Finally

When I was little I used to love to watch gymnastics competitions on tv and wondered how I could be one of the lucky people in the audience.  This Saturday my dream is coming true!  The Tyson Cup will be held at Madi Square G and Chelsie and I have tickets!  Can't wait!

On a different note, if you're wondering about the dentist, it was horrible!  The dentist was really sweet and I really liked her, but the hygienist was NOT gentle.  And instead of the old school polish there's some new invention where they blast your teeth with this mixture of water, salt, and baking soda.  It was terribly uncomfortable, and when it hit my gums, cheeks, tongue, etc, it totally hurt!  The only good thing was it takes like a minute or less.

Oh yeah, and I have a small cavity to get filled next month.  :(  I had a cavity filled on the exact same tooth on the opposite side and the dentist said it's a really common thing to have decay symmetrical like that.  Who knew?

Guess who's coming to town?  I can't wait for April!  Elise is flying in and will get here early on the 12th and will be here till the 15th!  Seriously can't wait!

Also, Jason will be here this Sunday for business and I am so excited!  Brad's been down here a million times and we always have such a good time together, so now the only person left to come out is YOU Rebecca!

Time for a big girl bed

I am finally graduating from the twin.  Tomorrow my new queen sized bed is being delivered!  I am seriously so excited I can't even stand it.  Back at my parents' house I have a full but other than that, in college and out here I've had a twin and am seriously over it.

I found this sweet dream castle bed today while shopping, and thought about calling to see if they made it in grown up size.  Hahaha.  I ended up going for a classic sealy lexington pillow top.  So tonight is the last night in the ridiculously squeaky twin sized bed.  Woo hoo!  Gotta hit up Bed Bath and Beyond tomorrow to get some new sheets and pillows.  I think I need to retire the leopard print body pillow.

I'll tumble for ya...

I've been thinking about it for months, and I finally took the plunge.  Yep, I enrolled in an adult gymnastics class.  I always loved tumbling in high school, it was one of my favorite parts of cheering.  However, not only is it fun, but it's also a fabulous workout.  I've been thinking forever that I wish I could start tumbling again, but didn't really know where to start.  I really just missed it, and also wanted something I could do to exercise which didn't require begging and pleading with myself.  There's nothing that I can do that doesn't feel like working out, aka torture.  I don't love running, I don't love hiking, I don't do yoga or pilates, and while I love team sports, they don't count because I have to get other people to do that.

Finally I did a little research and found out the Chelsea Piers offers classes for adults.  Sweet!  I kind of put it off for a while but finally took the plunge after realizing I need to do something for me.  Yes, yes, I know, being single my life is pretty much all about me, however I decided I needed to do something for me that was good and healthy, and brought more benefits than spoiling myself with shopping adventures could.

Last night was my first class.  I couldn't stop talking about it all day at work.  I was so excited!  I even got there 30 minutes early.  After I got there, however, the intimidation sort of set in.  I quickly realized I was doing this class with a bunch of strangers.  If you've ever watched someone learning to tumble you've seen what a fool they make of themselves.  At times it's really awkward as you jump backward, arms and legs flailing in the air, only to face plant it, sometimes seriously hurting yourself.  Back in the day I was with my best friends and it was really no big deal, we could all laugh at ourselves and each other.  I always felt so much support from my teammates and coaches, but would I get that here?  

As people showed up I got more and more nervous.  There was an asian person I originally thought was a female, but turned out to be male (I was in Chelsea, so I have to expect to see a lot of gays/transexuals, etc.)  Chinese people are crazy with acrobatics, so I initially figured this person would be really good.  There was a big Russian looking guy, some other young guys with ripped bodies, and then other girls in their 20s, strutting around in leggings, tank tops, etc, looking really flexible and confident.  Yikes.

Our instructor showed up and started warming us up for our 90 minute class.  Let me tell you, that 40 minutes of stretching and conditioning was the toughest part.  That man is a sadist!  Honestly, it was tough!  I quickly realized I was the weakest person there.  Awesome.  I'm the fat kid who's left alone on the sidelines, waiting to be chosen for someone's dodgeball team.  Sweet.

After this we started doing some easy things to warm up, forward rolls, dive rolls, etc.  There were a couple things, though, that I never really learned how to do, like handstand rolls, and backward rolls pushing up to a handstand.  This is where I realized one of the differences between retired cheerleaders and retired gymnasts.  Cheerleaders don't learn the smaller things that lead into tumbling, they just learn the tricks they can showcase.  Since I didn't know how to do a lot of things one of the coaches said to me in a really nice, encouraging way, "Oh, you're a beginner?  Oh that's okay, Monday nights more advanced people come, but we taylor the class for all skill levels.  I wanted to say, "No, I used to tumble, really, I wasn't bad, I just don't know how to do any of these smaller things, like arials, and front handsprings."  But I told myself to just lower my pride and try to learn a few things.  Let me tell you, it was humbling an difficult to be coached by someone other than people I'd known for years, who knew me and respected me and my talent level.

