Hott Mess....

Who is this hot mess you ask?  None other than my loveable husband.  The picture is so awesome, that I couldn't help but start my blog post with it.  Therefore, we are going to take a journey through our weekend in reverse:).

At about 11:00 AM today, I was staring at this hilarious face.  Please note the twig stuck behind the ear...  Eric ran in a 10K Down and Dirty mud run this morning.  For those of you who know him, you know that he, of course, would not take the mission to get muddy lightly. 

At about 10:30 AM, I started watching racers climb through this mud pit and sprint to the finish line.  This was a solid 30 minutes of cracking up.  First of all, people look hilarious when they are covered with mud.  To make it even better, they would come out of the mud pit sprinting to finish the race, but they didn't account for the slippery muddy turn at the end.  At least 1 out of 3 people completely wiped out on the turn.  Needless to say, there was a crowd encouraging them to "push through!!!" and "take the turn as fast as you can, you are almost done!!"  These verbal encouragements pushed the racers, which made better wipe-outs.  

 

At about 10:00 AM today, I was watching Eric make his way to the start line.  I was so excited to use my new camera for these pictures.  I stood on the sidelines trying to look like a professional photographer.  

 

 

 At about 9:00 AM today, I was helping Eric get prepped for the race.  We later realized that the bib was useless, as no one would be able to see it at the end of the race!

And, at 6:00 AM today, I was waiting (not so pleasantly) for the subway to take us on our 1.5 hour journey to the race.  Eric likes to be insanely early for everything.

Now on to Saturday....my birthday celebration!!  Let me preface this with the fact that I put a lot of pressure on Eric to think of something fun for us to do for my birthday (since I am celebrating away from the rest of my friends/family).  Eric put a lot of thought into thinking of something that I would enjoy.  He came up with two options: a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater or Medieval Times.  I chose Medieval Times:).  So, Saturday night we took a bus to Jersey City to eat chicken legs and ribs with no silverware, drink hardy portions of ale (well....maybe a margarita for me - I am sure they had that back then!), and watch knights battle it out.  The place turned out to be a hilarious combination of bachelor/bachelorette parties, work parties, and family entertainment.  We decided they definitely hit the jackpot with hitting all target audiences!

 

 

 

 And finally, Friday...my actual birthday.  Though I was far away from Indiana, I had a fabulous 30th birthday.  I was overwhelmed with love from my friends, family, and coworkers.  All of the students in each of my four classes made my birthday cards (which hilariously included one liners such as these: "You are my Birthday Queen", "For your birthday, I give you math (followed by a series of multiplication problems)", and "Until you taught me, I did not understand.  I love you.")  Who wouldn't have a great day when you have 100 kids pumping up your ego???  In addition to that, my boss brought in birthday treats, my husband sent me flowers, and 3 amazing friends sent me chocolate covered strawberries to work!  When I got home, I was overwhelmed with facebook messages, thoughtful cards/gifts (topping the charts for creativity was the 30 fortune cookies Jess and Stephanie sent me with 30 tokens of our friendship in them).  So, a huge thank you to everyone who so generously/thoughtfully helped make that day special for me.  Eric and I went to dinner that evening, and topped it off with my favorite guilty pleasure in NYC.  Crumbs cupcakes:).  Mine is Red Velvet and Eric's is the Baba Booey. 

It was definitely a fabulous, fun-filled weekend.  I am so blessed in my life.  Next on the calendar of things to look forward too....Chad and Kim's visit next weekend!

My Love Hate Relationship....

I (Kelly) am currently involved in a very unhealthy relationship....with NYC.  It is one that involves love and hate, ever-changing feelings, avoidance and attachment....ahh, I can't quite wrap my mind around how I feel about this place.  So, I figured, I would share with you all out here in blog land the things I love and hate about my new residence.

Love:                       
Being with my husband - he is amazing        
Having an endless stream of visitors
Never-ending variety of restaurants, museums, farmer's markets, etc
Public transportation
Our beautiful apartment with a gym right downstairs
The mission behind my new school
The students at my new school 
The idea that anything goes when it comes to fashion, beliefs, views, etc.
The active lifestyle
Central Park
Broadway shows
Reading during my commute

            
Hate:
Being away from my family and friends
HAVING to use public transportation all of the time - AKA...no car
Not knowing which restaurants are going to be great
Not having a lawn - or better yet a house
People viewing work as the most important thing in life
Long work hours
My commute
Walking in adverse weather conditions
Long lines at every McDonalds - seriously
Lack of fountain pop
La Guardia
Crowds

Things I miss: 
Family
Friends
A car
A house
Work life balance
Knowing my coworkers well
Bonfires
Having a variety of social life options
A slower pace
People who are rooted in the same values
Common Ground

As with all love-hate relationships, my feelings about NYC shift on a day to day basis.  One fact remains....home is where the heart is, and my heart is with Eric.  Eric is in NYC.  So home is in NYC for now!

New Camera Fun!

My fabulous husband gave me my 30th birthday present two weeks early....it was a new SLR camera!  I have wanted one of these for a couple of years now, so I was super excited.  I am going to sign up for a photography class December-February so I can really take advantage of what this type of camera has to offer.  Yay!

