Back Track...

We have had several things worth noting that I have yet to blog about. So for the sake of my future self looking for memories, I will take a few post and back track.

We spent Thanksgiving 2011 with my family.  I really did not take any pictures, but we had a good time Thanksgiving day eating your traditional Thanksgiving foods.  Well, we had chicken instead of turkey but we did have my Granny's dressing that is a must have every year.  I spent time asking my 90 year old Granny questions like, "Do you remember your first tv?" and "When did you get a washer and dryer?"  We missed my cousin Brooke who lives in NYC and was unable to make it down to Alabama for Thanksgiving.

The day after Thanksgiving my Mom, Sister, and I did go shopping, but not super early. We made it to Anthropologie in time to take advantage of their 50% off sale items sale.  It was definitely some of the best prices I have seen at that normally pricey store so I took advantage of it and got a few items.

The weather over Thanksgiving was perfect so we did spend a lot of time outdoors.  The only pictures I did get were the ones we took at a park.  I took these pictures to get a pictures to use for Christmas card pictures.

On the way back to Birmingham we got caught in the worst traffic I have ever been in.  In 9 miles there were 6 accidents.  All seemed to be minor but it took us 2 hours and 15 minutes to go this 9 miles.

What was exciting was as we approached Sister's apartment to drop her off, JP's car was approaching 200,000 miles.  We stopped to get a pizza to celebrate the soon to be occasions.  As we pulled in to Sister's apartment, it hit 200,000 miles!

Celebrating with pizza.

2012 House To Do List

So just like I have a list of things I want to do in 2012, our house has a list of things it wants done in 2012.  We'll see how many of these we can cross off the list.

2012

Every January people either make New Years Resolutions of make fun of those who do.  To me, the new year is like that first day of school.  You have your new notebooks, your new pencils but you also have all of these ideas of what is going to happen that year.  Then as the semester goes on you get bogged down in the paper you writing or the project you are working on.  The school year doesn't have that magical feel anymore.  Same with the new year.  So right now is my time to pull out my new planner and plan the year.  What I've learned though is that it doesn't always go as planned.  My best goal you can have for a new year is to flexible, go with the flow, and deal with what the Lord puts in your path.

That being said lets look at my 2011 goals and how I did not accomplish things as planned.

2011 Goals

Get my email under control- ha! If I was a teacher I would give myself a big fat red F... minus.  I'm not going to tell you the number of emails in my inbox right now. Think of the biggest number you can possibly think of. Got it? Ok double that and you might be close

Be more organized- such a broad goal. All those years of learning to make measurable goals for patients obviously didn't pay off. If I had to subjectively judge myself on this one I'd say I'm was maybe slightly more organized in 2011 than 2010.

More recipes!- I started off ok with this one but then taking 4 classes and working full time in the spring but a damper on that goal.  We did a lot of pasta (so easy) and salads (even easier) in the spring. Then once we got our house in July we had no stove until December. Although JP proved a toaster oven is more functional than you think, the new recipes tried were limited. I did develop a new way of keeping up with recipes so technically I have more recipes, I just didn't use them.

Get money consolidated- This one I did, but mainly because buying a house required it.

Now for the new year.  This is what I think I would like to do with my time in 2012.  We'll see a year from now how that goes.

2012 Bucket List

Lift weights at least 5 times/week.  I'm weak. Just ask my husband, my sister, and my mom.  I have to keep up with my push up doing husband, my 12lb weight lifting sister, and my daily weight lifting mom. Plus I should probably help my bones out so they will be strong when I'm old.

Run a 5k.  Notice on my 2011 list there were no exercise related goals.  Well to bad there wasn't because I ran a 5k- nonstop- in 2011.  I want to run another one, because I know I can.  And if I want extra credit, I'll run something that is even farther.  So this will involve some sort of regular running schedule.  Haven't gotten that figured out yet.

Keep a list of things I'm thankful for- 3/day.  Whenever JP is going through a rough time, every night I will ask him to tell me three things he's thankful for.  Then, I learned of the book that everyone is reading- One Thousand Gifts- which gave me the idea to write down these things that we are thankful for.  If I do 3/day I'll have just over a thousand.

Send notes- 3/month.  Real mail. You know the kind you have to wait on the mail truck to bring.  The kind you have use your hands to open.  It is always so fun to get real mail that is not junk mail.

