A little work, A little fun

For the record, I love 3-day weekends! I think every work week should be only 4 days and every weekend 3 days. It's so much better balanced.

I had a great weekend and got so much accomplished. My dear friend Lauren had her baby boy Luke on Wednesday, so I knew I needed to get moving on the quilt I'm making for him. (I should be done soon, and I'm really pleased with the materials and pattern. Stay tuned.) I also needed to tackle my closet, and I wanted to help my friend Christine celebrate her birthday on the 4th.

Since losing 24 pounds and two sizes (and so far keeping it off!), my closet was filled with things that no longer fit. I went through each piece and decided whether they fit, are still in decent shape or need tailoring. I put the ones to tailor in my hall closet and folded the rest for donation. I usually clean out my closet twice a year to get rid of anything I haven't worn in a year, but this time it was really substantial. That's right...six bags!

I found things in my closet that had been pushed to the back that I can now wear again. It was great to find things I'd forgotten about and to realize I have more options to work with than I thought. Plus, it felt very freeing to get it all organized and uncluttered.

Saturday night, I went to dinner with Christine and her friends and family at a Cuban restaurant in the Village. They had a live band playing music, and the singer was really fantastic. I spoke to him on his break, and he invited us to see them later at another location. From dinner, Christine and I headed over to the fireworks, but of course there were so many people on the streets, we couldn't get very close or get to a place with an unobstructed view. Then she suggested we go to karaoke. We both enjoying singing, and we did that for an hour or two and then headed over to the restaurant/bar where the Latin band was playing. It was packed but we were able to get close to the band. The singer smiled at us in recognition, and pretty soon we were dancing with different guys there. I'm not the best salsa dancer, but it is so much fun! We were there until it closed, and my feet ached from so much dancing. I got home after 4 a.m., which is VERY unusual for me.

Needless to say, Sunday was a recovery day for me. I worked some more on the quilt, watched some movies and did grocery shopping for the week. All in all, it was a great weekend.

Aloha Update

Aloha Guy is in Hawaii for a vacation and sent me a postcard yesterday.

Oh, and it turns out he's not QUITE divorced yet. All the paperwork has been filed, but it's not final for a couple months.

I know from personal experience and from dating a guy that had just gotten a divorce that it takes time to recover from something like that. There's a lot of emotions you have to deal with, and then with kids involved, it definitely takes everyone time to learn the new relationships.

Aloha Guy seems a little too clingy to me, and after a text message that he ended "Love ya" and a multiple-page handwritten love letter, I told him to back off. Attentive is sweet, but his actions have made me feel uncomfortable. Oh well. As my sister Steph said, "Aloha means 'hello' and 'goodbye.'"

Enjoying Free Activities in NYC

Last Saturday, we actually got some sun! (We've only had 5 days in June that it hasn't rained.) I enjoyed getting out on my bike for a nice ride up the West side, where there is a protected bike path, and then I stopped for some free kayaking in the Hudson River.
I learned about the kayaking last year, and it's such a treat. It's FREE and all you have to do is sign a waiver and they let you borrow a lifejacket and kayak. I was out for about 30 minutes. I figure it's a good arm workout after my hour on the bike for my legs.

Saturday night, it rained as I was walking over to the East River for a free opera performance. "River to River" is a series of performances by musical artists that occurs at different venues on the Hudson and East Rivers. Saturday was a performance by the NY Opera and Orchestra, and one of the tenors attends my church. He occasionally sings solos at church and awes us all with his world-class talent. There were several singers who performed a collection of songs from various operas, including Rigoletto and the Barber of Seville.

The rain was pretty heavy as I walked over to the venue, but it cleared up just before performance time and we were treated to several rainbows over the stage. The whole thing was beautiful.

This Makes Me Mad

A story in Newsweek reports on a recent psychological experiment where participants were shown photos of women's and men's faces looking sad, afraid, angry or disgusted, with a sentence beneath each image purporting to explain the emotion, such as "buried a family pet" for a sad face, or "was threatened by an attacker" for a fearful one. The participants offered starkly different explanations for the emotions, saying that the women were "emotional" while the men were "having a bad day" even when the expressions and explanations were identical. So while the men were perceived to have a feeling because of context, women were perceived to be temperamental or have an emotional nature.

