Friday, October 26, 2007

Just one of those days... Errr, Weeks

Have you ever been so tired, so overworked, so stressed, so anxious and so frustrated you feel like you're going to snap at any minute, but then something else happens and before you can vent or let it all out, you're back to the panic mode and never get the chance? I've felt like this all week. Work has been extremely busy, and just when I think nothing else could go wrong, it does.
Last night I was at the office until 9:00pm and all I wanted to do was go home, lie in bed and cry. Not for any particular reason, just because I wanted to let it all out, and it's been awhile since my last meltdown. With so much going on, I feel numb. I feel like I'm watching myself run around like the energizer rabbit but on fast forward and after 10 red bulls.
I just have to get through today, and tomorrow morning (I really hate working on Saturdays), then I'll be fine. But consider this a warning, something will make me snap, and it's going to be the dumbest thing, but nevertheless I can feel it coming...

Thursday, October 25, 2007

I spoke too soon...

The past couple days have been chilly, rainy and dreary. My work week has been insanely busy and the weekend cannot come quick enough.
I did however get the majority of my Halloween costume together which always makes me happy. I love picking out a character and getting all the components of my costume ready. The real fun will come on Saturday night at Kendra's house when we attend her 2nd annual pumpkin carving party and unveil our costumes. I don't want to give away details of my costume, but since Halloween always provides an excuse for me to dress a bit on the sleezy side the recent cold weather will NOT be appreciated with my costume. Look for updates and photos from the party next week.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Beautiful Fall Weekend

I'm still waiting for the Fall weather to hit the East Coast, but in the meantime you won't hear me complaining.
Saturday provided a great day to go into the city. Cindy had bought me tickets to see Spring Awakening for my birthday so I met her in Times Square at Maxie's for lunch before the show. I love their mushroom barley soup and I've also started to really enjoy pastrami on rye, which is what Cindy and I had.
After lunch we killed some time at the M&M store across the street. As if Times Square isn't enough of a tourist trap, this store is probably one of the worst. I don't even like M&M's all that much and find them to be one of the more boring candies, however, people seem to flock to this place. They have 3 floors of M&M merchandise with everything from flip flops to christmas ornaments. They also have a huge wall with every color of M&M's where you can make your own combination. A small bag of M&M's that you could get trick or treating could easily run you over $4.00 here.
After the M&M store we headed over to the theater for the 2:00pm show. The music was amazing but it was definately much different than I imagined. It was extremely sexual and there were some points during the play where people actually walked out. The sign on the door that reads "this show is intended for mature audiences only" is is certainly meant to be taken seriously. I do reccommend seeing Spring Awakening for it's moving story line and amazing soundtrack, but don't take your underage daughter, niece, etc.
After the show I grabbed a cab up to Blondies. Michigan State was taking on THE Ohio State Buckeyes at 3:30pm. The play finished around 4:15pm, so I had plenty of time to catch the rest of the game. I made it there before halftime and found a group of girls to sit with. One of the girls, Deena, I had met at a previous watch party. It was great to talk with her more and meet more friends in the city, especially since her and I share the same love for Yogi's.
After leaving Blondies I took the train back to NJ and met Mason for a movie. We went to see "Things we Lost in the Fire" which was a good film but not as emotionally moving as I wanted. It was also very slow moving and after a long day I didn't have much patience. Nevertheless it was good to get out and have a productive day visiting with all different people and friends.
On Sunday morning I was back on the upper west side for The Wiggles in concert. I went with the kids I babysitt for and was suprised at all the songs I knew. It was great to go and see how happy it made them. After the concert I went home, ate some lunch and took a much needed nap. Adam set up the Wii he got me for my birthday and I made some delicious meatloaf for dinner. We spent the rest of the night relaxing and watching TV, which was exactly what I needed.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Birthday Weekend- Part 2

2 months ago Kendra, Amy and I planned a spur of the moment trip to Florida. The idea was to get away for my birthday and visit with Amy who we don't get to see very often. After checking flights and confirming we could stay with Kendra's parents, all of our flights were booked within hours. I felt proud of myself for making a weekend commitment 2 months in advance, and just buying my ticket moments after we decided it might be a good idea.
I'm always hesitant to get geeked about something because when you build it up for 2 months like we did, it usually ends up in a disappointment. This was definitely not the case with our mini vacation. After weeks of counting down the days, hours and minutes, we were finally all in Florida, together.
After torrential downpours in the NYC area, flights out of Newark were delayed for hours. Luckily, I was one of the later flights so my flight only ended up being delayed an hour or so. Amy and Kendra had taken earlier flights, which weren't delayed so Kendra's parents picked them up around 9:00pm and then were kind enough to drive back to the airport to pick me up when my flight landed around 1:00am. Once we got back to Kendra's parents house we were all tired so we visited for awhile and then went to bed.
On Saturday we started our day at a small beach near Kendra’s parent’s house. The weather was gorgeous and the water was warm. The beach has this super low key restaurant and bar on the beach. People walking around in their bathing suits, dancing, sitting at picnic tables… it was just comfortable and I didn’t feel self conscious or disgusting like I did when I went down the shore.