Read 12 books.  I've made similar goals before, but this year I think I can do it.  2012 will be the first year since I started kindergarten in 1990 that I will not have school.  I will not have any assigned reading, so I will assign my own.  To bad I can't count December 2011 towards this. I read the 3 books of the Hunger Games series in like a week.

Expand my world view.  This includes but is not limited to learning more about people that are different than me and understanding major world events that I don't know much about now.  I'm not sure of a way to measure this right now or even exactly how I plan to tackle this, but I've realized how I easily get trapped in my own bubble. 

Memorized 2 Scripture passages/month.  Maybe if I make everything into a song I'll be able to memorize better? I totally can sing you songs from when I was in 5th grade VBS.

Improve Food Intake. Try two new recipes a month.  Create a recipe book.  Identify foods I frequently eat that have preservatives etc. and try to replace.  

Scan Pictures.  I have been wanting to digitize all of our childhood family photos and possibly make a photo book.

Blog Once a Week. I really do enjoy blogging but for some reason I have let 2 months pass between posts. Surely I can achieve this or even exceed this goal.  Why do I blog? Mainly because I like looking back and remembering things.  Its hard to look back though if there isn't anything there to look at!

Drink 64oz of water/day.  I don't drink much besides water but I don't drink enough at all.  This is the opposite of my husband who literally drinks water by the jug.  No normal glass for him.

Go somewhere I've never been.  I have no idea what I will see in 2012 but I want to see something new.  It could be somewhere in California or somewhere right here in Birmingham.  Hopefully I'll experience more than one new place!

It's Ain't Over Til It's Over

The main event of our final full day in New York City was a visit to Yankee Stadium for a baseball game.

Not just any baseball game though...

One of my life long dreams has been to go to a Yankees Red Sox game.  I never thought I would get to see one of the biggest, oldest rivalries in sports in person.  Although I usually would cheer for the Red Sox, since we were in Yankee Stadium I chose to wear Yankees attire.  I took a lot of heat from a few people about this decision, but I wanted to fully participate in the experience.  JP wanted me to wear a Braves hat.

Before the game, there was a special ceremony for Mariano Rivera to honor his breaking of the most saves record.  On September 19 he broke Trevor Hoffman's record 601 saves when he got his 602nd save.  Pretty amazing.  He is 41 years old and has been playing for 16 seasons... all with the Yankees.

At first, Jorge Posada (the catcher who has been with the Yankees just as many seasons as Mariano) came out and gave him a NYFD firemans hat that was plated in gold... since he had put out 602 "fires."  I kinda thought this was a silly gift.

Then the entire team came out,

and gave him this...

After the ceremony, it was time to start the game... but not before Amanda and I pulled out our 3rd Momofuku cookie to share as a pregame snack.

The game was a lot of fun.  The fans were not as intense as I imagined- likely because it wasn't really a close game and the Yankees had a good lead over the Red Sox in the division.  However, a few times the crowd did chant some negative Red Sox cheers in unison.

What was more fun, though, was the Jorge Posada chant.  Everytime he would get up one person in the crowd would shout Hip Hip, and the rest of the crowd would shout, Jorge!

And no baseball game is complete without a hot dog.

The Yankees easily won that game.  The game on Friday had been rained out so they were playing it after the game we went to.  The Red Sox won that game.

After the game, we headed back to Matt's apartment to change and get ready for dinner.  We ended up making plans to meet my friend Jennifer who had recently moved to NYC at a pizza place.  We didn't have anything planned before dinner, so we decided to go to Sprinkles.

Once we were done at Sprinkles we had about an hour before dinner.  We had walked from Matt's apartment to Sprinkles and decided that since we had an hour of nothing to do we would set out to walk to dinner.  Our walk from Matt's (A) to Sprinkles (B) to dinner (C) was a little over 5 miles.  We walked over 90 street blocks.  It was so much fun! We got to see so much of the city.  It was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Our dinner was at Lombardi's which apparently was the first pizza place in NYC.  It was pretty good pizza.

After dinner, Amanda and I chose to take the subway back to Matt's apartment.  We didn't feel like such a long walk after dinner, plus it was dark by this point.

The next morning Amanda and I left pretty early to catch our flight back home.  We both had a ton of fun in New York City and are so appreciative of Matt who not only let us stay with him but spent a whole day to show us all over the entire city.

