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G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S
2008-01-04 23:00:00
Would any of us really know how to spell that word without hesitation if it weren't for Fergie?Time to blog about more cliché moments, which I won't admit to actively seeking in New York (at least not out loud).I left the gym this morning and proceeded to the nearest Pax Wholesome Foods for my Friday morning bagel with Lox cream cheese spread. As I walked through Bryant Park, the brisk winter air felt fresh and I felt like the heartbeat of the city. Retarded, I know. But I swear, there is no better place to be happy than in New York.When you are happy in this city, everything glows. Ok - it was a beautiful morning, but the energy of this city truly magnifies any emotion - excitement, sadness, anger. Whatever you are feeling, New York will increase its intensity tenfold.I am happy because of last night's news (which I cannot share until we double check the confidentiality clauses - for those of you who caught it before I pulled it down, but it will be reposted shortly). I am happy...

The Moments That Make the Ride
2008-01-04 05:39:00
Have you ever wanted to run through the streets of New York screaming? I have and I did. As I recall, very few people paid any attention to me. And granted, it was the one night of the year when 90% of the city's population was looking, doing or watching what would be considered weird by society?s standards.And just like on Halloween, my best friend did it again. She tricked me into believing that her late-night phone call was just an average chat. It was indeed not an average chat, and now I am wide awake, can?t sleep and am up blogging.?You sound like you?re already in the bed,? she had said when I answered my cell. I was (and thinking of the 5:30 a.m. alarm prepped to send me off to the gym) but for her I make exceptions so I responded, ?I am. What are you doing? You back in Jersey???No, still in Atlanta [three days each week, she is filming new episodes of ?Tyler Perry?s House of Payne? scheduled to air sometime in the near future]. I just got back from having dinner with Shame...
More About: Ride , Make , Moments

"Things I Love" Thursdays - The Gym
2008-01-04 01:44:00
I love going to the gym in the morning before work. However ...While I commend the 2008 road to fitness paved with good new-gym-membership intentions, which many New Year?s Resolution-ists are currently attempting to trudge, I am looking forward to the months when the new crowd begins breaking their initially determined and earnest pledges. The mirrors and hairdryers were crowded this morning, and I was almost late to work.I am sure the 2006 regulars felt the same way about me when I joined my company?s corporate gym membership with Equinox in January 2007 and began crowding the regulars? informally claimed areas. And consistent with the natural cycle of gym life, eventually a few of this year?s newbies will become oldies with the rest of us, and we will again share the annoyance of the temporary gym attendance surge when the 2009 New Year's Resolutions kick in.While I sincerely encourage overall health and wellness for the general population (especially my family, friends and cowo...
More About: Love , Things

First (Maybe Only) Freeze of '08
2008-01-03 01:29:00
It is so cold outside right now (at least for this New York transplant who has yet to experience a harsh New York City winter thanks to the "earth-warming gremlins who've been hired by Al Gore to win him awards*,"), my entire face chapped during my evening commute. I just finished lathering my face with Vaseline.Quite a contrast from this last year.However, I did warm up while laughing at this in my not-warm-enough-because-the-building-mana gement-is-stingy-with-the-heat apartment.*BNR Theory
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On the Brink of 2000-Great
2008-01-02 01:57:00
"On the Brink of 2000-Great "Last night's theme and multiple plays on words per our circle of NYC friends and associatesAfter shots, schmoozing and the televised Times Square countdown to midnight champagne toasts at Kevin?s gorgeous Bleecker Street apartment, my girls and I left the West Village around 2:30 a.m., argued with some drunk chics over a cab on Seventh Avenue, checked out an after-hours party at Kush in the Lower East Side, almost joined friends at Puck Fair at 4 a.m., but instead found ourselves speeding through the Lincoln Tunnel in a black Suburban around 5 o'clock and in a random New Jersey diner around 7:15. I finally made it back to Manhattan around 6:30 tonight.Clicquot camera phone photo op ...

