started at the Chelsea Market. Such a cool place, it supports local grown, local artist, local designers and promotes community. We stopped for a homemade popsicle from the People's Pop.

After the market, we headed to the High Line (see previous post) where Mikel captured the water flying from the pools with her new camera. After leaving the High Line, we had no agenda-so we walked. Randomly, we stopped to pet a dog and notice this cool little place next door. The Biergarten at the Standard. Of course we stopped to enjoy a local brew and people watch, this place was perfect for both! So fun. Definitely recommend swinging by here if you have time!

We then cruised through the rest of Meat Packing, into the West Village. I am not sure if I have mentioned it before, but WV is my favorite part of the city. I love the neighborhood feel, the quaintness of the area. It is what I imagine NYC to be before it was the huge place it is today. Everyone is friendly, the stores are open and some reasonably priced. There is a great mix of local and commercial here. Plus, every restaurant I've eaten at, is truly amazing in their own right! Plus, it is the home of Magnolia Bakery-enough said.

After wondering around, we found my favorite crepe place-Viva Le Crepe and shared a dolce de leche. Perfection! Across the street from the crepe place was a fortune teller. We had time to kill and no expectations-so we tried. We decided on a palm reading with this lady Zena- she is good! Mikel went first and pegged her about 80% right. Btw, we took our wedding rings off and tried to shed any "telling symbols" and she still got her. Next, my turn. She was only about 95% right with me, even so much a knowing I have stomach issues and called me out saying they were stressed related-unreal. Great fun for two friends to share in this!

Finally, we wondered to dinner. The restaurant I found through a blog about NYC, the blogger says this is one of her favs. Hudson Clearwater is the name, and from the front it looks like an old run down shop with no door, but you walk around the corner to the green door and magic opens up. We started at the bar waiting for Mike and his wife to meet us (great conversation), then ate on the patio. The food was spectacular and the ambiance even better-perfect weather for this kind of night! Should also mention, a few famous people decided to dine also and had to walk right past our table. Love, love, love! I actually didn't recognize either of them, but Mike's wife sure did! She's a huge glee fan and notice Jonathon Groff right away, he was with Zachary Quinto-Spock in the last star trek. Yet another great day in NYC!