Where would you go?

I am officially a lady of leisure until next Wednesday. I took a couple much needed days off from work. I decided to take a trip to my hometown, one of my favorite places to be in the summer. On my list of places to go: Vegas, New Orleans for Mardi Gras, Bali, South Africa, and Tahiti. If you could jet anywhere for a long weekend, where would you go?

"Sitting in front of a fan" is the NEW "Blow-drying your hair"

With the ridiculous heat waves that have been going on in the North East, it is just too darn hot and too darn humid to blow dry your hair. Even in an air conditioned room, it is nearly impossible to cool down after blasting hot air in your face for the anywhere from 5-20 minutes it takes you to attain the perfect coif.

Now normally, I consider going to work with wet hair unprofessional. You just can't pull off a neat and organized employee (not matter how snappy your outfit) if your hair is sopping wet. It just screams, I didn't manage my time effectively. And I know, it happens to the best of us. Some days our alarm just doesn't go off, or an outfit crisis steals all the time that would have been spent blow drying. It is better to be on time than late for sure.

Yet this summer, I just can't bring myself to use my blow dryer. Hence my new summer hair techniques. My favorite is showering the night before and putting my hair in pin curls or a braid for a curly look that also cuts down on time spent getting ready. But when I don't sufficiently plan ahead, I point a fan directly at my mane and sit for about 5 minutes until the very top layer is dry. Then twist into a bun at the nape of your neck, or pull into a side braid and I'm out the door with no heat styling required. The photo above just gave me the idea of throwing a little fine glitter into the breeze for a fancy do (though this probably wouldn't be work appropriate). As an added bonus, your hair won't stick to your neck on the walk to the subway AND when you take the bun out later before meeting the girls after work you will have lovely waves, no curling iron necessary!

Efficiency and staying cool. Beat that blow dryer.

Summer Guide

Lately I have been attending a great many free events in NYC. No place really does it like New York in the summer time. There are endless really fun, really free things going on nearly any night of the week. And they couldn’t have come along too soon.

NYC is the kind of city that gets on your nerves from time to time. Sometimes it is just too expensive and too crowded. Sometimes it makes you want to move away where everything isn’t dirty and people aren’t swarming everything. And then, it goes and does something fabulous like these AWESOME free summer activities, and lures you back in again. All plans of moving are forgotten, and the love affair begins anew.

I received a copy of the Vanity Fair guide to summer.  It is a good start to events and awesome places to go all over the city, but it is not exhaustive. I suggest checking the websites of common venues listed to find out more info that didn’t make the cut, and stopping by the South Street Seaport to pick up a guide of the river to river music festivals going on. There were so many things listed inside that I had to make a google calendar to capture everything I want to do, just so I don’t miss anything important. I am not messing around with my summer fun.

So far without shelling out any dough, I have seen:
-Maxwell perform 3 sets (sound check, warm up, actual show for Today)—This kind of changed my life it was so great
-The Macy’s fireworks display –If you think it looks fantastic on TV, it is simply amazing in person
-Annie Hall screened outdoors on Pier 1 of the Brooklyn Bridge Park –The city just redid this park, and it is brand spanking new. The grass is plush, the view of Manhattan is perfect.
-The Roots and Talib Kweli in Prospect Park as part of Celebrate Brooklyn (this was a $3 donation, but totally worth it!!)

These events haven’t just been mediocre. I have had nothing short of a FANTASTIC time at all of the things listed above. Maxwell performed for much longer than televised, and I was within 15 feet of him the entire time. I shudder to think what tickets that close must have cost at Madison Square Garden. I viewed the fireworks from a blanket on a grassy area that I had been picnicking on all day long (with cocktails), and waited only a half hour until everyone dispersed. Annie Hall was crowded, but we arrived around 7 (movie starting at 9), and managed to snag a spot right up front. They had dj’s playing until the movie started, food vendors, and a very relaxed policy towards drinking wine in public. The Roots and Talib Kweli were just wonderful. They are really two performers who are even better live than on CD-out of control good. I couldn’t stop marveling that it was free the entire time I was there. The concert went on for about 4 hours straight with a couple brief bouts of dj’ed music in between. I could not believe how long they performed for, while dancing around the stage. It was incredible.

