Happy New Year, Friends!

Another year has come and gone, praise God! Each day is a gift, not a certainty, and I am so thankful to be typing this very moment. I could say something cliche like, "Wow, time really flew by," or "I blinked and the year was gone," but as I've said in a past blog, 24 hours is 24 hours, and 365 days is 365 days. I refuse to accept or acknowledge that years get shorter as we age.

Speaking of getting older, I hollered at Sid yesterday for telling a coworker who, after receiving our Christmas card, exclaimed, "Your wife looks so young!" Sid countered with, "She's not young, she's 29!" Um, first of all, I'm NOT 29. I won't turn 29 for 5 months and 22 days. Second, if someone says your wife looks young, DON'T ARGUE! Third, the moron who decided 30 was old needs to have their teeth knocked in by the genius who announced that 30 is the new 20 and 40 is the new 30. While we're on this topic, I also wasn't entirely loving the discussion I had with Sid's Mom at Christmas about having children. "You reach a certain age when childbearing gets risky," she said pointedly, to which I replied, "Yeah, age 35. I have 7 more years." End of discussion.

So, Happy New Year, my beloved friends, no matter how "young" you are!

The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul. G.K. Chesterton

For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning. T.S. Eliot
P.S. Did you think you were spared from hearing my resolutions? Ha! I just haven't had time to think about them yet!

TGIF in NYC

I don't know if I could pick a favorite day of our vacation, but if you threatened my life and made me choose, I'd probably say Friday. If was something out of a movie.

Friday's Highlights:

1. Dean & Deluca...again: From our cozy spot in front of the window with a view of the Today Show, we gobbled a shared piece of quiche and sipped delicious lattes while gigantic snowflakes tumbled from the sky. By the time we left, the snow was pouring out of the clouds and it was absolutely beautiful.
2. Museum of Modern Art: We headed to MOMA - one of our favorite museums - to catch the Van Gogh exhibit, "Colors of the Night." I've felt many things while starting at a spectacular piece of art (awed, disturbed, amazed...) but no painting has ever truly moved me - deep down to my soul - until I gazed upon "Starry Night Over the Rhone" (not to be confused with his beloved "Starry Night"). I've seen many Van Gogh pieces and each and every one leaves me breathless, don't get me wrong. But "Starry Night Over the Rhone" made my eyes teary, glued my feet to the ground, and I could have stood in it's presence for hours. No photography was allowed in the exhibit, but I'll include a photo from the internet on my slideshow.
3. Rock Center Cafe: It's a restaurant for the tourists, like us, but we love it anyway! On the same level as the ice skating rink, the view of the tree and the skaters is fantastic and it's a festive place to catch a bite during the holidays. What keeps us going back? The cheesecake! Sid and I both claim that they have the BEST cheesecake in the entire universe.
4. The Frick Collection: The snow continued to fall for the entire day and our walk to the Frick was especially beautiful as it collected on the brownstones, the trees, the cars lining the streets. We were very grateful for a roof over our heads by the time we made it to the museum. It didn't take long in this old steel magnate's former residence for both Sid and I to mark it our favorite museum. Still arranged according to Henry Frick's design, European art, 18th century furnishings, sculptures, and Oriental rugs fill every space. My favorite room was the West Gallery, with it's deep green walls, the massive scale of the space, and the art lined walls. Want to see for yourself? Click here for a virtual tour! "Mother and Children" by Renoir and "Samson and Two Philistines" by Michelangelo were my favorite pieces from the collection.
5. Central Park: Sid and I made our way across the street from the Frick to Central Park, which was completely blanketed in pure white snow. Our quiet walk through the park as snowflakes continued to fall was a moment to remember. Something about the serenity of the park against the skyline of the city gets me everytime.
6. Tiffany: Sid asked me if I wanted to head towards Tiffany. What a dumb question! Of course I do! He told me to pick something out (ladies, don't get carried away - he didn't mean rubies or diamonds or a giant Tiffany lamp) and I went from case to case, trying things on. The moment I saw it, I knew I had to have it. Two interlocking circles on a delicate silver chain. I loved the symbolism and it will be cherished forever. Oh - and of course we asked them to wrap it up in the little blue box!
7. The Village: I love the Village, especially at night. On this particular night, however, it was 20 degrees, snowy, and wet. We took a cab from the hotel anyway, and wandered around for a bit before heading to Caffe Dante for dinner. I love the little Italian cafe. The food and drinks are authentic and delicious. They win the award for best Italian cheesecake in the universe.

