sorry

here's thing thing. i can't talk now. not now, not tomorrow and certainly not for the next two weeks.

i'm obsessed with the Olympics. certifiably obsessed. who's not afraid to stay up all hours of the night to watch random sports? well, me.

I've even considered trying to learn some random sport in order to be an Olympian. Of course i'd have to be nationalized by some small, random country who usually only sends 2 delegates to the games, but hey, I'd be an Olympian.

so. we'll talk soon. but for now i'm glued to the tube and streaming online video.

obsessed. capital o.

well hello again

hi, remember me? yep. lauren.

i haven't posted in ages. here's a couple of reasons why:

a. i'm lazy. i takes time to think, and i think alot at work. so when i'm home i kind of just like to sit on the couch and drool at the weather channel, or cook.

b. one of my stupid neighbors decided to move and take their unprotected (aka free) wireless with them. f'ers. there is no way i'm paying $130 a month for crap cable and an even crappier internet connection. I'm relying on my fellow grammercy park neighbors to be both rich and stupid.

c. it's kind of lost its fun.

but alas, i'm back. here's what's happened in the past 5 months, the abridged version.

a. I went to st. lucia with ol' pal diane. we had a great time, by far best travel partner yet. she neither dragged me to dance clubs or made me drink myself silly. (i did the latter on quite frankly on my own which bit me in the ass our last morning).

we drank a load of pitons (st. lucia's own beer) see the pic of the actual pitons below. Gros is on the left, Petit on the right. I didn't name them, that's their actual names. Though it does sound like something i would say.



b. i went to atlanta, for the kids' birthday party. (callie 2, bryce 5). caren rented a jumpy-castle-ish blow-up-waterslide. oh hell. that was the highlight of the year. after all the kids left and the "adults" had a couple of wines & beer in us, manged to climb up this 13' inflated water slide with only minor injuries and throw ourselves down the slide. and i mean throw, as in i bounced off the end of it, landed on my duff and have not laughed that hard since.

i had such great weekend hanging out with the georgia fam. totally miss them and the kids, the kids are getting so big! callie is so friggen adorable i really wanted to stick her in my purse and take her home me with me. bryce has gotten so big, and is such a little boy. whatever happened to shortstack? I don' t have pics from that weekend, but you can see them on caren's blog.

I also got to hang out with one of my ol pals patton! all preggers! i love it. cannot wait to meet that baby once its here.

c. hmm. ooh! coney island! i went for the first time last weekend, and again this weekend. let me tell you, it is the petree dish of northeast. wow... the clientele. let's just say interesting. but, it's free. it's a subway ride (roughly and hour from me) and they do not charge to get on the beach.

and since hot dogs are a food group for me, i had to make a pit stop for lunch at nathan's, complete with hotdog, french fries and diet coke. i must say, while it was good, their hot dogs cannot hold a candle to the wind mill's in jersey. mmmmm. kraut dog. mmmm..


d. hmm. not much else really. tried a bunch of new restaurants, traveled to MN again a couple of times for work. briefly thought i could buy an apartment in brooklyn. (shattered ideas due to well. money, but it was fun to look).

e. ooh, i am getting ready to go FL to see my mom though, looking forward to that and some clean beaches, full of quiet, normal people. those not often asked to be in scientific or drug related focus groups.

anyway. this was nice, maybe i'll try to do it again soon. let's just hope this internet connection holds for a while.

adios.

arches anyone?

just a quickie, had to share this one. So just came back from getting my eyebrows waxed, they were becoming a bit unruly. i walk 2 blocks the place i normally go for all eyebrow, manicure and pedicutre needs and stroll in. Now, i'm not really a normal customer, but it's my fail safe place. the woman who owns the salon will recognize me and say hello, make small talk before the classic "pick you color."

sadly she wasn't there today, but that besides the point. one thing i've learned with all nail/waxing salons is they want to get rid of every piece of hair on your body, aside from your pony tail. the first time, back in college, when a waxer asked me if i wanted my lip/face done i was appalled and spent a good 5 minutes when i got home agonizing in front of the mirror over the little blonde hairs that are barely visible. blonde i tell you, not black, coarse or numerous. just peach fuzz.
so back to the point of the story. the woman who did my eyebrows today must've been new, or she's just never waxed my brows before. she did a fine job. but as she's almost done she starts attacking the hair on the left side of my head with an oiled cotton ball. looks like somone dropped some hot wax on my pony-tailed locks. grrrreat.

i tried not to panic, baby oil takes it out, no problem. but then after she said "s'ok, s'ok" about 5 times, in true salon fashion, comes back with " you want lip? too much over here." and points to the right side of my mouth.

now what makes you think, i'd trust someone to rip the peach fuzz off the side of my face who just doused my pony tail with hot wax?

people just don't think.

egg salad yum

i just wanted you all to know, every time i want to make egg salad, which isn't too often, maybe once a season, I have to look up on line how to hard boil an egg...

it's just one of those things I can't remember.