Again
2008-01-01 03:10:00
I can't believe it has been my first full calendar year in New York City. I knew 2007 was going to be a good year for me. There weren't any celestial prophecies; I just like odd numbers.It was a year of good, bad and ugly moments, from the 2007 countdown in Times Square with 1 million other people to last minute preparations (kudos to Iris for finding me a great dress at BCBG a few hours ago) for tonight?s New Year?s Eve 2008 party at an apartment on Bleecker Street with 30-40 friends and acquaintances. And I have appreciated every moment.Between recent holiday parties and the New York club scene (of which I have taken full advantage since the office has been closed since December 21), I haven't been as reflective on 2007 as I was nearing the end of 2006. A year ago, I had finally found an apartment and just secured a permanent position with a multimedia company; I was trying to understand how to fit into the new lifestyle I had chosen for myself, and I was slightly fearing that ...

NYC has Small-World Syndrome
2008-01-01 02:55:00
So, I walked into H&M to look for a cocktail dress to wear to tonight's party at Kevin's apartment. I didn't find one there (that's what I get for waiting until the last minute), but I did come across an old acquaintance from Cullowhee, North Carolina.As I browsed the racks with Iris, Angie and Tasha, a guy approached me and said, "Is your name Katie?"I didn't recognize his face immediately, but quickly realized that he is a current Western Carolina student that I had helped get into college during my post-graduation, 3-year admissions counselor stint. A native New Yorker, he is back in the city for the Winter Break. We chatted for a few minutes about mutual friends and the dramatically changing landscape of Western Carolina's campus (the university has been undergoing a multimillion dollar facelift for a few years now).As we parted ways after musing over our chance encounter, I said to him, "Don't you love this about New York?"
More About: World , Syndrome , Small , Small World

Patriots Make NFL History
2007-12-30 07:05:00
And I was there to watch it happen live during Saturday night football in the New York Giants Stadium in New Jersey. The fact that I initially found the stadium?s location baffling as we left Manhattan and drove across the George Washington Bridge speaks volumes to how much I do not watch football. My fraternity brother, who had offered me his extra ticket, found this amusing."You really didn't know the Giants Stadium was in Jersey? That's adorable," he had said as we crossed the Hudson River. He would continue to laugh at me throughout the night as I would ask question after question in a genuine effort to understand the game and the Giants' place in New York culture. Sometimes he would chuckle and say something like, "They change the field turf when the Jets play here," or ?There are no cheerleaders because it?s a cold-weather team.? Other times he would commend me, "That's a really good question. So if the Giants score here, they're going to try for an onside kick."This was ...
More About: History , Patriots , Make

"Things I Love" Thursdays - Book Clubs
2007-12-27 06:02:00
I love to witness a couple sharing a novel on the train.As New York Magazine put it in Reason #50 of their recent article Reasons to Love New York, "We are a city of readers, and apparently we start early.""Things I Love" Thursdays are inspired by "I Love New York" (BNY, February 14, 2007).
More About: Clubs , Book

Life, Maybe Death, and Christmas
2007-12-26 03:47:00
I think I saw someone die on the subway today. I can't be sure, of course, because 1) I've never seen anyone die, and 2) I wasn't close enough to pronounce him dead.I had just switched to a no. 2 or 3 express train at 96th Street and had settled into the front end of whatever car I was on, reading Rules for Saying Goodbye ... which is, in some ways, like my psychological biography. The circumstances of the heroine vary from those in my life, but sometimes I feel like she borrowed the thoughts right out of my own head.I was completely engrossed in Chapter 21: Engagement; or a Hostage Situation and ignoring a very slight commotion in the back end of the car. At 72nd Street, the train paused with the doors open for longer than usual. I didn't look up. A man sat next to me and opened his own book. There was something comfortable about the stranger beside me, both of us reading.Then an announcement: "We are delayed due to a sick passenger on this train. Please be patient."A few downt...
More About: Christmas , Life , Death

My Favorite New York Holiday Story
2007-12-25 01:55:00
My favorite post from Joe.My.God to celebrate the joy of the season. Merry Christmas!Dance of the Sugar Plum LesbiansFrom its 4th Annual Appearance on JMG (and the second or third on BNY)Grand Central Terminal functions as the mechanical heart of midtown New York City, pumping out several thousand workers and tourists on one beat, then sucking in several thousand more on the next.The rhythms of the terminal are fascinating.Beat. Four thousand, inbound from New Haven.Beat. Three thousand, outbound to Westchester.Worlds collide on the main floor.The tourists gawk up at the gloriously ornate ceiling and uselessly flash their digital cameras at objects hundreds of feet away. The commuters rush up to the track displays to determine their track number, then dart across the terminal floor, dodging the milling tourists, heads down, like running backs heading for the end zone.It's mesmerizing. It's majestic.And sometimes, like tonight, it's magical.I'm walking through the massive main ro...
More About: Holiday , Story , Favorite

