Ghost Town

Apparently on the day before Thanksgiving, in a company where they give you lots of paid vacation time, everyone takes the day off.

My office is like a Ghost Town today. Just me, my computer and the tumbleweeds blowing in the wind.

I like it in a box, I like it with a fox...

This is about to be the saddest day of my mother's life, because I'm here to tell you that I love New York, even in the cold, cold, cold dregs of winter.

The high today in my neighborhood is 30 degress and the low is 24... That means, 100% below freezing, all day long. I woke up with my window cracked, because the furnace in my room is out of control. I had brunch, went to the gym and picked up some shampoo on the way home. As I reached the last block before my apartment, I could feel my ears aching with cold (although the rest of me was fine, thanks to my goose down/faux fur jacket), and the winter afternoon sun making patchy spots of light on the sidewalk.

I sighed contentedly, even happily to myself, and then I thought, "Oh dear. I'm still happy here. I'm still really, really happy here. Even with the sharp wind blowing and my ears aching, I am still happy here."

If there was one thing that I thought could test and try my love for this city, it was winter. Being unaccustomed as I am to even the slightest chill, I was afraid that there was no love in the world that could make me happy in bad weather. Round 1: New York, 1, Winter, 0. Now, I'm not saying there won't come a day when I get on this little blog and go bezerck over some blizzard outside. But so far, so good.

And then I thought to myself, "I like in the cold, I like it in the sun. I like in the rain, I like it on a train. I like it in a box, I like it with a fox. I like it here or there, I like New York everywhere."

Sorry Mom.

The Divine Madame DVF

How famous do you have to be to be known only by your initials?

DVF. Diane Von Furstenberg.

Tonight I met the fashion-designer-turned-cultural-icon at a function put on by TWWN (Time Warner Women's Network). The function was called "Be The Wonder Woman You Can Be," in honor of the 4th Anniversary of TWWN as well as a recent venture between DVF and DC Comics which resulted in a Wonder Woman inspired collection designed by DVF as well as a comic book printed by DC Comics, inspired by DVF. The highlight of the evening is when Diane was interviewed on stage by a well known journalist and told stories about her life and her career and how she came to be who and where she is today. She talked about her mother, who was a holocaust survivor. She talked about the people that gave her the breaks that led to her career. She talked about some of her good choices and some of her bad choices. She let us all in on some of her peculiar habits. She dispensed some fascinating advice. And yes, at 60, she looked fabulous.

In case you are unfamiliar with Diane Von Ferstenberg, let me give you some of the reasons why she is famous and so very cool:

1) She invented the wrap dress. No joke.

2) She was formerly a princess (by marriage to her first husband).

3) She was a regular at Studio 54 during its height, and was photographed by Andy Warhol at that time and immortalized in one of his iconic portraits.

DVF herself, in front of her Warhol portrait:

... Only in New York.

Broadway Baby

Last night my friend Tony, who is an actor/singer/dancer/crazy-talented person, rented out a dance studio and taught a class for his friends. For free. Just for fun.

Tons and tons of people showed up, because... How often do you get to take dance lessons from an entertainment professional? Never. (Unless you live in New York and know amazing people.)

Tony has toured the country... correction, the world... with various productions. So last night he taught us a dance from this year's Tony award winner for Best Musical, "In The Heights." It was a sort of Broadway/Hip Hop combination. We danced for an hour and a half, with Tony patiently walking us non-professionals through the steps and then giving us pointers on acting and not just dancing. We had SO much fun. And here are a few things I learned:

1) Oh that's right! I LOVE dancing.
2) Holy cow, it's so much harder than it looks.
3) I love my friends for being willing to get out there and try this, even if we weren't not exactly ready for the spotlight.

... But maybe someday. ;)

Management Dinner

So every year (maybe every quarter, I'm not clear on this yet), the IT department has a meeting with all of the Managers, Directors, VP's and Project Managers to talk about the projects for the past quarter and what the different groups have accomplished, and then to talk about what we'll be working on in the next quarter.