After the beach Kendra, Amy and I went to get a manicure and pedicure. Amy had never had a pedicure, and when Kendra’s mom came to pick us up and told me she hadn’t either, we all told her to sit down and pick a color.

That evening Kendra’s mom cooked a Greek feast and a delicious Italian cake. Kendra’s brother Jesse got us ready for a night out with some Long Islands with our meal and Kendra opened her bottle of Duck Walk Chardonnay for us to drink while we all got ready to go out. After getting ready and having a small pre-bar dance party in Kendra’s parent’s living room we were on our way to a small locals bar less than 2 miles away.


It was such a great night! Kendra’s parents stuck around for awhile, and I’m sure saw all of us in unique form, including a Karaoke performance of “Living on a Prayer” that will go down in history.

On Saturday we planned on going to Clearwater beach, but since we didn’t get up until noon, we decided to just go to St. Pete Beach which was a bit closer and would provide us with more quality sun time.

That evening we went to Olive Garden for the Never Ending Pasta Bowl, a longtime fall tradition for Amy, Kendra and I. Several years back I accused Amy of being a disgrace and going to an all you can eat event and barely eating 1 bowl. The game was on and Amy, who’s literally ½ my size bet that she could out eat me. Once we arrived to the restaurant the haggling began and we both put our game faces on. We drank water instead of soda, and tried to skimp on the breadsticks to leave room for the massive amount of carbs we were about to consume. As much as I hate to admit it, Amy beat me. Unfortunately, Amy was not the winner and our unranked opponent, Brenda (aka Kendra’s mom) beat us both.

That night we were so full that none of us were sure we even had room for beverages, but after getting dropped off at Martini Bar in downtown St. Pete we were ready for night #2.
The real excitement of Saturday night came after closing time when we hit the streets. We ran into Batman

And a guy who was very proud of his shirt (does anyone know what Sneaker Head is?)

And finally Amy got us all onto the Puddle of Mudd tour bus where we sat and chatted with the bands bassist, Doug Ardito. We didn’t however know he was the bands bassist until the next morning when we were reliving the night’s events.

On Sunday we woke up to a great breakfast spread and situated ourselves by the pool. We spent the afternoon lounging around, swimming, snacking, and just enjoying our last day in Florida.
I seriously cannot wait to go back to Florida and do it again soon...hopefully very soon! Cheers!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Ciocia

I was trying to beat Kendra to a Florida posting, but since she beat me, I'll take my time on the Florida update and use this post as a shout out to my Ciocia. She called me last night and mentioned that I hadn't mentioned her gifts in my Birthday posting. So, to let her know how much I do LOVE my presents, and the fact that she's probably one of 5 people who actually read my blog (who am I kidding? I think it's more like 3 if you include myself!), I'm going to dedicate a post all to her so she knows how much she's appreciated.
For any non-polocks, Ciocia means Aunt. When I say Ciocia, I'm refering to my Aunt Theresa, my god-mother, my mothers best friend, and my only Polish Aunt. Many of my earlist childhood memories include her and my cousin Melanie. When I got a little older my ciocia moved to Florida, and it provided a nice vacation spot for me and my sister through the years. If there was something I couldn't talk to my mom about, or a conflict in my family, I would run to ciocia. She was always been there for my sister, my mom and I thoughout the years even when she was thousands of miles away.
When I moved to NJ and my sister left for college my ciocia moved back to Michigan. It has worked out well for both my mom and my ciocia since their visits are more regular. My mom is always happiest with her around and she understands my mom like no one else. They're the sister that neither of them had and they've been with each other through everything, the highs and the lows.
Thank you Ciocia for my wonderful Bithday presents and for being my constant role model for what friendship is all about. Love you lots!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Double Dozen!

Well I'm officially 24 years old. I don't feel any different and although from the outside I don't look any different I'm sure I've changed a lot over the past year. It's crazy to think that my mom was already married and pregnant with me at 24.
This past weekend Adam's parents and my mom came to visit. Adam's parents arrived Saturday afternoon just in time to watch the second half of the MSU football game. I didn't get to catch the end of the game as I was already on my way to the airport to pick up my mom. I guess I didn't miss much as the Spartans lost their 1st home game against Northwestern in overtime. Once I picked up my mom we met up with Adam and his parents and had dinner at Blue Moon.

On Sunday morning we headed out east to visit Kendra and the LI Wineries. The traffic getting to/from Kendra's apartment in Port Jefferson was smooth sailing, except getting to the wineries from Port Jefferson was a nightmare. It seemed that everyone in the tri-state area was heading to the North Fork to go on hay rides, go apple picking, pumpkin picking, etc. We finally arrived at the Martha Clara winery and enjoyed our lunch sitting outside with a bottle of one of their white table wines.