Once we finally got to start tumbling the coach who was working with the "beginners" was teaching us the basics of back handsprings, having us do snapdowns and other exercises.  He saw that I had the technique, and quickly said, "You used to be a cheerleader, didn't you."  I laughed and said yes, and that if this were seven years ago I wouldn't look like such a beginner, and that I was kind of rusty.  He was really nice and said I would get it back.

While watching the "advanced" people, I felt a little better, seeing as how there really was only one girl who had a consistently clean roundoff handspring tuck, which I could do, on a really good day.  I basically just had my roundoff tuck, or multiple handsprings on any other given day.  All the other girls were working on their tucks, or multiple handsprings.  This gave me a lot of hope that I wouldn't feel so lame in the next few weeks.

After a few times of being spotted I had my back handspring back!  I felt great, just like riding a bike, except I need to get more of my strength back.

It brought back some fond memories.  I did one handspring where my feet were apart and the coach commented on it, and it reminded me of when Nora would tie my ankles together, or I'd have to squeeze a foam cube between my ankles while I did a handspring to keep my feet together.  I also caught myself one time slipping into a dumb habit, where I'll look back at the floor right behind me, just before I do a handspring, as if to make sure the floor is still there??  I used to get teased about it all the time.

I'm not confident enough to just throw the handsprings without a spot even being there at all, but I'm really excited to go next week and hopefully I'll be back at that point.  I wouldn't dare tumble anywhere else though.  In high school we would throw handsprings on the concrete at times, when we had no where else to practice, but for now I'm sticking to the gym floor, where there's a bit of a spring.

As expected, today I am SERIOUSLY sore at pretty much every muscle.  My neck and abs probably the most, but my legs and back are pretty close behind.  Last night on my way home I was seriously beat.  I could barely walk up the subway steps.

Anyway, I had such a fun time.  It made me miss high school and people from the past, but I'm really glad I'm doing it.  There's a class every night Monday through Friday, but for now I think I'll stick to once a week.  We'll see how it goes in the next few weeks.  Maybe I'll want to go more frequently.  In high school I was at practice or a game every day of the week but Sunday, and then sometimes there were competitions, and I still couldn't get enough of it.

Couldn't be more excited

I can't wait to get Carried away.

*Special thanks to Karen for posting this first!

Time to be responsible

I've put it off long enough.  I knew I should take some action after my boss told me he scheduled an appointment for me to go to the dentist.  (He really didn't, but had me believing it for about two weeks until my supposed appointment came and went.)

Anyway, it's a really scary thing getting into the real world and suddenly having to magically know how to use your own insurance, and find your own doctors.  It's pretty safe to say I haven't been to a single doctor since I've moved to New York (minus the eye doctor in California which doesn't count since he's a family friend and old neighbor and I just called him at home because it was an emergency.

I'm relatively healthy, but I know there are things that need to be done yearly, or more frequently, some more pleasant than others (but let's face it, they're all pretty much crappy.)

The point of the matter is, Friday I finally accepted my fate and made two of the worst doctor's appointments.  I'm officially going to the dentist on Monday.  (I'll leave it to you to figure out what the "worst" doctor is.  Either way, I'm left feeling violated after each appointment.)  I HATE the dentist!  Supposedly this dentist is a woman (who knew female dentists existed?) and came highly recommended from two assistants at work.  "She's really great" and "her hygienist is very gentle."  I'll be the judge of that.

PS I also have jury duty on March 10.  Honestly, when did I become a grown up??  Luckily it's a few blocks from my apartment.  I'm hoping I'll get lucky and accidently say a racial slur or something and get dismissed, and then just have the day off?  Cross your fingers.

Last night

Last night was a fun night.  Curtis left work earlier than usual and made it over to my place by about 7.  Yes, that's early.  He left for Vegas today for 5 days, and then to Phoenix for another 3, so it was nice to have a full evening with him instead of a couple late hours.

