Birthday Recap

Birthdays are an interesting part of life. They are this fabulous day where everyone celebrates you because you were born. We anticipate these days for weeks ahead of time when and then the actual day of your birthday arrives, it usually let's you down. Not all birthdays are this way, I have some fond memories of surprise parties and family dinners that involved lasagna, but in reality the hope that everyone of your friends and family members can take the time to celebrate you on your birthday is not realistic. This year I turned 25, a semi-important birthday which makes me officially an adult because I can now rent a car without paying an underage fee. My birthday fell on a Thursday and thanks to Mother Nature, it rained pretty much all day. I also had plans to move that weekend and a lot of my friends were away on vacations.

Instead of letting my lack-of-plans birthday get me down, I decided to go against the norm and plan a birthday celebration for a later date. After looking through my plans for August, I decided to schedule my birthday get together for August 10th because it was a weekend when I had nothing else going on and most of my friends were back in town. It also happened to be the night when the 90's Sing-along was happening at a bar in Brooklyn.

The night started off with a bang with dinner at Do or Dine in Brooklyn. This tiny little restaurant is starting to make a name for itself because of the unique menu and the fact that one of the owners is Justin Warner, the guy that just won Food Network Star.  

The food was awesome and my friends and I ordered a lot of different dishes, such as the fish and chips, the deep fried devil eggs, the frog legs, and the dumpling nachos. There were more awesome dishes, but I forgot them now. We sat outside where they had a lot of tables for bigger parties and the ambiance was really relaxed and fun. Justin even served our table all night and I am really excited to see his show this Fall!

After dinner, we headed to a bar in Brooklyn that hosts a 90's sing along once a month! Can I quickly explain how much I love 90's music. The terrible music videos, the awful outfits, and the catchy lyrics are AMAZING! My friends and I had a few drinks, danced to the Spice Girls, LFO, Oasis, and No Doubt, and we had a blast!

I am thankful that so many of my friends made it out to my birthday because it was a great way to celebrate turning 25. Now I just need to rent that rental car....

GUR

Last Saturday I participated in The Great Urban Race. The GUR is a scavenger hunt throughout the city, complete with brainteasers, puzzles, trivia, and random physical tasks to complete. The entire race is supposed to take under five hours to complete and you work in teams of two or four. As a team, you have to dress in a theme or dress alike to race and you also have to stick to gether because most of the clues required a team picture as proof. My team decided to dress in theme and since we are fantastic, we chose Games as our theme.

We have Candy Land, Connect Four, Trivial Pursuit, and Twister!

When the race began at 12, we quickly got our clue sheet and headed to a grassy patch of land to plot our route. We took about 30 minutes to figure out the addresses of locations and determine which route to take. We started the race and I felt like we were making decent time. Some of the things we knocked out in the first hour were: we had to head to a Duane Reade and buy two items to donate to a charity that was waiting in front of the store, then we had to take a picture with two Yankees fans, we also had to take a picture with a food cart, we visited he American Folk Art Museum to count the windows on one of their sculptures, and we had to get a wrapper from a McDonalds. Then we headed across town and during the next few hours we visited a cupcake shop, a toy store, completed a task with a pedometer in Bryant Park. There was one clue that wasn't making sense to us and we spent a lot of time trying to figure out where a certain book store was because the book store we thought was the answer was not at the address given. After checking with a few other teams we figured out that WE were right and the GUR staff had made a mistake on the sheet and put Eighth Street instead of Eighth Avenue,  which makes a huge difference in NYC.

We then hit another roadblock when we couldn't find a yoga studio. We eventually decided to skip the clue and just move on (you are allowed 1 skip). On the way to the next clue we happened to stumble upon the yoga studio, so that was a happy accident. 

 

 

We then made our way to a magic shop where I ate a meal worm and broke my favorite flip flops (unrealated events, but both happened in the magic shop). Check out this awesome picture of me and my mealworm skills:

 

After a stop at the show store, we then got on the subway and headed to the book store which was the book store we had thought of from the beginning but thought we were wrong about. We completed the puzzles there and then headed for the finishline because we were able to skip the last clue due to not skipping any before hand.

We arrived at the finish line is 4 hours and 33 minutes. After crossing the finish line we got bananas, water, and a medal! Then we had to wait in the checkpoint line for the staff to check in our pictures and business cards. We ended up having one incorrect answer and they give you a 30 minute penalty for that. However, since they made the mistake on the book store question they gave everyone that clue whether you had figured it out or not and did not give us any extra credit for realizing their mistake and still getting to the correct location. Thus we technically finished at 5 hours and 3 minutes which means we don't even get told what place we were in because we went over the 5 hour mark.

