a little misadventure

well i did feel a bit like a traitor dashing outta nyc the day before hurricane irene was scheduled to attack – but in all fairness, we had the trip back to 0-town booked for a few weeks. so we weren’t really cheating  🙂 besides, being a florida girl i feel a bit like a hurricane pro! and i needed to get into the orlando office to catch up a few things and seriously wanted to see my baby girl and her baby bump! 3 weeks is a long time in pregnancy!

anyway, our scheduled flight on thursday night was cancelled last minute, so we took an early morning flight on friday. and i mean very early. we had a 4:30am lobby call. and u know, i’m not exactly an early bird by nature – so i was prying my eyelids open!

we got to the airport and onboard w/ no problems at all. i settled into my seat and promptly feel asleep. (can never thank my sexy husband enough for ALWAYS offering my the window seat – and i’ve got snuggling in for a snooze down to an art!).

i don’t really remember much – i was zonked. but i did wake up somewhere around the carolinas to hear the captain’s voice asking everyone  to fasten their seat-belts and the flight attendants to take a seat because we were heading for a very rough ride. then he went on to say, “and for those of you interested, you can look out the left hand side of the plane and say ‘hi’ to irene.”

well of course i looked! it really just looked stormy to me… i don’t think i would have thought much about it if he hadn’t told us it was a cat two hurricane! and then? after witnessing the destructive force of nature? i curled back into my seat and slept till we landed. no big deal.

now i won’t tell you i have every been a ‘nervous’ flyer. certainly not the kind that needs a doc’s scrip before a flight, but for years i was a “tense” flyer. when i first began flying often i would use this trick to keep myself calm:  watch the flight attendants. if they seemed calm about it, i latched onto that and chose to believe nothing serious was going on. that worked ok, and got me thru a couple of years but i didn’t sleep much on planes – and was always on the lookout.

but what changed  my life, was my husband sharing with me an article he had found regarding in flight turbulence. the jest of it was this: turbulence is NOT dangerous. planes are flown into hurricanes. bumpy air travel is no cause for concern whatsoever (assuming loose items aren’t bouncing around!).

written by an aeronautic specialist – it all just made sense to me. so truly, from that point on, i am so laid back about flying! i even think it’s kinda fun to get bounced around a bit! (i know – i’m weird!).

after we landed and i was thinking about seeing the storm up close and falling back asleep – it made me think about fear. what makes us afraid and how do we conquer that?

being ‘skittish’ by nature, i have been diligent about not allowing fear to make choices for me. it is most certainly a choice for me. mostly easier over time – but i hit the wall regularly and have to ‘have a little talk’ with myself.

how did i get over my nervousness flying? by getting information. solid, proven, logical information. then choosing to believe it – and then forcing myself to act like i knew it was true – even when my sweaty palms begged to differ.

i’ve found this formula works in a lot of situations. finding out the facts about things, helps me feel a lot more comfortable.

i’m sure far from ‘fearless’ but i’m getting better! hey – i slept thru a hurricane 🙂

i’m southern. despite years at working to surpress my native accent – it still shows up. and not only in my speech pattern but also in my dialect, my propensity to walk around barefoot, my love of boiled peanuts and cold watermelon and a strong desire to actually live IN the water. okay maybe that just makes me quirky but never mind that for now…

so yesterday when i read that the high was only going to be in the 70’s i had a total happy dance! for me that means practically winter – which means, of course one very important thing to all southern divas:  BOOT WEATHER!

last night marcus and i had a date night planned. there is a new york landmark here, in the heart of harlem called Amy Ruth’s. it is soul food (ie: southern comfort food!) at it’s finest. i was there once, almost exactly five years ago with my sisters and mom. i returned home with thrilling tales of the city and chinatown and food. marcus was mainly interested in hearing about the food – imagine that! so every visit here since then we’ve been wanting to go to Amy Ruth’s so marc can indulge too. we never made it, until last night that is.

we were very excited and i even fixed my hair and put on ‘real’ makeup (when you walk everywhere, i’ve discovered, it doesn’t do much good to primp too much – you’re hair is bound to go flat and makeup will mysteriously vanish from your skin anyway!). so we took some time and got all spiffy.

and knowing that it was ‘cool’ outside – i eagerly slipped on some gorgeous leather knee high boots with rather tall heels, my fav jeans, and an awesome bling-ed out jacket and off we went for our date!

we took a car to the restaurant and realized it wasn’t really too far away. we went inside and giggled while ordering our fav’s off the menu, sure we’d be taking home doggie bags of food to enjoy later!

