Always the adventure

I live in one of the greatest cities in the world, filled with some of the greatest food in the world. Hence, I travel great distances to try these amazing places. So, when a coworker of mine told me that there is a restaurant downtown that serves nothing but mac and cheese, I was all over that! Tonight, Kate and I decided to track it down. It's in lower east side at 12th and 1st, which means about 45 minutes by 2 trains.

We were so excited! It's gonna be awesome. The menu looks fantastic, and who doesn't love a place devoted to mac and cheese? When we finally get there, we walk in and it's tiny. Like, not just New York tiny, but TINY! And it's only carry out and delivery. What!? Are you kidding? This is so our luck. Of course I blame Kate because in our walk over to the place she joked that it would totally be our luck that they closed yesterday or moved yesterday or something. "Don't jinx us, Kate! You know our track record!" Then, we see this. Are you kidding me? We're discussing what we want to do, if we can figure out a place to eat it or we just want to find something else in the neighborhood. It's weird, though, because their website didn't mention anything about being take-out only. I decided to ask the guy at the counter if they had another location and maybe I had just taken us to the wrong one not realizing. He says no, this is it, except for the sit-down one. What? Where's that? That's what we want. "O. It's like 2 doors down," he says with a look like, you moron!

O thank goodness we didn't leave. This long of a trek for nothing when we were really that close really would have pissed me off! So, we went next door and it was small, like NY small, but worth it! I got glorious Americana Mac & Cheese with hot dogs, just like childhood (minus the Kraft part...sorry mom), and Kate got a slightly fancier 4 cheese variety with chicken. Overall it was pretty fantastic and well worth the trek. Plus it was a fun date with Kate (which they always are).

Until next time...

Really? All that for a sandwich?

It's been a while, but here's the update: I've been working hard on my Master's Thesis project. This curriculum is going to be awesome! I just hope I get to actually teach it one day! :) And for Spring Break, I got to go home! It was a short visit, but it was a much-needed break. It's always hard to leave, though. I know I only have 2 months left and a LOT going on till the end, so it'll be ok.

Now, for the adventure! :D

I bought some shirts online (why do I pretend like I can actually shop successfully online? I don't know!), and, of course, they didn't fit. I bought them for an interview and they didn't arrive in time, anyway, but then they didn't fit, so I really don't want them. Unfortunately, because Sears owns Kmart now, you can apparently buy stuff from Sears through Kmart, but if it's from Sears, you have to return it to Sears, not Kmart. Grr! So, I have to trek out to Queens (at least 45 min and 3 trains) to go to Sears to return these stupid shirts instead of the nice direct shot down to 34th for Kmart. So, I decided to give it a go this evening. In the mean time, I also decided it was dinner time and I needed peanut butter anyway, why not make a pitstop at the Peanut Butter & Co. store?

Unfortunately, the train was running pretty slowly tonight (traffic or construction or something) and it took longer than I thought it would to get down there. So, by the time I ate and got done at PB&Co, I figured it was too late to head to Queens, as I didn't really want to walk home from the Harlem stop at 10. So, essentially I wasted 2 hours and 2 trips on my MetroCard for a peanut butter sandwich. O well, at least it was tasty! :D

I also had a fabulous lunch date with Tomomi today, and discovered chai lattes. Wow! Yum! Then I had the shakes all afternoon...apparently they're wicked high in sugar and caffeine. Ooops.

Other than that, I've been really good on this whole sugar-less diet thing. Over spring break I went back to the doc and she was amazed at my improvement! She said I may be ready for my races by summer if I keep it up, but it's still kinda a long shot. But more importantly, we can focus on my muscles and joints now (like we're supposed to) instead of just my ligaments! YAY!

So, overall, things are going well. I have just under 2 months till I graduate; things are looking pretty positive! I'll definitely miss NY and the wonderful friends I've made here, but I'm happy to go home, too. I miss it terribly.

Anyone for a swim?

So, I went to dinner with my friends Ali and Kate before Spring Break. It was really nice, and the 2 of them finally met. However, it was raining like CRAZY! We're supposed to get 2-3 inches of rain tonight, and it's certainly looking like it'll happen. On our walk back from the subway, we got so soaked. I included pics! It really feels like I've been thrown in a pool with my clothes on. It's crazy.

Adventure Du Jour

Bonjour! Today's adventure in The Big Bad City was neither bad nor overly adventurous. But, it was big and fun! As you know, I live way uptown in Harlem. Today, I ventured down to NYU area and got a picture of something I've wanted to see since I moved here. Here it is:

As you can tell, it's a street sign. What you may not be able to see is what street corner this is. It's the corner of Chrystie and Delancey. This corner was made famous in one of my favorite movies, (and therefore why I wanted to go down there) Happy Accidents. I have been working hard on my thesis work and decided to get out and enjoy this most gorgeous New York day. It was warm, beautifully sunny, and amazingly perfect. I re-fell in love with the city today. Only to then realize I only have about 2 short months left.