I can tell you exactly what I was wearing when when i was 2 and my family vacationed in VT, and my brother spun me so fast on a merry go round i puked up cheeze it's on my mom(red hooded sweat shirt and osh kosh b'goshes) but egg boiling? gets me every time.
haha.

eggs.
yum.

show and some sushi

last night myself and two friends saw ingrid michaelson at webster hall. great show.
she's a great indie performer out of nyc who's recently gotton a ton of press and air time. you may know from the christmas 07 old navy commercials or grey's anatomy. hysterical on stage and super talented. it's the kind of show you see that makes you wish you could sing and play multiple instruments. when i grow up (i still think it's fun to say this being that i'm not out of my 20's quite yet and i have plenty of time more to grow, hopefully not physically). anywho, when i do grow up have a brownstone, 2.5 kids, etc. I plan on making the little runts learn piano. i wish i did. and as they learn, i think i would as well.

anyway, it's a chilly day in nyc and i have to bundle up and face the cold for some errands.

primary and a parade

well hello fine friends. today was a huge day to be a new yorker. we had a huge parade downtown to honor our own new york giants. sadly i wasn't able to go, work has been busy to say the least lately.

on the other hand, it was primary day. i got up this morning excited to vote, pull the old school red lever and cast my thoughts away to washington.

not so much. the lovely 63rd precint of new yorks' machine was broken.. i had to vote old school scantron style. (think SAT style, fill in the oval). kind of killed the whole voting experience.
let's just hope, come election day, the red level will be fixed and ready for me.

that was just cruel

the meterologists.

not cool. not cool at all. Monday morning i jumped out of bed within seconds of my alarm going off. and that never happens. i ran across the room threw open the shade in hopes of seeing 19th st covered in a white blanket of snow. and what do i see?

nothing.
absolutely nothing.

not even a flake. just grey skies, a wet fire escape and the sky just spitting. so thanks weather people. thanks alot for making my morning crap. i couldn't wait to pull the wellies on and run through the snow. but no. instead you got me all excited thinking this huge nor'easter woudl dump up to 6" of snow on nyc. so enough with the hype.

and if wasn't bad enough, the forecasters and local news teams who you know were just kicking themselves for not coming up with quality news because they were relying on reporting school closings and down power lines due to accumulation. instead, they just kept going on about why it didn't snow. "well you know folks, the temperature just didn't drop as much as we thought it would."

Thanks for that. just kick me when i'm down.

here's to better forecasting and the next big dumping.

for dinner?

my mom came up to visit this weekend for some much deserved girl time. we shopped, walked around and caught up, good times overall.
i have to say my favorite part of the weekend would have to saturday's dinner. after some wine and apps at my place (edamame-ole recipe care of mom/cooking light made by me --it's a guacamole recipe using edamame instead of avocado, very yummy) we took the m15 downtown to Max Brenner.

what made this dinner quite so good? i'll have you decide for yourselves. here's a bit from the menu, and what we ended up feasting on.

Chocolate Pizza with Peanut Butter and Sliced Bananas

Hazelnut Cream Crepe
a think french crepe stuffed with melted chocolate chunks and hazelnut cream. served with vanilla ice cream, toffee bananas, vanilla sauce and candied hazelnut crunch bits.

it was friggen fantastic. dessert for dinner? why not. who needs a main plate when you can have the sweet stuff firs? we deserved it and life's too short. it was unbelievable. i just finished off the remaining couple bites of the pizza, i think i'm skipping the main again tonight.

i'm not going to be able to sleep tonight anyway, nyc is supposed to get hammered by a snow storm, dumping up to 6" by rush hour. any mention of snow quickly turns me into an first grader waiting impatiently next to the local news for the school closings.

new york covered in a blanket of the white stuff is one of my favorite things- everything goes so quiet and turns the hardest people soft.

well have a good one, have to go put pj's on inside and out and backwards in hopes of more snow.

I'm going to be a good wife... one day

not only for my sarcastic sense of humor, but because i can roast a chicken like nobody's business.