Put simply, when NYC does something, it does it right, and almost makes up for how hot and gross it is during the summer. I plan to try to attend as many of these summer events as I can.

Today's Free Concert

A free concert? A free Roots and Talib Kweli concert? Why yes please! Today I will be attending this wonderful line up presented by Celebrate Brooklyn! in the Prospect Park Bandshell. I am on a mission this summer to take advantage of all the fabulous free activities that NYC has to offer during the summer months. I cannot think of a more lovely way to spend a warm Sunday evening.

Hot time, summer in the city

I am all for warm summer weather, especially since last summer we had nothing but rain and cold weather for the majority of June, July, and August. The lovely sunshine and blue skies we have been enjoying have enabled me to check many things off my summer list of to-do’s already, and it is only July 6^th! So far, I have:

-Been to the beach several times

-Rode the Codzilla

-Went to the vineyards of Long Island

-Visited my Gram, complete with iced tea and cards on the porch

-Picnicked in the park

-Saw Maxwell in concert (outdoors as a bonus)

-Watched the Macy’s 4^th of July fireworks

-Lounged poolside

-Read a smutty romance novel

But I do have to say, I HATE summer heat waves in NYC. I grew up in a town where I could dip in to my pool, or go jump in a lake at my leisure. Though it may have been hot, there was always a body of water near by for refreshment. In NYC, it is not so. It is a hot box of pavement with little breeze, out of control humidity, and a wealth of stinkiness that just keeps getting hotter, smellier, and more stifling. This heat wave is supposed to last all week, and I am not looking forward to everything I hate about NYC in the summer just getting grosser. Things we have to look forward to:

-Not being happy and refreshed like the people in the picture above

-Nearly vomiting on your way to work/being attacked by roaches and mice on your way home from work because of the stench all of the hot trash left out to be picked up the next morning

-Stinky people in the subway. I know it is hot, but deodorant and perfume were invented for a reason

-Sweating through your shirt before 9am

-All beverages becoming warm within 5 minutes of pouring them (an excuse to chug that beer?)

-No cold water in your building because the pipes are super heated

-Feeling sluggish because of the oppressive hot with no relief

-Brown outs, and recommendations to turn the AC off (Not on your life NYC!)

-Lines stretching around the block at every ice cream, tasti delight, and pink berry across the city

-AND at least 2 more days before the over 100 temps start to break.

Awesome.

Shake Shack comes to the Upper East Side

Shake Shack enthusiasts, get excited! There is another location coming to town at which you can wait in line for hours for a delicious milkshake and burger. It's on the Upper East Side of Manhattan on 86th Street between Lexington and 3rd, a strip which is quickly morphing in to one of my favorite in the city. This piece of sidewalk is also home to some of my favorite stores ever including: Sephora, Steve Madden, Barnes and Noble, and the ever convenient H & M if I need a new outfit for the weekend. I walk this stretch at least twice a day.

I passed place that is to become Shake Shack on my way to work this morning, and the letters are up, it is official. The sign out front ambigiously says opening summer 2010. Here's to hoping it's sooner rather than later. I have never tried the glorious Shake Shack, and it is on my list of summer to-do's. Now that the location is so convenient, I will be stopping by as soon as I have the chance, even if I have to wait forever for my burger.

Fighting off the tanorexia

So it’s that time of year, when I am trying to maintain my resolution not to lay in the sun too much, and to faithfully reapply sunscreen when I do. But, I am being wooed by everyone else’s tans. Why is it that people just look so much prettier with a little hint of bronze around the edges and a few more freckles?

Then I went to the beach this past weekend. I reapplied, and it was foggy. I left congratulating myself on a job well done not getting burned AND spending a day on the water. About 3 hours later, my skin finally responded. My stomach was an angry shade of red, which 3 days later has just finally started to recede to pinkish/normal. I was disappointed in not even making it through a full month of summer without forgoing my fight against tanning, wrinkles, and cancer. What will power?