 

 

We still finished, got our medals, and didn't die in the 90 degree heat. It was fun and I think I am ready for next year, now that I fully know what to expect!

Fourth of July

I have lived in New York for two Fourth of Julys and have yet to see the fireworks in this city. Ironically, people say that this city has the most magnificent firework show, so maybe next year, I'll get to check it out.

This year, I traveled down to Washington, DC to see my sister. In order to make it work with my work schedule, I had to bring the little girl I am "nannying" with me. This was her first time in DC and it was my first time traveling with a child and no parents. We had a blast seeing the sights, watching the fireworks, and taking a little vacay away from the city.

It's one thing to go on a vacation, but it is a whole new thing to go on a vacation with a nine year old. I have become even firmer in my decision to not have kids in the next few years. I love working with them, I love teaching them, but I am not ready for my own.

What I Did Today:Twitter for the win edition!

 

So I really did this last Monday, but is anyone really counting? 

I am a non-Twitter-er. Therefore, I speak and write in sentences longer than 140 characters. I don't really understand the point of Twitter or the fascination people have with it since we have facebook, blogs, text messages, etc. However, my friend Jenny loves her Twitter, she has a job that allows her to peruse Twitter all day long, among other things of course. Last week, Jenny won tickets to a concert through Twitter. I've never won tickets to a concert from facebook, or a blog, or a text message, so in this case Twitter wins.

Back to the concert. 

She won VIP tickets to see the Silversun Pickups, Live on Letterman, at the Ed Sullivan Theater. She invited me. I agreed, even though I didn't know a lot of their music. We went. We sat in the front row. We were live broadcasted on the internet. My sister got to see us on her computer. We danced (or bopped), sang (or pretended to), and listened to some awesome music. Then the show ended. Jenny got a set list. We went home. Awesome night!

Here are some pics:

  

Outside with our tickets in the VIP line!

   

The stage from our seats! So freaking close!

 

     

The band! They were amazing!

 

The set list! 

and in case you are interested, here is the link to see the entire concert that was broadcast online! They show my friend and I a few times, but you can clearly find me around the 12:45 mark.

Weekend Schmeekend

Holy Hot Weather, batman!

It is officially Summer in the city and Memorial Day weekend is the perfect way to set it off.

This weekend I was busy (not much different than last weekend, or the weekend before, or next weekend) but it was fun!

On Thursday, I was running errands for my dinner party on Saturday and while at Home Depot, I dropped a 2x4 on my foot. OMG! It hurt incredibly bad! It took everything I had to not break into tears like a 4 year old, but I knew it would not be pretty. As I waited for the guy with the saw to cut the lumber, I could see two of my toes slowly turning purple. By the time I got the lumber cut, checked out and home, my foot was throbbing and my two toes were a crazy collage of purple, red, and black. After a few hours, I knew one of the toes was broken. It had swollen up and become a nice shade of royal purple. My big toe also had a great bruise on it, but it was not broken. Who knew such a small bone could hurt so much! This city is made for walking, but not for walking with a broken toe!

On Friday, I took my first ever LIRR trip into Long Island and spent the night with my Mom and her husband who were in town taking care of business. We spent 18 hours eating, drinking, and catching up. It was a short visit, but it reminded me of the weekends when I would come home for a day or so from college just to get away and see family.

On Saturday, I hosted a dinner party for one of my book clubs. A few months ago, we read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and we all loved the idea of having a midnight dinner based on the book's dinner parties. So we did. I am not the type of person who hosts a party and basically just opens up my apartment; I go all out. I decorated, I made themed food, and I tried to keep things close to the book.

Here was the invitation:

Midnight Dinners are a soon to be tradition at la maison Roberts! Dress in your black and white (red scarves optional) and come on up to the snazziest dinner to hit Harlem this year.

“Always precisely at midnight, at the moment the grandfather clock in the foyer begins ...to chime, the first plates will be placed on the table.”

It's true. Dinner will happen at midnight. It was discussed and decided that if we are going to have a midnight dinner, we should try to keep it authentic. Feel free to bring a sleeping bag and spend the night; you are trekking all the way to Harlem and it will be late.

“At dinner, which begins promptly at midnight, each course is styled in black or white but bursts with color once pierced with forks or spoons, revealing layer upon layer of flavors.”