Big Lights Will Inspire You

Our second full day in NYC started off with a trip to Brooklyn.  My cousin Brooke has lived in Brooklyn for ~9 years.  I've always wanted to visit her but until now it never worked out.  The one time before when I was in NYC, she was in Alabama!

Amanda and I left with plenty of time to meet her because we wanted to account for any issues with us taking the wrong train etc.  Well no worries.  We got there with no trouble.  We had some time to kill before we were to meet Brooke so we walked around looking for a coffee shop.  Yes we passed several Starbucks but why go there when we could go somewhere unique.  We found a Japanese coffee shop which I've never seen in Alabama!  Amanda enjoyed her coffee as we waited to meet in the park.

We were meeting at City Hall Park.

Once Brooke arrived, she led us to Brooklyn over the Brooklyn Bridge.  I loved walking across it!

Once we crossed the bridge, we made our way to the Brooklyn Bridge Park.  It was so fun to see that view of NYC.

 

After our Brooklyn Bridge adventure, we took the subway to Brooke's neighborhood.  We opted to go ahead and eat lunch since Amanda and I had not eaten breakfast.  Brooke took us to a very delicious place called Olea.  

 

Since it was Saturday, brunch was an option.  This is what I got...

 Savory Parmesan French Toast topped with poached eggs, peas and pea shoots, scallions, and avgolemono sauce served with homefries.  It was SO good!

We also got one of the Tapas for an appetizer.  It was good too, but I can't remember which one this is.

 

 If you are ever in Brooklyn I would recommend this place.  I especially loved the outdoor seating.

After lunch we headed for the Brooklyn Flea. As we were walking I decided if I was to live in NYC, I would prefer to live in Brooklyn over Manhattan.  It just feels more like a community than a big ol' city.

The Brooklyn Flea was a fun experience, much different than the Lacon Flea Market I used to go to with my Dad when I was a child.  A lot of the things there I could totally see ending up on Pinterest.  If I lived there I would probably go there to eat.  They had so many unique food trucks.  Asia Hot Dogs? Looked delicious!

After the Flea, Brooke took us to her apartment.  I was so excited to see it.  I had always heard about it, especially about its small size, but had never seen it.  I loved it! It was so well organized and put together.  I'm so glad I finally got to see it.

Brooke put us back on the subway to Manhattan where Amanda and I had plans to check out some shops, particularly Uniqlo- which is apparently the new trendy place to shop.  To be honest, we were not impressed at all.  After Uniqlo we just walked around.  We saw The Peanut Butter Company- the place that makes my Mom's favorite peanut butter.

We then headed to Momofuku's Milk Bar, which was recommended by Brooke.  The cookies were SO good.  I am literally craving them now talking about them.  I really wish I had gotten more! Amanda and I each got one and then we got a third one to share later.

After our cookies, we went to the Strand Bookstore and then headed back towards Matt's part of town.  We ended up meeting him at a Thai place for dinner.  We then took a quick break at Matt's before heading out for gelatto.  Have no idea the name of the place, but I do remember it was about a two mile walk from Matt's apartment.  We ended up meeting up with a guy that Amanda knew and his friend.  

My favorite part of the night is when we were walking back towards Matt's apartment I saw a guy with a standard poodle.  I told him, "I like your dog."  He looked at me and scowled.

Our second full day in NYC was a success.  By the time we got back to Matt's we were exhausted and went to bed ready for the next day which included going to Yankee Stadium.

If I can make it here... I'll make it anywhere.

Our first full day in NYC was jam packed full of things.  Matt spent the entire day with us and said we did more in one day than anyone he knew.  We left the apartment at 9am and got back around midnight.

We started the day with breakfast at Effy's, a small breakfast place near Matt's apartment. 

One of the things on Amanda's list of things to do was to eat at a cafe table on the sidewalk.  Effy's was the perfect place to check this thing of the list. 

 

After breakfast we headed for a walk through Central Park on our way to Times Square.

I had been to Times Square before, but it is always such an exciting place.

From Times Square we walked over to see NBC, Rockefeller Center, FoxNews, and some other things including Magnolia Bakery which we made a note of so we would remember to return later.

We headed back to Times Square where it had started to sprinkle.

