friday, i'm in love

It's Friday and I love...


1. The Royal Wedding.

OK, I admit. I'm in love with it. Mostly because of this scene.

He is adorable. And they're in love. And it makes my cynical frayed heart happy today so that's all that matters.

2. Button-down tops

I'm wearing one today and this morning I left my apartment feeling like I really do need to buy more like it. It's almost seersucker looking... grayish blue and white with tiny stripes. I think it makes me look preppy and I don't really look "preppy" that often. I'm diggin' it.

3. Fun work friends

I feel like I'm coming more into my own at work and making friends, which is nice. Two girls in my department and I have plans for a Happy Hour next week and we were chatting about the morning's events in the assistant's cubicle this morning. I also now sit by a really sweet publicity assistant who greets me with a "Good Morning, M!" each morning. :)

4. Re-reading books

I'm loving A Tree Grows in Brooklyn the second time around. I'm considering continuing with my re-reading (seems a bit easier to take on "fun" books this way since I read so much for work) with The Book Thief next. What would you re-read? I love saying re-read. It is fun.

5. Fridays!

T-G-I-F! Tomorrow if the weather is nice I will probably just take a walk or two and laze around. Maybe get in some shopping if I feel up to it.

What do you love this Friday?

natalie portman, kool-aid and running shoes: a miscellaneous wednesday

Because I know you are all dying to know...

1. Yesterday a colleague told me I look like Natalie Portman. This is not the first time I've been told that but it has been a while. I admit it made me feel great since she's super pretty but I don't really see the resemblance...

2. I've had a bit of the Kool-Aid. I've been semi-paying attention to all this Royal Wedding stuff. (OK, I watched 2 TLC specials while babysitting the other night. Sips, people! Sips.) I guess the romantic mush in me just thinks they are super cute. Plus the anglophile in me loves all things British and I really, really want to go back to London these days.

3. For all the bellyaching I did this past weekend about not being busy, my phone was blowing up (I hate that expression but I just used it. Funny how that happens.) on Monday and I got two sitting jobs for this week plus a dinner/drinks invite from a friend. Life really does come in waves, even the smallest ones.

4. Have I mentioned how much I love the fact that I am a regular gym-goer (again) yet? Well I do. It is amazing for me and I have decided to treat regular exercise like taking my medicine. It is so good for my mental, emotional and physical state and I have been so out of it (regularly, that is) for so long. Mostly because I didn't think I could afford it... Oh I long for the days when my Y membership only cost me $18/month.

5. Speaking of which, I'm in need of a good pair of running shoes that won't cost me a ton o' cash. If anyone has good recommendations for brands and/or stores, please let me know!

6. I've been trying to go on a date with a guy now for a couple of weeks. Our schedules never seem to work out. Mostly his because he has a crazy busy job and we have both been traveling lately. Sigh.

7. Speaking of dating, I've had at least four people ask me if I am dating or have a boyfriend in the past week. Is there something on my forehead?

8. Today I got a huge shipment of books in and organized them for contest winners of a sweepstakes my department did. I felt a bit like Santa Claus and this made me smile.

9. I'm headed "home" again in just a couple of weeks but it is a surprise! Shh!

10. Time to go sweat out the small stuff!

dear diary

Dear Diary,

Why are Monday's so incredibly painful sometimes?

This one is no exception.

Love,

Me

tonight

I started out tonight feeling sorry for myself...

Sorry that I don't have family here to hang out with. That I don't have a significant other to guarantee that I almost-always have plans on a day like today when there were no special plans. Sorry that I didn't have a job tonight to occupy my downtime and make me some extra cash.

Sorry that I had no plans. Sorry that I didn't even really feel like seeking out plans with friends if it meant going out and spending money, braving potential rain, yada yada yada.

I was so easy to please today. I wasn't feeling contrary at all.

When it came to my attention tonight (as I was watching Bend it Like Beckham on IFC, I might add... I love that movie.) that I something unusual was about to happen, I became intrigued.

Tonight would be the first time in a long, long time that I would be home, in my house, alone. For an extended period of time.

I know I've mentioned it here before. I have three female roommates. I have my own bedroom, my own space and domain, but at any given time there is always someone home with me--or the potential of someone coming home. Roommate switches have happened lately and I have two new people with two new schedules living in my home. One is gone for the weekend and the other two roomies went out tonight...

I'm home alone!

Once I realized I could make fun of my lonely night I begrudgingly embraced it. I started by going to the gym and sweating out some of my frustrations. (Oh yes, I have become a gym rat. I gave in. I'm loving it. It is so very, very good for me.) When I came home I decided I was going to take a bath in our tub. I've never taken a bath in this tub. So I cleaned it first (Yeah, as I mentioned, three roommates!) and finished my book. It was lovely.

