Glen Hansard + the Temple of Dendur

I'm lucky to have a good friend in NYC who likes different (but really good) music.  One of her favorite artists is Glen Hansard.  You might of seen him in the movie Once or heard his song Falling Slowly if you haven't check him out.  Last night as part of the Guitar Heroes exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Glen performed in the temple of Dendur room at the Met.

The room itself is pretty cool, but add Glen, 100s of fans, and free beverages and you've got a pretty cool event.

My favorite part was when he was strumming so hard that he broke a string so he finished the song by drumming on the guitar.  While he fixed the guitar he had us all snap while he sang a song then taught us the words so we could sing along with him (it was something about everyone being Vampires).

He closed not using his guitar and singing an old Irish (or maybe Scottish, he said it wasn't known) song.

The crowd was sitting till the show started

Glen singing

Cows on the corner

As part of the Art Festival (I think) two large cows showed up hanging out on my corner.

I don't mind.

Bryant Park reading room

Beautiful weather has returned... well on and off, but its getting better.  Today after exchanging my cell phone at the Sprint store (hopefully it no longer randomly turns off) I grabbed a quick salad and headed to my favorite lunch spot in Bryant Park, the reading room. 

Today was part of their book club series and Matthew Gallaway and Seth Colter were there discussing David Foster Wallace's The Pale King.  I just walked up and had a seat and to my amusement The Pale King is about an accountant.  An accountant that works for the IRS.  Now those who know me know "I am not an accountant" but I work in an accountants world and a lot of the passages they read really hit me.  Two of the most enjoyable concepts (paraphrased from memory):

accountants are cowboys of data

and

tedious work is heroic

David Foster Wallace died before finishing this book.  However everyone who had read the book seemed satisfied.  I think I might give it a shot.

writers discussing the book

books for sale

yummy salad for lunch

Mizzou family

I tell anyone who will listen that I play football.  Well usually the conversation goes like this:  

Boss/Coworker/person in the elevator:  Got any big plans this weekend?

Me:  Not really, playing football on Saturday (or Sunday).

Boss/Coworker/person in the elevator: Oh really!  Where do you play?  Who do you play with?

Me:  All over the city, randall's island, roosevelt island, riverbank state park, etc..  I play with my Mizzou friends.

But really they have grown to be more than my Mizzou friends or my football friends to being my Mizzou family in New York.  And two weekends ago I was lucky enough to attend the wedding of the Captain and the Quarterback (aka Susan & Sean).

They wed in Madison Square Park, which is one of nicest little parks in the city.  Home of the original Shake Shack and always has art exhibits going on.  On their big day the park also had the Fonz (aka Henry Winkler) walking around and taking pictures.

the flat iron building and park art

the mister of honor, officiant, groom, and best man waiting for the bride

After the wedding we walked to Blue Smoke for the reception.  The meal was delicious.  I had brisket, pulled pork, blue grits, hushpuppy, salad, and green beans (I regretfully left the ribs and wings on the buffet). There was music, dancing, and cake!  

Tigers in wedding attire (and yes the bride and groom played the next day)

Livin' in Neon

LIC was an industrial/warehouse neighborhood for many years and still has many small shops making everything from elevators to neon signs.  The neon shop is just a block down from my apartment and I pass it all the time.  This weekend as part of some art festival they were open for looking around.  I was heading home after grocery shopping (and happy hour) and saw the door open.  I stepped inside to a pretty cool world of neon.  Its a working shop with tools scattered around.  A man was working on a computer designing signs and a very nice lady chatted with me about the shop.  The shop creates signs for businesses and broadway, but stays small (they had to turn down a job to fix the East River Pepsi sign).  The shop has been there for 30 years.  They were doing demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday, but sadly I wasn't around my hood for much of the weekend.

sadly I only had my cellphone camera

Some fancy work

An old sign and some more artistic items

Football fashion

One of the fellow bloggers I met at Central Park a few weeks ago creates a fantasy outfit every Friday, perfect for her Friday activity, but maybe a little out of her budget.  This isn't a fashion blog and I clearly need help in the area, but lately I've been wanting all the athletic gear I see... so I thought I would try it out.  

For example...  I went to buy a red shirt today and I almost bought an official US Soccer shirt, I don't even like soccer (but I do love the US).  

I'll be spending most of tomorrow playing touch football so I put together the perfect outfit for running around Randall's Island.  The most coveted item?  Turf shoes... tomorrow I'm allowed to wear cleats, but some fields are the older carpet turf and I could really use turf shoes.