I was eager to play around with the camera, so Eric, Murphy, and I had a typical New York day today.  We got up early, stopped by Starbucks (iced coffee for Eric, Arnold Palmer for me....), and headed to the Brooklyn Bridge Park.  We killed a billion birds with one stone on this one - we got exercise, Murphy got a walk, we spent time together, we enjoyed the weather, we took in the city, we relaxed, AND...I took my first pictures with my camera.  Now, I am still the same rookie photographer I was with my point and shoot camera, but I am amazed at home much of a difference a camera makes.  These pictures look ten times better than anything I have taken with the ole Kodak.  Here they are!

 The beverages.

 

 The view.

 The subjects.

 The hottie.  No silly, not Murphy!

 The tongue.

 The lady.

 The photographer.

 The Brooklyn Bridge.

 The world's most awesome dog.

I am sure I will force my pictures upon the blogging world more in the future. Stay tuned!

Perfect Timing....

God has such perfect timing.  Just when my soul starts to get lonely for girl friends, one comes to visit:).  I had such a great time over Labor Day weekend in Maine with Kelly, and then the lovely Meg came for a fun four day weekend last weekend.  I was off work because of Rosh Hashanna, so it was doubly exciting!
Meg is one of those friends that you can just pick up right where you left off with.  We have such a great combination of a deep friendship, common interests/values, and a silliness that is unmatchable.  So basically, almost all of my friendship needs were met during her visit.  We had some really great conversations, entertained ourselves with great food, shopping, and site-seeing, and squeezed in some silly accents, dancing, and people-watching:).  Thanks Meg for coming to visit me and help me refill my friendship bank!!

Meg's one touristy request for this trip was to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  We had a great time posing with the statues:).

I am a very fierce warrior.

After leaving the Met, we wanted to get to the west side of central park.  As we were strolling along, we wandered upon a filming of Law and Order, Special Victims Unit.  We definitely stayed long enough to watch the 45 second scene be taped:).  We couldn't really hear what was going on, but the cop touched the face of the lady on the stretcher.  If you see that happen when watching Law and Order, know that we were there to witness it.

Allie, Meg's roommate came with her as well.  Unfortunately she got sick and flew home the next day.  This is us getting drinks before we went to see Fela the musical.

I snapped a shot of the beautiful, colorful set right before three workers came running at me to tell me to put away my camera.  Whoops!

Meg and I went to see the Empire State Building.  When we got there, we realized it cost more than we were wanting to spend to go up in it.  So, we settled for taking a picture beside it.  Who would have known it was so short???

We decided to spend the money we saved from the Empire State Building tour on a cupcake.  Well, we may or may not have had two cupcakes over the weekend.  DE-LI-CIOUS.  I have made a promise to myself that I will have a cupcake everytime someone visits.

I discovered the Boat Basin Cafe one Friday after work with coworkers and knew it would be a fun place to take Meg.  The scenery is beautiful, and the weather was great as well!

We even conned Eric into some girl time.

Well, thats the weekend at a glance, folks!  I can definitely say that whenever I have visitors, it reminds me of how lucky I am to have such great friends.  I am getting increasingly excited for Thanksgiving, when I get to be back in the Hoosier State.  Love ya Meg!

The Maine Event:)

We decided to celebrate Labor Day the right way....doing nothing laborous at all.  What better way to do that than to get away from this crazy city, see some fabulous friends, and stay at a Bed and Breakfast where everything is done for you???

Eric and I flew out Friday night amidst the effects of hurricane Earl to see our great friends Brandt and Kelly Voight in Maine.  Everything was going as planned, until our plane did a last minute swoop back up in the sky as it was just about to hit the runway.  Hmmm.....did they see a deer on the runway? Were we landing too early?  Nope....the pilot couldn't see a thing admist the fog and rain from the hurricane.  So, we had a quick detour to New Hamshire and landed there.  Luckily that was only about an hour and a half drive from our intended destination, Kennebunkport, Maine. 

We drove into Kennebunkport at about midnight, but we could tell that the town was everything you would expect to see in a quaint Maine destination.  Small shops, boats, seafood restaurants, bed and breakfasts, beautiful homes.....it was great.

We spend the day Saturday exploring the town (thought Brandt and Eric were able to squeeze in a viewing of the Notre Dame/Purdue game), and then had a fun night out in the evening of dinner, drinks, and karaoke:).

Sunday we headed up to Portland, Maine in our sweet convertible.  We went on a four-hour whale watching excursion that ended up being a little bumpier than we had expected.  We saw many waves, and no whales.  Oh well, it makes for funny memories!  We wrapped up the trip with a little more exploring around Portland and a delicious dinner.

As we were flying back to NYC, Eric and I talked about how great it is to reconnect with good friends who know us well.  There is something refreshing about getting beyond the "getting to know you" type conversation, and just being yourself.  These little breaks from the intensity out here are imperative to our happiness:).  Here are a few pictures from our trip (the really great pictures are taken from Kelly V.'s camera).

     Aww, the four of us with the ocean!

      At the bed and breakfast with our "cottage" in the background.

      Where Kelly and I saw for an hour and chatted.....it was delightful:).

     George Bush Senior's beautiful home....they live in Kennebunkport from March until October, and they apparently are out and about all of the time.

        

 

Yep, they were karaoke all-stars.  Who would have know that was Eric's hidden passion??

         Eric and Brandt, crammed in the back of our convertible while Kelly and I enjoyed the front!

                                                             It was a windy ride!

                           Whale watching!  We didn't see whales, but we saw pretty lighthouses.

                                            And finally, the delicious brick-oven pizza.