The Manny

No doubt by now you've heard all about The Manny. The book ,the video, the author. As typical with things like this, it becomes a comment passed at a dinner party or an idea passed at a business meeting and before you know it, there's a book, a video, a NYTimes article , a mention in Talk of the Town. I haven't read the book although, I do plan to when it comes out in papaerback (more on this later). This concept, however, harkened me back to my own youth. As a child growing up in Connecticut, we had a slew of babysitters. Typically high school girls, whom at the time I thought were in their 30s, who would spend Saturday nights watching over me & my younger brother. We watched movies, ate Cool Ranch Doritos (my mother's attempt to assuage separation anxiety) and played stupid games. Sometimes we would do "girl things" like paint our toenails (there was the nail polish incident on my bright pink rug) or make an egg & oatmeal face mask. I know my brother abhored these moments and usually retreated to the den with the Atari joystick. Then Evan showed up. He was the high school aged son of my mother's friend. He was dark haired, handsome (in a 50s kind of way), a member of the Varsity swim team and he was not into painting nails or face masks. But, boy did he & my brother have a great time. They high-fived over a high score in Pac Man, double-overed in laughter at Goonies and Evan even managed to figure out how David's Capsela worked and got moving in the bathtub. Now, I've always thought my mother was ahead of her time. But all this recent talk about The Manny really made me think she might have been the originator of The Manny. Nice work, Mom.

Travel

I love to travel. Weekend travel is fun. But I really like the 7-10 day trip to another country. CityCrab and I always plan 1 international trip a year. Last year it was Manchester, UK for a friend's wedding and Italy (Florence, Bellagio & Milan). This year it is London (to see same friend) and Paris. We're leaving early Sept for 11 days. This weekend starts the planning. In all honesty, it should have alreay been happening but we've got lots going on. So, it starts with a trip to the bookstore for travel books, a visit to the library for a French-English CD (to brush up - I actually speak French fairly well) and a search for the 2007 trip folder where I've been collecting articles all year long. We prefer the insider's approach. The last thing I want to do in any foreign country is eat at a McDonald's or the TGIFriday's Times Sqaure equivalent. I like to discover off the beaten path. Go where the locals go. So, if you've got ideas, tips or city favorites, please send them along.

Sunday Styles

Every Sunday I reserve an hour to entrench myself in The New York Times, Sunday Edition. I'm a creature of habit: front page first, then the obituaturies (i know but I am convinced that someday knowledge I gleen from her will win me a million dollars), then I glance at the front page of each subsequent section for anything interesting that I want to come back. Then it's off to the meat of the Sunday Times experience: The Styles Section This I read cover to cover starting on page 1. I read the article, go to it's correpsonding page then anchor back to the first page. Now I think about it, I read the printed piece like I would the webpage. Turning pages instead of clicking. Of course, the best part is the Weddings & Celebrations section. As a self proclaimed W&C expert (I've been reading since I was in high school), I could blog about this for pages & pages. But I will only comment on one item today. I have noticed that over time, the ages of the newlyweds have grown. Of course, there are a fair amount of kids in their 20s but there are increasingly those into their upper 30s and 50s. For some reason, the 40s seem to allude love. As someone on the other side of 30, this is comforting. It's nice to know that people can still find love at any age. And, that The Times is out there to advertise it.

Bookstore Excursion

Yesterday was the perfect day to hit the bookstore. The weather was gloomy and I was craving some new reads. I am in the middle of a book but know that it will soon be finished and I'll need to move on. So, I set out for the bookstore. Borders is my destination of choice. In New York, I was a loyal Barnes & Noble shopper (disclosure: CityCrab used to work there and the 30% discount didn't hurt) however, since moving to Charlotte and discovering Borders, I'm a convert. As a marketer, I think Borders has got it down: weekly coupons, a free loyalty program where you earn dollars, clear and concise email communications and, one of my favorite aspects: buy 2, get the third free. So, I scour the weekly email for 3 reads I want. Often, I end up compromising on a third read just to get the discount (I know, a marketer's dream!) My current book is the third from my last excursion so I needed to stock up on 3 more. When I got the Borders yesterday, I ran straight to the "Buy 2" only to find out that they have swithced the promotion to Buy 3, get the 4th free. Admittedly, smart. But as a consumer I was perplexed but only for a second. I am an avid reader and have always felt that any money spent on a book is a good investment. So, I indulged in 4. Here's my new reading list:

Suite Francaise , by Irene Nemirovsky- this is an amazing story of a novelist who died in the Holocaust but this novel had remained hidden for years until it was discovered by her family not too long ago. Also, I am headed to Paris in the Fall and always like to read topical books.