We went to his place so he could throw some laundry in, and then headed to Battery City (just a 15 minute walk, we usually see movies here.)  He'd forgotten his ear warmers and gloves at his place.  I was wearing my new mittens from Urban Outfitters but offered him my black leather gloves.  Since those are fitted they were too small for him.  The only option left was my big, obvious, pink mittens.  I kind of laughed and told him a real man would wear them.  Being one to never be too embarrassed to do anything, he wore them, and owned them.  I couldn't stop laughing when he'd get the stare as we walked by people, and he'd say loud and proud, "Yeah that's right, I'm a 30 year old man and I'm rocking pink mittens.  So what."  I had to get a pic while he was buying our tickets.

We grabbed dinner at PJ Clarke's before the show.  I ate here once with Brad and really liked it.  It's by the Hudson River, has good food, and prices are cheap (speaking relatively for New York.)  When the weather is nice you can sit outside and take in the Hudson.  It's really nice.  We sat near a window and as I was looking out I noticed we could see the Statue of Liberty.  I knew it was that direction, but hadn't noticed it when I ate there with Brad.  When I noticed it I had that feeling come over me, that happens every now and then, when I see something so cool, and tell myself, this is my life.  I don't mean to sound like I'm blagging here, so forgive me, I'm just so often overjoyed by my life here in New York.  It wouldn't be for everyone, but it's definitely for me.  I love that every day I walk past things people pay money to bring their families to see.  I just feel so fortunate.  Curtis caught me staring at the Statue again later during dinner and totally read my mind.  He simply said, "Yep, this is our life."  I love it.

Ironically, when we were walking through the Embassy Suites to get to the movies (it's one huge building that also boasts an over-sized DSW, love it!) we passed by this big apple, with the naked-leg Lady Liberties.  I couldn't pass up the photo-op.

We saw Vantage Point last night.  It was pretty good, I think.  We saw a 10:40pm show, which lately hasn't been a problem for me, but for the second half I was struggling to stay awake (which is ironic, since I'd gone to bed at a decent hour Thursday night.....maybe I was overly exhausted from going to the gym for the first time in months?)  Anyway, luckily the movie was only an hour and a half because after 45 minutes I was doing the long blinks.  I thought I pretty well caught everything, but after it was over I told Curtis I liked the first half better, and was confused by a few things.  When I told him what confused me he filled in the gaps and told me I definitely did a little more dozing than just long eye blinks.  Woops.  I'd say it was pretty good, and venture to say it's probably a really good movie if you're awake the whole time. It got a little tough because there's a lot of characters to follow.  If nothing else, there's some great eye candy with Dennis Quaid playing a lead character.  He's gotten old by the way.

Pinkberry

Oh yeah, on President's day Chels and I also hit up one of my other favorite places.  We decided we were going to go the for large.  We were kind of embarrassed because they are huge.

But clearly, had no problem polishing it off. I seriously love that place.

President's Day

President's Day was a really nice day off from work.  I slept in, watched a little tv, and ran some errands.  Spike tv was running a marathon of CSI so obviously I was stoked because that's one of my favorite shows, so I recorded a bunch.

I have really been wanting/needing to get organized and maximize my space.  I've been going nuts with clutter and things being disorganized.  There just is no storage or space here, especially when you share a room.  I decided a trip to one of my favorite places was an order.  I hadn't been to the one on 58th and Lex, and boy have I been missing out.  I mean, and Container Store is amazing, but I just died over this one.  I was there for easily over an hour, and just couldn't stop getting so excited.

Here's the gems I got: 

ANTM Cycle 10

Am I the only one who thinks this season is totally weird/annoying/awkward?  Pretty much every girl is strange, they showed way too much ridiculous drama, and even Tyra was especially obnoxious.  I could barely stand to watch the whole episode.  Blah, I hope it gets better.

Retraction

So, I feel badly about my last post because now my blog has turned into an open forum for ripping that girl who's just pursuing her dream.

On a more positive note.....this girl's my absolute favorite.  She is adorable.  A total doll.  Amazing voice, super cute personality.  The whole package.

Seriously didn't want to get into American Idol

So I really don't like getting into American Idol.  It takes up WAY too much time.  I hate that they drag it out for like 10 hours a week, and like 4 months per season.

At any rate, two of my roommates are into it, so it's impossible to not get attached.

But the point is, I'm SO OVER this girl!!!!  Ugh.  Please eliminate her.  Okay, I'm sure she's really nice and everything, but honestly, over it.

Reunited and it feels so good

I can't believe it's been three months since Chelse came out to visit.  I never posted the photos because we seriously took a million and I was overwhelmed at the thought of blogging them all.  Here they finally are.

Please excuse the nastiness of this photo.  Chels flew in on a red eye so when I picked her up I had just rolled out of bed.  Here we are in the cab ride home.  We were so excited to see each other, we couldn't help but take a picture.