Afterwards, there is always an event of some kind, which is kept a secret until the meeting is over and we depart. One they had drinks at Chelsea Piers and then dinner on a boat as it went around Manhattan. This year however, we were taken to the Culinary Institute of Education, where we split into groups and we were instructed by Master Chefs as we made dinner together. this scene was complete with white aprons and white paper chefs hats.

I got a kick out of watching all of my work friends in such a different setting. Some people were clearly comfortable in front of the stove, while others stuck to whisking salad dressing or chopping vegetables instead.

Amir wasn't afraid to stir the chocolate sauce:


Mike, Mark and Melissa managed the brussel sprouts:


My boss Lawrence, chops some mean parsley:


I made dessert!:



Darn Melissa for being the only person on the planet who actually looks cute in those hats:


How many IT people does it take to make dinner?:


Cesar (our Sr. VP), Brooke, Melissa, Me, Mark (our VP):


After cooking, we enjoyed the fantastic food. I like my bosses, Lawrence and Mark, so I sat with them:



As the girls of the department, we like to stick together. Brooke, Melissa and Me:

Halloween, Part 3: YSA Shindig

No one does Halloween quite like the YSA's. So on the actual night of Halloween, I made my way over to the Stake Center for some old fashioned good clean Mormon fun.

My friend Eric was Edward from Twilight, I brought back "Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Rain":

My roommate was DYNAMITE, with Jeff pulled off an appropriately afro'd Richard Simmons:

Tony went ALL OUT to pull of a very impressive Edward Scissor Hands:

Anne acutally used jamba juice cups to get her hair like that! and Amy pulled off the cutest Juno I've ever seen:

Nothing like a post-dance late night diner run for pancakes and banana splits, in costume:

However, my FAVORITE part of the night was this performance by Adrienne and Sara, who had an entire group dressed as "Troop Manhattan Heels":

Halloween, Part 2: The Cutting Room Party

Brooke is a friend of mine from work, who has an event planning business on the side. So two days before Halloween, when Brooke through a huge Halloween party for a big ad agency dowtown, she invited Melissa and I along to check it out.

Melissa and Me (She was a "Major Flirt" while I was "Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Rain," I even carried a little squirt bottle with me everywhere):

Me, Melissa and Brooke:

Brooke and her boyfriend Kevin (he's the blonde):

Kevin and his friend Joe dressed as milk maids, Kevin even wore high heels:

Some of our favorite costumes of the night...

Mary Kate and Ashley masks:

Michael Phelps:

Joker in the nurse office:

Fidel Castro:

Colonel Sanders, fried chicken included:

Lars and the Real Girl (how much does he look like Ryan Gosling, seriously?):

Lindsey Lohan also showed up when Samantha Ronson came to DJ:

The party was tons of fun. I met lots of interesting and creative people, made a bunch of new friends, and was convinced yet again that New York City is the best.

Halloween, Part 1: The Great FHE Pumpkin Adventure

My calling the Manhattan 8th Ward is Family Home Evening Group Leader. So every Monday, we get together and end up laughing until our sides hurt. It is seriously the most fun you could think of.

The week of Halloween, we got very festive and decided to carve pumpkins. We had over 30 people show up (which is remarkable, because average turnout for most FHE groups is 5-10 people), and we celebrated in style.

Sarah and Jeff, Squash Artists:



Russell, with his best pumpkin face:



Matt, the pumpkin artist... He takes this very seriously...




Some people carved pumpkins, Sarah and Jane ate caramel dipped apples...



And then Jane and Joey tried to eat their pumpkin...



The glowing results...

(I'm not sure what the story is with the Jack the Jew pumpkin, honestly, I have no idea).

We called the pumpkin on the left the "Twilight" pumpkin, because it is a vampire about to bite a woman's neck, and the one on the right we called "Scarface" for obvious reasons...

Hooray for FHE! Hooray for Pumpkin Carving!

Heaven on Earth

I love the cabin. I love the cabin so much there aren't words big enough and emphatic enough and superlative enough to describe how MUCH I love the cabin.