Nike ribbed tee
$22 - nike.com

Nike sports activewear
25 GBP - johnlewis.com

Sports activewear
$90 - dickssportinggoods.com

Nike lace shoes
$110 - nike.com

Puma bag
$45 - nordstrom.com

Aqua Bobble(r) Water Bottle
$9.95 - crateandbarrel.com

Sin chinchas

While walking home from the subway I saw this mattress propped up by some trash cans.  I'm not sure if after the rainstorm today and sitting next to trash if bedbugs would be my only worry.  Just say no to used mattresses. 

On the curb

Chicken or the egg

Do New Yorkers eat out a lot because they have tiny impossible kitchens or have tiny impossible kitchens because they eat out a lot?

The answer:

Exhibit A-  My old kitchen had these gorgeous countertops and electrical outlets... I cooked and baked quite often.

Exhibit B- I now have no countertops and my kitchen outlets are conveniently behind the refrigerator and halfway up the wall near the bathroom.  I still cook a lot, but today was my first attempt at baking and using an electric mixer.

Now I don't know your opinion, but this situation didn't inspire me to whip up five more batches of cookies.

Do you have a small or odd kitchen?  How do you make it work?

Kensico Dam

A few weekends ago I got the opportunity to house/dog sit in White Plains.  The Saturday morning I woke up to rain and more rain and more rain.  After watching all the rom-coms I could find on Netflex on demand (don't judge me) the rain finally subsided and Scout and I decided to take a walk.

My friend had pointed out the trail on a map and said there was dam if I followed the path, but I had no idea what I was getting in to.

The creek that ran along the pathway had flooded and pretty quickly my feet were wet and Scout was a bit dirty, but we trudged on.  There was 70+ year old man jogging along... we weren't going to let him see us turn back.

After a lot of running, sniffing, and marking our territory we arrived at Kensico Dam.

The dam was completed in 1917 and is 307 feet tall and 1,843 feet long

The dam is 233 feet thick at the base and tapers to 28 feet at the top

More than 1,500 people, mostly Italian, worked on the dam and they completed it 3 years ahead of schedule

There were a lot of people exercising in the park even though it was such a damp day.  We tried to see over the mountain, but after climbing hundreds of steps we noticed the path was closed...

After a few more laps we traveled the two miles back home and watched a little housewives of NYC.

A central park Sunday

Sunday was absolutely lovely and I spent most of the day in Central Park.  I hadn't been in the park much since... well.... uh... sometime last summer.  When you don't go you kind of forget how amazing it is.  After a fantastic blogger meetup in the park near Columbus Circle I walked up through the park to the Great Lawn to meet with some friends for some continued picnicking and kicking a soccer ball around a bit (I'm playing Zogs soccer this summer... watch out).

A few things I saw on my walk...

Tavern on the Green has now reopened as a visitor's center

You know that scene in Big Daddy where they warn the rollerbladers? I felt like this was the spot, especially when I saw a kid almost go in the lake.

One of my favorite spots 

View of my destination from the castle

Fun on the lawn

My first Blogger Meetup

Sunday Morning I met up with a great group of NYC bloggers in Central Park, it was a lot of fun to hear what inspires other people to blog and to talk & share stories in a language that non-bloggers don't always understand.  I also found some great new blogs to follow and learned some tips to improve mine... so stay tuned, times they are a changing.

Group picture time... next time I'll wear something a bit more springing to fit in with the group, but I wanted to try out my new shirt my sister made me

 standing {left to right}: Melissa from Strong Sense of Style, Amy from The Closet Confessions, Leanna from OMG! I Moved to NYC, Courtney from BB to 79th, Orlagh {+ Elle} from True Life: I Live in NYC, Lauren from little lg in nyc, Christine from bun&borough + Courtney from Cupcake Dynamite

sitting from {left to right}: Summer from Athena in the Middle, Casey from Classic Case, {av} from long distance loving, Keely from The Bonds of Medlock + Drew from An Extended Vacation

{not pictured}: Marz from Royal Mail, Micaela from Dolce Vita + Karina from Ramblings of a Simple Girl

{If you're interested in finding out about future dates in NYC, please email: nycbloggermeetup{at}gmail{dot}com!}

Other info--meet-up organizers who were present on Sunday:

Christine from bun&borough, Lauren from little lg in nyc + {av} from long distance loving

Thanks to {av} from long distance loving for the great pictures and designs.

Five Boro Bike Tour

 I woke up to beating drums outside my apartment... and cheers... I started to grab my tiara and head to the front window to greet my admirers... then I remembered that today was the 5 boro bike tour.  It's a pretty cool event that starts in lower Manhattan travels up through Central Park to the Bronx, back down Manhattan and into Queens, (by my apartment), Brooklyn, then finishes up at the Staten Island ferry terminal.  I've thought about riding before (really thought about it last year), but this year I didn't realize it was happening till... uh yesterday.  Maybe next year.  

gorgeous blue sky at 10:30 am

 almost to Brooklyn

the drummers