New York, New York - Part 3!

I need to start this post by explaining to you just how amazing my bestest actually is.

Saturday was our last day in New York, and it was also a free day, meaning no tours or required meeting spots, we had the day totally to ourselves to do whatever we pleased.

Knowing this, and also knowing that it was my very first time in New York City, my awesome best friend spent the better part of a month scheduling a detailed itinerary based on what I wanted to do, and the things that she thought I should do.

Unfortunately I had to go and screw it all up.

My Saturday morning didn't exactly start well. It actually began with me running full force into a wood bed and breaking my toe. Only me.

Then my diabetic thing decided that it was pretty much done with the whole New York life, and by the time the bestest and I had showered, dressed, and made our way to McDonald's in Time's Square to meet my mom and her best friend, I pretty much felt like I was dying.

To make a very long story short, this all ended up with a rushed breakfast for everyone else, a trip back to the hotel room (where I passed out in bed), a rushed trip to the drug store for batteries (the battery in the machine that monitors my blood sugar decided that this was the opportune time to die) and a lot of tears. In any case, the problem was that I ate much too late the night before, also drank more than I probably should, and my blood sugar was not the slightest bit happy. It also meant that I wasn't able to move myself from bed without the fear of losing anything left in my stomach until 10:30, cutting a good two and a half hours from our day.

And yet, because my best friend is so amazing, she just adjusted and carried on like everything was fine. Love her.

So once I was moving, we tried to salvage the rest of our day and carry on, as planned, starting with the Staten Island Ferry (I was still not eating at this point, but I was drinking an amazing Strawberry Yogurt smoothy that was amazing). Even without food, and the occasional wave of nausea, these sights were amazing


After the Ferry we headed to Ground Zero

There are honestly no words. It was something I felt like I needed to see, because I, like the rest of the world, remember exactly where I was and how I was feeling on that day 10 years ago. It was enlightening, and upsetting all at once. It is also something I think everyone should do. It's unfortunate, but it has become a part of New York. It is still so fresh even after 10 years, and it made me gain a new respect for the people of New York and how they are managing to both remember and recover.

After we left ground zero came the first flaw in the itinerary. I got hungry, and needed to eat immediately, not exactly leaving time to get to the restaurant that the bestest had planned to eat at. So we found a small little cafe very close to ground zero, which was good, but not a part of the plan.

Then came more shopping. We hit Crumbs (best cupcakes ever), The Strand (four floors of books? For a book lover it's like I died and went to heaven), Barnes and Noble (I'm an addict...what can I say?), DSW (which included me talking the bestest into purchasing her third pair of Uggs. They were cute and so worth it).

And because of the morning incident, after all of this we were pretty much out of time. I had to get back to the hotel to meet my mommy for dinner and a play, meaning that the bestest could not go see the carousel in Central Park (I'm a horrible bestest. Where she is still amazing).

I finished my time in New York at an Irish Pub for dinner with my mom and we went to see "When Death Takes a Holiday." The play was good, but it also wasn't my first choice. I figured while in New York I should see something like "Wicked," or "Mamma Mia" but I got outvoted.

After that it was getting back to the hotel, icing and elevating a very, very swollen, bruised and broken toe, and waiting for the bus to come to take us on a very long trip home.

So that was my experience in New York City. I absolutely fell in love. It was nothing like what I expected it to be (which is a good thing). Trip of a lifetime and I'm so glad that I got to do it with the bestest friend in the world, as well as my amazing mother.

My Dream ______

One of my favourite bloggers posted this and I thought it would be fun to play along.

My Dream......BODY

I'm not totally dissatisfied with the body that I have, although I am a bit "curvier" than I would like. Of course I wouldn't mind looking like this:

But I don't see it happening anytime soon.

My Dream..... VACATION

This one is easy. I have a top three, but first on that list would 100% be Venice, Italy

Ever since I was little I have wanted to go here. It's just so beautiful and romantic, and falls in with my little girl fantasy's of princesses and prince charming. Second and third on my list would be Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and Ireland.

My Dream...DRINK

Not sure I fully understand this question, so I'm going to go with my favourite one. Again it's a toss up between

Malibu and Diet 7up (or sprite) or

Cherry Whiskey and Diet Coke

My Dream House

Put it out in the country, slap a white picket fence around it and add an additional balcony from the master bedroom and it would be perfect.