Our first night we were both pretty exhausted so we took it easy and just did some window shopping.  This is the Times Square ball.  It was in Macy's for a couple months before New Year's Eve.  We didn't know what it was then, just thought it was a huge, really cool ball, so we thought we'd take a picture.

We walked through Times Square and hit up the huge Toys R Us.  Here we are in the Candy Land part of the store.

This is the center of the ferris wheel in the store.

There were some crazy lights on the wall.

We were shooting for the most awkward pose....I think I win.

Chels and her new homies.

All the carts for the ferris wheel had different themes.  Obviously I fell in love with the My Little Ponies one.  There was a Mr. Potato Head, Monopoly, Barbie, etc.

Chels in the huge Barbie house in Barbie land.

She's so excited to be in the huge Virgin Megastore!

Inside St. Patrick's Cathedral, a must see.

Rockefeller Center ice skating rink.

They were putting up the big tree at South Street Seaport that day.

Being the artsy girl she is, Chels wanted to hit up some museums.  I hadn't been to the Museum of Modern Art, so that was our first stop.  We got yelled at for standing too close to the art for this one.

Love this photo.  But it cracks me up what's considered "art".  There was a huge white square on the wall.  Who decides that's good enough to go in the MoMA?

Classic Starry Night by Van Gogh.

At Rock Center.

After being at the MoMA for hours we were starving so we headed up to Crepes on Columbus, a really yummy cheap restaurant on 109th by my old apartment.  I was really excited for breakfast food!

After looking at so much art (the MoMA is seriously huge) we were feeling a little abstract.

The Peace Sphere.  This was taken from World Trade after the attacks, and it's now on display near the Statue of Liberty ferry.

Walking along the Hudson River in Battery City.

We took the Staten Island ferry.  It's free and goes right by the statue and you don't have to wait in line for hours.  (Except the only thing.....don't get off when the ferry stops.  The first time I did this two years ago as a tourist the ferry didn't stop on Staten Island, it just went around and came back to Manhattan.  So when we stopped, we got off, thinking we were in Manhattan.  We walked around totally confused for quite some time, and I got into a pseudo-argument with a security guard because I couldn't understand why he couldn't give me directions to the "main entrance with the huge blue letters."  After he realized I meant in Manhattan, then I realized we weren't in Manhattan, and I felt really stupid.  Oh well, at least now I've been to all five boroughs.)

A trip to New York wouldn't be complete without hitting up Canal Street in China Town.  Yes, we got hot dogs from the venders.  Some people are disgusted by these, I think, eh, not so bad.

The Wall Street bull.

We walked the Brooklyn Bridge a few times.  It's one of the best things to do.

There's the Manhattan Bridge, and faintly to the left you can see the Empire State Building.

I love this girl.

There's a cheeser for ya.

The Manhattan LDS temple at night.

The Chrysler Building.  Luh-UVE that building.

Grand Central.

Pretty much a definition of Manhattan.  I took these next few when we walked the Brooklyn Bridge at night.  The view of Manhattan from the dock on the Brooklyn side is breathtaking.  I don't have a good enough camera to capture it though.

On the A train.

We took a stroll through Central Park.  It was a perfect brisk morning.  This view reminded me of Robert Frost's Two Roads Diverged in a Yellow Wood....which then reminded me about how I had to memorize that poem in 8th grade, which then reminded me of my english teacher Miss Scott......ew.

So we're walking along, minding our own business, and I hear a guy walking up behind us chatting away on his cell phone.  I think the voice sounds familiar, so I turn around, and totally freak out inside.  It was Kevin Bacon!  Augh!  I almost had a heart attack.  I kept cool as we kept walking, and grasped Chelse's wrist and sneakily looked over her and said in my very quiet, very excited voice, "It's Kevin Bacon!!"  We obviously had to take a stealth picture after he passed us.

Chels was in a photography class at the time so she took lots of photos.  I thought I'd capture a picture of her taking a picture.

We didn't have the best fall foliage, but not too shabby.

While walking in the West Village we happened to spot this beauty salon.  I love the ad for a back wax, hahaha.

The other museum we went to was the Guggenheim.  This is the only picture I got of the artwork because apparently you're not supposed to take photos there and I got in trouble.  This piece was about ten feet tall.  I wouldn't say the Guggenheim is a must hit spot....the art was weird, and not like, "Oh, interesting, I wonder what the artist was thinking..." more just, 'Huh, that's weird."  Obviously I can't really describe it.  I mean, I guess it's interesting, but definitely hit the MoMA and Met before you go here.  This was one of the best things I saw there.

