NYC or Bust

As some of you know, I work for the Toy Industry Association which is a pretty cool place to work. Aside from being surrounded by the newest, most exciting toys out there, I am lucky enough to work with an amazing group of people. The TIA office is located in New York City. I am not. So I have the extreme advantage of being able to work remotely from my home office ….

…and travel to New York City for 3-4 days every month. So far, the system is great, but working from home can get pretty lonely ~ even with Lucy by my side. :) Just about the time I’m hitting my solitude limit, it’s time to head on up to the big city. I’m writing this as I head home after a great 3 days and wanted to share with you my journey. Typically, I leave in the early evening on Sunday and head back on Wednesday evening which is pretty much what happened on this April trip.

My trip begins with a ride to DC’s Union Station with my wonderful husband and my puppy dog. They bid me farewell at passenger drop-off and I head inside to grab my ticket and board my home away from home ~ Amtrak’s Acela Express. For the next 3 hours of my life I am treated to comfortable seats, free WiFi and a cheese and cracker plate that is worth every bit of its $6 cost. This time around, I armed myself with the latest issue of New York Magazine, my Kindle loaded with a new book and some much needed lunch from Potbelly (a Wreck with provolone and the works, thank you very much).

As we head out of the station we make out way over the river and through the woods to our first stop which is BWI Airport.

(I was lucky enough that the train stopped in close proximity of this station sign so I could share – that luck did not continue throughout the trip!) We continued onto Baltimore where unfortunately, we only get to see the things on the "other side of the tracks".

Thanks to our slightly over enthusiastic conductor I learned the names of the two massive bodies of water the train glides over after Baltimore: the Gunpowder River, a tidal inlet of the Chesapeake Bay (thank you Wikipedia!) and the Susquehanna River, apparently the longest river on the American east coast that drains into the Atlantic Ocean (again, thank you Wikipedia!).

It’s not long before we roll into Wilmington, Delaware, land of ING Direct and many other banking institutions…

…followed by the city of brotherly love.

Before making into New York’s Penn Station, I saw pretty cool graffiti art…

…run down station buildings…

…even the Red Bull Arena, home to the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer. I had no idea. :)

At last it was time for some New York City! I arrived a few hours early than normal as I had plans to meet up with my good friend Jim. After hitting the subway and making my way to my flea-bag of a hotel (seriously…don’t stay at the Holiday Inn on 57th street), I had some time to kill, so I headed over to The Shops at Columbus Circle. In addition to the great window shopping, they had a really cool Salvadore Dali exhibit on display at for FREE. I was pretty psyched…nothing is free in NYC!

Jim and I had a blast at Arriba Arriba in Hells Kitchen. Sorry no pics…enjoyed our margaritas a bit too much! J I was off to work the next day where I got to reunite with my co-workers ~ always a pleasurable thing to do. After work, a few of us headed to The Breslin for some much needed cocktails and girl gab time.

The Breslin is located in The Ace Hotel, a very new…very hip…locale where people go to see and be seen. I’ve read many a write up on it so I was pretty excited to check it out. We managed to squeeze ourselves into a corner and had a splendid time. The night ended with a trip to Sushi Damo for dinner. :)

Day 2 in New York was one of the main reasons I was there – the Toy Fair Sacred Cow meeting. Now this is a highly confidential meeting where new and brilliant ideas are hatched for next year’s show. The only way to know what went on is to be at the Javits Center in February of 2012 for next year’s show!!! :)

I can speak about my Day 2 evening though because it was spent with good friend Dina.

A little background on Dina…she and I first met when we worked in the Membership Department of TIA. We worked together on various projects, but more importantly we forged a special friendship that now allows me to call her my NY Mom. When I’m in town, we try to make time to go to dinner somewhere in the city. Dina, although a native of Russia, is, to me, a native New Yorker because she knows all the ins and outs of the BEST foodie spots in the entire city. I know that I will have an amazing meal when I go out with Dina and last night did not disappoint. We headed downtown a bit to 12^th and University Place to an adorable little place called Mexicana Mama Centro and enjoyed Ginger Pear Margaritas, the best guacamole I’ve had in a super long time and a piece of fish smothered in pumpkin spices. Delicioso!! The meal ended with a fabulous baked apple caramel brown sugar dessert thingy that tasted like heaven.

My final day in the office was a busy one with meetings and conference calls and a do-good Team We event where we packed up tins of Easter Cookies to give to those that are less fortunate than us for the holiday. The other very eventful moment of the day was dining on my favorite local lunch truck meal ~ chicken and rice with lots of white sauce and a touch of hot sauce. Figures my happy moment of the day involved food. :)

So here I sit, on the train headed back to DC where my beloved and my baby will pick me up. My next trip to NY is a long way off so I’m glad I made the most of this one. I have to say, I absolutely love the life that Ed and I have set up for ourselves down in Centreville and wouldn’t give it up for anything. But I do still have a secret love for New York City and am a lucky girl that I can indulge in it as often as I do. I heart NY!