My Dream.....JOB

This one changes.....a lot...

When I started school I wanted to be a editor. When I graduated, I wanted to get more on the side of distribution.

If we are being realistic, I think I would love to stay at home with my future children.

My Dream....CAR

I've never been the kind of girl that dreams about a car. I don't own one, and never have, but I have been looking around lately as I'm going to eventually need it to get from point A to point B. This is probably the one thing in my life I'd like to be practical about. I want it to be good on gas, not too pricey and dependable. Lately I have had my eye on this

The Honda Fit. I think they are absolutely adorable, while also fitting in my price range. This being said, I am extremely picky about how my cars drive, so it would all depend on how the test drive goes.

My Dream.... MAN

Was there ever any doubt? I mean I have loved him since I was about 14.

But of course we can't forget this guy

Cue rolling eyes....but we can never forget him :)

New York, New York - Part 2!

This is a tad bit overdue!

Friday in New York started um....early. I believe the time that we had be down in the lobby was 6:30. Yeah. That's up, dressed, and ready to leave at 6:30 a.m. Needless to say, I'm not exactly what can be considered a morning person. I'm bitchy. cranky. miserable....

...But I did it. I wasn't pleasant (I believe the bestest decided that the best route was to just stop talking to me after about 15 minutes of "we're in New York. You don't sleep in New York. When is the next time we will be in New York?!?" to which she got responses close to "New York will still be here at noon.") I'm sure there was some explicit language in there somewhere but I really don't remember. The only important thing was that I was, in fact, following directions by being awake and moving. There was nothing in the itinerary that required me to be chipper.

Why did we have to be up and ready to go at 6:30a.m on a Friday? To go here:

This is unfortunately the extent of my early morning photo taking abilities

It's called Ellen's Diner, and it is the cutest, little fifty's diner where the staff literally sing and dance while serving you. The bestest kept telling me (as I complained about the time) that this place was worth it and she was completely right. All of the waiters/waitresses are struggling performers, and 100% of their tips go to helping them succeed, making the experience even better.

After we finished eating (phenomenal food by the way) our tour bus arrived and we headed out on a tour of Brooklyn. This was the tour I was least anticipating, but it turned out to be the best one of the trip, much to do with this man:

That's Tony. Our very own Brooklyn tour guide. We spend the morning, and a good portion of the afternoon, driving around looking at beautiful scenes like this:

We stopped for lunch and got to try real Sicilian style pizza

Best pizza I have ever had. And I eat a lot of pizza.

We then ended the tour at Coney Island with these amazing sights

After our tour it was off to New Jersey for some shopping, and much too much money spending. I don't have any pictures of my purchases (although my cute boot splurge may make an appearance in my engagement photo's *HINT HINT*) but we can just leave it at I did well.

After a long trip back into New York (something like two hours. Trying to get back into New York City on a Friday, in rush hour wasn't the easiest thing), a quick shower, we were headed out to our formal dinner....which I don't have good pictures of (FAIL!) I was too busy eating and drinking.

By this point it was very late, after a very early morning. The bestest and I found ourselves wandering through New York City (maybe the slightest bit tipsy) on a mission to find me a New York Hoody (we were successful...even if we were tipsy!)

We also managed to find this guy

Only in Time's Square!

Next Up: Free Saturday!

Wedding Wednesday: Engagement Pictures

After some very unnecessary photographer drama, we finally got our engagement pictures done.

Oh wait...I didn't tell you about the photographer drama...(trust me. If I told you all of the drama that has been surrounding this wedding lately you would be shocked!)

If you remember, booking my photographer was a bit of a difficult decision. It was probably the most important one I had to make, other than picking my venue. I'm going to have these pictures forever, and I want them to be something I am proud to display. This being said, I also didn't want to sell my future first born in order to pay for them.

After searching, we found Piper Studios. We met with them, looked over some proofs, got some questions answered and booked. I still had some concerns, namely that Piper is a studio and they employ many photographers, and the person that we booked with wasn't one of them. I was reassured before we booked that I could get the same photographer for our engagement shoot and wedding day, and if I had any concerns at all a new photographer would be assigned.

I wanted my engagement pictures done in August, and a photographer from Piper contacted us at the beginning of the month to make arrangements. Due to scheduling conflicts we couldn't arrange to meet in August, but we did set a meeting on September 25th. All was good. Until he e-mailed me at the beginning of September saying something came up, he had to cancel and we could reschedule for the last weekend in October.