Swapping Lives by Jane Green - everyone needs a little chicklit in their life and Jane Green happens to excel in this area. This is about 2 women (one a Londoner, the other a Connecticut surburbanite) who trade lives. I am also headed to London in the Fall.

The Namesake by Jhumpha Lahiri - I've wanted to read this for ahwile and have decided to put off seeing the move until I do so. About an Indian-American boy who despises his name. I got this from a movie review - I am sure there's more to it and you can expect that I will blog about it.

Otherwise Known as Sheila The Great by Judy Blume - an odd choice, no? Firstly, this is one of my all time favorite books by one of my all time favorite writers. I'm pretty sure Judy Blume hooked me and reading and writing. I bought this for my 10 year old niece. It seems to me that children today are not exposed to the classics of my youth: Ramona Quimby, There's a Bat in Bunk Five (Paula Danziger), Judy Blume. So, I am doing my part to bring these back.


Right now I am in the middle of Intuition by Allegra Goodman. It is science focused which is really out of my realm but I am doing my best to tap into my inner science geek and am enjoying it. I'm inspired, though, by the list of books I've got waiting for me.

Also, if you've got a Borders in your area, sign up for their club, Border Rewards. Now, I've done my part as a marketer.

The Occasional Knitter

I love knitting. I'm not very good at it but I love it. There's something exciting about being a quarter of the way through a project and see that it is coming together. I consider myself occasional because I don't do it often. I'll go in spurts. But the truth is, I have lots of yarn, lots of needles, lots of patterns and lots of ideas. Not a lot of time. Since it is Independence Day today and I have the day off, I am going to try to knit my day away. Right now, I am working on a felted laptop case. I should be motivated to finish it since my laptop has been banging around in my shoulder bag for over a year. Hopefully, I'll be posting the picture here soon. Oh, and, Happy Birthday America!

In the Jungle

The last 4 days we have had torrential rain accompanied by thunder & lightning. I tend to romanticize these storms. It's cool to watch the lightning strike and hear the rain patter against windows but when it's time to take the dogs out or we lose electricity, my heart deflates. Last night, we had one of these storms. When it started to get dark I quickly fed the dogs in an effort to get them out before the downpour. Well, alas, I did not make it. Just as I was about to take them out, the downpour started and our mission was aborted. The lights flickered and we lost electricity for 3 minutes. About an hour later, the storm has passed and we ventured outside for our nightly mission. By Charlotte standards, we've got a pretty big yard (just under 1 acre) and are bordered by woods where we typically see deer, owls, frogs and eagles. Well, last night, there was a symphony playing in our backyard. Imagine an orchestra pit populated with a frog section, owls squealing, deer rustling through leaves and crashing branches rounded out with lighting effects from fireflies. I felt as though I was truly plopped down in the middle of the "big" scene in Bambi. Here I go romanticizing again.....

The Farmer's Market

I'm trying to incorporate The Farmer's Market into my weekly routine. The variety of fruits & vegetables are remarkable, the flowers are the cheapest you can get in Charlotte (even though, in my opinion, they are still overpriced) and it support local farmers. When I lived in New York, I would visit The Union Square Greenmarket occasionally on the weekends. However, it had a very elitest feel to it. The fruits & vegetables were expensive and almost too exotic. I often felt pressured into buying something I had no idea what to do with because the girl from upstate with hairy armpits was so damn cool. In Charlotte, The Farmer's Market carries staples and has one vendor that carries Asian produce. Not exotic stuff, the kind of stuff I need to make basil chicken or cilantro for 99 cents a bunch. My favorite vendor is Kenny. Kenny is the kind of guy who will open a package of onions because you only need one (like he did for my friend Allison a few weeks ago.) He also the kind of guy who will tell you that a yellow tomato has no acid. In fact, he compared to a flat Coke. Plus, he has got the best tomatoes and cucumbers. This week I picked up some cucumbers that looked only OK from my cilantro vendor. When I moved on to Kenny's booth and I made myself promise to always buy my cukes from him - they are the best. The other thing I like about the market is the variety of people. I often wait in line to buy Thai Basil with what looks like a United Nations meeting. I've challenged myself to one day ask someone what they make with their cubano peppers. The Farmer's Market here has so much more to offer than just produce. And I always walk away with shoulder bag full of produce for $10. As my father likes to say, You can't beat it with a stick.