I had a small dinner party at my house this evening, just 3 of us, who vow to rotate houses to try new recipes. but you know what? i'm damn good in the kitchen. everything was homemade, on schedule with no reheating needed.

what was on tap you ask? for starters we had a nice slice of brie with whole grain crackers and sliced apple with a mix of spanish olives for those who craved a more spicy note.

the next course was a mixed baby green salad with fresh shaved parmigiano reggiano with a lemon dill dressing.

following the salad, served in chilled bowls i might add, was a roast chicken, stuffed with thyme, a head of garlic, lemon and sage roasted on a top of a bed of chopped onions, carrots and parsnips. a side of rosemary roasted diced new potatoes accompanied the meal.

honest to God the most moist and juicy chicken i've ever had. paired with a couple bottles of wine, you can't go wrong.

chocolate dipped strawberries topped off the evening care of a deb and were delicious. so i'm going to bed with a full but comfortably stuffed tummy.

with the promise of blogging a bit more. it was nice break.
i really should've taken a picture of my bird, it was just beautiful.

so if you...

poured cement in my ears it would not drown out the collective, harmonizing "whoo hooo's" i keep hearing from my upstairs neighbor's apartment.

she's having a party, with about 15+ other girls. now wait for it... wait for it...with strippers.

god for friggen bid. Yes a large white man, and a large black man are dancing around in your 400 sq foot apartment in banana hammocks and cowboy hats. just great.

I hope they are wearing knee pads because every time they "drop it like it's hot" my light fixtures shake. It's 12:22 am people. i don't need to hear Britney's 'give me more' nor do i enjoy the calming, high bass tune letting me know that both strippers are 'bringing sexy back.' oh is that what you are doing? I wasn't quite sure.

i have no idea what they are celebrating. I'm guessing bachlorette. and if it is a bachlorette, you're eff'ing it up. you are supposed to take the bride to a respected strip club an embarrass her by having some stripper drag her up on stage with all the other brides to be in their matching tuille viels. it's the only way to go.

anyway. i have to go back out to LA, last trip. almost done. staying in santa monica again, not too shabby, nicer place this time, I'll send pics. then the project goes live, very soon. You'll see pictures once it's in market. until then i stand behind my contract of client confidentiality.

anywhoo. i'm going to plug up my ears with little plastic plugs hoping that i can only hear a few decibels of the whooo hooooo's and "shaaaaakkkkeeeee it's."

talk to you soon from cali.

just kick me while i'm down, won't you?

I'm in la for work.
by law new yorkers are supposed to hate la. i don't hate it, but i don't love it. it's a driving city and I miss my metrocard. i'm here for a project for work of which I have all the faith in the world. but R&D (that's research and development), is proving difficult and D-day (launch) is fast approaching But it will get done and it will be amazing and you will all hear of it. it won't fail, because i don't fail. i just wish everyone would see it the way i do. chin up. i'm sick of being positive enough for everyone.

god the stress.

on a lighter note. i had a small break today. saw muholland drive on the way to the fabrication shop. it's pretty amazing. due to the fires & marine haze it wasn't sure clear, but you get the idea. after that was a quick drive bite to eat & the hollywood sign. here are some pics:




this picture cracks me up. typical me right? that's a fake smile i'd say.


well. so here i am. i ate dinner on the 3rd street promenade alone, it was what i needed. a gooey cheesy lasagna, house salad and a tiramisu to go. comfort food? yes. i'm stressed and i don't' mind if it means 3 extra miles on the treadmill this week.

here's where i'm staying, the huntley in santa monica. (note the plastic bag on the big squishy bed, that's the tiramisu that i'm going to indulge in straight away). bathroom is nice too. great hotel, but doesn't hold a candle to the graves in Minneapolis. anyhoo. i have to work now. catch everyone up on this project.


and on top of it all? Rutgers lost. i'm down. just kick me.

mad libs anyone?

Tomorrow in nyc it's supposed to rain like (-----noun plural------). Unfortunately I've left my wellies at (-------place-----). They are currently (------location----), doing me no (----adverb----). This makes me super (----adjective----).