The structure of the Guggenheim is pretty cool though.  This was taken while looking up from the main floor (the only place you can take pictures.)  The building is sort of a dome shape and you walk up the ramp that spirals up the building and all the artwork is along the walls.

The ceiling.

Sooooo, this was a good story.  While we were waiting on the subway platform for the 6 I spit out my gum and attempted to gum punt onto the tracks (a nasty habit I still have from a college boyfriend.)  I was wearing loose flats and my shoe just came flying off onto the tracks!  I was seriously shocked.  I've stood at those tracks a million times and have always wondered what I would do if something fell down the 5 feet onto the scary, rat infested, dirty, puddled, disgusting tracks.  I've never seen anyone drop anything, but I've heard many stories of ipods and phones/blackberries being dropped.  Curtis has jumped down three times to retrieve things for people, but I don't think I'd ever dare.  Usually you have a good enough view that you can see a bit before the train comes, but sometimes you're on a bend.  In this case, not only was I on a bend, but before I could even consider it the train came.  (For the record, I wouldn't have done it, even if I did have a clear view.....I hardly wear those shoes anymore, and they'd just been demoted to a back spot in the closet.)  Naturally, Chelse and I were DYING of laughter.  I am so so SO lucky because we just had to walk (hop, for me) to the other side of the platform to wait for the 4/5 instead.  (We were initially going to make a stop at Pinkberry.)  Of all times of day to happen, this was the best because after Pinkberry we were going home, and also, we were so close to home.  This is how I rode the 7 or 8 minutes home.  Surprisingly my left foot and leg got REALLY tired.

Chelse took a million pictures of me in my shocked/hysterical state.  The best part was after we got off at our stop my leg was seriously so tired, so Chelse offered me a piggy back ride.  We'd honestly been laughing non stop since the incident.  As we were trying to go up the steps (at this particularly amazing stop on the 4/5 there's steps that lead straight into my building's lobby so we don't even have to go outside-sweet!) Chels was struggling to go up the steps with me on her back and I kept telling her I'd get down but she thought she could make it.  As it turns out we were blocking traffic.  We were totally oblivious to everyone else.  I'm sure it looked like we were drunk at 4 in the afternoon.  Some guy tried to help push and had his hand on my butt.  I didn't even notice until he said, "I'm not being fresh, just trying to help."  Funniest thing ever.  When we finally got into the building (the basement, underneath the lobby) I sucked it up and ran up the stairs in my one bare foot.  When we got to my lobby my favorite doorman Danny was on duty.  He just laughed at us as I hopped through the lobby and onto the elevator.  It was pretty much one of the funniest experiences of my life.

That night we went to see the Rockette's 75th annual Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall.  It was AMAZING!  I highly highly recommend it.

This pic's a little out of order but after the show we walked by Rockefeller Center and it looked so gorgeous.

A few more out of order photos.....here's Chels with her first slice of New York pizza.  Mmmm, so good.

Waiting for the 2/3 to go to the show.

In the middle of Chels's long weekend Broadway went on strike so we didn't get to see any shows, but the Rockettes were so good!  There was even a 3-D part.  Also, it was really cool because that night they were filming the show for NBC's broadcast of the event.  Cool!

The program.

Radio City Music Hall is SO cool.  I'd never been inside.

The Rockettes in their first number dressed as reindeer.

It was a number to 12 Days of Christmas.  It was so cool.

This was really neat.  The soldier march is a traditional routine.  On the program it doesn't look that cool but it was really awesome in person.  This pretend cannon shoots and they all fall, in super slow motion.  I promise it's amazing to see in person.

They created Central Park for a routine.

One of the reasons I loved this show so much was because it's a Christmas special, not a generic "holiday" show.  They had a nativity with live animals.  It was really touching, and made me miss the Follow the Star live nativity from home.

In front of Saks.

Chelse's first Pinkberry.

SO GOOD.

Life imitating art.

Like always, Chelse and I had the best time.  Chelse was one of my most favorite roommates from college, and is one of my best friends.  She is such a wonderful and genuine person.  Such a great friend.  I always have fun with her.  We can have a blast just laughing and being dorks one night, and sitting at home having the deepest of conversations the next.  I truly value her friendship and know we will be close forever.  Selfishly I hate her being so far away in Hawaii, but we always manage to catch up one way or another.....even if it is when it's 2am her time when she's just getting in for the night and 8am my time when I'm heading to work.  ;) Hawaii is far!

Thanks so much for coming out Chels!  Come again soon!!!