And now, to make it worse, everyone at work has been commenting on how fabulous I look with such a “healthy summer glow.” They tell me I look refreshed, my hair looks blonder, all in all I just seem more fabulous. (And it's true!!) I wish they would stop encouraging me! I mean was I really that sickly pale to begin with? Yep, in the photo above, I’d be the girl in the middle.

Sally sells seashells by the seashore

Today I am wearing this gorgeous little shell pendent around my neck dangling from a gorgeous little gold chain. It was a gift from my lovely friend from her trip to St. Thomas. I love seashell jewelry. Generally, it makes me think of the beach, and in turn happiness and sunshine. This little guy however, has extra special meaning to me.

My grandparents winter in Florida, and have been doing so since I was a little girl. As a reward for not seeing them for months on end, my family and I would take trips down during my sister's and my winter breaks for bursts of sunshine and fun in the middle of an upstate New York winter. One of my favorite activities was combing the beach for shells. As it turns out, the kind pictured above has always been one of my favorites to find. They are just SO pretty!

They remind me of days wading through salt water, and an ice cold coke with a chicken salad sandwich from my Gram's cooler when I got taken out by a wave and had salt up my nose. They make me think of simpler times when nothing mattered except the sun on your back and the cache of shells you had at the end of the day, of tongue twisters and pictureseque afternoons.

Yep. I'm pretty sure that this necklace has contributed to my day dreaming all morning. Good thing I have a holiday weekend coming up, and I can devote myself to the beach and finding seashells as pretty as these for a whole three days. Thanks Annie!

Summer afternoon

"Summer afternoon- summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." -Henry James

Perfect advice for a 90 degree day in NYC

Thanks Ralph.

The It's Almost Summertime Special

No matter how many years I'm out of school, when May rolls around I always get summertime fever. It's the time of year when full days to spend as you please were tantalizingly close and total freedom just around the corner. Unfortunately I don't have the type of career that let's me have entire months off. But I do not plan to let this keep me down. This is a sampling of some of the awesome activities that I plan to fill my weekends and warm summer evenings with for the next few months.

Visiting the vineyards of Long Island
Long Island is home to a wonderland of hundreds of picturesque vineyards clustered in groups along the north and south forks of the far eastern portion of the isle. They are more beautiful than you could imagine while passing the hundreds of strip malls on your way out. It’s only a short drive from spot to spot making flight hopping a fun summer sport if you can manage to drag yourself away from the first one you happen upon.

Kayaking several bodies of water throughout NYS
There’s a sound tucked away on Long island that offers all day kayaking for $40. Unheard of anywhere else! The little inlet is full of boats to spectate, and little islands to pull-up to and picnic upon. Just be careful of going on windy days. It makes it difficult to paddle in after a day of sunning and swimming. Other places I plan to kayak? The Hudson river using one of NYC’s glorious free kayaks , and my uncle’s summer camp at Sacandaga Lake .

Riding the Codzilla
Speed? Awesome tunes? A refreshing blast of water when the sunny day becomes too much? Yes please. What more could you ask for in a summer activity besides a giant raging river ride through the Boston Harbor made for adults?

Climbing the Fire Island Lighthouse
Ok, so I agree with you that climbing a narrow, dimly lit spiral staircase can be nauseating and claustrophobia inducing. The view at the top? Worth it.

Making a couple pitchers of homemade Sangria and picnicking in Central Park. This will probably be followed by some wiffle ball. I don’t really like white Sangria. But that is because I’m convinced that the people making it/selling it just aren’t making it with the wines/fruits I enjoy. It always looks so delicious, but just isn’t tasty enough for me. Thus this summer I will be inventing my own white sangria recipe (and posting it here), and enjoying it’s crisp refreshment while munching on bread and cheese under the afternoon sun. Things it will definitely include: At least one bottle of Riesling to sweeten it up, peaches, and a little bit of papaya juice. Stay tuned for the rest.

