Huge, huge congratulations to our friends who’ve decided to make the next great leap of faith!
Yay to all our friends happily in love … and those who are seeking it, know that it’s out there somewhere!
7 years ago, my randomly assigned freshman-year college roommate met me in Raleigh totting a bottle of wine and dreams of the future. We talked about what that future might be and took a stab at writing it down. We sealed those winey predictions in an envelope and vowed to open them the year we turned 30 on a girl’s trip to Greece.
2 states and 3 moves later, the envelope found itself unearthed from New York City and en route to Vancouver. Yeah, we’d still like to go, but finances and families made it a bit difficult for this year. Work helped — an award for me + a guest paved the way for the two of us to escape again to a balcony with a bottle of wine for the opening of our time capsule. Check out the Flickr feed or the photos from the sidebar to see pics from the trip.
Cheers to you Melissa for achieving so many check marks on your vision of the future. Heck, you even penned some goals for both of your sister which also came true 
Thanks also to Conrad for so graciously giving up his seat for this girl’s trip. This cup’s for you lover:
Walking down 125th street is a step back in time — hawkers and snake-oil salesmen are elbow to elbow with “authentic” DVDs and Gucci handbags. Most of the time the sellers are talking to eachother … and sometimes to some hot young (or not so hot or not so young) thang walking down the street. Here’s what we heard today:
YO. YOU GOT FEET!
I GOT SOCKS!
YOUR FEET HURT?
GET A T-SHIRT.
Awesome.
Note: We got neither socks nor a t-shirt, but a blog-worthy effort to be sure.
At least 100,000 people knew where the action was in Manhattan on Tuesday night: central park. This was the last free concert of the season on the great lawn of central park – and the NYC Philharmonic brought down the house & brought in the crowds.
Nice shot Smack!
Unlike the free concert over the weekend where 60,000 Bon Jovi fans clutched tickets & waited in forever lines to go through security body scans, shed backpacks and recycle water bottles before gaining their limited entrance to the park, this event was free and wide open for public enjoyment. And locals don’t mess around. Picnic blankets, lawn chairs, picnic basket backpacks are dug out of storage rooms and joined with brie, wine, champagne, grapes, sushi, deli delectables and the likes. Last year we learned the trick to find your friends on the great lawn: balloons. So we learned our lesson – C picked up an Elmo & a yellow smilie on his way home from work — and though the cell towers were crowded, Kelly + Dave + their long-lost friend, Marty + Natasha + their stranded friend managed to find their ways to our blanket where much merriment and listening enjoyment was made.
And what goes better after a philharmonic concert in central park then Fireworks!
YAY for NYC living. This is one benefit C & I will never forget — just being to walk outside our apartment, take a right & walk about a half-block into central park. In fact, at the aforementioned Bon Jovi concert, C & I realized we when we returned to our apartment that we could just open the windows and listen to the live serenade (which the city mixed with sounds of buses, passerby’s, and other rich city sounds).
Oops … almost forgot, anyone want a candy red grand piano?
I don’t think “mud” is a verb in the north. But for my husband and others in the south, it most definitely is.
So it should be with no surprise that on our recent trip to Durham, NC, Conrad was *pleased* to hear that the person who bought his jeep took his kids “mudding” … oh, and gave it more lift, because if you’re going to take a car mudding, lift is important. The real sentence I just heard from Conrad was, “He put 6 inches on it with 33s underneath.” Um .. yeah. This from the man the northerner married.
For the record, it’s a Jeep Cherokee .. and this guy’s wife drives it most of the time. She must be cool.
If you don’t know, this is mudding. And if this were Conrad’s car he’d be giddy with excitement.
Well, it depends on where you look of course. “Location, location, location.” (barf)
In downtown Raleigh’s Historic Oakwood neighborhood, a Victorian house built in the 1800s complete with a turret.
In New York City’s Harlem, 2 of 3 windows across one of the floors of an apartment building (though if you’re lucky, it’s been renovated):
And no, this isn’t one we’ve made an offer on. I’m just saying … YAY!!
Seriously, we’re trying to buy a house, and when the stocks fall from $27/share to $21/share it makes it a lot harder to estimate what kind of house we can buy. So come on, do a fun, young couple a favor and either buy high or just hold on to them for a little while.
Step 1: C tells me he needs to fly to another state for 3-day training course.
Step 2: methinks, “Hmm … that’s the Tuesday after a long weekend, and we have family & friends in that thar state”
Step 3: C books flight leaving on Thursday night instead – paid for by his company
Step 4: I book a seat on the same flight – paid for by part of a travel voucher from a bump earlier in the year
Step 5: Much merriment ensues with family & friends over holiday weekend (YAY!)
Step 6: Monday: C & me make our way to the halls of our old offices and find mobile places to plug in. Y voila … we’re both online & plugged in, working our work, online and available for meetings.
Result: Holiday of sorts; reconnect with fam & friends we miss now that we’ve moved away; flights: free-ish; hotel paid for by spouse’s company with no additional expense for the little woman.
Cool! For the amount of griping I do, this is one of the benefits that so many people can’t take advantage of and, well, we think it’s pretty neat
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