Thursday in New York City

Thursday's Highlights:

1. Dean & Deluca - Ever since Felicity I've wanted to try Dean & Deluca, and on my third visit to the city, I finally got my chance! It was yummilicious!
2. NBC Studio Tour - Amanda's friend Jonathan invited us to his office in 30 Rockefeller Plaza for a private studio tour! We felt very important having to check in with security for our badge and even more special to have our very own private page to show us around. We saw Conan's studio (and I sat at his desk), NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams (minus Brian Williams, of course), Sunday Night Football, and Saturday Night Live! I was giddy for the entire tour but totally speechless once we got to the floor of SNL. It may sound dramatic, but standing there, looking at the stage? It was a very cool moment. Because the four of us are huge fans of "30 Rock" on NBC, riding the elevator was an unexpected hoot. Some of my favorite scenes from the show take place in the elevator. (If I'm being totally honest, I secretly want to either BE Liz Lemmon on "30 Rock" or be her very best friend) So now I have to post my favorite 30 Rock montage (and there's even a clip of her beating her coworker in Dean & Deluca!)
3. The story of the Rockefeller intern - Hmmm. There is no tactful way to tell her tale. Let's just say she had an accident. In her office. On the floor. On her first day of work. For NBC. Yeah.
4. Bryant Park - Sid finally bought the dirt bike sculpture he has eyed on our last two trips at a little shop in Bryant Park. I don't know what it is about this park, but I adore it and we visited it several times throughout our trip since it was only two blocks from the hotel.
5. Chicago on Broadway - It's not my favorite Broadway show but it was fantastic! We had such a fabulous time and had seats on the 7th row. Being so close to the stage for such an intimate production in such a tiny theater was incredible. Loved it!

Wednesday's Scrapbook

I promised photos and highlights from our trip, and by golly, I'm going to deliver! I feel compelled to warn you that my blog is a journal, capturing my life's moments - the big and the small, the funny and the tragic, the personal and the universal. I plan on posting slideshows for each day of my vacation and I cannot be held responsible for feelings of irritability ("she posted MORE photos?") droopy eyelids, or sharp sticks inserted into eye sockets. Bear with me and I'll soon be back to my regular scheduled programming.

Wednesday in NYC:

1. Nothing says Christmas quite like Rockefeller Center. The tree, the lights, the decorations, the frenzied tourists (myself included), the ice skating! If you don't feel jolly after a stroll around the Rockefeller tree, your friends might be calling you Scrooge behind your back. The four of us most definitely enjoyed our time there.
2. Sid and I visited FAO last year but it was a the night before Christmas Eve and it was PACKED. This year, we had plenty of room to run around like kids on a sugar high, playing with the coolest toys, hollering joyfully to one another from across the store, and watching the performance on the giant piano (you know the one - from "Big").
3. Serendipity is the coolest little restaurant. After a long stroll down 5th Avenue, we popped in for dinner and that famous dessert, the Frozen Hot Chocolate. After standing in the long narrow entrance for about twenty minutes waiting for a table, I felt a little nudge from Sid. I casually glanced to my left at the hostess stand (thinking maybe our name had been called) as a beautiful man was making his way to the exit. It took a full two seconds for my brain to register, "Adrian Grenier!" but it was too late to do anything but let my mouth fall open and then he was gone. In fact, Amanda happened to glance down at that very moment and she missed the entire encounter! We were finally seated and our waiter informed us that we were sitting at "his" table and that I was sitting in "his" chair. I think that makes "his" butt and my butt best friends. Sigh.
4. The entire day/night was spent on foot. There is simply no better way to see Manhattan, in this tourist's opinion, and I put my favorite Wednesday photos in the slideshow.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Ahhhh. We arrived safely home yesterday evening - too late to get our dogs from the kennel (thanks to our two hour flight delay) but with enough time to throw the dirty laundry in the washer, unpack and repack our clothes for our Christmas travels to family in the Houston and Austin areas, and then sleep a gloriously deep slumber (in which time Sid says I growled - yes, growled - in my sleep. Whatever.) Can we say whirlwind?

As if you expected anything different, we had a fantastic time in New York City. If my first visit to the city was love at first sight, and the second trip was our first kiss, then the third trip must be our engagement. You know what they say...first comes love, then comes marriage. I suppose when you marry a city and you want the relationship to blossom, you should probably live there, though. Sigh. I've had several people ask me, "Now that you've been three times in the past year, do you still want to go back?" YES!