We went into the Marriott at Times Square to ride the elevator to the top floor.  The all glass elevator makes the ride to the 45th floor quite fun!  As we left the Marriott we realized that it was no longer just sprinkling but had turn into a good solid rain.

Because it was a downpour and we really didn't want to walk anywhere at that point, we headed towards a tent in Times Square that was promoting the new show PanAm.

The deal was you would wait in line to go back and see a promo of the show.  Six people were called back at a time.  Of those six people, one would win a genuine leather flight attendant bag that they claimed was worth $250.  So we waited quite a while.  We were entertained by the police officers trying to prevent the rain collect in the tent, but we did not enjoy the taxis that drove by and splashed us. 

The three of us are not big tv fans and the show they were promoting as "glamorous and gossipy" didn't really appeal to us.  Especially after we saw they played the same preview over and over again in the tent that they showed once you got to go back.  However, it was ALL worth is because Matt won the bag!  This made me very excited because it was so random.

We grabbed grilled cheese sandwiches at a place in Times Square and the menu made it very clear that we were no longer in the South. Soda Pop? What is that?  I also must say that people say that New York City is expensive.  Of all the places we ate, this place was the most expensive but likely the least quality.  I'm convinced it was the most expensive because it was in a tourist area.

After lunch, we headed over to check out Macy's and a few other stores.

We then headed over to Ground Zero for our reservation to see the 9/11 Memorial.  First we checked out St. Paul's.  It is amazing to think that the church is still standing because these trees took a good amount of the blow when the towers fell.  Also, did you know that this is where George Washington prayed the night before he was inaugurated...

I had seen Ground Zero when I was in NYC in 2009.  There has been so much growth in the area since then!  Unfortunately it was too foggy to see the top of the tower they have rebuilt.

A mural outside the memorial.  I am so curious to know the story behind the people who have left these flowers.

The Memorial was such a interesting, moving thing to experience.  This was the first major event of our country that I specifically remember and can say, "I remember, I was doing..."

There were SO many names on the edges of the fountains.  It really was baffling to me how they got all of the peoples names who died during the attacks.  What especially made me think a lot was seeing Unborn Child.  One, I thought how incredibly sad that was. and Two, I thought how much time they must have spent collecting these names to include unborn child.

I did love the fact that someone had put gerber daisies on some of the names.

This tree was the only tree left standing between the two towers.  A few years later it was struck by lightning.

After the Memorial, we met Matt, who had been at the gym, at the Wall Street Bull.

Occupy Wall Street had just started and wasn't really in the news yet.  We saw some people walking around protesting with signs but I couldn't really understand what they were saying.  All I could here was, "blah da ha Wall Street." Really they were not very clear with their pronunciation!  The bull was blocked off because of the protesters and there were tons of police officers in front of the NYSE.  Traffic had been blocked as well.

After this we decided to take the ferry to Staten Island so we could see the Statue of Liberty.  I got no good pictures.  I must say that taking the ferry made realize how different it is to live in NYC.  We were with tons of people coming home from work.  I can NOT imagine taking a ferry home from work every day!

After we got back to Manhattan, we took a bus and ended up near our restaurant for the night.  Matt picked the restaurant for us.  Panna II is an Indian restaurant is THE most unique restaurants I have ever eaten.   First, it was really good, reasonable priced food.  But the atmosphere... 

The whole restaurant is incredibly narrow with tables on both side.  There is barely enough room for one person to slip between.  The walls are covered in iridescent wrapping paper and there are Christmas light type lights hanging from the ceiling.  If you are tall, you will definitely hit the lights!  The best part is when it is someones birthday.  The play Indian dance club music and start a disco ball.  Such a fun place and I would recommend it!

By this time it was pretty late, but we new we needed banana pudding so we headed to Magnolia Bakery.  If you ever go to NYC you HAVE to get banana pudding from here.  It is SO good.  We headed towards Grand Central Station and went to the whispering corners before catching the train back to Matt's apartment to eat our banana pudding.

We were able to check most of the things of our list of things to do... except going to New Jersey since it was so foggy.  But to quote Matt, "Nobody comes to NYC to go to Jersey." Nobody, but me.

 We were quite exhausted when we got back so we went to bed pretty quickly.  Well not before we got directions from Matt on how to get to Brooklyn for out next day of adventure.