our food arrived and we realized everything we ordered was in the ‘yellow’ food group! that can’t be healthy right?? but man does it taste amazing! then we ate. and ate. and ate. totally awesome! and shockingly there wasn’t much to carry home!

when we walked outside we stopped at the corner to get a cab. there didn’t seem to be many out so i decide to go to, what looks like, a larger intersection. as we are walking we are also talking and laughing and enjoying the near perfect weather and end up several blocks the opposite direction of home. because we aren’t seeing many cabs and it is so lovely to be out i announce that it’s so pretty, why don’t we just walk till we get tired and catch a cab if we need too. so off we go.

now because we’d gone the opposite direction first, it made our trip home significantly longer – but who cares! it was great to be out enjoying ‘our’ city. we looked at the different shops – so foreign to suburbia! we are amazed at the stand offering up a broken elliptical machine and rows of ratty VHS tapes…. to who??  so fun, right!?!

about two blocks later: BAM! it hits.

what hits? well… let’s just say i had too much fun eating things that i don’t normally eat all at once and my stomach (colon??) was revolting.

“i want a cab, now!” i announce.  (there simply are not any public restrooms in the city – and none where we were by then.)

so i start looking. no empty cabs do i see. we wait. still none. we walk a few more blocks. none. oh- there’s one – nope. he caught a glimpse of garrett and decided not to stop (that’s a common nyc thing – blog to come later). so we walk. and walk. and walk. we stop at a larger intersection. and by now – it is getting warm. very warm.

i’m looking for a cab and maybe… then g dog decides he wants to use the facilities (ie: grass patch). a cab is pulling up – oh darn. we aren’t ready cause garrett is still doing his business. i tell him i’m about to join him. he doesn’t seem to mind – marc isn’t very fond of the idea tho. and it’s hot. i mean soaked in sweat kind of hot. we take off walking – it’s all uphill now.

long story short, (oops! sorry…too late!) several miles later we return home. and all is well.

i have one little blister to show for my boot obsession.

lesson learned? oh several… but one huge one! don’t wear sexy boots for long walks?? don’t pull out leather boots in august?? no, no, no – the biggest lesson: keep the number to a car service in my phone.

never, ever, sacrifice boot time!

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okay, so if you know me very well at all – you know that i am an avid (to the extreme!) dumpster diver. i love, l o v e, L O V E  giving items a 2nd (or 3rd or 4th or 5th…) life!

so, plant me in NYC with an entire apartment to furnish and you can guess what i spend some time doing! and it’s so great here! because we are in the columbia neighborhood there are folks moving in & out all around us… and that means stuff that they weren’t able to sell, or discover doesn’t fit etc – they leave on the curb! how exciting! it’s like shopping on the sidewalk! and no $$ needed!

within 48 hours i’d scored my first successful dive – a narrow bookcase, in the perfect color and size to hold the tv. voila! love it!

ok, i’ve done this most everyday since arrival. found lot’s of things – and more than once had to leave them because i didn’t NEED them… and in a 500 square foot apartment believe me – we don’t bring anything in we don’t need!

so today… we are walking back from working routes with garrett and turn onto our street when what do my wondering eyes behold but – SCORE! several very nice pieces laying right out on the curb! no digging thru trash required! well the one piece that had me ‘twitterpatted’ was the floor lamp. i’ve been looking for a great deal on one of these since we moved in and hadn’t found it yet. and BAM! like free delivery right to my block!

so we stop and i look at it closer. it’s dirty. i pick it up. it wobbles. i turn the switch. it doesn’t seem to move properly. i debate what to do. marcus and i discuss it. i’m examining it – thinking i can fix it up. marc encourages me to just take it. (he’s given up telling me to leave it!)

now, this whole time we are looking for the owners. see, sometimes when folks are moving in/out they leave items on the curb/lawn while they carry things back and forth. so we are looking around, seeing if someone seems to claim these things.

we hang out about 15 minutes and no sign of anyone, so i decide to take it home, clean it up and see if it works. i pick it up and we start toward our place. THEN…

“miss!  miss!”

i turn around and a guy is hurrying toward me.

“i think that is somebody’s – they left stuff there while loading their truck.”

o m g. i was horrified.

while beet read i’m quickly returning it, stumbling over my words to explain to the guy that i’m not a thief just a dumpster diver, etc… his grin tells me clear as day that he know’s i’m ‘not from around here…’

now notice: marc encouraged me to go ahead and get it. but did he stay in my time of humiliation? no way! he and garrett didn’t even slow down! they kept heading straight home – leaving me alone to face the consequences of trying to save 50 bucks!

ahhh. well i return the lamp and head sheepishly toward our apartment. and then…

“miss! miss!”

i almost didn’t turn around this time…  *sigh* i have to stop. i’m a ‘do the right thing kinda person. even when i’m faced to once again talk to the man who thinks i’m a pick pocket. or pick curb. or – whatever. anyway. i turn slowly.

