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.

Happy Independence Day America!!

And I'm proud to be an American,
where at least I know I'm free.
And I won't forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.
~Lee Greenwood

Things I love about America

As Independence Day gets closer, I find myself constantly pondering the things I love about America. I’ve even accidentally (ok, on purpose) dressed in red white and blue the past couple days for work to show my spirit. Hey, it’s a good color combo. I don’t see why we should have to limit to one day of celebration here people. My grandmother is always giving me a hard time about how “my generation” doesn’t have any patriotism. At least from my point of view, that is completely untrue. Maybe we are antiwar or rather lackadaisical in our politics, but that doesn’t mean we do not appreciate the soldiers who fight for our freedom, and love every little bit of it that we have.

In fact, every time I leave the U.S. for an extended period, I find myself appreciating this wonderful country even more, and yearning to return home. Don’t get me wrong, I love experiencing all the countries of the world. I just haven’t been to one yet where I could see myself happily living out my life as an ex-pat.

Things I love about America:

-Our magnificent public sanitation system (you do not appreciate it until it is not there)

-Our abundance of free-flowing public tap water

-Our penchant for deep frying anything we can find a container large enough to submerse in oil

-Our tradition of children moving out and living on their own at age 18 (EVERYONE is happier when they have some space from family sometimes)

-Country music

-Our culture of convenience, and love of excess

-The GIANT sizes that fountain sodas come in everywhere (6 oz is not enough soda for me thank-you-very-much)

-Over the top parades and fireworks displays for holidays sponsored by my favorite retail outlet ever, Macy’s

-Keg parties (do they exist in other countries?)

-The American dream 

-That with a porch, something cooking on the grill, and a cold beverage in your hand, everything just seems alright alright

Now, off to celebrate America's birthday!!

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.

Valley of the deep deep depression

I just finished reading the Valley of the Dolls, and man, what a depressing book! A more appropriate title might have been Valley of Depression. *Spoiler Alert* if you are in my book club, and have not finished the book, you’ll probably want to stop reading here.

The story revolves around 3 women living in NYC: Anne, a nice girl from Connecticut wanting only to escape rural life and support herself, Jennifer, a beautiful girl on a quest for fame, and Neeley, a waif with real talent bent on self destruction. The three fight to make it in NYC and Hollywood while maintaining romances and finding true love.

Anne manages to marry the man of her dreams, the love of her life though he winds up cheating on her with every new starlet taking chunks of their marriage with him until there is nothing left but silent tolerance. Jennifer proceeds through a series of relationships in which men only want her for her body. Then when she thinks she finds true love, ends up killing herself because she realizes the man she thought loved her for her would be devastated if she underwent a mastectomy for breast cancer. Neeley runs through two husbands only to steal Anne’s and drive him away through her alcohol and drug abuse. We don’t find out her final fate, but it is safe to say that she ends up dying alone of some sort of overdose.

All three women are highly successful in their careers. Neeley is a broadway, movie, and television star with a spectacular voice and rampant fan following. Jennifer starred in French films and was such a raging success that America recruited her again for films. Anne starred in commercials as the face of a major cosmetics chain and had her own television segment. They were financially comfortable, and the only woes in their lives seemed to be cause by romances which finally made them all so miserable they turned to pills for comfort.

However, both Jennifer and Neeley went through long periods of life where they could not make ends meet on their own incomes. Without family to help support them, they were forced to use their bodies to obtain support from lovers, both male and female. It really calls attention to the need for financial independence to ever have total control over ones own body. It highlighted the ability of women to stab each other in the back even after the most fervent professions of friends forever. Themes of the story include: women on an endless quest for fulfillment through love, fear of aging, the importance of physical beauty.

At times it reads like a smutty romance novel. It hooks you in, and you must find out what happens to all three. I found myself hoping against all odds that all three would live happily ever after, yet all three lives ended in tragedy. After pondering it all for a little while, I’m not really sure what message Jacqueline Susann was trying to send with this novel. That women are evil creatures bent on destroying each other? That women are overly dependent on relationships for their own happiness? That men are pigs who only care about young, thin, physical beauty? That true love does not exist?

Or maybe she just wanted to take a look at the real hard issues that women faced during the 1940’s. In the time period this was set, marriage was still a practical commodity, women needed a husband to support them financially to live, and found themselves making all kinds of compromises in the process of keeping that marriage alive. And yet, women were beginning to gain freedom to become gainfully employed and support themselves, giving them the option to shun marriage if they wished. However, none of these characters, despite their material success, wanted to live without love in their lives (who would?). So what, pray tell, is the moral of the story?

I’m not sure. Jacqueline Susann seems to want to show how vulnerable women can be, while also emphasizing their ability to survive nearly anything. The book reads like a warning, feel free to make moral sacrifices to obtain your goals, just be sure you can live with their repercussions for the REST OF YOUR LIFE.

Even though it was a bit of a downer, it was an easy read that I enjoyed. And for a 25 cent bargain, the hours of entertainment it gave me cannot be beat. Now, on to the next book in my queue.

Pink Forever

Yes, I am blogging about nail polish again. I came across this gem when I popped in to the duane reade downstairs from my office for my daily snack/cheap beauty thrill. I was perusing the nail polish selection, looking for a neon magenta to replace a bottle that lost when I came across this brand, Sinful Colors. I had never noticed it before, and at $2.99 a pop, you can't go wrong. I've gotten rather sick of spending $9 and up on essie or orly polish only to spill the bottle, leave the top off, or otherwise ruin the polish. AND it's a color pink that I just don't have in my collection yet. It's called Pink Forever. It looks rather like raspberry sherbert, no? The perfect summer hue if you ask me. I brought it home, tried it out, and it goes on smoothly and stays shiny for much longer than you would expect a three dollar polish to last. I've had a couple coats on my toes for about 5 days now, even surviving a trip to the beach, and it's still going strong. After this weekend, I must say, the color looks lovely when half buried in the sand.