Rob & Big

Rob & Big , an MTV show, is a gulity pleasure. Citycrab found it first and talked about it incessantly. I finally sat down and watched it. Now, I'm obsessed. Why? Because Rob & Big is really a story about 2 best friends. They just happen to be mismatched. Another reason? Meaty. Meaty is their white English bulldog and our bulldog, Reuben (see photo), could be his brother. In fact, I wonder if they, perchance, got Meaty from a breeder in South Carolina. Highly unlikely but you never know. Rob & Big do some crazy things. But we continue to tune in to see their antics and ogle over Meaty.

Billions of Words

I am an avid reader. Books, magazines, online content, backs of cereal boxes. You name it, I read it. Citycrab always makes fun of me because I can be just about anywhere and find something to read. Last Fall, we traveled to the UK and Italy and I brought a boatload of books. In fact, the security guard at Doncaster airport made of me. I never really did care for British humour. I was so enthralled with my books that I would purposely shower before Citycrab, let my hair air dry (I'm on vacation, dammit) and hunker down with the book until it was time to go to dinner. I also started to shed excess weight, in books that is. When I finished a book, I would cast it aside either on the train, plane or for the maid. Here's 5 euros and The Devil Wears Prada. Admittedly, not a great tip in the US but abroad they love that stuff, I had myself convinced.

In my lifetime, I have calculated that I have read millions of words. Not any kind of exact calculation (I'm not a math person) but what I imagine is millions of words. Actually, can I revise my estimation? I'm going to move it to billions. Billions of words. Wow. As part of my new blog (and to keep myself current), I am going to add a book section. Below is a list of recent reads and my comments. I like to include both good and bad choices. Makes for good dialogue.

The Girls - Lori Lansens
Remarkable story about conjoined twins. Each girl writes her own story. I completely forgot they were joined.

Snowflower & The Fan - Lisa See
Story that transports you. A little confusing in parts but a truly touching story about female relationships.

Debutante Divorcee - Plum Sykes
Sometimes in life you need something a little mind numbing. This is the equivalent of clicking your TV remote and landing on Rob & Big or a rerun of Miami Vice. All that having been said, enjoyed it.

More to come as I firm up my summer reading list.

Slacker

I'm a slacker. I'm coming to you with my tail between my legs. I have done myself and you a disservice. I haven't blogged in 6 months. I'd like to tell you that I've been off solving world peace, checking off my list from "1,000 things to see before you die" or writing my Pulitzer Prize winning novel....but the truth is, I've been doing nothing. Well, not nothing. I've been working my day job and trying to turn my hobby into a business, lost weight, gained it back, traveled, adopted a dog, thought about blogging, wrote the entries in my head and never bothered to write them down. A true slacker. But, I believe everyone deserves a second chance. A third and fourth one, too. So, I am going to redeem myself and commit to this blog. Really commit to it. And renew my comittment to you. Hey, who doesn't love a commitment ceremony followed by a little cake. Cake, anyone?

The Non Book Club

When I moved to Charlotte about 3 years ago, I joined a book club through a women’s group. It was a group of about 10 women in all stages of life. We were mostly in our 20s & 30s, some of us worked, some of stayed home. Some were single, some married, some had kids. We met monthly and read books we all chose. Some discussions were riveting, some were boring and some didn’t take place. We talked about our lives, our vacations, our jobs, our stresses. Then, we fell apart. The last meeting took place at my house and from the moment the guests arrived I could feel it disintegrating. Only 2 women showed up. I hadn’t read the book. My dog decided to be super puppy and jump all over the guests. One of the women was sick and coughing all over the place. I knew this was it. As I said my goodbyes and waved everyone off , I retreated like a junkie into the dark of my living room and immediately started that chick-lit novel I had been hiding in the back of my bookshelf.