Phone Photo Ops - Corporate Holiday Spirit
2007-12-22 22:22:00
Our office closed yesterday, and I am on paid holiday leave through January 2. I will be spending the Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa etc. season in New York and enjoying a week and a half of corporate-less bliss. It's like being on winter break in college all over again. In the meantime, a photo essay to summarize the joy of the corporate holiday.I know this is a holy season across many cultures, but I have a theory that pure evil is behind the sugary and salty forces of the holiday waistline bulge. Call it Satan, if you will. But whatever demon is behind the debauchery that has been invading our office over the past three weeks is dissolving six months worth of 4-days a week/6 a.m. workouts. Back into the darkness, I command you!!!However, whatever sacred force was behind the purchase of this gift from my boss, I commend you, oh, Ghost of Christmas Present!And a holiday card signed by the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism, which our office found quite funny. Just a little advertisi...
More About: Photo , Phone , Holiday , Corporate , Spirit

Phone Photo Op - Subway Gymnastics
2007-12-22 02:46:00
I generally despise most subway performances and other attempts made in an effort to relieve me of whatever cash I may be carrying at any given time. I got over all of the homeless, terminally-ill, and candy-selling spiels within my first month of living in New York. However, sometimes I see the subway dancers from the Bronx, who somersault, flip, cartwheel, and hang upside from subway poles just above your lap (quite literally) ... and often on a fairly crowded train. I always give them a dollar.
More About: Photo , Phone , Subway , Gymnastics

When I Grow Up ...
2007-12-21 20:30:00
My boss just emailed me the following YouTube video with the words "your career" in the subject heading.
More About: Grow

?Things I Love" Thursdays ? What I Love About New York
2007-12-21 00:29:00
?What I love about New York is ??Over the past year and a half, I have heard that sentiment - in varying grammatical structures - initiated without my prompting and completed in dozens of different ways.Last night, my coworker David and his boyfriend Christopher hosted a holiday party in their gorgeous Upper West Side apartment. This was the fourth or fifth holiday party I've attended this month, and it was my favorite for two reasons: 1) I received a set of four Williams-Sonoma All-Purpose Balloon Wineglasses in the gift exchange, and 2) the party was at David and Christopher's. Their one-bedroom, for which they pay well over $2000 a month, is my favorite of all of my friends and coworkers in Manhattan. It probably doesn?t hurt that it has the exquisite decorative touches of a not-too-trendy, fashion-forward gay couple. But the layout is just right for two people with all of the quintessential New York effects: exposed brick on opposite walls, tiny kitchen off of the shared livin...
More About: Love , Things , New-York

"Things I Love" Thursdays - And More
2007-12-21 00:20:00
The more I read these, the more I love my 8 million neighbors ... #95 and #98 have essentially summed up everything I've ever written in my blog over the last year and a half.From "Your Reasons" at http://nymag.com/news/articles/reasonstol oveny/2007/42046/ and http://nymag.com/news/articles/reasonstol oveny/2007/42353/:7. ?I love New York because we order pizza from the Italian place across the street and have our laundry delivered. We take a taxi to the gym. We know exactly what we want out of life and careers, but can?t decide where to eat brunch. We make plans and don?t keep any of them. We think a studio for $1,500 a month is a steal, but get pissed when the coffee guy raises his prices 25 cents. We fight with cabbies about their driving skills, but we are 35 and have never had a driver?s license.?-Alexis DeSieno14. ?I love New York because you can date five people at once and never get caught.?-Neva Alsheik95. ?I love New York because the anonymity is thrilling. It?s truly incr...
More About: Love , Things