The cabin was built by my great grandfather when my dad was still young. My dad even remembers sleeping in the loft before the roof was finished. I believe my aunt was also attacked by bats on that occasion, but I can't confirm that story at this time. Although my great grandfather lived in Santa Barbara, on an airplane he once sat next to a dairy farmer from Southern Idaho. During their flight they struck up such a friendship that Great Grandaddy started driving his trailer up and parking it on this farmer's property during the summers and would go up and down the road fixing people's tractors. He got to be friends with the whole neighborhood, and bought a bit of land on that road where he used to park his trailer. That is where he built the cabin.

It is on the side of a steep hill, in the foothills of the Cache Valley (aka the most beautiful place on earth). There is an orchard to one side and a creek running through the back yard. Two whole walls of the front room are floor to ceiling windows that show a panoramic picture of the mountains behind.

See what I mean? Heaven on earth.

Some of the best memories of my life are from the cabin. For me, being there inspires peace of mind, happiness, gratitude and a deeper love of my family. So needless to say, I'll run up there every chance I get. So when I found myself in SLC for the wedding, with approximately 24 hours to spare, I took the opportunity to head to the cabin for the night, where my grandparents, my dad, my uncle and two of my cousins were already staying for the weekend, having come up for deer hunting.

We picked apples, baked, sat around chatting and ate copious amounts of my grandparents' amazing cooking.

It was short visit, but more than worth it.

Megan Gets Married

In the spirit of catch-up blogging, I am going back to cover some of the significant events of October, before I move on to more recent headlines.

Thus... In the second week of October I ventured west ward for the wedding of the Fabulous Miss Megan Whittaker. Landing in Salt Lake City, my sister Emily, who is a freshman at the University of Utah, picked me up at the airport and we got to spend the day together. We went walking, we got brunch, she showed around campus and some of her favorite urban art projects.

Here we are on the roof of the stunning Salk Lake City Library (it's a favorite of mine):



Em and I are pretty far apart in age, but as we get older its easier to relate and we continue to find that we have more and more in common. Plus, she's the funniest person to be born on this earth since Bill Cosby. It's kind of hard not to like her, even if you tried.

After Em, I got to hang with the incomparable Michelle Blood, who is no stranger to the posts of this blog. Fun times were had, as they always are... we got to spend a night at the cabin, and the cabin deserves its very own post, so we'll hold off on further detail there.

After the cabin with Michelle, I scurried back for Megan's rehersal dinner, which was held at the Roof Restaurant in the Joseph Smith Building, in downtown SLC. Unbelievable view:



Megan's niece Dylan knows what to do when someone pulls out a camera:

Tina Sparkle herself couldn't beat that.

And here are the headliners them selves! Mr. Colin Nesbit, groom. Miss Megan Whittaker, bride.

The wedding the next day was one of the most beautiful, most touching, most fun experiences I can remember in my friendship with Megan. She looked gorgeous and they looked blissful.

All in all, a perfect weekend.

I take that back... It snowed while I was there. It was very, very cold. I was not happy. Other than that... perfection.

The Law of Things Lost in Cabs

It is a truth universally acknowledge that if you ride in NYC Cabs long enough, eventually you will leave something behind. It may be something precious or something insignificant, something funtional or something sentimental... but it will be something.

Cell phones, of course, are the favorite. My friend Sara dropped her cell phone on the floor and it got kicked under a seat. Bummer. Luckily, in that case, the cab driver found it and when she called the phone, he made arrangements to bring it back to her. My friend Melissa left her iphone in a cab the day after she bought it. Unfortunately, it was never found. SUPER bummer.

Until recently I had done very well with keeping my wits and possession about me while exiting cabs, but such serenity and collectedness was never meant to last. Black scarf, sacrificed and sentto the place where all left socks, hair holders and things left in cabs go to rest.

The flip side of this, of course, is that occasionally you FIND odd things in cabs that have been left behind be the previous occupant. Once I found a cuban cigar, of all things.

My point is, and I do have a point, things get lost in cabs, they just do, so there is no use crying over spilled milk and long-gone black scarves.

C'est la vie.