If you guessed the following:
cats & dogs
work
under my desk
good
angry

ding, ding, ding! you've got it right.

your prize? you can revel in knowing that you are quite smart in comparison to my stupidity.
i'm a weather channel freak, you think id' be prepared.
argh.

weekend away

me and my new bag (pictured below, and yes i love it) ventured down to jersey yesterday to visit the fam. the bag is a herve chapelier, thanks to laura i finally got the name of the designer instead of being tempted to ask everyone at the gym who the hell made it. i think of this purchase as body insurance. sure, it's a tote, carry-all what have you, but it's my gym bag. I normally wouldn't condone spending over $100 on a gym bag, but i had good reasoning. The mornings when my alarm clock goes off at 5:55 am, and i'm so needing more sleep, i say to myself, "self, you spent over $1oo on gym bag. get the hell out of bed and bring it to the gym.".

whatever. it's screwed up reasoning, but when did anything normal ever work for me?

anyway. so today was fun, the weather has finally changed for the better. this friday i intend on treating myself to my first pumpkin spice latte of the season. well.. could be tomorrow afternoon given the screaming match, aka meeting i have in the morning. ah creatives, can't live with them, can't take them off their pedestals.

so, today was an errand day for my mom and i. every time i go home we hit the usuals, Marshalls, possibly tjmaxx or target, always wegmans and a few other stand bys thrown in there. Wegmans ranks with Publix in terms of grocery stores, and shopping in NJ is much cheaper then shopping in nyc. Exhibit a: sliced smoked turkey (deli) - Wegmans, 1/2 lb $2.50. Gristedes: the worst food store on teh face of the earth: 1/2 pound deitz and watson: (and gross) $5.75. i mean seriously?? c'mon people. so i shop in nj when i can.

in addition to the turkey, ham, arugula, feta, lemon caper sauce (so good), olives, hummus etc. I also bought 36 oz of chocolate chips.

chocolate chips you ask? I know. I know. i'm so not the baker, i usually suck at it, but i keep trying. (just as caren. i nearly burnt down her kitchen once.. haha) i can cook until the cows come home but ask me to measure stuff and i get all confused. (remember, i'm advertising because i don't need more then a high school knowledge of mathematics)

so. today i made 8 dozen chocolate chip cookies. 8 DOZEN! and they are so friggen perfect. golden brown bottoms, perfect crunch factor. amazing. martha steward couldn not have baked a better cookie. well. maybe that is pushing it. so, 4 doz for me and 4 doz of my mom. I'm bringing mine to work to bribe people to get my stuff done, and award others for doing such a great job. Luckily it's more of the latter.

anyway. since i've only eaten 2 of the 8 dozen, i'm going to go polish off a few now.
sadly i do not have any milk.

i don't care

how much it costs. or where the hell i have to go. i'm getting a massage tomorrow. every muscle in my neck, shoulders and upper back is tense. so much so that on the bus i had to remind myself to not constantly try to touch the tops of my shoulders to the bottom of my ears.

i'm going for some retail therapy, buying that herve chapelier bag i want at bloomies. then a massage. hello citi card. you're finally going to get some use. because dammit. i deserve it. 70+ hours weeks and tense shoulders say so.

i'm exhausted.
i'm going go bed
night night

wait. is that music?

i can't sing. really, i can't, wish i could. i am at peace with this portion of my non-talent so i in no way feel compelled to sing in public.

much to my dismay, not all people are this self aware.

exhibit a? the bar across the street from my apartment that now hosts live music. the guy on the mic right now is well into his first set.

hell i tell you. complete hell. I'd close the windows but It's so nice out. maybe it's time to bring out the ear plugs again. here's his set list so far:

1. Me and Julio Down at the School Yard- Paul Simon
2. You've Got to Hide Your love Away- The Beatles
---yep. every time the "Hey" comes up, he sings way to loudly into the microphone. c'mon buddy.
3. I'm not quite sure what this song was, he was mumbling too badly. possibly trying to channel his inner Dylan? - not working.

4. lyrics, indistinguishable. no idea what this one was.
5. ditto #4, but with harmonica.
6. Heart of Gold- Neil Young


okay pals. as much as i'd love to give you an amateur hour play by play, i'm going to hit the hay early. i skipped the gym this morning due to last nights catch upon sleep because of tuesday night's 3:00 am bender. so when you are all tucked in your comfy beds at 6:00 am think of me walking to the gym.

joy. can't wait.

i see famous people.

i never do. i suck at it. so, since my monthly unlimited metro card ran out on thursday, i had to renew it on friday. and since i'm the mta's #1 bus fan, and they don't sell metro cards on the buses, i had to take the subway. luckily it wasn't 900 degrees.

as i was crossing 15th and 3rd, the corner that smells like coffee (i'll get to this in a bit, it's too good to pass up), i see this stunning woman crossing the street. she had to be at least 6 ft tall. she was super casual, dressed down but so put together. i wanted to be her. as i got closer, i realized who it was.

no other then Uma Thurman.