Spring Cleaning for Lucy

It was time for our little pooch to get some pampering and boy did she need it. :)

Before:



After:


Quite an improvement even if her little bow is not straight. :)

Spring is Near

The weather over this past weekend was amazing and we took full advantage of it by being outside as much as possible. We kick started Saturday morning with a 9 mile bike ride ... that's right 9 MILES! Are we nuts...a little. :) But it really wasn't that bad. Our bikes have been stored at casa de Quartuccio since we moved down here and we decided to ride them to Centreville from Fairfax rather than shove them in a car. Now, keep in mind...Ed and I recently won the award for least active people in the Northern VA area. We quit the gym...literally. So 9 miles in 59 minutes was a HUGE feat for us. We even did another ride on Sunday morning. Time to get into shape! :) We were so proud of ourselves that we decided to celebrate at Joe's Crab Shack for dinner. Yum!

The weather on Sunday was just as nice so Ed decided to treat Lucy and take her to the dog park. Since I am a paranoid Mommy, I'm no longer allowed to go to the dog park (per my loving husband), so I decided to tackle the weeds that were taking over the flower bed in the front of the house. I never realized how strong weeds were! Their network of roots is crazy! It was tough work, but it inspired us to make the outside of our house pretty this Spring so we are now entering "Project: Landscape Design". A little background: I kill all living plants. If a plant or flower enters my house, it is like a death sentence. It's so bad that Ed's mom bought me a fake plant because she was sad to see all the unnecessary deaths. So that fact that we are going to attempt to create an enticing landscaped area in the front of the house is a little scary. But we are determined!! Found some great looking stuff at Home Depot, but decided to hold off and hit good old Merrifield Nursery in the coming weekends to get educated. We even started scouting the neighborhood for ideas.

Spring is near!!!!

Ta Da!

The time has come - we are officially grown ups!! No...we are not pregnant. But we are the happy recipients of new, big boy/girl bedroom furniture! Gone are the days of IKEA and Ed's furniture from when he was a kid. We are now the proud owners of some beautiful Bassett bedroom pieces and I have to say...I am in love. And our new West Elm bedding makes the room the kind of oasis that will be hard to leave each morning. :)

Before:
and After:


As you can see, Lucy has made herself VERY comfortable in her new room. Time to go relax! :)

Sunday Night's Alright

Last night Ed and I had a date night. And this wasn't any old dinner and a movie date night, but instead, the ULTIMATE Date Night. Our date did include dinner and perhaps one too many beers at Gordon Biersch, but what made this date night so great was our plus +1 - BON JOVI! We were amongst the thousand of fans at the Verizon Center belting out "Livin' on a Prayer", "Bad Medicine" and all the Bon Jovi greats. Yes our tickets were rear/obstructed view and yes we had a great view of Jon Bon Jovi's butt most of the night, but really...is that such a bad thing? :)

What made the night so great is that we had a such a good time together. We truly enjoyed each other's company and made each other laugh all night long. Lucy spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa so we were able to focus 100% on each other and it was fantastic! The stresses of life sometimes get in the way of seeing the love and joy that is in front of you and as our first anniversary approaches, I'm so happy that we take the time to have some fun and appreciate each other fully.

We are in the process of planning a little first anniversary get-away and have been so focused on the "where" that we need to take a step back and realize that it doesn't matter where we go. As long as we are together, we'll figure out a way to have a blast!! Love you Bubs!!!! xoxo!!

Thanks for the Memories

I was never the little girl that dreamed of her wedding. I never thought about the perfect dress or the perfect flowers or the music I would hear as I walked down the aisle. I was too busy playing soccer and getting dirty. When Ed asked me to marry him (Yah!) it was one of the best days of my life but also extremely overwhelming because I had NO idea where to start with the wedding plans. Luckily, we had a long engagement giving us plenty of time to plan the big day -- and what a day it was!! Everything went perfectly - from the pre-day primping at MetroModes to the borrowed Mustang (Thanks Mustang Scott!!) to the "perfect shoes" (both Ed and I!) and the cupcake flavors (courtesy of our favorite baker Cupcake Gourmet), all was as we had hoped and planned for. The year and a half of details came to fruition and we could not have been more pleased.

Now that the wedding is long gone (sad) all we have are the memories and thankfully over 900 photos documenting the amazing day. I have bragged a lot about our amazing photographer and his team and I will continue to do so - they ROCK! If you need photos of something ... ANYTHING ... you MUST hire Michael Falabella of Millimeter Photography. Part of the "non-package" he offered was a 4 x 6 print of every proof - genius! These proofs have been sitting in photo albums for a while now as we focused on other things, but I finally had the time to do something with them. Some of them made it into a frame that now hangs in our hallway....


... while others were blown up and act as decor in our living room.


The rest (well not all...there were over 900 prints!) made it into our official Wedding Album!!!! Because of many other expenses we are currently experiencing (ahem ~ mortgage, Lucy, snow salt - not a fan of the weather btw!), we unfortunately were not able to swing one of the fancy photographer albums. So we improvised. Pottery Barn saved the day with a beautiful engrave-able album and now we have a beautiful reminder of the wonderful day it was.


Not too shabby! :)

I may not have dreamed of my wedding day since I was a little girl, but I will never forget a single detail as long as I live.