The rest of my night has been spent doing some light web browsing, eating a spot of dinner, and watching The Ten Commandments on TV. (I'd like to add an 11th commandment: Thou Shalt Not Overact.) After I'm done here I'll likely read until I get tired enough to fall asleep.

Tomorrow is Easter. I've got plans with friends for brunch and a movie.

I need to learn to embrace the solitude sometimes. Relax in the moment. Not make something out of good nothings. Tonight was a good start.

week of quotes - day 7

Maybe tomorrow I'll find my way

To the land where the honey runs

Into rivers each day.

And the sweet tastin' good life

Is so easily found,

Way over yonder...

That's where I'm bound

- Carole King

week of quotes - days 5 & 6

"When I get a little money I buy books;

and if I have any left I buy food and clothes."

- Desiderius Erasmus (also attributed to Abraham Lincoln)

Yesterday I ventured over to one of my old neighborhoods and discovered that an indie bookstore had opened up. I had a little time to kill before I met a friend for drinks so I wandered around inside. I quickly decided that while I don't really need another book on my bookshelf, I wanted to support my local bookstore so I purchased a "sale" book: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

I read thisbook the summer before I moved to New York and have wanted to own it ever since. (I'd checked it out from my library in California and vividly remember reading it in the cafeteria at my then workplace during my lunch hour.) I'm glad I bought it yesterday and am feeling quite in the mood to read it again.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Won't sleep 'til I've had enough.

Won't sip my wine from no paper cup."

- Beth Hart

This one is by my favorite singer and from one of my all-time favorite songs: Delicious Surprise. To me it is all about not giving up.

As am I...

week of quotes - days 3 & 4

I spaced and forgot to put up my quote yesterday. I guess you could say yesterday's and today's go together.

"Dating in New York is not for the faint of heart."
-my good friend during dinner last night

_______________________________________________

But now I know the things I know
And do the things I do
And if you do not like me so
To hell, my love, with you!

- Dorothy Parker -
from her poem "Indian Summer"

week of quotes - day 2

"I want so much to open your eyes

'cause I need you to look into mine."

- Snow Patrol -

week of quotes - day 1

I don't feel like going into it with long blog posts lately so I thought I'd capture the mood of each day this week with a favorite quote. Mostly so I don't fall off the face of the earth. Who knows. It could end up being interesting...

Here is today's... newly discovered.

No coward soul is mine

- Emily Bronte

very short

I have everything nothing to say.

I will be back another day.

my spring weekend was...

...exhausting but GREAT!

I'm bucking the traditional list format for this one and I'm just going to spell it out. This weekend I got a couple of new roommates. I'm thrilled and these girls are super sweet. I think everyone is going to get along nicely. I did not move but as exhausted as I am today you'd think I did. I spent Friday night hanging with one roomie as we waited for her bed to be delivered and just chatted away. I was supposed to meet a friend for dinner but wanted to be around so it wasn't awkward for her to sit there waiting on the delivery. I'm glad it worked out the way it did as I had a great time sitting there and getting to know her better.

For some stupid reason I stayed up really late and really regretted it the next day when I woke up at 7:30 to start readying the apt for its new people. (Cleaning, mopping the floors, sweeping, moving large pieces of furniture, etc.) Like I said, I wasn't moving but with the cleaning and moving of furniture I did you'd think otherwise. By 2:30, the girls were moved in so I attacked the refrigerator with renewed vigor (It was gross but I wanted to make sure everyone was out before I started.) and collapsed on my bed to watch Winter's Bone (I liked it. I think Jennifer Lawrence will make a good Katniss in the Hunger Games!) before heading off to hang with super cute four and a half year old twin girls for the evening. Perfect end to the exhausting day. Next weekend I will do everything up nicely but I would have been too exhausted to do much else.

Yesterday was LOVELY. It was a gorgeous day, I was in a GREAT mood, and I'd been invited by a new-ish friend to have brunch with her and some of her friends in Brooklyn. So I hopped on the train, overestimated the time it would take to get there, and ended up with about 45 mins to kill... I went to Tarjay! I never go to Tarjay anymore. This made me even happier. I went for new curtains but instead got a couple of cute spring dresses. Oops!

Brunch was great, the company was better, and afterwards we walked around Brooklyn just soaking up the nice rays. Perfect. I came home to my nice, peaceful apartment, ran out to do my laundry, watched bad reality TV and roommate and I tried Skinnygirl Margaritas for the first time. (Not bad!)

I'm super duper tired today. Already counting down the days until next weekend! What was your weekend?