Canoeing on one or more of the multitude of lakes surrounding my home town
I grew up in a little town outside of Albany. I own a canoe. There are 6 lakes within a 10 minute drive from my house. Enough said. Some of my fondest memories with my friends involve strapping a boat to my car and popping it into a body of water then paddling around for hours. Hopefully this will include jumping off some docks as well.

Attending the very first non-family wedding of my life
This one I’m very excited about. Four of my girlfriends got engaged this year. The first one is tying the knot in a few weeks and will be my first friend EVER to get married! Weddings I have to look forward to? One on the beach in Portland, ME, a destination wedding in Hawaii, and my first hometown wedding in Upstate NY.

Making Margarita popsicles
From a recipe I found here on one of my favorite blogs (Yes and Yes). Ok, so I might have to cave and buy a blender to accomplish this one. OR I can harass my overly friendly neighbors downstairs into letting me borrow theirs. I can’t imagine a better portable summer treat that won’t get you busted for breaking open container or public intoxication laws. What could be more innocent than a nice young lady enjoying a popsicle? While I’m at it I’ll probably try some of her other delish recipes too!

Reading copious amounts of silly novels while laying on a blanket in a park or on the beach
I’ll just say that I already pre-ordered the 3rd book in the Stieg Larson trilogy, and I’m dying to find out what happens. But this isn’t the type of novel I’m talking about. I have a stack of books with authors like Nora Roberts and titles like Bergdorf Blondes stacked on the nightstand at my Mom’s house waiting for summer to roll around. Now that its almost here all I have to do is retrieve them, relish in the scandalous romances and lighthearted plots, and let the silliness roll.

Visiting my grandparents
I can’t help but hum to grandmother’s house we go while I type this. Nothing says summer like sitting on my Gram’s back porch sipping iced tea, snacking on pretzel sticks and dill dip, watching the hummingbirds, and rounding out the day by taking everyone’s money in a few rounds of Onze (a gambling card game I’m pretty sure only my family plays). Then I drift off to sleep in the twin bed that has been designated mine since childhood to the sounds of trains choo-chooing in the distance. Relaxation.

Hashing through NYC
This little running scavenger hunt for the location of your 1. clean clothes 2. pizza, 3. beer, has bee motivating me to up my running distance. I’m up to 4 miles. I’m not sure if that’s enough, but hopefully this fun little trek will whip be into bikini shape before long.

Watching a movie outdoors
The entire time I have lived in NYC I have not enjoyed an outdoor movie. Maybe I’m spoiled from growing up near a drive in, but this year is finally the year I’m going to accomplish it. Goldfinger? The Never Ending Story? I’ve got my eye on you to start.

Nothing Says Summer like Wine Spritzers!

Of rose wine. Now, all you wine connoisseurs out there will be snubbing your noses and me and cringing, but shun it all you want. Rose wine is refreshing and delicious, though only socially acceptable to drink for a few weeks during June and July. Past that you are just a low class, uneducated white zinfandel drinker. You might as well do a bag stand from a box of Franzia while you're at it.

I have always had a soft spot for the pink wines, often called blush wines because of their lovely hues ranging from a slight cheek flush to bordering on the deep red of its more socially acceptable sisters. It all started with a little boxed wine habit that my roommate and I developed in college. Yet since then, my tastes have evolved. I still enjoy the rose, but in a more mature form. And it turns out that white zinfandel isn't even a real rose, but merely a "bleed" red zinfandel. Real rose wines are made by a careful process involving removal of the grape skins just at the right moment before they can darken the tint to a red.

Recently I had a Malbec Rose, which knocked my socks off, although I can say that about most Spanish wines, especially those from the Rioja region. Right now I am sipping a rose from Provence, and it's not half bad. Slightly sweet, and rolling off the tongue like a seltzer bubble popping off the top of my spritzer. It's these ripened rose picks that are helping the category to lose it's social prohibition, and bring one of my favorite guilty pleasures back into the social norm. Cheers to that!