A few months passed and there were 4 of us who serendipitously ran into each other. One of us decided to send out an email to meet for dinner and the non-book club was started. The 4 of us met for dinner monthly. One of us got married and moved away and then we invited a few more to join us. We talked about our lives, our jobs, our families and books. Yes, we had all continued to read and talked about books, shared titles & reviews.

We recently met in November and I decided that I was going to propose we start the book club again. I socialized the idea with CityCrab. He said he didn’t realize that we had disbanded (in interest of confusion, I continued to call it my book club meeting.) And it was then that I decided we must give this another shot. I brought it up at dinner with all kinds of caveats….we could continue to meet at restaurants & we didn’t have to bring discussion questions & we could still talk about other stuff.

So, it was successful. We’re meeting in January as a non-book club to determine a book. And will meet thereafter as a book club. It feels like the perfect time to start something not so new.

Good Old Sick Day

Sometimes there’s nothing like a good old sick day. Monday morning I woke up around 5am in the kind of fog that reminded me of Brigadoon. I just knew there was no way I could get it together for work so I left a probably embarrassing message on my boss’s voicemail. I got back into bed and woke up at 9, which is sleeping late for me. Despite being in a fog, I quickly went about planning my day. There is something about being at home during the work week that presents an almost child-like glee. Regis & Kelly are definitely on the doc. Maybe Rachael Ray (I’ve been meaning to check that show out) and what about the 6 months of series I’ve been DVRing? There’s a slew of Food Network shows to watch (especially around the holidays!!!) and there’s always the bad 80s movie playing on some obscure HBO channel & a Lifetime tear jerker for good measure.

In the midst of all this sickness & plotting tv schedules, I realized I was hungry and whipped together a soup. Now, if I had any inkling that I would home Monday sick, I would have bought a chicken and made soup the real way. But sometimes you just have to work with what you have. Here’s my Sick Soup – it’s a little kitchen sink and only takes about 20 minutes to pull together.

Dump 2 cans of chicken broth into a pot on medium heat. Cut celery & carrots into a rough chop & half an onion into very thin rings. Add these into the soup and bring it up to a rolling boil. The idea here is to boil it long enough for the onions to become translucent. I added in 2 bay leaves (for that all day flavor) and 1 cup of orzo. You can add any macaroni or pasta you have in the pantry. Remember, it’s kitchen sink. Cook the orzo until it’s al dente. I also added a boneless breast I had hanging out in my fridge. I just chopped it and added it in the boiling stage. When the chicken was done, I added in another can of broth since the orzo absorbed most of the broth. And, voila it was done!

It was so good that CityCrab pleaded with me to stop cooking while I was home sick. We ate it all week long.

An Inconvenient Truth

As Netflix devotees, we often miss movies in theaters & watch them at home. Yes – there is something about a theater experience. But, we’ve got a pretty sweet setup at home (see previous post), so we just pop our own popcorn (sans fake butter) and kick back. An Inconvenient Truth arrived the other day and we finally got around to watching it. Very interesting movie.

I had heard that a lot of it is Al Gore lecturing in a traditional lecture environment. The theater he was in reminded me of my Psych 101 class in college. The kind of room that also doubles as a children’s theater stage in the summer. He had very fancy slides and was using some form of PowerPoint I’ve never seen. But all that aside, his information was provocative. The visuals he used were staggering especially when you consider the effect. Will Florida really be washed away (What will happen to South Beach?) Are polar bears really drowning? (weep, weep) CityCrab & I discussed it. CityCrab considers himself a science minded person, which he is. I pride myself on never having taken a science or math class in college (I was a communication major!) His take is that “science minded people always try to disprove hypotheses rather than prove them. If you can’t disprove it, then it becomes a theory. I thought a lot of what he said was true but had to question some of his projections, etc. I know it’s happening but at what rate, I don’t know. What I did agree with was his how we can do more to reduce our CO2 emissions. That’s the part that resonated the most.” The disproving hypothesis vs. theory stuff is new to me. I am undecided on my thoughts. However, I do think that there are some things I can do on a (very) local level. The next time I need lightbulbs I won’t squawk so much about the reduced energy ones being $10/bulb. And I am going to make a better effort to recycle. I gotta think that religiously recycling the Sunday Times alone can make a difference.