Um No. Don't get me wrong, I understand that things happen. I am the queen of things happening. But my pictures were already booked for a month later than I originally wanted, and he wanted to push it back another full month. That would put me in a whole different season.

After a few e-mails to the lady I booked with, Piper proved that I made the right choice booking with them by promptly finding me a new photographer that could do my engagement shoot on the original booked day, as well as our wedding day.

So on September 25th we ventured out and met with Paul, who was awesome. He made us feel so relaxed, and he knew exactly what I was looking for.

We started at Graffiti Alley downtown, to get some contemporary, different poses that was what I was looking for in my pictures.

We then moved to a beach/park area to take what Paul referred to as the "mom pictures"

Although the drama was a bit more than I needed, Paul was amazing and I absolutely love my pictures.

Thought on Thursday

I feel the bunch of little, insignificant thoughts that are floating around in my head warrants a thoughtless post.

1) I'm so happy that it's Thursday because that means that tomorrow is Friday which means that we are that much closer to the weekend.

2) This weekend is so busy because on Sunday we have our Engagement pictures! Meaning that my Saturday will be spent running around making sure I'm ready

3)
I finished The Hunger Games at lunch today. I liked it. I thought it was an interesting idea. Kind of a cross between futuristic reality T.V and the Olympics. This being said, from all of the reviews I have been reading in the past weeks one would think this book was life changing. I'm not there. It was good, but it's not the best book I have ever read.

4)
I'm officially suffering from wedding stress. I'm so done thinking about colours, flowers, dresses and suits. I JUST WANT TO GET MARRIED! We have about 7 months left, and even that is too long. Let's just do this! Any other brides reach this point???

5) Thinking about where we are going to live is not helping the stress at all.

6)
I wish money grew on trees.

7) Job searching sucks.

8) I am WAY behind on my New York updates. It's not like I have been home for over a month or anything. My pictures are not on my work computer, and after 8 hours I don't really feel like turning on my other one. I'll try harder.

9) I also want to take pictures and show you the adorable scarf that my brothers girlfriend knitted me and I LOVE. So many goals!

10) I have fully embraced fall. I'm liking my sweaters, and Uggs. And to be honest, my fall scented candles, as well as the amazing amount of T.V is not hurting.

11) It has taken me a little over 3 hours to write this post as I keep stopping to do real work.

That's all of my thoughts for today. Happy Thursday!

Television Tuesday

Probably my favourite part about fall is the return of all my T.V shows

Our PVR is seriously overrun because there is honestly not enough time in our day to watch them all.

So I figured I would use Tuesday for the next little while to let you in on what I'm watching.

This week I'm excited for:

Obviously! I think I have made it clear how obsessed with this show I am. Last season wasn't fantastic, but the producers have stated that this season they plan on going back to the basics. So I'm very excited for tonight!

The new show that I'm looking forward to is:

Synopsis (taken from Wikipedia): The series follows a former New York City police detective named Carrie Wells, who suffers from hyperthymesia, a rare medical condition that gives her the ability to remember everything. She is reluctantly asked by her former boyfriend and one-time partner to join his homicide unit after he asks for help with solving a case. The move allows her to do the one thing she has been trying to remember, that of finding out how her sister was murdered.

I Say every year that I'm not going to start watching new series because a) I don't have time and b) I typically end up getting addicted and then they get cancelled. But this year, like every other, I failed.

I'm a complete sucker for the crime genre. I read the books, watch the shows, I guess it's my guilty pleasure. So this show immediately appealed to me. It also starts tonight (Tuesday's are going to be a big night for me). Hopefully it does well and I don't have to be sad when it gets cancelled.

That's my top two this week. What are you looking forward to? (not that I need any more temptations)

Bandwagon hopping

I have finally hopped on the bandwagon and started reading this:

I have picked up this book so many times that I have lost count. Each time I decided that it wasn't for me, put it down and bought something else.

This being said, I am officially sick of hearing from everyone and anyone how amazing this series is (blogs, friends, Chris's co-workers, T.V, my brothers girlfriend.....seriously EVERYONE) So I finally bit the bullet and bought it.

I'm about 50 pages in and I will say that I'm intrigued. I'm not going as far as I like it....yet....but it has definitely caught my interest.

So who has read it? What did you think? Anyone out there dislike it???