Morning After Blogger Beers & Secret Service Soiree
2007-12-20 00:36:00
I joined fellow NYC bloggers for the first time at one of their happy hour gatherings last night. As I left work and ventured downtown on the D train to a bar on West 4th Street, I couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive. It almost felt like I was meeting about a dozen people for a blind date.Upon entering the bar, I surveyed the scene trying to see if I could recognize anyone from the photos posted in our private New York Blogger s' Happy Hour blog. I searched for BNR, who had assured me that he looks exactly like the avatar on his blog, and I would eventually find them at the beerpong table in the back. I decided almost immediately that I was going to like them (listed in my characteristic-OCD alphabetized order):An Irish and a JewBlog Name RemovedDrunkBrunchEast Village IdiotNo Stop Till BrooklynSecond Avenue SagasTales of a Delectable RedheadThe Brooklyn BoyZombie Fights SharkNote: The above list will likely undergo revision as I try to remember/figure out who I drank with...
More About: Service , Secret , Morning , Secret Service

Phone Photo Op - Blog Business Cards
2007-12-20 00:30:00
East Village Idiot has business cards for his blog. Hilarious. But perhaps necessary since his blog has received varying levels of acclaim throughout the city and is often cited in the city's periodicals. I skimmed his business card in vain hoping to find his favorite exploits of English grammar, and I was slightly disappointed that his card was grammatically flawless.Cuz I wanted to do this:
More About: Business , Photo , Phone , Blog , Cards

Morning-After Text Messages
2007-12-15 16:31:00
Supporting evidence regarding the unspecified hilarious affairs of our company's holiday party:"so much fun last nite i woke up this am with a pound of glitter on my face :-)"- Text message received at 10:15 a.m. from my endearingly gay, male colleague
More About: Morning , Messages , Mess , Ages

Search-Term Saturday - Manhattan Real Estate Depression
2007-12-15 12:32:00
Someone in Schenectady, New York, googled "Manhattan Real Estate Depression " yesterday and found my blog. I have a chronic case of it.Other search results provided:"The Manhattan Real Estate Slump that Wasn't" - The New York Times"Will the Real Hangover Please Stand Up?" - Urbandigs.com"What the Credit Crunch Means for NYC Real Estate" - Curbed.comOk ... now I am going back to bed. I have to go play tourist in a few hours with Cassie (Metro-North-ing it up from New Haven) and her brother (arriving on an early flight from North Carolina) and Iris (living five blocks up and five avenues over) and her mother (also visiting from good ol' North Cacalacky).
More About: Search , Saturday

On Cloud New York
2007-12-15 11:11:00
You know an annual meeting is getting long when the senior marketing manager starts poking one of the sales directors in the back with a banana, your boss is surfing the Internet on an iPhone, and every time you turn around, one of the other executive assistants is struggling to keep her eyes open and mostly ends up looking cross-eyed.And you know I got home and passed out early after too much wine at the company holiday party when I'm up blogging at 5 a.m. on a Saturday. According to my call history, I had a fairly lengthy conversation with Terrence when I got home around 10:30 p.m., but I don't remember how the phone call ended. I am legendary in North Carolina for falling asleep at a moment's notice ... and anywhere - with or without alcohol (the Waffle House in Cullowhee at 4 a.m. is just one example). Even narcoleptic, if you will.But yesterday was a good day, and I woke up today at 4:30 a.m. to all of the lights on in my apartment (which is like three light bulbs total) and...
More About: New York , York , Cloud , New-York

"Things I Love" Thursdays - Fall Foliage
2007-12-14 05:19:00
I love autumn leaves on New York sidewalks.
More About: Love , Things , Fall

Choices
2007-12-12 13:26:00
Do you ever put your arms out and spin and spin and spin really, really fast? New York can spin you like that. You get caught up ... and if you're not careful, if you don't keep your eye on something still, you could lose your balance. You can?t see what?s happening to the people around you ? You can?t see that you?re about to fall.
More About: Choices

BNY's Installment of Gawker Stalker
2007-12-11 23:04:00
My boss dipped out of the office early this evening and called moments ago to inform us that Bow Wow is in Circuit City (on 43rd and Fifth). Less than a block away and over 20 floors up, we can hear the screaming teenage girls from Sam and Jen's office.I thought they were police sirens.Looks like I beat Gawker in posting this sighting. Needless to say, I'll be exiting the building on 42nd Street when I leave tonight.
More About: Stalker , Talker