oh wait.it gets better.. Ethan Hawke. i NEVER see famous people. they were with their children, I'm guessing on the way to school. she is really that pretty and yes, he is hotter then ever. sickeningly hot. their kids are probably going to adapt and a start super race with those genes.

so, of course what do i do? cross the street and locate my phone in the depth of my black hole of a bag and call caren. because she saw adrien greenier when she was here visiting day and i didn't. she was excited for me. hehe


so back to the coffee story.
in january my parents were here visiting we were walking toward the union square subway station, and were held at the light crossing 3rd at 15th. my mom stops and said "i smell coffee." my father and i look at each other, then at her and laugh.

we were standing in a front of a starbucks.

so from now on, that's the coffee corner and when i'm there I always think of my mom and laugh. cracks me up every time.
hehe

heaven

i recorded 'sarah's secrets' on the food network today because she has a couple of recipes i've liked on their website. low and behold, best show ever aired today.

those who know me, know how much i love to chop. me and a good kitchen knife make an excellent pair. well. get ready.... today's show is all about chopping. i'm trying to contain myself from taking notes and posting them all over my kitchen. who knew there were easier ways to chop tomatoes? and she made a caponata that looked just delicious, and it's all chopped! i'm making that as soon as the 2nd paycheck kicks in on friday.

now... shes julienning! i'm locking this show so it's not deleted by mistake.

forgive me, but i have to learn how to julienne.

happy chopping.

train wreck.

i'm sorry i just couldn't keep this one to myself. i'm watching the mtv music awards did anyone else catch britney's spears' opening number? it was like a bad accident where you just can't look away. the dancing, the hair weave. the lip syncing? yikes.

if i am ever that loaded i will have people to tell me 'no lauren, you're making a fool out of yourself.' sad, really.

quite frankly, i'm a bit surprised at mtv. they are no better then the tabloids. exploiting people for the sake of some ratings. sad. sad. sad.

i'll give it to her though, for someone who has had 2 kids, her body doesn't look bad. i hope to look like that after popping out 2 lil' ones.

put another notch in the W column

Rutgers did it again. we just beat navy 41-24
There is just something about the first football games of the year that make me so happy. Could be the smell of fall in the air, or gearing up for a great RU season.

needless to say the big east has 4 Heisman trophy contenders, and one being Ray Rice of RU.

unbelievable... a heisman candidate from Rutgers.. I love it

check it out. See Ray run... all the way to the trophy ceremony.

by the way, he just crushed the Rutger's all time rushing record this evening against Navy.
well done Ray, well done.

just remember, RU is the birthplace of college football. you can thank my alma mater for your saturday game watching activities.

if i attracted men like I attract mosquitos, i'd be a floozy.

great labor day weekend, very relaxing. I headed down to beesley's point to join lauren and a couple of college friends to celebrate the end of summer. great time.

I took the bus from port authority directly to atlantic city, and let me tell you, that is one helluv'an experience. the people watching one can do on a greyhound is uncanny. I caught the 10:00 bus and quickly grabbed a window seat and got situated. as i took out the trusty ipod, an elderly lady sat next to me and struck up a quick conversation. She turned toward me and pointy her frail finger my way and said "you, i chose you because you look quiet."
...and then went into a 20 minute diatribe on atlantic city, the taj mahal. that's about the time i told her i'm going to take a nap, then put on my headphones. so much for quiet, eh? she was funny though. at one point during our journey her phone rang, and she had a brief conversation with her friend who was due to meet her. It went a bit like this.

" No. the taj.. no the TAAAAAJJJJJJJJ. oh come on.. you know where i am, slots. on the right, no no near the exit, where i usually go."

cracked me up. after a 2 hour and 10 minute trip (only about 10 of us got off the at the atlantic city bus terminal, others were going to the taj--- and we were early) lauren and brian picked me up and we headed to house. it was a great time, drinks and dinner at the tuckahoe, boating, clamming, crabbing and mussel hunting. it was the seafood bounty of a weekend.

after lots of great food, good drink, warm sun, fantastic company and many, many mosquito bites i got back on the bus last night for the return trip home.

my seat mate had a bag of fried chicken, leftover from the AC buffets i'm guessing. after 30 minutes I didn't smell it too much. the company just as interesting as the ride down.

shore traffic and late bus got me home in under 3 hours and I was happy to be back in my bed .

great way to end the summer. now break on the sweaters boots and spiced pumpkin nonfat lattes.

oh. and i got in a bus accident on the way home today. ridiculous. cabbie cut off the bus. everyone was fine just a bit knocked about.
i swear. only in nyc.