Martha Clara also has a sunflower field where you can pick your own sunflowers so we decided to take some pictures surrounded by the flowers



After Martha Clara we headed to Roanoke, which is Kendra's winery. I've grown very fond of their 2006 De Rosa Rosé, and we were able to enjoy a couple bottles on the patio before it got too cold or too late.







After Roanoke we headed back towards Port Jefferson and had dinner at one of my favorite LI restaurants, Amici. We were pretty wined out by dinner time so we stuck with water and enjoyed our dinner. I had a grilled chicken pesto pasta with pignoli nuts in a Basil, garlic cream sauce. It was so good!

After dropping Kendra back at her apartment we headed back to NJ to open presents from Adam's family. I got some really great stuff including a Michigan State Scrapbook, a 25th anniversary Care Bear with a silver nose and Swarovski crystal eyes, a LOVE Mickey silver charm and cash money to get my own personalized license plate (Adam recently got a NJ license plate that says MICHST8, and I hate to admit that after it arrived, I was pretty jealous).

On Monday morning it was back to work, but my mother joined Mason, Cindy and I at the Cheesecake factory for lunch.


After lunch I headed back to the office to finish up my work so I could spend the afternoon with my mom. We headed to the mall where my mom bought me some cute dresses and shirts, which I will be bringing with me to Florida this weekend :) After shopping we went to dinner at the Polish Kitchen. It's a small hole in the wall type of place by our apartment, but seeing as my Mom and Adam are both Polish and I haven't been there with either of them, I figured it was a nice low-key choice.

Tuesday was my official Birthday, even though we had been celebrating it since Saturday. I dropped my mom off at the airport in the morning and made my way to work. We went to one of my favorite Peruvian Chicken restaurants for lunch and Mason spoiled me with flourless chocolate cake and chocolate cupcakes in the
afternoon.



After work I headed into the city for dinner at Carmine's with Adam, Walt, Fink, Sarah, Kendra and Mason.


Sarah and Matt bought me a very cool HAPPY BIRTHDAY ceramic plate that everyone signed (Keith is proudly displaying it below).


The food was delicious as always, and the desert was GINORMOUS!




It was a great birthday and I couldn't have asked for anything more...

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Special Day

I love my Birthday. Not only because I get presents, but because it's the one day that no matter who you are, you always feel extra special. It's only 10:00am and already I have countless voicemails, emails and text messages. Not to mention that I got to spend the weekend with Adam's parents and my mom (official weekend and birthday update to follow).
I feel like the luckiest girl in the world today! Thank you to everyone in advance for remembering my special day...I wish everyday were my birthday!

Friday, October 05, 2007

It's October already!?

If you stepped outside the past couple days it certainly doesn't feel like the days leading up to my birthday. The weathers been absolutely gorgeous and I'm certainly not complaining. I was thinking the weather would be getting chilly here, so my trip to Florida next weekend would be a good way to escape back to Summer, but instead I'll just look forward to a weekend of decent tanning and beaching with some of my favorite people.
This past week has been a little chaotic. This past weekend Kendra and I spent a fair amount of time in the city. After a very long, but fun weekend, I was looking forward to a low key week of work and lounging around. I've spent more than my fair share of time at the office this week, and with a co-worker being on vacation there's a lot more work to be done. I also found out Wednesday that I would be going to Ohio Thursday which meant a late Wednesday night at the office. It was nice to know I wasn't alone, as me and some other co-workers ordered food in around 7:00pm that evening.
Mason was kind enough to come over last night after we landed and pulled some of my music off Adam's still broken computer. Mason has some suggestions as to how to get it back up and running but I'll leave that up to Adam... for now, I'm just happy to have some of my tunes back.
I'm totally geeked for this weekend because I get to see my Mom. Her birthday was this past Tuesday (don't worry Mom, I won't share how old you are... at least not publicly on the internet), so HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMOOOO! Anyways, since my birthday is this coming Tuesday (there are still 3 shopping days left) I booked her a flight to come out to celebrate our birthdays together. As an added bonus Adam's parents will be visiting as well, which usually means lots of eating, drinking and goodies :) On Sunday we'll be heading out to Long Island to visit Kendra Jean and some of the wineries that we enjoy so much! I'm planning on taking a 1/2 day on Monday and spending the afternoon with my mom doing girly things... shopping, shopping and more shopping!
As I previously mentioned, I'm going to Florida next weekend. I'll actually be leaving Thursday night, which will give me 3 full days of fun in the sun! Amy was looking at bathingsuits online today, and with some of the sale prices I may just have to buy another... I deserve it, right? Hopefully my work load will decrease next week because I'm really hoping to not be attached to my cell phone and laptop at the beach!