“i was wrong! they left these things behind. here’s the lamp!”

smiling i take the lamp from him and clarify “we live in butler if anyone comes looking for it ok?”

he grins at me. pats my shoulder and says,

“no way. i didn’t see nothin’ – you’re in new york now baby.”

and so i am.

and i’m enjoying my lamp to boot.

the first visitors to our new place (besides cj of course!) was eliza, a friend marcus met while training with garrett last december. she came over along with her adorable pup, harris.

we walked to dinner at our new fav restaurant (amsterdam cafe) and then hung out at our place for a while.

garrett and harris had a blast together! they really seemed to remember one another and loved rolling around and wagging and playing together!

we had a great time w/ eliza who gave us tons of info about the city and the best ways to get around!

now, could these two be any cuter?? i don’t think so!

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we made it! we are now official residents of NYC, upper west manhatten.  We arrived around noon on August 3rd. The flight was uneventful – we were excited and chatty. and so very happy! we took 8 bags, and our dear friend cj came along to provide extra muscle and support!

after a minor issue w/ a taxi (he refused to carry us because we had garrett – unfortunatly too common in the city – but i did file a formal complaint!) we were on our way. we parked, got the luggage into the lobby of the hotel and dashed across to the housing office to sign our lease. shortly after 1 we were IN!

cj got some cool footage – so i’ll post that here next.

the 500 square feet were actually larger than i had prepared for – it was a major relief and we were beyond excited.

we had ordered a mattress and sofa along with a small table – and if everything worked correctly they would arrive the afternoon we moved in. while cj and marc held down the fort i dashed out to purchase our bed and set up delivery of it (this one had to be done in person – boo!).

we were able to do SO much ahead of time via the internet and phone.

and it all worked out! we slept on the mattress the first night – and the next day the bed arrived and cj put all 20million pieces of it together for us! it was an amazing feat! the he dashed off to the airport – and marc and i began to unpack!

we did it. we really did it! it’s still just – mind blowing!

today! right now! well, in just an hour or so.

is this really happening??

i love you marcus engel!!!

well – planning a trip to vegas just 3 days before making a major move my not, in fact, have been the “best” move! But we survived it and had a blast celebrating my mom’s ___th birthday. (no point in saying which one – you’d never believe it anyway:)

after a frantic race to the airport (i mean the kind where they are quite litterally closing the door as you run onboard yelling “wait! wait!” and freaking all the other passengers out) – my sisters and i were headed west. along with mom.

because i travel so much, i had been upgraded to first class – cool right? well of course it is! but! this section seems to have some ettiquette i don’t always get. i mean, first thing i do is kick my shoes off before a flight (i DO put on cozy little travel socks!), and that just seems to be a ‘no no’. among other things. oh well – bring me my ginger ale and lets get rolling! and then some ice water. and then some club soda…. you see where this is heading right??

with about an hour left to go i finally look at the very handsome and polished businessman sitting beside me and point timidly toward the restroom. he stands up and i make a dash for it. i barely – i mean barely make it inside, snap the lock closed with one hand while undoing my pants and plop onto the toilet just in time… but.

*sigh* there always seems to be a but.

in this case? my butt hit the closed lid of a a tiny airport toilet.

in horror i had flashes of having to open the door – call the flight attendant – to call my mom and beg her to bring me non urine stained clothing from my carry on bag! a

instead i thanked God and i mean i THANK YOU BABY JESUS for every single kegel i’ve ever performed, popped the lid up and… well… you know.  disaster averted.

it made me think about how often we get “just this close” and hit a “but.”  sometimes it is something like “but, you can’t do that” or “but you aren’t really good enough” or “but you don’t have the natural talent it takes”… sometimes it’s more of a “butt” that’s in the way. the person that always manages to say the most hurtful thing at the most vulnerable moment. the naysayer. the critic. the doubter. the know it all. the list is endless.

the scariest part is – wondering how often am i the ‘butt?’

do i speak up, say the wrong thing at the right time, or the right thing at the wrong time? the careless remark that i didn’t take time to think about before hand. or the one i tossed out and turned away before i saw the hurt flash thru another’s eyes.

there are enough ‘buts.’

my new slogan comes from the old signs they put around town that said “no butts allowed.”

i’m saying no to buts. and butts.

and especially to being the but/butt.

at least i’ll try.