Phone Photo Ops - Around the Office
2007-12-09 20:43:00
Please accept exhibits A, B and C (camera phone photo ops taken last Friday) as circumstantial evidence regarding the types of people with whom I work.Exhibit A (our senior marketing manager)Exhibit B (in the office of our director of advertising operations)Exhibit C (in the office of the VP)
More About: Photo , Phone , Office , The Office

Phone Photo Op - WTF amNY?
2007-12-08 17:34:00
IDK that amNY 86ed Five-on-Five.So even though I generally only take the amNY each morning on my way to the gym in order to help the adorable, little woman at the top of the Bryant Park Station subway stairs at 42nd and Fifth do her job, I actually skim through it 1-3 times a week. I was disappointed yesterday to read various letters to the editor regarding the termination of Five-on-Five. And there among the various responses to the ?feature?s apparent demise? was even a note from the East Village Idiot, a New York blog that I read regularly and to whom I frequently link posts whenever he writes anything that really makes me LOL.So no more Five-on-Five, huh? Well, OMG. INBD. Before I stop talking like a sixth grade school girl, I just wanted to say that there are few things better than witty, sarcastic sports banter on a Friday morning following a long workweek, and now there is only one reason left for me to continue picking up this paper. So if the adorable, little woman at the t...
More About: Photo , Phone

Search-Term Saturday - Living in North Carolina vs New York City
2007-12-08 17:17:00
Someone in Raleigh googled "living in north carolina vs new york city" on Wednesday and found my blog.The search results also yielded:"I'm Moving Out of New York City" - Penelope's TrunkI've quoted her before and I'll quote her again:"I?m always surprised when people leave New York. I mean, where do they go?"- Samantha, "Sex & the City"
More About: Living , North Carolina , Search

Phone Photo Op - Price of Friendship
2007-12-08 02:15:00
In New York, you're more likely to have friends who are designers at Coach and can get you $1200-worth of merchandise for $50 at an employees-only sample sale. I now have two bags and a wallet. Yes, three items = $1200. I guess I should increase my renter's insurance.
More About: Photo , Phone , Friendship , Price

Phone Photo Op - This is a No. 2 Express Train
2007-12-07 14:50:00
On mornings when I don?t leave for the gym at 6 a.m., I am tormented by the internal debate of whether I should stay on the downtown no. 1 local train or switch to an express no. 2 or 3 at 96th Street. Under normal circumstances, this should be a no-brainer if one wants to quicken his or her commute. However, in the midst of rush hour, you are more likely to stand on a no. 2 or 3 train crammed between someone?s ear and someone else?s armpit and watch a nearly empty no. 1 train pace you all the way to 42nd Street.Today I made the switch to my own detriment. Please note below the armpit of the woman in the black coat, the man in the blue jacket about to be smashed by the closing doors, the grimace of the girl in the red (who would also watch mournfully as multiple no. 1 local trains passed our no. 2 express), and what appears to be a hand holding a baby in a tank top ... What the ...? It's 30 degrees outside! I didn't notice that while on the train so let's give the weary commuters...
More About: Photo , Phone , Train , Express

?Things I Love? Thursdays - It?s a Small World
2007-12-07 01:15:00
I am quite certain that Walt Disney came up with the theme after spending time in New York. It can feel like a small world if you run into someone in Pobunk, Nowhere, but the big city intensifies the small world feeling because it seems like it should be less likely to run into a random person from your present or past in such a crowded, busy place, where skyscrapers dominate the skyline reducing you to a figurative needle in a concrete haystack.Yet small world tendencies are so New York. Aside from coming into daily contact with almost every culture on the planet within 22.7 square miles, over the last year Terrence and I have shared separate A-train reunions (1 and 2), my co-worker Jenny and I met a guy at Bryant Park Café who had been an elementary school student in West Chester under Jenny?s mother, I discovered a second or third-ish cousin (by marriage) works with me in another division of the same company (3), my co-worker Scott went to high school in North Carolina with my be...
More About: World , Love , Small , Things , Small World