Women are often touted as the more emotional sex, and it's not considered a positive thing. But the scientific evidence to support that theory is skimpy. This study concluded "The stereotype of the overly emotional female is grounded in the belief that women express emotion because they are emotional creatures, but men express emotion because the situation warrants it. Regardless of whether women are objectively more emotionally expressive, people attribute their emotional behaviors to a more emotional nature."

This annoys me because I've actually been told in the past by a boss [who I couldn't stand] that I am "too emotional." I describe myself as passionate, and wouldn't you want someone who is passionate about what they do rather than someone who doesn't give a damn?

The Future of Dating?

This was sent to me by a friend and gave me a chuckle.
I wish this technology was available now!

Incredible Entertainment

Last week, my mom and I attended Andrea Bocelli's concert at Madison Square Garden. It was absolutely fantastic. He sang mostly classical opera pieces, but he also had a couple of other styles thrown in here and there, such as "My Way," which he sang while playing the piano.



He was joined by a full orchestra and choir and special guests, including a fantastic soprano and a world-class flutist. He gave an incredible seven encores, and the audience was enthusiastic in its appreciation.


I had seen Andrea Bocelli perform as one of the many performers at the Concert for Diana in London in 2007, and he was one of my favorites. His talent is unmistakeable, and his blindness is only evident in that he closes his eyes while singing and doesn't make any gestures with his hands or arms. It's all in his beautiful voice.

The Hamptons, Dahling

You need a certain amount of activity to provide fodder for a blog, but too much activity, and there's no time or energy to blog! This week has been a whirlwind. Besides work being consistently busy (still so thankful to have a good job in this economy), I've had dinner with an old colleague, been keeping up with exercise, seen a fantastic concert, and cleaned my apartment in preparation for my mom's visit. (I usually clean up on the weekend, but since I've been gone the last two weekends, it was sorely needing scrubbing, dusting and vacuuming!)

Last weekend, I got an amazing invitation to a house in the Hamptons from one of my vendors. The Hamptons is a collection of towns on the eastern edge of Long Island, most of which end in "-hampton" like South Hampton, East Hampton, Bridgehampton. I was actually in Sag Harbor, but it's that same general area and so is considered in "the Hamptons."

We've been experiencing very strange weather here in the northeast with temperatures so mild they are bordering on cold and a seemingly endless supply of rain. It doesn't feel like summer at all. But I'm not complaining because most of my family is sweltering in the Texas heat. Last weekend we had a few patches of sun, but it was still pretty cool, with highs only in the low 70's F (22C). So, due to the weather and the accommodations, I never left the house we were staying at.

I took a three-hour train ride out there, and the masses of people trying to cram on the train was overwhelming. But I didn't want to miss it and have to wait for the next one in two hours, so I pushed my way into the car, finding a middle seat and a place for my suitcase. It seemed like everyone from NYC was headed out there!

I overheard two girls talking on the way there, and at one point, one said, "It would be so lonely to be on this train alone!" But I didn't feel lonely. I enjoyed the quiet time, time to myself.

The house is beautiful, with 5 bedrooms, 6 baths and two dens with extra sleeping space (aka sofas), a clay tennis court and a heated pool. It's surrounded by trees and has an eclectic collection of artwork. There were only a few of us who got there on Friday night, and we played Rock Band and an American Idol game. (I love to sing and blew everyone away getting perfect scores on singing. Ha!) Saturday started out nice weather-wise, so I "played tennis" with some of the other guests. I put it in quotes because I've never played tennis before although I used to watch it on TV with my dad. We just focused on hitting the ball back and forth and didn't keep score or worry if the ball bounced twice. We played for a couple hours, and it was a great workout!

Then we headed down to the pool, and while originally I was so hot from playing tennis, the warm, heated water wasn't as refreshing as I'd hoped, as the afternoon wore on and the wind grew colder, the warm water was comforting. We stayed in the water to avoid getting out and being too cold!

I have to say, though, it was the first time I can remember feeling confident in a bikini. I've lost a total of 24 pounds through all the diet changes and exercising and training for the triathlon. And I finally feel good about my body. Oh, and all the single guys there were flirting with me. :-)

One of the guys grilled tuna steaks for dinner on Saturday, and they were SO good. We all hung out and talked and played games until late into the night. Sunday was recuperation and travel home, but all in all in was a great weekend.