Wall Street Warriors

I love Wall Street Warriors (WSW). I wouldn’t label myself a reality show fan. In fact, I think some of them are rather formulaic. But WSW is a whole other issue. In general, I feel like TV recently is lacking in quality programs. Nothing really sucks me in. About 6 weeks ago we indulged in a complete home entertainment system: flat screen, audio system, sub-woofer, 8 remotes to run it all - the whole 9 yards. Truth be told, this is CityCrab’s gig. A few weeks ago, he suggests we “upgrade” our cable package. “For only $6.95 more a month we can get all these HD channels.” And, what’s the point of investing in all this equipment if we don’t use the HD aspect of it, right?” Right. So, we have ESPN HD, we have ESPN 2 HD & ESPN3 HD ( if such a thing exists.) But we also have all these HD channels from INHD. One of the programs in his offering is WSW. It follows several Wall Street types: a broker, a day trader, a bond seller, etc. It takes you through their ups and downs, beautifully showcases Manhattan and is all in HD! After seeing episode 6, I went directly into DVR and recorded the whole series. Now I just need a sick day to stay home and watch it.

The Art of Massage

On Saturday, CityCrab treated me to a day at the spa. We have a new day spa that opened here called Urbana. It is actually a Cty Spa & Tea Bar and some evenings that serve wine, natch. It is a very cool space and I think they have the whole spa thing down. Even though it is located in a strip mall you are transcended to a den of cool and calm the moment you walk in. The lobby/lounge area is a mix between a W Hotel gift shop and a cool lounge. The tea bar has extremely comfortable chairs even though I was initially wary climbing up into them. And, the tea is out of this world. I am new to tea and, as someone new to it, I am unaware of all that tea is. Here they let you taste & smell the tea. They brew it for you and give complimentary samples. I always go home with at least 4oz of exotic flavors.

As I was getting my heavenly massage, my mind wandered, as it often does. I started to ponder the mystery of massage. Here you are, naked, vulnerable with only a thin cotton sheet separating you from a stranger rubbing their hands all over your body. As these thoughts started to run through my head, my body began to tense a little and it was almost as though the masseuse could read my mind. She instructed me to relax. I decided to heed her advice and enjoy it and let my mind turn to mush. I decided to enjoy myself and not solve the mystery that day.

Gobble, Gobble

Last week was Thanksgving and my husband, who I’ll refer to as CityCrab, and I were feeling particularly thankful this year. We both have great jobs, a dog that we love (Reuben, the most awesomest bulldog in the world), over the summer we completed building our new home - things are going great for us. So, in all our graciousness we decided to host Thanksgiivng in our new home…for our families…30 people in all. This was no small undertaking. My philosophy in life is that you can do just about anything so long as you have great help. And, we did. At the suggestion of a friend we contacted the local culinary school and found 2 student chefs to help us plan & cook our meal and clean up. They were wonderful, everyone enjoyed themselves, we feasted on typical (and not so typical) Thanksgiving fare and, on Saturday, everyone went home…happy. What a wonderful way to kick off the start of a hectic holiday season.

Welcome Part Deux

I have been, admittedly, lax in writing. I recently read another blogger’s entry where he said that when he started his blog, his goal was to write an entry every day. And, he has done a pretty good job of keeping it up. He even admitted that when he’s on vacation, he writes in advance and schedules the entries to post while he is away. Ok, that is pretty damn impressive. I am not going to commit to that (heck, I haven’t even written in months) but I am making a commitment to you, my readers, to write at least 3x a week. Like the hopeful dieter on Jan 1, I’ll try my best.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. This blog is intended to educate, share, create and hopefully make you laugh every once in a while. A bit about me: I am a New Yorker who moved to Charlotte, NC 3 years ago. While some consider me an ex-New Yorker (I got lots of hate mail when I moved) I will always consider myself a City Mouse. Whatever the city. So, here I am a City Mouse living in the Queen City.

I enourage you to keep coming back - I plan to share lots of tips, stories and experiences. I also encourage you to write me. I love dialogue.

Stay posted and visit soon.