After visiting here, I decided to walk a few more blocks and visit Bleecker Street. This was made famous (to me, anyway) by the show Felicity. It is also very known (apparently) for its fashion and shopping (any shocker why I didn't know that!?). So, I took a pic of that subway stop, that Felicity is leaning on in the credits. However, I didn't go down INTO the station to actually get a pic of the pole (maybe one day) because I didn't really feel like wasting the money. I realize the whole adventure was essentially a waste ofmoney, but why waste more? So, here's that one.

And on my return to my neck of the woods, I decided to stop at Central Park. I had brought a book along to read on the train, and it being such a fantastically gorgeous day, I thought I'd make more of it. On my walk from the train to the park, I saw this:

If you can't tell, it's a sculpture of roses. It's in the median at Park and 62nd, I think. Somewhere around there. It was just so random and pretty.

I love being a tourist in my own town. Today was a lot of fun! It got me outside (which I haven't really been able to do and enjoy in a while) and gave me a break from my work. Yay! I ♥ NYC!

Crazy Week

Hi everyone! What a crazy week I've had. As you probably know, I work 2 jobs and am a more-than-full-time student. It's just the way it is. One of my jobs is that I work for the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. It's kind of like a separate company within the school. It works with teachers around the city doing professional development in literacy. It also works (on a much lighter scale) with other schools around the world doing the same thing. Anyway, each year TCRWP puts on institutes. There is the coaching institute (which has people from all over the world coming to learn how to coach classroom teachers to be better literacy leaders, and it's for those that are the lit-support specialists in their schools), the February mini-institute (don't let the name fool you - there are still 450+ participants. And this year, it was scheduled for the week after coaching...ug!), and a Summer Writing and Summer Reading in July and August (1 of each in each). There are a total of 6 institutes. It's a madhouse.

However, this past week kicked it all off. Coaching started last Monday. All was great. It went smoothly, and Monday was just a bit hectic trying to set up, but it was fine. Come Wednesday, shit hit the fan! We realized we didn't have the materials necessary for Registration on Monday. And it would be VERY difficult (and at the time, we believed impossible) to get them in time. However, miracles (obviously) do happen, and it all worked out.

After many LOOOOONNGG hours last week and working every day (including Saturday and Sunday), the institute kicked off yesterday so smoothly! It couldn't have gone better! See, all that hard work pays off. :)

Last Challenge Day...oops

Oops, I guess I never posted this...sorry! :)

Day 30 - A Picture

Well, the most recent good picture of me is from this past weekend. Patrick and I flew down to Florida to surprise Julie at Disney and go to a Guster concert with Becky. This picture is from the latter. It was such a great weekend!

And then come all the other pictures from that trip! :)

Challenge Update

Day 24 - Something I've Learned

I've learned a lot in my life, that's for sure. A major lesson I've learned, sadly the way most of the important lessons are learned--the hard

way, is to not take advantage of things you have now, because you don't know when they'll leave you. This goes for people, pets, things and even places. I love my mountains, and I never get tired of seeing them. I love my family and friends and boyfriend, and I tell them all the time! I constantly remind myself how lucky I am to have such wonderful people and things in my life, and that I need to be cognizant of that.

Day 25 - iPod Shuffle

For this day, it says to put your iPod on shuffle and list the first 10 songs played. Ok. Here goes.

1. Dirty Little Secret - All American Rejects

2. Glycerine - Bush

3. Amid the Falling Snow - Enya

4. Eden - Guster

5. One Day - Trading Yesterday

6. Photograph - Weezer

7. Nothing Left to Lose - Mat Kearney

8. Paper Planes - M.I.A.

9. Foreward - Linkin Park

10. Lover Lay Down - Dave Matthews Band

As you can see, quite a mix. It's pretty much what happens in my iPod...a mix of soft to punk, death to Christian, randomness--like me!

Day 26 - Something I have yet to learn

Anyone who knows me knows I struggle with one major flaw - patience. I really only have patience when it comes to teaching. I often say that God put all my patience allotment in one bucket - teaching. So, I really don't have patience for much else, but I'm working on it.

Day 27 - Pets

I have Sam, my kitty, who's 7 month's old and already 11 or so pounds. He's a Maine Coon whose daddy was 25 lbs!

I also have Gus, my puppy. He's nearly 4 no

w, and I love him and miss him terribly. He's a puggle (part pug, part beagle). He's a rare one...he's brindle. Most puggles are fawn.

Here are some pics:

Day 28 - Something that stresses me

Like day 26 mentioned, I'm not superly patient. So, unfortunately, many things stress me. I'm working hard on this, but in the mean time, I'm rather easily frustrated (ESPECIALLY by technology). It's supposed to be instant, right?!

Day 29 - Three Wishes

If I had three wishes, what would they be? Apparently, as a woman, it's supposed to be for a pony, a seagull, and something other than socket wrenches (like world peace). But, alas, I have no space for a pony, birds scare me, and I really could probably use some socket wrenches. :) But, for my three wishes, I'd wish for health and happiness for all I love; I'd like to be able to follow all my dreams (including making dreams of my loved ones come true); and I'd wish for ability to make a difference. Those are the things that mean the most to me, and if I had wishes, I'd like to make those things come true.