After our holiday travels, I will post pictures and I will post some highlights (like NY Pops at Carnegie Hall, Chicago on Broadway, walking on the floor of the SNL studio, lunching with my old Bff Stef, the Frick Collection, eating pizza in Brooklyn, sitting at Conan O'Brien's desk, my amazing husband buying me a necklace at Tiffany, walking through Central Park as giant snowflakes fell...just to name a few) but mostly I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and safe travels this holiday season. God Bless and I love all of you! (even those of you who find my blog by strange Google searches, like "Lisa Loeb bikini" or "big fat butt")

Start Spreading the News....

I'm leaving today. I want to be a part of it - New York, New York!

The day is finally here! Our plan for Wednesday, despite the rainy weather, is to do the giant Midtown walking tour taking in all the grand sites - Rockefeller Plaza, the department store windows, St. Patricks Cathedral etc, etc, etc!

Have a great week! I'm sure I'll be posting pictures at night if I'm not so exhausted I can't move my fingers.

Stop What You Are Doing Right Now!

Read about Brad Wims and his beautiful family, and beg God for his healing. His last cancer report was poor, the doctor telling him he might not make it through the holidays. As believers, of course, we know GOD is our Healer and God can do ANYTHING.

It's easy to have faith when times are a little rocky, isn't it? Maybe we're praying for that new job, for peace in a wounded relationship, for light and understanding in times of darkness and uncertainty. We have faith in those times, don't we? Because surely God can handle THOSE kinds of requests, right? But what if your doctor said you didn't have much time? What if the only thing that could save your life is a miracle? Is your God big enough for such a gigantic request? You bet he is!

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?" "You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?' "But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." Mark 5: 24-34

Please lift up your prayers for Brad right now. Don't ask...BEG...God to heal Brad and know in your heart that our God is SO much bigger than cancer. God demands that when we pray, we must believe AND NOT DOUBT.

Picture Time!

I cleaned out my Myspace photo albums this afternoon and decided to share a few of my favorites with you! (by the way, I'm SOOO over Myspace but I can't just delete my account, can I? Wouldn't that be against the laws of social connections?)

PHOTO 1: This is my favorite photo of Sid because it completely captures his soul. He's laughing (as he always is), he's got a tool in his hand (he is a mechanical genius...literally...in case you didn't know) he's camping on a trip with some of his best friends (I love that he still talks to his oldest friends on a regular basis), his wedding band is clearly visible (he loves me more than I love myself), and he's in jeans and old workboots (my favorite "Sid" attire). I don't think it's possible for me to love this man even a tiny ounce more.

PHOTO 2: I noticed for the first time that "Peanut Butter" and me quite possibly shared the same hairstylist. Boy, did I have some BAD hair. I love this photo for so many reasons, but mostly, because I know my friends have the same one hiding somewhere in their photograph collections (like Joey - who still calls me "party pooper" after 23 years..inside preschool joke and no, it doesn't involve real poop), and the fact that I so clearly loved that animal - and that love for God's creatures remains a huge part of who I am.

PHOTO 3: Well, duh! I love this photo because who wouldn't want to be skiing right now, and at my favorite ski resort - Wolf Creek. Snow, mountains, ski lifts to the top of the world, rushing down the mountain, hot chocolate in the lodge (or candy bars in the middle of a run with Stacey - hey, Taos was HARD). I have a feeling Sid and I will be doing some skiing next year. Just a hunch ;-) P.S. If you have a clue what I'm hinting at, zip it!...for now. PHOTO 4: I laugh every time I see this picture. Dixie, Bear and I look like crazed aliens from another planet and Sid looks completely oblivious to the fact that we could slaughter him at any moment and beam his remains up to our awaiting spaceship. Good times in what I THINK is our first Christmas in Addison (could've been our second - I don't remember). PHOTO 5: Not only does my neice Ken Ken love animals like her Aunt Leigh, but she actually learned to be a horseback riding expert! This child has no fear and she is my hero. PHOTO 6: Taken at Top of the Rock in NYC after a beauitful meal at One if By Land Two If By Sea last fall. What an amazing trip!

PHOTO 7: Senior Year. Football playoffs in the Astrodome. What a night, what a year! We lost our "G" Melissa to a car accident a few years ago. I always smile when I see this photograph.

PHOTO 8: Is this one of the coolest photos ever? I think so. It's Sid at MOMA and it wasn't staged or planned - I just snapped a photo as he was staring in awe out the window. While I couldeasily get carried away by posting more and more photographs, I must stop myself and get back to work!


Happy Friday!

Wsup?

Has this week flown by, or what? Want to know what I've been up to? Sure you do!