This would amazing, but I don't think any of us have this much magic up our sleeves. Just bring something delicious, fun, and enough to share.

“But the Midnight Dinners have an air of nocturnal mystery already, and Chandresh finds that providing no menu, no map of the culinary route, adds to the experience. Dish after dish is brought to the table, some easily identifiable as quail or rabbit or lamb, served on banana leaves or baked in apples or garnished with brandy-soaked cherries. Other courses are more enigmatic, concealed in sweet sauces or spiced soups; unidentifiable meats hidden in pastries and glazes.”

It was also discussed and decided to make the event a potluck style dinner, but we are keeping with The Night Circus theme and going in with a blind eye. We ask that you tell the group if you are bringing an appetizer, side dish, drink, or dessert, but keep the specifics to yourself. It's more fun that way!

Keep in mind that there are a few food allergies amongst the group: berries, apples, hazelnuts. The main dish will be meat free to cater to the masses, but I wouldn't say meat is off the menu. If you have any additional allergies or requests about the food please let us know and we shall add it to the list :)

Please feel free to bring guests, games, & music playlists. Magic tricks and sleights of hand encouraged. 


Everyone who came had a decent time even though the apartment felt like an oven because it was hot outside and we had food cooking all night. Here are some pictures:

Living room wall decorations

Candles, lots of candles.

Clock on the wall (You have to read the book!)

Appetizers!

Desserts!

 

Fancy Jello Shots!

The group with a self-timer camera.

Me and the photographer

No one got any pictures of the main courses because it was midnight and we were pretty hungry! We may have also used my fire escape as a means of cooling down, but I am not saying that we did, because that might be illegal.

On Sunday, I cleaned up. I napped. Then I went to work. Then my friend Jenny and I went in search of fleet week festivities, but instead of finding them we ended up at a bar in Greenwich Village called Blind Tiger. They had decent food, an excellent beer selection, and an all around cool atmosphere.

Take me out to the ballgame!

 

 

Perks of Teaching

There are mornings I wake up and want to curl back into my warm bed and go to sleep.

There are mornings that I need a 30 oz coffee to keep me awake.

There are mornings that I cringe at the thought of grading 30 plus papers about the Civil War vocabulary.

Then there are mornings like this morning, where I wake right up, grab a small coffee on my way to school, and show up with a pep in my step.

Field Trip mornings.

Today my class went on a field trip to explore the brand new Yankee Stadium. the fifth grade studies baseball in gym class, so it ties in educationally, but it happened to also be a really fun field trip.

We explored the museum, saw monuments to legends, and sat in the dugout. It was awesome. I love being a teacher.

Weekend Recap

I can officially welcome Spring to New York City. This past weekend was beautiful weather! High 70's, clear blue sky, sun shining.

Be Jealous.

I spent Friday night out with some friends. We ended up seeing What to Expect When You're Expecting and it was decent. I laughed, I smiled, I cringed at the thought of labor. The movie was funnier then expected, plus it had less  birthing scenes than Knocked Up!  I am still not sold on Jenny from the block as an actress, and I felt that Cameron Diaz wasn't able to pull off being pregnant, but the men cast in the movie were fabulous. If you have a rainy afternoon or a free ticket, then check it out, but don't waste a pretty Spring day on this movie.



On Saturday, I went to The Great GoogaMooga Festival in Prospect Park.  My friends and I got to the park early, had no problem finding a shady place to call camp, and scouted out the vendors. We ate, we drank, we listened to bands we had never heard of. We got dessert, we visited more vendors, and we got a little sun burned. We had a good time. It was pretty much exactly what I expected, until the clock struck 2:30. Around two thirty, you could no longer see the field in front of you because it was covered in people. You could not longer buy food because the lines were either too long or vendors ran out of food. You could no longer buy beer or wine because their system was down. The madness only got worse. People took to twitter to complain about this free festival.













Honestly, this was the first time this festival has been put on, it was day 1, you gave out 14,000 free tickets. Chaos was bound to ensue. I thought that it was great. I saw some food & drink I wanted to eat (blood orange lemonade, pork belly tacos), I saw some food I would never want to eat (horse bologna, fois gras doughnuts), and I tried some stuff.

Friends!

 Food!

  Crowds!

On Sunday, I skipped the food festival, but I did go to a farmer's market and a book club meeting. Success and relaxing.



Bring on the rain this week, but bring back the sun next weekend!