1. I had sushi for the second time in 2 days and I enjoyed every single bite. I ate salad with chopsticks! (I hone my skills at every opportunity...I've gone from "complete moron with sticks" to "maybe no one will even notice me") Amanda and I met at RA Monday for a NYC planning meeting. I think we've nailed down all the final details! I'm so excited I could pee my pants. Oops...just did. (KIDDING!)

2. Bear Bear gave me quite a scare. His back has been bothering him on and off since Thanksgiving. We force him to rest (which he hates) and he gets better temporarily. After listening to him grunt all the way down the stairs, I knew it was time for vet intervention. As I talked to the receptionist at our vet, I started getting all teary thinking, "What if it's cancer? What if he has hip displaysia? What if he broke something?" It sounds silly, but by the time I hung up, I burst into tears. What would I do if I lost Bear Bear? The vet is sure it's just a back injury, gave him some painkillers, and will do an XRAY while he's boarded next week. Mostly, she just wants the XRAY so we'll have a baseline for the future (as he ages) and to fully confirm (at my request) that nothing else is causing his pain.

3. I burned my face. Mmm hmmm. My face. I bought the Neutrogena Healthy Skin Rejuvinator and it worked wonders the first time. The second time, I obviously didn't wet my face enough and that stupid machine scrubbed me raw. Fantastic.

4. Speaking of the things we do for beauty, I have a whole glorious day of pampering awaiting me today! I meet Stacey at 1 for a manicure and pedicure followed by a hair cut/color with Holli at 3! Woo hoo! I must admit that I'm a little nervous for my first appointment with a new hair stylist. Ashley, who you'll remember tried to turn me into Paulie Walnuts, messed my hair up for the last time.

Hmmm. Only four things on my list. Well, I suppose we all know by now how unexciting my life is. Happy Thursday!

Christmas Tradition

Every December, since Sid and I first moved to Addison five years ago, we head down to Mockingbird Lane for dinner at Campisi's Egyptian Lounge. (If you live near Dallas, of course you've dined here. It's a Dallas institution. It's a step back in time. It is simply delicious.) After dinner, we stop for coffee at Starbucks in Highland Park Village and then begin winding through the beautiful neighborhoods, gazing in wonderment at the gorgeous Christmas displays of the uber wealthy. It's a random tradition, recreating that night five years ago, but we look forward to it every year.

Here are some photos!

Campisi's (not my photo):











My pizza:













Highland Park Village - Latte Break:

Pretty Lights:

A Yearly Favorite (reminds me of Ken Ken):

In Front of One of Our Favorite Houses near Turtle Creek:

Headed Back to Frisco For More Neighborhood Tours:

Music Obsessed

If you know me well, you know I'm music obsessed. When my Jeep stereo stopped working while Sid was out of town, I drove around with my S-pod (Sony MP3 Player, for any newbies to my blog) and headphones until he returned to fix it. When I asked Sid if I would be electrocuted if my S-pod fell into the bathtub and he said "possibly" I decided it was worth the risk (that same night I ran into the living room wearing only a towel and my headphones, dancing to James Brown, to prove to Sid I survived my bath). My remedy for the blues is always music, my favorite poems are song lyrics and my heroes are musicians. I simply cannot imagine life on this planet without melody.

All that being said, I'm bringing back my playlist and I've shoved it amongst the junk on my side menu bar, even though it doesn't really fit well there. You can press "Pop Out" if you want to be able to see the player and move around within the playlist. It won't play automatically so if you want to see which songs are currently rocking my boat, you have to press play. It's also set to shuffle.

Rock on, brothers and sisters! Happy Friday!

I Dreamed About Robert Pattinson

I dreamed about Robert Pattinson last night. I woke up coughing, sneezing, head pounding and unrested thanks to a head cold, but - I dreamed about Robert Pattinson.

It was a sweet dream. He was staying with me to avoid the mob of crazy screaming fans (miraculously he didn't realize I was one of the crazies) and he and I instantly hit it off (well duh - who wouldn't love me). He carried a journal with him wherever he went and he was constantly writing song lyrics and poems and blurbs about the day as they popped into his pretty little head. I said something that made him laugh - a hearty, from the soul kind of laugh - and he turned to the journal and I saw him write "such a crush on..." and I just knew he had written my name. Robert Pattinson had a crush on me. (note: how junior high is this dream?) I waited until he went to his bedroom, I cuddled up next to him on his bed, and then he gave me a silver locket and asked me to wear it.

That's it. No grand makeout scene. No touching his magnificent hair. No whispers of sweet nothings in my ear. I finally dream about Robert Pattinson and it's the dream of a 13 year old girl. Beggars can't be choosers, I suppose.